Author: BO

“Branded” is a head-scratcher of the film that could only be decoded
after a long sit-down with its creators, writer/directors Jamie Bradshaw
and Alexander Dulerayn. It’s up to these two to fully flesh out their
intentions to the general public, because the movie they’ve made is
borderline incomprehensible, and not in an intriguing manner that
immediately encourages closer inspection. Narrated by a cow-shaped
constellation and set in the “dystopian future” of 2012, “Branded” is an
outrageous call to arms with its shoelaces tied together, falling flat
on its face the moment it gets around to charging ahead. Its ambition is
decimated by its absurdly slapdash assembly and fogged messages on the
zombification of consumerism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Words” is riveting, illuminating, and communicative…for about 45
minutes. It’s enough time to convince an initially hesitant ticket buyer
that something interesting is afoot, with writer/directors Brian
Klugman and Lee Sternthal gracefully exploring the mechanics of a
literary career (or lack thereof), while building toward a crucial act
of plagiarism that feels like it could be dissected for two movies. And
then the brakes are applied in an abrupt fashion, removing the
professional urgency that drives the material, turning a pleasingly
straightforward story of personal corruption into a tepid cinematic
confessional. “The Words” commences so convincingly, there’s hope for a
climatic return to form. Alas, the picture limps to a close, more
interested in playing games than burrowing as deep as possible into a
spellbinding situation of fraud. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If there’s anything positive to glean from “The Cold Light of Day,” it
would have to be its use as an educational tool, teaching young film
students how not to make a mid-budget action movie. Perversely
amateurish and astonishingly tedious considering its mouthbreathing
screen elements, the feature stumbles from scene to scene, using
violence and disorder to cover the fact that the script, credited to
Scott Wiper and John Petro, is a complete load of rubbish, from dialogue
to plotting. While the genre typically leans toward nonsense to provide
cheap thrills, “Light of Day” launches into absurdity in the opening
ten minutes and never recovers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“For a Good Time, Call…” is the rare movie about the phone sex trade
that doesn’t treat the experience as flypaper for dysfunction, instead
generating a flighty, colorful atmosphere of salacious activity to
backdrop a thin but merry story of friendship. It’s rarely funny, yet it
sustains a jovial mood of naughty business, supported by two vivacious
performances from Ari Graynor and Lauren Anne Miller. Indecent enough to
fluster prudes and warm enough to win over female audiences, “For a
Good Time, Call…” is only undone by its pedestrian screenwriting, which
is so slavish to formula, it comes to destroy the big screen party
director Jamie Travis is fighting to maintain. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To its credit, “V/H/S” attempts to attack the found footage genre from a
slightly different angle, taking the herky jerky antics to the realm of
the anthology movie, allowing six directors to have their way with all
manner of POV horror. Unfortunately, with this aesthetic comes expected
elements of blurred cinematography and amateur acting, and while the
irritations are broken down into blocks of 20-minute-long stories,
“V/H/S” remains protracted and dramatically undernourished. While two of
the tales retain a satisfying bite, the experiment as a whole is tiring
and often ridiculous, spending most of its energy supporting a concept
that wears out its welcome after ten minutes of exposure. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Fans of the 1992 picture “Baraka” have been waiting two decades for some
type of glorious follow-up to attack screens. “Samsara” is that
long-awaited continuation, once again plunging viewers into the alien
landscape that is our Earth, pulling at the threads of life to acquire a
sharper sense of humanity in motion as it moves toward times of
destruction and, in some cases, technological immortality. It’s a
mesmerizing viewing experience, returning to the battle grounds and
blissful encounters of “Baraka” while expanding on themes of humanity,
existence, and consumption, captured with painstakingly precise
cinematography and supported by a layered selection of music. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While I didn’t find myself overwhelmed with the insanity of last year’s
hit “Bridesmaids,” its absurd length and dramatic decline is a Caribbean
vacation compared to the forced acid bath of “Bachelorette.” Shockingly
unlikable and unfunny, this latest round of women behaving badly is
crippled by unnecessary excess, botched characterizations, and a
calculated round of 1990s nostalgia to appeal to the core demographic.
