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BONUS Netflix Pick for 6/17/13 – ‘Upstream Color’

While this move of having a bonus Netflix Pick of the Week is highly irregular, I simply could not wait for the Netflix Instant Randomizer 9000 to spit out this title any time soon (for more information on the Randomizer 9000, please listen to any episode of Cinema Crespodiso). So here is a bonus pick, “Upstream Color,” a movie that will become a favorite of film lovers and aficionados everywhere, and will also leave many normal film watchers quite frustrated in its wake. So which one are you?

You will not a get synopsis here. Instead, I will tell you just to watch “Upstream Color,” and let the story unfold and wash over you, and don’t start freaking out when you realize you have no idea what the hell is happening within five minutes of the movie starting. Just watch it. Enjoy it. Absorb it. Some things will become clear. Some will not. But in the end, after one viewing, you will know you’ve seen something special.

And do not be afraid to re-watch this movie, dig even deeper into it, talk to other people who have seen it and try to parse out the details, do whatever you need to do to understand it more, because in the end, when this thing does snap into place for you and you start to see the bigger picture after assembling enough puzzle pieces together, you’ll find this to be one of the most rewarding cinematic experiences you can have this year.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/17/13 – ‘Pi’

Not the “Life of Pi,” but just “Pi” itself, this is Darren Aronofsky’s first movie, and boy is it a doozy of a debut. Equal parts student art film, surrealist horror and character drama, “Pi” is a movie about a mathematician seeking a numerical answer to the equation that is existence, and this doth drive him just a little mad.

Despite being Aronofsky’s first film, “Pi” has several Aronofsky hallmarks, including gimmicky photography, a protagonist succumbing to his obsessions, a Clint Mansell composed soundtrack, and of course, Mark Margolis in a small yet important supporting role. This is thriller without any real chase scenes or guns or any typical stuff like that – instead it is a thriller about a man who continues further and further down the rabbit hole, coming across possible mathematical discoveries that would be likely to drive even the average person over the brink of sanity and into the chasm of insanity, let alone our already somewhat damaged and introverted “hero” of the movie.Continue Reading …

#23 – Superman’s Underwear

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In episode 23, Chris and Drew review Man of Steel and This Is The End during the box office recap, they talk about the Netflix Instant Pick of the Week Pi, with a bonus pick in the form of Upstream Color, and they talk about sequels to Top Gun, Terminator and Amazing Spider-Man.

They also talk about:

Remakes/Sequels they would actually like to see get made.

TV actor duos making appearances in the same movie.

Holograms and bringing back dead actors for new movies.

Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/11/13 – ‘Windfall’

“Windfall” is a documentary about what happened to a small town after the locals, hurting for money, decided to sign the dotted line to the big red devil that is know as Big Wind. Man, that doesn’t have the same ring as Big Bank or Big Brother. But apparently no matter the cause, there are always ways to perverse the system, leaving victims in a wake of side effects, health defects and other undisclosed negative possible outcomes of doing business the hard way.Continue Reading …

#22 – The Ouroboros of Creativity

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In this episode, Chris and Drew are joined by music video director and industry veteran Carl Verna the Video Burner, and they talk about how Carl got into the industry and his love of movies and making visual art, they talk about Acme Filmbox, Chris and Drew review The Purge, the Netflix Instant Pick of the Week leads into a little discussion about documentaries on Netflix, and Carl gets caught up in a round of Drewster Cogburn Versus the World, as well as his own Lightning Round, so check out the show and share the madness with your friends!

Dig it!

Review: ‘After Earth’

“After Earth” is currently being shit on by critics and audiences alike, and I have to wonder why everyone is choosing to not give this little sci-fi movie a chance. Because really there is absolutely nothing that is woeful or so terrible about this movie that it deserves any vitriol. Really, the worst response I can foresee for this movie would be that it is forgettable and will be barely a memory in ten years, but this has nothing to do with the craftsmanship displayed and more to do with the very small story that seems to be the opposite of the large-scaled adventure that was promised by all the marketing and commercials.

“After Earth” takes places 1,000 years after humans have left Earth for a more hospital home, and constant war with an alien race has forced them to establish troops of Rangers, trained soldiers who are supposed to do battle with these aliens. But none of this really, truly matters, because it only exists to set up the real story, which is that of a stranded father and son trying to get back home. While on a mission to a different planet, a spaceship crash lands on Earth, which is now full of incredibly hostile indigenous lifeforms, and the only survivors of this crashed ship are Commander Cypher (Will Smith) and his non-ranger son Kitai (Jaden Smith). Oh and some mean ole alien thing called an Ursa that the humans were transporting for training purposes, and which is now loose on the hostile planet along with Cypher and Kitai. As Cypher’s legs are both badly broken due to the crash, he has no choice but to send his cadet son on a dangerous 100-km trek to find an emergency beacon so they can signal for help. And really that’s the whole movie right there, Kitai leaves his injured father behind to find the beacon or else they are both going to die. And that’s it.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/3/13 – ‘Over The Top’

Okay, listen…”Over the Top” is not what one would necessarily call a “good” movie, but it’s a guilty pleasure so for once please indulge me on this one, okay? Sylvester Stallone plays a truck driver with aspirations to be a world champion arm wrestler who owns his own trucking company. I mean, how can you go wrong?

Stallone plays Lincoln Hawk (come on! Look at that name!), the aforementioned trucker who also tries to reconnect with his young estranged son Michael (David Mendenhall, God Bless America), all the while getting resistance from his rich and dick-ish father-in-law (Robert Loggia, Magnum, P.I.), and he forces his son to take a road trip to see his dying mother, with hee-larious consequences! And really, this movie is all about the awesome arm-wrestling tournament at the end, which director Menahem Golan presents in all its 80s glory and gusto.

Oh, and about that name, this is the type of movie in which no one could get his name straight and he would be referred to as both “Hawk” and “Hawks,” and he responds to both, so it doesn’t matter I guess. This movie is a classic, I tell ya.Continue Reading …

#21 – Double Suspension of Disbelief

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In episode 21, Chris and Drew review Now You See Me and After Earth, Drew reviews Magic Mike and they both talk about the density that is Upstream Color. They also do a new Netflix Instant Pick of the Week, Drewster Cogburn vs the World, Chris recaps the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and they talk about the three sequels that Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to make. So check out the Crespomadness and enjoy!

Review: ‘Furious 6’

Following the over the top ridiculousness of “Fast Five,” the fifth installment in the increasingly popular “The Fast and the Furious” series, comes an action spectacle that veers on the edges of satire, loaded with plot holes and logic leaps and bits of human action that defy all known laws of physics, and proving that rampant disregard for human life is a hot commodity at the box office. “Furious 6” is here, and it is going to get in your face with all of its action and stupidity and you it dares you to not enjoy any of it.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 5/27/13 – ‘Side By Side’

“Side By Side” is an interesting documentary produced by Keanu Reeves that explores the evolution of digital photography and compares it to the ole reliable stalwart of excellence that is 35 mm film, and just like the title implies, they go through a side by side comparison of the two technologies, along the way interviewing a who’s who of Hollywood filmmakers to get their input from their hands on experiences with both techs.

Keanu actually makes for a good host and guide through this world, as he has access to so many different people who can give him some great insight, and since this is a movie, the many examples they use of film work and digital video work gets very interesting as the movie progresses and digital video starts catching up.Continue Reading …