Posted in: The Reel World by Michael Durr on September 1st, 2011
As with many of the audience who reads the reviews we write, I have been to a ton of movies. But most of the time when I go, I go on the second or perhaps third week of release. Rarely do I ever go the first week. Even rarer is when I get invited to a screening of a movie before it even opens. Well, on August 31st, 2011, I got the chance to see the new feature from Lionsgate entitled The Warrior which opens September 9th, 2011. Let us see what it had to offer.
A train rolls by, a factory opens for the day’s work, and the day is upon us. We are in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Paddy Conlon (played by Nick Nolte) comes out of church, pops in an audio book and drives home. When he gets home, he sees the image of his son, Tommy (played by Tom Hardy) on the porch steps with a bottle in his hands. His son has not been home in many years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 26th, 2011
The American Film Company is a new venture that intends to tell historical dramas. There are several stories on the way. They are particularly interested in the lesser known elements of historical events that are, in themselves, rather huge and universally known. One is left with the kind of film that we saw last year in The King's Speech. While we all know about the global events of that time, few knew the story of the struggle over public speaking that the King had during that fateful moment in world history. I think you can say the same for the material in The Conspirator. There's likely not an American alive who doesn't know something of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. We all know the location was Ford's Theater and many even know the name of the play that was being performed at the time. But there are lesser known facts about the event. That Lincoln didn't want to go is one some of you already know. But how many know that his murder was part of a larger plot to take revenge on the government for the defeat of the South? This film goes even farther than that. It tells the story of one of the more controversial accused in the plot that included the attempted murders of the Secretary of State and Vice-President Johnson. That defendant was Mary Surratt, and she would become the first woman executed by the Federal government. And she may not have even been guilty of a crime.
The film begins at the conclusion of the Civil War where we meet Frederick Aiken (McAvoy) who is a wounded captain. He orders the medics to care for his fallen friend, Baker (Long) who appears to be as good as dead. While the scene plays no real role in the story to unfold, it attempts to set two stages. It's a chance to touch upon the brutal war that has triggered the film's main events. It's also intended to help us get to know how good a guy Aikens happens to be. From there the film quickly moves through the execution of the plot to kill three members of the federal government. Only President Lincoln is mortally wounded, and his killer John Wilkes Booth (Kebbell) is soon captured and killed. All that is left for the struggling government now is to put the entire experience behind them by burying the conspirators themselves.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 10th, 2011
"Welcome, Little Piggies, to The Task."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2011
"We are looking at an unexplained phenomenon. It appears to be a partially preserved severed head, maybe of a deformed person or a wild animal. Perhaps the metal base contained some sort of preservative presently unknown to us."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 3rd, 2011
Dave “The Animal” Bautista has had a fairly interesting life. Most people know him for his wrestling accolades even though his career only lasted about ten years. It is hard to believe that at one time, he was passed on by WCW and said he would never make it in the wrestling business. He would go on to be the six-time World Champion and a four-time Tag Team champion as a part of WWE. However, he departed with the company in 2010 to pursue other avenues including an acting career which made its way to my review door. Let’s explore: House of the Rising Sun.
Ray (played by Dave Bautista) takes a long drag on his cigarette. Sometimes he is not sure how his life got to be like this. He used to be a Vice cop who ended up getting jailed for being on the take. Now, trying to live a normal decent life he takes on a job as head of security for a strip joint called “House of the Rising Sun”. Unfortunately, Ray looks the other way a lot here too since this joint also runs prostitution and illegal gambling.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 23rd, 2011
I have never been a huge fan of Tyler Perry's creations. Particularly, House of Payne is something I really don't care for. Mostly this is due to the fact that the original story that made the household dynamic of mixed family members what it is throughout the series came from a story about a woman who was a crack addict and arsoned her own house. After seeing this story, and the completely insensitive way it handled drug addiction struck me as so foul that I have yet to find forgiveness. So here I stand, weighing my possible bias' versus my standard issue journalistic neutrality as a reviewer, and hoping my opinion remains respectable.
