Page 185 of 790

Blu Tuesday: The Flash, Arrow and More

September 22, 2015 / Jason Zingale

Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on Facebook and Twitter with your friends.

“The Flash: The Complete First Season”

WHAT: When Central City forensic investigator Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) gains super-human speed after he’s struck by electricity during a failed science experiment, he teams up with Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) and his two assistants – Dr. Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) and Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) – to stop criminals and other “metahumans” created from the explosion who don’t use their powers for good.

WHY: The idea of a “Flash” TV series didn’t sound very promising when the Barry Allen character was initially introduced in the second season of “Arrow,” but co-creator Greg Bertlanti quickly proved me wrong by delivering an immensely enjoyable (and much lighter) superhero drama that only got better as the season progressed. Much like its sister show, “The Flash” thrives primarily due to its awesome ensemble; everyone has a purpose, and they all bounce off one another incredibly well. Grant Gustin is perfectly cast as the titular hero, Tom Cavanagh handles the dual role of mentor and villain with ease, and Carlos Valdes provides great comic relief as the Q-like inventor/superhero expert of the group. Even the villains aren’t nearly as cheesy as they could have been, with Cavanagh’s Reverse-Flash, Wentworth Miller’s Captain Cold and Mark Hamill’s return as the Trickster among the standouts. The romantic subplot between Barry and childhood friend Iris West (Candice Patton) suffers from the same problems that plagued the first season of “Arrow” (namely, it’s just not as interesting as the superhero stuff), but “Flash” makes up for it with some sci-fi heavy mythology that isn’t afraid of alienating viewers by leaning on its comic book roots.

EXTRAS: The Blu-ray release includes an audio commentary by executive producers Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg on the pilot episode, four production featurettes, footage from DC Comics Night at Comic-Con 2014, deleted scenes and a gag reel.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

“Arrow: The Complete Third Season”

WHAT: After defeating Slade Wilson and being accepted as a hero by the citizens of Starling City, Oliver Queen/The Arrow (Stephen Amell) struggles to keep his family together while facing off against a terrible new threat in the form of Ra’s al Ghul (Matthew Nable). Meanwhile, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) assumes the mantle of Black Canary after Sara is brutally murdered, Thea (Willa Holland) begins her training under Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), and Queen Consolidated is taken over by wealthy businessman/aspiring hero Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh).

WHY: Despite making some huge strides in its sophomore year, “Arrow” suffered a bit of a slump during Season Three due to a number of factors. Though the superhero drama has had a problem maintaining the same level of energy and quality over the course of each 22-episode season, it’s especially noticeable here, in large part because the accompanying flashback storyline (which trades the deserted island setting for Hong Kong) isn’t very compelling. Additionally, the show’s insistence on making nearly everyone in Oliver’s life a crime-fighting member of Team Arrow not only defies logic (there’s no way Laurel, Roy and Thea got that good in such a short amount of time), but gives Oliver less to do as a result. Laurel, in particular, is so lame as the new Black Canary that it’s almost as if the writers were trying to find ways to make her character even more annoying. Thankfully, Season Three isn’t a complete disaster. The group dynamic remains one of its best assets, the crossover episodes with the Flash are a lot of fun, and both Brandon Routh and Matthew Nable prove strong additions to the cast. “Arrow” doesn’t play to its strengths as often as it should, but when it does, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better comic book show on TV, other than “The Flash,” of course.

EXTRAS: The four-disc set includes a pair of audio commentaries by executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle, featurettes on costume and production design, a behind-the-scenes look at the Atom’s first fight, deleted scenes and a gag reel.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

Entertainment, Movies, Television

Four essential car additions for car lovers

September 22, 2015 / Bullz-Eye Staff

Many see driving as a convenient way to get from A to B but for motoring enthusiasts driving is so much more than that. If you’re a true petrol head you’ll always be looking for ways to get more from the world of driving.

There are dozens of ingenious little additions you can make to your motor. While many of them may not exactly set the pulse racing, they do significantly improve the driving experience. Here are four car additions every driver needs.

Lifestyle

car lovers

Drink of the Week: The Boulevardier avec Punt e Mes

September 18, 2015 / Bob Westal

The Boulevardier, which hails from Paris (where else?), has been featured here before, but it is less well known than its very close Italian relative, the Negroni. You won’t find it in as many of the classic cocktail books — it doesn’t appear in Dale DeGroff’s “The Craft of the Cocktail,” nor Robert Hess’s “The Essential Bartender’s Guide,” nor even Harry Craddock’s epochal 1930 tome, “The Savoy Cocktail Book,” but it certainly has its fans. Indeed a frequent drinking companion has long been championing the Boulevardier over the Negroni, I myself was inclined to give it a slightly lesser standing. That changed, however, with my current interest, as described in last week’s Negroni post, in substituting standard sweet vermouth with it’s Amaro-esque cousin, Punt e Mes in classic cocktails.

What I found was that switching out the very bittersweet, borderline chocolatey flavor of Punt e Mes with the more straight up, sweet-winey flavor of regular red vermouth, produces a drink that — at least some of the time — can be almost celestial in its deliciousness and which, at worst, remains a reliably pleasing concoction. Let’s give it a whirl.

