Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on October 17th, 2014
By John Delia
If you are looking for a comedy with horror on DVD for a get-together with friends on Halloween, check out Witching & Bitching. It’s very raunchy, gross and gory, but if you like rude, crude and unglued, then this film’s perfect for an adult party. The film plays out in Spanish with English subtitles, but don’t let that bother you. The visuals are so funny and wacky, it’s worth a little reading while you watch.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on October 17th, 2014
The internet is destroying everything. It seems crazy, but it's true, and most people know it. I mean that so many businesses have been destroyed by the tumorous growth of the internet and its insidious and unchecked influence. The newspaper business, music business, broadcast business and probably the movie business have been fundamentally and permanently altered. Men,Women and Children addresses how it affects each and every one of us on a daily basis. We're all aware of this. It's our lives now, and it wasn't 10 years ago. Texting on iPhones is so addictive with some people that they are oblivious to how obnoxious it is. Most of us are aware, on some level, how much computers and phones are sucking away what used to be our lives. We know it, but the die is cast. That's the problem with Men, Women and Children. We know everything already, and this movie shoves it down our throat. The subject is definitely timely, but too much of what happens in this movie is like a parade of cliches.
Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air, Thank You For Smoking) is a good director, but he has been losing his touch, citing films like Labor Day and Young Adult. This film is packed with good actors, but they all seem wasted, even Adam Sandler. Sandler is the big star here, making another stretch into dramatic territory. Sandler has done very good work in other people's movies before like Punch Drunk Love, Reign On Me and Spanglish, but not here. Here he is a limp, washed-out nothing, which is what the character demands but still is not a good thing to see. Most of the other good actors like Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, J.K. Simmons,Dean Norris, Ansel Elgort, Dennis Haysbert and Emma Thompson here seem wasted with predicable and dreary functions in aid of a boring puzzle.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 16th, 2014
The creator of Dawson’s Creek and The Vampire Diaries, Kevin Williams, delivers a thriller that is a bold new entry in the crime drama for television. Season one of The Following was 15 episodes of nail-biting bliss that kept the viewer guessing and riveted long after its gut-wrenching cliffhanger. For a while I was beginning to wonder if Williamson had lost his touch with the Scream series, but what you’ll discover in the Fox series is that Williamson may just be the king of creating and penning one of the darkest serial killers on the small screen. Season one of The Following had us in the back seat as Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon), a liaison with the FBI, pursues Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) a charismatic serial killer with a devoted cult following.
Season two picks up right where season one left off with Hardy and Claire (Natalie Zea) stabbed and left for dead. Ryan manages to recover; Claire isn’t so fortunate. We jump ahead a year later, and Ryan has taken the loss of Claire badly. Not only is he battling alcoholism, he’s roped his niece Max (Jessica Stroup) into continuing his investigation into Carroll…”Wait, I thought he was dead.”, you may be thinking, but that is the beauty of television; writers can always find a way to resurrect that fallen villain from the dead just so our hero can hunt them down once again.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on October 15th, 2014
This year we're having our best 31 Nights Of Terror ever. We're giving away so much stuff and it's all thanks to folks like our great buddies at Arc Entertainment. They've chipped in with three copies of their new thriller Autumn Blood. These hunters are out for blood. Can an innocent 16-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother survive these brutal attackers? You can find out. We'll send a copy right to your front door if you're one of the lucky winners. The movie arrives on DVD on October 21st. It looks to be killer.
To win just follow these instructions.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on October 15th, 2014
If you've ever asked someone, “What kind of music do you listen to?”, chances are you've heard the phrase, “I like everything...except country.” By that logic, a significant portion of TV viewers automatically dismissed ABC's Nashville when it premiered two years ago. The flawed, entertaining musical drama has deservedly made it to a third season, which kicked off a few weeks ago. However, I think it's useful to revisit Nashville's sophomore season. This set of episodes significantly re-calibrated the series — not always for the better — and marked the start of a shift toward the version of the show that is currently on the air.
