Category: Film Review

While he made a promising directorial debut with 1991’s “Fried Green Tomatoes,” Jon Avnet hasn’t managed to match his initial creative and box office success. He’s worked primarily in television in recent years, but the lasting stench of disasters such as 2008’s “Righteous Kill” and 2007’s “88 Minutes” remains. “Three Christs” is meant to slip Avnet back into the warm waters of personal psychological problems, exploring one doctor’s quest to achieve a greater understanding of paranoid schizophrenia during a research project in 1959. The subject is interesting, exploring the depths of troubled minds trapped in an unforgiving care system. However, Avnet can’t get the material moving in any compelling direction, creating a disappointingly plodding endeavor that’s too concerned with melodramatic asides to get to the heart of mental illness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A long time ago, the “Ju-On” series was very popular. It began its pop culture reign in 2000’s “The Curse,” a Japanese production that eventually inspired numerous sequels and spin-offs while taking its act to America for 2004’s “The Grudge,” resulting in a major hit as the moviegoing public began to fall in love with features about ghostly children terrifying easily spooked adults. There were follow-ups to that endeavor as well, but the thrill eventually wore off. Sensing a chance to reboot a familiar brand name, Sony Pictures returns with the unimaginatively titled “The Grudge,” with writer/director Nicolas Pesce trying his luck with a J-Horror nostalgia piece, looking to freak out audiences with old suspense moves that were stale the first time around, coming up with a particularly snoozy offering of sinister business, only here he manages to waste a fairly capable cast on feeble frights. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2011, director Wim Wenders created “Pina,” his celebration of dance choreographer Pina Bausch. Instead of merely documenting the life and times of Bausch, Wenders created an immersive world of movement, shooting the feature in 3D to bring dimension to different environments. Alla Kovgan has the same idea for “Cunningham,” with the helmer endeavoring to delivering a stunning document of beloved choreographer Merce Cunningham, who mastered challenging, brilliantly inventive dance performances. The documentary is presented in both 2D and 3D, but the pure majesty of Cunningham’s vision is the core experience of the picture, which connects as an understanding of the dancer’s history and a celebration of his life’s work, showcasing modern interpretations of his most famous achievements. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Spies in Disguise” wants to provide a good time for family audiences, giving them a superspy story with a defined cartoon approach, merging James Bond and the animal kingdom to come up with something wacky. At least when it wants to. Directors Troy Quane and Nick Bruno have a clear vision for exaggerated antics and action set pieces with the feature, but the screenplay (by Brad Copeland and Lloyd Taylor) doesn’t have much of an imagination. Jokes aren’t sharp and satire is weak in “Spies in Disguise,” while the tonal swings are mighty in what initially appears to be a harmless romp, at least before a dead parent and the might of the American military-industrial complex arrives to shut down the limited fun factor of the picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In one of those unfortunate situations of marketplace timing, there are two death row prisoner stories competing for audience attention right now. “Just Mercy” is more about a softer view of judicial doom, looking at the particulars of legal battles and the weariness of hope, presented in an Oscar-ready package that makes carful moves to be as audience-friendly as possible. “Clemency” is decidedly more powerful and direct about the experience of death row, delivering a gritty, introspective take on the mentality of those preparing to die and those in charge of taking lives. Writer/director Chinonye Chukwu earns all emotion in this compelling picture, making sure to preserve the realism of such an experience and how it’s processed by all involved personalities. “Clemency” has focus and insight the competition can’t muster, creating a profound understanding of the psychological battles that carry on during the cold process of prison procedure. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For his latest effort as a writer/director, Woody Allen returns to a comfortable creative space with “A Rainy Day in New York.” After fumbling around with melodrama in 2017’s “Wonder Wheel” and going period for 2016’s “Café Society,” Allen revisits the carefully curated highlights of NYC for his latest comedy, which transfers his usual areas of romantic anxiety and class neuroses to a much younger generation of actors, hoping to tap into fresh energy while remaining wrapped inside his artistic wooby. There’s nothing particularly distinctive about “A Rainy Day in New York” and, overall, it’s lesser Allen, lacking any sort of believability or amusing mischief to make it special. The helmer seems to be going through the motions here, which