BRIAN ORNDORF

Author: BO

  • Blu-ray Review – Rubber

    RUBBER hotel

    To explain “Rubber” in full virtually guarantees turning off potential audiences to this bizarre French comedy. It’s a furious run of absurdity that toys with perspective and convention, exploring the relationship between spectators and entertainment while staging an adventure rooted in the film’s strict “no reason” policy, as explained in the opening moments. Oh, and it features a tire that comes to life, rolling around the American southwest on a killing spree using its telekinetic powers. Have I already written too much?  

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  • Sunday in the Park with Brian – Epcot

    EPCOT 26

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  • Blu-ray Review – Kill the Irishman

    KILL THE IRISHMAN Ray Stevenson

    There’s nothing in “Kill the Irishman” that you haven’t seen before. It’s a clichéd offering of criminal worship, even cast with squad of recognizable character actors who’ve all logged plenty of hours in the genre. However, there’s a certain clenched-fist tonality to the picture that helps it wade through routine, and it’s nice to see the city of Cleveland used for change when detailing the horrors and intimidation of mob rule, giving New York City and Las Vegas the day off.

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  • Blu-ray Review – Blue Crush 2

    BLUE CRUSH 2 Shasha Jackson 2

    Has it really been nearly a decade since “Blue Crush” paddled into theaters? The 2002 film was a modest success, but quickly established an awkward place as a feminist anthem, drinking up the gorgeous beaches and waves of Hawaii. Never mind the fact that director John Stockwell invested more in leering than liberation, the reputation stuck. An eternity later, Universal has revived the “Blue Crush” corpse with a DTV sequel, ditching Hawaii for the budget landscape of South Africa, while losing the original’s lascivious behavior to tinker with Disney Channel dramatics and candied characterization.

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  • DVD Review – In Her Skin

    IN HER SKIN Miranda Otto

    “This is a true story” reads the opening card of “In Her Skin,” throwing down a bold promise of truth to a film of shifting perspectives and hearsay. Though it opens as a routine missing person drama, the feature soon heads down some unspeakably grim areas of murder and psychological disease, hoping to emphasize the shock of the offense being recounted. It’s an intense picture that boils over too easily, but the purity of horror on display here is extraordinary.

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  • Film Review – John Carpenter’s The Ward

    THE WARD Amber Heard

    It’s been a decade since director John Carpenter released a feature-length motion picture (2001’s “Ghosts of Mars”), and frankly, I’ve missed the guy. Sure, his output hasn’t been consistent since the 1980s, but I’ll take a Carpenter misfire over the latest music video trainee looking to make their mark with a sloppy showing of shock value. “The Ward” feels a little weightless for the filmmaker, but it’s a mildly entertaining effort, just nowhere near exceptional.

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  • Film Review – Trollhunter

    TROLL HUNTER

    “Trollhunter” exists somewhere between “The Blair Witch Project” and a particularly edgy Rankin/Bass holiday special. It’s a crafty motion picture with ingenious visual effects and a healthy sense of humor, but it overstays its welcome, looking to stretch a thin concept to an unsteady feature length running time, losing its fresh appeal and sensation of surprise in the process.

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  • Film Review – Super 8

    SUPER 8 Joel Courtney

    For the last year, moviegoers have been bombarded with mysterious marketing for the new J.J. Abrams feature, “Super 8.” The footage suggested an experience of awe, sold with teasing shots of aliens, magically floating debris, and slack-jawed actors reacting to unknown sights of indeterminate hostility. Though it’s unfair to judge a film solely on marketing, this is Abrams after all — one of the more ingenious architects of hype around. The man knows how to bait a hook, yet “Super 8” is not the movie promised in the advertising. While tender, it’s not sweet. While enigmatic, it’s not endearingly so. While wonderful, it’s also strangely disappointing. Perhaps this whirlwind of reaction speaks to the chaos of surprise, though I do wish Abrams permitted more of a peek into this world of nostalgia and terror sooner rather than later.

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  • Film Review – Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer

    JUDY MOODY AND THE NOT BUMMER SUMMER Jordana Beatty

    “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer” is an aggressive, unpleasant motion picture. Surely younger viewers will take a shine to its hyperactive charms, but they won’t be challenged or celebrated, just visually assaulted by all manner of shock value and crude behavior, with studio suits ready to get their hands on that delicious “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” money.

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  • Reliving the Summer of 1991 Diary – Week Three

    CITY SLICKERS Jack Palance 1

    Christina Applegate buries her summer supervisor, Billy Crystal wraps a lasso around old age, and Spike Lee makes a black and white epic.

