Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 6th, 2016
“Welcome to the 21st century!”
Welcome to the world of 4K UHD Blu-ray. This is our first 4k review. It won't be the last.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on April 5th, 2016
Not that long ago, in a theatre that was hopefully not too far, far away from your galaxy home…chances are you settled in to enjoy Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S., and this week you can bring the Force home. You can actually already check out our review of Disney’s Blu-ray release for Star Wars, along with our thoughts on Showtime’s House of Lies: Season 4.
Banshee: Season 3, from HBO, is a real scream. Meanwhile, RLJ Entertainment throws us a Curveball and was kind enough not to keep The Hoarder all to itself. Shout! Factory cops to NYPD Blue: Season 9. Finally, Lionsgate starts at the very beginning with The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music and has it made in the shade with Mojave.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2016
Earlier for our Maude Review I talked about the All In The Family "coaching tree” and the number of spinoff that show produced. Maude was the first, but the most successful by far has to be The Jeffersons. The family moved into the house next door to Archie Bunker early in the first season of All In The Family. While Norman Leer always intended Sherman Hemsley to play Archie's black nemesis, the actor wasn't available for the role. Thinking ahead, the show introduced another actor as Uncle Henry to spar with Archie for a while. The son Lionel would also change actors over the years. There is no doubt that when Hemsley finally appeared as George Jefferson, the chemistry between him and Carroll O'Connor was instant magic.
The families would be neighbors for four years when the network, seeing the popularity of the Jefferson family, decided it was time for them to move it on up to the Eastside. George's chain of dry cleaners was making good money, and they could finally afford a "De-Lux" apartment in the sky. In addition to Hemsley as George and Isabel Sanford as wife Louise "Weezie" Jefferson, the cast included Mother Jefferson, played by Zara Cully. She hated her daughter-in-law and was always turning up her nose at the woman. She thought George was such a wonderful husband. Of course, he wasn't. Like Bunker he was racist and a crude man. He also had a temper, often coming out of his insecurity at being rather short. He never spoke when shouting worked just as well.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2016
"NYPD BLUE wishes to dedicate its season to the memory of the New York City police and firefighters who sacrificed their lives on September 11th, 2001. Their heroism will never be forgotten, and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones."
As NYPD Blue entered its ninth season, there were tragic circumstances both on the screen and in real life. On the show Andy's former partner Danny Sorenson ends up dead, and in the real world New York City experiences the devastating events of 9/11. Both are addressed as the season opens.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 4th, 2016
When you see the name Kiefer Sutherland and Jon Cassar together, you might well expect that you're going to get another helping of the popular television series 24. There Sutherland made a pretty big name for himself in the television landscape as the gritty and "get it done" cop Jack Bauer. In the director's chair for a good many of those episodes was Jon Cassar, who also shared executive producer duties on the long-running show. But you won't find the ticking-clock-modern world of Jack Bauer here. Instead you'll find a thoughtful western that actually avoids a lot of the genre-typical violence and delivers one of the better westerns I've seen in many years. There's also the added attraction of the first time Kiefer shares a screen with his iconic father, Donald Sutherland. Yes, they both appeared in Max Dugan Returns and A Time To Kill, but they did not share the screen together. That father and son chemistry is the focus of Forsaken.
John Henry Clayton (Kiefer Sutherland) returns home to the small town of Fowler, Wyoming a decade after serving in the Civil War. After the war he became a hired gun and has finally reached a point in his life where he wants to put the violence behind him. He returns to his widower father (Donald Sutherland), who is the town's preacher and has been ashamed of the reputation his son has earned for himself as a killer. Now John hopes to live a life of peace.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 3rd, 2016
Keanu Reeves is a guy who I don’t think anyone would be crazy enough to say is a “great actor”, but instead he’s a guy who has been in some pretty great films. For me he’s an actor I grew up with from his days doing the Bill and Ted movies and Point Break. (Seriously, how dare they attempt to remake that gem?) Between Speed and The Matrix, those are the two movies I’ve held onto for so long as his career took a more interesting turn; that is until John Wick came along and blew my mind with all the insane coolness that was up on the screen. Finally it seemed I was on track to getting the Keanu Reeves that I grew up watching. I know, so what’s the point of all this? Well, until now, none of the Reeves films that I’ve liked could I really say it was because of his performance, and Exposed is finally the film he’s needed where he can show he’s more than just a brooding action star.
