Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 19th, 2022
When I am not writing reviews, playing games, having a family, oh, and also having a job (because writing reviews doesn't exactly pay), I do try to dabble in the occasional short story. Perhaps it's fantasy or science fiction, but I like spinning tales about a world that I want to be a part of even if its just for a few minutes. It's relaxing, and that's why when I saw the opportunity to review Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, a collection of three tales steeped in chance, culture, and some wonderful word banter, I knew I'd enjoy my time. Let's take a look.
The stories are broken out in "Episodes". Here is a brief summary of each one:
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Michael Durr on August 13th, 2022
Nelson Mandela once said, “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” Most people, even in today's society, think of prisoners as lower than the ground they walk upon. Prison abuse is as old as Greek and Roman times. Heck, true prison reform didn't start in the United States until the 1960's. But what about other countries? In Caged Birds, we explore the Switzerland of the 1980's and how one lawyer named Barbara Hug tried to change that very system.
1980's Switzerland: a protest and all sorts of commotion in the streets. One of the signs reads, "Put the State on a Dinner Plate." However, this protest has turned violent. There are cops beating women, and a man is tortured by a female officer. Meanwhile, a young lawyer named Barbara Hugs (played by Marie Leuenberger) stands by and watches as she lights up a smoke. Elsewhere, a car is hot-wired by an escaped prisoner named Walter Strum (played by Joel Basman) who has just escaped a jail for the seventh time.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Michael Durr on August 8th, 2022
Some of my favorite movies are ones where they use the "author" as the focal part of the story. Films like Secret Window, Misery, and The Ghost Writer are ones that immediately come to mind for me. However, Westerns tend to be somewhere down on the list of genres for me, and only ones like Tombstone or Unforgiven tend to spark any interest. So when I received Jesus Kid, which features a Brazilian author who likes to write Westerns, well, you can kinda understand my apprehension. However, my curiosity was also piqued at the same time for the very same set of reasons.
Eugenio (played by Paulo Miklos) brushes his teeth late one night. He follows it up with a mouth rinse ... and a cigarette. Then a swish with some whiskey and some pills. Seems like a typical night for the author. Eugenio writes western tales about a cowboy simply known as Jesus Kid (that's Geesus, not Haysous). In fact, he's published twenty books about the character, and his latest manuscript entitled Ballad of the Nerves is ready for publication.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 29th, 2022
From the moment I saw the trailer for The Lost City, it immediately gave me vibes of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, the adventure-romance films that starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner back in the mid-eighties. The basic story for those films was simple: a romance writer who finds herself in an adventure to find a rare jewel alongside a handsome rogue with bad guys coming after them around every corner. I loved these films as a kid, and getting to see a modern twist on these stories is something I found welcome. What is even more welcome is getting to see Sandra Bullock back in a comedic role. I’ve been a fan of just about everything Bullock has done since she graced the screen in Demolition Man and then the following year in Speed. My only concern was seeing Channing Tatum as her co-star; while I like him in numerous supporting roles like Logan Lucky and Foxcatcher, he’s never really convinced me that he has what it takes for leading-man status. Well, that changed after seeing The Lost City, and my feeling about this film is that it’s the movie audiences don’t yet realize they needed, and I hope it becomes the box office success it deserves to be.
Loretta Sage (Bullock) is a successful romance novelist who is mourning the passing of her husband. She’s become a bit of a shut-in, and after struggling to finish her book, “The Lost City of D”, her manager Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) has put together a book tour for Loretta and her cover model, Alan “Dash” (Tatum) to promote the book. Loretta seems to be content with giving up on her romance adventure series, though this could possibly mean an early retirement for Alan, who has embraced being a sex symbol for her readers wearing a ridiculous wig, acid-wash jeans, and a shirt that seems to have lost most of its buttons. Channing Tatum immediately stands out in this performance as he hams it up on stage for the adoring fans but is charming when he’s off stage trying to convince Loretta to not stop writing. It’s after the near-disastrous promo appearance where the plot escalates after Loretta is kidnapped and taken to see an eccentric billionaire, Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe). Fairfax believes the island in Loretta’s new book is based off the island he has recently purchased and is in search of a lost city that contains a rare treasure.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 29th, 2022
"It all started when a man named Bishop created a team of robots. He sent them back in time with one goal: to destroy the 20th century. These machines were programmed to think that they were beyond human. That they were superheroes. They made their way across country murdering some of the greatest figures in history, famous lawmen and men of science. Finally they kidnapped the inventor of time travel itself, and with his help set their sights on destroying all of history. No one could stop these so-called Legends. Not until we came upon the real flesh-and-blood superheroes whose job it is to put history back on track. We're the real Legends of Tomorrow."
If none of that made any sense to you, don't worry about a thing. It'll all become clear over the final 13 episodes of DC's Legends Of Tomorrow: The Complete 7th and Final Season. OK, I lied. No. It really is the 7th and final season, but it won't really become all clear. You see, that's the nature of the series. It's the crazy uncle of the Arrowverse that says a lot of things no one understands. But we all kind of nod our heads and suspect it will all be OK.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2022
"Sounds like the Mad Hatter is throwing a tea party."
