Author: BO

For many years, Ian Karr served as a co-host for “Jackie’s Joke Hunt,” a Sirius Radio show that dealt exclusively with bite-sized offerings of humor, with Jackie Martling serving as the master of ceremonies. Karr hopes to go deeper into the world of Martling with “Joke Man,” a documentary exploring (some) of the life and (some of the) times of the veteran comedian, who’s been trying to make audiences laugh with his machine-gun like delivery of traditional jokes, and his encyclopedic knowledge of humor. The idea is similar to 2017’s “Gilbert,” which also took a closer look at a filthy, habitually misunderstood man. Martling isn’t quite as famous as the late Gilbert Gottfried, and Karr is a little too light when it comes to the details of his personal life, but “Joke Man” is a breezy, amusing sit. It’s a valentine to Martling, who’s still in the mix when it comes to performing and hustling, eager to perform for audiences and Karr’s camera, doing a fine job guiding the story of his life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sophie Kargman makes her feature-length directorial debut with “Susie Searches.” She has a major creative challenge with the material, which is an adaptation of a 2020 short film, with William Day Frank handling scripting duties. The short was 13 minutes long, while the new movie runs 105 minutes, tasking Frank and Kargman to come up with plenty of fresh story to work with, embellishing a seemingly small tale of a young woman and her thirst to become a true crime podcast superstar. There’s an enjoyably animated performance from star Kiersey Clemons as the ambitious broadcaster, and there’s a first act where so much happens, it’s almost enough to fill the picture on its own. However, “Susie Searches” keeps trying to knot its tale of mistakes and suspicion, with Kargman unable to match the opening activity of the endeavor, gradually letting the air out of a once passably engaging mystery and potent study of online validation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While watching “Sons of Summer,” a feeling that something was off about the viewing experience began to grow. Characters were referencing events from long ago, and they carried a relationship that seemed defined elsewhere, not in this movie. I started thinking, is this a sequel? “Sons of Summer” is being sold to North American audiences as an action film, with 1991’s “Point Break” used as a comparison in press materials. This picture isn’t “Point Break” by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a follow-up to 1977’s “Summer City” (which featured the acting services of a young Mel Gibson) and 1988’s “Breaking Loose: Summer City II,” with co-writer Phillip Avalon returning once again to work on his Australian brotherhood saga, updating the troublemaking and surfing for a new audience. There’s a lot wrong with “Sons of Summer,” and there’s a lot missing from the endeavor, which tries to breeze past references to the previous chapters, but still creates plenty of confusion along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2023’s filmmaking fascination with the history of consumer products returns with “The Beanie Bubble,” which follows recent releases such as “BlackBerry,” “Air,” and “Tetris,” with these movies all endeavoring to make a slick cinematic ride using the details of business dealings and ethics. For the latest installment in this series, the tale goes small and plush, with “The Beanie Bubble” examining the tremendous popularity of Beanie Babies, which grew from an idea for a different kind of stuffed animal into a billion-dollar business during the 1990s. However, this isn’t the story of eccentric owner Ty Warner and his financial dealings, with co-directors Damien Kulash and Kristin Gore (who also scripts) looking to change the POV to the three women in his life, who all contributed to his success and received nothing but aggravation and betrayal for their efforts. “The Beanie Bubble” carries some high energy at times, but it really strikes gold with performances, with the actors fully understanding the tone of the feature, gracefully playing levels of frustration. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There is some interesting bravery involved in the production of “Oppenheimer,” with writer/director Christopher Nolan using his power in Hollywood to get a major studio to finance and release a three-hour-long examination of atomic bomb development, unleashing it in the middle of the summer moviegoing season. Now there’s a flex one doesn’t see every day, and the picture certainly reflects a steely concentration from Nolan to deliver an extended study of a complex man and his dealings with military, marital, and political forces during a turbulent time in American history. “Oppenheimer” tries to combat the bigness of the production with a depiction of highly internalized behavior brewing within a carefully composed man. Nolan does his Nolan thing with the endeavor, but he’s also making an Oliver Stone film in a way, highlighting the sinister ways of scientific breakthroughs and the poundings of government conspirators, playing with time, color, and a Boys Town-sized cast of actors trying to make themselves seen in a lengthy effort that mostly features men talking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Barbie” is the first major motion picture for the Mattel toy line, which has enjoyed generational success since its debut in 1959. The doll has become an iconic plaything in the lives of young people around the globe, selling primarily to girls, giving them a world of glamour, fantasy, and vocational possibility (at least eventually) to enjoy, with all the commercialization opportunities a corporation could ask for. “Barbie” is queen when it comes to the toy aisle, and she’s now a movie (at least not an artlessly animated one), and one that will probably have limited appeal to anyone under 13 years of age. Enter co-writer/director Greta Gerwig, who’s out to confront gender inequality and sexism with this endeavor (co-scripted by Noah Baumbach), attempting to use the plasticized universe of Barbie and her friends to take on societal ills, blended with some dance sequences and exaggerated production design achievements. “Barbie” is meant to be whip-smart and challenging, with