Category: Film Review

  • Film Review – Freeloaders

    FREELOADERS Still 2

    Broken Lizard is no longer a brand name, it’s a warning label.
    “Freeloaders” arrives from Broken Lizard Industries, and while it
    doesn’t boast the comedy troupe’s participation beyond a few cameos and
    producing credits, the feature falls perfectly in line with their style
    of crude and clueless comedy. Although the effort is mercifully short
    (72 minutes long), “Freeloaders” is a lazy, unfunny film that doesn’t
    make an effort to dream up interesting situations and create memorable
    characters. A few odd touches stand out, but not for reasons that
    contribute to the entertainment value of the movie, finding the picture
    lifeless and in dire need of genuine screenwriting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Amber Alert

    AMBER ALERT Still 3

    With found footage endeavors, we’ve seen giant monsters tearing through
    New York City, ghosts haunting a suburban California home, and adults
    getting lost in Maryland woods. Are you ready to watch one about
    pedophilia on Arizona freeways? “Amber Alert” is the latest entry into
    the DIY moviemaking sweepstakes, only this time the results are
    painfully amateurish, frustratingly dim-witted, and just a touch too
    tasteless. If the sound of child being molested and moronic lead
    characters endlessly bickering is your thing, perhaps the feature won’t
    feel like swallowing glass for 70 minutes. For everyone else, “Amber
    Alert” is a repetitive, dreadfully padded event, employing a real-world
    horror to fuel cheap shocks and a bogus dissection of moral
    responsibility. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Playing for Keeps

    PLAYING FOR KEEPS Jessica Biel

    At this point, I’m positive Gerard Butler selects his scripts by
    blindfolded dart throw. There’s really no other way to explain why he,
    and a bevy of capable actresses, could be drawn to such a shallow,
    predictable hodgepodge of plasticized feelings and sitcom mechanics.
    “Playing for Keeps” has moments where its intent as a human story of
    yearning and regret is visible, but it takes a considerable effort to
    find, forcing ticket buyers to wade through abysmal dialogue and
    unfortunate performances to locate a few passably endearing moments. The
    rest of the feature is determined to chase nonsense, with the whole
    thing so awkwardly orchestrated, I’m surprised director Gabriele Muccino
    kept his name on the picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Fitzgerald Family Christmas

    FITZGERALD FAMILY CHRISTMAS Connie Britton

    “The Fitzgerald Family Christmas” represents a return to the basics for
    writer/director/star Edward Burns, who long ago shot to fame with his
    indie darling, “The Brothers McMullen.” Taking supporting work in awful
    movies (like the recent “Alex Cross”) to support his micro-budgeted
    filmmaking habit, Burns looks to resuscitate a little of the old
    Irish-Catholic magic with his latest endeavor, which reunites him with
    “McMullen” stars Michael McGlone and Connie Britton. Encouraging the
    dysfunction is a seasonal setting, providing Burns with a fertile
    battlefield of sibling discontent and parental resentment, creating a
    prickly but inviting familial atmosphere that offers enough variation in
    woe to ease the script out of its occasional dalliance with clumsy
    melodrama. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Cheerful Weather for the Wedding

    CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR THE WEDDING Cast

    A costume drama like “Cheerful Weather for the Wedding” has to have an
    emotional hook, some type of profound feeling that eases the rigidity of
    the characters and their carefully mapped banter. Mercifully, the
    feature has such a grip, though it’s not as tight as hoped, only just
    enough to register momentarily before the entire effort washes away.
    Charmingly acted and bravely concluded, “Cheerful Weather” entertains
    intermittently with its stiff-upper-lip community interplay, only truly
    taking command when it focuses on unspoken desires and stymied
    confessions, creating more of a captivating fuss with its fixation on
    misery over any attempt at biting wit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Chasing Ice

    CHASING ICE Still 1

    Bring up climate change in a crowded room and a fight is likely to break
    out. It’s a controversial subject that raises the ire of those
    passionately involved with educational efforts and individuals out to
    dispel the notion of such a global event. Sensing an impasse on the
    issue, environmental photographer James Balog decided to document the
    shift himself, traveling to the far reaches of Iceland, Greenland, and
    Alaska to capture unprecedented glacier melt with a multitude of
    cameras, hoping to create unforgettable time-lapse shots that might
    convince those still wary about the climate reality facing our planet
    that something needs to be done. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Price Check

    PRICE CHECK Eric Mabius Parker Posey

    "Price Check" is an unassuming dark comedy that packs a decent punch.
    Using cover fire provided by the picture's workplace setting, with its
    numbing talk of stats and strategies, the screenplay is actually quite
    poisonous, treating the lure of temptation and casual lying with a
    refreshing forthrightness, unencumbered by melodrama. Guided by a
    fireball performance from Parker Posey, "Price Check" is uncomfortable
    to watch in all the good ways, finding authenticity from an ugly
    situation, while working through "Office Space" particulars with a sly
    sense of humor and an appreciation for the humiliation and anxiety of an
    exhaustive 9-5 life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Killing Them Softly

