Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 8th, 2015
“They’re hee-eere”
That instantly-iconic horror movie line — delivered in a cheery, chilling, sing-songy voice by the late Heather O’Rourke — signaled the arrival of malevolent spirits in 1982’s Poltergeist. In 2015, “they’re hee-eere” could just as easily refer to the latest glut of horror remakes. (Thankfully, there’s still at least one *sacred* cow.) That list now includes a new version of Poltergeist, which features some solid thrills and (for better and for worse) sticks pretty closely to the original.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 8th, 2015
"Listen, my friend. This is going to be very hard to comprehend, but none of what you are seeing is real."
Of course it's not real. It's not really that hard to comprehend at all. This is an animated show, after all. And the figures look like cut-out pieces of construction paper. Of course, we're talking about South Park. What is hard to comprehend, however, is that we're talking about the 18th season of South Park. Few television shows last this long, and only The Simpsons has been around longer when it comes to scripted animated shows running today. That's rare air, indeed.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on October 8th, 2015
At one point or another, every kid dreams of being a superhero. For me, those flights of fancy took place at age 6 or 7, when I'd put on my Batman pajamas — the ones with the detachable velcro cape — and leap off the staircase inside our home. (When I really wanted to give my mom agita, I'd jump off the third step from the bottom.) Miles Scott — a California boy whose evil nemesis is leukemia — got to live out his superhero fantasy on the grandest scale at age 5. Batkid Begins isn't a great documentary by any means, but it's a cheerful, good-hearted (if saccharine) look at the making of a dream.
The film quickly introduces us to Miles and the rest of his photogenic family. The boy was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia at 18 months old, and the movie chronicles his battle with the disease, which included chemotherapy sessions for several years. One of the things that kept Miles upbeat throughout this ordeal was his unabashed love for superheros. He was particularly fond of Batman because of his ability to do extraordinary things without superpowers. So when his family found out that Miles was eligible to have a request granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation upon completion of his chemo treatments, the boy immediately knew what to ask for.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2015
by Dustin P. Anderson
Scholastic presents the audience with a collection of Halloween themed children’s books to prepare the little ones for a night of fun, junk food, and terror. In this DVD the creators have compiled a slew of short books that range from educational to moralistic, from scary to lighthearted. These books represent different parts of the world and seek to bring such classics as Where the Wild Things Are to life. The first thing I noticed about this DVD was that it needs a different type of review style. In the interest of time and space I shouldn’t go through 20 different stories and give someone a quick review on each while trying to give my overall impression of the DVD as a whole. I also can’t treat this as one big concurrent collection due to changing themes, animation speeds, art styles, the decade in which it was made, etc. So I decided to give you my opinion on a couple of stories that should be appropriate for whatever you want for your child, then give my good and bad about the DVD in the closing paragraphs.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 7th, 2015
“Man, they killed my brother…you think I’m gonna let that slide?”
Even if you haven’t sat through a ton of revenge-minded pulp, you won't be surprised to hear the answer to the above question is a resounding, “No!” The good(ish) news is that Chain of Command manages to stand out from a pretty crowded straight-to-DVD action pack. The disastrous news is that this laughably bad, shoddily-made debacle is likely to stick in your memory for all the wrong reasons.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2015
"Meet the Robertson clan. They turned duck calls into a multi-million-dollar empire. But running a family business is tough when the family just wants to run wild."
The Robertson family is quickly becoming the most recognizable family on TV, considering they are flooding the stores with their books, DVD’s, and many other products you can find at Wal-Mart. I can’t help but think this is a family that is doing everything right, and good for them for the success they’ve managed.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2015
Gael Garcia Bernal and Alice Braga are both substantial screen presences in big Hollywood movies for quite some time now. Braga has been in big films like I Am Legend, Predators, and Elysium, while Bernal has been in a long string of interesting projects too long to mention, so I'll single out two by Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel and Amores Perros. They also co-starred previously in Blindness. Ardor is a much lower-profile movie. It seems like a passion project for Bernal, who is a producer on the project that is meant to be socially conscious and appeal to the South American market. It was filmed in the Argentinian rain forest and is trying to be a modern day western.
