A weekly talk show hosted by film critic Christopher Crespo
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In this non-cinema BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn talk about some of their favorite hip hop songs.
Enjoy!
Chris Rock has been in a ton of movies, from small roles to leading roles, and he’s even directed some of these movies himself, but for the first time we have a movie that actually feels like we are getting the cinematic equivalent of one of his stand up routines in all the best ways – the surety of the storyteller, the confidence in the delivery, the attention to detail, the wry observations and interesting twists on everyday things, “Top Five” is the Chris Rock movie we’ve all been waiting for, though no one has been waiting for this more than Mr. Rock himself.
“Top Five” is about a day in the life of famous comedian turned famous actor Andre Allen (Rock), and this is a very busy day for him. As a major part of his gambit to convince people he is more than a comedian, he is out and about in New York City to promote the opening of his new movie “Uprize,” in which he plays the lead character in a film about the slave rebellion in Haiti. Part of the promotion involves being tailed by a reporter for the New York Times all day, which ends up being a foxy lady named Chelsea (Rosario Dawson), and their relationship starts off contentious because of all the bad things the Times’ resident film critic wrote about Allen’s movies (just substitute Andre Allen for Adam Sandler and you get an idea of the vitriol he got from film critics). On top of the annoying interview tour and the journalist all over his shit trying to get a quote, he has to deal with his own past as he visits family and friends, getting mixed signals and reactions from them all.Continue Reading …
The movie that served as the basis for the Academy Award winning film by Martin Scorsese “The Departed,” “Infernal Affairs” is a 2002 Chinese crime drama that was a mega hit in China, initially propelled by star power and then gaining sustained success thanks to being a well made movie. Obviously “Infernal Affairs” is good because it inspired not only several sequels in China, but the aforementioned extremely popular American remake. Whether or not you have seen “The Departed,” it is definitely worth your time to see where this all started.
Inspector Lau (Andy Lau) is one of the best police officers in his department and is well regarded by his higher ups, which allows him to sneak around and be the mole that he is for a local triad (Chinese organized crime). While working for the police, he leaks information to his real boss, who uses this info to evade arrest. But Lau has a problem and so does the triad in the form of undercover police officer Chen (Tony Leung), a cop who managed to infiltrate the mob and who is leaking information back to the police. Both men are tasked with finding out who the other mole is, and the entire movie is a twisty cat and mouse game as both Lau and Chen try to find the mole while trying not to get found out themselves. It is a great set up and the story is told well, with a bunch of twists and turns that keep things moving and exciting.
The movie jumps right into the story and does not spend much time farting around, instead getting deeper and deeper into this quagmire of a situation, with both characters steadily coming closer and closer to complete ruin. This film gets tense, it is fun to watch and after seeing it you can see why someone like Martin Scorsese would do a remake of it because it just comes across as a fun story.Continue Reading …
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In episode 101, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by friend of the show Elijah, and they all review Exodus: Gods and Kings, while Chris reviews Top Five.
Also discussed in this episode:
More SONY leaked information.
Al Pacino met with Marvel.
Jason Momoa talks Aquaman.
Krypton the TV show.
Mark Hamill talks Star Wars.
Disney wants more Indy movies.
Harrison Ford loves the Blade Runner 2 script.
The King Kong prequel movie.
Video game movies.
Plus the usual drips and drabs, Netflix Instant pick, new movies, etc. etc. You get the picture. We’ve done 101 of these by now.
Well this is unfortunate. Is there any worse feeling for a movie-goer to finally see a much anticipated film and then come out of the other side realizing that it was months of build up to nothing but disappointment? “Exodus: Gods and Kings” surely has its moments and things about it that work, but it doesn’t come together in the way that was surely hoped by everyone involved when they heard the words “Ridley Scott” and “biblical epic” in the same pitch.
