Disc Reviews

“You do not mess with the special investigators.” 

Someone didn’t get the memo. The result is a second season of Reacher based on the Jack Reacher character found in a collection of novels by Lee Child, who is really British writer Jim Grant. We were introduced to Jack Reacher in the novel The Killing Floor. It would also provide the material for the first season of this Amazon streaming series. As the popularity of the books grew, it didn’t take long for the character to reach the box office, and while he didn’t resemble the literature character in any physical way, it was Tom Cruise who first brought him to life on the big screen. There have now been two feature films and 30 books released to carry on the exploits of Jack Reacher. Amazon and Paramount Studios have brought him to the smaller screen, and this time I think they did the character far better justice.
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“In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime, we could reach out and really communicate with just two people. We are all indeed very fortunate.”

– Gene Roddenberry 

I should confess from the beginning that I am a very dedicated Star Trek fan. I’m not a Trekkie or a Trekker; I’m a fan. I have often allowed my fan status to cause me to embrace the franchise even when it wasn’t necessarily so good. As a young 15-year-old kid I attended the first 10:00 AM showing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture with a handful of friends on the opening day. We stayed through six showings and left sometime after midnight the following day, occupying the front row center and subsisting off the day’s more limited concession offerings. Basically candy, popcorn and soda.
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“I hope he fails miserably. See, my ex-husband truly loved only one thing his entire life: this club. And Ted Lasso is gonna help me burn it to the ground. I want to torture Rupert. I want him to feel like he’s being fucked in the ass with a splintered cricket bat, just in and out, over and over in a constant loop.

It likely started with Saturday Night Live. The show was roaring in the 1970’s, and along the way some ideas that made great 3-minute skits got appropriated for movies and even television shows. A few of them have become classics. The Blues Brothers is one fine example. Most have retreated into obscurity. I can only think of a two examples where something like that became a dominant force for years to come. In the 1950’s, Jackie Gleason was hosting his own variety show called The Jackie Gleason Show. One of the skits was about a bus driver named Ralph Kramden.
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Mark Harmon as Gibbs was the soul of the NCIS franchise. When he finally called it quits after nearly 20 years, I have to admit I wasn’t sure how much longer the show could go on. I mean, there has to be a reason for this kind of longevity. All of the spin-offs have now come and gone. NCIS: Hawaii has now ended.  NCIS: New Orleans shuttered it’s doors three years ago now after a mere seven years. The longest-running of the spin-offs was L.A., but even they have gone now after only 10 years. I say “only” 10 years. For most shows a 10-year run is rarefied air. So how about 21 years? Only Dick Wolf’s Law & Order franchise has accomplished more. Yes, Harmon might have been the franchise’s soul. But Gary Cole came in and has taken up that slack far better than anyone could have imagined. Now CBS is releasing NCIS The Complete 21st Season on DVD, and that short run of episodes puts the franchise passed the 1000 episode mark. It’s an unbelievable run, and it doesn’t look like it’s close to ending now.
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“Ladies and gentlemen! Start your engines.”

Back in 2015 when Mad Max: Fury Road was released, it was a film that I don’t think anyone expected audiences to respond to as they did. It was 30 years since audiences had last been to the Australian Wasteland when they previously saw Max, then played by Mel Gibson, play the title hero in a dystopian trilogy that has a very loyal fan base. Fury Road managed to exceed expectations as it delivered on having over-the-top chases through the desert wasteland, spectacular stunts, a great score, and then there was the character of Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, as a one-armed badass who managed to steal the film from Tom Hardy, who was now starring in the title role of Max. While I do love Fury Road, my major gripe was with the over-simplicity of the film. Basically it is nothing more than one large chase where our heroes spend 2/3 heading in one direction and then in the final portion decide to turn around and continue their chase. I have nothing against a great car chase; after all, I still think Vanishing Point is hands down the ultimate car film with the best chases put to celluloid, but considering George Miller had 30 years to brainstorm ideas and come up with a script,
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Jeff Nichols is one of those directors who may not be a household name, but he’s one of the few working directors out there who I feel is just one box office hit away from breaking out and becoming one of the modern greats. The 2012 film Mud is hands down my favorite from his filmography. Then there is Take Shelter and Midnight Special that are close behind. While these may not be considered box office hits, these films I feel are each cinematic gems that deserve to be checked out. So of course when I hear he is helming The Bikeriders with a stacked cast of Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon (who was also in Midnight Special and Take Shelter), Boyd Holbrook, and Damon Herriman, this easily became one of the films I was most looking forward to this year. As it turns out, this is one of the most frustrating film experiences I’ve sat through in some time.
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“India. Once a faraway and mysterious place of Ghandi and nonviolence. And ancient traditions of spiritual enlightenment. What happens when a young 23-year-old westerner realizes he needs to change, goes there in search of himself, and he finds that The Beatles are there, too? Four of the most loved and famous people in the world, and they’re there to meditate and to write music. They also want to find out who they are on a new and deeper level.”

The Beatles. As a musician I fully appreciate the fact that the band literally changed rock music as much as any other act before or since. The music was truly transcending, which is a great place to start when talking about Meeting The Beatles In India. Just as the Fab Four were nearing the end of their time together, they took six weeks to travel to India, where they met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
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For horror fans, the past couple of years have been pretty great with the amount of quality films we’ve been getting. Now, for the amount of good films we’ve gotten, there should be no surprise that there have been some duds along the way. This year I’m feeling like Night Swim is the worst of the bunch. As for Tarot, I have to admit I went into this one with pretty low expectations, but the trailer had enough in it for me to want to still give it a try. While I missed it in theaters, this weekend I caught it on Netflix, and I’ve got to say, it’s better than I expected, but still it left me wanting more. The film opens up with a group of friends renting a mansion in the middle of nowhere to celebrate their friend’s birthday. When they run out of beer, they search the home looking for more to drink but end up finding more than they bargained for when they find a door telling them to Keep Out … but this is a horror movie, so of course they open the door that leads to a creepy basement filled with creepy artifacts. When they find a deck of tarot cards, Haley (Harriet Slater), the tarot expert of the group, volunteers to give everyone a reading, and of course curses them all in the process.
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“What can I say? I like playing with my food.”

