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Review: ‘A Million Ways to Die in the West’

“A Million Ways to Die in the West” is a long title for a movie that should just be called “Seth MacFarlane Slapstick Romantic Comedy Western.” I guess that’s pretty long too. How about “New Timey Jokes in Old Timey West?” Nope that one stinks too. “Old West Gross Out?” “A Million Jokes Die in the West?” “Sophomore Slump?” Eh. I guess the original title is okay enough.

So in “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” writer/director Seth MacFarlane plays Albert, a sheep farmer living just outside of a small town called Old Stump, and the movie starts with him weaseling his way out of a gunfight and then losing his girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) to the local successful businessman stereotype (Neil Patrick Harris), so he’s down in the dumps when he meets Anna (Charlize Theron), a foxy stranger who befriends Albert and tries to help him turn things around. Little does Albert know that Anna is actually the wife of a feared gunfighter (Liam Neeson) and that is going to be a problem for Albert.

And the crux of the movie is Albert’s lack of self confidence and abundance of self doubt and how he gradually tips those scales in the opposite direction, again thanks to the help of super foxy Anna. So even though this is a comedy with some gross out gags and over the top humor, there is a surprising amount of tears shed in this thing by different characters, as they tried to get actual emotions and character development in there between the jokes about uncontrollable diarrhea and sloppy prostitutes.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Chef’

“Chef” is Jon Favreau’s answer to the corporate-backed, big budgeted, special effects laden behemoth blockbusters which seem to choke the multiplexes every summer, a couple of which he had his own hand in creating. But like many artists he longed to get back to his more humble roots in order to express more creative and artistic freedom and he was able to do so with this movie about a renowned chef who gets his own second chance at being happy with his work.

In “Chef,” Favreau plays Carl Casper, a chef who made a splash in his younger days with some daring food but who has hit a rut in his later years, having worked in the same restaurant making the same food for the same pain in the ass owner (Dustin Hoffman) for too many years, and when he tries to change the menu and do something a little different and daring, he gets push back from the owner and finds himself out the door.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 5/26/14 – ‘Fawlty Towers’

It is an historic moment for the Netflix Instant Pick of the Week, as we have our first non-movie pick, after all this time! Because while Netflix does indeed possess many cinematic titles for instant viewing, there is also a healthy amount of television shows to choose from, and this week’s pick is a personal favorite, one that I know I can go to for a quick, hearty laugh, and that is the 1970’s English situational comedy “Fawlty Towers.”

Starring Monty Python member John Cleese (and co-created by him and his wife at the time Connie Booth), “Fawlty Towers” is set in a seaside hotel owned and operated by Basil Fawlty (Cleese) and his attempts to improve the standing of his hotel gets undermined at every turn, and often by his own arrogance and rude, boorish behavior which is apparent to everyone except him.Continue Reading …

#72 – Art Vs. Commerce

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In episode 72, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review Jon Favreau’s CHEF and the new X-MEN:DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. There are also a TON of movie news stories, a new (and historic) Netflix Instant Pick of the Week, the Crespodisco, the Crespodome and so much more! Dig it!

Review: ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’

First off, if you are not into the X-Men series of movies or characters, then there is no reason for you to see this movie. Move along now. Go on off to whatever you DO like, whether they be boy wizards or hobbits or men of the Bat or Super persuasions or Meryl Streep movies or vampires or whatever. Because we are now seven movies into this film series (or what is now known as a franchise, you know, like McDonalds and Taco Bells), and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” is thoroughly a movie FOR the fans of the series, for the people that are interested in the furthering adventures of Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine and all of their mutant buddies. And most of those fans should be very happy with what they have been given.

