Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on July 11th, 2016
I am somewhat angry right now. I am increasingly stunned at what is being praised in this culture. We are trapped in an era that is supposed to be enlightened but is ladled on top with layers of rotting organic material (which is a euphemism for a rather rude word). There seem to be no interest in certain things that are very important and increasingly relevant to us. There are subtleties and complexities about ourselves that we don’t understand and that is why the world is still enmeshed in violence and madness. I am talking about people who should know better. People who pontificate and tell us what we are supposed to think. Critics. Pundits. Prognosticators. I am one and I try to stand apart and formulate my own thoughts but it is difficult when you feel alone sometimes. The Free State of Jones has been called boring. It is not. It is one of the best historical films I have seen for a while. It is the best film of the year so far. 12 Years a Slave was a magnificent film and I would say The Free State of Jones is better. All sorts of modern entertainment is paraded before us, and it is all somewhat repetitive and pointless. It is mindless entertainment. I will try not to get too specific because I don’t really object to mindless entertainment. What I do object to is that when all this mindless, jaded and scattered opinion then turns its back on anything academic and well researched. Many historical films are somewhat staid and a little boring. The Free State of Jones is not one of those films. It is a war film and a film of constant conflict and battle that takes many forms. It is complex and unexpected in its story telling. It is brilliantly acted by everyone from the smallest part to the man who plays Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughy).
Knight is the central character of the film. His story is true and part of forgotten history. Forgotten history is all that history that they deliberately don’t tell us. It is an amazing, vital and important story. Knight was a fearsome fighter and a man of unbreakable will and keen intellect. He was also a poor farmer in Mississippi during the Civil War. His journey was to organize a rebellion against the confederacy. Years before Communism he created a pocket in the South that existed to band all the poor and disenfranchised together to share in a common goal. The story takes remarkable turns and I was honestly surprised how much depth, complexity and relevance was brought to the story. I will not even try to summarize it. If you like history, I cannot recommend the film highly enough. If history bores you, then you are likely a boring person. True history is full of guideposts to learn from. Our world is in turmoil because too many leaders have not learned the lessons of history.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 9th, 2016
"Stop me if you've heard this one before."
The first thing you need to know about The Secret Lives Of Pets is that it's not terribly original. Fans of the Pixar Toy Story Franchise will find pretty much every element of this script has been lifted from one of the three Toy Story films. Of course, if you're going to lift an idea, you might as well steal from the best. Of course, there are always formulaic ideas in films, particularly animated films geared mostly toward children. And while I really did enjoy almost everything about this film, I just can't escape the fact that I've seen it all before. Sometimes that feeling got a little uncomfortably obvious. And by sometimes, I mean the entire length of the movie. Look beyond the plagiarism, and you will find the film a delightful collection of characters and circumstances that just so happened to have been ripped off from Toy Story.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 9th, 2016
When I was a kid in the 1970's there was a weekend sports show on ABC called The Wide World Of Sports. It was a catch-all for those sports that don't have the kind of national branding of football or baseball. It was the kind of show for boxing, gymnastics, or skiing. I don't remember a single episode that I saw. What I do remember along with anyone who has ever watched it is the opening sequence. We were promised the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat. With that last line we saw the image of a ski jumper taking a horrible wreck as he comes off the jump. In the 40 years since I still often wonder about the guy whose legacy will always be the very definition of unmitigated failure, and painful failure at that. Who in their right mind would want to be a ski jumper, I would think. Who would want to be that guy? Apparently, his name was Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, and now he has himself a "true story" film, and it's out in 4K. Of all the things I could have been thinking as I approached this film, I'm afraid to say it was: "Is Eddie "that guy"? Will I see it in 4K? Eddie isn't "that guy", and unfortunately, Eddie The Eagle isn't even close to being "that movie".
Kingsman: The Secret Service star Taron Egerton plays Eddie Edwards. Ever since he was a young child, he dreamed of being an Olympic athlete. During the games he would stage "runaway from home's" to get to the games wherever they might be. He was a sickly child with leg issues that kept him in the hospital for a year. Still the dream lived on. It didn't matter what event, he just wanted to get there. So he takes up skiing and amasses a few ribbons and trophies but falls short of his Olympic dream when the British selection committee doesn't find he represents the right "class" of competitor. He finds a loophole in the fact that Britain hasn't had a ski-jump entry in over 40 years. Britain isn't exactly the best place to polish your ski skills. If you're thinking Jamaican bobsled here, you're not far off the mark.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2016
In 1983, The Dresser was nominated for five Oscars for Best Actor for Tom Courtney and Albert Finney as well as Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. In 1980, it was also nominated for Best Play in both Britain’s West End and on Broadway in New York. It is a showpiece for the best actors in the world. It revolves around two characters: a great Shakespearean actor who is struggling with the fear of oncoming mortality and his close personal servant who tries to hold his master together. It is a brilliant vehicle for any great actor. Since it first came to prominence, there have been talks about a new attempt to reinterpret the material. It has now been done for the Starz and BBC channels and is out on video. And as brilliant as the first two actors were, I was surprise how much richer this new version has made the material seem.
Sir Anthony Hopkins is Sir. Sir Ian McKellan is Norman. The person who especially impressed me was Hopkins. He has spent a number of years coasting in various roles, but in this case all sorts of reserves of shading and character emerge. He is absolutely stunning, in maybe one of the best performances of his life. That being said, McKellan shines as well in a part that is much showier in many respects.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2016
"Never underestimate the impact of dramatic entrance!"
