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You are here: Home / 2016 / Archives for April 2016

Archives for April 2016

Veep Season 4 Release Date Announced for Blu-ray/DVD

04/10/2016 By Hakan Can

Veep Season 4 Release Date Blu-ray

HBO’s Veep Season 4 DVD Release Date is Set for April 19th

HBO's Veep Season 4 DVDAvailable on store shelves and online everywhere this spring comes HBO’s Veep Season 4. The Veep Season 4 DVD release date is set for April 19, 2016, for Blu-ray™ (with Digital HD) and DVD boxed sets. Pricing has been set at $34.98 and $26.95, respectively for the 10-episode Blu-ray™ and DVD boxed sets. You can pre-order them on the HBO Home Entertainment Store from the links above.

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“The fourth season of the hit HBO® comedy series Veep was the winner of five 2015 Emmy® awards including Outstanding Comedy series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Julia Louis-Dreyfus who has won an Emmy for each season of Veep), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Tony Hale) and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. Hilariously skewering the whirlwind day-to-day existence of the Vice President’s office and Washington politics at-large, the series continues to prove that in Washington, even the most banal decisions can have ripple effects, with unexpected and far-reaching consequences.”

“Having become president after her predecessor stepped down, it remains to be seen whether her term will outlast that of America’s shortest-serving president, William Henry Harrison. With the stakes for Selina and her team higher than ever before, she must still run for election, and over the course of the season’s 10 episodes they will grapple with how to make her seem “presidential.” The series, created by Oscar® nominee Armando Iannucci, features an ensemble cast.”

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Now, if this isn’t good enough, we’re running a giveaway for one (1) copy of Season 4 on DVD, in partnership with HBO.

The cast of Veep includes the following series regulars and guest stars:

  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina MeyerHBO's Veep Season 4 Release Date on Blu-ray
  • Tony Hale as Gary Walsh
  • Anna Chlumsky as Amy Brookheimer
  • Reid Scott as Dan Egan
  • Matt Walsh as Mike McLintock
  • Timothy C Simons as Jonah Ryan
  • Sufe Bradshaw as Sue Wilson
  • Kevin Dunn as Ben Cafferty
  • Gary Cole as Kent Davison
  • Sam Richardson as Richard Splett
  • Sarah Sutherland as Catherine Meyer
  • Hugh Laurie as Tom James
  • Patton Oswalt as Teddy Sykes

Included in the Season 4 DVD and Blu-ray™ boxed sets are the following features:

  • Deleted ScenesHBO's Veep Season 4 Release Date on DVD
  • Format: DVD / Blu-ray™ with Digital HD
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Run Time: 300 Minutes
  • Region: A
  • Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
  • Studio: HBO Home Video
  • DVD Release Date: April 19, 2016

Veep Seasons 1-4 are currently available on HBO GO and HBO NOW. Catch up on all the comedy just in time for the Season 5 premiere set for April 24th.

All photos are the courtesy and property of HBO Home Entertainment.

Enjoy this deleted scene from Season 4, Episode 1.

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Filed Under: Blu-Ray Releases Tagged With: Blu-Ray, Digital HD, DVD, HBO, Veep 07/19/2016

The Complete Demolition Movie Review

04/09/2016 By Jonathan Dery

Demolition Movie Review Landing Page

Demolition Movie Review

Fox Searchlight’s Demolition is the story of a man numbed by monotony until he is thrust into disorder, provided a hammer, and told the only way to understand is to deduce by destruction. “If you want to fix something, you have to take it all apart and figure out what’s important.” Demolition is worth the effort. Welcome to our Demolition movie review.

Demolition movie review Images

The Look

There is nothing steady nor clean about Demolition, but that’s where the precision lies. A precision not so much targeted on the polish and caliber of the cinematography, but on the subjective state of the protagonist Davis Mitchell, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He is uncertain, unstable, and unpolished. Due to his existential crisis, the death of his wife which he witnessed, every event, experience, circumstance, and relationship occupies his immediate proximity. Thus, the camera work emulates his state with a constant subtle tremble and a short range of spatial intimacy to Davis. Though I was initially skeptical of this film’s shaky style, I soon understood how compatible it was content-wise.

Davis’ self-unawareness and maddening incomprehension of himself yearn to escape from its tomb. The camera’s stubborn shake could not represent his interior any better. The downside of this stubborn shake is that opportunities for remarkable shots are sacrificed. However, they are sacrificed for the exact representation of Davis’ current state. It is plenty justified.

