Catching Up On Cinema

In the final installment of Catching Up On Cinema's Sports Movie Month, Kyle and Trevor get in the cage to review Gavin O'Connor's, Warrior (2011)!

Starring Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Nick Nolte in an Academy Award nominated performance, the film tells the gritty tale of a broken family that is inexplicably reunited during the events of a high-stakes mixed martial arts tournament.

Possessed of some truly great acting performances, the film is nevertheless somewhat clunkily written, and not particularly well shot or edited when the action inevitably shifts from verbal to outright physical sparring.

Probably the best serious movie about MMA, the film is an above-average sports drama, though far inferior to the director's earlier effort, Miracle (2004).

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In this week's installment of Catching Up On Cinema's Sports Movie Month, Trevor introduces Kyle to Ryoo Seung-wan's boxing drama, Crying Fist (2005)!

A hitting hitting, dual perspective narrative following the exploits of a washed up amateur boxer (Choi Min-sik) and young, hardscrabble street tough (Ryoo Seung-bum), the film is an exceptional and unconventional sports drama.

Equal parts depressing and uplifting, the film is bolstered by a pair of truly outstanding performances from it's pair of lead actors, both in their ability to emote and carry the drama of the film, but also in their ability to ably perform the incredibly brutal and realistic boxing sequences.

Highly recommended if you're able to find a way to watch it.

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The Super Bowl has come and gone, but Catching Up On Cinema's Sports Movie Month continues!

In this week's installment, Kyle and Trevor review Oliver Stone's, Any Given Sunday (1999)!

Starring Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz and host of other familiar faces, the film is an edgy and scintillating examination of (non-NFL affiliated) professional football.

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February is Sports Movie Month at Catching Up On Cinema!

This month we'll reviewing films that center around some of our favorite sports.

First up, Kyle introduces Trevor to the sport of wrestling via Harold Becker's Vision Quest (1985)!

Starring a young Matt Modine as standout varsity wrestler (from Spokane, WA!) Louden Swain, the film is a coming of age tale based on a novel by the same name.

While the story is more precisely centered on the development and human drama of a young man during a pivotal moment in his life, the film is nevertheless a very effective sports drama, with much of the wrestling training and choreography having a grit and roughness to it that is rare in film, especially at the time of it's release.

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It's once again time for Catching Up On Cinema's monthly Catching Up On Blu-Ray episode!

This time around, Trevor is once again joined by his good friend Brad from the Cinema Speak podcast in reviewing the month's physical media releases.

Check out Brad's podcast, Cinema Speak on Libsyn at Cinema Speak, or on Twitter and Instagram.

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In the final installment of Catching Up On Cinema's Video Game Movie Month, Kyle and Trevor once again invite Kyle's brother Nik to assist them in reviewing John R. Leonetti's, Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997)!

Featuring Robin Shou and Talisa Soto as the only 2 returning cast members from the first film, MK Annihilation is a lackluster sequel that utterly fails to measure up to the charm and visual flair of the original.

Overstuffed with lazy and inaccurate renditions of the franchises' core characters, the film is perhaps most noteworthy for it's meme worthy, cringe inducing dialogue, and absolutely horrendous (and overutilized) CGI character animation.

Good for a laugh with friends, the film is otherwise without value outside of serving as an early showcase for the talents of future stunt kings Ray Park and JJ Perry.

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In this installment of Catching Up On Cinema's Video Game Movie Month, Kyle and Trevor are joined by SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero from the SNEScapades podcast in reviewing Super Mario Bros. (1993)!

Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the film is the first live-action video game feature film.

A historically troubled production, resulting in most of the cast and crew having nothing but awful things to say about the directors, the film is (unsurprisingly) a grossly uneven experience from start to finish.

With solid sets and production design, as well as state of the art morphing effects and animatronic puppetry, the film occasionally springs to life on a purely visual level, but ultimately fails to engage.

Check out SteampunkLink and Emmy Zero on SNEScapades at HonestPirahna.com , Anchor , or reach out to Link on Twitter @SNEScapades .

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It's once again time for Catching Up On Cinema's monthly Tales From the Shelf episode!

In this installment, the first of 2021, Trevor is once again joined by Brad of the Cinema Speak podcast for a segment the latter has dubbed:

The DVDumpster.

Potentially Brad's least favorite physical media format, the 2 collectors spend roughly an hour and a half going back and forth sharing some of the WORST DVDs in their respective collections.

Check out Brad's podcast, Cinema Speak on Libsyn at Cinema Speak, or on Twitter and Instagram.

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In this week's installment of Catching Up On Cinema's Video Game Movie Month, Kyle and Trevor are once again joined by Matt in reviewing Steven E. de Souza's Street Fighter (1994)!

An energetic, albeit loose; adaptation of the wildly popular Capcom fighting game series, the film often bears a stronger resemblance to Hasbro's G.I. Joe franchise rather than it's source material.

A fairly handsome and surprisingly well structured film in spite of a producer's mandate requiring all 16(!) of the playable characters from the game being featured in it, the movie's legacy finds it resting securely in the "not bad" category of video game films.

Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme at the height of his box office appeal (and cocaine habit), and Raul Julia, in his final performance before his untimely death, the film ultimately serves as a poor exhibition of the former's talents, and a memorable and bombastic farewell for the latter.

Make sure to check out Matt's "book club for videogames" podcast, Couch Co-Op!

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January 2021 is "Video Game Movie Month" at Catching Up On Cinema!

First up this month, Kyle and Trevor are joined by Orion in reviewing Christophe Gans', Silent Hill (2006)!

A passion project for the French director, the film is a live-action adaptation of the Konami video game series of the same name.

Featuring cinematography, design elements, and even music lifted directly from many of the games, the film is a rare example of a video game movie that goes to great lengths to remain true to its source material.

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