Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January, 2016

Kevin Watt versus Horace & Pete

Louis CK recently announced an extended hiatus from his popular show Louie. Then, out of the blue, he posts a link on his website ( louisck.net ) for a download titled Horace & Pete for $5.00 with his unglowing recommendation "Go here to watch it. We hope you like it." No word about the show, just a shot in the dark. I decided to watch and see what the mystery is all about. Horace & Pete is the name of a bar that has survived over 100 years run by Horace (Louis CK) and a Pet e (Steve Buscemi). The plot centres around the everyday and the mundane of bar life and friendship delivered thorough an amazing all-star cast including Steve Wright, Jessica Lange, Alan Alda, Edie Falco, and who knows who else is to come.

Deadpool PSA encourages men to touch their balls

Yup, you read that right. The Merc with a Mouth, AKA Deadpool, wants men to touch their balls. I mean, really get in there. But it's all for a good cause. Because the manner of ball touching Deadpool talks about in the very clever PSA below is in the name of preventing testicular cancer.

Bigfoot is back in Valley of the Sasquatch

If The Lost Coast Tapes, Willow Creek and Exists proved anything, it's audiences -- at least horror audiences -- are into bigfoot. And why not? The legend is ripe for film adaptation. And the woods are a perfect setting for a scary movie. Big hairy monster in the woods. What's not to like. Not a question. A statement.

Jason versus The X-Files Season 10, Ep. 1

I loved The X-Files before it was popular. I loved the show for a good five years. Then, like all TV series, it ran out of steam long before it actually ended. And I loved the idea of bringing Mulder and Scully back for a six-episode event to wrap-up loose ends. So did I love the first episode of the new X-Files, and do I look forward to seeing the next five? Stick with me!

Kevin Watt versus The Boy (2016)

The Boy is the latest chiller thriller by director William Brent Bell known for such horror classics as… okay, well he is not known for anything but he directed The Devil Inside (2012) and Stay Alive (2006) which I vaguely remember seeing. The Boy stars Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead fame and Rupert Evans from every show ever filmed in the UK. Together they are joined by a china doll named Brahms and if you treat him good, he will treat you good. And if you treat him bad…

Stung, dead musicians and 10 Cloverfield Lane

Jason, Shawn and Amy are back for their first podcast of 2016! And they have filled it to the brim with the great taste of . . . Wait, that's a coffee ad. But this podcast IS fully loaded with all things entertainment, including the first official review From The Basement since the Basement Dwellers returned.

Mike S and his tweets versus Hancock

Remember when Will Smith was somebody? OK, he's still SOMEBODY, but there was a time when he was the biggest movie star on the planet and, if his name was attached to a flick, it pretty much guaranteed box-office success. 2008's Hancock was one of the movies made in heyday of Will Smith's popularity, and before superhero movies became all the rage. It's a dark comedy that plays within the genre while having fun at its expense. And Charlize Theron is in it. 'Nuff said.

Beware The Boy in this final trailer

STX Entertainment's The Boy comes out just two days from now, but I hadn't seen a lick of footage until this final trailer hit earlier today. That's right, there's been more than one trailer for this movie, and I'm just getting around to talking about the flick. Two days before it comes out.

Who knows what evil lurks on What Movie Wednesday?

We here in The Basement do, because we're the ones charged with letting you know what flicks you can vote for at the stroke of midnight. That's right, YOU decided what movie our Mad Twit Mike S will tweet along too tomorrow night. In fact, last Wednesday's voting ended in a tie, so he had to tweet along to two movies.

So, a Star Wars/Avengers crossover?

Stan Lee, the mastermind behind Marvel Comics and the Marvel brand, seems to think an epic crossover between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas could happen. Suffice to say, Stan Lee has quite the imagination!

Jay talks movies and box office on big city radio

Shawn and I are no strangers to the radio, but today was a Basement first as I was invited to talk movies with veteran newshound Shane Woodford on the CKNW News Talk 980 afternoon show. Sure, I've talked such things on local radio many a time, but CKNW is THE place for news and current events in Vancouver. You know, Vancouver? Gateway to the Pacific? The Big Smoke? Where The X-Files, Millennium and countless other Hollywood movies and TV shows were made? Big city, lots of people?

Will Darth Vader appear in Rogue One?

That is certainly the rumour circulating the Interwebs these days. Yup, for those who thought we'd seen the last of the Dark Lord of the Sith, think again. Darth Vader will be back! Word is Vader appears in the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which follows the exploits of the Rebel group that stole the plans for the original Death Star, therefor allowing Luke Skywalker to blow it up.

Kevin Watt versus Creed

I’ve been putting off watching Creed for quite some time. I was not really a fan of the original Rocky movie and I have not seen any of the many sequels but I read Jason’s stellar review and 10 minutes later I had Creed on the screen so I could experience this masterpiece for myself. But it appears Jason and I must have watched a different movie or maybe he’s had one too many left hooks to the noggin. To me Creed is a Nestle’s Tollhouse Cookie. It is good but it is very old fashioned; it follows a recipe and requires a cookie cutter to make the finished product. There is nothing of the 120 minutes that is not predictable every step of the way. The dialogue is platitudes and motivational poster taglines mixed in with some schmaltz. Originality was KO’d from the opening scene.

Jason versus Creed

I'm not going to waste a lot of time with my thoughts on Creed, because that would be pointless. Was I skeptical about another entry in the Rocky series, let alone a spinoff featuring the son of Apollo Creed? Yes. Did I think the world needed this movie? No. Was I proven wrong? Stick with me!

