Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 5th, 2013
Have you ever watched a movie that is so insane that when it ends you’re stuck on your couch wondering what just happened? Adam Chaplin: Violent Avenger did just that, and as it turns out, that is not such a bad thing. The film is such a mash-up of crazy visuals and violence, it’ll leave your mind rattled for some time just trying to make sense of it all. This is pure splatter cinema straight out of Italy where the gore runs red and by the buckets.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 4th, 2013
There's a saying that in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. No one would have expected that a one-eyed man could become the king of 3D. But that's exactly what happened with House Of Wax. The film has become one of the definitive films in the 3D format. To look at it on Blu-ray now, it holds up quite nicely in a day where 3D has become almost passé. Still, it's hard to believe that Warner Brothers would choose a man with only one eye to shoot their 3D film. That man was Andre' De Toth
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 4th, 2013
Although he’s only mentioned briefly in the Bible, the man known as Barabbas was a key figure during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. According to the Gospels, Pontius Pilate gave the crowd in Jerusalem the choice of either sparing Jesus’ life or saving the rebel/thief Barabbas during Passover. (No “Spoiler Alert” necessary; I’m sure you can guess which one they picked.) Since very little is known about Barabbas, his life story has basically been transformed into the first documented case of “survivor’s guilt.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 3rd, 2013
It’s only the first of October, and already the Christmas spirit is being thrust upon us. It’s not that I’m trying to be a Grinch about it, but for me my true Christmas is in October when we get to celebrate the ghouls and goblins that lurk in the shadows. But I did what I could not to let the season we’re in get in the way of a movie; after all, Die Hard was a Christmas movie in the summer; same goes for Iron Man 3. Sure, those are action titles, but they are still great no matter what time of year you watch them. So perhaps So This Is Christmas may turn out to be this under-theradar gem that will surprise me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2013
All good things must come to an end, and so it was at Walt Disney Studios. The Golden Age of feature film animation had started with Snow White And The Seven Dwarves in 1937. By the end of the 1970's it was all but gone. As the studio entered the 1980's the things had gone from bad to worse. Walt was gone, and so it seemed was the magic. Most of The 9 Old Men had either retired or passed away. The studio leadership was considering closing the animated studio and moving on to live-action films only.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on October 3rd, 2013
“What makes a song beautiful is not always the quality of the voice but the distance that voice has had to travel.”
Well said, Mrs. Redgrave, well said. I should broach this subject early; I am not a fan of musicals or musically-themed films. That said, Unfinished Song is much more than a musical; it is a tale of an emotionally crippled man who has only formed one meaningful connection and about what you do when you lose that connection: do you lie down and die, or do you find a median to that will allow you to form new connections?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 3rd, 2013
For a variety of reasons, fewer people seem to be retiring when they turn 65. That’s long been the case for legendary musicians like Bryan Ferry, who was at that milestone age when he filmed this concert in Lyon, France during the summer of 2011. Ferry has always combined his own "old soul" sensibility with a forward-thinking approach to creating music. So this show, with Ferry now an actual senior citizen, turned out to be an ideal time to check in on the former Roxy Music frontman.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 2nd, 2013
Family Guy has reached a level of impact upon the American pop culture where I believe the characters need little to no introduction. Is there anyone, really, that doesn’t recognize Stewie; after all he’s reached the status of icon and has even become a fixture of the Thanksgiving parade as one of the many floats. Where The Flintstones, then later The Simpsons were at one time the dominating animated family on the television tackling day to day struggles of the modern American (each in their own and unique way), Family Guy (love it or hate it) now seems to be the go-to animated family.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2013
We all remember Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy from Married With Children. It's an iconic role that he'll never be able to shake no matter what he does for the rest of his life. After that series ended its 11-year run, he even attempted to get out of comedy and take more dramatic roles. I'm sure there was a deliberate intent to try to distance himself from Al. It's not that he likely didn't love playing the role. He just wanted to avoid getting forever typecast in the mold. Those efforts weren't all that successful. But now he's back where he belongs again in a pretty solid sit-com
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 1st, 2013
"I met him fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil."
In 1968 Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell hit the American pop charts with the song Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing. They didn't know it at the time, of course, but they were talking about John Carpenter's original 1978 Halloween.
