Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 26th, 2021
In the HBO limited series The Undoing, we get a scandal and murder that affects the high society of New York’s elite. I’ll admit at first glance this doesn’t seem all that original, but then when you see it stars Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman, it was enough to give this a closer look. Then I notice the six-episode series is penned by David E. Kelley (The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Big Little Lies), and this really grabs my attention. Helming the project behind the lens is Susanne Bier, who directed the Netflix hit Birdbox (though I wasn’t impressed) but also the limited series The Night Manager (which was pretty great). With all these combined along with the backing of HBO, this seemed like it had more potential than I first thought, and for the most part this series didn’t disappoint, but is it worth sitting through six episodes to get answers in this whodunit?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 24th, 2021
“It’s not the end of the world.”
Just in time for the delayed release of Godzilla vs. Kong, we get a look back to the very beginning of this particular string of films. Of course it all really started back in 1954, but for our purposes this was the beginning of the current Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures franchise featuring the true king of the monsters. Now Warner has released the film on UHD Blu-ray and in glorious 4K. So before you head to the cinemas or (God forbid) your phone screens for the latest battle, check in here to relive round one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 19th, 2021
Promising Young Woman is a revenge film that takes what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in the sub-genre and manages to give the audience something that is unique and fresh. It’s a film with a moral compass that is aiming to reflect an attitude towards “rape culture” where males have gotten away with inappropriate and vile behavior under the guise of being drunk and taking advantage of women who are in various stages of intoxication. It’s something that should disgust people because it continues to happen to this day, where privileged males seem to get a pass because they are young and come from prestigious schools. Despite the subject matter, the film doesn’t come off as a cautionary tale or a PSA; instead, it’s definitely an entertaining film that manages to prompt a discussion among its viewers. Now the film has several Oscar nominations; are they deserved?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 15th, 2021
It’s been a while since Jackie Chan has put out a film I’ve gotten excited about. Vanguard seemed like it could be the movie that would change that, since it had Chan reteaming with Stanley Tong (Rumble in the Bronx and First Strike among many others), but alas, this isn’t the case. Despite his age I know the man still has some gas in the tank. He’s simply an amazing performer who needs the right script to come along with the right director behind the camera. Vanguard is an action thriller that definitely feels like a throwback to the late 80’s and early 90’s action films, but unfortunately there is too much bad CGI that gets in the way of the fun along with political undertones that just seem forced.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 14th, 2021
Road films are something of a passion when it comes to movies for me. It could be a movie on a ten-lane highway guaranteed to have multiple car crashes, a two-lane cross country expedition, or a one-lane dirt road going into darkness where the passengers might never return. Nothing gets me going more than films like The Hitcher, Road Games, Two-Lane Blacktop, or The Duel. It is the idea of not knowing exactly where the next turn is going to take you or what lies beyond the next hill. Characters, environments, situations all can change once you get to the next town or cross another state line. Today's road film is the 1997 thriller, Breakdown, with Kurt Russell and J.T. Walsh, where we explore what a man must do in order to find his missing wife. As one might guess, it is one of my favorites, as it delivers one nail-biting scene after another. Let's take a look.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 9th, 2021
They say that timing is everything. When Dreamworks released The Croods back in 2013, it performed rather nicely both at the box office and on home video. The combined take brought the studio over a billion dollars and a bit of a comeback for their animated studio branch. It appeared to be the anchor for a new franchise that could hold its own against such juggernauts as Ice Age, Shrek, and pretty much anything Pixar puts out. I expected there to be a follow-up, but I didn't expect it to take over seven years. Kids have relatively short attention spans, and sequels really need to strike while the box-office iron is hot. That wasn't the case here. I'm not sure what the holdup might have been. The project was quickly greenlit by Dreamworks, and we should have seen something in a couple of years at the longest. Instead it took the better part of a decade, and the film faced a double whammy when it finally was ready for release.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on March 4th, 2021
“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.”
This quote is one of two featured at the end of the film, the other coming from another prominent civil rights leader, Malcolm X. In his quote speaks about how though there are good people in the world, there are also a good many bad, and those bad people tend to be in positions of power that grant them protections from their misdeeds.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 19th, 2021
When it comes to Elizabethtown, I feel this is one of Cameron Crowe’s most divisive films. Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous tend to be at the top of people’s lists when they discuss their favorite films by the filmmaker. Personally, Almost Famous is my favorite film by him, but Elizabethtown isn’t too far behind. When it came out in 2005, the film seemed to get trashed by a lot of critics, but oddly enough, I didn’t care much about what they thought, Crowe at the time had a great track record for good films, and there was nothing that could sway me from seeing the film, except it was in and out of theaters pretty fast, so I had to see it on DVD. It’s become one of my go-to films over the years, and I’ve found myself connecting to it more as I’ve been able to relate to various situations in the film (definitely not the near-billion-dollar fiasco Drew got himself in, thankfully). Despite my love for the film, I can acknowledge it’s not without its flaws, so I’ll be as objective as I can be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 12th, 2021
Despite the pandemic going on, 2020 managed to deliver when it came to the horror genre. The Invisible Man and The Dark and the Wicked were definitely some of the highlights, and then there was Freaky, a horror comedy that was delivering a twist on the body-swap story. I’ll admit I was a little hesitant with embracing this idea, but when I saw it was being helmed by Christopher Landon, who brought us the Happy Death Day films; well, it gave me a little more confidence. This is one of the few films that managed to get a theatrical release, but I’m still a bit hesitant on actually returning to the theaters. Now that I’ve seen the film, I have to admit I’m a little bummed I didn’t get too see this with an audience. This is definitely one of those films that is a little more fun when you see it with an enthusiastic audience. It’s pretty much Freaky Friday meets Friday the 13th, and, well, slashers always tend to play better with crowds.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 30th, 2021
When it comes to the DC universe on television, I feel like Warner Bros. knows exactly what they are doing and truly understands the comics as well as their audience. Now that WB has merged with HBO, I was worried about whether some of the DC TV shows would continue on, since I’ve been impressed with the first two seasons of Titans and the first season of Doom Patrol. I was even more curious about whether Doom Patrol could continue to deliver it’s WHAT THE F*** moments that were sprinkled throughout the first season. Now that I’ve come to the abrupt end that Season 2 delivered, I’m happy to say the show has managed to outdo itself. One thing I want to get out of the way before I delve into this review: the season is only nine episodes long due to the pandemic, so the show does end with many story threads left wide open.
