Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on June 17th, 2019
"There are thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the continental United States. Abandoned subway systems, unused routes and deserted mine shafts. Many have no known purpose at all."
A very creepy, violent, and disturbing film, Us, enters theaters, and it’s probably going to be there for some time. Not only is the plot haunting and filled with terror; the acting that makes it work is superb under the guidance of Jordan Peele who gave us the film Get Out. Adding more to the potentially Oscar-worthy film is the dank and fear-inducing cinematography with a soundtrack to match. If you like your horror nonstop, then Us is for you.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 17th, 2019
Let me begin by saying that I was a child of the 1970’s, which tends to make me approach these era shows with some caution. After such shows as That 70’s Show, to name the likely most popular, I find myself not recognizing the setting as the same 70’s I remember living. Granted I was pretty young, so the subject of swingers and sexual revolution were not exactly part of my everyday culture. So, I might be a little more forgiving if Swingtown doesn’t exactly hit on all of my memory circuits. I was 15 in 1976, living near Philadelphia, where we were all pretty much obsessed with that whole Bicentennial thing. The last thing on my mind was whether the neighbors, or, God forbid, my parents, were doing the bump and tickle with rotating partners. I’m pretty sure I’ll leave that question unanswered. Even with all of that said, about the only solid piece of nostalgia I got from Swingtown was the often sweet 70’s soundtrack. To the credit of whoever picked the music, all aspects of the 70’s music scene are represented. You get a good dose of folk, rock, summer pop, and even disco, which any self respecting child of the 70’s considers the death of what was otherwise a fine decade of music. Props to the music guy for not falling into the disco all of the time trap that these shows so often do. One minor complaint, however. Fleetwood Mac didn’t release their famous Rumors LP until Feb of 1977…Ooops. Outside of the music, it really could have been any time, any place.
It’s July 4th weekend, 1976 and Bruce Miller (Davenport) and his family are movin’ on up. Money’s been good at his options trading job, so he’s packing up his wife Susan (Parker), teen daughter Laurie (Collins) and young son BJ (Howles) and moving a few blocks over to a bigger house in a better neighborhood. For Susan, it’s a bittersweet time because she’s leaving her friend of 10 years, Janet (Shor) and her husband Roger (Hopkins) and their son for a new neighborhood. Friends, it turns out, won’t be a problem. The first night they are introduced to new neighbors Trina (Parrilla) and Tom Decker (Snow). They’re invited to a party that turns out to be a swinger’s event. The two end up swapping spouses for the night. It’s an exciting, somewhat dangerous thrill for the Millers. From then on they try to balance their new lives and friends with their old. Janet is good for most of the laughs as this super conservative girl is exposed to her old friend’s new friends. As if that wasn’t enough, Laurie Miller is in love with her 24 year old high school teacher, and BJ’s hung up on a cute little girl with a drugged out lush for a single mom. Every week’s episode features a new party. You’ll get everything from a surprise birthday party for Janet, to a night out at the Playboy Club. There’s even a Tupperware party. I do remember my Mom had those. Before it’s done everybody’s spouse is falling for somebody else, and you never know who’s going to end up with who. It all ends in a cliffhanger that is not likely to ever be resolved. The jury’s still out on next summer, but ratings are marginal, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for a second Summer Of Love.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 17th, 2019
Short stories and films are often great ways to focus in on a singular theme. Whether you get yourself down to a few pages or fifteen minutes, you really get your message across instead of being misinterpreted across a longer medium. Disney and Pixar have done this for a number of years, and even though many have dismissed them as simple shorts or cartoons, it's often the part of the movie that holds the viewer in the strongest way. Japanese studios such as Studio Ghibli have done this as well. Studio Ponoc, founded in 2015 and fronted by Yoshiaki Nishimura, released the smash film, Mary & the Witch's Flower in 2017. Then last year, they came out with a trio of shorts for all of us to enjoy. Let's take a look.
Kanini & Kanino by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
There are birds singing and fairies flying. Streams are bubbling, and we are introduced to a family of crabs (who are depicted as tiny humans who can swim and breathe on land and in sea). There is the brother, Kanini, and the sister, Kanino. The mother is very pregnant and has gone away to the surface to give birth. Their father has stayed with the brother and sister to help them get food and protect them from threats of the sea. However, one day something sinister takes away the father, and it's up to the two kids to find and save him.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on June 15th, 2019
Revamping old shows and movies is the latest trend in television. CBS has made several endeavors at this with varying success. Such was their attempt when they tried to convert Rush Hour into a TV series; however, the Macgyver reboot gaining a fourth season shows that the practice is not without its merits. CBS’s recent reboot of the popular series Magnum P.I. is the newest foray into this genre of television, and the fact that it has earned a second season bestows credit onto the show. Starring Jay Hernandez in the titular role, the character that Tom Selleck made famous, is breathing new life with new action. Minus the mustache, of course.
