Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 12th, 2016
I have previously reviewed movies from the Bible Stories collection including Samson and Delilah and David. I also reviewed Abraham, which was one of the earliest stories in the Bible but not as early as Noah or, of course, Adam and Eve. The Bible Stories: Jacob (or The Bible Collection: Jacob) follows up on the story of Abraham, since Jacob is his grandson. I have also just watched The Bible Stories: Joseph which I will review later, but I mention it because Joseph is Jacob’s son.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2016
"They once roamed the earth by the tens of thousands. Their whistles spoke of distant places, of adventure and romance."
No, we're not talking about dinosaurs or some other extinct animal. Of course, we're talking about the steam-engine train. I'm old enough to have ridden them myself. I had a grandfather who realized in the early 1970's that these steam trains were about to disappear. He made it a point to explain this to me and made sure I appreciated my rides from Reading, Pennsylvania (literally a train city) to Philadelphia, where my Mom was sure he was a bagman for the mob and was using me as a cover.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 11th, 2016
“I’m too young and too pretty to die in the f*&$ing woods.”
Those sound like famous last words if I ever heard them. The Levenger Tapes is without a doubt one of the more intriguing thriller films that I have seen this season, featuring not only a found-footage technique but a subplot involving the authorities investigating a kidnapping case simultaneously. The thing that ties it all the together, the discovered footage, is the only tangible link to solving the other crime.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 9th, 2016
When I was a kid in the 1970's there was a weekend sports show on ABC called The Wide World Of Sports. It was a catch-all for those sports that don't have the kind of national branding of football or baseball. It was the kind of show for boxing, gymnastics, or skiing. I don't remember a single episode that I saw. What I do remember along with anyone who has ever watched it is the opening sequence. We were promised the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat. With that last line we saw the image of a ski jumper taking a horrible wreck as he comes off the jump. In the 40 years since I still often wonder about the guy whose legacy will always be the very definition of unmitigated failure, and painful failure at that.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2016
In 1983, The Dresser was nominated for five Oscars for Best Actor for Tom Courtney and Albert Finney as well as Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. In 1980, it was also nominated for Best Play in both Britain’s West End and on Broadway in New York. It is a showpiece for the best actors in the world. It revolves around two characters: a great Shakespearean actor who is struggling with the fear of oncoming mortality and his close personal servant who tries to hold his master together. It is a brilliant vehicle for any great actor. Since it first came to prominence, there have been talks about a new attempt to reinterpret the material
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2016
"Never underestimate the impact of dramatic entrance!"
It's hard to maintain the attention of the 21st-century child. Animated movies have to combine enough elements of charm and action to keep their attention for a little under two hours. If you want to keep a franchise going, you have to rip out your sequels in reasonably tight schedules. It's been over four years since Kung Fu Panda 2, and we waited nearly that long between the first and second entry. That's a long time in a culture where we move from fad to fad almost by the hour.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2016
"That's me, Mike Hanover, and I just killed a man in a taco shop bathroom. Hey, he started it. I been hiding near the border looking for The Vigilante..."
You've found him. Anchor Bay's The Vigilante actually started life as a web series. The web episodes followed the exploits of The Vigilante, played by Paul Sloan and his sidekick The Kid, played by Kevin L. Walker. It was pretty much a hyper-superhero kind of series with ramped-up action on a limited budget. Now we have a feature film version that is quite the mixture of genre films. You get a little grindhouse mixed with some Leone Spaghetti Western with extra sauce
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 7th, 2016
“Oh...you were expecting Prince Charming?”
Shrek really did pick the absolute perfect time to emerge from his swamp. The 2001 computer animated sensation from Dreamworks arrived just as rival studio Disney was winding down its decade-long hot streak of hand-drawn new classics like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. In other words, it was the ideal moment for someone to come along and take shots at cartoon musicals and fairy tales that end with “Happily Ever After.” (Shrek's biggest target, however, was probably the Mouse House itself.) But how does the movie play 15 years later? Fortunately, Fox and Dreamworks have released a new Anniversary Edition to help us figure out the answer.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 7th, 2016
I wrote about The Facts Of Life before (Season 7 in October 2015 and Season 8 in February of 2016). The final season (Season 9) made it one of the longest-running sitcoms up to that time. It was never a number one show, but was consistently popular over the years. There is no George Clooney (Clooney had moved on to Rosanne) in the final season, or Charlotte Rae (who was just tired and left in Season 7). The focus in Season 9 was on the four girls, Blair Warner (Lisa Welchel), Jo Polniaczek (Nancy Mckeon), Natalie Green (Mindy Cohen), and Dorothy ‘Tootie’ Ramsay (Kim Fields), because they were growing up and becoming adults.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 6th, 2016
“Hello boys…I’m baaaaaack!”
You probably know that Independence Day — the spectacular, shameless sci-fi smash that introduced the world to “Will Smith, Global Superstar” — dropped a sequel last month. What you may not know is that the original film has been granted a 20th Anniversary Blu-ray and UHD release. I was 13 when ID4 came out in the summer of 1996, which means the movie’s deluxe destruction and alien shoot-em-up antics were right in my wheelhouse. So I was curious as to how an older and wiser, um, taller version of me would feel watching it with a critical eye.
