Category: Film Review

It’s been a full decade since Mel Gibson last directed a film, with 2006’s “Apocalypto” a challenging adventure story that miraculously managed to attract an audience. It was a follow-up to 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” a global phenomenon that cemented Gibson’s taste in extreme violence and depictions of abyssal faith, promising a helming career filled with unusual tales of survival and heroism. But then…other stuff happened, forcing Gibson to keep away from the camera after “Apocalypto.” He returns with a vengeance with “Hacksaw Ridge,” a stunningly vivid World War II tale that merges heavenly belief with earthbound horror, exploring the resolve of one man to serve his country without picking up a weapon. It’s an exceptional picture and Gibson’s finest work to date, gracefully but forcefully sharing faith-based interests without resorting to preachiness, putting Godly trust to the test on a merciless battlefield. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Trash Fire” does a terrific job of misdirection, retaining thematic wholeness while basically offering two different movies, or at least two genre experiences. Written and directed by Richard Bates Jr. (“Suburban Gothic,” “Excision”), the picture examines relationship dysfunction, first on a small, relatable scale, but soon inflating its menace to horror film proportions, introducing scares and a monstrous villain. “Trash Fire” is an unusual feature, mixing moods and offering dark comedy to brighten a grim subject matter. Bates Jr. brings a satisfying level of disturbance to the effort, keeping the audience sufficiently unnerved even with unknown turns of plot, while sustaining its rather lucid take on a terrible relationship. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Army of One” isn’t triumphant as a farce, but it does contain a surprisingly engaged performance from star Nicolas Cage. Over the last decade, Cage has mostly turned in dead-eyed, flat performances in terrible, low-budget movies, trying to do something with a career that’s lost its way due to financial concerns. His participation in the latest feature from director Larry Charles (“Borat,” “The Dictator”) isn’t going to change his fortune, but Cage is putting in a major effort to portray a mentally challenged man, going stratospherically big to capture the sheer force of Gary Faulkner, a man who decided to answer a spiritual calling by traveling to the Middle East in 2004, attempting to assassinate Osama Bin Laden. Cage is crazed, and it’s a joy to see the old madman juices flowing again, but “Army of One” doesn’t match his intensity, trying to stretch a thin premise that would be better served in a short film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Craig Moss has been a problematic helmer for the last six years. He’s a fan of silly comedies and parodies, but lacking the filmmaking skill to pull off such slow-pitch softball endeavors, making audiences suffer through abysmal efforts such as “The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It,” “30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” and a trilogy of “Bad Ass” movies, which quested to turn the world of online memes into fodder for multiple features. Giving his iffy sense of humor a rest, Moss turns his attention to the world of horror with “The Charnel House,” which is more interested in scaring viewers than making them roll their eyes. The change of view is welcome, but Moss isn’t inventive, ornamenting a curiously bizarre premise with routine scares. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When thinking about Paul Schrader, his work as a screenwriter on “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull,” and his direction of “American Gigolo” come to mind. But those projects were decades ago. The Schrader of the last 20 years has been decidedly more problematic, struggling to find his place in an independent film system that no longer welcomes his bitter point of view. He hit a career low point with 2013’s “The Canyons” (a wretched creation), and stumbled again with 2014’s “Dying of the Light,” a picture allegedly reworked without his permission (he did keep his name on the broken endeavor). Perhaps in an effort to cleanse himself of frustration, Schrader serves up “Dog Eat Dog,” a nihilistic, anarchic comedy that welcomes surreal imagery and the loosest definition of plot. It’s Schrader trying to raise hell with stars Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe, and while the feature achieves craziness, it doesn’t translate to anything particularly memorable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor Anthony Edwards has only flirted with direction before, helming the 1995 family adventure “Charlie’s Ghost” and a few episodes of his hit television show, “ER.” Going back behind the camera, Edwards crafts “My Dead Boyfriend,” a dramedy about a journey of self-discovery triggered by a brush with mortality. It’s based on a novel, scripted by Billy Morrissette (his first piece of writing since 2001’s “Scotland, Pa.”), and while it’s ripe for an exhaustive emotional inspection, Edwards plays the whole thing with unexpected casualness, selecting a wandering alt-rock mood to inspire snowballing insanity. The approach doesn’t always demand full attention to the details of the plot, but “My Dead Boyfriend” does find itself with few inspired turns, and it’s the best role star Heather Graham has enjoyed in years. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Even after watching “King Cobra,” it’s difficult to tell how seriously one is supposed to take its tale of sex, obsession, and murder. It’s based on the true story of porn star Brent Corrigan, whose quest for fame led him to a series of encounters with predatory individuals. And yet, while the material is inspired by a true crime book (“Cobra Killer” by Andrew E. Stoner and Peter A. Conway), the feature almost reaches farcical levels of comedy as it investigates the lunatics that descended on Corrigan, from coldly calculating businessmen to complete morons. “King Cobra” has its highlights, including fine work from co-star Christian Slater, but writer/director Justin Kelly attempts exaggerate the strangeness of the case, losing tonal balance and interest in the human particulars along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a long time since Robert Langdon was onscreen solving puzzles and sprinting across European cities. The famous symbologist, the central character in author Dan Brown’s series of literary thrillers, was last seen in 2009’s “Angels & Demons,” a sequel to 2006’s “The Da Vinci Code,” and while both films were sizable hits, director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks took their time returning to the franchise. “Inferno” doesn’t offer a radical reinvention of the Brown formula, but it does show a sharpening of it. The production strives to tighten the whole viewing experience, emphasizing action and feverish academic study while dialing down the extensive exposition and lecturing Brown’s work is known for. “Inferno” doesn’t rock the boat, it simply paddles along with a little more efficiency, mindful of longtime fans who’ve enjoyed the previous adaptations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After showing interest in thriller mechanics with 2013’s “Night Moves,” writer/director Kelly Reichardt returns to the meditative state she’s most comfortable with in “Certain Women.” The creator of “Old Joy,” “Wendy and Lucy,” and “Meek’s Cutoff,” Reichardt has showcased a fascination with the purity of human emotion, putting her characters through trials of survival, but on a relatable scale, with more attention paid to the nuances of behavior than overall pressures of plotting. She’s marvelous with personalities, mastering a way with small details and naturalistic interactions, finding tension in unexpected places. “Certain Women” plays to Reichardt’s strengths, working through three tales of attachment and negotiation, creating intimate spaces with fascinating people. It’s not a bold picture, but something that seeps into the system slowly and satisfyingly. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s been a certain wistful and fantastical quality to most Japanese animated features that find their way to the U.S. Obviously, the work of Studio Ghibli is an appropriate example of the tonality of these releases, offering viewers wide swings of nostalgia and excitement. “Miss Hokusai” emerges with the same visual style, but it’s tale of maturation is a little more adult and less precious. It’s an adaptation of a popular manga, and one that takes an askew look at the nature of art, the trials of personal relationships, and the burden of expectations. “Miss Hokusai” can be an abrupt picture, but it retains sizable charisma and artistry, locating a few emotional moments that work exceptionally well. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If you see a lot of horror films, there’s exposure to all sorts of crazy ideas for antagonists. There have been mutants, rodents, alien goo, houses, and even a laundry-folding machine, and “The Windmill” adds to this tradition by setting its slasher activities around the titular location, which happens to be a hotbed of demonic activity. It’s a bizarre idea, but director Nick Jongerius commits to it, creating a formulaic chiller that tries to add The Miller, a scythe-wielding ghoul from rural Holland, to the Screen Monster Hall of Fame. “The Windmill” doesn’t completely bungle the potential for askew encounters with death, but it’s also not interested in subverting predictability, sticking to the slasher routine as characters are picked off by the mangled villain. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Fans of director Park Chan-wook usually respond to the helmer’s specific way of plot construction and visual intricacy, as detailed in movies such as “Oldboy,” “Lady Vengeance,” and even his last picture, the English-language chiller “Stoker.” Park has a knack for such tightly stitched filmmaking, and he brings his cinematic fetishes to “The Handmaiden,” which resembles much of his previous work, blending darkly comic material with lush direction. As extensive a puzzle as Park has ever attempted, “The Handmaiden” has no shortage of plot twists and turns, delighting in its winding presentation, which successfully wards away predictability by encouraging games of secrecy and personal history. It’s a fine effort from a justifiably lauded creative force who lives to toy with his audience, often employing gruesome developments to do so. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The zombie apocalypse travels to rural Minnesota in “Zombies,” which tries to ride a prominent trend around a crowded pop culture block. Writer/director Hamid Torabpour doesn’t bring much originality or even basic pace to the effort, but if one is solely in the mood to watch the undead being stomped by heavily armed survivors, one could do worse than “Zombies.” It’s unpolished, sketchily performed, and knows very little about screen movement, making the horror extravaganza disappointing to those who demand a fatter budget when depicting the last, bloody days of humanity. Torabpour isn’t messing around when it comes to waves of the titular threat, keeping the feature stocked with rotted flesh and hungry citizens, but the movie isn’t refined, often coming off amateurish once Torabpour pushes for deeper meaning than what’s typically afforded to a crude zombie showdown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2012’s “Jack Reacher” was an unusual film. An adaptation of the Lee Child book “One Shot,” the feature brought the bulky character of Jack Reacher to the big screen, providing star Tom Cruise with a specific acting challenge of toughness, which he pulled off well for