Category: Film Review

No matter what “Death Note” does, it’s going to be subjected to intense scrutiny. It’s an adaptation of a popular Japanese manga that debuted in 2003, which spawned a media empire with live-action features, a television series, a musical, video games, and an anime offering. This universe has been covered numerous times, but not from a Western perspective. Enter director Adam Wingard, fresh off his swing-and-a-miss reimagining of the “Blair Witch” franchise, who’s tasked with making sense of this strange concoction of adolescent woe and pure horror. Wingard has the right idea when it comes to screen style, but for everything that actually happens in the story, there’s not much of a movie beyond basic offerings of gore and demon visitations. As grand as the franchise has become around the world, this “Death Note” doesn’t learn from its mistakes, showing little regard for plot as the picture manufactures disorienting character leaps and a non-ending to reward those patient enough to sit through it.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As music documentaries get more specific with their subject matters, education grows, exposing viewers not just simply to artists, but the worlds they inhabit, the camaraderie they’ve built, and the mysteries they encourage. “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World” should be a precise cut into the artery of American music, discovering the origin of national sounds, with most early rock and roll rooted in Native American culture. Directors Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana embark on quite the journey with “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World,” attempting to change the “narrative” in industry credit, but also basking the glow of various First Nation creative triumphs that have largely gone unnoticed. It’s ambitious, and it doesn’t always work, with the helmers biting off more than they can chew with this exploration of achievement. Culture sensitivities are always welcome, but Bainbridge and Maiorana never seem to share a vision for the feature, which largely remains respectful of its interview participants, but fails to build into something profound.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s wonderful that there’s growing awareness of autism, especially in cinema, which, in recent years, has gotten serious about the subject, with brave filmmakers searching for ways to tell inclusive stories as a way to demystify the disorder, exposing its mysteries and reinforcing its unique sacrifices. Director John Asher has firsthand knowledge of the subject, co-parenting an autistic boy (his ex being famous anti-vaxxer Jenny McCarthy), making his perspective on the rituals of raising special needs child valuable to “A Boy Named Po,” which is dedicated to his kid. And yet, Asher, and screenwriters Colin Goldman and Steve C. Roberts, seem terrified of following through on a realistic feature, turning “A Boy Named Po” into TV movie-style viewing experience, hitting conflicts and emotional beats with a sledgehammer, while the ending is borderline inexcusable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Directors Benny and Josh Safdie don’t like to take it easy on their audience. The helmers behind “Daddy Longlegs” and “Heaven Knows What,” the Safdies love to turn their cinema into an endurance test, using extreme close-ups to inspire claustrophobia and creating characters who are addicted to bad decisions. “Good Time” is the new addition to their festering oeuvre, and it’s their finest work to date, finally masterminding a way to play to their strengths of diseased cinema and still tell a compelling story, with this round of anguish devoted to the dogged determination of brotherly bonds. “Good Time” is the most accessible Safdie production to date, but that’s not an invitation to all, as the feature requires ticket-buyers to be prepared for a grueling viewing experience, but an exceptional one, nudged along by star Robert Pattinson’s career-shifting performance.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

About five years ago, James Cameron elected to convert his 1997 Oscar-winning, pop culture dominating smash hit, “Titanic,” into 3D, trying to stir up some renewed excitement for the feature and add to his collection of 3D achievements after turning “Avatar” into the biggest movie of all time. Now he’s back with “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” which doesn’t instantly lend itself to the 3D conversion process, requiring some delicate tinkering to bring out a worthwhile viewing experience that expands on the depth of the original theatrical release. With “Judgment Day” already an absolute classic and one of Cameron’s best pictures, there’s little need for such gimmickry to justify a return to the multiplexes. But, for 3D-heads, Cameron does a tasteful job creating immersion into the blockbuster, sustaining balance between the original cinematography and new layers of distances and pointy metal threats.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In an incredible feat of timing, “Bushwick,” which is about the division and crumbling of the United States, comes out during a month were it feels like the county is about to be torn apart by a second Civil War. It’s a little eerie watching the feature, which explores the unraveling of society during a violent invasion, and it’s not the first time directors Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott have prepared something unsavory for viewers. Two years ago, the pair masterminded “Cooties,” which turned elementary school kids into bloodthirsty zombies. They’ve sobered up completely for “Bushwick,” and for this strange tale of domestic upheaval, Murnion and Milott construct a fluid, vivid depiction of battle zone panic and desperation, approaching the horrors of a war movie from an interesting point of view.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While there have been many films covering the millennial experience, few have captured the social media plague like “Ingrid Goes West.” It’s a tale of obsession that name-checks “Single White Female” in the screenplay, deflecting obvious comparisons to the 1992 female-on-female stalker cult effort, but screenwriters David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer (who also directs) tap into a specific position of fixation, using the full exposure of social media to manufacture an uneasy dark comedy about personal need, and there’s potent commentary about the overshare generation, which teases satirical highs. “Ingrid Goes West” doesn’t sustain its overview of delusion, but it gets most of the way there, showcasing sharp insight and sly wit as it investigates the madness of exclusion.