RIP Alan Rickman

The great Alan Rickman passed away today from cancer. He was 69. A lot of Basementites know Rickman from his role as Severus Snape from the Harry Potter movies, but us olderish fans remember him best for his series of memorable villains from the late 80s and early 90s. Most notable, of course, are Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Amber Heard set for Aquaman, Justice League

My interest in the DC Cinematic Universe, or whatever they are gonna call it, just increased by a wide margin. Why? Because one of my all-time favourite screen hotties -- Amber Heard -- is in talks to join Batfleck and company in a number of upcoming movies inspired by DC Comics.

Jay's Top 5 of 2015

You may recall we only Top 5s here in The Basement. Why? Because, when crunched for time on live radio, it was quicker to get five list items in then 10. Hence, Shawn and I have always listed off five of things instead of 10s. It's just that simple. While everyone else has a Top 10 list of best movies from the last year, I have five. This is good as I didn't even get to see a fraction of what came out in 2015. Partly due to time, partly due to money, and partly due to a lack of interest.

If fear has a name . . . it's What Movie Wednesday

That right ladies and germs, guys and ghouls, it's almost that time again. And that time is almost What Movie Wednesday! Every Wednesday night, long-time Basement contributor Mike S takes to his  @TerrorCorner Twitter account and tweets along to a horror movie. And YOU get to tell him what movie to tweet along too.

OMG! We're in a Horror Movie!

Why come up with a headline when that's legitimately the title for an upcoming movie. OMG! We're in a Horror Movie! It doesn't get much better than that. And indeed, OMG! We're in a Horror Movie! is an upcoming horror/comedy in the vein of Scream, Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil and The Final Girls, where scares and self-referential humour blend with (hopefully) entertaining results.

Kevin Watt versus The Last Witch Hunter

Vin Diesel, top graduate from the Keanu Reeves School of Stilted Acting, returned this past Halloween in The Last Witch Hunter. In the genre of supernatural action adventure this movie stands alongside, and holds it’s own, with movies like Priest (2011) and Vampires (1998). And while this movie was destroyed by critics, and lost buckets of money at the box office, for Vin Diesel fans it is a must see.

Jason versus Bone Tomahawk

2015 was the year of the Kurt Russell Western. Not only was the legendary actor back on the big screen with a vengeance, he played a cowboy in two very diverse films set in the old west. One of my favourite actors starring in one of my favourite genres. Bliss. Granted, neither The Hateful Eight nor Bone Tomahawk are straight-up Westerns. And their appeal beyond a limited fanbase might be, well, limited. But The Hateful Eight is one of my favourite films of 2015. So where does Bone Tomahawk fit into the mix? Stick with me.

Jessica Alba and Thomas Jane's The Veil gets a trailer

It's been a long while since we heard anything about the upcoming supernatural mystery/thriller The Veil. Then all of a sudden a trailer appears, which makes sense as the flick opens next month. You remember The Veil? It's from Blumhouse Productions, who pretty much own the horror industry at the moment, and stars hottie Jessica Alba and former Punisher Thomas Jane. OK, you're up to speed.

Who's Cooler: Samuel L. Jackson or Liam Neeson?

New contributor Cameron Sullivan introduces himself to The Basement with a feature column comparing the great talents of Samuel L. Jackson and Liam Neeson. But who does he think is cooler? Stick with us!

The Conjuring 2 trailer brings you fear

I honestly couldn't think of a better headline than that. Almost went with ". . . brings you British fear," but thought better of it. Whatever. What is important is the trailer for James Wan's sequel to the 2013 horror smash The Conjuring landed online today, and it's a doozy. As in effective and scary. Yeah, it's time to log off. My creative writing skills just aren't working for me.

Mike S and his tweets return

That's right, our own Mad Twit is once again out of his Corner of Terror and ready to tweet along to some movies, Basement style! What is Basement-style tweeting? Well, if you didn't follow his tweet-a-longs to our live radio show on 92.5 FM The X, or his weekly Twitter escapades on our  @camethebasement account a couple of years ago, you are about to find out.

Batman V Superman V Daredevil

UPDATED! Marvel officially announced today (Thursday, Jan. 7)  that Daredevil Season 2 will launch on Friday, March 18. That's one week before Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. And I will still pick it over the DC flick any day! And now the original story: The wait is over for fans of Marvel's Daredevil series on Netflix. Kinda. In the sense that we now know when Season 2 debuts on the streaming services. And Marvel is showing some stones by releasing it against one of the year's most anticipated movies.

Jason versus Spotlight

OK, a true story about investigative journalism doesn't sound like The Basement's usual pint of ale. But we ARE now about ALL things entertainment, so I figured chiming in on this much buzzed about bit of awards fodder wouldn't be such a bad idea. Besides, I really wanted to see it. Wanna fight about it? Didn't think so. So does Spotlight deserve all its praise? Good acting? Directing? Story? All that other pretentious bullshit? Hmmm? Stick with me!

Uwe Boll returns with Anger

Anger of the Dead that is. And the schlockmeister isn't lending his directorial chops to this, the latest foray in a seemingly never-ending slew of zombie everything. Remember when vampires were all the rage? Me too. Now it's zombies. Even my kid is into zombies, which isn't a bad thing for a four year old to be into I guess. But I'm digressing.