The cinematography is grounded in Davis’ subjectivity; it could not be anything but rumbling from Davis, in a straightjacket, ramming the walls of his emotional confinement.

Demolition Move Review Image

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The Charm

This film could have been titled Demolition: As a Matter of Fact.

There is a dark, dry humor that so provides comic relief and remembrance of the films tragic basis. Each laugh cuts through a preceding tear. It’s impossible to resist loving Demolition’s mild degree of facetiousness.

Contemptuous humor, however, is only a minor chunk of Demolition’s personality. The majority is occupied by Davis’ childlike disregard for the severity of the circumstances and emotional unintelligence. The result is an absurd, unavoidable fondness for the temperament of the film and Davis as a pretend adult.

Demolition handles the material’s mucky severity with Davis running through his pristine house, wearing filthy shoes, leaving muddy footprints. You hope he’ll clean them up though you can’t be sure. You can’t help but lower your face into your palm, chuckle, and peer through the slits between your fingers to see what mess will come next.

Demolition Move Review Image

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The Characters are the Content

Let’s get to Davis.

Davis is not only the protagonist of this film, he is the vanguard. Every event and consequence that occurs is either a direct or indirect result of his initial action. Davis does and all else react. This is a welcome contradiction for both Davis and the viewer. It’s clear from the onset that Davis subdued all his notions, personal aspirations, and pivotal emotions throughout his entire life. He did so because “it was easy.” He would go through the motions of his routine, do and see everything without ever paying attention. Attention to his surroundings, his circumstances, and ultimately, his dissatisfaction. Thus, he was never much of an influence or catalyst to anyone or anything, including himself.

For once in his life, Davis radically deviates from his detrimental numbing habits, and finally has a say in his behavior and his life. For once in his life, he is exposed, and he matters. All as a result of an immediate tragedy that shatters the lock on his dull cushioned cell, and frees him into a sensational reality. He can no longer silence his suppressed demand to feel. And feel, he does; as you do with him.

Davis is so unaware and disconnected from himself. Ironically, it’s logical how he can only divulge to some anonymous customer service worker, played by Naomi Watts. After all, she couldn’t be a danger to him, nor would her judgment towards him matter so heavily. Also, at the least, she is an obligated ear to vent to. This woman ends up being much more than just an ear. Avoiding spoilers, Karen, is a mirror of Davis’ true state: frantic, disorganized, and full of childlike charisma. Her radical, yet contemporarily normal son, Chris, played by Judah Lewis, fits their dynamic all the same. Karen and her son are both unexpected perfect matches for Davis’ disoriented search for understanding.

Demolition Move Review Image

Along the way, Davis gradually exchanges everything and everyone. As he jackhammers deeper into his true self, he inevitably strays from the false. He slowly discards his ostensibly disapproving father-in-law, Phil, played by Chris Cooper, for his liberation and Karen’s lifestyle. Phil is the asshole Davis would have become if he stuck to his monotonous path. Yet, Phil is not entirely bad. He’s only aggressive and hurtful because the emptiness left by his one irreplaceable love was filled with a disrespectful, unloving son-in-law.

You can’t blame him. He is Davis at the end of the wrong path. One of his two joys wasted her life on an inattentive man. And now, he’s left where he’s without that integral worth to his life. To top it off, the man that devastated that joy is either absent or laughing from across the room with a giddy smirk. It’s more difficult not to side with him at times.

Demolition’s characters are people. They all have a distinct personality, past, depth, and crushing hamartia. The plot does not progress in spite of them, it thrives because of them.

Demolition Move Review Image

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In Closing

Demolition is just that. It discreetly bashes at your sentimentality until your sympathy is impossible to subdue. Stellar actors who play complex characters deserving the title of Real People. Does Demolition have a lasting effect? Not so much. Yes, this film is subtly powerful and perfectly composed for the content it presents. However, the content is neither new nor outstanding.

Most will connect with the characters and enjoy the film as a whole. Will it be re-watched more than once or chiseled into the pillars and stones of film history? No. Demolition provides a meaningful experience that is well worth the emotional toll and withdrawal from your wallet. It’s unnecessary to tear Demolition apart to recognize its particular importance.

Rating: 7.5/10

Did you agree or disagree with our Demolition movie review? How do you feel about this film? Let us know your opinion(s) on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments section below. And don’t forget to use the Hashtag #DemolitionMovie.

All photos are the courtesy and property of FOX Searchlight Pictures.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: Demolition, FOX Searchlight 04/29/2016

Hardcore Henry: The Ultimate First-Person Shooter Movie Review

04/07/2016 By Jonathan Dery

Hardcore Henry Movie Review

First-Person Shooter: A New Genre of Film?

