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Read my review of BLACK SWAN.

Fox’s AVC-encoded transfer of Darren Aronofsky’s dark ballet thriller is true to its source. Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique used a combination of 16mm film and digital cameras. For a relatively low-budget production, the smaller cameras were easier to move around and give the filmmakers a documentary feel. The 1080p Blu-ray is mixed bag of scenes with heavy grain and sharper digital imagery. So the noise to be found in the darker scenes, could be from the digital source. Despite these issues, the presentation provides nice detail in the brighter scenes. Note Nina’s pink bedroom. That serves as a good transition into the transfers best quality. While the palette is mostly white, black and gray, those tones are represented in perfect contrast and inky black levels. As for any digital anomolies, I found none.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 matches the picture presentation wonderfully. Great use of the back speakers and directionality serve the psychological thriller well. Unexpected noises from behind can even spook the most jaded viewer. The score and music are mixed terrifically, never overplaying the dialogue. The LFE track comes into play during the nightclub scene where the house music is thumping.

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What can I say about Sylvester Stallone’s THE EXPENDABLES other than it gives you what you expect? Aging action stars. Explosions. Soldiers of fortune. Explosions. Lots of fisticuffs. Explosions. Snarky dialogue. Oh, did I mention explosions. For some that will be plenty, but for most it won’t be enough.

Stallone plays Barney Ross, the leader of a group of soldiers of fortune. The film opens with the men on a mission in Africa where tensions boil between teammates Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren, ROCKY 4) and Yin Yang (Jet Li, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA) over hanging one of the Somali pirates. Later Ross meets with the secretive Mr. Church (Bruce Willis, DIE HARD), who offers his team a job to overthrow the dictator on the island of Vilena named General Garza (David Zayas, TV’s DEXTER). Once there he discovers that he’s been commissioned by the general’s own daughter Sandra (Gisele Itie). Turns out, her father is just a puppet for ruthless ex-CIA agent James Munrow (Eric Roberts, THE DARK KNIGHT).

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Director Rodrigo Garcia has history of making hyperlink films where the lives of various characters overlap. MOTHER AND CHILD actually focuses on less characters than his NINE LIVES or THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER. With a touch of poetry, the film is a character piece about what it means to be a mother and have a mother.

Karen (Annette Bening, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT) is a nurse, who is caring for her ailing mother Nora (Eileen Ryan, MAGNOLIA). Though it happened more than 35 years ago, the dying woman won’t let her daughter live down a teen pregnancy. That child was given up for adoption and later named Elizabeth (Naomi Watts, KING KONG). Now she’s a ruthless businesswoman whose determination impresses her new boss Paul (Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION). And turns him on. Meanwhile, Lucy (Kerry Washington, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) is struggling with her inability to get pregnant and decides to adopt with husband Joseph (David Ramsey, CON AIR).

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Dario Argento is known for making giallos (bloody Italian thrillers). So one expects something special when you go into an Argento film titled GIALLO. But nothing could be further from the case here. Of all this film’s I’ve seen, this is by far his worst. It’s so amateurish it seems like it was a hack trying to make an Argento-esque film.

Giallo (Byron Deidra) is a serial killer using an unlicensed taxicab to abduct young woman, photograph his torture of them then once he’s done dispose of their corpse. Linda (Emmanuelle Seigner, FRANTIC) is a flight attendant who has come to Turin, Italy to visit her model sister Celine (Elsa Pataky, SNAKES ON A PLANE). Celine is snatched by Giallo. Linda frantically goes to the police where she meets Inspector Enzo Avolfi, an Italian-American detective, who is feverishly working on the serial killer case out of a basement office at the station.

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This is a thriller that tries to keep us guessing. The central premise is whether the main character is alive or actually dead. The problem with this scenario is that the story can’t hold it up for the length of the film. We feel like we’re being jerked around in order to keep the secret going.

