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Review: ‘Red Army’

“Red Army” is a documentary about the nation-wide hockey program of the USSR of the 1970’s and 1980’s, but of course this movie is about so much more, it is about the people within this system, the ones who ran it, and how it reflected the Soviet system overall as well as the Cold War between the Soviets and the capitalist West.

The focus of the film is Viacheslav Fetisov, which I am sure upsets him a little because as the captain of the USSR national hockey team and a product of dozens of years of Soviet-style teachings starting with him at a very young age, he has totally bought into the socialism, “there is no I in team” mentality, but he does deserve to be singled out among the rest of the team because of his insanely long list of accomplishments and rewards. Starting at 8 or 9 years old, he was entered into the Soviet hockey program, which found and cultivated the best players throughout the entire country and brought them up to eventually play for the National team. And on top of that the government practically made it mandatory for all men to at least attempt to play hockey, seeking to root out the best of the best, and using the sport as an opportunity to prove that their model of governance was the best one.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The Gunman’

Sean Penn is all like, “hey, Liam Neeson can’t be getting ALL the tough old man parts, is he?” but he was also like “If I’m going to do an action movie, it has to be ABOUT something, amiright?” and that is how we have “The Gunman” which is about people’s sins coming back to haunt them and is also kind of about the pilfering of natural resources in Congo and how that was made worse by a civil war and political corruption and whatnot but mostly this is a movie about Sean Penn’s biceps.

Gunman (Penn) is doing some contract security work in Congo in 2006, which is really a cover for him being on some team of assassins, and a job he does forces him to leave the country, leaving behind the woman he apparently loved without giving her an explanation. Eight years later, some guys are trying to kill Gunman and he knows this is somehow connected to the Congo job, so he tries to find out who wants him dead and why, and this brings him back into the life of the woman he left behind. Complications and murders ensue.

Not only is this yet another entry into the tough old guy subgenre of action movies, it is directed by the guy who directed “Taken,” the film that really kick started this current trend of flicks that would have starred Charles Bronson in the 70’s and 80’s. And much like that movie and this fella’s other old man action movie “From Paris With Love” with a bald headed John Travolta, “The Gunman” is a reasonably watchable movie, with good actors slumming it in dumb action movies, although this time around this movie tries not to be so dumb.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘What We Do In The Shadows’

From Kiwi comedians (as well as writers, directors, performers, etc.) Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, “What We Do In The Shadows” is a mockumentary in the same vein as the great Christopher Guest films “Best in Show” and “For Your Consideration,” films that follow around a very specific group of people and explores their weirdness, especially in comparison to the rest of “normal” society. But instead of dog owners or bad actors, this is a movie about centuries-old vampires, who also happen to be flatmates.

“What We Do In The Shadows” centers on Viago, Vladislav (the Poker), Deacon and Petyr, who all share a flat together in Wellington, New Zealand. Most of the movie is them hanging out and building up to the masquerade ball held every year for undead folks like them, zombies and witches (though are witches really undead? Anyway…), but before we get there, it really is more like a slice of life kind of thing, what do these guys do with their time, what are they thinking, how they do coexist, and so on. So we get scenes like the one in which three of the flatmates sit together to go over the rules of the flat again, as one of them has been neglecting their chores, and obviously the humor of this kind of scene comes from the fact that they are having a very basic, standard argument among people who live together, just with the exception that they are vampires, so an argument could devolve into them flying in the air and hissing at each other.Continue Reading …

The Crespodisco #17 – 90’s Rock

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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn talk about five of their favorite songs/artists from the 1990’s rock scene.

Enjoy the show!Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Run All Night’

Are you ready for the conclusion to the exciting Liam Neeson – Jaume Collet-Serra trilogy of action movies? Bet you didn’t even realize such a thing EXISTED, yet here we are, three deep into the sneakiest artistic collaboration since the paranoia duology of 2013 by Jake Gyllenhaal and Denis Villeneuve (okay, that one’s for the film geeks). First Liam and Jaume tackled a case of mistaken identity, then they took on airplane murder, and now finally they bring it home with the story of a hitman turned drunkard trying to keep his adult son from being murdered by the mob. You know…THAT old tale.

In “Run All Night,” Jimmy (Liam Neeson) spends most of his time drunk, a washed up hitman for the mob who can’t battle his demons anymore, he’s thrown in the towel, he is a pathetic wreck of a man who can only quietly take it when everyone from his boss’s son to the local police take the time out of their busy days to verbally run him down. The only friend he has in the world is his buddy Sean (Ed Harris) and the problem with this friendship is that Sean is the guy in charge of this particular mob and he is the reason Jimmy went out and did so much killing, so really Sean is the guy who helped put Jimmy in this bad spot. He must feel guilty about it, which is why when Jimmy agrees to play Santa at the family Christmas party but then got too drunk and acted a fool in front of everyone, instead of getting mad at him Sean had Jimmy cleaned up and gave him a bed and a sandwich and was super nice to him. They even bothered to reminisce about the time they were teenagers and had sex with their girlfriends while in neighboring beds, a little bit of the old nostalgia to make everything feel a little better.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 3/16/15 – ‘Chef’

What do you get when you cross a road movie with a family drama with a comedy about social media with some food porn? You get a wonderful amalgamation of a movie called “Chef,” written and directed by Jon Favreau, and also starring him as well, along with a bunch of other great actors and actresses, some awesome musical choices, and a rather well told little story about a guy trying to get his mojo back, while also reconnecting with his son, while also learning what this whole Twitter thing is all about.

From my original review of “Chef:”

So this movie is not only a foodie movie, with lots of close ups of food and the cooking process, and not only about a man reigniting his passion for what he loves, but it is also a family comedy-drama, a story about a father and son reconnecting after the divorce led to some problems. And then it doesn’t end there, because halfway through this film “Chef” becomes a road movie, as we travel with the characters from Miami to New Orleans to Austin and finally back to Los Angeles, and the characteristics of each town get showcased and used quite well, especially the music and food of each region, and it is really fun to watch this journey and be a part of it. And then there is also the whole social media thing, which was integrated quite well into this movie, because they show how some folks who don’t exactly get what these services do can easily get themselves in some trouble in this new modern age of communication. Also they smartly show that the 10-year old kid knows WAY more about social media and how to use it then the older guys who may be a little behind the times. Smart stuff.

#114 – Totally Skipical

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In episode 114, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review What We Do In The Shadows and Run All Night.

Billy D. tells us to watch Dust Devil, and we have a listener submitted game for Drewster Cogburn vs The World.

Also discussed:

Popeye is dead.

Suicide Squad intrigues Chris.

Fantastic Four 2 gets out of Star Wars’ way.

Disney bans smoking.

The Mike Tyson biopic. p

Plus much more!Continue Reading …

Netflix Pick for 3/9/15 – ‘All Is Lost’

Want to see an old man get battered by waves and storms and attempt to survive a very long stranding at sea? Does it make a difference if that old man is Robert Redford? Cause it should. And “All Is Lost” is 106 minutes of just that, Robert Redford, by himself on a broken boat, trying to survive.

And it is pretty damn great. It is a really compelling movie, thanks in part because of how Redford is just so watchable, but also because of how the story unfolds, in the way the stakes keep raising and the danger gets closer and closer, all the way with only one character and one who doesn’t even bother talking to an inanimate object at any point, he just belts out a couple of f-bombs at one point of extreme frustration and hopelessness and other than that, steely eyed, stoic Redford.Continue Reading …