Take one of the most profitable game genres and project it across the silver screen. What do you get? Hardcore Henry. Let’s break this down in this Hardcore Henry movie review.

In our current point in time, vicarious observation dominates actual playing of the most profitable games. It was inevitable for a first-person movie to come out. The recent trend in gaming has been a sweeping transition from pure gameplay to a more narrative driven experience. It seems that Hardcore Henry could be the start of the opposite trend for filmmaking. Is this first-person shooter style of film backward compatible? Let’s see.

[envira-gallery id=”4259″]

Hardcore Henry Movie Review — Off The Bat

Even before the first frame of footage is projected on the screen, you know you’re in for a bloody, visceral time. Never before has a film’s opening credits scene so accurately foreshadowed its proceeding content. Guns, knives, bats, bottles, fists all softly illuminated through the darkness in red. They strike oh so methodically, oh so poetically, and oh so close up in slow motion. If there is one element of Hardcore Henry that cannot be missed, even with closed eyes, it would be the gruesome combat. It is clear how diligently the creators ensured you witnessed every moment and detail of the brutality.

[Tweet “it is impossible to reject the deceptive sensation of viewing the film’s events in first-person.”]

The Look

Hectic is one word to describe the pace. Consider for a moment that approximately 99% of Hardcore Henry is shot with a fish-eye GoPro lens attached to a stuntman’s head. The darting action scenes are bound to jar the audience. Some may feel nausea. Yet, this disorienting affect both suits the stylized content as well as renders the impact of slow motion even more powerful.

Once the viewer adapts to the initial jarring effect, the first-person method shines. After a short period of time, it is impossible to reject the deceptive sensation of viewing the film’s events in first-person. With the camera in the point of view of the protagonist and the sound amplifying around the audience, the viewer has no choice but to succumb. And it is thrilling. You may even find yourself feeling flickers of stimulus from other senses. The point of the film is to convince the viewer they are the protagonist, or at the very least, watching through his eyes. It is difficult not to feel pity for the pulverized antagonists and sore around your own body.

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The Humanity

Here comes the bionic man with a human mind and an augmented heart. Is there any heart at all? Yes, but more to pump the story along than hydrate any waterworks; like the protagonist, the film’s heart is more machine than man. But that’s not such a bad thing. Viewers should predispose themselves to perceive the film in its appropriate context: purely light, raunchy, and naked fun.

Hardcore Henry is all mouth and no tears which ultimately keeps its pulse extreme yet steady. Like most first-person shooter games, the protagonist does not have a voice as to not impose one on the user. In this case, the charm is assumed by the film’s escort: Jimmy, played by Sharlto Copley. This often present tour guide/joke man does not relent, and you love his character for it.

Jimmy’s particular personality bleeds into the rest of the film’s humor. I refrain from disclosing any specific examples as to not spoil these jaw-dropping, gut busting, nut p___, I’ll leave it there. Just ensure to keep your head on straight and maybe wear a helmet. And a cup.

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The Meat

Adrenaline fueled and action packed at its core; what else could be expected?

Meaningful? No. Visceral? Yes. And that is clearly the goal of the film. The film was initially implanted with a lick of sentimentality, which then quickly dissolves into juvenile, vulgar charisma. However, this is all but a bad thing. In fact, this may be the film’s strong suit.

Presuming that the viewer enters the theater with the mind that they must disarm theirs to endure or, ideally, enjoy Hardcore Henry, they will undoubtedly have a blast. There is no Oscar to be won, nor are there tears to be shed; Hardcore Henry is not meant to triumph, it is meant to thrill. To replace the glasses from your eyes and intellectual from your mind with a dual-shock controller and a cheesy-fingered, Mountain Dew energized kid at the helm. Hardcore Henry may be rated R for adults though it is sure as hell not appropriate for them.

To like Hardcore Henry, the viewer must peel back their maturity to reveal their inner child. Fidgeting at the hilt of their seat, marveling up at the screen, rather than a jaded adult looking down on it. For those who choose to sit in the booster seat, have a blast. For those who cannot sacrifice their adult refinement for their inner kid, go read a book. Hardcore Henry is a bloody good time.

Rating: 7/10

What’s your opinion on Hardcore Henry? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Maybe you’re somewhere in between? Let us know what you think in the comments or via Facebook / Twitter.

All images and video are the copyrighted property of STX Entertainment.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: Film Review, Hardcore Henry, Sharlto Copley 04/11/2016

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