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Review: ‘Blue Ruin’

The first time I saw “Blue Ruin,” I had a one word response:

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

See, I even went back and found it:

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. #BlueRuin

— Chris Crespo (@IAmChrisCrespo) September 20, 2014

And now that I have watched “Blue Ruin” a second time, my reaction is still the same. This movie is so damn good in so many ways it is almost unfair. When a film shows up like this, like a ferocious shotgun blast of smart intensity, it is impossible not to take notice. Who needs huge CG set pieces, hundreds of millions of dollars and an overly long and complicated screenplay to make a memorable movie? Not writer/director Jeremy Saulnier apparently, because this is a super low budget yet very simply told yet incredibly well made and awesome movie, and should be viewed by anyone who wants to make a movie but fear they don’t have the resources to make a compelling film. Guess what, people, it can be done. It WAS done. It is called “Blue Ruin.”Continue Reading …

CCN – November 2014

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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn talk some shit about some shit, rambling along the way, losing their places, and then continue on trucking.

Discussed in this episode: Bill Cosby is definitely a rapist (allegedly), Ferguson yo, Chris talks about the last six books he’s read, Drew tells Chris about Fightball, a mysterious Russian satellite, a real James Bond style laser watch, how the Plague is making a comeback, and the Cthurkey, and Chris talks about the Jurassic World trailer, X-Men: apocalypse casting and the new Star Wars trailer.

Mahalo!

Netflix pick for 11/24/14 – ‘City of God’

“City of God” is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama that should have been called “Murderous Children,” because it is all about how crime festers and grows in the poorest neighborhood of Brazil, as little children criminals grow into older, experienced criminals, bringing death and destruction with them wherever they go.

To help make this movie feel as real as possible, much of film was shot on location in Brazil and featured non-professional actors from these impoverished areas, bringing real authenticity to their performances and to the movie as a whole. And it obviously worked because “City of God” almost feels like a documentary, like they just rolled up with cameras and filmed real people doing the things they really do. And yet some of these things are kind of crazy and intense, yet it is pretty normal for them. And since it has been released, it has been nominated for and won all sorts of awards and it has been named on 100 Best Films Ever lists and shit like that so come on, this one is a slam dunk, easy peasy one two threesy, if you haven’t seen “City of God” yet, you are missing out.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1’

Well the latest installment of the newest mega franchise has been released and it has cleaned house already at the ole’ box office, making certain people instantly salivate at the prospects of the overall business for the final film to be released in exactly one year. “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” is a big, expensive set up for the last movie, the story telling lamb sacrificed at the altar of monster profits, a truly compelling yarn discarded in favor of two hours of preamble.

For those folks not keeping track, there’s this chick named Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), and she lives in a dystopian future of poverty and immense wealth disparity, and she is also a past winner of The Hunger Games, an annual event in which children are pitted against each other in a combat to the death, broadcast to the masses and sold as entertainment. Through her involvement in this, she got mixed up in some rebellion, as the impoverished masses are close to organizing into an uprising against The Capitol, and she somehow becomes the face of the rebellion. Got it? Okay. Because that’s all this movie is about. The rebels, who are literally underground, create propaganda videos featuring Katniss to broadcast to all the different poor districts of their world in an effort to get everyone to rebel at once.Continue Reading …

#98 – Miike Kiddie Pool

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In episode 98, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Chris reviews The Theory of Everything.

Also discussed in this episode:

RIP Mike Nichols.

City of God.

Tyler Perry’s Madea Christmas FINALLY comes out on DVD.

Movie sequels we’d like to see.

Europa Report.

Hot Butterbeer at Universal Orlando.

Better Call Saul premiere date.

The Stand to be made into 4 movies.

Paul Greengrass to direct 1984.

Channing Tatum to get in the director’s chair.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The Theory of Everything’

Based on the SECOND memoir published by Jane Wilde Hawking, “The Theory of Everything” is not so much a biopic about the world’s most well known physicist as it is an examination of a marriage enduring great obstacles and challenges, and the toll these challenges take on the people involved.

“The Theory of Everything” starts with Stephen Hawking’s (Eddie Redmayne) first year studying for his doctorate at Cambridge University, where he meets a fetching young art student named Jane (Felicity Jones), and they hit it off and embark on the beginning of a nice little relationship. At the same time Stephen is trying to figure out what his ultimate thesis at school will be (spoiler alert: it’s time), and he is growing into the most promising student at Cambridge in years. But the problem is that he is slowly deteriorating, at first for reasons he does not know and then eventually diagnosed as ALS (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease). His muscles stop responding as they should, and he soon develops difficulty with just about everything we take for granted, like walking, eating and talking.

