Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 13th, 2021
After filming Cold Pursuit in 2019, Liam Neeson announced he was done with his flirtation with action films. They had opened a new genre to the actor starting with Taken and created a nice boost to his career as an unlikely action star. He said he had some reservations about the genre. It didn't help that he revealed at the same time that he once roamed the streets looking for a black man to kill over the rape of a friend. It looked like it wasn't just action films that were over for the actor. I honestly expected there to be more trouble than there was, given the current climate. Somehow he kind of got a pass after apologizing for the remark. But he wasn't being offered the kind of high drama roles he was expected. So in less than a year he was back as an action figure, and that appears to be something he won't really be quitting in a long time. I get it. I was about to attend my fourth Elton John farewell concert since the first one back in the early 70's. There's something about getting the bug deep in your bones that makes it hard to let go. And let's be candid here, shall we? The pay ain't to bad either.
Liam Neeson plays Jim. He's a recent widower who lives on a ranch in Arizona at the Mexican border. His wife died about a year ago from cancer, and her medical bills have left him pretty much wiped out. He's on the cusp of losing his ranch. He spends his free time patrolling the area for illegals. He's got a walkie talkie that puts him in contact with the local border patrol where his stepdaughter Sarah (Winnick) is in a command position. On one of these patrols he happens upon a woman, Rosa (Ruiz) ands her son Miguel (Perez) slipping through a hole in the fence. He stops them but ends up in a gun battle with cartel warriors who are trying to get to the woman and her child. Her brother got himself in deep trouble with them, and now they plan on killing his family. The gunfight leaves Rosa dead after securing a promise from Jim to get her son to the safety of family in Chicago. He instead turns them in.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2021
"Welcome to the future. Life is good! But it can be better. And why shouldn't it be? All you need is to want it. Think about finally having everything you always wanted."
In 1917 Patty Jenkins teamed up with Israeli actress Gal Gadot to create one of the best comic book movies of all time. Wonder Woman had everything. It sported a really good lead actress surrounded by a really good supporting cast. It had a grand scope but still gave us characters at the core with wonderful chemistry and heart. We got plenty of action and huge set pieces without giving up anything in the trenches. It was easily the best superhero film of the decade and the best DC/Warner hero film since the 1978 Donner Superman movie. But the trouble here is that Jenkins already had an incredible formula going here but couldn't resist the temptation to want everything. There was a tremendously high level of expectations here, and as I've frequently opined: expectations kill. There are still a lot of the elements that made Wonder Woman so great here, but the film strays in ways that end up taking away from those great elements, and we end up with a very mediocre follow-up to a truly great film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2021
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, and I'm here tonight to bring y'all the news from across this great world of ours. Now, I know how life is in these parts, working a trade sunup to sundown. No time for reading newspapers. Am I correct?"
How about reading a review for Universal's News Of The World? If you spare a few minutes, I'll tell you a little something about the film, and you might just end up with a copy of the film on UHD Blu-ray in 4K on your home video shelves. I'm certainly glad there's a copy on mine. The film is based on the novel by Paulette Jiles with a screenplay by Luke Davies and director Paul Greengrass.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 24th, 2021
“It’s not the end of the world.”
Just in time for the delayed release of Godzilla vs. Kong, we get a look back to the very beginning of this particular string of films. Of course it all really started back in 1954, but for our purposes this was the beginning of the current Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures franchise featuring the true king of the monsters. Now Warner has released the film on UHD Blu-ray and in glorious 4K. So before you head to the cinemas or (God forbid) your phone screens for the latest battle, check in here to relive round one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 19th, 2021
Promising Young Woman is a revenge film that takes what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in the sub-genre and manages to give the audience something that is unique and fresh. It’s a film with a moral compass that is aiming to reflect an attitude towards “rape culture” where males have gotten away with inappropriate and vile behavior under the guise of being drunk and taking advantage of women who are in various stages of intoxication. It’s something that should disgust people because it continues to happen to this day, where privileged males seem to get a pass because they are young and come from prestigious schools. Despite the subject matter, the film doesn’t come off as a cautionary tale or a PSA; instead, it’s definitely an entertaining film that manages to prompt a discussion among its viewers. Now the film has several Oscar nominations; are they deserved?
When we meet Cassie (Carey Mulligan), she appears to be heavily intoxicated at a bar, and she’s gotten the attention of a few guys, one of whom decides to come to her aid in an attempt to be a “good guy”. He ends up taking her to his place where he attempts to get her more drunk before taking advantage of her, but to his surprise he discovers she’s not as drunk as she appears. This is where we discover that Cassie has made it a hobby of hers to go out to bars and lure men to take advantage of her, but she instead turns the tables on the guys. The film doesn’t go into detail of what exactly Cassie says or does to the men; it seems she just gives them an intense scare, but the possibility of violence is definitely implied. It’s this kind of ambiguity that I found a bit frustrating as the film goes on.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 15th, 2021
It’s been a while since Jackie Chan has put out a film I’ve gotten excited about. Vanguard seemed like it could be the movie that would change that, since it had Chan reteaming with Stanley Tong (Rumble in the Bronx and First Strike among many others), but alas, this isn’t the case. Despite his age I know the man still has some gas in the tank. He’s simply an amazing performer who needs the right script to come along with the right director behind the camera. Vanguard is an action thriller that definitely feels like a throwback to the late 80’s and early 90’s action films, but unfortunately there is too much bad CGI that gets in the way of the fun along with political undertones that just seem forced.
