Author: BO

The horror genre has a nasty habit of repeating itself, with productions rabidly pouncing on trends, churning out product until a concept dies from exhaustion. Zombie entertainment is big business these days, leaving the producers of “The Returned” all the opportunity in the world to cough up a lazy chapter in the ongoing saga of the undead. Instead, some imagination takes hold, submitting a tale that’s not precisely about the details of the plague, but how average citizens avoid transformation into ghouls through the power of medicine and commitment. “The Returned” doesn’t overwhelm, but it manages a smart tone of dread mixed with panic, reviving stale elements by attacking the subject matter from an unusual point of view. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it didn’t make much of an impact during its American release in 2012, “Easy Money” was a sensation in its native Sweden, conquering the box office with its vision of suspense and class desperation, using style and violence to turn an age-old tale of ambition into something exciting. Two sequels have been produced to continue the story, with “Easy Money: Hard to Kill” assuming “The Empire Strikes Back” role in this unexpected trilogy, torching structure and satisfaction to bring the characters to an impossibly low point, thus setting up a rebound scenario for “Easy Money: Life Deluxe” (which currently doesn’t have a U.S. release date). Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s interesting to note that “About Last Night” isn’t an update of David Mamet’s 1974 play, “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.” It’s a remake of the 1986 screenplay adaptation by Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue, making sure to avoid Mametian poison to pattern itself off the original Hollywood take, which starred Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Perkins, and Jim Belushi. It seems strange to go to all this work, rehashing a pleasant but safe take on sexual politics, and unleash four unlikable characters in the process, killing off the potential for a truly eye-opening, frighteningly honest inspection of relationship nuance. It strives to be warm and funny, but “About Last Night” mostly dishes up moldy leftovers from the he said/she said recycle bin. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1987’s “RoboCop” is a special film. A roaring mix of satire and action, the movie is unspeakably violent, slyly scripted, and masterfully crafted by director Paul Verhoeven, who gorged on police procedural pictures and vomited up a hardcore ode to heroism and humanity. For 2014, there’s a remake, a chance to return the iconic character to the screen, bewitching old fans and tempting new. Of course, all the CGI, chaotic action, and screaming characters can’t even begin to match the assertive steamroller experience of the original feature, and while the remake tries to have an identity of its own, it forgets a personality. It’s easy to label the new “RoboCop” a failure, a pale imitation, but the effort makes dismissal painless, coming off as a basic cable production from CNN. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the opening five minutes of “Nurse,” a promise is made by director Douglas Aarniokoski (“The Day”) that the next 70 minutes of the feature will be devoted to an atmosphere of sleaziness so thick and colorfully B-movie, it will be impossible to resist. The promise isn’t kept. As mischievous as “Nurse” is, winding through extended displays of nudity and violence, it’s also surprisingly uneventful, only coming alive when it has ghoulish behavior to detail. Actually, for all the ugliness this effort commits to, it’s surprisingly tasteful, electing to mount a tale of obsession over a more enticing plot concerning a gradual psychological unraveling fueling a twisted vision of heroism. “Nurse” is gruesome, but it’s never nasty. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Perhaps J.K. Rowling should contact her lawyers. “Vampire Academy” is the latest young adult literature adaptation with dreams of becoming the next big screen sensation, spawning sequels and hysteria as it marches into a profitable future. The source material is a six-book series from author Richelle Mead that was first published in 2007, right in the midst of “Harry Potter” mania. The similarities between the franchises are striking, with “Vampire Academy” providing a vague prophecy of purpose for the lead characters, a school for special beings who practice magic, and a revolving door of adult characters with nothing but secrets to share. All that seems to be missing is the butterbeer, but blood will have to do here. A road map and a glossary would’ve been nice to have as well to help navigate through this convoluted mess. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

