Category: Film Review

The curious career of Nicolas Cage takes another step downward with the release of “Seeking Justice,” a dopey conspiracy thriller that asks nothing more of the actor than to sweat, grimace, and run. It’s not a thespian challenge for Cage, but there hasn’t been much of that in recent years. Instead, it’s another paycheck gig for the once exciting, magnificently peculiar actor, who appears completely detached from the production, keeping to a low-key glumness that suggests a goal of professional survival over an artistically fulfilling dive into a formulaic genre. Perhaps Cage has finally run out of gas. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Decoy Bride” is as formulaic a movie as can be, working with trite romantic comedy clichés and a premise that will likely cause more seasoned filmgoers to break out in hives. It’s a harmless trifle with a Scottish slant, but there are no surprises to be found, leaving the heavy lifting to the cast. Mercifully, the actors collected here are charming and willing to please, with star Kelly Macdonald a lifesaver, giving punishing predictability a light spin with her bright personality and commitment to even the hoariest of sitcom situations. She’s the miracle “The Decoy Bride” needs to remain afloat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror and thriller filmmakers have my deepest respect. It can’t be easy coming up with original ideas to fuel big screen madness, requiring a unique creative drive to dream up scenarios that audiences haven’t seen a thousand times before. “ATM” attempts to subvert traditional serial killer shenanigans by keeping the setting limited to a glass box located in the middle of a parking lot, while engineering a twist ending that’s more interesting than effective. “ATM” isn’t a convincing movie, but the production is at least breaking a sweat on this effort, making it a promising misfire that might enchant those on the hunt for something slightly cockeyed when it comes to the torment of innocents. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Being Flynn” is a sad story trying desperately to register as tale of redemption and optimism. It’s difficult to break the bleak mood arranged by writer/director Paul Weitz, as it observes fits of self-destruction and madness, yet this is a human story about the recognition of failure, leaving the filmmaker room to explore vulnerable beats of awareness, captured through two fine performances from Robert De Niro and Paul Dano. It’s a demanding picture to watch, covering an assortment of despair that carries from start to finish. Nevertheless, Weitz fights to keep “Being Flynn” upright and moving forward, focusing on the life story being recounted, not the endless corridors of psychological darkness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The most fascinating aspect to “A Thousand Words” is how it requires Eddie Murphy to play silent for a good chunk of the picture. The famed comedian has defined his career with his motor-mouth skills, presenting an exceptional thespian challenge. In better hands, the feature might’ve pulled off something special, merging amusing mime work with a heartfelt statement on the soulful fractures that restrain the human spirit. Instead, “A Thousand Words” has been brought to the screen by Brian Robbins, the filmmaker behind “Varsity Blues,” “Good Burger,” and “Ready to Rumble.” Not exactly an inspired choice to provide speechless hilarity with some degree of sincerity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Utilized as inspiration for countless sci-fi epics (including “Star Wars,” “Flash Gordon,” and “Superman”), Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “A Princess of Mars” has finally found a widescreen translation in “John Carter,” Disney’s massive gamble to build a blockbuster franchise from the hallowed pages of 1917 novel. Enormous in scale and densely plotted, “John Carter” appears to do the source material justice, retaining a pulpy spirit while serving as a travelogue to the far reaches of Mars, greeting inhabitants both reverential and destructive. While possibly impenetrable to the casual viewer, the picture succeeds as grand entertainment, with dazzling technical achievements and wonderfully exaggerated performances of galactic heroism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been eight years since directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau made a splash with their aquatic chiller “Open Water,” a film festival fave that fizzled upon its theatrical release. Considering the hype that surrounded their shark attack movie, it’s odd that the duo has spent so much time away from the cameras, failing to build on their career momentum. “Silent House” returns the pair to low-budget gimmick filmmaking, rejuvenating their reputation as they attempt to convince audiences they’re watching 80 minutes of uninterrupted terror. The