Disc Reviews

I would categorize this as a unique movie. Not only based on its premise, even though that did possess a measure of intrigue. Zero Contact has multiple things that make it unique, such as it is the first film from a major Hollywood studio to exist on the blockchain. According to my research, the film will premiere on new NFT platform Vuele, a premier platform for collecting, watching, and trading exclusive, limited edition feature-length films and collector NFT film content. However, while this is interesting and potentially could serve as a new frontier for cinematic releases, there was another factor that made the film unique in my eyes. To me, Zero Contact’s most unique quality is that the film was produced in 17 different territories entirely virtually during the 2020 global pandemic. Anthony Hopkins leads the cast and is supported by a cast of faces that I recognize, but whose names are not on the rolodex of actors that I keep in my head.

The film’s setup consist of five strangers who are remotely connected and must work together to shut down a tech titan's most secret invention, a machine that could represent the solution to mankind's problems or the end of life on Earth. As expected, Anthony Hopkins portrays our tech titan. In regards to his character, there isn’t much substance to him. He is predominantly referred to in the past tense by the rest of the cast, which should give you some idea to his current status within the film. Naturally, certain film sequences raise questions about this status, causing it to become ambiguous. The film’s premise leads us to believe that these five strangers are the only thing standing between the world and a potential global extinction event. While strangers to each other, each has a connection to our titan and his company; an attorney that served as the company’s outside counsel, the tech’s business partner, a freelance cybersecurity expert, and a project leader on the secret invention, and the tech’s estranged son.

"There is an old saying that blood is thicker than water."

We've had Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Gene Simmons with his Family Jewels, and even Snoop Dog's Father Hood. It's become a bit of a trend to follow these celebrity families around and watch the drama of their privileged lives unfold on our television screens. You might think it's a relatively recent phenomenon, but would you believe they were doing it back in the infant days of television when we followed around a musician named Ozzie and his wife way back in 1952? No, we're not talking about Ozzie Osbourne and his family. I'm talking about Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. They were television's darling family before we ever heard about Lucy and Desi. The show actually started on radio like many of the fledgling industry’s early hits including the likes of Gunsmoke. Four years after the radio brought us The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet, they moved to television. While their two sons were played by actors on the radio, both David and Ricky Nelson joined the television show, and it went on to make television history, breaking records, some still held today. It was the first television series to ever hit 10 seasons. It lasted from 1952 to 1966 with 436 episodes. Until The Simpsons, it was the longest running scripted television comedy and remains still the longest live-action scripted comedy ever on television. And while the stories were, of course fictional, most aspects of the show were quite real. Their television home was modeled after their real home. Many of the family's life stories found their way to the series. The four family members were quite real, and you just couldn't fake these relationships.

I’m coming in kind of midway through the story on this one, guys. While the film does provide a couple of flashbacks to the previous film, those flashbacks do very little to fully provide needed context, making my viewing of Fortress: Sniper’s Eye a bit of a rocky one. Based on what I gleaned, Bruce Willis and Jesse Metcalfe play Robert and Paul Michaels respectively, a father and son duo who live in and manage a top-secret resort for retired U.S. intelligence officers. The resort is attacked by a group of criminals led by a familiar enemy. It is evident that there is shared history between the Michaels and Balzary (Chad Michael Murray). As expected, the Michaels, aided by others, are able to thwart the assault despite being outnumbered and outgunned. Balzary is thought to be killed, but not before making a plea to Robert to rescue his wife from her captors, which is ultimately revealed to be the reason for the assault. This is what frames the basis for our second film. Second of a planned three, I should add.

Now that we are somewhat caught up, that brings us to our sequel in this planned trilogy. Following the assault, the Fortress facility is being shuttered, and the Michaels are in the process of decommissioning the site. When I say the Michaels, I mainly mean Paul, as Robert is recovering from injuries sustained while rescuing Sasha (Natali Yura), Balzary’s wife, thus fulfilling his former protégé-turned-adversary’s dying request. Meanwhile, the budding romance between Paul and Kate Taylor (Kelly Greyson) is about to hit its first milestone, as her mother and sister come for a visit following news of the assault.

"You never kissed me like that before."