Ardor (The Burning) is very much like an old-fashioned western. It is a simple film about tobacco farmers in the wilderness trying to survive the rugged terrain. The complication is that roving bands of men come and slaughter and burn people off their farms in the area. Bernal plays a mysterious stranger who comes out of the forest to aid Braga as her father is butchered by the men. The movie moves with a hypnotic slow pace as Bernal and Braga manage to escape and hide together in the forest. The scenery is monochromatic and uniform, so it is hard to tell where they are. It seems they don't stray far from the sparse farm buildings which we see from time to time. The dynamic between the two hiding in the woods and the greater number of men hunting them does change for long periods of time. It allows the two to bond in the rainforest. Braga does take an opportunity provide a brief sex scene in the rain. It is all very sweaty and rainy. At some points we see a leopard lurking about, which appears to be a spirit animal of Bernal's.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2015
The most cynical people in the world are Madison Avenue advertising executives. There are probably some other types that would be in the running, but I think they would probably concede I'm right. Thom Payne (Steve Coogan) is a modern-day ad exec who immediately takes shots at the show Mad Men in his frequent narrations. That's not the only thing he and his wife Lee (Kathryn Hahn) curse out in the profanity-laced Showtime series, Happyish. This show is famous or infamous for being the last project that Phillip Seymour Hoffman worked on before he overdosed (but he did complete a pilot episode). Coogan was eventually brought in to replace Hoffman after much hand-wringing and second-guessing. They are pretty dissimilar actors. Hoffman was full of vulnerability and an unpredictable intelligence. I'd love to see the pilot Hoffman filmed, but it has not been made available as yet. It definitely changes the dynamic of the show. Coogan doesn't have the same gravitas, or warmth for that matter. Coogan tends to give off an arrogant and superior vibe. That changes everything.
Happyish, in general, also gives off a totally different feel than the multiple award winner, Mad Men. They take place in different universes. Mad Men is an epic look at the history of one agency over the years. Happyish is a present day satiric attack on just about everything in the culture. Satire can be a rough thing to pull off. Show creator Shalom Auslander was in advertising, and he is aggressive in his attacks on just about anything that comes to mind. When his barbs hit, they hit dead on, and when they miss, they miss by a mile. It is definitely hit or miss. Some of the more successful satire is on actual products and animated company representatives like the Keebler elves and the Geico gecko; both are brought on to spout unconventional bon mots. Coca-Cola, New York Life, the United States Armed Forces, and J.P. Morgan are some of the other real-life targets of other jokes. At one point, Rob Reiner is brought in to direct a commercial using real-life little people to replace the animated Keebler elves. Some of the other guest stars in the 10-episode run are Ellen Barkin as a corporate headhunter, Carrie Preston (True Blood) as a nervous account executive, Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) as the agency head, Richard Kind as Moses, James Deen as a porno actor philosopher, and even Hitler makes a cameo as the somewhat displeased director of a Coke commercial. Coogan is the creative director who has to deal with two 25-year-old Swedes, Gottfrid and Gustaf, who are very social-media-conscious.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2015
I don't enjoy writing negative reviews. It's a struggle when the film experience was joyless and then to have to go back and relive that. I also don't enjoy reading reviews by other critics that get everything completely wrong. It's even worse when almost all the critics get it wrong. Even worse than that is when I see critics dumping on a film that's actually good, but that's a story for a different day. How can I say Spy is so bad? Because I had to sit through the movie. I can get some enjoyment out of even the worst movies, and that's true here, but I would not recommend it to unsuspecting viewers.I do imagine a lot of people will enjoy the movie despite themselves if they are paying for babysitters, etc. Again, I do think every movie has some entertainment value. I will try to find it in the new movie Spy. The first good thing I can say is that Spy is a chick flick that lets chicks save the day. They don't look great doing it, but they save the day. That's one of the problems. Almost no one looks good in this film.
The film has a great cast. Melissa McCarthy is the big star, but she shares billing with Jason Statham, Jude Law, and Rose Byrne. You can also throw in sturdy supporting players like Allison Janney and Bobby Cannavale. There are plenty more, but those are the names. I will say that the person who comes off the best is Rose Byrne. She plays a super-bitch super-villain who you truly believe doesn't like anyone. She dispatches people with the unpleasant venom of someone who doesn't like the service she is receiving at a restaurant. Jason Statham has the thankless job of making fun of himself. He seems game, but he doesn't really pull it off. He gets some of the funniest material but almost flubs most of his lines with his mush-mouth delivery. Jude Law gets the part of the perfect James Bond-type spy, but you get the hint of embarrassment in his facial mannerisms like he's trying too hard to spoof the trope.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on October 5th, 2015
“My name is Clay Marshall, and I am one of the many survivors of the zombie apocalypse.”
Yes, you read that right. The word “many” in the above quote is not a misprint. A Plague So Pleasant seeks to explore the crushingly mundane aftermath of a worldwide plague. Unfortunately, the movie appears to be of two minds in terms of presenting its skewed view of the zombie apocalypse. The result is an intriguing, uneven film that doesn't fully come together.