Of all of the Arrowverse shows, I think Batwoman has had the hardest road of it. Ruby Rose was far from the dynamic character the CW or DC could have hoped for, and she spent most of her first season complaining or on the outs in some way or another. In her single season she was constantly outshone by her villain and pretty much everyone around her. It's bad when the one in the cape and cowl can't seem to attract any attention. It was a surprise to no one that Ruby Rose left the show after that first year. What did surprise me was that the show was going to continue. Instead of recasting Kate Kane, the powers that be brought in a completely different person to play the title character. Enter Ryan Wilder, played by Jevicia Leslie. She took the rap for a friend and ended up serving 18 months in prison for drug possession. Her foster mother was killed by some bad guys who never paid for the crime. Needless to say, she is carrying a lot of angst. Now she can't find a job or a place to live. She's homeless and living out of her van. She watches a ball of fire which turns out to be a plane crashing out of the sky. It hits near her van, and when she explores the wreckage, she finds the batsuit. Of course she puts it on and gets quite a kick out of the things she can do. She soon realizes the suit can help her get some revenge on the bad guys and starts kicking some butt.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2022
"This rare Texas air will fix you right up."
Until The Exorcist came along in 1973, Giant was Warner Brothers’ highest grossing film at the box office. It was also the last film made by James Dean, who killed himself in a car crash two weeks before production, requiring the services of Nick Adams to step in and provide some of the voice ADR work for Dean. The film earned an at-that-time record 10 Oscar nominations. You would think that a film of this kind of historical importance and success would have been well cared for over the years since 1956. You would have been badly mistaken if you had that belief. Instead the film was allowed to deteriorate to a point where the restoration experts originally thought it could not be salvaged. After great effort and searches for better elements, the film has been pieced back together and given an impressive 4K release, and the result is an image that appears to be something of a miracle, now available to the public with Warner Brothers release of Giant on UHD Blu-ray in its native and natural 4K.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 8th, 2022
This was a bit of a letdown, if I’m being honest. It just didn’t deliver the epic conclusion that I was expecting. Honestly, it felt more like Part 1 of a two-part conclusion. While it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there is another upcoming installment in the franchise, at this moment I am unaware of any intentions to continue the series with this group of characters. Bearing that in mind, I must defer to my original statement: it was a bit of a letdown. In recent years, my fandom for the Wizarding World has been rekindled due my daughter’s discovery, and now obsession, for all things Harry Potter. I was especially glad when I learned that I would be able to bring her along for what I expected, at the time, to be an epic conclusion. And while the film got her stamp of approval, my approval is a little harder to receive.
When we last saw Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), he and his group barely survived a battle with Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen), who’d managed to gather his supporters. Newt and gang only survived due to the sacrifice of his brother, Theseus’ (Callum Turner), fiancé Leta (R.I.P. Zoe Kravitz). Following her sacrifice, Newt, who tended to stay out of the magical politics, had chosen to stand with his brother and Dumbledore (Jude Law) against Grindelwald. In case of Dumbledore, this was more of a symbolic gesture thanks to a blood pact that prevented Dumbledore and Grindelwald from fighting one another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 21st, 2022
Offseason is the type of film we just don’t get a lot of anymore. It’s a film that heavily pays homage to HP Lovecraft and The Messiah of Evil and other films of the 70’s era, only there is little to no gore to show for it. There’s a strong Silent Hill vibe going on with the film, especially with the copious amounts of fog that seem to always be around. It would seem that this film has all the makings to be a hit, especially when it seems to be going for tropes that I like in a horror film, but unfortunately this one just missed its mark by making two big mistakes. One, it was too obvious, and two, it just totally screws up the ending. I’m not expecting every movie to be the next Wicker Man, but it seems that writer and director Mickey Keating is trying so hard to be on the same level as Ti West and Robert Eggers that the film just comes off looking like a good-looking snore-fest we’ve seen before. I really wanted to like this, and it had a lot going for it, but it seems when you pull inspiration from too many sources, it can get pretty messy.
Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue) gets a notice that her mother’s grave has been vandalized and that she must immediately come to the remote tourist island. We find out that her mother, Ava Aldrich (Melora Walters) never even wanted to be buried on this island, but that somehow her will was mysteriously changed, and she was still buried on the island. Marie knows little to nothing about the island, but she goes out there to see to the repairs that need to be made for her mother’s grave … trouble is that the island is being evacuated of tourists, and if Marie and her beau, George (Joe Swanberg) don’t get things sorted out in time, they run the risk of being abandoned on the island.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 14th, 2022
"For nearly three thousand years, man has been searching for the lost ark. It's not something to be taken lightly. No one knows its secrets. It's like nothing you've ever gone after before."
Just in time for the wrap of principal photography on the next and final Indiana Jones film, Paramount cashes in on the renewed interest with the long-awaited, at least from this reviewer, release of the first four films in the Indiana Jones franchise on UHD Blu-ray in full ultra-high-definition complete with HDR and Dolby Vision. OK, I lied about the long-awaited four films. Now you can own the first on its own in this special Steelbook release of Raiders Of The Lost Ark on UHD/4K. No, I'm not going to call it Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and yes, Han shot first and those feds in ET were not carrying walkie talkies in those hands. So sue me.
