Category: Film Review

Director Todd Strauss-Schulson already did this kind of movie four years ago. It was titled “The Final Girls,” and it deconstructed and lampooned slasher film cliches. It was a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, but it worked, showcasing agreeable humor and enthusiasm for the genre it was pantsing. Strauss-Schulson returns to the well with “Isn’t It Romantic,” which trades a serial killer for Rebel Wilson, delivering her solo starring debut, which takes apart formula found in romantic comedies, offering a self-aware spin around lovey-dovey entertainment. In keeping with Wilson’s style of humor, there’s nothing subtle or sly about “Isn’t It Romantic,” which often delights in pointing out absurdities in rom-coms while wrapping itself in the same comfortable repetition, offering confusion with its ultimate summation of empowerment, and its jokes just aren’t all that funny. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2014’s “In Order of Disappearance” was a special Scandinavian movie (receiving a U.S. release in 2016), taking the framework of a traditional revenge saga and turning it inside out, making the experience about blood and rage, but also character and calmness, with director Hans Petter Moland finding ways to give the film eccentricity without dipping into quirk, also guiding star Stellan Skarsgard to one of the best performances of his career. The picture was fantastic. “Cold Pursuit,” the inevitable American remake of “In Order of Disappearance,” isn’t. While Moland returns to duty, trying his hand at the Hollywood game, his sense of darkness has been severely dulled, stuck trying to translate something with specific cultural ties for the Liam Neeson Hit Factory, which only seems interested in broad comedy and tuneless performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The world of “Alita: Battle Angel” is massive, and it requires the control of a filmmaker who can manage the bigness of action and the intimacy of character. Robert Rodriguez, despite landing a handful of creative successes, is not someone with a track record that inspires confidence is his abilities to whisk audiences away to a complex fantasy realm. There’s a lot to unpack with this feature, an adaptation of a 1990 manga, and Rodriguez isn’t quite up the challenge of providing engrossing storytelling. “Alita: Battle Angel” is teeming with technical achievements and ambitious epicness, but it’s winded easily, frequently caught up in expositional quicksand, failing to make something exciting while it spends a substantial amount of screen time trying to verbally itemize a world that’s better off revealed in purely cinematic ways. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

We live in an entertainment world where no-budget films with few redeeming production values are created, often using outrageous titles simply to attract attention (e.g. “Sharknado,” “Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus”), suckering in those on the prowl for wacky good times. “The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot” absolutely qualifies as B-movie identification of the highest order, offering an eye-catching promise of Asylum-style nonsense, playing up a connection between real-world evil and one born from myth. Mercifully, writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski isn’t interested in self-aware comedy, finding a way to turn such a genre-smashing promise into a meditation on aging and memory, perking up now and then to deal with the realities of wartime and forest extermination. “The Man Who Killed Hitler” is serious work, which is its greatest surprise, presenting severity of feeling and violence without feeling the need to rely on cheap shenanigans. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“What Men Want” is a remake of a 2000 Nancy Meyers comedy, which tried to make something silly and mushy out of Mel Gibson, back when that was still a possibility. It was a PG-13 production, as vanilla as it gets, with Meyers overseeing a mild battle of the sexes premise that shifted from frivolity to a deadly serious conclusion that touched on suicide. It was typical of Meyers’s uneven work, and the screenplay was certainly ripe for a do-over. Enter Adam Shankman, a crude helmer of terrible movies (“The Pacifier,” “Rock of Ages”), who has the bright idea to play “What Men Want” as broadly as possible, stuck between his desire to craft a hard R-rated version of the tale and the perceived demands of the mainstream audience, with sincerity trying to worm its way into a film that has no use for it. Shankman doesn’t know what he’s doing with the feature, so he does nothing, coasting on painfully inept jokes and sporadic ugliness to complete the job. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Asghar Farhadi is primarily known for his Iranian dramas, scoring major critical successes with efforts such as “The Salesman,” “A Separation,” and “About Elly.” Ready for more global awareness, the helmer takes baby steps toward the mainstream with “Everybody Knows,” which utilizes a sampling of star power to nab attention, finding Farhadi teaming with actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem to help carry a kidnapping mystery. However, “Everybody Knows” is not a nail-biter with chases and whiplash turns of fate. It remains in line with Farhadi’s previous work, with primary attention placed on the internal churn of decision-making and the troubles that come with longtime relationships and secretive connections. Those expecting something more explosive from the filmmaker this time out might be disappointed, but slow-burn tension is there, realized through accomplished performances from the entire ensemble. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Making her debut as a writer/director is Emma Forrest, who chooses an L.A. tale of mismanaged love in “Untogether,” making use of a large ensemble to create tight spaces of relationship woes. As career launches go, Forrest doesn’t select the most original route for her storytelling journey, dealing with broken people making terrible decisions, but there’s an effort found in select scenes to resist cliché, to find the real impulses behind sexual unions that are clearly masking other needs. “Untogether” drops sharpness and nerve as it goes along, eventually ending up a puddle of feelings and ideas in search of a more prepared filmmaker, as Forrest loses her way early and never gets back to the core display of confusion she begins with. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Darren Lynn Bousman was introduced to the world as a horror moviemaker, proving his speed with low-budget hits in “Saw II,” “Saw III,” and “Saw IV,” playing his part in the continuation of a series that wasn’t big on variation to begin with. Bousman remained with fright films, some imbued with musical numbers, determined to make his mark on the genre, despite ample evidence that perhaps the conjuring of screen violence just isn’t his forte. After dragging along with tedious work in “Abattoir” and “The Barrens,” Bousman keeps his dream alive with “St. Agatha,” which turns to evil nuns to bring on the nightmare fuel. Of course, other helmers have beaten him to the punch when it comes to the secretive ways of religious servants, and “St. Agatha,” which strives to be stylish, has nothing interesting to share on the state of Catholic imprisonment, with Bousman returning to his old bag of tricks to emphasize an agonizing situation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Matt Walsh is a comedic actor who’s been pushing his way into bigger and better roles over the last decade. He’s been in a lot of things, often portraying uptight characters, playing into his naturally submissive presence, and he’s managed to amass an impressively detailed filmography. With “Under the Eiffel Tower,” Walsh graduates to leading man status, taking command of a “Sideways”-style tale of a man’s mental breakdown while visiting what many would consider paradise. Co-writer/director Archie Borders puts a lot of faith in Walsh, whose job here is to create a dimensional character with peaks and valleys of fallibility but still remain approachable, even understandable. Walsh does fine in the part, but “Under the Eiffel Tower” has a problem with likeability, which becomes an issue with a movie that’s hoping to make a warm impression on viewers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Does the Amityville name mean anything to horror fans these days? It’s been 45 years since the original family murder spree committed by Ronald DeFeo Jr., and 40 years since the ghastly incident was turned into “The Amityville Horror,” a dim production that turned into one of the highest-grossing features of 1979. People were once insatiable when it came to all things Amityville, but the hunger for new versions of old violence diminished long ago, especially after a sustained wave of sequels, remakes, and spin-offs, with 20 movies in all trying to squeeze the true-crime teat dry. Faced with impossible odds for success, writer/director Daniel Farrands tries his luck with DeFeo misery, offering “The Amityville Murders,” a prequel of sorts to “The Amityville Horror,” going back to the scene of the crime to understand the motivation behind the killings that shocked a nation and punished entire generations of genre fans. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been difficult to take director Catherine Hardwicke seriously, as she’s built a filmography made up of misfires and mediocrity (“Twilight,” “Red Riding Hood,” “Miss You Already”), always finding her way into overkill, even with delicate material. Her aggressive style seems like a fine fit for “Miss Bala,” which is a remake of a 2011 Mexican thriller, giving the helmer a template for panic and scenes of intimidation, as the story covers kidnappings, across-the-border drug running, and acts of revenge. And yet, Hardwicke manages to turn it all into a mushy pile of cliches and noise, treating “Miss Bala” as her ticket into the Michael Bay School of Fetishistic Violence. Star Gina Rodriguez seems bewildered by it all, trying to keep up with Hardwicke’s excesses and limited interest in dramatic support, in need of a moviemaker with more patience and taste to successfully execute the unfolding nightmare presented here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

The “How to Train Your Dragon” series has become big business for Dreamworks Animation, who’ve gone beyond movies to deliver video games, books, and multiple television shows that detail the epic fantasy world where humans and dragons are learning to live with each other, often heroically. That’s all well and good, but the real magic of the franchise is found on the big screen (the biggest, of you can find it), with “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” the most awe-inspiring and thrilling of a trilogy that began in 2010. Closing out the saga of Hiccup and his pal Toothless, writer/director Dean DeBlois gets a little sentimental with the second sequel, but his aim is to end things as excitingly as possible, delivering a healthy amount of action and discovery, along with plenty of Viking tomfoolery. While lacking the sweep of the last chapter, “The Hidden World” makes up for the loss in other ways, with DeBlois crafting a divinely animated, supremely felt effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“Velvet Buzzsaw” has an initial stance of satire. Writer/director Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler,” “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”) picks a rather easy target for mockery, the modern art scene, and showcases the lives of pretentious people trying to make their mark on a cutthroat world and collect a fortune in the process, wielding weapons of judgment and pettiness. Gilroy definitely has his moments of exaggeration, but he’s using the setting and the participants to create a horror film, delving into the genre with welcome strangeness and specificity. “Velvet Buzzsaw” doesn’t have many left turns, just a gradual tonal shift from art world commentary to blood-spurting terror, and Gilroy gets what he needs from the picture, though some viewers might come away disappointed that he doesn’t remain with the artists and their battle to survive social and professional tests of empathy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2014’s “The Lego Movie” enjoyed the element of surprise. Little was expected of the project, which was initially believed to be a lengthy commercial for Lego merchandise. However, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller didn’t simply want their film to be a highlight reel of available products, but a sharp animated comedy that used the brick-flinging spirit of Lego to develop a world of heroes and villains, ending up with a tale of bonding between a distracted father and his son. It was a wonderfully strange feature with incredible comedic speed and lust for satiric jabs at superhero formula and character. Instead of jumping right