Category: Film Review

After watching his brother Allen find his way as a solo director, Albert Hughes (formerly of the helming duo The Hughes Brothers) finally gets one to call his own in “Alpha.” Allen went to crime and male posturing to make his mark with 2013’s “Broken City,” but Albert goes in a completely different direction for his endeavor, about 20,000 years into the past, taking audiences into a time of man and creature and hostile environments, with the director laboring to pull off his best Caroll Ballard impression with “Alpha,” a survival picture that’s big on atmosphere but light on suspense. Albert certainly knows how to put together a striking image, but his work here feels incomplete, with the production aiming for a grander adventure than what actually ends up onscreen.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is an adaptation of Emily M. Danforth’s 2012 novel, returning to a darker age of acceptance to examine the unsavory details of a gay conversion camp. It’s a potent snapshot of intolerance, but executed in a subtle way, with co-writer/director Desiree Akhaven not banging a trash can lid with the material, electing to highlight the ways of religious condemnation as it takes on the formidable foe of human nature. “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is perceptive and sharply performed, and Akhaven creates an evocative depiction of the titular character’s submersion in guilt, left to Evangelical sharks as she tries to take hold of her identity during an already turbulent time of adolescence.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is an adaptation of Emily M. Danforth’s 2012 novel, returning to a darker age of acceptance to examine the unsavory details of a gay conversion camp. It’s a potent snapshot of intolerance, but executed in a subtle way, with co-writer/director Desiree Akhaven not banging a trash can lid with the material, electing to highlight the ways of religious condemnation as it takes on the formidable foe of human nature. “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is perceptive and sharply performed, and Akhaven creates an evocative depiction of the titular character’s submersion in guilt, left to Evangelical sharks as she tries to take hold of her identity during an already turbulent time of adolescence.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“Crazy Rich Asians” is an adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel, which proved to be so popular, it inspired a series of books concerning class volleying and family anxiety, with the first chapter taking the action to Singapore. It’s an exotic location, impressively magnified on screen by director Jon M. Chu, who drenches the picture is style, color, and heightened performances, just to make every frame of this endeavor shine as brightly as possible. It’s a considered effort, but the labor doesn’t extend to the plot, finding “Crazy Rich Asians” lacking when it comes to dramatic invention, delivering the same old conflicts and situations, with the staleness of the plot contrasting harshly with the vibrancy of the imagery. Chu is armed with a charming cast, and they help aid digestion of the leftovers found in Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli’s screenplay, which plays everything very comfortably to ensure mainstream acceptance.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Director Sylvain White (“Stomp the Yard,” “The Losers”) doesn’t have much to work with in “Slender Man,” and he knows it. The PG-13 horror story is an expansion of an internet creation intended to give readers the willies and inspire a viral-like obsession with creative representation. The Slender Man myth is meant to be a campfire story, avoiding a deeper inspection of what exactly a creature that looks like Jack Skellington is meant to do. Screenwriter David Birke doesn’t develop the elusive apparition and White tries to bury what amounts to 90 minutes of nothingness in style, repeating the same shots and ideas for suspense until the end credits roll. “Slender Man” isn’t as tasteless as feared, but it’s about as languid as expected, becoming yet another nondescript genre offering meant solely for the sleepover demographic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

In recent years, summer shark movies have become a tradition, offering audiences a chance to experience the horrors of the deep from the comfort of the multiplex. In 2016 there was “The Shallows,” and last year, “47 Meters Down” managed to surprise box office prognosticators by becoming a major hit for an extremely low-budget picture. Now the stakes are raised with “The Meg,” which not only delivers a massive prehistoric shark to terrorize everyone, but the feature itself is delivered with a healthy amount of spectacle, turning the stillness of the open ocean into a battleground fit for a typical seasonal blockbuster. “The Meg” is big, loud, and just silly enough to reach a mass audience, as director Jon Turteltaub pays careful attention to the escapism aspects of the production, making more of a PG-13 adventure than a fright film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

