• Blu-ray Review – Some Kind of Wonderful

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-24-10h27m59s212

    While it probably wasn't intended to be this way, 1987's "Some Kind of Wonderful" represents the end of writer/producer John Hughes's streak of teen-centric entertainment. He scored a hit with 1986's "Pretty in Pink," joined by director Howard Deutch, but he was allegedly unhappy with the conclusion of the movie, which was reworked to satisfy audience demand, not Hughes's original vision. With "Some Kind of Wonderful," a second pass at adolescent ache is made, this time with a gender switch involving the leading actors and a clearer view when it comes to the needs of the heart. What Hughes and Deutch offer for their second go-around is another extraordinarily charming and sincere examination of insecurity and powerlessness, with casting achievements doing something special with Hughes's lived-in material, creating a superb companion piece to "Pretty in Pink," though it retains a distinct personality of its own. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – She’s Having a Baby

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-24-16h18m44s096

    Looking to mature as a storyteller after a few years exploring the pitfalls of adolescence in pictures such as "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and "Weird Science," writer/director John Hughes elects to make a movie about himself with 1988's "She's Having a Baby" (which was shot before 1987's "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"). It's not a bio-pic, but Hughes cherry picks parts of his life for the screenplay, exploring his early years of love, cohabitation, employment demands, and, eventually, pregnancy. It's the helmer's most personal statement on the ways of relationships and fears, and his most scattered endeavor, failing to wrangle a narrative to help line-up all his vignettes on domestic life and workplace frustrations. That's not to dismiss the feature, which is filled with sharp observations on partnership and conception. Hughes's ideas are crystal clear at times, resulting in hilarious scenes that reflect a pained reality about maturity. There's just not a straight line to grasp in the work, giving it an episodic feel, with Hughes and his team clearly wrestling in the editing room to find some sort of shape to the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Panther Squad

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-17-13h10m26s968

    In the great push to find cult films worthy of celebration and mockery, I'm not sure how 1984's "Panther Squad" has fallen through the cracks. It's pure ridiculousness from director Pierre Chevalier, a longtime exploitation helmer who, in his last feature, decides to go nuts, pitting Sybil Danning against an armed space protection organization bent on trying to stop a global communication device from escaping Earth. Or something like that. "Panther Squad" has a lot of action and assorted distractions, but secure storytelling isn't a top priority for the production. Technical expertise is also politely refused by Chevalier, who elects to march forward with whatever he's got, out to create a global adventure with only a few locations, a limited cast, and Danning's sheer determination to deliver an Eastwood-ian lead performance of pure attitude and physical might. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Minnesota Movie Ads – June 1976

    Minnesota Movie Ads 1

    (more…)

  • Blu-ray Review – The Norseman

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-11-13h19m43s387

    1978's "The Norseman" offers a "based on fact" take on the saga of the Vikings, that "lusty horde of blonde giants" who traveled from Norway seeking adventure and treasure, ending up in a place they called "Vineland," which we know today as America. And when one thinks of a typical Viking, the image of a mid-'70s Lee Majors comes to mind, seen here wearing a snazzy little disco mustache, sweating under the Tampa sun, refusing to cover his southern accent and brunette hair (blonde giants!). Director Charles B. Pierce ("The Town That Dreaded Sundown," "The Legend of Boggy Creek") promises a historical picture at the opening of "The Norseman," but he doesn't really bother with any of that, looking to create a pulpy, low-budget actioner for drive-in audiences perhaps too sleepy to care about the fine details of the time period. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – A Call to Spy

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-10-12h26m36s888

    It's not easy out there for a World War II story. English television and PBS productions have cornered the market on "lost" tales of heroism and struggle, especially when exploring female achievements during a devastating time. Writer/producer/star Sarah Megan Thomas tries to add something to the mix with "A Call to Spy," which examines three real-world personalities involved in the Special Operations Executive, an organization committed to infiltrating France during WWII as a way to disrupt Nazi movement across Europe. Thomas has a vision to celebrate such courageous actions, but "A Call to Spy" isn't much more than a miniseries compacted into one film, never cinematic enough to rise above the competition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Ice Road

    ICE ROAD 1

    Writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh hasn’t made a movie in a decade, last seen on screen with the forgettable “Kill the Irishman.” “The Ice Road” is his big return to the industry, taking command of a Liam Neeson action film during the actor’s Charles Bronson period, with the star taking simple jobs that play up his brawniness. There’s nothing wrong with working, and it’s nice to have Neeson around, once again becoming the most appealing element of the production. Neeson squints and barks like a pro, but Hensleigh has a little more in mind for “The Ice Road,” trying to create a slam-bang thriller involving big rigs and a race to a miner rescue, hoping to keep the picture busy with multiple subplots and a collection of suspicious characters. The feature is incredibly dopey at times, but Hensleigh knows how put on a show, with the “Die Hard with a Vengeance” and “Armageddon” screenwriter perfectly aware of absurdity, hoping to generate enough of a white-knuckle ride to cover for the endeavor’s weaker ideas, including its depiction of villainy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – F9

