Review: Black Mass

Scott Cooper and Johnny Depp’s examination of Boston crime kingpin/FBI informant James “Whitey” Bulger is intriguing in subject matter and entertaining enough in execution, but by no means a classic.

*spoiler free*

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Podcast: The Punch Up, Ep.8 – ‘It’s Such a Beautiful…Life?!’

The Punch Up is a brand new weekly film & television podcast broadc​asting from the laaaazy west coast city of Vancouver, Canada.

Featuring regulars Phill Bartlett, Adam Blair, and yours truly, Nicholas Lay, the chaps and I will be covering regular news, reviews, previews, and retrospect from the world of the reel.

Put ’em up!

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Ep. 8 – ‘It’s Such a Beautiful…Life?!’ 

The Punch Up returns after a couple o’ weeks in development hell (Nick went on vacation) with plenty of chat from across the world of the reel. Stevan Riley’s fantastic doc Listen to Me Marlon  takes top billing following a first look at Disney’s new The Jungle Book trailer, while recent flicks discussed include Cameron Crowe’s latest ‘meh’ effort, Aloha, and deep doc, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. Small screen chat focuses on Netflix’s addictive, binge worthy Pablo Escobar fest, Narcos, as well as Forte/Lord/Miller’s latest comedy creation, The Last Man on Earth. We rave about The Rock (the film, not the dude, although we’d happily do both) off the back of Nick’s new PerfAction series, Joaquin Phoenix’s under the radar role, The Immigrant, pops up, and finally there’s a welcome return for Don Hertzfeld’s quite brilliant, but oh-so-depressing It’s Such a Beautiful Day.

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PerfAction#1: The Rock (1996)

PerfAction is a new series designed solely to gush unashamedly about, you guessed it, perfect goddamn action films.

First up, a flick that should have been the start of something great for Michael Bay, but ended up the tallest peak in a rapidly depressed (but wealthy) career…

The Rock
Dir: Michael Bay
Original Release Date: 7 June 1996

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Review: Listen to Me Marlon

Stevan Riley’s deconstruction of Marlon Brando, courtesy of Marlon Brando, is probably the best documentary of the year.

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Podcast: The Punch Up, Ep.7 – ‘200 Dollars’

The Punch Up is a brand new weekly film & television podcast broadc​asting from the laaaazy west coast city of Vancouver, Canada.

Featuring regulars Phill Bartlett, Adam Blair, and yours truly, Nicholas Lay, the chaps and I will be covering regular news, reviews, previews, and retrospect from the world of the reel.

Put ’em up!

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Ep. 7 – ‘200 Dollars’ 

This week on The Punch Up, the chaps get angsty at Colin Trevorrow’s appointment as director of Star Wars Ep. IX. On the review front, we take a look at Don Hertzfeldt’s depressing animated feature, It’s Such a Beautiful Day, dark anime classic, Grave of the Fireflies, some overrated horror in the form of The Babadook, HBO’s new series, Show Me A Hero, Batman follow up animation, The Dark Knight Returns, and Italian Academy Award winner, La Grande Bellezza. ‘Sucker Punched’ returns also, with in-depth chat re: 3 doozies, Sam Mendes’ Tom Hanks leading gangster flick, Road to Perdition, Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro’s creepy black comedy classic, The King of Comedy, and one the greatest films you’ve never heard of, 1973’s Paper Moon.

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Podcast: The Punch Up, Ep.6 – ‘TD S2: The Review’

The Punch Up is a brand new weekly film & television podcast broadc​asting from the laaaazy west coast city of Vancouver, Canada.

Featuring regulars Phill Bartlett, Adam Blair, and yours truly, Nicholas Lay, the chaps and I will be covering regular news, reviews, previews, and retrospect from the world of the reel.

Put ’em up!

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Ep.6 – ‘chadvalcoro@gmail.com’
True Detective S2: The Review 

In this standalone special, The Punch Up crew steadily go the way of Ray as they take a detailed, spoiler-filled look back at Season 2 of HBO’s True Detective, starring Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch. and Vince Vaughn. A straight up review of the feature length finale intertwines with overall standout moments, low points, character analysis, story arc development, Pizzolatto chat, and a general view of the season as a whole. If you managed to sit through 8 episodes of rambling, mumbling, drunken lowlifes, then you may as well do it one more time!

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Podcast: The Punch Up, Ep.5 – ‘Bring A Coat!’

The Punch Up is a brand new weekly film & television podcast broadc​asting from the laaaazy west coast city of Vancouver, Canada.

Featuring regulars Phill Bartlett, Adam Blair, and yours truly, Nicholas Lay, the chaps and I will be covering regular news, reviews, previews, and retrospect from the world of the reel.

Put ’em up!

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Ep.5 – ‘Bring A Coat!’

This week on The Punch Up, the chaps sing the praises of dreamy Tom Cruise and his latest MI flick, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Things get chilly in the The Trailer Park as QT’s The Hateful Eight and HBO’s Show Me A Hero loom into view, while other titles reviewed include Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer’s romantic comedy, Trainwreck, the 2014 romantic dramedy, The One I Love, and the hit adult animated comedy, Rick & Morty.

*Stream or download now at soundcloud*

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SceneKid#12: “Me…”

Robert De Niro and Robin Williams (and Randy Newman) cause me to cry. A lot. 

Awakenings
Dir: Penny Marshall
Original Release Date: 22 December 1990

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Podcast: The Punch Up, Ep.4 – ‘A Straight-to-Internet Release’

The Punch Up is a brand new weekly film & television podcast broadc​asting from the laaaazy west coast city of Vancouver, Canada.

Featuring regulars Phill Bartlett, Adam Blair, and yours truly, Nicholas Lay, the chaps and I will be covering regular news, reviews, previews, and retrospect from the world of the reel.

Put ’em up!

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Ep.4 – ‘A Straight-to-Internet Release’

This week on The Punch Up, the chaps bite off more than they can chew as they tear apart the rotten carcass of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride during Sucker Punched. Things get a bit misty eyed as the emotional, not-talked-about-as-much-as-it-should-be De Niro/Williams true story, Awakenings, also features, as does Roman Polanski’s influential 1968 horror classic, Rosemary’s Baby. General reviews include Alex Garland’s marvelous sci-fi/thirller, Ex Machina, Hayao Miyazaki’s 2013 anime war tale, The Wind Rises, and John Woo’s hit-and-miss Mission Impossible 2, before one of us drunkenly fell asleep during True Detective, cutting things a tad short(er)…

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Podcast: The Punch Up, Ep.3 – ‘Short Changed’

The Punch Up is a brand new weekly film & television podcast broadc​asting from the laaaazy west coast city of Vancouver, Canada.

Featuring regulars Phill Bartlett, Adam Blair, and yours truly, Nicholas Lay, the chaps and I will be covering regular news, reviews, previews, and retrospect from the world of the reel.

Put ’em up!

Ep.3 – ‘Short Changed’

This week on The Punch Up, the chaps look forward to Marlon Brando on Marlon Brando, before officially making the case for the industry to make a goddam bigger deal of short films. The fall from grace of the mainstream parody genre is traced, from Leslie Neilson to Scary Movie, as is the steady evolution of adult animation series with the recent release of BoJack Horseman. Tig, Aliens, Grease, and While We’re Young also feature, as does a 20th anniversary chat on Larry Clark’s highly controversial flick, Kids. To finish, as always, it’s True Detective spoiler time (s02e06) – a show well and truly stuck in second gear.

*Stream or download now at soundcloud*

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