The Hundred-Foot Journey (Blu-ray Review)
December 2nd, 2014 by Gerard Iribe
Starring Academy Award(R) winner Helen Mirren (Best Actress, THE QUEEN, 2006), produced by Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Julia Blake, and directed by Lasse Hallstrom (CHOCOLAT), this uplifting story bursts with flavor, passion and heart. When the chill chef proprietress of a Michelin-starred French restaurant in southern France (Mirren) gets wind of a culinary immigrant opening an Indian restaurant just 100 feet from her own, her icy protests escalate to all-out war between the two establishments. It’s a celebration of triumph over exile as these two worlds collide and one young man tries to find the comfort of home in every pot — wherever he may be. Continue reading ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey (Blu-ray Review)’
If the year 2011 taught us nothing but the fact that good things can come from rebooting a beloved franchise, then I’d be alright to call it a day right here and now. Never in my wildest dreams could I have ever conjured up such a crazy notion that the quirky Planet of the Apes franchise could ever be resurrected after that feeble attempt by Tim Burton (I really wish they could have went through with the Adam Rifkin script) way back in the summer of 2001 before our economy took a crap and I have been broke ever since because of low interest rates. However, I digress. We are not here to discuss our nation’s economy because if the fictional ape character of Caesar was real, I have no doubts that it would thrive once again under his direction. All hail Caesar, right? Exactly! That’s exactly the sentimentality I want you all to have over the course of the next five minutes or so as I impregnate your mind with a world dominated by apes, or at least on the cusp of that becoming a reality in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. 
There’s no denying that the early success of Why So Blu can be traced back to three key triggering events in our website’s now six-year timeline. The odd or ironic thing about it is that all three of those events revolve around one premium cable television series. Yep! You guessed it…Starz’s Spartacus! Those events include the odd chance meeting of what would become one our website’s most prolific movie reviewers, 
Horror is a such an extensive genre in film that it even comes with its own set of sub-genres. It goes further than that though. Those sub-genres even have their own sub-genres, and its like there are sub-genres of sub-genres of sub-genres. Surprisingly, one of those that branches out in many directions is the Zombie genre. I even think there’s enough of them that today’s film could qualify for it. And it might be one of the grand daddies of it. I’m talking about Nazi zombie genre. Of course during World War II, Adolf Hitler just HAD to have been experimenting with undead soldiers right? Anyway, its one of those crazy concepts that is just so wild, it can’t be anything but fun when they do it in modern day. How did it fair back in the 70s though? That’s what we’re here to find out. Join me as we take a trip back to the super low budget 16mm film, Shock Waves. 
Sergio Corbucci is a legendary director of Zapata Westerns, or more commonly known as “Spaghetti Westerns”. He most notably directed the debut of the character of Django played by Franco Nero. That film has spawn thirty some sequels over the years and drove Nero to stardom. However, today’s film, Compañeros would be their last. Nero wasn’t happy with how much Compañeros focused more on another character. Though they had history and had made classic films with one another to this point it seemed to be a deal break for Nero. He’s on record for having turned down some movies if Sergio Corbucci was attached to or in talks to direct. 
Its no wonder that after the back to back experiences of Nightbreed and Lord Of Illusions, that horror maestro Clive Barker hasn’t take the director’s chair since. It wasn’t as much an extreme case with Lord Of Illusions, but once again the studio did not seem to understand Barker’s vision for the film. And during this time, the studios in general didn’t seem to understand that horror could branch out and be other things and still include horror. Barker’s horror’s were of a unique mind, but the studios seemed to think he was just some guy who made Freddy or Jason movies. For this film however, Barker agreed to make a generic and no frills cut that would appease the studio. Barker made the agreement on the guideline that when it came to video his original director’s cut would become readily available. Scream Factory has gone ahead with its debut on Blu-ray and brought you both cuts, just like they did with Nightbreed. 
