‘Inferno’ Is Upon Hanks (Movie Review)
October 26th, 2016 by Aaron Neuwirth
Following the sadly underseen Rush and the underwhelming In The Heart of the Sea, director Ron Howard returns to his moneymaking Robert Langdon film series with Inferno, based on the novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks is back too, continuing to portray his boorish, know-it-all character (although the hair is kept much more in check this time around). The result is another mystery thriller that, much like Angels & Demons, has learned from the mistakes of The Da Vinci Code and keeps things loose and moving, even if the proceedings are quite ridiculous.
The continued pairing/relationship of IFC Midnight and Scream Factory of bringing some independent, lesser seen modern horror films continues with the film Carnage Park. This one stars horror genre vets Pat Healy (Starry Eyes, Cheap Thrills, The Innkeepers) and Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism). Directing and also writing the film is up and coming genre player Mickey Keating. He’s been making his presence known lately with films like Pod and Darling. Carnage Park is the latest and its made its way through big time festivals like South By Southwest and that little one known as the Sundance Film Festival. The throwback film makes its way to the Blu-ray format on November 1st! 
Its hard to believe that its been sixteen years since director Ang Lee announced himself as a powerhouse director with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film burst onto the scene to great acclaim in the United States, even moreso than in its native land. Critical acclaim and audience enjoyment followed with an incredible amount of awards love for a foreign film. Lee’s film garnered ten Academy Award nominations that year, including Best Picture and Best Director. While it didn’t take the big prizes, it wouldn’t go home empty handed, winning for Best Foreign Film, Art Direction, Cinematography and Original Score. This also launched a bit of a craze for this sort of martial arts film in the United States with the likes of House of Flying Daggers and Hero following in its wake, as well as launching the career of Zhang Ziyi. 
Man, now THIS is the kinda of live show that is sorely missing from this generation of artists! Folks today think they can get away with throwing up a bunch of flashy lights and random explosions and still call it a live show! Peter Gabriel is here to tell you that that concept just isn’t up to snuff! The man actually attempts to visually recreate his songs while onstage. Each and every song gets it’s own unique visual interpretation. Whether it’s something as simple as synchronizing himself with a few musicians as they twirl to the beat of the music. Or it’s something as grand as climbing inside a giant inflatable plastic bubble and rolling it around while the stage itself rotates at the same time! Growing Up Live is simply a JOY to watch!
From the macabre mind of Rob Zombie (
Olive Films is continuing its march toward newfound greatness with the release of another classic Western, The Night Of The Grizzly featuring Clint Walker. Its not the last western that they’ll be dropping in this signature series, a Raquel Welch classic is coming next month. That seems to be where their focus is right now with the Signature series. If you’re reading, Olive Films, I want to put my request in for The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers as soon as you can get to it. The original one, that you’ve already put a release out for. Yeah, you knew that. Shut up, Brandon and talk about The Night of the Grizzly? Oh okay okay. This new edition features a carry over interview and some neat archival videos. Alongside John Ford’s The Quiet Man, The Night of The Grizzly Olive Signature Edition will be available 10/25/2016. 
John Ford is probably a name that the kids today aren’t familiar with and may be long forgotten for some, but he’s truly one of the finest directors of all time. He’s one that all those awesome filmmakers that rocked the industry in the 1970s pulled from. While an artist, he was also in that era where films were just sort of a working thing where you moved from whatever one the studio put you on to another. However, The Quiet Man was one of his personal projects that he kept on trying to get off of the ground for years before he was able to get the the ability to get the film made. Turns out the film and Ford knew what the heck they were doing, because he wound up taking another Oscar for Best Director for it. And as the years wore on, it because historically and culturally significant to be preserved by the Library of Congress. Now, its getting some super special treatment by Olive Films in their Signature Edition series that debuted to raves last month. 
Star Trek Beyond promises us one thing going in, a departure from J. J. Abrams’ direction. It of course delivers more, but my main concern was what kind of adventure are we in store for? For too long now I hear complaints from longtime Trekkies upset over the direction of the first two films. Most notably, many dismiss the second film as blasphemy. Rightfully so, but as a new fan to Star Trek I find myself quite fond of Into Darkness (review 
Following Sweeney Todd, I was very excited for Tim Burton to be taking on Alice In Wonderland. It looked like not only would it have the Burton stamp, but it would be sort of a follow up to the original tale. However, the film came out the same weekend in 2010 that I got married. The following week, my wife opened a business. The film just sort of got away from me. It was met with really poor reviews and disdain from peers that I trust, so I just never got around to seeing it. I avoided it for the last 6 years. Now, since this sequel was coming out, and I knew I’d be reviewing it, the time had finally come to see this 1 billion dollar box office success story. And, well, I have to say it was pretty bad, and easily one of Burton’s worst. However, while I didn’t want a sequel, it wouldn’t take much more to improve. And here we are. 
Independence Day: Resurgence is one of those sequels that never needed nor should have been made. So why was it? That’s a very good question. Considering they couldn’t even lure Will Smith back for it should have been the nail in the coffin. However, it wasn’t. Not even Jeff Goldblum nor Liam Hemsworth can keep this ship from crashing in this one. Sadly it’s all about greed here. Fox knew the uneducated would come out in droves to support the film that took the sic-fi community by storm 20 years ago. And what’s more patriotic than seeing a summer action movie circa the Fourth of July holiday? That’s a rhetorical question. So what follows is a review of a crappy sequel to the highly heralded sci-fi classic, Independence Day (see my 20th anniversary review of the 4K Ultra HD set 
The WhySoBlu gang podcast dissected all things horror comedy this week which brings to mind a little past hidden gem well worth bringing up for more than mere movie nostalgia – welcome to Forgotten Friday Flick! Today we’re heading into odd genre territory for an unconventional tale of cops, killers and the undead. Mix in the intrigue of an old fashioned detective story, the banter of a buddy/buddy movie and add a pinch of reanimation and you’ve got one of the funniest and strangest flicks ever made. “Hey, you’re hurt!” “Lady, I’m f@cking dead!” – it’s time for some…Dead Heat!
This week we’re going international for the DVD bin scouring by checking out two tall tales from China that cover everything from the supernatural to the super skilled – martial arts style that is! Not sure if these are worth the money – we got you covered! Scan our DVD Roundup for the critical skinny on Phantom of the Theatre and Judge Archer below! (Again, tech specs provided at the end for those who demand DVD details!)
Sorry film freaks – only a meager five flicks for critical dissection this time out, but I also helmed a premiere this week (Go 
Jack Reacher is one of those films I had to go back and revisit to not only freshen up going into the premiere of Jack Reacher Never Go Back, but make sure I liked it too. I honestly could not remember as I hadn’t seen the first film since 2013 when I reviewed the Blu-ray 
