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Review: ‘World War Z’

Have you ever wanted to see a family friendly movie about a world wide zombie outbreak? Because “World War Z” is here and this is the movie for you (and your whole family). If you aren’t into zombie movies that have all that yucky, disgusting gore and blood and viscera and just general horror, yet you always wanted to see a movie featuring Brad Pitt and a bunch of undead ghouls (but you’ve already seen “Interview With a Vampire” and “Thelma & Louise“), then here you go, this movie was made just for you.

“World War Z” centers on ex-United Nations something or other Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt, Megamind) in Philadelphia, starting another typical day with his family, making breakfast for his wife and two young daughters, so on and so forth, and while sitting in traffic on their way into the city, oh yeah, zombie apocalypse happens. It’s not like it comes completely out of nowhere, as the movie does start with Gerry watching a news broadcast about strange and violent events popping up all around the world, but there was no reason to think that this strange mysterious thing would come to their doorstep so quickly, whatever it was (it was zombies).

So the movie starts with Gerry navigating his family safely during the first hours of a zombie apocalypse, and then hooking up with an old UN buddy who gets him to investigate the source of the outbreak so they could isolate it and find a vaccine. And off Gerry goes, traversing around the world, chasing little clues and rumors, trying to find a way to save the world. Sounds epic, doesn’t it?Continue Reading …

Talking Trailers: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’

What in the what is this? Martin Scorsese seems determined to show that he can still bring the crazy movie making chops in his golden years, and it looks like he wants to show the young whipper snappers where its at. So here comes “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s fifth collabo, and they don’t look like they want to slow down.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘This is the End’

Well if you ever wanted to see a meta horror-comedy set during a biblical apocalypse, have I got a treat for you. “This is the End” is from writer/director duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad) and features a bevy of young actors and comedians playing themselves, and yes it is as weird as it sounds, but does it work?

The movie starts with Seth Rogen picking up Jay Baruchel (Cosmopolis) from the airport so they can spend a weekend hanging out together in Los Angeles, what with them being old Canadian friends and all, but while Jay wants to hang back at Seth’s place and just shoot the shit with his buddy, Seth wants to go to a house warming party thrown by James Franco (Oz The Great and Powerful, Pineapple Express). Jay gives in and they head over to a wild party at Franco’s, which really gets crazy when some insane shit starts going down, resulting in massive amounts of deaths, fires, brimstone and other just wild shit.

None of said wild insane and wild shit will be disclosed here because you might as well just see this thing for yourself. Suffice to say, the cast gets whittled down to Seth, Jay and Franco along with Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street), Danny McBride (Pineapple Express) and Craig Robinson (Pineapple Express), and really the story is all about how Seth and Jay have grown apart and need to man up and confront this issue between them lest their friendship die. And what better time to question one’s friendship with a dude than during the apocalypse?Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Man of Steel’

In what now appears to be something of a “love it or hate it” scenario, the first Superman movie in seven years has arrived to much buzz and fanfare, and it has divided the critics right down the middle, while delighting the majority of audiences who have seen it so far. It’s an origin story all over again, the same one we’ve known since the Big Blue Boy Scout debuted in 1938, an origin that was pulled from the same old messianic stories that have been told for centuries and centuries, just with different twists and spins and new flavors. So how was the spin on this one? How does “Man of Steel” separate itself from not only other Superman movies, but from comic book movies and origin stories in general?Continue Reading …

BONUS Netflix Pick for 6/17/13 – ‘Upstream Color’

While this move of having a bonus Netflix Pick of the Week is highly irregular, I simply could not wait for the Netflix Instant Randomizer 9000 to spit out this title any time soon (for more information on the Randomizer 9000, please listen to any episode of Cinema Crespodiso). So here is a bonus pick, “Upstream Color,” a movie that will become a favorite of film lovers and aficionados everywhere, and will also leave many normal film watchers quite frustrated in its wake. So which one are you?

You will not a get synopsis here. Instead, I will tell you just to watch “Upstream Color,” and let the story unfold and wash over you, and don’t start freaking out when you realize you have no idea what the hell is happening within five minutes of the movie starting. Just watch it. Enjoy it. Absorb it. Some things will become clear. Some will not. But in the end, after one viewing, you will know you’ve seen something special.

