Category: Film Review

A few years ago, director Joe Lynch crafted “Everly,” a low-budget actioner (starring Salma Hayek) that cut costs by staging chaos inside a single apartment location, requiring helming ingenuity to help shake up the inherent stasis of the setting. It didn’t work, but Lynch apparently loved the challenge, returning to basically the same idea for “Mayhem,” which is a low-budget actioner set inside an office building, with hellacious combat claiming one area of the building at a time. It’s a battle royal with business people, and Lynch loves to generate a big screen massacre, keeping things wet with blood and high in panic for “Mayhem,” a fatiguing effort that’s saved by a bright lead performance from Steven Yeun, an underutilized movie actor (best known for this work on “The Walking Dead”) who really should be a leading man in more pictures, confidently carrying a sense of humanity to help balance Lynch’s one-note hellraising.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Thor sat out 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War,” which basically acted as an “Avengers” sequel, but without the full roster of superheroes. Thor (and the Hulk) were off on their own adventure, and finally audiences are allowed to catch up with the God of Thunder in “Thor: Ragnarok,” which is also the third official Thor movie, picking up where 2014’s “Thor: The Dark World” left off. Admittedly, there wasn’t much of a wait for the return of the hammer-launching hero, but he was missed, as “Thor: Ragnarok” is a thrilling, unexpectedly hilarious sequel that changes the tone and direction of the character. It’s not a radical departure from the usual comic book mayhem, but director Taika Waititi makes inspired choices with the material, leaning into the fantasy of it all, creating worlds, monsters, and towering action to go with the feature’s generous sense of humor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Last year, “Bad Moms” satisfied a certain appetite for raunchy entertainment from a female perspective, offering summertime audiences a joy ride through bad behavior and motherhood lament. It found a sizable audience, becoming a sleeper hit despite not being much of a movie, with writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore simply throwing as much juvenile behavior and uninspired raunch at the screen to see what sticks. Rewarded with a financial success, Moore and Lucas have coughed up a quickie sequel to capitalize on the moment, moving the R-rated party to the holidays for “A Bad Moms Christmas,” which is very similar to “Bad Moms” but somehow worse. Laziness chains the follow-up to the ground, with the helmers not taking a moment to think about the feature they’re making, only motivated to reheat bawdy humor for a fast buck, giving fans the same viewing experience, only this time there’s snow on the ground.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Polarizing is a nice way to describe the work of writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos, who creates profoundly upsetting movies by cutting into seemingly stable lives, exposing all the illness that’s been festering for quite some time. Efforts like “Dogtooth” and “The Lobster” aren’t easy pictures to digest, but for more adventurous viewers, Lanthimos tends to reward patience with an incredible command of strangeness, utilizing a static style of direction that favors observation over manipulation, forcing the audience to pick up on feral behaviors and subtle turns of fantasy. “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” rivals “Dogtooth” in terms of sheer unease, and it reinforces just how skilled Lanthimos is with this style of storytelling, summoning a range of horror that’s hypnotic to watch.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Joining the gold rush of Stephen King adaptations is “1922,” with writer/director Zak Hilditch taking inspiration from 2010 novella from the famous horror author. It’s been a big autumn for King, who dominated multiplexes with “It,” and raised anxiety levels with “Gerald’s Game,” and “1922” is another striking creative success, respecting the source material’s macabre interests and Edgar Allan Poe tribute, while offering a sharply visual endeavor that communicates terror superbly. Hilditch has some difficulty turning a 131-page story into a 100-minute movie, but he’s mostly successful when it comes to locating gruesome highlights and maintaining a haunting viewing experience, managing a dark tale of murder and expanding guilt with style and care for King’s wicked interests in the corrosion of soul and the blurring of reality.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While making movies for quite some time, Sean Baker made an impression with 2015’s “Tangerine,” which offered unique atmosphere and vivid characters, and also carried the gimmick of being shot entirely on iPhones, giving it a boost in publicity. Baker’s returned to professional equipment with “The Florida Project,” but he continues on his verite path with the effort, which swaps coasts, moving from Hollywood streets to the sunbaked hotels of Kissimmee, Florida, examining positions of poverty located next door to Walt Disney World. “The Florida Project” is alive, on a perpetual sugar rush of behavior, most of it toxic, but Baker retains a feel for humanity at its most feral and overworked, capturing the sheer fatigue of daily survival in a tourist-laden sweatbox. There are storytelling issues that aren’t resolved, but Baker largely gets by on atmosphere and periodic screen poetry, finding an original location to sort through troubled people.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The celebratory aspect of the “Blade of the Immortal” release is the picture’s status as the 100th film from director Takeshi Miike, which is no small feat when considering the man began his career ascent in 1991. He’s an extremely prolific creator of violent entertainment, hitting some potent cult movie highs over the years (“Ichi the Killer,” “13 Assassins”), but he’s always swinging at the first pitch, keeping himself busy behind the camera dreaming up new ways to brutalize human beings. “Blade of the Immortal” is not a significant creative departure for Miike, but it does utilize his gifts for blunt aggression and screen style well, adding touches of the unreal to a samurai extravaganza adapted from a popular manga, which permits the story to generally disregard Japanese history and charge ahead as a lengthy, funky bloodbath.