Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 1st, 2022
In 1999 when Man on the Moon was released, Jim Carrey was pretty much one of the biggest comedic stars in the industry, though at the time I don’t think audiences were prepared to see Carrey make such a departure despite it being a career best performance. This was one of those box office failures that shouldn’t have been, but to be fair, 1999 is one of the most stacked years of great films, though how Carrey didn’t even get a nomination is baffling. So what are my thoughts after revisiting the Andy Kaufman bio-pic that was penned by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood and The People Vs. Larry Flynt) and directed by Milos Foreman (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus)? The opening scene pretty much sets the tone for the film you are about to see with Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey) breaking the 4th wall to address the film the audience is about to see. He goes on to tell them that the movie is over, and the credits roll and eventually the screen goes to black.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 25th, 2022
Despite my tender age, I didn’t see Escape from New York until I was in my early twenties. My parents never talked about it, my college friends didn’t seem to care, and the Internet wasn’t nearly as prevalent as it is now. But it has become my favorite movie of all time. What’s curious is that the sequel to the film, Escape from L.A., is what introduced me to Kurt Russell and the character of Snake Plissken (and became the foundation of everything I consider to be “cool”). It holds a giant chunk of my movie heart, and I’m glad today to bring you this review of the UHD Blu-ray from Paramount. It is 1998, and hostile forces inside the United States are growing strong. Los Angeles is ravaged by crime, and the US Police Force is formed to keep the peace. A political candidate (played by Cliff Robertson) emerges and predicts a millennium earthquake that will destroy Los Angeles in divine retribution. An earthquake measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale hits at 12:59pm on August 23rd in the year 2000.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 17th, 2021
"There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie."
No one knew those rules better than Wes Craven. He helped to create them, after all. Starting in 1972 with the cult favorite The Last House On The Left, he followed that just two years later with The Hills Have Eyes, which led to a sequel. But it wasn't until a decade later that he would deliver his masterpiece and most successful franchise, Nightmare On Elm Street. Wes Craven introduced the world to Freddy Kruger, and our dreams have never been quite the same since. While others attempted to reproduce the same results with many sequels, it was Craven himself who put Freddy to bed with New Nightmare exactly 10 years after his birth.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 17th, 2021
From Bride of Frankenstein to Night of the Living Dead and even Godzilla, horror has been a platform filmmakers have used for decades to handle larger societal issues. In 1992 when the first Candyman released, it was a film that tackled issues of class and race, but it did so in a manner that didn’t feel forced, and in doing so it added an extra level to what I’d consider one of the best horror films of the 90’s. I love the story of Candyman, and the performance Tony Todd gave this tragic character was an equal blend of horror, menace, and sympathy. The way the first film builds its impending doom for Helen Lyle has rarely been matched in films since. Watching as her life crumbles around her up until the moment she finally surrenders herself to Candyman and accepts her awful fate is an impactful moment. The sequels just never lived up to the first film, and it’s a shame,
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 1st, 2021
When I was in grade school, I remember reading High King, the fifth book in the Prydain Chronicles, as part of a reading assignment (since it was a Newbery Award winner). I also at some point watched Black Cauldron in my youth, but I'm pretty sure it was on a crummy VHS tape. Anyhow, many years later, with an old friend, I was gifted a treasured copy of Prydain Chronicles (all five books in a hardback format). Being much older, I took the time to read the entire hardback collection, and ever since then I've been tracking down related items including the Black Cauldron movie from Disney to revisit. It might not be the wonderful series of books, but it's still an excellent movie on its own accord. Let's explore the recent release from the Disney Movie Club.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 14th, 2021
Road films are something of a passion when it comes to movies for me. It could be a movie on a ten-lane highway guaranteed to have multiple car crashes, a two-lane cross country expedition, or a one-lane dirt road going into darkness where the passengers might never return. Nothing gets me going more than films like The Hitcher, Road Games, Two-Lane Blacktop, or The Duel. It is the idea of not knowing exactly where the next turn is going to take you or what lies beyond the next hill. Characters, environments, situations all can change once you get to the next town or cross another state line. Today's road film is the 1997 thriller, Breakdown, with Kurt Russell and J.T. Walsh, where we explore what a man must do in order to find his missing wife. As one might guess, it is one of my favorites, as it delivers one nail-biting scene after another. Let's take a look.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 9th, 2021
They say that timing is everything. When Dreamworks released The Croods back in 2013, it performed rather nicely both at the box office and on home video. The combined take brought the studio over a billion dollars and a bit of a comeback for their animated studio branch. It appeared to be the anchor for a new franchise that could hold its own against such juggernauts as Ice Age, Shrek, and pretty much anything Pixar puts out. I expected there to be a follow-up, but I didn't expect it to take over seven years. Kids have relatively short attention spans, and sequels really need to strike while the box-office iron is hot. That wasn't the case here. I'm not sure what the holdup might have been. The project was quickly greenlit by Dreamworks, and we should have seen something in a couple of years at the longest. Instead it took the better part of a decade, and the film faced a double whammy when it finally was ready for release.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 8th, 2020
In 2004 when Collateral first came out, Michael Mann gave audiences something they’ve never seen before: Tom Cruise playing the bad guy. Sure, he played the vampire Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, but he just never seemed all that menacing. In Collateral we get to see him as a cold, professional killer with his salt-and-pepper hair and nondescript gray suit. Also at this time, Jamie Foxx was still carving out a name for himself as a serious actor; this was just months before the release of Ray (the movie that pretty much catapulted him into stardom). I was stoked for this movie when it first came out because it was Michael Mann getting back to what I felt he was great at, the down and dirty crime films like Thief and Heat. I have to admit, I do have a slight bias when it comes to Michael Mann films, and I’ve seen Collateral numerous times before doing this review. Considering it’s been 16 years since its release, sure, the film still holds up, but what I feel will surprise new audiences or those who are revisiting the film is the amount of talent that is on the screen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 21st, 2020
"Things are about to get dangerous."
Keep your hands and feet inside the ride vehicle at all times. At some point in his life, Michael Crichton must have had a really bad experience at Disney World. Maybe he got stuck on a ride, or a ghost followed him home from the Haunted Mansion. Whatever his reasons, the man sure had it in for the amusement park industry. He's created two iconic franchises from the "way out" amusement park idea. His novel Jurassic Park incited all of our imaginations, not the least of which was Steven Spielberg's. That amusement park brought back living and breathing dinosaurs who would entertain park attendees, that is when they weren't eating said attendees. But long before that came his screenplay for the 1973 film starring Yul Brenner and James Brolin called Westworld. It was another future amusement park.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 24th, 2020
Ever since The Walking Dead first aired. it seems the zombie genre was not only revived but milked for all it was worth, and still studios continued to bleed the genre dry to the point even most diehard horror fans are sick of the sub-genre. I’m a sucker for zombie films, and even I have tired of them, but I’ll always hold out hope for some writer or filmmaker to come along and inject some creativity into the genre. It’s possible; I mean, look how long the vampire stories have been around, or even ghost stories, and yet there still are new takes on the subject matter that get us excited about them again. That’s where Blood Quantum gave me some hope. Zombies on a Native American reservation. I was hopeful for some indigenous lore being injected into this, giving us a fresh perspective…but alas, we get a watered-down, unoriginal, snooze-fest with a little bit of gore to keep viewers somewhat interested.
