Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 1st, 2012
For most of the last decade or more CBS has dominated the primetime drama market on network television. One of the reasons, of course, has been the prevalence of top-flight crime dramas like the NCIS and CSI franchises. From 2003 until 2009 the Thursday line-up on the eye network included the blockbuster pairing of the original CSI and Without A Trace. Both were products of filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer's television stable. While CSI focused on the science behind a criminal investigation, Without A Trace took the more traditional route of the human element to the FBI's Missing Persons Unit.
Jack Malone (LaPaglia) was the tough-as-nails head of the unit. He had a degree in psychology and acted very much like a profiler at times. It was his job to direct the investigation unit. The team consisted of Vivian Johnson (Jean-Baptiste). She was a veteran officer and Jack's right hand. Danny Taylor (Muciano) had changed his last name to escape his family roots which included a habitual criminal brother and an abusive father. The unit was his way of starting a new life. Martin Fitzgerald (Close) was the son of a powerful senator and was always fighting to prove himself on his own merits. Samantha Spade (Montgomery) was the young attractive young woman on the team who had already had an affair with the married Jack but also had romantic ties to Martin. Unfortunately, she didn't do much to break the vulnerable female role.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 31st, 2012
At first glance it would be very easy to say that Beyond doesn't really offer us anything terribly new in the crime drama genre. For the most part I would tend to agree with that criticism. I would counter with the argument that a very good film doesn't need to be very original to be good. Sometimes the value in a movie lies in the fact that it does what it does do extremely well. That's how I would describe the sleeper direct-to-video release Beyond.
Jon Voight stars as Detective John Koski. He's a detective in Anchorage, Alaska who specializes in missing children. He's not exactly by the book, and more of his perps end up dead than in the courtroom, but the children usually end up found and alive. Sounds like a win/win to me. Still, he's haunted by that first case where he wasn't able to save a little girl. It turns out he's more haunted by that incident than even he suspects. When 7-year-old Amy (Lesslie) disappears from her bedroom one cold wintry night, Koski, just months from retirement, gets the case. The girl's mother Sarah (Polo) is the sister of the Chief off Police (Mulroney).
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 29th, 2012
This movie has everything working for it with the exception of one thing, and that is the execution in which the story is told. The film has a decent cast, a good story, for the most part it looks good on the screen, but what hurts this film was the decision to tell the story in flashback. How can you have a great payoff at the end if in the very beginning we know how the movie is going to end? Why the filmmakers stuck with this edit is a mystery to me, and it’s a shame, because they have all the right pieces to make it work, but instead they shoot themselves in the foot.
An up-and-coming boxer Jack “The Ripper” Stemmons (Casey T. Evans) has an undefeated streak to maintain, while he has a match against an opponent that with a victory could lift Jacks status as a boxer to the next level in the pros. Standing in the way of Jack’s chances for success is a bookie (Tom Arnold) who is out to fix the fight, but Jack has other plans and isn’t ready to take a dive. When the outcome of the match goes bad, Jack confronts the bookie and is forced to leave the country and go into hiding. Jack goes on to try to make a life for himself in Bangkok where he takes fights in the Maui Thai underground fighting tournaments. He meets a prostitute and falls in love with her. He tries to leave the life of fighting, but it seems too many gangsters see how much money can be made from this exiled boxer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 29th, 2012
Often in columns, writers are basically forced to do enough research on their own to qualify as experts. But that is not always enough. Sometimes, we are a lot better off if we just consult an expert from the get-go and ask them all of the pertinent questions we need answered. My wife happened to be that expert I needed for the latest season of True Blood, Season Four. Without her, Sookie Stackhouse might just be another girl from the Jersey Shore. Wait, which show am I reviewing again?
What do we need to remember from Season 3, well only two things really. One, Sookie Stackhouse is in Fairyland and two, Bill Compton is the King of Louisiana. Outside of that, we should be able to explain the rest. Let us rejoin the cast of True Blood, shall we?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on May 29th, 2012
Gilbert (Gilbert John) is a film student with a radical idea: make a documentary about someone who is going to commit suicide. Get to know why, get to know the person, follow the whole process, right up to the very end. Collaborators Valerie (Valerie Hurt) and Michael (Michael Traynor) have deep misgivings about the project, but sign on when the apparently ideal subject is found. This is Matt (Matthew Tilley), who suffers from a brain tumour and simply wants to choose his moment to bow out with dignity before the pain becomes too severe.