Staying true to its source material, Hernandez’s Magnum is a former Navy Seal, and his best friend T.C and Rick are Marines. While staying true to its source, the series also digs deeper into the characters’ connection by illustrating the three as former POWs along with a fourth compatriot whose death serves as the catalyst for the pilot episode. The pilot sets the stage for a season arc that relates back to the group’s time in Afghanistan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 13th, 2019
"Does announcing your identity help with the covert part of the job?"
Let me begin by saying that actress Brie Larson doesn't want me to write this review. It's not that I didn't like the film and intend to cut it down. Actually I rather liked the movie, and while it isn't going to crack my top five Marvel films, it's a very entertaining film that adds wonderfully to this always evolving world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or as we fan geeks like to refer to it, the MCU. So she wouldn't take much if any umbrage with my evaluation of the film. It turns out that I happen to be a white male, and she has made it known that she doesn't want to see reviews for this film written by white males. Sorry, Brie. I suggest you skip this one. Just put it out of your mind. Still reading, Brie? I thought you might be. So, after a rather long wait for a movie only teased at in the final frames of a stinger added to Avengers: Infinity War, we finally get to meet the newest member of the Marvel MCU. Welcome, Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and as they used to say on the comic covers when welcoming new characters: I hope you survive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 12th, 2019
For many years Acorn Media has been the best source for a lot of those classic British drama shows that you've seen reviewed here and elsewhere. They've brought us some of the best British stars in some landmark work spanning decades of British broadcast. These shows were always something produced by someone else, most notably the BBC itself. So while we can be thankful to Acorn for distributing these shows particularly here in the United States, they haven't actually been responsible for the actual content. That all changes with the release of London Kills Series 1 from Acorn Media. For the first time the company has created its own straight-to-series production. If this first effort is any indication of what we might expect in the future, I'd say there is great promise here, and while I didn't find it quite as compelling as favorites like the George Gently series, I saw a ton of potential. There are some very good reasons why I didn't enjoy this as much as many others, and I'll get into that in a moment.
Hugo Speer is Detective Inspector David Bradford. He has been on leave because his wife has disappeared. Detective Sergeant Vivian Cole is played by Sharon Small, and she has been running the unit while he has been away. When her squad is called in on a grisly murder scene where a mutilated body is hung from a tree as if to suggest suicide, she fully expects to lead the investigation. But when Bradford shows up at the crime scene, she sees those plans dashed. There's absolutely some tension and even a bit of hostility between the two. It's equally obvious that they have some unpleasant history. Cole is also not so popular with her Detective Constable Rob Brady, played by Bailey Patrick. He's happy to see Bradford's return. He's also the squad's tech geek. Under Brady is Trainee Detective Constable Billie Fitzgerald, played by Tori Allen-Martin, who is appearing in her first show. It's her first day, and between the bizarre case and the newly arrived Bradford, she's going to get a running start on her career.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2019
In the late 1980’s Batman was in trouble. No, he wasn’t tied to a table saw by The Joker. Catwoman didn’t have her claws on him. It was the camp residue of the 1960’s television series. The idea of a Batman film was clamored after by fans, but the studios couldn’t get the Adam West series out of their minds. And, while the success of Superman might have awaken the studio bosses to the appeal of comic book films, there was surprisingly very little interest in a Batman film. Since DC Comics had become a part of the Warner Empire, it seemed only logical that they would want to do the film. But even Warner resisted for several years as a team tried to get the Caped Crusader back on the movie screen.
The Dark Knight was the brainchild of a young comic artist named Bob Kane. He was actually inspired by a Leonardo DaVinci drawing and quote. He was looking at the bat-like wings DaVinci designed for human flight and immediately set to work on creating the follow up to Superman. Unlike Superman, Batman had no superpowers. His parents had been killed in front of his eyes, gunned down on their way home from the theater. The young millionaire’s son grew morose and dark. When he matured, he used the vast resources of his wealth to design weapons, armor, vehicles, and gadgets all around the theme of the bat. With the help of the family butler, who raised the young lad after the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne became the night avenger, Batman. The comic was an almost overnight success. Now there was a superhero who didn’t rely on supernatural powers. This hero relied on his own intelligence and resourcefulness to fight the criminals of Gotham City. The comics would lead to movie serial reels and animated adventures. In the 1960’s Batman would explode on to television screens in a campy, not-so-serious incarnation. Graphic novels in the 1980’s would bring the comic book out of the shadows of guilty pleasures for adults and bring these conventions to the mainstream world of literature. Artists like Frank Miller would bring the Dark Knight back to its roots and expose the world, once again, to Batman. By 1989, the time was right to bring Batman back to life -- live action, that is. And who better to capture the dark and psychologically disturbed world of Batman than Tim Burton.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2019
"What happens in Palm Springs stays in Palm Springs."
