Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 18th, 2024
Sequels are a funny thing. Most of the time in modern Hollywood, they come within a breath of the first film, usually after a large box office in order to capitalize on its earnings. Sometimes, they can take years, even decades to make. Blade Runner: 2049 came out in 2017, 35 years after the original film. In addition, many times when a sequel takes so long to materialize, the intended audience has flown the coop, and it has dismal results. See Basic Instinct 2 or The Two Jakes. Other times, it inspires new waves of fans to flock to the theaters, such as Tron: Legacy or The Incredibles 2. Today, we are taking a look at Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia, a sequel to the original Ernest & Celestine movie which was nominated for an Academy Award and took home many other film awards. It's been a decade since the original film; can the sequel keep the spirit of the original and produce a quality film? I'm happy to say, yes, it certainly did. Let's take a look.
Since the film does not provide a quick recap from the original, I'll go ahead and provide this. Ernest and Celestine had each won their freedom from their respective imprisonment. Their only wish was to live together as best friends and have exciting adventures ... after Ernest gets some sleep.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 17th, 2024
"I know what you're thinking. "Pain is coming. Will I take it like a man?" Well, let me put you at ease. You won't -- but none of them do. Men, women, children, they all weep, they all beg, they pass out, they piss themselves, they attempt negotiation. You wouldn't believe how many men I've seen lying right where you're lying right now, grown men with wives and children at home, offering all kinds of sexual gratification for a five-minute reprieve. It's pathetic."
Suspect Zero follows the contradictory teacher/student relationship between serial killer Benjamin O’Ryan (Ben Kingsley) and FBI Agent-in-Pursuit Tom Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart, sporting as much chin as Bruce Campbell). O’Ryan is a tormented refugee of a government program to tap psychic powers for military intelligence, and Mackelway is a borderline-rogue agent, tormented by visions and headaches. Without letting slip any spoilers, the movie sees O’Ryan draw their paths together in pursuit of justice for himself, his victims, and Mackelway.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on December 25th, 2023
While the film definitely feels like a Wizard of Oz carbon copy, it is not without its charms. For one, it was nice to see Keanu Reeves in one of his earlier roles, before Bill and Ted or Speed. Same goes for Drew Barrymore; while this wasn’t one of her first roles, as she was a child actor, it was still nice to see some of her earlier work, especially as it was one of the film’s charms that I mentioned earlier. Babes in Toyland tells the story of Lisa Piper, a eleven-year-old girl. While most girls at this age are all-consumed by Christmas and presents, she is too busy caring for her family, as the death of her father has caused her to have to grow up fast. As a result, she has no time for toys, and she resents being treated like a child despite her age. Concerned about a impending snowstorm, Lisa travels to her older sister Mary’s job to warn her. Mary’s boyfriend, Jack Fenton (Reeves), gives them a ride home, but loses control due to the blizzard conditions. Lisa is thrown from the car and transported to Toyland, a magical realm built out of toys. As I said, definite Wizard of Oz vibes. In truth, this story’s origins date back nearly as far as the novel that inspired the Oz film. Babes in Toyland is inspired by the 1903 operetta of the same title with some slight deviations, as this version of the film features a new score as well as maintaining select portions of the original score.
Back to Lisa; after being thrown from the car, she arrives in Toyland in time for the wedding of Mary Contrary (who looks exactly like her older sister, Mary) and the villainous Barnaby Barnacle (who looks exactly like Mary’s pervy boss). Mary is about to wed Barnacle, despite being truly in love with Barnaby’s nephew, Jack Be Nimble (who also resembles Reeves’ Jack Fenton). Lisa helps thwart the wedding, but soon realizes that Barnaby’s plans extend beyond taking Mary as his bride, but also include taking over Toyland. Banding together with her new group of friends, Lisa endeavors to stop him.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 24th, 2023
Every family has their holiday traditions. Christmas is probably the king of family traditions. We all have our favorite Christmas songs and our favorite foods and methods of celebrating. A part of that has long been the Christmas movie. I'm talking about those films that somehow represent the spirit of the time of year, and not merely movies that take place during Christmas time. Yeah, John McClain, I'm talking about you. For me it's been A Christmas Story since its release in 1983. There are others high on the list for me. The Man Who Invented Christmas and It's A Wonderful Life along with almost every version of the Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol all have a special place in my heart. But none of them come close to Ralphie's quest for a Red Ryder air rifle. Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust All Others Pay Cash is as classic a slice of Americana as Norman Rockwell paintings or summer picnics and fireworks. The tale told in A Christmas Story is only a small part of that book, but it's just Christmas to me and always shall be.
It's 1973, and the boy who wanted that Red Ryder air rifle has grown with children of his own. It's been a big year for the adult Ralphie (Billingsly) who has been given a year by his wife Sandy (Hayes) to quit his job and write that great American novel. As Christmas approaches, his year is nearly up. If he can get the novel picked up before the year ends, he can keep writing. If not, it's back to the salt mines he goes. What he's written is a too-long science fiction nightmare, and he's on his final publisher. He remains the same Ralphie who once brought his teacher a huge fruit basket to bribe her to reward his theme with a good grade and hopefully align herself in the pro-air-rifle brigade. This time it's premium bottles of booze, but the results haven't changed. Ralphie has been foiled again, and time is running out. It sure seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2023
"I would like to play a game."
