Category: Film Review

Producer Randall Emmett (with partner George Furla) has been working steadily for years to build a filmography of forgettable VOD/streaming entertainment (with titles such as “Out of Death,” “Survive the Game,” and “Force of Nature”), finding ways to entice established actors to participate in bottom shelf entertainment, including multiple Bruce Willis-starring endeavors. He’s dipped his toe in direction, previously helming 2021’s “Midnight in the Switchgrass” (co-starring Willis), and he returns with “Savage Salvation,” which turns to Robert De Niro to help class up the joint, hiring the legendary thespian to deliver some gravitas in a feature that’s often without dramatic shape or momentum. The screenplay (by Adam Taylor Barker and Chris Sivertson) tries to make a statement about the power of God and the death of America, but such ambition is muted by Emmett, who fails to manage subplots, summon suspense, and rethink a last act that turns a dull movie into a terrible one. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Vicky Krieps has become a respected actress in recent years, typically associated with pictures containing intense dramatic content, including her breakthrough role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread.” She provides quality performances with a special focus on psychological disturbances, and “Corsage” seems tailor-made for her talents. The endeavor examines a year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, which is filled with isolating experiences and a slow reduction of coping skills, creating a wide-open space for the production to detail such developing unrest inside a royal setting. However, writer/director Marie Kreutzer doesn’t pay much attention to Elisabeth’s actual life, instead using the woman to inspire a study of all the loneliness, frustration, and resentment that develops when a female is treated as nothing more than an ornament. “Corsage” has potent scenes of neglect, and Krieps does a fine job making the storm raging inside Elisabeth feel as real as possible, with Kreutzer occasionally struggling to make a film as interesting as her star. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Pale Blue Eye” continues writer/director Scott Cooper’s interest in grim tales concerning mysterious monsters of the night. He went genre with 2021’s “Antlers,” and the creative experience must’ve been rewarding, with the helmer back to strange events with his latest endeavor, which is an adaptation of a 2003 Louis Bayard novel. The feature offers a murder mystery to help bring viewers to the story, examining the silent alarm triggered at a military school when one cadet is found murdered in a most gruesome fashion, but there’s more of a character study presented here, with Cooper tracking an unusual partnership at the core of the story while also managing strange discoveries along the way. “The Pale Blue Eye” isn’t a film that’s easily decoded, and Cooper’s permissiveness with some performances is sure to test patience. But there’s a final destination from Bayard worth waiting for, giving Cooper another interesting study of horror as it emerges in many forms. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Matilda” began life as a book by author Roald Dahl, with his 1988 endeavor becoming a hit with young readers, detailing the life of a neglected child and her experiences with those who want to love her and those who would prefer to forget her. The book has been brought to life through radio programs and audiobooks, and it was previously handed a cinematic adaptation in 1996, with director Danny DeVito a natural choice to summon Dahl’s mischief and madness. Now there’s “Matilda the Musical,” which carries the highly successful British stage musical (with book by Dennis Kelly and music/lyrics by Tim Minchin) to the screen, adding song and dance to Dahl’s original tale. And director Matthew Warchus (“Pride”) is absolutely committed to preserving such theatrical energy, presenting a lively take on the original text, handling the scale of musical theater while preserving delicate emotional connections between characters, crafting a highly entertaining explosion of kid-sized feelings. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2012, singer Whitney Houston died in Los Angeles, ending a career that achieved enormous success through unparalleled talent. She was an icon, rattling the entertainment business in ways few could, amassing a global fanbase to secure her legacy after her passing. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” intends to understand her glory years of success and painful personal struggles, giving Houston the bio-pic treatment, with director Kasi Lemmons (“Harriet”) and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) in charge of making sense of it all, from thunderous stage performances to debilitating drug addiction. It’s a lot of life to explore, and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” just isn’t up to the challenge of organization, delivering what quickly becomes a television movie-style take on Houston’s creative years and crumbling, muting the extremity of her behavior to reignite interest in Whitney Houston, Inc. