Category: Film Review

I’ll admit that I haven’t had much exposure to the various shows and
individual performances of Cirque du Soleil, but it’s easy to see that
their debut feature, “Worlds Away,” is little more than a commercial for
the Canadian outfit. For fans, the 3D movie will be a warm reminder of
previous accomplishments and current successes, returning to a place of
extraordinary theatricality and flexibility as director Andrew Adamson
attempts to capture an event that should really be enjoyed live. For
outsiders, “Worlds Away” is an interesting experiment in self-promotion,
though the attempt to build a narrative capable of connecting disparate
fantasy sequences smoothly is botched, resulting in a highlight reel
that grows tiring over 85 minutes of screentime. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For some, Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film, “The Shining,” is an
effective chiller with a triumphantly realized streak of sinister,
otherworldly behavior. For others, the picture is an interestingly
crafted but hopelessly inert experience in directorial indulgence.
However, for a select few, “The Shining” is a big screen Rubik’s Cube of
interpretational delights, with every single frame of the movie
containing a deeper meaning waiting patiently for feverish analysis to
discover it. The creators of “Room 237” actually make an attempt to
deconstruct the work, asking six participants of no apparent fame to
share their study of Kubrick’s labor, with director Rodney Ascher
piecing together a fascinating study of the feature and all the real and
imagined secrets these interviewees have spent the greater part of the
their lives obsessing over. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As everyone knows by now, when Judd Apatow decides to make a movie, it’s
never a tidy, easy event, but an immense outpouring of sensitivities
and improvisations. The director is more of a wrangler, picking the best
moments of imagination and vulnerability to shape the viewing
experience, leaving the end product formless yet filled with enormous
laughs and a manageable level of heartache. A spin-off of his 2007 hit,
“Knocked Up,” Apatow returns to the story of Pete and Debbie, hoping to
expand on the claustrophobia of their marriage as it slams into the
reality of the aging process. The results are uproarious and keenly
observed, continuing Apatow’s satisfying quest to inspect itchy human
behavior with a pronounced silly streak. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The latest Disney film to receive a 3D makeover and a rerelease in
theaters is Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.” Coming mere months after the
reissue of “Finding Nemo,” “Monsters, Inc.” continues a positive trend
for the company, who appear to be selecting their upgraded titles
wisely, choosing features that benefit from the additional depth. The
2001 movie is certainly less expansive than “Nemo,” but its vision of a
parallel universe of ghouls working to purge fear out of human children
lends itself to a comfortable visual experience, with a few sequences
revealing some of the best work these conversion efforts have provided
thus far. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Guilt Trip” is a picture where the performances are flavorful but
the production is much too bland. Ostensibly a comedy, the film
strangely avoids anything approximating a joke, wasting humorous
situations and the potential for pace on a falsely sentimental tone
that’s uninteresting and insincere. “The Guilt Trip” is too busy being
totally harmless that it forgets to put in the effort to be hilarious,
which is exactly what ticket buyers want when they plunk down serious
coin to spend 100 minutes with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand. For a
road movie, the feature goes absolutely nowhere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a long journey to bring Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel, “On the
Road,” to the screen, which probably should’ve served as a warning to
anyone daring to make the commitment. After 50 years of false starts and
adaptation blues, the work has finally been dramatized, though, after
watching the movie, it’s difficult to understand why anyone would be
excited to turn this decidedly literary creation into a cinematic
experience. Labored and miscast, “On the Road” mistakes droning
meditation for soulful significance, dashing around Kerouac’s
experiences without establishing connective tissue, making the feature
less about the characters and more about the highlights, trying to pack
in as much of the source material as possible, regardless if it flows or
not. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One would have to be a Grinch to be anything but a puddle of tears at
the conclusion of “Any Day Now.” After all, it’s a potent story about
human rights, set during a time when injustice toward the gay community
was a common occurrence, finding those capable of great love shut down
simply due to their sexual orientation. However significant the story,
it’s difficult to swallow how co-screenwriter/director Travis Fine
treats the effort, selecting a Very Special Movie approach for material
that deserves nuance and patience, relying on shameless manipulation to
communicate simple ideas on prejudice and parenting. Every melodramatic
cliché is handed the white glove treatment in this maudlin misfire. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2001’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” was a genuine
moviemaking risk. The first chapter of an expensive, unproven trilogy,
the picture carried an extraordinary level of doubt alien to most
features, with the fate of a studio and the career of director Peter
Jackson tied to its success. But it hit, hit huge, becoming one of the
biggest movies of the noughties, while commencing a bold fantasy series
that helped to redefine epic filmmaking for an entire generation. At
least the Extended Cuts did. We don’t speak of the Theatrical Cuts
anymore. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” marches into theaters 11
years later, only now there’s a different type of pressure on the
financiers and Jackson: expectations. They be a brutal mistress, matey,
yet “Journey” manages the weight with some degree of grace, making sure
longtime fans are sated while urging the prequel into directions unique
to this new trilogy of hobbit and dwarf travel. So bust out the elf
ears, heat up a square of lembas, and pack in the pipe-weed. It’s
finally time to return to Middle-earth. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1971, “Wake in Fright” (also known as “Outback”) made its celebrated
debut at the Cannes Film Festival, but it was a difficult feature,
finding trouble collecting an audience in its native Australia, soon
slipping into obscurity without television and home video releases to
keep it fresh in the minds of movie fans. Over time, it was believed to
be lost. Decades later, a print was located, polished up, and returned
to glory, resulting in the reissue of powerful, frequently horrifying
picture from director Ted Kotcheff, perhaps finally receiving the
audience it deserves. Brutal, but in a deceptively causal manner, “Wake
in Fright” submits one the sharpest depictions of Outback life I’ve come
into contact with, imagining the vast land as a sun-baked prison from
which there is no escape. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Much of “Hyde Park on Hudson” is devoted to misdirection. With the
gorgeous wilderness of the titular location, polished and primed period
details, and the central casting of Bill Murray as Franklin D.
Roosevelt, it’s a not a film that outwardly suggests a troubling tale is
approaching. Even the marketing pushes a tone of jovial antics
featuring the 32nd President of the United States. However, while the
movie is playful at times, it’s primarily an unsettling tale of
submission detailing affairs and humiliations, though one that’s
habitually respectful to the participants. While it refuses a deep
inhale of distress, “Hyde Park on Hudson” successfully undertakes a
challenging story with a welcome detachment, preferring to focus on the
characters, not the larger fallout from their actions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

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

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

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

“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

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

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

"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

"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

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

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