Category: Film Review

With “Unbroken” and “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” Angelina Jolie Pitt has shared a fascination with human endurance. Depicting wars, horrors, and cruelties, she’s never been one to detail the joy of life, only coming across such an epiphany by accident. With “By the Sea,” Jolie Pitt returns to direct herself and real-world husband Brad Pitt in a tale of complete and utter anguish, staying within her comfort zone with this throwback effort to intimate tales of self-destruction from the 1970s. “By the Sea” is a vanity film, but not completely without merit. When it isn’t permissive with performances and indulgent with its run time, the picture has a few insightful ideas to share about loss and marital strife, but it takes considerable work to find such wisdom. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Coming down from their world-rattling attempt to make fun of North Korea with “The Interview,” co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg set their sights on the holiday season with “The Night Before.” Obviously, with this duo guiding the mischief (along with Ariel Shaffir and Jonathan Levine, who also directs), warm, cuddly feelings of Christmas cheer aren’t on the menu, but this rowdy, drug-laden comedy certainly tries to remain meaningful as it attempts to make a worthy big screen mess. Funny in fits and perhaps too obsessed with maintaining character, “The Night Before” isn’t quite the guns blazing comedy it could’ve been, but there are more hit than misses as Rogen and Goldberg return to their happy place of cursing, bodily fluids, and celebrity cameos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While Quentin Tarantino continues his exploration of the western in this holiday’s “The Hateful Eight,” director Jackie Earle Haley and screenwriter Robert Lowell keep the old Tarantino spirit alive in “Criminal Activities.” A mixture of violence, comedy, and loquaciousness, the picture is reminiscent of the many knockoffs that found release after “Pulp Fiction” became a phenomenon, handled with a buzzing energy by Haley, who makes his helming debut with the feature after managing an acting career for the last four decades. While it all plays very familiar, “Criminal Activities” has a few creative moves of its own, finding the production trying to nail down a special rhythm to all the conventional intimidation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The last time actor Simon Pegg decided he wanted to warm up his image, it resulted in 2014’s particularly unpleasant “Hector and the Search for Happiness,” which actually made the jovial performer come across unappealing, suggesting that perhaps tales of love were not his forte. “Man Up” is a decent enough rebound for Pegg, who teams with Lake Bell for a lively adventure through misunderstanding and silliness. It’s definitely not Pegg’s finest professional hour, but as fizzy romantic comedies go, “Man Up” has its share of surprises and enthusiasm for the material, maintaining an effort to disrupt the subgenre routine with speed and a great deal of mischief. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Following the footsteps of “Anvil: The Story of Anvil,” “I Am Thor” looks to locate another overlooked member of the heavy metal community who’s interested in a comeback. The documentary surveys the life and times of Jon Mikl Thor, a once mighty bodybuilder who rode his physique to the heavy metal middle in the 1980s, blending superhero theatricality and blazing riffs to wow audiences. He was also the star of junk drawer cinema classics such as “Zombie Nightmare” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare,” creating an image as a hulking master of ceremonies, out to conquer the entertainment industry with his unique, hammer-wielding presence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the plainly titled “Heist,” the production labors to merge a standard crime thriller with elements of “Speed,” dusted with some off-the-shelf emotional obstacles for the characters. Director Scott Mann (“The Tournament”) has all the right ingredients for junk food cinema in front of him, but no real clue how to assemble a frothy feast of exploitation. “Heist” is only enjoyable when it remains on the move, racing past logic and repetition with convincing energy. Applying the brakes to detail worry only reinforces flimsy screenwriting and iffy casting, losing the movie’s appeal as it struggles to build a more dramatically sound offering of complete nonsense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Scary movies tend to stick to the same settings out of habit, never venturing too far away from haunted houses, securing the comfort of familiarity as monsters and ghosts emerge from the darkness. “Visions” isn’t a radical departure from the genre norm, but it does use a vineyard as its playground of doom, which livens up a picture that eventually becomes a standard chiller, recycling scares and strange explanations as it struggles to remain compelling. Director Kevin Greutert isn’t one to deny audience expectations, but there are a few decent turns in “Visions” to keep it moving, even as it quickly grows tiresome. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The 33” certainly doesn’t have the element of surprise. A dramatization of the 2010 Chilean Mining Disaster that trapped workers underground for 69 grueling days, the production is working with a globally known event, including a happy ending that was omnipresent during a few news cycles five years ago. Even the theatrical trailer for the movie gives away the ending, making suspense all but an impossible for director Patricia Riggen to achieve. “The 33” is painfully overlong, but it’s also effective with the basics of survival, using moments of claustrophobia and familial divide smartly as it searches for anything to help distract from the highly publicized conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If you’re planning to see “Love the Coopers,” remember to bring a pencil and some scratch paper. It may be easier to follow this mess of a movie with the help of careful notes, but there are no guarantees. A Christmas lump of coal sneaking into theaters before Thanksgiving, “Love the Coopers” strives to be a heartwarming holiday effort concerning a dysfunctional family, but never once does it stop to introduce the participants or explain the details. Director Jessie Nelson and screenwriter Steven Rogers soak the picture in maudlin events, with occasional breaks for light slapstick, but as the feature unfolds, less is understood about the titular clan and their yearly need to make one another miserable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor Gregg Turkington is comedian Neil Hamburger, or perhaps Neil Hamburger is Gregg Turkington. The distinction is never clear, but that’s part of the performer’s appeal to “anti-comedy” fans. “Entertainment” is a valentine to Turkington’s method of madness, with director Rick Alverson making sure every pregnant pause, non-sequitur, and violent outpouring of hate is tenderly cared for, attempting to communicate Hamburger’s special way with nothingness for die-hard admirers and newcomers. Equally successful as a cult comedy and a non-lethal crowd dispersal weapon, “Entertainment” is a type of film that establishes its tone in the very first minute of screentime, and it’s your own fault if you decide to stick around for the rest of it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After maintaining a long but uneven career of interesting performances (“Master and Commander”) and painful ones (“Priest,” “Legion), actor Paul Bettany is ready to move behind the camera, finally in control of his own project. “Shelter” is Bettany’s helming debut, and he’s made exactly the type of movie a frustrated thespian would, dreaming up a tale of misery and hopelessness to best underline lead performances from Jennifer Connelly (his real-life wife) and Anthony Mackie. “Shelter” has its heart in the right place, trying to identify the frustration and self-destruction of homelessness and rehabilitation, but its fixation on indulgence chips away at the feature’s lasting message of endurance, mixed with a little tragedy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Attention will be placed on “Condemned” for one major reason: the casting of Dylan Penn. The daughter of Sean Penn and Robin Wright, Penn makes her feature-film debut with a low-budget horror endeavor, taking a career route that has helped a great number of actresses, electing to show off some lung power and panicked looks instead of partaking in a significant dramatic test her first time out. There’s more to “Condemned” than Penn, but she’s a braless, blonde focal point in a picture that’s otherwise concentrated on vomit, urine, pustules, and spilled innards, basically guaranteeing all attention will be aimed her way for the duration of the movie. Penn’s been coached well by her parents. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To help “Difret” reach theaters across America, the production is using the good name of executive producer Angelina Jolie to attract attention. The famous humanitarian isn’t directly involved with the production, but it’s almost odd that the movie isn’t her third directorial outing, as it plays directly to her interests in global injustices and the plight of young women in the third world. Helmer Zeresenay Mehari (making her feature-length debut) actually handles “Difret,” making an interesting choice to avoid understandable hysterics to play the effort as a legal drama of sorts, preferring to capture the steps of community condemnation when dealing with the practice of forced marriage, instead of stirring it up with cheap melodramatics. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Welcome to Leith” is an incendiary documentary about the power of hate in today’s world, where growth is carried out through a strict observance of laws, pushing opposing sides into a dance of patience as definitions of engagement are carefully inspected. Directors Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker find a chilling tone of escalation concerning the subject matter, which takes on sinister business from the white supremacist moment in America, using odd events and rattled interviewees to paint a portrait of discomfort that eventually transforms into an authentic summation of community defense in the digital age. “Welcome to Leith” is a strange feature, but it retains substantial suspense in its early going, with the helmers identifying horrors and shaping frustration that builds into explosive moments. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sarah Silverman is best known as a wily comedian, blessed with a sharp wit and willingness to embrace the grotesque in her humor. She’s hilarious, but as an actress, Silverman has been inching away from funny business, taking supporting parts in dramas such as “Take This Waltz” and the television series “Masters of Sex.” With “I Smile Back,” the talent aims for a grander professional challenge, portraying a troubled mother and wife battling depression in the messiest manner possible. Silverman is game to go where director Adam Salky leads, but her commitment to the frayed ends of the character is impressive, summoning a level of unnerving recklessness that helps “I Smile Back” achieve poignant and piercing scenes of self-destruction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2012’s “Skyfall” isn’t an easy film to top. Not only was the picture the finest installment of the Daniel Craig era of James Bond movies, it’s perhaps one of the best Bonds of them all, with a perfect collision of villainy, disaster, seduction, and grit. It was a grand blockbuster. “Spectre” merely mimes the same beats. Despite a creative team that features many of the same people responsible for “Skyfall,” including director Sam Mendes, “Spectre” plays like a parody of the previous effort, missing precise, snowballing elements of suspense as it works through a tired screenplay that doesn’t have enough imagination to summon thrilling action or ripe characterization. James Bond has returned, but he often looks as though he’d rather be anywhere but in this movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Capturing the zeitgeist, “Suffragette” is a respectful view of history, taking viewers back to 1912 to study the plight of the women’s suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. It’s an extraordinary story funneled into an encouraging but deeply flawed film, but one that benefits from sheer passion for the subject. Director Sarah Gavron (“Brick Lane”) captures intensity and dissects personal sacrifice with precision, keeping tight control of emotional content and a sensational performance from Carey Mulligan. “Suffragette” stumbles when it comes to establishing a coherent visual look for the picture, and its history is blurred at best, but the core outrage of the material comes through clearly, supporting the feature when artificiality threatens to swallow the whole effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For 65 years, “Peanuts” has managed to dominate, sustaining life through its original comic strip form before graduating to television and feature films. However, the Charles M. Schultz creation hasn’t flexed its pop culture muscle in quite some time, with “The Peanuts Movie” attempting to revive the brand name for a new generation. The basics are tended to with passable care by director Steve Martino (“Ice Age: Continental Drift,” “Horton Hears a Who!”), delivering all the mild thrills and homey charms of the franchise, but the latest adventure isn’t out to break new ground with its community of idiosyncratic characters. While it’s respectful to the Schultz legacy and periodically winning, “The Peanuts Movie” feels a tad stale at times, burning through established highlights instead of creating fresh ones. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With “Miss You Already,” director Catherine Hardwicke is forced to mature as a filmmaker, but she isn’t going willingly. The screenplay by Morwenna Banks offers a tale of cancer and friendship, taking on the impossible bonds of life with a great degree of honesty, urging Hardwicke (“Twilight,” “The Lords of Dogtown,” “Thirteen”) to treat the material with uncharacteristic sincerity. She almost pulls it off, peppering “Miss You Already” with confrontations and confessional moments that resemble human behavior. The helmer can’t help herself with floppy camerawork and only-in-the-movies moments of flamboyant catharsis, but the picture is the least Hardwicke-ian of her troubling career, and that’s a promising development. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Trey Nelson has an interesting resume, coming to “Lost in the Sun” after a decade working in television, helping to craft cooking, game, and reality shows. He makes a dramatic leap with his latest work, and he’s also questing for sincerity. “Lost in the Sun” has its faults, but it primarily plays like an engrossing young adult novel, exploring the weight of guilt and the development of trust, with a whole mess of father-figure issues driving the central conflict. Admirably performed and skilled at detailing Texan expanse, the feature manages to hit the heart when it counts the most, carrying a promising amount of concern for its characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com