Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 19th, 2014
Laughing out loud and getting startled out of your wits are two of the most visceral reactions you can have as a moviegoer. For a director to elicit either reaction is challenging enough, which is why I was so delighted to be feeling both during the thrilling, funny finale of Housebound. It’s an even more impressive feat when you consider it was accomplished by a first-time filmmaker working on a shoestring budget.
We first meet Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O’Reilly) as she and an accomplice comically fail to steal money from an ATM. She is a professional screw-up who has battled alcohol and meth addiction. Instead of sending Kylie to her umpteenth rehab program, the judge sentences her to eight months of house arrest at her family’s rustic home. Given Kylie’s unpleasant childhood memories there and the fact that she now has to share space with batty, blabbermouth mom Miriam (Rima Te Wiata), it seems like Kylie might have preferred spending time in prison.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 18th, 2014
"If anybody gets up, they're dead. Anybody moves, they're dead. Anybody makes a sound before I leave this movie, ..."
You get the idea. These are the words of one John Wojtowicz, better known as The Dog. On August 22, 1972 he attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan bank in order to finance his male lover's sex change operation so that he could become a woman. The heist was about as amateur as the come and went horribly wrong from the start. In a matter of minutes the bank was surrounded by a swarm of police units and a growing mob of bystanders. In the hours that followed, The Dog interacted with the crowd, gave a radio interview, and managed to whip the crowd into a frenzy by throwing thousands of the bank's dollars out of the front door. If this all sounds familiar to you, it should. While you may not have heard of these exploits directly, you surely saw the movie Dog Day Afternoon. Al Pacino played John Wojtowicz, and now you know where he got the nickname The Dog.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 17th, 2014
I’m not the biggest fan of Japanese animation. I don’t think it’s awful or anything, but animation is one of those things where I’m just picky about what I like. Though I can say I am a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke) and most of his work. I think this is worth mentioning, because though I may not be as well-versed in this genre, I’d like to feel I still go into it with an open mind, and I’m always excited to find a title that excites me that I never saw coming. And that it precisely what Patema Inverted did.
Imagine if one day the laws of gravity were broken, and during this time friends and family all around seemed to be randomly sucked towards the sky, and you were helpless to do anything about it. Those who would be lucky to survive and keep their feet planted firmly on ground would have to go on living in this world that had fundamentally changed overnight. But what about those who have been floating up into the ether, what about these lost souls and their fate? This is the fundamental springboard by which Patema Inverted takes us to a world where those who survive live in separate “realities” where some seek to live deep beneath the earth to survive, while others have created their own world in the sky that has evolved as well.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 17th, 2014
“If I step on your toe, I was aiming for your heart. But if you step on my toe, I’ll cut your f&@#ing heart out.”
Isn’t it always the case that the people closest to us usually bring us the biggest trouble, or perhaps that is a pessimistic view. However, I must admit it’s likely a view that the lead character of Betrayal could agree with as he finds himself drawn into a web of deception that threatens to destroy the lives of not only his family but his own as well. Vaz is a gangster. Based on what I saw there is no way around characterizing him that way; however, he does seem to have a few redeeming qualities such as the love he has for his family, specifically his elder son. He also appears to have inspired as well as employed a lot of loyalty to his number two, as displayed by his number two’s willingness to execute anyone on his order as well as lay down his life for his boss.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on November 14th, 2014
I had never seen a single episode of Hot in Cleveland before I sat down to review this season 5 DVD set. So why did it feel like I'd been watching this show my entire life? Turns out, it's entirely by design. On the surface, it doesn't seem like I'm the target audience for Hot in Cleveland: I'm under 50 years old, and I'm a man. But if you look beyond the plastic surgery jokes and geriatric humor, you'll find a show that aggressively channels — and ultimately appeals to fans of — many of the classic, multi-camera sitcoms of the past. In other words, Hot in Cleveland feels like you're watching re-runs of a show you've already seen...and still enjoy plenty.
“I still can't believe that I actually live in Cleveland. But in L.A., we were feeling devalued and disposable.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on November 13th, 2014
Satellite is a small, micro-budget independent film that went to a bunch of film festivals and got a bunch of great reviews....in 2005. Why is it taking so long to get a proper DVD release? Such is the fate of many small, micro-budget independent films. It apparently also had some music rights issues, which can be hugely problematic because of the expense. There is also the problem of marketing and advertising, which can be expensive. Then they should be better in some way than the Hollywood product, or it doesn't have a chance. Independents usually try to be more real, honest and risky to garner attention. Independent films just have a different feel, but they also have huge disadvantages because they can't pay for the best talent. Satellite is a middle-of-the-road type film about two young people who fall in love who hit the road. It's the middle-of-the-road part that might be the problem.
