In the world of low-budget horror, it takes a special vision to rise above the frequently dreary competition. I’m not sure if “The Pact” has any extraordinary qualities, but as the genre goes, it’s competent, suspenseful, and mercifully focused. Credit writer/director Nicholas McCarthy (making his feature-length filmmaking debut), who plays smartly with known elements, creating a chiller that carries itself with confidence, despite a lack of budgetary might keeping the picture small in scale. Although it doesn’t win any points for originality, “The Pact” is a tense, smoothly paced fright experience, proving once again that a little effort goes a long way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Because of the speedy nature of Woody Allen’s work ethic, his latest, “To Rome with Love,” is not a direct response to his last picture, the unexpected blockbuster “Midnight in Paris.” Following Allen’s filmography is a bit like riding a roller coaster, with “Paris” the impossibly perfect peak and “Rome” the unsettling drop, reinforcing the filmmaker’s erratic output, though even his misses carry a plethora of interesting elements. Continuing his tour of Europe, Allen attempts to embrace the possibility of Rome, with all of its romance, history, and temptation. The mix of whimsy and commentary doesn’t settle ideally for the master, who scrambles to pull together a comedy out of unfunny business. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a long time since Oliver Stone last visited the gutter, perhaps dating back to 1999’s “Any Given Sunday” and its aggressive depiction of the NFL. After touching base with his sentimental side (2006’s “World Trade Center”) and his beloved political routines (2008’s “W.”), the filmmaker is back to sharpening his knives with “Savages,” adapted from the book by Don Winslow — and perhaps should’ve stayed as one. Expository to a numbing degree and needlessly graphic to obtain shock value, the feature is a failed cinematic masturbation session by a director who always forgets he’s capable of greatness. Coarse and half-asleep, “Savages” is a waste of Stone’s time and energy, falling back on tired habits of provocation best left buried with his 1994 sensorial blast, “Natural Born Killers.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The world has endured 3D concert movies from Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, The Jonas Brothers, and the cast of “Glee.” Now comes Katy Perry, who’s older, wiser, and armed with a cream cannon, showering her devoted fans in white goo that I’m sure ruined a few exposed cell phones along the way. The best-selling recording artist with a candy fixation makes her way to the big screen in “Katy Perry: Part of Me,” a surprisingly emotional look at the history and world domination of the woman who once kissed a girl and liked it. Although expectedly cagey about the details of Perry’s private life (the “Part” of the title is accurate), the documentary is a flashy, enlightening time capsule of Perry’s career. It’s no concert film, but more of a backstage pass, permitting fans access to the singer and her turbulent year of mega-stardom. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With the release of “Spider-Man 3” in 2007, the franchise fell into a rut. While marked with impressive action set pieces and a few flashes of director Sam Raimi’s whiplash style, the second sequel was a storytelling mess, hesitant with a dramatic direction and overstuffed with inadequate villains. Instead of permitting Raimi to untangle the series with a fourth installment, the decision was made to reboot with a fresh creative force, restarting what began a mere decade ago, resulting in “The Amazing Spider-Man,” one of the fastest do-overs in film history. While fully recast and reorganized, it’s a disappointment to see the new Spidey adventure resemble Raimi’s initial stab at big screen wall-crawler excitement, down to identical plot turns and conflicts. With millions being spent to rework Spider-Man for a new generation, it comes as a great surprise to a find a movie that’s essentially a remake, glossed up with new tech toys but covering the same dramatic ground. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Without rehashing old criticisms, it’s been difficult to appreciate the work of Tyler Perry over the years. At this point in his career, the Madea movies act like his own personal ATM machine, raking in the box office coin to provide the filmmaker freedom to try on a few shades of melodrama in other features. After the general disinterest handed to February’s “Good Deeds,” it makes sense to be confronted with Madea again, with Perry sprinting to his most popular character as a way to hurriedly win back his audience before he’s off to his next endeavor. However, I suspect most of the icon’s die-hard followers won’t find much to enjoy about “Madea’s Witness Protection,” a picture that finds Perry channeling the comedies of Jerry Lewis. At least Lewis in his later years of performing. Like “The Day the Clown Cried.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The daily business of male strippers isn’t something seen on the screen very often. There’s 1983’s “A Night in Heaven,” a subplot in 1987’s “Summer School,” and if you squint hard enough, perhaps 1997’s “The Full Monty” counts as well. Forgive me if I’m not 100% versed in the subgene, but I have seen enough tales of drug abuse and movies about womanizing to recognize that “Magic Mike” flounders in the storytelling department. Attempting to gyrate away the staleness of the screenwriting, director Steven Soderbergh pulls out every trick in the book to make “Magic Mike” mean something beyond its parade of shaved backs and tanned buttocks, but it’s a lost cause, endeavoring to bring meaning to material best appreciated for its surface appeal. Much like Magic Mike himself, the film is better seen than heard. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“People Like Us” is the type of film that would be completely derailed by a simple act of honesty. The drama presented here could be wiped away in minutes if the lead character showed a little backbone and dumped his feelings at first contact, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, the screenplay is an exercise in prolonging the inevitable, making the viewer experience the discomfort of a man perfectly capable of solving his problems, but can’t quite make the leap in communication. The trick of “People Like Us” is making the audience not mind the unnatural delay, supplying characters dimensional enough to ignore their odd lack of common sense. The picture has that power. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director/actor Seth MacFarlane has built an empire with his hit cartoon “Family Guy,” so one can hardly blame the creator when his debut feature as a filmmaker, “Ted,” resembles an episode of the beloved series. Raunchy and ridiculous, “Ted” is an easy transition for MacFarlane, who brings to the screen a succession of gross-outs, non-sequiturs, and pop culture references, used to buttress a simple story of a magical wish gone horribly wrong. It’s a funny picture, never quite as sweet as MacFarlane imagines, but still generous with the silly stuff and captivatingly bizarre. And if you happen to adore the 1980 sci-fi extravaganza “Flash Gordon” as much as I do, than you should drop everything and purchase a ticket immediately. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Your Sister’s Sister” comes packaged in familiar wrapping, employing the loose improvisational techniques writer/director Lynn Shelton has favored throughout her career, last seen on the screen in the 2009 charmer, “Humpday.” Elevating her technical prowess and developing an ease with performers, Shelton hits an oddly touching note with her latest production, which machetes through dense emotional woods to grasp an appropriate balance between discomfort and disarming. It’s a funny, exposed picture that acts as a calamine lotion to the filmmaker’s itches, showing maturation that I hope carries Shelton to an exciting and insightful creative career behind the camera. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The dynamic between a father and his young son takes an especially dark turn in “Last Ride,” a largely atmospheric picture that carries itself confidently through some frightening displays of behavior. Mournful, with a central mystery more substantial than expected, the feature creates a compelling sit out of the barest of filmmaking elements, trusting the natural beauty of Australia to settle the soul while leads Hugo Weaving and Tom Russell spend the run time working to disturb with their unpredictable performances, capturing an uneasy and abusive familial relationship with a natural chemistry, guided patiently by director Glendyn Ivin. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com