Tag: EpochTV Reviews

Cinema Film Review: ‘Finding Manny’

NR | 57m | Documentary | 2020 Manny Drukier narrowly escaped his demise during World War II by jumping from a “death train” as a teenager and managing to find refuge at a home for orphans. Produced by Long Trek Home Productions, the 2020 Holocaust documentary, “Finding Manny,” is the almost hour-long real-life story of…


Cinema Film Review: ‘Apollo 11’

NR | 53m | Documentary | 2019   Filmmaker Steven C. Barber has been on a patriotic and inspirational tear over the last decade and a half or so, with standout films such as 2009’s “Unbeaten,” and 2015’s “Return to the Philippines, the Leon Cooper Story.” So, it wasn’t much of a surprise to learn…


Cinema Film Review: ‘Never Surrender: The Ed Ramsey Story’

NR | 1h 10m | Documentary | 2016   Like many World War II biographical films, “Never Surrender: The Ed Ramsey Story” is an extraordinarily riveting production that covers uncommon valor in the face of danger and potential death. However, one of the elements that make this one even more unique is not only the…


Cinema Film Review: ‘Until They Are Home’

NR | 1h 6m | Documentary | 2012 From the outset, I could tell that this would be a gut-wrenching film to watch. The filmmakers meet with former U.S. Marine (USMC) Eddy Albert at his Los Angeles home to interview him. Despite being senile and having a hard time hearing, Albert modestly describes his wartime…


Cinema Film Review: ‘Unbeaten’

TV-G | 1h 20m | Documentary, Action, Adventure | 2009 Award-winning documentary filmmaker Steven C. Barber has made quite a name for himself by cinematically illustrating the lives of very inspirational people, with films such as “Return to Tarawa: The Leon Cooper Story (2009)” and “Until They Are Home (2012).” But perhaps his most humanistic…


Cinema Film Review: ‘Return to the Philippines, the Leon Cooper Story’

1 h 5m | Documentary | 2015   You don’t see a lot of narrative films that cover the many lesser-known battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II. But fortunately, there are some great documentaries out there, such as 2015’s “Return to the Philippines, the Leon Cooper Story,” that shed some light on…


Cinema Film Review: ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Paper Route’

58m | Documentary | 2021   It doesn’t matter what branch of the United States Armed Forces you’re in; being assigned overseas can make you yearn for home…badly. Especially if you’re a young buck and it’s your first time being far away from home. Being in a combat zone on top of that can exacerbate…


Cinema Film Review: ‘No Time to Run’

1h 35m | Drama, Sci-Fi | 2020 As I watched the credits roll at the end of director Eric Williams’s well-made drama “No Time to Run,” I realized that I couldn’t recall a film that so accurately captured the tumultuous gestalt of our modern times. It encapsulates many of the issues that are not only…


Cinema Film Review: ‘Sparks: The Ken Sparks Story’

1h 28m | Biography, Documentary | 2022 “Put God first, and the rest will fall into place. Leave God out, and you lose, even if you manage to win once in a while.” Those words crystalize not only legendary football coach Ken Sparks’s coaching philosophy, but also his prescription for a way of living one’s…


Cinema Film Review: ‘The Colonel’s Playbook’

1h 2m | Biography, Documentary | 2021 Back in 1961, a well-to-do group of parents in the Fort Worth area put their heads together in order to figure out how to prepare their kids for Ivy League universities. These discussions led to the concept of a private preparatory school in the area that would facilitate…