Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 3rd, 2014
“He's old! How he gonna relate to me?!”
For a good portion of his latest stand-up special, Sinbad playfully berates a 15-year-old audience member named Cory. It's mostly standard-issue, old man, “back in my day” ribbing. But the most incisive observation comes when Sinbad points out that Cory would probably much rather be in the audience for a Kevin Hart show. The feeling that Sinbad is no longer the hot comic of the moment — and hasn't been for a while — informs much of this inoffensive, baby boomer-friendly set.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 2nd, 2014
"Missed it by that much." Never before was that Don Adams/Maxwell Smart catchphrase more appropriate to a movie. Sometimes there is a very thin line between instant classic and near miss. Earth To Echo is the best example in decades of a film that could have, should have, would have been so much more if not for just one bad decision. The film has all of those coming-of-age moments that exist in those 1980's classics like Goonies, Explorers and, of course, ET. The film sports a wonderful cast with plenty of nuance in characters. There's a cute alien and that mission that binds friends’ lives together forever even if they never see each other again. It's a story of catching a magical moment in the waning moments of childhood. And it would have worked, if only director Dave Green hadn't tried to hedge his bet just a little over the line, reverting to the "found-footage" style of filmmaking. It's one of those choices that allowed Green to snatch defeat from the hands of victory.
The story is near perfect. A group of friends have been neighbors all of their lives. But a highway is going through their block, and they all have to move now. It's the very last night they will spend together when something strange happens. Cell phones and other electronic screens begin to "barf" up an odd kind of static. One of the boys discovers that it's a map of the surrounding desert, and the friends decide that they will use this final night to follow the map and have one last adventure together.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 2nd, 2014
In a summer that has been taken over by giant lizards and robots, it is a little odd to find a little sweet film like Begin Again playing on the screen and competing with the heavy hitters of summer. From the writer/director of indie smash Once we get a film that isn’t just about musicians trying to make their big break, but instead it’s about the heart and pain that goes into the creation we later hear and become fans of. When we first meet Greta (Keira Knightly) she is nursing some heartbreak in a bar, and her friend drags her up on stage to perform her new song. It just so happens that at that moment, struggling music executive Dan (Mark Ruffalo) is in the audience, and he believes that she could be the next big star. The film backpedals from this moment and then proceeds to show us just how Dan and Greta managed to come together at this bar on this particular night.
Dan has recently been removed from his own record company and doesn’t have a penny to his name, but despite it all, Dan rolls with the punches with the nursing aid of a stiff drink. Greta, on the other hand, was the girlfriend and partner to Dave (Adam Levine), a rising star on the music scene who believes he has fallen in love with another woman. The scene where Greta discovers that there is another woman is a moment that starts innocently enough and then proceeds to just be a heartbreaking moment. As breakups go on film, this is just one of those scenes where as a viewer you just instantly empathize with Greta and can’t help but see Dave for the scumbag he is.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2014
Jim was a Chicago cop who had a disagreement with his boss. That little disagreement was his boss shooting him in the butt for sleeping with his wife. Jim Longworth (Passmore) made out okay. He got a huge settlement and a fresh start in a warm climate. Oh, and you and I got ourselves another one of those smart-aleck detective shows. Not a bad deal, when all is said and done. Much of this used to be covered in an opening credit monologue which has since disappeared. I guess they figure you should know all of this already.
Jim is one of those detectives who thinks he's got a lot of charm. He smiles a lot and appears to be very cavalier about his job, but really takes it very seriously. Unfortunately, he rubs most folks the wrong way. He says whatever comes to mind and doesn't much care who he offends. He works for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), a state police agency. His partner is also the agency's medical examiner Dr. Carlos Sanchez (Gomez). The two have one of those bickering friendship relationships. Jim is now engaged to former hospital intern Callie (Sanchez); she's now moved back from Atlanta so that they can be married. She used to be married to a criminal named Ray who is now in the witness protection program. Local Florida actor Jordan Wall makes a good showing for himself as the eager intern for Carlos. His energy is infectious, to say the least. He was a fortunate find for the show. Intended only as a throwaway character in the pilot, he earned a spot on the regular cast. That's also how actress Michelle Hurd worked a bartender role from the pilot that ended up on the cutting room floor to a part as Jim's boss.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2014
"Lucky Bastard was a pornographic website that invited fans to have sex with porn stars. The following footage is believed to be the last video shot for the site."
