Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 22nd, 2015
"If we're good today, we'll be better tomorrow."
The final season of Boardwalk Empire breaks the mold of what the show has been for the first four years. The action jumps ahead several years to 1931. It's a necessary plot point if we're going to be ending the popular series in the fifth season. I understand the jump and why it works. I guess my only real question is: why are we jumping ahead to end what is one of the best shows on television? The answers likely lie within the powers that be at either HBO or the show's production staff. There's little point arguing the point. This is your last chance to get some Nucky... Nucky Thompson, that is.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 22nd, 2015
Whether you believe in horoscopes or not, just about everyone out there knows their “sign”. I never really put too much stock in astrology; it always seemed like harmless fun people can have for a few moments each day as they read their horoscope for the day to see what possible good fortune can come their way. In the new film, Zodiac: Signs of the Apocalypse, the film takes a different look at these astrological signs. Rather than be signs that help reveal one’s personality, these symbols instead are supposed to be warnings for the upcoming apocalypse.
Neil Martin (Joel Gretsch) is a single father who is also a scientist who seems to be the only man that can save the world after a series of disasters occur across the globe. For those who have seen Day After Tomorrow, Volcano, Twister, and the one…the only Sharknado I’m pretty sure you know what you are getting yourself into with this film. It’s frustrating how the fate of the world seems to always depend on some rogue scientist that of course no one will listen to. To leave no cliché unturned for this disaster film, helping dad reluctantly save the world is Colin (Reilly Dolman), Neil’s rebellious son.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 22nd, 2015
Thanks to Chappelle’s Show, Comedy Central has helped pave the way for comics on the cusp of breaking out to produce their own sketch comedy shows to springboard themselves to a larger audience. Key & Peele has flourished in the sketch comedy scene, and now there is Nick Kroll with his own sketch comedy show Kroll Show. But in the world of sketch comedy, is there really a need for more shows? After all, NBC still has Saturday Night Live; well, to be fair, it has been a while since SNL has been consistently funny.
Unlike the former shows mentioned, Kroll Show at no point has Nick Kroll coming out to address the audience. Instead the few setups we do get are recorded with the rest of the show. Not that this deflects any attention from the sketches we see performed, but the added touch of seeing Key and Peele interacting with the audience is part of what makes their show work. Kroll instead lays the sketches out for the audience at home.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on January 22nd, 2015
We have some great friends over at Time Life and Star Vista. They're you're friends, too. This time it's season 2 of The Wonder Years. Take a trip back in time to what it was like to be a kid in the 1960's. Plus there's Joe Cocker's version of A Little Help From My Friends. It's all here for a lucky Upcomingdiscs winner.
Contest is now closed Winner is Lisa Smit
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2015
"It's complicated."
Fox has decided to jump off The Bridge. In a move I find more than a little surprising, the show ends here with this second season. From the sets extras I get a strong idea that no one involved with the production saw it coming either. This was one of the better shows on television, and with Sons Of Anarchy also finished, Fox is losing some extraordinary quality to their lineup. At least Sons Of Anarchy got to run its course and tell its story. Sadly, the same can't be said for The Bridge. I was looking forward to more from a show that was getting better as it moved into its own invention. You will have to comfort yourself on the loss by owning the remaining episodes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2015
Boyhood is all the rage right now. With all the hoopla surrounding the film, it should be noted that it is ordinary. It is just about people living their lives. One could even call it boring. One can say that because life is boring. It is not as exciting as it is in the movies. Life is about small moments that add up to memories and then it is over. Boyhood doesn't make grand statements about boyhood, or about motherhood or fatherhood for that matter. It is just about a few people and what happens to them. One could say it's about nothing, or one could say it's about everything. The film is nearly three hours long. It was filmed for a few weeks a year over twelve years. It is a very personal project for its writer/director, Richard Linklater.
I don't like Boyhood because it is messy and unfocused. I love Boyhood because it focuses on all the small moments and makes them seem all so important at the moment they happen. I love Boyhood because it makes us look back on our own lives. I don't like Boyhood because it makes it seem like all life is boring. I like Boyhood because it is unassuming in it's efforts to show us a mirror of ourselves. One could say, I'm conflicted about Boyhood. I can say I love many Richard Linklater films; in fact, I like every one of them. And they are not all the same, but they have one thing in common. None of them are pretentious, and that was after seeing his last film Before Midnight which delved precariously into highfaluting and high-minded bouts of conversation. In fact, Linklater has always been on his own path down in Texas. It was a slacker path, since that was the name of his first film. He was always an indie guy but had big successes over the years like School of Rock, Bad News Bears and Dazed and Confused. But the films that most closely tie to Boyhood are the trilogy of films Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight. Those three films starred Ethan Hawke, detailing conversations with one woman (Julie Delpy) over the years. The trilogy was filmed in 1995, 2004 and 2013. Boyhood began filming in May 2002 and also starring Ethan Hawke, but the real star is Ellar Coltrane who ages from 6 to 18 in the film.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on January 20th, 2015
We can blame thank Liam Neeson — or “Liam Neesons” — for this recent run of action movies about men of a certain age who tear their way through some part of Europe in the name of their missing or dead children. Viktor — a French/Russian production starring Gerard Depardieu and Elizabeth Hurley — is one of these latest Taken take-offs. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the more inert revenge films you’re likely to see.
It’s a shame because the movie has a lovely, kinetic opening credits sequence featuring a Chechen dance rehearsal. (The sequence is paid off quite nicely at the very end.) Shortly after that opening, we meet Viktor Lambert (Gerard Depardieu) a French art thief who has just finished serving a seven-year prison sentence. Just before getting out, his son Jeremie (Jean Baptiste Fillon) is killed. Viktor arrives in Moscow — where Jeremie was doing work for a diamond smuggler named Anton Belinsky (Denis Karasyov) — looking for answers.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on January 19th, 2015
We have some great friends over at Time Life and Star Vista. They're you're friends, too. They keep trying to make sure you get to spend enough time with Mama. Of course, we're talking about Mama Harper and the gang at Mama's Family. They've given us copies of both season 4 and 6 to give away. All you have to do is tell us which one you want. Each season will go to a lucky winner who wanted that season.
To win just follow these instructions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 19th, 2015
What if Elvis Presley had an identical twin brother no one ever knew about? (It would certainly help explain all those Elvis sightings years after the King's death.) That's the kooky conceit at the center of The Identical. Unfortunately, rather than embracing the absurdity of its premise, the movie is an amateurish, uninspiring combination of “by-the-numbers musical biopic” and “painfully-earnest family drama.”
In the Depression-era South, financially-strapped parents William and Helen Hemsley (Brian Geraghty, Amanda Crew) struggle to raise their twin babies. William seeks guidance from tent revival preacher Reece Wade (Ray Liotta), who has been unsuccessfully trying to have a child of his own with wife Louise (Ashley Judd). The Hemsleys decide to let the Wades adopt one of their children, who is given the name Ryan.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on January 17th, 2015
"The thing that haunts me are all the guys that I couldn't save."
I have to admit I was a little skeptical that Clint Eastwood followed up his directing stint on Jersey Boys as quickly as he did to shoot American Sniper. The former was far from one of his better efforts, and he looked increasingly out of his element by the time it was said and done. He jumped into his preparation for American Sniper almost immediately, and the results could have been...underwhelming. Instead Eastwood hit his target with the kind of profound impact I don't think I've seen from him since Unforgiven. Unforgiven won a Best Picture award, and deservedly so. American Sniper has been nominated, although Eastwood himself has been snubbed in the director category. It's a long shot to win, of course, but this is one that most certainly deserves your attention.
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