Isabel (Ana De Armas) is a young woman who has done everything she can to be a good person. She’s filled with love and devotion to her husband and family, and when it comes to her job, working with children, there is no better-suited person to be tasked with watching your kid. Basically Isabel is as close to perfect a person can get through the eyes of her faith. When we see her walking alone late at night through a subway station, you just know this can’t possibly end well for her, though what follows is a bit of a head-turner as she encounters a strange albino man in a suit who has the ability to float above the tracks. Is it an angel that has come to her, or is there something more sinister at play? This is something that isn’t answered until things seem to get even stranger for her.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on April 3rd, 2016
In season 1, The Royals showed us that depravity and royalty went hand in hand. This time around, it’s all about anarchy in the monarchy. When we last looked in on the ruling family of Britain, King Simon was assassinated, and within seconds of his death, his opportunistic brother literally pried the royal seal off his fingers. I mean, his body wasn’t even cold yet, and there is Cyrus grave-robbing. Liam had the opportunity to walk away from the all the pressures of being the heir apparent and be with the girl of his dreams, but chose duty and familial obligations (yeah, because that always ends well). Helena’s reputation was in ruins; however, there was light at the end of the tunnel after a powerful interview. Finally, Eleanor discovered that her older brother, like her father, was assassinated. Needless to say, their entire world turned upside down. I was excited to see what came next.
Season 2 picks up not long after the events of last season. Following the death of King Simon, Cyrus has ascended to the throne, mostly due to his manipulations of having the rightful heirs, Liam and Elizabeth, declared illegitimate. Unlike his brother before him, Cyrus is not fully embraced by the people and finds himself forced to buy their affections. In a move to secure their loyalty, King Cyrus restores the twins’ titles. Unbeknownst to him, the pair intends to use their positions to further their investigation and expose the conspiracy that is responsible for the death of their father as well as their older brother before him. Meanwhile, Queen Helena, reborn from the scandal of her infidelity, sets in motion her own plans to seize the throne right from under her brother-in-law and former partner in crime. Her ambitions are not without obstacles in the form of the prime minister and her mother.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on April 2nd, 2016
She might very well be the hardest working actress I've ever had the pleasure of speaking to. One thing is for certain. Tanna Frederick has been a lucky charm for director/writer Henry Jaglom for several films now. I got a chance to see her in Ovation, which takes us back stage and inside show business. It's a natural place for Tanna, because she's got this love-affair thing going for the stage. It all game out in our friendly conversation. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Tanna Frederick.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on April 1st, 2016
Have you ever had a traumatic loss? Have you ever lost someone and felt numb? How did you feel about the person you lost, and was it different now that they were gone? Do you think you acted appropriately about the death? Did you care about what people thought of you, or were you in your own little world? Were you ever the same again? Demolition stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, and Chris Cooper, and is directed by Jean Marc Vallee. Vallee has directed two outstanding and Oscar-nominated films in the last couple of years, Dallas Buyer’s Club (Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto won Best Actor and Supporting Actor) and Wild (Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern nominated). Jake Gyllenhaal has been on a fantastic run of totally committed and intense performances (Prisoners, Nightcrawler, Everest, Southpaw, Enemy, End of Watch) for the last few years, and Demolition is no exception.
Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal) has a great life. His wife adores him and has an incredible job as an investment banker working for her father, Phil (Chris Cooper). In the narration he mentions that he probably shouldn’t say how much his firm manages, because it would be unethical, but he does anyway ($6,000,000,000). He seems blissfully oblivious to problems in life. Then in an instant his wife is gone. She was killed in an accident while driving and talking to him sitting next to her. He escapes unscathed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 30th, 2016
The name Quentin Tarantino carries the weight of legacy as such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, and more recently Christopher Nolan. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but simply by name recognition alone Tarantino is in the company of directors that when you hear that his name is attached there will be a loyal fan base flocking to the theaters to see what they have to dazzle us with. This time around Tarantino returns to the cinema in his biggest release to date; in glorious 70mm we have The Hateful Eight. Tarantino returns to the Western genre, only this time he heads out west to Wyoming to thrust us into his most claustrophobic setting since Reservoir Dogs. Let me just come out of the gate and say that if you’re looking for the over-the-top fun you found in Django Unchained, you’re going to have to readjust those expectations; this time around we are given something much more intimate and all the more rich with dark humor.
John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell) is a bounty hunter on his way to turn in his prisoner, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to hang. It’s along their stagecoach ride they come across another bounty hunter, Major Warren (Samuel L Jackson) who is looking to collect on a bounty of his own, only his prisoners are already dead. As we’ve seen in previous Tarantino films, he chooses to tell his story in chapter form, and for the first chapter of the film we spend it getting to know this trio of unsavory characters. If you were hoping chapter two would pick things up in the action department, I’m sorry to say instead it is spent with a new passenger hopping aboard to avoid the oncoming blizzard. The new passenger is Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins); he’s the newly appointed Sheriff in the town Ruth plans on taking his prisoner to hang in, and it’s with this new addition the dialog only continues to flow.
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