Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2023
"He was here before Christ, before civilization. He was king here! Rawhead, that's what they called him! Rawhead!"
Rawhead Rex started life as one of many stories in a young Clive Barker’s published collection called The Books Of Blood. As a story it has been hailed by the likes of Stephen King as one of the best horror stories ever written. I'm not sure I would go anywhere near that far, but there's little doubt it's a well-crafted horror tale. I read it years ago and recall that I was quite impressed. The movie version of the story is something else entirely. It fails on really one important element, and that's the design of Rawhead himself. It's one of the worst-looking film monsters I've ever seen. It's a cross between an ape and a clown without the colorful make-up, and the young actor that brought him to life did anything but. Still, there's some atmosphere to be found here, and a few good performances. It's one of those films where it might be so bad that it will always find something of a cult following. That's exactly what Kino Lorber Studio Classics is counting on with a UHD Blu-ray release in 4K. You heard that correctly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 24th, 2023
When Superman was first introduced to us, it was in Action Comics #1 back in 1938 from the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster. Since then the character has become a cultural phenomenon that’s been featured in just about every form of media from radio shows, TV shows, cartoons, movies, and everything else in between. The character has evolved quite a bit since those early comic book days, and one of the characters biggest evolutions came with the Max Fleischer cartoon series. It was 17 animated short films that played in theaters before the feature film began, but these short films would draw in audiences that wanted to see this caped hero and his amazing adventures.
The collection contains 17 animated shorts.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on May 23rd, 2023
I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t address the elephant in the room first. For the first time in the nearly 50-year history of this franchise, Sylvester Stallone was not featured in the film as Rocky Balboa. We could delve into the reasons behind why he elected not to take part in this installment, but that would be a review in itself and take away from this film. I mention it off the bat, so we can all process it and view the film with clarity. Long story short, I will say that his absence was noticed, and he was missed. I think his absence is notable due to the lack of an explanation as to his absence. I suppose the film being set in Los Angeles instead of Rocky’s native Philadelphia is meant to serve as a workaround, but still, I’d hope for some kind of explanation or at least a casual mentioning of the character. The lack thereof is what really drew attention to it. To be fair, the case can be made that that the previous film provided a pretty good conclusion for the Rocky chapters of the franchise. His finally making the trip to meet his grandchild was good catharsis for the character. What this means for the future of the franchise now I will not speculate; only to say that there is nothing saying that we’ve seen the last of Rocky. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can concentrate on fairly assessing Creed III.
Of significance, this film signifies Michael B. Jordan, our titular character, stepping behind the camera to make his directorial debut. But who better to take the helm than the man who brought the character to life. This in my opinion was a solid debut for Jordan and showcased his abilities both in front of the camera and behind it. Returning to back Jordan up on the screen are Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, and Wood Harris. However, if there was one person who outshone this cast of Creed veterans, it was the man who was making a debut of his own via his introduction into the Rocky franchise. A man who has been making quite the name for himself. Creed III introduced us to Adonis’ rival, Damian “Dame” Anderson, known as Mr. Jonathan Majors.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 23rd, 2023
The 1978 Superman film set the standard for what a quality comic hero film should be. The tagline promise: “You will believe a man can fly” was kept. All future comic films would be judged by this standard. Superman II had its faults. Certainly it was not the modern classic like the first film. The plot was bogged down with a rather silly love story that broke down the barriers of the Kent/Superman identity for Lois Lane. Luthor, while played again with style by Gene Hackman, is reduced to a comedic backseat to the real villains. Plot contrivances abound, along with plenty of corny lines. Yet, even with these limitations, this has always been a rather enjoyable film, particularly when compared to the dreadful sequels that followed.
