Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 21st, 2018
one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood. He got his start in martial arts films; The Way of the Dragon was his big coming out as we got to see him go toe to toe with the legend Bruce Lee. So in 1982 when Silent Rage came out, people knew what to expect out of Norris even though this was still before some of his biggest hits. I remember seeing the movie when I was a kid. It was part of a Chuck Norris marathon, where I also got to see Firewalker, a film that for some reason I became obsessed with. (Upon re-watching it years later, the film didn’t hold up at all). That’s sort of the thing with a lot of films that you adore as it kid; they don’t quite hold up as much as you would like them to, so I was a bit hesitant when Silent Rage was offered to review. Would it hold up as a fun action romp, or would it let me down?
Sheriff Stevens (Norris) is the lawman in a small Texas town that doesn’t seem to ever have much trouble, and that seems to be fine for the sheriff. The film opens up with Jack Kirby (Brian Libby) waking up and obviously on the edge of losing it. As it turns out, he’s completely gone insane and goes on a mini killing spree at the home where he is staying. The sheriff and the deputies are called to the home, and after a small confrontation, Kirby is gunned down. Kirby eventually is pronounced dead, but not for long, since he is under the care of a mad scientist and a pair of other doctors (one including Ron Silver) who believe they have a cure against disease and possibly even death. It’s no surprise when the doctors inject Kirby with this serum things will go bad; they just aren’t ready for how bad it can get.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on December 20th, 2018
Children’s fairy tales have taken a new drift with the film The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Packed with exciting action adventure, the movie, based on the book by John Bellairs, envisions the story with an incredible amount of CGI. You could almost call the film animated, but that’s a good thing here as things go bump in the night, magic forms the basis, and solving the mystery becomes the prominent focus for older youngsters. Orphaned due to a car crash that took his parents, young Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) gets invited to live at his Uncle Jonathan’s (Jack Black) magical mansion. He’s a bit fearful of the old house with its grand stairway and many mysterious rooms, but Lewis sort of likes the flamboyance of the magician-turned-warlock. There he’s introduced to Jonathan’s neighbor and best friend, Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), who assures Jonathan that he will enjoy living with his uncle.
Uncle Jonathan has only one rule for Lewis: he mustn’t open a special cupboard, ever. Things go well for Lewis until it’s time he attend the local middle school. There he’s the odd man out, as cliques have formed between the boys long before he came there. Surprises abound in his new life, and when he helps Tarby (Sunny Suljic), one of the school kids running for class president, he feels he’s finally made a friend. But things are not what they seem to be, and it leads to Lewis breaking the one rule he had promised he wouldn’t.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on December 20th, 2018
“Oh, he’s better than good…he’s a Crumb!”
Our parents always told us that we shouldn’t have too much Candy. The late comedy legend John Candy spent most of the 1980s either playing a scene-stealing sidekick (Splash, Spaceballs) or sharing top billing with fellow funnymen like Steve Martin (Planes, Trains & Automobiles) and Dan Aykroyd (The Great Outdoors). In 1989, Candy released four films and graduated to solo leading man status. One of those movies was Who’s Harry Crumb? a kooky caper that hasn’t aged very well but still serves as a showcase for Candy’s talents.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 20th, 2018
The story is loosely based on a real incident called “The Newton Massacre”, which was basically a brutal shootout that took place in a saloon back in 1871. Though we do get to see the incident in the film, the story places most of its focus on the events that in theory led up to this violent showdown. It’s a good idea, and after reading up on the actual shootout, this could have been a tale that would have suited Eastwood, John Ford, or Howard Hawks. Deadman Standing has all the right parts to make a great independent western; unfortunately, by the time you’re ten minutes into the film, you’ll see that this film was a misfire.
The film wastes no time in setting up the political divide that has struck the small boomtown of Hyde Park. There is an election that is going to take place, and basically it’s a battle over land between the cattlemen and those who work for the railroad. Stuck in the middle of this fight is the town’s lawman, Mike McCluskie (Luke Arnold), who is too outgunned and outmanned to really make much of a difference and is simply trying to keep the town together, though he knows eventually there is going to be bloodshed. But instead of keeping things simple, the filmmakers have injected so many characters with some rather clunky dialog that the story does get to be tiresome and un-engaging.
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on December 19th, 2018
“Everything is possible…even the impossible.”
To be clear, the fact that Disney has delivered a big-budget, star-studded follow-up to one of the most beloved family films in its staggering catalog is *exceedingly* possible. This is, after all, the age of reboots and live-action remakes of movies we already love. What seems impossible is that Mary Poppins Returns and its sensational leading lady both live up to and (re)capture the spirit of the Walt Disney-produced Julie Andrews classic from more than 50 years ago!
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on December 19th, 2018
One of the best films of 2018 was Beautiful Boy. Both Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet deliver absolutely stellar performances as a father and his addicted son. That story took us on a father's terrifying journey of dealing with his son's addiction and the toll it takes over a series of years. If you compress that experience down to a single frantic night, you get an idea of what you're in store for when you go to see Ben Is Back. It's another heart-wrenching story of the emotional toll that addiction has not only on the addict but the people who love the addict. It's a Christmas story, but it's not the kind of story that involves miracles and Santa. It's about love, but a tough love that only a parent of an addicted child will ever really know. But this film will take you close enough to the experience, perhaps closer than you will feel comfortable being. For most of us this is as close as we'll get...if we're very lucky.
