Category: Film Review

“Chlorine” is a throwback to the mid-1990s, where independent film flourished via young directors and hungry distributors. It’s such a retro feature, I had to check the date of production after a viewing, just to make sure the effort wasn’t actually from two decades ago. Turns out, there’s some age to the movie, which was shot in 2010 and is only now receiving release, with studios understandably wary of spending money on a picture that doesn’t have an identity or even secure tech credits. Derivative and unresponsive, “Chlorine” tanks every idea it submits, incapable of achieving the pathos it sets out for itself, lost to filmmaking limitation and thematic inertia. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was once a time when director Andrew Fleming made fantastic films. It was the 1990s, with the trifecta of “Threesome,” “The Craft,” and “Dick” showcasing the helmer’s ease with genre-hopping and his skill with a punchline, tapping into the youth experience with entertaining results. His career has stumbled in ensuing years with misfires such as “The In-Laws” and “Hamlet 2,” but “Barefoot” is where Fleming hits rock bottom. A borderline tasteless romantic comedy featuring seriously disturbed characters, the picture is without consequences and appeal, carrying along as an unfortunate road movie and commentary on the fragility of love. And there’s not a single scene of humor that works. There are a host of bad decisions competing for screen time in “Barefoot,” keeping Fleming juggling tone as the story runs into a brick wall. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s all about the hair. Sporting a poofy, unruly hairdo, the tangled bush that resides on top of star Alex Wolff’s head in the unofficial star of “HairBrained,” often showing more expression and interest in the plot than its co-stars. A routine underdog story, the movie endeavors to be a quirky, spunky take concerning the troubles of being a kid genius, but the whimsy is so strained, it fatigues the entire film. Unable to launch jokes and form engaging characters, director Billy Kent (last seen in action with 2006’s “The Oh in Ohio”) relies on cutesiness to help lackluster elements congeal, muting whatever charm manages to reveal itself during the course of the picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We just did this a few months ago. Late last year, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer unleashed “The Starving Games,” a wretched attempt to further their interests in parody cinema. Granted, “The Hunger Games” is ripe for pantsing, but not from those guys. “The Hungover Games” is the second entry in what’s become a lampoon sweepstakes, and while I’m comfortable labeling the picture as an improvement, laughs remain nonexistent and pure laziness passes for writing. Director Josh Stolberg takes a more old-fashioned direction with this razzing of the last decade’s blockbuster movie releases, a laudable choice, but an enterprise like this is measured by the strength of its funny bone, and “The Hungover Games” is a total dud. In other words, Jamie Kennedy takes a co-story credit and plays three characters. It’s that unfunny. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Kurt Russell doesn’t make many movies these days. It’s an unfortunate development, with the charismatic, gifted actor content to walk away from his career, with only seven major screen appearances spread out over the last decade. Russell’s starring turn in “The Art of the Steal” is a good reason to seek out the picture, as the actor gives a funky comedic turn in this bizarre cross between “Ocean’s 11” and a Guy Ritchie film. Surprises are intended but rarely matter in the long run, as writer/director Jonathan Sobol finds the rhythm of the piece in its set-up, watching rumpled characters plan out their bad behavior with the aid of tart banter and slick editing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp production company has been responsible for many of the mid-range actioners that have hit screens over the last decade. Fueling releases with screenplays and Parisian locations, Besson has introduced a European flavor to a Hollywood genre, yet the quality of these pictures has been frustratingly erratic. For every “Transporter” and “Taken,” there’s been a “Columbiana” and “From Paris with Love.” “3 Days to Kill” brings director McG and star Kevin Costner into the Besson stable, and the pair seems a little lost with this tale of fatherhood and assassination. Desperate to be something, “3 Days to Kill” chooses to be everything, resulting in an extraordinarily confused feature that’s all over the map in terms of tone and execution. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When one thinks of history, of powerful screen romance, of epic cinema, the name Paul W.S. Anderson doesn’t immediately spring to mind. The director of “Death Race,” “Aliens vs. Predator,” “The Three Musketeers,” and numerous other disappointing pictures, Anderson swings for the fences with “Pompeii,” his take on a “Titanic”-style spectacle. Typical of his work, this doomsday romance flounders from the get-go, unable to make a sizable imprint on the heart with its cast of dullards, while volcanic bedlam is reduced to a cameo as the screenplay clings to matters of gladiatorial bonding and political corruption. Because when one buys a ticket to a movie called “Pompeii,” one expects a prominent subplot about a jittery horse and stale banter between two slaves. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although sexual awakening and ownership remains a hot topic in 2014, “Date and Switch” feels like a relic from the mid-1990s, playing shallow with difficult questions of self-awareness. Writer Alan Yang and director Chris Nelson (“Ass Backwards”) appear appropriately motivated to create something of value, addressing anxieties surrounding the act of outing, but good intentions do not hold this shabby, unfunny comedy together. In place of authentic emotion and searing personal communication, there’s cliché and passivity, plasticizing the kindly nature of the picture to a point where all the tension begins to resemble a bad sitcom, down to its programmed happy ending. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The challenge of education, or at least one of many, is how to engage young minds when they’re so easily distracted these days, disengaged from the real world as a battalion of glowing screens vie for their attention. This organic connection to creation is on a path to extinction, threatening the purity of experience at a chaotic time of personal development. The documentary “If You Build It” (try hard not to complete that title) settles into a small town to explore how such an impossible task of concentration is achieved, observing students confronted with labor and design for the first time in their lives, studying how these kids react to a considerable effort of construction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Adult World” strives to articulate the test of maturity facing today’s college graduates as they move from adolescence to responsibility while working out the true price of dream chasing in the marketplace. Trouble is, screenwriter Andy Cochran (“Super Sweet 16: The Movie”) doesn’t have a firm grasp on the subject, caught between a compulsion to instigate comedic situations and tend to the frustratingly vague needs of his characters. Unfunny and unenlightening, “Adult World” remains in a troubling holding pattern, unable to land on a profound development that might instigate some type of tension worth paying attention to. A handful of scenes find their footing, but the overall impact and generational perspective of the story is missing, resulting in a deflated film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

LARPing (live-action role playing) has been explored cinematically in such movies as “Role Models” and the documentary “Monster Camp,” but it’s never been treated with the utmost respect. The pastime lends itself to mockery, watching costumed participants play fight with elaborate rules, leaving “Knights of Badassdom” an opportunity to handle the subject matter as exhilarating fantasy combat, weaving colorful characters with a war saga that celebrates the lifestyle and the game. Something went horribly wrong in the translation. Although spirited at times, “Knights of Badassdom” takes on familiar targets, while its escalation of oddity is forced when it isn’t confusing. Going broad instead of observational, the feature stumbles right out of the gate. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As the underwhelming “RoboCop” remake enters theaters this weekend, the flexibility of fandom is put to the test, asked to accept an inferior product with an iconic brand name. However, there’s an alternative, and it doesn’t cost any money to view. “Our RoboCop Remake” is a fan-based parody of the 1987 Paul Verhoevan picture, with 50 filmmakers uniting to build a silly valentine to a beloved movie, creating comedic madness scene by scene, without a stitch of connective tissue beyond vague attention to the original narrative. Juvenile but inventive, with more than a few bellylaughs, “Our RoboCop Remake” is a creative lark that transcends its corner-of-the-internet position of obscurity, showing off some substantial no-budget craftsmanship. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The unfortunately titled “Jimmy P.” takes a semi-serious look at a man’s unraveling. The psychological potential of the picture is outstanding, promising a richly defined plunge into an abyss of fear, with special attention paid to the unease of cultural divide and the immobility of festering guilt. There are plenty of combative elements to the feature, yet “Jimmy P.” carries itself with a frustrating detachment, electing to attack fertile elements of distress with a casual sense of exploration. Solid work from stars Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric lubricate the movie’s hunt for understanding, but overlength tends to erase the effort’s achievements in the end. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The 2014 version of “Endless Love” has taken some drastic steps to avoid comparison to other incarnations of the same story. Originating from a 1979 novel by author Scott Spencer and adapted into a popular 1981 picture starring Brooke Shields (featuring an omnipresent theme song that ruined roller skating for everyone in the early eighties), “Endless Love” is a tale of dark obsession and manipulation, powered by a bittersweet quality that reinforces the dangerous games of affection played by the characters. The New “Endless Love” is defanged claptrap for 13-year-olds with no sense of how the world actually works, drained of any threat, heat, or logic as it manufactures a love story where idiocy is celebrated as laudable passion. If you’re familiar with the book or the earlier feature, this “Endless Love” won’t be recognizable. Imagine if “Star Wars” was the cinematic adaptation of “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” and that’s as close as co-writer/director Shana Feste gets to the source material here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Like Father, Like Son” is a sensitive Japanese drama that asks pointed questions about the true definition of family and the environmental effects of childhood. It explores a test of nature versus nurture, but in a gentle manner, acutely aware of the fragility of feeling that’s overtaken the characters. Writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda (“I Wish”) mounts an emotionally restrained but expressive portrait of parental reflection and choice with “Like Father, Like Son,” employing a refined cinematic language to articulate the struggle within, doing away with expected hysterics to connect with the viewer in a more instinctual manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Akiva Goldsman won an Academy Award for screenwriting for his work on 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind.” He also wrote 1997’s “Batman & Robin.” The yin-yang balance of Goldsman’s career achievements is important to keep in mind while watching “Winter’s Tale,” as the inconsistency of his career unravels whatever lofty dreams of the fantastic and the romantic are meant to show up onscreen. Muddled and distractingly bizarre, the writer/director attempts to craft a complex fairy tale featuring heavenly forces of good and evil, flying horses, and agelessness, only introductions aren’t properly made, launching viewers into a mystifying world without a compass to help guide the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To watch “Gloria” is to behold a magnificent performance from star Paulina Garcia. It’s a tricky role, walking a thin line between empowerment and misery, yet the work is frighteningly real, brimming with vulnerabilities and frustrations that any person who’s had to hunt for love could easily relate to. Co-writer/director Sebastian Lelio wisely elects the observational route with this picture, stepping back to inspect the titular character as she begins to shape a sense of self while enduring a disrespectful relationship. “Gloria” has a casual atmosphere that sneaks up on the viewer, and the reward for such patience is the opportunity to spy a seasoned character realized onscreen with refreshing honesty. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The horror genre has a nasty habit of repeating itself, with productions rabidly pouncing on trends, churning out product until a concept dies from exhaustion. Zombie entertainment is big business these days, leaving the producers of “The Returned” all the opportunity in the world to cough up a lazy chapter in the ongoing saga of the undead. Instead, some imagination takes hold, submitting a tale that’s not precisely about the details of the plague, but how average citizens avoid transformation into ghouls through the power of medicine and commitment. “The Returned” doesn’t overwhelm, but it manages a smart tone of dread mixed with panic, reviving stale elements by attacking the subject matter from an unusual point of view. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it didn’t make much of an impact during its American release in 2012, “Easy Money” was a sensation in its native Sweden, conquering the box office with its vision of suspense and class desperation, using style and violence to turn an age-old tale of ambition into something exciting. Two sequels have been produced to continue the story, with “Easy Money: Hard to Kill” assuming “The Empire Strikes Back” role in this unexpected trilogy, torching structure and satisfaction to bring the characters to an impossibly low point, thus setting up a rebound scenario for “Easy Money: Life Deluxe” (which currently doesn’t have a U.S. release date). Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s interesting to note that “About Last Night” isn’t an update of David Mamet’s 1974 play, “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.” It’s a remake of the 1986 screenplay adaptation by Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue, making sure to avoid Mametian poison to pattern itself off the original Hollywood take, which starred Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Perkins, and Jim Belushi. It seems strange to go to all this work, rehashing a pleasant but safe take on sexual politics, and unleash four unlikable characters in the process, killing off the potential for a truly eye-opening, frighteningly honest inspection of relationship nuance. It strives to be warm and funny, but “About Last Night” mostly dishes up moldy leftovers from the he said/she said recycle bin. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com