Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 5th, 2015
“To live is to consume.”
Sometimes it feels like we’ve already consumed every conceivable type of Hollywood blockbuster. Besides movies adapted from comic books or, um, older movies, we’ve gotten mega-budget films based on board games and theme park rides. And that’s why I was so excited and intrigued by Jupiter Ascending, especially when The Wachowskis’ nutso space opera was slated to hit theaters during what seemed like a particularly sequel-heavy summer of 2014. The movie, in theory, represented a wholly original vision. Instead, the messy, unnecessarily dense Jupiter Ascending is Star Wars. It’s also The Matrix, The Princess Diaries, Flash Gordon, and even a little Soylent Green.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 23rd, 2015
"Will you follow me, one last time?"
It's time to say goodbye to Middle Earth, at least from a cinematic perspective. The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies marks the last time we shall see Peter Jackson's version of Middle Earth. Sure, Ian McKellen has told us he wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of a return. I would. There is certainly enough work from Tolkien to support future adventures, but the rights to anything beyond these books belongs to the Tolkien estate. To say they are not very fond of Jackson, New Line, Warner, or the six films themselves would be an understatement. There is great animosity there, and no amount of money is going to change that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 6th, 2014
"There are dark spirits, old and full of hate...The world is in great danger."
A trilogy is a hard animal to pull off. Even when you have a popular franchise, it is extremely difficult. All of the pieces have to work just right, or you could have a disaster on your hands. It is even harder when you've already beaten the odds once and delivered a trilogy that is both loved and a huge box office success. You run into an almost insurmountable mountain of expectations. Your pieces must somehow fit together so that they can be viewed as one whole product. They also need to match the world and production style of the previous trilogy even though technology has changed quite a bit in the decade that separates the two. Lightning doesn't often strike the same place twice, unless you happen to live in Florida, or, apparently, New Zealand, where Peter Jackson has managed to do the impossible...so far.
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 J C on June 26th, 2014
“It begins as a whisper. A promise. The lightest of breezes dances above the death cries of 300 men...”
It may have started as a whisper, but 300 quickly became synonymous with roaring, instant-classic declarations after it burst onto the scene in 2007. Zack Snyder's muscular adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel was an outta-nowhere blockbuster. When a movie achieves that level of success, there's usually a sequel in the works even as the opening-weekend grosses are still rolling in. Of course, that proved to be a bit trickier given what happens to the heroes at the end of 300.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 17th, 2014
“You are the most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the universe. And you are capable of amazing things.”
There’s a worthwhile message in The LEGO Movie about the importance of deviating from life’s instruction book and indulging your imagination. But for me, the biggest thrill came from the way it became the first film without Toy Story in its title to tap into the anarchic (and anachronistic) spirit of playing with toys.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 14th, 2014
"I was cast into being in the winter of 1795 a living corpse with a soul, stitched, jolted, bludgeoned back to life by a madman. Horrified by his creation, he tried to destroy me..."
We all know the story told by the young teen wife of a poet: Mary Shelley. Told to entertain guests on a stormy night, it has become the stuff of legend. Brought to life by Colin Clive's mad scientist in the shape of Boris Karloff in the Universal Golden Age of horror, the monster has had a face. Since that time studios from Hammer to Paramount have left their own marks and scars on the creature that often mistakenly bears the name of his mythic creator. The name of Frankenstein.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 4th, 2014
The H.G. Wells invasion story has been told numerous times from a radio show when it allegedly caused a panic when Orson Wells made his infamous broadcast to the more recent imaging brought to the screen by Steven Spielberg. It’s the alien invasion story that has captured our imagination and will continue doing so for decades to come. In the new 3D animated release of War of the Worlds: Goliath, the tale of science fiction is simply the jumping-off point to a new and bigger story about the war that was waged between man and those from outer space.
It begins in Leeds during the original invasion in 1889. Eric Wells is only a child at this point and witnesses the murder of his parents by the giant alien machines that have invaded our planet. The guilt of their death continues to weigh heavily on him as he arrives in New York; now he is an adult and a Captain in the military (Peter Wingfield handles the voicing for Eric). Though there is fear of the impending world war, there has been a recent discovery that the aliens could possibly be planning another attack. Thankfully, though, Tesla and other scientists have been able to use the alien technology from the previous attack to develop battle-tripods they call Goliaths.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2014
"Don't mess with a man of God."
It has been said that an old vaudevillian was on his deathbed and was asked how he was doing. He replied, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard". And no, it wasn't Shia LaBeof. The fact is that comedy is easy. Horror comedy is hard...very hard. One needs only to look at the lame attempts each year to make us laugh at the carnage. For every Shaun Of The Dead there are 100 Vampire In Brooklyn's Let's not even talk about the last Scream entry. Needless to say I was quite a bit overwhelmed when I received Hellbenders 3D. Not only was this some cheap Exorcist knockoff, but it was going to be low-budget 3D. I watched it the night before a surgery figuring it was the most likely film to make me actually look forward to the surgery. Let's face it. You see this stuff coming from a mile away. What I never saw coming was that I had one hell of a good time watching. I'm not going to call it a classic by any means. But Hellbenders delivers like few horror comedies I've seen in a very long time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 29th, 2014
"My name is Flint Lockwood. My whole life I always wanted to be a great inventor just like my hero. It was like Chester V. was speaking directly to me using the language of science."
In 2009 Sony Pictures had finally learned to use the language of science when it comes to the world of animation. I'm talking the computer-animated feature film. Of course, they've been in the game for a while, but it was with the release of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs that this reviewer believes they delivered on the kinds of things that Pixar and Dreamworks have been delivering for quite some time. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was a pretty big hit with both adults and kids, a combination absolutely essential to creating box office magic with a computer-generated animation feature. Based on the children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett, the film contained incredible charm. It pulled in a modest $135 million at the box office, but the film had pretty good legs on home video. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion there would be another one. But sequels are rarely as good as the original film, and it's even more rare to find one that is actually better than what came before. Consider Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 one of those uncommon events. The original was, as I mentioned, charming. It was pretty good. The sequel is better than good. The franchise has a future that is anything but cloudy.