This bundle of 24 episodes continues the series' usual path of melding corny humour with major issues such as theft, drugs, racial topics and so forth. As much as it tries to be poignant, the setup and execution of each story is too unnatural to be ever be taken seriously. As well, there are just far too many negative black stereotypes being used for my own comfort level. I'm not asking it to be like the Boondocks and try to explode stereotypes while displaying them, but there certainly could be a lot more efforts made to not fall into such ugly situations or characters (none of which I shall honour by repeating here...if you are a masochist, investigate the show yourself).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2011
"Angry souls will do just about anything to escape their tortured purgatories. That's why they say no rest for the wicked."
And there's no rest for Bloody Mary. That's a good thing for us. We get treated to a rather sweet little bloody film from the folks at Lionsgate called Blood Night. It's a better film than you might think on first look. It never betrays its independent spirit, but that doesn't mean it has to sacrifice a good look and entertaining romp. The acting is all above average for a budget bloodbath. It's a little Lizzy Borden mixed with some familiar elements from other recent horror films to create a bit of horror comfort food. It might not be good for you, and it certainly isn't going to claim any position as a classic. But it goes down nice and easy and leaves you feeling a little satisfied when it's all over.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2011
Did you ever see a movie that might have been pretty good, but it reminded you so much of other things that you just couldn't keep your concentration on the film at hand? That was my experience with the After Dark original film Seconds Apart. At almost every turn I couldn't help thinking of other films. Often times it was such a distraction that I'm afraid I never fully appreciated the one I was watching. And, there is a lot to like about Seconds Apart.
The story is pretty simple. Jonah and Seth, played by real-life twins Edmund and Gary Entin, are not your normal twins. They share more than an uncanny fraternal link. Together they can enter inside of a person's mind and cause them to do all sorts of nasty things that usually end in the victim's death. The hold hands to focus the power. It might just be me showing my age here, but I couldn't stop thinking about the 1970's Saturday morning cartoon, The Super Friends. The show featured the powerhouse members of the DC comics universe along with a boy and girl known as The Wonder Twins. One could take the shape of anything made out of water, while the other could become any animal. Every time these guys held hands to perform their evil deeds in someone's mind, I couldn't get that Wonder Twins image out of my head, and I kept expecting them to chant: "Wonder Twins power activate". Silly, I know and it's entirely possible that no one connected with the film was even aware of the image. So the fault is entirely mine, to a degree.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2011
"From cradle to grave."
Lionsgate is really starting to crank out some original horror films under the After Dark label, and if this is any indication of what's in store for us down the road, I'm eager to see a few more of these titles hit the shelves. The films are direct-to-video low-budget films that have a more independent feel. While I wouldn't call the film terribly original, it does offer a slightly fresh face on the haunted house theme. The movie carries a sub-theme of family secrets and histories. Talk about your skeletons in the closet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 16th, 2011
Recently, I saw the brand new live-action film of Thor in 3d on a giant IMAX screen with some close friends (watch for the Hawkeye cameo!). All of us thought the movie was pretty good (though we really didn’t see the point of 3d, big shock). As to be expected, I knew (and hoped) an animated feature of Thor with his big hammer was right around the corner. However, when I received said feature, Thor was right on it, but he was holding a sword? This requires some further analysis.
We open the film to somewhere in Asgard, Thor is fighting a bunch of warriors, armed with swords. The shot suddenly pans up to an appreciative crowd. This would be what one would call a spectator sport. Thor goes back to playing for the crowd and even loses his sword in the process. But one of the combatants lets him pick back up his sword and continue the fight. This is also the time when Sif, a female who is handy with any weapon, shakes her head and walks out of the arena.
![The Conspirator (Deluxe Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-conspirator-deluxe-edition-b-large.jpg)
![House of the Rising Sun [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/house-of-the-rising-sun-blu-ray-large.jpg)
