Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 16th, 2015
The geriatric care wing of a hospital — where the employees are undermanned and overworked, and many of the patients are in a near-catatonic state — is not the most obvious sitcom setting. That's partly the reason it took me a while to warm up to the first season of HBO's Getting On, an adaptation of the British series of the same name. The biggest drawback, however, was that those initial episodes didn't seem very interested in shaking the grim specter of the original show. But what a difference a year makes!
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on November 13th, 2015
“Their channels have millions of subscribers. Their videos have billions of views. They are the future of dance.”
The definition of “making it” as a dancer has shifted over the years. Movies have dramatized this struggle by having its hoofing heroes struggle to earn street cred, gain admission into some prestigious dance academy, or make noise on Broadway. But thanks to social media and websites like YouTube, wannabe dance sensations can take a more DIY approach to stardom. The best parts of Breaking Through brush up against that notion, but too much of the film gets drowned out by groan-worthy dance flick cliches.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 12th, 2015
“A straight line…you just go, and you never…look…back.”
Well, I hope you’re ready to have everything you know about the Terminator franchise turned on its head. As a franchise known for his alternative timelines where the things we come to know are often turned around, my previous statement may sound like the usual bread and butter to you. However, I must say that I feel like the latest incarnation of the franchise, Terminator Genisys, has really outdone itself this time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2015
"Different, entirely."
I have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since I was a kid. Mixed amidst those Universal horror films I watched with my Pop on weekend chiller shows was an occasional Universal Holmes film with Basil Rathbone as the master of deduction. Soon followed the Doyle books, and a new world was opened for me forever. Since those days we have seen every kind of incarnation of the character possible, or so I thought. I've seen Holmes as a child in Spielberg's Young Sherlock Holmes. There have been several comedies and even a musical or two. Robert Downey Jr. has turned him into an action hero, and Benedict Cumberbatch has brought him into the modern world.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2015
I don't think there has ever really been a great film about a great writer. We naturally compare their lives to works of great fiction. Great fiction tends to distill the tedium and awkwardness out of real life. Real life can be exhausting in the day-to-day disappointments that can sometimes be wrapped in small victories. David Foster Wallace was a great writer. This is almost universally acknowledged. David Foster Wallace no longer is because he hung himself in 2008 at age 46.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on November 9th, 2015
“Why, this is getting more farcical by the moment!”
It's easy to point at the 1960s Batman TV series and laugh. For Dark Knight loyalists who insist their hero be gritty and tortured, the show is (at best) a campy amusement. At worst, it's an embarrassing atrocity. The two most important things to note are 1.) the show is very much a product of the Swinging Sixties time period in which it was made, and 2.) the series is *supposed* to be funny. (Batman picked up an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy nomination during its run.) Keeping those two factors in mind is crucial to enjoying this entertaining, monumentally bizarre run of episodes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 6th, 2015
“Argument is sugar, and the rest of us are flies.”
By now, we've grown numb to the fact that there are simply too many TV channels to count. So it's not surprising that many of them have to take increasingly extreme measures to get our attention. Unfortunately, that line of thinking has extended to television news, which began trending toward sensationalism — and away from reasonable discourse — a long time ago. However, the idea that noise and conflict attracted eyeballs wasn't the status quo during the late 1960s, when viewers had only three channels to choose from. Best of Enemies tells the story of how two towering intellectuals (and one desperate network) helped alter the TV landscape forever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 6th, 2015
For me Haven has always been a quiet-storm series. It was a show that I had heard nothing about when I first started watching, but when I got started, I found it compelling. It’s a mystery series (or at least it used to be) based off a novella from Stephen King. In the beginning, one question was paramount to the series’ lead character: who is the Colorado King? That question took many seasons to answer, but now that the show’s time is limited due to Syfy announcing its decision to cancel the series, with the final episodes to air later this year, another question has arisen as the paramount question: who is Audrey Parker?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 5th, 2015
"Be grateful for your gifts. They are all around you."
This is the gift that has been giving for 20 years. It's a bit hard to believe that it was all the way back in 1996 that we had our first adventure with Pixar's imaginative Toy Story. Since that time we've had two solid theatrical sequels and now a second television/video short. It's a bridge to the fourth theatrical film on its way. But that's still a couple of years down the road, so it's rather nice to be able to spend some time, no matter how brief, with the gang we fell in love with nearly 20 years ago
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 3rd, 2015
There are no tigers — or any other large cats — to be found in Tiger House. The closest we get is a rather hefty guard dog whose screen time is tragically cut short. (Figured I’d give the animal lovers out there a fair warning.) Instead, the only prowling we see in this low-budget home invasion thriller comes from the violent gang of thieves who bust into a suburban home and hold the unsuspecting family inside hostage. Unfortunately for the crooks, there’s already an uninvited visitor in the house.