Given two years to live, he sinks into a depression and tries to push Jane away, but she refuses to go anywhere and instead insists on helping him in any way possible because of love damn it. So they get married and have kids and he comes out of his funk and continues to work on his doctorate, and then goes on to work on other theories and ideas while he becomes confined to a wheelchair and his wife helps him with everything. And of course this becomes a strain on the relationship, as Jane set her own life and ambitions aside so she could help Stephen live the rest of his life.Continue Reading …

The Crespodisco #14 – Favorite Genres

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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn enter the Crespodisco and get down with songs representing their favorite genres.

And yes this is Crespodisco 14, even though Chris thought it was #13. So get ready for some dope rock, hip-hop, JAAZZZZZZ, reggae, metal and more! PLUS a super special BONUS list at the end of the show.

Get down with your bad selves all ready.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Dumb and Dumber To’

Oof.

This movie is just not good. It is the kind of comedy sequel that makes one question whether or not the original is actually as funny as remembered. The same writers and director, the same actors, even the same tone and style of humor. So why was it so funny twenty years ago and now it is so damned unfunny? What could have possibly been their undoing?

“Dumb and Dumber To” picks up twenty years after the original, with Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) looking the same save for the wrinkles. It is possible that these characters are somehow dumber now as they have aged, but that’s it. They are the same. And they go on another ridiculous road trip based on another misunderstanding and they encounter another set of killers and Lloyd’s lust for love is again the driving force for the shenanigans. So much is the same. So why does it stink?

This movie is a bunch of dumb humor without a hint of cleverness to any of it. At least “Dumb and Dumber” felt like a “smart” dumb movie, whereas this one just goes for the low hanging fruit. For a movie being so many years in the making, it sure feels quite half baked and not so well thought out. The initial set up is a decent one, too: Harry and Lloyd set out to find Harry’s kid that he just found out he has, but now this kid is all grown up. Obviously the fruit of their respective loins is bound to be a dumb dumb (sorry to break it to you, Forrest Gump), and the character they came up with is okay, but she’s not all that memorable or interesting in the long run. It’s not like I want to see her in a “Dumb and Dumber 3” or anything. Nothing against Rachel Melvin who played this character, she was great, it was just what they asked her to do, which wasn’t much.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 11/17/14 – ‘Killing Them Softly

“Killing Them Softly” is a great crime drama about a mob-run poker game that gets knocked over and how the mob bosses have a guy they use as their own police and also apparently prefer to communicate solely through their attorney. As this results in scenes featuring Brad Pitt conversing with Richard Jenkins, this is a win for us all.

From my original review of “Killing Them Softly:”

What if the movie going public was sold this movie honestly? Would people have turned out in any more numbers if they knew this was an angsty, arty, condemnation of the kind of business tactics that got us all in this mess in the first place, made in the grand tradition of the hard ass manly directors of yore like Sam Peckinpah and John Milius andWalter Hill? Would that have mattered at all? Maybe there would have been even fewer people. In any case, it’s all said and then, and the movie that condemns improper business tactics and which was sold with misleading commercials made for some bad box office business. But it’ll survive on, like so many well-made movies rejected in their time.

Review: ‘Whiplash’

How far would you go to be the best at something? That question is at the center of “Whiplash,” a drama about a music school student and the adversarial relationship he develops with the school’s top instructor whose techniques are more akin to a military boot camp than they are band camp. And for being a movie about the student-teacher relationship in the world of jazz drumming, “Whiplash” is surprisingly tense and in your face, filled with danger and menace and tragedy, done in double time.

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a freshman at music conservatory in New York City, a place considered to be the top music school in the country, and roaming the halls of this school is a bald, intense, wound up knot of a man named Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), who apparently has a reputation demands people pay him the utmost respect. It probably has something to do with how he picks the best students for his ensemble and trains them for competitions that could lead to promising careers so people are desperate to get his approval because his opinion matters so much. When Andrew finds himself somehow in the same room with this guy and with the chance to earn a spot in his band, he does everything he can to make that happen.

And that’s not enough because almost immediately Fletcher is on Andrew’s ass, pushing him harder than Andrew’s ever been pushed before, breaking him down emotionally from the very beginning so that Andrew could possibly reach deep down inside and somehow work even harder to be a better drummer. So rest assured, this movie features drums covered literally in blood and sweat, and we can easily assume that tears hit the drum kit at some point as well, so there can be no doubt whatsoever that this Andrew guy is truly giving it his all. But is it enough? And what could happen if it isn’t?Continue Reading …