Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2018
"Maybe we could use a dad's night out."
Let me begin this review by stating that I did not see the first Daddy's Home film. There are pros and cons to that situation. I'm not really in a good position to judge the film's value or quality as a sequel, and I wasn't familiar with any of these characters when I started to watch the film. It does, however put me in a good place to evaluate this film on its own merits. Is it the kind of sequel that functions as a standalone film, or will you be lost from the start with no chance to catch up? I'm happy to say that I never felt like I was at a disadvantage. Yeah, there were moments where I felt like I wasn't part of the inside joke, but those moments are actually quite rare. I was able to enjoy this one just fine. The relationships were a bit confusing when it came to which kid really belonged to which parents, and some of that I never completely sorted out. The performances allowed me to get at what kind of characters the leads were from the beginning. I might have been the new "in-law" invited to this family's holidays for the first time, but that doesn't mean I didn't manage to have a lot of fun along the way.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 21st, 2018
If The Wire isn't the greatest television show of all time, it's certainly in the conversation. That landmark HBO series was created by David Simon, who took a journalistic and novelistic approach in telling the story of a decaying city (Baltimore) and its various institutions. Now, Simon has teamed up with crime novelist George Pelecanos for The Deuce, which takes a similarly 360-degree approach in examining Times Square in the early 1970s and the evolution of the porn industry. Capturing every facet of that time and place doesn't just mean that The Deuce depicts the lives of pimps, prostitutes, and police officers. It also means the show is alternately thought-provoking, tragic and darkly funny.
“You got some pimp in you.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 14th, 2018
New cartoon series these days are a hard watch for me. Gone are the days of classic shows like X-Men, Batman: The Animated Series and even newer favorites like Regular Show which ended about a year ago. Now we get shows where it seems like it is one cheap joke after another including Teen Titans Go and that show about some kid named Steven. So, I wasn't too thrilled to get the newest incarnation of Ben 10 on my review desk a couple of weeks ago. That's when I decided to employ the talents of my 2 year old son, Keaton and see if he can offer some insight.
"Thomas"...no son, we can't watch Thomas (The Train) right now. We have to review Ben 10, there are twenty episodes on this thing, see if you like it or not. "BeNNN." Yep, I hand my son the dvd case. He breaks open the stark white case and gives me the disc. "Thomas" Used to this exchange, I go ahead and put the dvd in the player and it brings up the menu. I select English subtitles, and then go to play the first episode. My son blinks at the opening and decides to sit down on the couch with his thumb in his mouth. He points, "Elmo?", he asks inquiringly. "No, BeNNN." He doesn't say anything else at this point and keeps sucking his thumb while looking at the screen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 9th, 2018
The notion of having one of comics’ famous costumed detectives face Jack the Ripper is simply one of those ideas I can’t help but smile with geeky joy thinking about. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, takes the caped crusader back to the early turn of the 19th century, a time when Gotham City was in its early days, before skyscrapers flooded its landscape. This unique take does offer up some fun twists on the legend of the character ,but also takes many liberties of historical events that actually took place. This kind of revisionist history can be fun; take Inglorious Basterds for instance, but how much should you really play with actual history and set character mythology? This is definitely a new playground for the creators to play with, so how does the animated film shake out?
At the start of the film we meet (Poison) Ivy, who has taken a different career path than most may be used to. It is followed by her confrontation with the Ripper, and it doesn’t go so well. It’s an opening like this that lets the viewer know that the familiar cast of heroes and rogues are not safe in this world, so forget what you think you know, and try to sit back, relax, and try to enjoy the story that unfolds.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 22nd, 2017
Most movies are just not very good. Lots of money goes into turning out boring, repetitive garbage. You watch it and then dispose of it and make room for the next thing. There are some who do more, but the more you do, the greater the risk. Most filmmakers are not given the freedom to take really big risks, but someone who has been given the opportunity to take the big risk is Christopher Nolan. Interstellar is $165,000,000 gamble shooting for the moon. Actually Nolan is shooting for something way past the moon. He wants to take us to another galaxy. There is so much speculative science in this film that it is mind-boggling. The cutting edge of real science is, frankly, getting crazier and crazier. The average person really has no idea how crazy, but Interstellar is going to try to show us just how crazy. The true nature of some of the elements of the theory of relativity and other related theories is that they defy all logic.
