Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 5th, 2014
This has been a review that has taken me a while to get to, not because it’s something I was dreading, but instead it had me revisiting some other Elmore Leonard adaptations to the screen. There have been countless adaptions of Leonard’s work on the big screen as well as television. Whether it’s his westerns 3:10 to Yuma, Justified or Hombre or his work on crime Jackie Brown, Out of Sight, and Get Shorty, there is a good chance at some point you’ve seen Elmore’s work, and those were just a handful of titles I mentioned. I was a teenager when I first discovered Elmore Leonard. Out of Sight had just come out in paperback, and I had scooped it up after reading this was from the guy responsible for Get Shorty. His books didn’t read like your typical novel. Instead it felt like you were reading something that came alive; his characters simply spoke as though they came off the streets, not the pages of literature. I loved these books and have been reading them since, and when the news came early this year that Elmore Leonard had passed, it was one of the first times I actually got upset about a “celebrity” passing. It was the realization there simply would be no more stories to keep me turning the pages at night. Thankfully he left behind a collection of stories that will stand the test of time, and it’s with Life of Crime we get to see that.
A pair of small time crooks, Ordell (Mos Def) and Louis (John Hawkes) have a plan to kidnap a crooked real estate developer’s wife and hold her for a million-dollar ransom. The plan is just about perfect, and Mickey (Jennifer Anniston) is just about the perfect victim for her kidnappers; the trouble instead comes with the husband, Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins) who has just gone on vacation to the Bahamas where he has his mistress waiting. To make matters even more complicated for the crooks, Frank has even filed for divorce, so having his wife out of the picture would only make his life easier.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 8th, 2014
"What I am about to tell you sounds crazy. But you have to listen to me. Your very lives depend on it. You see, this isn't the first time."
No, this isn't the first time. Tom Cruise seems to be making a habit of these science fiction action movies of late. There was Oblivion and War Of The Worlds, and quite frankly Edge Of Tomorrow looked to be pretty much more of the same. But there's a huge difference between this film and the previous two. Edge Of Tomorrow is actually good. What looks on the surface to be just Groundhog Day with futuristic toys turns out to be a redemption story that I actually never saw coming.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2014
Baseball is huge, and Bollywood is huge, so imagine if you put them together. In many ways, Million Dollar Arm is about Indian culture and what a separate world it is from ours. The film starts out in Los Angeles where J.B. Bernstein (Jon Hamm from Mad Men) is a sports agent who has broken off from a big agency to start his own firm. His partner, Aash (Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show), is very nervous about where their next client is coming from, since they lost a big one right at the start of the film. Bernstein, thinking on his feet, decides to pursue an untapped market for baseball and the big-money stars who are big-league pitchers. He sees India as completely virgin territory for baseball. But the problem is there are no baseball players in India. Aash gives him the idea by talking about cricket on cable.
Clearly, cricket and baseball are totally different, but Bernstein is desperate. He pitches his idea to a big-shot money man. The money man, Chang (Tzi Ma), listens and agrees with big conditions. They are basically impossible conditions, but again, Bernstein is desperate. Bernstein had a great life once, and he still has the big expensive house and the Jaguar, but his time to make this big gamble work is running out. A nurse (Lake Bell) rents his guesthouse. She's a sweet person, but Bernstein usually has a different model girlfriend on a regular basis. Her washing machine is broken just as he is walking out the door to head halfway around the world. He gives her keys to the house and tells her to just use the machine and be careful.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 1st, 2014
The backwoods flesh-eating disease film Cabin Fever was writer/ director Eli Roth’s first dip into horror and helped establish Roth as one of the “it” guys of the industry despite having a limited film catalog. The film’s cringe-worthy deaths, not to mention the memorable bathtub sequence, made the film an overnight sensation, and when talk of a potential sequel came out, I was more than a little excited. Picking up the reins for Roth would be another young rising star of the horror genre, Ti West. The film made a valiant attempt at capitalizing on the fame of the original, but it just never made the connection with audiences. Now we have the third entry in the Cabin Fever saga, Cabin Fever: Patient Zero. This time the film trades in its familiar backwoods local on a tropical paradise in the Caribbean.