I have to say, I was expecting more blood. When the cast speaks out and calls the film “the bloodiest thing they’ve ever worked on in terms of volume,” or “the most traumatic experiences,” and the director describes it as “just a bloodbath,” I guess I was just expecting it to be pouring down from the walls. However, that was really not the case. In truth, I barely noticed a difference between this and your typical horror film. Granted, other horror films have less exploding vampires, which I assume was the reason for the film earning its gory reputation. I suppose that is to the film’s credit; the ability to use close to 30,000 liters of fake blood, and I was no more disturbed than watching any other traditional vampire films. Aside from that surprise, I have no complaints about Abigail, a reimagining of the Universal horror classic Dracula’s Daughter starring Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, and Giancarlo Esposito.
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“We made a film – the one I’m going to show you now. Actually, Jason was the one who wanted to make it. Like that cameraman from Channel 10, he wanted to upload it so that people, you, could be told the truth. The film was shot with a Panasonic HDX-900 and an HBX-200. I did the final cut on Jason’s laptop. I’ve added music occasionally for effect, hoping to scare you. You see, in addition to trying to tell you the truth, I am hoping to scare you so that maybe you’ll wake up. Maybe you won’t make any of the same mistakes that we made. Anyway, here it is, Jason Creed’s The Death of Death.” 

It’s ironic that 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake (which was originally a George Romero film), have jump-started Romero’s long-running “Dead” series that started in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead. Since 28 Days Later and the Dawn remake were released, Romero has released two new installments: Land of the Dead in 2005 and now Diary of the Dead in 2007.
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“I have a ghost to bust.”

When Afterlife was initially announced back in 2021, my thoughts were: why do we keep messing with things instead of preserving them? Ghostbusters was an iconic film franchise that already suffered one failed attempt at reboot. So when I went to see Afterlife, I was expecting the law of diminishing returns to be in effect. However, to my mind, Afterlife, with its homage to the dearly departed Harold Ramis and inclusion of the original crew, was not a reboot, but a continuation. It worked, and brought with it some of the nostalgia from the franchise’s original run. Now as expected, one good turn deserves another, and we now have Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Once again, we were at risk of destroying a good thing, but thankfully we had the right people at the helm who were able to blend the old with the new, which is no surprise given that the film was co-written by the son of the franchise’s original director.
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It’s been about 10 years since Richard Linklater gave us Boyhood, which for me may not be my personal favorite of his films, but it is the one that certainly got the attention of the Academy Awards. Linklater is a director I’ve always been a fan of. It’s hard to really describe his filmography other than to say it is diverse, but at the heart of all his films they are about the characters. It’s no surprise that his new film Hit Man is once again a film about the characters and definitely has more heart than violence, even if the central character is supposed to be a contract killer. The film is loosely based on a true story and was written by Richard Linklater and Glen Powell, who also stars in the film, and my first reaction is this is immediately shooting to the top of my list of my favorite films I’ve seen this year. Though this film has some familiar tropes, I have to say it is a breath of fresh air. A film without CGI, it isn’t an established IP; it’s just a good story that is carried by great performances and was fun start to finish. The first impression I got from the film as the credits rolled is that it reminded me of the fun and cool crime films of the 90s.
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It’s summertime, and that means people will of course be flooding the beaches to soak up some rays and enjoy frolicking in the ocean. Because of pop culture and the legacy of Jaws, I’m sure plenty of those beachgoers will have that terrifying thought about what could be lurking beneath the surface, potentially stalking them and ready to strike. The reality is sharks want nothing to do with us; they’d rather feast on a tasty harbor seal or a giant tuna, but that doesn’t change how so many people are afraid of sharks, and Hollywood has happily cashed in on those fears, churning out numerous shark-attack films year after year. Jaws is of course the pinnacle of the genre; then I’d consider The Shallows and Deep Blue Sea to follow behind it. Personally I’m a fan of this sub-genre of creature feature films. No matter how absurd these films may get, if it has a shark turning swimmers into its own little buffet, I have to check it out. To be fair, there have been some duds in the genre, but the only one I wish I could take back and erase from my memory would be last years Black Demon. Yikes, that was a bad one. Right now, though, I’m going to be talking about the new French film that Netflix has released, Under Paris. Is it worth taking the plunge, or does it follow in the footsteps of many previous films from the streaming giant and turn out to be a dud?
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It was October 8, 1989 at the USF Sun Dome where I first saw The Beach Boys live with Chicago as their opening act. It was my first concert experience, and in my household The Beach Boys were pretty much royalty. Any time the band was on the radio the volume was cranked up and my mom and I would sing along, causing those in neighboring cars to quickly roll up their windows in an attempt to tune out our terrible voices. My parents collected the albums on vinyl, and later I’d get them on cassette and bop my head listening to the surf tunes fantasizing about the beach or staring out at the pool thinking about bikini-clad girls. The Beach Boys will forever have a nostalgic place in my heart. Even as my taste in music has evolved, I still will listen to their albums time to time. Their feel-good music is perfect for a summer afternoon; they’re timeless, and that’s why I’m not surprised that Disney has put out a new documentary about the band that got its start in the early 60s, and you can still see them touring still (at least with some of the surviving members).
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