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Blu-ray Review – Dreambuilders
"Dreambuilders" is very reminiscent of "Inside Out," the 2015 Pixar Animation Studios hit that took audiences inside the mind of characters to meet their emotions, following their misadventures through the lively world of memories and general brain activity. I'm fairly sure the filmmakers behind "Dreambuilders" won't mind the comparison, as the Danish production is working hard to give off a Pixar vibe, combining cartoon antics with emotional trauma, only this odyssey takes place inside a dream space – a production area also explored in "Inside Out." Similarities are plentiful, but director Kim Hagen Jensen (who previously worked on "Rock-A-Doodle," "Ferngully: The Last Rainforest," and "A Troll in Central Park") makes a valiant attempt to create his own movie with a neat idea about the world beyond dreams, and creatures who make the magic happen. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – The Boxtrolls
Following up their work on the hits "Coraline" and "ParaNorman," animation studio Laika returns with yet another darkly comic vision in "The Boxtrolls," an adaptation of the book "Here Be Monsters!" Keeping to studio standards, the picture is a bizarre mix of the broad and the terrifying, handed a distinct English tilt this time around to perfect its dry sense of humor. As with everything Laika works on, "The Boxtrolls" is visually striking and intermittently amusing, but a little of this unusual world goes a long way, with pacing and story issues crippling an otherwise enjoyable romp through cheese worship and creature idiosyncrasies. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Coraline
From Henry Selick, the director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach" (and, well, "Monkeybone"), comes "Coraline," another foray into luxurious stop-motion animation and wildly imaginative fantasy visualization. It's a gorgeous picture to behold, but occasionally fails to beguile, as the surreal nature of the material often overwhelms basic storytelling requirements. "Coraline" is an easy film to admire, but not always to watch. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – West Side Story (2021)
Steven Spielberg has been making movies with defined rhythm for decades now, but he’s never gone all-in with a musical before. Sure, there’s the crackerjack opening of 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and some sections of 1979’s “1941” certainly feel the beat, but Spielberg has avoided making full contact with a Broadway adaptation. And now he’s finally ready to put on a show, taking on “West Side Story,” with the 1957 Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents creation previously realized in a beloved, Academy Award-winning 1961 Robert Wise film. There’s a lot of pressure on the iconic helmer to do something different with the source material, and he does, offering a grittier, more dynamically shot take on the musical, working to shave off a few layers of staginess to best expose the deep feelings in play. It’s still “West Side Story,” but the “Romeo and Juliet” riff is in good hands with Spielberg. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021)
The “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series has made author Jeff Kinney extremely popular with young readers, exploring the daily punishment of middle school awkwardness, finding comedy in growing pains. He’s managed to crank out 16 titles about the misadventures of Greg Heffley and his friend, Rowley Jefferson, and with such literary success, Hollywood hasn’t been far behind. A big screen adaptation was created in 2010, making Kinney’s simple illustrations painfully real, and the movie did some business, at least enough to inspire two sequels and 2017 reboot, which was essentially ignored by filmgoers. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” is brought back to life in 2021, this time as an animated endeavor, using Kinney’s artistry to guide the visual look of the effort, which isn’t long enough to be a feature, but isn’t exactly a television show either. It’s a highlight reel of the original book, with Kinney (who scripts) and director Swinton O. Scott III trying to create a breezy distraction for “Wimpy Kid” fans, launching a new franchise with much smaller dramatic goals. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Adrienne
It’s been 15 years since Adrienne Shelly was murdered inside her New York City apartment, and so much of her career has occurred after that horrible day. Director Andy Ostroy is Shelly’s widower, and he’s fearful that his late wife’s memory is lost, embarking on a mission to capture her talent and lifeforce in documentary form, with “Adrienne” much more than a simple valentine to a wonderful actress and filmmaker. It’s an act of catharsis from Ostroy, who confronts all that’s been left behind with the picture, trying to make sense of a horrific crime that ended the future he imagined, forcing him down a different path of parenthood and grief. “Adrienne” is a highly emotional viewing experience, dealing with raw feelings and memories of a special woman who tried to make her dreams happen, which they eventually did, only long after she was gone. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Silent Night
