Category: Film Review

Nobody disappoints quite like Pedro Almodovar. The famous, celebrated
writer/director returns to his roots with “I’m So Excited,” intending to
awaken his dormant sense of humor, last viewed in full bloom two
decades ago in “Kika.” Spending the interim crafting immaculate
melodramas and collecting awards for his work, Almodovar hopes to
restore a little spark to his oeuvre with this attempt at a
sex-and-midair-panic cinematic soufflé, only to come up frustratingly
short in the laugh department. Although admirably bizarre and forward
when it comes to the dance of the pants, “I’m So Excited” doesn’t work
itself into a proper lather, showing only intermittent flashes of
inspiration.
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The found footage subgenre doesn’t always explain itself in full. Rarely
is there a film that establishes why we’re watching the video
recordings of others, electing to use the screen chaos of hand-held
devices instead of motivating their presence. “Paranormal Activity”
selected a police evidence angle to ease audiences into a haunted
atmosphere, but “Chronicle” didn’t even bother to follow through on its
collection of security footage and home movies. “Evidence” is perhaps
the most securely reasoned found footage effort to date, creating a
story that logically requires cops to sift through hours of confessions
and interactions on the hunt for a killer. It’s a welcome respite from
careless storytelling, but this creative spark is smothered by an
exhaustively subpar picture.
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The quirk flies hard and heavy in “Girl Most Likely,” which often
resembles more of a failed sitcom pilot than a feature film. Directors
Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini show no sense of timing and
tenor when it comes to the deployment of eccentricity in this comedy,
but they do have a reassuring figure in star Kristen Wiig, who
proficiently manages any challenge tossed her way. She’s the lone
highlight of this soggy, overeager effort, coming to the rescue of a few
embarrassingly forced moments of oddity, while consistently supporting
the rest of this painfully self-aware picture with her innate screen
gifts.
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Director Wayne Kramer certainly doesn’t make it easy to enjoy his work.
Obsessed with the murky state of the human condition, viewed through a
darkly comic prism, the helmer often treats his characters as pinballs,
dreaming up an elaborate play field of sickness and violence to explore.
After failing to dissect the state of illegal immigration in 2009’s
“Crossing Over,” Kramer returns to his roots with “Pawn Shop
Chronicles,” a warped collection of lurid stories that play like a cross
between “Creepshow” and “Pulp Fiction.” It’s high-flying, wound-licking
stuff, strictly for those who found the moviemaker’s 2006’s effort
“Running Scared” an underrated masterpiece. Outsiders should seek their
ugly entertainment elsewhere.
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A decade ago, the pairing of John Travolta and Robert De Niro would’ve
been considered event cinema, watching two popular actors square off in a
physically challenging thriller. Today, it’s not such an extraordinary
viewing experience, especially when both talents openly guide their
career by paycheck opportunities, seldom invested in the details of the
work. “Killing Season” is typical of De Niro and Travolta’s recent
dramatic interests, placing the two in a dreary, one-note cat-and-mouse
effort that’s rarely exciting and geopolitically numb. Derivative and
bizarrely graphic, “Killing Season” is nothing more than another
forgettable entry in two ongoing filmographies that desperately need
more inspired professional choices.
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“Grown Ups 2” opens with a display of animal urination. After the main
titles, we spy Lenny (Adam Sandler) asleep inside his palatial suburban
home, awaking to the sight of a deer causally hanging out in his room.
Trying to rouse wife Roxanne (Salma Hayek), her screams of surprise
trigger the deer to rear back on its hind legs and pee all over Lenny’s
face. This event occurs in the first few minutes of the movie. The
picture closes with Lenny breaking wind while pawing at Roxanne during
sex. It’s been three years since the original “Grown Ups” broke all box
office records for a Sandler production, and this is how the audience is
repaid, offered bathroom humor bookends as reward. It might be hard to
believe, but the sequel actually gets worse as it drags its corpse-like
sense of humor around for what feels like an eternity.