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” (the unwieldy subtitle added after 20th Century FOX couldn’t secure the rights to the title “Exodus“) is the story of Moses (Christian Bale) and how he got 400,000 Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery, though not without some help from God and some well timed plagues of…well…biblical proportions. But before we get anywhere near there (you know, the good stuff), we have to set up Moses and his relationship to both the Pharaoh and his son Ramses (Joel Edgerton), and this takes a good portion of the movie. This problem with this set up is that Ramses’ intentions and true feelings are never really shown, so we get two Ramses in one. First there is the Ramses who grew up with Moses like a brother and who cherishes him and has great affection for him; and then there is the Ramses who is immediately distrustful of Moses and is afraid that he will somehow rise up and take power from him in Egypt, despite the fact that Moses is not the actual son of the Pharaoh. So out of one side of his mouth, he declares his love for Moses, and out of the other side of his mouth he is calling for him to be exiled. This guy is confused, and confusing, and as such, muddles the movie a little.Continue Reading …
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In this BONUS episode, the Doctor is in!
Drewster Cogburn talks about Christmas, much to the delight of Chris Crespo.
They go over the history of Christmas and the origins of things like the Christmas tree, Christmas ornaments, and more!
Who is ready for a fifth Terminator movie? No one? Well it’s coming anyway, folks, so gird your loins because soon it will be time to sit through another installment of the continuing adventures of a our favorite time-traveling cyborg murderer and his many replicas. And with the Governator vacating politics a few years ago and jumping head first back into acting, the time was ripe for a new Terminator movie featuring an old Terminator. So now here we go with the first piece of marketing for this movie, and it gives us an idea of how they are going to pull this off. Here are my thoughts.Continue Reading …
Hey you guys here about this new “Star Wars” movies coming out? No? Really, that’s weird, cause it’s apparently a kind of a big deal. Good thing you have me to help you know what’s important in this world, right?
But seriously folks, there’s a new “Star Wars” movie on the way, it is a direct sequel to “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi,” which was the third movie of the series, and apparently the Force is awakening, cause in December 2015 we are going to get “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” with many returning cast members like Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher all coming back to reprise their roles and keep this story moving forward because, well, because Disney knows they can make $1 billion in worldwide box office for it, and for every movie they make like it.Continue Reading …
In honor of episode 1o0 of Cinema Crespodiso, a momentous occasion indeed, we had a double pick for the Netflix Instant Pick of the Week, and this will make for a strange yet fun double feature, believe you me.
We’ll start with a based-on-a-real-story balls out action Western and then we’ll follow that with a Tim Burton Christmas movie that just happens to feature a certain Caped Crusader.Continue Reading …
“The Homesman” is an interesting Western film directed by Tommy Lee Jones, which makes him two for two in directing somewhat unconventional Westerns (his other film being the sublime “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada“). An adaptation of a 1988 novel of the same name, this is a story centered on the harsh realities of living in 19th century frontier America, and the simple logistics of having to deal with people with various states of decaying mental health in a place and time in which such ailments are not very well known or treated properly. And also how much it sucks for plain looking women who couldn’t find a man and had to fend for themselves. Cause that looked like it sucked.
Mary Bee (Hillary Swank) owns her own piece of land in Nebraska and she farms it and seems to be doing pretty well, having plans to expand and plant different crops and buy more animals, so even in such a desolate looking place, she seems to be doing okay for herself. But being in her early 30s and single, she is seen as a spinster, as women were expected to have been married and have kids well before her age. And it’s not for a lack of trying, she just gets rejected mostly because she’s plain and bossy, two things she can’t seem to help much. It is obvious the loneliness is starting to get to her and it is hard not to feel kinda sorry for her situation. And then it is understandable when she volunteers for a seemingly very difficult task, that of transporting three women from Nebraska to Iowa so they could be reunited with their families back East as all three of these women for varying reasons have lost their minds and can no longer be tended to be their husbands. Early on she recruits a trouble making drifter named Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) to help her with the job, and they are off on an arduous journey.Continue Reading …