Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 21st, 2018
I’m going to go ahead and say Super Troopers is without a doubt one of my favorite comedies of all time. Sure, I know many will disagree with me, and that’s fine. Since I first saw their film back in 2002 when I got the DVD, I was always excited to see what would come next from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. There was Club Dread, which induced a few chuckles as they tackled the slasher genre, and then they had Beerfest, which was pretty funny but simply didn’t hold up to their performances as Vermont’s Highway Patrolmen. The antics from the first film are simply classic to me, and the film is something I manage to quote from on a weekly basis amongst friends, and when I hear that someone has managed to go all these years without experiencing the film, it’s something I feel the need to remedy immediately. It’s more than just a simple stoner comedy, and rumblings about a sequel have been going on for years, but things seemed to always fall apart. Now after all these years, it’s finally happened.
In case you were wondering, just because the film releases on 4/20, this isn’t a movie that requires you to smoke the green dragon to enjoy. The Broken Lizard gang just knows their audience and simply wanted to be part of the joke. For those who saw the first film and couldn’t stand it, well, there’s no sense in even bothering to check out this entry. As for those who have managed to miss the first one, please check out the first before going in so you can enjoy the film for everything it has to offer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 17th, 2018
When it comes to the Italian western aka the spaghetti western, the first director who comes to mind is Sergio Leone (The Good The Bad And The Ugly); and then there is Sergio Corbucci. While Leone was blazing a successful career, Corbucci first came onto the scene with his film Django. The film was dirty, violent, and mean. For those who are only familiar with the Quentin Tarantino version of Django, well, you’ll definitely see the films are drastically different aside from them both being revenge films. Much later on Corbucci got the chance to follow up his first big hit with another western, The Great Silence. I had gotten to see this dark western before, though it was in the form of a bootleg copy. There was a lot of grain, and the ending attached to the film was radically different from the one Corbucci had intended. Film Movement Classics has done an amazing job at cleaning this title up and giving it a new 2K restoration. As for the film itself, saddle up, because this is like something many have not seen before.
One of the first striking things you will notice about this western is that it is mostly filmed in the cold and in the snow. We meet Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) as he is jumped by a group of bounty hunters whom he quickly dispatches, and when one surrenders himself, Silence manages to shoot off the man’s thumbs. That’s the thing about Silence that’s pretty cool. He kills in self-defense but seems to enjoy crippling bounty hunters so they won’t be able to kill again. We later get to find out just why Silence has it out for bounty hunters, but also the grisly reason why he’s been given the name Silence.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 15th, 2018
“Americans are loud, aren't they?”
Oh Lucy! earns the exclamation point in its title within the first two minutes. The movie opens with a shocking leap that is meant to jolt the audience, but barely causes our disaffected heroine to raise an eyebrow. It's played off as a throwaway moment, but it establishes the fact that this quirky Japanese/American dramedy with oodles of personality probably isn't going to go where you expect.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2018
Eddie Murphy has a ton of films under his belt. If you’re like most folks, his antics have long ago become tired and worn out. Come with me now to a time when Murphy was young and full of energy. Trading Places was really only Murphy’s second film after 48 hours. In Trading Places, we get vintage Eddie Murphy. You can tell he was still hungry. Today he simply calls too many performances in. Dan Aykroyd was also at a turning point in his own career. It hadn’t been too long since he lost his longtime partner Jim Belushi to a drug overdose. He was just learning to stand on his own. Put these two guys together today, and there’s not much chance you’d get the solid gold that was possible in 1983. Fortunately for us, there is this HD release of Trading Places, when both actors still felt they had something to prove. The cast was brilliant all the way around. Jamie Lee Curtis displayed her obvious assets for the first time in a film. Known mostly as a scream queen at that time, Curtis was a choice the studio was not at all happy with. The Wolf Man’s own Ralph Bellamy, along with fellow veteran actor Don Amechi, played the Duke brothers to perfection. Finally, Denholm Eliott added his own understated brilliance as Coleman, the butler.
Trading Places was originally written as a vehicle for Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. That team had had great success with a few films already, and it was felt they were the only ones capable of pulling off this kind of a film. I’m not sure how that might have worked. Certainly it still might have been a funny outing, but somehow I think everything worked out for the best. Trading Places broke many conventions of the time. The black and white stereotypes were a concern, as were other elements. Having a hooker play such a pivotal role was questioned. The studio even expressed some problems with the fate of Mr. Beaks. A little gorilla love went a long way toward the poetic justice these kinds of villians often require. John Landis stood his ground the entire time, refusing to budge. Remove any of these elements, and who knows what we might have ended up with.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2018
Remember when Eddie Murphy was funny? You know, before the fat suites and fart jokes. I guess many of you hadn’t even been born yet. Ronald Reagan was still president of these United States. CD’s were the latest thing. VHS was just catching on. The Rams were still in L.A., and it was the Cardinals that were playing in St. Louis. No one had ever heard about DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, MP3, or Wi-fi. It was 1988 and Eddie Murphy was staring in Coming To America. This is the second of 2 classic 80's Eddie Murphy films that Paramount is delivering on Blu-ray this week. They happen to be 2 of his best films in 40 years.
