Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 5th, 2013
If you were alive at the time, you probably remember watching the seven tobacco company executives testifying in before a Senate committee on the addictive nature of their products. They all raised their hands to swear that they do not believe that nicotine is addictive. It made for great television of the absurd. It was great fodder for the late-night comedy routines, and almost every stand-up in the country found a way to work it into their material. It was the beginning of a changing environment in America toward smoking, in general. Most states have since passed "Clean Air Acts" which prohibit smoking from most public places. States have sued and ultimately won to recoup some of the money they lose each year on taking care of citizens who have ruined their health by smoking. Even more restrictions on advertisement have been implemented, and the idea of smoking being "cool" went out along with the billboards and sports stadium banners. The tobacco companies are still doing fine, however. They now export more product than they sell in the United States, and the lawsuits and advertisement bans have been little more than speed bumps on the profit margins.
Much of that swing in public opinion can be attributed to Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe). He was a scientist working for one of these "big 7" companies when he was fired. He had some fundamental issues with the work he was doing and left with a pretty generous severance package and a non-disclosure agreement that barred him from revealing what he knew.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 23rd, 2013
Ever since Ben Affleck stepped behind the camera and took on the role of director, I’ve found myself not only becoming a fan of his work but believing the man has greatness ahead of him. When I first watched Gone Baby Gone, I was more than a little impressed; after all, it was his first time at the helm. But then Affleck released his follow-up film, The Town, and it blew me away. Sure, there were some great movies that came out that year, but the fact that it didn’t make the list of best picture nominees I just can’t understand. But with the release of Argo it would seem the Academy will have a chance to right that wrong and shower this film with plenty of adoration. Sure, this is pretty much a shoe-in for the best picture nomination, but not just because it’s great, but really, what is the competition?
There is a lot that I enjoyed, and dare I say loved, about the film. As the old Warner Bros. logo appeared on the screen I got a little excited. No time is wasted, thrusting us right into the middle of a protest growing out of hand, outside the US Embassy in Iran. The opening works great as the tension builds between the protestors and the Americans doing all they can to destroy all the confidential files they have on hand. With time running out before the embassy is over run, six Americans manage to escape taking refuge with the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2013
"Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that sort of thing anymore."
It was 1962, and Ursula Andress emerged from the tropical island surf sporting a provocative swimsuit, and a tradition was born. The seductive scene would become the first iconic image in a line that has lasted a half a century and counting. Fifty years; 23 movies makes it the longest-running film franchise in motion picture history. He had many faces over those 50 years: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, George Lazenby, and even David Niven, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen in a 1967 spoof. For the last three films he's been played by Daniel Craig. They all had somewhat different styles. They all had a line of beautiful women. They all faced different challenges and foes. But they all shared the same name: Bond...James Bond.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 20th, 2013
Back around the time I was born, when Tom Cruise had an ounce of sanity, a little movie called Top Gun swept across the globe, raking in over $350,000,000 worldwide, as well as sparking an interest in the US Navy and everything Tomcat, Skyhawk, and MiG related. Ever since its original release Top Gun has kept a hold on its audience, being played almost weekly, and now it makes its way into the world of high definition with its release on Blu-ray 3D.
For the few of you out there who don’t know, Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible) plays Pete Mitchell, better known to the rest of us as Maverick. He’s young, cocky, and he pilots an F-14 Tomcat. His wingman Goose (Anthony Edwards, Zodiac) keeps him in check with a cool head, and is the more cautious of the two. After another pilot turns in his wings, the two are given the opportunity to join the Top Gun fighter pilot school in which only the top 1% of fighter pilots are invited. Upon getting into the school Maverick believes himself to be the best there and borders on the line of being reckless, creating an enemy of fellow pilot Iceman (Val Kilmer, Heat). As the movie plays out Maverick falls in love, contemplates his lifestyle, loses people close to him, and faces death while trying to make it through the training. The movie pretty much wraps up in typical Hollywood style with a bow on it, but still manages to be a good watch.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 6th, 2013
Can a scumbag also be considered a hero? Lance Armstrong fans probably mull that question each time a new, unsavory revelation about the now-disgraced cyclist comes to light. The issue was addressed in 1992’s Hero, which starred Dustin Hoffman as a low-life who saves a group of passengers on a crashed airplane. Flight also takes to the not-so-friendly skies to examine whether it’s possible to reconcile a lifetime of destructive behavior with an extraordinary act of valor.
You wouldn’t necessarily guess that from the film’s punchy trailer, which painted Flight as a cynical gloss on the Sully Sullenberger story. (The movie’s protagonist even has a similarly folksy, alliterative name: Whip Whitaker.) Instead, Flight is an R-rated drama that presents one of the most unflinching portrayals of drug and alcohol addiction you’re likely to ever see in a mass-appeal film from a big-time director and starring one of the world’s most famous movie stars.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 25th, 2013
We've seen action films like Taken enough times that we've become a little immune to the formula. But then again, Liam Neeson wasn't your typical action figure, and so the movie was able to take audiences by surprise. It's not that Neeson hadn't already established himself as a fine actor. He just didn't fit the mold we are so used to seeing. Things have changed in the couple of years since Taken had its box office run. Neeson has now done more action films, and he's started to look more the part. The clever antics of the first film are now behind us, so a sequel isn't going to really be able to take us unaware again. And perhaps that, more than anything else, is the reason Taken 2 comes across as a bit of a disappointment.
