Category: Film Review

The “Step Up” franchise has display remarkable resiliency, issuing four installments that have charmed audiences in the mood for inconsequential drama interrupted by manic dance sequences. “Make Your Move” is the obligatory rip-off, but who better to steal from the “Step Up” formula than the man responsible for its creation? Writer/director Duane Adler returns to a world of misunderstood lovers and quaking bodies with this effort, which seeks to merge the worlds of Taiko drums and tap dance into a scintillating display of youthful expression. “Make Your Move” also offers dancer Derek Hough a starring role, following in the footsteps of sister Julianne, who also spent a considerable amount of time making forgettable features looking to cash in on moviemaking trends. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Afflicted” is the latest entry in the found footage sweepstakes, where young, hungry filmmakers strap on cameras and raise hell in a bid to make a name for themselves. It’s a trend, and one that’s coughed up its fair share of clunkers, with this tale of vampirism and world travel the latest example of a production that doesn’t quite grasp the intentions of subgenre. Ignoring reality to have fun with camera and editing tricks, “Afflicted” has moments of ingenuity and an interesting set-up, but it doesn’t take long for the feature to dissolve into the same old mess of shaky cam and unmotivated images. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The reason the films of Christopher Guest work is because of the talent involved. It’s a troupe of creative people with excellent timing and good taste, able to sell the reality of the faux-documentary approach while working in generous amounts of personality in minimal moves. “Authors Anonymous” stars Chris Klein and Kaley Cuoco, and is directed by a woman who was once the casting director for “MVP: Most Valuable Primate.” Bring expectations down. While devoid of laughs and screwy in execution, “Authors Anonymous” certainly isn’t lazy, with the production working up a sweat trying to turn banalities into hilarity, often settling on drab romantic subplots and marital dysfunction instead of probing the misery of the unpublished writer as it initially promises. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Haunted mirror movies don’t come around every day, making “Oculus” something special. Certainly after the 2008 misfire, “Mirrors,” it’s about time a production reclaimed the dread of reflection as a viable cinematic device. There’s good and bad news about “Oculus,” which is a sharply made picture boasting a surefire revenge plot that teases explosive elements to come as the mystery unfolds. Unfortunately, the wait for something to happen is eternal, as director Mike Flanagan prolongs suspense to such a degree, it barely registers as excitement when the payoff arrives. Filled with potential, “Oculus” merely scratches the surface in terms of mirror-demon evasion and evil manipulation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If one absolutely requires a film that features teenage girls conspiring to kill an adult, why not seek out Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures,” a darkly imaginative odyssey into the minds of murders, emphasizing the madness and obsession of such a toxic pairing. “Perfect Sisters” endeavors to capture the same sense of juvenile desperation, only here the execution is frightfully amateurish and the subjects are insufferable, contributing to an exhaustively sloppy picture that strives to illuminate the steps of ruin for two siblings tired of their deadbeat mother’s ways. Cruelly, director Stanley M. Brooks crafts a glorified basic cable movie, complete with stiff staging, obvious performances, and clunky screenwriting that turns absolute horror into unintentional comedy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There wouldn’t be a “Draft Day” without a “Moneyball.” The 2011 picture took viewers into the front offices of baseball general management, studying the contentious process of trading and selling a team. And audiences bought it, turning “Moneyball” into a popular film despite a lack of sporting hustle. “Draft Day” has the same idea, only this effort elects to expose the NFL as it nears its most holy day of team construction. Missing the poetic textures of “Moneyball,” “Draft Day” nevertheless scores with a more mainstream take on managerial headaches and panic, leading with a swift pace and accomplished performances, also pulling off the impossible: it makes football look fun. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After realigning his cinematic chi with last year’s “Prince Avalanche,” director David Gordon Green returns to his filmmaking roots with “Joe,” which often plays like a sequel to his 2000 debut, “George Washington.” Poverty, alcoholism, and violence are the topics covered in this harrowing but intermittently ridiculous story, covered with habitual oddity by the helmer, who takes author Larry Brown’s novel and turns it into a circus of angry behavior and desperation, chasing whims whenever Gordon feels as though he can get away with it. It’s messy and crude, but “Joe” has meaning that breaks through eccentricity, finding a tale of bruised compassion to help balance out all the sticky Greenisms. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been nearly a decade since Jonathan Glazer last directed a feature. 2004’s “Birth” was a misunderstood masterpiece, holding out hope that the helmer would return quickly to continue his exploration of the unknown. He took his time, but “Under the Skin” is an interesting follow-up to the bottomless ache of “Birth.” Here, there are no emotions, only observance with a sci-fi edge, merging horror and mystery into an often indescribable viewing experience that’s visually precise but dramatically frigid. “Under the Skin” isn’t a film of explanation, asking the audience to immerse themselves in distorted visions and unsettling encounters, working toward an unknown destination that never quite arrives, though the journey is sporadically riveting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

These days, if an animated film hits big at the box office, there’s no way a studio is going to stop the party at one installment. With 2011’s “Rio,” there isn’t much room for extension, with the production doing a solid storytelling sweep, leaving few unanswered questions behind. However, with nearly a half-billion in global grosses, the screenwriters have dreamed up an all new adventure for fraidy-cat Spix’s macaw, Blu, who arrives with a few new friends, a soundtrack of songs, and a different destination. Missing the freshness and unexpected charm of the original effort, “Rio 2” is more entertaining than stimulating, with the strain to keep the money train rolling showing through much of the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

More is more when it comes to the action in “The Raid 2: Berandal.” A sequel to the 2011 cult hit, “The Raid: Redemption,” this new round of ultraviolence pulls out all the stops in terms of broken bones and slashed skin, going out of its way to outdo the original’s frightening scale of aggression. Also on the to-do list is a quest to turn a contained plotline of survival into a crime saga worthy of “Godfather” complexity. Writer/director Gareth Evans aims big with this continuation, but in his lust for glory, he’s failed to trim the fat, making “Berandal” punch drunk, ugly, and, at times, endless. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Vivian Maier is big business these days, and it’s a shame she’s not around to experience the celebration. Of course, if she were alive, it seems unlikely there would be a documentary focused on her art. An obsessive photographer who lived a secretive existence as a hoarder and nanny, Maier’s shrouded life is the subject of “Finding Vivian Maier,” which seeks to grasp her elusive personality and personal history while rummaging through her visual achievements, which made her the darling of the photography scene a few years after his death in 2009 at the age of 83. An artist searching for a reflective representation of life during her travels, Maier was also a complicated woman cocooned by her mental illness, making this story of discovery all the more profound. And who better to explore this narrative than the man who stands to financially benefit the most from this newfound attention. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The makers of “Jinn” are aiming fairly high with this release. Although filmed in 2010, the picture is being issued with big plans for a sequel, while emphasis has been placed on selling the specialized car featured in the movie. It’s this level of forward thinking that’s ultimately confusing, as it’s unlikely anyone will want to see “Jinn” the first place. A crude mix of horror, “Harry Potter,” and religious idealism, the effort is a mess with a central conceit that makes little sense, forcing writer/director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad to put all his concentration on visual effects, hoping some razzle-dazzle will keep audiences from noticing the often nonsensical plot and utter lack of tension. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the wreckage caused by “The Avengers” and the kickoff of Phase Two in the Marvel Studios master plan of superhero cinema domination with last year’s “Iron Man 3” and “Thor: The Dark World,” it seemed as though Captain America’s relatively earthbound activities wouldn’t be able to find renewed life in the midst of all the magic and crunching armor. After all, 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger” is the second lowest grossing Marvel production so far, revealing a hesitance on part of the audience to accept such a figure of freedom, a boldly painted defender of democracy. Smartly, the screenwriters of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” have traveled within, largely forgoing massive theatrics to explore paranoia and corruption as the ultimate foe of our hero. Yes, there’s also a super-assassin with a metal arm leaping around the feature, but for the most part, this sequel works on a more analytical level, drawing parallels to our modern woes of government intrusion as it plays with the conventions of a comic book adaptation. In every single way, “The Winter Soldier” improves on “The First Avenger,” finding a fitting new direction for the character. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Every now and again there comes an animated film that serves as a reminder that not everything aimed toward a family audience emerges from the punch press of Hollywood. The French effort “Ernest & Celestine” has no fast food tie-in and blessedly no bathroom humor. Instead, it leads with warmth of personality and succinct thematic interests, while boasting some of the most magnificent animation I’ve seen in quite some time. Gorgeous, humorous, and endearing, I don’t think there’s a single frame in “Ernest & Celestine” that isn’t absolutely wonderful. Do your kids a favor and seek it out. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If there was an opportunity to view both volumes of “Nymphomaniac” together, or perhaps watch director Lars Von Trier’s five hour director’s cut, maybe the ritualistic demoralization that infests “Volume II” would feel more organic. Away from the work for a few weeks, and the second half of this sexualized odyssey feels strangely anticlimactic in a way that doesn’t resemble Von Trier’s original intent. While continuing its interests in disturbing imagery and storytelling deconstruction, “Volume II” is missing a sense of balance with the provocative instincts of the first installment. “Nymphomaniac” finally comes to a close, but its sensations don’t last nearly as long as previously imagined, finding Von Trier’s morbid sense of humor standing in the way of greatness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With her starring debut in Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire,” former MMA fighter Gina Carano made quite an impression with her action hero moves, thousand-yard stare, and believability when it came to the pummeling of enemies. After a brief supporting turn in “Fast & Furious 6,” Carano returns starring status with “In the Blood,” one of those low-budget scrappers that finds a corner of the world to wreck with violence and iffy screenwriting. While the thought of Carano punching and kicking her way around the Caribbean sounds irresistible, “In the Blood” is directed by John Stockwell, who has a habit of making potential fun feel like a prison sentence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Goodbye World” is a post-apocalyptic film in the vaguest of ways, electing to avoid scenes of mass disaster to concentrate on the human struggle of survival, and even that’s not very interesting to the production. More of a reunion picture than an end-of-days chiller, “Goodbye World” does feature a tempting premise and a riveting first act, building a promising collection of characters facing a baffling series of events that tease worldwide paralysis, yet co-writer/director Dennis Hennelly prefers to focus on the selfish needs of alarmingly myopic people, altering the doomsday mood from one of panic to diluted domestic disturbances. In this movie, the world really does end with a whimper. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Craig Moss fancies himself a funny guy. With pictures like “The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It” and “30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” it’s unlikely the filmmaker has his finger on the pulse of contemporary comedy. Between wretched parody efforts, Moss has been trying to build himself a franchise with 2012’s “Bad Ass,” his cinematic extrapolation of the “Epic Beard Man” meme that was all the rage for 15 hot minutes in 2010. You recall “Amber Lamps,” right? Refusing to let a cruel joke die, Moss continues to develop his thin ideas with “Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses,” which, mercifully, dials down the meme references to plunge ahead as an average DTV actioner, this time teaming star Danny Trejo with Danny Glover, who thankfully doesn’t play a character named Doge. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Beyond the fact that “Blood Ties” is a remake of “Rivals,” a 2008 French film, there’s nothing especially original about the picture, which takes on family dysfunction and NYPD hostilities in the thick of the 1970s. The twist here is that one of the stars of “Rivals,” Guillaume Canet, has returned to co-script and direct “Blood Ties,” giving him a unique perspective on this story of brotherhood. A French take on an American cop thriller, the feature has its passions and conflicts, and while it’s formulaic, the effort retains a fiery personality, making sure the audience feels the weight of contemplation facing the frazzled characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Over the course of four movies, writer/director David Ayer has captured the gritty side of street life and how it intersects with fringes of law enforcement. It’s what he does best. In fact, it’s the only thing he does, with “Sabotage” trading bits of realism to come off as a bruising actioner, even going as far as to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in the leading role, gifting the production a certificate of authenticity. “Sabotage” is a wild feature, and not always in a positive way, with Ayer’s scattergun dialogue colliding with his procedural obsessions, resulting in a fantastically violent murder mystery that splatters instead of unfolds. Punch-drunk and nasty, the picture has its amusing idiosyncrasies, but Ayer is too busy dreaming up unnecessary chaos, refusing to develop the positive elements of the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com