One of the most important things in Interstellar is its attempts to deal with some of the properties of time. The laws of physics tell us time acts differently in different situations. In this movie time rules everything in people's lives, but the main character is given the power to do something with time that most of us don't even imagine. It's important to know some of these situations are described in actual scientific theory. In fact, real science is getting closer and closer to God all the time. Most people who don't believe in God don't expect science to contradict that way of thinking. Interstellar doesn't talk about God, but it comes close to doing something similar. It is science's contention to state statistically there are millions of planets with intelligent life out there. Some of those intelligence forces will seem like God to us. This is simple science, but people have such a wide range of beliefs that no one will ever agree on what is the truth. The reason we don't agree is because mankind is just not smart enough to have real answers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 21st, 2017
When Christopher Nolan has a new release, it’s an event to get excited about. There are few directors I can say this about. Sure, there are directors that I like, but still there are few who manage to capture what makes going to the cinema an experience. Dunkirk is his latest cinematic opus. Despite it being his shortest film, with the exception of The Following, this is the first time he has shot a film almost entirely in IMAX form. What’s the big deal? Well, aside from the picture being twice the size of the regular format, what he does with these cameras is deliver a beautifully striking picture of destruction and survival. There’s a lot of buzz going around with this film, and already it’s being looked at as the first real Oscar contender of the year. Is the film worth the hype? Is it really Nolan’s best picture?
Christopher Nolan is widely known for his Dark Knight Trilogy, as well as Inception and Interstellar. While I’m a fan of these films, it’s his film Memento that has always stuck with me as his most inspired work, a film that plays with a timeline to serve the overall experience of the film. Dunkirk is yet another film that unfolds over the course of three timelines to tell its story of heroism and survival. While I appreciate Nolan’s attempt to be innovative with this storytelling technique, it’s definitely something I feel harms the overall film, because as the film unfolds we jump from one scene in the afternoon to another scene at night, and the sequences are edited to in such a way that tonally they coincide, but visually it’s jarring. But still that’s not the greatest fault I find in the film; instead, it’s that I feel we are missing the entire first act of the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 19th, 2017
Like most people my age (I'm not telling), I watched my fair share of Full House. I wished I could be as cool as John Stamos, be as funny as Dave Coulier and wished Bob Saget was my dad. Then I grew up and realized I wasn't as cool as John Stamos, didn't find Dave to be quite as hilarious (sorry Dave), and still wished Bob was my dad (Actually, even more so when I found out he was quite the dirty comic). Fast forward about twenty years and the Full House theme has been brought back into the present with some familiar faces and a few new ones. Let's take a look at Season 2 of Fuller House.
If you are one of those people like myself who have never seen an episode of Fuller House and need a quick rundown of characters, well here you go. We have DJ Tanner-Fuller (played by Candace Cameron Bure) who is widowed, a veterinarian and has three kids. The three kids are Jackson (played by Michael Campion), age 13, Max (played by Elias Harger), age 7 and Tommy Jr (played by Dashiell & Fox Messitt), age barely out of the womb (probably around 2). In addition, we have DJ's sister, Stephanie Tanner (played by Jodie Sweetin) who has moved from London to help DJ raise her kids. Also, she is ridiculously hot. (There I said it, I'm sure it will come up again).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 19th, 2017
“There is only one war that matters. The Great War...and it is here.”
Ever since Game of Thrones premiered in 2011, viewers have been tantalized by the notion that “winter is coming.” (And it's been a *much* longer wait for book readers who fell in love with the first installment in George R.R. Martin's “A Song of Ice and Fire” saga more than 20 years ago.) Ned Stark's famous words have launched a thousand memes, and this shortened seventh season of HBO's spectacular fantasy drama — 7 episodes instead of the customary 10 — seemed poised to begin delivering on their promise. While the show is still able to thrill audiences like nothing else on TV, the strain of wrapping up such an epic story finally started to show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 13th, 2017
"Welcome to one of the most fabled and mysterious places on Earth..."
Mysteries Of China appeared in many IMAX theaters across the country and was often titled Mysteries Of Ancient China. That would be a more appropriate term for this exploration into a mystery that is over 2000 years old. These IMAX features make perfect additions to any 4K library. Their short 40-minute running time allows for plenty of space on these 100 GB discs. The source material is also often 70 mm (65mm here) which is natively 8K instead of the usual 2K of most films shot digitally today. That kind of combination offers the opportunity to demonstrate the real promise of the new format. Shout Factory has been in the forefront of releasing these 4K IMAX titles. It's been several months since the last wave, and I can only hope that Mysteries Of China is the beginning of a new collection of these titles for the 4K home video market.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 8th, 2017
"Art is a lie. Art gives the chaos of the world an order that doesn't exist."
The X-Files will soon return for a second revival season with 10 episodes that will likely finish the franchise. But if you're a Gillian Anderson fan, you won't have to wait until next year to get your Anderson fix. Acorn has a release that you really have to discover. Gillian Anderson has served three seasons (or series, as the Brits call them) in Belfast for the BBC series The Fall. With the broadcast of that third and final season, Acorn is releasing a nice complete set of all three seasons on both DVD and Blu-ray. If you want to win a copy of the DVD set, you have to stay tuned here and be sure to check out our 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways. In the meantime, I'm going to tell you about the Blu-ray set that I've just had the pleasure to consume for review.
