Review: ‘The Neon Demon’

The Neon Demon poster“The Neon Demon” is the latest fetishistic ode from Nicholas Winding Refn to the violent and off kilter exploitation films of the 1970’s. His movies like “Only God Forgives” and “Drive” and “Valhalla Rising” center on a violent, malevolent entity roaming through life and dispatching others in increasingly intense and terrible ways, and this violent entity has morphed into something altogether different, into a terrible malaise and overriding sense of danger, definitively draped over the entirety of “The Neon Demon,” as we enter a surreal world of modeling that takes more from Dario Argento’s “Suspiria” than it does any Victoria Secret catalog or runway fashion show. What if David Cronenberg and David Lynch teamed up to make “Zoolander?” That’s the direction we’re going with in “The Neon Demon,” equal parts gorgeous and grotesque, a nightmarish descent into the seedy underbelly of models and haute fashion.

And while being beautiful and striking to look at and definitely unique when compared to the rest of the movies out there for consumption right now, I do wish that “The Neon Demon” was better because while I liked it, I did not love it like I wanted to, and that’s because while it is beautiful it is also pretty vapid. Now, is that itself a remark on the fashion industry? Is this a snide critique of models and their chosen profession? More than likely it is a coincidence that a movie involving fashion is almost entirely artifice but it fits the subject matter nonetheless. And a movie does not have to be profound or “deep” to be good or entertaining, but if it is going to be shallow, than it better move briskly and efficiently, and unfortunately “The Neon Demon” does take a little while to get to the real craziness and once that’s done, the movie has about three different places it could have ended but decides to do one more scene. And then one more. And then one more. The overall film could have been tightened in editing, that’s for sure. Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The Shallows’

TheShallows_MoviePoster“The Shallows” is a surprisingly good killer shark thriller, a straightforward story of survival against all odds, a classic mankind versus nature tale, well shot and well acted by the one actor tasked with carrying a huge chunk of this movie on her own. It gets tense and exciting and even a little scary here and there and at just under 90 minutes long, this is the kind of movie that gets started quick, hits the gas pedal the whole way and slams headlong into a pretty spectacular ending.

Outside of “Jaws,” the killer shark movie bar has been set VERY low and “The Shallows” does a good job of elevating this bar much higher, eschewing the goofiness and campiness of the much more baffingly popular killer shark movies out there and going for more of a naturalistic approach, allowing the intensity of the situation and the bleakness of our main character’s odds to be the prevailing characteristics of this story.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’

IndependenceDayResurgence_MoviePoster“Independence Day: Resurgence” is a sequel to the biggest hit of 1996, and Roland Emmerich and (most of the) crew from that original aliens versus humans blockbuster went with the good old mantra of “bigger means better,” which means everything is bigger in this movie. The ships, the aliens, the threat, all of it, which makes sense because Emmerich spent the intervening two decades destroying the planet in bigger (though not necessarily better) ways over and over, and here he takes all of those huge and ludicrous scenes and ideas that defy nature and physics and he pushes the throttle forward and adds those aliens and boom, yet another nostalgia fueled blast to the past, another return to a beloved 1990’s movie, another couple of hours with both familiar icons from another movie and some fresh young faces of today, all encompassed by more CGI than you could shake a selfie-stick at.

But was it worth it?

Nope.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/20/16 – ‘The Fury’

furyAs heard in episode 180 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“The Fury” is a 1978 Brian De Palma supernatural thriller about young people with telekinetic powers, the shadowy people who want to turn them into weapons, and the father of one of these young people desperately trying to get his son back. Featuring a great Kirk Douglas performance as the father looking for his son, a wonderful John Williams soundtrack, and way more fake blood than initially expected, this movie is perfect 1970’s De Palma, in that it is, in its own special way, kind of an insane movie.

If you’ve seen any De Palma before, like “Scarface” or “Dressed to Kill” or even his more recent stuff like “Mission: Impossible” and “Femme Fatale,” than you know he has a knack for showing elaborate sequences, often presented in slow motion, usually ending in something crazy like someone’s death, and “The Fury” does not disappoint in this regard. There are a few excellent sequences like this, and some pretty wild special effects that involve things like people bleeding from multiple orifices and even one body exploded from the inside out, as this movie approaches “Carrie” levels of bloody violence.

It is not all psychic horrors, however, as Kirk Douglas gets to do some joking around here and there, especially when he finds himself on the run from government operatives tracking him down and he ends up taking a couple of Chicago police officers hostage to get away and one of them turns out to be Dennis Franz in his very first movie role and his character is very concerned about his brand new car that he is taking for a spin and it is a really well done sequence and a lot of fun and a highlight of the movie for sure.Continue Reading …

#180 – Circle of Disrespect

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Episode180_CircleOfDisrespectIn episode 180, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn welcome back returning guest Simon Time.

Chris reviews Central Intelligence and Chris and Drew review Finding Dory, and Simon reviews X-Men: Apocalypse, Captain America: Civil War and TMNT 2.

The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is The Fury.

Billy D reviews In the Valley of Violence.

The Crespodisco features a song from the original soundtrack to the 1980’s Stallone action film COBRA.

