Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on June 17th, 2019
“You are a diversity hire. The important part is that you’re here now.” Mindy Kaling knows a little bit about diversity hiring in the television industry and attempts to spread her wings a bit wider by staring in Late Night, an “inside baseball” look at the workings of a late-night talk show television program. Kaling […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on November 29th, 2018
“It’s handled, baby.” Scandal, which followed the exploits of elite Washington D.C. fixer Olivia Pope and her torrid on-again/off-again relationship with the president of the United States, was never the Best Drama on television. But if the Emmys handed out a prize for “Most Drama,” this Shonda Rhimes-created soap opera would’ve been a shoo-in each […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on August 30th, 2018
You can’t call your TV show Masters of Sex and not expect to elicit a few chuckles. (You also can’t be surprised if people go looking for it on Skinemax Cinemax rather than Showtime.) But placing its titillating title aside, Masters of Sex turned out to be an engaging, often-excellent, and low-key adventurous period drama […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 23rd, 2018
As I was working on this review, I came across a term that might just turn out to be a new pet-peeve. I am referring to the term or phrase, “Dated”. This term is often used with movies that could have only existed and made in that time period. It gets used even more when […]
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on February 6th, 2018
This week’s Round Up features one of the world’s most popular superheroes like you’ve never seen him before. Warner Bros. put out the bat signal and we’ve decided to respond by reviewing Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (4K), which inserts the Caped Crusader into a Victorian-era adventure. Meanwhile, CBS goes into extraterrestrial battle with War of […]
Posted in No Huddle by Dan Holland on November 3rd, 2017
Soul on a String is the latest from director Yang Zhang, a very methodical filmmaker from Beijing, China. Now, I say methodical for two reasons: he’s been making films since the late 90’s and has only released a total of nine, and the ones I have seen are very slow-paced, but absolutely deliberate when paying […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on October 24th, 2017
For a gritty historical epic to get the green light these days, it has to have some sort of easy-to-understand hook. (“Hey, it’s sexy King Arthur!”) And it seems like enough people complained about the prevalence of PG-13 action movies that it led to the current boom of R-rated sensations — like Deadpool and the […]
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on September 24th, 2017
To attempt to film in a single unbroken take is an ambitious move. Alfred Hitchock did this with his film Rope, and though it’s an impressive achievement, it’s not one of his great films. What works against the film from the start is that it has to entertain its audience from start to finish, and […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on July 25th, 2016
“You talk dreams to those kids, you better follow through.” There’s a (not-so) grand cinematic tradition of white knights riding into rough neighborhoods and inspiring the disadvantaged kids who are seemingly stuck there. We’ve seen this plot applied in everything from Hardball and McFarland USA to Sister Act 2. (Hey…no one said the white knight […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 3rd, 2016
Keanu Reeves is a guy who I don’t think anyone would be crazy enough to say is a “great actor”, but instead he’s a guy who has been in some pretty great films. For me he’s an actor I grew up with from his days doing the Bill and Ted movies and Point Break. (Seriously, […]
Posted in Holiday Gift Guides by Gino Sassani on November 30th, 2015
I think I see your problem. You have this list. It’s a list of people you need/want to buy a Christmas gift for. The trouble is that they’re into home theatre, and you don’t know Star Trek from Star Wars. You couldn’t tell a Wolf Man from a Wolverine. And you always thought that Paranormal Activity was something too […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on October 27th, 2015
Between Judgment Day, zombie apocalypses, and various other doomsday scenarios, we’ve gotten a pretty good look at what the end of the world is supposed to look like. One of the most striking things about Z for Zachariah — an otherwise straightforward and deliberate drama that takes its story from a 1974 novel of the […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on October 5th, 2015
“My name is Clay Marshall, and I am one of the many survivors of the zombie apocalypse.” Yes, you read that right. The word “many” in the above quote is not a misprint. A Plague So Pleasant seeks to explore the crushingly mundane aftermath of a worldwide plague. Unfortunately, the movie appears to be of […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on September 28th, 2015
“I just realized that having other people around is what makes life worth living.” This lesson doesn’t come easily — or quickly — for Phil Miller, the Last Man on Earth. On the other hand, having other people around doesn’t do a heck of a lot for The Last Man on Earth, the dementedly inventive […]
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on August 25th, 2015
We have some hungry, undead guests shuffling into this week’s Round Up. Anchor Bay will release the latest batch of episodes from one of the most popular shows on television with The Walking Dead: Season 5. We’ll also have a review of Anchor Bay’s high-stakes Big Game. Meanwhile, CBS/Paramount brings us a trio of network […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2015
“Milk will be spilled.” That’s for sure, and you can expect more than a little crying over it all. The saddest news, however, is the coming fifth season will be the show’s final year. You really should not even think about joining the series from this point. I suspect it will still be quite entertaining, […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on July 7th, 2015
Maggie is a slow zombie movie. You might assume I’m describing where this film falls on the fast zombie vs. slow zombie spectrum. (For the record, the monsters in Maggie do move at a decidedly deliberate pace.) However, the deliberate pace also applies to the way first-time director Henry Hobson unfurls his story in this […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on June 17th, 2015
“Tell everyone to get ready. Jimmy is coming.” If someone were to tell me while walking out of Schindler’s List that 20 years later Liam Neeson would be an action star, I would have thought they were out of their mind. Between the trio of Taken films and numerous films that seem to be cut […]
Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on June 11th, 2015
As one who loathes sports, ESPECIALLY golf, I thought I’d rather put hot pokers in my eyes than watch the golf and gambling independent film, The Squeeze. However, to my surprise, it wasn’t bad – it wasn’t great- and although the ending teed me off for not providing an adequate resolution, I also didn’t fast […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 9th, 2015
“Some things stay the same. I mean the gamer is the game.” Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A newspaper reporter and a cop go into a bar… It sounds like a setup for a pretty lame joke. It’s actually the story of how one of the greatest television shows to ever air […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on May 14th, 2015
“To truly know a man, you must walk in his shoes.” On the lone special feature of any substance included on this Blu-ray, director/co-writer Thomas McCarthy admits The Cobbler was inspired by the well-known idiom listed above. I’m all for getting as many original ideas on the big screen as possible. But even if you […]
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on May 4th, 2015
“When history looks back, I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to kill millions of people and get away with it.” Those words were spoken by Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesenthal was an architect living in Poland in the 1930’s. He was witness to the systematic persecution, isolation and eventual slaughter of the Jewish population […]
Posted in No Huddle by Dan Holland on May 4th, 2015
If I were to tell you The Comedian is a dramatic character study, you would expect it to have some comedic elements, right? Unfortunately, that is the exact mindset I entered the film with. While the film does provide characters and concepts, it left me feeling disappointed. Written and directed by Tom Shkolnik, The Comedian tells […]
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on March 12th, 2015
“Tell everyone to get ready. Jimmy is coming.” If someone were to tell me while walking out of Schindler’s List that 20 years later Liam Neeson would be an action star, I would have thought they were out of their mind. Between the trio of Taken films and numerous films that seem to be cut […]
Posted in Super Round-Up by Gino Sassani on October 31st, 2014
“I met him fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes… the devil’s eyes. I […]