fantasy is convincingly executed, but wasted on banal haunted house formula punctuated with a baffling conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Stories from the Holocaust are numerous yet they rarely cease to astonish. “In Darkness” is a worthy addition to this mournful assembly of wartime perspectives, though its horrors are hushed and gradual, hidden below in a subterranean tomb. Bleakness and hope are married effectively in director Agnieszka Holland’s latest effort, supplying a fresh viewpoint on unlikely valor and the many forms it takes when positioned opposite the need for survival. It’s a strong, unflinching picture, and a vital educational tool when inspecting the surprises of the human spirit during such a tumultuous period of anguish. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Trying to position herself as a female Woody Allen, forever interested in the habits of Manhattanites and their raging neuroses, writer/star Jennifer Westfeldt has called in all of her favors to help beautify her directorial debut, “Friends with Kids.” Commencing with a plausible swirl of social paranoia, domestic demands, and parental entitlement, the picture eventually grows unreasonably contrived, leaving the intriguing discomfort of the titular combination behind to work stale romantic comedy moves that would cause even Kate Hudson to dry heave. Attempting to remain in her comfort zone, Westfeldt mistakes cliche for charm, turning the potential for a provocative look at the erosion of friendships into a tedious sitcom. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Just when you thought it was safe to put 2008 to bed, here comes “Game Change,” which dredges up all the controversy and electricity surrounding the decision to pair Governor Sarah Palin with presidential candidate John McCain. Forget Obama and his historic political run, forget Joe Biden and his path to the White House. “Game Change” is solely about Palin and the myriad of ways to portray the monumentally divisive figure in an unflattering light. After all, it’s a comedy, for at least 30% of its running time, leaving the rest a condensed, perplexing vision of Washington ambition and insistent ego, leaving the movie somewhere between a cartoon and a mean-spirited prank. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If you ever come across anyone squawking about the lack of originality in today’s cinema landscape, immediately sit them down with the Swedish musical comedy, “Sound of Noise.” Although it sweats to fill up 90 minutes of screentime, the picture is an immensely charming and startling effort that manages to contort the art of musical performance into a terrorist agenda. Clever and highlighting a hypnotic arrangement of rhythmic assaults, the feature keeps viewers on their toes, wondering just where directors Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjarne Nilsson are going to take this wild adventure into instrumental invention and aural opposition next. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Producer Todd Phillips has orchestrated monster frat parties (“Old School) and made quite a mess of Las Vegas as well (“The Hangover”). “Project X” looks to generate the definitive teen get-together for the multiplex, turning to three screen stalwarts, chemical excess, nudity, and mass destruction, to take the title as the ultimate adolescent party movie. His intentions are pure, but “Project X” never supplies a reason to care about anything happening onscreen, laboring through conventional acts of misbehavior with a pronounced mean-spiritedness that makes the entire picture unsavory instead of cheerfully celebratory. It’s impossible to get excited for three young men who deserve genuine jail time for their banal adventures in juvenile delinquency. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As much as “Moneyball” wasn’t about baseball, “Goon” isn’t really about the game of hockey. There’s plenty of tense action on the ice to enjoy, but the picture is more fascinated with the elements of violence that permeate the sport, celebrating the bloodletting and glove-tossing escalation, forming a ballet of sorts with all of the punches and airborne teeth. Thankfully, “Goon” is a comedy, and a successfully exaggerated one at that, buffering the hurt with a considerable portion of laughs. Obviously, the feature is a must-see for any puck nut, as the script superbly observes the details of hockey life. Those will little interest in ice-based action may not be carried away by the experience, but the movie is silly enough to stand on its own. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Expanding the work of Dr. Seuss beyond his literary borders is a dangerous proposition, requiring a dense imagination and speed of thought to smoothly develop a small number of pages into a feature film. While 2008’s “Horton Hears a Who” found some success as an animated adaptation, “The Lorax” is a failure, straining to make a moviegoing event out of a modest fable. Brimming with musical numbers, car chases, and shrill celebrity voice work, “The Lorax” is a tuneless, lifeless creation that never seems to seize the environmental message Seuss was hoping to impart. A dire commentary on greed has been contorted into a potential blockbuster, overcrowding the necessary elements of disturbance required to bring whimsical shock value to the younger audience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With 2007’s “Eagle vs. Shark,” writer/director Taika Waititi established himself as a filmmaker with a profound interest in quirk, aided by a richly graphic and sly sense of humor. It was an impressive debut, and his gifts carry into the follow-up feature, “Boy,” released in its native New Zealand in 2010, finally making its way to America over the course of the next month. A charming story of impressionable adolescence, “Boy” dials down the overt insanity that made “Eagle vs. Shark” such a hoot, instead attempting to find a stable place of screen poetry, silly behaviors, and sensitive characters. It’s a lovely picture, solidifying Waititi’s position as one of the more satisfying filmmakers working today. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been proven on numerous occasions that Madonna cannot act. It was proven in 2008 that Madonna couldn’t direct with the rambling “Filth and Wisdom.” “W.E.” is the pop legend’s attempt to be taken seriously as a film artist, selecting a sweeping love story of impossible refinement and sacrifice to study, with an intoxicating historical context to keep her on task. Alas, the big screen just isn’t the proper outlet for Madonna’s majesty, as “W.E.” is a hopelessly distanced museum piece attempting to pass itself as a heaving emotional event, finding the moviemaker in a wandering mood of exploration with a tale that all but demands the most enveloping moments of screen intimacy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s not much originality to the coming of age picture “Albatross,” covering similar dramatic terrain found in dozens of teen-centric scripts observing on the highs and lows of fractured adolescence. However, it’s a memorably acted piece with a breakout starring turn from Jessica Brown Findlay, perhaps best known for her stately work as Lady Sybil Crawley on the hit series “Downton Abbey.” While most audiences have grown comfortable seeing Findlay sustain a youthful dignity loosely clad in all manner of period garb, “Albatross” provides the young actress with an outlet to explore other, darker sides to her talent, matched well with a committed supporting cast who breathe needed life into a conventional story of personal growth. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror films can be made on the cheap, requiring little to no star power, so it’s understandable why so many novice moviemakers gravitate to the genre. However, “Playback” is yet another reminder that it takes a little more inspiration to truly scare an audience. Shellacked with stupidity, working with an insipid premise, the feature is a hopelessly shrill creation that doesn’t come together in the glorious manner writer/director Michael J. Nickels imagines. In fact, a great deal of the picture triggers unintentional laughs, which goes against the general atmosphere of ghoulish video possession and display of crummy slasher film cliches. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Gone” is a relentlessly bland mystery, playing much like a tepid CBS pilot, with pauses for commercial breaks and a conclusion that could realistically open itself up to a weekly series. It’s a not a cinematic creation, with one-dimensional characters displaying little to no common sense, while the thrills are regulated to Portland car chases and 10-minute-long cell phone conversations. At the middle of all this nonsense is Amanda Seyfried, who once again fails to enliven dreary material, showing little star power needed to bring a sense of urgency to such a persistently snoozy movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With his last three efforts devoted to sequels (“Why Did I Get Married Too?”), the curse of Madea (“Madea’s Big Happy Family”), and a stab at Oscar glory (“For Colored Girls”), it makes sense to find mogul Tyler Perry attempting to come back down to Earth. “Good Deeds” is the softest picture the filmmaker has attempted to date, constructing his own romantic drama for the month of love. While his habits get the best of him, Perry’s work here is surprisingly non-toxic, at least for extended periods of screentime. “Good Deeds” isn’t a well-built movie, but it’s by far the least repellent feature he’s put together, dialing down the screaming and seething long enough to reveal sensitivity about the icon that’s actually quite pleasant. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com