Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 8th, 2017
“Extraordinary people come with singular issues and needs.”
On the surface, being blessed with a genius-level intellect seems like good thing, right? So it's interesting that movies about uncommonly smart people (Good Will Hunting, A Beautiful Mind, and The Imitation Game to name a few) tend to focus on the extreme isolation and inevitable exploitation of these individuals. Gifted is about a potential “one-in-a-billion” math prodigy and her weary, protective uncle, who carries himself like someone who's seen too many movies about exploited geniuses and knows full well that “nobody likes a smart-ass.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2017
"Survival of the fittest. It's the law of the jungle. There's always someone trying to take what's yours. How do I know? It almost happened to me."
Where the heck has Alec Baldwin been lately? I seem to recall he was a pretty hot A-list movie star actor at one time. There was The Hunt For Red October, and then there was... OK, forget the A-list movie star bit. He was really an A-list television star. He killed it in 30 Rock and then of course there was... OK. Re-set. Now I remember. There was that hugely popular radio talk show he had going on for, what was it, five minutes? Hey, at least he's having fun spoofing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. Easy gig, all he really has to do is pretend to be Alec Baldwin. Just when I honestly had completely forgotten the guy, he shows up as the voice for an obnoxious baby on Boss Baby. Who said typecasting was dead?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2017
"In the future, the line between human and machine is disappearing. Advancements in the technology allow humans to enhance themselves with cybernetic parts. Hanka robotics, funded by the government, is developing a military operative that will blur the line even further. By transplanting a human brain into a fully synthetic body, they will combine the strongest attributes of human and robot."
...and resistance is futile. OK. Wrong franchise. Actually, Ghost In The Shell has been with us for quite some time, and fans have been waiting for a live-action film to embrace. And while there are many fantastic elements to this film, it doesn't pull together well enough to meet the expectations of a rabid fan base.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2017
In times of war it is very easy to think of your enemy as the embodiment of evil. Sometimes it is necessary to do so. However, more often than not, the person on the other side of the line is just like you, a patriot doing their duty for their country, with mild to moderate understanding of the overall big picture. 1944 helps to illuminate this point, as the audience gets to experience the war from both sides of the battle. In this case it was Estonians fighting on both sides, further complicating the morality of the situation. We are thrown into the middle of the war almost instantly, opening up in the trenches with one of the main focal points of the story, Karl. Karl is a haunted young man, traumatized by his family deportation to Siberia. He brings that intensity into the battle until his first face-to-face confrontation with the enemy when he sees that it was his fellow countrymen, young and inexperienced soldiers.
Across enemy lines, Red Army soldier Juri must walk a fine line in regards to his duty to the men he is serving with and his obligation to his commanding officer who expects him to report any anti-communist comment made by his fellow soldiers.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on August 7th, 2017
It’s difficult to be original and innovative when it comes to tackling a haunted house film. Ghost stories have been around for ages and told just about every way you can imagine, so what do you do to give the audience something they have never seen before? After coming back from directing Pete’s Dragon, writer/ director David Lowry a delivers a small intimate film that manages to take the haunted house story and makes it something unique from all the rest. Though when I say unique, and when I say innovative this may not be a positive for some. The film begins by introducing us to a couple played by Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara; their characters are simply credited as C & M. Early on we see them interrupted from their sleep after hearing a crash on the piano, the pair investigate the noise but of course find nothing. The film does a great job at pulling us in early on by creating a creepy unsettling atmosphere. From the start what helps set the tone is its boxy 1.33:1 aspect ratio, this is something that may seem distracting but it’s a crucial storytelling device that is used so effectively here, I have no doubt we’ll see more of this down the road.