The story itself is one of the most clever I've ever seen in an action film sequel. How many times do we watch an action hero rack up the body count in his or her quest to save the day? There's enough shooting in these films to give Uncle Joe Biden nightmares. Sequels come along and our hero is back in action against new bad guys. But what about the aftermath of the first film? Don't these guys have friends and family who might take it badly that they were killed? Of course they would, and Taken 2 starts with that very premise.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 24th, 2013
I see an Oscar nominee, an Emmy nominee, an actor who has carried two successful TV shows, and the bad guy from the highest-grossing movie of all time. In other words, I see more talent than you would ordinarily expect from a straight-to-DVD drama. Then again, I also see Soulja Boy, but he’s not the problem. Instead, Officer Down squanders a few fine performances and a solid premise due to some seriously (and unnecessarily) muddled storytelling.
Det. David Callahan (Stephen Dorff) may as well have “Dirty” in front of his name, but it’s not because he tears through bureaucratic red tape in his pursuit of justice; it’s because “Cal” always looks like he desperately needs a shower. Callahan is a former crooked cop/drug addict/philanderer who changed his bad boy ways after narrowly surviving a gun shot wound during a drug bust gone wrong. Cal never knew the identity of the man who saved his life until the Good Samaritan comes forward one year later.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 23rd, 2013
Anytime a horror film is released with a religious element, I can’t help but be a little interested. The film that first won me over for this sub-genre was, of course, The Exorcist, and ever since seeing that film I keep hoping that one day a film will hold up to it in quality, but it seems I’ll be waiting a while. That’s not to say there haven’t been some good films to come out along the way. The Possession is one of those valiant attempts that brings something fresh to the genre but never quite reaches its full potential. Before going into this film I was familiar with the “true story” surrounding the Dibbuk box, and I’ve always felt if there was ever a story to rival The Exorcist or The Omen, it would revolve around this box. I don’t want to get into the history of the box because most of the story has little to do with the movie, and in my opinion that is part of the reason this film falls short of what could have been.
The film opens as an elderly woman approaches the cursed box to destroy it. Unfortunately for her the box knows what she is up to and punishes her for it. She is violently tossed around her living room as though she were nothing more than a rag doll; outside her son stands unaware of the punishment she is taking. It’s clear this unseen force is powerful, but what is it?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jonathan Foster on January 17th, 2013
Do you realize how much you’re affected by advertising? Branded attempts to answer this question while showing us where our world is headed if the trend continues. Mishka Galkin (Ed Stoppard, The Pianist) is Russia’s advertising whiz kid. When Mishka meets Abby (Leelee Sobieski, 88 Minutes, The Wicker Man), they immediately become friends, despite the fact that she is the niece of Bob Gibbons (Jeffrey Tambor, TVs Arrested Development, the Hellboy movies), Mishka’s boss. Even though Bob warns him to stay away from Abby, Mishka enters into a personal and professional relationship with her, developing an Extreme Makeover-type show in Russia together. Unfortunately, the show tanks when the woman getting the makeover falls into a coma following her cosmetic surgery.
In the public outcry that follows, Mishka is jailed and Abby is deported. When he gets out after being incarcerated for a few days, Mishka angrily confronts his boss, claiming that Bob used his former CIA contacts to orchestrate the show’s failure so that Abby would leave Russia (and Mishka). During this argument, Bob has a heart attack and dies. Believing his marketing ability is “a curse” harming those around him, Mishka decides to leave the advertising business behind and become a hermit. (The idea that Mishka’s ability is a curse comes from the film’s narrator, who sounds like GLaDOS, the evil computer from Portal.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 18th, 2012
I'm a Minnesota Vikings football fan. Yes, I accept the condolences. However, I didn't say that to get sympathy, and I'm not yet in need of the services of the suicide hotline. With two games to go, I will keep the number on speed dial, just in case. A thousand years ago we had a star player who made the by now infamous statement that he plays when he wants to play. For a young athlete with an already troubled past, it didn't go over too well. But over the last decade or so Clint Eastwood appears to be in that same mindset. He acts when he wants to. He's only appeared in three films in the last ten years. The difference is that Clint has earned the right to be picky about when he works. He isn't taking a paycheck when he isn't working, and when others depend on him to hit it out of the park, he rarely misses the ball. Trouble With The Curve won't ever rival Eastwood's other roles for action, intensity, or even one-liners, but it's a solid performance in every way. For all of those Eastwood critics in the glory days who said he couldn't pull off a performance without the trappings of Dirty Harry or The Man With No Name, I suspect you're having a hearty meal eating those words after seeing Trouble With The Curve. It's perhaps his simplest role yet. It also happens to be a home run.
Gus (Eastwood) has been a scout for baseball's Atlanta Braves for 40 years. He's responsible for the team's greatest talents going back to Dusty Baker. Now he's in his 80's. New, younger blood has invaded the world of scouting, and they've brought along all of their latest computer toys to do the job. Gus won't adapt to that new technological world. He can tell a hitter's talent by the sound of the ball leaving the bat or the sound of the batter's hands as he gets ready to swing. That's a good thing, because Gus is losing his eyesight. He trips over tables and chairs (enter your own RNC joke here) and isn't the safest person behind the wheel of his car. His old friend and head of scouting for the team is Pete (Goodman). He's still behind Gus, but the pressure is on. There are only three months left on Gus's contract, and the draft is approaching. Gus has one scouting trip to prove he's still got it, or he's going to be put out to pasture by owner Vince (Patrick).