Nashville was originally presented as the tale of dueling divas Rayna James (Connie Britton) and Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere). Rayna was the established superstar struggling to stay relevant in a shifting musical landscape, while Juliette was the brash, bitchy (but insecure) flavor of the moment who was burning up the charts. But it was a different pair — Clare Bowen's fragile, ethereal Scarlett O'Connor, and Sam Palladio's affable Gunnar Scott — who arguably swiped the spotlight during the series premiere with their stunning “If I Didn't Know Better” duet.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2014
Daniel Stamm is one of those directors who comes along once in a while with some fresh ideas. He's given us the controversial A Necessary Death, The Last Exorcism and 13 Sins. There are some rather nice chills to be found in his films, but whatever you do: Don't call him a horror director. Okay, you can call him a horror director, if you want. Bang it here to check out our recent review for 13 Sins.
I had the chance to chat with Daniel. He's an energetic talent with passion for the craft. It was a great time. Now you can check out what he had to say. Bang it here to sit in on our talk: Daniel Stamm Interview.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on October 14th, 2014
Everyone on TV has nicer clothes and a bigger home than you do. And I’m not just talking about fictional doctors or lawyers. Even small-screen characters with relatively modest incomes manage to live in palatial apartments. Need proof? The 2 Broke Girls in CBS’s hit sitcom have an apartment that is literally big enough to fit a horse. (Hi, Chestnut.) Season 3 brings a new pet (Ep. 3/“And the Kitty Kitty Spank Spank”) and briefly threatens to remove Max and Caroline from their home (Ep. 22/“And the New Lease on Life”). I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying things work out in the end. By now, the show's crass predictability has become oddly comforting.
Max Black (Kat Dennings) and Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs) are best friends, despite the fact that they appear to be polar opposites. Caroline — the disgraced daughter of a jailed Ponzi schemer — is blonde, skinny and chipper. Max — the street smart survivor who seems to have a million jokes about her deadbeat mom and unidentified dad — is dark haired, busty and sour. The two are surrounded by their wacky, warped surrogate family at the Williamsburg Diner in Brooklyn.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 13th, 2014
With the month of October in full swing, it comes as no surprise to see Halloween-themed episodes popping up. With the new DVD of Ben 10: Galactic Monsters, sure, it’s a cash grab for the holiday season, but thankfully on this release we get a set of fun episodes that are a bit of a departure from the average episodes. It’s not that I dislike Ben 10, but it’s a show I enjoy in small doses; after all, too much of anything can always be a bad thing. But thankfully, with the average five-episode release we get on the DVD from Cartoon Network, it has just the right amount of episodes to please everyone.
With the opening episode Rad Monster Party, the stage is set for this three-episode arc we have on the DVD where Ben and his fellow Plumbers (basically a term for their secret group of alien fighters) crash on Inner Transyl, a planet filled with monsters. Old-school monster fans will have fun with these episodes where we get the Cartoon Network version of some of the classic Universal monsters. This is first episode works as an introduction to the main villain we will follow for this three episode arc, The Scare. It’s fun seeing Ben have to do battle up against a supernatural figure rather than the run-of-the-mill alien we are used to seeing, but unfortunately the episode still follows the same formula we see in just about every Ben 10 episode.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 13th, 2014
It’s that time of the year again to dust off the old hunting rifle and shake out the camouflage suits, because Duck Commander is back in action. Duck Dynasty comes to Blu-ray on its sixth season, and I am just about certain it is time the quack pack has hung up their camo and walked away from their television careers. The show has had a good run, but with this current season it is clear the show has run its course, and it is time the Robertson’s should make a graceful exit while their ratings are still strong.
The biggest problem with season six is that it fails to have the charm of what made the early seasons so much fun. Dare I say it is because the Robertson clan has simply become too Hollywood, and it has become nothing more than one character to the next simply mugging for camera time, or perhaps the ridiculous nature of the “plots” for this season.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2014
"Did that just happen?"
I have to confess that I entered The Judge expecting a different kind of film than I actually saw. After seeing the trailer I was reminded of some of the classic courtroom dramas I'd seen over the years from 12 Angry Men through ...And Justice For All. On the ride to the screening I found my mind was swimming with the "closing arguments" Al Pacino delivered in ...And Justice For All and was trying to image how Robert Downey, Jr. was going to try and top that. In the end Downey didn't top that wonderful monologue. In the end The Judge simply wasn't that kind of a movie after all.
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