Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 1st, 2013
When The Sandlot first came out 20 years ago, I connected to the coming-of-age baseball story as strongly as Babe Ruth connected with one of his titanic, 400-foot homers. I grew up in baseball-obsessed Puerto Rico and I happened to be the exact same age as dorky protagonist Scotty Smalls. Though I’ve kept in touch with the film over the years, Fox’s new 20th Anniversary Blu-ray re-release of The Sandlot marked my first time watching it from start to finish in a long while. It surely won’t be the last.
An adult version of Scotty Smalls recounts the story of his most memorable summer. As a fifth grader, Scotty (Tom Guiry) moved to a new town with his mom (Karen Allen) and stepdad (Denis Leary) just before the end of the school year. Scotty’s mom wants her sweet, nerdy son to actually get into a little bit of trouble during the summer, so he falls in with a group of kids who play baseball in a raggedy patch of grass called The Sandlot. The only problem is Scotty doesn’t even know how to throw a baseball. Fortunately, Scotty is taken in by Benny (Mike Vitar), the group’s leader and the best baseball player by far. During that one remarkable summer, the kids encounter a dream girl, arrogant Little Leaguers and a legendary canine menace known as The Beast, which swallows up any baseball that finds its way into his yard.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on March 11th, 2013
On paper, pro wrestlers are the perfect action movie stars. Their beefy frames and larger-than-life personalities should make them naturals at kicking butt on the big screen, plus the performers are certainly familiar with choreographed combat. (This is the part where I planned to mention that wrestling is fake, but I don’t want to make anybody cry.) Even though Arnold, Sly and their brawny brethren have struggled at the box office recently — and are about 20 years past their heyday — WWE Studios has a sneakily clever thing going with its Marine franchise.
Starting with 2006’s The Marine, the company has created a recognizable and malleable action series. The movies don’t have anything to do with one another beyond the title, but they allow the WWE to push whichever wrestler du jour they want to promote by giving him his very own starring role. In other words, they could make Marine movies forever. Following in the footsteps of John Cena and Ted Dibiase Jr., Mike “The Miz” Mizanin is handed the keys to the action vehicle this time around.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 6th, 2013
Normally when I see trailers for films about “inspiring true stories” I try to remind myself to avoid that film at all costs. Sure I’ve seen more than a few of these kinds of films, but that’s the problem with them, once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. When Chasing Mavericks was brought to my attention I was ready to ignore, but then I gave it a quick look at IMDB and to my surprise it had two directing credits, Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, which just so happens to be in my all-time top ten films) and Michael Apted (Gorky Park, Nell, Gorillas of the Mist), and with that my mind was made up. And lucky me it turned out to be one of my favorite films I’ve had the opportunity to review.
Ever since he was little Jay Moriarty (Johnny Weston) has been fascinated by the currents and the waves they produce. The obsession sets Jay off to learn how to surf, and by the time he’s 15 he’s managed to become one of the best young surfers in Santa Cruz, but the waves he’s conquering just aren’t cutting it. Till one morning he follows a local surf legend, who just so happens to be his neighbor, Frosty Hesson (Gerard Butler), who is going out on an early surf run. Where they end up is at a hidden beach where Jay sees the biggest waves that are colossal in comparison to what he surfs daily, and he watches Frosty. These giants that Jay and many others believed to be nothing more than mythic surf lore are what are called Mavericks. And it is from this day on Jay sets off to try and surf one of these waves. For fear Jay will only get himself killed, Frosty agrees to train him to be able to survive the wave, and he has 12 weeks to get himself ready before the season ends.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2013
"Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that sort of thing anymore."
It was 1962, and Ursula Andress emerged from the tropical island surf sporting a provocative swimsuit, and a tradition was born. The seductive scene would become the first iconic image in a line that has lasted a half a century and counting. Fifty years; 23 movies makes it the longest-running film franchise in motion picture history. He had many faces over those 50 years: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, George Lazenby, and even David Niven, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen in a 1967 spoof. For the last three films he's been played by Daniel Craig. They all had somewhat different styles. They all had a line of beautiful women. They all faced different challenges and foes. But they all shared the same name: Bond...James Bond.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 25th, 2013
We've seen action films like Taken enough times that we've become a little immune to the formula. But then again, Liam Neeson wasn't your typical action figure, and so the movie was able to take audiences by surprise. It's not that Neeson hadn't already established himself as a fine actor. He just didn't fit the mold we are so used to seeing. Things have changed in the couple of years since Taken had its box office run. Neeson has now done more action films, and he's started to look more the part. The clever antics of the first film are now behind us, so a sequel isn't going to really be able to take us unaware again. And perhaps that, more than anything else, is the reason Taken 2 comes across as a bit of a disappointment.
The story itself is one of the most clever I've ever seen in an action film sequel. How many times do we watch an action hero rack up the body count in his or her quest to save the day? There's enough shooting in these films to give Uncle Joe Biden nightmares. Sequels come along and our hero is back in action against new bad guys. But what about the aftermath of the first film? Don't these guys have friends and family who might take it badly that they were killed? Of course they would, and Taken 2 starts with that very premise.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 4th, 2012
“Quirky, messy women whose problems only make them endearing are not real.”
