Category: Film Review

Screenwriters Paul Reichelt and William Kaufman clearly like action movies from the 1980s, working to update the formula with “Osiris,” which often plays like a blend of “Aliens” and “Predator.” It’s derivative stuff from Kaufman, who’s been in the business of B-moviemaking for many years now, and he returns to the realm of limited lighting and locations in the endeavor, which is mostly set inside tiny, dark rooms. “Osiris” is small-time sci-fi, and it’s passably interesting to watch Kaufman treat the offering with seriousness, out to create an exploratory bruiser that pits human warriors against alien hunters. The feature isn’t big enough to really do its premise justice, and Kaufman isn’t clever enough of a filmmaker to make the routine of gunplay and exposition compelling. The picture means to pack a punch, but it rarely excites, and while actress Linda Hamilton is the sole focus of the marketing, it’s best to temper expectations for what’s nothing more than a glorified cameo for the once and future Sarah Connor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The Smurfs have been around for nearly 70 years, explored through most forms of media, including a highly successful cartoon series in the 1980s and various cinematic efforts, the last released in 2017. It’s been very strange to watch Paramount Pictures figure out how to sell a new Smurfs movie to today’s kids, electing to put 100% of their marketing might behind the casting of pop singer Rhianna as the voice of Smurfette, plastering her name everywhere they possibly can. Apparently The Smurfs and their extended hold on pop culture isn’t enough to excite potential viewers anymore. However, after seeing “Smurfs,” perhaps the studio is fully aware of what they’re doing, pushing to deflect attention from the film itself, which is missing a tremendous amount of charm and enjoyable comedy. Director Chris Miller (“Shrek the Third,” “Puss in Boots”) chases other animated offerings with the endeavor, limiting the natural appeal of the source material to create a wearisome picture that’s a blend of “Trolls” and “Inside Out.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After scoring a box office and critical hit with 2019’s “Midsommar,” writer/director Ari Aster was offered an opportunity to take a big creative swing with a sizable budget. The gamble resulted in the creation of 2023’s “Beau is Afraid,” which failed to attract an audience, and perhaps understandably so. Aster crafted a picture that was intentionally unbearable, showing little interest in keeping viewers involved in his vision of absolute misery. Aster returns to screens with “Eddington,” and he’s not giving up on his mission to make the audience feel awful about the world around them. The helmer turns to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic for this study of psychological corruption, returning to his love of tortured characters and the impossible situations of survival they find themselves in. “Eddington” has a range of interesting ideas to share about the insanity of the last five years, but Aster retains his habitual indulgences, losing the impact of his examinations the longer he draws out the run time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sequels can mean big business for Hollywood, and recently there’s been the trend of resurrection in horror cinema, bringing back old franchises for fresh exploitation, while the people in charge of titles have the easiest job of all. There was 2018’s “Halloween,” which was a sequel to 1978’s “Halloween,” and there was 2022’s “Scream,” which was a continuation of 1996’s “Scream.” Now there’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which connects to 1997’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” putting co-writer/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (“Do Revenge”) in charge of reviving a brand name that’s been fully worked over (including two sequels and a television series), merging members of the original cast with a new team of panicking young characters. It’s a formula that resulted in box office success for other franchises, but the new “I Know What You Did Last Summer” isn’t exactly a thrilling ride of slasher cinema nostalgia, finding Robinson unable to recapture the simple charms of the original film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There haven’t been many animated pictures made for adult audiences, but director Genndy Tartakovsky is the right person for the job. While he’s been building industry cred with his work on the first three “Hotel Transylvania” movies, the helmer has always shown interest in more mature visuals and hard-edged storytelling, as seen recently in his series, “Primal.” There’s nothing sophisticated about his latest, “Fixed,” but Tartakovsky is absolutely committed to providing an R-rated viewing experience for fans of crude cartoon adventures, making sure this study of a dog trying to save himself from being neutered deals directly with all kinds of canine behavior. “Fixed” wins on energy, offering a traditionally animated tour of coarse happenings and strange characters, and while laughs are limited, Tartakovsky is clearly having a ball (or two) with this tribute to animal activity and human-like neuroses. