Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 11th, 2009
Dateline: Texas. Christmas Eve. Christmas carols are playing on the radio. And even though this is one heck of a hot day, the stores are decked out like the preverbal halls. It’s Christmas time in the city. But this isn’t going to be one of those White Christmas warm and fuzzy eggnog cozying by the fireplace stories. Don’t get me wrong. There’s going to be plenty of roasting by an open fire, but those aren’t chestnuts. Those are people.
An eclectic mix of passengers are boarding a bus in Dallas to travel across the interior of the Lone Star State. They each have their own stories and reasons for taking a six hour bus ride on Christmas Eve. We’re treated to some of them. The most notable is Merideth Cole (Mond). She’s an American soldier who is AWOL during a time of war. That spells desertion, and she has a fed on her tail. Of course, she’s got military training and some mad skills that are going to come in handy before long. The trip has barely begun when a motorcycle gang, known as the Nomads, runs the bus off of the road. The resulting carnage causes the passengers to panic and the Nomads to smell fear…and blood, some of it their own. The gang pursues the bus once again. The bus leaves the highway and ends up at a dead end abandoned wrecking yard. They barricade themselves as best they can while the gang surrounds them and sends for reinforcements. Isolated, the group engages in a state of war with the Nomads. Many of the characters on both sides are simply cannon fodder for the bloodletting. The main characters are straight out of the Hollywood stock character store.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 10th, 2009
It’s always a danger when you have the same person do too many roles in a film. There have been notable exceptions, but the rule proves true enough to be considered an axiom. In this case we have the duet of Hunter Hill and Perry Moore co-directing and co-writing the script. The problem is that neither of them had done either of those things before. Their inexperience takes its toll on a film that had a lot of potential. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a project is to let it go. Unfortunately these two couldn’t give up even a little of that control. In the end you have a movie with a very powerful cast that can’t seem to salvage anything given them by Hill and Moore.
Billy (Garity) is pretty much a loser. We first find him at the hands of a merciless drug dealer, Red (Matthews). It appears that Billy’s girl, Hope (de Matteo) has stolen a rather large shipment of drugs and run. Red assumes Billy must be in on the theft, so now he’s going to kill him if he can’t turn over the drugs or the money they’re worth. Of course, Billy can’t do either, so his only recourse is to escape and find Hope. He does escape in a manner far too clever for this character to have come up with. He grabs Hope’s young son (Ford) and heads to his old hometown. In Lake City, his mother, Maggie (Spacek) is struggling trying to hang on to her home. There’s a development company that wants the land. She’s a bit shocked when Billy and Clayton, the boy, show up at her house. We’re made to understand that a tragedy involving a younger brother has caused a lifelong tension between the two. Billy’s not here for his mother. He’s trying to track down Hope. Unfortunately, Red and his boys show up first, giving Billy a limited time to make the situation good. Billy is also working on staying sober. He meets up with a woman who we are led to believe might have been a childhood crush. Jennifer (Romijn) is now a cop in the small town. Complications arise as Billy tries to deal with the drug situation and his various emotions elicited by his being home again.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 10th, 2009
Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve joined a film somewhere in the middle? That’s how I almost immediately felt about Stiletto. I even went back to the menu to be sure I wasn’t starting the film in progress. No such luck. The script drops you in the middle of these characters’ adventure so that by the time you understand what’s going on, you’ve long given up caring. That means the only other thing you might have gotten this film for is to see some full on kick butt chick action. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really deliver on that either.