Ben Burns (Hedges) takes a 24-hour leave from his rehab facility. He wants to visit his mother and family for the Christmas holiday. His mother Holly (Roberts) is glad to see her son, but you can tell immediately she has some concerns as she begins to move things around in her house. She's hiding any pills and any valuables that might be easy to convert into drugs. Her son is an addict, and while she attempts to be hopeful about his visit, she is concerned if it's really a good idea for him or the family. She agrees to let him stay for the night and celebrate Christmas. Holly now has a new husband, Neal (Vance), and they have two young children, so it's not to hard to understand her caution. Plus there is Ben's younger sister, Ivy (Newton). For Ben's part we believe that he's sincere, and he really is. He absolutely understands what his habit has cost him and his family, and he's making a concerted effort to change. He's reluctant to go to places like the attic where he used to stash drugs. He understands his own weakness and desperately avoids the things that might trigger his addiction or expose him to the temptation. Those are all good signs, and the family attempts to make the best of it with a bit of uneasy cheer that even they don't really believe.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 19th, 2018
"These young men and women are going on a long journey. One that goes around the globe and back to the foundations of our nation. Once you're in the Corps, you're in the Corps all your days on Earth."
Gene Hackman narrates an IMAX look into what it means to be a United States Marine. He's the perfect choice, and not because he has such a distinctive and authoritarian voice, but because he was also once a Marine. There's an element of pride in the narration that just can't be faked.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 19th, 2018
When Star Trek: Discovery was announced, I was quite happy to hear it. There had been a long gap since Star Trek had been on television, and I figured it was long past time to fly through the galaxy on a starship once again. The show finally aired after some real issues getting off the ground, and before I knew it I was back in a starship having a blast once again. Except it wasn't on Star Trek's Discovery I was having all of this fun. It was aboard Seth MacFarlane's Orville that the true spirit of Gene Roddenberry was exploring space once again. Who would have thunk it? Yes, The Orville is considered a comedy, and there are plenty of silly moments and ideas. But even with all of that spoof atmosphere, MacFarlane manages to capture the real spirit that Trek fans have come to feel for that franchise. Honestly, I'm not sure The Orville would have gotten through its first season if not for Alex Kurtzman destroying yet another beloved franchise. Trek fans turned to this show in droves out of frustration and desperation, and MacFarlane welcomed them aboard with a laugh and some alien adventures. It's a great example of that whole nature-abhors-a-vacuum thing. When Discovery went off the rails The Orville filled the void left behind. If you missed the first season, you can get them now on DVD from Fox.
I'm glad that Fox sent this first season to review. I think I was bound to make my way to the show at some point. It's not only that I try to catch this kind of series, but it was getting the kind of buzz I couldn't resist. When you do this kind of thing you get asked often for your opinion of anything you might have watched. People know how much I'm into Star Trek, so I was asked a lot what I thought of the new show. Just about every time I expressed my disappointment, I would hear "The Orville is so much better". It really has become a safe port for Trek fans. There's no way MacFarlane could have seen that coming, but he obviously figured it out along the way as the episodes became a little more serious and started to live in that social commentary place that Trek occupied for many decades. MacFarlane is a Trek fan. That much is obvious, but I do believe he started to hear the same things that I heard and found a way to solidify that support.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 17th, 2018
"There's no such thing as luck, but I sure as hell believe in stupid."
We're a visual people, and so most of you will recognize Taylor Sheridan from his role as a chief of police in Sons of Anarchy when the controlled puppet regime had finally left the scene. It's not a remarkable role, and it's not a complete surprise that Sheridan found his calling more recently behind the camera. As a writer his first script did hit it out of the park. Sicario is an awesome film populated with compelling and interesting characters who thrived on a broken system. That theme appears to have stuck with him, because the first season of Yellowstone appears to take us back in time to the days of open frontiers and cattle barons who struggled to keep their land amid lawless communities and raiding parties of American Indians who were portrayed as savage beasts who kill women and children in the middle of the night to become to shadows of nightmares and the stories told to keep children in line. These themes are all there, but it takes place in a modern 2018 setting that does indeed make for an interesting new twist on an old idea. This is the dawning of the modern western where lands still stretch for miles and are still owned by a single family. It's Bonanza in the 21st century, and Kevin Costner thought enough of the idea to star in this television drama series for The Paramount Network.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 17th, 2018
"My name is Dylan Reinhart. Not long ago, I was an operative in the CIA known as Agent Reinhart. When I left the Agency and started teaching, I became Professor Reinhart. I wrote a book about abnormal behavior and criminals which was so successful a serial killer used it as clues for his murders. That's when the NYPD reached out to me to help catch him, which I did. So they hired me and I became consultant Reinhart. So now I'm working with this woman, Detective Lizzie Needham of the homicide division, catching killers. Looks like I need a new name...Professor Psychopath."
If this is all sounding a little bit familiar, it should be. ABC did the idea with great success in Castle starring Nathan Fillion. This time many of the folks behind The Good Wife have gotten together for their own version of the idea starring Alan Cumming, and the result isn't near as charming, but it has its moments. You'll get a chance to check them out at home, because CBS has released the first 13-episode season on DVD.
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