Category: Film Review

2013’s “Short Term 12” was a wonderful picture and introduced audiences to the talents of writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton, who made an impressive debut, offering a gritty but humane drama, and one that also managed to boost the career of star Brie Larson. In 2017, Cretton returned with “The Glass Castle,” reuniting with Larson for a significantly less satisfying storytelling experience, with the production showing obvious strain during its mission to create an impactful literary translation. Continuing on a slide of mediocrity, Cretton issues “Just Mercy,” which aims to shine a light on the experience of the wrongly convicted, but chooses to lead with crude manipulation instead of inspecting all sides of the issue. Cretton and co-writer Andrew Lanham certainly have passion for their message, but they bury the potency of their ideas in T.V. movie-style turns of legal upsets and victories. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I’m not sure a single frame can contain the power of actor/comedian Rudy Ray Moore, but Eddie Murphy gives it his best shot with some of his finest work to date in “Dolemite Is My Name.” Granted, Murphy hasn’t been mentally committed to a project in a long time, but he takes the challenge of portraying Moore’s screwball focus seriously, careful to keep the subject understood while enjoying the extremes of his personality. Bio-pic vets Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski (“Big Eyes,” “Man on the Moon,” “Ed Wood,” “The People vs. Larry Flynt”) provide appealing guide rails for the production, working through a chunk of Moore’s crazy career, and director Craig Brewer keeps the feature moving along with a lively supporting cast. But the real reason to spend time with “Dolemite Is My Name” is the chance to watch Murphy come alive on screen again, giving the part his all in the best possible way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The PG-13 horror experience is usually a letdown, with unadventurous producers sticking to cliche and bloodless antics to engage a younger audience, opening possibilities for greater profit on low-budget entertainment. “Countdown” is certainly not going to win any awards for originality, aiming to remake “Final Destination” for the smartphone age. However, all is not lost in writer/director Justin Dec’s film (which represents his feature-length helming debut). The movie is absolutely goofy, aimed directly at viewers who can’t take the hard stuff when it comes to genre escapism, but there’s some energy to the picture that keeps it going. Dec makes a few critical errors that disrupt the mood of “Countdown,” but there’s fun to be had with the app-fearing chiller, as it plays quick enough and panicked enough to create a basic thrill ride. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Kill Team” was originally a 2013 documentary from director Dan Krauss, looking into the madness of the military in Afghanistan, singling out the story of Private Adam Winfield, who witnessed his fellow soldiers commit murder, taking down civilians, and felt powerless to stop it. After creating other documentaries, Krauss returns to the Winfield saga with “The Kill Team,” this time dramatizing the events, giving real world agony to actors for interpretation. In a marketplace overwhelmed by tales of Middle East war and agony, Krauss brings intimacy to the screen, examining the moral ungluing of boy who wanted to become a man while in service, only to face his future as a monster. While there’s little reason to revisit the story, Krauss makes his points vividly, finding an effective thriller this time around. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Arriving to add a little David Cronenberg homage to the Halloween season is “Wounds,” which is writer/director Babak Anvari’s follow-up to his 2016 Iranian horror film, “Under the Shadow.” Adapting a 68-page novella by Nathan Ballingrud (titled “The Visible Filth”), Anvari quests to turn something literary and indistinct into a 90-minute feature, leaning on an atmosphere of dread to fully freak out the audience. As nightmares go, “Wounds” is as thinly sliced as it comes, trying to get by on very little in the fright department, with the material encouraging more undefined highlights of terror. Moving at a slower pace with an unremarkable cast, Anvari doesn’t create many highlights with the movie, which only tends to connect when acting reverential to the “The Fly” and “Videodrome” helmer, trying body horror on for size. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Current War” has experienced a very real battle to find its way into theaters. Shot three years ago, the picture was originally produced by Harvey Weinstein with intent to distribute the project via The Weinstein Company. Of course, that plan didn’t come to fruition, and behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt soon surfaced detailing Weinstein’s quest to rework the movie without input from director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, resulting in an underwhelming film festival debut in 2017. Now “The Current War” is back without Weinstein, boasting a new cut from Gomez-Rejon, with hopes to make the feature more enjoyable for audiences. While I didn’t have access to the first pass at the endeavor, the second iteration of it is quite overbaked and, at times, completely airless. Perhaps the effort was never meant to be, but at least there’s pride from the helmer here, who bravely takes credit for this definitive version. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound” acknowledges early on that most film appreciation is often focused on visual achievements. Director Midge Costin is determined to change that perception with her first feature, presenting a survey of “the other half of the experience,” delving into the nuances of sound and the technical effort required to turn images into a compelling, possibly overwhelming, aural event. It’s this need to celebrate the unsung heroes of movie production that powers most of “Making Waves,” which presents an impressively detailed valentine to the Hollywood audio masters, and celebrates their work on classics that wouldn’t be classics without support from the sound people who work tirelessly to generate a singular sonic marriage to exceptional filmmaking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Alice Waddington makes her feature-length directorial debut with “Paradise Hills,” and it’s a stunner in many ways. She’s created a fantasy world of re-education with screenwriters Nacho Vigalondo and Brian DeLeeuw, finding a way to deal with gender submission troubles while creating a futureworld environment of hostility thinly veiled by hospitality. The production has its storytelling issues, happy to throw everything at the screen without explaining a great deal of it, but Waddington also strives for a visual experience, offering terrific design elements throughout. “Paradise Hills” has something to say about the state of oppressed females, heading into a sci-fi direction to explore a survival tale that’s loaded with screen detail and summons the eternal burn of frustration as it transforms into revolution. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nicolas Cage tries to create an acting opportunity for himself with “Kill Chain,” taking the lead role and a producer credit on the production, even offering himself something a vacation, with the feature shot in Columbia. Cage’s intent with the material isn’t difficult to decode, offering writer/director Ken Sanzel a shot at shaping a noir-ish look at people who kill and the trauma they wrestle with, gifting his actors plenty of opportunity to monologue and looked pained while participating in the occasional shootout. Like many recent Cage endeavors, “Kill Chain” is fairly weak, absent a supportive budget and helming hustle from Sanzel, who isn’t all that concerned with the movie’s lack of excitement, searching for a way to protect the material’s theatrical style instead of amplifying its periodic conflicts. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2015’s “The Gallows” was one of the worst films of its release year. 2019’s “The Gallows Act II” is one of the worst films of this release year. This is not progress. However, it’s Blumhouse Productions, which receives a lot of credit for supporting features such as “Get Out,” but remain just as capable of producing no-budget garbage for teenage audiences. Four years ago, they managed to make a few bucks with summer counterprogramming in “The Gallows,” a found footage chiller that didn’t make much sense, barely felt complete, but it contained enough jump scares (and utilized an effective marketing campaign) to pull in a sizable audience. Lack of positive critical and community response be damned, Blumhouse isn’t about to leave money on the table, returning with “The Gallows Act II,” which trades “realism” for Disney Channel-style melodrama and scares. Again, this is not progress. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For the fourth film of his retirement, Steven Soderbergh attempts to pull off an understanding of the “Panama Papers,” a massive collection of documents leaked in 2015 that detailed just how the rich stay rich, creating a network of barely legal hustling and outright fraud to avoid the scourge of taxes and deny assorted outside interests. There’s little dramatic meat on these bones, as the scandal was more about the revelation that the famous and the powerful were happy to hide their cash from the world, but screenwriter Scott Z. Burns gives it the old college try, adapting a book (by Jake Bernstein) that tries to clarify an enormous financial and moral mess. Taking cues from Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” and “Vice,” Soderbergh strives to stay ahead of a shapeless movie, laboring to make something cheeky, but it mostly comes off flat and disorganized. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2001, Kevin Smith was handed 22 million dollars to say goodbye to his View Askewiverse creation, using the cash to create “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” a cameo-laden farewell to the lovable stoners who delivered silly business in movies such as “Clerks,” “Dogma,” and “Chasing Amy.” The boys from New Jersey were handed the spotlight for their final screen appearance, with Smith serving up a tight, wacky, and celebratory feature. The retirement didn’t last long (the guys were back in business with 2006’s “Clerks II”), but Smith is in a sentimental mood again, crafting another valentine to his most popular characters with “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.” Taking aim at remake/reboot fever in Hollywood, Smith gifts his fanbase an intentional recycling of “Strike Back,” pantsing creative laziness with his own impishness, delivering a slightly winded but entertaining offering of exaggerated madness, with the whole thing dipped in nostalgia and sentimentality for maximum response. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There haven’t been many movies made about the trials of survival while working in the basket of a giant gas balloon, giving “The Aeronauts” a distinct identity in an increasingly crowded marketplace. That it’s a very engaging adventure is icing on the cake, with director Tom Harper (“Wild Rose,” “The Woman in Black: Angel of Death”) tasked with creating suspense and spectacle while dealing with the tight confines of the balloon. Based loosely on real events, “The Aeronauts” brings viewers high into the sky, exploring the mysteries of the mid-19th century atmosphere as two characters attempt to crack the secret code of meteorology, but the writing is also attentive to personal stories, creating a balance of intimacy and self-preservation as science and redemption is examined in this satisfying endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Pedro Almodovar always makes personal films, showing little hesitation when it comes to exploring his fantasies, desires, regret, and hope on the big screen. He’s a sensitive director, but with “Pain and Glory,” Almodovar digs a little deeper into his fears, dealing with aging and death with his traditional compassion and gift for the movement of storytelling. There’s an enormous amount of life within “Pain and Glory,” which also represents the most lived-in feature he’s made in a long time, using the tale to work through private ideas concerning creativity and mortality. Aided by a sensational performance from frequent collaborator Antonio Banderas, Almodovar crafts another achingly beautiful effort that’s mindful of human fallibility, but also aware of cinematic possibility as it seamlessly weaves together experiences from the past and the present. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Released in 2009, “Zombieland” managed to make some money with its comedic observation of a zombie apocalypse, finding co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick trying to maintain all the splatter the subgenre is known for while encouraging a steady display of silliness to secure audience appeal. The feature felt fresh at the time, striving to do different things with the undead while other moviemakers were determined to preserve as much horror as possible. While not revolutionary, the effort did the trick, but, weirdly, the producers failed to capitalize on the endeavor’s box office performance. A decade later, a sequel has finally come together, with “Zombieland: Double Tap” hoping to revive the recipe of gore and giggles for fans. Unfortunately, too much time has passed between installments, and Reese and Wernick don’t have much to say with their follow-up, which often plays like a series of disconnected sketches occasionally interrupted by zombie attacks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sweetheart” is a cross between “Cast Away” and “Predator,” but made on a limited budget. It’s the second directorial effort for J.D. Dillard, who made his debut a few years ago with “Sleight,” which offered viewers an intriguing blend of sci-fi and criminal pressure, but failed to doing anything original with it, with Dillard soon leaning on cliché to connect the dots. “Sweetheart” also suffers a bit from familiarity, putting a frightened character against an unknown monster lurking in the dark, but Dillard simplifies his genre targets and deepens his mysteries with the picture, which supplies a gripping variation on the island survival subgenre. Dillard delivers on expectations when it comes time to craft a creature feature, but he’s also mindful of pace and discovery, constructing a more satisfying effort for his second at-bat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Disney was in a special position many years ago. The release of 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland” went wonderfully, grossing over a billion dollars, but audience reaction was mixed. They marched ahead with a sequel, finally coming up with 2016’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” and the expensive feature failed spectacularly. With “Maleficent,” the situation is similar, as the studio managed to make a giant hit out of their reworking of “Sleeping Beauty” characters, delivering a CGI-heavy fantasy experience that pulled in audiences, but didn’t leave a lasting impression for many. Gambling on ticket-buyer loyalty once again, Disney offers “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” which brings back Angelina Jolie and big visuals to wow the crowds once again, this time betting on the Halloween season to stimulate box office interest. Much like “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” “Mistress of Evil” doesn’t do anything different, once again providing a numbing viewing experience that’s mostly about creating noise and limp mythos to expand on a world that wasn’t very interesting in the first place. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's been plenty of attempts to do something with the works of Charles Addams, who originally created “The Addams Family” in 1938, offering single-panel cartoons of amusing antics featuring a macabre family. T.V. programs, movies, musicals, and animated shows have endeavored to interpret Addams’s imagination, and now the creepy clan graduate to a CGI-animated endeavor, with “The Addams Family” hoping to muscle in on “Hotel Transylvania” territory, giving all-ages entertainment a boost of the bizarre. While the production lacks the budget to pull off a truly gorgeous representation of the source material, directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan try to make the effort as amusing and spirited as possible, respecting the dark elements of the original concept while delivering modern cartoon elasticity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’ll be interesting to discover the overall reaction to “Gemini Man,” which is being marketed as a hardcore actioner, blasting “Will Smith vs. Will Smith” on its poster, offering audiences the showdown of 2019. This type of blockbuster entertainment doesn’t usually originate from director Ang Lee, who certainly knows how to put together a battle scene (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), but is always drawn to the deep-seated feelings of his characters, last seen on screen with the 2016 misfire, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” True to form, Lee doesn’t bring the wham-bang to “Gemini Man,” which is only berserk in small doses, striving to become more of an introspective piece on the strength of family ties and the unexpected conflicts of cloning. Even with adjusted expectations, it’s difficult to feel charged up over a needlessly talky, stagnant sci-fi thriller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2007, news reports followed the saga of Lisa Novak, who was arrested in Orlando for attempted kidnapping and several other charges after she drove cross-country to confront a lover who was cheating on her. What made the story special wasn’t the potential violence or mental illness on display, but the fact that the participants all worked for NASA, which is largely viewed as an organization for brilliant people, making the lunacy of Novak’s actions all the more delicious. “Lucy in the Sky” intends to be the dramatization of the Novak case, but co-writer/director Noah Hawley doesn’t want to get to close to the cartoonish highlights, preferring to create his own exaggerations and absurdities. However, before any self-destruction commences, Hawley demands 90 minutes of screen time to work through some odd visual choices and snoozy drama, making a movie about reaching for the stars that mostly drags along the ground. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com