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Netflix pick for 5/30/16 – ‘The Right Stuff’

As heard in episode 177 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“The Right Stuff” is an epic adaptation of the novel of the same name, which detailed the beginning of the US Government space program and how it all really started with military test pilots trying to beat the demon in the sky by being the first to break the sound barrier, and how these are the same men ready, willing and able to be the first person to be strapped to a rocket and launched into outer space. This movie is over three hours long because it needs every minute of it, providing both great character profiles of the men involved in this program and also showing how the space program evolved and what everyone went through to make it happen. It is a crazy story populated with interesting people and this movie nails all of it and turns that novel into a sprawling and impressive piece of epic entertainment.Continue Reading …

#177 – Grave Dancing Drew

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In episode 177, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review X-Men: Apocalypse and A Bigger Splash.

The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is The Right Stuff.

Dr. Drew gives his two cents on amateur hour during the holiday weekend.

Billy D gives us his top 4 of 2016 (so far).

The Crespodisco features two songs from the original motion picture soundtrack for X-Men: Apocalypse.

Spoiler Bonus Episode – ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review X-Men: Apocalypse and they have a spoiler filled discussion in which they talk about the whole plot of the movie and everything that happens.

This means beware of spoilers because this episode is full of them, so if you want to know who lives and who dies and who cameos and who does not, this is the episode for you.

If you want to wait to see the movie first and then come back and listen to this later, that is totally cool. Do what you gotta do.

Review: ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

“X-Men: Apocalypse” is the end of the second trilogy of X-Men centric movies, so if you are not onboard this particular train by now, this is not the movie to try to jump on, lest you don’t mind watching movies in which most of the character development has already been done in prior installments and references are constantly made to previously told stories. This is a culmination of serialized storytelling, and if you haven’t seen any other X-Men movie but watch this one for some reason, that is like just watching the season finale of the second season of a television show you’ve never seen. Sure lots of stuff happens, and it seems exciting, but does it mean anything without the years of build up?

The weird thing is that this movie is actually doing two things – it both ends this trilogy of movies (started with “X-Men: First Class” in 2011 and followed by “X-Men: Days of Future Past” in 2014), and also introduces new, younger versions of characters who will be the focus of the next X-Men movies. So certain characters (or at least certain actors playing these characters) are having their last hurrah while others are fresh faces and get to do just enough to set them up for whatever comes after this. And rest assured, there will be more of these, because why would 20th Century Fox ever stop making them? It is the only comic book franchise they do even close to right and which makes them any money (just look at how well they did with Fantastic Four and Daredevil). So get ready for high school Cyclops and Game of Thrones Jean Grey and twenty year old Nightcrawler and so on and so forth.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 5/23/16 – ‘Welcome to Leith’

As heard in episode 176 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“Welcome to Leith” is a documentary about an asshole who tried to buy up enough land in a tiny North Dakota town in order to turn it into a white supremacist safe haven, with himself positioned as their leader. And here’s the M. Night Shyamalan like twist – this isn’t an old untold story from the 1800’s about some old ex-slave owner or something like that, this whole thing happened in 2012, just a few scant years ago.

And now here in this foul year of our Lord 2016, thanks to a certain political and cultural climate in the air we have a whole bevy of openly hateful racists and bigots who have become emboldened to share their retrograde, backwater and completely destructive worldviews with anyone who will care to listen, making documentaries like this all that more important because we, as an evolving species, have ignored these kinds of people and allowed them to wallow in their ignorance for long enough, and we need something like to at least open peoples’ eyes and show them that “post-racial America” is just as bad if not worse than the America that has come before it. Continue Reading …

#176 – Wolfy Jesse

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In episode 176, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by first time guest Jesse Wolfe, founder of O’Dang Hummus (www.odanghummus.com).

Chris, Drew and Jesse review Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and Chris and Drew review The Nice Guys.

The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is Welcome to Leith.

Dr. Drew gives his two cents on people driving their cars.

Billy D reviews They’re Watching.

The Crespodisco features a song from the Cliff Martinez soundtrack for The Neon Demon.

Review: ‘The Nice Guys’

“The Nice Guys” is a return to the modernized film noir private detective template that writer and director Shane Black previously played with in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” and like that movie, here we have a pair of men who don’t exactly get along but find themselves having to work together to unravel a conspiracy that have unwittingly stumbled upon, with wise cracks and dead bodies peppered in their wake. That is to say, for the most part. this movie is a good time.

For the most part because “The Nice Guys” isn’t afraid to get dark or a little real here and there, as both characters deal with alcohol addiction the whole time, with one abstaining and the other indulging, and this takes them down some dark paths, especially when it comes to how it affects the lives of those close to them. Also there’s some murdering, and sometimes it is played for laughs, and other times characters openly talk about how stuff like this makes them bad people, and they don’t want to be bad people, but sadly that might be the case no matter how hard they try. They want to be nice guys, but one is drunk and will take your money and the other is violent and fond of his brass knuckles.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Money Monster’

“Money Monster” is a kind of confusing movie, though not in the way one would think initially. The plot itself is quite easy to understand and there are no major twists or turns that take any effort to understand; no, in this instance, the confusion comes from the movie’s weird vacillation between broad satirical comedy and dark, edge of your seat thriller. If there could have been a better blending together of these two styles, it could have made for a nice scathing satire, but instead it seems like they just settled for fast paced thriller featuring George Clooney occasionally doing silly dances whilst wearing goofy accessories.

Lee Gates (Clooney) is a TV show host on a cable news network, like a CNBC or FOX Business type, where he talks about the stock market and gives people advice on how to invest their money, all while smacking a big red button that cues up all sorts of dumb videos that emphasize whatever he is yelling at the camera. Sometimes some girls come out and dance with him. Subtlety and nuance are most certainly not the order of the day when it comes to this portrayal of this kind of Mad Money with Jim Cramer style of show. The day after a “glitch” in some algorithm used by an investment firm lost $800 million of their customers’ money, Lee is taken hostage on his live show by a young guy named Kyle (Jack O’Connell), who lost his meager life savings in this company’s crash and only had his money invested in them because Lee suggested it on his show a few weeks prior. So who is to blame for Kyle losing all his money?Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 5/16/16 – ‘Best in Show’

As heard in episode 175 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“Best in Show” is a Christopher Guest mockumentary about a number of different dog owners and their shared dream to have their dog named “best in show” at the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. But just because this is a “mockumentary” doesn’t mean the movie mocks these people; all the different dog owners have their own little quirks and stories and these things are meant to be comedic, but the movie never looks down on them or belittles them. There is a fine line between portraying these kinds of behaviors in a comedic way or a mean spirited way, and Christopher Guest has always shown the class and restraint to embrace his dopey characters and love them.

And that is key because in watching “Best in Show,” there is a quality of “lovable losers” so to speak, they have dreams and goals and hobbies and they may seem silly but they are sincere about them, and it makes for a very fun and watchable (and rewatchable) movie because the characters are fun to be around and watch react and evolve.Continue Reading …