The young lovers live in New York in corporate drudgery. Ro (Stephanie Szostak) spots Kevin (Karl Geary) for the first time on the subway and follows him. He sees her in a bar, and they fall in love in short order. Ro is a true romantic and is desperate to move on from the last loser she was with. Karl gets caught up in the spirit of romantic abandon and persuades Ro to run away from her job with him. Maybe all of us want to do something like that, but we also know that doing it is crazy. Kevin says in the movie, “In order to feel this good, you need to break all the rules”. They are two sweet kids, but they do break some rules like stealing stuff like motorcycles and shoplifting dresses and cowboy hats. Kevin's brother thinks Ro must be bad news, but maybe it's Kevin who is the bad boy. Of course, money starts to run out with neither of them working, so there are bound to be rough times ahead. After all, stealing cowboy hats doesn't put a roof over your head.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 12th, 2014
Welcome to the Space Show looks like what would happen if you combined Steven Spielberg’s E.T. — or the openly-Spielbergian Super 8 and Earth to Echo — with the boundless imagination and quirky charms of anime. The result here is intermittently dazzling, but this particular kid-friendly alien adventure is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.
The film immediately grabs your attention with a high-octane action sequence: two bumbling, strange looking creatures are being pursued through a forest by a spastic smaller blur that looks and behaves as if it’s on fire. What’s most intriguing about this opening is that director Koji Masunari makes it impossible to tell whether we should be rooting for the two creatures to get away or for the pursuer to catch them. After the action-packed prologue, Welcome to the Space Show settles into its main story. A group of elementary school kids heads to a summer camp that has a mildly alarming lack of adult supervision.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2014
Now that it's over, Comedy Central has put together the entire six-season run of Reno 911 in one big DVD collection. The show that started out as basically a Cops parody (which is pretty funny on its own trailer-trash merits) had become a holy grail of sorts for the Comedy Channel. While some sketch shows like The Ben Stiller Show and Mr. Show have managed to touch on the Cops parody with their material, the only one that did it regularly was the show that used it for inspiration. The show spanned six seasons and a major motion picture. Reno 911 can be best described as a faux-reality show with a good deal of improvisational comedy performed by some very capable actors and actresses.
The show focused on a group of police officers in the sleepy Nevada town doing what they can to keep law and order. You’ve got Lieutenant Dangle (Thomas Lennon, The State), a bicycle cop who perpetually wears hot pants, Deputy Jones (Cedric Yarbrough, Meet the Fockers), probably the guy who best looks the part of a menacing cop, Deputy Williams (Niecy Nash, Malibu’s Most Wanted), who has no bones about being the only black woman on the force, and Deputy Johnson (Wendi McLendon Covey, Bewitched), the blonde-haired, big-chested female member of the force. Lennon, who helped create the show, also brought a couple of members of his State alumni with him, Kerri Kenney-Silver (who plays Deputy Weigel) and Robert Ben Garant (who plays Deputy Travis).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 11th, 2014
“You sell 100 million records, and see how you handle it.”
If you’ve ever seen an episode of Behind the Music — or followed popular culture at all in the previous century — then you probably know artists tend to not handle that level of success very well. However, the rise and (inevitable) fall of the original Four Seasons lineup is unique for a number reasons. Unfortunately, very few of those reasons are captured in Jersey Boys, Clint Eastwood’s oddly lifeless, workmanlike adaptation of the joyous, wildly popular Broadway musical.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 11th, 2014
Personally I’m not a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, despite the fact that I tend to enjoy films from the genre. For me, I’ll take the old school films like Vanishing Point, Two-Lane Blacktop, and the original Gone in 60 Seconds over these big budget productions any day. All I can figure is that these films that I do enjoy are working with budgets that force the directors to be creative and understand most of their elaborate stunts only get one take and are not polished with CGI, but instead whatever the camera captures that is what we see on the big screen. The stunts are simply incredible, and the cars in my humblest opinion were simply cooler back then.
Drive Hard is a fun throwback to chase films that lived in an era of drive-in theaters and grindhouse cinema. Thomas Jane plays Peter Roberts, a former race car driver who gave up what could have been a successful career to be a father. Sure, this is a respectable decision, but it’s a decision that has haunted him, as he now has taken on a career as a driving instructor. Despite Roberts being a parent, he still hasn’t managed to give up the dream of being something more than an instructor, only it’s hard to imagine he could have expected Simon Keller (John Cusack) would be the person who would become the motivating force. Simon isn’t just a regular student of Peter’s; in fact, Simon has specifically found Peter to once again take a spot behind the wheel, only this time around it is in the form of being a getaway driver.
