Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 26th, 2012
The Blu-ray case for The Viral Factor — an impressive, preposterous Hong Kong action offering available Aug. 28 — proudly boasts that the film comes "From the star of The Green Hornet", possibly marking the first and last time anyone has bragged about their involvement with The Green Hornet. (Don't look at me: I'm one of the few people who really enjoyed it.) Nevertheless, you shouldn't shy away from this one just because it may somewhat be selling itself short.
While escorting a criminal scientist from Jordan to Norway, International Security Affairs agent Jon (Jay Chou, Kato in The Green Hornet) and his team are ambushed. Unfortunately, a member of Jon's team is a traitor who puts a bullet in Jon's head, kidnaps the scientist, and threatens to unleash a deadly virus on the world. Doctors inform Jon that the bullet is lodged in his brain and he only has a few weeks until it causes complete paralysis. So far, I'm thinking we've got the ingredients for a pretty solid action flick. Jon has to race against time to get revenge against his traitorous colleague Sean (Andy Tien) and save the world before his body breaks down, right? Well, not exactly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 1st, 2012
We all have That Friend. We've known him/her most of our lives, and he/she was a perpetual screw-up even when we were kids. We hoped they'd grow out of it as adults, but they always seem to rope us into their drama or cockamamie schemes. Yet we can't completely cut them off because, even if it's sometimes hard to remember why you're still friends, it's hard to get rid of anything that's been a part of our lives for so long. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I regret to inform you that you probably are That Friend.
In Heaven Strewn, Mickey (Wyatt Denny) is That Friend, a small-time counterfeiter looking to recover his losses from a botched transaction. Jasper (Rob Tepper) is the more responsible buddy who gets drawn into accompanying Mickey on his ill-advised quest. Mickey has one too many DUI's and needs Jasper to drive him to the spot where the cash will be buried. To convince Jasper to come, Mickey lies and says they're going meteorite hunting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 21st, 2012
"An Asian man wearing a German uniform was discovered by the U.S. military at Normandy on D-Day. Upon questioning, he was identified as a Korean."
My Way cannily opens with this bit of real-life information. As the movie reaches its heartbreaking conclusion, we know only one of a pair of lifelong rivals-turned-friends — one Korean, one Japanese — will make it to the end.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 17th, 2012
All funny ideas are not created equal. A concept that may have audiences laughing their heads off for a few minutes could wind up being absolutely torturous when stretched to feature film length. Few people know this better than Will Ferrell, one of the most popular and successful Saturday Night Live alumni of all time. He's cracked people up on the small-screen and in multiple comedic blockbusters. Ferrell's latest, Casa de mi Padre, seems like a classic example of an idea that would be extremely funny as a skit or a fake trailer, but becomes annoying over a prolonged period of time. The actor is surely savvy enough to realize this, and I kinda love that he decided to do it anyway.
Casa de mi Padre — directed by Matt Piedmont and written by Andrew Steele, a pair of Ferrell's SNL cohorts — is told in the overly dramatic style of Mexican soap operas (or "telenovelas") and westerns of the 1970s (with their choppy editing). It has more in common with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino films than with Ferrell's own previous work...unless I missed any slo-mo bloodbaths in Elf. Did I mention the part where it's almost entirely in Spanish? The poker-faced movie plays it so straight with its inspiration that it's not entirely accurate to call it a spoof; it's more of an homage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 11th, 2012
An undisclosed infection has decimated the world's population. This film follows a family of four who are trying to survive the fallout of this viral apocalypse by escaping a city via the woods, in search of a rural area they used to live in.
Collaborative duo Justin McConnell and Kevin Hutchinson do a fair amount with very little in this film. An amping up of tension helps to replace any large set pieces or dynamic action scenes. Though they are clearly working with a small budget, their minimalist composition does not come off as amateur for they have a nice sense of composition, made clear with their shot choices and editing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on June 29th, 2012
“Sometimes things happen in life that turn everybody silent. So silent that nobody dares to talk about it anymore. To no one. Not even themselves.”
Who knew there was a hormone mafia in Flanders (not Homer Simpson’s neighbor, but Flanders is part of Belgium, but unique with its own dialect and culture)? Evidently, shady criminals sell illegal experimental hormones to farmers so they can fatten up their livestock. In Bullhead these are brooding crooks that sit and talk about their problems a lot and seem to resent cows a great deal. The one with the biggest problems happens to be the biggest man among them, Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts) Jacky is a mess of steroids and muscles. He internalizes and represses is anger so much that you can practically hear the time bomb counting down when he breathes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 23rd, 2012
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."
That famous proverb comes from a couplet in the Robert Burns poem "To a Mouse." ("The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft agley") Simply put, it means that even the most carefully prepared plans can go wrong at any time. The line also provided the title for John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men", the classic 1937 novella that has since become required reading in many high schools, along with "To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Great Gatsby" and others. Steinbeck tells the tragic story of slow-witted Lenny and his friend/protector George, two migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression. I imagine Steinbeck's best laid plans probably didn't involve his story becoming the basis for a British cage fighting movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 20th, 2012
When I saw that Nicolas Cage and January Jones were headlining a little-seen/straight-to-DVD-caliber title, part of me was perversely excited. This had the potential to be a historic summit of bad acting! To be fair, I generally enjoy the — shall we say — avant garde stylings of Cage's performances, but I'm much less impressed by the relentless joylessness Jones bring to her work (even on the excellent Mad Men). In short, I was prepared to laugh and I was prepared to wince. However, I was not prepared to enjoy this entertaining, preposterous thriller as much as I did.
Cage and Jones star as Will and Laura Gerard, a happily married New Orleans couple. You know they're the perfect little cultured pair because she's an orchestra cellist, and he's a high school English teacher who plays hyper-competitive chess games with a co-worker (Harold Perrineau). Their world is shattered one night when Laura is brutally attacked after leaving work. While an emotionally distraught Will is in the hospital, he is approached by a stranger named Simon (Guy Pearce). Simon claims to represent an organization that is fed up with the shortcomings of the criminal justice system. He offers to exact vengeance on Laura's attacker in exchange for a favor from Will somewhere down the line.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 14th, 2012
Cult movies are some of my favorite kinds of movies. I am a complete sucker for Rocky Horror Picture Show and films like the Warriors or Duel. These movies are often a product of their time but are not fully appreciated until many years later. Today, I am reviewing The FP, a film that attempts to be a cult classic but without going through the usual hoops of society. As we go to the film, one has to wonder if that is even remotely possible.
For Years, an underground war has raged for dominance over the small town of Frazier Park between two clans: the 248 from the North and the 245 from the South. Now…with a skirmish between the two clan leaders imminent, the battle for the FP has only just begun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 29th, 2012
"This Martius is grown from man to dragon. He has wings. He's more than a creeping thing. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger."
There's a certain hierarchy when it comes to the amount of cinematic interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays. At the top tier, we have the endlessly adapted Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth the Scottish Play. A step below that, you've probably got your King Lear, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream and a few more. And about a dozen tiers below that, we finally come across Coriolanus.
