Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 8th, 2020
I always get a little worried when I’m handed a low-budget western. Despite it being one of my favorite genres, I’m just quickly turned off by a film when it visually doesn’t look authentic. I like my westerns dirty and rugged, so when I see characters in costumes that look too clean as though they were just pulled from the rack, it’s a giant pet peeve. What had me intrigued with the film was the involvement of Joe R. Lansdale, who happens to be one of my favorite writers, and he somewhat specializes in the “weird” western genre. Bubba Ho-Tep or The Hap and Leonard series are what most would be familiar with from Lansdale. He may not have the name strength that Stephen King carries, but I’ve come to expect a good time from Lansdale. Granted The Pale Door only has Joe R. Lansdale attached as a producer, though his son was involved at some point with the writing of the script, so is that enough to make this film worth a watch, or is it a disappointment?
Right from the start I just want to say this film gets off to a bad start. I know it’s setting up the relationship between the brothers in the film, but the first 15 or so minutes of this film should have been left on the cutting room floor. In my opinion the film could start right up when the Dalton Gang is robbing the train and the film would have been stronger for it. As for the train robbing sequence, I’m glad the filmmakers openly admit they are “ripping off” the train sequence from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. If you are going to rip off a sequence, it’s better when you steal from the best. If you haven’t seen the film, you at least should watch it for the train sequence alone…but keep watching because it’s simply a beautifully shot and well crafted western. Sure, the film is shot on a budget, but I appreciate the effort put into this sequence, and in the commentary the filmmakers reveal this wasn’t even what had been intended in the script, and for what they manage to get with the final product, well, good for them.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 7th, 2020
While I enjoyed the first couple seasons of Rick and Morty, I wasn’t all that sure about the show’s staying power with Adult Swim. I’d talk about the show with some friends, but for the most part this seems to be a show that finds its fan base more in their late teens. It’s fair to say it’s been more than a few years since I was a teenager, so perhaps it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that I was a little hesitant with this season (feel free to check out my review of Season 1). When Season 3 came out, the show blew up in a big way, gaining numerous fans and even managed to make “Pickle Rick” a part of everyday pop culture and make Szechuan sauce at McDonalds a thing. The show for those who may be unfamiliar is something of a blend between Back to the Future and more than a sprinkle of Futurama. If that sounds like a fun ride, well, then this may be the animated series for you.
Season 4 kicks off with Rick and Morty going on an adventure that takes them to a planet where they find rocks that when you hold them can show you the numerous outcomes of every decision you make, ones that mostly lead to various forms of violent death or even love. Once Morty gets a hold of one, he sees that if he follows the will of the rock, he can eventually wind up with his high school crush. It’s piggybacking off the idea from Live Die Repeat, but giving a fun twist on the idea. On a technical level this is an impressive episode when you consider how much animation is going on in this episode as well as how many deaths occur over the course of the episode. It may take a couple viewings to catch them all, but there are some unique kills here. Everything about this episode is bigger than what we’ve seen from the show in the past, but bigger isn’t necessarily better in this case.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2020
"You had me worried at first. A new Starman? That'd be big trouble. A real game changer. Imagine my relief. No Starman. Just a silly little Stargirl."
The original Starman was created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley back in 1941. Since that time there have been quite a few DC characters that have taken on the mantle of Starman. When DC executive and veteran comics writer/creator was asked to do a series on one of Starman's sidekicks, Pat Dugan and his eventual comic Stars And S.T.R.I.P.E., he was given a directive that he could not use the iconic S.T.R.I.P.E. armor, and that just would have made the series so much weaker. Instead he counter-pitched an idea from the same era of the comics. He pitched the idea of a new Stargirl who would be somewhat based and named after his daughter Courtney, who was tragically killed in a plane crash when she was just 18 years old. He wanted to do something to represent the spirit of his daughter, and the pitch also allowed for the Pat Dugan character to appear without the famous armor. The idea was accepted, and the latest member of the DC television Arrowverse was born. Enter Courtney Whitmore, played by Brec Bassinger in Stargirl. Warner Brothers delivers that first season in a new Blu-ray release of Stargirl: The Complete First Season.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on October 3rd, 2020
The release of this disc comes a bittersweet time, as a prominent member of the cast announced that she was leaving the show. That’s right, Anna Faris announced that Season 7 would be her final one with the series. Such an announcement of the loss of a pivotal character normally serves as the kiss of death for a series. Had this decision came a few years earlier, it most likely would have been the end of the show. However, the show went through a transition a few years back, and Faris’ central role was shared among the rest of the cast, which includes Allison Janney, Jaime Pressly, Kirsten Johnston, and Mimi Kennedy. The decision for the show to continue has been made, but after watching this latest season, it is hard to imagine that the show will continue past its upcoming season. Even with her role reduced slightly, Faris remained an integral part of the show, and though Chuck Lorre is no stranger to trying to keep a show going following the exit of a cast member (i.e. Two and a Half Men), Faris’ absence is guaranteed to be noticed.