Filming the filming (as it were) is Gilbert’s roommate Daniel, played by the film’s actual director, Daniel Stamm. This metafilmic bit of casting is no mere conceit, but is central to the movie’s thematic concerns. We’ve seen a flood of found-footage movies in the last few years (such as Stamm’s own The Last Exorcism), but this 2008 effort is one of the few (along with the likes Incident at Loch Ness and Man Bites Dog, and, in a somewhat more dubious ethical position, Cannibal Holocaust itself) that makes the found-footage aspect crucial, rather than simply just another narrative convention.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 29th, 2012
"This Martius is grown from man to dragon. He has wings. He's more than a creeping thing. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger."
There's a certain hierarchy when it comes to the amount of cinematic interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays. At the top tier, we have the endlessly adapted Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth the Scottish Play. A step below that, you've probably got your King Lear, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream and a few more. And about a dozen tiers below that, we finally come across Coriolanus.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 28th, 2012
Steven Spielberg’s very-long-in-gestation adaptation of Hergé’s Tintin finally came into being over Christmas. The story, very much in keeping with the globe-trotting adventures of the comic books (drawing heavily, in fact, upon The Secret of the Unicorn), has Tintin (voiced by Jaime Bell) become embroiled in a treasure quest after buying a model ship that has one third of the secret concealed in its mast. Captured by nefarious evil-doers who will stop at nothing to find the treasure, he encounters Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), and a legendary friendship is formed.
Spielberg’s affection for the character is present in every frame of the film, and the story hurtles along from location to location, our heroes making one hair’s breadth escape after another. The characters are all very recognizable versions of their 2D comic book incarnations, and the animation is stunning in its meticulous detail.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 28th, 2012
"It's Memorial Day. What am I supposed to remember?"
Happy Memorial Day, everyone! When I saw that I would be reviewing a movie called Memorial Day, I was afraid Garry Marshall had made another one of his awful ensemble romantic comedies — ala Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve — that stars everyone in Hollywood...and Hector Elizondo. Thankfully, this film is simply an (overly) earnest dedication to the men and women who have served in the Armed Forces, as well as their families.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 25th, 2012
There is something about the disaster film that I can’t resist, and that something is seeing things get destroyed. I think we all have this in us, where the little Hulk inside us all just wants to smash or see things get smashed. Thankfully we live in an age where CGI and other special effects can allow us to see all kinds of havoc unleashed from the safety of our living room. With Metal Tornado in my hands to review I knew what to expect, so I turned off my brain and let the mayhem ensue.
In a small town in Pennsylvania a covert government group is working on the Helios project. The goal of this experiment is to harness the sun’s energy and create a limitless clean energy. Everyone on board for the project has the best intentions and are excited when the day finally comes they get to test out their device. Too bad things don’t go as planned, and though the experiment first seems like a success, with further study they discover some of the energy is missing. The loose energy becomes a swirling magnetic vortex that sucks up anything metallic that is in its vicinity and is only growing stronger as it makes its way to the ‘City of Brotherly Love’, Philadelphia.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 25th, 2012
Growing up as an only child, I did my share of strange things. I staged wrestling matches with my wrestling figures, ran baseball games with myself (against myself) and also did my share of creating battles with my G.I. Joes. Feel free to call me a nerd or introvert at any time. As a result, every time I see a wrestling match or watch some baseball, I am reminded of those unique moments I shared as a child. Perhaps when I watch the new G.I. Joe Show: Renegades, I can relive some of those moments yet again.
Cobra Industries is here to help the world by providing products that every man, woman and child can enjoy. They provide helpful pharmaceuticals to the world, they even bake a tasty apple pie. Cobra is so involved in the everyday activities that it is hard for anybody to imagine their lives without them. This explains why they are the perfect corporation to house a lot of secrets and have a very heavily armed security force. The more you know (rainbow flies across the screen).
