The last few years haven’t been kind to actor Vince Vaughn. Once a firecracker of a comedic talent, Vaughn hasn’t really charmed audiences in a significant manner since 2005’s “Wedding Crashers,” spending subsequent years trying to land his own holiday perennial (“Four Christmases,” “Fred Claus”), survive indie films (“Lay the Favorite”), and slog through disastrous comedies (“The Internship,” “The Watch,” and “Couples Retreat”). Looking to dial down his rapid-fire persona for a bit of Thanksgiving warmth, Vaughn saunters up to “Delivery Man” as quietly as possible, hoping to come across appealing in a picture that’s programmed to tug at heartstrings. It’s an interesting change of pace for the star, but the movie doesn’t work. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A little over a year ago, “The Hunger Games” made its cinematic debut, wowing audiences delighted to see the work of author Suzanne Collins brought to the screen. For those outside the circle of fandom, the picture was a difficult sell, slowed by tremendous exposition, disrupted by an absurd use of shaky-cam cinematography, and cursed with a deflating climax that promised nail-biting situations of survival, only to gradually slow to a crawl. Now there’s a sequel, “Catching Fire,” and a change in the director’s chair, with Francis Lawrence taking over for Gary Ross. Although the narrative continues down an established path to dystopian revolution, there’s renewed purpose to this part two, finding “Catching Fire” skillfully communicating beats of unrest and despair, finding a way to help the ongoing franchise settle in as an energizing story of an underground uprising. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Heartache and harmonies help shape the experience of “The Broken Circle Breakdown.” It’s not an easy film to summarize, but few Belgium-born bluegrass tragedies are, arriving in a time-scrambled manner that’s fluidly realized, shaping an unusual take on the arc of a combustible relationship hit from all sides by woe. Co-writer/director Felix Van Groeningen manages this unusual vision with exceptional care, creating a kind of cinematic poetry out of disorientation, with music the glue that holds the picture together. “The Broken Circle Breakdown” is a stunning, poignant feature that deals with troubling examples of mourning and fractured communication, yet holds as a vivid statement of love in all its forms. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it’s being marketed as a tearjerker, “The Book Thief” is far stranger than it appears. Perhaps fans of the 2006 novel by Markus Zusak won’t be unnerved by the oddity contained within the film, but newcomers to this tale of wartime perseverance and the joys of literacy might find themselves baffled by a few of the elements that define this story. For example, “The Book Thief” is narrated by Death, who provides a running commentary on the extraction of individual souls and the beauty of expiration. Didn’t see that one coming, did you? Surprise is a valuable weapon in this otherwise familiar tale, keeping viewers alert enough to make it through this overlong but sincere coming-of-age saga. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I’m not sure what screenwriter Matt Drake (“Project X”) originally had in mind for “Charlie Countryman,” but in the hands of director Fredrik Bond, the picture is turned into a mess of ideas and motivations sliding around the screen under the guise of youthful impetuousness. It’s the cinematic equivalent of somebody rubbing their bottom on shag carpeting to work up a static electric charge, working furiously to build a sense of excitement that never comes to fruition, despite admirable aspirations to work the effort into a tizzy. Although gifted colorful locations and glossy HD cinematography, “Charlie Countryman” is too manic and meandering to achieve the emotional authenticity it’s searching for. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Cold Turkey” concerns the release of long-held animosities plaguing a dysfunctional family during the Thanksgiving holiday. Writer/director Will Slocombe isn’t exactly out to win any prizes for originality with this picture, following in the footsteps of a great number of filmmakers fascinated with the contrast of celebratory traditions and bruising emotional realities. In the movie’s favor is an unusual determination to find a frequency of unbearable behavior and remain there for 80 minutes, showing refreshing tonal bravery as the script inspects the callousness of characters who can’t seem to get their lives together, even for a single day. The discomfort found in the feature is overwhelming at times, which is a lot more interesting than many of the dramatic developments Slocombe serves up. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To her credit, director Kat Corio has attempted to shake things up during her short career, trying on different stories of romance and perceived personal ruin. However, her storytelling gifts rarely match her ambition, with “A Case of You” floundering in a way familiar to anyone who caught “And While We Were Here” and “Life Happens.” A romantic comedy for twentysomethings, “A Case of You” labors to conjure the panic of a love life in today’s world of social media sleuthing, aiming to put a contemporary spin on age-old romantic comedy clichés, sold by actors in desperate need of a change in scenery. Some jokes land as intended, and there’s a weirdly star-studded supporting cast, but Corio isn’t brave enough to make the movie matter, eventually submitting to painfully labored formula to land this underwhelming effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sequels with a great divide of time between installments