    F9 2

    Unlike previous installments, the makers of “F9” know they’re coming back for more. There will two more chapters in this real never-ending story, “The Fast and the Furious” saga, and the latest sequel is clearly out to clean up the mess that’s been left behind by various filmmakers trying to advance an ongoing series that never had a blueprint to begin with. Bad guys became heroes, the dead are now alive, and brothers that never existed before are now integral to the plot. It’s been a weird (and wearisome) ride with “The Fast and the Furious,” with every endeavor hungry to escalate action and melodrama, and “F9” is no different, only now there’s some freshly poured narrative concrete to follow into the future, with screenwriter Daniel Casey and Justin Lin (who returns to the director’s chair after taking the last two movies off) putting together a plan to establish bad guys, evil plans, and even more family ties to manage, inspiring at least two features to come. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Werewolves Within

    WEREWOLVES WITHIN 1

    “Werewolves Within” is a loose adaptation of a VR game of the same name, released in 2016. It was a title without cinematic potential, with gameplay involving a group of characters sitting around a campfire, trying to zero in on the lycanthrope of the gathering while asking one another questions. There’s a hefty screenwriting challenge here for Mishna Wolff, who’s tasked with taking a social deduction experience and transforming it into the suspense picture with big laughs. Tonally, “Werewolves Within” holds together, merging violence and horseplay comfortably, creating an immersive genre event populated with strange personalities. It’s an entertaining film, but it’s best to know beforehand that the endeavor is not a horror extravaganza, with Wolff trying to retain the original game’s escalation of accusations, offering a talky take on a creature feature emergency. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – False Postive

    FALSE POSITIVE 3

    “False Positive” is a slight reworking of “Rosemary’s Baby,” trading satanic panic for modern fertility fears, providing a different kind of jolt with a similar sense of creepiness. Co-writer/director John Lee is a somewhat strange choice for the project, with “The Heart, She Hollar” creator and “Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday” helmer certainly familiar with weirdness, but less proven with genre entertainment. He’s joined by co-writer/actress Ilana Glazer, with the pair endeavoring to update the patriarchal themes of “Rosemary’s Baby” while delving deeper into surreal imagery and freak-out reactions. “False Positive” is a slow-burn endeavor, much too leisurely at times, but Glazer and Lee have certain ideas on the female experience that emerge with clarity, and they get awfully close to fascinating levels of darkness at times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Good on Paper

    GOOD ON PAPER 2

    A veteran stand-up comedian, Iliza Shlesinger made a positive impression as an actress in last year’s “Spencer Confidential.” Forced to fight for screen time against Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg’s penchant for noisiness, Shlesinger managed to be funny and alert in an aggressive role. Aiming to generate a leading part for herself, Shlesinger takes a screenwriting credit on “Good on Paper,” creating a study of insecurity and treachery in the world of relationships, possibly drawing from her own experiences with a film that’s “based on a lie.” The approach seems to represent a general avoidance of romantic comedy formula as the lead character finds love with a man whose trustworthiness is elusive at best. The concept has potential, and the material gets most of the way there with comedic disasters, industry awareness, and snappy banter. Shlesinger doesn’t have a third act for the endeavor, but there’s enough lived-in discomfort to support a lively picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Vicious Fun

    VICIOUS FUN 1

    “Vicious Fun” initially brings viewers back to a time when horror journalism was hitting its stride, offering power to reporters covering the latest in macabre entertainment, with the 1983 setting putting the action in the middle of the slasher cinema trend. While some Fangoria fumes are huffed, director Cody Calahan quickly abandons the most original element of his feature, getting rid of magazine authority and industry awareness to eventually make his own scary movie. Calahan isn’t pushing for major chills with “Vicious Fun,” preferring to make more of a comedy that’s frequently interrupted by gore zone visits, with characters dispatched in ghastly ways. The picture should be a carnival ride, but Calahan isn’t prepared to make something truly funny, keeping the effort wildly broad to invite a sense of fun that never fully arrives. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Lansky

    LANSKY 3

    Filmmakers love gangster stories, and tales about Meyer Lansky have been told many times before. There’s the usual tough guy stance, with orders and intimidation offered with equal restraint, reinforcing Lansky’s power as organized crime took hold of gambling operations in the 1940s and ‘50s. There’s violence, women, and money, and writer/director Eytan Rockaway isn’t about to ignore the cinematic possibilities of these vices, with his “Lansky” yet another examination of the criminal life in motion. What’s new here is time with a different character, with Rockaway creating a dual examination of strained men and their costly mistakes. Expectations for a Meyer Lansky bio-pic are not met with the feature, which only cherry picks a few areas of underworld unrest. The rest of the effort is a mild drama about the hunt for missing money and the stress of personal responsibility, and it’s not a particularly gripping take on a complex man. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Satan’s Blood