Just in time for the holiday season comes a film about the end of the world. “Silent Night” offers a Christmas story about family, friends, and the wonders of childhood, but writer/director Camille Griffin (making her debut) isn’t in the mood to be precious with the details of a special reunion. Instead, she’s constructing a sometimes unspeakably dark tale of finality, using the cloak of yuletide excitement to explore how relationships react to the news that everything on Earth will be dead in a matter of days. It’s not exactly a cheerful tale of celebration, but bleakness is what makes “Silent Night” periodically riveting, with Griffin getting into the horrors of this new reality, delivering an askew take on the tenacity of the human spirit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Benedetta
Director Paul Verhoeven doesn’t make movies for casual viewers. He wants a full-throated response to his endeavors, which always deal with charged conflicts and shocking scenes of violence and sexuality. Verhoeven experienced a career resurgence with 2016’s “Elle,” and now he’s back with “Benedetta,” which provides an unnerving ride of vicious human behavior, with this tale steeped in Christian history, adding a spiked sense of exploration when dealing with matters of power and cruelty. It’s raw work from Verhoeven (who co-scripts with David Birke), but one doesn’t expect anything less from the excitable helmer, who tries his best to make the viewing experience as Verhoeven-esque as the source material allows (the picture is an adaptation of 1986 book by Judith C. Brown), hitting hard with a sometimes crazy mix of insanity and opportunism, sold with burning passion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Encounter
Co-writer/director Michael Pearce tries to approach a story about developing insanity in a slightly unusual way for “Encounter,” which initially positions itself as a sci-fi tale of a potential alien invasion before exposing its true intent with a decidedly more earthbound crisis. Pearce maintains a steady level of dread in the feature, which deals with a road trip that brings an unhinged father and his two sons to an unknown destination, gradually exploring how the parent’s fragile mind is betraying his natural instincts, making things worse for everyone during his pursuit of protection. “Encounter” carries a degree of mystery, but Pearce ultimately wants to focus on feelings as already complicated relationships are pushed to the edge during a mental health crisis. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Wolf (2021)
There’s no big introduction or conclusion to “Wolf.” It just exists in an area of pure behavior, understanding the movement of potential madness as it comes after young minds used to trusting their own version of reality. It’s a strange picture from writer/director Nathalie Biancheri, who explores the gray areas of psychological ruin, with the feature resembling a project for first year acting students just beginning to learn about physical movement and character exploration. Such energy works for “Wolf,” which does well with smaller dramatic goals, electing to study select horrors and struggles while detailing a specific approach to therapy for patients who are beyond the boundaries of reason. Biancheri commits to her premise and sees it most of the way there, unafraid to make a modest movie about a deep internal itch. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – The Time Guardian
After the success of "Star Wars" in 1977 and its sequels in the early 1980s, film producers scrambled to cash in on a trend, offering all sorts of low- budget productions meant to exploit sci-fi endeavors capable of beguiling audiences with action on a much smaller scale. Australia didn't want to be left out of the fun, turning to the complexity of time travel for their offering of blockbuster entertainment: 1987's "The Time Guardian." Co- writer/director Brian Hannant (co-writer of "The Road Warrior") makes a valiant effort to deliver something big with the picture, filling it with rampaging cyborgs, laser weapons, a massive ship, and a supporting turn from Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher. However, the helmer can't quite get the feature out of first gear, fighting to make sense of the story and characterization while visibly struggling with his limited funding, trying not to make the whole thing look ridiculous. He's not entirely successful with that mission, with "The Time Guardian" best appreciated by viewers used to the world of B-movies and their disappointing limitations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Through the Fire
Co-writer/director Gary Marcum wanted to be a film director in the 1980s, and one of the few ways in for those without connections was the world of horror, offering instant marketplace appeal for any project looking to provide some frights. 1988's "Through the Fire" certainly resembles an effort to play into a trend, though Marcum doesn't have much of an imagination for creepy events, generally preferring to make a sluggish detective story instead. So much for genre thrills, leaving "Through the Fire" a tepid exploration of satanic doom and survivor panic, as Marcum doesn't aim high with the endeavor, more determined to complete the movie than work on its freak-out potential, missing a chance to do something alert with evil events and demonic stalking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – The Lamp