    KILLING THEM SOFTLY Brad Pitt

    "Killing Them Softly" isn't your average hitman movie. It isn't your
    average heist picture. Heck, it's not really your average Brad Pitt
    starring vehicle either. Reteaming with his "The Assassination of Jesse
    James by the Coward Robert Ford" director, Andrew Dominik, Pitt assumes
    another role that's cushioned by an ample amount of atmosphere, never
    really requiring his full participation. Stylish and bleak, "Killing
    Them Softly" is also profoundly political, using the basic tenets of the
    mob genre to comment on the financial state of the nation, where even
    men who've devoted their lives to murder can't make a buck these days. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Collection

    COLLECTION Still 3

    I wonder how many people outside of horror genre fanatics even remember
    the release of 2009's "The Collector." A low-budget effort slipped into
    the summer moviegoing season without much fanfare, the feature only
    attracted a small audience before it was shipped off to home video,
    where I presume it found its fair share of admirers. After all, over
    three years later, we now have "The Collection," a sequel that takes its
    job of continuation seriously, despite greeting potentially hazy
    memories at the multiplex. Vicious, loud, and shockingly short (72
    minutes long), the follow-up only manages to match the scattered
    highlights of its predecessor, unwilling to challenge the proven formula
    the production orders up for round two. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Hitchcock

    HITCHCOCK Anthony Hopkins

    After a thorough peeling in last month's unexpectedly bitter HBO
    offering, "The Girl," the life and times of cinema's reigning master of
    suspense returns to the screen in the appropriately titled "Hitchcock."
    Although the mood has been considerably lightened from the cable
    offering, "Hitchcock" remains equally troubled when it comes to the
    internal workings of the filmmaker, once again wading into the vast
    reservoir of the man's neuroses to decode how such a distanced,
    manipulative pop culture figure and industry legend went about his daily
    business during a particularly stressful stretch of his career. The
    results are entertaining and capably acted, but true insight remains at
    arm's length, despite a feature cooking up all sorts of ghoulish visions
    and barely concealed jealousies. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Sister

    SISTER Still 1

    The easy move would be to compare the drama "Sister" to the 2011
    feature, "The Kid with a Bike." Both pictures invest in the
    thinly-veiled agony of lost youth, following two boys as they deal with
    parental abandonment in aggressive yet painfully insular ways. While
    "Bike" was more demonstrative with its fits of pain, "Sister" takes a
    path of misdirection, conjuring an absorbing tale of thievery on the
    Swiss slopes while director Ursula Meier works her way into
    uncomfortable areas of truth and neglect. For the most part a distant
    film, "Sister" supplies a full behavioral experience that's riveting at
    times, with lead performances by Lea Seydoux and Kacey Mottet Klein
    communicating isolation in bravely vulnerable ways. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Hellgate

    HELLGATE Cary Elwes

    “Hellgate” comes from writer/director John Penney, the helmer
    responsible for the 2006 thriller, “Zyzzyx Rd,” which holds the
    distinction of being the lowest-grossing movie of all time. Ouch.
    Returning to screens with a more marketable premise and pronounceable
    title, Penney develops a “Ghost Whisperer” riff with “Hellgate,”
    showering the viewer with images of bloodied demons, overly emotive
    actors, and supernatural happenings, molded into a strangely lifeless
    tale of alternate worlds and survivor guilt. Made cheaply and
    formulaically, the feature’s only real asset is its Thai locations,
    which provide the picture with personality and atmosphere Penney doesn’t
    bring to the writing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Holy Motors

    HOLY MOTORS Still 1

    “Holy Motors” is a puzzler with a mischievous spirit. It’s nearly
    impossible to understand the overall movement of this abstract French
    production, but its individual scenes possess sizable power, playing
    with emotional speeds and film genres while always on the hunt for ways
    to keep the viewer guessing as to where this collection of images and
    sound is going to head next. It’s far from an engrossing excursion into
    experimental cinema, yet “Holy Motors” remains determined to chase
    impulses and stage fascinating moments of life, death, sex, and musical
    performance. It’s not always the easiest sit, but it’s frequently
    memorable and commendably demented. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Deadfall

    DEADFALL Olivia Wilde

    “Deadfall” is troubling on a variety of levels, with its general
    ineffectiveness taking a top position of concern. Populated with
    troubled, violent characters who march their way through slight but
    intriguing emotional barriers, the feature captures a stimulating feel
    for a multi-character design of dysfunction. It’s director Stefan
    Ruzowitzky who doesn’t mastermind a stable approach, failing to juggle
    the subplots in a substantial manner, making the movie more about minor
    moments with overly agitated characters. A few striking scenes of
    snowscape conflict and familial discord bring appealing poison to the
    proceedings, but the overall viewing experience of “Deadfall” triggers
    substantial frustration as it winds through a bizarre string of
    encounters without ever stopping to figure out a fulfilling narrative
    direction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Red Dawn (2012)