On the surface, Ruby Sparks could be mistaken for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl biopic no one asked for. In case you’re not familiar with this particular cinematic archetype, MPDG derisively describes any unabashedly artsy, quirky young female character that inevitably brightens the life of a brooding, young male protagonist. However, the quote at the start of this review only hints at the fact that this whimsical romantic comedy isn’t afraid to stare down the ugly side of relationships.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 31st, 2012
"Fairlake, West Virginia, established in 1814. The entire population disappeared in 1817. To this day nobody knows what happened to them."
I know what you're thinking. When I look at a direct-to-video horror series and see a number 5 next to the name, it's usually time to roll my eyes and reluctantly place the disc in my Blu-ray player so that I can warn you guys just how bad it really is. But we're not talking about just any horror title. We're talking about the Wrong Turn franchise, which has actually gotten better since it went into sequel-hell. We're also talking about a director in Declan O'Brien who knows that his job isn't to create the next museum piece of art. He doesn't care one bit if he's inspired conversations about form and style. He's a horror film fan himself who has only one goal in mind each time he takes over a project: let me entertain you. And as hard as you might not want to believe it, Wrong Turn 5 does just that. You will be entertained.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 30th, 2012
"Somewhere in the valley, there is a woman living in a basement. She's actually amassing followers. These people believe that she will actually lead them to salvation, or whatever. And yes, she's dangerous - but we have to see this thing through. All the way."
When The Sound Of My Voice opens you really don't know what to expect. We watch a group of people acting almost as though they have been taken hostage. They are given drab clothes to wear and ordered to clean themselves very thoroughly. They are then bound and hooded and placed into a van for transport to where? Soon we discover that these people have not been abducted at all. They have done these things willingly so that they may be brought into the presence of Maggie (Marling) who claims to be from the year 2054. Her disciples gather around her in a circle as she delivers her enigmatic teachings. Then again, perhaps they are captives after all, but not in the manner you might expect. They are obviously captivated by Maggie's personality, and we soon discover that they fear banishment from her side more than anything else. They are there for enlightenment, of sorts. The earlier routine has been put in place because Maggie is apparently allergic to our time and is dying. She must maintain a germ-free environment at all costs. She's more than a religious leader. She's a martyr who just hasn't died yet. Yet her subjects would gladly die for her.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 23rd, 2012
Dr. Temperance Brennan, or Bones (Deschanel) is the world's leading bone specialist. She works in Washington, D.C. for the famous Jeffersonian (I assume it's intended to be the Smithsonian). Her talents have proven themselves very helpful in solving crimes where skeletal remains are all that there is to go on from the victim. Her FBI agent/liaison is Seeley Booth (Boreanaz). Together they have an uneasy relationship that grows into a kind of friendship. The problem is that Bones doesn't have a ton of social skills. She relies on Booth to guide their social interactions. More on that later. The lab is run by Dr. Camille Saroyan (Taylor) who has become a bit of a guiding mother to the team. Dr. Hodges (Thyne) is the trace-elements expert and tries very hard to be cool and hip. He's generally the opposite of Bones. He says pretty much what comes into his head and is a bit of a science-fiction geek. Angela (Conlin) is an artist who uses her skills to reconstruct facial details from the skulls. She also works on enhancing images and restructuring evidence. She's a bit of a romantic and has probably slept with every male in the lab. But Angela and Hodges are now married with a son. Dr. Sweets (Daley) is a young FBI agent and psychologist. He profiles victims and suspects as well as serves as a counselor to the team. He's a bit over-eager at times, looking up to Booth as a mentor of sorts. The lab also has a few interns who show up from week to week, likely depending on actor availability.
The problems I have with the show deal mostly with character development. None of these characters have grown much in six years. I jumped from season 1 to season 5, and with the exception of some changes in cast, it was like I never left. The characters spend way too much time talking about their sexual prowess, with more than one character making multiple references to how exceptional they are in bed. The relationships too often take as much time as the cases themselves. This shorts the plot development and often leads the show toward the obvious. And the worst problem is the Bones character herself. She's not likeable at all. She's arrogant to a fault. She always talks about being the best and how she's the natural hero role model for others. But her scientific brain is to the point of cruelty. She has to have non-emotional explanations for everything. She insults with impunity. They also stretch the idea that this highly educated woman doesn't know any slang or figures of speech. She's always misquoting a popular saying as if she were just learning English. It's too contrived, and the writers reach pretty far for each of those "jokes". Gone now is the sexual tension between Booth and Brennan. Now they are openly together and expecting a little one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 21st, 2012
“Patterns are hidden in plain sight. You just have to know where to look.”
You don’t have to be into numbers to enjoy Touch, but it certainly helps. Numerology deals with the mystical or divine meaning behind certain numbers. Detractors believe that people who place too much faith in such things will foolishly find significance in just about anything. Similarly, cynical TV viewers will scoff at some of the coincidences and connections in this Fox drama. Either way, it looks like your high school math teacher was right: you WILL be using some of this stuff as an adult.