Raina (Katic) was a mobster’s girl. Now she’s out for revenge on the entire organization for a particularly brutal act. One by one she’s taking the crew down, but she fails to kill Virgil (Berenger), the leader of the gang. He survives and decides to send his crooked cop, Beck (Sloan) to stop her before she tries to kill him again. It’s a basic cat and mouse game as she continues to “Raina” down on his gang. Alex (Forsythe) has taken the lady into her confidence, but is just using her himself. No doubt that Stana Katic looks pretty good as she methodically kills her enemies, but there’s really no flair to the performance. She was much better in the latest Bond film. I never saw the hatred and emotion that caused these acts in the first place. She’s pretty matter of fact as she goes about the slayings. The events themselves look staged and never deliver on the promised thrills. William Forsythe looks like the scumbag his character is, but I get the feeling that’s just Forsythe. He’s become quite a clichéd character actor, and we’ve seen him like this a hundred times before. Tom Berenger’s face looks like they puffed it out with prosthetics. At least, I hope it’s makeup. Otherwise, dude’s gotten ugly. He either can’t or refuses to emote more than one emotion the entire picture. Don’t even get me started on the gang that calls itself “Nazis For Jesus”. No one in this cast sets the film on fire. What you end up with are countless action sequences that never seem to get your heart racing. Before long I found myself too catatonic to even turn the thing off.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on March 10th, 2009
Posted by Ken Spivey
Based upon Toby Young's 2001 memoir and pseudo-confessional, “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” is the uproarious tale of journalist Sidney Young’s ascension from a hack to a successful hack. Young tracks the rich and famous, writes scathing stories about them, sleeps with many of them, all while reaping a whirlwind of trouble along the way. His career receives a major coup when he is offered a job at the prestigious “Sharps” magazine. Toting witty comments and salacious attempts to bed every beautiful actress he meets, the story of Sidney Young's (Simon Pegg) rise to journalist nirvana is a laugh a minute and a sincere delight from inception to completion.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on March 10th, 2009
Posted by Ken Spivey
“Picturing The Presidents” is a glimpse into the Presidential Portrait Gallery found in the Smithsonian. A painting of each leader of our nation holds many meanings. The various ways of seeing these portraits are determined by the painter, the one being painted, and the ever changing audience viewing the art. The documentary begins by discussing the portrait of Washington and how he defined how a President was to appear: noble, strong, yet not regal. They contrast this with Clinton's portrait, which shows the less formal man with rumpled jacket and a tired, earthy stare. This highlights how few people are truly pleased with any presidential portrait; many view the Clinton portrait as too natural, while Washington's is often criticized as nearly appearing supernatural. The film then explores the relationship between president and artist, and the eventual evolution of the portraitist as propagandist.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2009
"There are more fat people in American than there are people." That's the dry wit of Tom Baker, Little Britain USA's narrator, introducing a sketch about "Fat Fighter" Marjorie Dawes. If the series stuck with that brand of humor, I'd have enjoyed it thoroughly. Instead, it goes places so crude I was continually startled by its outrageous comedy. I'm of the opinion that blue humor is a love-it-or-hate-it genre. If you enjoy the nasty stuff, Little Britain USA : the complete first season is definitely up your alley. Mine? Not so much.
The series is yet another British invasion, having begun as a program in the U.K. before crossing over the Atlantic to reach American audiences, like The Office, Life on Mars and many others. Of course, this time it's still helmed and starred in by its original creators, which should alleviate the concerns of fans of the British version. And in this case, I wasn't familiar with the original series, so Little Britain USA was my introduction to the talents of show creators and stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams. They play most, but not all, of the regular sketch characters, which include the above-mentioned Fat Fighter, horny prime minister Sebastian Love, grossly obese seductress Bubbles Devere, over-muscled homoerotic gym buddies Mark and Tom, eighth man on the moon Bing Gordyn and many others. They're joined in the six episodes of this first season by guest stars like Rosie O'Donnell, Paul Rudd, Sting and Vivica A. Fox.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2009
Christmas is a long way off, but many people look forward to jingling bells all year round. For them, it’s a wonderful time with family, friends, exchanging of gifts and general merriment. For many others, though, Christmas can be a depressing time of the year. There’s even a long-running myth that suicide rates increase significantly over the holidays. Yes, it’s a myth, but it endures because it’s easy to imagine why people might hit rock bottom when others around them are so darn happy.
Midnight Clear is a film inspired by the myth, but it feels no less poignant in light of the facts. It’s a universal story with an understated message, about the difference small acts of kindness can make in people’s lives.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2009
The last time I reviewed a set of the popular family TV series Seventh Heaven, I made the statement that “one of the hardest parts of reviewing DVD’s for this site is getting dropped in to the middle of a show I neither followed nor cared to follow….” Not much has changed since that time, certainly not regarding an improvement in the show’s quality, or in my enthusiasm regarding it. With Seventh Heaven – The Eighth Season, the Camden family and friends become increasingly obnoxious in their journey to the heart of sappy endings and Full House-esque melodrama. A dear friend of mine – a girl, no less, so it’s obvious this is not a matter of gender, but experience – recently pointed out that Seventh Heaven is little more than the one-hour drama version of the old TGIF lineup’s crap-tastic Bob Saget-starring sitcom. I agree.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2009
Breaking Bad could be the best show on television. I say “could be” because I haven’t seen enough of its competition to make a fair and adequate comparison. But one look at the beginning of Vince Gilligan and Mark Johnson’s breakthrough new series will have you undeniably hooked.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 5th, 2009
“The dead can hover on the edge of our vision with the density and luminosity of mist. And their claim on the Earth can be as legitimate and tenacious as our own.”
In The Electric Mist is based on one of James Lee Burke’s Detective Robicheaux novels, In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead. The role was previously played by Alec Baldwin in Heaven’s Prisoners. There couldn’t be any two more diverse actors playing the same role. I have never seen Baldwin’s film, so can’t make an actual comparison, but I suspect that Tommy Lee Jones adds far more depth and a more contemplative nature to the role.
