Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 30th, 2013
Before Jay & Silent Bob, Harold & Kumar, and Seth Rogen, James Franco and their current band of merry stoners, there was Cheech & Chong. In terms of pot humor, they were the trailblazers who happily blazed on screen and on stage. The comedy duo’s popularity hit its apex with the release of 1978’s Up in Smoke, which became the year’s highest-grossing comedy. Still, Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong’s roots were always in music.
They released nine albums in the ‘70s and ‘80s, winning the Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 1973’s “Los Cochinos.” Some of their most famous songs and routines — including “Dave’s Not Here”, “Earache My Eye”, and “Let’s Make a Dope Deal” — have been re-imagined in Cheech and Chong’s Animated Movie!, the new Blu-ray that was released suspiciously close to April 20. (Unfortunately, this year’s 4/20 didn’t fall on a Tuesday, which is the day most home video titles are released.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on April 24th, 2013
“Now it’s mandatory that you do not make make eye contact until we tell you that it’s all clear.”
Typical, one person can’t follow simple instructions and the rest are doomed to die because of it. Or at least that’s how it starts in Escapee, the new suspense horror film starring Dominic Purcell and Christine Evangelista, or what I like to call it: Halloween with a dash of Friday the 13th. Harsh perhaps, but as I watched the film I could not help but the see the comparisons. It fooled me at first with a fairly interesting opening sequence, but from there, it become painstakingly obvious that the film did nothing but rehash many of the themes that made the previous films famous. It wasn’t until the reveal at the climax of the film that the story felt mildly original.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 22nd, 2013
Donnie Yen continues to deliver one great martial arts film after the other, easily making him the most entertaining martial arts star for quite some time. Sure, there are those who cling to the idea of Bruce Lee being “the best” or perhaps mentioning Jackie Chan or Jet Li for more modern viewers. But for me it’s Yen, and I have no problem saying he may be the best martial arts star of all time. His work with Ip Man, Seven Swords, and Flash Point are staples in a career that has been going since 1984. With Dragon you can check off another hit for Yen; though it may not be as action-packed as some of his previous releases, what we get instead is a fun detective story that asks the question, can a man that has committed atrocious crimes be capable of change?
Dragon opens up in a small village in 1917 China. The village is quaint; everyone has their place in keeping the village alive and running. For money the village makes paper; it’s not enough to exactly have everyone living the high life, but that isn’t what you’d expect in this village that probably hasn’t changed much in the past hundred years. But everything changes when two thieves come into the village and attempt to rob it. Liu Jin-xi (Yen) reluctantly stops the robbery, and in the process a “fight” breaks out which results in the death of the two thieves. Was it simply luck on Jin-xi’s part, or is his simpleminded act of heroism a ruse, and beneath it all could he possibly be a trained killer? This is left to Xu Bai-jiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro Red Cliff and House of Flying Daggers), an investigator sent to the village to decide if it was all an act of self defense.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 22nd, 2013
“I want to talk to you about the war for the soul of Los Angeles.”
This could easily describe the current rivalry between the surging L.A. Clippers and the geriatric Los Angeles Lakers, but Gangster Squad has slightly weightier matters on its mind. The stylish 1940s and 50s cops-and-crooks saga wants to tell a story about corruption and violent men unable — or unwilling — to turn off their capacity for hurting others. Instead, the film winds up being a somewhat shallow 21st century gloss on The Untouchables. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 22nd, 2013
“Whose move is it?”
To be honest, I’m not much of a chess player. I know how all the pieces move and I enjoy the mental challenge, but I never really committed to becoming proficient at the game. (Now, if we’re talking Connect Four, you don’t want to run into me in a dark alley.) Pawn establishes its intriguing chess motif early on, before almost completely abandoning it in favor of becoming more of a generically twisty thriller.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 16th, 2013
Sometimes a movie comes along that rises above simple entertainment and actually has something to say. The Big Picture is the kind of movie that has profound ideas about love, family, and the pursuit of your dreams. Is it possible to really have it all? The perfect spouse, the perfect family and live out your lifelong passion and dream? Many who have families, especially when starting young, can understand the idea of sacrifice for their families; it doesn’t mean they just cast their hopes and dreams aside, but once marriage and children are involved the direction your life may take was never the direction you had planned at all. And it’s this life and compromise director Eric Lartigau thrusts us into.
