Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 10th, 2017
When it comes to Victorian era serial killers, Jack the Ripper is pretty much a household name. Whether you know much about the terror he caused in White Chapel, all these years later you still know the name and what he did. With The Limehouse Golem, the filmmakers create a more sinister serial killer and deliver a Hammer-esque murder mystery. I’m all for a dark murder mystery, and when a film is channeling other successful films like Seven and From Hell, you’d imagine that you’d be witnessing a terrifying gory spectacle. The result, however, left me frustrated, as the film seems to pull from other films but never quite presents an engaging story to go along with the quirky mix of characters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2017
"I'm about to commit a moving violation."
When I go to a Pixar film, I always find myself in a situation where I'm predisposed to love the movie. There have been so many greats like Toy Story and Monsters Inc and so few horrible examples like Ratatouille. So I never really expect a Pixar film to be bad, and Cars 3 certainly wasn't bad. There are more than a few things to love about the latest collaboration between Disney and their Pixar division. The animation company also continues to push the boundaries of digital animation technology.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 8th, 2017
“Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality.”
As things in our world become exponentially more chaotic and inexplicable by the day, the theory that we're all living in a computer simulation becomes a little harder to completely dismiss. The idea that our reality is an illusion dates back to the 17th century but most recently gained traction thanks to a 2003 paper published by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom. It's also been a popular theme in classic sci-fi works like Blade Runner, Total Recall, and The Matrix. To that list, we can now add HBO's Westworld, a slick and star-studded sci-fi/Western mash-up that features the requisite shoot-em-ups and pay cable sexcapades, but is actually most interested in exploring the nature of humanity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 7th, 2017
This is quite a step up for the History Channel folks. They've certainly produced a great number of historical dramatizations and documentaries, but nothing they've ever done before compares with this series. We used to review a ton of their stuff here for years, so you know I've liked a lot of the things they've done. But Vikings puts them in a totally new stratosphere. This is historical drama that you've only seen before in the likes of Rome or The Tudors. Of course, there's a very good reason for that. Michael Hirst created the series and is the creative force behind it. He served the same positions on The Tudors. That puts expectations here very high, and the show has met or exceeded them all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 6th, 2017
One thing that you can probably surmise about me fairly quickly is that I am a product of the 80's. I still wear Converse shoes when I'm not working. I watch a regular dose of Transformers (first generation, 1984) and my favorite movie is Escape from New York (1981). My wife was even born in the eighties. Probably not the same thing, huh? Anyway, I usually jump at the chance to review an 80's movie and today is no different. The movie is called Into the Night with Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer from 1985. Never heard of it? Surprisingly, me neither. Let's take a look.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on November 3rd, 2017
Soul on a String is the latest from director Yang Zhang, a very methodical filmmaker from Beijing, China. Now, I say methodical for two reasons: he’s been making films since the late 90’s and has only released a total of nine, and the ones I have seen are very slow-paced, but absolutely deliberate when paying attention to narrative, editing, and cinematography. To be fair, I have only seen two of his films. My first exposure to his work was in graduate school, as one of my colleagues who came from China invited me to watch Zhang’s 2005 film, Sunflower. Where I had some solace in recognizing the lead actress, Joan Chen (from Twin Peaks, of course), I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed the intense and complex emotions that the narrative drew out of me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 2nd, 2017
“Here’s how it is: the Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the new technologies…some not so much. The Central Planets, thems formed the Alliance…waged war to bring everyone under their rule. A few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself.”
Sound familiar? A crew of scrappy underdogs skirting the edge of the galaxy to avoid an oppressive interplanetary alliance. Exactly 40 years ago, Star Wars used that formula to capture moviegoers’ imaginations, and it is currently being replicated by the uber-popular Guardians of the Galaxy series. But in between those two behemoths there was a little show called Firefly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 27th, 2017
Ever since Birdman was released, it seems many filmmakers have been attempting to pull off the continuous take and outdo all the others. It was impressive when we all saw it the first time, but since then everything just seems like a bad knockoff. The newest film to follow this trend is Bushwick. While the camera work in the film does allow for an immersive experience, honestly it felt like I was in a first-person shooter video game, which was cool, but it seemed like the camera work was a distraction from the story. This is a frustrating film. On the technical side there is a lot to appreciate, but the moment you start looking at the story, the film seems to simply fall apart.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2017
"All of human history has led to this moment. The irony is we created you. And nature has been punishing us ever since. This is our last stand. And if we lose... it will be a Planet of Apes."
I was always a fan of the original Planet Of The Apes series of films. While they often flirted with a camp style, I was impressed with John Chambers' makeup effects and the performances of Roddy McDowall as both Cornelius and Caesar. Then came the television show, and I was just as enchanted, and that was helped along by McDowall's appearance as a third ape, Galen. The show didn't last a season, and before long the Apes franchise was left in some kind of limbo.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2017
"Green Acres is the place to be..."
It was 1965, and CBS was enjoying the fruits of the era's fascination with rural sit-coms. Paul Henning was on a roll as a series creator. It started with The Beverly Hillbillies in 1962, where we were all invited to sit a spell with the Clampetts, a rural family who discovered oil on their property and ended up finding out that California was the place they oughta be, more specifically Beverly Hills, complete with "cement ponds" and movie stars. The show was such a success that Henning spun it off into Petticoat Junction a year later. The show covered the happenings at the Shady Rest Hotel which happened to be located at a water stop on the C. & F.W. Railroad in the hick town of Hooterville. Again Henning hit comedy gold. Two years later, Hooterville would be the location for Green Acres, a kind of reverse Beverly Hillbillies. This time a couple from a penthouse apartment in New York City would come to Hooterville and replay the fish-out-of-water routine just as The Beverly Hillbillies had done three years earlier. Green Acres would last until 1971, when all three shows would become victims of the CBS Rural Purge. Under pressure from sponsors who were afraid of losing their urbanite customers, all of these shows were axed. One news reporter at the time reported that "CBS cancelled everything with a tree, including Lassie."
