Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 26th, 2024
“What can I say? I like playing with my food.”
I have to say, I was expecting more blood. When the cast speaks out and calls the film “the bloodiest thing they’ve ever worked on in terms of volume,” or “the most traumatic experiences,” and the director describes it as “just a bloodbath,” I guess I was just expecting it to be pouring down from the walls. However, that was really not the case. In truth, I barely noticed a difference between this and your typical horror film. Granted, other horror films have less exploding vampires, which I assume was the reason for the film earning its gory reputation. I suppose that is to the film’s credit; the ability to use close to 30,000 liters of fake blood, and I was no more disturbed than watching any other traditional vampire films. Aside from that surprise, I have no complaints about Abigail, a reimagining of the Universal horror classic Dracula’s Daughter starring Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, and Giancarlo Esposito.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Sean Boelman on July 23rd, 2024
When a new 4K restoration of the 1993 Palme d’Or winner Farewell My Concubine — the first Chinese film to ever take home the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival — debuted at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, physical media collectors were waiting for the announcement that it would be released through the Criterion Collection. Well, fans did not have to wait long, as the Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film is being released by Criterion on both 4K and Blu-Ray, and this gorgeous restoration alone makes this edition worth picking up. That’s not even to mention the quality of the movie itself, which is considered a seminal film in Chinese cinema for both its content and form.
Posted in: The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on July 20th, 2024
“You don’t run from your fears. You ride ‘em.”
I should caveat this review by stating upfront that this is a standalone sequel. Which means that Twisters, while existing in the same universe as the 1996 film of the same name (minus the “s”), it has little or no narrative connection to its predecessor. And yet, I found many parallels between this film and its predecessor, which gave it the feel of a modern-day retelling rather than a sequel. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you loved the original film. In that case, these similarities may invoke feelings of nostalgia. Then again, it could also feel like a cut-and-paste job. For me, I err on the side of nostalgia, as while I did detect multiple similar themes, they seem more like homages than reproductions. This film also serves as a good follow-up for Daisy Edgar-Jones after her leading role in Where the Crawdads Sings. Then there is Glenn Powell, who right now is inescapable with notable performances in Top Gun: Maverick, Devotion, Anybody But You, and most recently Hit Man, all films that he’s done in the last two years.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 19th, 2024
"We made a film - the one I'm going to show you now. Actually, Jason was the one who wanted to make it. Like that cameraman from Channel 10, he wanted to upload it so that people, you, could be told the truth. The film was shot with a Panasonic HDX-900 and an HBX-200. I did the final cut on Jason's laptop. I've added music occasionally for effect, hoping to scare you. You see, in addition to trying to tell you the truth, I am hoping to scare you so that maybe you'll wake up. Maybe you won't make any of the same mistakes that we made. Anyway, here it is, Jason Creed's The Death of Death."
It’s ironic that 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake (which was originally a George Romero film), have jump-started Romero’s long-running “Dead” series that started in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead. Since 28 Days Later and the Dawn remake were released, Romero has released two new installments: Land of the Dead in 2005 and now Diary of the Dead in 2007.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Sean Boelman on July 16th, 2024
Given that Glauber Rocha is considered one of the most important filmmakers in the history of Brazilian cinema — and Latin American cinema in general — it’s surprising that it took this long for one of his films to be released by the Criterion Collection. The filmmaker’s sophomore feature, Black God, White Devil, one of his most acclaimed works, takes the honor of being his first movie to get the Criterion treatment. Black God, White Devil is considered one of the most influential films of the Cinema Novo movement, which happened in Brazilian cinema as a reaction to other social filmmaking movements like Italian neorealism and the French New Wave. In Criterion’s recent quest to expand the label’s Latin American cinema offerings — Victims of Sin and Soy Cuba are notable recent releases — the Cinema Novo movement marks a necessary addition.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2024
"Change of plans. Now that we know the whole world will be watching, we need a backup plan."