The Boulevardier avec Punt e Mes

1 1/2 ounces rye or bourbon whiskey
1 ounce Punt e Mes
1 ounce Campari
1 cocktail cherry or orange peel (desirable garnish)

Combine the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker or, if you’re so inclined, a mixing glass. Add plenty of ice, shake or, if you’re so inclined, stir. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and add your garnish. As with the Negroni, you can strain this in a rocks glass with fresh ice, if you really want to, but I’m not particularly recommending it.

****

Most versions of the Boulevardier call for bourbon, but I’d steer clear of the sweeter expressions — my least favorite version of this included Maker’s Mark, which I’m ordinarily pretty fond of. Instead, using Bulleit Rye yielded a full-bodied blend of very sweet, very bitter, and just plain very good flavors. On the other hand, using a slightly less sweet bourbon like Michtner’s yielded a very nice result, so I’m not issuing any clear dogmas on the bourbon vs. rye question here. You can always split the difference and try this with a Canadian whiskey. Both Alberta Dark Rye and good ol’ Canadian Club were just dandy.

There are, of course, other variations. You can definitely play with your proportions if you like. The original Boulevardier called for equal proportions of all three ingredients and a lot of more recent versions are more whiskey-heavy. Try them all, I say. This drink can definitely withstand some experimentation.

Indeed, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the cocktailing trenches, it’s that there’s no perfect drink, and something that might send your tastebuds into the ecstatic stratosphere one night, might merit a far less enthusiastic response the next — even when you’re using the same ingredients and following the same procedure. Still, combining Punt e Mes, Campari, and whiskey seems about as repeatable a formula for boozey success as you’re likely to find.

Food & Drink, Lifestyle, Vices

cocktails Drink of the Week Happy Hour Punt e Mes the Boulevardier the Negroni

Movie Review: “Black Mass”

September 17, 2015 / Jason Zingale

Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemmons, David Harbour, Kevin Bacon

Scott Cooper

There was a time when Johnny Depp could seemingly do no wrong, but in recent years, he’s mistaken that goodwill for the freedom to do whatever the hell he wants, and it hasn’t really worked out in his favor. Not counting cameos and animated voice work, it’s been a while since Depp delivered a genuinely good performance. (You’d have to go all the way back to 2009’s “Public Enemies,” in which he played another famous gangster, John Dillinger.) But the actor finally stops the rot with his turn as the menacing Whitey Bulger in “Black Mass,” and though it isn’t exactly Oscar worthy, it’s just nice to see him back doing what he does best: creating complex, memorable characters instead of broadly painted caricatures.

The movie opens in 1975 as small-time criminal Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger (Depp) begins to make a name for himself in South Boston with the help of his Winter Hill Gang, including trusted right-hand man Steve Flemmi (Rory Cochrane), hitman John Martorano (W. Earl Brown) and muscle Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemmons). When one of Whitey’s old childhood friends, FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), returns to Boston to clean up the streets by bringing down the Italian mafia, he suggests that Whitey become his informant – a mutually beneficial business arrangement that would allow John to get rid of the mob and give Whitey free reign over the city. But as John struggles to cover up Whitey’s growing criminal empire, he unknowingly places himself in the FBI’s crosshairs when his superiors begin to question how Whitey continues to get away with murder, sometimes quite literally.

Entertainment, Movie Reviews, Movies

Joel Edgerton Johnny Depp

Movie Review: “Everest”

September 17, 2015 / Jack Giroux

Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright, John Hawkes, Michael Kelly

Baltasar Kormákur

It’s really not surprising that “Everest” is from the director of “2 Guns” and “Contraband.” A true-life story about survival may seem outside of Baltasar Kormákur’s wheelhouse, but that’s not the case. “Everest” is just as competently made as the director’s two action thrillers, and yet strangely, it’s also as emotionally distant and perfunctory.

“Everest” should be a harrowing story about survival, ambition and the human spirit, but it’s really none of those things, only ever scratching the surface of the story. The film follows a group of climbers as they set out to reach the top of Mount Everest. The team consists mostly of strangers, including the leaders of the expedition, Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), as well as Texan Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin), Doug Hanson (John Hawkes) and more. As Hall points out, humans aren’t built to survive the conditions of Mount Everest, especially once Death Valley is reached, so it’s a dangerous decision in the first place – one made only more dangerous when a brutal and violent storm hits as the team ascends the mountain.

That’s all there is to “Everest”: they go up the mountain, something awful happens, and that’s it. That’s as far as Simon Beaufoy and William Nicholson’s script goes. What’s funny is that they’ve both written survivalist stories before: Beaufoy penned “127 Hours,” while Nicholson wrote last year’s “Unbroken.” “Everest,” unfortunately, is more like Angelina Jolie’s film, showing us a series of events without much meaning. There are a handful of emotional moments, but unlike “127 Hours,” there’s very little exploration. In one scene, the members of the group are asked why they’re climbing Mount Everest, and we’re given fairly basic explanations for such a complex and dangerous desire. We rarely see these motivations unfold or depicted on the mountain.

Entertainment, Movie Reviews, Movies

Jake Gyllenhaal Jason Clarke Josh Brolin Keira Knightley