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Perhaps after his attempt to make “The Hobbit” was shut down by studio
financial woes, director Guillermo del Toro was aching to kick out the
jams. It’s been five years since his last moviemaking assignment, the
fantastically bizarre “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” which is probably
why his latest, “Pacific Rim,” feels more like a visionary flexing
atrophying muscles than a bold creative step forward in a most colorful
career. Gone are the quirk, crunch, and magical dealings of del Toro’s
past work, replaced here with a heaping helping of noise and scraping
metal, which for 80 minutes would be an irresistible proposition. 100
minutes would be quite entertaining. Unfortunately, “Pacific Rim” runs
130 minutes, and its repetitive action and cornball dialogue eventually
sands off the senses, lessening the matinee euphoria del Toro aims to
conjure. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Way, Way Back” is an endearing effort about the alienation of
youth, making it instantly relatable and, at times, lovable. What’s less
enchanting about the picture is how routine it is, rarely coloring
outside the lines with its coming of age and neglectful parenting
plotlines. It’s an enjoyable film but seldom notable despite a few
focused performances and a lived-in setting that lends the feature much
needed personality. However, if one can hurdle the familiarity of it
all, “The Way, Way Back” should manage to beguile with its knowing take
on the beating heart and whirring mind of the teenage outsider.
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Timing on the release of the documentary “Terms and Conditions May
Apply” couldn’t be better. After all, with the case of Edward Snowden
and his decision to inform the world about a massive U.S. surveillance
program, the subject of data accumulation and interpretation is a
particularly sensitive subject. Perhaps director Cullen Hoback is
kicking himself over the late development, yet “Terms and Conditions May
Apply” still provides a proper foundation to a larger discussion of
privacy and how it’s being stripped away from regular folk one click at a
time. Insightful and swiftly edited, this is eye-opening work, even
without a proper crescendo to leave viewers enraged and freshly
paranoid.
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“The Hot Flashes” is exactly the film one would expect from such a
title. It’s a specific movie made for a specific audience, and while
there’s nothing inherently wrong with a softball pitch, it feels a
little strange to be so far removed from the point of view director
Susan Seidelman is working to illuminate. Thankfully, there’s a little
more to the feature than a stream of menopause jokes, with “The Hot
Flashes” more of a sporting comedy than a lament for the loss of
menstrual cycles. While its predictability is a foregone conclusion,
Seidelman manages to keep the picture approachable and occasionally
amusing, smartly utilizing the varied gifts of the cast, who often look
stunned to be starring in a basketball comedy.
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In 1999, the peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster made its debut,
and nobody could explain exactly what the intent was for such a radical
service. In 2013, the mystery of Napster’s final destination is still in
question. Director Alex Winter (helmer of “Freaked” and co-star of the
“Bill & Ted” pictures) attempts to summarize the rise and fall of
Napster in “Downloaded,” a documentary with a specific aim to dissect
the service using interviews with important figures in its winding
history. Winter arrives with good intentions, a ripping pace, and smart
editorial control, but he doesn’t provide a fresh angle on old news,
reheating file footage and assembling unenlightening interviews when
this particular event in the ongoing internet revolution deserves a more
profound understanding of motivation and influence.
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“Under the Bed” has a terrific premise, making the universal childhood
fear of monsters lurking in the blackness of a bedroom a very real and
terrifying concern. That it manages to do very little with the plot
comes as a tremendous disappointment, especially since the feature
appears to have an itch to cause a Sam Raimi-style commotion with its
horror elements. Drab and pokey, “Under the Bed” is strictly for patient
genre enthusiasts, especially those able to manage the stasis of Steven
C. Miller’s direction as he hunts for ways to cover for the film’s lack
of budgetary might.
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“More Than Honey” might register as something of a shock to those raised
on traditional nature documentaries. It’s surprisingly leisurely,
almost serene. Considering how it details the possible end of the human
race, this casual approach is unexpected. However, pulling a finger off
the panic button lends the picture a distinct personality, and instead
of a dry read of facts and figures, there’s a true observational quality
to the effort that makes for fascinating cinema. Think you know
everything about the world of bees? “More Than Honey” might have
something fresh to share, presenting an agreeably cinematic take on a
natural disaster.