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If you must steal, steal from the best. That appears to be the motto of “Ghost House,” a fairly obvious riff on Sam Raimi’s 2009 horror extravaganza, “Drag Me to Hell.” Many filmmakers have lifted from Raimi before, making director Rich Ragsdale part of a club, but where “Drag Me to Hell” was a thunderous, enchantingly bizarre tale of a young woman cursed, “Ghost House” (curiously, also the name of Raimi’s production company) merely offers a few neat visual ideas while grim acting and an overbearing score generally wear down the feature’s capacity to impress. Ragsdale appears eager to please here, which is a good thing, but this Thai chiller tends to be more abusive than frightening, though there’s potential for something macabre that keeps it moderately interesting, but never satisfying. If there’s one thing Ragsdale does exceedingly well, it’s his ability to remind the viewer just how well Raimi pulls off this kind of visual nightmare.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Instead of undertaking a full-on recreation of the formation of The Smiths, Co-writer/director Mark Gill has decided to forgo an examination of Steven Patrick Morrissey’s ascent to music dominance and simply focus on years of transition in the 1970s. This was long before the world understood the Morrissey brand name, when he was just a depressed, intelligent young man with a Shangri-Las fixation trying to figure out his way in the world, albeit the world of Manchester, England, where the skies are always gray, residents are temperamental, and flowing rivers mock those who can’t escape the city limits. It’s “Smiths Begins” in a way, a rock and roll origin story much like Anton Corbijn’s “Control,” only the emphasis here is on the slow burn of sadness, tracking Morrissey’s response to constant disappointment, paralyzing shyness, and isolating intelligence.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For family entertainment in the summer of 2017, there have been movies dedicated to the inner lives of cars, minions, squirrels, and emojis. Perhaps it’s time for a human story. “Leap” endeavors to provide a slightly less manic distraction for younger audiences, examining the inner light of an orphan dreaming big, finding herself with a chance to become a star ballerina in Paris in the late 1800s. Directors Eric Summer and Eric Warin make the feature’s entertainment value a priority, but the helmers seem terrified to stay away from formula, slowly erasing everything that makes “Leap” appealing just to keep up with animation expectations. There are plenty of likable elements in the picture, and it serves its purposes as an empowerment tool, but the production spends too much time on autopilot, failing to follow through on its rather bold decision to tell a tale that doesn’t involve cuddly, slapstick creatures.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Genre filmmakers love the yuletide season, which provides opportunities to generate terrible things happening to (seemingly) innocent people. It’s that contrast between the jolly spirit of Christmas and the barbarous evil of men that’s inspired a few interesting efforts. Answering perhaps the most famous of the bunch, “Black Christmas,” is “Red Christmas,” a low budget chiller that takes on the challenging, audience polarizing subject of abortion while still tending to slasher cinema formula. While not exactly a lump of coal, “Red Christmas” has its issues, the least being star Dee Wallace, the beloved actress who gives the lead role everything she’s got, doing a more successful job communicating panic than her director, Craig Anderson. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Hitman’s Bodyguard” is supposed to be a comedy. However, it also desires to be an action film, and an R-rated one at that. To achieve such a restricted rating requires a bit more brutality than the average adrenalized endeavor, but screenwriter Tom O’Connor has a strange way of providing that extra inch of merciless behavior. In the opening five minutes of “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” the villain guns down a helpless woman and her child in cold blood, looking to prove a point to a man he’s intending to intimidate. And so the laughs begin. Actually, they never start in this misbegotten movie, which has the idea that it can somehow recover from such a chilling act with jokes about Ace of Base and “that’s what she said” one-liners. Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t have much of a funny bone or even a special way with big screen chaos, remaining dead weight from beginning to end, wasting the time of a lot of talented people.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When Steven Soderbergh teased retirement from feature filmmaking after the pay cable debut of “Behind the Candelabra” in 2013, I doubt few truly believed he was going to give up the habit. He returned for the Cinemax series, “The Knick,” and now Soderbergh is back in an “Ocean’s Eleven” mood with “Logan Lucky.” One might expect something more profound from a revered director returning to the big screen (his first theatrical effort since “Side Effects”), but he’s in a silly mood for this West Virginia-branded caper, mounting a heist movie that’s big on broadness, with chewy, dim-witted characters trying to outfox one another while screenwriter “Rebecca Blunt” orchestrates a twisty, procedural event for the audience to snack on. It’s light stuff, which is a nice change of pace for Soderbergh, who, for the first time in a long time, seems genuinely interested in providing an entertaining ride, albeit with total boobs in the driver’s seat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a director, Tommy Wirkola is a wily one. He rose to prominence with 2009’s “Dead Snow,” which pitted vacationers against zombie Nazis, toying with subgenre parody while playing it all with violent intensity, coming up with something different where few others could. Wirkola graduated to Hollywood attention with “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters,” permitted him access to a large budget and global attention, still managing to preserve his sick sense of humor. Eventually returning to his roots with “Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead” (a grand improvement over the original), Wirkola now graduates to more sobering fare with “What Happened to Monday,” which strives to provide vigorous action/mystery beats while essentially detailing the end of the world. “What Happened to Monday” is twisty and pitiless, but it retains Wirkola’s interests in aggressive confrontations, often sold with subtle cheekiness. It doesn’t feature the engorged fantasy flow of his earlier efforts, showcasing a maturing of sorts for a man who’s made two movies about zombie Nazis.