Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2018
"My father told me about these men, about their natures. All I knew were the stories I was told of monsters and the valiant men sworn to slay them. I fear the stories I've heard may have been clouded, the truth more than clouded. It would seem these monsters are men, sons, brothers, fathers. And it would seem these men face their own monsters..."
Move over, Captain Jack Sparrow. There are some tougher pirates on the block, and they sail into our living rooms from Lionsgate on Blu-ray in Starz’ Black Sails. The high seas adventure series combines historical people and places with the fictional characters of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island. I am a little disturbed that Stevenson gets no mention in the credits for having created many of these characters. What's up with that, Starz? Likely the material is in public domain, but credit where credit's due, yes? They certainly acknowledge him in the extras.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 23rd, 2018
It seems there isn’t an action film Bruce Willis can say no to. It feels as though every couple of months there is an action film that has an appearance from Willis, and frankly it’s a little disappointing. He’s a guy who can bring in the major box office dollars, but it seems more and more of the action stars are settling for the direct-to-video route for the simple paycheck and moving on to the next. With the number of films being churned out for the cinemas, DVD and Blu-ray, and the streaming services, it seems the film industry is simply becoming a business of quantity rather than quality due to the amount of demand needed. Reprisal is the latest example of this demand for quantity rather than quality as we get a pedestrian action film that plays by the numbers and will be forgotten by the year’s end, and that’s a shame considering its two leads.
Frank Grillo takes the lead as Jacob, a bank manager who is living the ideal life with a wife and daughter, until his bank falls victim to a calculating bank robber. Jacob is traumatized by the event that left a security guard dead and no suspects to be held responsible for the crime. This is where his neighbor, James (Bruce Willis) steps in to lend some comforting support and eventually is a sounding board for Jacob to work out how the robber pulled off this violent heist. It works out that James used to be an ex-cop, but for some of the logic this film uses, it wouldn’t have mattered if James was a celebrity chef; these guys play by their own set of rules.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 20th, 2018
From the moment that STARZ announced that they were pulling the plug on Ash vs Evil Dead after its third season, my heart has been a bit crushed. The Evil Dead franchise has always been special to me. Growing up I watched the trilogy of films to the point one may consider I had an unhealthy obsession with these films, and to be fair, they may have had a point, but these movies were a blast. These were the films where writer and director Sam Raimi made a name for himself in the horror genre with his cinematic style, over the top gore, and injecting his love of The Three Stooges. For decades fans had waited patiently for a fourth installment in the franchise, with teases of there even being an Ash vs Freddy vs Jason, but alas that concept fizzled as a film. So when the news came along that STARZ would be bringing Ash (Bruce Campbell) to the small screen for a 10-episode series, well, it was something horror fans could get excited about.
Season One
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 28th, 2018
“Told you it was aliens.”
What if Michael Bay was Australian and he was only given $6 million to make an alien invasion movie? The result might look a lot like Occupation, a rollicking, gleefully dumb sci-fi/action flick that works best as a throwback to simpler (i.e. dumber) times at the multiplex. But while Occupaton has its charms, the movie's shoddy special effects and production values consistently undermine the kickass story it's trying to tell.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 26th, 2018
With Halloween just around the corner, it’s that time of the year when the studios start cranking out horror films to fill up the shelves hoping that eager fans will scoop up any new horror titles they can add to their collection. The Row is one of those releases that has the cover with beautiful girls and the tease of murder and mayhem to ensue. Does it deliver what the cover is attempting to sell? Well, the simple answer is yes, but to call this film horror is the equivalent of calling a toddler’s finger painting art. This is a film that sadly is a product of the times. Though it has an R rating, the film seems tame, and considering the director claims he was aiming for Spring Breakers meets Friday the 13th, I have to wonder if he saw either of those films.
