Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 15th, 2012
"Early to rise, early to bed. And in and between I cooked and cleaned and went out of my head."
There was a new girl in town for the 1976 television season. Well, she wasn't exactly new. The whole thing started out as a feature film called Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore starring Ellen Burstyn as the title character Alice Hyatt. The film was one of the first feature films directed by Martin Scorsese. Burstyn won the Oscar for her performance as Alice, and the film achieved a ton of critical acclaim and two years later a sit-com on CBS that lasted nine seasons. It took a long time, but the series has finally come to DVD thanks to Warner's Classic Archive Collection series of manufactured-on-demand discs.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 14th, 2012
"The ancients spoke of it. It is the heart of this fierce land. It is carried in the wind. Born of our legends, and when we are put to the test, it is the one thing that we must always be."
Readers of this site already know that I have a particular fondness for most of the films that have come from Pixar. The studio pretty much invented the computer-animated feature film, and they've been setting the bar higher with each new release. I've always thought it was rather fitting that the studio ended up as part of Disney. After all, it was the Mouse House that invented the animated feature to begin with. It all has a certain poetic destiny feel for me. Pixar is still leading the cutting edge. My favorite to date has been Monsters, Inc., and I am eagerly waiting for the Monsters University prequel, which is now only a year away. In the meantime, the powers that be over at Pixar have tossed us yet another original story: Brave.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 14th, 2012
"Remember back in the day when things were made by hand and people took pride in their work? My name is Rick Dale, and I bring these things back to life."
If you watch Pawn Stars on History, than Rick Dale really needs no introduction. From time to time the Pawn Stars guys get in something that they want to have restored to increase its value. For most of those projects they go to Rick and his team. Now Rick's gotten his own spinoff series, and it's set up very much like the other show, from the grunge guitar soundtrack to some of the same wheel-and-deal aspects. This is pretty much the same production setup, and it will appeal to the fans of Pawn Stars.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 14th, 2012
There are two films that are on the main disc; an experimental film by Nicholas Ray and a documentary by Susan Ray about the making of said film. They are perfect companions on this release and I feel one is crucial for the other, therefore I'm going to treat neither as simply a “Bonus.”
We Can't Go Home Again
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 13th, 2012
As a moviegoer, I love my share of epics. The bigger the storyline, the bigger the world, the more I probably enjoy it. Oh, it has to be sci fi/fantasy related too. Fantasy worlds in particular are often amazing since the creator is making it up from scratch. Today, we visit the world Aradius, a land where a very special mineral plays a very important part in the story. The story you ask? The story of Hirokin, the Last Samurai. Let’s explore, shall we?
Let’s start with a little back story. Humans came to the planet of Aradius to trade for Aradium. This special mineral allowed massive metal objects the ability to float. Well as with any precious mineral, it was soon depleted and most of the humans left. However, the planet of Aradius was left with its kinfolk succumbing to disease, refuse and infertility. The Arid people (who we could tell the difference from humans from the veins in the palm of their hands) were ruled by humans who wanted them wiped from the planet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 13th, 2012
People make fun of us Floridians for a variety of reasons. (Some of them don’t even involve our performance in presidential elections.) One of the most popular ways out-of-staters in the northern part of the country — as well as our Canadian readers — mock us is by chuckling whenever we dash to our closets and dust off our winter wear as soon as the weather dips below 60 degrees. So I can’t even imagine how we’d handle a full-blown Snowmageddon!
Snowmageddon is the latest disaster — in every sense of the word — courtesy of SyFy Original films, which has already brightened countless Saturday nights with tastefully-titled flicks like Stonehenge Apocalypse, Piranhaconda and Snipers vs. Vipers. (Have fun figuring out which one of those I made up. No Googling allowed!)
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 13th, 2012
What do you get when you mix Jackass with stunt master Evil Knievel? Well, you end up with the Nitro Circus. This group of guys (and one girl) is made up from a variety of extreme sports athletes and guys that simply enjoy pushing the limits of safety and sanity all for the sake of the ultimate adrenaline rush. Is this something that really needed to be a movie? Does anyone really want to see grown men (and one woman) doing bike jumps 400 feet in the air? Hell yeah we do!
I’m no stranger to these types of films. One of my all time favorite movies to kick back and have a couple of drinks with is Stunt Rock. Stunt Rock is the holy grail of stunt movies with a mix of glam rock. What Grant Page (Stunt Rock) and Knievel did was pave the way for Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, and Travis Pastrana.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 13th, 2012
Think 28 days later set in 1945 with Nazis, or at least that was my first interpretation of Outpost: Black Sun. Considering how relatable it seems to that film, and being a huge fan of the Danny Boyle series, I really wanted to like Outpost. In reality, however, it took multiple viewings of the beginning for me to grasp the plot of the movie. Now I believe myself to by a fairly intelligent guy, so the idea of having to watch the beginning of a film more than once to comprehend the plot is enough to make me write a movie off. However, once I made it out of my cloud of confusion, something happened…it got interesting.
The story starts off with the introduction of Lena (Catherine Steadman, The Tudors), daughter of holocaust survivors who after the death of her father, picks up his mantle of hunting down Nazi war criminals, specifically the ones who ran the concentration camp her parents were housed in. After tracking down the second to last war criminal on her list, she learns that not only is her final target well hidden, but he has created something that has the potential to help the Third Reich accomplish world domination.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 13th, 2012
“Killing is easy. High school is hard.”
Granted that it’s generally not really a good idea to endorse a series that advertises the idea of high school assassin (especially something that uses the quote seen above), but when it is done as well as Aim High, you sort of have to roll with it. A web series equipped with comedy, stunts, and a little bit of teenage melodrama, Aim High does in a fraction of the time what so many television shows failed to do…entertain.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 12th, 2012
“Every man’s got his dark side”
This is the most fitting quote to describe the exploration of Fire with Fire. My intrigue began with the film’s title, I just love that title. Nowadays most film titles have been reduced to using the name of one of the characters or including “the” in the title; it’s refreshing to have a title that encompasses the overall plot of the film. TV director and reputable stunt coordinator David Barrett takes the director seat for his first feature film (a quick IMDB search would tell you that this step was long overdue), and given the all-star cast he managed to put together, he couldn’t have picked a better film to start with.
