Over the last three years, multiplexes have welcomed the release of two moderately successful exorcism pictures (“The Rite” and “The Last Exorcism”) and three blockbuster “Paranormal Activity” movies. “The Devil Inside” is a no-budget effort seeking to combine the two aesthetics into one easily marketable event. Merging found-footage theatrics with demonic ragings, the feature is a formulaic snoozer carrying an enormous amount of exposition and very little scares. There’s just no discernable effort here that’s worth the time and money invested, with co-writer/director William Brent Bell coasting on fundamental fright moves, refusing to challenge the well-worn subgenre past audience expectations. What’s truly scary here is how little “The Devil Inside” invests in legitimate tension. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The best horror movies tend to include the audience on the doomsday celebration, creating a sizable point of entry to develop a lasting feeling of dread. “Kill List” is a deliberately incomprehensible offering of terror from Ben Wheatley, a filmmaker with an obvious command of the motion picture arts, but not someone interested in laying down a welcome mat for visitors to his dark imagination. He’s a fascinating creative force carrying an unusual amount of aggression, with “Kill List” a feature sure to disturb anyone able to make it past the leisurely opening act. Mumbled and intentionally impenetrable, the effort is a taxing sit with enormously skillful screen elements, molded into an interpretive shocker that’s often not worth the time to unravel. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Norwegian Wood” is dark poetry, a tragic love story that combats the inherent cruelty of the tale with lush images of nature and location. It’s a troubling narrative perfectly packaged, unfurling a dramatic sweep of personal loss with a cinematographic precision that generates a specific appreciation of mood when the script occasionally leaves out the details. The expanded air allows director Tran Anh Hung space to feel around the frame, probing for unspoken ways to articulate the difficult relationships and growing pains scattered around this visually striking, melancholy feature film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s much to appreciate about the independent production “Roadie,” and one element that’s fairly easy to detest. For the most part, this is a peaceful character study about lives in neutral, greeting a trio of adults clinging to the eroding vitality and promise of their youth, facing a far more dismal reality miles away from the glory they’ve envisioned for themselves. It’s a humorous, itchy ride of remembrance with one distinct creative speed bump, but co-writer/director Michael Cuesta grasps an appealing mood of discomfort that’s marvelously executed by the cast, hitting a few persuasive beats of disappointment and resignation that keeps the story grounded in an intriguing, lived-in reality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Watching “Shelter” feels like viewing two separate pictures sewn hastily together. One side of the movie is an admittedly engrossing multiple personality disorder dissection with mildly effective suspense inclinations, the other side consists of undefined supernatural elements meant to give the story a unique kick, away from the genre norm. “Shelter” also comes from the screenwriter of 2003’s “Identity,” which is an excellent clue to the head games and cheats contained within. The conflicting speeds of the feature create chaos, derailing a familiar but promising junk food thriller, which tries much too hard to keep the viewer off the scent of a mystery they will likely show limited interest in to begin with. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” is a deliberately obscure feature, never allowing the viewer access to clarity of thought. It’s an exercise in screen stylistics and editorial precision, overseen by director Lynne Ramsay, who’s worked this routine before in “Ratcatcher” and “Morvern Callar.” Her fussy visual process results in striking images, but little emotional connection to the events unfolding, which require an appreciation of psychological nuance to even begin to understand. Instead, the director keeps outsiders at arm’s length, perhaps even refusing an audience all together, with the film perfectly happy in its own orbit, raising Hell for reasons unknown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Rarely does a filmmaker approach the internalized disorientation of sexual identity with the same amount of integrity as Dee Rees and “Pariah.” It’s a deeply flawed picture, but the core intensity of contemplation and hesitation is outstanding, allowing the characters a life beyond cliché as they hunt for some form of stability in a tumultuous time of adolescence and domestic discord. It’s a passionate, superbly acted movie, with Rees making her feature-length directorial debut. I have a feeling we’ll being hearing about her dramatic efforts for a long time to come. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

At the very least, “The Darkest Hour” has a unique idea for its attempt at an alien invasion, imagining a world being overrun by beings of pure energy, essentially making the malevolent outer space force invisible for most of the film. To get to the creature feature basics, one must endure a full court press of ghastly moviemaking decisions, creating a dispiriting amateur ambiance with a premise that seems capable of coughing up a few easy thrills. Director Chris Gorak won’t allow any fun to peek through this defiantly lifeless motion picture, which consistently resembles a product that’s been hacked down to the bone in terms of characterizations and plot, trying to hit as many marketable alien attacks as it can over 80 minutes, taking a torch to narrative cohesion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

20 years ago, Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” would’ve been a very different movie — lighter, schmaltzy, and soaring. Today, the feature represents the director’s current tastes in wartime realism and elongated emotional momentum, trying diligently to cater to the old Spielberg screen magic, only to be blocked by a matured filmmaker who’s rusty with this type of material. The two creative sides never quite settle on a consistency for this episodic adventure, keeping “War Horse” unsteady, earnest yet painfully dull. While it seems like grand slam material for the bearded maestro, the story rarely gets off the ground, lost between its dreamy storybook qualities and need to reinforce the bone-chilling tragedy of war. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To be underwhelmed by a Cameron Crowe movie feels awful. He’s a filmmaker with such an open heart, a defenseless master of the soulful ache, and it kills me to admit that I was rarely moved by “We Bought a Zoo,” painfully aware of its well-oiled mechanical parts. It’s a sweet picture, but rarely genuine, working through a formulaic journey of enlightenment and grief in a manner that recalls a particularly flaccid Disney production. Crowe tries valiantly to find crevices of authentic woe, but a few searing moments of honest pain are steamrolled by a feature that wants to be loved in a big bad way. It’s troubling to watch the desperation unfold. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Artist” is perfectly pleasant, affectionate, studied, charming, and masterfully performed. It’s a fine motion picture with an inescapable hook of nostalgia, crafted with care and attention to detail. Its artistry is never in question, and cinephiles will surely slap themselves silly with delight, standing before an affectionate resurrection of the silent film era. Appreciating “The Artist” is simple, enjoying the feature is another matter entirely. It’s tough not to come off as a Grinch with this sort of effortlessly lovable effort, but there are certain productions that wear a broad smile and carry little personality, with director Michel Hazanavicius’s valentine to moviemaking days of yore perfectly, utterly, monumentally…fine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com