Aching to be irreverent and insightful when it comes to the flattened
soul of the thirtysomething party girl facing the cell clank of
adulthood, “Bachelorette” would be better off as a soulless farce, not
the noxious semi-melodrama it eventually becomes. It’s a movie that
doesn’t know whether to hug its characters or push them off a bridge. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Landing in America a full year after its UK release, “The Inbetweeners
Movie” is intended to conclude the popular Brit series that ran from
2008-10, while also drumming up a little publicity for the U.S. remake
of the show, currently airing on MTV. Unfortunately, I’ve never been
exposed to the original work prior to the feature, leaving me at a
slight disadvantage, likely missing inside jokes and established
characterizations. Thankfully, “The Inbetweeners Movie” isn’t algebra,
pushing forward as a lewd, crude teen comedy in the “American Pie” vein,
with broad acts of humiliation and simplistic emotional cues to decode.
While I’m sure the effort has proven popular with the faithful,
newcomers shouldn’t have trouble catching up with the shenanigans, which
are largely amusing and enjoyably obvious. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Adapted from the 1973 novel by Patrick White, “The Eye of the Storm” is a
film about vicious behavior committed by exhausted people. It’s not an
easy sit, teeming with venom and chaotic states of mind, but there’s a
wonderful focal point in the three lead performances from Charlotte
Rampling, Geoffrey Rush, and Judy Davis. Providing exemplary work to a
picture in desperate need of defined emotional directions, the cast
carries the heavy burden of the material with dignity. The same cannot
be said of helmer Fred Schepisi, who stumbles through the muddy drama,
placing more concentration on family dysfunction than compelling
narrative direction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While I’m not up on my science fiction writing as most people, from my
viewpoint, “Robot & Frank” is a fairly original idea massaged
wonderfully by director Jake Schreier. It’s a funny movie, but not
really a comedy. It’s melancholy, but far from depressing. It’s
mischievous, but grounded in realism. A hodgepodge of moods built around
an unlikely story of friendship between a man and his service robot,
the film carries itself confidently, with occasional moments of
significant emotion, articulated superbly in Frank Langella’s lead
performance, his most memorable work in quite some time. Who really
needs human co-stars when a faceless robot helps to form one of the
year’s best on-screen pairings? Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One would think that a movie produced by World Wrestling Entertainment
would contain a little more theatricality, a little more bang for the
buck. “The Day” is a post-apocalyptic actioner from the sports
entertainment factory, and despite a plot that dabbles in cannibalism
and supplies a sizeable body count, there’s little here that invigorates
the senses, despite a production that’s sniffing around for a certain
tone of badassery it never achieves. Glum, poorly acted, and hard on the
eyes, “The Day” is a flat feature with a few spikes of absurdity that
push the production into unintentional camp. Even by the relatively low
standards of the siege horror genre, this picture is a tedious waste of
time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

What’s most frustrating about “The Possession” (not to be confused with
last week’s “The Apparition”) is that it’s filled with potential. It’s a
distinctive story of demonic ownership with a specific cultural tilt,
yet the production seems hesitant to follow through with its chilling
ideas for terror. Instead, “The Possession” is locked in mediocrity,
always wincing when the horror hits a few memorable extremes. Maybe it’s
the PG-13 rating or perhaps director Ole Bornedal isn’t up for the
challenge, but this feature is exceptionally good at pulling its
punches, leaving discouraged viewers to fantasize about a more
satisfying picture poured from the same filmmaking ingredients. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sure to raise pulse rates and incite shockwaves of disbelief,
“Compliance” is an exceptional example of provocative filmmaking, taking
viewers on a 90-minute-long journey of humiliation, manipulation, and
good old fashioned stupidity. It’s a riveting watch, with a stranglehold
of suspense expertly maintained by writer/director Craig Zobel, who
accepts the challenge of adapting a true crime situation without pumping
the plot full of fiction, holding to the innate horror of the central
violation while subtly shifting the ground beneath the viewer’s feet.
Bravely uncomfortable and sure to inspire heated post-movie (and likely
mid-movie) conversation, “Compliance” is haunting, positively enraging
when it sinks in that this was no nightmare, but a reality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com