Category: Film Review

“Grudge Match” finally puts the Raging Bull and Rocky Balboa into a boxing ring, though I fail to recall anyone actually demanding this showdown. It’s the gimmick that drives the movie, with plenty of inside jokes pushed into the pockets of the picture, but it’s not a particularly tempting offer. In dire need of a fresh sense of humor and imaginative screenwriting, “Grudge Match” is made passable by its two stars, Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone, who are amusing to watch as they trade insults and, eventually, punches, showing surprising interest in this limp dramedy, boosting the viewing experience with their innate charm. If only the rest of the effort followed their lead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Ben Stiller is primarily known for funny business. While every artist deserves the opportunity to expand their creative horizons, it’s difficult to understand what Stiller was aiming for with “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” After “Reality Bites,” “The Cable Guy,” “Zoolander” and “Tropic Thunder,” the director/star drops the overt laughs to play lyrical, helming this hymn to the human experience that’s insistent in its importance, but void in its emotions. While gorgeously shot and peppered with sweet, alert performances, “Walter Mitty” doesn’t add up to much, stuck in neutral as Stiller attempts to figure out what type of movie he wants to make. It’s the most elaborate piece of mediocrity in the 2013 film year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is a work of pure insanity. Mercifully, it’s also the latest from director Martin Scorsese, which guarantees some degree of cinematic refinement when it comes to the depiction of excess in all its forms. It’s a rowdy, relentless picture, chasing a rowdy tone of chemically-drenched madness and lip-licking greed, eating up three hours of screen time as it beats a repetitive sense of physical collision and brain-spinning hyperactivity into the ground. Although it overstays its welcome, “The Wolf of Wall Street” has some truly inspired chaos to hold attention, led by an eye-bulging, spittle-spraying performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, who once again takes the title as the most feral actor working today, channeling his inner badger to portray a man without morals, decency, and self-control, flaming out in a most spectacular manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is a strong, articulate portrait of South African leader Nelson Mandela, but it wouldn’t be as compelling as it is without the participation of stars Idris Elba and Naomie Harris. Two powerful performances that are direct in their firepower and subtle in emotion, the actors bring density to the traditionally thin bio-pic genre, allowing the viewer to understand deep-seated motivations and the passage of time, which is a crucial element to this story. Competently assembled by director Justin Chadwick (“The Other Boleyn Girl”) and screenwriter William Nicholson (“Les Miserables”), the feature is surprisingly honest and welcomingly underplayed, generating an understanding of the Mandelas instead of blindly celebrating their accomplishments. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The holiday season receives a dose of troubling behavior in “White Reindeer,” a darkly comic tale of mourning from writer/director Zach Clark. Working with a limited budget, the helmer brings to the screen an unusual tale of mourning, employing Christmas cheer as a mocking reminder of false sincerity as we watch a woman’s life fall to pieces. Sounds like a treat, right? Well, in many ways “White Reindeer” is a delight, with a sharp script of surprises and a finely bewildered lead performance from Anna Margaret Hollyman contributing to an amusing, vaguely horrifying journey into psychological paralysis, soaked in eggnog and scored to the repetitive sounds of seasonal hits. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Somewhere underneath all the hair and costumes is a fine motion picture called “American Hustle.” It’s a period piece sampling from the style and discomfort of the 1970s, and it’s the latest from writer/director David O. Russell, a helmer currently on a tear with the back-to-back successes of “The Fighter” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” That momentum is halted a bit by “American Hustle,” but the movie remains an evocative, churning inspection of responsibility and deception, only communicated in a Russellian cinematic language that takes some time to get used to. A bizarrely still, tortured caper, the feature offers exceptional performances and a coarse script, yet attention always manages to return to its visual impression, calling up the decade in the strangest ways. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Saving Mr. Banks” tells the story of how the 1964 smash “Mary Poppins” came to be, weathering a difficult creative process that featured intense disagreements between author P.L. Travers and Walt Disney. Although it may seem like a joyous picture about the birth of a classic, “Saving Mr. Banks” is unexpectedly dark, prone to belaboring its mournful elements as if to apologize for its lighter side. Masterful performances carry the effort, and observance of the screenwriting process is fascinating, but here’s a movie that seems far too bland to truly explore the diseases that haunted Travers for the duration of her life, leaving director John Lee Hancock powerless to manufacture the tearjerker the screenplay is aching to become. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Walking with Dinosaurs” is based on the popular 1999 documentary series that tried to put the viewer into the world of these massive, fierce creatures through a mix of CGI and live-action cinematography. A massive hit, the program spawned a brand name that carried on to a live stage show that used puppetry to wow audiences. Now it’s time to conquer the big screen, though the producers have decided to water down the educational inspiration behind the material, hoping to capture more imaginations through action sequences, cartoon voicing, and jokes about fecal matter. “Walking with Dinosaurs” is impressively constructed, with stunning animation, but it’s a frustratingly insulting endeavor that pushes away the awe of paleontology for the comfort of family film convention. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Joel and Ethan Coen make movies a certain way — a thumbprint that’s created some of cinema’s most powerful and delightfully lopsided features. They rarely miss, and even when they fail to live up to expectations, their pictures are exceptionally layered, idiosyncratic efforts that charm with their tight craftsmanship and impish sense of humor. “Inside Llewyn Davis” is perhaps their most challenging endeavor, asking viewers to process the existence of a man who refuses to get his life together, embarking on an aimless tour of his own misery with razor-sharp edges to his personality that cut those daring to get close. Evocative and steadfastly Coen-esque, “Inside Llewyn Davis” is nevertheless a chore to sit through, missing a certain snap that usually comes so easily to the filmmakers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The original “Anchorman” didn’t exactly tear up the box office, but the comedy did fairly well in the summer of 2004 before soaring as a cult hit on home video. It’s odd that it took nearly a decade for a sequel to come together, finding the creative team of co-writer/star Will Ferrell and co-writer/director Adam McKay a little rusty when it comes to the revival of screen insanity. While not quite as snappy as the previous effort, “Anchorman 2” remains loaded with laughs and heavy-handed but clever satire. Missing a certain hellraising attitude, the follow-up nevertheless finds its footing quickly, allowing Ferrell and his supporting cast time to feel around the edges of stupidity, locating old rhythms as Ron Burgundy is hit in the face by 1980. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In an effort to expand his empire, writer/director/producer/star Tyler Perry has set his sights on the holiday season and all the perennial business it offers. “A Madea Christmas” is the eighth film featuring the titular behemoth, though it feels like the hundredth, with Perry serving up the same stale brew of moral lessons and pratfalls, only here the antics are infused with a yuletide ambiance that’s only marginally convincing. Aggressively broad, half-realized, and intermittently inexcusable, “A Madea Christmas” is dead on arrival, and no amount of seasonal cheer and supporting turns from former “Facts of Life” stars is going to steer the sleigh to satisfaction. Even for a Tyler Perry movie, this feature seems excessively cheap and lifeless. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The question posed last year was how director Peter Jackson was going to stretch the thinness of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, “The Hobbit,” to meet the needs of three feature films. With the release of the second chapter, “The Desolation of Smaug,” the strain is beginning to show. Not built for such an extensive big screen adaptation, “The Hobbit” is fighting for oxygen in this sequel, failing to provide a reason (beyond a financial one) why the material should carry on for three years. It’s still enjoyable fantasy fun, but “The Desolation of Smaug” has difficulty coughing up reasons for its extended run time (161 minutes) and legion of characters. And this is only the midway point in the story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Under normal circumstance, this review of “Hours” would simply note that this is the fourth picture for actor Paul Walker in 2013, following his work in “Vehicle 19,” “Pawn Shop Chronicles,” and “Fast & Furious 6.” However, “Hours” will be forever remembered as one of his last movies, after his death late last month at the age of 40. I’ll admit, I was never a true believer when it came to the acting ability of Walker, who built a career around his good looks and enthusiastic physicality, yet “Hours” truly represents a change of pace for the performer, who delivers some of his best work in this odd thriller, which somehow transfers the bomb-on-a-bus concept of “Speed” to an infant-on-a-incubator ride of suspense and heartbreaking stakes. Walker’s clear limitations remain, but baby steps toward his maturation as a leading man were made here, sadly never to be realized in full. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Last Days on Mars” has enticed a few very talented actors to participate in a production that’s essentially a DTV detour playing into current zombie-everything trends, with a dab of “Alien” flung into the mix as well. It’s derivative and thinly sketched, yet with lowered expectations, the picture has its moments of suspense, articulated by a cast that seems eager to take part in a sci-fi/horror hybrid, allowing them to stretch professionally. “The Last Days on Mars” isn’t going to rock anyone’s world, but accepted as a slightly more refined B-movie experience, and it’s engaging, refreshingly simplistic work. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been three years since we last saw a John Sayles film hit the screens, with the moviemaker taking his time between projects, maintaining a dramatic concentration that’s evident in his work. While Hollywood scrambles to adapt best sellers for the cinemas, Sayles creates literary experiences with his features, with his latest, “Go for Sisters,” another patient, layered viewing event marked by its interest in character nuance and the detail of storytelling. A tale of rekindled friendship wrapped up in a mystery, “Go for Sisters” doesn’t bring out the best in the helmer, but it remains an absorbing picture with two exceptional performances from LisaGay Hamilton and Yolonda Ross, who bring sublime presence to an effort that often needs their conviction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While watching “Expecting,” I couldn’t help but feel there was something more to Jessie McCormack’s screenplay at one point. It’s a film determined to submit distinct characterizations, pushing idiosyncratic people into a plot of whirlwind circumstances, including pregnancy, marital distress, and post-rehab addiction recovery. There’s a concerted effort to communicate a fullness of behavior, yet the story carries no weight, floating along like a particularly unmotivated sitcom that can’t quit quirk. “Expecting” starts off promisingly enough, but editorial compromises soon eat away at the viewing experience, changing what appears to be a deeply felt journey of empowerment into a soggy parade of wackiness and hazily defined subplots. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Out of the Furnace” is a rough picture about desperation and grief. It’s the second film from Scott Cooper, who turned heads back in 2009 with the Oscar-winning “Crazy Heart,” his portrait of country music misery. “Furnace” eschews the comfort of song, taking viewers into the bowels of America’s Rust Belt, where jobs are drying up, dreams are dying, and the police have no control over the escalating violence. Channeling the austerity of 1970’s cinema with a touch of folksy poetry, and Cooper builds an impressive engine of aggression with his latest endeavor, flattening and refolding a common tale of revenge to emphasize powerful moments of introspection and trigger-stroking deliberation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Cyclist Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times, amassed a fortune in endorsement deals, and started his own charity. He almost married a rock star, rubbed elbows with world leaders, and became a sporting celebrity with a face and a brand recognized on a global scale. He also cheated to help achieve victory, using performance-enhancing drugs to help himself conquer competitors, only admitting to this deception in 2013, after a decade of denials. It’s difficult to sympathize with Armstrong’s manipulations, but it’s a little easier to understand his delusion after watching “The Armstrong Lie,” director Alex Gibney’s eye-opening condemnation of the athlete and exploration of his staunch refusal to accept responsibility for his destructive, dispiriting actions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The romantic and political sweep of “Twice Born” feels out of step with today’s moviegoing interests. It’s a throwback picture to a time where thinly glazed global weariness could pass for the recognition of worldly woe, eased along by a heaping helping of melodrama to make the medicine go down. Cinematic tastes have changed, yet director/actor/co-writer Sergio Castellitto clings to the Duraflame fires within for “Twice Born,” a handsomely crafted but empty feature hoping to recreate Eastern European horror and soap opera intimacy, stumbling along with a few less than inspired performances and a script that hopes for tight-jawed sophistication, but can only muster feeble cliche. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are moments in “A Perfect Man” where the material appears to be headed in an unusual direction. These teases of imagination are quickly diverted into formula, making the movie a frustrating sit despite convincing performances and an atypical setting. Director Kees Van Oostrum can’t decide if he wants to manufacture a gritty look at the dissolution of a marriage or a twinkly Hollywood-style romantic comedy, keeping the film trapped in a middle ground of unpleasant behavior and toothless characterizations in dire need of a more robust story. It’s a confusing, awkward picture, though “A Perfect Man” has its fair share of compelling incidents. Just not nearly enough of them to make the effort shine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com