Category: Film Review

At the risk of coming off cold-hearted, I admit I wasn’t moved by Mark
Webber’s “The End of Love.” It’s too incomplete and calculated to truly
engage emotions, though it’s not without a few surprises, chiefly in the
performance department. Webber appears to be making an audition tape
with his second directorial effort, using screen time to display a range
of moods and dramatic encounters that could go on to secure future jobs
for the actor, never quite gelling as a film of its own. Still,
elements of note do break through the artificiality, keeping “The End of
Love” more interesting than infuriatingly self-promoting, as it’s
inclined to be on occasion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Spiders” is a latest attempt to bring the creature feature explosion of
the 1950s to the modern age, and the newest example of why the genre
should remain in stasis, or perhaps regulated to the intentional
ridiculousness of basic cable productions. While giant spiders rampaging
around New York City sound like an amusing, potentially thrilling night
at the movies, “Spiders” doesn’t have the budget, the talent, or the
ingenuity to really explore the potential of the premise.
Disappointingly backlot-bound and teeming with halfhearted chase
sequences, the effort is stale and repetitive, failing to create a
worthy and suitably diverting cinematic panic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Playroom” is a disappointing film with an intriguing premise.
Dealing with insecurities and marital dissolution in the 1970s, it’s
fair to compare the feature to Ang Lee’s 1997 effort, “The Ice Storm,”
which also mined the same material, but to greater effect. “The
Playroom” doesn’t share the same narrative drive or depth of emotion,
instead coasting on a tedious wave of anticlimactic incidents, weaving
metaphorical content with half-realized melodramatic confrontations.
It’s a misfire from screenwriter Gretchen Dyer and director Julia Dyer,
who can’t connect the puzzle pieces, resulting in a movie of attentive
performances working through ill-defined storytelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With 2007’s “Live Free or Die Hard,” the once venerable franchise hit a
shocking creative low, thwacked with a bout of amnesia that prevented
the picture from recalling what made the previous three installments of
the series so special to action film fans. It didn’t walk and talk like a
“Die Hard” production, generating immense disappointment after waiting
12 long years for the return of iconic screen cowboy, John McClane.
Turns out, the worst was yet to come, with “A Good Day to Die Hard”
effectively killing off the brand name with an asinine, immobile feature
that’s dripping with trendy cinematography and toxic banter, while a
visibly bored Bruce Willis hobbles through this dud, putting in the
least amount of effort possible. “A Good Day to Die Hard” isn’t just a
lousy movie, it’s the cement shoes on a once amazing collection of
movies. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Beautiful Creatures” explores a romance between a slack-jawed mortal
and a magical being, it features characters performing spells and
dealing with a lifelong burden of destiny, and a few of the participants
sport wild outfits and colorful hairdos. The movie is also based on a
blockbuster series of young adult books. Sound a little familiar? That’s
the idea, with the producers clearly hoping such formula will attract
an audience aching for screen adventure now that “Harry Potter” and
“Twilight” have ended, and “The Hunger Games” is between installments.
Thankfully, “Beautiful Creatures” has a little more on its mind than
simply rehashing stale fantasy fodder, but the pressure to distill the
2009 book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl proves to be trouble for
writer/director Richard LaGravenese, who’s overwhelmed by the challenge
once the film reaches its second half. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

At this point, it’s fruitless to fight the Nicholas Sparks formula,
having already serviced hits such as “The Notebook,” while also worked
into pictures like “Nights in Rodanthe” and last year’s “The Lucky One.”
The man has a devoted fanbase, those who adore breezy North Carolina
beachside locations, dewy love between opposites, and wildly implausible
turns of fate that kick on the melodramatic afterburners. “Safe Haven”
(adapted from the 2010 novel) pours neatly into the same mold, only here
there’s more of a prominent thriller element that mirrors Nancy Price’s
1987 book, “Sleeping with the Enemy” (turned into hit film in 1991),
employing even more proven formula to strengthen the proven formula. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Looking to promote an upcoming Blu-ray release,
Paramount has decided to make over the 1986 blockbuster “Top Gun” with
some 3D mascara and IMAX blush, hoping to entice the faithful to once
again pay money for a movie I assume most know by heart at this point.