When you see the title Patient Zero, you go into this with the hopes that this would be the film to have the big reveal as to how the virus managed to make its way to a lake in the middle of the woods in the outskirts of a small mountain town. Or you would be like me and have your fingers crossed for more fun from the party guy himself, Deputy Winston. Unfortunately, we get no familiar faces, but instead two separate storylines that we know inevitably will cross over.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 11th, 2014
Need for Speed is based on a video game. It caters to people who love the experience of speed. There is a huge audience for this sort of thing. To their credit, the writer and director makes every effort to create an actual story and real characters in this presentation. It is easy to compare it to Fast and Furious, but why bother. That gives these sorts of films too much credit. Fast and Furious and Need for Speed are designed to give people a thrill. If anything, Need for Speed takes things more seriously than the Fast and Furious series. It also focuses more on beautiful and very expensive cars. Some of the cars featured include Koenigseggs, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, McLarens, and Jaguars, but Ford Mustangs and Torinos get some of the most lavish praise. It could be a commercial for these cars. In fact, the film could be a commercial for the video game and the car culture, in general. One of the plot points is that the millions of invested in these cars is motivation to overlook past hostilities. The other reason for making this film is to give a star vehicle to Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad).
Tobey Mitchell (Aaron Paul) has a high-performance car shop in Mount Kisco. There are some fun street racing scenes right at the start. It should be stated that, at every point in this film, there is zero concern for the safety of innocent bystanders. The driving is always reckless and insane. He connects with his old girlfriend Anita (Dakota Johnson) who was stolen away by an old friend. That ex-friend Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) is now a big shot in the racing world. Tobey is behind on the mortgage on the shop. Dino offers him $500,000 to fix up a $3,000,000 car. Tobey has no choice but to set their differences aside. All his coworkers and best buddies are totally against it including Anita's brother Pete (Harrison Gilbertson). Pete is also a bit of a psychic and seer, predicting that Tobey will win a great race that ends at a lighthouse. I'm not going to go on about the plot too much, because it's predictable and done just to make sure no one just thinks it's a cheap video game rip-off. Aaron Paul does give full commitment to his role and is actually very good. I don't think he's leading man material, but he is able to convey all levels of intensity. This movie would be better off with a Steve McQueen type, but those are nearly nonexistent (although I think Tom Hardy has potential, but he's not in this movie).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 12th, 2014
There have been more than a few films that have revolved around radio DJ’s. Good Morning Vietnam, Talk Radio, and Private Parts: these are just a few films that explore the world of the character behind the microphone, who speaks through our radios through the day-to-day grind. Now, following in the success of the Oscar nominated film Philomena, Steve Coogan steps into the radio DJ world as Alan Partridge. Most of us are used to listening to our local DJ’s who come on between songs and blast us with their obnoxious personalities, silly games and pop culture news of the day on our morning drive to work. But as the radio market seems to be phased out as listeners have options like Serius XM and personal listening devices loaded with music, the need for DJ’s is simply becoming a thing of the past. And that is where Alan Partridge starts off.
The local radio station is being bought out, and the radio talent is being phased out for newer and more polished voices to bring in the younger listeners. With his job on the line, Alan Partridge (Coogan) makes a feeble attempt to save his job by throwing another DJ, Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney) under the bus.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 25th, 2014
Sometimes a horror movie comes along that is rich in originality and ideas. Dark House certainly fits into that category. There are some truly scary moments and seriously frightening images to be found here. For a low-budget affair, the movie sports pretty solid acting and an atmospheric production design. Writer/director Victor Salva knows how to get the most out of the resources at his command. That doesn't mean there isn't a serious flaw to be found here. This is a movie that is often a little too clever and more than a little enigmatic at times. It won't allow itself to be contained into any particular style or sub-genre, and that's a good thing. If only all of this didn't also get in the way of telling a tight story, this could have become the next cult classic. If wishes were horses....
Nick (Kleintank) is searching for answers about who he is. His mother has spent the last several years in an insane asylum, and he's visiting her for the first time in years. He's hoping she'll tell him who his father was. It's his 23rd birthday, and apparently that's a magical number in nature. As it turns out, Mom's promised to tell him this day. No, she hadn't promised Nick. She's talking to something inside the walls. Unfortunately, a breakdown nixes the big reveal, and a disastrous fire at the asylum later that night forever seals Mom's lips.
