Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2024
"Jack, we have done our jobs and done them well. This fight was passed down to us and will continue with or without us. But we will always be better than the institutions we serve, and that is what matters when it matters most. There are no heroes in our profession. But occasionally there are good men. Men who act on what is right, not simply doing what they are told to do. I have not always lived my life with honor. But perhaps I have done enough to die with it. I hope the same for you."
Witness the birth of -- actually make that rebirth of --one of the most popular action heroes in literature. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan has been a character of many jobs and many faces over the years.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 15th, 2024
"They say time heals all wounds. But that's a lie, time is the wound. Takes you further and further away from that place when you were happy. Makes those good smells go away."
Zelda Williams has been busy in the industry working on short independent projects. The daughter of the late comedian Robin Williams has some good stuff in those genes, and she's finally been given a feature project to play a little with those genes. So she teams up with the quirky Diablo Cody for a romp that feels a little too much at times like the cutting room floor for a Tim Burton film.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 14th, 2024
For horror fans, this title is one to be cautiously excited over, because it is the beginning of a partnership between Jason Blum and James Wan. The pair have united to release several horror projects in the near future. Night Swim was initially picked up as a feature after the success of the short film with the same title which was released back in 2014 from directors Rod Blackhurst and Bryce McGuire. Now ten years later Bryce McGuire dives back in to create a feature-length project about a haunted pool in the suburbs in an attempt to scare the floaties off its audience, but does he succeed? You know the rules, folks; no viewing after eating unless you’ve waited thirty minutes, and absolutely no viewing without supervision unless there is a lifeguard on duty. Now, with that said, grab your swim trunks and settle in; we are taking the plunge into Night Swim.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 5th, 2024
One of the best things about cinema in the 80s was the buddy cop films. Sure, they existed before the 80s, and they still exist now, but the 80s was their “golden era”. Sure, they all followed the same formula: a pair of misfits who seem to always get on their captain’s nerves, and they come across some big case, and the only two knucklehead cops who seem to be able to solve it are our loveable pair. Personally, Lethal Weapon is my favorite of this subgenre, with 48 Hours coming in a close second, but really during the 80s there really isn’t a bad buddy cop film. They are just over-the-top action with a few laughs, but most important is the chemistry between the pair as they chase down and shoot bad guys along the way. One of these classic films is Running Scared. It paired Billy Crystal with Gregory Hines in a film filled with laughs and action and utilizing a Chicago cityscape as the background.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 14th, 2024
"You know your weapons. It's a lever-action breech-loader. Usual barrel length's thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It's converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred-and-ten-grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred-forty-grain paper patch bullet. It's fitted with double-set triggers, and a Vernier sight, marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further."
It almost happened again. Lightning almost hit Tom Selleck for a second time, and I don't mean in a good way. Tom Selleck was having fun and a tremendous amount of success playing Magnum P.I. on television. It was a character he got on the strength of a recurring character on The Rockford Files, and it was a huge hit. But in 1981 it didn't seem so much like a blessing. Casting calls went out, and he was approached to play an archaeologist trying to beat the Nazis to some kind of a McGuffin or another. The Magnum commitment kept him from taking the role, and it went to Harrison Ford, who turned it iconic.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on March 13th, 2024
"They say everybody's good at something. Me? I talk to fish. That's how I met my friend, Storm. He's always there when I need a lift. Some people think that makes me a joke, But I don't care. You know why? 'Cause I'm also good at something else: breaking heads ... I'm Aquaman."
This film release marks the end of the DCEU as we know it (also known as the Snyder-verse). The DCEU has been an interesting ride to say the least, full of ups and downs. And while it never truly challenged Marvel with their multi-phased game plan, it did provide unique opportunities that gave some deserving talents a platform to showcase their abilities. Momoa was one of them. For me, his casting was among the most unique and triumphant. When he was first announced, I had to take a hard look at that decision, as it went against the grain as far as traditional casting for Arthur Curry went.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on March 1st, 2024
When Contagion was released in 2011, it was considered a horror film, more a flight of fancy than anything else. It wasn't a great box office winner. But in 2019 all of that changed as we lived through the pandemic that was mere science fiction before then. Looking back at the film, it becomes a game of what they eerily got right and what was far off the mark. Much of the world disaster element, thankfully, never came through, but in hindsight it is quite surreal the things the film did get right. The idea of a therapy drug possibly being downplayed by the government and an internet guy trying to drive those discords. The fear of a quickly-created vax also looks very much like what is still playing out in the world today. The film depicted a nasal vax that I wish had been true. The film avoided much of the political fallout, but you really must see this film in a post-COVID world.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 5th, 2024
Taylor Sheridan is back at it again. You have to admire the ever-growing body of work he's brought to the television/streaming screens. He's really the first one to dominate that landscape the way the likes of Dick Wolf and Steven Bochco have dominated our network television screens for decades. As a writer I often find him a little weak in plots and overall storytelling. But what he does very well is world-building and creating authentic and compelling characters. He did it with the likes of Kevin Costner in Yellowstone. There's Jeremy Renner in The Mayor Of Kingstown and Sylvester Stallone in Tulsa King. He has the ability to bring the best actors to these projects because they know he's going to create something compelling and fun to watch. He talked Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren into doing the awesome Yellowstone spinoff 1923.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 2nd, 2024
I’m a sucker for a good “Invisible Man” story. Ever since H.G. Wells put out his story in 1897, he’s captivated readers, and his story has been a part of Hollywood history since 1933. For decades we’ve gotten to see Hollywood tackle the story and offer viewers some FX wizardry that has ranged from cheap and silly to simply Hollywood magic (aka CGI or even better, a man in a green suit). A good portion of these films have been good. I’ve always been a fan of the 1992 John Carpenter film Memoirs of an Invisible Man, and more recently in 2020 we had The Invisible Man, which I’d argue might be the best of the “Invisible Man” films. Then you have a film like The Man Who Wasn’t There, a 1983 release that tries to reinvent the story and fails in such a way that you have to wonder if anyone involved with the making of the film had ever seen the previous films or read the books, because the result is a mixture of bad to awful, and no amount of bare breasts could save this film, though they inserted plenty to test this theory. So what makes this a film I’d wager many involved wish it could just vanish from their film resume?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 31st, 2024
While times may have changed a bit, many countries, especially in the 1970's up until the turn of the century looked down in disgust at those from the United States, from the way they looked, to way they acted, right down to the language they spoke. However, one of the things they most feared was that the US was going to take over their companies and do things the "American" way. Today, we take a look at a film called Mille Milliards de Dollars. In this film, we are introduced to the GTI, the Garson Texas International company, who are secretly taking over France Electronics, one of the biggest companies in Paris. It's quite the scandal and should be a very interesting film. Let's take a look.
