Batman Forever certainly was a change-up for the franchise after the very dark turn in Batman Returns and to say it’s a 180 is putting it lightly. Although I acknowledge it’s not good, I do have an affinity for the movie due to nostalgia.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced the date and released artwork for the all four Batman films starring Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Jack Nicholson and many others. Click on the link below or image to the left to check out the features and artwork.
This Shadow Stalkers set is filled with mostly suspense/thriller-horror movies, much not very well known (at least to me) and a couple (Don’t Answer the Phone and Silent Night, Bloody Night) were previously released in another set (“Faces of Horror”) in my own collection.
Stormy Monday is a decent little, and probably little-known, 1980s British crime-drama marking writer/director Mike Figgis’ debut. It features a quad of fine performances headlined by Sting, Sean Bean and Melanie Griffith and a well paced plot.
Jason Bourne had plenty going for it seeing the return of Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass after nearly a decade but what we got instead was a pretty much disinterested party involved and a half-assed script that seems to be a cliché of its previous movies.
Mechanic: Resurrection, while not awful and at times passably entertaining, had not reason to even exist, although from my memory was I guess a tad better than its predecessor. The only reason to even sit through this is for Jason Statham who still possesses great charm, otherwise the stunt work isn’t the best and the plot is incredibly thin.
Criminal is your run-of-the-mill action/thriller that succeeds mostly with a strong ensemble cast led way by Kevin Costner who gives a nice performance while Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones and Ryan Reynolds are more background noise. This is the perfect movie as a rental, but not much more.
Criminal is your run-of-the-mill action/thriller that succeeds mostly with a strong ensemble cast led way by Kevin Costner who gives a nice performance while Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones and Ryan Reynolds are more background noise. This is the perfect movie as a rental, but not much more.
Heaven and Earth is another passion project for Oliver Stone and while it never quite gels together was a war-drama, the performances for the most part are good and the cinematography was utterly fantastic. The Blu-ray released by Twilight Time has good video and great audio transfers while the bonus material is headlined by a commentary track by Stone.
Volcano isn’t exactly a memorable disaster movie as it utilizes every cliché in the book but Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche and, to a lesser extent, Don Cheadle, each give admirable performances slugging through stilted dialogue and utterly laughable situations. Still, it’s passable entertainment but don’t go in, or leave, with anything more than what it is. The Blu-ray is a quick release by Anchor Bay, through Twentieth Century Fox, as they didn’t even bother putting in a menu system.
The Fugitive remains one of the best action-thrillers I’ve seen in many years and easily a standout of TV to screen adaptations. Despite being 130-minutes long, the film flies by and utilizes each minute with little filler. The performances from Ford and Jones are phenomenal even though neither of them shared more than a few minutes of screen time together.
Warner Brothers recently announced a few catalog titles, some from their line bought from Paramount, for September releases. I’ve put up the artwork for these as well as features included for one of the titles (Warner has not provided details on the others, however). Click on the image to the left or link below to check it out.
Lincoln is bolstered by strong performances especially from Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones and although I appreciate Spielberg limiting such an interesting character, and President, to two aspects of his time in the White House, for whatever reason the story lacked an emotional punch. However, in spite of that, this is still a very well made historical drama and well worth checking out as you do get a better glimpse of the man beyond the legend he has become today.
MIB3 is a fine outing in the series and helps put the lackluster sequel in the rear view mirror and with the addition of Josh Brolin, really injected life into a relatively aging franchise. The script, interestingly enough, despite having three screenwriters (at least), was fairly coherent. I don’t think this is a great film and might not quite measure up to the first movie, but it’s still entertaining. Even so, the movie is still a lot of fun.
The Client is a fulfilling suspense-thriller propelled by three solid performances, adequate direction from Joel Schumacher (arguably his last ‘good’ movie) despite a predictable script. The Blu-ray is limited in features but the audio and video are a good upgrade over its DVD counterpart.
