FEATURED - Cinema Crespodiso

#188 – Rational Satanism

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In episode 188, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by first time guest and friend of the show Gabe (www.twitter.com/RageAgainstTwit).

Chris, Drew and Gabe review Sausage Party and Pete’s Dragon.

The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is The Princess Bride.

Dr. Drew gives his two cents on seeing Sausage Party.

Billy D reviews The Night Of on HBO.

The Crespodisco features a song from the Pete’s Dragon soundtrack and one from the Sausage Party soundtrack.Continue Reading …

“Sausage Party” is the story of how a fella named Frank goes on a journey of discovery, as he always “knew” one truth about The Great Beyond but then suddenly was presented with evidence that showed him something else, something that propelled him to figure out what really awaits everyone in the next world, and he becomes determined to take this new information and let everyone else know about it so they can all be in on the grand ultimate truth together.

You see, when things start out, Frank (Seth Rogen) and Brenda (Kristen Wiig) are just a couple of lovebirds waiting for the correct, predetermined time for them to be able to consummate their love, and they are surrounded by like-minded folks all wanting the same thing. And near them are other groups, with differences throughout but still all united under one common theme – awaiting The Great Beyond. In The Great Beyond they know they only have good things waiting for them, and these good things change depending on what each group wants, but it all boils down to “good times for all.” Everyone is so excited for the grandness of The Great Beyond that they are desperate to get their soon, hoping every morning that would be the day they are chosen to move on.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Pete’s Dragon’

“Pete’s Dragon” is the surprisingly sad story of a young boy who lives in the forest with a big green dragon, and it would have been a fun and light story if the whole thing wasn’t drenched in a feeling of separation anxiety and gloominess as the story of Pete is one of a childhood lost and moving on from innocence into a worldly-tainted adulthood without magic or presumably joy. In old school Disney fashion, like the animated films of the 30s and 40s, this new “Pete’s Dragon” is here to entertain but does so in a dark way, filled with death and abandonment and dark forces working actively to deprive the young hero of their source of comfort and joy.

After an opening scene involving a car accident in the middle of nowhere which results in an instant orphan being hunted by wolves and then being saved and adopted by a giant green dragon, we jump forward six years, and this kid is now about 10 years old or so and running around the forest barefoot and shirtless, dirty and long haired, climbing trees and catching rabbits barehanded, completely adapted to his environment and at wild lifestyle. It helps that he has a big loyal dragon helping him out and getting his back when predators might stroll up. This is the story of Pete (Oakes Fegley) and his dragon Elliot, which is really just a big ole dog with wings, making him quite lovable.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” is the third of four (and soon to be five) mega opuses from Michael Bay about two races of sentient machine-based alien life forms who can change into cars and trucks and who play out their epic civil war on Earth because the war has already destroyed their own home Cybertron (which makes these some inconsiderate aliens, if you ask me). These cars and trucks engage in massive battles that destroy countless buildings and take the lives of so many people that they don’t even bother mentioning it in any way, shape or form, that’s how important those thousands and thousands of unseen dead are in this movie, and the whole time there are these pip-squeak humans literally running around the feet of these giant robots and pretending to do stuff that matters when all they can really do is keep from getting stomped out.

Okay, that’s actually the basic plot of everything Transformers-related, so what would make things any different this time around? Compared to the other films, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” is actually the best scripted, in that it uses less absurd macguffins like the eyeglasses with the map on them or the “allspark” in the first film, or the search for the “matrix of leadership” in the second film (along with the return of the aforementioned “allspark” thingy). This third movie sees the return of this matrix of leadership contrivance, but they find a better way to use it in terms of getting the plot rolling along, and otherwise they drop all the crap and keep it relatively simple (relatively).Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Another Earth’

“Another Earth” is one of those little indie films that comes out of the film festival circuit with lots of buzz and good will and jury prize awards and what not, so by the time it hits the multiplexes (if it does at all), it’s already positioned as the new great film from some exciting new voices in cinema. Which makes it disappointing when the movie actually turns out to be kinda crappy, because if it were viewed without all of that positive word of mouth, then maybe it would have just been seen as an okay movie and a solid debut from an interesting young filmmaker. But instead, since it was positioned as the next Solaris or 2001: A Space Odyssey, expectations became too high and it gains extra scrutinization, and unfortunately “Another Earth” doesn’t hold up under the scrutiny.

