There is no anniversary to celebrate here, no special achievement that deserves an “exclusive” theatrical launch. In fact, “The Lion King,” Walt Disney Feature Animation’s crowning achievement, is being hustled back into theaters to highlight a 3D conversion, a gimmick employed to generate some eye-catching publicity a few weeks before the picture makes its long-awaited debut on Blu-ray. Hooray.
After accepting an invitation to join the Adam Sandler Rodeo a few years back, obediently working a string of cameos and supporting roles for the superstar, comedian Nick Swardson graduates to leading man status with “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” (shot two years ago). After sitting through this dreadful, monumentally humorless picture, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this is going to be the last Nick Swardson starring role. He’s a fine stage comic (or at least was for a time in the mid-2000s), but his sleepy, sarcastic sense of humor has found considerable trouble translating successfully to television and film. In fact, considering how excruciating “Bucky Larson” is, I regret ever referring to it as a “sense of humor.” It’s now officially a lethal weapon. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
It feels like every low-budget horror picture is looking for a way to kickstart a franchise, attempting to establish an iconic ghoul that could possibly carry on through various sequels and assorted marketing opportunities. The chiller “Creature” is no different, submitting its own contorted backwaters mythos in the form of Lockjaw, a half-gator/half-human beast keen to gobble twentysomethings and achieve 50/50, XXL horror t-shirt popularity. Too bad his starring debut is a shabby entry in the big screen monster mash, an earnest but far too predictable scary movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
“Contagion” is a scary movie where the villain is ourselves, the murder weapon our touch. It’s a thriller debuting 16 years after “Outbreak,” the last major virus extravaganza, only this latest effort has been updated to match today’s technological reach and governmental scrutiny, registering with a more subtle sense of fear than whipping around with wild hysterics. It’s a Steven Soderbergh film after all, so it’s going to maintain some equanimity. However, as reserved and procedural as it is, “Contagion” should have most audience members radically reassessing exactly what they touch during an average day. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
What a challenging and unusual motion picture this is. “Higher Ground” marks the directorial debut of actress Vera Farmiga, one of the most astute performers in Hollywood today, and she reaches big for her first cinematic offering. A story of salvation and awakening, about religion and spirituality, “Higher Ground” is an exquisitely measured, fair-minded assessment of faith. It’s never mean or condescending. It’s honest and richly imagined, drilling to the heart of commitment and life. It’s difficult material from which to launch a filmmaking career, yet this is a splendidly confident, unexpected movie. One of the best of 2011. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
“Warrior” is “Rocky” for the mixed martial arts generation, a fact the film itself acknowledges. It’s pure formula from start to finish, yet there’s a wellspring of sincerity here that softens the clichés, at least for the first half of the picture. It’s wholly predictable (Lionsgate marketing has done their part to give away the ending) and occasionally ridiculous, but the passions in play are convincing, often rousing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
It’s been over a decade since John Landis last directed a feature-length comedy, spending the last 10 years working on various documentaries, perhaps waiting for the right material to come into view. “Burke and Hare” certainly plays to his sensibilities, combining slapstick comedy, English wit, and macabre occurrences into a sprightly picture that encourages more amused reactions than laughs. Landis is comfortable here, fluid and frisky, but the material just doesn’t have much snap to it. At least outside of all the broken limbs. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
“Apollo 18” is the latest entry in the growing “found footage” genre, popularized in recent years by the blockbuster “Paranormal Activity” films. Instead of rehashing eerie domestic terror, “Apollo 18” blasts into outer space, playing around with history and horror to manufacture a slightly different take on the game of fabricated realism. NASA nuts and conspiracy freaks might find something to embrace here, but the average viewer is likely to be bored stiff by this overlong, underwhelming chiller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
About this time last year, “Piranha 3D” was released into theaters. Instead of a predicted monstrosity, the picture turned out to be an enjoyable, mercilessly gory romp, retaining ideal exploitation instincts and a marvelous sense of humor. This year’s fish-based horror offering is “Shark Night 3D,” which is about as polar opposite a viewing experience from “Piranha 3D” as possible. Labored, idiotic, and tightly restricted when it comes to violence, the feature is a fiasco on every level of execution, aiming to be some type of camp classic yet cursed with moronic direction that renders the whole thing useless. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