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Review: ‘Central Intelligence’

CentralIntelligence_MoviePoster“Central Intelligence” is an action comedy that gets by on the great chemistry between leading actors and hopefully new comedy duo Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The movie itself is kind of rote, as most of the action is very generic and not presented particularly well, and the plot used to justify this comedy team up seems very much like an afterthought, as there is a bunch of nonsense about “satellite codes” and some not-so-secret secret auction and some shadowy figure called “the Black Badger” that everyone chases and it really it just feels exactly like the kind of generic spy plot used in these type of action comedies (see: “Spy” and “The Brothers Grimsby” and so on). So as the story has nothing to offer and the action is mostly “meh,” then what does “Central Intelligence” have to offer?

Well first and foremost, Dwayne Johnson is definitely working his ass off in this movie as Bob Stone, a possibly disgraced CIA Agent (super agent really) who is insanely competent in terms of being a spy and is painfully socially stunted thanks to a childhood that consisted mostly of being bullied and an adulthood that consisted mostly of lifting weights and learning how to kill people for the government. When he meets up with the only person in high school who was ever nice to him, his wide eyed enthusiasm and overly sincere accolades are both funny and a little off putting because it is obvious this guy has a screw or two loose, apparently jarred loose by a traumatic childhood that he has never gotten over. This coupled with his abilities as a spy make him a very unpredictable person, and hence, an interesting and fun character to follow. He has real emotional hang ups to get over, all the while trying to do this silly thing with the satellite codes and whatever other hooey they made up to get this plot in motion.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Finding Dory’

FindingDory_PosterAfter an initial viewing, it doesn’t appear that there is anything “wrong” with the newest movie from Pixar and Disney, “Finding Dory,” the sequel to the smash hit “Finding Nemo” that no one was really asking for, and yet here it is, and you know what? It is pretty damn good, which of course we should be expecting from these fine artists, who have now spent decades crafting finely made and expertly tuned feature length movies, many of which seemed ridiculous at the outset, only to end up being deeply moving and effective pieces of art. If this were coming from another studio, it would feel like a cash grab, but since this is from Pixar, it is more of a chance to revisit some beloved characters and introduce new ones and tell a solid story with some familiar pieces and some new pieces.

There are a couple of similarities between “Finding Dory” and its predecessor. In the first movie, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the blue tang fish with short term memory loss, helps the clown fish Marlon (Albert Brooks) find his missing son Nemo. This time around, Marlon and Nemo agree to help Dory find her parents, whom she got separated from at a young age and naturally forget them over time. But she remembers them suddenly and wants to go find them, and it is important to note that this movie isn’t called “Finding Dory’s Parents” because really the story is all about Dory finding out who she is and really gaining a sense of self worth as she uncovers her past, and they manage to get quite an emotional journey out of this set up.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/13/16 – ‘Adult Beginners’

AdultBeginners_Poster“Adult Beginners” is a tight little comedy about adults in their thirties still trying to figure out exactly how to be adults. Still doing things like sneaking off to smoke some weed, balking at basic responsibilities, and generally fumbling around with romantic interests, this is a movie about people who know they have to be the grown ups in the room and kind of hate doing it but go through with it anyway because that’s what they are supposed to do and lo and behold who woulda thunk it this kind of responsible, adult-like behavior can actually lead to a pretty satisfactory outcome. Surprising only in its maturity in how it tackles these themes, while there is little to separate this from similar “adult coming of age” type dramadies, “Adult Beginners” is still a very satisfying watch.

Jake (Nick Kroll) finds himself broke and friendless when his brand new company immediately goes up in flames, taking his and his investors’ money with it. He has to move in with his pregnant sister (Rose Byrne), her husband (Bobby Cannavale) and their 3-year old kid, and in order to make a few extra bucks, he agrees to be a nanny for his sister while he tries to figure out what to do next with his life. What ends up happening is he spends longer than planned living with them, and he gets involved a little in their lives, and of course things gets upset and problems arise, which leads to be funny mix ups and sad developments between characters in almost equal measure.Continue Reading …

#179 – Han Crespo

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Episode179_HanCrespoIn episode 179, Chris Crespo puts on a one man show.

Chris reviews Warcraft and Now You See Me 2.

The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is Adult Beginners.

Billy D reviews a random Brooklyn film festival as well as some random Canadian horror film from 2010.

The Crespodisco features two songs from the Warcraft original soundtrack.

Listener reviews of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Popstar, Warcraft, Anomalisa, and more!

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Review: ‘Warcraft’

Warcraft_poster“Warcraft,” an adaptation of the hugely popular “World of Warcraft” video game series, is a big budget high fantasy movie that doesn’t have too much separating itself from other tales of men versus monsters with some magic thrown in for good measure. You can go through the fantasy movie template and check off the appropriate boxes – a battle versus good and evil, a giant winged beast, a world destroying MacGuffin, two armies charging at each other in an open field, it is all here, done up in a serviceable enough way to be entertaining but not bringing enough to the table to be compelling. Existing in that middle ground where ambivalence resides, the movie is packed with too much in two hours to be boring, but isn’t different or interesting enough to be truly interesting, “Warcraft” is a decent if inconsequential couple of hours.

Worth noting, for some reason this title has been shortened for its release here in the U.S., because in most markets around the world this film is called “Warcraft: The Beginning” and that is much more telling of what to expect from this movie. Because this is 100% a set up for more movies, itself a movie without a real ending, instead just setting up most characters and foreshadowing their futures, to be explored in possible sequels. And in this regard, this particular film is surely successful, as they did present an open ended story which they hope people will be wanting to revisit.Continue Reading …