Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 5th, 2019
Here we go again, another revenge film. Despite my love for the “revenge” sub-genre, it is getting to the point where there just seem to be too many uninspired films flooding the market. Blue Ruin is perhaps the best revenge film I’ve seen in the past ten years, and it seems several other filmmakers feel the same way because of the amount of films that have been churned out, all attempting to emulate its gritty realistic style, but just fail in the process. Into the Ashes could have been something different; we get some glimpses at what could have steered this film into some interesting territory, but before it gets to take any chances, the film is quickly reeled back to the overbeaten path so many have tread upon before. In a small Alabama town, Nick (Luke Grimes) is trying his best to live a quiet, peaceful life. He’s married to the sheriff’s daughter and has a decent job that pays the bills; the trouble is he has a violent past, and it’s catching up with him in the form of Sloan (Frank Grillo), who has just been released from prison. Before Nick was living the quiet life, he used to run with a violent crew, and Nick took off with their money after things went bad. Nick’s used the money to start a new life, but as you would expect, his former criminal partners don’t care that Nick has started a new life, and they are out for some payback. Things go from bad to worse when the old gang goes to pay Nick a visit but instead find his wife home alone, and they kill her. Like I said, it’s familiar territory, though in many ways this film plays it safer than other films. Usually there are beatings, rapes, and then burning homes down, but these guys seem content with just shooting the wife (something we don’t even get to see). One of the films biggest mistakes is they don’t do much for us to hate the bad guys. I mean, in many ways they have every right to come after Nick, and if we believe what Sloan says occurred with the wife, well, it was sort of a fair shooting. So when Sloan and his crew leave Nick for dead with only two bullets in him, one could almost argue they let him off lightly (in relation to other revenge films).
The film then fumbles again by allowing Nick to live and puts him in the driver’s seat for revenge, while the sheriff (Robert Taylor) really does nothing but follow Nick’s trail. Sure, the sheriff always had a bad feeling about Nick and resents his daughter being killed because of Nick, but we never get to see the rage that should have been injected into this character. Because he believes in this code of justice, he seems to do very little to find justice for his daughter. If he was overly distraught, I could understand why he does so little, but instead this is all treated as though losing his daughter was just another day on the beat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 4th, 2019
When you have a movie that features Gary Oldman, you’d expect it to be pretty good. I feel Gary Oldman is one of the best actors who is working in the business, and I’ve been a fan since the Romeo is Bleeding and Leon days. So when a movie comes along about killers and government assassins and Oldman is playing a character in the middle of all the drama, you’d think this is going to be something great. After all, the man finally got an Academy Award, which was long overdue. The best way I can describe my experience with this is film is to imagine you’re going to a restaurant, one that is a two star rating in the Michelin Guide. While it may not be the best, it should still be good; yet when you get there, rather than getting a great meal you instead are given a plate of lukewarm Spaghetti-O’s fresh out of the can. From poorly framed shots to insipid plot twists, I can’t help but wonder, what did Gary Oldman do so wrong to be stuck in this film?
For those curious about what Jessica Alba is doing in the film, well, she’s Jade, an assassin we meet in the opening of the film, and one of her scenes is with Gary Oldman, whose character is cleverly named The Man. The way the conversation is shot is jarring, going from an oddly framed wide shot with too much negative space to these close-ups where the characters are talking into the camera. Not even Gary Oldman can save these shots, and when it shifts perspectives it becomes all the more painful. If this was a more personal scene, or simply a long shot with just one character speaking, maybe this could have worked better. The scene then jumps to a strip club where Alba’s character is with a blonde character we got a glimpse of from the previous scene. Apparently no one else is at this strip club where the only dancer is a hologram we can see in the background, but this odd little hook-up scene then turns into the girls fighting for their lives; apparently the blonde was hired to kill Jade. This fight is sloppy and cut with the opening credits that are animated depicting portions of the fight.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 4th, 2019
It's been nearly five years since FX's hit television series Sons of Anarchy rode off into the sunset. A lot of fans, myself included, were not necessarily very happy with the way it all ended. It wasn't Sopranos bad, but it wasn't the kind of closure or satisfaction one expects from such a compelling drama and well-written show. We all calmed a bit when we started hearing from the Sons of Anarchy Universe creator Kurt Sutter that he wasn't quite done with that world. At first there was serious talk of there being a prequel series or movie that would take us back to the days of the original nine founders of the club. It seemed the perfect follow-up, because we already knew so much about that world through the pages of manuscript left behind by Jax's father. It was a rich landscape, and we eagerly awaited more word. After a couple of years, hopes were starting to fall when word came that while the early story was still going to be told, the next visit to this universe was going to be the Mayan MC, which were sometimes allies and sometimes foes for SAMCRO. But another couple of years went by and there was still nothing concrete. Just when I was beginning to suspect these were nothing more than Sutter's wish list of projects, things started to move forward on The Mayans MC. Still, as expectations began to grow, the project appeared to be in even more trouble. It was fair to ask if we were ever going back to that world again, a question I'm sure that Kurt Sutter was tired of hearing asked.
