Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 27th, 2014
They say you can't choose your family, but apparently that well-known phrase never made its way to France. At the very least, no one bothered to tell Paul de Marseul, the legacy-obsessed vineyard owner at the center of You Will Be My Son (Tu Seras Mon Fils.) Cohen Media Group gave this tasty 2011 French offering a theatrical release last year, and now the film — which alternates between being a picturesque delight, a tense family drama, and a thriller — arrives on Blu-ray.
Niels Arestrup stars as Paul, who has a great nose (and palette) for winemaking. His adult son Martin (Lorant Deutsch) is a hard worker, but he didn't inherit his father's natural abilities. (Much to Martin's chagrin, Paul never misses a chance to cruelly remind his son of this fact.) Since the vineyard's longtime manager Francois (Patrick Chesnais) is terminally ill, Martin is eager to become a bigger part of the family business. Enter Francois's son Philippe (Nicolas Bridet), a charismatic, successful California winemaker who returns home to be with his ailing father. After Paul enlists Philippe's help with the upcoming harvest, he realizes he'd rather hand the family business over to someone else's son rather than his own flesh and blood.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on January 13th, 2014
“Getting what you want comes with a price.”
Much has changed in the world of Being Human this season. However, let’s recap for a moment just to make sure everyone is on the same page. Sally (Meaghan Rath), after shredding her own spirit to get to limbo so she can rescue Scottie and Nick, has bitten off more than she can chew as she finds herself stranded in limbo with the very people she sent to limbo. Aidan (Sam Witwer), after losing his lover Suren and his failed attempt to assassinate her murderer, the vampire matriarch known as “Mother”, is buried alive for his transgression. As for Josh (Sam Huntington), after deciding to kill his maker Ray before the full moon in order to free him and Nora (Kristen Hager) from the curse inflicted on the both of them, finds himself in a standoff that includes Ray, Nora, and himself.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on January 13th, 2014
Within the first few minutes of We Are What We Are, the Parker family suffers an immense loss. The death doesn't exactly come as a shock because the film opens with a series of arresting and foreboding images doused by a torrential rain that fails to wash away the family's worries (or incriminating evidence). This atmospheric, thoroughly creepy horror movie winds up going to a number of grisly places, but, in a lot of ways, it's really just the story of how the reclusive clan deals with that loss.
We Are What We Are is technically a remake of the 2010 Mexican film Somos Lo Que Hay. I say “technically” because the new film — directed stylishly and confidently by Jim Mickle (Stake Land) — is more of a companion piece to the original. The two films share a basic premise about families who experience a sudden death and struggle to carry on their gruesome traditions, but Mickle and writer/actor/frequent collaborator Nick Damici have transplanted the action from inner-city Mexico to upstate New York.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on December 17th, 2013
“Just as the dancer, the athlete does not exist who doesn’t move with a certain rhythm.”
My name is John. I am a man, and I love to dance. Dancing requires grace, power, athleticism, coordination and a handful of other attributes that we revere in the world’s biggest sports stars. Those same exact qualities thrill us when they’re on display on a football field or a basketball court. So why can’t one dude tell another dude that he enjoys dancing without drawing a sideways glance? Gene Kelly, one of the most famous and successful dancers of all time, explored that very question during this vintage TV special, now out on DVD.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on September 9th, 2013
High concepts don’t come much loftier than the one behind Starbuck. An underachieving slacker learns he has fathered 533 children thanks to frequent deposits at a sperm bank 20 years earlier. In fact, the premise was so nice, writer/director Ken Scott decided to do it twice. Vince Vaughn will star in an American remake later this year called Delivery Man. Whether you’re excited for the new film or you think it looks stupid, I highly recommend you give the funny and touching French-Canadian original a look.
David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) is a charming screw-up in his early forties who works as a delivery guy for his family’s butcher shop. He’s the kind of clueless dolt who thinks growing pot in his apartment to pay off personal debts is a solid idea. David also has a fed-up girlfriend named Valerie (Julie LeBreton) who just found out she is pregnant and doesn’t believe David has what it takes to be a father.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 30th, 2013
Seeing the words ‘Uwe Boll Presents’ was enough to have me a little worried about this one. For the most part any time I’ve seen the name connected to a film, it resulted in a disaster most would rather have gone without seeing. But then I think about the films Rampage and Postal, two films that are really quite fun if you give them a fair chance. In the case of Zombie Massacre, Boll’s presence is in the form of producer (as well as a fun cheeseball appearance playing the President), and the talent put in charge of the production are a duo that show some promise. Written and directed by Marco Ristori and Luca Boni (Eaters) are a pair of young, passionate guys who seem to love zombie films, but in a time where zombies have saturated the market, is average enough to garner any attention?