"You will believe that a man can fly."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 22nd, 2023
I’ll admit it; when it comes to Netflix, I’m a fan of the shows that they put out, but their movies rarely impress me. I kind of look at Netflix films as the modern version of direct-to-video releases. They have big stars, but the quality just isn’t up to par with the big releases you’ll see in the theater. Even big name stuff like The Irishman -- it was good, but not the masterpiece I was expecting. Honestly, my favorite films on Netflix are The Babysitter films with Samara Weaving, just a fun little film, that is basically the kind of expectations I have for a Netflix film, and even the more recent release of We Have a Ghost I thought was charming and may have done well on the big screen. As for Knives Out 2, fun but forgettable. So when I see films from the streaming service get Oscar nominations and even win, I can’t but feel the need to pull the wax out of my ears and make sure I heard that right. This is also why we’re in May and I’m just now watching the adaption of the film All Quiet on the Western Front. This is the third time the film has been made, but this is the only version I have seen, and, well, I have to admit not only is this a good film, but it is a great film, and I feel it deserves every bit of recognition it has received.
One of the most impressive moments in this film comes early on in a brief battle sequence, but it is the aftermath of the battle that matters here. We get to see the journey of a uniform as it is stripped off the corpse of a soldier and then is shipped away to be washed up, sewn up, and prepared for the next soldier to call it their own. It’s an effective moment early on to remind us that not only is war unkind, but that it is a machine that is always working and churning out the next shooter and inevitably the next unfortunate soul to watch a bullet, a stab wound, or a random bit of shrapnel, and then the cycle starts all over again. Then for an added touch of inhumanity to it all, when a name tag on a uniform is ripped away and discarded with many other discarded name tags on the floor, that visual reminder that these boys are nothing more than bodies of flesh, and who they really are doesn’t even matter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2023
"We watched as the bombs shattered the second comet into a million pieces of ice and rock that burned harmlessly in our atmosphere and lit up the sky for an hour. Still, we were left with the devastation of the first. The waters reached as far inland as the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. It washed away farms and towns, forests and skyscrapers. But the waters receded. The wave hit Europe and Africa too. Millions were lost, and countless more left homeless. But the waters receded. Cities fall, but they are rebuilt. And heroes die, but they are remembered. We honor them with every brick we lay, with every field we sow, with every child we comfort, and then teach to rejoice in what we have been re-given. Our planet. Our home. So now, let us begin."
It all started when Steven King wanted to remake the sci-fi cult classic When Worlds Collide. These films must have been favorites to him, as he would indeed go on to remake George Pal's better known film War Of The Worlds and the Robert Wise classic The Day The Earth Stood Still. But it just never really happened for When Worlds Collide, at least not directly. At the same time Spielberg had optioned The Hammer Of God by Arthur C Clarke of 2001 fame. That book dealt with the deflection of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth using thermonuclear rockets. Somewhere in that time he decided to put the plots together, and the result was Deep Impact, with an "original" screenplay by Michael Tolkin and Bruce Joel Rubin. By then Spielberg wasn't interesting in directing the feature, but acted as one of the film's producers with Mimi Leder in the director's chair. She was somewhat of a risk. Leder had never directed a big-budget film before. In fact, all but one of her previous credits were for television, directing shows like China Beach and L.A. Law. The risk paid off, and she did quite a good job with the film for the most part. There are certainly some pacing issues, but the film was well received as it raced to beat another film with pretty much the same plot to the box office. That other film was Bruce Willis's Armageddon, and Deep Impact beat it by two months.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 11th, 2023
"All my life I wanted to be a cop, you know. It's like I can remember nothing else. I remember this one time somethin' happened. A domestic argument or somethin'. Somebody stabbed somebody or somethin'. And -- there was this crowd around this tenement. I must have been nine, ten years old. I was this big. I went over to see what was going on. I noticed the red light -- goin' around and around, all these people, and I couldn't see. And I kept saying, ‘Do you know what's goin' on? Do you know?’ Nobody knew. It was like a big mystery behind that -- that crowd there. All of a sudden, the crowd just parted. Like the Red Sea, you see? And there were these guys in blue, and I said, ‘They know.’ What do they know? What do they know?”
