Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
Jack Reacher is a well made suspense-thriller featuring a great performance from producer/star Tom Cruise and his supporting cast members. However, while the story starts off with incredible tension the ultimate motives by the villain came off as weak. Even so, this is an entertaining movie with great stunts and action scenes.
Not Fade Away certainly had potential with a respectable and hopefully on-the-rise young cast, a great actor in James Gandolfini and a wonderful writer in David Chase, but the story itself was dull, the main character, despite the best attempts by John Magaro, was an annoying brat, plot points going nowhere and an ending that not only felt tacked on but was obnoxious and pretentious as all hell.
Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad no doubt blew the opportunity to be a special crime-drama and instead it stumbles trying to emulate other gangster movies in the past. Still, I couldn’t help but enjoy the movie especially the performances from Brolin, Gosling, Robert Patrick and Sean Penn that it makes for a worthwhile viewing even with its flaws.
Pawn is an acceptable mystery-thriller that has a respectable cast who unfortunately seemed to mostly phone it in except perhaps for Michael Chiklis who was having fun with his thick Aussie accent. Otherwise, as interesting as the story was and comparatively well done as the flash backs were, the movie falls apart at the end coming crashing down with an utterly unsatisfying finale.
Sexy Evil Genius is a fun low budget film propelled primarily on the cast and their interactions with one another than anything else. The story itself, though, does at least keep you on edge just trying to figure out what the main character’s ultimate goal is. I wouldn’t say this was a memorable film or anything, but it is worth a one-off viewing at least. The DVD itself has acceptable video/audio transfers while the features are underwhelming, though the commentary is enjoyable.
Crush was surprising in the fact that it didn’t completely stink especially compared with many other direct-to-video flicks that have come before. The plot is a slow in developing but with some decent charisma from Lucas Till, Crystal Reed and Sarah Bolger, it at least kept my attention for the duration.
The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia starts off on a sour note just with an incredibly stupid title trying to draw in those fans of the original film. However, what makes even less sense is the filmmakers didn’t even bother to make a connection with the first movie.
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This 25th Anniversary edition of Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a great set and includes all the features from the Vista Series edition but gets a boost from great audio/video transfers to go along with an all around fantastic movie that is just as good when I last saw it (probably a good 15 years ago).
“Star Trek: Enterprise” Season One serves as fine entertainment but not much more as it doesn’t come close to the drama of “The Next Generation” or the performances from “Voyager” and “Deep Space Nine”. Even so, there’s something about the then fledgling series which I enjoyed and can only hope it improves with each season.
Escapee is a half-baked and all around cheap shlocker with no scares, stilted dialogue, a terribly boring plot and amateurish direction. Dominic Purcell headlines but it’s obvious this was a favor for somebody in the production.
The Collection doesn’t have a whole lot going for it outside of the two leads played by Josh Lucas and Emma Fitzpatrick, otherwise the plot is stale, the scares are scarce and the bad guy is pretty bland especially considering we don’t know much about him outside of his killing ways.
This is 40 is a huge misstep for Apatow and company. The characters are nasty and highly unlikeable, the script itself just isn’t very funny lending itself to maybe a chuckle or two and where Apatow’s previous endeavors had a certain heart behind the sex jokes is lost here. Also not helping matters is the fact the story drifts aimlessly with multiple subplots that often don’t even have a resolution.
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.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has its moments with fine performances from Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and the always reliable Ian McKellen who slips right back into his Gandalf garbs without missing a beat. But the screenplay and plotline feels too simplistic especially when you compare the scope and ultimate effect it would have on Middle Earth.
Continue reading “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Blu-ray Review”
Mulan is one of the better Disney animated films from the late 1990s and an inspiration for little girls. The sequel on the other hand… not so much. It’s not a disastrous film by any stretch but it is the typical DTV flick which Disney released during that era.