are a rare thing, but when they do happen, usually there’s a reason, either financial or fandom, that’s motivating the return to screens. There was a 28-year gap between “Tron” and “Tron: Legacy,” 22 years between “Psycho” and “Psycho II,” and 19 years between “Rambo III” and “Rambo.” It’s been 14 years since the release of “The Best Man,” though it’s difficult to tell if anyone noticed. Greeted with a box office yawn when it was originally released, it seems that if there was any time to mount a follow-up, it would’ve been within striking distance of 1999. Instead, it’s the year 2013, and the gang’s been reunited for another round of misunderstandings and betrayals, only now the group is a little older but not necessarily wiser, with writer/director Malcolm D. Lee trying to rekindle the chemistry that informed his helming debut, perhaps too late for comfort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Foodie culture is inescapable these days. It seems everyone has a cultured, measured opinion about mealtime execution, with thousands of blogs, shows, and articles dissecting the details of technique and flavor. However, at the core of creation is passion and inspiration, guiding forces that can turn the blandest of ingredients into a sensorial experience, displaying a rich appreciation for tradition and, in some cases, innovation. The documentary “Spinning Plates” take a look at three restaurants in America, each with their own backstory of struggle and unique culinary viewpoint. Mercifully, this is not a Food Network-style itemizing of idiosyncrasy, but an emotional understanding of inspiration and financial struggle, exploring how these establishments manage day-to-day with the help of family, friends, and adoration for the unifying power of food. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been a films made about the Beat Generation, but few have been so obviously targeted to entice a young generation of moviegoers. As common in today’s superhero-shellacked marketplace, “Kill Your Darlings” is an origin story of sorts, heading back into the thick of WWII, where the world received its first lungful of creativity from the likes of Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac — a trio of writers who would go on to challenge literary and cultural stagnancy with their liquid minds. “Kill Your Darlings” dramatizes the development of this artistic liberation, using a tale of obsession and murder as passageway into a private world of intelligence, recklessness, and revolution. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s interesting to note that the poster for “Sunlight Jr.” features a picture of its two stars, Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon, smiling. In the film itself, there’s little time for such positive indulgence. It’s deceptive marketing, but it has to be, as most viewers probably wouldn’t go near the movie if they knew exactly what type of experience awaited them. This is an impossibly dark effort, launched under the guise of social realism, but carries a heavy tone of punishment, with writer/director Laurie Collyer going out of her way to make the audience feel every disappointment and mistake. Instead of reflective, “Sunlight Jr.” feels calculated — 90 minutes of cinematic flagellation without the expected profundity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Education is under fire these days, with monetary concerns taking top priority at universities around America. Documentarian Frederick Wiseman, a filmmaker lauded for his spare style and observational approach, isolates the worry to a single institution, with “At Berkeley” exploring the debate and daily business for the venerated California campus, taking in the sway of life found on hallowed grounds. At 244 minutes, it almost lasts as long as an actual semester, yet the extended run time permits Wiseman to feel out the pressure put on school leaders and witness classroom activity, soaking up the brilliance at stake as budgets expand, leaving Berkeley scrambling to find a way to balance out the needs of faculty and students. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy parody pictures again, here comes Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer to ruin the gift of laughter for another filmgoing year. After the unsurprising success of their 2010 “Twilight” riff, “Vampires Suck,” the boys have return to the teen lit template with “The Starving Games,” which sends up “The Hunger Games” in a most obvious manner, but such thick-fingered finesse is all Friedberg and Seltzer are capable of. After “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie,” “Disaster Movie,” and “Meet the Spartans,” it’s safe to report that “The Starving Games” falls perfectly in line with their previous endeavors. That’s critic code for, “Dear lord, this feature is insufferable, please make it stop.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s not that there shouldn’t be any adaptations of the Charles Dickens book, “Great Expectations,” but it would benefit the filmmakers if they elected to space out the productions, putting a few years between attempts. After a 2011 BBC miniseries with Gillian Anderson made its way to America in 2012, this Mike Newell-directed version hits screens a year after its British debut. That’s a lot of “Expectations” to manage, especially when this latest effort to realize the work doesn’t have the luxury of time, speeding through the story, sacrificing characterization and nuance of plot to stuff it all into a single picture. The strain shows, and while the tech credits are undeniably striking, this “Great Expectations” is merely perfunctory, not essential. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com