Category: Film Review

Attempting to make an action comedy, “Hot Pursuit” decides on overkill as a surefire way to laughs and thrills. It’s the latest effort from director Anne Fletcher, who keeps getting hired to helm funny pictures despite a spotty track record (“27 Dresses,” “The Proposal,” “The Guilt Trip”), only here there’s a manic energy to manage. Instead of taking it slowly, developing intricate stunt sequences and massaging punchlines, Fletcher encourages broad antics and chunky pratfalls one would expect to find on an elementary school playground. “Hot Pursuit” isn’t funny or exciting, it’s just loud, gifting stars Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara a holiday to let loose with caricatures, trusting volume to be the cure-all for a dud script. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Noble” isn’t shy about piling on acts of misery. Telling the story of Christina Noble and her fight to protect orphaned and abandoned children in Vietnam, the feature has a wealth of cruelty to cover, with much of the script devoted to hardships in dire need of conquering. Miraculously, writer/director Stephen Bradley infuses the picture with spirited determination and purpose to lend the material some needed oxygen, with the viewing experience certainly bruising, but not suffocating. “Noble” largely works due to its clenched-fist approach, tending to the particulars of Christina’s war against suffering while maintaining its message of hope, making it the rare faith-based film that’s more show than tell. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s a fine line between nobility and exploitation, and “Skin Trade” is just barely able to maintain balance between the extremes. Co-scripted and starring Dolph Lundgren, the feature endeavors to expose the evils of human trafficking, using the action genre as sugar to help the medicine go down. It’s impossible to argue with such intention, especially when dealing with the world’s wickedness. However, “Skin Trade” doesn’t follow through on its potential for horror, quickly devolving into a roughhouse revenge picture that consumes cliché by the pound, spending more time perfecting explosions, kicks, and chases than it does sharpening its focus on human violations. Purpose is pure, but the execution favors anarchy over sympathy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While it’s an accomplished and engaging dramedy, “The Mafia Only Kills in Summer” is perhaps most valued as a tonal tightrope walk writer/director Pierfrancesco Diliberto (making his helming debut) pulls off with remarkable balance. Here’s a film that takes on Italy’s blood-stained history with the mob, filled with assassinations and general chaos on the streets of Palermo. And yet, “The Mafia Only Kills in Summer” is work filled with slapstick comedy and reverence for real-world figures who stood up to deadly intimidation. It’s funny and shocking, often in the same moment, securely positioning a coming-of-age story on top of reality, developing all the awkwardness and awareness with enticing wit, timing, and horror. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” will forever be compared to “Forrest Gump.” And there’s a good reason for that: it’s practically the same movie. Testing legal powers at Paramount Pictures, this Swedish production launches a strange tale of a simple man somehow finding himself in the nooks and crannies of history, unaware of the sights he’s seen. Giving the effort its own identity is a dark sense of humor, which helps encourage interest in familiar shenanigans. Unfortunately, the material’s bite doesn’t last long enough, finding “The 100-Year-Old Man” coming down with a case of the cutes as it lurches from scene to scene. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2014, during promotion for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” actor Chris Evans let it slip that he’s grown tired of acting, fatigued by his Marvel contract and recent gigs. It was a moment of honesty in an intensely guarded industry, making it clear that Evans’s heart just wasn’t in the work anymore, save for a few extraordinary projects (including “Snowpiercer”). After viewing “Playing It Cool,” Evans’s latest release (actually shot in 2012), his disappointment is understandable, caught playing a creep in a movie that ultimately seeks to endear itself to its audience, stroking the same romantic comedy clichés it strives to satirize. It’s dreary, unfunny work, but as a catalyst for future career reinvention, Evans couldn’t have made a better professional choice. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2010, writer/director Quentin Dupieux made his filmmaking debut with “Rubber,” a horror/comedy about a killer tire. The premise was enough to draw interest, but the picture’s command of absurdity and atmosphere kept the feature fascinating. A second bizarre comedy, “Wrong,” followed, also hitting wonderful notes of weirdness while remaining periodically hilarious, quickly chased by another winner, “Wrong Cops.” Dupieux enjoys the strangeness of cinema, but he’s managed to retain some sense of subversive gravity to his work. With “Reality,” the helmer aims to pull his own effort inside out, endeavoring to build a comedy that messes with perception and manipulation while mining laughs out of pure oddity. For those who enjoy their brain-bleeders with a significant sense of humor, “Reality” is truly something to experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2012’s “The Avengers” was an experiment of sorts. With audiences around the globe responding positively to comic book heroes in individual adventures, how would they react to a group effort? Fears of overkill were put to rest immediately, with “The Avengers” received rapturously by fans and critics, quickly becoming one of the top grossing movies of all time. After a three year break to tend to the specifics of these costumed men and women, the A-Team has reunited for “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” a darker, more internalized follow-up that still retains all the expected bang and boom. Writer/director Joss Whedon has pulled off an impressive feat here, sustaining the intensity of a ripping adventure yarn while digging into a few of the characters a little more deeply, finding fresh ground to cover in a more satisfying epic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There is no shortage of information concerning the life and times of music icon Kurt Cobain. Through countless magazine articles, books, and films, a fairly accurate portrait of the man has been created, but a mystery surrounding his troubled existence somehow remains. Director Brett Morgan (“The Kid Stays in the Picture”) appears to understand this impasse, going after the one thing so many journalistic endeavors fail to achieve: access. With permission to pore through diaries, recordings, home movies, and art, Morgan crafts “Cobain: Montage of Heck,” which isn’t an A to Z exploration of the Nirvana frontman’s history, but a full submersion into the viscous fluids of his life force, trying to locate the spirit that existed before the empty shell became famous on a global scale. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We’ve reached a point where fashion documentaries have created their own Marvel Cinematic Universe-style of interconnection. Art-house cinemas have been flooded with titles in recent years, with filmmakers setting out to dissect the faces and style that fuels fashion’s most popular brands. Think “Valentino: The Last Emperor” and “The September Issue,” with this push (arguably fueled by the popularity of the cable show “Project Runaway”) to discover how haute couture is created and presented to the world offering a fascinating look at the priority of superiority. “Dior and I” joins the line-up with conviction, managing a portrait of creative and physical effort, while tilting the presentation by including images and recollections from Christian Dior (who passed away in 1957), who appears as a ghostly presence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Building her career as an actress, working for most of her life, Helen Hunt’s screen appearances have been few and far between over the last decade. She’s been concentrating on a directorial career, with “Ride” her second feature after 2008’s “Then She Found Me”– a warm, amusing effort that showcased Hunt’s skill with managing actors and maintaining an itchy atmosphere conducive to comedy. “Ride” isn’t quite as secure with tone, but it does have a visual personality, and emotional moments are genuine, inspiring some satisfyingly haunted work. Sitcom touches to make the movie malleable are unwelcome, but when Hunt works up the courage to avoid the obvious, she delivers welcome pathos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a faith-based movie out to create a tale that celebrates repentance and emotional connection, “Any Day” stumbles every step of the way. A stunningly amateurish effort, the feature strives to create a tragedy out of stupidity, hitting every cliché imaginable as it lumbers from scene to scene. The actors gathered here are left with nothing to work with, trying to make the best out of a bad situation, yet only they manage to make the picture worse. Abysmal, manipulative, and often caught with its shoelaces tied together, “Any Day” is either one of the most poorly edited features I’ve seen this year, or director Rustam Branaman is trying to pull off a colossal cinematic prank. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s important to remember that “The Age of Adaline” is a fantasy that plays by its own rules, avoiding hard science to depict a singular event in history that’s primarily played for all its romantic possibilities. It’s “Highlander” with a heart, and while the premise is fairly bizarre, director Lee Toland Krieger does a fine job keeping the picture grounded with true emotion and an enticing mournful quality that rightfully shadows a character who cannot age. Warmly crafted, with a satisfactory sense of mystery, “The Age of Adaline” resembles a Harlequin novel, but offers more spirit than simple forbidden love escapism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Alex Garland is an accomplished screenwriter, creating such works as “Dredd” and “Never Let Me Go.” He makes his directorial debut with “Ex Machina,” and the premise continues his fascination with isolation and doomsday events, only here the threat, or perhaps the cure-all, emerges in the form of artificial intelligence. A.I. is certainly familiar terrain for cinematic exploration, but Garland constructs something fascinating and unnerving with “Ex Machina,” feeling out numerous acts of manipulation with full attention to mood. While slowly paced, the feature isn’t dull, emerging as a potent study of power and corruption, setting a sinister, tech-heavy atmosphere that almost seems achievable in our day and age. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“After the Ball” is constantly threatening to be undone by a case of the cutes. A blend of “Twelfth Night,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” and “Cinderella,” there’s no shortage of preciousness about the work. Mercifully, there’s a significant amount of charm too, helping the movie dilute its sitcom tendencies and come together a perfectly pleasant play on fashion world insecurities. Retaining a handful of laughs and guiding a winning lead performance from Portia Doubleday, director Sean Garrity (“My Awkward Sexual Adventure”) keeps “After the Ball” on target, preserving mischief and romance, providing a charming viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A basic cable stalwart and occasional supporting player in studio comedies, Nick Kroll aims for the big leagues with “Adult Beginners,” cooking up starring role for himself that demands a full display of his dramatic range. It’s a test Kroll doesn’t necessarily pass, but he’s smart enough to surround himself with more capable actors who can transform the screenplay’s addiction to cliché into convincing emotion. “Adult Beginners” has a lot of laughs and sharp understanding of the demands of parenthood, but every time it steps outside of its comfort zone to address more sophisticated feelings concerning maturation and grief, it loses its personality, resembling any other effort that takes on the pressures of man-child development. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Forger” has every invitation to become a run-of-the-mill heist picture. It’s set in Boston, features a cast of tough guys and interested cops, and details the art of duplicating art, and necessitates a museum break-in to secure the con. Giving these hoary elements a spin is screenwriter Richard D’Ovidio (“Thirteen Ghosts,” “The Call”), who delves more into shattered lives than double crosses, trying to keep the effort grounded, even while it indulges a few bloody-knuckled pursuits. While it doesn’t register as a remarkable example of writing, “The Forger” is mostly successful when it comes to articulating character pain and pressure, finding ways to sneak away from outright cliché and discover human needs and curiosities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“5 to 7” seems perfectly comfortable as a light romantic comedy. Toying with culture clash particulars and age differences, the feature maintains a relaxed air of dating anxiety and individual awakening, delivering passable character beats as it explores an unusual situation of infidelity. Writer/director Victor Levin openly flashes his influences throughout the effort, but true balance between the light and dark side of the affair presented here is elusive. Opening with a case of the cutes and concluding with unnervingly oppressive obsession, “5 to 7” is all over the map in terms of tonality and screenwriting, with Levin trying to stuff his favorite elements from French cinema into a movie that can’t handle the weight. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Russell Crowe has enjoyed an acting career filled with varied dramatic demands, yet “The Water Diviner” marks the first time the star has stepped behind the camera. While retaining leading actor duties, Crowe finds the inspiration to create a heartfelt historical drama that investigates a crisis of anonymity when it comes to the slain soldiers of World War I. It’s powerful work when locked in investigative mode, showcasing Crowe’s strengths as a performer and helmer, selecting an unusual but evocative mystery of fatherly desperation, and one that’s especially aware of the sensitivity surrounding its subject matter. “The Water Diviner” can’t help itself with unnecessarily romantic pursuits, but fringe interests fail to implode this sturdily constructed film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Noah Baumbach is known for making polarizing films, but his last effort, 2013’s “Frances Ha” offered the writer/director a chance to play it safe, eschewing combative moviemaking to focus on pure neuroses. Baumbach has frequently been compared to Woody Allen, but never has the accusation fit as snugly as now, with his latest, “While We’re Young” a Allen-esque riff on the challenges of aging and the perfume of youth, captured with all forms of fussy behavior and unspoken resentments. And much like Baumbauch’s output, it’s frustratingly uneven, razor sharp at times, but mostly scattered and unclear, out to comment on a generational divide without much of a game plan to guide the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com