Netflix pick for 4/6/15 – ‘Three Kings’

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From the director of “The Fighter” and “Silver Linings Playbook” and starring legit movie stars and box office draws George Clooney and Mark Walhberg (as well as the cottage industry unto himself known as Ice Cube), it is kind of amazing to look back and see how Warner Brothers doubted this movie and barely had the nerve to fund it and see it through. But then again, back in 1999, director David O. Russell was a nobody auteur and he was making a movie with a guy who played a doctor on television and a rapper turned underwear model. It is kind of easy to put yourself in that mindset and see how “Three Kings” could have very well been a complete disaster.

And yet, it is not. Instead “Three Kings” is the movie that really launched Clooney’s movie career, helped legitimize Wahlberg, and gave Russell the experience he needed to build upon in order to become the award winning filmmaker he is today. A heist movie set during the first Gulf War, “Three Kings” starts out as a fun romp of a war movie and then gets surprisingly deep and even more interesting as the movie progresses and it becomes less about the heist and more about what it takes for a person to “do the right thing,” so to speak. Funny, unique, well directed and with an energy all its own, this is a pretty great movie, another fine cinematic entry from the rather amazing year that was 1999, and one that is standing the test of time as we get closer and closer to the twenty year anniversary of this flick being made.Continue Reading …

#117 – Surrounded By Evil, Low On Gas

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In episode 117, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by Chico from Answer Pants (www.RampantRadio.com).

They review Furious 7. t

There’s a new Netflix Pick of the Week, Billy D’s Death at the Movies, and more.

Discussed in this episode:

Deadpool will be rated R.

Groundhog Day the Musical.

1960s Batman Animated Movie.

Batman v Superman trailer rumors.

Eastwood and DiCaprio team up again.

Maybe three more Mad Max movies?Continue Reading …

Summer Movie Guide 2015

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With “Furious 7” set to come out and smash records this weekend, we the movie going public have witnessed over the years how the “Summer movie season” has steadily crept closer and closer to the beginning of the year, starting earlier each time out.

This will be no more apparent than when “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice” (what a horrible title) opens in March of next year. But for now, we are sticking with the traditional definition of the Summer movies, which means the first big movie of the season will open, like they do every year, in the first weekend of May.

And that is where we will begin our preview.Continue Reading …

Spoiler Bonus Episode – It Follows

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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn talk about the movie IT FOLLOWS and do so in depth, with all the deets and spoilers.

So beware of SPOILERS because this is a SPOILER bonus episode full of SPOILERS.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Wild Tales’

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“Wild Tales” is a fun, crazy, over the top movie about six separate scenarios, short stories involving different characters, none of them related to each other at all save for the fact that each story involves some sort of revenge, usually stemming from very innocuous and seemingly simple actions, all of them building to insane crescendos of some sort of violence.

To go into details about each short story and to give away what happens in each one would do a disservice to you, so there will be a lack of deets here. Suffice to say, these stories involve a strange coincidence on an airplane, a mobster getting dinner at a deserted diner, a bit of road rage, undeserved parking tickets, a family cover-up, and lastly, a wedding party gone horribly wrong. In each story, seemingly normal well-adjusted people are pushed to the edge of civility (sometimes they are shoved, and sometimes it just takes a tiny little nudge), and that thin line that separate people from wild animals often gets blurred, if not outright erased. This is evident with the opening credits, as actors names are shown over images of wild animals, like lambs and foxes – sure we drive cars and exchange pleasantries and observe man-made laws, but in the end, we are all just as wild and unpredictable as any animal in nature.Continue Reading …

Netflix Pick for 3/30/15 – ‘The Master’

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From the director of modern classics “Boogie Nights” and “There Will Be Blood” is this movie about a Scientology-like “religion” and its most charismatic leader, a man whom many people love to follow and go to for solace and succor, a man who can be referred to by the film’s title, “The Master.”

Played by Philip Seymour Hoffman brilliantly, this would be 100% his movie if it wasn’t for the fact that Joaquin Phoenix plays one of the most mesmerizing, interesting and unhinged characters ever in a movie, a fella who needs as much as help as he can get, and even then that likely won’t be enough.

From my original review of “The Master,” written only after I had a second chance to see this dense film:

Maybe it was just the second viewing being of much service, but the scenes are strange at first and seem odd and out of place at times, but there is a definitely a larger picture that is being tended to and formed and developed and when you step back and take a look at the movie as a whole, the character arcs and motivations and stories come into focus and make more sense. It really is quite brilliant, considering how non-conventional the story seems initially, but turns out to actually be pretty straightforward. Anderson takes some pretty big jumps in time, cause really we don’t know how much time passes between events, and really sometimes it seems like quite a bit of time has passed. It’s like a Rorschach, you step back, you squint your eyes, and you see what you see, and while it might seem like a bunch of disparate and disjointed images and scenes, it really makes for a complete picture if you just know how to look at it.

Continue Reading …

#116 – Not Braised Peaches, Poached Pears

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In episode 116 (not 115, as Chris kept saying), Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review It Follows and Wild Tales, and special guest Anthony “The Black Hasselhoff” Davis from FoGetDatYo Radio reviews Insurgent.

Also discussed in this episode:

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine one last time.

A Key & Peele “Substitute Teacher” movie.

How did Furious 7 get made after Paul Walker died? a

A Transformers cinematic universe.

The Magnificent Seven remake. p

Plus much more!Continue Reading …

Review: ‘It Follows’

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A film that focuses on atmosphere and sustaining a sense of pure dread, “It Follows” is the most interesting and well made horror movie since 2012’s “Cabin in the Woods.” Imagine knowing that you are always being stalked by an unknown, unnamed thing, something horrible that brings only doom with it, and you keep running but it always catches up eventually, always there, ready to get you, and no matter how long you prolong it, you know that it will get you eventually. That is “It Follows.”

Jay (Maika Monroe, “The Guest“) meets Hugh (Jake Weary) and after a few dates, they have sex. This kind of thing happens. But what happens immediately after this? Not so common. Very shortly after the sex, Hugh informs Jay that there is some sort of thing out there, a supernatural entity that can take the shape of any person, and it will start coming after Jay, slowly yet steadily walking towards her at all times. She can even get in her car and drive far away from it, but it will eventually show up again, stalking her wherever she goes and if it ever catches her, it will kill her in some absolutely horrific way. This happened as a direct result of her sexual encounter with Hugh, who “passed it on” to her, and he instructs her to sleep with someone else to pass it on, hoping that this thing keeps going right down the line.Continue Reading …

Book-to-film adaptations 10 – ‘Drive’

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“Drive” (2005) by James Sallis is a lean L.A.-based crime novel about a young, rudderless man with exceptional talents who accidentally gets himself involved with the local mafia and must resort to violent means in order to save himself. Told with a sure vision, emphasizing character and location, and combining a knack for brevity with a monstrous vision of a person pushed too far and reacting in kind, this is a pretty great little book that anyone appreciating such genre treats will enjoy.

“Drive,”(2011)  written by Hossein Amini and directed by Nicholas Winding Refn, is a lean L.A.-based crime film about a young, rudderless man with exceptional talents who accidentally gets himself involved with the local mafia and must resort to violent means in order to save himself. Told with a sure vision, emphasizing character and location, and combining a knack for brevity with a monstrous vision of a person pushed too far and reacting in kind, this is a pretty great little movie that anyone appreciating such genre treats will enjoy.Continue Reading …