With “Red State,” writer/director Kevin Smith seeks a darker path of storytelling, directly contrasting a career made up of profane comedies and barbed but cuddly relationship dramas. Part chiller, part lecture, “Red State” is a jumble of ideas and characterizations tossed haphazardly into an unnervingly disconnected motion picture, which often feels unfinished and calculated instead of winningly feral. Yes, “Red State” is unlike anything Kevin Smith has made before, but it’s also the least effective feature of his career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
Promising a bawdy time with a slippery slapstick edge, “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy” instead plays it fairly safe, pulling a tired RRR routine (raunch, riff, and reference) while remaining about as enchantingly explicit as PBS daytime programming. It’s a moldy film (shot three years ago), uninspired and predictably performed. All it really has is its titular event, an extended sequence of pure pulled punchery that’s going to leave many viewers disappointed. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
The Christian golf drama “Seven Days in Utopia” is truly a mixed blessing. Competently acted and gorgeously shot, the film is often unbearably corny at times, assuming the guise of an inspirational tool when it’s far more compelling as an intimate story of personal struggle. It’s perfectly digestible and refreshingly G-rated, but it’s often so confused, looking to make salient points on godly goodness when its best attributes are found on the fairway. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
A remake of a 2007 Israeli film, “The Debt” has all the components of a richly observed, fingernail-chewing spy thriller, yet the dramatic elements are anything but taut. Heavy with marvelous, ideally impassioned performances, the picture suffers from an unevenness that robs the material of the excitement it effortlessly generates in the electrifying opening half. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
Miranda July has a way of making 90 minutes of incessant quirk feel like 30 years on a chain gang.
The Luc Besson action machine revs up again with “Colombiana,” a female-driven shoot-em-up that never feels particularly organized or inspired. A few sequences based purely on visual appeal shine, but the rest is a heated jumble of emotional breakdowns and assassination games. It’s not quite up to the popcorn-gobbling standards Besson is usually known for.
Admittedly, marriage can be difficult. The comedy “Swinging with the Finkels” makes it look absolutely unpleasant. A half-baked ode to the challenges of sustaining marital sex, the picture makes all the wrong moves, somehow believing it’s forming some type of poignant comment on the complexity of commitment. Instead, it’s an occasionally loathsome sitcom starring two miscast leads doing their chipper best to make this malarkey profound.
“Brighton Rock” is an incredibly dramatic motion picture, positively loony at times. There are a few moments so heated, it feels as though the film itself is pointing a loaded gun to its temple, threatening to shoot. The manic energy isn’t a smooth blend with writer/director Rowan Joffe’s sizable effort of screen style, but the volcanic mood feels undeniably effective at times, funneled into a combustible story of gang warfare, criminals, and the women they secretly detest. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
“Main Street” represents the final cinematic contribution from the late playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote (“To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Tender Mercies”). His rich vocabulary and observance of southern life continues on in this motion picture, but it also holds the producers captive. Unable or unwilling to challenge the writing legend, “Main Street” unfolds with a myriad of problems in the areas of characterization and resolution. There’s something interesting here at the core of the conflict, but the story is offered so little room to breathe, coming across rushed and undercooked. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” is a remake of a 1973 television movie, a production beloved in cult circles, but it’s hard to believe the story didn’t originate in the murky ocean of ghoulish events that passes for co-writer/producer Guillermo del Toro’s imagination. Pervasive darkness, tiny goblins on the hunt to inflict pain, and a creepy old house of horror. This picture is right up the filmmaker’s alley. I’m shocked he didn’t direct it himself. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
We’ve seen multiple R-rated comedies this summer that’ve trafficked in vulgarity to make themselves heard, dependent on shock value to acquire box office attention. “Our Idiot Brother” is a swell change of pace from the obnoxious norm, rooting its shenanigans in a welcome feeling of familial reality, pulling laughs from a source of frustration viewers might be able to relate to. It’s a dumb comedy but never stupid, always good-natured and sharply performed. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
BRIAN ORNDORF 