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Saw: The Final Chapter” was released seven years ago. It was intended to be the last stop on the Jigsaw tour of trap-based pain, but as it goes with horror movies, there’s never truly a final bow when there’s money left on the table. By this point, the franchise (which began in 2004) was a carnival dark ride, offering Halloween audiences a dependable multiplex partner for the holiday, with more care going into the extremity of murder sequences than into the ongoing plot, which by this sequel, resembled a stale pretzel left out in the rain. While dealing with a wildly profitable brand name, studio Twisted Pictures ultimately decided to take a break from the yearly grind. The machine cranks back to life with “Jigsaw,” which offers a new title for the same old games of misdirection and suffering, offering not a reboot or a remake, but yet another sequel…er, kinda. “Jigsaw” has promise in filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig, but seems determined to provide the least amount of effort with this out-of-the-blue endeavor, giving devoted fans basically a television pilot with periodic geysers of gore. In an ugly, insipid series, the latest chapter has the distinction of being the least surprising and the most boring. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Joel and Ethan Coen don’t usually allow their scripts to be manhandled by others, making “Suburbicon,” which they wrote in the 1980s, a rare event. Of course, with George Clooney directing the picture, they might as well be credited as helmers. A longtime associate of the Coens and a man with tremendous awareness of their specialized sense of humor and horror, Clooney (who teamed with the siblings for “Intolerable Cruelty,” “Burn After Reading,” “Hail, Caesar,” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”) is an ideal choice to guide “Suburbicon” through its labyrinth of tonal changes, mysterious characters, and hidden motivations. The Coens (along with Clooney and Grant Heslov) have attacked the poisoned suburbia story with attention to criminal endeavors and trust issues, while Clooney fights to find stable ground, unsure if he wants to play some of this jokingly or all of it sinisterly. There are no hospital corners here, but Clooney finds ways to keep the material rolling along, even when humor and suspense take a periodic break. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There aren’t many pro-nun movies made anymore. Most endeavors tend to view the calling as a simplistic journey of sacrifice and comfort. Other pictures view the experience as a horror show of submission or, according the 2018 “Conjuring” spin-off, “The Nun,” an actual horror show. The miracle of “Novitiate” is how intimate it becomes, taking the Catholic journey seriously as it explores the fogged, searching minds of those who’ve elected to surrender their hearts to God and devote their lives to service, with most of the women electing to experience this mission already overwhelmed teenagers. “Novitiate” isn’t a to-do list of abuse, but writer/director Margaret Betts doesn’t flinch when punishment arrives, ultimately playing closer attention to the voice within as it searches for heavenly comfort in the unknown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The state of arrested development and young men isn’t exactly fresh ground to cover, but “Crash Pad” supplies a healthy sense of humor to ease the routine of it all. It’s a silly endeavor that rarely pauses to get real, enjoying a semi-farcical tone that’s greatly enhanced by star Domhnall Gleeson, who delivers a spirited performance that’s capable of transforming screenwriter Jeremy Catalino’s iffy ideas into gold. “Crash Pad” isn’t a revelation, but it maintains mischief and exaggeration, playing nicely with a potentially sitcom story and familiar assessments of lose self-esteem and martial panic. At the very least, it’s funny, and that goes a long way to help forgive some of Catalino’s bad ideas.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As Woody Allen struggles to be consistent, losing his very Allen-ness as he ages, it’s encouraging to see others trying to provide a recreation of the director’s early work. After scoring critical hits with “Francis Ha,” “While We’re Young,” and “Mistress America,” writer/director Noah Baumbach sheds his fascination with youth and returns to neuroses in “The Meyerowitz Stories,” which reawakens his interest in splintered families, making a fine continuation of themes and idiosyncrasy he began in 2005’s “The Squid and the Whale.” “The Meyerowitz Stories” plays exactly like an Allen picture at times, which isn’t an unwelcome creative choice, as Baumbach tends to be at his best when capturing NYC bustle and interpersonal awkwardness, offering a loosely plotted character examination that’s periodically hilarious and charmingly restless.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

War at Home movies are difficult to pull off. They arrive with the purest of intentions, trying to shine a light on the emotional and physical wreckage of war, striving to communicate an urgent need to take the welfare of those who fight for their country seriously. When it works, worlds are opened (“The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Coming Home”), and when it fails, melodrama is often to blame, overpowering the urgency of the subject as filmmakers wrestle with ways to capture their message and not abuse the audience (“Stop-Loss,” “Home of the Brave”). “Thank You for Your Service” is an unremarkable study of PTSD and numerous domestic disturbance issues, covering familiar ground of shattered men trying to put themselves back together again after serving their country. It means well enough, and writer/director Jason Hall has something to work with in Dave Finkle’s 2013 book of the same name, which provides a study of behavioral authenticity the feature could use considerably more of.