This production takes the time and effort to hire a group of comedians and habitual improvisational types, and it’s Jean-Claude Van Damme who turns out to be the funniest part of “Welcome to the Jungle.” Going for a workplace-gone-mad comedy, director Rob Meltzer hits more than he misses, though this is surprisingly slack work with a guaranteed premise. The stunt casting of Van Damme is the only true inspiration of the film, asking the normally stoic action star to play silly for a change, bestowing the picture with some surprise as it hits familiar targets. Laughs are present, but “Welcome to the Jungle” could be a tighter production — it merely entertains, and is quickly forgotten. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Lego Movie” is a 100-minute-long commercial for the world-famous building bricks, but it’s marketing executed in a truly inspired manner. Taking advantage of the cinematic possibilities of the construction toy, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller explore a vast realm of color and cartoon snap, creating a boldly designed, stop-motion-style tour of the Lego universe, arriving with a pronounced sense of humor and an unbeatable sense of screen energy. It’s a snappy, amusing picture with a long list of characters to help flavor the film, but its greatest asset is imagination, living up to the promise of Lego play with a charmingly berserk creation that’s wickedly entertaining and effective as a tool to sell more bricks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s no way around it: “The Monuments Men” is flawed work. The latest from George Clooney, who co-scripts, stars, and directs, the picture lacks the firm narrative glue that its deserves, making the film feel like random chapters in a compelling book that’s missing every tenth page. However, many of these chapters are wonderfully executed, brimming with tension and an oddly mournful approach that maintains interest in the wartime quest at hand. Cohesion is missing, but Clooney makes up for the random quality by making moments stick beautifully, blurring the limitations of the feature by treating its working parts so well. “The Monuments Men” can be a frustrating sit, especially when it becomes clear that greatness rests just outside its reach. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“After the Dark” posits provocative questions of survival in the face of certain doom, approaching such quandaries from an academic point of view, establishing a cooler approach to situations of panic and emotion. It’s an interesting picture with a different sense of dramatic conflict, rooted in hypothetical situations instead of realism. However, “After the Dark” doesn’t maintain its intellectual muscle, eventually giving in to a Hollywood mentality that demands a melodramatic arc of obsession to taint the purity of debate. Predictability doesn’t sour the viewing experience, but it does leave a nagging feeling that writer/director John Huddle isn’t pushing hard enough to challenge his audience in a manner that befits the plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Without anyone paying attention, writer/director Brian A. Miller has been amassing a handful of credits in the low-budget, bottom-shelf action movie genre. With “Officer Down” and “House of the Rising Sun,” Miller has demonstrated an interest in the lives of vicious men, emphasizing brutality as a way to cover up the fact that his productions are left with little money to work with and less imagination to cover the seams. “The Outsider” is as nondescript a thriller as they come, trying to merge technological bustle with fist-first screen activity, failing to make any sort of impression as Miller fights to create panic out of nothing, employing a bland leading man and a repetitive sense of violence to snap this snoozer awake. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sex plays an important part in the Mexican horror picture, “Here Comes the Devil.” It has to, as the terror elements often fail to make their intended impression. Devoid of substance and smart, inventive scares, the feature flounders as it searches for ways to intensify the viewing experience, with writer/director Adrian Garcia Bogliano attempting to extract discomfort through the use of loud, chaotic music, trusting this alone will create nightmares. “Here Comes the Devil” has mood but no real presence, making the movie a grab bag of lustful encounters and skin-ripping gore, while submitting the most vaginally-inspired imagery of the film year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer make up the filmmaking duo behind efforts such as “Meet the Spartans,” “Epic Movie,” and “Vampires Suck.” Divisive industry figures like Uwe Boll often get knocked as the worst director working today, but this twosome has a legitimate claim to the title. Building their brand name with movie parodies that feature no actual parody, Friedberg and Seltzer have managed to sustain a career on painfully obvious imitation, replacing funny bone invention with bodily function humor and bug-eyed punchlines. “Best Night Ever” promises a change of pace for the pair, who shed satire to make a found footage take on “The Hangover,” freeing them of their toxic routine. Sadly, old habits die hard for the partners, with their lethal sense of humor and tuneless timing decimating whatever plans “Best Night Ever” had to throw a cinematic party. Although it might be difficult to believe, this is their worst picture to date, if only because it offers a creative opportunity to prove themselves, and they blow it on yet another round of substandard stupidity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Movies do not come more chilling than “Big Bad Wolves.” While writer/directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado strive to inject the feature with a modest amount of darkly comic moments, there’s very little to laugh at during this frightening effort, which submits a grisly plot of revenge only to have the gumption to nurture its nightmare all the way to its natural conclusion. An Israeli production that doesn’t shy away from the brutality of life, “Big Bad Wolves” is a semi-masterful suspense picture that blends the violent appetites of Chan-wook Park and Quentin Tarantino, pouring such delectable disease into a film that’s hypnotic, even as it details unimaginable suffering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com