Category: Film Review

Sex plays an important part in the Mexican horror picture, “Here Comes the Devil.” It has to, as the terror elements often fail to make their intended impression. Devoid of substance and smart, inventive scares, the feature flounders as it searches for ways to intensify the viewing experience, with writer/director Adrian Garcia Bogliano attempting to extract discomfort through the use of loud, chaotic music, trusting this alone will create nightmares. “Here Comes the Devil” has mood but no real presence, making the movie a grab bag of lustful encounters and skin-ripping gore, while submitting the most vaginally-inspired imagery of the film year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer make up the filmmaking duo behind efforts such as “Meet the Spartans,” “Epic Movie,” and “Vampires Suck.” Divisive industry figures like Uwe Boll often get knocked as the worst director working today, but this twosome has a legitimate claim to the title. Building their brand name with movie parodies that feature no actual parody, Friedberg and Seltzer have managed to sustain a career on painfully obvious imitation, replacing funny bone invention with bodily function humor and bug-eyed punchlines. “Best Night Ever” promises a change of pace for the pair, who shed satire to make a found footage take on “The Hangover,” freeing them of their toxic routine. Sadly, old habits die hard for the partners, with their lethal sense of humor and tuneless timing decimating whatever plans “Best Night Ever” had to throw a cinematic party. Although it might be difficult to believe, this is their worst picture to date, if only because it offers a creative opportunity to prove themselves, and they blow it on yet another round of substandard stupidity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Movies do not come more chilling than “Big Bad Wolves.” While writer/directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado strive to inject the feature with a modest amount of darkly comic moments, there’s very little to laugh at during this frightening effort, which submits a grisly plot of revenge only to have the gumption to nurture its nightmare all the way to its natural conclusion. An Israeli production that doesn’t shy away from the brutality of life, “Big Bad Wolves” is a semi-masterful suspense picture that blends the violent appetites of Chan-wook Park and Quentin Tarantino, pouring such delectable disease into a film that’s hypnotic, even as it details unimaginable suffering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A solid literary adaptation will preserve the feeling of paging through a book, advancing chapter by chapter through a story. “Labor Day,” originally a 2009 novel by Joyce Maynard, retains this wonderful feeling of narrative movement. It’s a corny premise, ideal for a Harlequin hangover, yet writer/director Jason Reitman takes the endeavor seriously, engaging in a sensorial ode to human connection and coming-of-age awareness. Gracefully handled by stars Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet, and Gattlin Griffith, “Labor Day” is comfort food filmmaking with a few rough edges, ideal for those who prefer to get lost at the movies, discovering strange sensuality and sturdily built drama. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s not entirely clear what decade “That Awkward Moment” is supposed to originate from. Its synth-based score is pulled from the 1980s, its blind adulation of New York City emerges from the 1990s, and its treatment of women seems dated around the 1950s. Struggling to execute a brohiem comedy in a hopefully enlightened age, writer/director Tom Gormican makes a mess out of the game of love. When “That Awkward Moment” isn’t funny, it’s painfully confused, attempting to celebrate louts as lovable, while female characters are disposable, treated as mere decoration in this allegedly romantic comedy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Love Is in the Air” is a French romantic comedy that makes a controversial dramatic decision by making its leading man unpleasant and its female characters unreasonable. It’s a bumpy flight for the movie, though director Alexandre Castagnetti has firm control on the picture’s exemplary style and effervescent performances. There’s a sizeable amount of unpleasant behavior to work through here, most of it emerging from the temporary blindness of sexual attraction, yet “Love Is in the Air” somehow remains appealing, hitting a few beats of genuine emotion to help cut through its mangled sense of honorable actions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Stranger by the Lake” is mysterious, sensual, and disarmingly casual. The latest from writer/director Alain Guiraudie, the feature is a splendidly crafted effort that sneaks up on the viewer, lulling them into a state of comfort with the characters before gradually introducing elements of murder and suspicion. It works due to Guiraudie’s moviemaking control and patience, while the cast submits exceptionally interior work, projecting emotional concerns while working through the subtleties of small talk. Although it’s a repetitive film, it winds with purpose, slowly ratcheting up the tension in a confident manner that keeps the picture riveting, even when it seems to have no direction at all. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To appreciate any part of “At Middleton” requires swallowing an extreme case of the cutes. A romantic comedy with a French film fixation, the picture tests patience on occasion as performances go silent comedy broad and certain narrative steps are skipped on the road to mutual attraction. There are flaws to be dealt with, yet “At Middleton” retains a great deal of charm due to work from leads Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga, who look like they’re having the time of their lives in this indie production, relishing the opportunity to play faulty characters powerless to the urgency of love. Without their spunk, the movie would be nothing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Cottage Country” is a wicked, amusing black comedy that satisfies with its ghoulish sense of humor and appetite for escalating acts of frustration. Unfortunately, the blood-caked merriment only lasts for the first act of the film, with the rest of the effort failing to live up to its opening as it hunts for macabre business without much in the way of inspiration. Brightly mounted and nicely performed, “Cottage Country” has moments of delicious insanity, but screenwriter Jeremy Boxen can’t sustain the frantic tone, leaving the feature top heavy instead of building to a devastatingly funny and frightful conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“I, Frankenstein” has been promoted as the latest release from the creators of “Underworld.” What the marketing fails to mention is that the effort is more of a remake of the hit 2003 picture starring Kate Beckinsale than a kissing cousin, trying to replicate the fantasy recipe to help launch a new franchise. The formula worked relatively well for “Underworld” and its three follow-ups, but I doubt we’ll see another chapter of the “I, Frankenstein” saga beyond this lumbering movie. Far too synthetic and dramatically self-conscious to embrace as genre escapism, the feature never builds its own dark personality, more invested in drab mythmaking than hearty, exciting storytelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We all know Ralph Fiennes as one of the industry’s top talents — an actor of extraordinary skill and stamina, giving life to some of the screen’s finest tragedies and villains. After all, to remain a force of considerable malevolence in a role such as Voldemort in “Harry Potter,” played without the benefit of a nose, is a remarkable achievement. Quietly, Fiennes has been building steam as a director, with 2011’s “Coriolanus” storming across the screen as a particularly charged reworking of Shakespeare. And now there’s “The Invisible Woman,” which takes a tale of forbidden love and social decimation and turns it into fine art, with a beating heart that carries the viewing experience. Sumptuously made, with stellar performances from Fiennes and Felicity Jones, “The Invisible Woman” stuns with its cinematographic beauty and batters with its mournful examination of increasing isolation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The last two decades has been rough for director Peter Hyams. With efforts such as “The Musketeer,” “End of Days,” and “A Sound of Thunder,” the helmer has experienced a creative downfall that’s all but destroyed his once fruitful career. In fact, his last passable picture was 1994’s “Timecop,” making a reunion with star Jean-Claude Van Damme for “Enemies Closer” understandable, bringing the action star in to liven up this limited thriller, hoping their chemistry has endured long enough to fuel another collection of chases, shoot-outs, and hand-to-hand combat. Approached with lowered expectations, and “Enemies Closer” is a reasonably engaging B-movie, benefiting from Van Damme’s nutty performance and Hyams’s dedication to cinematic economy. Surprises are few, outside of the eye-roll count, which is unexpectedly low. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Gimme Shelter” has the appearance of Oscar bait that simply failed to reach its intended goal of award season consideration. The film represents the first official stretch for star Vanessa Hudgens, once the darling of the “High School Musical” pictures and recently a poseable plaything in Harmony Korine’s cross-eyed “Spring Breakers.” Losing the glamour and turning up the New Jersey accent, Hudgens truly breaks away from her sunny day screen persona, and while the work is often beyond her reach, she provides an interesting read of ache in “Gimme Shelter,” fighting to preserve her character’s point of view while writer/director Ron Krauss consistently undermines the effort with scattershot storytelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The title “Reasonable Doubt” suggests a legal drama with a thriller edge, keeping in step with a genre that’s become unpopular in recent years, with 2011’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” perhaps the most recent example of a courtroom-based hit. What’s surprising about “Reasonable Doubt” is how desperately it refuses cerebral pursuits, dropping elements of mystery and legalese to sprint ahead as an offering of suspense, and a poor one at that. Riddled with unanswered questions and problematic motivations, the picture is series of feeble performances and dreadful scenes trying to pass itself off as excitement, hoping to appeal to base sensibilities instead of teasing the viewer with provocative questions of guilt. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Raze” is an exercise in screen savagery. It’s bound to attract some extra attention due to its large female cast, with horrifying violence typically the playground of men, making the picture a novelty in this day and age. However, it’s not a film to be taken lightly, as director Josh C. Waller (making his feature-length debut) approaches the material with a solemnity that’s penetrating, investing in raw aggression to snap viewers to attention, watching the characters beat one another into bloody pulps. “Raze” is strong stuff, but also briskly paced and interested in the psychological ramifications of such unrelenting brutality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A high school reunion movie without the actual reunion? That’s what writer/director/star Michael Rosenbaum attempts to pull off with “Back in the Day,” a comedy tinged with nostalgia that supplies viewers with a subpar round of juvenile shenanigans and lackluster acts of pining. Rosenbaum’s intent seems pure enough, but his concepts for comedy and intimacy leave much to be desired, making the picture difficult to understand as it weaves through heartfelt confessions and fart jokes. The lack of an actual reunion is also a bizarre choice, with space for mingling and thirtysomething philosophy punted out of the picture to make room for unpleasant and unfunny nonsense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Devil’s Due” is the second of three found footage productions hitting theaters in January. What started as an innocent trend has now turned into a threat to the horror genre, with directors growing comfortable with the subgenre, but failing to do anything new with it. “Devil’s Due” is stale, derivative (a knock-off of “Rosemary’s Baby”), and largely uneventful, testing the patience of moviegoers as directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett elect to conjure a sense of rehearsed reality, only to skip any justification for the images on the screen. Of course, sizable scares would be enough to forgive the lethargy of the film, but the feature is missing those highlights as well, leaving ticket-buyers with more questions than chills. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Hollywood can’t quit Jack Ryan. The famous character from the books by Tom Clancy (who passed away last year), Jack Ryan have survived four adventures in global terrorism on the big screen, portrayed by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck. Quality has ranged some (1990’s “The Hunt for Red October” is masterful, 1994’s “Clear and Present Danger” is not), but the core espionage experience has remained the same, resulting is a satisfying run for the franchise, even with all its sudden changes in creative direction. 2014 brings us “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” another attempt to revive the brand name for a new round of sequels, this time gifting Chris Pine the clipboard and the gun. Despite the occasional dollop of dopiness, the new Jack Ryan extravaganza carries itself confidently as an actioner, reworking the titular analyst to fit a tech-heavy world, with director Kenneth Branagh excited to stage a global nightmare for our hero to conquer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It usually takes a few moments before the average action film gets up to speed and reveals its creative strength. “Ride Along” doesn’t waste any time, staging a mall shootout and car chase not before or after the opening titles, but during, pausing the movie to highlight the names of the professionals tasked with manufacturing the final product. Instead of taking care of the contractual business during a more appropriate time, director Tim Story elects to disrupt the momentum of the picture, crippling what’s already a pedestrian collection of lame motorcycle wipeouts, CG explosions, and flaccid quips. The ill-conceived opening of “Ride Along” is representative of the entire feature, which doesn’t seem to care about the specifics of chaos and comedy, only maintaining a vague presence to fill up a run time, never displaying a vibrant personality of its own. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the current state of CGI animation, projects are either massive blockbuster entries with a regal voice cast or disposable cartoons with actors taking work to impress their kids. “The Nut Job” follows last Thanksgiving’s “Free Birds” in the forgettable category, with the potential of a spiraling 3D caper featuring squirrels and forest friends lost to the drudgery of formulaic screenwriting and a reliance on bathroom humor to keep younger viewers entertained. It’s a bright picture with a certain Looney Tunes energy (and a love for a 2012 K-pop hit), but it’s also a tedious comedy missing proper punchlines and inspired plotting, giving moviegoers something they’ve seen before, often in a most laborious manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com