I’ve long considered this the last funny Eddie Murphy film. It just seems like he’d turned to gimmicks and quick physical humor. He got lazy, and you know what? So did I. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to get my seat into those theater seats to see him clown around anymore. So journey with me back to a magical time when Murphy was still hungry and he let his talent shine.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 2nd, 2018
Much to the dismay of probably most of my family and friends, I like to watch lots of weird films. Films directed by David Lynch, Planet of the Apes movies, and Johnny Mnemonic (I freaking love that movie) among many others I have watched over and over again. This is even more true with animation as I love to find clever styles that goes beyond convention and still produce a wonderful and thrilling story. So today, I review Satellite Girl and Milk Cow, a Korean animation film that is sure to test the boundaries of my fondness for weirdness. Is it too much for this critic or is it right in my sweet spot? Let's find out.
Above the Earth, we see various satellites circle the great planet. One of those satellites is named KITSAT-1 who takes pictures of the Korean Peninsula and provides other measurements. But like all things, KITSAT-1 has started to break down and stop working. Instead she uses her time to focus in on various sounds, sounds like a boy playing a wonderful song on a piano at a lonely club. The sound captivates her so much, she decides to speed towards Earth to seek it out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 2nd, 2018
Much to the dismay of probably most of my family and friends, I like to watch lots of weird films. Films directed by David Lynch, Planet of the Apes movies, and Johnny Mnemonic (I freaking love that movie) among many others I have watched over and over again. This is even more true with animation as I love to find clever styles that goes beyond convention and still produce a wonderful and thrilling story. So today, I review Satellite Girl and Milk Cow, a Korean animation film that is sure to test the boundaries of my fondness for weirdness. Is it too much for this critic or is it right in my sweet spot? Let's find out.
Above the Earth, we see various satellites circle the great planet. One of those satellites is named KITSAT-1 who takes pictures of the Korean Peninsula and provides other measurements. But like all things, KITSAT-1 has started to break down and stop working. Instead she uses her time to focus in on various sounds, sounds like a boy playing a wonderful song on a piano at a lonely club. The sound captivates her so much, she decides to speed towards Earth to seek it out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 30th, 2018
“Welcome to Jurassic Park.”
With those words begin an adventure that started with the legacy of Willis O’Brien’s The Lost World. You see, dinosaur films are nothing new; they have held our childlike fascination since the industry was born. Jurassic Park was, however, something very new when it thundered into our cineplexes and forever into our imaginations 20 years ago. The marriage of brand new CGI technology with Stan Winston’s superbly detailed animatronics models transports you back 65 million years in time. CGI technology has improved since then and has become somewhat commonplace, but there is nothing common about Jurassic Park.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on May 14th, 2018
As a general practice, I usually try to avoid watching a sequel without first having seen the first film. However, with Maya the Bee 2: The Honey Games, that was hardly necessary, as it functioned as more of a standalone than a continuation. The story continues to follow the titular character, Maya, as she continues to try to aid her hive in any way she can, this time, participating in the Honey Games in order to prevent her hive from losing half of their honey. Sadly, this movie did not get Nalyce’s stamp of approval, as her attention started to wain pretty much as soon as we started watching it. That said, we soldiered on, and eventually she did manage to find a couple things that she did like about it. Despite this, Maya the Bee 2 won’t be becoming a permanent fixture in her entertainment rolodex.
In this sequel, the survival of the hive is threatened following a slow harvest season, when an emissary of the Empress Bee decrees that the hive is to donate half of their honey supply for the upcoming Honey Games. Realizing that such a donation will leave a lot of hungry mouths, Maya and her sidekick Willy, go to Buzztropolis to try to convince the Empress to let them keep their honey. Their plan goes sideways when the Empress decrees that they can keep their honey if they win the Honey Games. However, if they lose, the hive must give up their entire honey supply.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2018
"Someday we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful, shitty mess."
There are movies that only come along once a decade, sometimes only once a generation. There have certainly been tons of films made about World War II, and some of them have been among those special kinds of films. But there's something different about Saving Private Ryan, and I've yet to encounter someone who hasn't been touched in some way by viewing the movie. I have been fortunate enough in my life to have lived without experiencing the horrors of war firsthand. For my generation, the idea of war has a certain meaning that has been colored perhaps too much by movies and television. But when you watch Saving Private Ryan, you will experience the closest most of us will ever experience to what it's like to be at war. There's a reason these World War II soldiers have been called The Greatest Generation. No where is that more clear than it is here. Now Paramount has made that experience even more visceral, if that was ever really possible. In 4K, Saving Private Ryan comes full circle in its 20 years and immerses us even more into the sights and sounds of the last world war. If you have the DVD or the Blu-ray, you don't have any idea what I'm talking about. Pick up the UHD Blu-ray, and you will understand.
