Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 2nd, 2015
"The world has indeed gone topsy turvy".
It's as inevitable as death and taxes. When you review movies that come out on home video, you will see a lot of zombie films. Every wannabe filmmaker with a camcorder and 20 bucks thinks they can break into the business with a few staggering zombies, bare breasts and a screaming hero laying down profanities and head shots for 80 minutes. So you can understand that I release a little moan each time a studio ships me their latest zombie acquisition. Why do it? Because once in a while you find a gem in all of that trash. Every so often something surprises you, and it's like Christmas...or maybe it's more like Halloween. Zombieworld was one of those unexpected treasures.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 26th, 2015
Despite being a fan of just about everyone involved with Horrible Bosses, I was more than a little disappointed by the first film. It wasn’t awful or unwatchable by any stretch of the imagination, but I felt with a cast like Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis, it just should have been better. But the movie gods have spoken and decided that the first film performed well enough that it deserved a sequel. What worked for the first film was the idea behind finally having enough of your bosses and being pushed to the point where murder seems like a viable option. We’ve all had bosses at some point that pushed our buttons to the point that these thoughts may enter our daydreams, so a movie that takes it to the next level will of course have its appeal. Sadly, the sequel doesn’t have that appeal.
This time around Dale (Day), Kurt (Sudeikis), and Nick (Bateman) are working together to release a new shower product, and after the trio make an appearance on a morning news broadcast they get the call from an interested investor. Rex (Chris Pine) claims to see promise in their product, as does his father Bert (Christoph Waltz). The father and son duo end up scheming the trio out of their product, which results in them going $500,000 in debt. With their options limited, the trio decides the best way to avoid going into debt is to kidnap Rex and hold him for ransom. It doesn’t take much thought to realize how bad an idea this scheme is, but the film wouldn’t be much of a comedy if this were a good scheme to begin with.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2015
"There's been some trouble with the women hereabouts...it's bad."
What exactly is a Western? That's the question that the cast and crew of The Homesman struggle with here. They appear to be divided on the subject, and the same sentiment will likely make this one a little harder to pigeonhole. That's not necessarily important except when it comes to marketing a film. An audience wants some kind of an idea what they're getting when they see it on the shelf of their local video store. Tommy Lee Jones wrote, directed and stared in this period piece, and he'd rather you not call it a Western. Others connected with the film are on board with the genre label. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. Westerns often deal with cowboys and Indians. Well... there are some brief Indians here. They don't figure too prominently in the story, however. Other times the genre deals with gunslingers, bandits, or outlaws of one kind or another. Not so much in The Homesman. There are horses, and the cinematography certainly lends itself to the wide open spaces of the traditional Western. Usually Westerns take place in the period just after the Civil War to about the end of the 19th century. The Homesman takes place earlier, in 1854. One thing is for certain. It's a frontier movie with Western elements that, in the end, might not really matter. Let's call it a redemption story and leave it at that, shall we?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 23rd, 2015
Sometimes in film the drama behind the scenes can be more interesting than the actual film we see up on the big screen. For writer/director Paul Schrader, having drama behind the scenes that effects the final project that we get to see is something he is more familiar with than he’d care to admit to. The firestorm that occurred with the release of 2005’s Dominion: The Prequel to the Exorcist became so intense that the studio insisted upon a new director to come in and do extensive reshoots that subsequently led to the release of a separate film directed by Renny Harlin. Once shooting wrapped for Dying of the Light, almost a decade later Schrader found himself in the same position where the producers took the film away from him only to release a cut of the film that Schrader seems to have disowned.
When you have the credits to writing films like Taxi Driver, co-writing Raging Bull, Rolling Thunder, and Affliction, you would imagine some respect would be paid to the man. When you even have the cast standing in support to their director wearing shirts and your cast and crew has virtually disowned the film, as a critic and a fan, feelings do have to be separated as I go in to review this project.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 20th, 2015
When it comes to haunted house films, despite how often the plots seem to be retold time after time, it is still hard for me to say no to giving them a shot. After all, you never know when you may stumble upon a gem. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Altar is a gem or a groundbreaking entry in the genre, but for some late-night thrills the film has all the ingredients to deliver a case of the late-night creepy crawlies. The Hamilton family arrives at a large country house in Yorkshire, where Meg (Olivia Williams) is tasked with restoring the home to its original condition. With her husband, Alec (Matthew Modine), an artist, the pair tries to make the best of their situation along with their two kids, Penny (Antonia Clarke) and Harper (Adam Thomas Wright). The major takeaway I found with the film from the start is that clearly the director Nick Willing is a fan of the Stanley Kubrick version of The Shining. As a fun drinking game, any time you catch reference to the film, take a drink, and you’ll be snookered out before the film reaches the final act.