Indeed, the need for speed has returned to theaters for an exclusive
one-week run, and while the takeoffs and landings show incredible
dimension, the Kenny Loggins is cranked, and the roar of the jet engines
could loosen fillings, it’s still the same old “Top Gun,” retaining
every frame of ridiculousness and emphatic acting that turned the Don
Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer production into a legend. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I don’t believe I’ve come across a screenplay as fundamentally flawed as
“Identity Thief” in quite some time. It’s a comedy that’s not really
much of a comedy, and it forces the audience to sympathize with a
monster of a woman, even while she shows no remorse for her awful
crimes. If there was some type of comedic mayhem in play, with
characters tossed around the frame for a breezy 80 minute sit, perhaps
the feature could’ve skated by on delicious madness. Instead, “Identity
Thief” stops for violence and tears as it lumbers through nearly two
hours of strident performances and faux heart, convinced there’s a soul
in here worth the laborious effort to find it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If there’s any filmmaker working today who should go after the
labyrinthine pharmaceutical industry, it’s Steven Soderbergh. A helmer
who enjoys the challenges of cinematic control and thematic precision,
Soderbergh knows how to wield a whip. Unfortunately, “Side Effects” is a
mystery with only a fringe appreciation of pills and the process of
medical zombification, using the elements as a Trojan Horse to smuggle
in a routine thriller that sinisterly slides into view after a
particularly haunting opening half. While it seems like material with a
lot on its mind about the state of the world, “Side Effects” would
rather work out an implausible scheme of betrayals, robbing the audience
of the agitation they deserve. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sound City” is more of a rabid appreciation for the life and times of
Sound City Studios (located in Los Angeles) than a crisp documentary of
its history. However, the raw energy works in the movie’s favor, zipping
along at top speed as its worships iconic music created sparingly,
preferring talent over touch-ups. It’s a fan film from musician Dave
Grohl, who directs and appears in the effort, straining to impart his
enthusiasm for the essentials of musical recording, fetishizing a dumpy
studio located in an industrial park that gave the world sonic booms
delivered by bands such as Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana, Rage Against the
Machine, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Metallica. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The ABCs of Death” is an unusual experiment in omnibus filmmaking, but
its uniqueness doesn’t wash away its persistent unpleasantness. Looking
to shock, tickle, and horrify its audience, the production bends over
backward to be the vilest movie of 2013, and it succeeds in many cases.
However, being unrepentantly ugly isn’t enough to support two hours of
twisted entertainment, and while there is a handful of highlights to
hold out hope that the feature may be coming to its senses, the majority
of the effort is either deathly dull, superhumanly moronic, or just
plain angry for reasons best communicated to a therapist. If “The ABCs
of Death” doesn’t put you to sleep, it’ll have you repeatedly lunging
for the fast-forward button. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been an extraordinary journey for director Michael Apted and his
longstanding “Up” series of documentaries. It’s a singular event that’s
managed to carry on for decades, arriving at its latest stop, “56 Up.”