You know exactly what that kind of an intro means. You should. The found-footage genre has been around even long before it was turned into a modern trend by The Blair Witch Project. Since that time the genre has appeared in both large- and small-budget films. The shaky footage usually covers a variety of sins by the filmmakers. Rarely does the genre have anything clever or new to dispense. That's not exactly true with Lucky Bastards.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2014
It's a sad state of affairs. The road that Blood Ties has taken to get to this Blu-ray release is far more interesting than the film itself. It all starts with a French film Les liens du sang that was itself a reflection on the American cop drams genre. One of the original French screenwriters collaborated to bring the idea full circle to become an American cop drama. The film made the film festival circuit with mixed reviews and results. For some reason Director Guilaume Canet decided to go back to the editing room and remove nearly a half hour of the original film's running time. I didn't see the movie in its original form, but it seems to me Canet gutted the film for its American home video release. The result is a story that is difficult to follow, contains numerous plot holes and hanging plot threads and displays an uneasy pacing at best. I wish I could see what is missing. I can't help but feel that this could have been and in fact once was a better movie than it is now.
This is essentially the tale of two brothers. Chris (Owen) is coming home after spending years behind bars. He's on a furlough and keeps his freedom only if he can maintain steady employment and a place to live. Frank (Crudup) is an NYPD police officer who has taken some heat for his criminal brother. There's a lot of bad blood between them, but family is family, and Frank is allowing Chris to live with him and their father (Caan). Chris's attempts to go straight literally go up in smoke, which takes us to that oldest of crime drama cliché's, the "one last job".
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 30th, 2014
What happens when you splice together the killer-couple kicks of Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers with the ritualistic depravity of torture porn offerings like Hostel and Saw? I'm not really sure who — if anyone — was looking for an answer to that particular question, but that didn't stop Scavenger Killers from going to extreme lengths to provide one. Unfortunately, this low-budget slasher flick/wannabe satire is entirely too clumsy and non-committal in its tone to pull it off.
The Killers at the center of this movie are a sanctimonious judge (Robert Bogue) and a buxom defense attorney named Clara Lovering (Rachael Robbins) who doubles as his lover/accomplice. Ordinarily, I wouldn't mention a character's, ahem, physical attributes while relaying the plot of a film, but I mention it here for two reasons. Firstly, Robbins' IMDb page features credits like Bikini Bloodbath Car Wash and Vampire Lesbian Kickboxers (I wish I was making this up); so I have a feeling she knows exactly where her bread is buttered. More importantly, all of Scavenger Killers plays out as if it were written by a particularly immature and debauched 13 year old boy.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 29th, 2014
When I read on IMDB that this was meant to be a horror comedy, I have to admit I breathed a sigh of relief. After watching Ghost of Goodnight Lane I just simply was left wondering if the laughs were intended or if this was a film that just was delivered so poorly that you just couldn’t help but laugh at it. Having seen now that the film was intended for laughs, I’m still not so sure it’s helps the film any. Though it has a solid story and a decent cast, the execution just falls flat.
Filmed in Dallas, Texas, a film crew is struggling to finish up a film they have been working on. Pulling some overnight hours, the film’s editor Ron (Richard Tyson) is mysteriously killed, though the police believe it to be simply by natural causes. But the rest of the crew suspects there is more to their crew member’s death, and it doesn’t take long before paranormal activity starts occurring throughout the production office. Billy Zane plays Alan, the leader of this overworked crew, as he tries to convince himself and the others nothing is happening even though denial seems to be harder and harder to fall back on as the activity grows more intense.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on June 27th, 2014
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 27th, 2014
“I like the fact that there's no desk. I like the fact that he's not wearing a suit and tie. And I like the fact that there's not some over-hyped studio audience being prompted to laugh at topical jokes that we're all gonna forget about in the next few days.”
For its second season, IFC's Comedy Bang! Bang! got bigger and bolder in the way it manically skewered decades of talk show and pop culture conventions. Not surprisingly, the show also got even weirder.
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