In this incarnation of the zombie film, it is a bacteria created by the US government that causes the zombie epidemic. The small Romanian town is infected, and before the bacteria spreads any further the government hires a team of mercenaries to go into the town and set off an atomic bomb at the local power plant. But things don’t go as planned once the mercenary team discovers this was meant to be a one-way trip for them.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on August 29th, 2013
“We have to understand as a whole entire world that marriage will have its ups and downs, but we have to have faith in God that he will help us through those tough times to stay faithful and committed, no matter what happens.”
These words are attributed to writer/director/producer/actor Christopher Nolen. (Not to be confused with this guy.) They also appear at the end of The Good Life, a low-budget, unintentionally funny relationship melodrama working in the same arena dominated by Tyler Perry’s low-budget, unintentionally funny relationship melodramas.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 15th, 2013
In 1363, the Black Plague had done its damage, leaving most infected areas uninhabitable. Escape — known in Norway as Flukt — is the story of a family that sets out into the countryside to get away from the plague and hopefully find a new place to rebuild their lives. But just as I’m thinking this is going to be a movie about sticking together and fighting to survive the elements, it shifts gears to something far darker but not all that original.
The small family is attacked and most are brutally slain; only Signe (Isabel Christine Andeasen), the daughter, manages to survive. Instead of simply killing the girl, the attackers decide to keep her around. When this decision was made by the attackers my mind instantly went to thinking they were going to torture and rape the girl. It seems extreme, but after seeing these attackers shoot down a young boy with a crossbow, well it should be safe to assume these killers are ruthless. Insert twist; back at their camp they have a little girl named Frigg. It seems all they want is for Frigg to have a sister.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 7th, 2013
In a film the pays its respects to the French soldiers who are participating in the war on terror as well as the journalists that risk their lives to cover the war, Special Forces delivers more of the same in this new release. Though the default setting has the spoken language in English and has English-speaking stars, don’t let this French release fool you; the dubbing is terrible and the film is better viewed in its original language. Elsa (Diane Krugar) is a French journalist who is in Afghanistan to cover a story about a woman sold as a child. By now we should all know speaking against the politics in these countries is not just bad, but when you are a woman this could get you killed. The woman is wanted by the Taliban, and Elsa wants to do what she can to help her friend escape, but there is little to be done when Elsa witnesses a raid of the woman’s home. It’s not long after that Elsa finds herself in the crosshairs of the Taliban and is also captured. Elsa reluctantly reads a message from the terrorist group, and the video is broadcast for the French government to see. This in turn causes the French president to take action and approve a mission to have the journalist rescued.
Though many of the story points have been seen before in numerous different films, it still works and had me gripped due to some beautiful cinematography, and it doesn’t hurt that it had Diane Kruger as the captive journalist. (If this woman was able to start the war in Troy, just imagine how she’d motivate a platoon of Special Forces soldiers.) Leading the platoon is Kovax (Djimon Hounsou), and the only other guy I recognized from the group was Lucas (Denis Menochet from the opening scene of Inglorious Basterds).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 30th, 2012
As The Walking Dead continues to smash ratings records (while compulsively changing showrunners, no less) and Summit Entertainment — the studio behind The Twilight Saga — prepares to throw its considerable marketing muscle behind February’s zombie rom-com Warm Bodies, it’s fair to say the shambling undead are having a major pop culture moment. Yes, zombies are hot right now, but a curious subgenre has already endured for many decades: I’m talking about the zombie Nazi movie.
From Shock Waves and Zombie Lake in the 1970s and 80s to recent examples like Dead Snow and this year's Outpost: Black Sun, filmmakers have delighted in mashing up one of history’s most infamous real-life group of monsters with one of cinema’s most popular terrors for decades. Though they’ve been enjoyable to varying degrees, the subgenre is yet to produce a classic film in the vein of George A. Romero’s work or even something that made a notable pop culture impact like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead. I’m sorry to say War of the Dead won’t be the first.