Riley (Lala Kent) and her best friend Becks (Mia Frampton, yes, Peter Frampton’s daughter) are attending college, and as rush week is occurring they are looking to join the Phi Lambda sorority. As it turns out Riley’s mom was also a member of the sorority, just one of the many mysteries that seem to shroud her mother’s past, a mother Riley seems to know little about since her mom died when she was seven. Randy Couture plays Riley’s overprotective father, who is on suspension after a drug bust goes wrong, so to deal with his empty nest syndrome he manages to involve himself with a homicide case involving a student who is killed at Riley’s college. It just so happens that it seems this killer is just getting started, and there are plenty of pretty sorority girls who can be potential victims.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 27th, 2018
When it comes to Paul Schrader, I feel the argument can be made that he is the greatest American screenwriter. I know it’s a bold statement but when you look over his credits that include Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, Hardcore, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and so many others I feel there just isn’t anyone out there that can compete. Lately though he’s seemed to have had a difficult time recapturing that greatness, there has even been a part of me that has felt that perhaps I should give up on hoping he’ll crank out one more great film and simply appreciate the filmography he’s delivered us cinema fans over the years. Paul Schrader, despite having some classic titles to his name he’s still a writer and a director that isn’t for everyone. His films typically are dark in tone and typically shine a light onto the underbelly of society that most would prefer to not know about. It’s because of his fearlessness in tackling these subjects that has made me a fan of his for years so when the opportunity to see First Reformed came along I didn’t hesitate, this was a screening I couldn’t miss.
As the film opens we get a long shot that pushes in to an old church, we quickly find out the church is named First Reformed. Inside we meet Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke) as he is delivering a sermon to a very sparse crowd of parishioners. It doesn’t take long to realize that Toller is a damaged man, both physically, emotionally and spiritually. We get insight into the reverends thoughts through his journal entries that he writes and are narrated for us. Things get moving when Mary (Amanda Seyfried) approaches Toller after a service and requests he speaks with her husband Michael (Philip Ettinger) who she fears wants her to have an abortion.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 24th, 2018
“Who do you think you are, Jackie Chan?!”
I'm going to do my very best to describe how insane this movie is, but it still might not be enough. I want to try and be fair because there aren't many people who have worked harder to entertain audiences than Jackie Chan. The 64-year-old martial arts legend has more than 100 acting credits to his name in a career that has spanned well over 50 years. Naturally, there are bound to be some turkeys along the way. Unfortunately, Bleeding Steel — an obnoxiously incoherent sci-fi departure for the action star — firmly (and gloriously) falls into the turkey category.
Chan stars as Lin, a Hong Kong special agent with an ailing daughter who is in critical condition. Lin is rushing to the hospital to be by her side when he gets an urgent work call about a witness that needs to be protected. The witness is Dr. James, a geneticist who has been working on creating a mechanical heart(!) and bioengineered blood to create super soldiers. Lin chooses duty over his daughter and rushes to protect Dr. James just in time to be ambushed by a deranged, mech-enhanced villain named...Andre (Callan Mulvey), who looks like Darth Vader without his helmet on. Lin and his team face off against Andre's stormtrooper-sequel army, Dr. James gets caught in the crossfire, and half a dozen explosions later we finally get the Bleeding Edge title card. (Yes, everything I've just described happens in the first 15 minutes!)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 25th, 2018
“The charm of this little escapade is rapidly wearing thin.”
Who doesn’t love a good heist comedy? The genre comes ready-made with stylish characters trading clever quips while trying to out-smart one another (and the audience). And with its surprisingly starry cast, The Con is On looked to be an especially promising entry into the heist comedy canon. So how did it go so wrong? Well for starters, the con artists here are just as (if not more) unlikable than the screwy suckers they are targeting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 5th, 2018
“Every time a black woman gets mad, she's a stereotype.”
Taraji P. Henson has been a very good and versatile actress for a long time, but she didn’t become a star until she started getting very angry on screen. Her breakout role came in 2015 courtesy of Fox’s Empire, in which Henson’s Cookie Lyon has been known to get into some scraps. So it made sense for Henson to bring her talent for tantrums to the big screen with the help of a filmmaker who once directed a movie called Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Writer/director/producer Tyler Perry seems to be going for “trashy fun”…unfortunately, he only gets halfway there.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 29th, 2018
“Please don't do the whole absent-minded professor thing.”
Even though he’s not anywhere close to the biggest name in Hollywood, Guy Pearce is low-key my favorite actor. The Aussie is probably best known for his starring role in Christopher Nolan’s Memento, the memory loss masterpiece in which Pearce played a man who tattooed helpful(?) clues and reminders all over his body. So when I realized he’d be playing another forgetful lead character in Spinning Man, I was hopeful. But despite some solid performances and interesting philosophical ideas, the film is too downbeat and dull to be an effective thriller.