1986's "The Lamp" was slightly reworked for American audiences, turned into 1987's "The Outing," a more generic title for an endeavor that's loaded with interesting oddity. Vinegar Syndrome restores the original film for this Blu-ray release ("The Outing" was previously issued by Shout Factory in 2015), presenting fans with a chance to see the feature as it was intended, exploring the wrath of a malevolent jinn trapped in a lamp, waiting for his chance to strike as teenagers spend the night inside a museum of natural science. There's a lot to process with the picture, which follows multiple characters with different motivations, and there's a magical element to the endeavor, with a wish- granting genie transformed into a diabolical, supernatural presence. Director Tom Daley and screenwriter Warren Chaney don't push too hard on the senses with the effort, sticking to slasher cinema formula as they invest ways to eliminate characters and cause on-screen mayhem. And they do a fine job of it, working with the weirdness of the material to deliver some decent grotesqueries and amusing personalities, keeping the production on the move. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – The Borrower
Director John McNaughton made a strong impression with his filmmaking debut, 1986's "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." The potent horror movie launched the helmer as someone to watch, but it took some time for McNaughton to follow up his initial offering, returning in 1991 with "The Borrower," which is also a genre offering, but lacks the illness of "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." McNaughton attempts to get a little broader with his follow-up, ditching grit and shock value for a flatter take on violence, flirting with sci-fi touches for "The Borrower," which tracks an alien serial killer's experience mangling human prey on Earth. It's not exactly a radical step forward for McNaughton, and his limited experience shows throughout the endeavor, which whiffs with dark comedy and seems genuinely confused when it comes to storytelling. It's a scattered feature that never comes together with authority, though it does work as a highlight reel of practical effects, with gory encounters and strange visions easily becoming the best parts of this uneven picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Sound and Fury
The kids aren't alright in "Sound and Fury," a 1988 feature written and directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau. He takes viewers to a small area of France, studying the dual experiences of Bruno (Vincent Gasperitsch), a young teen new to the area, and Jean-Roger (Francois Negret), a seasoned juvenile delinquent who becomes his friend. Incredible behavioral darkness ensues, as Brisseau looks into the ways of adult influence and responsibility, embracing the chaos that comes when young men are empowered to be a destructive as possible, losing their precious innocence in the process. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Golden Arm
Many movies have explored the sport of arm wrestling, but there's only one film about the subculture that everyone remembers: the 1987 Sylvester Stallone flop, "Over the Top." The story of Lincoln Hawk and his fight for family and fortune on the arm-wrestling circuit was unintentionally ridiculous, and it provides some inspiration for "Golden Arm," which isn't a parody picture, but generally has the idea to use the sport as a way to showcase an enormous amount of silliness. The screenplay is credited to Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly, but their contributions are difficult to find, as "Golden Arm" is more of an improvisational festival, with the cast going riff-crazy to find the comedy of the endeavor, keeping the feature loose when it comes to jokes and rigid when it comes to plot. It's an amusing effort with plenty of arm-wrestling action, but structure isn't welcome, making the whole thing fatiguing long before it ends. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
It’s been nearly two decades since the release of the original “Resident Evil” film. Writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson and star Milla Jovovich worked to create their own take on the popular video game franchise, offering a slick adaptation that brought some cinematic excitement to the largely exploratory experience of the game. The hit movie spawned sequels, five of them, keeping Anderson and Jovovich employed for 14 years, fumbling around stories that quickly became secondary to big screen chaos. Now, after a four-year break, the series has returned to theaters, with “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” a fresh start for this world of horror, with writer/director Johannes Roberts in charge of making it all scary again with a faithful take on the source material, working to get gamers excited one more time for the “Resident Evil” universe. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Bruised
Halle Berry collected an Academy Award for her work in 2001’s “Monster’s Ball,” portraying a broken character dealing with an enormous amount of grief. The part gave Berry a chance to lose control on-screen, slamming around her emotional range, displaying her ability to dig deep and abandon vanity. “Bruised” is Berry’s directorial debut, and she plays it safe in a strange way, returning to the “Monster’s Ball” era of her career with another turn as a shattered woman clawing around for something to help numb her pain. It’s not the exact same performance, but a similar concept, only this time around, the character has a bit more power to explore, with the picture taking place in the world of mixed martial arts. Berry delivers gut-rot work in the feature, trying her best to make the material meaningful, but “Bruised” is basically a “Rocky” remake with a more violent sense of relationships and sporting achievement, doing little with the opportunities it has to explore different areas of responsibility and sacrifice. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
BRIAN ORNDORF 