Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2015
"The thing that haunts me are all the guys that I couldn't save."
I have to admit I was a little skeptical that Clint Eastwood followed up his directing stint on Jersey Boys as quickly as he did to shoot American Sniper. The former was far from one of his better efforts, and he looked increasingly out of his element by the time it was said and done. He jumped into his preparation for American Sniper almost immediately, and the results could have been...underwhelming. Instead Eastwood hit his target with the kind of profound impact I don't think I've seen from him since Unforgiven. Unforgiven won a Best Picture award, and deservedly so. American Sniper was nominated, although Eastwood himself was snubbed in the director category. It didn't win, of course, but this is one that most certainly deserves your attention.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 19th, 2015
If nothing else, The Pyramid has an intriguing premise. A father-daughter archaeologist team discovers an unusual, three-sided pyramid buried 600 feet underground that might even predate the ancient Egyptians. Essentially, this is Ancient Aliens as a found-footage horror film. Yes…unfortunately, I said “found footage,” a cinematic device that now feels even more decrepit than your garden variety mummy. So while the film’s opening act probably got people like this guy extremely excited, the movie falls apart the deeper the characters descend into the titular pyramid.
Miles Holden (Denis O’Hare) is a patient, old-school archaeologist, while his daughter Nora (Ashley Hinshaw) is more excitable and has been quicker to embrace new tools like satellite technology in her work. Together, they have made what is potentially the find of the century: an ancient pyramid buried deep beneath the desert in Egypt. A documentary film crew — journalist Sunni (Crista Nicola) and camera guy Fitzie (James Buckley) — arrives to capture the Holdens’ discovery.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2015
"As you know, in less than two hours liquor will be declared illegal by decree of the distinguished gentlemen of our nation's Congress. To those beautiful, ignorant bastards. Rest assured that, dry though the country may be, I am in the midst of concluding arrangements that will keep Atlantic City wet..."
HBO has finally released a full series set of Boardwalk Empire on Blu-ray. This is an HBO trend that has gone full tilt in the last year, seeing such hits as The Sopranos, True Blood and soon The Wire all coming in wonderful full-series releases. They look great on your video shelf. Together they create a tremendous number of hours of quality television. I love having it all in one place. If you're new to the show, what better time to climb on board? Here's a primer on what you're going to see. I almost envy you folks who will watch it all for the first time in one sweep.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2015
"A man of your age has no excuse for looking or behaving like a fugitive from a home for alcoholic music hall artistes."
Sound like anyone you know? Johnny Depp is one hell of a talented actor. There are few in the industry than can so completely inhabit a character. He has an uncanny ability to make you forget Johnny Depp the actor and lose yourself in his performance. He is a chameleon physically and expressively. Unfortunately, Johnny has had trouble finding box office gold lately. You see, he's having a lot of fun at our expense. But it's not just we who are footing the bill for his tomfoolery. The studios are handing out hundreds of millions of dollars for box office misses like The Lone Ranger, Transcendence, Dark Shadows, The Rum Diaries and the animated Rango. Depp appears interested only in making films where he can have a blast on screen and doesn't appear all that concerned if the film makes any money or if the audience feels like they've been invited into the party. You can now add Mortdecai to that list. There's absolutely no question that Depp is having a blast, but if you paid anything at all to see it, it was at your expense.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on May 18th, 2015
“Nobody’s innocent. Everyone’s hiding things.”
The citizens of Broadchurch — the fictional seaside town that was rocked by the murder of a young boy in this superlative British crime drama — learned the above lesson the hard way. In fact, I felt pretty strongly that every compelling secret the series had to offer had surfaced during the show’s outstanding first season. So I was pretty dubious when I heard creator/head writer Chris Chibnall had gotten the band back together for an encore. Having now finished season 2, I’m thoroughly delighted to be proven wrong.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 14th, 2015
“To truly know a man, you must walk in his shoes.”
On the lone special feature of any substance included on this Blu-ray, director/co-writer Thomas McCarthy admits The Cobbler was inspired by the well-known idiom listed above. I’m all for getting as many original ideas on the big screen as possible. But even if you don’t think basing a feature film on a popular saying is a shaky proposition, The Cobbler severely underwhelms because it totally fails to capitalize on its high-concept premise in an intriguing way.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 13th, 2015
Lost River is the showy, laborious, mystifying feature filmmaking debut of actor/meme machine Ryan Gosling. Unfortunately, you’re more likely to have heard about the intensely negative reaction the movie received when it premiered at Cannes last year, than you are to have actually seen the film. Lost River now arrives on a bare bones Blu-ray that does little to clear up — or enhance — Gosling’s first foray into directing. So we’re left to assume he simply decided to make a movie out of his dream journal.
The plot of Lost River is ostensibly simple. It’s the story of Billy (Christina Hendricks), a single mother who lives in a particularly run-down part of Detroit with her two sons, teenaged Bones (Iain De Caestecker) and toddler Franky (Landyn Stewart). Bones likes to get into abandoned houses and collect interesting scraps. Meanwhile, Billy learns she is in danger of losing her family’s home after meeting with eccentric bank manager Dave (Ben Mendelsohn), who suggests she get a job in town. So far, so normal…except the operative word here is definitely Lost, which is how you’ll likely feel as the story unfolds.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
"It's the guy next door, guy who sits too close in the theater, maybe even at church. Plain, ordinary, the everyday man. That's the guy they should be afraid of. 'Cause they never see him coming."
Or maybe the friendly neighborhood barber. Max Enscoe's screenplay for The Barber appears to touch on those fears. We've all seen those interviews with neighbors and friends after a particularly heinous killer is finally caught. He was quiet. Always went to church.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 12th, 2015
There are certain things that are obvious to some of us, and nobody wants to talk about them. All people are full of weaknesses that they then try to deny exist. People are people, but some people think they are better than other people. It seems obvious that we should all try to get over our hatred and be more accepting of all our differences and see how much alike we all are. Black or White is an important movie that comes in the form of a fun and heartwarming melodrama. The movie navigates through very murky and unexplored waters and comes out the other side triumphantly. There is no reason that these waters are unexplored except for the fact that everyone thinks everyone else is racist but never looks at themselves. There is lots of very ugly and violent racism, and then there is subconscious racism. The subconscious racism is harder to deal with.
Most people are guilty of this, because we all tend to put ourselves in smaller and smaller categories.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 11th, 2015
“It’s like being kids again. The streets are our playground.”
The above quote refers to parkour, the art and discipline of moving through urban spaces that was popularized in France. French practitioners of parkour are called “traceurs,” which gives this totally clichéd, consistently ridiculous, but occasionally breathtaking action flick its title. You’ve seen the plot before (many times), but Tracers still vaults itself above the straight-to-DVD pack thanks to its freewheeling free-running sequences.