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Deconstructing a pop culture legend is always a difficult endeavor. There are facts to consider, along with theories and legends, and when dealing with the life and times of Jayne Mansfield, there are numerous experts who’ve spent decades trying to decode the tumultuous experience of a highly educated sex bomb who wowed millions and died horrifically. Directors P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes play their approach to “Mansfield 66/67” smartly, establishing the documentary as “A true story, based on rumor and hearsay,” thus freeing them to go anywhere with this inspection of Jayne Mansfield and her interest in Anton LaVey, the head of the Church of Satan. It’s quite a story and, thankfully, quite the movie as well, emerging as more of an elastic collection of media and interviews that study the wonders of Mansfield and mystery of LaVey, trying to capture the irresistible camp of the pairing and pick out whatever reality existed between them.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Greg McLean has built his career on extremes of horror, delighting in the chance to frighten audiences with overt frights emerging from watery depths (“Rogue”), the Australian Outback (“Wolf Creek”), and an office environment (“The Belko Experiment”). Perhaps tiring of blood and guts, McLean goes the true story route with “Jungle,” which has a few potent images concerning bodily nightmares, but mostly remains a searching, hallucinatory inspection of one man’s journey of self, hunting for identity through exposure to new cultures and adventurer’s spirit. “Jungle” is an odd picture, never really achieving an identity as something scary or profound, often spinning its wheels with aimless scenes while star Daniel Radcliffe carries the film with a fantastically committed lead performance, doing whatever he can to make moments count.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Encounter a title such as “Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill,” and certain viewing expectations are set immediately. It’s a campy name for what could be an entirely silly endeavor for the spooky season, recalling Russ Meyer-style entertainment sold with a contemporary indie film edge. The actual “Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill” is nowhere near as fun as the title promises, emerging as more of a “Saw”-style horror feature that details 70 minutes of iffy actors trying to project agony at top volume. In terms of meeting unavoidable expectations, the picture is a colossal disappointment. On its own, it’s a chore to sit through, with writer/director Jared Cohn more content to be abusive than creative.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last year, “Boo! A Madea Halloween” managed to scare up some sizable box office for writer/director/producer/star Tyler Perry, giving him a hit film for the scary season. It was a cheap, unfunny offering of his typical air horn-style of comedy, but it managed to lure in a new, younger audience looking to “hate watch” the endeavor, laughing at the movie instead of with. Either way, Perry’s financial standing improved, which is why, one year later, there’s a sequel. “Boo 2: A Madea Halloween” isn’t about to deviate from the Perry formula of terrible improvisation and limited locations, charging full steam ahead with a revival of Madea and her special way of dealing with the frights of the holiday. “Boo 2” is terrible, but you know that already, though it does identify just how little Perry cares about the look and content of his features, as the sequel is padded with inane conversations taking place in painfully static locations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The second half of October’s “Whatever happened to that movie?” release event (following “Amityville: The Awakening”) is “Geostorm,” which was shot three years ago, extensively reshot one year ago, and has been waiting for its multiplex debut ever since. It’s hard to believe any studio would hesitate for a moment when it comes to the distribution of a visual effects-laden disaster film. After all, it’s a genre that’s largely appreciated for its campy qualities and melodrama, welcoming hoots and hollers from audiences as the productions detail extravagant nightmares. Take “Geostorm” as an offering of extreme silliness, and there’s some approachable absurdity, but only in small amounts. The majority of the effort is leaden, noisy, and generally tone-deaf when it comes to the delivery of a rock ‘em sock ‘em entertainment, gradually revealing why the studio was reluctant to release it.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director S. Craig Zahler made a strong debut with 2015’s “Bone Tomahawk,” which arrived in the form of a traditional western and gradually transformed into a vivid horror show. Zahler showcased a commitment to patient reveals, meaty characterizations, and ferocious violence, while his command of escalation was chilling, making “Bone Tomahawk” unforgettable. He’s returned with “Brawl in Cell Block 99,” which arrives in the form of a grindhouse-y prison free-for-all, though, once again, the danger is portioned out deliberately, with each scene building toward something unsettling. And bless his heart, Zahler delivers with the feature, which is unbearably ugly at times, but in all the right ways, presenting an exploitation pummeling that’s moody, grim, and utterly mesmerizing. And it doesn’t hurt to have star Vince Vaughn provide one of the best performances of his career.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Heroism is difficult to define on the big screen. These days, most offerings of selflessness belong to fantasy characters from comic books, providing a larger-than-life depiction of boldness to achieve a sense of escapism and wish-fulfillment. There’s nothing wrong with the movement, but every now and then, it’s vital to be reminded of the human side of courage. “Only the Brave” details the rise of Granite Mountain Hotshots, a wildfire fighting team that suffered a catastrophic loss of life in 2013, bringing national focus to what these men actually do when they stare down untamable infernos. There’s a certain way such a tale can be played, but screenwriters Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer don’t take the bait, working on the creation of living, breathing characters, choosing to celebrate complexity over extravaganza. “Only the Brave” is a powerful feature, partially due to the sacrifices depicted, but primarily because it remains so grounded, appreciating the firefighters on a relatable level, without slopping on layers of melodrama. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com