When we first meet Paul (Romain Duris) he is a happy family man with a beautiful wife, Sarah (Marina Fois), and two children. Though he is a successful lawyer, his passion is photography. He continues to snap photos and develop them in his personal lab, but he understands the risk of setting out to be a freelance photographer and simply can’t give up the security of his job with the law firm. Unfortunately, though, Sarah is not so content with her idyllic life and has dreams of her own as well as other desires she wishes to fulfill outside of the marriage. As Paul discovers his wife’s infidelity and that it was with a close friend, he begins to crack, and with good reason. Things only get worse when Paul confronts Greg (the man Sarah is having the affair with); their minor altercation leads to Paul accidently killing him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jonathan Foster on April 16th, 2013
“When I get a crush, it’s really bad.”
Everyone has experienced it before: you meet that special someone, and a crush sidelines you. They fill your head when you’re not with them. When they’re near, you act like an idiot. The downside comes when your crush is not reciprocated; or worse, they don’t even know you exist. Most people can move past the disappointment and heartbreak to get over a crush. But for an unlucky few, their crush can turn into a dangerous obsession.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 11th, 2013
Looking back, it’s amazing how far visual effects have come since 1988. I can remember sitting in the theater watching Willow for the first time and believing everything I saw up on the screen wasn’t the work of movie magic, but I believed it to be reality. Perhaps some far off land where there are swordsmen fighting evil sorcerers and trolls lurk in the shadows of abandoned castles. This is a thought I’d like to believe I’m not the only one that hoped this was a reality, but if I am I’m fine with that. Willow came out at a time when Hollywood was trying to bring large-scale fantasy to the screen with other releases like Excalibur, Legend and Conan. Though these films are their own kind of awesome, the digital effects still hadn’t quite reached the level they needed to be to make these worlds as immersive as the Lord of the Rings films, for instance. Where the film may not have held up over the years with the special effects, it’s the story that manages to captivate this viewer 25 years later.
Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) is not your ordinary hero, and for 1988 seeing a little person as the star of a film is even further for ordinary. But Willow isn’t about ordinary; it’s about a journey of fantastic proportions where even the tiniest of men can be the biggest of heroes. When Willow is tasked to return a baby to her people, he must venture away from his village to a land that seems to be on the verge of war, something Willow and his fellow dwarves want nothing to do with. During Willow’s journey to find a proper protector for the baby, he encounters Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), who claims to be the greatest swordsmen that ever lived; unfortunately when he’s found he’s been left for dead in a cage. This is one of the roles that has me wondering what happened to Kilmer; in this role he is simply fun to watch and dripping with charisma; the guy was meant to be a star. And when we do get to see Madmartigan in action, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if Madmartigan and Aragorn were to ever cross paths.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on April 10th, 2013
“Why save a few when we can save them all?”
An excellent question; have you ever noticed that in disaster films as soon as an apocalyptic event is discovered, plans go into motion to protect the elite such as the president, his cabinet, and a few select others while the rest of the world is left out in the cold to be lambs to the slaughter? Well, in Earth’s Final Hours, the lambs fight back, working to save the many rather than just the few.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 8th, 2013
For better or worse — okay, it’s worse — it’s now impossible to hear the words “Jersey” and “Shore” without thinking of a certain group of knuckleheads on MTV. Down the Shore is a dreary, observant drama set in the region and starring James Gandolfini. If anyone is ever going to restore the area’s good(?) name, you figure the Sopranos star is a better bet than most, having previously dominated the Garden State from a pop culture standpoint by starring in the landmark television drama.
Funnily enough, Down the Shore actually opens in a sunny playground in Paris. The first scene is a meet-cute between French merry-go-round operator Jacques (Edoardo Costa) and American tourist Susan (Maria Dizzia). Fast forward three months later with Jacques traveling to the Jersey Shore to inform Susan’s brother Bailey (Gandolfini) that his younger sister is dead. On top of that happy news, Jacques and Susan had actually gotten married, and Susan left Jacques half of the house where Bailey currently lives. Bailey — who works as an amusement park operator on the Shore (apparently, Susan was drawn to certain types of men) — is understandably not happy about any of this, while Jacques is merely trying to carry out his late wife’s wishes and is willing to pull his weight at the park.