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Perhaps realizing they didn’t have the budget to indulge their western
fantasies in full, filmmakers (and identical twins) Logan and Noah
Miller take a route of peculiarity with “Sweet Vengeance,” making
oddity, not expanse, the focus of the movie. The Millers make muscular
choices in tone and humor here, shaping a curious picture that’s skilled
at depicting sudden acts of violence, burning scenes of intimidation,
and the emptiness of the southwest, creating an impressive but
low-wattage effort that’s agreeably primitive in its design of good vs.
evil — though shadings of such moral assignment are always a little
messy, keeping the material somewhere in the vicinity of sophistication
as it delivers captivating six-gun basics. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If I didn’t know better, I might’ve presumed that “Hammer of the Gods”
was created by a team of 9th graders out to entertain themselves after
learning a little about the history of the Vikings. Actually, that movie
would likely be more fun and coherent than what’s found its way
onscreen. Pointlessly graphic and absolutely ridiculous, “Hammer of the
Gods” is a poorly attended LARP event crossed with basic cable fantasy
filmmaking standards. It certainly endeavors to create a tempest of
heaving testosterone with its population of bearded, shirtless men
swinging rusty swords while growling, but the effort as a whole is
excruciatingly unremarkable, with dreary tech credits and a cast taking
performance cues from the local Renaissance Fair. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s tricky to make much sense out of “Compulsion,” which exists in its
own world of fantasy and fixation. It’s a mixture of tones and manic
behavior that often comes across confused, yet the film’s dedication to a
screaming color palette and food fetishes is most enticing, making it a
feast for the eyes and the stomach, yet coldly detached everywhere
else. However, those with an interest in the extremes of obsessive
cinema might get a kick or two out of what director Egidio Coccimiglio
serves up here, studying the emphasis on domestic glamour and the
decadence of exotic food preparation.
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Focusing on acts of intimidation and phone-based negotiation, and the
Danish film “A Hijacking” offers more cinematic suspense than ten visual
effect-laden blockbusters. Spare and serious, the picture is an
outstanding effort exploring the rituals and anguish of life in
captivity, communicated through brilliant performances of pure interior
might and storytelling control that expertly draws out repetition as a
form of tension. Writer/director Tobias Lindholm puts forth a masterful
study of patience and terror, and while it asks the viewer to endure
painful surges in hope and its inevitable depressive fallout, the reward
is an opportunity to view a genuine, riveting human event onscreen.
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There’s no reason why “Unfinished Song” (titled “Song for Marion”
elsewhere) should work. It’s schmaltz with more than few derivative
turns of plot, and it borders on being too corny for comfort. This is
where casting is the utmost importance, with stars Terence Stamp,
Vanessa Redgrave, and Gemma Arterton making the most of an impossible
situation, infusing heart and soul into an otherwise artificial
experience. Simplistic, but blessedly so, “Unfinished Song” is only out
to warm up its audience, inducing tears and smiles as three actors keep
the production palatable despite its serious lean toward a manipulative
disaster.
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They are the spirit, the fire, and the wings of vocal performance. They
are the backup singers, and the documentary “20 Feet from Stardom” is
determined to make sure these unheralded talents finally get their due.
Director Morgan Neville makes a convincing argument for glory, as mere
moments with these women and their fierce personalities and golden
throats induce chills, stepping into the presence of remarkable talent
that’s routinely discounted by a fickle industry and even by the
subjects themselves. Jubilant, informative, and teeming with iconic
music, “20 Feet from Stardom” is a riveting sit, blasting a spotlight on
singers worthy of the intense heat.
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Over the course of its 80 year history, “The Lone Ranger” has seen
numerous incarnations spread across the realms of television, radio, and
cinema. He’s an evergreen character, a powerful figure of justice and
honor, so it makes sense that producer Jerry Bruckheimer would labor to
turn the masked man into a blockbuster franchise for contemporary
audiences, as it’s been over 30 years since the last attempt to build a
big screen franchise with these ingredients. However, this is no simple
western; “The Lone Ranger” is monster-budget entertainment, complete
with an overly elaborate plot, visual effects galore, and a pained sense
of humor that only emerges from a production with too much to lose,
fearful of coloring outside the lines. It’s noisy, intentionally ugly,
and excruciatingly long (clocking in at 150 minutes). Serious hi-ho is
missing from this leaden endeavor.
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