“Another Earth” is the story of a 17-year old high school graduate named Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling, who also co-wrote the story), and the movie starts with her celebrating her acceptance into MIT, which shows she’s a very smart person with lots of potential and promise. Rhoda immediately throws all of this potential and promise out of the window when she goes drunk driving after her celebration and ends up plowing into another car, putting a successful composer named John Burroughs (William Mapother, Mission: Impossible 2) into a coma and killing his young son and pregnant wife. Jump cut to four years later with Rhoda getting out of prison. She takes a job at her old high school as a janitor, she secludes herself from just about everyone else, and she sets out to make amends with John the composer. But when she goes to his home to apologize to him, she loses her nerve and makes up a story about being from a maid service, offering a free trial. And John, who is apparently now a drunkard and suffering from some brain damage, allows Rhoda into his home to clean.Continue Reading …

Crespodiso Spillover Episode – News Out The Wazoo

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In this week’s Crespodiso Spillover bonus episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn talk about:

– The 13th Friday the 13th movie is in the works.

– Director of The Spectacular Now and End of the Tour working on new movie with Disney.

– Star Wars Rogue One trailer debut during the Olympics and a prequel character making a return and no it is not Jar Jar Binks.

– Suicide Squad breaks box office records but trouble is on the horizon.

– A new Law & Order True Crime show is coming to TV.

– The Simpsons will air their first hour-long episode.

– Hulu free streaming is going away.

– There is a 9/11 themed Seinfeld spec script on the internet and it is pretty damn funny.
Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Anonymous’

Based on a theory that many segments of the literari think to be ridiculous, and made by a director of films many film critics think to be ridiculous, “Anonymous” is definitely one of the more interesting and daring films of 2011. From Roland Emmerich, director of mega blockbusters such as “Independence Day: Resurgence,” “Stargate,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012,” comes a movie about the complex and many-threaded political machinations of Elizabethan Britain and how the work of William Shakespeare somehow fit into all of it, and not in the way that people would traditionally believe when they think of the timeless English playwright.

“Anonymous” tells a story that goes something like this: with Queen Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave) all old and on the outs, a political tug of war ensues to get the Queen to pick a successor. Her immediate aides and advisors pulled for the King of Scotland, knowing that his appointment would secure their further employ in the castle. And they feared that the Earl of Essex would try to claim the throne, being a cast off bastard son of the Queen, and he would dismiss them, take their property and throw them out on their asses. So they did what they could to make sure the Earl didn’t take the throne.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Alex Cross’

“Alex Cross” is a boring, fairly hackneyed attempt at a crime procedural thriller, ably acted by Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox but weakly directed by Rob Cohen, who seems far too concerned with what’s cool as opposed to what’s smart and right for the story, and failing at both aspects anyway. What could essentially be an episode of any random network television crime procedural television show, “Alex Cross” really offers nothing new to the genre and doesn’t do anything fun or interesting with the old clichés, which results in a boring 101 minutes.

Detective Dr. Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) heads up a small team that apparently focuses on women killers, as the movie starts with them tracking down a kidnapper and saving a young girl, both of whom are unrelated to the rest of the story. Cross is pretty great at what he does, displaying a Sherlock Holmes level of crime scene deduction and reasoning that is always right and never is questioned, but he does come across a dangerous foe in the form of a random hired killer (Matthew Fox), who is hired to kill three people, and goes after them one at a time. Fox plays this role with a level of obvious insanity, all wide eyes and shaved head, and he definitely seemed to have fun playing this sadistic and crazy character, and he pretty much acts as the one watchable and somewhat interesting thing in this whole film. So Fox and his team try to catch this guy and the whole movie is a game of cat and mouse, with the killer taking out people close to Detective Dr. Cross, making it personal and forcing Cross to go out on a righteous search for retribution.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 8/8/16 – ‘Major League’

As heard in episode 187 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“Major League” is a sports comedy from 1989 about a fake version of the Cleveland Indians and following them in one season as they go from those lovable losers to a team of winners (that’s how you know this is all fiction). An old washed-up catcher has to help wrangle a team which includes an ex-con, a voodoo practitioner, a prima donna veteran already thinking of life after baseball, an old cheating pitcher, and Wesley Snipes, and they of course have problems with each other at first but then learn to get along and also winning helps, which they start doing, and if you’ve seen any sports dramas or comedies from the last few decades, then you already know where this one is going to end up.

(They can’t all have the same gumption and guts as “Little Big League.”) Continue Reading …