Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on May 7th, 2014
Following the live performance of Madea’s Neighbors From Hell captured on this DVD, Tyler Perry joins his fellow cast members on stage after they’ve all taken their bows. Perry has ditched his Madea drag and takes to the microphone to thank his fervent, loyal fans for their support. You probably know Perry because of the phenomenal success he has enjoyed in TV and movies. (And because he puts his name on practically everything he does.) However, Perry is quick to remind his audience that it all started on the stage.
Madea’s Neighbors From Hell premiered in Atlanta last year. As you probably guessed from the title, the play features Perry’s most famous creation: the towering, tough-talking Mabel “Madea” Simmons. I realize the character is Perry’s bread-and-butter, but it’s still a little jarring to see the uber-rich multi-hyphenate treading the boards in a direct-to-DVD movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 5th, 2014
When it comes to the feud between Marvel and DC film adaptions, I think we can all agree Marvel at this point may be winning the battles on the big screen, but when it comes to the animated films DC has been delivering hit after hit. Perhaps it’s because the landscape in animation is virtually unlimited and comes with a significantly smaller price tag to deliver. With the new animated release from Warner Brothers we get a new Batman film that goes where we haven’t seen the caped crusader go, and that is into the shoes of fatherhood. Before you get to thrown by the idea, this isn’t a costume hero version of Three Men and a Baby, but instead something much darker and well deserving of its PG-13 rating.
The League of Assassins are in the middle of training when we first meet Damien (voiced by Stuart Allen); he’s the grandchild of the leader of the league as well as a long standing foe to Batman Ra’s al Ghul. Damien hasn’t simply lived the life of luxury, but instead has lived a life training to be a deadly assassin. I’d love to see this kid in public school dealing with school yard bullies, but this isn’t that story. His mother, Talia al Ghul (voiced by Morena Baccarin) is firm but loving, and her true nature comes through as the temple is attacked by an army of armed ninjas. The battle is intense, and despite all the training by the League of Assassins, they are simply no match for the firepower that is unleashed. Damien isn’t one to run and hide; he doesn’t hesitate to pick up a weapon and fight. Leading this hostile takeover is Deathstroke (voiced by Thomas Gibson); he’s filled with rage and wants to rule the league and kills Ra’s al Ghul in the process.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 5th, 2014
“I do wish I could be content, but...”
“You cannot.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 5th, 2014
It’s been a while since a movie has been released that broke the rules on how we expected a film to be made. Avatar was the last game changer, I would say, considering it gave audiences a new way to see films in 3D. Sure, hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in that film, and the reward for bringing audiences something different is it being the highest box office grosser ever. Escape From Tomorrow goes in the opposite direction, and to be matter of fact about it, the film shouldn’t even exist. But writer/director Randy Moore pulled off something that is an achievement that deserves praise for filming his sci-fi satire on location at Disney, without their permission.
I’ll be the first to admit, the gimmick of filming a movie without permission on the grounds of any amusement park intrigues me. It’s the film student in me that curses Moore for pulling this off, but I have so much respect for this guerilla filmmaking spectacle. And that is what this film is about, the spectacle of Disney and the pedestal we put it on in our society. As kids we all had these hopes and dreams of just what it would be like to experience the Magic Kingdom, and as many people get older we wish to share this experience with our own kids and hope to recapture that experience when we were younger. But age has a funny way on changing our perspectives, and though certain things may never change, our understanding of things seems to evolve.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 1st, 2014
It’s easy to envision the elevator pitch for Devil’s Due. You only need five words: “Rosemary’s Baby meets Paranormal Activity.” The upside is obvious. The idea of a demonic pregnancy has terrified and unsettled expectant mothers since Ira Levin published Rosemary’s Baby in 1967 and Roman Polanski adapted it for the big screen the following year. Meanwhile, the Paranormal Activity films made low-budget/found-footage domestic horror hugely profitable. The downside? You’re probably not topping Rosemary’s Baby, and horror audiences seem to be suffering from an acute case of found-footage fatigue.
“Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists will come. Therefore we know is the last hour.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 29th, 2014
There have been complaints that there are not enough films that have decent lead roles for women. There are those that say that Hollywood does not make enough movies for women. Then when they do, critics tend to dismiss them as “Lifetime” movies (a term that is dismissive because of the cable channel that churns out generic movies for women). It seems far easier to accept excessive violence or male-oriented films with sexual content. If a movie tries to legitimately capture real situations from a woman's point of view, it can be patronizingly categorized as pap and schmaltz. 
I see an awful lot of movies, and what disappoints me most about many of them is the insincerity of the experience. We get to see a lot of violent movies and a lot of funny movies, and if they seem halfhearted, I shrug it off as the norm. If I see romantic comedies that seem like weak rip-offs of movies made years ago, I assume they just don't know how to make them anymore, but an even rarer commodity is a serious romantic movie that works. Today that usually means it has to be laced with cynicism and anger.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 28th, 2014
It’s movies like Big Bad Wolves that keep me excited about cinema. After all, who would guess that Israel would produce this savagely dark fairy tale revenge film that is also one of the darkest comedies I’ve seen in some time with a visual aesthetic you’d expect from a Coen brothers film, but the violence and humor you’d expect from a film by Tarantino. My first time viewing this film was via On Demand a few months ago; more and more I feel the cable companies are onto something by acquiring these little films and releasing them pay-per-view so that those not in New York and Los Angeles can experience these films before having to wait months longer for their DVD or Blu-ray release. Now I get the chance to revisit a film that upon my first viewing was a punch to the gut; does it hold its own on its second viewing? You bet it does.
The film starts up with a group of kids playing a game in the middle of the woods. While the kids search the property for one of their friends, all they discover is one lone shoe. Jumping ahead, we meet Micki (Lior Ashkenazi) with a group of fellow vigilantes dragging Dror (Rotem Keinan) into an abandoned building to beat a confession out of him. Little does anyone know, someone is in the building with them and is filming the brutal interrogation. Is Dror responsible for the missing girl? At this point who knows, and anyone could be a suspect. But when the video hits the internet, opinions are formed, and Dror becomes the focus of scrutiny by his students as well as their families. After all, this is the time of social media, and we all know it spreads faster than the time it takes for an investigation to be completed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 24th, 2014
“I used to be thin when I was 6.”
Jim Gaffigan has long been fixated on food. Need proof? The comedian’s 2013 memoir is called “Dad Is Fat”, and his most famous routine is about Hot Pockets. So it wasn’t exactly a shocker to find that Gaffigan spends most of Obsessed — his fourth Comedy Central stand-up special — talking about his dietary likes and dislikes. (Hint: kale is not on his list of favorites.) This is astoundingly straightforward and inoffensive material that nonetheless had me consistently laughing out loud.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 21st, 2014
“Have you done anything noteworthy or mentionable?”
It’s the sort of question that can easily apply to either your workday or your life as a whole. It’s also the question actor/producer/director Ben Stiller chose as the basis of his inspirational adaptation of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The original short story by James Thurber is less than five pages long, so a filmmaker has the option of going to any number of fascinating places in bringing Thurber’s tale to the big screen. Stiller, in essence, decided to take the scenic route.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on April 21st, 2014
“Bad things happen in the woods, especially to pretty girls like you.”
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a smallish group of friends head to a remote location for what they think will be a sex-and-booze-fueled romp. Instead, they find themselves getting picked off by a mysterious killer. If you’ve ever seen a slasher movie, you’re painfully familiar with this scenario. Thankfully, it seems like the people who made the low-budget Death Do Us Part are also well-acquainted with the way this sort of movie is supposed to work. And they’ve decided to have some fun with it.