back into the flow of things for a sequel, other projects were developed, including “The Lego Batman Movie” and “The Lego Ninjago Movie,” with both pictures failing to offer the same creative mayhem and emotional hook. Finally, there’s now a follow-up, but “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” can’t always shake a feeling of staleness, finding the screenplay trying a bit too hard to be strange when it should be focusing the same level of humor that made the original effort such a treat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2003, there was “Daddy Day Care,” which was part of the softening of Eddie Murphy for family audiences, with the comedian hoping for a career rejuvenation by playing to children (and their fatigued parents) with slapstick antics. A sequel (“Daddy Day Camp”) popped up in 2007, with Cuba Gooding Jr. taking over the lead role from Murphy, submitting himself for kid judgment, with the picture failing to make much money despite having brand recognition. Now striking while the iron is ice cold, hungry producers have returned to the franchise with “Granddaddy Day Camp,” which tries to mount a spin-off for an older crowd, but still retaining the same juvenile sense of humor. Perhaps seniors might get a kick out of seeing their daily misery played out on screen, and there are certainly talented actors involved, but “Granddaddy Day Care” wasn’t a good idea to begin with, attaching itself to series that nobody really liked in the first place, arriving with only a few ideas for jokes and one tone-deaf lunge for pathos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Teen melodramas are big business these days, with Netflix finding ratings gold with tales of sad but snappy kids in problematic relationships, trying make sense of the world they’re inheriting. “Then Came You” joins the pack, presenting two characters handed the challenge of cancer survival to help complicate their still-forming lives, trying to capture the essence of youth while dealing with the crushing realities of mortality. Writer Fergal Rock isn’t breaking fresh ground with “Then Came You,” but he’s not trying to avoid formula either, presenting a clichéd take on friendship, longing, and loss, trusting the warmth and quirk of the endeavor will be enough to capture interest in the characters. He needs more than familiarity to get by, as the movie never rises above mediocrity, unwilling to put in the effort to make something special out of working parts already on view in dozens of other films. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A film critic typically receives only one viewing to formulate a review. It’s a time when assessment is made with care and experience (hopefully), though sometimes a simple in-the-moment reaction is recorded, with certain pictures triggering a gut reaction, going against a reasonable response. 2006’s “The Benchwarmers” wasn’t a particularly well-made movie, and its cast was largely filled with unpleasant actors who really have no business in the world of comedy. But as a mild diversion with plenty of baseball action, its stupidity wasn’t as soul-crushing as expected, managing to be dumb fun with a long list of bad ideas. 13 years later, there’s a sequel, but “Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls” only invites one cast member to return to duty, giving the rest of this DTV production over to a new set of thespians who shouldn’t be near funny business in a continuation that’s late to the party, with little to add to what’s now the “Benchwarmers” Cinematic Universe. Whatever embarrassing pushover tingles I felt in 2006 are long gone in 2019. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A few ago, writer/director Nicolas Pesce made his filmmaking debut with “The Eyes of My Mother,” which display the helmer’s command of style and mood, along with his fascination with prolonged violent encounters. Instead of trying something different for his follow-up, Pesce returns to the land of grime and bloody with “Piercing,” attempting to adapt a 2008 novel by Ryu Murakami. Once again, Pesce doesn’t take it easy on his audience, delivering a picture that savors suffering and observes madness as its leaks out of the characters, often at the worst possible moments. “Piercing” boasts fine technical credits, but the feature’s quest for atmosphere is often more interesting than the actual story unfolding in slow-motion, finding Pesce too wrapped up in the particulars of Murakami’s world, keeping the viewing experience more about shiny surfaces and gaping wounds than macabre drama. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s hard to believe writer/director Joe Cornish has been away from screens since 2011, when his helming debut, the problematic “Attack the Block,” managed to capture cult attention, making him a creative force worth following. Screenplay work filled in the gaps (including “The Adventures of Tintin”), but Cornish has finally returned to theaters with “The Kid Who Would Be King,” which fulfills his initial promise as a storyteller. This is a wonderful picture, with Cornish turning Arthurian legend into an old-fashioned kid-centric adventure with bright performances and soaring spirit, returning to the concerns of children tasked with saving the world in their own special way. “The Kid Who Would Be King” takes wonder, character, and peril seriously, keeping the production searching for inventive ways to rework ancient conflicts, coming up with an endearingly exciting tale of knightly honor in a modern school-age battleground. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Jonas Akerlund is a respected director of music videos (including Madonna’s “Ray of Light”), but his cinematic pursuits haven’t made much of an impression. He stumbled through forgotten features such as “Horsemen” and “Small Apartments,” making his biggest film culture splash with his debut effort, 2002’s calloused, hyperactive junkie comedy, “Spun.” Akerlund, perhaps fearing he’s lost his touch, returns to the land of excess with “Polar,” which mimics “Spun” in style and sensorial hostility, and much like this previous work, there’s no drama or characters to hook into. An adaptation of a 2012 graphic novel, “Polar” is another case where not everything related to world of comic books needs to be a movie, finding Akerlund delighting in the material’s lust for carnage, and offering no attention to anything of substance. It’s zero-calorie hellraising and fantastically awful. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com