    RED DAWN Josh Hutcherson Chris Hemsworth Josh Peck

    The story about the creation and release predicament behind the “Red
    Dawn” remake is actually quite interesting. Originally shot in 2009, the
    picture hit severe financial turbulence when original studio MGM
    teetered on bankruptcy, a dilemma that also threatened the stability of
    the James Bond and “The Hobbit” franchises. “Red Dawn” was made to wait
    while the pennies were counted and sorted, eventually sold off to a
    smaller distributor altogether. And then questions were raised about its
    invading Chinese villains. Sensing a dent in its international box
    office potential, the producers hastily changed the baddies to North
    Koreans, requiring extensive dubbing, cosmetic CGI, and a rethinking of
    military motivation. After a three-year wait, countless abandoned
    release dates, and teases of intriguing behind-the-scenes turmoil, “Red
    Dawn” is finally here. And now having viewed the final product, I hope
    the ghost of Patrick Swayze forever haunts the producers for their
    creative cluelessness and unapologetic mangling of a once wildly
    entertaining war film premise. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Rise of the Guardians

    RISE OF THE GUARDIANS Elves

    “Rise of the Guardians” might appear to be another holiday-themed romp
    released during a special time of year when audiences are in the mood
    for such festive distractions. However, one only has to read the credit
    “Executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro” to appreciate just what type
    of fantasy experience the feature actually contains. With a taste for
    nightmarish imagery and a detailed reworking of its league of
    extraordinary magical figures, “Rise of the Guardians” has a harder edge
    than I’m sure most families will be expecting, yet this focus on
    adventure and concentrated evil creates an engaging movie with plenty of
    excitement and a true sense of character motivation, gifting the
    material impact when all signs point to numbing frivolity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Life of Pi

    LIFE OF PI Still 2

    It’s difficult to label “Life of Pi” as soulfully nourishing, but it’s
    frequently amazing. A 3D adaptation of Yann Martel’s celebrated 2001
    novel, the picture comes to life in ways the big screen hasn’t seen in
    years, taking the potential of a survival film to extraordinary heights
    of fantasy and spiritual meditation. It’s thrilling cinema, even if
    director Ang Lee doesn’t quite achieve a sense of thunderous
    enlightenment at the end of the effort. However, this deconstruction of
    storytelling remains a frequently mesmerizing, exhausting sit,
    highlighting some of the finest technical achievements of the year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Lay the Favorite

    LAY THE FAVORITE Rebecca Hall

    There is a lot of talented people involved with the making of the
    gambling dramedy, “Lay the Favorite,” rendering the non-committal
    attitude of the piece rather perplexing. Despite a swirling atmosphere
    of degenerates and jealousy, the material doesn’t spark to life, finding
    director Stephen Frears strangely powerless when it comes to infusing
    the work with resonance and, in some cases, genuine laughs. Perhaps
    those already hip-deep in the world of sports betting might be able to
    suck out the juices of experience that gift the movie its most authentic
    moments, though even that level of appreciation seems like a long shot,
    with much of “Lay the Favorite” sluggishly trying to make sense of a
    story it doesn’t appear to believe in. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – In Their Skin

    IN THEIR SKIN Selma Blair

    “In Their Skin” deserves some amount of credit for even attempting to
    root its tale of a home invasion in a psychologically troubling place of
    envy and obsession. It’s an open attempt to understand the headspace of
    the antagonists, but the effect gradually washes away the longer the
    feature lingers on its cast to articulate the heightened concern.
    Although the movie kicks off superbly with a chilling opening half
    that’s inventive and disquieting, the payoff indulges the worst
    instincts of the subgenre, forcing shallow acts of intimidation and
    humiliation on material that’s at its best when stewing in a mystifying
    atmosphere of unraveling behavior. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2

    TWILIGHT SAGA BREAKING DAWN PART 2 Kristen Stewart

    Remember last year’s “Breaking Dawn – Part 1,” where Bella and Edward
    got married, had violent, bed-breaking sex on their honeymoon, and
    conceived a daughter that werewolf pal Jacob went all humuna-humuna-humuna
    over shortly after her birth, pledging his eternal love to a baby? I’m
    sorry to report that the ludicrousness of “Part 1” doesn’t carry over to
    “Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” which, in its ambition to manufacture an epic
    conclusion to a decidedly earthbound saga, mounts an incredible amount
    of exposition and adds a legion of superfluous characters to reach a
    point of explosion it ends up mischievously undercutting as a way to
    keep the die-hard fans guessing to the end. The series has been mopey,
    uninspired, poorly acted, and dramatically inert. Now, with “Part 2,”
    it’s become a total cheat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com