It’s when C (Affleck) dies in a car accident that the story begins to take shape. We watch from a distance as M (Mara) goes to the morgue to identify her husband. The scene doesn’t cut away as we watch her go through the emotions of nervousness, shock and grief. As the sheet is pulled back over to cover C, the camera continues to hold…and hold…and hold till suddenly we see C sit up with the sheet still covering him. We watch him roam the corridors of the hospital with the sheet covering his body, two black slits for his eyes, though all we see is black. C is faced with the white corridor of light which we are to believe is to be heaven or whatever you’d like it to be, but C doesn’t enter it and instead continues to walk. His walk takes him back home; a home that we will eventually see is where he seems to wish to remain.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 4th, 2017
An action film with a running time of 89 minutes should mean that it’s going to be lean on the story and keep things moving at a fast pace. S.W.A.T: Under Siege delivers just that, but unfortunately in the process delivers something that we’ve seen many times before. The film is being branded as a sequel (by name only) to S.W.A.T (2003), the film with Colin Farrell which was an adaptation from the TV series from the 70’s. S.W.A.T: Under Siege has nothing to do with any of the previous incarnations, and has relocated from sunny California to Seattle Washington. But is the film worth checking out? Well I’m not a fan of sequels that go straight to DVD, but this film does dangle a wild card for the audience that convinced me to give this a shot, Michael Jai White (Spawn, Black Dynamite).
It’s the 4th of July and the S.W.A.T unit is ready to have a short and easy day so they can get home and enjoy the holiday with their families. But what kind of an action movie would it be if the holiday didn’t take a turn for the worse with terrorists and a lot of gun fire? The team gets a call about a big shipment that’s being made at a shipping yard, with the DEA taking lead they head to the warehouse that turns out to be something more dangerous than it seems. After an intense firefight, instead of finding drugs or guns in a shipping container, they find a man The Scorpion (Jai White).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 4th, 2017
“It's not all it's cut out to be...it's not about being on stage all the time. It's about the killing of time.”
There certainly hasn't been a shortage of sitcoms starring stand-up comedians. Many of them (Roseanne, Home Improvement, Everybody Loves Raymond) have grafted the comic's persona onto a family-friendly format. Even the shows that have depicted the life of a comic tend to take a surreal approach (Louie) or fast-forward to the part where the star is an established comedian (Seinfeld). HBO's Crashing stands out because it honestly (and painfully) depicts the struggle of an aspiring stand-up...and makes it look very, very funny.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on August 3rd, 2017
Having studied and enjoyed the works of Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, and other great psychoanalytical thinkers in school, the term “psychoanalysis” carries a significant weight for me. That being said, I had quite a few expectations when picking up this film. Expectations that were not met. Now to be fair, etymologically, “psychoanalysis” means ‘mental (psyche) loosening/break apart (analysis),’ and that is most certainly delivered. However, I believe that the only relationship that this film has to the writings and theories of psychoanalysis is that literal definition of the title. Otherwise, it is a tremendous mystery to me as to how this film received its name.
Dr. Paul Symmonds is a young, successful psychologist who is making great strides in his field: he is scheduling big conferences, his book is about to be published, and he is about to finally settle down with his partner. Then, in one week, five of his patients commit suicide without warning. Soon, Dr. Symmonds begins to speculate that a rival psychologist, Dr. Andew Fendell, has murdered his patients in an effort to sabotage his career. Soon thereafter, an independent documentary crew catches wind of the story, and they decide to observe Dr. Symmonds as he searches for his answers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 3rd, 2017
“My persona's very, like, witty yet narcissistic.”
These self-aware words are spoken by Hannah Horvath, the on-screen alter ego of Girls star/creator Lena Dunham during the premiere of the show's final season. Of course, anyone who's watched Girls knows the “witty yet narcissistic” label applies to practically every character in Dunham's often flawed (and even-more-often brilliant) HBO dramedy. So while this final batch of episodes includes some superb moments, it's not a total surprise that this polarizing series concludes its run with a frustrating finale that is more satisfying for the show's creators than it is for its fans.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on August 1st, 2017
We're ringing in a new month with our latest Tuesday Round Up, and Fox has decided to show everyone who's Boss. Among the titles we'll be reviewing this week is the animated hit The Boss Baby, which Fox has released in 4K. Meanwhile, HBO bends the truth with Big Little Lies, and spends some quality couch time with the comedy series Crashing: Season 1. Sony gets in on the action with SWAT: Under Siege, Candy Factory goes on a Bender, and Film Movement takes us back to 1944. Finally, Warner Bros. steals some laughs with the heist comedy Going in Style.
Even though it's a brand new month, the customary reminder still applies here: if you’re shopping for anything on Amazon and you do it through one of our links, it’ll help keep the lights on here at UpcomingDiscs. See ya next week!
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