Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (2015) (DVD)

91V0YIwOagL._SL1500_

If you wanted Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, damn it all it’s what you get with this new crossover. Like most films of this ilk, you’re mainly tuning in to watch a lot of really obnoxious characters die brutal deaths, it’s just a shame a lot of it is off screen. Perhaps that’s because this is primarily a TV movie, but I was disappointed to see a lot of the deaths were cut aways and mostly kept sanitary; when you have a giant crocodile and giant snake chomping down on gorgeous sorority girls, that’s just downright criminal. With a movie like this you can’t expect a masterpiece, and oddly enough I went in to it with rock bottom expectations. Did that mean it pleased me proficiently? Not really.

Continue reading

The 5 Best Times (So Far) Daryl Dixon was a Bad Ass on “The Walking Dead”

Daryl_Dixon

It’s a good time to be a fan of The Walking Dead. There’s a highly anticipated spin off on the way, the comic book is flourishing with no end in sight, there’s a The Walking Dead beer now, and of course the new season of the hit series premieres October 11th. There’s also the release of The Walking Dead Season Five on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 25th. In celebration, we thought we’d list our five favorite bad ass Daryl Dixon moments so far. Like everyone, we’re big fans of Dixon, and consider his character arc brutally compelling and complex. Norman Reedus has helped to create a modern pop culture icon who will likely be celebrated by fans for decades. So here’s a top five for one of our favorite characters of “The Walking Dead” Universe.

Continue reading

Big Sky (2015)

big-sky

“Big Sky” really isn’t that bad a picture until it decides to start getting surreal and existentialist. You figure a movie about survival would keep it simple, but Jorge Michael Grau tries to play the narrative with much more depth. That said, “Big Sky” is a perfectly fine thriller with a solid cast. It kept me invested, and it’s always fun to see child stars evolve in to more unique performers. This is one of the few roles Bella Thorne has taken on in her adult career where she’s not a shrew, and she plays the heroine very well.

Continue reading

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Rl6An8o

I really enjoy it when Disney tends to think outside the box in the realm of a certain genre. While “Big Hero 6” is definitely a Marvel and superhero movie, it’s also a really bold and off the wall tale about revenge, family, and the very thin line between justice and pure evil. “Big Hero 6” is an underrated feature from the Marvel canon that I really hope garners a sequel because the material here is just too ripe for a one and done feature film. The characters are just too damn interesting and by the time the film was done I wanted more from this rag tag group of geniuses. And that’s what I also enjoyed about “Big Hero 6” is that our heroes have a clear moral code they operate by and they do it with their brains.

Continue reading

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection “F” (2015)

d45972cf1d9f68982bc60acbc05

“Dragon Ball Z” is back and it’s about as niche as ever! Which is to say that only hardcore fans of the series will love with “Resurrection ‘F’” has to offer them; everyone else will likely just appreciate the animation. It’s a truncated and very fast paced feature length film and one that I quite enjoyed. While I’ve always been hard on the series over the years, “Resurrection ‘F’” was a slimmed down and very breezy action film that reminded me why I was a fan such a long time ago. It also has a really good sense of humor about itself with folks like Piccolo, Krillin, and Gohan settled in their domesticated roles, forced in to combat with a superior foe.

Continue reading

Paying Tribute to Roddy Piper (1954-2015)

Roddy1

I would love to tell you that my first experience with Roddy Piper was with his time as a wrestler, but damn it, it was watching “They Live.” Yes, the movie that basically turned Piper in to a bonafide action star is the movie I knew Piper from, originally. I must have watched “They Live” a billion times on television when I was a child. As Nada, Roddy Piper was a force to be reckoned with, and it was an easy role to fit in to, mainly because Piper was a grade A entertainer who knew how to act. Sure he didn’t act on films or TV shows in his early days, but he played a character, and he was damn good at what he did.

Continue reading

Synchronicity (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

synch_2_large

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Jacob Gentry’s “Synchronicity” is the kind of film I really do enjoy. It’s non-linear, it has a taste of noir within it, and it’s filled with existentialist themes about parallel worlds and wormholes that dare to challenge its audience. “Synchronicity” is the kind of challenging fiction that will spark conversations among its audience and leave them pondering on the bigger questions that it poses right through to the end. I didn’t quite understand what was happening in the film for the first half, but Gentry really brings all of the narrative together making what seems like a scattershot series of events feel like one giant master plan. It’s a film in the tradition of “Memento” sparking brilliant visuals and a vivid world where nothing is ever really what it seems.

Continue reading