Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2019
It was 1962, and Ursula Andress emerged from the tropical island surf sporting a provocative swimsuit, and a tradition was born. The seductive scene would become the first iconic image in a line that has lasted a half a century and counting. Fifty years; 23 movies makes it the longest running film franchise in motion picture history. He had many faces over those 50 years: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, George Lazenby, and even David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen in a 1967 spoof. For the last three films, he's been played by Daniel Craig. They all had somewhat different styles. They all had a line of beautiful women. They all faced different challenges and foes. But they all shared the same name: Bond...James Bond.
James Bond first appeared in the pages of Ian Fleming’s novel, Casino Royale. Fleming was himself a former British Intelligence Officer and had been engaged in what he liked to call “shenanigans” in that role. He admits that many of Bond’s tastes are lifted from his own preferences. It can be safe to say that Ian Fleming was as much James Bond as any of the men who have played him. The books were written one a year during his two-month vacation as a news writer. He would escape to his vacation home in Jamaica during those 6-8 weeks and in short order produce a Bond adventure. It’s likely not a small coincidence that the first Bond film would feature the island location predominately as its setting. For most of the 1960's and into the 1970's, the films were taken directly from his Bond novels. Eventually the film series surpassed the novels and has been operating as original scripts for most of the last 30+ years. In those days the end credits always revealed the name of the next Bond film. Now we merely get a blanket statement that James Bond will return.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2019
"In May 1980, Fidel Castro opened the harbor at Mariel, Cuba with the apparent intention of letting some of his people join their relatives in the United States. Within seventy-two hours, 3,000 U.S. boats were headed for Cuba. It soon became evident that Castro was forcing the boat owners to carry back with them not only their relatives, but the dregs of his jails. Of the 125,000 refugees that landed in Florida, an estimated 25,000 had criminal records."
One of those refugees was Tony Montana.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 23rd, 2019
When it comes to gritty detective films, Seven and Zodiac are two that help define the genre. It seems like there are so many films that are attempting to piggyback off the style, but so many films fail because they are trying so hard to copycat the films, or they simply pull their punches with the material. Night Hunter is the newest film to make an attempt but sadly just falls apart. There is a lot of potential in this film, with Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) taking the top billing; then there are Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, and Nathan Fillion filling out the cast. The cast and the storyline give this the potential to be a great thriller, but unfortunately the delivery ends up being something just a little better than an episode of Law and Order.
After a woman manages to escape from her kidnapper, exhausted and barely clothed in the cold, she chooses to take a leap from a bridge rather than go back into the hands of her attacker. The leap ends up killing her as she lands on the back of a logging truck, and this is where Marshall (Cavill) comes in, as he’s tasked with investigating what happened to the woman. On a more entertaining side, there is Cooper (Kingsley), a former judge. With the aid of his young ward they lure out pedophiles, and after the would-be sex offender has succumbed, they castrate the men. Yeah, this film starts off dark and sets us up for what we hope can be a gritty vigilante tale, but instead this goes a much more safe and generic route. Really, what are the odds that the same attacker involved with Marshall’s case would just so happen to kidnap the girl working with Cooper? It’s a bit of a stretch, but this film takes so many leaps in logic that it becomes borderline absurd.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2019
"Come and see. Come and see. The death of humanity upon a shore of corpses, broken heads, spilled guts, scorched flesh. Come and see the young tearing each other's throats out. Rivers of poison will flow through the halls. Oath breakers. Philanderers. Murders will wade through those rivers. Come and see. Come and see."
When Vikings started five years ago, I found it to be quite an ambitious task for a network that usually featured documentaries and reality shows about odd jobs. I approached this one with some caution. Now I've thrown caution to the wind for these compelling characters. I was particularly drawn into the lead. Travis Fimmel was outstanding as the Viking leader Ragnor Lothbrook. When his character was killed off after three years, I suspected things would be winding down for this experiment. I could not have been more wrong. Alex Hogh Andersen plays Ivar, his crippled son, who rises to be more powerful and more brutal that Ragnor ever was. The actor shares many of Fimmel's characteristics, both in his physical look and the way he carries himself. It's one of the most perfect father-and-son casting pairs I've ever encountered. Because of Andersen, the show has been reborn, and there's still a lot of life in this series. The release of the first half of Season 5 is another strong contribution to your home entertainment library.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 22nd, 2019
As a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's, I quickly grasped the concept of a good short. Whether it was a tiny piece before the movie started at my local cinema or a Looney Tunes cartoon on my 13-inch television, I saw how hard it was to capture the audience in the span of such a small frame of time. However, when those directors are able to capture that lightening in a bottle, it can produce some amazing results. Today, we are taking a look at Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond and see if a few of these fantastic directors can create a memorable slice of anime.
Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond are two collections of shorts released in 2007 and 2008 respectively. It is twelve pieces by twelve different directors with different animation styles. In the following bylines, I'll try to piece together what each of these takes are about and then have some broad comments after.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2019
"Is that where a blind cop kidnaps an Uber driver?"