isn’t new to Allen’s filmography, but whatever spark about the Big Apple was there before has been snuffed out here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2017, the “Star Wars” universe was in a bit of a pickle. Writer/director Rian Johnson decided to put his own stamp on the franchise with “The Last Jedi,” happily dismissing a lot of narrative work created for 2015’s “The Force Awakens.” The picture was successful in a few creative areas, but ended up grossing half of the previous effort’s box office take while weaponizing “Star Wars” fandom, with many feeling he ruined a reasonably good thing started by J.J. Abrams. In a few key ways, Johnson did torpedo promising plot and characters, forcing the next filmmaker in line to rework nearly everything to get the overall arc back on track. Well, Abrams returns to the fold with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” and he’s ready to rebuild what Johnson torn down, putting all his faith in the power of fan service to help reignite brand name excitement. He’s mostly successful with “The Rise of Skywalker,” which is a bit of a mess (understandably), but remains as “Star Wars”-y a movie as possible, bursting with droid, aliens, lightsabers, heroes, villains, and old friends to send the Skywalker Saga off with a…well, less of a pronounced limp than expected. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Cats” isn’t a movie that needs to be reviewed. It’s made for a very specific audience, and a large one at that, as the original Andrew Lloyd Webber musical (which debuted in 1981) has been an enormous success, dominating the West End and Broadway during their incredible initial runs (grossing billions over time). People love “Cats,” and now it’s time to bring the stage to the screen, only without the comfort of leotards and makeup. Tom Hooper, who scored big with his film version of “Les Miserables,” strives to do something a little different with the musical, giving his cast an exhaustive CGI makeover, with hopes to deliver a sense of the real to material that feeds on inexplicable events. Those who understand everything about the show will probably fall in love with Hooper’s effort, which is extensive. The rest who aren’t up on their Rum Tum Tugger will likely find the picture baffling — it’s as weird as it gets, and often remains in no particularly hurry to get anywhere of note. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel, “Little Women,” has inspired a great number of adaptations. In fact, there were two attempts to pay tribute to the beloved book just last year, with a modern reimagining (starring Lea Thompson) and a BBC miniseries that made its way to PBS stations. There’s been a lot of “Little Women” recently, which is perhaps why writer/director Greta Gerwig has elected to shake things up for her version of Alcott’s work, taking a machete to the narrative to experiment with thematic emphasis, doing away with a natural build of emotion to make sure the movie is hers. Gerwig collects a decent cast and supports the effort with strong tech achievements, but her take on the March siblings and their tangles with love and loss is disappointing, mangling the magic of the source material. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To help bedazzle the brown paper bag that was the last James Bond movie, 2015’s “Spectre,” director Sam Mendes constructed the illusion of a continuous take as 007 infiltrated a Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico City. The action moved up and down, weaved around buildings, and followed a few furious action beats with technical skill, creating one of the few highlights found in the picture. Taking the one-shot concept to the extreme, Mendes applies such concentration to “1917,” which follows the odyssey of two British soldiers crossing dangerous terrain in World War I. Such cinematographic showmanship doesn’t really lend itself to cruel tales of military duty, but “1917” tries to respect War is Hell realism, even when it can’t pull off such sincerity. Mendes makes a striking film, but not a consistently enthralling one, finding the production’s gimmick occasionally throttling its pace and intensity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was once a lengthy period of time when writer/director Terrence Malick didn’t make any films. Now he’s issued his sixth release in the last decade. There’s a clear creative purge going on with the notoriously press-shy helmer, who’s been trying to lead with his efforts, not his explanations, resulting in a wildly uneven collection of semi-experimental endeavors that all share the same drive to merge dramatic poeticism with striking visual achievements. “A Hidden Life” has no surprises, closely adhering to the Malick way of cinema, wandering through turmoil and thought over an extended run time (this one clocks in at 174 minutes). What’s slightly different here is the use of a surprisingly clear narrative, with Malick settling into storytelling as he wrestles with wartime history and supports the needs of a true life tale of integrity challenged by God, evil, and family. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One should probably never expect much from a Michael Bay movie. He’s made a fortune with his action epics, recycling stunts and explosions while changing the players, recently collecting bags of money for his “Transformers” productions, while mere piles of money for his foray into “serious” filmmaking, “13 Hours.” Bay has his formula, and nobody’s asking him to change his ways, least of all Netflix, who’ve brought the director to their streaming empire with “6 Underground,” hoping the repetitiveness of it all will translate to a large viewership. Bay doesn’t change anything for his latest endeavor, which is either a warning or a validation for fans of the helmer, who delivers another massive boom-a-thon, offering no surprises or thrills as he paints by numbers to deliver product, not cinema, finally reaching the self-parody phase of his career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While in possession of an unwieldly filmography, there was once a time when Clint Eastwood could be counted on to deliver compelling character studies with some degree of dramatic grit. He’s even made a few masterpieces along the way. However, the Eastwood of today doesn’t care much for nuanced understandings of behavior, now perfectly content to film community theater productions in the least amount of time possible. After last year’s head-slappingly clumsy “The Mule,” Eastwood returns with “Richard Jewell,” which offers a shockingly simplistic take on the 1996 Centennial Park Bombing, with the helmer (joined by screenwriter Billy Ray) peeling away any realistic complications as he turns the saga of Richard Jewell into his latest cartoon. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2017, Josh and Benny Safdie unleashed “Good Time,” focusing all their cinematic powers to create a winding ode to brotherly protection, created with distinct visual and aural intensity, along with outstanding performances. The siblings return with “Uncut Gems,” and they go even deeper into the abyss of personal delusion and addiction, only this time they’re bringing Adam Sandler along for the ride, and he’s never had a role quite like this. Ferocious, hypnotic, and blissfully deranged, “Uncut Gems” is a singular viewing experience brought to life by the Safdies and their talented crew, offering 100% glorious chaos for 130 minutes as the story follows one trouble man’s desire for redemption he hasn’t earned. The illness of this endeavor is outstanding, and while the viewing experience is often akin to being buried alive, there’s not a moment in “Uncut Gems” that isn’t completely intoxicating. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2017’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” wasn’t a towering achievement in fantasy filmmaking, but as a long overdue sequel to 1995’s “Jumanji,” it did the trick, finding a way to connect to the previous movie while establishing its own universe, transforming board game threats into video game mayhem. The picture delighted audiences in a major way, becoming a massive hit over the holiday season, and now the gang is back two years later with “Jumanji: The Next Level,” which is being sold as the next chapter in the franchise saga, but it’s more of a remake of “Welcome to the Jungle,” adding a few new characters to the mix to revive introductory confusion to the gaming realm, forgoing a thrilling new odyssey for the players from the last endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Jay Roach has a history with politically minded moviemaking, enjoying the sometimes stranger-than-fiction details of American power plays, studied in such pictures as “Recount” (exploring the 2000 presidential election), “Game Change” (detailing the 2008 presidential election), and now “Bombshell,” which samples national illness during the 2016 presidential election. Roach certainly has a fetish for exposing the inner lives of leaders, and while his latest isn’t a Donald Trump expose, it tackles his biggest supporters, exploring the reign of Fox News founder Roger Ailes and his extended history of sexual harassment. Screenwriter Charles Randolph has an incredible story to tell, endeavoring to present it from a female point of view, gathering all the Fox News stars and sycophants to populate an engrossing tale of abuse, paranoia, and battered professionalism, examining how a cable network was challenged from within during a critical moment in the country’s history. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While director David Cronenberg mastered his own remake with 1986’s “The Fly,” it’s difficult to imagine anyone having the bravery to rework one of his pictures. Jen and Sylvia Soska step up to the challenge of reinterpretation with “Rabid,” which is an update of a 1977 Cronenberg hit, and a particularly gruesome one at that. The Soska Sisters are no strangers to the gore zone, and while they can’t possibly outgun Cronenberg, they remain respectful of his strangeness, doing very well with the ghoulish oddity of the material, finding some fresh ideas with old ideas. “Rabid” delivers the violent goods with enthusiasm, with the Soskas once again commanding an engaging, grotesque genre offering, continuing their impressive run of B-movie delights. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com