Michael Bay trades giant robots for body builders in this outlandish true crime tale that follows some of the dumbest characters you will ever encounter. [Read more...]
Looking Ahead To 2013: Quarter 2 (April – June)
04/04/2013 by Leave a Comment
With a few days passed in April, it’s time to look ahead to what’s coming out in the next 3 months in movies, music, tv, and games. Before we would pretty much include everything we could look of, but that went deep into the land of ridiculous lengthiness, so to make this less painful all around we’ve decided to pick (no more than) our top three selections in each category. Enjoy! [Read more...]
Looking Ahead to 2013: 1st Quarter (January – March)
01/04/2013 by Leave a Comment
Now that we’re done looking behind us here at HST, it’s time to ring in the new year by filling our calendars with the upcoming releases (movies, music, TV, and video games) we’re looking forward to most. Big names, big sequels, big comebacks, big excitement. [Read more...]
Film Review: Ted
06/29/2012 by Leave a Comment
Seth MacFarlane’s feature debut, Ted, doesn’t take the risks it thinks it does and it would have been nice to see him stay away from his comfort zone a bit more than he does here. [Read more...]
HST… Film Review: Contraband
01/12/2012 by Leave a Comment
Zac: So Lauren, you and I both saw Contraband this week, the new film staring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi about a bunch of smugglers trying to iron out a family debt; what did you think? [Read more...]
TV Without Commercials: Boardwalk Empire – 201
09/26/2011 by Leave a Comment
Last night was the season premiere of the second season of Boardwalk Empire. With big names like Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg attached to the executive producer roles the show immediately had high expectations. The first season most certainly lived up to those expectations and series premiere last night was far from disappointment. [Read more...]
Review: The Fighter
12/17/2010 by Leave a Comment
The Fighter is a fine character study mixed in with a nice little true life sports movie that I can’t help but feel didn’t reach its potential or bar set by its peers.
Following the last attempt of Mickey Ward to win a boxing title we dive into the people around him and shape him into the boxer he has become. Unfortunately the boxer he has become is on a losing streak and Mickey seems destined to be another one of the many has-beens of the boxing world. His brother Dicky is one of those has-beens but is thinking about making a comeback for which he is being followed around by an HBO camera crew. Dicky is the pride of Lowell, Mass., where the brothers are from and still reside, and Mickey has always played second fiddle to both Dickey and their Mom who seems most concerned about the elder sibling’s career. After getting his ass kicked by a last minute replacement in his apparent stepping stone match, Mickey and his new girlfriend Charlene begin to outline a new plan for him as his family life spins out of control.
Review: The Other Guys
08/06/2010 by 1 Comment
The Other Guys is the latest from Adam McKay and Will Ferrell and it serves as a great send up of the buddy cop genre with a consistently funny pacing and many flashes of brilliance along the way.
Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz are not the guys, that title is held by Detectives Highsmith and Danson. Gamble and Hoitz are the other guys on the force who push the pencil and do the paper work for the NYPD heroes. Besides being the other guys of the office, Gamble and Hoitz are quite the odd couple of partners as well. Gamble has long been behind a desk, in police accounting, and has worked his way up to detective but has no ambition to leave the office during the day. Hoitz is the exact opposite. Itching at any chance to get out on the streets and to be the guy, he unfortunately is in some hot water after an unfortunate incident in the Yankee club house. But when Gamble uncovers a scaffolding permit violation the two begin to get wrapped up in a crime bigger than they could possibly imagine.
Now Playing Review – The Other Guys
08/06/2010 by 1 Comment
If you are like me then Will Ferrell acting out the role of a cop gunning down criminals is an intriguing thought. I mean, he’s done pretty much everything else at this point, so why not fill the shoes of an action star? Unfortunately the film’s poster isn’t really an appropriate representation considering you can’t quite pull that off when carrying a wooden gun in your holster. Funny, but it doesn’t quite carry the same bang I had hoped for.
Instead Will Ferrell plays Allen Gamble, a man who is much more comfortable humming the theme songs of action films from the safety of his own desk as apposed to being the inspiration for the music. A man who is not so musically inclined is his partner, Terry Hoitz, who still aspires to be the man people look up to while fighting the good fight. No matter their feeling, eventually they find themselves knee deep in a case that might just be what it takes to pull them from their seats on the sidelines, as long as they can handle it. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Date Night
04/23/2010 by Leave a Comment
If Date Night were a blind date between you and another person (as opposed to what, I don’t know) then I would say that the date is going pretty well. Sure there are times when some traits are revealed that you aren’t really sure if you want to stick around for, and sometimes they make some nervously ill-conceived jokes that you laugh at to be nice, but overall you genuinely had a good time and were glad you didn’t need to get a friend to call with an “emergency” to allow you to bail out early.
The date that this story revolves around takes a different path than the hypothetical mentioned above. In Date Night, Phil and Claire Foster try to add a little spice to their marriage by going out to a fancy dinner in the city. Unfortunately they do this without making a reservation, but instead of leaving they decide to take on the identity of the Tripplehorns since they bailed on their table. Unfortunately for the Fosters, they don’t even get through their dinner before two men pull them from their meal and accuse them of doing something in a case of mistaken identity, starting off the most dangerously adventurous date of their relationship. [Read more...]
Review: Date Night
04/09/2010 by 1 Comment
Date Night works by pairing two comedy greats together, letting them do what they do best, fills the supporting cast with some great actors, and doesn’t drag at all over its crisp runtime.
The premise is easy to grasp by simply watching a trailer or TV spot, a suburban couple, the Fosters, goes into the city for a night out on the town and when they steal someone else’s reservation they are mistaken for being someone else. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse all across the city that plays out as a detective story as the Foster’s try and track down the “Tripplehorn’s”. Now the film does take a few turns where you might scream at the screen at why The Foster’s are doing this instead of that which could have avoided this whole mess, but then you wouldn’t have a movie now would you. If you can get past this kink then you will find a fun, funny, and kind of weird adventure with an odd couple that encounters a lot of interesting characters along the way.
Review: The Lovely Bones
01/15/2010 by Leave a Comment
Peter Jackson’s latest adaptation is visually stunning but feels like a cliff notes version of the novel and on its own right doesn’t go deep enough into these characters relationships and feelings to connect us as emotionally as possible with the rich material.
The story follows the path of Susie Salmon a 14 year old girl that is murdered and raped (though the film leaves that last part out for the most part) by her neighbor Mr. Harvey and we follow her in the afterlife as she watches her family cope and hopefully find a way to lead them towards her killer. A little background on my connection to the source material, when I read Alice Sebold’s novel I was blown away for the first two thirds of the book or so and was a bit disappointed with the time jump and felt like things lost a bit of steam in the end. With that said I loved the afterlife stuff and the progression of these family members as they dealt with this horrible incident. And as a person that was hoping for the film to capture those connections and be a great look into these characters lives was disappointed with the skimming the surface approach the film seems to take. We only really get to spend a good amount of time with Mr. Harvey and Susie over the course of the picture and even with them we don’t really dive too deep into their psyche. [Read more...]
Review: We Own the Night
10/14/2007 by Leave a Comment
This cop drama is pretty much standard fare across the board story board with nothing we haven’t seen before. I think one thing that took a bit away from me on this movie was that the preview gave way too much away. But anyways, the lead, Joaquin Phoenix, does some great work here and is a character you can easily get behind and relate with. [Read more...]