In regards to Season 7, I was at a bit of a disadvantage, having only seen clips of previous season episodes. I did my diligence, though. The show follows Christy Plunkett, a mother of two, who after a lifetime of battling drug and alcohol addiction is on the path to sobriety. Her mother, Bonnie (Janney), also a recovering addict, is a source of frustration in her life. By the time Season 7 rolls around, her children are no longer with her, and she has basically been relegated to the daughter role, living with her mom and her new husband, played by William Fichtner. This felt like a step back for the character in my opinion, a bit of a diminishment from all the progress of the previous season. Though during Season 7 she was working towards her goal of becoming a lawyer, both her professional and personal life are used to beat down the character for the sake of amusement. The use of this trope is akin to how in the latter season of Friends, Matt LeBlanc’s character felt dumbed down. Here we are with a character whose sole purpose was to better herself, and she is being shown to be a constant screw-up and desperate for love.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2020
“My name is Dylan Hunt. My story begins the day on which I died. My last look at my world was to be from inside a pressure chamber at NASA’s underground laboratory at Carlsbad Caverns. Our goal was the development of a form of suspended animation which would allow our astronauts to make longer voyages through our solar system. It had been my decision that our method was ready to test on a human so, it seemed that any risks should be mine…”
Gene Roddenberry was riding high as Star Trek began to grow more in popularity during syndication than it had as a prime-time network series. Suddenly television executives wanted more ideas from the Great Bird of the Galaxy, as Trek fans began to know him. One of those ideas was Genesis II. It tells the story of a scientist who is conducting a suspended animation experiment. He expects to be under for only a few days, but a cave-in traps him in his chamber, and he is not rediscovered for 154 years. He awakes to find an entirely different world than the one he remembers. Humans live underground as a group called the PAX. They are a peaceful sort and have left behind most of the science that destroyed the world Hunt knew. Their enemies are a group of mutants, identifiable by having two belly buttons because they have two hearts. They have enslaved humans and live an aristocratic life in the city of Tyranus. Now Hunt (Cord) is being courted by both civilizations. He must choose between them. Attempting to win him over to the Tyranians is Lyra-a (Hartley). She seduces him and tries to taint his opinion of the PAX. But Hunt soon learns from experience which side is the nobler race.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 1st, 2020
Hollywood is no stranger to films about citizens being falsely accused in a foreign land for crimes they didn’t commit or having the charges overly exaggerated. Midnight Express is perhaps the best of the bunch, and in the 90’s there was Brokedown Palace and Return to Paradise. I’m somewhat of a fan of these films, but the problem is that they become a bit formulaic, and really, they are already an offshoot of the “wrongly convicted” prison dramas, so it’s no surprise that we really haven’t seen a film like Most Wanted in a while despite it being based on a true story. Thankfully Most Wanted brings a new take to the table as it shows us how far some dirty cops are willing to go in an attempt to get a high-profile bust.
Most Wanted is about Daniel Leger (Antoine Oliver Pilon), a young, struggling heroin addict who is getting by in his day-to-day life by getting high and pulling small crimes to support his habit. I’m not the type to sympathize with an addict, but if Leger has any redeeming qualities, it’s that he doesn’t seem to want to harm anyone and he’s just looking for someone to accept him for who he is. He finds this acceptance in Glen Picker (Jim Gaffigan), a small-time drug dealer who employs Leger to help out on his “fishing boat”. The relationship between Leger and Picker at first seems like it could be a good thing; that is until we discover Picker has motives of his own for taking Leger under his wing. This eventually leads to Picker introducing Leger to a potential big client to help in negotiating a drug deal in Thailand. Just how does this young Canadian guy have massive connections in a foreign land? Well, that’s where a simple misunderstanding steamrolls into something Leger has to figure out under the threat of being killed. What’s worse is that Picker has manipulated Leger to do this deal with undercover cops just so he can go about running his business and his life as he pleases.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 25th, 2020
You have to go back to the early 40’s for when Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica first appeared in comic book form. Over the years, their characters have changed with the times, though the town of Riverdale always seemed to maintain an innocent charm where nothing bad ever seemed to happen. Well, that is until recently, where the comics took a shift and thrust our characters into various scenarios, one even including Riverdale being overrun by zombies. These changes occurred when Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa took over the brand, and now he has brought the town of Riverdale and its inhabitants to the small screen for the CW network. Though this iteration differs from the early days of the Archie comic universe, all the familiar characters are here, and they are showing us the shady underbelly of Riverdale that I’m so glad we are getting a glimpse at, one episode at a time.
