Category: Film Review

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

The last time the Grinch was featured in a big screen endeavor, it was back in 2000, and while the box office numbers were big, the satisfaction level was low. Ron Howard tried to do wonders with Jim Carrey as the green, furry, Christmas-hating curmudgeon, merging the book by Dr. Seuss and its first adaptation, 1966 television special, into a big-budget noise machine that came up short in the holiday spirit department. Now Universal is trying again with another sure thing: Illumination Entertainment, producers of the “Despicable Me” franchise, who are tasked with reviving the Grinch’s multiplex profile with “The Grinch,” which also attempts to find a place between literary and small screen worlds. Helping the cause is a return to animation, with directors Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney giving their take on a classic tale of soulful thaw proper visual fluidity and Christmas spirit, returning color and buoyancy to Whoville.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Normally, a movie that details rampaging Nazi zombies would attempt to be darkly comedic, but “Overlord” has unusual concentration on the grim realities of the situation. It’s the latest release from production company Bad Robot, the J.J. Abrams-backed genre factory, who usually concoct films about secret behavior and sophisticated puzzles. This time, they’re more interested in becoming a blunt, R-rated weapon. Screenwriters Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith deliver a tale of wartime panic and survival, but instead of embracing historical authenticity, they go wild with weird science, pitting American soldiers and French civilians against a growing population of Third Reich monsters, while director Julius Avery (“Son of a Gun”) strives to keep the endeavor as macabre as possible. It takes a while to get going, but once “Overlord” finds its footing, it becomes a thrilling, profoundly violent ride. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While it was released 23 years ago, “Braveheart” certainly hasn’t lost steam in film appreciation circles, retaining a vocal fanbase for the Best Picture winner that continues to this day, supporting various home video releases. The story of “Outlaw King” picks up where the saga of William Wallace ended, but co-writer/director David Mackenzie (“Hell or High Water”) isn’t making a sequel. At least, this is likely what the helmer was telling himself during production. “Outlaw King” isn’t technically connected to the Mel Gibson effort, but the association isn’t exactly muted, with Mackenzie organizing another historical bloodbath with Scotsmen tearing apart Englishmen over the future of the land. As passionate as the production is about the material, it’s difficult to shake a case of deja vu here, with the epic sweep here closely resembling bigness and toughness of Gibson’s feature, only Mackenzie doesn’t quite have the stamina to keep organizing brutality, slowly losing his ability to tell a clear story as the endeavor grows punch-drunk. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Great Buster” is billed as “a celebration,” helping to distance the picture from a documentary label that it doesn’t entirely earn. Instead of a meticulous biographical study of Buster Keaton, director Peter Bogdanovich uses screen time to remind audiences of the subject’s brilliance when it came to making comedies, filing through Keaton’s achievements, not the finer points of his life. The lack of grit is a little disappointing, but “The Great Buster” is on a mission to make sure Keaton’s gifts are thoroughly highlighted, and with that simple goal in mind, Bogdanovich manages to isolate the miraculous creativity and commitment to controlled chaos Keaton used to define his career. Consider it as more of an overview of a master filmmaker than an offering of journalism, and it’s sheer bliss for classic movie admirers.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Here and Now” is a loose remake of the 1962 Agnes Varda film, “Cleo from 5 to 7.” It’s a tricky thing to remake French cinema during its more fertile creative period, and director Fabien Constant takes on a lot of responsibility with this retelling, which has changed locations to the heart of New York City. A tale about the acceptance of mortality in the midst of planning for the future, “Here and Now” is meant to be somber and thought-provoking, giving the viewer a reflection of life lived with a known expiration date. What Constant actually comes up with is an unenlightening summary of sadness. The psychological dig site is surprisingly shallow here, forcing Constant to depend on stale poetry to get by, which stops the feature in full.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After a decade working with Lionsgate Films to build the Tyler Perry big screen brand, the mogul has decided to switch studios, with “Nobody’s Fool” his first release for Paramount, or “Paramount Players” (I’m not sure what that means). To mark the occasion, Perry has decided to unleash his first R-rated comedy, perhaps feeling left out of the raunchfest gold rush that’s been leading to diminishing returns at the box office in recent years. Perry’s always been off-trend, but he’s always been determined too, with “Nobody’s Fool” missing overt gross-outs, but it stays salty enough to earn its restriction. Not on the helmer’s to-do list is the manufacturing of a single punchline, instead keeping the cast in a state of frenzied improvisation, which leads to chaos and awkwardness, not laughs. It’s a new studio, but Perry remains fearful of planning scenes out ahead of time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