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor Marlon Wayans and director Michael Tiddes have been inseparable in recent years, but their output has been thoroughly depressing. They’ve been addicted to parodies, making easy jokes about dumb movies, scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of comedic content in efforts such as “Fifty Shades of Black,” “A Haunted House,” and “A Haunted House 2.” Their endeavors have been simply awful, becoming a fixture on Worst of the Year lists and box office returns have been dwindling. Enter Netflix, who offers the partnership a chance to continue without the pressure of multiplex performance, allowing the pair to try something a little different for their small screen debut. “Naked” aims to be a bit softer than their previous films, blending more romantic and dramatic elements with screamingly unfunny comedy, keeping Wayans expectedly unpleasant, but with a smaller decibel level, which is easier on the senses.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Dave Made a Maze” plays like a short film that spun out of control, unable to contain its big ideas, colorful characters, and bottomless appetite for homegrown visuals. It emerges from the mind of co-writer/director Bill Watterson, a longtime actor and once a mighty production assistant, who pours every last drop of imagination he can find into the oddball creation, which offers a striking odyssey into the shared uncertainty of milennials, who face domesticity, scarcity of work, and management of expectations often without a proper outlet for crippling fears. And it’s all stuffed inside a puppet theater-style explosion, with Watterson doing a fine job juggling tone and providing enough visual oddity to make this strangely sincere cardboard adventure work for much of its run time.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“6 Days” is a dramatization of an embassy siege that occurred in the heart of London in 1980. There have been many films detailing similar conflicts, and they all follow a routine of shock and chaos, with the defining elements of the production found in the moments wedged between argumentative behavior and terrorist demands. “6 Days” has an interesting story to tell in this regard, delving into the headspace of the madmen, the police, the press, and the Special Forces unit preparing to end the standoff when activated. Perhaps sensing a losing battle with originality, director Toa Fraser (“The Dead Lands”) keeps the picture taut and introspective, finding ways to encourage suspense and maintain personal perspectives in the midst of panic.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Fencer” is a European production, but it plays like a heartwarming Hollywood production. It’s a post-WWII tale of leadership and redemption, and it’s something of a sports movie as well, but instead of taking on more obvious confrontations, the feature explores the world of fencing, using its foundation of strategy, elegance, and respect to inform a story about a man struggling to reconcile with his traumatic past, finding hope in the company of children. What could be saccharine and silly is transformed into a pleasingly sweet endeavor from director Klaus Haro (“Letters to Father Jacob”), who’s faced with a slightly icier version of “The Bad News Bears,” but manages to make something sincere. “The Fencer” is built to be an audience-pleaser, and it’s successful in that respect, delivering a level of benevolence that’s immensely appealing, even if it’s not the most challenging picture in release today.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The synopsis, “A coming of age California motorcycle road trip set in the ‘60s, combining elements of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and ‘The Odyssey’,” accompanies the release of “Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey.” While it’s certainly true that the movie features a motorcycle road trip, the rest of the claims aren’t precisely correct, perhaps reaching a bit high for this low-budget endeavor. A sense of self-importance drives the film, with writer/director Terry Sanders (a practiced documentarian) striving to make a distinctly American effort concerning universal curiosity about sex, crafting a period picture to return to a time of relative innocence, which best supports his mission. Aiming to replicate classic literature, and Sanders ends up with a YA novel, as “Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey” is soft, melodramatic, and while not offensive, it’s just too imprecise for its own good.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We rarely see this type of excavation when dealing with a Hollywood franchise, but “Annabelle: Creation” is a prequel to 2014’s “Annabelle,” which was a prequel to 2013’s “The Conjuring,” which has already spun off a sequel in 2016’s “The Conjuring 2,” and currently awaits another prequel in 2018’s “The Nun.” Phew. And yet, through the haze of industry universe building (“The Conjure-verse”?), “Annabelle: Creation” arrives relatively unscathed, defying the odds to be an effective chiller that’s excitedly performed and sensationally directed by David F. Sandberg. That the movie works at all is miraculous, considering what a dud “Annabelle” was, but the helmer stays grounded with this return to the antics of a possessed doll, playing with sound and imagery wonderfully, while trying to restore elements of demonic influence that made the original “Conjuring” such a treat for genre fans. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com