Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

"Crooked Arrows" is a film I wanted to like, came close to enjoying, but
was consistently pulled away by some poor storytelling decisions. It's
one of the first movies to concentrate solely on the game of lacrosse, a
sport that's grown in popularity in recent years after spending
centuries as a sacred activity for Native American cultures, where it's
known as "The Creator's Game." It's a highly athletic, fast-paced sport
that deserves a better onscreen celebration than "Crooked Arrows," which
slaps around every cliché imaginable, looking to win over viewers
through the comfort of familiarity. It has charm and a refreshing
cultural perspective, but the predictability is often too much to bear,
tanking the potential for a proper cinematic exploration of lacrosse. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When a documentary from Ken Burns steps into view, certain expectations
are triggered that would never apply to a routine production. Building a
golden reputation with his work on "The Civil War" and "Baseball,"
Burns supplies a certain regality to his efforts that's blended with a
sensational amount of textured information, creating unforgettable
portraits of American life and conflict. "The Dust Bowl" furthers his
interests in the fragility and fortitude of the country. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Dermot Mulroney seems like a very capable filmmaking professional. As an
actor, he's been involved with a few challenging, thought-provoking
pictures ("Zodiac," "About Schmidt," "Longtime Companion") to help
counterbalance the studio fluff ("My Best Friend's Wedding," "Big
Miracle"), building a filmography that's not especially impressive, but
consistently interesting, with varied performances to match. "Love,
Wedding, Marriage" is Mulroney's directorial debut, which typically
promises a least a modicum of creative control, spending time calling
the shots, shaping a picture with a sense of purpose. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I'm not exactly sure what "ABBA: The Movie" was originally intended to
be when director Lasse Hallstrom first climbed aboard the production,
but what he ultimately constructed out of a 10-city Australian tour in
1977 is something that not only captures the band at the peak of their
popularity and musical creativity, but isolates the swirl of hysteria
that greeted the group inside the one area of the world that treated
their presence like a coronation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Kate Hudson has become the poster girl for particularly lazy romantic
comedies, spending nearly her entire career in the genre with efforts
such as "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "Something Borrowed," and "Alex
& Emma." "A Little Bit of Heaven" is her most grotesque production
to date, merging googly eyes with colon cancer in a stunningly tasteless
picture that's made up entirely of cheap sentiment and wretched
direction. Turning on her high beams of charm, Hudson tap dances madly
through this movie, trying to remain as effervescent as possible with a
script that does a great disservice to the trials of cancer and the game
of love. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I'm thinking Wes Craven should go ahead and contact his lawyer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it seems strange to commit this thought to the page, it appears
the "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" saga is improving as it motors along, now
firmly ensconced in DTV mode. Please contain your eye-rolls, I'm not
comparing this talking animal franchise to "The Godfather," but as a
harmless family film diversion with an emphasis on good-natured
adventures, mild screenwriting, and accelerated colors, the producers
are heading in the right direction, reducing the scale of these efforts
as they go. The original 2008 picture was all-around awful, yet the 2011
sequel and now "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta" have
developed a modest personality, keeping the antics on an approachable
level of mischief and domestic concern, free of a theatrical release
burden that once plagued the creative credits. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Broadway: The American Musical" is a 2004 PBS series that endeavors to
compact a history of musical theater into a documentary that's a mere
six hours in length. It's quite a task considering the extensive list of
productions that have graced the heavily lit area, a few hanging around
for years after opening. Director Michael Kantor is ambitious, but
delightfully so, displaying unexpected confidence with his assembly of
industry highs and lows, using his secret weapon, host Julie Andrews, to
distract from a few gaps in the timeline. It's a colorful, tightly
edited series with a healthy sense of humor, a dash of backstage venom,
and a jubilant sense of Broadway expansion, bringing viewers into the
thick of the creativity that fuels these big shows, using interviews
with key industry players to carry the narrative along. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Excluding his recent work as the demented, Satan-worshiping villain in
last summer's blockbuster, "The Expendables 2," the career of
Jean-Claude Van Damme has suffered from an extensive period of stagnancy
and, frankly, stupidity. 1990's "Death Warrant" is a dramatic reminder
of the bruiser's rise to screen glory, starring in a kooky B-list prison
picture that attempts to merge the subgenre's propensity for violence
and community intimidation with a mystery of modest means, permitting
the martial artist an opportunity to branch out as an actor, playing
traditional fist-first beats while working on his range of reactions to
uncovered clues. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Technically, 2003's "A Man Apart" doesn't fall into the Vin Diesel
career feeding frenzy that developed after the release of 2001's "The
Fast and the Furious." Although issued after the monstrous "XXX," "A Man
Apart" was actually shot in late 2000/early 2001, when the star was
merely a curiosity with a minor hit ("Pitch Black") on his resume.