Frank Serpico was a New York City cop in the 1960's and early 1970's. Thanks to the film, everyone knows who he is, and they also know about his struggle as an honest man in a hornet's nest of corruption. His honest stand saw him a pariah and almost killed when his fellow officers stood by as he was shot in the face. He would eventually recover and testify before the famous Knapp Commission that investigated the systemic corruption inside the NYPD. If you know his story, it's because of this film, because that's the plot, pure and simple. What isn't so pure and simple is the inspired performance by Al Pacino, still a relative unknown, who had just finished The Godfather but hadn't really had a lead role up to this point. Serpico changed all of that. Pacino was on a rocket ship to stardom, and this film as much as The Godfather started the whole thing going.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Michael Durr on May 10th, 2023
One of my favorite movies of all time is Se7en. Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Kevin Spacey star in this amazing film about a senior and rookie pair of cops on the hunt for a serial killer who is murdering victims depicting the seven deadly sins. It's so breathtaking, and so long overdue for a 4K release, it's ridiculous. It has also led me when I receive packages to blurt out, "What's in the box?" in the deadpan tone that Brad Pitt uses in the movie. So naturally, whenever I hear of a film that draws comparisons to this fine film, my head certainly does a double take. Enter Hinterland. In this film, Peter Perg who just came home after World War I, is searching for a serial killer who is taking out former soldiers in a very ritualistic pattern. Let's check it out.
The film opens with some background. World War (I) is lost. Austria, once a proud major power, is turning into a small and insignificant state. The emperor has stepped down, and now Austria is regarded as a republic. The soldiers who have come home realize that nothing is as it was before. What's worse is that some of those soldiers did not return until years later (prisoners of war).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 9th, 2023
I remember when The Golden Compass came to theaters. I know I saw it because I was a projectionist and had to screen the print, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember anything about the film. Perhaps that’s why that when I first heard about HBO doing a TV series adaption of the beloved book series His Dark Materials I wasn’t all that thrilled. I’d never read the -adult series, and considering the amount of awful YA film and TV adaptations that have bombarded us for nearly two decades, it played a role in squashing any excitement I may have had in different circumstances. I was definitely pessimistic about watching the show, but when I finished Season 1, I was excited about where the next season would take us. I loved the characters, the daemons and the worlds that the show took us to. Not since Stranger Things had I been more excited about a new series. Season 2 was a step up from the first season, and I absolutely loved what the show was delivering. There has been a bit of a wait for this third season; after all COVID did get in the way of the show’s production, and the delay can dampen the excitement for others. But with sSeason 3 now here, would the final eight episodes be enough to wrap up this pretty great storyline about the multi-verse and the war set to be waged between man and the Authority?
Season 3 opens up with a bit of a time jump with Lyra (Dafine Keen) being held captive by her mother, Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson). We want to believe that Lyra is being held for her own protection and that her mother has finally seen the evil of her ways in the past, but we’ve seen in the past she simply can’t be trusted. The Magisterium continues to establish themselves as the big bad of the show as they are wanting to hunt down Lyra because they believe she is the girl in the prophecies who will bring ruin to all the worlds. Then there is Will (Amir Wilson), who is trying to find Lyra, though to help him in his search he teams up with an angel and Iorek (Joe Tandberg), our favorite polar bear. Then we also have Mary Malone (Simone Kirby), who continues her journey to better understand dust, though to be fair, considering all the peril we see just about every other character experience, her journey seems more like a simple vision quest that leads her to strange elephant-like creatures with wheels on their feet … yeah, this show can get weird. Then of course there is Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), who seems to be hell-bent on waging war against the Authority, and he doesn’t seem to care who he loses or may die because of his actions.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Michael Durr on May 8th, 2023
Films about World War II and Nazism are hard for me to watch. No matter how well-intentioned they may be, I can barely make it through Schindler's List or Dunkirk or even something like Inglorious Bastards (I do, however, find The Producers to be hilarious). Most of the time, it hits a little too close to home. For you see, my Polish grandfather (may he rest in peace), his parents were taken away to a concentration camp. So anytime I watch a film set in that time period, I think, well, what if he had been taken away. It's not like those horrible people showed any sort of restraint on children, and then where would my grandfather be? Or my mother? Or myself? Anyway, I got lured into Chess Story by the promise of a thriller with the game of chess as the backdrop. Unfortunately, by the end I was reminded of the horror, but also that there is still great modern moviemaking even with Nazis. Let's take a look.
We hear whispers all around from every direction, and there is a light crackling overheard. It continues until it fades to black.