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While once a safe, dependable helmer of Hollywood entertainment, director Ron Howard’s recent career choices have been anything but predictable. His oeuvre could technically be classified as a roller coaster ride, going skyward with movies such as “Rush,” “Thirteen Lives,” and “Jim Henson: Idea Man.” And it’s plunged into the depths, including one of the worst films of 2020, “Hillbilly Elegy.” To his credit, most of these endeavors work to challenge Howard’s moviemaking skills, presenting him with different genres and locations to expand his storytelling horizons. “Eden” is one of those big swings, exploring a developing situation of survival on Floreana Island nearly 100 years ago. Screenwriter Noah Pink (“Tetris”) reheats a true tale of community tensions, out to examine the dramatic potential of strangers forced to endure the elements and one another in the middle of nowhere. “Eden” slips out of Howard’s control in many ways, though its examination of manipulation has its powerful moments. There’s just not enough of them to support the unsteady viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Saint Clare” is an adaptation of the 2012 book titled “Clare At Sixteen,” written by Don Roff. From all evidence, the novel has very little to do with the movie version, including the age of the eponymous character, who’s now a college student. Changes have been made to generate a more adult understanding of what’s really YA literature, but writer/director Mitzi Peirone doesn’t do enough to really shake up the threat level of the picture. “Saint Clare” (which was shot three years ago) hopes to be unsettling with its central mystery of missing women, and it looks to define a different kind of heroism with its lead character, a person using divine influence to take on the scum of the city. Peirone doesn’t have the money to make a nail-biter, so she delivers what’s basically an episode of television instead, playing the offering flatly and without surprises. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A study of Edward Drake’s filmography almost qualifies as a horror experience. He’s been grinding out low-budget actioners for five years now (nine movies in total), and all of them involved the participation of Bruce Willis (who, as we understand now, was fighting a painful health decline due to a developing dementia diagnosis), involving himself in a particularly icky professional situation that provided him with something of a career. It’s amazing there hasn’t been a book written about the alleged exploitation of Willis, but until that day arrives, we still have to deal with Drake, who returns with a new lead actor in Kevin James for “Guns Up,” which is very much like every other feature he’s previously helmed. Also claiming a screenwriting credit, Drake delivers an extraordinarily generic offering of violence and cutesiness in “Guns Up,” supplying nothing new to viewers as the endeavor goes through a tiresome routine of shoot-outs and unwelcome broadness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although Tyler Perry once proclaimed he was retiring his most popular character in 2019, Madea returns once again to wreak havoc on the lives of friends, family, and customer service workers. Perry goes the Adam Sandler route in “Madea’s Destination Wedding,” gifting himself a vacation with the endeavor, which takes the gun-totin’ grandmother and her troubled clan to the Bahamas for a change of scenery. There’s more sun and hotel action in the picture, but Perry isn’t about to alter his usual way of moviemaking business, intent on keeping the offering crude in every way. “Madea’s Destination Wedding” is more of the same from the filmmaker, who offers sloppy work and random screenwriting, and Perry has no interest in timing, keeping the tiresome effort caught up in endless riffing and episodic shenanigans, only saving storytelling for the very end of this dismal feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenlife movies are difficult to pull off. The subgenre requires viewers to sit with characters as they work with their keyboards and phones, often in suspense situations involving killers and predators. There’s not much movement to be found, beyond screen activity, creating inherent limitations when it comes to physical action, which is usually paired with thrillers and chillers. “Don’t Log Off” is another attempt at screenlife suspense, this time examining the dangerous ways of a video conference birthday party, with the guests pulled into a troubling evening when one of their own goes missing during the gathering. Co-writer/directors Brandon and Garrett Baer show a command of screen movement and are dedicated to making sure viewers understand these personalities, but “Don’t Log Off” doesn’t come to life with any sort of fear factor. The picture is lethargic and anticlimactic, and the helmers don’t