Category: Film Review

While the franchise isn’t ailing, “Star Trek” hit a creative dead end with 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which decided to cap a fairly effective sci-fi thriller with disastrous fan service, electing to replicate the ending of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” as a useless offering of familiarity to a fan base known for its ability to adjust to new dramatic directions. Trying to get things back on track, “Star Trek Beyond” loses helmer J.J. Abrams (who took his ball and went over to the “Star Wars” universe), ditches parallel plotting to the original “Trek” film series, and brings in Justin Lin to helm, fresh off his work reigniting the “Fast & Furious” features with refreshed sequels. The change behind the scenes isn’t as obvious as one might expect, but there’s a noticeable shift in tone for “Star Trek Beyond,” which strives to be a traditional adventure to help realign creative chi, while still allowing Lin to play around with widescreen action, giving the 13th “Trek” movie some real velocity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As the horror genre tries to quit its addiction to celebration of pain, movies about supernatural terror have come into vogue thanks to the hits “Insidious” and “The Conjuring.” Both pictures were directed by James Wan, and he’s not about to let a good thing go, returning to produce “Lights Out,” which slavishly follows his formula for scares, making sure every cheap jolt is lovingly tended to. Refreshingly lean (running about 75 minutes sans end credits), the feature offers little more than a series of spooky, shocking encounters, but it really doesn’t have to provide more than that, with director David F. Sandberg effectively staging suspense from start to finish, giving “Lights Out” the disturbances it needs to cover for uninspired dramatics. Then again, who’s coming to this film for the story? Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It may seem hard to believe, but “Ice Age: Collision Course” is actually the fifth entry in the franchise, and nobody seems more surprised by the overwhelming success of the series than its producers. Scrambling to come up with plots to keep the cinematic cash machine open, the production finally reaches a limit to Paleolithic shenanigans with “Ice Age: Collision Course,” which doesn’t really bother with a story, charging full speed ahead with cartoon gags instead, perhaps realizing there’s nowhere left to go with the initial “Ice Age” premise. Essentially committing to film anything that pops into their minds, co-directors Mike Thurmeier and Galen T. Chu go for broke with “Collision Course,” hoping to charm with silliness instead of endear with established personalities heading in a fresh narrative direction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Unlike a lot of television-to-feature transitions, writer/star Jennifer Saunders has definitely taken her time bringing “Absolutely Fabulous” to the big screen. While only racking up 39 episodes, the BBC series has remained in and out of production since 1992, generating a loyal audience of fans who appreciate a bit of tasteful debauchery and inspired silliness. While she doesn’t take full advantage of the R-rated opportunity to raise widescreen hell, Saunders cooks up an enjoyable romp with “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie,” sticking to the franchise’s core appeal while cranking up its comedic potential, sustaining a pleasingly madcap tone throughout, never completely fatiguing a good thing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For his latest picture, Woody Allen is feeling the urge to explore Hollywood once again, romanticizing the glamour and social connections of the movie industry in the 1930s for “Café Society.” The feature is big on costumes, locations, and attitude, but even for Allen (who churns out product every year), the effort is much too meandering to make any impact. Attempting to craft a sprawling comedy with a large cast, Allen encounters focus issues almost immediately, consistently unsure if he wants to make a movie filled with subplots, or turn a to-do list of subplots into a movie. “Café Society” isn’t very funny or memorable, finding Allen on autopilot, halfheartedly arranging bits of behavior, hoping that something will resemble a film by the time the end credits arrive. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2016 is a special year for “Ghostbusters” fans, with Paul Feig’s remake inspiring fresh waves of memories and merchandise, hoping to tap into brand name hysteria once again. Also joining the party is “Ghostheads,” a homegrown documentary by Brendan Mertens that’s hoping to piggyback on current thirst for all things “Ghostbusters,” creating a tribute to superfans that delves into private lives and identifies personal commitments to the cosplay cause. What could’ve been a charming study of cinematic obsession is wildly overcooked by Mertens, who doesn’t really know what story he wants to tell with “Ghostheads,” which veers wildly from lighthearted memories and analysis to teary memories of the gravely injured and the dead. Mertens’s heart is in the right place, but his storytelling instincts are shellacked with slime. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a child actor, Joseph Mazzello found success with parts in “Radio Flyer” and “The River Wild,” but his greatest role was found in “Jurassic Park,” portraying the young, slightly fried survivor of the dino apocalypse, Tim. Time isn’t typically kind to the careers of most young performers, but Mazzello has managed to do something with his experience, funneling creative knowledge into “Undrafted,” his directorial debut. Armed with a limited budget but a distinct point of view, Mazzello scores a success with his first outing behind the camera, crafting an itchy valentine to the world of intramural baseball, studying its humiliations, camaraderie, and gamesmanship with ultimate interest in its characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It was inevitable that someone would eventually work up the nerve to remake the 1984 classic, “Ghostbusters.” Unable to get a second sequel up and running, the studio eventually turned their attention to a full reboot, but their choice of director was Paul Feig, a man not necessarily known for his way with visual effect-laden extravaganzas, previously helming “Bridesmaids” and “Spy.” Feig can’t completely pry himself away from his bad habits, but his refreshing of “Ghostbusters” is actually a substantial amount of fun when it actually makes time for the busting of ghosts. Bellylaughs are scarce, but the picture has sporadic energy, while the cast offers a significant amount of charm to help the material squeeze through a few dismal ideas. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Drake Dormus enjoys making movies about tortured love affairs. The helmer of “Like Crazy” and “Breathe In” returns with “Equals,” a sci-fi-tinged tale of forbidden attraction and emotional restraint. Paying tribute to George Lucas’s “THX 1138,” and lifting a dramatic layer or two from 1997’s “Gattaca,” “Equals” endeavors to explore a futureworld of submission cracked open by primal human instincts. The ambition is there, but execution is missing a few degrees of heat, while miscasting tends to leave sections of the picture a bit too cold for comfort. It’s stylish work with some of the most pronounced architecture porn I’ve seen in some time, but Dormus can’t shake his habits, once again returning to burning passions photographed in extreme, jittery close-up while a feeble sense of tragedy brews in the background. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While the films have little in common, “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” often reminded me of last year’s “It Follows.” Both pictures provide plenty of atmosphere, using a deliberate pace to conjure a sense of dread, taking their time to build mysteries and unnerve the audience. However, “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” demands more patience, with writer/director Oz Perkins working through his material inch by inch, laboring to squeeze as much stillness out of the movie as possible. There’s surely an audience for his effort, especially those who enjoy slow-burn terror productions, but it’s difficult to get excited about the feature’s crawl of creepiness, which doesn’t reward concentration with a particularly memorable conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“The Infiltrator” has all the elements of a classic undercover cop story, including a conflicted protagonist, a Floridian setting, and a secretive world of drug dealing. It presents a true-life tale that offers fascinating characters and heated showdowns, yet director Brad Furman doesn’t quite know if he wants the picture to be a sincere study of a lawman’s loss of self or a ridiculously overcooked crime tale with a few operatic extremes. “The Infiltrator” is unsatisfying and weirdly absurd at times, but it’s not a complete blunder, blessed with a cast that’s capable of finding nuances in the moment, bringing friendships and antagonisms to life in a way that Furman is incapable of doing on his own. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Westerns should be bleak, barren adventures, tracking difficult moral choices and survival situations, but there’s a fine line between staging violence to make a point about threat and staging violence just to enjoy some screen insanity. JT Mollner forgoes subtlety with “Outlaws and Angels,” dismissing good taste to make a down and dirty exploitation picture that’s slicked with bodily fluids and blistered with rage. Aggression comes unnervingly easy to the helmer, who enjoys making a mess of things with this ode to sexual abuse and manipulation. However, while Mollner has brought buckets of blood to the production, he forgot to hire an editor. It doesn’t take long to realize that “Outlaws and Angels” is going to feel as long as the conquering of the west itself, with Mollner incapable of finding rhythm for this intentionally odious movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a tough year for Zac Efron. His EDM drama, “We Are Your Friends,” posted one of the worst opening weekends of all time. His first offering of 2016 crudeness with January’s “Dirty Grandpa” quickly stalled at the box office. The sequel “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” grossed just over a third of the original’s movie take. And now he’s trying his luck again with “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” teaming up with screamy basic cable star Adam Devine to try to rework the “Dumb and Dumber” formula for twentysomething audiences. Efron is certainly tireless in his pursuit of a big screen career, but his taste in screenplays is abysmal, with “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” yet another creative blight his perpetual shirtlessness cannot disguise. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After spending the last handful of years developing surefire hits in “Despicable Me 2” and “Minions,” animation powerhouse Illumination Entertainment returns to original material with “The Secret Lives of Pets,” or least keeps away from the moneymaking minions for a year. The long shadow of Pixar darkens the picture, as much of the movie resembles a sneaky “Toy Story” remix, only instead of plastic cowboys and space rangers, the feature offers time with cats and dogs. Laughs are a rare event in “The Secret Life of Pets,” which is more determined to be loud, spotlighting screaming performances and frantic action that tends to drain the heart right out of the effort. It’s not a disaster, but after managing wit and speed with the surprisingly effective “Minions,” Illumination’s latest endeavor is a bit too desperate to please. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Anne Fontaine has been working for the last two decades, amassing a varied filmography that includes recent efforts “Gemma Bovary” and “Adoration.” “The Innocents” is perhaps her bleakest picture, but it’s also her most accomplished. A haunting look at desperation during an unusual time of liberation, “The Innocents” finds yet another corner of World War II to examine, with Fontaine building an uneasy drama with sensational characterization, defining personalities and troubles with helming precision, but never discounting the emotional power of the tale, despite dealing with a subject matter that welcomes religious and cultural iciness. It’s not a feature to be approached causally, but it captures a place and time superbly. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The director of “The Last Kiss” and “Seven Pounds,” Gabriele Muccino specializes in sensitive stories with melodramatic extremes. He’s a patient helmer, fascinated by the durability of the human heart and the depth of broken individuals, funneling these interests into “Fathers and Daughter,” another go-around with distraught characters struggling with emotional blockage as they speed toward tragedy. Calling “Fathers and Daughters” Muccino’s most accomplished work in years isn’t exactly a compliment, but he handles certain sections of the tale with refreshing sincerity. The confidence doesn’t last throughout, but before excess suffocates the movie, there’s a sharp sense of loss that carries significant power, almost able to buttress the entire effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

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Although it has the appearance of a traditional rock documentary, “Breaking the Monster” takes an unusual route to familiar sights of band dysfunction and industry pressures. It endeavors to explore fame via the YouTube Generation, showcasing the power of video, not presence, which helped the band Unlocking the Truth achieve cult fame, resulting in a record deal and a shot at mainstream stardom. The clichés are unavoidable, but the participants are barely teenagers, watching the children who make up Unlocking the Truth navigate an adult world of responsibilities while still dabbling in “Spinal Tap”-esque shenanigans. Director Luke Meyer (“Darkon”) has an interesting take on the routine, helped along by the band’s unusual sonic power. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Cinematic adaptations of Stephen King novels are common, and most do not work. “Cell,” however, is a promising title for a big screen inspection, with the successful 2006 book exploring the ubiquity of technology — a chilling reality when supernatural disaster strikes, creating an easy and widespread circuit of doom. Interestingly, King steps up to co-script this feature, making him part of the creative vision. And yet, even with the author’s control, “Cell” falls apart. While the material seems suited for a ripping horror yarn, the film is missing dramatic pieces and overall enthusiasm, making it more of a summary of King’s work than an engrossing, consistent adaptation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Marauders” joins a growing subgenre of thrillers and actioners that play under the pop culture radar, keeping a low profile with a limited budget, while release publicity is secured with the addition of a single brand name to the cast list. In this case, it’s Bruce Willis, who slumbers through this lukewarm puzzler, barely participating in the story as lead Christopher Meloni does all the heavy lifting. Aiming for sophistication and procedural blue steel, “Marauders” is buried under the weight of exposition. It’s tough for anything of note to happen in the movie when every character is dedicated to explaining everything on screen. And yet, somehow, nothing is clear or, in the end, all that interesting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I don’t know if director Alex Gibney sleeps at all, but it certainly doesn’t seem like it. The prolific helmer has churned out over 15 documentaries in the last decade, covering topics such as musical artistry (“Finding Fela”), disgraced sporting gods (“The Armstrong Lie”), and political ruin (“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer”). Gibney is always in motion, which is likely why his latest endeavor, “Zero Days,” feels like it’s on autopilot. It’s an informational explosion, delivering all the facts and figures an audience member could want from a movie, but suspense is missing from the picture, which is so consumed with proving its sophistication, it never bothers to build cinematic energy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com