As Disney prepares to launch three major live-action adaptations of animated classics in 2019 (“Dumbo,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King”), the studio closes 2018 with perhaps their last attempt to bring something marginally original to the screen. That’s not to suggest “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is a creative triumph, far from it, but the film represents the old way of Disney thinking, with the company trying to launch a fantasy franchise instead of picking up one in progress. Taking inspiration from Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” an E.T.A. Hoffmann short story, and Marius Petipa’s famous ballet, “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is a large-scale collision of the performing arts and a CGI orgy, with the production fighting for some type of storytelling clarity as it’s slowly smothered by excess. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Enjoying a lively career as a music video director, Joseph Kahn hasn’t made many features during his time behind the camera. His last effort was 2011’s little-seen “Detention,” while his debut was 2004’s “Torque,” a grotesque actioner that would normally end industry advancement, but Kahn survived, creating epic visuals for pop music, honing his craft. He returns to screens with “Bodied,” smartly going low-key for this study of battle rap, which saves most of its firepower for verbal jousting and satire, delivering an energetic but overlong assessment of P.C. culture as it collides with the traditions of rap and rhyme. Kahn mutes his instincts for this endeavor, and he ends up with his best film to date, keeping “Bodied” silly but smart, understanding that character is best served by restraint, showing impressive discipline with occasional bouts of feral energy.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While the last few years have hardly been disastrous for Melissa McCarthy, a bit of her comedy luminance has dimmed as she participates in disappointing movies which fail to make full use of her considerable gifts. With “The Boss,” “Life of the Party,” and “The Happytime Murders,” McCarthy has been forced to make something remarkable out of bad material, and her path to success has been blocked by a sense of sameness to her latest endeavors. She’s done dramas before, but “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” provides an ample acting challenge for McCarthy, who’s tasked with portraying a real figure of dishonesty and misanthropy, unable to access her bottomless bag of goofballery. McCarthy’s outstanding in the picture, and it helps that “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is quality work overall, with director Marielle Heller summoning a jazzy, snowy New York City mood to backdrop an intimate tale of personal distortion, keeping her star committed to the process of screen mimicry.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Unlovable” takes on the subject of sex addiction, with star Charlene deGuzman pouring her own life experiences into the screenplay (Mark Duplass and Sarah Adina Smith share credit). It’s not an easy illness to dramatize, and while deGuzman tries to create an approachable film, she’s not willing to discount the darker aspects of the life. “Unlovable” has its quirkiness and mild levity, but director Suzi Yoonessi attempts to retain as much reality as possible, giving the endeavor welcome grit and ache, striving to be as respectful to the steps of recovery as possible. It doesn’t always make for an easy sit, but there’s behavioral clarity in “Unlovable” that’s uncommon, giving viewers a full sense of internal confusion and social battles.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After a career of starring in sophisticated, often difficult movies, actor Paul Dano has finally decided to make one himself. Moving behind the camera for his directorial debut, Dano offers “Wildlife,” which is an adaptation of a novel by Richard Ford, transformed into a screenplay by Dano and Zoe Kazan. While the material is yet another deep slice of domestic discontent served on a repressed period plate, Dano manages to find some feeling to the picture, leading with tough but fair characterizations that seek to do a little more than remain pawns in a game of melodrama. “Wildlife” gives off the vibe of formula, watching yet another irritable family crumble over time, but the writing is attentive and the helming respectful, with Dano getting the feature to unique perspectives and dramatic sensitivity, delivering a special debut.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The eternal hope is that when a someone decides to remake a movie, they choose material that didn’t work before, giving the production room for improvement as it searches for reinterpretation. 