Posted in: The Reel World by J C on November 1st, 2013
“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy — understand him well enough to defeat him —then in that very moment, I also love him.”
It’s no accident that both soldiers and football players are fashioned to look indistinguishable from one another on their respective battlegrounds. We create a personal detachment between ourselves and our adversaries because we believe that will make it easier to annihilate them. That’s one of the many provocative ideas in Ender’s Game, the consistently dazzling and occasionally rushed adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s beloved science fiction book. (Of course, the author himself is considerably less beloved these days.) I can mostly forgive the film for feeling a little hurried because fans have waiting a long time for this one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 30th, 2013
“I’m often asked, ‘What do I do for a living?’ And I answer: ‘I do what I want.”
For the better part of the last 20 years, CeeLo Green has ferociously defied musical expectations by zigging when you expect him to zag. (If you thought the former frontman of hip-hop collective Goodie Mob would eventually become one of the judges on TV’s #1 singing competition, then go buy a lotto ticket immediately because you have a gift.) I happened to be in Las Vegas earlier this year when I saw a poster for CeeLo’s Sin City Loberace show. And for the first time I can remember in regards to CeeLoo’s career, I thought, “Hey that actually makes sense.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 30th, 2013
When Vikings Season 1 first arrived, I have to admit I was pretty excited. I was particularly eager to see footage from their very first game. Fran Tarkenton came off the bench, and the Vikings went on to become the first expansion team ever to win their very first game. OK, as Baby, our Shepherd/Chow mix dog film reviewer would say: I made that last part up. You'd have to have been living under a pretty isolated rock to have missed all of the buzz over The History Channel's epic new drama series Vikings.
This is quite a step up for the History Channel folks. They've certainly produced a great number of historical dramatizations and documentaries, but nothing they've ever done before compares with this series. We used to review a ton of their stuff here for years, so you know I've liked a lot of the things they've done. But Vikings puts them in a totally new stratosphere. This is historical drama that you've only seen before in the likes of Rome or The Tudors. Of course, there's a very good reason for that. Michael Hirst created the series and is the creative force behind it. He served the same positions on The Tudors. That puts expectations here very high, and the show has met or exceeded them all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 30th, 2013
It’s hard to believe that once if you said the word Google, there is a good chance no one would have known what you were blabbering about. Now the internet search database is the largest search engine on the web and is a dominating company that is given the same reverence Steve Jobs and Apple receive. Because of Google, the days of hitting the books to find information and the Dewey decimal system are all but things of the past. But technology and growth are a part of life.
Billy (Vince Vaughn, who also co-wrote the film) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are forty-something grinders who pound the pavement selling watches to their high-class clients. Unfortunately for them, their boss, played by John Goodman,,has decided to call it quits with the watch business and retire. With few skills and no other options, Nick takes a job at his sister’s boyfriend’s mattress shop, while Billy struggles to find where to go next. This struggle is something most audiences will be able to relate to in the present job market as the film uses the current job market to delve into the opportunity for second chances and wrestling with regret.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 30th, 2013
There are five clans of Vampires that are secretly living amongst humans. Said secret is maintained by a code of conduct called the “Masquerade” which states that vampires can never reveal themselves to a human; nor can they “embrace” (bite and convert) a human without approval from the highest council. Defying this means that your lengthy life is forfeit. A detective discovers the truth about the Masquerade when his girlfriend loses her life after defying these very rules, and he sets out to reveal the entire realm of vampires in San Francisco.
The vampire clans resemble mafia crime syndicates. They operate in secret to both hide their supernatural identities, and hide their financial operations; many of which have spanned centuries. So the story of the detective seeking to uncover the vampire world operates on different levels; revealing the truth behind the murders and other crimes these groups are committing, along with the aforementioned exposure of their supernatural lineage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 29th, 2013
The world of Bounty Killer is a barren wasteland that has been decimated by the unchecked greed of nefarious corporations. In other words, I can’t believe this movie is only set 20 years in the future! I’m not the kind of guy who uses exclamation points very often, so the fact that I threw one at the end of the previous sentence wasn’t an accident. This silly, stylish, thoroughly enjoyable revenge fantasy/satiric action flick is basically one giant exclamation point in movie form.
“The bounty killers compete for body count, fame, and a fat stack of cash.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2013
The boys are back, and I only have one question. What the heck took so long? I have a lot of respect for Pixar and the groundbreaking films they've created over the last couple of decades, but I have to question someone's marketing good sense when they get a sequel to Cars out before anyone bothered to look towards what is arguably the studio’s best creation to date. For me it's all about Monsters, Inc. I hadn't fallen so hard for an animated film since The Lion King, and so I was thrilled when I got the invitation to graduate early from Monsters University.
Who are "the boys", you might ask. If you're serious, then you might actually be reading the wrong piece. For the rest of you, "the boys" are Mike Wazowski (Crystal) and James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (Goodman). And it's been a dozen years since we last saw them in Monsters, Inc. A sequel to that film might be a bit problematic. We learn that laughs provide far more power than screams, and we leave the power structure of Monsteropolis on its head. Pixar's imaginative team took the best route available to them and decided to go the prequel pathway, and we get to see Mike and Sully as college students. Both have their sights on becoming master scarers. For Sulley, it's in the blood. He comes from a long line of successful scarers, and he's not really taking the college scene very seriously. For Sulley it's about fun. Mike, on the other hand, has stars in his eyes and works harder than anyone else on campus. But he might have to come to grips with the fact that he just might not have what it takes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on October 29th, 2013
Every once in a while a film comes along that looks like it could be interesting, but you don’t really expect to like it all that much. It’s simply meant to be filler, something to kill time until something better comes along, but somehow you get drawn in and become so engrossed in the story that you forget everything else. That is the most apt description of my experience with The Way, Way Back, a socially awkward dramedy with a ton of heart featuring Steve Carrell, Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, Liam James, and many more.
Duncan (Liam James, The Killing) is an introverted, slightly awkward fourteen-year-old. After his parents’ divorce, his mother Pam (Toni Collette, United States of Tara) starts dating Trent (Steve Carrell, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone), a single father who masks his disdain for Duncan with thinly veiled accusations and comments. For the summer, Duncan is dragged along with the couple and Trent’s daughter Steph (who treats him like a pariah) to Trent’s family beach house.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2013
Independent films can be about just about anything. Usually if it's about something you have never seen before, that can be a good thing. In this case, I'm not so sure. Free Samples is a movie that takes place almost entirely in and around a crappy little van giving away a cup of either chocolate or vanilla ice cream or at least something that resembles ice cream as far as we know. Free Samples is an existential comedy about the search for meaning when you step away from a future that looked very bright in search of who knows what.
Jesse Weixler plays Jillian, who is a law student taking time off to paint, think and drink excessively. After a night of too much booze in which various people wind up in an apartment not knowing how they got there, Jillian's girlfriend begs her to do her a huge favor and fill in for her on the free ice cream truck for just a few hours. Jillian is bitter, angry, hung over, and not very amenable to this unpalatable idea but gets bullied into it anyway, but she's not going to do the visor. It's bad enough she's forced into a t-shirt that displays how unendowed she is in the bosom department.
Posted in: Random Fun by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2013
The following cautionary tale is brought to you by the folks at Fox and American Horror Story:Asylum out on DVD/Blu-ray.
Whilst the criminally insane remain under the care of sadistic medical staff in the second chapter of the Emmy winning series, American Horror Story: Asylum, released this week, we are going to look at our favorite medical villains who prescribe the maximum dose of patient dread and suffering. Are you sure you want that warm sponge-bath sir …?
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