Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 12th, 2015
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I sat down to watch The Swirl. I didn’t need urban dictionary or the comically on-the-nose tagline on the DVD cover to tell me the film would be exploring the world of interracial dating, with a strong emphasis on the relationships between African Americans and Caucasians. But I assumed I’d be watching some no-budget melodrama that would (at best) be good for some unintentional laughs. Instead, The Swirl set out to be funny on purpose.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on June 12th, 2015
I’m going to go on record and say that it is highly likely that I do not fit into the target audience for this film. OK, now that we got that out of the way, I feel perfectly comfortable stating that I don’t believe that even the target audience will really enjoy American Bad Boy. I just knew that when Magic Mike was released that we broke the dam; now everywhere I turn there is a movie about male strippers. Now, I’m not a prude, but when it comes to this movie, it is nothing more than a shiny penny; the target audience is expected to be dazzled by the muscular bodies rather than the story itself or lack thereof.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on June 11th, 2015
As one who loathes sports, ESPECIALLY golf, I thought I’d rather put hot pokers in my eyes than watch the golf and gambling independent film, The Squeeze. However, to my surprise, it wasn’t bad - it wasn’t great- and although the ending teed me off for not providing an adequate resolution, I also didn’t fast forward. The golf scenes were realistically boring to me, so I guess golf fans would love this, but the script needs work. The Squeeze tells the allegedly “based on true story” of Augie (Jeremy Sumpter), a cute, small-town kid who comes from a family where the patriarch of the family is an alcoholic.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 11th, 2015
“That’s your job as The DUFF…Designated Ugly Fat Friend.”
Let’s just get this out of the way right at the top. The idea that Mae Whitman — or any other actress cast as the lead in a mainstream Hollywood movie — is “Ugly” and “Fat” is absurd. (Not to mention entirely subjective.) So it’s tempting to dismiss The DUFF as the latest bit of evidence that there’s no truth in advertising. But then you’d be missing out on a charming teen comedy that grabs the snarky underdog baton previously held by the likes of Mean Girls and Easy A.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2015
The premise here is dirt simple. They've taken the buddy cop idea and found a way to work in the forensics science fad and deliver a procedural with a few twists. Angie Harmon plays Detective Rizzoli. She's wanted to be a cop all of her life and is living the dream working with a special unit out of Boston PD. Her best friend in life happens to be Dr. Maura Isles, who is the Chief Medical Examiner for the unit and is played by Sasha Alexander. These are the kind of friends who finish each other's sentences and share a lot of history together. That's not to say they are at all alike.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on June 11th, 2015
by Dustin P. Anderson
At the end of a long sentence, a notorious inmate, Viktor Khadem, is sent to a minimum-security prison where he works until he can be rehabilitated to join society. His handler, Matt Perry, sees a certain skill for taking care of birds within Viktor, and decides to start a new program for rehabilitating inmates. He puts Viktor in charge of two other prisoners tasked with caring for the injured birds of prey until they are well enough to fly, and hunt on their own. The guards and warden of the jail believe the program is dangerous and will only invite more trouble.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 9th, 2015
"Some things stay the same. I mean the gamer is the game."
Stop me if you've heard this one before. A newspaper reporter and a cop go into a bar... It sounds like a setup for a pretty lame joke. It's actually the story of how one of the greatest television shows to ever air got started. It was the brainchild of two real-world players who hadn't yet seen their worlds portrayed accurately in television of film. They set out on a mission to change all of that. And, changing all of that is exactly what they did.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 9th, 2015
“You look at life like it’s a burden. Life is a gift.”
The best thing about Rectify — SundanceTV’s excellent, thoughtful slow-burn of a Southern drama — is that it gives equal weight to each of those viewpoints. Daniel Holden has spent more time as death row inmate than he has as a free man. As an 18 year old, he was convicted of the rape and murder of a teenage girl and spent the next 19 years in prison awaiting his execution. Daniel was suddenly freed after DNA evidence vacated his sentence, and season 1 showed him struggling mightily to adapt to life on the outside. (It also showed the outside world struggling mightily to adapt to him.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 5th, 2015
“To live is to consume.”
Sometimes it feels like we’ve already consumed every conceivable type of Hollywood blockbuster. Besides movies adapted from comic books or, um, older movies, we’ve gotten mega-budget films based on board games and theme park rides. And that’s why I was so excited and intrigued by Jupiter Ascending, especially when The Wachowskis’ nutso space opera was slated to hit theaters during what seemed like a particularly sequel-heavy summer of 2014.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on June 5th, 2015
“Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”
There are some television series that just have a catchy theme song; COPS is one of those shows. I don’t know what it is, but every time I hear mention of the show, I automatically hear the theme song in my head. I know I can’t be alone in that category; come on, show of hands, how many people hear the theme song in their head or feel compelled to sing it out loud at the mere mention of the show?
