Category: Film Review

Kurt Russell has the ability to elevate any film he appears in. It’s his charisma, this magical capacity to create characters and find the spirit of any production. And when that fails, Russell becomes the spirit of the production. With “The Christmas Chronicles,” Russell is offered a chance to play Santa Claus, and he takes on the acting challenge with complete commitment, which is impressive, especially when considering what the screenplay (from Matt Lieberman) asks of him during the run time. While “The Christmas Chronicles” keeps a tight grip on a holiday movie checklist, it does have Russell, and he’s oodles of fun to watch, accepting the challenge of embodying Christmas magic with real verve and comfort, selling the stuffing out of everything Lieberman dreams up for this latest attempt to create a cinematic perennial for the yuletide season. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There were few expectations for 2015’s “Creed.” It seemed like such an unnecessary production, seemingly created to squeeze a few more bucks out of the “Rocky” franchise, even bringing in Sylvester Stallone reprise his most famous character to help audiences accept a new series lead in Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan. And then the film was released, and it was magnificent. Credit goes to co-writer/director Ryan Coogler, who made a choice to take the work seriously, using inspiration from the original “Rocky” to create a meaningful, exciting new chapter, helping to reinvent the series with one of its best chapters. With surprising box office success comes a sequel, a business decision Stallone knows all too well. And yet, “Creed II” manages to hit high expectations this time out, finding a way to rehash without losing heart, also doing something compelling with a potentially ridiculous plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

2012’s “Wreck-It Ralph” was a feature steeped in nostalgia. It was about a video game character from the 1980s trying to survive in a new frontier of hyperactive arcade options, finding much needed friendship along the way. It’s a delightful movie, aided in great part by flavorful voice work from an eclectic cast, and there’s the fun factor of seeing beloved video game icons brought to life, often for irreverent purposes. A sequel wasn’t necessary, but more time with this group would always be welcome, leading to the creation of “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” which trades the boundaries of cabinet life for the endless ocean of information found in the online world. Nostalgia has been muted this time around, with “Ralph Breaks the Internet” more determined to find its own footing as an animated adventure, with sheer noise and formula providing a bit too much temptation for the filmmakers, who are visibly stretching to fill this second round.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Long Dumb Road” isn’t about plot or major character arcs. It’s the about time shared during an especially active road trip with two people who probably shouldn’t be riding together in the same car. Co-writer/director Hannah Fidell doesn’t want much more than to live in the moment, enjoying the volatility of the pairing and the unpredictability of bad decisions, trying to squeeze some laughs out of misfortune. “The Long Dumb Road” isn’t profound, but it does have a wily sense of humor and nice handle on travel chaos, also giving actor and podcast staple Jason Mantzoukas a vehicle for his specific screen energy, often found single-handedly powering the feature when Fidell isn’t exactly sure what she wants to do with the premise.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Becoming Astrid” is a bio-pic about author Astrid Lindgren, who became a worldwide literary obsession with her work on “The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.” It’s a Swedish production from co-writer/director Pernille Fischer Christensen, and a production that’s very protective of Lindgren’s personal life, making sure to downplay any bright kid-lit spirit to focus on the horrible times she endured while trying to survive her twenties, facing numerous trials of the heart and mind. Perhaps this is the best way to get into the thick of Lindgren’s experience, with “Becoming Astrid” largely skipping the routine of individual character introduction to focus on her personal bruising, and how such trauma would eventually inspire unusually observant and mature books about the juvenile experience.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Write When You Get Work” is the first picture from writer/director Stacy Cochran in 18 years, and the first interesting movie she’s made since 1992’s “My New Gun.” It’s strange to have Cochran back on the scene, with her initial work tied to the indie film movement of the 1990s, and now she’s facing quite a different atmosphere for low-budget endeavors. Perhaps trying to avoid getting crushed by the competition, the helmer adds a little sugar to her dramatic vegetables, giving this study of character and class some wish-fulfillment to help encourage audience participation. “Write When You Get Work” is well-made with appealing performances, with Cochran laboring to retain as much feeling and history as possible while still tending to the expectations of a crime story that’s blended with little bits of unresolved love.