Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 1st, 2014
There is something I find unsettling about an amusement park after hours, when all the rides are shut down and the laughter and screaming of kids running around are gone. These parks, for the most part, are designed to take us to another time or another world where reality is how the park engineers design it to be. So when Skip (Jason Spisak) arrives at the Old West theme park to be the overnight janitor, I could appreciate the surreal world he would be stepping into. As we go along with him on a tour during his first day, his guide and superior is played by Jon Gries, who seems to have a story for just about everything at the park.
The setup for the anthology is a bit hokey considering all these objects are supposed to tie into these grand little tales that the guy is telling, but it does keep the film going. The first story is in fact also the most enjoyable of the films. It’s the story of a boxer who is down on his luck and seems to be on the verge of losing his career until a suspicious older man hands the boxer a pair of beat up old gloves. Ricky Schroder fills in the gloves of the boxer and actually brings in the most notable performance of the film. As he laces up his gloves and he steps into the ring, he transforms into a mean and lean fighter, and it becomes a challenge for him to hold back with opponents, one of whom he beats to death. Unfortunately this story ends too soon, and from here on the film simply goes downhill.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 1st, 2014
It’s easy to envision the elevator pitch for Devil’s Due. You only need five words: “Rosemary’s Baby meets Paranormal Activity.” The upside is obvious. The idea of a demonic pregnancy has terrified and unsettled expectant mothers since Ira Levin published Rosemary’s Baby in 1967 and Roman Polanski adapted it for the big screen the following year. Meanwhile, the Paranormal Activity films made low-budget/found-footage domestic horror hugely profitable. The downside? You’re probably not topping Rosemary’s Baby, and horror audiences seem to be suffering from an acute case of found-footage fatigue.
“Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists will come. Therefore we know is the last hour.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 1st, 2014
In 1998 following the release of Roland Emmerich’s version of Godzilla, the story would continue following some of the characters that we met in the film as well as a host of other characters and monsters. With a 40-episode run coming out to about 14 hours of television, the DVD release of the series comes out at just the right time for those who need a temporary fix before seeing their favorite big green lizard splash across the big screen once again.
I love just about any story that involves giant robots or monsters fighting. Even the ‘98 film version of Godzilla had its moments of charm. What the series brings to viewers (though its target audience is younger than most of the adult fans) is the possibility of what Godzilla could be had the story simply continued on. The series picks up not long after the events in New York, when Nick Tatopoulos (voiced by Ian Ziering) discovers an adolescent Godzilla that forms an attachment to Nick. This attachment allows Nick control over the giant lizard and it also becomes Nick’s protector whenever he finds himself in trouble and in need of aid (which is at least forty times going by the episode count).
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 29th, 2014
Martial arts films are just about as done to death as the slasher film. Just about every angle and direction that you can take with these films has been explored by now. When it comes to the martial arts genre, seeing a student or son avenge their father or master is just about the motivation in most of these films, but audiences accept this because what we are sitting down for is the action. Seriously, how many people remember the plots of the old Jackie Chan or Jet Li films? But go back even further to the core classics like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin or Five Deadly Venoms; these films are all rooted in the spirit of revenge.
As for where Warrior Assassin falls, well, it is far from a classic, though it tries so hard to follow in the footsteps of the great films of the past but instead simply comes off looking like someone doing a Shaw Brother cos-play with their VHS camera.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 29th, 2014
There have been complaints that there are not enough films that have decent lead roles for women. There are those that say that Hollywood does not make enough movies for women. Then when they do, critics tend to dismiss them as “Lifetime” movies (a term that is dismissive because of the cable channel that churns out generic movies for women). It seems far easier to accept excessive violence or male-oriented films with sexual content. If a movie tries to legitimately capture real situations from a woman's point of view, it can be patronizingly categorized as pap and schmaltz. 