The helming team of Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell is known as RKSS, and a few years ago, they reached into the past to inspire their post-apocalyptic adventure “Turbo Kid.” A cheeky ode to VHS entertainment from the 1980s, video games, and teen cinema, “Turbo Kid” presented a valentine and a lampoon, building an enchanting low-budget world with exaggerated retro flair. RKSS returns to their childhood with “Summer of 84,” with this round skipping silliness to delve into a murder mystery of sorts, staying in the warm bath of adolescent entanglements, but pushing the mood into something more threatening. There’s a lot of sleuthing going in “Summer of 84,” and while the title suggests a nostalgic romp around one of the best moviegoing seasons of the 1980s, RKSS actually dials down cutesiness for something darker and slower.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Movies do not get more ferocious than “A Prayer Before Dawn.” It’s an adaptation of Billy Moore’s book, which detailed his time behind bars in Thailand, becoming the lone Englishman in a sea of locals who weren’t welcoming to the outsider. Director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire treats the source material with the utmost respect, replicating a harrowing living event with extreme attention to violence of the mind and body. “A Prayer Before Dawn” is frightening to watch but always engrossing, with Sauvaire going procedural to immerse the audience in the threats and rituals of a claustrophobic world, creating an evocative viewing experience that’s rooted in horrific encounters, but also refreshingly clear about the ravages of self-destruction, emerging as perceptive summary of addiction set in a vividly rendered Hell on Earth.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last spring, I reviewed “Loveless,” an outstanding Russian drama about parents forced to confront their own toxicity when their child goes missing and nobody seems to really care. It had a lot to say about emotional and physical abuse, doing so with specific interest in the war between a separating couple, with personal issues trumping family welfare. Now there’s “Custody,” a French production that tunnels into the darkness of divorce, exploring the troubles of separation, especially when one participant in a dying affair doesn’t care to let go of the union. “Custody” is more of a dramatic experience than “Loveless,” but it carries a similar fixation on the anguish of children, giving it a proper gut-punch feel while still tending to the needs of storytelling as writer/director Xavier Legrand examines the horror of divorce and the destructive power plays it inspires.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

An adaption of a 2008 novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” has a significant challenge in overcoming its title. It’s a marquee massacre, simultaneously pinpointing its audience and repulsing newcomers with what initially appears to be the ultimate in Stiff Upper Lip postwar adventuring in England. Fussiness remains, preserving its cultural construction, but “Potato Peel Pie Society” manages mild charms and emotional deep cuts as it sorts through literal and psychological wreckage tied to the horror of German occupation in the 1940s. It’s not a stunning endeavor, but director Mike Newell gets parts of the whole right, maintaining appealing intrigue and performances.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Crude comedies are often troublesome, with most in a hurry to be offensive without being funny, hoping to get by on shock value. This year has been especially strange for R-rated entertainment, but “The Package” is trying to be the most outrageous of them all, and there’s something endearing about its mission to be absolutely grotesque. There’s a lot of extreme behavior and visuals in the picture, but screenwriters Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider, along with director Jake Szymanski, push through the basics in riff-happy entertainment to fine something inspired in the midst of utter nonsense. “The Package” has its issues with pace and substance, but there are big laughs to be found along the way, with the central grossness of the plot getting the movie to a level of playfulness that’s not often found with this type of vulgar funny business.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Garry Marshall passed away two years ago, but his spirit remains in “Dog Days,” with screenwriters Elissa Matsueda and Erica Oyama trying to replicate the formula that turned vanilla pictures like “Valentine’s Day” and “New Year’s Eve” into hit films. There’s no holiday to celebrate in “Dog Days,” with the magic of canines the reason for this multi-character gathering, finding pet antics and tales of wounded hearts keeping director Ken Marino busy. Much like Marshall’s later output, this feature is a jokeless, aimless concoction that relies completely on cutesiness, with a large ensemble handed very little guidance when it comes to funny business while Marino layers on sticky sentiment, trying to master a heartwarming celebration of companionship that’s disappointingly predictable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

To give themselves a premiere acting opportunity, Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs wrote a screenplay that makes ideal use of their individual talents, pairing them in a buddy dramedy that’s rich with location detail found in Oakland, California, soaking the writing in a culture they know from personal experience. The partners also take on heady subjects such as guns, masculinity, and trauma, filling “Blindspotting” with all kinds of nervous energy that permits vivid performances. As a screenwriting debut, it’s an impressive accomplishment, taking on the big subjects of the day from a fresh, honest perspective, all the while retaining personality required to manage potentially suffocating situations. “Blindspotting” is sharp, surprisingly funny, and smart about the ways of the modern world, with Casal and Diggs carrying the picture with thrilling ease, delivering vulnerable work to best support their perceptive scripting debut. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

For her directorial debut, Lauren Miller Rogen takes a page out of the Adam Sandler playbook, writing a script that permits her to cast family members (husband Seth Rogen) and visit vacation destinations. It’s a smart way to do business, but much like Sandler, the cast and crew are having more fun than the audience. “Like Father” is confused work from Rogen, who previously co-scripted the phone sex comedy “For a Good Time, Call,” and gently dials down her capacity for raunchy business to make a film that’s aiming to please a wide audience, hoping to extract some tears, trigger some belly laughs, and elicit sighs as she enjoys the playground of a massive cruise ship and naturalistic pleasures of Jamaican locations. Rogen’s not trying to do much more than exist with pure formula, and “Like Father” is as vanilla as entertainment gets. I hope Rogen enjoyed the sun, because her movie is a drag. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

