Category: Film Review

For the 25th movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the company looks to one of its lesser-known characters to help take the brand name forward. Not that Shang-Chi is an obscure superhero, but he doesn’t quite have the marquee value of previous avengers, presenting a challenge for the production to deliver a memorable introduction for a wide audience. And “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” does just that, presenting an interesting new face on the scene, and the urban and mystical realms he inhabits. Television star Simu Liu gets a critical career at-bat with the eponymous role, and he makes a strong impression, becoming a compelling focal point for the feature while producers fill supporting parts with screen legends, familiar Marvel faces, and comedians, working extra hard to make sure the launch of Shang-Chi goes down smooth with comic book maniacs and the people who love them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Lisa Joy is best known for her television work, producing shows such as “Westworld” and “Burn Notice,” dealing with gritty tales of detective work and future technology. Joy makes her debut as a writer/director with “Reminiscence,” which examines the sci-fi concept of living memories and works them into a hard-boiled tale of sleuthing, but with a more emotional push of lovesickness driving the story. The production offers viewers a new vision of American disaster, with wars destroying society and rising coastal waters increasing desperation, but Joy is also trying to pay tribute to the detective stories of old with “Reminiscence,” and she often fails spectacularly. It’s not easy to craft a twisty plot full of deceptive characters, but the helmer gets lost in her detailed visuals, failing to craft at least a passably compelling mystery for the main character, who’s put through the wringer in the name of love, but it’s difficult to work up the energy to care about any of it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The first half of “Sweet Girl” is as close to a Charles Bronson-starring, 1983 Cannon Films release as we’re bound to get these days. Jason Momoa takes a break from superhero duty to star as a husband and father raging against the cruel business practices of Big Pharma, who hold the key to survival for many sick people, electing to exploit such weakness for maximum profit. It’s a timely subject, sure to keep viewers interested in the beatings to come, but writers Gregg Hurwitz, Will Staples, and Philip Eisner don’t trust the simplicity of such a fight. The trio attempts to transform “Sweet Girl” into something more psychologically unexpected, hoping to challenge cliché while fully indulging in the sticky stuff. There’s fun to be had with the endeavor, but it’s not the head-slapper the screenplay imagines itself to be, doing much better in attack mode, digging into the frustrations of personal loss at the hands of greedy moneymen. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Martin Campbell isn’t a director with a particular style, and his commitment to storytelling hasn’t always been stellar. But he’s managed to bang out a career as a man of action, occasionally hitting greatness, including his well-regarded work on the James Bond adventures “GoldenEye” and “Casino Royale.” Still trying to regain his industry footing after the 2011 bomb, “Green Lantern,” Campbell reunites with at least some of his old timing in “The Protégé,” which is an assassin film that doesn’t always want to be an assassin film, periodically working on ways to come at the audience from unexpected directions. Campbell has his set pieces and explosions, but he also has a cast willing to play around with the material, with Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson doing something worthwhile while the feature occasionally struggles to pull itself out of exposition dumps and needlessly twisty plotting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“PAW Patrol” has been a very big deal in the lives of young children since its television debut in 2013. It’s never been one of those pop culture dominating brands, but to a certain audience of a certain age, the show is everything. It’s a little surprising to see it’s taken so long for the producers to take the exploits of the canine rescue team to the big screen, but “PAW Patrol: The Movie” is finally here, and director Cal Brunker isn’t about to waste an opportunity to thrill on a grander cinematic scale, offering an action-packed feature that’s all about the dogs in motion, working to solve problems and save people. The target demographic for this picture will be delighted with every frame of the adventure, but “PAW Patrol: The Movie” isn’t hard on parents and guardians, offering some humor, heart, and enough calamity to engage. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We haven’t had a slasher film that deals with panic inside a movie theater in some time, making “The Last Matinee” a treat for those who miss such a setting for all kinds of hellraising. A South American production, the picture aims to revive an Italian feel for screen hostility and dark comedy, with co-writer/director Maximiliano Contenti trying to summon the great gods of giallo cinema to help inspire this wonderfully nasty horror offering, which isn’t afraid to spill blood and, well, do a lot more bodily harm during the run time. Contenti doesn’t have much money to create an epic, but he does exceptionally well with a simple chiller concerning a bad night for curious moviegoers in Uruguay. Genre fans should get a kick out of the effort’s grisliness and love for the exhibition business, working with the location to deliver a compelling nightmare. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Night House” is the latest directorial effort from David Bruckner, who’s no stranger to enigmatic tales of suspense and horror, previously helming “The Signal” and “The Ritual.” Bruckner doesn’t stray far from his genre interests for his latest endeavor, delivering a journey into supernatural suspicion with “The Night House,” which combines domestic disturbance cinema with a ghost story of a more reserved nature, handing Bruckner eerie mood to manage. While it initially promises to become an exciting riff on spousal paranoia cinema, the picture only covers a few ideas concerning marital strife before enigmatic events come to claim the viewing experience. Still, Bruckner achieves career-best work here, establishing spookiness and palpable pressure on the lead character, who connects to several brutal realities in this effective chiller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Demonic” marks the return of writer/director Neill Blomkamp, who hasn’t made a feature in six years, last seen with the abysmal “Chappie,” which put his once promising career (which began with 2009’s “District 9”) on hold. Blomkamp made his introduction with a smaller movie that surprised a lot of people, and after time spent playing with large budgets, he’s back to the basics with “Demonic,” which was shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, inspiring a small-scale story concerning the inner workings of evil. It would be a pleasure to report that the helmer is back on his feet with the picture, but Blomkamp’s latest isn’t that confident. He’s approaching the horrors of demonic possession from a fascinating angle, but the production doesn’t trust its inherent weirdness, gradually offering generic scares and formulaic adversaries. Blomkamp loses his nerve with this one, slowly distancing himself from what actually works in the film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Bella Thorne is having her Nicolas Cage moment, working like crazy to participate in as many movies as possible. “Habit” is her fourth film in the last year, and this acting opportunity provides Thorne with a chance to play a conflicted character in the middle of a dire situation of faith and crime. The actual picture doesn’t cut deep with such moral and spiritual complexity, with co-writer/director Janell Shirtcliff trying to manufacture an offering of underground cinema, though she remains uncertain if all this should be played for laughs. There are elements of camp in “Habit” to suggest it’s one big goof, but Thorne doesn’t push the comedy, tasked with becoming the dramatic foundation for an endeavor that’s loosely made, prone to wandering around in a drug-induced haze. Shirtcliff isn’t laboring over storytelling needs here, aiming instead for style, priming her for a big career in music videos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Shawn Levy hasn’t made a movie in a long time, last seen on screens with 2014’s “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.” A vanilla filmmaker with a penchant for saccharine sentiment and editorial permissiveness, Levy tries his best to make “Free Guy” resemble everything else in his career, but he’s not able to completely extinguish the spirit of this amusing picture, which takes audiences into the battle zone of an open world video game, with one fringe participant learning to become a very big deal in the name of love. “Free Guy” has issues with overlength and formula, but it has Ryan Reynolds in the lead role, and his ability to play the wackiness and sincerity of the screenplay (credited to Matt Liberman and Zak Penn) helps to give the feature a kind of magic as it examines video game culture and business ethics, and often searches for opportunities to stage chaotic comedy set pieces. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2016’s “Don’t Breathe” was a nifty little chiller. Director Fede Alvarez found ways to rework the home invasion genre, playing with sensory-based suspense and blasts of horror to provide audiences with a few jolts to go with their chewed nails. It didn’t need a sequel, but “Don’t Breathe” unexpectedly became a major hit, and the producers aren’t going to leave money on the table. Weirdly, they’ve taken their sweet time to create a continuation, with “Don’t Breathe 2” in the unfortunate position to live up to expectations set by the original movie, with Alverez handing helming duties to his co-screenwriter on the first film, Rodo Sayagues. It’s certainly not a quickie effort, but “Don’t Breathe 2” is as terrible as one, with the writers exhausting all their decent ideas five years ago, now offering a grotesquely violent, poorly acted, and abysmally edited feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain went Hollywood with his last feature, 2016’s “Jackie,” and it worked for him. Creating an emotional and illuminating portrait of Jackie Kennedy’s strange days before and after the assassination of her husband. It was powerful work from Larrain, who kept himself together while dealing with studios and the awards circuit. Returning to Chile, the director delivers “Ema,” which offers him an opportunity to delve into complete creative freedom once again, this time examining powers of self-destruction developing between two people who once believed they loved each other, but now deal in bitterness and pain. The material details an emotional war zone for all the characters, and it’s sold with a free-flowing sense of bodily movement and darkness. Larrain scores another career achievement with “Ema,” which offers a hypnotic but deeply unsettling viewing experience, remaining artful throughout. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Apple made headlines last winter when they decided to pay a fortune for the rights to release “CODA,” which won several awards at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. It’s easy to understand why the company shelled out $25 million dollars for the endeavor, which offers plenty of audience-pleasing moments and warm emotion. It’s also unafraid to get broad when it has to, making sure to reach the back row with its familiar charms. There’s some degree of sameness to the feature, but writer/director Sian Heder (2016’s “Tallulah”) works hard to create deeper emotions in play, striving to generate an understanding of the characters and their individual hardships. “CODA” (which is a remake of a 2014 French film) is kindly and means well enough, boosted by select moments of real dramatic power that carry an otherwise fluffy effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The best music documentaries focus on the stories involved with the creation of records, or exploring band or artist dynamic. This is what audiences come for, to get a peek behind the curtain, understanding how creativity ebbs and flows, occasionally resulting in world-shifting successes. “Under the Volcano” is a simple picture about the days of Associated Independent Recording, with co-founder George Martin moving the process of creativity to the island of Montserrat in the West Indies. He took his reputation and the money made after working with The Beatles and constructed a living space for bands hunting for a different vibe when developing their careers. Instead of the coldness of urban life, AIR Montserrat provided paradise, albeit in the shadow of an active volcano, and director Gracie Otto (“The Last Impresario”) gathers interviews from those involved with the studio to best understand how this building and vibe managed to inspire some of the best albums of the 1980s. And yes, there are wonderful stories contained within. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I’m sure the producers of “Crime Story” wouldn’t mind potential viewers thinking they’re sitting down with a variation on the “John Wick” formula of a one-man-army returning to the criminal underworld he left behind to settle some scores. Even more interesting is the addition of Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role, with the seventysomething actor finding his big mean again with an aggressive part. Unfortunately, “Crime Story” isn’t that invitingly preposterous, with writer/director Adam Lipius making a family story instead, scripting a knotted tale of broken promises and long-simmering resentment, also exploring end-of-life fears that have the potential to transform this effort into a more satisfying study of frustrations. It’s messy work, but Lipius does craft a few compelling scenes of mental anguish, touching on real-world concerns while overseeing a weirdly labyrinthine endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s been a lot of Lin-Manuel Miranda in recent years. He finally brought his beloved stage musical “Hamilton” to screens last year, and one of his earliest career triumphs, the Tony award-winning “In the Heights,” received a cinematic adaptation last June. He’s even participating in the making of “Encanto,” an upcoming release from Walt Disney Animation. He’s been a busy guy, but his musical instincts haven’t diminished, remaining in full force with “Vivo,” where he portrays the titular kinkajou and oversees the creation of the original soundtrack, which is sure to receive regular rotation in minivans everywhere. Director Kirk DeMicco (“The Croods”) feeds off Miranda’s bountiful energy with “Vivo,” launching a vibrant musical with memorable songs and colorful animation that’s fantastically entertaining at times, securing a Cuban-flavored vibe for family audiences in need of a little boost of excitement from an animated adventure. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Pascual Sisto makes his directorial debut with “John and the Hole,” and he’s elected to try his luck with a disturbing story about imprisonment and exploration, mixing casual horrors with a darkly comedic approach. Sisto is playing in the same sandbox as noted provocateurs Yorgos Lanthimos and Michael Haneke, but he tries to bend the material his own way, working with a screenplay by Nicolas Giacobone, which is an adaptation of a short story. Such limited dramatic origins are evident throughout “John and the Hole,” which is filled with thousand-yard stares and character stand-offs, but Sisto finds a way to make the stillness of the movie work in his favor, erecting an eerie and somewhat understandable tale of extreme teenage rebellion that becomes something of a psychological and storytelling puzzle as it unfolds. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To describe the films of Leos Carax as an acquired taste doesn’t quite do justice to the type of surreal, free-flowing work the director typically offers. He’s been away from screens for quite some time, with “Annette” is first feature since 2012’s “Holy Motors,” and the helmer is ready to attempt something truly oddball with the endeavor. It’s an opera, with some rock rhythm to get it up on its feet at times, finding Carax teaming with the band Sparks (comprised of Ron and Russell Mael), who are currently enjoying quite a moment after the release of “The Sparks Brothers,” an Edgar Wright documentary about the group released in June. With such fondness for weirdness shared between Sparks and Carax, “Annette” seems like a major opportunity to blow minds with this merging of artful powers. Alas, appreciating the working parts of the movie and actually sitting through it are two different experiences, and while eccentricity helps the effort get through some stagnant sequences, this isn’t quite the soaring cinematic event it should’ve been. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Naked Singularity” is an adaptation of a 2008 book by Sergio De La Pava, which observes the struggles of a public defender who’s nearing the end of his rope, stuck working a system that’s too big and broken to manage. As a legal drama, the material has promise, taking viewers on a tour of courtroom wranglings and lawyer interactions, painting a bleak portrait of justice in America. It’s the rest of “Naked Singularity” that’s more difficult to digest, as a crime movie soon takes command of the feature, offering different degrees of crooked behavior from all sorts of corrupt characters. Co-writer/director Chase Palmer’s job is to make an approachable endeavor out of different tonalities, collecting strange ideas from De La Pava’s novel. He doesn’t quite land a balanced picture, but it’s an engaging ride for most of the run time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Rising Wolf” has one thing in its favor: it’s a killer elevator movie. Okay, so not the good kind of killer elevator movie, where a supernatural force takes possession of a car, sending it on a deadly ride up and down a shaft, causing all kinds of problems for increasingly panicking riders inside. Co-writer/director Antaine Furlong doesn’t head in a horror director. Instead, he uses the elevator setting to launch a fantasy series, keeping things budget-minded and manageable for its first chapter, following the unfolding nightmare for a young woman forced to endure hard hits and deadly threats while stuck inside a car. The fun factor of “Rising Wolf” is shockingly limited, as Furlong is attempting to create a serious feature about serious peril, and he dreams big with the material, hoping to use this study of close-quarters survival as a way into franchise filmmaking, though he forgets to inspire interest in future chapters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com