Netflix pick for 8/4/14 – ‘Tetro’

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Francis Ford Coppola, he of “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II” and “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now,” after spending some time not making movies and out of the business, instead manufacturing wine to the delight of the masses, found that he could tell some crazy stories that he always wanted to tell thanks to the new age of digital cinema, a liberating time in which anyone with a few bucks and a proper digital camera and make an entire movie easier than ever. And with this new found digital freedom, Coppola made “Tetro,” an operatic family drama about reunited brothers and the weird past which unites them.

Vincent Gallo (yes, VINCENT GALLO) plays the eponymous Tetro, an artist who suffers for his work and has some serious baggage that he is trying to sort through, and Alden Ehrenreich plays his younger brother who arrives unannounced, looking to reunite with his big bro after a decade apart. Shot in black and white (and looking gorgeous), Coppola is an old school filmmaker, one who not only knows his film history but also contributed to it already, and here he is definitely throwing it back to the black and white noirs of the 1940 and 1950s, with lots of very strong shadows and scenes swathed in intense blacks and extreme lighting. And the family drama is very operatic, building up to a pretty explosive final ten minutes or so, making the admittedly somewhat uneven though still interesting journey fully worthwhile.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’

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For a good while there, “Guardians of the Galaxy” has more in common with sci-fi space epics than it does with the other Marvel comic book superhero action movies and that is definitely a good thing.  It is a fun, joke-filled romp through some crazy locations, like a space jail filled with all sorts of beasts and the inside of a huge, floating, severed head of an ancient space god. There are different alien species and kooky technology and a walking tree and a talking raccoon and for the most part it all makes for a pretty damn good time at the movies.

So why does “Guardians of the Galaxy” feel a little hollow?

Because make no mistake, there is plenty of entertainment to be had from this thing, as it has an irreverent tone and sense of whimsy that has definitely been missing in this day and age of the brooding blockbuster. This movie doesn’t take itself seriously (except for the couple of scenes that we ARE supposed to take seriously), it has a fun 70’s pop soundtrack that keeps heads bopping and toes tapping, there are more special effects and huge action scenes than you can shake a stick at (if that’s the kinda stuff you want from your movies), and there are good performances from folks who are really giving it their all, really buying into their ridiculous characters and just selling the shit of them. So what the hell else does this movie need?Continue Reading …

Dr. Drew’s Two Cents – The Hatreds

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In this non-movie BONUS episode, the Doctor is IN and this month’s prescription is a full dose of 100% uncut misanthropy. Along with co-hater Chris Crespo, show host Drewster Cogburn rails on the non-efficient, the oblivisous, smart phone users, social media whores, wikipedia referencers, the entitled, the participation trophy getters, the easily offended and the money lovers, plus more! How much hate can you take? But when all seems lost, the Doctor does offer a suggestion we could all apply to our own lives. Dig it, daddy-o!

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Netflix pick for 7/28/2014 – ‘Assault on Precinct 13’

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When John Carpenter wanted to make a Western but didn’t have the money for the period appropriate props and locations, he instead wrote a story about a siege on a police station, set in modern day Los Angeles (well 1976 Los Angeles, anyway) and featuring a shadowy, Satan-worshiping gang out on a cholo blood quest, and the movie ended up being “Assault on Precinct 13.”

This is a lean, mean movie, with an efficient set up in both character and story, and things get crazy as a small group of people try to keep a very large number of gang members from breaking into their building and killing them all. And since this is a John Carpenter movie, it has the typical, awesome John Carpenter score, lots of electronics and bass heavy and full of doom and dread, punctuating the menace established outside of the walls of Precinct (9, in division) 13.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Hercules’

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Well if “Hercules” gets anything right, it is having the one and only Dwayne Johnson playing the role, as he has the physicality and imposing stature required to be a conceivable half-human, half-god bad ass warrior mountain of a man, and thanks to that innate physical capability he possesses coupled with his unending charisma, “Hercules” mostly works as an entertaining piece of fantasy action. If there is anything wrong with this movie, Dwayne Johnson is not among them. And I am not just saying that because I fear this large man will read this and might possibly squish me into nothingness.

Because yes, there are some things wrong with “Hercules,” and we might as well start with the marketing versus what we go, as the movie was sold as a big fantasy movie involving Hercules battling all sorts of beasts and monsters, but the movie features all of these encounters during the opening of the movie, and in actuality, we don’t get any action involving any beasts, there is actually very little that is fantastical about this movie, it is all a great big trick, and we have all been had. This is not Dwayne Johnson as the son of Zeus battling great beasts, but instead Dwayne Johnson as a guy who is just a mercenary and who leads a small group of random people from job to job. And that is kind of lame.Continue Reading …

#81 – Gathering of the Nerds

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In episode 81, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review A Most Wanted Man, Lucy and Hercules, and they are letdown by each one in different ways.

Chris recaps some of the bigger news stories coming out of this year’s San Diego Comic Con, there is a new Netflix Pick of the Week, Drewster Cogburn needs to come up with a segment for the show, and Chris asks the listeners to tweet and facebook “Listening to #CinemaCrespodiso.”

Plus much more, so enjoy the show!

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Review: ‘Lucy’

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There has been this idea floating around for a long time that we humans only use 10% of our brain’s power and capacity, effectively leaving so much potential and power untouched and unused, and of course it plays right into our own innate desire to see ourselves as the top of the food chain, the masters of the universe, the end all, be all of creation and/or evolution. Not only are we the best things to happen to this world, but we have so much more power to obtain, so much more to do, we can (and will!) be even better because goddammit we are humans and we have earned the right to rule all, even only utilizing a fraction of our brain.

Too bad it has been pretty thoroughly disproven that this particular idea of “brain capacity” and 10% usage is false and misinformed and just wrong.Continue Reading …

Crespodiso Film School – Martin Scorsese

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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo starts the Crespodiso Film School, and the first subject is Martin Scorsese. Along with Drewster Cogburn, they go through Scorsese’s full filmography and discuss all his movies, plus some added trivia and factoids about the man himself.

Enjoy!

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