Category: Film Review

When “Scream” debuted in 1996, little was expected of it. It was horror counterprogramming for the holiday season, eventually making its way to a sizable box office take while inspiring a trend in self-aware chillers featuring disposable teen characters. It launched a line of sequels that gradually lost audience interest (the last appearing in 2011), and eventually found its way to a television series that lasted three seasons on MTV and VH1. The franchise tires were soon deflated, the cash cow was milked dry, but now there’s another “Scream,” which is titled “Scream,” because that’s what studios do when they want to repackage material for a new generation. And this is exactly the approach of the new “Scream,” which takes the original’s fixation on genre movie rules and formula and updates it for the “re-quel” world of today. Screenwriters James Vanderbilt (“Independence Day: Resurgence,” “White House Down”) and Guy Busick (“Ready or Not”) take the concept of remakes quite seriously, mounting what’s basically a do-over of the original Wes Craven film, leaning into déjà vu to best appeal to longtime fans and newcomers to the stalking routine of the Ghostface killer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It was inevitable that another “Hotel Transylvania” sequel would be made. The last one, 2018’s “Summer Vacation,” managed to become the franchise’s biggest grossing and best reviewed installment, finally finding a semi-inspired way to deal with director Genndy Tartakovsky’s often manic vision for cartoon chaos. What’s surprising about “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania” is the absence of Tartakovsky, who elected to step down from helming duties, taking a co-writing credit instead. Also missing is star Adam Sandler, who weirdly retreats from the easiest gig of his career, allowing voice actor Brian Hull to take over as Dracula. Some elements have changed for the fourth chapter of the horror-themed series, but slapstick remains in full force for “Transformania,” which works extremely hard to match the energy of previous offerings, though the absence of key players is felt. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriter Tate Hanyok is out to challenge the teen sex comedy with “Sex Appeal.” It’s a movie for a new age of body and sex positivity, getting away from male-oriented adventures into lustful situations. Hanyok’s had enough of these perspectives, electing to create a female-centric study of carnal exploration, with emphasis on the journey of virginity featuring a character who’s prioritized academic achievements over an examination of pleasure. Hanyok has fun with the premise, delivering a mostly amusing endeavor that’s occasionally broad to help relax inherent tensions concerning the plot. She also offers a commendable female POV, helping to freshen up the teen horndog subgenre, updating its interests. “Sex Appeal” eventually battles a breakout of two different films competing for attention, but that effort to doing something different is commendable, and the picture remains quite entertaining. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Jesse Harris wants to do something significant with “Borrego,” but there are two different films fighting for attention here. The feature is bookended with text detailing the harsh world of pharmaceutical drugs, where introductory doses of powerful painkillers can often lead to personal ruin, sending users on a journey they’re not prepared for. And then there’s the rest of the endeavor, which details various characters involved in a botched plan to fly drugs over the Mexican border into California, leading to violent events involving confused people. “Borrego” has an interesting start, but Harris isn’t necessarily making an anti-drug picture, trying to manage thriller mode for a film that’s more about silent study than tense confrontations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriter David Loughery has enjoyed a career resurgence over the last decade, going from studio work in the 1990s (“Tom and Huck,” “Money Train”) to low-budget thrillers that require extraordinarily little production effort, often set in a single location. He’s written “Fatale” and “The Intruder,” creating his own formula for cheap chills, and he’s back with “Shattered,” which doesn’t deviate from his to-do list of suspense moves. Mixing eroticism with a home invasion tale, Loughery does exactly what he normally does with the material, providing an unimaginative but affordable take on troubles for an innocent character faced with the actions of evildoers. Director Luis Prieto (“Kidnap”) doesn’t help the cause, stuck trying to manage dreary writing and weak performances, unable to get the picture going with any shock value or basic dramatic engagement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With the return of James Bond and the ongoing “Mission: Impossible” series, there’s tough competition out there in the superspy genre. “The 355” intends to launch a new series focusing on a team of opposites learning to work with one another to achieve success while trying to prevent the end of the world, and it collects some of the finest actresses in the industry to do so, presenting a more dignified air while the screenplay assembles various missions for the characters. The material isn’t quite as advanced as one would hope with this kind of thespian talent, but “The 355” remains an entertaining actioner with a few effective scenes of conflict and pursuit. Director Simon Kinberg (the woeful “Dark Phoenix”) tries to maintain a global experience for the production, and he manages the speed of the effort well. Those used to more complex espionage puzzles might feel a bit disappointed with the writing, but the performances, and their commitment to the story, keep the production on the move. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi is a celebrated storyteller whose emphasis on human tales of struggle and doubt have made him one of the finest helmers in international cinema. Farhadi took a break from the intimacy of his native Iran to work with bigger stars in 2018’s “Everybody Knows,” collaborating with Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem on the Spanish-language mystery. The feature offered access to a wider audience, but Farhadi returns to local matters of suspicion with “A Hero,” which brings the helmer back to Iran to examine a knotted plan of innocence involving a character with a history of guilt. “A Hero” is familiar work, but that’s not a criticism, as Farhadi is highly skilled at this kind of small-scale, hard emotions screenwriting, working with local customs and personalities to detail larger themes of responsibility and self-preservation. The suspense generated here is surprising and sustained, with Farhadi generating a deep understanding of bad ideas inspired by desperate times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Like a few other B-movie filmmakers, Edward Drake is currently in the Bruce Willis business. 2021 was their special year, with Drake delivering “Apex” and “Cosmic Sin,” trying to make action extravaganzas while working with an actor who’s not a big fan of physical movement these days, basically sleepwalking through the features. Willis had a rough 2021 (remaining still through seven pictures), and he kicks off 2022 with another inexplicable professional choice, staying with Drake for “American Siege,” where he portrays a cop (of course) who mysteriously vanishes for half of the endeavor. Those coming to see Willis will be disappointed once again, and Drake doesn’t have much to offer the curious, delivering a DOA mystery about a missing woman that offers weirdly little in the way of violent escapism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The home invasion thriller gets an interesting tweak in “See for Me.” The picture concerns a blind woman’s experience with criminals in the dead of night, and the part is played by Skyler Davenport, a visually impaired actor, giving the feature a certain realism to go with all the genre manipulations. Screenwriters Adam Yorke and Tommy Gushue present an inventive take on such a dangerous situation, working to approach the usual serving of predator and prey from a slightly different perspective. There’s not a fully fleshed-out endeavor to devour, but “See for Me” has some nicely pressurized moments, and director Randall Okita finds ways to keep a movie that’s largely about stillness visually interesting, giving the movie some boosts of suspense as it works to rethink cliches and traditional sequences of violent confrontation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s not easy to come up with suspenseful tales concerning World War II events these days. With so many shows and movies produced about the global conflict, it often feels like every topic has been covered, often repeatedly so. “Munich: The Edge of War” returns to the violence of Germany and British caution, but the production is no documentary, taking inspiration from a 2017 novel by Robert Harris, who’s well-versed in WWII history and filmmaking, with his books previously turned into features such as “Enigma” and “Fatherland.” Harris arranges a tale of spies and diplomatic pressure points, and director Christian Schwochow hits the highlights of anxiety and discovery, overseeing a lively understanding of the events leading up to The Munich Agreement, keeping the effort on the move and well-acted, helping to understand and appreciate another part of the wartime puzzle. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play, “Cyrano de Bergerac,” has been transformed for stage and screen numerous times, with many productions endeavoring to rework the aesthetic elements of the original material while preserving its emotional core, unwilling to surrender the near-miss love adventure of the plot. “Cyrano” is an adaptation of a 2018 musical by Erica Schmidt (who provides the screenplay), who also retains the core dramatic elements of Rostand’s work, updating the rest to fit the needs of modern musical theater. Helping the cause is director Joe Wright, who knows how to create wonderful imagery, offered an Italian playground to dream up his take on the famous story of unrequited love. His command of singing and sincerity is a little less confident, as “Cyrano” often feels like two different movies competing for screen time, keeping the film unsteady as it strives to be heartbreaking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Movies about horse racing typically follow the heat of competition, focusing on animal training and the families in charge of finding and shaping winners. These productions have been successful in their own ways, including last summer’s “Dream Horse,” but “Jockey” isn’t interested in the process of industry participation. Co-writer/director Clint Bentley focuses on the inner turmoil of those who guide the process, creating a character piece about a jockey who’s facing the end of his career, examining how he deals with the final moments of the life he’s always known. “Jockey” goes deep but doesn’t reach for melodrama, as Bentley is much more interested in moments of introspection, trying to get inside the minds of those who choose to put their bodies at extreme risk, often for the benefit of others. It’s a rare picture about a seldom-understood topic, and Bentley offers material that feels deeply researched and genuine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1999’s “The Matrix” was a true cinematic journey. It delivered on its “Alice in Wonderland” promise, creating a sci-fi world of action and intrigue, with Neo taking viewers on a hunt for power and purpose as writer/directors The Wachowskis turned the movie business upside down with their vision for rebellion and use of cutting-edge visual effects. “The Matrix” became pop culture for the next few years, and sequels were ordered into production, with 2003’s “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions” ambitious projects missing Neo as the audience surrogate, now transformed into the God-like figure. The follow-ups were flawed but undeniably exciting at times, with The Wachowskis focused on expanding their central idea into an epic war between the humans and machines, creating a massive conclusion to a saga that began with a simple question of identity. The franchise was put to bed, but nothing this profitable stays asleep forever, with “The Matrix Resurrections” arriving 18 years later to restart the cycle all over again, though this new chapter is definitely not as exploratory as “The Matrix,” instead serving as a continuation of “Reloaded” and “Revolutions.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The Coen Brothers are no more. A filmmaking team since 1984’s “Blood Simple,” Joel and Ethan Coen have generated a richly varied and respected career, delivering a few masterpieces along the way. Having worked together on titles such as “The Big Lebowski,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Raising Arizona,” and their last collaboration, 2018’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” the Coen Brothers have now gone their separate ways, ending a tremendous run. Joel Coen remains interested in the work, and he returns to screens with “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” which he writes and directs, emerging as a solo act with this adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, “Macbeth.” Coen doesn’t come empty handed, helping his creative success with lead performances from Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, and there’s renewed artistry with technical credits, which give the picture a stage-bound feel that dips into Bergman-esque visuals, yet feels entirely fresh for the dramatic challenge. “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is striking and powerful, with Coen finding his own way with the feature, which emphasizes the madness and violence of the play, joined by a newfound level of claustrophobia. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For nearly two decades, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson went to a dark place. He dealt with corrosive, perverse characters in “There Will Be Blood,” “The Master,” “Inherent Vice,” and “Phantom Thread,” presenting grim conduct and bleak situations of domestic and psychological endurance. Anderson is back in a bubbly mood for “Licorice Pizza,” his return to the ways of idiosyncratic love and strange events, connecting to his time on “Punch-Drunk Love,” analyzing the weird ways of attraction and maturity. “Licorice Pizza” contains its fair share of oddity, as the helmer approaches the central relationship between a 15-year-old hustler and his 25-year-old object of desire from a variety of perspectives and tonal changes, detailing the craziness of impetuous behavior during the early 1970s. Anderson is attentive to the shaping of personalities, but his old impish ways make a return to the screen, delivering another cinematic triumph in a career that’s full of them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Fortress” is many things, but “good” isn’t one of them. It’s the newest release from producers Randall Emmett and George Furla (continuing their mission to resurrect the Cannon Films legacy), and it’s the second directorial undertaking in 2021 from James Cullen Bressack (“Survive the Game”), who’s more about quantity than quality. Also having a busy year is star Bruce Willis, with his latest offering of sit-in-chair acting his seventh of the year, making sure to say yes to anything that meets his quote. There’s nothing in “Fortress” that’s different than most VOD entertainment offerings, once again setting up a basic conflict between good and bad guys, with the film’s location someone’s backyard, offering open spaces for actors to run around and pretend to shoot one another. There’s a set and a hallway, and Bressack stays out of the way when it comes to performances, keeping the endeavor hideously overacted and absolutely ridiculous, simply here to make his days and move on to the next bottom shelf project. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Mattson Tomlin had a successful 2020. The screenwriter made an impression with two features, going the superhero route with “Project Power,” while “Little Fish” offered a prescient look at the world’s ruinous reaction to a public health crisis. Tomlin graduates to directorial duties for “Mother/Android,” which returns to the ways of a troubled planet, with the story exploring a new future that’s ruled by vicious robots on a mission to destroy humankind. It sounds like a wild ride of danger and destruction, but Tomlin’s writing connects to his “Little Fish” ideas, offering a moody, meditative understanding of dystopia and the power of love during the bleakest of times. “Mother/Android” is not a fan of pacing, often taking its sweet time to get where it’s going, but the production successfully updates the zombie genre with a new, metallic enemy, and the ultimate dramatic destination for the tale is satisfying, rewarding the sometimes extraordinary amounts of patience required to sit through the movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com