Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 8th, 2017
"In any war, there are calms between the storms. There will be days when we lose faith, days when our allies turn against us. But the day will never come, that we forsake this planet and its people."
Following the events of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the Autobots are working hand-in-mechanical-glove with human authorities (in other words, the apparently all-powerful CIA), keeping close watch for Deception activity, but also helping out in human-on-human conflicts. Meanwhile, Shia LaBeouf has traded in improbably hot girlfriend Megan Fox for the equally improbable Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (an improbability that the script does have some fun with). He is also out of work and dismayed at not being given due consideration as a savior of the planet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 7th, 2017
"Before time began, there was the Cube. We know not where it comes from, only that it holds the power to create worlds and fill them with life. That is how our race was born. For a time, we lived in harmony. But like all great power, some wanted it for good, others for evil. And so began the war. A war that ravaged our planet until it was consumed by death, and the Cube was lost to the far reaches of space. We scattered across the galaxy, hoping to find it and rebuild our home. Searching every star, every world. And just when all hope seemed lost, message of a new discovery drew us to an unknown planet called... Earth."
In this version of Transformers, Earth is caught up in an age-old conflict between two factions of an Autobot society. These sentient mechanical beings ravaged their own planet with war and now threaten to continue their struggle on a new battlefield: Earth. The bad guys are the evil robots called Decepticons. They see Earth as a new place to sow their seeds of destruction and humans as a minor infestation to be eliminated. The leader, Megatron, has been secretly kept in suspended animation by the government since the 1930’s. The good guys are a guardian group of robots called Autobots, led by a bot named Optimus Prime. Both groups are in search of a cube structure that is more than a little reminiscent of a Borg cube, called The Spark. This cube contains the power of life that can be spread to any technological device to create new Decepticons. So our evil friends envision an Earth overrun by newly created bots from Earth’s own machines.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 10th, 2017
When it comes to Victorian era serial killers, Jack the Ripper is pretty much a household name. Whether you know much about the terror he caused in White Chapel, all these years later you still know the name and what he did. With The Limehouse Golem, the filmmakers create a more sinister serial killer and deliver a Hammer-esque murder mystery. I’m all for a dark murder mystery, and when a film is channeling other successful films like Seven and From Hell, you’d imagine that you’d be witnessing a terrifying gory spectacle. The result, however, left me frustrated, as the film seems to pull from other films but never quite presents an engaging story to go along with the quirky mix of characters.
When we meet Lizzie (Olivia Cooke), she is being accused of murdering her husband. As the film progresses, we get to see how her story unfolds and her aspirations to be a theatrical star. Her tale intertwines with the rise of a brutal serial killer who has been terrifying the city of London who has been dubbed The Golem. To attempt to squash rising fears and solve the murders, Inspector Kildare (Bill Nighy) is assigned the case. Kildare is paired with a young detective George Flood (Daniel Mays), who attempts to update Kildare with all the evidence of the case. It seems Flood and his fellow officers were inept in gathering evidence, as Kildare seems to uncover some fairly obvious clues of his own. What ties Lizzie to Kildare is the possibility that she is being charged with murdering Kildare’s prime suspect. All the evidence seems to point to Lizzie’s dead husband, so he goes to her to hear her story. Of course things are more complicated than they originally seem.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 27th, 2017
Ever since Birdman was released, it seems many filmmakers have been attempting to pull off the continuous take and outdo all the others. It was impressive when we all saw it the first time, but since then everything just seems like a bad knockoff. The newest film to follow this trend is Bushwick. While the camera work in the film does allow for an immersive experience, honestly it felt like I was in a first-person shooter video game, which was cool, but it seemed like the camera work was a distraction from the story. This is a frustrating film. On the technical side there is a lot to appreciate, but the moment you start looking at the story, the film seems to simply fall apart.
The film opens up with Lucy (Brittany Snow) coming home from college to visit her family. What she comes home to is a city at war. Immediately my question is this: in a time of people being so connected through their cell phones and various social media outlets, how is it Lucy seems to be unaware of what is going on? We’re supposed to believe this battle just broke out, but so many of the people battling on the streets seem to be all too organized for this to have just occurred. Why are the streets not packed with cars full of people trying to leave the city? For a while all we see are people shooting at anyone and everyone as Lucy does her best to avoid gunfire and try to reach her grandmother’s house.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 24th, 2017
For a gritty historical epic to get the green light these days, it has to have some sort of easy-to-understand hook. (“Hey, it's sexy King Arthur!”) And it seems like enough people complained about the prevalence of PG-13 action movies that it led to the current boom of R-rated sensations — like Deadpool and the John Wick flicks — that gleefully go to extremes. There is absolutely nothing gleeful about Pilgrimage, and the movie doesn't seem all that interested in hooking the masses (significant portions of the film are in French, Irish, and Latin). In other words, the most striking and impressive thing about Pilgrimage is also what can make it feel like somewhat of a slog: this movie is dead serious.