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The legend of Robin Hood has been explored on film on many occasions, with most ventures quite successful when it comes to reimagining the specifics of the tale to suit the demands of a new generation of moviegoers. This familiarity frightens the new “Robin Hood,” which aims to rework known elements, hoping to appeal to a wider audience by saving the highlights of the saga for the sequel, preferring to achieve its own special origin story as a way of launching a new franchise. Mixing elements of Guy Ritchie, Baz Luhrmann, and dozens of nondescript actioners, “Robin Hood” relies on formula to avoid formula, emerging as a slightly confounding, utterly empty take on the famous outlaw, leading with a dulled sense of big screen adventure, romance, and villainy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Being part of the Farrelly Brothers today just isn’t what it used to be. The directing duo once churned out hits (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary”), but the last decade has been rough on the siblings (“The Three Stooges,” “Hall Pass,” and “Dumb and Dumber To”), and now they’ve split for the time being, with Peter Farrelly searching for some respectability, finding a potential redirection in reputation with “Green Book,” a period piece about racism, friendship, and overeating. Farrelly isn’t turning into Spike Lee here, maintaining concentration on mainstream storytelling, with hopes to provide a tidy viewing experience that’s easy on the senses and tight on the heart, trying to understand American ills with a television movie that’s somehow made its way into multiplexes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Two years ago, author J.K. Rowling decided to develop a second entrance into the Wizarding World she triumphantly explored in the “Harry Potter” series of films based on her novels. To some, it was a basic cash-grab, giving studio home Warner Brothers a chance to extract more coin from Potterheads looking for anything new to savor from Rowling. To others, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” admittedly lacked some snap, but remained a dense immersion into this vivid realm of wizards and monsters. The feature didn’t create the pop culture stir many were expecting, but it made a lot of money, encouraging Rowling to continue down the rabbit hole of Newt Scamander and his interactions with the dark side of the Wizarding World. She returns to screens with “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” which does nothing to correct tonal mistakes made in the first installment, with Rowling and director David Yates doubling down on mean-spiritedness to make sure their grim fantasy leaves a lasting mark.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After bringing “Daddy’s Home” and “Daddy’s Home 2” to box office heights, co-writer/director Sean Anders isn’t about to stop there. He’s created “Instant Family,” bringing Mark Wahlberg back for duty as a besieged parent, and reheating a comedic sense of domestic crisis for possible four-quadrant enjoyment during the holiday season. It all feels like the creation of the marketing department, but Anders swears there’s genuine heart here, emphasizing the importance of adoption as he details the highs and lows of guardianship. “Instant Family” has moments of cuteness, and stars Wahlberg and Rose Byrne are fully alert, giving the feature some much needed enthusiasm as it takes hits from dangerous levels of formula and product placement, while Anders also threatens his own creation by making this family film one of the hardest PG-13 releases of the year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The last time John Travolta was seen in theaters, it was “Gotti,” the actor’s much-maligned (and rightly so) bio-pic of gangster John Gotti. For his latest endeavor, Travolta returns to the underworld for “Speed Kills,” which is a bio-pic of Donald Aronow, a struggling New Jersey businessman who relocated to Miami and became a famous designer of luxury speedboats. It’s an unusual subject matter, and Aronow is a complicated man to explore, but “Speed Kills” has no desire to be anything more than be a glorified television movie, spending as much time with boats as it does melodrama. Travolta grimaces his way through the picture, trying to be as serious as possible while basically reheating his “Gotti” performance, which demands little more from him than to stand still and act tough in a feature that doesn’t work.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Jason Reitman sets out to make a film about 1988 feel like a production from 1972, and he’s largely successful with his vision for a snappy, zoom-happy, roving-camera endeavor. “The Front Runner” is meant to evoke cinema form the past while telling a very modern tale of sensationalism, using the saga of Gary Hart’s failed run for the White House to establish a line crossed by journalists as candidate coverage turned into a character assassination game, and for good reasons. Reitman’s already made a gem this year with last spring’s “Tully,” and while his vision is clear for “The Front Runner,” his taste in screenwriting, wigs, and targets of derision is a little off. The Hart story is amazing, but the dramatic recreation doesn’t do enough to grasp the finer points of character and disgrace.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As screenwriters search for new ways to conjure old fears, attention has turned to the community aspect of online life. There have been multiple social media/desktop thrillers and two rideshare chillers, and now writer David Levinson takes aim at Airbnb with “Welcome Home,” which imagines the invasions of privacy inside a rental home in Italy. Other features have preyed on the fear of hidden surveillance, with the addition here being the dream of the impossibly affordable getaway, serving up the young and the oversexed to older perverts everywhere. Problems arrive early in “Welcome Home,” which has the novelty approach to voyeuristic agitation, but lacks the thespian firepower to do something significant with all of its jealousy and paranoia.