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-10-12h53m06s873

    There's an odd opening for "Satan's Blood" that introduces the audience to the teachings of Professor Vasallo, an expert on dark magic and the occult. The picture promises "accuracy and authenticity" when dealing with black mass particulars, leading to an additional prologue that observes a Satanic ritual where the head priest, an old man, is offered an opportunity to grope and lick a young woman prepared for sacrifice. It's at this point where any possibility for an evocative understanding of occult worship ends, pushed aside by the real creative goal of the movie: sexploitation. Director Carlos Puerto doesn't dream big with "Satan's Blood," keeping things intimate with this study of evil influence and nudity. It begins like a college lecture and ends with Argento-style insanity, and somewhere in the middle is a mildly engaging chiller featuring at least two characters who have no concept of danger. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Cthulhu Mansion

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-04-11h26m12s921

    A director with a long history in genre entertainment, Juan Piquer Simon ("Pieces," "Slugs," "The Rift") attempts to do something with the static location of a house that's being taken over by a demonic force. Taking pieces of "Poltergeist" and trying to play tribute to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Simon offers 1992's "Cthulhu Mansion," which pits cocaine-dealing punks against the forces of evil during one long night in Madrid. Simon isn't blessed with a major budget for the endeavor, but he tries his best to create something memorably macabre, providing genre fans with loathsome creeps and bizarre deaths to help fill the run time. More exotic elements of supernatural menace aren't quite as enchanting, but "Cthulhu Mansion" delivers compelling weirdness as Simon creates a war between generations and highlights building pressure from beyond. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Minnesota Movie Ads – June 1979

    Minnesota Movie Ads 19

    (more…)

  • Blu-ray Review – Rogue

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-04-11h07m33s597

    While the team at Lionsgate is surely trying to find anything to entice viewers into watching "Rogue," the cover of the Blu-ray offers a note that the picture is "from the director of 'Silent Hill: Revelation'," and provides images of star Megan Fox and a snarling male lion, which isn't even featured in the film. There's little on the outside that seems promising about the production, and it turns out there isn't much to embrace about the movie, which presents itself as some type of actioner with a conservation message buried beneath layers of tepid plotting, bad screenwriting, and weak performances. "Rogue" begins with a bang, announcing itself with big guns, bad guys, and pogo stick cinematography (credited to Brendan Barnes), but it soon settles into a "Jaws" situation of survival on an African lion farm, only writers Isabel Bassett and M.J. Bassett (who also directs) don't push hard enough on animal activity, making the effort more about exposition than exploitation, which dials down the potential fun factor of the material. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Centigrade

    Vlcsnap-2021-02-03-10h09m42s701

    "Centigrade" is a survival picture that's based on true story, though the specifics of the inspiration are vague at best. It's better to put the reality of the story aside and approach the feature as a two-hander drama, where the participants are stuck inside of a car buried in the snow for 85 minutes of screen time. Screenwriters Daley Nixon and Brendan Walsh (who also directs) have quite the creative task, trying to make near immobility into a nail- biting experience of panic. "Centigrade" doesn't achieve a few of its limited goals, but the movie is largely successful as a claustrophobic mission of self-preservation and logic. It's not the easiest film to sit through, presenting all sorts of anguish and argumentative behavior, but Walsh believes in the endeavor's importance as an offering of emotionality and perseverance, even when he can't communicate such urgency to the viewer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Luca

    LUCA 1

    After getting caught up in a lust for sequels for few years, Pixar Animation Studios continues their return to original stories with “Luca,” which follows the successful releases of “Onward” and “Soul.” After exploring fantasy realms and jazz, the company now focuses on the delights of Italy, presenting a tale of sea monsters experiencing the wonders of Vespas and the heavenly highs of pasta. The screenplay by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones has a lot of fun soaking up the sights and sounds of an Italian coastal town, and they do well with the unreality of the story, creating distinct characters brought to life through outstanding voice work. It’s the Pixar Formula that’s a little too heavy this time around, hurting the brightness of the feature, with its merriment periodically interrupted by tiresome dramatics and familiar messages on the power of friendship and family. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard

    HITMAN'S WIFE'S BODYGUARD 1

    The success of 2017’s “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” came as a great surprise to everybody, but I’m guessing the producers were downright shocked at the audience response to the feature. It was a throwaway comedy for the late-August crowds, enjoying wonderful marketplace timing with a post-“Deadpool” appearance by Ryan Reynolds. “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” filled a need for viewers looking for big action and bigger performances, and now the gang’s returned for the awkwardly titled sequel, “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” which does what many unnecessary sequels do: rehash the original endeavor to maximize potential profits. There’s no bold creative leap in “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” just more noise from director Patrick Hughes, a once promising helmer whose mission with the continuation is to make an even more obnoxious movie with a bigger budget, keeping the talent screaming and the stunt set pieces chaotic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com