Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2014
You know exactly what's going on here. It's Rocky Balboa vs. Jake La Motta, and they're not exactly in their prime. For reasons of property rights, of course, this really isn't Rocky or La Motta, but you and I know it is. The film takes great pains to remind us of each of these iconic characters. Sly's character tries to take a shot at some hanging meat after drinking a glass of raw eggs. De Niro's character is found telling boxing jokes in his own club, just as the real-life La Motta did after his fighting days were over. Both of these actors played iconic fighters in their day. It's safe to say that both the characters and the actors themselves are beyond their physical prime. Sly is just three years shy of 70, while De Niro reached that milestone back in August. And that's what makes Grudge Match a better film as a comedy.
It's been 30 years since Pittsburg's greatest fighters Henry "Razor" Sharp (Stallone) and Billy "The Kid" McDonnen (De Niro) left the fight game. They faced each other twice in their careers, splitting the victories. For each, the other was their only loss. A rubber match was going to happen, but Rocky Razor decided to retire before the fight. Since then, La Motta The Kid has not been able to let it go. He wanted to show the world he was best. It doesn't help that they had an issue out of the ring.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on April 7th, 2014
The majority of murders committed on television are presented from the perspective of the people trying to solve them. It's a smart, gratifying strategy because it allows us viewers to play detective from the safety of our couches one hour at a time. Far fewer shows are interested in doing the more difficult/less glamorous work of dramatizing the way a death can shatter a family, along with an entire community. Broadchurch is one of the most outstanding cop dramas I've seen in a long time because it's willing to do that difficult work while also delivering the goods as a satisfying whodunnit.
“You know what happens around a murder? A whole industry grows up, of groupies and rubberneckers, and people who want to touch the case.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 3rd, 2014
“I’m Norma Rae. You know me.”
Chances are you’ve at least heard of Norma Rae, even if you haven’t actually seen the Oscar-winning film that bears her name. You might know it as the granddaddymomma of underdog stories centered on feisty female crusaders; Norma Rae begat Silkwood, Erin Brockovich, North Country and others. Or you might know it as the movie that made Sally Field a serious movie star, although it’d be another five years until she really believed that people liked her. But if you’ve neither seen nor heard of Norma Rae, now’s as good a chance as any to get acquainted: Fox is celebrating its 35th anniversary by debuting the film on Blu-ray.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 2nd, 2014
“…I’m packing an ounce of killer shrooms, and there be monsters in need of pummelin’.”
When I first think of how to explain Knights of Badassdom, what comes to mind is that it’s Evil Dead 2 meets LARPing. The only experience I’ve had with LARPing came in the form of watching Role Models and having to review the documentary Skull World. What director Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2 and actor in Holliston) has done is create a world that invites both fans of role-playing and horror and thrusts them together to create a blood-and-gore-soaked romp filled with laughs and the beautiful fan boy favorite Summer Glau (Firefly and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 2nd, 2014
“Sometimes a day can be an eternity.”
It’s hard to tell a convincing love story, period. It’s even harder to tell a convincing love story when we’re supposed to believe the two characters fall for each other within the space of a single day. The good news is At Middleton somewhat manages to pull this off in a little over an hour. The bad news is the film is actually 1 hour and 40 minutes long.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on March 31st, 2014
What would you do if you found out that you fathered 533 kids? Better yet, how would you handle that news on top of the news that the children you fathered are petitioning the courts to have your identity revealed? Well, that is the dilemma that Vince Vaughn is faced with in his new comedy Delivery Man. As you can figure out from the funny premise, this is a comedy, but it is not just hapless jokes without any real substance; Delivery Man actually has another side to it, a side that tugs on the heartstrings a bit.
A remake of the French-Canadian film “Starbuck,” (it is also worth mentioning that both films, original and remake, share the same creator, Ken Scott) Delivery Man tells the story of David Wozniak, a truck driver for his family’s butcher shop who has big plans for his life that never quite pan out. Perhaps that is too kind a way of putting it. A better way would be to say that David has been a bit of a disappointment to his girlfriend Emily (Cobie Smulders, How I Met Your Mother) who has just informed him that she’s pregnant, his father who would most likely fire him if he wasn’t related to him, and the family business. Not only that, he owes an immense amount of money to some unsavory characters with a penchant for drowning people who don’t pay their debts.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 30th, 2014
It’s been quite some time since The Chappelle Show went off the air, and it would appear Comedy Central has finally found its replacement. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the two shows are on the same par, but what Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele bring to the small screen is something that has piqued my interest and shows some potential. Both Key and Peele got their big break from working on the sketch comedy show MADtv, and it would seem they are taking their talents and what they learned to bring us something that is a little familiar but still fresh and keeps its audience laughing.
Comedy Central now releases Key & Peele as a Season 1 & 2 pack, and here you get more laughs for your buck.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 28th, 2014
When you get a film from Troma to watch, you have to view it differently than you would view just about any other film. After all, Troma is the VHS and DVD equivalent to the days of Roger Corman and the B-movie fanfare he could travel from one Cineplex to the next. Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman has been writing and directing B-cinema schlock for 40 years and has managed to make money off it, so for those naysayers out there, keep in mind he still is responsible for The Toxic Avenger as well as Tromeo & Juliet.
With Return to Nuke’em High, Kaufman seems to be taking on his most ambitious project yet. The film is broken up into two separate volumes, and volume one sets up the epic gross-out satire wonderfully. The opening sequence narrated by none other than Peter Parker himself (Stan Lee) about the previous events that took place in the 1986 cult classic Class of Nuke’em High. With the viewer now caught up, we meet Chrissy (Asta Paredes); she hangs with her crew of misfit friends, though she secretly blogs about the health and safety issues going on at the school all while keeping her boyfriend Eugene (Clay von Carlowitz) at bay from his sexual advances. But the boat gets rocked when rich new girl, Lauren (Catherine Corcoran) arrives and Chrissy sets her vengeful/lustful sights upon her.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on March 27th, 2014
“…I’m the f---ing Vice President of the United States, and I have something to say.”
If you’ve seen Veep, you know it’s almost impossible to quote the show without including an f-bomb or any of the show’s crassly creative put-downs. The sitcom’s central joke remains that the vice presidency might be the most high-profile unimportant job in the world. As a result, the second season of HBO’s caustic comedy sees VP Selina Meyer making moves to improve her political standing. Of course, she and her harried staff can’t avoid the humiliations and indignities that come with the job.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on March 25th, 2014
Besides the fact that it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and that it’s essentially a white collar gloss on Goodfellas, you’d be forgiven for thinking somebody other than Martin Scorsese directed The Wolf of Wall Street. I don’t mean to suggest Scorsese has lost his masterful touch or his passion for filmmaking, both of which were on display as recently as two years ago in the wonderful Hugo. It’s more that after spending the better part of the 21st century making strong, serious dramas, I didn’t necessarily expect Scorsese to make his funniest, loosest and most audacious picture in decades.
“I want you to deal with your problems by becoming rich.”