We return to familiar faces and places with the new effort, catching up
with individuals who’ve been followed on film since 1964’s “Seven Up,”
and with this reintroduction comes an additional inspection of life in
motion, watching the participants come to terms with their families,
vocational and educational choices, and their very existence. Absorbing
as always, “56 Up” has the benefit of age, able to look back on these
personalities and gather a larger appreciation for their contributions
to this historic documentary odyssey. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While teeming with questionable attitudes and taste issues, gaming
culture deserves a more respectful representation than what “Noobz” has
to offer. Built out of moldy stereotypes and crummy improvisations, the
comedy is painful to watch, with numerous opportunities for laughs and
satire flushed down the toilet so co-writer/director/star Blake Freeman
can parade around the most insipid material imaginable. The picture has
the premise and the atmosphere to at least inch toward a significant
razzing of video game particulars, yet Freeman seems almost afraid to
really dig into the personalities that clutch the controllers. Instead
of lighthearted adventuring, “Noobz” makes “The Wizard” look like “The
Matrix,” slogging through stupidity for what feels like an eternity at
times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Imagining yourself as Indiana Jones in the thick of adventure wasn’t a
difficult task during the 1980s. He was a fixture of screen heroism and
pre-teen cool; a surrogate father for adolescent boys with bottomless
imaginations. However, what would happen if the adoration, that pure
impulse of cinematic love, turned into extensive homespun flattery? What
if three boys from Alabama, still tipsy from their “Raiders” theatrical
experience, decided to create their very own backyard version of the
Steven Spielberg gem, armed only with sky-high intentions, collective
allowances, and a Betamax camera? Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Franchises can be a funny thing, especially when there’s no room for the
story to grow organically, necessitating some fuzzy name brand math to
keep the cash rolling in. The absurdly titled “The Haunting in
Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia” has nothing to do with the 2009 hit
that starred Virginia Madsen, and not a frame of it takes place in
Connecticut. It’s a new story in an alien state, with the producers once
again taking shelter under dubious “true story” claims to concoct a
chiller of limited ambition, this time delving into the real-world pain
of slavery to locate a new conflict between the living and the dead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“War Witch” isn’t a message-minded film looking to expose the horrors of
the world in a coldly academic manner. It’s a character piece with a
loosely defined narrative, with an unusual sense of stillness to depict
matters of tremendous horror. Writer/director Kim Nguyen constructs a
harrowing portrait of innocence lost with minimal hysteria, finding a
richer sense of experience by restraining graphic violence and contrived
characterization. Infused with Terrence Malick spices, “War Witch” aims
for ambiance as a way to approach its searing images of war, keeping
the viewer unnerved instead of outraged when inspecting the troubles of
Africa. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“So Undercover” represents star Miley Cyrus’s attempt to distance
herself from the tween entertainment she’s known for, without upsetting
her fanbase. It’s more adult in design, trying to toughen up the actress
with action and intrigue, while remaining attentive to the needs of
light comedy and romantic interests. It’s not an especially impressive
picture, but its hunt to find something new for Cyrus to do on-screen is
interesting, building a bridge between her cheery “Hannah Montana” work
and her thespian intentions for the future. “So Undercover” offers
Cyrus brandishing guns, dodging explosions, and engaging in terrible
improvisations. The little Disney star is all grown up, though Cyrus in
need of a script that’s as interested in maturity as she is. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Just when the zombie subgenre had seen enough of panicky survivors, the
stumbling undead, and doomsday landscapes of ruin, “Warm Bodies” swoops
in to save the day, or at least refreshes the concept long enough to get
excited about the prospect of watching brain-munchers on the big screen
again. Imaginatively directed and wonderfully performed, “Warm Bodies”
is a strange hybrid of zombies and Shakespeare, bringing a tilted
romantic comedy take on survival horror. The disorientation is bliss,
with the effort finding inventive ways to attack the routine, showing
amazing ability with a challenging tonal juggling act few filmmakers
could pull off. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After his career crumbled in the early 2000s, Sylvester Stallone went on
the defensive, returning to characters and genres that provided his
biggest successes, using this safety net to engineer his own creative
path as a writer/director. The second wind resulted in “Rocky Balboa,”
“Rambo,” and “The Expendables,” three solid pictures of undeniable
popcorn appeal and unexpectedly potent atmospherics, restoring some
wattage to the star’s marquee value. “Bullet to the Head” (shot before
last summer’s “The Expendables 2”) is a return to Stallone’s
actor-for-hire bad habits. It’s an entertaining wad of macho
goofballery, no doubt, but without a tight grip of creative control and
the element of surprise, this actioner comes up short in lasting appeal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The teaming of Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Alan Arkin seems like a
can’t-miss proposition, offering the screen legends a premise that
allows for light comedy and heavy emotion, making the most out of this
rare moviemaking event. And yet “Stand Up Guys” is the opposite of
inspiring, wasting the talent on a dreary collection of random
adventures and unimaginative tomfoolery, hoping the sheer radiation of
ability is enough to fog the fact that the script never decides what it
really wants to be. Mostly baffling with a handful of bright moments,
“Stand Up Guys” is a bust that doesn’t know when to quit. In fact, it
doesn’t really know when to start either. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com