Even when the show got off the ground, it was a short flight. Sutter wrote and directed a pilot episode, but it didn't go over too well with the network. At first he approached it with the attitude that the complaints were the same he initially got for Sons of Anarchy, and look how that turned out. After a while he started to think maybe he needed to take a step back and re-evaluate things. It was probably a smart decision. Tweaks were made to the script. A new director was chosen, and some of the characters were changed or recast. With Norberto Barba now at the helm, a second pilot was shot. I've not had the opportunity to see that first pilot. It's not available in this release, and depending on how fragile Sutter is about the quality, we might get to see it somewhere down the road. So I don't exactly know what these changes involved. I do know the result is something that will comfortably fill the gap before those early years are revisited. It's not Sons of Anarchy by any means. It doesn't really try to be, and that's likely a smart choice. It's different but fits well into that same world. It'll certainly get us over the hump and kill some of those withdrawal pains.
Posted in: The Reel World by John Delia on August 30th, 2019
Making the film Don’t Let Go a bit of a fantasy works for the target audience. It reminds me of a few other films that get involved with solving a crime or saving a life by using a time warp. In this film, however, the excitement mounts, and there’s enough of a twist to make it all come to a thrilling finale. The film opens with the introduction of Ashley Radcliff (Storm Reid), a young teen who has not been picked up by her dad from school. Not connecting on the phone with Garret (Brian Tyree Henry), she calls her Uncle Jack (David Oyelowo), a police detective, to pick her up. It turns out to be an opportunity for the two to spend some quality time together. Days later Jack gets a call from his niece, Ashley, that’s very disturbing. Going to her home, he finds dead bodies in the house, one of them his niece.
After the funeral, Jack and his partner, Bobby (Mykelti Williamson) investigate the crime with very few results. Then a strange thing happens, Jack gets a call on his cell phone from Ashley. With four days to save her life, he tries to find a way to get evidence on her killers that could possibly save the girl. So begins a mystery that leads to a twisted tale of crime, drugs, and a possible rewind of time.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on August 30th, 2019
The first season without Peter Quinn. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I had planned to give the show up after Rupert Friend left, similar to how I gave up NCIS after DiNozzo’s exit. The Peter Quinn character has been an essentially part of the cast since the second season and filled the huge hole left behind by Damian Lewis’ exit. Not to mention the dynamic between Carrie and Peter was a driving force for the show, as well as realistic example of the division of love and duty. I just expected to find this season lacking, and though his presence is noted, Homeland continues to be one of the top shows of the spy genre. Homeland Season 7 delivers another thrilling experience .
This season picks up where the last season left off. Carrie has resigned her post at the White House. Now on the outside and without the vast resources she once possessed, she faces issues as she actively works to secure the release of the 200 intelligence community members under the orders of President Keane, while simultaneously trying to prove misconduct on the part of the President and her staff. Meanwhile Kean is calling for General McClendon (Robert Knepper)’s execution for his role in last season’s events and is disappointed when he receives life in prison instead.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 29th, 2019
"My name is Barry Allen, and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. But when my daughter came back from the future to help, she changed the present. And now our world is more dangerous than ever, and I'm the only one fast enough to save it. I am the Flash."
The fifth season begins almost immediately after the crazy reveal that ended the previous run of episodes. A young woman arrives at the West home and identifies herself as Nora (Kennedy) She claims to be the speedster daughter of Barry (Gustin) and Iris (Patton) and has arrived from the future so that she can meet her dad, because in the near future he is destined to disappear and remain missing for 25 years into that future. If all of this sounds a bit confusing to you, you're starting in the wrong place. Check out our reviews of the previous four years here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 28th, 2019
Back in 2014 when Godzilla came out, I had a blast with the film, though one of the major complaints seemed to have been that there were not enough fights or not enough of Godzilla. Personally I didn’t see how this could be a complaint to take too seriously; after all, if you watch some of the older films, we’d only get maybe 15 minutes of screen time, but thankfully this wasn’t always the case. Now with the release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the human story is a bit of an afterthought, and it’s the titans that carry this blockbuster bonanza. Is this a good thing? You bet it is, though I’m sure there are plenty of stuffy critics who will complain about there being too many monster fights, and for those critics, this movie wasn’t made for them. This is a movie made for the kid in all of us that wanted to believe in the possibility that giant monsters could exist, and seeing these hulking giants duke it out while destroying cities in the process just made us smile.