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2011’s “Puss in Boots” was a spin-off of the “Shrek” series, giving the eponymous cat a chance to enjoy his own big screen adventure while the green ogre franchise still had some life in it, released a year after “Shrek Forever After.” “Puss in Boots” did well at the box office, inspiring a popular television show, but a true sequel took its time to reach viewers, with “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” finally emerging 11 years after the last chapter. The original movie was fun in spurts, trying to find its footing as a solo run for the feline. “The Last Wish” is a significant creative improvement, delivering dynamic animation and lively voicework, also bravely approaching the topic of death while still delivering wonderful scenes of slapstick. The endeavor pays tribute to its origins, but it really becomes its own thing, with director Joel Crawford (“The Croods: A New Age”) overseeing an exciting and highly amusing effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s truth in advertising with “Women Talking,” which does indeed feature women talking for the entire run time, and these characters have plenty to be concerned about. Writer/director Sarah Polley provides an adaptation of author Miriam Toews 2018 book of the same name, which spotlights sudden panic and extended debate with female members of a Mennonite colony when they discover horrors beyond their imagination, forced to make a choice about their future survival. Polley wisely avoids the inherent staginess of the material with a nicely cinematic interpretation, hunting for poetic moments between offerings of gut-rot emotion and anxiety. It’s a tale of awakening and faith, along with self-preservation, and “Women Talking” remains involving as the central situation of alarm is gradually revealed, with incredibly strong performances from the cast creating tension as debates carry on and concerns are finally voiced. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Whale” is being promoted as a comeback vehicle for Brendan Fraser, who hasn’t had a significant part in a film for a long time, kicking around B-movies and television for the last five years. In fact, he hasn’t had a role like this since 1998’s “Gods and Monsters,” with director Darren Aronofsky putting his faith in Fraser to help realize the abyssal levels of pain contained within Samuel D. Hunter’s screenplay (adapting his own play). It’s a wild part, with the actor tasked with bringing to life a 600-pound man trying to eat himself to death while confronting his past, dealing with the few outsiders who still remain committed to the man in decidedly different ways. And Fraser’s never been better, easily achieving career-best work in the feature, which asks viewers to remain in a room with someone slowly committing suicide, yet Aronofsky and Hunter shape a largely riveting study of regret and release, rewarding patience with sharp character studies and an authentic understanding of shame. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s a little strange to face a film year where two completely different movies basically cover the same story. In May, there was “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” which included a subplot about silent cinema actors facing a cold reality when “talkies” become all the rage, forcing them to deal with a sudden upheaval in their careers. “Babylon” explores the same space in a more epic manner, losing good manners and buttery melodrama for a messy, 188-minute-long journey into excess. One picture had tasteful encounters between troubled characters, while the other opens with an extended shot of an elephant defecating on its handlers, chased by a shot of a prostitute urinating into the mouth of her obese client. It certainly can’t be said that writer/director Damien Chazelle (“La La Land”) isn’t going for something with “Babylon,” but what that something is isn’t easy to understand. The helmer wants explosions of raucous behavior, trying to encourage overkill as a way to celebrate the Roaring Twenties, but the feature is mostly exhausting, with Chazelle caught up in his ability to summon chaos, leaving little room for compelling drama to take shape. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda is an exceptionally talented filmmaker who’s been on a streak of involving dramas over the last decade, mostly recently on view in 2018’s “Shoplifters” and 2019’s “The Truth,” which offered him a chance to make a French endeavor, changing things up from his usual interests. With “Broker,” Kore-eda is back in South Korea, examining the inner lives and relationships of characters involved in the business of selling babies. This is no horror story, adding to the helmer’s preference for humanist dramas, taking time to understand the mindset of those contributing to such a situation, exploring the complexity of such a choice. There are layers to examine with “Broker,” and wonderful moviemaking to help with the journey, as Kore-eda oversees excellent performances and an approachable level of melancholy with this feature, which remains gripping, even when it deals with simple matters of the heart. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

