Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 30th, 2014
No matter how far removed you may be from Sunday school — or even if you never attended in the first place — chances are you know that God spoke to Noah. You also know He told him to build an ark in anticipation of a catastrophic flood meant to wipe out mankind. What you may not have realized (or remembered) is that, in the Bible, Noah himself doesn't speak at all until well after that rain starts. So in adapting the famous Book of Genesis story to the screen, any filmmaker is going to have to take a certain amount of liberties. And when that filmmaker is Darren Aronofsky, the result is a strange, uncommonly thoughtful blockbuster that is as flawed as the hero it presents.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 29th, 2014
“Don't you ever get tired of vanilla?”
There's a special breed of '80s movie that appears hopelessly dated on the surface yet remains impulsively watchable. (Insert your own, “So you mean *every* '80s movie?!” joke.) The Legend of Billie Jean — with its hilarious-in-hindsight fashion and Pat Benatar theme song — certainly fits the “trapped in the '80s” bill. However, the 1985 film — now making its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment — still manages to entertain by tapping into the timeless spirit of teenage rebellion.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 29th, 2014
by Normandy D. Piccolo
“The shark is an evolutionary marvel that should be respected and revered.”
You will definitely need a bigger boat for this adventurous “Sharkathon”, featuring three separate documentaries about sharks all packed onto one DVD like sardines in a can. Everything you could possibly want to know about sharks, from their feeding habits, to the deterioration of their population due to overfishing, to mercury levels consumed by humans, to what makes sharks tick can all be found on, Smithsonian Channel Shark Collection.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 28th, 2014
Robin Williams is one of those actors that I just wonder what happened to them. Through the 80’s and 90’s Williams was simply box office gold with his comedic timing and great impressions, but I’ve always been more drawn to the more serious roles Williams delivered. Awakenings, The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society, One Hour Photo, these are just a few of his roles that have stuck with me over the years that made it easy to look past his cinematic missteps.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 24th, 2014
There are people who love horror films and only horror films. For these people, they can never get enough. They will look at anything and everything. There are the people who like movies about high school and sports. Then there are people who like to see hot chicks. All Cheerleaders Die wants to make everybody happy. It starts out with a girl making a student movie about the cheerleading squad. The girls on the squad show off what cool witches with a B they are since they look out for their dogs on the football team.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 24th, 2014
One of the miracles of modern technology is its ability to shrink the world down so you can practically (well, proverbially) hold it in the palm of your hand. The cheerily square Smithsonian Channel series Aerial America goes the other way. In fact, the best thing about the show is how it uses technology to fill every inch of your screen with some of the most famous — along with some of the more underappreciated — U.S. landmarks, employing a larger-than-life/bird’s-eye point of view most of us wouldn’t otherwise be able to enjoy.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 23rd, 2014
When I first picked up this title to review it was a film I knew nothing about other than what the DVD cover revealed, which as it turns out was very little. I like going into most films cold so there is no room for expectations to get in the way. With such a generic title and a cast that had a few names that rang a bell and knowing nothing about the story, I figured the film had equal chances to be good or simply a stinker I’d forget by the weekend. As it turns out, Gangster is a gritty little drama that not so much took me by surprise but instead left me wanting so much more.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 23rd, 2014
The fact that we haven’t gotten a movie about Cesar Chavez until now is both surprising and not all that shocking. It’s surprising because the Mexican American labor leader was arguably as big of a civil rights icon to Latino workers as Martin Luther King, Jr. was to the country’s black community in the 1960s. On the other hand, the extended wait for a Chavez movie isn’t all that shocking when you consider his efforts took place in the largely un-cinematic realm of grape boycotts. The bland, well-meaning Cesar Chavez makes the case for his impactful deeds, even if it doesn’t totally present him as a vibrant, complex man worthy of the biopic treatment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2014
It happens all the time. It's just as common on large-budget films as it is on the small films. Someone comes up with a great hook. It's a clever idea with all of the potential to be very good. It might even start off that way. Too many times the road traveled is a road to nowhere, and potential was lost somewhere along the path. That's exactly the issue with Open Grave. The opening sequence is one of those scenes that really sticks with you. A guy wakes up in a huge pit filled with dead and rotting human beings.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2014
"There are over 120,000 juveniles incarcerated in detection centers across the United States. Upon release 75% will either return to prison or die in the street. What follows is based on the true story of Camp Kilpatrick and the people there who tried to make a difference."
The Rock -- sorry, Dwayne Johnson, sure has come a long way from his melodramatic days as a WWE superstar.
