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Review: ‘Hercules’

Well if “Hercules” gets anything right, it is having the one and only Dwayne Johnson playing the role, as he has the physicality and imposing stature required to be a conceivable half-human, half-god bad ass warrior mountain of a man, and thanks to that innate physical capability he possesses coupled with his unending charisma, “Hercules” mostly works as an entertaining piece of fantasy action. If there is anything wrong with this movie, Dwayne Johnson is not among them. And I am not just saying that because I fear this large man will read this and might possibly squish me into nothingness.

Because yes, there are some things wrong with “Hercules,” and we might as well start with the marketing versus what we go, as the movie was sold as a big fantasy movie involving Hercules battling all sorts of beasts and monsters, but the movie features all of these encounters during the opening of the movie, and in actuality, we don’t get any action involving any beasts, there is actually very little that is fantastical about this movie, it is all a great big trick, and we have all been had. This is not Dwayne Johnson as the son of Zeus battling great beasts, but instead Dwayne Johnson as a guy who is just a mercenary and who leads a small group of random people from job to job. And that is kind of lame.Continue Reading …

#81 – Gathering of the Nerds

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In episode 81, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review A Most Wanted Man, Lucy and Hercules, and they are letdown by each one in different ways.

Chris recaps some of the bigger news stories coming out of this year’s San Diego Comic Con, there is a new Netflix Pick of the Week, Drewster Cogburn needs to come up with a segment for the show, and Chris asks the listeners to tweet and facebook “Listening to #CinemaCrespodiso.”

Plus much more, so enjoy the show!

Review: ‘Lucy’

There has been this idea floating around for a long time that we humans only use 10% of our brain’s power and capacity, effectively leaving so much potential and power untouched and unused, and of course it plays right into our own innate desire to see ourselves as the top of the food chain, the masters of the universe, the end all, be all of creation and/or evolution. Not only are we the best things to happen to this world, but we have so much more power to obtain, so much more to do, we can (and will!) be even better because goddammit we are humans and we have earned the right to rule all, even only utilizing a fraction of our brain.

Too bad it has been pretty thoroughly disproven that this particular idea of “brain capacity” and 10% usage is false and misinformed and just wrong.Continue Reading …

Crespodiso Film School – Martin Scorsese

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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo starts the Crespodiso Film School, and the first subject is Martin Scorsese. Along with Drewster Cogburn, they go through Scorsese’s full filmography and discuss all his movies, plus some added trivia and factoids about the man himself.

Enjoy!

Review: ‘The Purge: Anarchy’

“The Purge” was a 2013 horror movie, in which it was posited that America would have extremely low unemployment levels and crime rates if all crime was legal one night of the year. Somehow if people were allowed to do anything they wanted, including murder, for 12 hours out of 365 days, then they would be totally chill the rest of the year, due to the release of their aggression. This is a bunch of bullshit, because one does not follow the other. Aggressive people are aggressive people year round, and people with criminal tendencies can’t just sit on them for the other 8,748 hours of the year. So the premise of that movie was BS and then the movie itself didn’t do anything with this premise and instead was just a run of the mill home invasion film (albeit one with Ethan Hawke totally giving it his all and classing up the joint). So in summation, “The Purge” was bullshit through and through.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 7/21/14 – ‘Night of the Living Dead’

This zombie craze had to start somewhere. And it can be traced, cinematically speaking, to George Romero’s 1968 classic “Night of the Living Dead,” the very first movie to portray zombies as flesh-consuming reanimated corpses who can only be taken down by head shots and destroying their brains. Inspired by Richard Metheson’s vampire classic “I Am Legend” (itself made into THREE movies), Romero literally wrote the rules of the zombie genre, and with minor variations here and there, these rules have remained firmly intact, to the point of becoming cultural canon. Now that is a cultural feat to behold.Continue Reading …

#80 – Pedro Was Here

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In episode 80, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by three-time guest stand up comedian Pedro Lima (host of Let’s Do 30, at RicanGorilla.com).

Chris and Drew review The Purge: Anarchy and Pedro gives his review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

They also talk about the zombie movies, cannibalism in entertainment, Disney making Pixar knock offs, Angelina Jolie as a director, is Christopher Lambert the worst actor ever, has Pedro seen The Room, why are they making a prequel to The Shining and Harry Potter as a demon detective.

There is a new Netflix Instant Pick of the Week, Pedro does a Lightning Round and Chris almost (ALMOST) forgets to give Pedro his swag bag!

All this and more in this show, so enjoy!

Review: ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’

Look this one is pretty obvious thematically speaking, amiright? We can all agree on this much. As a continuing allegory for the age old inability of the human race to work together in peace and harmony and without hurting each other, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” hits all the most obvious albeit important notes over and over, those about the importance of family and the duality of man and the conundrum of how our survival instinct can lead to our own downfall. In the most simplest of terms, after everything is left in shambles and on fire and smoldering with the specter of violence of death draped over the world, the most important question is asked: Can’t we all just get along?

“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is not an excellent movie because of the top notch and often stunning visual effects or because of the well crafted and interesting action scenes but instead it is excellent because of how the movie is properly made from start to finish, with each scene moving the story forward, either via advancing the plot, the themes or the characters, often times simultaneously, and it makes for a fast moving, engaging and interesting summer blockbuster. Entire scenes consist only of computer generated characters, communicating often in soft grunts and sign language, yet thanks to some bold yet beautiful strokes, so much information is given that it allows us to actually get to KNOW these characters, and to understand their wants and needs, and this is a beautiful thing.Continue Reading …

The Crespodisco #10 – Instrumentals

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In this Crespodisco BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn talk about five of their favorite instrumentals, and they cover a lot of ground and ask the important questions, like “why don’t chicks like prog rock?”

So use global communication to tell Orion that Christmas Time (is here) and it is easy to remember that Monday is perfect for Crockett’s Theme whilst being adrift and at peace.

YYZ.

Netflix pick for 7/14/14 – ‘The American’

In “The American,” a European-style slow burn character drama starring George Clooney, a man whose trade always results in death for others is plagued by his life decisions, weighing him down with guilt, leaving him broken inside, wondering if he can even maintain any sort of semblance of what could maybe perhaps at least be mistaken for an actual human connection and relationship. Even if it’s with a hooker.

From Dutch photographer turned music video director turned feature filmmaker Anton Corbijn, this is a small movie in terms of plot mechanics and whatnot, because it involves a lot of meditative scenes of Clooney’s gunsmith character silently pondering his experience, either while drinking coffee or driving through the countryside or making a gun or whatever. Sure there’s a few spurts of action here and there, but that’s not what this movie is about. It is about the style and mood and how both are successfully maintained throughout.Continue Reading …