However, post-production troubles kept the feature out of sight for the
next two years, finally released when Diesel's brand name was red-hot
and audiences were starting to question the Hollywood hype machine
surrounding the growly brute. Intended to play into the actor's more
dramatic interests, "A Man Apart" was marketed as a tough guy
experience, emphasizing the lead's position as a thunderous force of big
screen revenge, peppered with explosions and cowering villains. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the early 1990s, environmental education was beginning to take hold
in both schools and pop culture, with a particular emphasis on the
plight of the rainforest, largely viewed as a core problem for Mother
Earth's woes. "FernGully: The Last Rainforest" emerged as a sensitive
call to arms from a major movie studio (debuting two months after
Disney's deeply flawed but interesting rainforest adventure, "Medicine
Man"), hoping to entertain family audiences while emphasizing a harsh
message of deforestation and pollution threatening to destroy the magic
of the world. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It's been surprising to watch "Hocus Pocus" develop a cult following
since its release in 1993, amassing a passionate group of fans raised on
VHS rentals and routine basic cable showings. It's a declaration of
love that certainly wasn't there during its initial theatrical run,
where the sharp minds at Disney released an exhaustively
Halloween-centric story in mid-July, and then seemed surprised when the
picture bombed. Any film that displays the ability to rise from the box
office ashes and sustain popularity for nearly two decades is a minor
cinematic miracle in my book, but I have to wonder, why has "Hocus
Pocus" bewitched a vocal minority? A bland, unfunny oddity with overly
manic execution and a few strange tonal detours, the feature desires to
be a colorful, politely spooky creation, only to elicit blank stares.
Perhaps I underestimate the power of its generational hold, yet
considering the potential of a broad Disney witch romp, "Hocus Pocus" is
an incredibly mediocre movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After soaring together in 1984's "Romancing the Stone," and stumbling
together in 1985's "The Jewel of the Nile," Michael Douglas, Kathleen
Turner, and Danny DeVito were cautious with the selection of their next
collaboration, looking to pick a project that would disturb expectations
set by their previous adventures. "The War of the Roses" proved an apt
left turn for the trio, with DeVito assuming directorial control over
the material, looking to inject a darkly comic tone into a bitter story,
building on his command of impish screen toxicity first explored in his
previous production, 1987's "Throw Momma from the Train." Constructed
with extraordinary confidence and exceptionally acted, "The War of the
Roses" is perhaps the greatest cinematic achievement shared between the
stars, dropping the high-flying dangers of jungles and deserts to
partake in specialized marital warfare that utilizes relationship
claustrophobia and escalating antagonism instead of explosions and
plastic quips. The picture is greatly amusing, but its lasting
achievement is DeVito's atmospheric authority, shaping a genuine
filmmaking triumph in style and mood that deserves a standing ovation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror productions tend to attract the same set of elements to shape
scares, typically following trends to keep box office prospects alive.
1988's "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" blazes its own trail as a weirdo
fright film with a healthy sense of humor, displaying a deep sense of
originality as it invents new ways to kill hapless victims. Although
budgeted with mere hopes and prayers, "Killer Klowns" is one of the more
striking examples of genre invention of the 1980s, with filmmakers The
Chiodo Brothers (Charles, Edward, and Stephen, who accepts a credit for
direction) working diligently to build this oddball alien clown invasion
in full, armed with puppetry, light gore, and a sense of mischief that
knowingly weaves through camp and terror, while magically maintaining a
PG-13 rating. The title alone encourages immediate dismissal, but for
those on the hunt for something miles away from the norm that showcases
truly inspired moviemaking minds, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" is a
superb cult distraction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Robert Redford actively pursued the rights to Nicholas Evans's 1995
novel, "The Horse Whisperer," clearly finding an ideal fit for his own
sensibilities when it comes to the exploration of rural life on film.