Anna Taylor (Christina Ricci, MERMAIDS) is this character in limbo. She’s been suffering from depression, which makes her mood erratic. She gets in a fight with her boyfriend Paul Coleman (Justin Long, HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU) where she speeds off in her car. Consumed with emotion, she gets in a car accident. When she wakes, she’s on the table at a funeral parlor. The director Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson, SCHINDLER’S LIST) tells her she is dead, but just doesn’t know it yet.

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In a case of full disclosure, Joan Rivers makes my skin crawl. For me she represents everything that is awful and shallow about the entertainment business. In many ways, this documentary didn’t change one bit of that opinion. But to its credit, it made me respect her more. And that’s an accomplishment considering I had none for her before. That’s because I only knew her for the parody her life has become.

Rivers was truly the first female stand-up comedian star. In the 1960s, she made a name for herself for women-themed humor that was cutting edge. She talked about things in public that many people didn’t talk about in private. Johnny Carson took her under his wing and groomed her as his replacement on THE TONIGHT SHOW. But when she left the show for her own late-night talk program, Carson was furious that she was becoming his competition and virtual had her black balled. Once her show was cancelled, her career was devastated, which led to her husband Edgar Rosenberg (a producer on her show as well) to commit suicide. Can you blame the guy he was married to Joan Rivers?

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NOTTING HILL director Roger Michell’s comedy is an often hilarious look at morning shows. It reminded me of BROADCAST NEWS, only frothier like its subject matter. At some point a character observes that since the beginning of TV there has been a battle between entertainment and the news and entertainment won a long time ago. Entertainment certainly wins here.

That character is Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams, THE NOTEBOOK), a constantly working producer for a local New Jersey morning show, who dreams of producing TODAY someday. That’s when she is laid off. She interviews with Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum, THE FLY), an exec at IBS, whose morning show is the lowest rated on network television. He begrudgingly hires her because he’s desperate. The kid can’t make it worse, can she?

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The conceit of this Andy Kaufman-style faux documentary never fooled me for once. It didn’t fool a lot of people; some of the doubters in the press are featured in the film. The premise has Joaquin Phoenix slipping into drugs and alcohol abuse while he quits acting to start a rap career. The idea never fooled me because of one major reason — director Casey Affleck. Affleck is Phoenix’s brother-in-law and to think that his wife would be fine with him filming the downward spiral of her brother after her other brother died of a drug overdose seemed very unlikely.

So what are we left with, especially now that Phoenix and Affleck have come clean? Phoenix gives a remarkable performance as “Joaquin Phoenix,” a pretentious hipster actor who wants greater control over his art so he’s going to become a rapper. We watch as “Phoenix” parties hard and abuses his assistant. His erratic behavior extends to his interactions with his friends and those worried about his career. He arrives late for a big meeting with P Diddy, who seems upset that this actor just thinks he can walk into the music business and succeed.

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Before seeing the film, I thought the title was weak. Now having seen it I think it’s perfect. Those that have complained that this monster movie doesn’t have enough monsters they’re missing the point. Sci-fi has been used for decades to make social commentaries and this low budget flick has something to say.

A probe from Jupiter’s moon Europa brings aliens to Earth. A section of Mexico right below the U.S. border has been ruled an infected zone where the aliens reside. Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy, IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS) is an American photojournalist working in Mexico. He is given the task of escorting Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able, UNEARTHED), the daughter of the head of the magazine, back to the U.S. When they miss the ferry, they are left with the option of being stranded in Mexico for months or pay thousands of dollars to be escorted illegally across the infected zone.

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One actor. One coffin. Director Rodrigo Cortes (THE CONTESTANT) and writer Chris Sparling (upcoming FALLING SLOWLY) have created an amazingly tense thriller with these simple elements. The camera never leaves star Ryan Reynolds and we never see anyone other than him. It starts and ends in the coffin. There is no escape for the audience.

Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, a truck driver for a contractor in Iraq. His convoy was attacked and he was taken hostage. He awakes buried alive. His captors have supplied him with a cell phone. They call him and demand millions for his release. Conroy calls his wife, 911, the FBI, and his work. If you thought being put on hold was bad enough, try it when you’re six feet under ground.

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