I heard it everywhere. When I would mention that I'd be reviewing the 10th entry in the Saw franchise, almost everyone thought I had miscounted. It's hard for anyone to believe that the franchise has gotten into the double digits, and there's more. Next October should be the release of Saw XI. I think what confuses folks is that the numbers stopped with Saw VII. The 8th film was called Jigsaw, and the 9th was called Spiral: From The Book Of Saw. Before you know it, numbers don't mean a heck of a lot. We keep going to see the films and buying them for our home entertainment collections. A movie here. A movie there. Before you know it you have 10 films. Now you can add the 10th film to your library on UHD Blu-ray in 4K. Just remember that it goes next to Spiral on the shelf.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 14th, 2023
“Let’s go get the s**t kicked out of us by love.”
It’s hard for me to accept that Love Actually is really 20 years old already. I remember being a projectionist when this came out and splicing the film together back when movies were actually shown on film. When I first saw the film, it was after hours in the movie theater, and we had to screen the movies the day before release to make sure it was put together properly, and I was with my girlfriend at the time, so it was just us in the auditorium, and from that moment on I was in love with this film. I’ve seen the film well over a dozen times through different phases of my life, and each experience it hits a little differently, but I still come away from this film feeling a bit schmaltzy and in the Christmas spirit. For those of you who have missed out on this classic and are wondering just what is so great about this sentimental British love fest, the movie is written and directed by Richard Curtis; this would be his first time directing, but he had previously made a name for himself after writing Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones Diary. These were a trio of films that American audiences were ravenous about and basically set up Love Actually to become an instant success, but I don’t think anyone was ready for just how charming and heartwarming this film would actually turn out to be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 11th, 2023
As I have mentioned numerous times, I am not a fan of horror movies. In particular, my number one pet peeve is jump scares. Now, for certain scary movies, I'll allow one good jump scare; it almost goes with the territory. But if the director has to use one every fifteen minutes, my heart does not need that much of a workout, and I am going to avoid it very quickly. This is mostly reserved for American movies, quite often on their fifth sequel. However, Korean horror flicks know how not to use the jump scare and instead focus on making things as gruesome and disturbing as humanly possible. Or inhumanly, perhaps. Today, we take on a modern horror classic in the 2016 film, The Wailing as it makes its way on 4K UHD disc. Let's take a look and see if the ol' ticker can handle this one.
We get a Bible passage to start out this movie, it's from Luke 24:37-39 and basically describes the resurrection of Jesus. The important part of this passage is two fold, in that the people had doubts that he was resurrected and that he resurrected physically as opposed to as a spirit. Let's continue.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 9th, 2023
"Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!"
Since the relaunch of Star Trek on television via the Paramount+ streaming service, I must admit to being a little underwhelmed. It's truly bad when Alex Kurtzman makes me pine for the days of Rick Berman. There have been some pretty good moments in the various new Trek shows. Picard has shown promise and has improved with a third season that looks very exciting. Lower Decks is just too campy for my taste, and Discovery has so many ups and downs I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster. So along comes Strange New Worlds, and this is the Star Trek I've been waiting for these last decades.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 8th, 2023
“Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
It is hard to ignore the hype around the film Oppenheimer. Any time a Christopher Nolan film has come out, it has become a pretty big deal for cinema fans, whether it was for his The Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, Inception, or Tenet, his films carry the same kind of respect alongside the names of Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron, and his films can be just as divisive. But the anticipation for the release of Oppenheimer feels like a different beast entirely. The release coming out the same day as Barbie has created such a stir on the internet that the term Barbenheimer has become a part of the zeitgeist of modern day. Then another aspect is how the film was literally shot on 70mm film, which is unheard of in today’s digital-hungry climate, and the film is being released in certain theaters on 70mm prints that reportedly weigh around 600lbs. And now with critics finally getting to see the film, I can’t scroll through my news feed without seeing headlines that tout the film as not just being the most important film of the century, but the best film of the century as well. So what’s my take on all this hype, and is it worth it? Is Oppenheimer the film that will save cinema?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 5th, 2023
Most people, when asked to provide the best Korean film in modern times, would probably answer Oldboy or Parasite. Others might respond Memories of Murder or Train to Busan. Maybe A Tale of Two Sisters or The Wailing. I, on the other hand, always respond with the same title, The Man from Nowhere, which to this point in the US has only been released on Blu-ray from Well Go. That Blu-ray was also the victim of a bunch of discs from Well Go that came away with a quick dose of rot, infecting my copy as well as many others. For the last couple of years, I've been working with a bootleg, which I'm not exactly proud of, but felt necessary because I loved this film so much. However, that changed, as Well Go has released a 4Kcopy of this sensational film (and also of The Wailing, which I will get to later in the week). I thankfully received it a little bit earlier than expected and took it for a spin. Let's see how it does.
Kim Chi-Gon (played by Kim Tae-hoon) lights a cigarette and calls his squad into position. The crew of police detectives and squad members wake up and talk about their plan. They have been at this stakeout for two months and can't afford to mess this up.