That's not exactly true. Since the 1950's, the small town of Palm Springs has been home to many celebrities looking to escape the bustle of Hollywood, yet remain close enough to work there. It was 1947 when Jimmy Van Heusen introduced Frank to the desert community, and he fell in love with the town. His own home was built in time for his wedding to Ava Gardner, and while that relationship lasted only seven years, Sinatra's relationship with Palm Springs lasted 50 years. He was the best advertisement a town could have. In 1954 he built the massive Rancho Mirage and invited all of his close friends to join him. Many built homes of their own, but there was always plenty of room at Frank's place. He had several complete guest houses, each built in the size and luxury that Frank's kind of friend expected. They were named after his famous songs, with the largest being New York, New York. The compound was Frank's home and playground. In 1976 Frank married his last partner in Barbara Marx, and they lived in the compound until Frank started to fall ill in 1995. Sinatra In Palm Springs tells the wonderful story of Frank's 50-year love affair with his desert town.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 7th, 2019
I'm constantly told that streaming services like Netflix are the way of the future. But it appears that to build that future it is necessary to look to the past with a television series from the 1960's that looked to the future, but itself was based on material from the past. If you're becoming a little dizzy, I get it. Of course, I'm talking about Netflix's reboot of the Irwin Allen television milestone Lost In Space. Allen originally pitched a serialized version of the famous Swiss Family Robinson story and was rejected. So he took that story and set it into the future and marooned the Robinson family not on a contested pirate's treasure island, but on a flying saucer marooned far from Earth. It lasted three seasons and introduced several phrases into the pop culture like "danger, Will Robinson" and "the pain, oh, the pain". Even if you've never seen an episode of the original show, you've heard these little references. And that's exactly what Netflix is counting on by delivering a modern take on Lost In Space now out on Blu-ray from Fox Home Entertainment.
There are as many differences in this version of the show as there are common elements. In this series John Robinson (Stephens) is not the mission commander. This time it's wife Maureen Robinson (Parker) who is not only in charge but designed the ship that they are lost within. The relationship couldn't be more different. John has been away most of the time as a soldier, and they are in the middle of splitting up. Things change when an object crashes to Earth on a Christmas Eve and is dubbed The Christmas Star. The impact triggers a series of ecological disasters, and the Earth is now becoming uninhabitable. Maureen Robinson becomes part of a program that designs a huge starship that carries hundreds of individual ships and thousands of colonists to a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. That is also the destination of the original show. Of course, they never tell you they're going to a planet in either show. They merely use the star's name, which itself likely wouldn't be a safe place to land. The large ship the Resolute is attacked by a mysterious creature during it's 24th group of colonists. Ships are ejected, and many of these "Jupiters" crash on a fortunately sustainable planet. One such ship is the Jupiter 2 with the Robinson family aboard.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 7th, 2019
It hasn’t quite been four months since A Star is Born was released on Blu-ray and 4K and already we have a new release, only this time the film is about 11 minutes longer. For some this might seem like a double dip, while others this is exactly what fans of the film have wanted. For me, I’ve always been a fan of extended cuts of films where we get to see how certain deleted scenes actually fit in the film. Sometimes the extended cuts of films can improve the experience. The Lord of the Rings series is one set that comes to mind. As for A Star is Born, does it breathe new life into the Oscar-nominated film, or does it drag it down?
When I first heard that Bradley Cooper would be making his directing debut with A Star is Born, honestly I kind of groaned. It’s not because I didn’t believe he’d have the chops; after all, he’s worked with many successful directors over the span of his career. I groaned because I believed the world didn’t need yet another remake of the film. This will be the fourth incarnation of the film, and while many can debate on which version is their favorite, the film was pretty much a relic I felt should have stayed in the past. I mention this and want to also put out there even after some of the trailers I had caught for the film; my excitement level was pretty low going into this. Well, this turned out to be the sleeper hit of the year for me. Sure, many could have told me this would be a hit, and because of the cast I wouldn’t dispute it, but when I walked out of the auditorium I felt like I had experienced something special (even if it had been made three times before).
