Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 8th, 2019
When Robert Redford first announced that The Old Man and the Gun was going to be the last film he was going to be acting in, it became a film that shot to the top of my must-see list. Since that announcement he’s backed off on his comment, but if this were his last film, this would be one heck of a way to close out an amazing career. What writer and director David Lowery has delivered here is sort of a love letter to all of Redford’s greatest hits, and by the time the credits end, well, you simply know you’ve watched something special. It’s a film from another era, when special FX didn’t come out of a camera and cinema just was different. Most of all this film reminded me why Redford will always remain a cinematic icon, but what was missing here is the void Paul Newman left behind. This would have been a perfect film for them to both be in and ride off into the sunset together, and it’s a reminder of how many greats we have lost and those other greats who may not have passed, but it seems Hollywood just doesn’t seem to have a place for anymore.
The film is mostly a true story based on the criminal Forrest Tucker (Redford), who has spent his life in and out of prison. He’s been incarcerated 18 times, and each of those times he’s managed to find a way to escape. But the film isn’t about his entire life, but instead about when his criminal life may be coming to an end. When he meets Jewel (Sissy Spacek), he’s actually on the run after a bank heist, and he pulls over on the highway to help her when he sees her car is broken down. Of course it seems this is just a tactic to throw the cops off his tail, but the more he talks with Jewe,l you can’t be sure if that twinkle in his eye is part of the con or if he is sweet on the woman.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 7th, 2019
Bigger is not always better, and more is not always better. If the holiday season release of Dr. Seuss's The Grinch is a testament to anything, it is that those two ideas are absolutely true. The Grinch has everything that the 1966 How The Grinch Stole Christmas could never have hoped to have had. The film delivers on some of the best computer-generated animation that Hollywood studio money can buy. It had a $75-million budget. It will get a wide release with millions of more dollars put into a global marketing campaign. And it will make a ton of money. After all, the Grinch is the modern age Scrooge from Dickens' classic story. These are the kind of stories that are timeless and popular. Still, there's one thing this film doesn't have over the 1966 television short, and that is that its heart is two sizes too small.
We all know the story. The Grinch (Cumberbatch) lives high atop Mount Crumpet. He's a rather grouchy old soul, and he lives in isolation from the Whos, who live appropriately enough down in Whoville. He lives alone with his dog Max, who is the model of man's... Grinch's best friend. He manages to tolerate the bright and happy Whos from a distance except when Christmas rolls around every year. It is then that the singing and celebration get entirely out of control. So imagine his surprise when he discovers that the mayor has issued a decree to make Christmas three times bigger. For the Grinch, that can only mean three times louder. So he devises a plan to steal Christmas from the happy citizens and assure himself a nice and peaceful December 25th.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on February 6th, 2019
This was the big surprise during the 2018 Super Bowl halftime show; that this film that would be immediately available on Netflix after the game. As you can imagine, this was pretty significant for me, as I only had a vague knowledge of the film due to its limited promotion until this event. How apropos it is that this film be released around the same time of as the 2019 Super Bowl. Part of the Cloverfield Universe and armed with basically a who’s who of international talent, I can say that The Cloverfield Paradox is among my favorite of the movie franchise, based predominantly on the performances of the cast. The plot of the film tends to be a bit heavy on the science, which may make it difficult to follow for those who aren’t that well-versed with that subject.
Set in 2028, the Earth is suffering a global energy crisis, and countries are close to going to war over the remaining energy reserves. In an attempt to resolve the crisis, the space agencies of the world have band together to form a coalition force on a space station to test a particle accelerator to create an unlimited power source. After two years of failed attempts, tensions between the countries’ representatives begin to grow and accusations of sabotage are lobbied against one another, mainly at German physicist Ernst Schmidt (Daniel Bruhl, Captain America: Civil War).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 23rd, 2019
"That's one small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind."
July 20th, 1969. If you were alive and even somewhat old enough to be aware of your surroundings, you likely still remember that date. There are many such dates in history; unfortunately so many of them revolve around tragic events like 9-ll or the attack on Pearl Harbor. But on that night I was eight years old, and I know exactly where I was. I was watching Walter Cronkite on television as he brought us the first landing on the surface of the moon. Today that's a bittersweet memory. For an 8-year-old boy it was a promise that has remained unfulfilled. If you had told that 8-year-old who just saw humans walking on the moon that 50 years later we would have gone no further, he would have been dumbfounded. If you told him that not only would we go no further but that we would stop going to the moon in just a few short years, he would have been devastated. I can only imagine what that first man on the moon thought about it all so many years later. The truth is that Neil Armstrong never traded on his celebrity. He kept mostly to himself for the rest of his life, and perhaps the only tragedy larger than our abandonment of the pursuit he risked his life for is that we know so little about the man whose name lives with the likes of Columbus. He's almost a forgotten hero. That's why First Man is such an important film that almost lives up to that legacy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 17th, 2019
"I always knew he'd come back. In this town, Michael Myers is a myth. He's the Boogeyman. A ghost story to scare kids. But this Boogeyman is real. An evil like his never stops; it just grows older. Darker. More determined. Forty years ago, he came to my home to kill. He killed my friends, and now he's back to finish what he started, with me. The one person who's ready to stop him."