Gerwig and Baumbach trying to do something inspirational with their feature, giving it sass and style to reach its creative goals. Genuine wit and a focused to-do list of criticism hasn’t made the final cut, which is definitely colorful and built for die-hard “Barbie” fans, but the whole film feels like a first draft of ideas and concepts in desperate need of refinement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Neil LaBute worked out some genre wiggles with 2022’s “House of Darkness,” blending some horror experience into his usual brew of charged conversations, retaining a theatrical presence for a study of unease. LaBute returns with “Fear the Night,” which is an action cinema offering from a helmer not normally known for physical acts of survival, always more comfortable with agitated psychological states. “Fear the Night” retains LaBute’s love of dialogue and head games, but it’s a more violent presentation of exploitation interests, with star Maggie Q portraying a tough woman facing off against a team of men in small town America. There’s death and some destruction, and, true to form, LaBute brings some gender hostilities to the endeavor, which adds something different to the usual submission of survival panic and one-person-army screen activity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s some hope at the beginning of “The Island” that director Shaun Paul Piccinino (“A California Christmas,” “Holiday Harmony,” “A California Christmas: City Light”) will understand the filmmaking assignment ahead of him, working with screenwriters Michael Caissie and Philippe Martinez (“Christmas in Paradise,” “Christmas in the Caribbean”) to deliver a straightforward action movie featuring a furious hero going after a despicable bad guy in a tropical setting. Helping the cause is star Michael Jai White, who tries to go the Van Damme/Seagal/Stallone/Schwarzenegger/Norris route, delivering a charmingly tough guy performance in a picture that truly needs a hit of enjoyable steeliness, playing up the western atmosphere the production is occasionally trying to conjure. “The Island” doesn’t sustain such fury, with Piccinino throttling any potential excitement, trapped between the dramatic inclinations of the material and audience expectations, with viewers left shortchanged when it comes to hard-charging genre activity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriter Chris Thomas Devlin, who scripted 2022’s lame “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” reworking, returns to the darkness with “Cobweb,” which is another genre effort from a person who struggled to come up with something passably menacing for a horror icon to do. Thankfully, the stakes are lower this time around, as Devlin returns with a haunted house story in way, taking inspiration from the work of Edgar Allan Poe to generate a fear factor for “Cobweb,” which examines the terror of a young boy stuck in a house that contains something living behind the walls. Director Samuel Bodin is tasked with conjuring the creeps for viewers in the mood for sinister business occurring around a static location. He has some fun ideas for nightmare imagery, but the writing clearly struggles to provide a feature-length experience with short film material, adding some unnecessary stillness to a premise that should be played as swiftly as possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The screenplay for “They Cloned Tyrone,” written by Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor (who also directs), recalls the golden age of Spike Lee moviemaking, where the talented filmmaker took genuine creative risks with his work, creating cultural and social commentaries with skill. Lee has nothing to do with the effort, but his essence remains in the picture, which is a compelling mix of mystery and conspiracy, endeavoring to understand the Black Experience from a different, more bizarre perspective that retains a sharp satiric edge. “They Cloned Tyrone” is unusual and engrossing at times, with Rettenmaier and Taylor blending the vibe of 1970s cinema with an incisive understanding of character and paranoia, dealing with the broken ways of life as it’s experienced today. It’s never quite outrageous or intense as it initially appears, but it’s a fascinating story told well by the production. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If Sandra Bullock isn’t going to agree to do a sequel, it’s time to expand the universe. That’s the general vibe of “Bird Box Barcelona,” which is an attempt to do something with the monster streaming success of 2018’s “Bird Box,” where Bullock did battle with mysterious forces as her character made her way through a world gone mad, protecting children in her care. The feature was odd but effective, capturing a rich sense of confusion and horror as an unexplained event unfolded for a desperate woman. Bullock was the major selling point of the movie, but she’s not around for “Barcelona,” which passes the franchise to a new lead character experiencing a bizarre crisis of faith and sanity. Writer/directors David and Alex Pastor are tasked with expanding the “Bird Box” universe with the new picture, and they go to some interesting places with the premise, which retains the apocalyptic grimness fans are looking for, only lacking some star power when it needs it the most. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2019, there was “Crawl,” with director Alexandre Aja tasked with creating a tense chiller featuring a raging hurricane, characters trapped in a flooded space, and the presence of alligators looking for an easy meal. Instead of being just another B-movie, Aja managed to achieve tremendous suspense and a full sense of danger with the film, which was rewarded with healthy box office returns. “The Flood” features basically the same plot, once again observing characters getting wet and restless as they search for safety, trying to avoid advancing alligators during a hellacious weather event. Similarities are perhaps intentional, but “Crawl” had something of a budget and a commitment to screen tension. “The Flood” looks cheaply produced and remains shockingly slow, with director Brandon Slagle refusing to pick up the pace for this simple study of terror. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com