solve any of the storytelling issues that come with this style of filmmaking, remaining muted with horrors meant to shock the audience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s interesting to note that writer/director James Gunn has made seven movies over the last 20 years, and six of them have been based on or influenced by comic books. The man loves superhero cinema, and the success of his “Guardians of the Galaxy” series has turned him into an industry authority, even placed into a leadership role for DC Studios, tasked with launching a fresh round of world-building for the comic book company. “Superman” is meant to pour the foundation for this new direction, giving Gunn control of arguably the most famous superhero of all time, and one who’s been brought to the big screen on many occasions. The new “Superman” is striving to be massive and loaded with comic book references, but there’s a limit to how much the screenplay can take before it starts to ignore its primary appeal, and Gunn’s feature gets close to collapsing on multiple occasions. It’s loaded with characters and story, though it’s really at its best when dealing with Superman, giving star David Corenswet an opportunity to shine as he carries a wobbly, overwritten franchise-starter across the finish line. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sovereign” is based on a true story, using the details of the 2010 West Memphis police shootings to inspire a study of American insanity as it spreads throughout the land and across generations. Writer/director Christian Swegal makes his feature-length helming debut with the endeavor, and he dips into a particularly dark tale of influence, examining the experience of a teenage boy who’s completely guided by his father’s radicalization, eventually challenged to understand his parent’s poisonous way of thinking as he begins to mature into an adult. “Sovereign” is a riveting picture that aims to identify the frustration of those lost to indoctrination, also providing a parallel perspective with law enforcement to balance out the viewing experience. Swegal is careful and observant with the film, which reaches many chilling moments and painful reminders of U.S. extremism, and it’s held together by star Nick Offerman, who provides a searing performance in one of the best roles of his career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2018, residents of the Hawaiian Islands experienced quite a jolt during an average January morning. Instead of enjoying some sleep or the start of daily routines, the area was presented with an Emergency Alert System communication warning that a ballistic missile was headed for the area, urging people to immediately seek shelter. Citizens were left in a state of panic for 38 minutes, believing the end of the world had finally arrived, only to be told the whole incident was a horrible mistake. Writer/director Deena Kashper appears to be using the nightmare situation to inspire “Nuked,” which examines tensions inside a rural California home as a birthday party is interrupted by news of a missile launch, leaving partygoers to deal with a lot on their minds as death and destruction looms. Kashper hopes to turn such despair into a comedy, but she’s not entirely committed to funny business, taking “Nuked” into a few intimate directions as it explores a tense situation of terror. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With “Push,” co-writers/directors David Charbonier and Justin Douglas Powell look to make something small-scale and frightening. It’s their third chiller in a row, and another picture that makes use of a single location, with previous endeavors “The Boy Behind the Door” and “The Djinn” also striving to create nail-biting tension around limited real estate. The team has their cinematic fixations, and they receive a healthy workout in their latest effort, which pits a pregnant real estate agent against the mentally unstable ways of a home invader during a particularly vicious night. “Push” doesn’t win with story, emerging as an exercise in suspense and shock, putting the helmers to work as they strive to squeeze as much tension as possible out of the premise. It’s debatable of there’s enough here to support a feature, but Charbonier and Powell show enthusiasm in their attempt, generating a steady pulse of unease in the offering, and a few explosive moments of conflict. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The summer moviegoing season means a return to shark attack cinema. Last month saw the release of “Dangerous Animals,” which attempted to subvert the norm in the subgenre, playing around with human predators instead of strictly oceanic ones. And now Japan tries their luck with horrors from the deep in “Hotspring Sharkattack,” which is about an unserious as a film can get. We’ve done the “Sharknado” thing too many times, but writer/director Morihito Inoue delivers a different kind of wackiness with his presentation of death and destruction. He goes camp, but creatively so in the picture, which examines chaos caused by deadly ancient sharks awakened from the deep due to commercial development, seeking revenge on all for such an offense. “Hotspring Sharkattack” is low-budget and loving it, and while there’s definitely a limit on such exaggeration, Inoue has some imagination for his lunacy, mounting a bizarre and amusing riff on sharksploitation bedlam. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Vampire stories are plentiful, but author Joe Hill has something a little different in mind with “Abraham’s Boys.” The material is an adaptation of a short story, and writer/director Natasha Kermani is challenged to figure out how to work with Hill’s central concept of post-Dracula life for Mina Harker and Abraham Van Helsing, picking up with the characters as they experience the trouble of maintaining sanity after they’ve survived maddening events. It’s a neat idea, and Kermani is hunting for patience from her audience, going the slow-burn route with the endeavor, searching for a sense of creepiness to command the viewing experience. “Abraham’s Boys” has mood, and the tale eventually gets around to escalation, helping to improve a somewhat sluggish effort that battles with the limitations of the material that inspired it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

23 years ago, a director billed as “Kaos” helped to bring “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever” to the big screen, looking to establish himself as a major player in the world of action cinema. The plan didn’t come together as intended, as the film died a quick death at the box office while collecting a large assortment of negative reviews. The helmer has worked to keep his career going, delivering many B-movies over the years, and he continues his fixation on cheapy thrillers with “Bang,” a bluntly titled revenge offering from screenwriters Ken Solarz and Peter M. Lenkov (two television veterans), who try to subvert a few expectations with their slightly unusual take on one-man-army storytelling. Kaos has become Wych Kaosayananda, but his instincts for bruiser entertainment haven’t changed much since “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever,” finding “Bang” a real bore when it highlights shootouts and assorted physical challenges, which should be the main draw for this endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Loneliness and grief are common experiences that inspire a lot of cinematic offerings. The rough emotional ride of such events easily gives birth to stories investigating the confusion of personal loss, and the difficulty of processing such an experience. “Daniela Forever” is the latest from writer/director Nacho Vigalondo (“Colossal,” “Timecrimes,” “Open Windows”), who takes the basic concept of despair and tries to transform it into a fantasy take on denial and acceptance. The helmer means to get weird and somewhat poetic with the work, examining the state of mind of a man using dreams to reacquire the life he’s lost, only to learn more about it during his manufactured visits. It’s a timely tale of technology and human connection, and while Vigalondo doesn’t pursue pacing in the feature, he has a few sharp ideas on the future of coping, especially as our A.I.-infested world keeps expanding. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Ilya Naishuller made his directorial debut with 2015’s “Hardcore Henry,” presenting himself as a new action specialist on the scene, focusing on chaotic screen encounters. He moved into more mainstream work in 2021’s “Nobody,” finding himself with a pandemic hit. Naishuller goes deeper into Hollywood with his latest, “Heads of State,” which pairs the helmer’s love of mayhem with star power and a sizable budget. The result is a loud, mostly unfunny endeavor that gradually becomes a cartoon, as Naishuller works in excess to help cover for production limitations and the lack of a clever script. “Heads of State” has its moments of distraction, but these are select sequences in a picture that’s overlong and underwritten, losing its initial momentum as the whole thing grows bloated and, unfortunately, quite stupid. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One of the great challenges of watching “The Old Guard 2” is trying to remember what exactly happened in “The Old Guard.” The 2020 release was a riff on “Highlander,” presenting a graphic novel-inspired team of immortals out to take down threats and deal with their longevity. The picture was a pandemic hit, racking up streaming views with a captive audience, making the arrival of a sequel all but assured. Five years later, a continuation has finally emerged, though one with a rocky production history (it was shot three years ago), appearing with hope to turn a random hit movie into an ongoing series. “The Old Guard 2” probably isn’t going to expand the fan base, as director Victoria Mahoney (a television veteran) is in way over her head with the project, struggling to manage subplots, characters, and action in a film that’s surprisingly lifeless, unable to match the semi-fun factor of the original feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com