1977’s “Suspiria” is a horror masterpiece, emerging from the demented depths of co-writer/director Dario Argento, who took the premise of an innocent coming into contact with pure evil and twisted it into a Technicolor freak-out, creating a thunderous achievement in sight and sound, also developing his interest in abstract areas of the occult. Screenwriter David Kajganich and director Luca Guadagnino have decided to return to Argento’s original picture for an update, and while they deserve some credit for trying to keep their feature as far away from the original as possible, this obsession to do something different results in a self-conscious, overwrought film that runs nearly twice as long as Argento’s endeavor.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After commanding a career that’s largely gravitated toward playing best friends, bitter rivals, and plenty of sarcastic types, actress Judy Greer makes a move toward direction with her helming debut, “A Happening of Monumental Proportions.” Sparking to something in Gary Lundy’s screenplay, Greer makes an important career transition for the dark comedy, and she comes up with a picture that’s largely ineffective but not without some charms. To help the cause, Greer calls in numerous favors to stock the ensemble with famous faces, and the star power doesn’t hurt. It’s the storytelling that could use more attention, finding Greer distracted by quirk, trying to make something cutesy when focus is needed on the construction of subplots, most of which never truly follow through on any sort of closure.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Death House” is supposed to be an event movie. And perhaps it will be for horror hounds who demand very little from storytelling as long as highlights involving gore, nudity, and snarling genre legends are included. With those limited demands in mind, yes, “Death House” does deliver, with writer/director Harrison Smith in charge of a battle royal of cult film legends, pitting famous faces against one another to delight the faithful. The reality of the picture is its tedium, with Smith possibly unable (due to budgetary limitations) do something appropriately volcanic with the premise. He aims for something slightly ambitious, trying to bring a John Carpenter sensibility to what eventually becomes a prison riot feature, but Smith doesn’t work the material into a frenzy, potentially disappointing those expecting more of a free-for-all bloodbath, not just a series of pseudoscience monologues.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Hunter Killer” is trying to fill a gap, delivering a Tom Clancy-style military thriller while Clancy’s books remain out of fashion in Hollywood, with television currently home to the latest Jack Ryan adventure. Of course, nothing can top the sheer cinematic mastery of 1990’s “The Hunt for Red October,” but “Hunter Killer” (based on the book “Firing Point” by George Wallace and Don Keith) gives it a shot, taking to land, sea, and office to detail a point of crisis in world security. The picture has a few stars to help settle the viewing experience, but not a lot of originality, playing it careful with basic elements of patriotism and patrol. Director Donovan Marsh is in way over his head with the thriller, but he manages a few creative achievements as he sets out to make a movie that’s been done before, and much better too. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With other bands and artists having their music bio-pic moments over the last 15 years, it’s time for Queen to step up and enjoy the spotlight. However, “Bohemian Rhapsody” isn’t exactly about Queen as a unit, with most attention paid to its singer and showman, Freddie Mercury. The frontman passed away nearly 30 years ago, and the screenplay (by Anthony McCarten) sets out to focus on his rise to fame and music world dominance, also charting his handling of personal sexuality and identity, working through several complicated relationships. “Bohemian Rhapsody” isn’t a greatest hits compilation or a jukebox musical. It’s more of a funeral piece for Mercury, trying to polish his status as a legendary singer while circling over the same personal issues for 130 minutes. What probably should’ve been a rip-roaring summation of Queen’s lasting appeal is diluted into a television movie that ignores the group effort for long stretches of the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

The idea of a film about a wild night out with actor Herve Villechaize conjures visions of a “Hangover”-style picture, highlighting crazy antics and strange sights, bringing out the beast of an unusual icon who was known to participate in craziness more often than not. What writer/director Sacha Gervasi (“Hitchcock,” “Anvil: The Story of Anvil”) actually delivers is an unnervingly genuine study of two fallen people trading bits of honesty over the course of a long morning, using his own interactions with Herve to inspire the deepest pits of despair found in the screenplay. “My Dinner with Herve” has some laughs and fits of manic energy, but surprises with its dramatic content, finding Gervasi interested in depicting Herve with tremendous care, remaining truthful about his mischief, but openly inspecting his thinly veiled depression.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com