It's hard to maintain the attention of the 21st-century child. Animated movies have to combine enough elements of charm and action to keep their attention for a little under two hours. If you want to keep a franchise going, you have to rip out your sequels in reasonably tight schedules. It's been over four years since Kung Fu Panda 2, and we waited nearly that long between the first and second entry. That's a long time in a culture where we move from fad to fad almost by the hour. But if the films are good enough and leave enough of an impact, you might be able to bridge those years successfully. In 3-4 years you're almost targeting a new generation of your target audience. Kung Fu Panda 3 appears to have found the secret of that kind of franchise longevity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2016
"That's me, Mike Hanover, and I just killed a man in a taco shop bathroom. Hey, he started it. I been hiding near the border looking for The Vigilante..."
You've found him. Anchor Bay's The Vigilante actually started life as a web series. The web episodes followed the exploits of The Vigilante, played by Paul Sloan and his sidekick The Kid, played by Kevin L. Walker. It was pretty much a hyper-superhero kind of series with ramped-up action on a limited budget. Now we have a feature film version that is quite the mixture of genre films. You get a little grindhouse mixed with some Leone Spaghetti Western with extra sauce. Throw in The Expendables with a side of Deadpool. Stir in some graphic novel clichés and season it all with a bit of exploitation film violence and characterizations. The result is a film that doesn't take itself very seriously and might be good for an entertaining ride. That is, if you don't overcook the whole thing. At about 108 minutes, let's just say it was bordering on overcooked.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 7th, 2016
“Oh...you were expecting Prince Charming?”
Shrek really did pick the absolute perfect time to emerge from his swamp. The 2001 computer animated sensation from Dreamworks arrived just as rival studio Disney was winding down its decade-long hot streak of hand-drawn new classics like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. In other words, it was the ideal moment for someone to come along and take shots at cartoon musicals and fairy tales that end with “Happily Ever After.” (Shrek's biggest target, however, was probably the Mouse House itself.) But how does the movie play 15 years later? Fortunately, Fox and Dreamworks have released a new Anniversary Edition to help us figure out the answer.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 7th, 2016
I wrote about The Facts Of Life before (Season 7 in October 2015 and Season 8 in February of 2016). The final season (Season 9) made it one of the longest-running sitcoms up to that time. It was never a number one show, but was consistently popular over the years. There is no George Clooney (Clooney had moved on to Rosanne) in the final season, or Charlotte Rae (who was just tired and left in Season 7). The focus in Season 9 was on the four girls, Blair Warner (Lisa Welchel), Jo Polniaczek (Nancy Mckeon), Natalie Green (Mindy Cohen), and Dorothy ‘Tootie’ Ramsay (Kim Fields), because they were growing up and becoming adults. This led to the whole season being a lead-up to potential spinoffs. They did introduce a new young character, Pippa Mckenna (Sherri Austin), who was a feisty part exchange student/part runaway from Australia. Cloris Leachman returned after joining in Season 8 as the replacement house mother. Mackenzie Austin also returned as the precocious Andy Moffett. But the focus on the girls was about them growing up and moving on. Engagements, marriages, premarital sex, adult jobs, college, and moving to new locations were part of the main storylines of the final season. The Facts of Life was originally a spinoff of the popular Different Strokes. The whole focus of the final season was could The Facts of Life be spun off? One episode had Natalie moving to New York to live with roommates including Richard Greco and David Spade. In another episode, Blair purchases their old school, Eastland, which included student cast members Juliette Lewis, Mayim Bialik, and Seth Green
All the girls were essentially adults and all had serious boyfriends. We finally got to see the mysterious Snake (Robert Romanus from Fast Times at Ridgemont High), the fabled boyfriend of Natalie, which was the focus of the parental warning episode. Jo developed a relationship with a somewhat unstable former pianist, Rick Bonner (Scott Bryce), which bounced in uncomfortable directions. Blair seemed to finally find a match in someone who was her complete opposite, Casey Clark (Paul Provenza), but eventually her somewhat inflexible nature seemed to work against her. ‘Tootie’ seemed to have a secure sense of herself and pursued her dreams of marriage and career in a clear-headed manner.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 6th, 2016
“Hello boys…I’m baaaaaack!”
You probably know that Independence Day — the spectacular, shameless sci-fi smash that introduced the world to “Will Smith, Global Superstar” — dropped a sequel last month. What you may not know is that the original film has been granted a 20th Anniversary Blu-ray and UHD release. I was 13 when ID4 came out in the summer of 1996, which means the movie’s deluxe destruction and alien shoot-em-up antics were right in my wheelhouse. So I was curious as to how an older and wiser, um, taller version of me would feel watching it with a critical eye.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 6th, 2016
"I don't know if it's a demon or a devil, or just some hungry thing from some dark place in time. I just know it's not going to stop coming after you or anyone else it wants to. 'Cos once it has the scent of something it likes, it can't be stopped."
Just days before the tragic events of 9/11 brought so much real-life horror into our lives, Victor Salva attempted to resurrect some old-school monster movie magic on the movie-going public. The low-budget thriller hit the box office with a bang. Its $13 million opening weekend was a record for Labor Day and is partly responsible for studios taking a closer look at the traditionally slow release weekend. It was the #1 film, beating out sequels to both Rush Hour and American Pie. Unfortunately for all of us, 9/11 fell upon us, and box office numbers tanked. We had other things on our minds. The last thing the American public wanted suddenly was to be scared... we already were. Still, that strong opening weekend was a signal that monster movies might be back, and Jeepers Creepers might be the film to lead the genre into the 21st century.
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