Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2016
"Will you follow me, one last time?"
It's time to say goodbye to Middle Earth, at least from a cinematic perspective. The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies marks the last time we shall see Peter Jackson's version of Middle Earth. Sure, Ian McKellen has told us he wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of a return. I would. There is certainly enough work from Tolkien to support future adventures, but the rights to anything beyond these books belongs to the Tolkien estate. To say they are not very fond of Jackson, New Line, Warner, or the six films themselves would be an understatement. There is great animosity there, and no amount of money is going to change that.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2016
"I will talk to you of Art, for there is nothing else to talk about, for there is nothing else... Life is an obscure hobo bumming a ride on the omnibus of Art. Burn gas, buggies, and whip your sour cream of circumstance and hope, and go ahead and sleep your bloody heads off. Creation is, all else is not."
Enter The Film Detective. Founded by Philip Hopkins, the organization has made it something of a mission to re-master old cult favorite films for broadcast and the high-definition video market. They have a working library of about 3,000 titles. Now some of those films are making their way to Blu-ray, many for the first time. Recently two titles joined the high-definition treatment: Roger Corman's cult classic Bucket Of Blood and Vincent Price's ode to the haunted house of classic film, The Bat. Both films were originally released in 1959.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 17th, 2016
“Before we start, I want you to know something...I'm not a rat.”
I could get into *a lot* of trouble if anybody found out I was talking to you. After all, there is absolutely, positively nothing worse than a rat, a point that is made crystal clear in Black Mass. But I'm putting my neck on the line here because I figured you'd want to know this fact-based crime drama marks the welcome return of Johnny Depp, who has spent the better part of the past decade in the Magic Kingdom loony wilderness.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2016
On the surface MI-5 looks to be a mundane direct-to-video film attempting to cash in on a couple of things. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is the fifth in the series and often referred to as MI:5. The new James Bond film has a plot involving the head of MI-5 attempting to take down the MI-6 department and our beloved 007. None of these would contribute to the fortuitous name. Rather it’s the difference in racial sensitivity between Britain and the United States. MI-5 is actually a feature-film version of the long-running British series Spooks. The film’s original title happens to be Spooks: The Greater Good. It seems that even foreign nations have noticed we can be offended by words that have completely innocent meanings so long as someone out there can find an offensive albeit completely unintended meaning. Don’t believe me? Just check in with how many sports media refer to the Washington Redskins these days. It’s unfortunate, because I like the original title. It’s more original. MI-5 is so generic these days.
If you’re up on the show, you already know the Intelligence Chief of MI-5, Harry Pearce, still played by Peter Firth. After 10 years he’s now a disgraced agent and on the run after terrorist Adam Qasim (Gabel) escapes from a prisoner transport that Pearce was in charge of conducting. Some inside the agency think that Pearce was a part of the escape plan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 17th, 2016
“I earn money…I meet people…I can pay my debts…I can buy nice things for myself.”
Taken at face value, all of those pursuits sound totally admirable, especially when you consider that the person earning that money, meeting those new people, and buying those nice things is a bitter old woman who slowly comes out of her caustic shell. I mean, the only minor hiccup here is that Paulette — the title character in this wacky, soufflé-light French comedy — turns her miserable life around by selling drugs.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2016
Baby here again. Yeah, I'm that German Shepherd Chow that keeps you UPS/Fed Ex guys on their toes. I just turned 15 at Christmas, and everyone around here keeps calling me an old dog. Apparently that means I can't learn new tricks, and maybe it's time for me to retire. I'll tell you what. Just come around here when everyone else is sleeping, and I'll show you a few new tricks I bet you haven't seen before. And that spells T E E T H. And as for retiring? Not sure what that means, except that I'm not tired to begin with.
Bailey Daily (Christensen) rushes to a closed diner in the pouring rain. She’s wearing a soaked wedding gown and has three dogs in tow. For the record, there’s not a German Shepherd in the bunch. The couple who own the diner decide to let her in, because they figure there must be a great story behind that image. Boy, were they wrong. What we get is a reenactment of how she dated and dumped three guys only to end up with their dogs. The last one she left at the altar, which explains the wedding dress. Looks like she got the better end of those relationship deals. We get the bad end of the deal, because we have to listen to those stories which are played out in sappy drama and poor acting.