I went into Fly Me To The Moon expecting something like Capricorn One, and I ended up seeing a film that reminded me more of Wag The Dog. The Woody Harrelson role might have been the clincher here. The change was actually a fortuitous one, and in spite of my relative loathing for rom-com syrup, I ended up having a pretty good time and liking the sleeper film more than I had any right to expect. It's not perfect, and I don't expect that it will climb on anyone's classic lists in the next decade or so. But the mishmash film presentation ends up having a pretty wide appeal, and you could do worse than spend a couple of hours here amid what's been an overall rather disappointing slate of films for 2024. There's a little something for everyone here.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 12th, 2024
We are living in the era of the “legacy sequel”, it seems all sorts of properties that began in the late 70s or 80s are getting sequels and for the most part they have been rather successful at the box office. This is the part that frustrates me with streaming services, a film like Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F has been gestating for years, it even went to becoming an a TV series that failed to take off but after the success of Top Gun: Maverick, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and the Creed films it seems Hollywood execs have decided maybe a new Beverly Hills Cop film might be a good idea after all. Then factor that this summer isn’t all that stacked with tent-pole films you’d think Netflix would take a chance and give Axel Foley his time on the big screen like he deserves, but nope this new film is exclusive to Netflix and while I get their motivations, I still think they are stupid for missing out on the potential added income, just like they’ll most likely forego releasing the film on physical media. It is an interesting time in film and I don’t feel it is a good thing, streaming may be huge but most of the films that are direct to streaming whether it is Netflix, Prime, Apple and so on…most of these films just are not very good and unfortunately it seems audiences are fine with settling for mediocrity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 9th, 2024
When you look back at 2004, it’s a little hard to imagine just how big an impact Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy would have on the film industry. I’m not trying to say the film invented anything new with this fun, satiric comedy, but what it did do was launch the careers of many and really helped make comedy fun and raunchy for a while, and more importantly, profitable at the box office. I mean, this film is stacked with stars. Sure, there’s Will Ferrell front and center, but this is had a pre-40 Year-Old Virgin Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Christina Applegate, Kathryn Hahn, Seth Rogan, David Koechner, Fred Willard, and numerous others who are in the background or just make cameos. Seriously, this might be the best comedic cast put together of all time, and when you dive into the extras, you get a glimpse at just how talented everyone is. The film may be 20 years old, but it holds up. I’ve seen the film at least a dozen times, and it still makes me laugh. So what makes this film so special?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 5th, 2024
“I will not accept a life I do not deserve.”
In 2022 writer and director Ti West gave horror fans the gift of the one/two horror punch of the films X and Pearl. From those two films came the rise of Mia Goth, who has since become horror royalty, and since the rumors began to rumble about a third film in this horror series, it has been hard to not get excited. Ever since the announcement of MaXXXine and hearing the cast of the film, it’s been the horror film I’ve been most looking forward to. I’ve been a big fan of Ti West ever since 2009 when I saw The House of the Devil. I adore that film, to the point where I have a Mondo poster of it hanging in my living room, and then he did The Innkeepers, which for me cemented his awesomeness, and that he wasn’t simply a fluke. When you look at his filmography and you watch his films, you can see the man has talent, but for some reason he’s not a bigger name in the industry. But I feel like that’s going to change soon, and it seems like A24 knows that West can deliver the goods, especially when you consider that they are releasing the film over 4th of July weekend, typically a spot meant for huge tentpole movies … or am I just being delusional?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 3rd, 2024
In 2004 when Team America: World Police was released, Trey Parker and Matt Stone were already well established in the film industry as the guys who created South Park. They had even dipped their toes into doing live action films like Orgazmo and BASEketball, but what the industry knew them for was their animated series South Park that began back in 1997 and is still going strong on Comedy Central. The duo isn’t afraid to take chances, whether it’s insulting celebrities (after all, part of their charm is being equal opportunity offenders) or creating their musical for the stage, The Book of Mormon, so was it a big surprise they’d want to do an action adventure film entirely with puppets? The film is very much a parody of the action films of the 90’s and early 00’s that were produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. In case you are unfamiliar with his name, he produced the mega hits like Top Gun, The Rock, Con-Air, and Pearl Harbor. But what this film was also tapping into was the over-the-top patriotic attitudes that the media projected. I mean, everything needed to be patriotic in a post 9-11 world.
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