Pilgrimage opens with a brief, violent prologue in Cappadocia, 55 A.D., where an unnamed man is brutally stoned to death. It's a startling, disorienting cold open...and not just because I have no idea where Cappadocia is without the help of Dr. Google. The movie doesn't bother to explain either, but we eventually learn how this opening sequence crucially ties into the main story, which takes place in 1209 A.D. in Ireland. The nation has been torn apart by centuries of tribal warfare and currently faces the growing influence of Norman invaders.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 29th, 2017
With a title like 2:22 it’s more than a little on-the-nose to point out something major is going to occur at this time. For a film about premonitions, it’s a shame the film opens up as it does, because it leaves no mystery to the audience and simply tells us what is going to happen, or at least something close enough in the film’s final act. I hate films that are done in flashback just as much as I hate it when it doesn’t put in the effort to conceal how things are going to unfold. In a lot of ways the film is like Groundhog Day, only instead of the same day replaying over and over, it is the same events occurring over and over for our protagonist to figure out.
Dylan (Michael Huisman) is an air traffic controller who is good at his job; he claims it’s his ability to see patterns that helps him do his job as well as he does, though after a freak accident in the control center nearly causes two planes to collide, he is put on a temporary suspension. It just so happens that Dylan meets Sarah (Teresa Palmer), who was on one of the flights that almost collided, and the two seem to fall for one another at first sight.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 18th, 2017
It’s not that hard to understand why Hollywood icon Goldie Hawn came out of semi-retirement to star in Snatched alongside comedian Amy Schumer. The South American-set mother/daughter comedy filmed in picturesque Hawaii, and Schumer was a hot box office commodity coming off the successful Trainwreck. (Holy oxymoron!) I just wish Hawn’s first movie in 15 years — a co-headlining gig, no less! — wasn’t such a wildly uneven effort. Because even though Snatched doesn’t fully utilize the talents of its legend, it’s apparent that Goldie’s still got it.
Emily Middleton isn’t exactly a stretch from Schumer’s real-life persona: in short, she’s a boozy, foul-mouthed mess. Within the movie’s first 15 minutes, Emily has lost her job and her boyfriend Michael (Randall Park). Unfortunately, she and Michael were supposed to go on a vacation in Ecuador. Rather than let the trip to go to waste, Emily convinces her overly cautious mother Linda (Hawn) to accompany her to Ecuador after finding an old photo album that revealed Linda was actually fun once upon a time. After a suspiciously handsome stranger hits on Emily at a bar, the mother-daughter duo become involve in a kidnapping plot.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on August 15th, 2017
Suspenseful, intriguing, and exciting, The Lincoln Lawyer makes the legal system entertaining. With all the TV attorney shows pushing for top ratings, this film comes at the right time. A strong cast, excellent direction, and a riveting storyline make The Lincoln Lawyer a must-see. Mick Haller (Matthew McConaughey) keeps his legal business close to him, in his car. Defending the lowlifes or whoever desperately needs legal assistance, Mick turns down very few clients. While working on a questionable case, his confidant Val Valenzuela (John Leguizamo) gives him the name of Beverly Hills playboy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe).
This client will pay big money to get him off for battery and rape. It’s the case of a lifetime, and Mick knows it. Suspicious of the client, however, he brings on his friend Frank Levin (William H. Macy), a private detective. When they start getting conflicting evidence, Mick starts to get distrustful of Roulet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2017
"Survival of the fittest. It's the law of the jungle. There's always someone trying to take what's yours. How do I know? It almost happened to me."
Where the heck has Alec Baldwin been lately? I seem to recall he was a pretty hot A-list movie star actor at one time. There was The Hunt For Red October, and then there was... OK, forget the A-list movie star bit. He was really an A-list television star. He killed it in 30 Rock and then of course there was... OK. Re-set. Now I remember. There was that hugely popular radio talk show he had going on for, what was it, five minutes? Hey, at least he's having fun spoofing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. Easy gig, all he really has to do is pretend to be Alec Baldwin. Just when I honestly had completely forgotten the guy, he shows up as the voice for an obnoxious baby on Boss Baby. Who said typecasting was dead?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 16th, 2017
There was a 20th anniversary edition of Michael Mann's Heat planned a couple of years ago by the folks at Warner Brothers. There was hope of a 4K restoration and more. The rights ended up reverting to 20th Century Fox before any of that could happen. Now Fox has released something they are calling The Director's Definitive Edition, but it is the same cut and print of the film as used in the last Warner Brothers' Blu-ray release. So I really can't tell you what is definitive except for a couple of new and more recent bonus features.
Pacino plays a cop who is tracking a group of robbers, among them Val Kilmer (Wonderland) and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), a group headed by DeNiro. The group receives offers for work from Jon Voight (Runaway Train), and they rob anything from gold to coins to bearer bonds. They are all ex-cons, and know all the ropes. They are a highly professional crew, which you see in the opening moments of the movie, despite the addition of a new man to the crew. What also helps to differentiate this from a usual cops-and-robbers movie are the secondary plotlines of the families involved. Pacino’s is clearly distant and breaking (played by Diane Venora and Natalie Portman), while DeNiro doesn’t have one to speak of, despite an emerging romance with Edy (Amy Brenneman, Judging Amy). At three hours, there are some unnecessary scenes involving a banker (played by William Fichtner), but the underlying message is that almost all of the actions in the movie do not involve just the primary characters, but also friends and loved ones of those characters. Kilmer’s wife in the film, played by Ashley Judd, desperately wants to get him out of his line of work, as she wants to start a new life for her family. An ex-con (Dennis Haysbert, 24) is stumbled upon working in a greasy spoon, and offered a chance to work by DeNiro. Haysbert’s character wants to be right, but runs into so many obstacles from it that he takes the job, only to wind up perishing in what results in a massive gunfight in the heart of Los Angeles while a bank robbery is being pulled.