writer/director Christopher McQuarrie. It was an actioner with a unique rhythm, exploding with crunching metal and heavy fists before dealing with an unsatisfying story. The picture did okay at the box office, nothing outrageous, but Cruise has elected to try his luck the character again, returning to avenger duty in “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” but this time without the guidance of McQuarrie. His absence is strangely felt throughout the follow-up, which takes the pure intimidation and smarts of the titular character and sets him loose in a shockingly lumpy, lobotomized thriller, which often resembles a television pilot rather than a major movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s surprising to note that “Boo! A Madea Halloween” is the first Tyler Perry feature to hit screens in over two years, with the prolific filmmaker (who averaged two productions per year at one point) taking a break from cinematic pursuits to build a television empire. He wasn’t missed, but time has come to return Madea to multiplexes, and she’s bringing more holiday mischief, with “Boo! A Madea Halloween” following up “A Madea Christmas.” The abrasive character seems like a true fit for the spooky season, and the potential is unexpectedly there to showcase Madea as a next-gen ghostbuster, taking on urban troublemakers with her unique brand of yelling and slapping. Instead of invention, Perry makes the same old movie, recycling his once powerful formula (box office grosses are trending downward) to give the target audience exactly what they expect. The effort has no tricks, and it’s definitely not a treat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Fear, Inc.” began life as a short film, and it’s easy to tell such narrative limitation while watching its feature-length expansion. Screenwriter Luke Barnett has a wonderful idea to help twist the horror genre, crafting a tale where terror and murder are requested by individuals searching for a fresh kick in their dreary lives. It’s like “Saw” in a way, only the victims demand the utmost in intimidation. However, stretching the plot to 90 minutes proves too difficult for Barnett, who tries to massage the material by introducing a self-referential approach, making “Fear, Inc.” a “Scream” knockoff, and an easily fatigued one at that. Big frights and laughs are in short supply here, keeping the viewing experience strangely deflated, especially when the central concept of doomsday participation is primed for a robust exploration. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

That “Ouija: Origin of Evil” manages to top its predecessor, 2014’s “Ouija,” isn’t a particularly astonishing achievement. While inoffensive, the original wasn’t made with care, churned out to fill a Halloween release slot, offering PG-13 thrills and chills to younger audiences in need of a distraction. Instead of sequelizing the profitable movie, the producers head back to the beginning, kind of, taking the prequel route to unearth a fresh round of scares tied to the demonic wonders of a Hasbro board game. The change in scenery and period is welcome, but more important is the talent involved, with co-writer/director Mike Flanagan (“Oculus,” “Hush”) putting in substantial labor to make sure his take on the “Ouija” world is exciting, nightmarish, and overall menacing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The saga of 1994’s “The Fantastic Four” is no Hollywood secret. Over the last two decades, details have leaked about the film’s quickie production and aborted release, with the picture eventually discarded altogether after some promotional work was already underway. It’s one of those industry black eyes, and while journalistic endeavors have explored the creation and disintegration of “The Fantastic Four,” director Marty Langford looks to dig deeper with “Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four,” constructing a documentary that collects stories from those on the front lines. It’s not a cheery tale of creative and financial success, but it delivers a wider appreciation of what was attempted in the 1990s, with B-movie imagination eclipsing the blockbuster intentions later iterations of the property attempted. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While he hasn’t exclusively worked in the genre, writer/director Ti West is usually labeled a horror filmmaker, building his reputation with interesting efforts (“The Innkeepers” and “House of the Devil”), while his last picture, “The Sacrament,” replicated real-world agony with its take on the Jonestown Massacre. Changing up the career view, West embarks on a western showdown tale with “In a Valley of Violence,” challenging his helming skills with a homage to spaghetti westerns, having a ball highlighting all the evil men are capable of. It’s a doozy of a movie, refreshingly spare and focused on the essentials of the tradition, showcasing West’s continued development into a memorable creative force. It’s raw work, but “In a Valley of Violence” snowballs into superbly suspenseful cinema. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Spy comedies are all the rage these days, recently explored in the aptly titled “Spy” and last spring’s disaster, “The Brothers Grimsby.” “Keeping Up with the Joneses” is the PG-13 take on broad adventuring, and its gentleness almost feels like a straitjacket, watching director Greg Mottola figure out a way to make hackneyed writing moderately interesting. He fails, as there aren’t any real jokes in the picture, just pratfalls and tedious encounters with improvisation. “Keeping Up with the Joneses” is safe, borderline cuddly, but this subgenre deserves a more aggressive take on bumbling characters and violent situations. The feature has cast members capable of doing anything, but they master next to nothing, keeping the movie passive and unimaginative. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com