For her directorial debut, Lauren Miller Rogen takes a page out of the Adam Sandler playbook, writing a script that permits her to cast family members (husband Seth Rogen) and visit vacation destinations. It’s a smart way to do business, but much like Sandler, the cast and crew are having more fun than the audience. “Like Father” is confused work from Rogen, who previously co-scripted the phone sex comedy “For a Good Time, Call,” and gently dials down her capacity for raunchy business to make a film that’s aiming to please a wide audience, hoping to extract some tears, trigger some belly laughs, and elicit sighs as she enjoys the playground of a massive cruise ship and naturalistic pleasures of Jamaican locations. Rogen’s not trying to do much more than exist with pure formula, and “Like Father” is as vanilla as entertainment gets. I hope Rogen enjoyed the sun, because her movie is a drag.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Just when you though the multiplex was safe from a YA adaptation, here comes “The Darkest Minds,” which seeks to turn Alexandra Bracken’s trilogy of books into a brand new franchise for the milking, with studio 20th Century Fox trying to find a new area of fandom to delight after “The Maze Runner” came to a conclusion earlier this year. What’s initially appealing is the employment of Jennifer Yuh Nelson as director, working her way out of the animated realm after helming the last two “Kung Fu Panda” sequels, now in charge of a potential blockbuster that has big plans for future chapters. Sadly, “The Darkest Minds” is the most cartoon movie she’s made, showing very little mastery of human behavior and basic storytelling needs, keeping this first shot fired a resounding dud. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“The Spy Who Dumped Me” is a cheeky title parodying 1977’s “The Spy Who Loved Me,” which was Roger Moore’s third and arguably best screen outing as James Bond (and the title of a 1962 Ian Fleming novel). And that’s it for cleverness with this action comedy, which tries very hard to be a blunt instrument of lame gags, screeching performances, and poor direction. For helmer Susanna Fogel, her mission to make a consistently underwhelming movie is a screaming success, as “The Spy Who Dumped Me” never gets going when it comes to funny business or smashmouth pursuits, remaining in a brutal purgatory of limp improvisational volleying and feeble espionage activities. There’s hope with the casting of Kate McKinnon, a wonderfully talented comedian, but this turns out to be her “Corky Romano.”  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s only natural to find filmmakers gravitating towards stories about artificial intelligence, with concerns about the creation of synthetic humans developing into headline news. For screenwriters Richard Greenberg and Drake Doremus (who also directs), the strange landscape of A.I. provides inspiration for “Zoe,” which isn’t a tech thriller or a doomsday event, instead taking a look at the manufacturing of companionship and feelings for a future society that’s gone numb to the ways of organic connection. It’s timely work and the writers have a fantastic idea to develop, especially when examining how humans would choose to create a partner instead of find one. “Zoe” gets most of the way there, but Doremus doesn’t know when to quit with this drama, which eventually spirals out of control, losing concentration on the very ideas that offered it originality and intriguing reflection on trends of loneliness.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While controversial and on the quickie side, 1987’s “Billionaire Boys Club” (which aired on NBC) managed to catch the ambiance of the 1980s by sheer proximity to the true crime details of a 1983 murder that inspired the production. 2018’s “Billionaire Boys Club” looks like a collection of baby-faced actors playing dress-up, straining to sell the wonders of the decade with a well-worn story of drugs, lies, and greed. Co-writer/director James Cox has been unsuccessful in true crime before, with 2003’s tepid “Wonderland,” and his streak of mediocrity continues here, fumbling through scenes of financial swindling, broheim swagger, and venomous confrontations, with the big screen take somehow less cinematic than the television film.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Alien invasion stories are plentiful these days. Just last week there was the Australian actioner “Occupation,” and now there’s “Extinction,” which arrives with working parts from other, better movies, and it carries a Big Idea to separate itself from the pack, but it doesn’t know quite what to do with it. The screenplay isn’t very strong with secrets and enticing characterization, and director Ben Young isn’t seasoned enough to launch eye-popping spectacle, keeping the picture fairly pedestrian until it’s time to clarify exactly what’s going on. Such reveals bolster other productions, but “Extinction” begins lethargically and remains there for 90 minutes, giving viewers familiar sights and sounds before making the foolish assumption that they’re going to be interested in a potential franchise with a story that barely supports a single film.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com