And do not be afraid to re-watch this movie, dig even deeper into it, talk to other people who have seen it and try to parse out the details, do whatever you need to do to understand it more, because in the end, when this thing does snap into place for you and you start to see the bigger picture after assembling enough puzzle pieces together, you’ll find this to be one of the most rewarding cinematic experiences you can have this year.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/17/13 – ‘Pi’

Not the “Life of Pi,” but just “Pi” itself, this is Darren Aronofsky’s first movie, and boy is it a doozy of a debut. Equal parts student art film, surrealist horror and character drama, “Pi” is a movie about a mathematician seeking a numerical answer to the equation that is existence, and this doth drive him just a little mad.

Despite being Aronofsky’s first film, “Pi” has several Aronofsky hallmarks, including gimmicky photography, a protagonist succumbing to his obsessions, a Clint Mansell composed soundtrack, and of course, Mark Margolis in a small yet important supporting role. This is thriller without any real chase scenes or guns or any typical stuff like that – instead it is a thriller about a man who continues further and further down the rabbit hole, coming across possible mathematical discoveries that would be likely to drive even the average person over the brink of sanity and into the chasm of insanity, let alone our already somewhat damaged and introverted “hero” of the movie.Continue Reading …

#23 – Superman’s Underwear

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In episode 23, Chris and Drew review Man of Steel and This Is The End during the box office recap, they talk about the Netflix Instant Pick of the Week Pi, with a bonus pick in the form of Upstream Color, and they talk about sequels to Top Gun, Terminator and Amazing Spider-Man.

They also talk about:

Remakes/Sequels they would actually like to see get made.

TV actor duos making appearances in the same movie.

Holograms and bringing back dead actors for new movies.

Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/11/13 – ‘Windfall’

“Windfall” is a documentary about what happened to a small town after the locals, hurting for money, decided to sign the dotted line to the big red devil that is know as Big Wind. Man, that doesn’t have the same ring as Big Bank or Big Brother. But apparently no matter the cause, there are always ways to perverse the system, leaving victims in a wake of side effects, health defects and other undisclosed negative possible outcomes of doing business the hard way.Continue Reading …

#22 – The Ouroboros of Creativity

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In this episode, Chris and Drew are joined by music video director and industry veteran Carl Verna the Video Burner, and they talk about how Carl got into the industry and his love of movies and making visual art, they talk about Acme Filmbox, Chris and Drew review The Purge, the Netflix Instant Pick of the Week leads into a little discussion about documentaries on Netflix, and Carl gets caught up in a round of Drewster Cogburn Versus the World, as well as his own Lightning Round, so check out the show and share the madness with your friends!

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Review: ‘After Earth’

“After Earth” is currently being shit on by critics and audiences alike, and I have to wonder why everyone is choosing to not give this little sci-fi movie a chance. Because really there is absolutely nothing that is woeful or so terrible about this movie that it deserves any vitriol. Really, the worst response I can foresee for this movie would be that it is forgettable and will be barely a memory in ten years, but this has nothing to do with the craftsmanship displayed and more to do with the very small story that seems to be the opposite of the large-scaled adventure that was promised by all the marketing and commercials.

“After Earth” takes places 1,000 years after humans have left Earth for a more hospital home, and constant war with an alien race has forced them to establish troops of Rangers, trained soldiers who are supposed to do battle with these aliens. But none of this really, truly matters, because it only exists to set up the real story, which is that of a stranded father and son trying to get back home. While on a mission to a different planet, a spaceship crash lands on Earth, which is now full of incredibly hostile indigenous lifeforms, and the only survivors of this crashed ship are Commander Cypher (Will Smith) and his non-ranger son Kitai (Jaden Smith). Oh and some mean ole alien thing called an Ursa that the humans were transporting for training purposes, and which is now loose on the hostile planet along with Cypher and Kitai. As Cypher’s legs are both badly broken due to the crash, he has no choice but to send his cadet son on a dangerous 100-km trek to find an emergency beacon so they can signal for help. And really that’s the whole movie right there, Kitai leaves his injured father behind to find the beacon or else they are both going to die. And that’s it.Continue Reading …