Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 4th, 2018
“This is the greatest s— show on Earth!”
The First Purge arrives in theaters a little more than five years after the (lowercase) first Purge rampaged into moviegoers’ consciousness as a nasty bit of R-rated, summer blockbuster counterprogramming. The movies are obviously quite popular, but I’ve never felt that any of them fully lived up to the killer concept at the center of this franchise. Unfortunately, that still holds true for The First Purge, which had a chance to deviate from the established formula in a variety of interesting ways, but ends up playing a lot like The First Three Purges.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 3rd, 2018
“The world doesn't want any more saints.”
Maybe the world didn't want any more Exorcist movies...at least not any that looked like Exorcist II: The Heretic. This follow-up to William Friedkin's 1973 genre-defining horror classic is not only regarded as one of the weakest sequels of all-time, but some consider it to be one of the worst films ever made. I hate to throw out a ***SPOILER ALERT*** so early in my review, but...I don't think this is the worst film ever made. ***END OF SPOILER ALERT*** Instead, I find Exorcist II to be a nonsensical, somewhat intriguing disaster whose fatal flaw is that it took everything that everyone loved about The Exorcist...and decided to do almost the exact opposite.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2018
"Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward."
Fox is taking full advantage of their version of the X-Men Universe these days. By this time next year, the group of mutants will once again be back with Marvel at Disney, and I suspect they will quickly join that studio's MCU. I can't blame Fox for getting as much out of it now as they can. With the pending release of Dark Phoenix and two television shows running, this was the perfect time to release the original film trilogy on UHD in ultra-high-definition. While the films feel just a little dated today, it's quite a nice little treat to have them in 4K. These kinds of films are what 4K was built for. And now you can add the original films to your 4K collection with X-Men Trilogy 3 Film Collection out now from Fox.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 28th, 2018
"How will we be remembered? Will it be for saving the world...Twice? Nope. We're the team who broke time. That's right. History has been torn to shreds, which means it's up to us to put it back together again, piece by piece, finding these so-called anachronisms before we get torn to shreds. So please, don't call us heroes. We're legends."
At the end of the second season the team broke one of the cardinal rules of time travel. You can't revisit a time and place that you already visited. The result is that you break time, and that's exactly what the Legends of Tomorrow have done. The result is that they have been recalled and dismissed from service by the newly-formed Bureau of Time. Now our legends are back in the mundane world, where Sara (Lotz) is working as a clerk at a bed and shower store, having fantasies of killing her boss. Ray Palmer (Routh) went from owning the world's largest tech company to working for a kid at a dating app... eh, make that a holistic social networking program. Professor Stein (Garber) is enjoying his new family with a grandchild on the way. Jackson (Drameh) is just bored to death with a normal life. And Mick (Purcell) is chilling on a beach in Aruba when his chill is interrupted by Caesar (Merrells). That's Julius, and not the salad, hotel, or talking ape. Of course, he's an anachronism who happened to arrive in Aruba for the annual Aruba-con celebration. It looks like the team is going to have to get together, but the powers that be don't quite see it that way. So they steal back the Waverunner, which was retired to a training simulator, and it's off fighting the problem that they created.
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 J C on September 27th, 2018
“So here we are...in the belly of the beast. A lot of power and money in this room.”
That cheeky line came from Iggy Pop during The Stooges' induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. It's also featured in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: In Concert — Encore, a wonderfully comprehensive collection of the four induction ceremonies between 2010 and 2013. The 2-disc Blu-ray set features over 8 hours of content, including full induction speeches and 44 musical performances from rock and roll icons and rising stars. Iggy was right about the power and money in the room; this set features some of the biggest names in the history of music...plus A-listers like Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2018
"Is there life out there? Good heavens! To doubt it is a failure of more than the imagination. It is a failure to recognize the limits of our own stupidity. The nascency of our science. The rudiment of our tools. We listen. We search. We hope for a sign, as if our eyes and ears are good enough, our brains large enough, our egos small enough."
By the time The X-Files had reached its seventh season, the two stars of the show were feeling the stress of doing over 20 episodes of the series every year. In the eighth season David Duchovny was going MIA, and Gillian Anderson's Scully character had a new partner in Robert Patrick's Agent Doggett. They used Duchovny's absence as a new story arc in the overall mythology, and the story became the search for Mulder. It provided an interesting chance for Anderson to take even more center stage, and she actually handled the changes pretty well. But even Anderson was getting tired, and the ninth and final season would feature Anderson in only a limited role as Doggett and his new partner Agent Reyes, played by Annabeth Gish, became the new agents on The X-Files. The missing Mulder storyline began to get stale, and the show limped through that final season. But fans hoped that Mulder and Scully would find a way to reunite and bring back the core team that really was the heart of The X-Files.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2018
"A long time ago in a galaxy far far away..."
Yes, those lines open this Star Wars story, because the filmmakers want to be sure you know what you're watching. This is Star Wars. Just in case there was anyone at all in the audience who had no idea they just bought a ticket to Star Wars. If he were dead, George Lucas would be rolling over in his grave. Instead, maybe he's just having some restless nights with little sleep. It is Star Wars. And that means there will be a droid as a main character, space battles, and some good old fashioned one-reel-serial-days adventure. It's a heck of a visual amusement park ride, and the film will certainly entertain. But I have to open by saying it is my least favorite of the Disney Star Wars films to date.
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 Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2018
"Once upon a time there was a magical forest filled with fairytale characters. One day a powerful curse trapped them in a city which had no magic, and each of them forgot who they really were. This is how it happened..."
Once Upon A Time hasn't been a big ratings winner for the last few years. Each season the show appeared on the bubble and ended up getting renewed at the last minute. One of the reasons the show managed to escape the axe was because it had some value for the network's parent company, Walt Disney Studios. The show was a good way to keep the studio’s properties in front of an audience. That's pretty much what the show finally became. They threw the books at us, from Frozen to The Little Mermaid. With that value in mind, the decision was made last season to keep the show but completely retool it. The network cut most of the cast and started the story over again.