Posted in: Contests, Tuesday Round Up by J C on February 16th, 2016
Who's up for mid-week Mass? You don't even have to put on your Sunday best...in fact, all you have to do is pop in Black Mass, the star-studded Johnny Depp crime drama from Warner Bros. that highlights this week's Tuesday Round Up. The studio also mines drama from The 33. RLJ Entertainment engages in Criminal Activities, Sony mingles with Saints & Strangers, and Comedy Central yuks it up with Brian Regan: Live From Radio City Music Hall. Cohen Media Group fraternizes with the three-film Taviani Brothers Collection, Lionsgate races to the Wiener Dog Internationals, and Cinedigm eggs us on with Hatched.
HBO joins hands with Togetherness: The Complete First Season and continues its quarter-life crisis with Girls: The Complete Fourth Season. CBS whistles through The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series, and tells the story of The Brady Kids: The Complete Animated Series. Finally, Shout! Factory enlists in the two-film McHale's Navy/McHale's Navy Joins the Airforce.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 16th, 2016
The Martian, which is about an astronaut stranded on Mars, is one of the biggest hit movies of the summer. By the end of the movie, the entire world is united in their hope that the astronaut will be saved. The Martian is not a true story. The 33 is. It is the true story of 33 miners trapped underground for 69 days in a Chilean gold mine in 2010. The world really does come together in their hopes and prayers for the trapped miners. Even though it is a true story, it also functions as a good old-fashioned disaster flick in the tradition of The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno. It also showcases Latino actors primarily, but some other big-name actors round out the cast as well. The two biggest are probably Academy Award-winning French actress, Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) and Irish actor Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects). Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jacob Vargas, Bob Gunton, and Oscar Nunez are just a few of the familiar faces known for playing Latin characters (Latino, Hispanic, and Latin are all technically politically correct according to various sources) who anchor this movie. One of the most familiar faces is Cote de Pablo, who was born in Chile but is best known for playing Israeli Mossad officer Ziva Davis in the monumentally successful TV show, NCIS. Kate del Castillo is a hugely popular Mexican actress who also had success in the United States on the Showtime series, Weeds. I could go on, but the point is that this is a product meant to appeal heavily to the Latin American population while still having a broad worldwide recognition factor. It succeeds mostly, but it has a greater responsibility than that. It also has to honor the story of the 33 men who were trapped in that mine.
The film includes footage from Anderson Cooper, Brian Williams, and other international journalists who covered the worldwide, potentially tragic event. It also has the active participation of Don Francisco, the host of Sabado Gigante, which just ended a 53-year run on the air. Don Francisco is a television personality in 185 countries (but is actually Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld, the son of Jewish German immigrants who escaped to Chile fleeing the Nazi occupation). Clearly this is a film with international appeal. It is a well-known story the world over when we all held our breath wondering whether the miners would be saved. In case you don’t remember how the story concluded, I won’t spoil it for you here. The film definitely milks the suspense at every opportunity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2016
In 2013 husband-and-wife production duo Mark Burnett and Roma Downey teamed up to bring The Bible to the History Channel. The 10 episode series gave as a whirlwind tour of the milestones from the Bible and brought about some critical acclaim along with solid ratings. It aired during Easter/Passover season. It was certainly an ambitious project and left the team feeling they could do more with the project. They managed to strike a deal this time with NBC to air a sequel of sorts to the mini-series. Enter AD The Bible, which takes an opposite approach to the first show. Instead of cramming thousands of years into just 10 episodes AD spreads out quite a bit, offering us 12 episodes on just the first years after the death and resurrection of Christ. We're basically talking the book Acts of the Apostles. It's the story of the birth of Christianity and the early work done by the followers of Jesus. If you felt rushed the first time, this is the series you've been waiting for.
There were a few obstacles to overcome to bring the series to television. Diogo Morgado was not available to reprise the role of Jesus this time around. This led to a rather radical decision that appears to have paid off. Juan Pablo Di Pace takes over the role admirably. If they were going to replace Christ himself, why not start with a fresh cast all around? That means that every part that was also shown in the first series has been recast. This includes the role of the Virgin Mary, who was originally played by series producer Roma Downy. Credit the filmmaker for understanding that making an exception for herself might have sent the wrong message. It also was the kind of distraction a series like this really doesn't need.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2016
“They called us Pilgrims, but today we are thieves. We trust in God’s design. Our faith helps us to cross an ocean. Faith and a contract with strangers, The Merchant Adventure Company, without whose support we could not afford the journey…. 102 passangers arrived in the New World, guided by the Lord. But there were some things God neglected to mention.”
Everyone knows the good ship Mayflower. We all know who the pilgrims were. Every November school children all over America reenact the first Thanksgiving in pageants more myth than history. We can hardly expect anything more from a Hollywood production on the events surrounding those events. If you’re not looking for an historical lesson, this will be an interesting and somewhat entertaining take on the material.
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