I was 17 years old when John Carpenter released The Shape, aka Michael Myers, on the world in 1978. It was a milestone film. Of course we didn't know we were watching something that would become so culturally huge. We were the target audience. Teens who were looking for some extra thrill in our films. These so-called slasher films became great escapes of fantasy to bring a date along. For a late-teen, there's no better way to spend an evening with a date than a film that might have her jump right into your lap. Great times. But the reason Halloween stands out from the crowded genre is because John Carpenter knew something about anticipation. He knew how to build towards a scare. And he understood how to use music, shadow, and pacing to truly immerse his audience into a film. I didn't watch Halloween in 1978. I experienced Halloween in 1978.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 16th, 2019
These days when the studios are cutting together trailers to promote their upcoming films, I feel one of the number one complaints people have is that the trailer gives too much away, so why bother shelling out the cash to see it on the big screen? When it comes to the trailer for Bad times at the El Royale, it gives you a glimpse at what is to come, but the result is something clever and ambitious. Unfortunately, it feels a bit too familiar. This is the second feature film from writer and director Drew Goddard, who first made a splash onto the screen with his hit film Cabin in the Woods. While I enjoyed his first romp that played with many of horror’s stereotypes, I still felt the film fell a bit flat. Unfortunately, though I enjoyed this fun little noir film he’s put together, I feel it too falls a bit flat, but mostly this is due to its 140-minute runtime.
The film opens up with a great sequence, where we get to watch as a man comes into a motel room and goes through the process of burying a bag beneath the floorboards. It’s a long static shot that nicely sets the tone for the film we’re about to watch, and with the nice little twist at the end of the scene, we’re ready to jump into this film. Sadly, as we are introduced to visitors at the El Royale motel, things get a bit long-winded, as it seems the sequence of just having the characters checking into their rooms will never end. It works as setting a tone and introducing us to characters, but the problem is we spent all this time with character development just to discover no one seems to be who they claim to be. I’m all for having twists, but this sequence just goes on for too long, and unfortunately that’s pretty much how each sequence plays out, each clever one stretching on for a bit too long. This is where I understand where people draw their comparisons to Quentin Tarantino, only Tarantino can make long talky sequences crackle with humor, dread, and cool all at once, and Goddard just can’t pull it off.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2018
"Predators don't just sit around making hats out of rib cages. They conquered space."
In 1987 Predator became somewhat of a milestone film for many reasons. The movie would anchor a franchise, thanks mostly to a wonderfully original Stan Winston creature design and the performance of Kevin Peter Hall under the suit. Both Winston and Hall have since passed, but the alien hunter that they created together is still going strong. The film also featured two stars who would later go on to become governors of their states. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jessie Ventura made their mark in politics. The film also featured Rocky's Carl Weathers. It also featured Shane Black in a small role that might not have contributed to the blossoming franchise then, but he has made his own impact by writing and directing the latest installment of that franchise The Predator.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on December 20th, 2018
Children’s fairy tales have taken a new drift with the film The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Packed with exciting action adventure, the movie, based on the book by John Bellairs, envisions the story with an incredible amount of CGI. You could almost call the film animated, but that’s a good thing here as things go bump in the night, magic forms the basis, and solving the mystery becomes the prominent focus for older youngsters. Orphaned due to a car crash that took his parents, young Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) gets invited to live at his Uncle Jonathan’s (Jack Black) magical mansion. He’s a bit fearful of the old house with its grand stairway and many mysterious rooms, but Lewis sort of likes the flamboyance of the magician-turned-warlock. There he’s introduced to Jonathan’s neighbor and best friend, Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), who assures Jonathan that he will enjoy living with his uncle.
Uncle Jonathan has only one rule for Lewis: he mustn’t open a special cupboard, ever. Things go well for Lewis until it’s time he attend the local middle school. There he’s the odd man out, as cliques have formed between the boys long before he came there. Surprises abound in his new life, and when he helps Tarby (Sunny Suljic), one of the school kids running for class president, he feels he’s finally made a friend. But things are not what they seem to be, and it leads to Lewis breaking the one rule he had promised he wouldn’t.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 11th, 2018
When a disease begins targeting and killing children, you fear for the future of the generation. However, when the children whosurvive develop dangerous abilities, you fear for yourself. That is the situation that Ruby Daly finds herself in. To compound her issues, not only does she have powers that she can’t control, but among the powerful her abilities are among the rarest and strongest. Amandla Stenberg stars in this film based on a young adult novel series. Anyone else sensing a franchise in works. Unfortunately, despite the vacuum let behind by Twilight, Hunger Games (which our star was a part of), and the recently ended Maze Runner, I’m not so sure that The Darkest Minds will be the vehicle to fill the gap. Overall it was a solid opening, but I left the film with more than a few unanswered questions.
Ruby Daly is ten years old when her life changes forever. A disease that targets children ravages the world, killing a large percentage of the world’s children. Those who survive the disease developing abilities varying from enhanced intelligence to mind control. Fearing the threat, the government locks away the children. Ruby is one of those children. Classified by color (Green, Blue, Gold, Red, and Orange, with Orange considered the most dangerous and are to be executed on sight), Ruby is the rarest and considered the most dangerous, so she hides in plain sight and in constant fear until she is freed by a group looking to exploit her abilities. Mistrusting her would-be saviors, she runs away and happens upon a group of children who have escaped a similar circumstance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2018
"If anyone wants to clap, now is the time to do it."
If he were alive today, A.A. Milne would likely find a reason to smile these days. Perhaps he is. Winnie the Pooh has made quite a bit of a comeback in recent years. Last year we saw the impact the creation had on his son, the real Christopher Robin, in the sentimental Goodbye, Christopher Robin. This year Disney continues its recent trend of bringing many of its classical animated features back for live-action remakes using the wonderful world of computer-generated f/x and motion capture performances. The recent Jungle Book release was a wonder to behold and one of the best films of that year. This year it's the world of Winnie the Pooh, and to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, Disney releases Christopher Robin, and you're not going to want to miss it. All of your favorite characters from both the classic books and the Disney cartoons are back, and it couldn't have been a moment too soon.
