Category: Film Review

“The Wave” approaches ideas on conscience and karmic balance through the cinematic reverberations of psychedelic drugs. Director Gille Klabin is prepared to take the audience on a special mind-bending ride, armed with distinct visuals and doses of CGI, while instructing star Justin Long to capture the finer points of mental and physical alarm as his character is sent through time and space to deal with his issues as a human being in a dangerous position of power. “The Wave” has a simple message of personal inventory to study, and Klabin tries to capture audience attention through bursts of chaos, hoping to wind up the feature as a manic sprint through different realities. It’s not an especially ambitious production, and not entirely compelling either, but it does have a certain energy at times to keep it going, with Long working hard to communicate the inner melt of a troubled man. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screen comedy hasn’t been living its best life in recent years, with trends in improvisation and lowbrow humor hurting funny business instead of helping it, finding filmmakers all too content to provide limited imagination. “Like a Boss” isn’t going to change the game, but it does have an interesting director in Miguel Arteta, helmer of “Cedar Rapids,” “The Good Girl,” and the recent “Beatriz at Dinner.” Arteta is far from infallible, but one can sense something trying to happen in “Like a Boss,” which possesses moments of pleasant silliness with two very game stars before it retreats back to numbing cliché, creating strange tonal extremes as Arteta tries to steady himself and create a bawdy, R-rated comedy that also touches on female empowerment and friendship issues. He doesn’t get there, but some mild effort helps. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was a time when this type of movie was nearly released on a monthly basis. In the late 1980s, Hollywood wanted in on oceanic horror movies, with features such as “DeepStar Six” and “Leviathan” making a run for box office glory, only to find limited interest from ticket-buyers. 30 years later, there’s another attempt with “Underwater” (shot three years ago), which isn’t quite as monster intensive, but does restore the primal terror of being stuck at the bottom of the sea, facing off against a most determined foe. It’s the “Alien” formula, only with tighter spaces and lots of wetness. “Underwater” has the remote setting and some money for visual effects, but director William Eubank (who contributed effective work with 2014’s “The Signal”) is more interested in creating a chaotic viewing experience, not a terrifying one, shredding his invitation to make a claustrophobic nail-biter, preferring flat acting and cheap scares instead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been many undercover snitch movies, and there will be a lot more to come. What separates these endeavors is depth of concern for characters in peril and overall suspense while watching conflicted personalities pushed to their breaking point. “The Informer” has no aspiration to be cinematic art, but director Andrea Di Stefano (“Escobar: Paradise Lost”) has steady command of tension when it comes to awful things happening to a wide variety of people, delivering a reasonably unsettling examination of panic in the world of secret lives. “The Informer” has pace and performances, and Di Stefano seems invested in making sure the feature is as gripping as possible before a few dramatic developments fall apart, keeping things compelling for a decent amount of time before the demands of audience-pleasing cinema begin to take over. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Anthony Jerjen makes his directorial debut with “Inherit the Viper,” which explores the ravages of opioid addiction and distribution in a small town, reflected in the lives of three siblings deeply involved with the problem. Formula isn’t denied by Jerjen, working with a screenplay by Andrew Crabtree, but concern for the inner lives of the characters remains, giving the production something to work with as it manages forgotten America woes. “Inherit the Viper” aims to go Shakespearean with its study of frayed family ties, and it achieves some of its creative goals, delivering a grim understanding of survival, legacy, and the deterioration of conscience as bad decisions mount, leading to all sorts of emotional and physical violence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Daniel Farrands has a fetish for true crime tales. However, instead of exploring the facts of such cases, trying to work his way to the truth, he’s decided to distort minor witness testimony and police report oddities to inspire his own brand of lurid cinema. In 2019, Farrands issued “The Amityville Murders,” which returned to the DeFeo saga to detail the supernatural claims of the family murder. A few months later, there was “The Haunting of Sharon Tate,” which attempted to redress the Manson Family massacre as a downward spiral of psychic awareness, even toying with the outcome of the evening. And now Farrands is back with “The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson,” which revisits the brutality of the 1994 homicide, with screenwriter Michael Arter taking O.J. Simpson’s 2006 suggestion of an aggressor named “Charlie,” and turning it into a feature-length theory that the ex-football star wasn’t the murderer so many people believe him to be. Why do we need a movie like this? Farrands never supplies an answer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

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