Category: Film Review

“The Last of Robin Hood” is dedicated to Beverly Aadland, the underage girl who took part in a sexual relationship with 50-year-old Errol Flynn over the last two years of his life. Perhaps this is why the production takes it so easy on the young woman, electing to transfer motivation to others while romanticizing a union that’s already impossible to rationalize. In a stronger film, this provocative approach might conjure a riveting display of passion and violation, but in the hands of writer/directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (“Quinceanera”), “The Last of Robin Hood” is transformed into a melodrama, and one that’s suspiciously careful with the sordid details of the plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Ever since he won an Academy Award for directing “The Silence of the Lambs,” Jonathan Demme has attempted to derail expectations by selecting material that feeds his moviemaking soul, mostly avoiding industry temptations to recycle his winning formula. His idiosyncrasy has remained in full bloom, with the last decade of his career spent making concert documentaries with Neil Young and testing out the elasticity of digital cinema with efforts such as “Rachel Getting Married.” “A Master Builder” merges the two aesthetics in a manner that’s sure to polarize audiences, asking viewers to be patient with this adaptation of a 19th century play by Henrik Ibsen, which never leaves its single setting, remaining stagey, breathless, and unavoidably static when it isn’t absolutely riveting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the hostile, coldly metallic realm of the prison picture, “Starred Up” carries a special intensity. While it maintains a fierce concentration on procedure and pecking order behind bars, the story emerges out of the darkness as one of a father and son getting to know each other for the very first time. “Starred Up” is brutal and intense (effectively emphasizing its hellish setting), but also unexpectedly sincere, approaching the weary routine of inmate life with a barbed but expressive human perspective that’s exceptionally communicated by screenwriter Jonathan Asser and director David Mackenzie, who combine forces to deliver character instead of chaos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Japanese animation rarely finds its way to American screens in any significant way, making the release of “A Letter to Momo” all the more special. Mercifully, the picture earns such attention, submitting a mournful and sometimes silly fantasy that’s Studio Ghibli-esque in design, but carries its own personality with style and sensitivity. Although it doesn’t thunder forward with much originality, “A Letter to Momo” gets far on feelings, offering audiences a helping of magic that seasoned with slapstick and a direct hit of regret, which encourages a few tears to go with the laughs and wonder. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Moviemakers John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle have made four studio pictures, and three of them have incorporated found footage events in some form. “As Above, So Below” is their latest foray into shaky-cams and exaggerated acting, and I think it’s about time the brothers move on to a genre other than horror. Much like “The Poughkeepsie Tapes” (their 2007 feature, which finally found release back in July), “Quarantine,” and “Devil,” the Dowdles have a strange way of watering down potential terror in their fright films, with “As Above, So Below” teasing a fascinating premise, only to slog through conventional beats of suspense, blending elements from “The Da Vinci Code,” “The Goonies,” and “Event Horizon” into a criminally inert, repetitive effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The serial killer subgenre has seen its fair share of variation, reaching a point of complete exhaustion as productions hunt for new ways to frighten audiences with unusual murders and creepy suspects. “The Calling” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it offers a certain amount of patience and simplicity when it comes to the horrifying routine, placing emphasis on the crime, not necessarily the criminal. Director Jason Stone orchestrates an appealingly gloomy picture, extracting some fine performances and a welcome momentum to the story. Originality isn’t a priority with “The Calling,” but the little changes in execution and motivation allow the movie a chance to breathe, preserving interest in the ongoing slaughter. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The idea of Pierce Brosnan in another spy franchise holds promise, even if it’s been over a decade since the actor last portrayed James Bond. Hoping to return some firepower to a lethargic filmography, Brosnan loads up on pained machismo for “The November Man,” the launch of a fresh series of actioners based on the character Peter Devereaux, an ex-CIA brute conceived by author Bill Granger. The star is quite literally the only highlight in this stunningly brain dead thriller, working his tight-faced routine to the best of his ability as director Roger Donaldson bungles even the most basic of chase sequences and spy game antagonism. As enjoyable an actor as Brosnan is, sometimes his taste in screenplays boggles the mind. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As brain-bleeders go, “The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears” doesn’t really care if the audience is involved in this surreal journey of murder and madness. It’s an art piece that’s meant to be admired, not enjoyed, with directors Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani creating the picture for themselves, building a hallucinatory world one fluttering edit and suggestive image at a time. “The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears” is only appreciable as pure cinematic craftsmanship, and it’s a gorgeous movie, teeming with inventive compositions and wild lighting. As a mystery, there’s no tractor beam pull to the enigmatic happenings, leaving the effort all about form. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it deals with troubling areas of mental illness, “Frank” provides a distracting visual with its titular character. A masked singer in a rock band, Frank doesn’t pull off his oversized disguise for anyone, supporting the promise that co-star Michael Fassbender is never going to show his face to the camera, content to hide himself as part of his character. It’s an effective tool to trigger ticket-buyer curiosity, and the gimmick does get “Frank” surprisingly far. It’s the film’s understanding of depression that leaves much to be desired, unsure if it wants to be a funny movie or a moving one, with director Lenny Abrahamson creating a diverting but vaguely penetrative picture that’s so concerned with idiosyncrasy, it’s missing consistency. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Paycheck roles for Hollywood stars is nothing new, but director Brian A. Miller appears to be building an empire with his access to once mighty marquee players. “The Prince” is the latest in a long line of forgettable actioners, with big bucks enticing John Cusack and Bruce Willis to drop by for a few scenes while Jason Patric does his best to carry the effort, which is little more than a flimsy “Taken” knockoff. Aggressive but hopelessly thin, “The Prince” hopes to dazzle viewers with famous faces, which act as a rodeo clown while the rest of the picture trots out snoozy underworld and revenge clichés in a most uninspired script. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2005’s “Sin City” was a fascinating cinematic experiment. A slavish, stylish expansion of Frank Miller’s graphic novel, the feature enjoyed an element of surprise, stunning audiences with its particular approach to a literary adaptation. Instead of reimagining the book, co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller used the tome as an altar for worship, preserving the visual intensity of the original work and its taste for the unsavory. A hit with audiences, a sequel was all but guaranteed. However, that it took nearly a decade to revive this sleazy world is shocking, with the abyssal gap in years between installments hurting the aspiring series. Instead of fanning the franchise flames, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” tosses a wet blanket on the fun, stumbling with a plodding follow-up that’s missing the insanity and most of the grim highlights that made the original so memorable. It’s as though Rodriguez and Miller forgot how to make a “Sin City” movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Spoilers are a tricky thing. Some readers get upset when the name of a lead character is shared in a review, while others prefer to understand as much about a movie as possible before deciding to buy a ticket. It’s a tightrope walk that’s never fun to attempt, but with some features, it’s impossible to discuss the particulars at all without some explanation of plot. “The One I Love” is a particular challenge because the entire picture is built on a secret. Not an explosive one, but just revealing enough to make any critique a mine field of potential problems. I will do my best to avoid ruining this wonderful film, but to be safe, if you’re committed to going in cold, stop reading here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor George Takei used to be known for his role as Hikaru Sulu on “Star Trek,” remaining with the part through multiple television incarnations and a series of feature films, cementing his fame in the sci-fi realm. Ask a kid who George Takei is today, and they might list him as one of the funniest meme curators on Facebook, or perhaps his tireless work for human rights is what immediately springs to mind. It’s been an amazing journey for the deep-voiced man, who’s now the subject of “To Be Takei,” a hilarious and heartfelt documentary by Jennifer M. Kroot that explores the strange magic that surrounds the icon, and how he’s used his fame to support his causes, with a personal drive to make the world a better place formed during his tumultuous childhood. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sometimes it’s difficult to assess these teen tearjerkers, with my adult perspective reacting violently to the irrational decisions of young love, where passions rule and parents are a four-letter word. I’m all for warmth and deep feelings, but “If I Stay” is particularly ghoulish when it comes to the demands of an adolescent union. It’s a bizarre movie, though it’s interesting to note that the production doesn’t share the same assessment, plowing forward with images of death and unbridled selfishness without registering how weirdly it plays all stitched together. Mistaking control for adoration, “If I Stay” makes “Twilight” look like a Gloria Steinem manifesto. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“When the Game Stands Tall” wants to be “Friday Night Lights” so bad, it can taste it. The football melodrama, based a true story, is riddled with cliché, depending a vague faith-based perspective to give what audiences have seen over and over some identity. It’s a weird collision of Christian morals and gridiron action, flailing to find depth with perhaps one of the most one-dimensional sporting stories to hit the screen in a long time. “When the Game Stands Tall” hopes to be about the miracle of coaching influence, but it’s really about a team that’s used to winning sampling loss for the first time. The rest is just tired decoration from the Screenwriting 101 textbook. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“A Five Star Life” is an Italian production that has a few things going for it. For starters, it features a relatively original occupation to follow, with the main character a service inspector sent around the world to test hotels on their five-star status. That type of fastidiousness and globe-trotting life deserves its own film, but “A Five Star Life” would rather fixate on the human details, generating a mild dramedy that spotlights just enough honest emotions to help secure an otherwise featherweight movie. Well-acted and shot, the picture isn’t likely to knock anyone’s socks off, but on a scale of measured, intimate storytelling, it manages to articulate a sense of regret critical to the overall effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Possession of Michael King” is a feeble excuse for a horror flick. Following trends, writer/director David Jung has combined the demonic possession movie with found footage cinema, questing to manufacture a fright film that will keep viewers afraid of the unexpected, while tapping into quasi-religious questions of Heaven and Hell. Unfortunately, more emphasis has been placed on the visual tricks of the feature, leaving screenwriting achievements nonexistent. In fact, the titular character may be the most irresponsible boob of the 2014 film year, with his insistent foolishness keeping “The Possession of Michael King” more frustrating than terrifying, leaving one to openly wonder if Jung actually read his script before production commenced. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The release of the 2012 French feature, “Le Chef,” in America is interesting. Coming into the marketplace at the same time as Jon Favreau’s “Chef” is exiting theaters, something tells me the distributor hoped to ride on the coattails of the indie film success, trusting audiences for specialized entertainment might be in the mood for another round of food fantasy. Where “Chef” was anxious and exploratory, “Le Chef” is more of a traditional comedy, with a few broad antics and a nice grip on characterization. It’s funny, well acted, and sharply paced, but most importantly, it trusts in the power of food. It doesn’t quite reach for the lusciousness of the recipes in “Chef,” but it aims to tease the molecular cuisine trend, which is long overdue for a pantsing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Aging plays a major part in “The Expendables 3,” which was once envisioned as throwback franchise for older action stars to flex their muscles once again, showing the kids how it’s done. In the four years since the original effort, creator/star Sylvester Stallone has started to consider his years, with mortality and retirement major themes of the movie. He also introduces a younger squad of mercenaries to join the fight, not only to add some fresh energy to the series, but to secure its box office future beyond the battle-weary bros who’ve already survived two installments. That’s not to say “The Expendables 3” isn’t rock-em, sock-em entertainment with explosions, stunts, and quips galore, but it’s a surprisingly reflective feature that still traffics in big dumb fun, daring to address the mileage on a few of its leathery stars. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After last year’s “Warm Bodies,” there seems to be a trend forming, centered on the idea of romantic escapades featuring humans and zombies. “Life After Beth” continues to develop the subgenre, offering a darkly comic take on eternal love, even after body tissue begins to decay. Funny, but more interesting when it screws around with tonality, the picture marks the directorial debut for “I Heart Huckabees” co-writer Jeff Baena, who delivers confident, wicked work with “Life After Beth,” mostly successful in his quest to blend traditional relationship woes with apocalyptic chaos, finding an amusing middle ground that keeps the movie approachable as it indulges some horrific turns of plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com