Roland Emmerich Brings The ‘White House Down’ (Movie Review)
So far we have had three ‘Die Hard’ movies and I have been entertained by two of them; neither of which starred Bruce Willis. White House Down is the second film this year, following Olympus Has Fallen, to feature the White House being held hostage by terrorists. While the films are somewhat different in what they are trying to accomplish, the similarities are quite clear. That said, while ‘Olympus’ was seeped with much more seriousness and jingoism, White House Down is all about being Roland Emmerich-style spectacle. While Emmerich may not be creating another disaster movie on the scale of his other hit films like Independence Day or 2012, he is certainly doing what he can to make a Die Hard-like film, which has the attitude of one of his disaster films. In establishing this, it means that along with large-scale thrills, the film also lends itself to being a lot of goofy fun, while also earnest and plenty corny. It is a good thing that that is what I was in the mood for.
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This is the story of a by-the-book FBI agent teaming up with a sloppy, but dedicated Boston Police detective to take down some bad guys. They are mismatched and hate each other at first, but will have to learn to get along if they want to prove themselves to the other officers and agents. The two will face lots of adversity both from nefarious foes and each other, but they will ultimately use their eventual friendship as a way to work together. Other agents and officers will doubt the work that these two do, in an attempt to uncover the truth regarding secret drug shipments and heinous criminal activities, including violent murders, but hopefully they will prevail anyway. These are classic buddy cop movie elements and they have been applied to this film which teams up Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in a comedy that is hit or miss…mostly miss.
Make no mistake, I’m solely doing this review for my girlfriend. Am I not a nice guy or what? After seeing Melissa McCarthy in this year’s Identity Thief I absolutely wanted nothing to do with her ever again. I grew so tired and disgusted hearing her cuss and drop endless F-bombs for absolutely no reason at all over and over again throughout that film. It was funny in Bridesmaids, but enough is enough, woman. You are not the second coming. You are not funnier than The Hangover (unless we are talking exclusively Part III). So needless to say, even though I chuckled a few times during the initial trailers for The Heat, I really wanted to be left out in the “cold” for this one. Sometimes you just got to suck it up and do things others want to do or see too, right? Of course, horse! 
Naked City is a spin off television of the film noir classic of the same name. The show spanned for 4 seasons and ran 138 episodes from 1958-1963. While the film version was very noir, this show has some of that feel, but is more of a police procedural than anything. And it’s more procedural than anything we can think we know by that format today. Modern CBS shows look like HBO/Showtime programming in comparison. For this release, Image has collected 20 episodes featuring some of the biggest name guest stars of the entire series’ run. You’ll see the likes of William Shatner, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen (fighting a midget!), Robert Duvall and more as you make your way through the episodes. 
We all love a good psychological thriller from time to time. One that has us guessing and trying to piece together clues while at the same time keeping us in suspense and trying to get a good scare out of us. Then we get some wonderful twist and our minds are blown. 6 Souls does a decent job of taking us for that kind of ride. The film deals in multiple personality disorder. It very much follows the same kind of subject matter as a thriller from the 90s, Primal Fear. This one is a bit loose in its playground however and deals more supernaturally. The film is a 2010 release, but I can’t remember it getting any sort of big theatrical run. It seems like it could have had a solid September or October run had it been marketed appropriately. 
Following Annie Hall, auteur Woody Allen began a hot streak through the 80s and somewhat carrying into the 90s. Most of his best and most brilliant work comes from this period. In 1986 he was awarded his 2nd Oscar for original screenplay for Hannah And Her Sisters. The film also scored the first ever sweep of the supporting category, nabbing Michael Caine and Diane Wiest statues. In its release, Hannah And Her Sisters also became Woody Allen’s highest grossing picture, outdoing the likes of Annie Hall and Manhattan. The film was critically praised and has had a legacy of being one of Allen’s best and what’s considered an all time great film in general. 
Modern made fairy tale movies don’t come all too often. And ones made for everyone in the family and kid friendly even rarer. In 2004, Miramax tried their best, delivering Ella Enchanted. The film works as a star vehicle for the up and coming (at the time) Anne Hathaway. It was based off a popular young adult book with which I’m not familiar. From my research, the film is apparently a bit of a departure from the book, but keeps the genuine idea and spirit intact. The story of which is basically one inspired from another classic fairy tale but that’s just a small bit of its base. It really is its own thing when it’s all said and done. And its star, Hathaway, is quite her charming self. She gets to display talents in a fair range of physicality (slapstick) and her musical dynamics in singing. Unfortunately for Miramax, this film did not perform as well as Hathaway at the box office. But, maybe this is still a catalog title for young ones and fairy tale enthusiast to enjoy. 
I’ve never really wrote a piece like this before on the site so early in the year as its usually something I step aside and graciously hand the reigns over to our “Godfather” of theatrical movie reviews, 
Try as I might, I just never got around to watching the NBC series Hannibal as of yet. I attempted the first episode when it originally aired, but low and behold the Sandman got the best of me that ill fated night. However, I have heard grand things about the series! And it’s even been picked up for a second season. So you know things must be going good for it! So I’m pleased to present you with our first Comic-Con 2013 post of the year as Gaumont International Television has announced their attendance at this year’s spectacular with a panel entitled “Hannibal: Feed Your Fear,” which will feature Bryan Fuller, David Slade, Martha De Laurtentiis and Hugh Dancy. The panel is set for July 18th at 6:45pm – 7:45pm. Check out the full press release below for more information! 
Try as I might, I just couldn’t find the time to make it to the theater this year to catch Michael Bay’s vacation from the Transformers franchise, Pain & Gain. I wanted to, but lady luck was never on my side unfortunately. However, I don’t let things like this get me down. After all, our very own Gerard once missed seeing a paid entrance to Oblivion because he was standing in line buying Rob Zombie albums. Things like this happen. Life happens. I knew I would eventually get a go around with this bad boy on Blu-ray and thankfully with today’s announcement it looks like I won’t be waiting too much longer. Check out the full press release from Paramount below. 
Stoker is one of those movies where I had every intention of seeing theatrically, but for whatever unknown reason or another the stars just didn’t align properly in my favor. Sadly, it came and went and I was forced to wait until now to finally check it out. In the meantime, I heard so many positive things about it. However, what really attracted my attention to this body of work is when I found out Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller actually penned the screenplay. He did so under a pseudonym of Ted Foulke in order to have his work taken seriously, but nevertheless you could say after I learned that I have been “stoked” to check out Stoker. You see, I’m a huge fan of his an actor so when I found this out I just had to see what all the buzz was about. It was being lauded as pretty good and to this day the film holds around a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Considering Man of Steel, a movie so many people seemed divided on, only holds a rating of 56% (keep in mind that Fast & Furious 6 has a 71%), how good or bad can Stoker be? I was hoping it would be the case of the former, but that’s what we are gathered here to talk about anyway today. So let the “stoking” begin! 
World War Z is a big surprise and in a very favorable way. As a big fan of the gripping 2006 novel by Max Brooks (Son of Mel), everything I saw in the footage and news leading up to the release of the film adaptation indicated disaster. It seemed that everything about the book, with the exception of the title, was scrapped in order to make for a summer action film. That actually is what essentially happened in this film, but the surprising part is how enjoyable I found it to be. While this film has little to offer in the way of social commentary or political undertones in the ways all the best zombies films do, it has plenty of thrills and real confidence in the way the action and mayhem is presented. Despite all the production issues and a less satisfying third act, World War Z has far more confidence in its presentation than I expected and it plays as a solid piece of entertainment depicting a pandemic on a global scale.