Steve March, played by John Agar, is a radiation expert who lives and does research out in the desert. His instruments detect a strange source of gamma rays in an isolated area of the desert. It's a good bet they aren't coming from Dr. Banner, so March decides to investigate, and it turns out you wouldn't like him when he's angry. Along for the ride is red shirt ... I mean lab assistant Dan Murphy, played by Robert Fuller. They discover a brand new cave, and as they follow the radiation scent, they encounter a giant floating brain with eyes. Murphy ends up dead, and March ends up possessed by the giant floating brain, who calls himself Vol from the planet Arous. The name is an obvious riff on Eros, and we soon get the connection when March returns to his fiancée, who finds his passion a little hotter than when he left. In fact, the brain begins to revel in his newfound appetite for Earth women. But that's just a distraction from why he's really controlling March. As a renowned radiation expert, March has access to government weapons facilities, and it's there that Vol attempts to take over the world. He shoots eyebeams that can take out a model airplane in flight and destroy an entire military base.

I have to admit my knowledge of the show Curb Your Enthusiasm is casual at best. I’ve seen a few episodes over the years, but not enough to call myself a fan. So to have Season 11 handed off to me to review was a bit daunting, but as a long-time fan of Seinfeld and having at least seen Larry David in the Woody Allen film Whatever Works, I figured I had a good enough idea of what I was in store for. Thankfully the show isn’t something like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, and I could simply start the season and not feel lost. The season starts off with Larry David waking up after hearing a noise in the house. When he goes to investigate, he eventually finds a body floating in his pool. It was an attempted robbery gone bad, and as it turns out there is a law in Larry’s district that states there needs to be a fence around the pool. This basically is the catalyst for the whole season, and things just get worse for Larry and him not having this fence.

Larry is also busy with getting a new show started up with Netflix, and then when things fall through, Hulu comes in to pick up the series. Larry is being extorted into casting Maria Sofia (Keyla Monterroso Mejia), the niece of the man who drowned in Larry’s pool. The hoops Larry has to go through to get the girl on the show are pretty funny as is, but then when everyone sees just how bad of an actress Maria is it makes things even better.

“It’s simply his way of illustrating the misrepresentation of having quantum particles existing in two states. The cat in the box is either dead or alive. But we can’t tell until we open the box to observe it, so until we do so, the cat is both dead and alive.”

I’ve seen a lot of horror and thrillers in my time. This is my first one with mathematics at the heart of it. I applauded the film for introducing me to something new. However, the moments of intrigue are surrounded by periods where the plot seems to drag on. Also, I’m not sure that the characters’ reactions to particular events are sensible. For example, my daughter suddenly goes missing, and I suspect that her disappearance is somehow the result of my newly acquired residence. No matter how irrational that idea may be, the first thing I would do is get me and the rest of my family a hotel. In the case of The Cellar, the Woods family just keeps on living there. Now this could be partially forgiven, as the mother, played by Elisha Cuthbert, is determined to find her daughter. But once I get a distinct impression that my family is not the only presence in the house, I’d be conducting my investigation from a safe distance.

All is fair in the spy game. Or least that is the principle that this film embraces, as every character attempts to get the upper hand on the others. Though the film is not without its thrilling moments, it does take a bit of time to get to those thrilling bits. Told in a nonlinear fashion, it takes a moment to adjust to the constant shift between the two plots. It is only when things start to synch that I found myself completely engaged with the story. On the plus side, the film has a cast of recognizable faces, to include Arrow’s Katie Cassidy, The Cleaning Lady’s Adan Canto, Chicago Fire’s Annie Ilonzeh, Dermot Mulroney, and last but not least, Mel Gibson. While I would not categorize the film as box office quality, there are some elements that make for an intriguing story once things get into a groove.

It should have been a straightforward op, the kind that they’ve done hundreds of times over a career spanning decades. But from the very beginning, CIA officers Bill (Jason Isaacs) and Harris (Mulroney) sense that there is something suspicious about the assignment. It’s an interrogation at a black site of a man recently granted political asylum after speaking out against a dictator. The intelligence tells them that the man’s group has extremist affiliations. But from the moment they speak with him, he appears nothing like he’s supposed to. Complicating matters is a new member to their team (Ilonzeh), who’s pushing for more direct measures, or perhaps a better word would be enhanced, in order to get information. Either way, something isn’t sitting right with Harris and Bill.