I see an awful lot of movies, and what disappoints me most about many of them is the insincerity of the experience. We get to see a lot of violent movies and a lot of funny movies, and if they seem halfhearted, I shrug it off as the norm. If I see romantic comedies that seem like weak rip-offs of movies made years ago, I assume they just don't know how to make them anymore, but an even rarer commodity is a serious romantic movie that works. Today that usually means it has to be laced with cynicism and anger.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 28th, 2014
It’s movies like Big Bad Wolves that keep me excited about cinema. After all, who would guess that Israel would produce this savagely dark fairy tale revenge film that is also one of the darkest comedies I’ve seen in some time with a visual aesthetic you’d expect from a Coen brothers film, but the violence and humor you’d expect from a film by Tarantino. My first time viewing this film was via On Demand a few months ago; more and more I feel the cable companies are onto something by acquiring these little films and releasing them pay-per-view so that those not in New York and Los Angeles can experience these films before having to wait months longer for their DVD or Blu-ray release. Now I get the chance to revisit a film that upon my first viewing was a punch to the gut; does it hold its own on its second viewing? You bet it does.
The film starts up with a group of kids playing a game in the middle of the woods. While the kids search the property for one of their friends, all they discover is one lone shoe. Jumping ahead, we meet Micki (Lior Ashkenazi) with a group of fellow vigilantes dragging Dror (Rotem Keinan) into an abandoned building to beat a confession out of him. Little does anyone know, someone is in the building with them and is filming the brutal interrogation. Is Dror responsible for the missing girl? At this point who knows, and anyone could be a suspect. But when the video hits the internet, opinions are formed, and Dror becomes the focus of scrutiny by his students as well as their families. After all, this is the time of social media, and we all know it spreads faster than the time it takes for an investigation to be completed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 24th, 2014
“I used to be thin when I was 6.”
Jim Gaffigan has long been fixated on food. Need proof? The comedian’s 2013 memoir is called “Dad Is Fat”, and his most famous routine is about Hot Pockets. So it wasn’t exactly a shocker to find that Gaffigan spends most of Obsessed — his fourth Comedy Central stand-up special — talking about his dietary likes and dislikes. (Hint: kale is not on his list of favorites.) This is astoundingly straightforward and inoffensive material that nonetheless had me consistently laughing out loud.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 23rd, 2014
With all the zombie media out there have you ever thought what you would do if you found yourself in the middle of the zombie apocalypse? It’s fun to discuss your plans for survival and clever weapons you may devise to battle the hordes of the undead. But what would you do if a loved one was infected and became one of the undead? Would you be able to simply put them down so easily? Or would you tend to them with the hope that somehow they could return and not be the flesh-eating monstrosity they’ve come to be? About A Zombie takes a faux-documentary approach and captures a family that has been struck with the dilemma and has decided to take in and nurture their zombiefied kin despite all the dangers that come along with it.
An American documentary film crew gets word about a Dublin family whose son Billy is infected during a zombie outbreak taking place in Ireland. The film crew rushes over and begins filming as the situation seems only to escalate. The people of the town seem to all be in agreement, that Billy should be killed right along with all the other zombies.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 21st, 2014
“Have you done anything noteworthy or mentionable?”
It’s the sort of question that can easily apply to either your workday or your life as a whole. It’s also the question actor/producer/director Ben Stiller chose as the basis of his inspirational adaptation of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The original short story by James Thurber is less than five pages long, so a filmmaker has the option of going to any number of fascinating places in bringing Thurber’s tale to the big screen. Stiller, in essence, decided to take the scenic route.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on April 21st, 2014
“Bad things happen in the woods, especially to pretty girls like you.”
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a smallish group of friends head to a remote location for what they think will be a sex-and-booze-fueled romp. Instead, they find themselves getting picked off by a mysterious killer. If you’ve ever seen a slasher movie, you’re painfully familiar with this scenario. Thankfully, it seems like the people who made the low-budget Death Do Us Part are also well-acquainted with the way this sort of movie is supposed to work. And they’ve decided to have some fun with it.