That pretty much tells the story of Stuber. The title is a combination of the lead character's name, Stuart and Uber. With the advent of Uber, the entire concept of hiring a ride has changed significantly. Taxi drivers are swiftly becoming a thing of the past, and ride-sharing aps like Uber and Lyft are taking over the market to the point that taxi companies do not even exist in some cities any longer. I have to admit, I'm not so sure I'm completely on board with the idea of regular unregulated folks out there picking up complete strangers who happen to have hailed them via their cell phones on an anonymous app. It's a bit dangerous for both parties, and it's not surprising that the horror stories have been appearing in the news about these ride experiences going horribly astray. That's the fear or reality that serves as the central theme for Stuber. While I'm sure the first Uber horror film is either in production or at least being written as I type these words, Stuber opts for the more comedic and action-oriented version of the idea. But make no mistake. More is coming.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 17th, 2019
The novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is certainly a literary classic, but for the sake of this review you’ll need to ignore the book and the previous film adaptations…I think it’ll be easy to forget the 1999 film The Haunting. I say this mostly because if you go into this series expecting that story, you will be disappointed. Instead, what creator and director Mike Flanagan has delivered is a masterpiece of horror that is so good that as the season plays out it manages to outdo itself again and again up to its final episode. When it first aired on Netflix I binged it and instantly fell in love, and when the opportunity arose to return to the series and see extended cuts of the episodes, I was more than happy to oblige.
First off, only three episodes are given the extended treatment. Steven Sees a Ghost, The Bent-Neck Lady and the last episode, Silence Lay Steadily. Honestly, it had been a year since I last watched the show, and I didn’t recognize what was added till listening to the commentary tracks that were attached. Does it hurt the series any by having these added scenes? Not at all; if anything, I enjoyed it more this time around.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 17th, 2019
"You know me, always saving the day."
After the disappointment that was the recent Suicide Squad animated feature, Warner and DC needed to save the day with the release of The Death of Superman, and that's exactly what they did. The Death Of Superman was a major milestone in the history of the Man of Steel in the comics. It all started in December of 1992. DC announced they were killing off their most iconic hero and ending the Superman run of comics. Of course, that was only partially true. Once Supes was "killed off" the comic split into four new branches, as the vacuum created by his death needed to be filled both in the fictional universe as well as the commercial side of ours. Eventually the lines were reunited, and Superman has been alive and well ever since. But this was a huge event in the world of comics. The Justice League and Batman vs. Superman films used aspects of the story in the recent film, but this animated feature goes back to its comic roots and more faithfully brings that comic series to life. The Reign of the Supermen would follow and would tie up the story started in the first film. Now things would drift away from the comics somewhat, but it's an epic story when viewed together, and that's what Warner Brothers does with this release. It's called The Death and Return of Superman and it combines both animated features into one near-three-hour event, and it's out in 4K.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on October 16th, 2019
“It’s easy to fool people when they are already fooling themselves.”
There was a lot of pressure on this film to be great, it being the first MCU film following the epic known as Endgame. This film needed to be the statement that the MCU was finished after the events of Endgame, which completely and irrevocably changed the landscape of the franchise going forward. By the way, if you have not seen Endgame yet, two things. First, what is wrong with you? You are the reason that the film hasn’t taken the all-time box office record away from Avatar yet. The film has just been re-released with additional footage, so there is even more to enjoy. So get to a theater ASAP! We need to beat Avatar! Secondly, you should probably stop reading this review immediately, as I will be discussing events that will likely leave you lost. Let the previous declaration serve as your warning disclaimer. Iron Man is gone, Captain America has laid down his shield in favor for a lifetime with the love of his life. A little selfish, but I’d say he’s earned it after his many sacrifices. The Avengers are essentially disbanded, but the world still needs heroes. Enter your friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 16th, 2019
Ever since I saw High Tension, I’ve been a fan of Alexandre Aja. The guy simply has a nice visual flair and for the most part puts out quality horror films. From The Hills Have Eyes remake, to Mirrors, and the beautifully shot Piranha 3D, Aja has made gore look like fine art on the big screen. So to hear he’d be working with Sam Raimi on a horror film, well, that’s simply music to my ears. It’s been a while since we’ve had a good man vs. nature horror film, and the concept of a family attempting to survive a category 5 hurricane in Florida while being hunted by alligators in their crawlspace, well, if that doesn’t get you excited, then just back away now. Crawl isn’t a movie attempting to be high art or go for Oscars; it’s a movie that just wants you to have fun for 90 minutes, and it delivers on that.
My only major complaint comes with the start of the film where we are with Haley (Kaya Scodelario) during her swim team practice as a category 5 storm is barreling their way. As a life time Florida resident, I know that there is no way this school would be doing this with the storm as close as it is. Nitpicking aside, the scene is setting our heroine up as a strong, capable swimmer who has some adversity to overcome, since we see she may not be on the starting squad for her team. This is for the most part the unnecessary back-story we’re used to seeing in horror films where we’ll of course see her overcome her self-doubt later in the film. It also seems they couldn’t help themselves by having her attend the University of Florida, making Haley a Gator herself.
