Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 4th, 2014
When it comes to films with Dolph Lundgren, let’s face it: you know before it even starts there is no chance of this movie having what anyone would call an “inspiring performance.” Thankfully Lundgren seems to understand the limits of his abilities and tends to stick with the run-of-the-mill action/adventure films that seem to go direct to DVD.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 31st, 2014
"Make no mistake. Blood will be spilled. Lives will be lost. Fortunes will be made. Men will be ruined. There will be betrayal and scandal and perfidy of epic proportions."
With a statement like that, how can you not want to check out AMC's newest drama series Hell On Wheels? I've been told the title sounds like it's about motorcycle gangs, and I couldn't agree more. The term refers to the mobile tent city that housed the workers on the Union Pacific Railroad and the support entourage the camp attracted. It was a virtual tent city that had all of the essentials: a church, bar, and whorehouse.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 31st, 2014
The impending death of a loved one tends to dredge up a complex mix of emotions. (Unfortunately, I speak from relatively recent personal experience.) In addition to the obvious sadness, there can be guilt, resentment, anger, relief, and other sentiments that combine to create a messy stew of feelings. Putting those feelings on the page or on a screen is an emotional minefield, since you risk veering jarringly from one tone to the next. The task becomes even trickier when you attempt to introduce humor into the equation. Lullaby stumbles over a few of those mines, but is otherwise a well-acted, modestly-affecting dramedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 30th, 2014
No matter how far removed you may be from Sunday school — or even if you never attended in the first place — chances are you know that God spoke to Noah. You also know He told him to build an ark in anticipation of a catastrophic flood meant to wipe out mankind. What you may not have realized (or remembered) is that, in the Bible, Noah himself doesn't speak at all until well after that rain starts. So in adapting the famous Book of Genesis story to the screen, any filmmaker is going to have to take a certain amount of liberties. And when that filmmaker is Darren Aronofsky, the result is a strange, uncommonly thoughtful blockbuster that is as flawed as the hero it presents.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 29th, 2014
“Don't you ever get tired of vanilla?”
There's a special breed of '80s movie that appears hopelessly dated on the surface yet remains impulsively watchable. (Insert your own, “So you mean *every* '80s movie?!” joke.) The Legend of Billie Jean — with its hilarious-in-hindsight fashion and Pat Benatar theme song — certainly fits the “trapped in the '80s” bill. However, the 1985 film — now making its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment — still manages to entertain by tapping into the timeless spirit of teenage rebellion.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 29th, 2014
by Normandy D. Piccolo
“The shark is an evolutionary marvel that should be respected and revered.”
You will definitely need a bigger boat for this adventurous “Sharkathon”, featuring three separate documentaries about sharks all packed onto one DVD like sardines in a can. Everything you could possibly want to know about sharks, from their feeding habits, to the deterioration of their population due to overfishing, to mercury levels consumed by humans, to what makes sharks tick can all be found on, Smithsonian Channel Shark Collection.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 28th, 2014
Robin Williams is one of those actors that I just wonder what happened to them. Through the 80’s and 90’s Williams was simply box office gold with his comedic timing and great impressions, but I’ve always been more drawn to the more serious roles Williams delivered. Awakenings, The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society, One Hour Photo, these are just a few of his roles that have stuck with me over the years that made it easy to look past his cinematic missteps.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 24th, 2014
There are people who love horror films and only horror films. For these people, they can never get enough. They will look at anything and everything. There are the people who like movies about high school and sports. Then there are people who like to see hot chicks. All Cheerleaders Die wants to make everybody happy. It starts out with a girl making a student movie about the cheerleading squad. The girls on the squad show off what cool witches with a B they are since they look out for their dogs on the football team.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 24th, 2014
One of the miracles of modern technology is its ability to shrink the world down so you can practically (well, proverbially) hold it in the palm of your hand. The cheerily square Smithsonian Channel series Aerial America goes the other way. In fact, the best thing about the show is how it uses technology to fill every inch of your screen with some of the most famous — along with some of the more underappreciated — U.S. landmarks, employing a larger-than-life/bird’s-eye point of view most of us wouldn’t otherwise be able to enjoy.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 23rd, 2014
When I first picked up this title to review it was a film I knew nothing about other than what the DVD cover revealed, which as it turns out was very little. I like going into most films cold so there is no room for expectations to get in the way. With such a generic title and a cast that had a few names that rang a bell and knowing nothing about the story, I figured the film had equal chances to be good or simply a stinker I’d forget by the weekend. As it turns out, Gangster is a gritty little drama that not so much took me by surprise but instead left me wanting so much more.
