Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Grips with both hands on the wheel

Drive confidently swerves around pigeonholes. Pink scripted credits, seemingly plucked from an 80s billboard, burn over opening shots of the LA skyline, right before plunging into a tense getaway that would make Michael Mann grin from ear to ear. The protagonist — whose proper name is never revealed throughout the entire flick — barely speaks [...]

Making the most of a bad situation

Cancer is poor topic for a comedy, but then again, humor has always served as tent pole for those suffocating under grief. 50/50 also isn’t your generic, “let’s get edgy” script, because its writer Will Reiser was actually diagnosed with spine cancer, and his real life friend, Seth Rogan, actually stood by him through the [...]

The whole Bondchilada

MGM has announced the mother of all boxed sets in celebration of 50 years of James Bond wooing women, breaking gadgets, and thwarting global disaster on the silver screen. Never before have all 22 films been available in high definition Blu-ray and compiled into one epic collectors item that’s truly a must have for any [...]

Unique films, everyday low prices

Here’s a nice concept for the cinephile. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a service, like Netflix or Hulu, that pooled and sent you (or that you could choose from) great independent films to discover and watch — all for just a few bucks? Well, there is. It’s called Prescreen, a start-up video-on-demand platform [...]

The wrong kind of touchy-feely

Contagion is a germophobe’s worst nightmare. Director Steven Soderbergh and his usual team tackle a well-worn niche, ploughed by titles like Outbreak, to create a pandemic horror story that will leave most viewers running to stockpile Purell and hesitant to enter airports. Much of its success comes from a grounded depiction of how the world’s [...]

Back in time with no DeLorean in sight

Midnight in Paris features plenty of Woody Allen trademarks, while avoiding many of the quirks that have irritated us about his work in the past. “Pair-eee” has rarely looked so good in a film and leaves viewers pining to hop a plane to de Gaulle as soon as the credits roll. The cast boasts a [...]

A foreign masterpiece in 1080p

When it comes to Brazilian cinema, it doesn’t get any bigger than City of God. After its release in 2002, the outstanding film based on true events quickly stormed the international film community, grabbing four academy award nominations in the process thanks to its raw depiction of life in the slums of the notorious Rio [...]

Date-approved, yet still enjoyable

Despite what the posters say, Our Idiot Brother is less of a roll-on-the-floor-comedy, and more of a feel-good-indie. That doesn’t mean you won’t laugh out loud while watching though (the parole officer conversations and an attempted threesome are particularly rich moments). Loaded with generation X stars including Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones [...]

Small town sci-fi with plenty of laughs

While Steven Spielberg has been busy wearing in his boots as the bankroller of nearly every mega-budget Sci-Fi production over the last few years, we’ve personally missed him behind the camera. Thankfully, J.J. Abrams has been methodically honing his Spielberg impersonation skills with each passing film he’s directed. Super 8 was certainly his best outing [...]

Love Hurts

Bellflower is the debut film by Evan Glodell, who in many ways exhibits hints of both a young James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino. Like “the king of the world”, Glodell has a love for the mechanical — he built his own specialized camera to film Bellflower, as well as many of the movie’s ridiculous anarchist [...]

Beautiful or Befuddled?

Terrance Malick’s fifth film The Tree of Life ($25) is a strange beast, to say the least. At Cannes, it was booed by some during its press screening, but went on to take the Palme d’Or. Established reviewers split in a similar fashion, with some crowning it as a profound and moving exploration of human [...]

There's epic miniseries, and then there's this

Two epic miniseries, in 1080p, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, in one limited edition box set. That about sums up the Band of Brothers & Pacific Blu-ray Box Set ($135) which is slated to hit shelves on November 8th. Whether you’ve caught the occasional re-run on the History Channel, or missed these series [...]

Boxed-In

When you get the money, then you get the $700 limited edition Scarface Blu-ray. Then, when you get the power and Blu-ray, then you get the women. That’s probably not the exact curriculum of the Tony Montana life coaching system, but we’re pretty sure he’d still splurge on this ridiculous version of Brian De Palma’s [...]

Like Netflix for Movie Theaters

MoviePass is a brand new startup hoping to revolutionize the way film addicts get their regular dose o’ big screen. For $50 bucks a month, clients can enjoy an unlimited number of movies. Everything works via an app, which is available for both Android and iOS users. Through it, users can reserve seats and simply [...]

It's All in the Pix

You all know the lines, scenes and what Shooter eats for breakfast, but for more than a decade, anyone hoping for a rage-fueled trip through the PGA circa 1996 has had to put up with standard def. The wait is over starting tomorrow. Yup, Adam Sandler’s instant-classic Happy Gilmore ($20) has finally received a 1080p [...]