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Jonathan” offers a sci-fi concept packaged as a meditative drama. It’s the first feature-length effort from co-writer/director Bill Oliver, who doesn’t push too hard on the cerebral aspects of the story, looking to generate a more emotional journey for a strange tale of fractured identity. “Jonathan” takes time to get where it’s going, and it’s debatable of the final destination is worth the journey, but Oliver achieves a level of introspection and askew gamesmanship that’s compelling, making the endeavor just bizarre enough to hold attention while he works on creating dimensional characters capable of sustaining a premise that, at any moment, threatens to turn into an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Making a true crime film isn’t easy, with tremendous competition from other moviemakers and the entire genre worth of triumphs and failures to help discourage experimentation. With “El Angel,” co-writer/director Luis Ortega makes a conscious effort to avoid a flashy display of hellraising, instead downplaying the wrath of Carlos Puch, who, as a teenager, became one of the most wanted men in Argentina, responsible for multiple crimes, including eleven murders. “El Angel” isn’t the kind of feature one expects when the subject is an unrepentant serial killer, and while an askew take on known elements is intriguing, Ortega doesn’t always know what he wants to communicate during the run time, which is slowed considerably by dramatic stasis, with the helmer sniffing around for poetic visuals that throttle what little procedural interest the picture has.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Wild Boys” is an art film, unencumbered by the rules of mainstream cinema. Even better, it’s a French art film, which is pretty much code for “all bets are off.” Working his hands through concepts of horror, gender, and fantasy, writer/director Bertrand Mandico makes his feature-length directorial debut with this odyssey into the unknown, attempting to conjure a phantasmagoria of sensorial highlights and film school itches. “The Wild Boys” lives up to its title, with a distinctly free range feel to the picture, which endeavors to be the weirdest movie in recent memory and nearly succeeds. However, issues remain, as a brief sampling of the bodily evolution presented here is far more appetizing than the full meal Mandico has prepared. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Five years ago, director Steve McQueen was in theaters with “12 Years a Slave.” It was a difficult movie to process, dealing with grim history and inhumane behavior, but the helmer’s skills were easily followed, adding to an already impressive filmography of suffocating efforts like “Hunger” and “Shame.” While he doesn’t sacrifice any of his artistry, McQueen is clearly hunting for something more commercial with “Widows,” which remains icy and rough, but also engineered to rile audiences up. McQueen joins forces with author Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”) for this crime saga (a remake of a British crime series, first broadcast in 1983), which offers a labyrinth of domestic disorder to navigate, eventually ending up as something of a heist film, but one that’s not entirely attentive to the particulars of crime. “Widows” is powerful and riveting, allowing McQueen to indulge his thriller sweet tooth while still making room for a sophisticated study of race, politics, and marriage.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Fede Alvarez has made a positive impression in recent years. He was handed an impossible task to remake Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead,” and managed to deliver a blood-drenched summary of Cabin in the Woods horror, sold with impressive gusto. He went on to create “Don’t Breathe,” which twisted the home invasion thriller in impressive ways, toying with sound and vision to summon thrills in a close-quarters setting. Now he’s been ordered to make something exciting out of “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” continuing the American take on the Lisbeth Salander saga that began seven years ago with David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Add in three Swedish productions based on the late Stieg Larsson’s collection of Salander stories, and there’s a considerable amount of screen time devoted to the character, with a few installments quite good. Hollywood seems to think there’s still money to be made from Larsson’s universe, putting pressure on Alvarez to pump up the jams on action and lose most of the procedural texture of the series, with “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” mostly content to be dopey, also setting some kind of world record for coincidences in the major motion picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

In 2006, Tenacious D tried to move their blend of music and comedy from television programs and album releases to the big screen, unleashing “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny” over the Thanksgiving holiday. The picture was largely ignored, turned into a cult hit with a large stoner following. It’s a shame “Pick of Destiny” didn’t do bigger business, with its mastery of weirdness, rock opera, and goofballery delivering an accurate representation of Tenacious D’s appeal. The band went on to an intermittent release schedule (their last recording came out in 2012), but they’ve returned with something of a new movie, creating a series of shorts that pair Jables and Kage with the end of the world. “Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto” is perhaps the exact opposite of polished entertainment, but the animated offering is fully stocked with the old D magic, creating a silly stew of raunchy missions, inane banter, and free-range imagination to give the feature plenty of insanity to savor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Joel and Ethan Coen have managed to create one western classic during their career, working their special magic on an update of “True Grit” in 2010, which also provided a box office smash for the filmmaking siblings, an achievement that often eludes them. One could argue that westerns have always been part of their creative DNA, but they’ve elected to return the genre in an immersive way with “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” which presents an anthology tale covering six stories of life and death from the untamed frontier. While it was originally conceived as a television show for Netflix, the Coens have whittled the episodes down into a lengthy feature, electing to use the material to craft a flavorful omnibus instead of trying to win audiences over in individual installments.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com