Category: Film Review

The trailer for “The Apparition” contained more story than the picture
it was promoting. In fact, I think the trailer for “The Apparition” is
actually more of a movie than “The Apparition.” A wildly incoherent
effort that spends most of its running time avoiding its own plot, “The
Apparition” is one of those major studio releases that is so stunningly
inept, it’s a wonder it’s receiving a theatrical release. However, maybe
a brief stay in multiplexes is a positive thing, allowing those with
heavenly B-movie patience to sit down and decode the bungled filmmaking.
Perhaps there’s someone out there who could possibly explain the
feature to me one day. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After his lackluster turn in the recent “Magic Mike,” it’s encouraging
to watch star Matthew McConaughey dig his teeth into something
positively evil like the character of Joe Cooper. A cop drenched in
Texas swagger, Joe is a man you wouldn’t want to cross, yet he carries a
seductive, strangely respectful aura about him that’s almost appealing.
It’s a tremendously controlled and creepy performance from the actor,
matching the intensity of director William Friedkin, who summons a humid
atmosphere of desperation and humiliation for “Killer Joe,” a ripe,
captivatingly repellent picture that challenges its cast with stark
portrayals of stupidity and intimidation, roasting in the Dallas heat.
It’s a punishing viewing experience, but a uniquely vile sit that
rewards the brave with exemplary technical credits, a sure pace in the
early going, and the sight of McConaughey reacquainting himself with
excellence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The rush in “Premium Rush” only arrives in short bursts, often after
lengthy offerings of exposition I doubt most ticket buyers will care
about. A chase film that consistently torpedoes its momentum, the
picture is frustrating sit, finding co-writer/director David Koepp
insisting on a story that matches the intensity of the pursuit. He fails
to find one, though “Premium Rush” is determined to deliver on
characterization despite a premise that works just fine focusing on the
heat of the moment, supported by a marvelous display of bicycle stunts
and streetwise navigation that’s depicted with the utmost urgency. Koepp
doesn’t trust the basics of the hunt, bending over backwards to paste a
soul on a simplistic machine of suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since the release of “Like
Mike,” leaving “Thunderstruck” ample room to pick up where the
teen-centric sports fantasy left off. However, while “Like Mike” at
least made a faint attempt to conjure curiosity concerning the iffy
magic dust it was spreading, “Thunderstruck” doesn’t even attempt to
pinpoint its basketball enchantment. It’s a peculiar creative choice in
an otherwise bland, feebly acted comedy, concentrating more on laughs
and half-realized messages of adolescent responsibility than solidifying
a truly bizarre premise, at least to a point where it appears as though
the production actually cared about telling a coherent story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Cosmopolis” requires viewers to set aside their every thought, perhaps
every motor function too, and focus on the enormous exchanges of knotted
dialogue launched between comatose characters. There’s no possible way
to appreciate the movie in a half-hearted manner, yet writer/director
David Cronenberg isn’t exactly inviting outside interest in this
polarizing work. With its stretches of byzantine conversations,
bloodless characterizations, and inert thematic push, “Cosmopolis” is a
rare miscarriage from the always exciting filmmaker. Cronenberg seems
like he has something specific, possibly devilishly satiric in mind, but
his screen instincts are numb, constructing a feature that lurches from
scene to scene, convinced it possesses a wicked intellectualism it
rarely finds the energy to display. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A great car chase movie should inspire the viewer to leap out of the
theater when the end credits hit, sprint through the parking lot, dive
into their automobile, and burn rubber back home, dodging imaginary bad
guys on the way. It should trigger a dormant recklessness that’s frowned
upon in daily life, creating a surge of pedal-to-the-metal daydreams.