Following the mess that was Season 3 of Riverdale, I’m curious about what went down in that writers’ room. I know I wasn’t the only one disappointed by how far off the rails the show seemed to go with the deranged D&D-esque game of Griffins and Gargoyles, the return of the Black Hood, and then the cult on “The Farm”. While I’m not against these ideas, they always seemed to be too farfetched, even for the absurd world of Riverdale. Then the show got rocked with the curveball of Luke Perry passing, and honestly, I wasn’t sure what could happen next. Could the show bounce back to its fun bubblegum/noir roots, or would it just continue to spoil?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2020
"I was skeptical when you pitched the idea of putting the legends on television, but they've helped pacify the masses. Well? Should we get started then? We don't want to keep our worshippers waiting."
Unlike the rest of the Arrowverse, D.C.'s Legends Of Tomorrow did not have their season interrupted by the massive crossover. Because it was a mid-season series, this season of Legends Of Tomorrow actually starts with the final hour of the huge crossover. That means you get thrown immediately into the deep water, and there's no time to learn how to swim now. So if you aren't up on the show or the whole Arrowverse thing, you have some serious catching up to do. You need to get caught up on Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and the newcomer Batwoman, and then four previous years of The Legends Of Tomorrow. I can help you with that. Just bang it here to get a look at our previous reviews: Legends Reviews. Once you're caught up, let's head straight into that crossover finale, shall we?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 24th, 2020
Ever since The Walking Dead first aired. it seems the zombie genre was not only revived but milked for all it was worth, and still studios continued to bleed the genre dry to the point even most diehard horror fans are sick of the sub-genre. I’m a sucker for zombie films, and even I have tired of them, but I’ll always hold out hope for some writer or filmmaker to come along and inject some creativity into the genre. It’s possible; I mean, look how long the vampire stories have been around, or even ghost stories, and yet there still are new takes on the subject matter that get us excited about them again. That’s where Blood Quantum gave me some hope. Zombies on a Native American reservation. I was hopeful for some indigenous lore being injected into this, giving us a fresh perspective…but alas, we get a watered-down, unoriginal, snooze-fest with a little bit of gore to keep viewers somewhat interested.
The film starts off promising enough as we see an old man gutting his freshly caught fish, and then suddenly they all seem to come back to life and flop around him. We are then introduced to the main characters that reside on the Red Crow reservation; there is the Sheriff Traylor (Michael Greeneyes), his son Joseph (Forrest Goodluck) and his ex-wife Joss (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers). To basically inject a little bit of drama, there is also Joseph’s troublemaking best friend Lysol (Kiowa Gordon) and Josephs pregnant girlfriend Charlie (Olivia Scriven). Honestly, without these two characters there wouldn’t be much in the way of character drama, but to be honest, even adding them to the dynamic, this still is a far cry from being a compelling story. The first third of the film honestly works well as a self-contained story as we see the start of the zombie outbreak. It’s on a small and believable scale as we see dogs and eventually humans coming back from the dead, and the chaos of not knowing what is happening on the reservation is compelling enough, especially when we see certain people get bitten. Then the film throws a curve ball and sends us six months later into the outbreak, and those who were bitten and should be goners are somehow still amongst the living. It’s found out that for some reason that the indigenous people are immune to the bites, and this is where the film becomes really problematic for me.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on September 23rd, 2020
So, this film definitely was not my daughter’s cup of tea. In her defense, without the background of watching the Cartoon Network series that preceded this movie, it is hard to become invested in the film. Additionally, I think most of themes that were addressed in the film were a bit over her head. I think if I were to show it to her again in a couple of years, she might vibe with it better, but I’m not guaranteeing that. Based on my own research of the series, the film was intended to serve as the series finale for the television show that ended in 2019. Also, my daughter is more of a YouTube kid rather than Cartoon Network. And based off my own interpretation of the film, knowledge of the original series goes a long way toward emotionally investing in this movie. In order to help you better understand the film, I will provide you with some background based on my own independent research into the television show that facilitated this aforementioned movie.
We Bare Bears follows three adoptive brother bears: Grizz, Pan-Pan, and Ice Bear. The bears attempt to integrate with human society, such as by purchasing food, making human companions, or trying to become Internet famous. This integration comes with some complications, primarily the struggle to reconcile the civilized nature of humans and their own animal instincts. The bears are aided in their efforts by child prodigy Chloe Park, bigfoot Charlie, internet sensation Koala Nom Nom, park ranger Tabes, and produce saleswoman Lucy.