Vanguard is basically a covert security company and is led by Tang (Jackie Chan). When one of the company’s important clients is caught in an arms deal that goes sour, it’s up to Tang and his team to protect their client and his family. Tang, of course, doesn’t agree with his client’s practices, but he feels responsible to protect the family, and this results in a mini-globetrotting adventure that spans from London to Africa and India and more locals that will be tacking some major miles to their frequent flier program.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 12th, 2021
Despite the pandemic going on, 2020 managed to deliver when it came to the horror genre. The Invisible Man and The Dark and the Wicked were definitely some of the highlights, and then there was Freaky, a horror comedy that was delivering a twist on the body-swap story. I’ll admit I was a little hesitant with embracing this idea, but when I saw it was being helmed by Christopher Landon, who brought us the Happy Death Day films; well, it gave me a little more confidence. This is one of the few films that managed to get a theatrical release, but I’m still a bit hesitant on actually returning to the theaters. Now that I’ve seen the film, I have to admit I’m a little bummed I didn’t get too see this with an audience. This is definitely one of those films that is a little more fun when you see it with an enthusiastic audience. It’s pretty much Freaky Friday meets Friday the 13th, and, well, slashers always tend to play better with crowds.
From the opening sequence you pretty much know what you’re getting into. It starts up like a very standard (clichéd even) situation with teenagers talking about a local serial killer and whether homecoming will be cancelled because of him. How this sequence plays out reminded me of Scream, mostly in how it was self-aware and how that opening sequence with Drew Barrymore stands alone a well crafted cinematic slice of horror. From the get-go, the humor is well mixed with some nicely done gore effects. What’s slightly problematic, and what I feel some horror fans may take issue with, is that the film is very much a riff on the mainstream 90’s horror style. It’s really my biggest issue, but I’m slightly more forgiving of this, because this is a style choice that’s obviously done in a tongue-in-cheek manner. As a reminder, Vince Vaughn also played a serial killer in the 90’s when he took on the role of Norman Bates in the awful remake of Psycho. Thankfully, just from the opening sequence alone, Vaughn redeems himself and actually plays a great menacing killer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 17th, 2020
When I first saw The Strangers, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by how much that movie stuck with me. Sure, there have been plenty of home invasion flicks over the years, but The Strangers is definitely right up there with the best like Funny Games and Inside. Writer and director Bryan Bertino is one of modern horror’s underappreciated creators. He is so good at keeping things simple, utilizing small casts and single settings, and keeping the horror relatively grounded in reality. With The Dark and The Wicked, he gives us his best work to date, and for me one of the best horror films in years. Personally, this is my favorite new horror release since 2016’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe. I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with me, and for as much love as I have for Hereditary, what The Dark and The Wicked did that honestly very few horror films manage to do is genuinely get under my skin. This movie actually creeped me out, and it didn’t use big gory FX or go for cheap jump scares. This literally is a master class in creating tension and delivering a story to audiences that starts off in familiar territory but takes us in new and fresh directions.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 12th, 2020
When you check out the poster and Blu-ray cover art for this film, you could easily think that this was yet another cheesy teen romance, but the film is something else entirely. There is a bit of teenage romance in the film, but mostly the focus is on the mental health of the film’s protagonist, Adam (Charlie Plummer) and his struggles with schizophrenia. It’s a heavy topic, and somehow the film manages to tackle the topic in an honest way without being overly depressing. This was challenging material, especially when your target audience is under the age of 18, and during the time of COVID, it’s a bold move for a studio to put out a film with this kind of heavy subject matter. I didn’t expect to like this film, if I’m being honest, and I’ll happily admit that the film surprised me. That doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t come with its share of problems, but are they enough to discourage someone from checking out this film?
The story is told to us by its protagonist Adam in a way where it seems as though he’s talking to his therapist, but we never see this person, so it may have been better if he were just speaking to the audience, since the perspective has him talking to the camera in a medium shot during these sequences. He introduces us to his condition, and we see the situation unfold that had him removed from his school, basically an accident during class that resulted in his friend getting a bad burn. This should have been a tragic and traumatic scene, but it comes off a bit silly when we see one of the personalities he sees, the bodyguard, go and fight a bad CGI black whirlwind that creates the chaos in the classroom. It’s early on with this scene and every scene involving this “dark cloud” where I feel director Thor Freudenthal was the wrong choice for this project. Sure, he may have experience and success with doing family films like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but this film needed to be a tad darker in tone and, well, the ending of this film is just absurd and basically craps over all the realness most of the film presents.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 27th, 2020
It was over twenty years ago when The Haunting came out. I remember actually looking forward to this movie, mostly because of its director Jan De Bont, who was responsible for the 90’s summer blockbusters Speed (1994) and Twister (1996). For the record, I choose to pretend that Speed 2: Cruise Control never happened, because let’s face it, that was simply one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. To De Bont’s credit, he’s also the cinematographer of some pretty great films as well; Die Hard, Flatliners (the good one), and Basic Instinct, to name a few. Now another thing that had me excited was where CGI was at the time. The Frighteners had come out in 1996, The special effects in that film were great and they hold up to this day, so really, with a bigger budget, a solid director and cast, this film should have just been amazing. The result ended up being a film that shows what happens when you rely too heavily on CGI for scares rather than crafting good old-fashioned suspense with atmosphere and story.
The 1999 film is based off the book by Shirley Jackson. Sadly it would take nearly two decades more for the superior Netflix adaption of The Haunting of Hill House to release. While the 1999 version may be closer to the book, what is ironic is that it’s about a paranormal study on fear, yet there is nothing terrifying or scary about this film. The film follows so many typical haunted house tropes that even Ray Charles would see these “scares” coming.
