Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 3rd, 2012
Owl City's popularity was born out of social networking websites such as Myspace. From the days of uploading songs while living in his parent's basement, to going #1 on Charts in an astounding 24 countries, Owl City (aka Adam Young) continues to ride his hysterical success into his inevitable, first concert film.
Young and his band of pretty 20-somethings don't seem to break a sweat while delivering a suspiciously polished sounding hour-and-a-half long performance. I say suspicious because, although the camera shows that everyone is playing these songs accurately (not that they're all that challenging mind you), it just sounds a lot like the studio versions. I'd start making accusations of playing partly to tapes or adding tracks in post-production because the guitar sounds a little too clean, some instruments and voices are mixed in and out mysteriously...but Young is such a polite young man in his in-between song banter that I shall not go into it any further. You're welcome Mr. Young.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 3rd, 2012
"It is generally thought that time travel is impossible. Tonight, however, we ask you to bravely go where no audience has gone before, back in time to the 1970's"
And that's exactly what you'll get to do if you're smart enough to take my advice and pick up Styx: The Grand Illusion & Pieces Of Eight Live on Blu-ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment. It doesn't matter if you're old enough to remember when these albums were first released in 1977 and 1978 or if you've newly discovered the band and the albums. In fact, it doesn't even matter if you're a Styx fan at all....yet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 3rd, 2012
Forgive the impending fun-with-words but, hot on the TAIL of the theatrical release of Red Tails is the Blu Ray release of this 1995 interpretation of the same story. Based on the actual group of airmen who were the first African-American fighter pilots in the United States Army Air Corps. This film follows the first cadets through their training and onto their various combat and mission in North Africa and Italy during World War II.
The true story that this film is based on is fascinating in its historical context. It is a shame that this film resorts to using overly staged scenes of corny drama to tell it. The lead cast is loaded with great talents, such as Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr, who certainly give good performances, but are stifled by cliched catchphrases instead of being given some deeper, character building, dialogue to perform.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 2nd, 2012
Ryan Gosling's 2011 made the rest of us look like a bunch of slackers. When he wasn't breaking up fights on the streets of New York City or inspiring countless memes last year, he was starring in three incredibly varied and well-received movies. The curiously punctuated Crazy, Stupid, Love. is the most commercial of those releases and also features Gosling at his movie star/leading man best. Steve Carell stars as Cal Weaver, a middle-aged man who is blindsided after his wife, Emily (go-to-adulteress-of-the-moment Julianne Moore, of The Kids Are All Right and Chloe), reveals she had an affair with a co-worker (Kevin Bacon) and asks for a divorce. While drowning his sorrows at a stylish local bar, Cal catches the eye of ladies’ man Jacob (Gosling), who decides to take clueless Cal under his wing and help him navigate the singles scene.
For a while, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa along with screenwriter Dan Fogelman, seem content to make Crazy, Stupid, Love. into a less-slapsticky, slightly sharper version of Hitch. Carell and Gosling, an unlikely and terrific comedy duo, make those scenes come alive, and they are the best bits in the movie. Carell balances his sad-sack character with enough charm and humor to make you believe women would find him attractive, while Gosling admirably and completely commits to playing a smooth-talking operator with the same fervor he brought to playing a drug-addicted teacher (Half Nelson) or a fiercely anti-Semitic Jew (The Believer).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2012
Written by Joe Gause
Here we go again! It’s another movie about something dangerous in the water. I’m not gonna lie here, folks, I wasn’t expecting to much out of this one, but to my surprise I enjoyed it quite a bit. So here’s the short and skinny. A bunch of college kids set off to a lake house to enjoy a much-needed vacation. There is a fair amount of drinking and flirting and tomfoolery (always wanted to use that word). Early in the film we discover that Sara (Sara Paxton) has a dark secret with one of the town locals. As the party gets under way, trouble starts to brew in paradise when one of the partygoers gets his arm ripped off by a shark! In a panic to get him to the hospital they call the town sheriff (Donal Logue) only to find out that he and the locals have been releasing sharks into the saltwater lake and filming the shark attacks to sell to the folks at the Discovery channel! So, as you might guess, there is a fair amount of suspense-filled scenes with our heroes trying to not only escape the sharks, but also escape the crazy sheriff and the locals. It all comes to and end in a way that doesn’t leave you wanting to smack the director (which is rare in Hollywood these days).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2012
Written by Brian Ludovico
To film fans, the clause “Directed by Alfred Hitchcock” has almost become an adjective in and of itself. It has come to mean suspense created by using the viewer’s imagination and mind as a part of the film, first and foremost. These films didn’t have the freedom of CG, and consequently had to invent ways to achieve visual effects (watch the documentary on Birds or Rear Window for example). Besides the lack of freedom of creation that digital filmmaking now provides, the filmmakers had to tip toe around the Hays code, not only restrictive on sex and sexual undertones, but also on content (as we learn in the featurettes here) and gore. The phrase, and the adjective that bears the director’s name, has grown to include a certain quality of characters and meticulous film crafting in every phase of the production. Rebecca, therefore, can rightfully be called “classic Hitchcock.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 2nd, 2012
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson plays a hotshot college football player is at the cusp of making a big move to the NFL and riches when he collapses in the locker room due to a tumor growing in his chest, near his heart. Having to undergo cancer treatments, he loses his ability to play and must start again without all the advantages being a star came with.