At this point, Olivia Coleman is as dependable an actress as they come these days. She doesn’t give bad performances, usually capable of mining remarkable emotional moments out of any material, doing so with care for her characters, offering viewers a chance to explore complex human beings. Her streak remains unbroken in “Joyride,” but the feature certainly doesn’t make it easy for the star. Scripted by Ailbhe Keogan, the picture offers major swings of tone and behavior, asking the audience to stick with characters experiencing an almost absurd amount of turbulence in their lives. “Joyride” aims to be a dramedy about an unexpected connection between two very different people, and while the journey at the center of the story is understood, confusion comes with interpretation, as director Emer Reynolds generates a chaotic film that doesn’t connect as intended. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriter Reggie Keyohara III clearly enjoyed 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” so much, he decided to create his own version of the tale. However, instead of a cannibalistic madman behind bars helping a young investigator work through a disturbing case, there’s an artist whose specialty is creating disturbing imagery based on violent paintings. Unfortunately, “Mindcage” isn’t another chapter in the Hannibal Lecter saga, but something far more low-budget and limited in suspense, with director Mauro Borrelli challenged to generate creepiness with material that’s been done before, and much more successfully. “Mindcage” has John Malkovich, who would’ve made a sinister Lecter, but that’s about as far as it gets in terms of creative victory, with the writer’s ambition and concept of dark magic a bit too much for this B-movie to handle. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2009, there was “Avatar,” which represented writer/director James Cameron’s follow-up to “Titanic,” the film that made box office history. Collecting influences from sci-fi books, movies, and indigenous life, Cameron merged high technology with basic storytelling, emerging with a feature that unexpectedly topped “Titanic,” becoming a phenomenon. “Avatar” was an amazing achievement in the world of visual effects, upping the game for 3D presentations and motion-capture, but it wasn’t the most stimulating offering of drama, as Cameron struggled with his dialogue and the cartoonishness of his characters. Amazingly, it’s been 13 years since the release of the original picture, and now Cameron returns with “Avatar: The Way of Water,” his long-awaited sequel, which increases cinematic power with extraordinary visuals, but the continuation doesn’t stray far from its predecessor, rehashing characterization and plot to reset the franchise for an extended adventure, with multiple sequels already on the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer James Pedersen (making his debut) offers a small-scale battle to the death with “High Heat,” taking viewers into a fancy restaurant where trouble develops for the main characters after hours. Pedersen creates a community of fractured personalities and arranges some itchy relationships to manage, working to build a sense of history and antagonism to best launch this milder action endeavor, which is something along the lines of “Die Hard” in a kitchen. There’s a sense of humor to keep the feature approachable, and while the screenplay struggles with the demands of exposition, Pedersen is putting in more of an effort than what’s typically offered for the genre, while director Zach Golden (“The Escape of Prisoner 614”) aims to maintain some momentum to the film, creating a few lively sequences of violence and intimidation, and he knows to keep the picture as short as possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Almond and the Seahorse” takes a look at the world of traumatic brain injuries, which isn’t a topic that’s usually covered in films. It’s a personal story from Kaite O’Reilly, who adapts her play (with co-writer/co-director Celyn Jones), trying to bring such medical and emotional intimacies to the screen. The feature also marks a change of pace for co-star Rebel Wilson, who’s normally hired for wacky behaviors in silly movies, but now she’s ready for something more dramatic and challenging, trying to inhabit a character stuck in a dire situation of personal loss. “The Almond and the Seahorse” aims to be artistic and soulful, exploring levels of frustration involved with caretaking needs. At its most sincere and direct, the picture has unique power, but the material is also prone to bursts of melodrama, and relationships feel too underdeveloped at times, restraining the complex emotional journey of the material. