Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
This is Where I Leave You is a bit uneven where the comedy seemed to work far better than the overindulgent dramatic areas. Jason Bateman and Tina Fey are both great but by far Adam Driver steals the show to the point I kind of wish his character got his own movie, a dark comedy in the vein of Bad Santa perhaps.
Although this Funny Girl sequel doesn’t possess the magic of its predecessor, the performances are all well done headlined once again by Barbra Streisand as well as then newcomer James Caan with catchy music and a well written story.
“Ghost in the Shell: Arise” albeit not as strong as “Stand Alone Complex,” still have its moments and for the most part, the designs aren’t bad, though it does take some time to get used to. The two stories featured in these two seasons (or Borders) are decent and give some good background of these characters
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Reach Me is a mess of a film that began with the screenplay and continued on with some poor performances by a mostly respectable cast. This is something not even worth a rental and will no doubt be in the bargain bin in no time.
No Good Deed is the prototypical paint-by-numbers thriller destined to air as a Lifetime Movie of the Week feature. The plot is thin and relatively predictable, though the one minor “twist” does help explain one important element, but what saves it from turkey status is the screen presence of the woefully underrated Idris Elba who is far too good for this material.
The Good Lie is perhaps one of the more overlooked films of 2014 and unfortunately the studio for whatever reason dumped it for a limited release in less than 500 screens in early October.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an inoffensively bad movie made for an entirely different audience than those who grew up with the reptiles in the 1980s and 1990s. But taking that aside, it’s a thin story, poor writing and chaotic direction that makes it really hard to watch culminating with a lame and underwhelming finale.
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The Equalizer has its share of problems, primarily with the pacing though some more editing would’ve made for a strong picture, but even so, the film does ride on Denzel Washington’s charisma and screen presence and that alone makes this at least worth a rental.
The Trip to Italy is not for everybody as it is basically two guys chatting it up, while eating mostly pasta and drinking wine, for 100-minutes, but for myself, I enjoyed the banter between Steven Coogan and Rob Brydon and the travelogue-like plot taking in the sights of Italy is worth the time.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a fantastic drama featuring Maggie Smith who shows why she received her Academy Award for Best Actress. It’s an amazing performance to go along with the supporting cast including Celia Johnson, Pamela Franklin and Robert Stephens.
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Inherit the Wind is one of Stanley Kramer’s best films amongst an already amazing filmography and features a fine performance by Spencer Tracy.
Dolphin Tale 2 is an unnecessary sequel but a harmless one with a wholesome message and something families will immensely enjoy especially young ones. The performances are pretty basic but having a couple respectable actors like Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman helps elevate a thin script and predictable story.
With The Night Porter, I might be in the minority, but despite a good premise and set-up, I found this to be utterly dull and boring to the point where I nearly dozed off a time or two. For sure the performances by Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling were fantastic but the pacing was slow and on the whole, I just didn’t find it very engaging.
While this season, and the series as a whole, had a few clunkers, the vast majority of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was a fun ride culminating with a satisfying quasi-series finale (Star Trek: Generations would be released 6 months later) thanks to a stellar cast who had wonderful chemistry with one another.
Continue reading “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Seven Blu-ray Review”
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.