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  • Blu-ray Review – Another Year

    ANOTHER YEAR Lesley Manville

    Like any dependable Mike Leigh picture, “Another Year” leisurely reveals its secrets. It’s a glacial feature representing the passage of time, observing a single year in the life of a dangerously functional couple and their troubled friends and family. It’s not a film of direct conflict or suspense, but one that nurtures a sinking feeling of unease and sadness, watching as some of these characters fall deeper into hopelessness, almost to spite the happiness around them.

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  • Blu-ray Review – Battle: Los Angeles

    BATTLE LOS ANGELES Aliens

    “Battle: Los Angeles” isn’t an alien invasion film, it’s a military picture with the occasional alien appearance. The marketing trumpets a global perspective on trespassing extraterrestrials, but the picture actually takes place almost entirely in Santa Monica, boiling down a sense of massive widescreen scope to a few city miles, placing the audience into the driver’s seat as a besieged platoon attempts to defend themselves against an unknown enemy. “Independence Day” this picture is most certainly not.

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  • Blu-ray Review – Sanctum

    SANCTUM Richard Roxburgh

    One would think that a simple spelunking disaster scenario would be enough to fill the running time of “Sanctum.” After all, the inherent danger of caves and raging waters is a compelling cinematic obstacle course on its own, supplying vital chills and spills needed to mount a successful thriller. “Sanctum” isn’t satisfied with the visceral basics, instead looking to engage the audience through dramatic cliché, leaving a nifty premise to wither while lifeless actors spout rotten dialogue and an unimaginative director stages substandard action set pieces. While teeming with promise and the marquee value of James Cameron as an executive producer, “Sanctum” is a deathly dull, criminally obvious feature film.

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  • Sunday in the Park with Brian – Universal Studios Florida

    Universal Studios Florida Betty Boop 1

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  • Saturdays with Siskel & Ebert – Teen Sex Comedies of the 1980s

    http://siskelandebert.org/player/pak_player/pak_player.swf

  • Film Review – We Are the Night

    WE ARE THE NIGHT still 1

    Imagine “Sex and the City” populated with vampires and there’s a crude description of the German horror film, “We Are the Night.” We have four women of considerable temperament, indulging themselves with shopping, men, and the splendor of feminine companionship. And much like the ladies of “Sex and the City,” this gang is made up of bloodsucking monsters desperate to stay out of the sunlight. Trust me, lead vamp Louise is such a Samantha.

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  • Film Review – X-Men: First Class

    X-MEN FIRST CLASS Cast

    Prequels are a dicey proposition, and most make it unnecessarily hard on themselves by trying to exhaustively satisfy a fan base that’s already an easy lay. “X-Men: First Class” is a feisty prequel effort, effectively restoring badly needed snap into the mutant franchise, breaking away from Wolverine to fiddle with a colorful community of heroes and villains. It’s also ludicrous beyond belief at times, madly searching for ways to establish connections between this origin tale and the four films that technically follow it. “First Class” works too hard to be clever, when all anyone is truly asking for is a restoration of the group dynamic that made the earlier pictures exciting and expansive.

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  • Film Review – Too Big to Fail

    TOO BIG TO FAIL William Hurt

    To appreciate the fullness of the HBO film “Too Big to Fail,” a notepad should be required to help keep all the names in check. Exploring the 2008 Financial Meltdown in 95 minutes, director Curtis Hanson doesn’t simply walk through the details, he gallops, channeling the mighty power of The Flash to sprint from encounter to encounter while arranging the complex puzzle pieces that worm forth from pits of the business world to the offices in Washington D.C. The picture is determined, but oddly unnecessary and tiring to follow, though the sheer wallop of star power collected here successfully distracts from the crippling weight of impenetrable exposition.

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  • Film Review – Midnight in Paris

    MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Rachael McAdams

    There’s genuine magic in the air of “Midnight in Paris,” perhaps the most effective offering of sophisticated whimsy writer/director Woody Allen has conjured in decades. Of course, roaming around the City of Light with ace cinematographer Darius Khondji will have that effect. Perhaps Allen is cheating a smidge with his latest, but it’s a fantastic manipulation, taking viewers to a tranquil place of immense culture and beauty while studying the enticing ease of nostalgia. And here’s something I never thought I’d write again: Owen Wilson is marvelous here.

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  • Film Review – Attack the Block

    ATTACK THE BLOCK Cast 2

    Mounting a proper antihero extravaganza takes a special directorial hand, someone able to make a friend out of a nasty human being and make it stick as an organic exploration of an intricate personality. “Attack the Block” looks to build an entire motion picture around the antics of rotten people, and first-time filmmaker Joe Cornish doesn’t possess a magic touch able to smoothly transition creeps into champions. A slick horror comedy, “Attack the Block” contains a few fatal flaws that weaken its sense of cheery violent fun. It’s difficult to root for a bunch of alien-busting kids when they all deserve prolonged spankings.

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