Saving the best for last

While others will be running out this week to rent ALICE IN WONDERLAND or WOLFMAN, I’d stick with classic releases instead. A lot of Clint Eastwood profiled this week and an underrated Spielberg film.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Jean-Pierre Jeunet makes films full of whimsy and imagination. Most will remember Audrey Tautou as the irresistible waif in his modern classic AMELIE. Jeunet takes the same wide-eyed innocence and mischievousness of that film and mixes in a little HUDSUCKER PROXY and YOJIMBO and comes out with a delightful satire with boundless originality.

When Bazil (Dany Boon, JOYEUX NOEL) was young, his father was killed by a landmine. The tragic event drove his mother mad. As an adult, he takes a job at a movie rental store where one fateful night he is a victim of a random accidental shooting. Luckily, he survives with the bullet still lodged in his head. Unluckily, he loses his job and end out on the streets where he begins performing for pocket change.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Mike Newell’s film is the best movie adapted from a video game made thus far. It also happens to be the first good movie based on a video game. But the bar was set pretty low so Prince Dastan could easily jump over it with the help of Mr. Spectacle producer Jerry Bruckheimer. While I’ll probably need the sands of time to travel back and remember the film by the end of the summer, the journey while I was sitting in the theater was a nice trip.

King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN) had two sons — Tus (Richard Coyle, TOPSY-TURVY) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell, ROCKNROLLA). One day out in the market, he has a run in with Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal, BROTHERS), an orphan boy who saves another young child from having his hand cut off by palace guards. Taken by the boy’s spirit, the king adopts Dastan as one of his own.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Road is a grim gem

The week is another light week, but features a quad of great releases. A great new literary adaptation makes its journey to home entertainment. Two must-see classics are arriving on Blu-ray. Additionally, Blu-ray sees a new Criterion anthology of shorts from one of the most influential experimental filmmakers in history.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay, this psychological look at the effects of war understands what we feel and what others believe we should feel are completely different sometimes. Returning soldiers deal with this more acutely. Soldiers at war deal with death directly and sometimes often, while civilians see it at a distance until it hits them personally. So how does it feel to be the soldier that has to tell the next of kin about their loved one’s death?

Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster, 3:10 TO YUMA) is a returning soldier from Iraq and a decorated war hero. The military has assigned the recovering soldier to deliver death notices for the remainder of his enlistment. He is partnered with Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLINT), a recovering alcoholic who served in the first Gulf War. Stone’s single-mindedly adheres to the military manual on giving notice. He doesn’t want any confusion like the time a solider told a next of kin, or NOK, that their son was no longer with us and his mother thought he had defected.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

In my review for SHREK THE THIRD, I said, “[it] doesn’t walk the edge like the other films, but there are still enough flares of that same good ol’ SHREK that you remember why you were friends in the first place.” Three years later those flares have completely burned out. This “what if Shrek were never born” fantasy is the kind of desperate plot that tired sitcoms resort to.

Shrek (Mike Myers, AUSTIN POWERS) has given up his kingdom to settle down in the swamp with Fiona (Cameron Diaz, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) and the kids. The only problem is his repetitive and safe domestic life doesn’t sit well with the ogre who can no longer scare a child. So when Rumpelstiltskin (Watt Dohrn) makes Shrek a deal to trade one day from his childhood for one more day as a real ogre, the big green dummy signs on the dotted line.
Read the rest of this entry »

Buy It Now!

Read my original INVICTUS review here!

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment brings Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela tale to Blu-ray in a 1080p/VC-1 edition. While the picture quality isn’t blow-your-mind, the transfer keeps the integrity of the original source. Film grain is presented evenly across the entire film. This is not a title that has the three-dimensional pop to it. Color balance is nicely done across the board with the richest moments coming during the final rugby match between South Africa in the green and gold and New Zealand in their stark white and black. Cinematographer Tom Stern doesn’t go for flashy camera work and this transfer keeps true to his realistic visual approach.

Likewise, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track takes the same realistic approach. For this dialogue heavy film, the soundscape takes an opportunity to draw the viewer into key moments. Rugby matches bring a chance for use of the full range of speakers, giving the impression that the viewer is in the stadium or even on the field. In particularly dramatic moments, the LFE channel is heightened to great affect in generating a feel of the guttural power of the rugby players tussling on the field. You might find yourself singing “Ole, Ole, Ole” along with the massive crowd of digital humans, which is given the fullness of a real stadium event.

Read the rest of this entry »

Inspiring Man, Inspiring Sports Story

One of the very best films of last year has arrived on Bu-ray and DVD this week. We’ll also take a look at two solid films that are coming to Blu-ray. There are also Buzzed About films that have me very excited to check out.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Like me, director Werner Herzog has never seen the original BAD LIEUTENANT, starring Harvey Keitel and directed by Abel Ferrara. So he took this project on as an original. That’s of course how I had to go into watching it. It seems like the perfect project for Herzog, following a larger than life character with an obsession.

This character is Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage, LEAVING LAS VEGAS), a police detective in New Orleans. Before the waters have receded he and his partner Stevie Pruit (Val Kilmer, TOMBSTONE) stumble upon a prisoner still locked away in a cell as the water rises. The detectives contemplate leaving him to die (Terence doesn’t want to ruin his expensive underwear), but he decides to jump in anyway. In the process he injuries his back severely and will suffer pain the rest of his life.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Coming from Guy Ritchie, the director of LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, it’s not surprising that this Sherlock Holmes is a more physical chap. But what is surprising is how it is handled. While this film has a contemporary vibe, it stays true to the spirit of the famed character. He is a detective and a skeptic and those qualities drive him and this film.

To start Holmes (Robert Downey Jr., IRON MAN) and his partner Dr. John Watson (Jude Law, A.I.) are on a desperate chase to stop Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong, STARDUST) from committing another ritual murder. Blackwood is caught and sentenced to hang. On the night of his execution he warns Holmes that he will be back to kill again. Soon ritual murders begin again and Blackwood’s tomb is broken out of from the inside. As London descends into a panic over the supernatural, Holmes is determined to discover the Earthly truth behind the mystery.

Read the rest of this entry »