It’s a simple prick of a nail that seems to awaken the spirits trapped inside the home. Alec pays little attention to this trivial wound at first, but as time passes we see a change come over him as he obsesses over his own blood, which he later incorporates in a sculpture that he is working on. He becomes obsessed with his work in a very Jack Torrance sort of way, but Modine manages to keep his character relatively likeable while becoming creepier as the film progresses.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 19th, 2015
“All men must die.”
The official tagline for Season 4 of HBO’s Game of Thrones also doubles as a helpful reminder of author George R.R. Martin’s no-character-is-safe philosophy. But even plastering that quote all over posters, promos, and the cover of this exemplary-in-every-way Blu-ray set isn’t likely to prepare you for the most devastating and thrilling season of a show that specializes in “devastating and thrilling.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 18th, 2015
For as long as I can remember I’ve been in love with film. Growing up in the 80’s, getting to understand the process of how films were made wasn’t very accessible unless you were lucky to catch a behind-the-scenes special on HBO or Showtime for some big new release. It wasn’t till laserdisc and eventually DVD where the fans would be able to look beyond the magical curtain of cinema and get to see the process of how a film was made. I still get giddy with excitement watching some of my favorite directors getting to work their magic behind the scenes. One of my favorite behind-the-scenes features Full Tilt Boogie (the making of for From Dusk Till Dawn) I credit for getting me to take a stab at filmmaking, and after all, they make it look so easy.
Over the years companies have been trying to cash in on the process of documenting the process of making a film. When Project Greenlight emerged as a competition show about a lucky screenwriter getting a chance to make his script into a feature film, I couldn’t help but watch with fascination and the slightest twinge of jealously. After all, anyone who’s ever attempted to write a script or make a movie would do just about anything to have that opportunity. It’s that foot in the door that so many dream about but so few ever get the chance even to see. Personally I was a fan of Project Greenlight, but after a couple seasons, it seems it never could quite pull in the viewers the producers had hoped for.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2015
"Three years ago brash billionaire daredevil Sly Baron vowed to make space tourism a reality. Today his lucky passengers are boldly going where none of them have been before. No, not Delaware...space."
It's a new frontier for the Scooby gang, but not the final one to be sure. Scooby Doo has spanned generations and over 40 years. Since the 1960’s the name and conventions have become a part of the pop culture. The original cartoon series had a series of conventions. The Scooby gang would drive around in their green Mystery Machine van and solve ghostly mysteries. Fans of the show quickly grew to learn that these spirits and goblins were usually just normal people using scare tactics to get revenge or make a profit. The cartoon classic spawned music albums, live action movies, and several new shows and animated features.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2015
There was a new cowboy in Dallas, and he wasn’t throwing touchdown passes. But Walker was almost gone before he could really get started. After just four episodes, the show’s production company suffered financial collapse, and the show was rescued at the last minute by CBS Productions, who would continue to run the show for its nearly decade-long run. For nine years Norris brought us the ultimate Texas Ranger in a formula cops-and-robbers show. The show often became a parody of itself, but maintained a solid viewership throughout. Hell, Norris even sings the theme song. Truthfully, what started as a one man show (it was originally called Chuck Norris Is Walker, Texas Ranger) had become a good working ensemble that probably kept the train going for so long. Walker (Norris) is a tough-guy Texas Ranger. He is partnered with Sydney Cooke (Peebles) and Jimmy Trivetti (Gilyard) who’s an ex-jock with a brain. Walker had a love interest and eventual wife in the local assistant district attorney Alex Cahill (later Walker) Together they fight the evils that come to the high plains of Texas armed with their fists, six-shooters, and Stetsons.
Fans of Norris were never disappointed in what they got here. The requisite martial arts and tough-guy talk are present pretty much in every episode. There’s a popular T-shirt design that lauds their hero in epic fashion. One of my favorites is : “McGyver can build a plane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take the plane.” Another brags: “Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas”. And there’s the humorous: “Chuck Norris knows what Willis is talkin’ about”.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 16th, 2015
Imagine if in the not too distant future you could have the opportunity to be young again, and for the right price you could possibly never have to worry about ever growing old ever again. RPG looks into this possibility and the chances people are willing to take for this chance to indulge their youth once again. But like with anything that seems too good to be true, there is a catch, and in this game there are actually two catches. First you need to have the millions of dollars in your bank account to even play the game, and the second catch is that you have to be the lone survivor of the game to receive the award of lasting youth.
It didn’t take me much to get hooked. The idea alone had me engaged in the film, but what worried me most is how well this film would work with such a meager budget. After all, this is virtually a straight-to-DVD release. Well, my hat’s off to the filmmakers not just for crafting a fun story but also doing a great job at executing the film successfully.