For the uninitiated (for we ARE initiated), the X-Men comic book series (and subsequent movies, television shows, video games, etc.) has long been an allegory for the Fear of The Other, as many of their story lines revolve around the humans’ mistrust of the mutants, and the mutants having to live in hiding, or else having to decide whether to fight back or to show that they can be peaceful and co-habit the world with humans, and you can easily replace the word mutant with black or female or gay or Jewish or any other group of people who have felt the sting of prejudice and persecution in this world, all because of The Fear, and boom you have the crux of the X-Men series and what makes it special among all the other comic book related bloat and bluster.Continue Reading …

The Crespodisco #8 – Five Awesome Albums

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In this BONUS EPISODE of Cinema CrespoDISCO, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn talk about five of their favorite albums, while also talking about many other albums that they love from start to finish.

Reclaiming attention spans one person at a time!

Review: ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’

For years now in popular culture the vampire has been depicted in what really can only be described as “campy,” or at the very least largely non-threatening. Whether we are talking about brooding, love starved vampires with diamond skin or vampires engaged in a centuries-old sewer-set gun fight with werewolves or vampires who simply lost their shirts (as well as the mere concept of shirts), the one thing we haven’t seen lately is the idea of vampires in the real world, going about their lives, doing “normal” things like using iPhones and watching YouTube and listening to and creating music. In Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive,” this is exactly what we get, otherworldly beings in a real world setting, and we get to see how the deal with the pesky things known as people and the annoying burden on them that is known as life.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 5/19/14 – ‘Narc’

“Narc” is a tough, gritty, intense 2002 cop drama starring Jason Patric and Ray Liotta, both of them doing some of the best work of their respective careers, and helping to elevate this solid yet familiar movie to the next level. Because while there plenty of movies (and television shows) about police going undercover and doing some questionable things in order to get results, this movie gets it all right, and builds to a big reveal that comes with some big emotional weight, making for a strong pay off to great movie.

In “Narc,” Jason Patric plays a cop who got too deep undercover in the narcotics world and had to be saved from it, but who then 18 months later finds himself back in it at the request of the police department itself, as he got sucked into an investigation of a murdered cop which had reached a dead end. He teams up with the veteran cop played by Ray Liotta who is leading the investigation, and together they sink deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole looking for the truth. And of course we know this going into the movie but when the truth finally comes out, it is not what anyone thought it would be, as things get turned upside down, with the movie leaving some serious questions and getting into some heavy stuff, and also refusing to wrap up this whole movie for you with a nice little bow on top.Continue Reading …

#71 – Escape From Unique New York

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In episode 71, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review Godzilla, Only Lovers Left Alive and Locke, there is a new Netflix Instant Pick of the Week, movie news, they talk about the Interstellar trailer, the new picture of Batman and the Batmobile, the death and influence of HR Giger, and much more!

Review: ‘Godzilla’

After a worldwide decade-long hiatus, the most bad ass 60-year old on the planet has reemerged to assert his dominance as the King of All Monsters, here to wipe out bad memories of horrible 1990’s CG-lizards, Matthew Broderick, and decades of men in cheap rubber suits stumbling through cities made of cardboard. Building on the terror of the 1954 original, “Godzilla” is a movie devoid of camp and silliness, an A-movie treatment to a B-movie concept, and it all works great.

The movie starts with a fun opening credit sequence showing old-timey footage from the 1950’s of some A-bomb tests that were actually attempts to kill Godzilla back in the day. And after this sequence, we don’t see Godzilla again until about halfway through the movie, as we get a nice, slow build to the reveal of the giant monster in his full glory. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean nothing happens for the first half of the movie; on the contrary, we get to see the awe-inspiring and fear-inducing destruction caused by a pair of giant monsters that the military dubs “MUTOs” (standing for Massive Unknown Terrestrial Organism), and this is pretty smart by the the filmmakers, because instead of just breaking out some old monsters, they came up with their own designs for new ones, and found a way to have their characters come up with a name for these monsters that simultaneously sounds like a name of a monster from the old Toho movies but also sounds like a very plausible acronym that could actually be used by the military in a situation like this.Continue Reading …