Right from the get go we get to see Godzilla in action, though it’s back in 2014, and Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) is trying to find his son during the chaos of the final fight from the previous film. Then we get a five-year time jump where we meet up with Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) and her mom, Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) who are living in a Monarch facility in China. Emma and Mark are clearly having difficulty handling the loss of their son, and Madison is simply doing what she can to maintain a happy balance between the two. But the film doesn’t waste much time with this, as we are immediately introduced to the ORCA device, an invention Emma and Mark created that was originally meant to communicate with whales, but Emma has figured out a way to use it to communicate with the MUTO’s of the world (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms). And it’s early on where we get to meet one of these new organisms, and it’s none other than Mothra. But just as we’re enjoying getting to see this new incarnation of Mothra, a group of environmental terrorists led by Jonah Allen (Charles Dance) come into the Monarch facility and kidnap Madison and Emma along with the ORCA device. Yeah, basically this film is not messing around when it comes to story, as it keeps things at a nice fast pace so we can get to the monster action.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2019
By Chris Cook
For Baby Boomers, Saturdays in the 60’s and early 70’s meant a bowl of cereal, Saturday morning cartoons, and the Banana Splits. Hanna-Barbera Productions gave us these four silly creatures for fun and entertainment. They were an answer to the Monkees. The characters were developed for Hanna-Barbera by brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, who later became famous for H.R. Pufnstuf. Fleegle, Drooper, Bingo and Snorky were whimsical and fun, bordering on psychedelia. The Banana Splits Show lasted 31 episodes but went on to syndication until 1982. Every episode consisted of a “meeting” of the Banana Splits Club. Their brightly colored set was the clubhouse. They would frolic in their harmless, nonsensical fun at their crazy “clubhouse” in the studio as well as out in public. Along with the usual festivities were comedy skits and songs.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 27th, 2019
When it comes to Batman, he’s a character you can enjoy in just about every visual medium out there, and there is something out there for adults and even the little kids to enjoy. Personally, I think Batman: The Animated Series is the best adaption out there. I cherish those discs, and I dust off those DVDs plenty just to enjoy seeing my favorite caped crusader. When it comes to the LEGO take on the Batman property they are aiming for a much younger demographic, and that’s fine, so when you watch these films, you do have to keep that in mind. So how does LEGO BATMAN: FAMILY MATTERS stack up against the numerous other adaptations out there? To be fair, it’s somewhere in the middle.
With a running time of 79 minutes, there isn’t much time to waste when it comes to story, and the film pretty much jumps into it. Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (Troy Baker) is starting to find it cumbersome to play the part of Bruce Wayne the businessman; it seems to just get in the way of his crime-fighting job. This is despite the fact that Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Batwoman are all playing their part in fighting crime. It’s at a business meeting where scientists at the Wayne Corporation reveal their new project, Brother Eye, an AI super brain that’s able to make decisions on the fly. Once Bruce sees what it can do, he decides to just sell Wayne Enterprises so he can focus on being the caped crusader. It’s a rash and impulsive move that we quickly see the fallout from.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 27th, 2019
"This is going to hurt ... a lot!"
If you are at all familiar with the NCIS franchise, you know that the show tends to follow a bit of a formula. Each spinoff has some unique style aspects, but the episodes tend to be relatively self-contained. That means you can start with Season 5 of NCIS: New Orleans and still be able to appreciate most of what's going on. You'll get to know and understand the characters pretty quickly. The franchise has leaned more toward continuous story arcs of late, and NCIS: New Orleans does that more than the others. So while you could certainly enjoy this release on its own, I still recommend you go back and catch up on the first four seasons just to get caught up and maximize your enjoyment. The good news is that we can help you with that. You don't have to wade through 10 years of Jag, 17 years of NCIS and 9 years of NCIS: L.A., although that might be one heck of a fun binge. Just catch up on the first four seasons of this show and you'll be ready to go. You can check out those reviews here.
On The Web
Sponsors