It is sometimes hard to sympathize with a character he is so egotistical, and used his status to take advantage of other people, but he is undeniably a victim. Not only was he facing a lethal illness, but most of his family and friends treated him like a living lottery ticket. Of course, losing that ego is all a part of the all-too obvious character arc and life lesson's we are supposed to witness in this film. I spoil nothing by stating that he does indeed go through this crushing lesson in humility. While regaining strength after chemotherapy treatments, he just reconnect with his family members and find a way to earn a decent living. What unfolds would do the LIFETIME network proud. Tears are shed, fists open up for hugs, and the film lingers on at least 20 minutes longer than it should so that everyone can celebrate family for the sake of celebrating family.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 1st, 2012
The title of this documentary stems from the quote “In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." In this film, said “love” refers to the love and support Paul McCartney, and other major celebrities, give to New York in the immediate wake of 9/11. Starting from early rehearsals and finishing with McCartney's closing performance at the “Concert for New York” benefit, we watch one of the most famous people on the planet demonstrate his uncanny sense of humility and humanity as he proves he is a “man of the people.”
The camera is mostly candid as we witness McCartney not be able to walk a single foot on the streets of New York without getting endlessly mobbed by fans. It is refreshing to see that, whether surrounded by starry-eyed civilians or fellow celebrities, McCartney never loses his playful mien.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2012
Written by Joe Gause
Pass the tissue please! If you plan on watching this movie, I recommend you buy yourself a big box of tissue and be prepared to shed a few tears. This extremely well done post-WWII love story is designed to show you that life doesn’t always have a happy ending. The cast is nothing short of incredible, and the acting is top-notch. Here’s the short and skinny. Count Laszio de Almasy’s (Ralph Fiennes) plane is shot down in the final days of the war. He is badly burned and is in need of special care. Nurse Hana ( Juliette Binoche) volunteers to look after him in an old rundown church. During their time together she discovers that he has had quite a past. He had fallen in love with a married woman (Kristen Scott Thomas) and was secretly trying to convince her to leave her husband and be with him. Of course this never works out the way we want it to. And so begins the first of many tear-jerking events in this tale. She tells him to go away and never see her again (apparently cheating on her hubby was too much guilt for her), so our dear Count goes a bit love-crazy, hitting the drink a bit and becoming a bit like a stalker. One thing leads to another, and the husband (Colin Firth) learns of his wife’s wrongdoings, so he thinks the best way to get revenge on the Count is to run him down in his plane (not the smartest idea). Well, the plane crashes and misses the Count all together. Only problem is the Count’s love was also in the plane and is badly injured. She admits her love for the Count, and it seems we might just have a storybook ending here, but of course this is just false foreshadowing. The Count ends up leaving her in a cave while he walks through the desert for help, promising her he will only be gone for three days. He leaves her food and water and sets out into the vast sand. Well, as luck would have it, he is captured by the Germans, and it takes him quite a bit longer than three days to get back to her. Of course when our hero finally returns to the cave, his true love has died.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 30th, 2012
Jack Lemmon is a rather meek insurance company employee who is slowly working his way up the corporate ladder by lending his apartment to married executives looking for a place to take their girlfriends. Life is rather inconvenient, as he is locked out of his home at all hours, but things become even more complicated when the big boss (Fred McMurray) takes an interest. The good news is that Lemmon gets another promotion. The bad news is that McMurray’s affair is with Shirley MacLaine, the elevator girl for whom Lemmon is carrying a torch.
Billy Wilder’s follow-up to Some Like It Hot certainly has plenty of funny moments, most involving Lemmon’s doctor neighbor (Jack Kuschen). But the film doesn’t shy away from the darker implications of its storyline (up to and including a suicide attempt). The result is a romantic comedy-drama that is sweet without being sentimental, and hard-nosed without being cynical. And the audience’s emotions are thus sincerely earned.
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