“Hit and Run” doesn’t bring out four-wheeled fantasies. It actually
encourages a great deal of boredom as it lumbers from scene to scene,
placing its emphasis on a troubled relationship between two insipid
individuals, while the “Run” of the title is a rare occurrence, making
more of a cameo appearance as writer/co-director/star Dax Shepard
provides more screen time to dreary drama than an electric pursuit
element most will be itching to dig into. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There has been a rash of supernatural stories with period settings in
recent years, with “The Woman in Black” a box office smash just this
last February. “The Awakening” contains familiar working parts, carrying
a somber tone of torment in a secluded English setting, and while the
material doesn’t win points for originality, co-writer/director Nick
Murphy captures an immersive atmosphere of frights and paranoia,
creating a ghost story with a nice kick and deeply felt emotions. The
surface details suggest a banal return to a formulaic haunting, yet “The
Awakening,” while imperfect, captures an intensity of gradually eroding
conviction that carries the iffy material all the way to the intriguing
head-scratcher of an ending. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I was a great admirer of Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables,” released two years ago. A brutal throwback to the sweat-stained, no-nonsense actioners of the 1980s, the picture was undeniably rough around the edges, yet contained a slick appreciation for genre necessities and broheim comfort. After its unexpected box office success, we’re now faced with “The Expendables 2,” a crisp sequel that employs a great deal of hindsight to move ahead as a possible franchise. Stripped of Stallone’s tendency to ramble, the follow-up is a more traditional bruiser, barreling forward with waves of violence, self-aware humor, and a rowdy supporting cast pieced together out of newcomers, B-actors, and martial art icons. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Odd Life of Timothy Green” forces an enormous amount of whimsy down the throat of its audience in the early moments of the picture, though it doesn’t take very long to develop a taste for the sweet stuff. Heartfelt and genuinely magical, this Disney release is perfect for a family moviegoing outing, touching on themes of parenthood for adults, while kids will likely be charmed by the mysteries presented. A touching fable, “Odd Life” benefits from an eager cast and a unique sensitivity, finding a comfortable, endearing position between a bizarre premise and its enthusiastic execution. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Those used to the animated movie routine of princesses and anthropomorphized animals might find themselves shocked by “ParaNorman.” A macabre adventure that pays tribute to zombie cinema while working out its own scares and iffy stabs at irreverence, the picture is a stunningly animated effort carrying unexpected bite, taking its horror reverence seriously with a ghoulish tale of a community haunting that’s occasionally broken up by traditional cartoon shenanigans. Those tuned into the screen tributes and surprisingly severity of the story will enjoy themselves immensely. Others would be well advised to pay attention to the PG rating, as “ParaNorman” creeps into a few dark corners that aren’t solved with musical numbers or tears. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1970, an album titled “Cold Fact” was released in America. A product of a Detroit-based man known only as Rodriguez, “Cold Fact” (and its single “Sugar Man”) went out into the world with an expectation of success, wowing those in the industry who were knocked flat by Rodriguez’s skills as a songwriter and performer, revitalizing the folk rock genre. The record flopped in the U.S., as did a second effort, 1971’s “Coming From Reality,” leaving the artist without a future in the industry, joining the ranks of millions who tried and failed to make a career out of music. And then it all came to a horrible end in later years, when Rodriguez, after a particularly painful gig, put a gun to his head and killed himself on stage. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sparkle” is a film that should’ve snapped together beautifully. Boasting a promising director in Salim Akil (“Jumping the Broom”), an earnest performance from star Jordin Sparks, and period setting drenched in the miracle of the Motown sound, the feature is also a remake of a 1976 Joel Schumacher-scripted cult hit, which came to inspire the Broadway hit “Dreamgirls.” The material is there for the taking, but “Sparkle” is a disaster, choked out by some of the worst displays of botched screen storytelling I’ve seen in some time. It’s a heartbreaker, especially with all this talent waiting to pounce on the electricity of the premise, not to mention the final screen appearance of Whitney Houston, who passed away in February. Instead of a celebration of music, the movie is a tonal wreck. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the release of 1997’s “The Rainmaker,” legendary director Francis Ford Coppola retreated into his folds of own mind, giving up the Hollywood filmmaking routine to construct personal stories and indulge visual kinks. After “Youth Without Youth” and “Tetro,” Coppola returns with “Twixt,” a bizarre mosaic of grief, mystery, murder, creativity, and vampirism, unleashed inside a low-budget dreamscape that shows little interest in storytelling lucidity. It’s an interesting shotgun blast of ideas and moods from the filmmaker, and while it doesn’t braid together as evenly as Coppola might’ve hoped, the picture maintains a full punch of atmosphere, while giving star Val Kilmer something substantial to play after years of making moronic actioners with 50 Cent. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Celeste & Jesse Forever” is an independent production about a marriage in crisis. It’s not the most original concept, but the script attempts to disrupt the norm by greeting the heartache after the domestic divide. It’s the post-marriage movie about marriage, endeavoring to find a sincere take on separation while it stumbles through hoary scenarios and jokes. Although it means well enough, “Celeste & Jesse Forever” is cold to the touch, too exaggerated and fussy to register as meaningful, while laboring through two shallow performances by Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg, who come across as more of a dysfunctional improvisation duo than a plausibly aching couple. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Bindlestiffs” is a backyard production from young filmmaking novices that lucked into a distribution deal when Kevin Smith took a shine to the picture’s juvenile hostilities and no-budget aspirations. It’s a heartening story of Hollywood discovery that every indie production dreams of, yet the pixie dust seems wasted on “Bindlestiffs,” a motor-mouthed, overshot gross-out comedy that suggests a larger satire in play, but who could find such stimulation buried under layers of cheap jokes, amateurish performances, and camerawork that’s on par with the average YouTube cell phone video. A few punchy moments are detected through the creative smog, but laughs are a rare occurrence in this labored lark. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Imposter” is a picture that carries authentically trembling suspense, though it’s perfectly at ease dishing out nuggets of information gradually to perfect its atmospheric grip. It’s a riveting feature once the pieces of this true-crime case come together, but it’s not a perfect film, which seems like a letdown when taking into account the psychosis at hand. Wonderful and wonderfully frustrating, “The Imposter” is a documentary as strange as its subject; it’s equal parts repellent and irresistible, trying to make sense out of a missing persons case that consistently seeks to top itself in terms of revelations and procedural dead-ends. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While “The Babymakers” isn’t technically a Broken Lizard production, it might as well be. Outside of the fact it features only two members of the troupe, the picture furthers the wheezy, crude sense of humor that’s stained such films as “Beerfest,” “Super Troopers,” and “Club Dread.” Looking to toy with the anxiety of infertility, “The Babymakers” drops all sense of satire to sprint forward a live-action cartoon, with sitcom-slack slapstick, casual racism, and a few gross-out jokes, draining the premise of its potential. It’s a sloppy effort overall, though brightened by a leading performance from Paul Schneider, an unexpected choice to communicate the pain of conception and the strain of shenanigans. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Campaign” seems like a sure thing. With stars Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis trading insults in a political satire timed to coincide with an upcoming presidential election, the feature has potential up the wazoo, especially with these two talents and their capacity for screen mischief. Despite initial promise, “The Campaign” often feels like an actual election marathon, anchored by a dreary sense of humor and a bizarre late-inning gush of sincerity that asks viewers to take the broad clowning on display with some degree of seriousness. Much like real politicians, Ferrell and Galifianakis are one-dimensional and possess limited inspiration, depending on volume and strained quirk to pass for humor in a comedy that’s aching for some authentic directorial spark. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it seemed as though we saw the last of Jason Bourne five years ago in “The Bourne Ultimatum,” franchise-best box office and stellar reviews proved there was still plenty of life in the ongoing story of a C.I.A. assassin on the run from cops, superiors, and himself. The appearance of “The Bourne Legacy” isn’t a surprise, yet the fact that it doesn’t star Matt Damon is, finding the producers scrambling to redirect the series with the same old story under the leadership of a new star. Surprisingly talky and unnecessarily familiar to those who’ve meticulously followed the previous three pictures, “The Bourne Legacy” remains entertaining and sporadically exciting, while introducing a capable focal point in Jeremy Renner, who adapts to the routine quite nicely. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For a mainstream release, “Hope Springs” has some very profound ideas to share about the wilds of marriage and the labor of personal communication, packaged in a broad comedy-drama that enjoys the pressures of discomfort, especially communicated by the likes of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. The odd couple makes for a believable pair of wounded spouses looking for a chance to love again, making the occasionally strained material and pushover direction feel heartfelt and achingly human. It’s far from a coldly precise European dissection of martial life, insisting on a sense of humor to ease viewers into unnerving conversations about sexual desires and long-term commitment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com