The match of material to performer couldn't be more appropriate, finding
the author's sudsy imagination and depth of detail gracefully
transferred to the big screen by the iconic star, resulting in a 1998
hit that generously played up the beauty of the Midwest, the mystery of
animal rehabilitation, and the lure of Redford's autumnal good looks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When it comes to a question of preference between 2003's "Bruce
Almighty" and 2007's "Evan Almighty," I vote a little differently than
the moviegoing public. "Bruce" featured a clever idea that posited Jim
Carrey as God, using heavenly powers to alter the world as his
character, Bruce Nolan, saw fit. Offering the star an open field to
utilize his gifts with slapstick comedy, amplified with spiritual
divinity, the feature nailed an impressive tone of mischief, sustaining a
pleasant run of farcical activity for at least the first half of the
effort. Eventually taking itself seriously as a vessel for moral lessons
and melodramatic encounters, "Bruce" fell apart, abandoning impish
behavior to become a tool of inspiration, prone to preaching instead of
tickling. While far from a perfect film, "Evan" at least has the sense
to settle down and enjoy its cartoonish premise, stripping away labored
storytelling to carry on as a cartoon with a biblical pinch, saving the
heavy stuff for late in the final act. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Those expecting a seamy, Vaseline-uncorked ride through exploitation
cinema heaven with "Bitch Slap" might be well advised to skip this
picture entirely. More of an "Austin Powers" carnival of camp with
YouTube production polish, "Bitch Slap" opens with a Joseph Conrad quote
and ends in a hail of bullets, leaving the midsection fairly
anticlimactic and insistently silly. It's criminal to dismiss something
so utterly consumed with ample feminine assets and cross-eyed
ultraviolence, but the goofball pitch of this fluff grows tiresome early
in the first round, rendering the picture a splendid 10-minute short
film idea stretched intolerably to 105 minutes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it would seem natural to sequelize the 1980 hit, "The Blues
Brothers," the 1982 death of co-star John Belushi made such a prospect
daunting for even the most money-hungry producer. After all, to
regenerate Belushi's slovenly presence for a successful follow-up would
require a major casting effort to match survivor Dan Aykroyd
beat-for-beat, while instilling the feature with a sense of anarchic
comic timing and generous stage command. It took 18 years for a
continuation to bubble up, yet Aykroyd and co-writer John Landis were
persistent, constructing a picture that could do justice to the spirit
of the previous extravaganza while forging a new identity for a
different era. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the late 1990s, Hollywood wanted to make rapper DMX a movie star.
It's not an uncommon practice to turn someone known exclusively for
their musical achievements into an actor, yet with DMX, the effort
seemed hopelessly misguided. Stiff and unconvincing, the hip-hop artist
never carried himself with ease on screen, yet he still managed to bark
out a minor filmography. A large chunk of his employment was courtesy of
producer Joel Silver, who brought DMX in to flavor 2000's "Romeo Must
Die" and co-star alongside Steven Seagal in 2001's "Exit Wounds."
Sensing screen magic, Silver reunited DMX with "Romeo" star Jet Li for
2003's "Cradle 2 the Grave," an actioner meant to pay off the fumes of
chemistry shared earlier by the performers, gifting them their own
playground of martial arts activity, explosions, and gunplay, with a
booming soundtrack to score the chaos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For his directorial unveiling, John Hughes selected a piece of material
held close to his heart; a screenplay that contained beloved topics: the
chaos of the nuclear family and the humiliation/redemption of the
average American teen. "Sixteen Candles" is largely Hughes testing his
gifts behind the camera, inadvertently pioneering a genre that would
come to define his career. It's a rough sketch of future triumphs, but
"Candles" is a brazenly mischievous, consistently uproarious comedy that
christens the devastating Hughes-fu with vivacious results. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com