Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 6th, 2017
One thing that you can probably surmise about me fairly quickly is that I am a product of the 80's. I still wear Converse shoes when I'm not working. I watch a regular dose of Transformers (first generation, 1984) and my favorite movie is Escape from New York (1981). My wife was even born in the eighties. Probably not the same thing, huh? Anyway, I usually jump at the chance to review an 80's movie and today is no different. The movie is called Into the Night with Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer from 1985. Never heard of it? Surprisingly, me neither. Let's take a look.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 2nd, 2017
“Here’s how it is: the Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the new technologies…some not so much. The Central Planets, thems formed the Alliance…waged war to bring everyone under their rule. A few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself.”
Sound familiar? A crew of scrappy underdogs skirting the edge of the galaxy to avoid an oppressive interplanetary alliance. Exactly 40 years ago, Star Wars used that formula to capture moviegoers’ imaginations, and it is currently being replicated by the uber-popular Guardians of the Galaxy series. But in between those two behemoths there was a little show called Firefly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 24th, 2017
For a gritty historical epic to get the green light these days, it has to have some sort of easy-to-understand hook. (“Hey, it's sexy King Arthur!”) And it seems like enough people complained about the prevalence of PG-13 action movies that it led to the current boom of R-rated sensations — like Deadpool and the John Wick flicks — that gleefully go to extremes. There is absolutely nothing gleeful about Pilgrimage, and the movie doesn't seem all that interested in hooking the masses (significant portions of the film are in French, Irish, and Latin). In other words, the most striking and impressive thing about Pilgrimage is also what can make it feel like somewhat of a slog: this movie is dead serious.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 19th, 2017
When it comes to hearing the name Loch Ness, just about everyone will think about the giant lake where “Nessie” the mythical monster inhabits. Whether you are a believer or not thousands converge to the Scottish Highlands location in hopes to be one of the lucky ones to catch a peak of the elusive beast. But the Loch Ness I am talking about is a beast of a whole other ilk. Thought the TV series does take place in a small tourist town that thrives on the legend that haunts the cold water, the series instead is about a serial killer that has been unleashed upon the town and given its residents something more to fear other than a giant monster that roams the lake.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 18th, 2017
It’s hard to believe it was way back in 1992 when Buffy the Vampire Slayer was first introduced to audiences. It was a title I had missed in the theaters, but I remember picking it up at our local mom-and-pop video store. With the title being what it was, to go in expecting more than a cheesy horror comedy filled with stakes, fangs, and witty dialog would be on the viewer. I wasn’t a huge fan of the film when I first saw it. I sort of felt like it was a film that was trying to be Fright Night, but let’s face it, there are very few vampire films that are as cool. It’s been over two decades since I last visited the film; how does it hold up? Well, to be honest, it’s grown on me quite a bit.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 18th, 2017
- “You know what they say...the house always wins.”
- “What if we were the house?”
The House, a funny and oddly violent comedy starring Saturday Night Live alums Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, has a great premise. Whereas most movies road trip their way to Sin City in order to cut loose, The House is about what happens when you import the glitz and glamor (and seediness) of Vegas into suburbia. The bad news is the filmmakers here don’t do much to develop their killer concept. The good news is The House is chock full of talented improvisers eager to pick up the slack.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 16th, 2017
For the most part it seems the summer blockbusters tend to be sequels, superhero films, or CGI bonanzas that are simply eye candy to get us to the dark auditoriums to escape the heat. It’s rare that something comes along that is so clever and fresh as Baby Driver. Personally I’ve been a fan of Edgar Wright from the moment I first saw Shaun of the Dead; he was a writer and director who I felt knew how to make films fun. When he was set to direct his dream project Ant-Man, I was excited to see him finally get a chance to do a giant tent-pole studio film, but weeks before filming was set to begin, he got pulled away and replaced.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 13th, 2017
When a film like The Survivalist comes along, you somewhat have an idea what to expect when it’s being marketed as a “dystopian thriller”. I like these kinds of films, but for the most part many of them are just not very good and are just a carbon copy of previous dystopian films that came out prior to it. For years I’ d say the Mad Max series was the gold standard on what you should want to be. Waterworld at least attempted to be Mad Max, but rather than a desert wasteland it went the direction of the high seas. The Survivalist goes another direction; rather than a barren wasteland, or the ocean, it instead plunges deep into the wilderness after society has apparently collapsed and food has become scarce.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 12th, 2017
In 2003 Open Water hit the screen; it was a success since at the time the found-footage genre hadn’t yet saturated the market. I thought it was a fun little movie that was creative, and what impressed me most of all was the use of the sharks in the film. The danger always felt real, and to a point it was a convincing film. It was inevitable that a sequel would follow, though it came and went so fast, it’s not big surprise that many seem to have forgotten the film existed. Now it’s nearly a decade since the sequel came out that we now have a third installment, Open Water 3: Cage Dive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2017
Things are about to change in big ways for the Disney series Once Upon A Time. The sixth season is now out on Blu-ray, and the seventh season has just begun its run on ABC. If you try to go back and forth between these seasons, you might be puzzled more than usual. The show goes into a serious reboot this year. The economics of the show have been pulling it towards either cancellation or pulling in the purse strings. While the ratings aren't exactly blockbuster, it's been a clever way for the Mouse House to keep their properties buzzing as they continue to remake many of their fairy tales in live action these days.
