Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 8th, 2017
When The Ring (2002) first came out, if you looked hard enough you could still find movies on VHS, so the thought of a mysterious tape that kills you seven days after watching it wasn’t so entirely farfetched. Now that we are in 2017, if someone were to find a mysterious VHS tape, well, they’d be out of luck for the most part, since I’d wager most of the US population no longer has a VCR. But Hollywood won’t let this stop their successful franchise from moving forward, even though it’s been 12 years since The Ring Two, this weekend is the release of the third film in the series, and quite frankly, I have to wonder if anyone really wanted this.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on May 2nd, 2017
When’s the last time you saw a good dog movie with love, devotion, and heroism? Not the animated type, but one that stars dogs doing some awesome stunts, creating the love for animals and even inspiration. Well, you can find all that and more in the movie A Dog’s Purpose, a fun, adventure of a dog’s life that runs full circle. It’s fun for the whole family, but don’t be surprised when your youngster starts begging for a new furry friend. After escaping from a cage, a starving young pup gets saved by Elizabeth (Juliet Rylance). Her son Ethan (Bryce Gheisar) wants to keep the dog, and after an intervention with his father, Elizabeth wins out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 1st, 2017
Even though I was born in 1975, I don't remember a thing until I was about 5 years old, therefore I missed most of the "Disco" era. My dad would play music from the 70's, but that consisted of Led Zeppelin, Queen and Black Sabbath among other bands; no disco in sight. But one faithful day in my middle school years, I did find my mother's record and 8-track collection. There was some Barry Manilow, Julio Iglesias, and something called the Bee-Gees. I wouldn't say anything crazy like it turned my life around, but after listening, I clearly understood. I clearly understood that my mother was crazy and I was much better off listening to Whole Lotta Love. Anyway, we have a movie to review, let's continue with Saturday Night Fever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2017
"Everyone outside the family is a mark. Family comes first."
Meet the most dysfunctional crime family since The Sopranos. Not quite at the same level either on-screen or in quality, but once again we're drawn toward another dangerous clan with criminal intent. I guess we could call them The Baritones. Actually Animal Kingdom is an apt description for television's latest baddies. They're about to head into their second season of mayhem on TNT where the series was the network's top ratings winner during its run. Now that first season is out on Blu-ray from Warner Brothers, and it's one crazy ride, of that you can be certain.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on April 24th, 2017
The WWE is like a dog with a bone, refusing to let this franchise as well as its other one (12 rounds) go. I will give them this: they are maintaining some consistency with Mike “The Miz” Mizanin reprising his role of Jake Carter for the third time for The Marine 5: Battleground. This time around, however, the series won’t just star one WWE superstar, but six. That’s right you read correctly, six WWE superstars have come together for this action film. With the addition of The Mix come Bo Dallas, Heath Slater, Curtis Axel, Naomi, and Maryse Ouellet Mizanin. Didn’t recognize any of those names? Don’t worry; me neither, as my days of watching wrestling ended with the end of the attitude era.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 21st, 2017
I was eight years old when Armstrong first stepped on the moon in July of 1969. Like every kid my age, it filled me with a feeling that I was lucky enough to get in on the ground floor of humanity's grand exploration of space. By the time I was 15, we had landed the first probes on Mars. We were certainly on our way. The sky literally wasn't the limit anymore. But then it all stopped. By the 80's we had shifted our focus to low Earth orbit, and we haven't explored the limits of space with a manned mission in nearly 50 years. Even the Space Shuttle is gone, and we don't even have the capability to send Americans to the space station that we mostly paid for without hitching a ride with the Russians. And if you've been following world events at all, that ride isn't a sure thing anymore. That 8-year-old with the mile-wide grin would never have believed we'd be so earthbound by the time he reached his mid-50's.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 20th, 2017
“As it turns out, there’s a virtually unprecedented tie in the Electoral College.”
If you thought the latest U.S. presidential election cycle was a soul-crushing and unpredictable mess, you should take a peek at what's happening on Veep. (At least we got a definitive real-life result...eventually.) The show's outstanding fifth season begins with President Selina Meyer — who assumed the office after her predecessor resigned — locked in a frustrating Electoral College tie as she seeks to become the first woman to be *elected* to the highest office in the land. President Meyer sums up her predicament in a manner befitting HBO's caustic, constantly-cussing comedy: “didn't those Founding F---ers ever hear of an odd number?!”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 20th, 2017
When it comes to writer/ director M. Night Shyamalan, it’s hard to find a more polarizing director between film critics and film geeks. I was a fan up until he did The Village. It’s not as though I “hated” the film; I just was getting sick of the gimmick plot twists that seemed to go hand in hand with his work. As he continued to release films, I just would shrug at the trailers, and my enthusiasm for his films quickly declined. For me Unbreakable has grown to be my favorite work of his, which is funny to me because the first time I saw it I had a hard time deciding how I felt about the film. It was a comic/ superhero film that showed us perhaps what it would be like in the real world if some regular Joe realized he was perhaps meant for something greater.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 14th, 2017
Every year there are dozens upon dozens of horror films released, each with the intention to make an impact on the genre. Horror is easily my favorite genre in film, but it’s a genre that easily allows itself to spill into other genres. It doesn’t matter to me what the budget is, or whether the special effects are on point; what matters most is if the story holds up. I mention this because going into The Bye Bye Man I had heard some pretty bad things, but I don’t usually let that get in the way of my opinion of a film; after all, everyone has their own tastes. For me the film’s tagline “Don’t think it. Don’t say it.” should have the added line, “Don’t remember it.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 13th, 2017
“Think inside the box.”
One of the major through lines in season 3 of Silicon Valley is that our heroes at Pied Piper have created a product so ahead of its time that it is failing to connect with consumers, which puts the start-up company in peril. Fortunately, HBO’s brainy and bawdy tech comedy hasn’t had any problems connecting with its audience: the show’s confident and hilarious third season seamlessly mixes talk of “compression algorithms” with outrageous sight gags involving horses getting, um, familiar with each other.