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Making her feature-length debut as a writer/director is Alison Locke, and she picks quite a story to tell with “The Apology.” It’s a two-hander production that takes place over one night, in a single location, with stars Anna Gunn and Linus Roache gifted an entire movie to explore their characters and the strangely hostile situations these personalities are in. It’s a series of tight spaces, both literally and dramatically, for Locke to examine, working very hard to make what’s basically a short film into a satisfying, 90-minute-long viewing experience. Gunn and Roache are up to the challenge with “The Apology,” which opens with an unexpected reunion during the Christmas holiday and gradually devolves into an understanding of diseased minds and the crippling weight of guilt. It’s a solid endeavor with outstanding performances, and if you’re sensitive to spoilers, this is the place to stop reading, as any basic inspection of the picture has to detail a few of the screenplay’s turns. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Nanny” is being marketed as something of a horror film, but it isn’t one. At least not in the traditional sense, with monsters in the dark and danger lurking all around. Writer/director Nikyatu Jusu only uses such imagery to amplify the main character’s headspace, examining the struggles of a Senegalese mother trying to earn money for a chance to reunite with her son, doing so by accepting work raising a different child. “Nanny” has its flashes of violence and a certain fear factor, but all of this noisiness tends to block the view of an interestingly spare but effective summary of employment exploitation when it comes to the immigrant experience. Genuine suspense is summoned in unusual ways, with Jusu showing more confidence with realism than symbolism, depicting an uncomfortable situation of denial while also managing the developing pain of a mother who can’t reach her own child. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Detective Knight: Rogue” was released seven weeks ago. It’s okay if you don’t remember it, few people actually saw it, but it marked the beginning of a trilogy from writers Corey Large and Edward John Drake (who also directs), who don’t have an overall arc to follow over three features, but they have titles, with “Detective Knight: Redemption” hoping to continue the story of the eponymous cop and his hazily defined reason for rage. It seems the three movies were all shot at the same time, trying to take advantage of star Bruce Willis’s limited working capabilities due to his medical condition, and he’s back, kind of, for “Redemption,” with his role basically amounting to an extended cameo. “Rogue” was a rough sit, with Drake struggling to tell a coherent story and manage dismal action sequences, and the same vibe is present in the sequel, which offers a slightly smaller pool of crooks and cops, but shows no creative spark, turning to pure cliché to get by. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With box office grosses trending downward for the “Night at the Museum” live-action series, the franchise was put to bed after 2014’s “Secret of the Tomb,” with producers giving the brand name a much needed rest. Rethinking the core appeal of the material, “Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again” tries to restart the premise with an animated take, reimagining a building populated with living statues with more visual and comedic flexibility. Keeping the budget down is certainly a concern for the endeavor, but “Kahmunrah Rises Again” is a breezy adventure with these characters and their addiction to overnight chaos, with director Matt Danner (“Muppet Babies,” “Legend of the Three Caballeros”) aiming to make a fun ride for younger viewers. The helmer gives the target demographic what they want, and while the feature is no epic, often too cartoonish, it loses the obvious fatigue that made “Secret of the Tomb” a chore to sit through. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2020’s “The Binge” had potential. It was a comedic take on “The Purge,” only instead of unimaginable violence allowed across the country for a short period of time, the feature focused on drugs made legal for citizens looking to go crazy for one night. Screenwriter Jordan VanDina had a chance to create a rollicking movie about the wildness of such freedom, and “The Binge” got halfway there, helped along by co-star Vince Vaughn, who worked to make his moments count in a picture that tried to get by on poorly imagined raunchiness. VanDina returns to his creation for a Vaughn-less “It’s a Wonderful Binge,” a sequel nobody asked for but the writer is happy to deliver, and he's newly promoted to the director’s chair, overseeing the next round of binge-tastic shenanigans. The first endeavor felt like a missed opportunity, while the follow-up is a torturous viewing experience, lacking even basic cinematic functions as VanDina lurches from one unfunny, borderline unfinished scene to the next. “The Purge,” with all of its death, destruction, and excruciating acting is actually funnier than “It’s a Wonderful Binge.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com