I first was introduced to Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods when I was in eighth grade/middle school/whatever. My school contained both high school and middle school grades in one building. The high school was putting on this particular number for the annual spring musical. I had no idea what I was in for when I got my ticket. There was something to do with fairy tales and whatnot but I had no real idea. I found myself pretty taken with it as it had a mix of fairy tale play and wonder along with a comedic mix of cleverness and adult humor. That production furthered my interest in wanting to join the drama department when I would be in high school, and I did just that. Also, being a fan of this musical I sought out the taped performance I’m about to review today. It was either a VHS rental or on PBS, one or the other, but I did see it long ago. I imagine this release is tailored to Disney’s upcoming cinematic adaptation of the musical. 
In 1954, Irving Berlin followed up his film Holiday Inn with White Christmas. The film brought one of the songs from Holiday Inn front and center and in the title. It was supposed to also reunite him with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, but Astaire wound up backing out and balking at the project. In his place Crosby was paired with Danny Kaye. The film was wildly successful and the highest grossing film of 1954. It made a whopping 12 million dollars, which was big time money back then in the movie industry. The film has had a strong legacy, being one that people, families and friends gather every year to sit around and watch to celebrate the holidays just like It’s A Wonderful Life, Elf, Christmas Vacation or The Santa Clause. Okay, so nobody watches the last one. Just checking your attention. This is Paramount’s second crack at this one on Blu-ray and this thing is absolutely LOADED with extras. Let’s dig in! 
Reclaim, which stars Ryan Phillipe, Rachelle Lefevre and John Cusack, was primarily a Video OnDemand release back in September. It did see release in a very limited fashion theatrically. This is the second film of this kind of ilk that I’ve caught to review recently that had John Cusack. The other was The Prince, which featured him prominently on the cover art, but he was barely in the film. That isn’t the case here in Reclaim, as he has a pretty significant part in this with plenty of screen time. Reclaim is yet another example of an adult thriller with actual stars hitting pretty much directly for the OnDemand market, whereas a similar film probably would have featured a wide theatrical release in the 1990s. 
Take that, Marvel! The Norwegians have beat you to Ragnarok by a whole four years and before you even had a chance to mutter up the words. Enjoy your little copycat adventure Thor, Loki and Jane Foster! Okay, okay, so this film is likely to not resemble that upcoming third Thor film in the slightest, but I thought I’d take that open opportunity and run with it. Although, funny enough, in the opening moments of the film, the name “Odin” is indeed referenced. No, this film comes from the director of Cold Prey 3 (A Norwegian slasher series that is pretty darn good, even if that was the weakest entry in it so far), so I was pretty interested from the get go on this one. In fact, this is Mikkel Brænne Sandemose’s follow up to that film, which was his feature film directorial debut. 
Into The Storm came out this summer during the reign of Guardians Of The Galaxy. The film had a pretty solid opening weekend, but in the end couldn’t manage to recoup its budget from the domestic audience. However, overseas this movie seemed to work like gangbusters. To date, it has taken in $112 million. And that makes sense. Its a movie based on big disaster action sequences that play on their own without having to follow that in depth of a plot. The only thing that would have worked it even better would be the addition of having it released in 3-D over there. Steven Quale directs his follow up to Final Destination 5 (The best film of that series), showing even more penchant for disastrous attack situations. If you’re not familiar with Quale, he comes from the James Cameron tree, in terms of background leading up to directing. He’s done various crew and second unit work for Cameron’s films like Avatar, True Lies and The Abyss. 
Way back when I wrote my theatrical review of The Expendables 3 I talked about how I initially promised myself I would have nothing to do with this movie after I learned about the abysmal PG-13 rating the filmmakers trimmed it down to be to comply with requirements of the much feared MPAA in order to get it out to a wider audience (more about that later). If it had not been for a trip up to Cleveland, OH to visit all my family and friends I can pretty much guarantee that I would have never partaken in a screening of The Expendables 3. I subjected myself to the theatrical experience to kill two birds with one stone, visit my most favorite Cleveland marketing team leader (she knows who she is) and also my favorite theater ever, that of Cinemark Valley View. I have so many memories there and obviously now The Expendables 3 is one of them. So let’s dispense with all the filter and formalities I’m employing here and talk about Barney (Stallone) and his old and new gang, and what does and does not happen here. 
