Just Cause is an overwrought court room drama that is absolutely boring to get through, despite it only being ~100-minutes, and featuring performances which are at best, uninspiring not to mention a predictable plot.
The Butterfly Effect 2 is a waste of celluloid and time. Although I might not have been the biggest fan of the previous entry, it at least had some interesting ideas behind it, not to mention a character I could actually somewhat care about. This one however has 1-dimensional characters and our main guy is a Grade A douche.
A Perfect Murder might not be the ‘perfect’ thriller but it is an effective one. Director Andrew Davis manages to keep the pacing going throughout the fairly lengthy running time despite a predictable storyline and characters.
One would think when you get Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron on the same screen and an intriguing storyline it would make for, at minimum, an entertaining science-fiction thriller. Instead, The Astronaut’s Wife is a complete mess with subpar performances, a story that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and direction that is at best sloppy.
The Horse Whisperer is an all around beautiful movie. The story is both heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting, the cinematography is Oscar-worthy (unfortunately it was not nominated), the direction inspiring and the acting, especially from Redford and Thomas, amazing.
Impostor isn’t a terrible film, at least not as bad as some have made it out to be, but it does come across amateurish in its style (Fleder seems to love using angles), but the acting isn’t too bad and the production design and, given the budget, visual effects is OK. This isn’t the kind of film that will challenge your brain and compared with other Philip K. Dick adaptations, it’s a mid level release.
American Reunion is a great finale to a funny and heartfelt franchise. For a certain generation this cast and characters have meant so much and to find them back together is a great accomplishment by the producers and filmmakers. The movie itself has some memorable moments and thankfully doesn’t restrain itself to the timeline of the direct-to-video sequels.
O is a harrowing movie headlined with strong writing but even stronger performances from a young and impressive cast, primarily Mekhi Phifer and Josh Hartnett. The Blu-ray offers up an OK video transfer but the DTS-HD MA more than makes up for it even when not all the features from the DVD were ported over.
Step Up doesn’t exactly rewrite the music genre but for what it is, it’s a fun movie with some great beats and nice chemistry between Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. This new Blu-ray release offers up only average video but the audio more than makes up for it as the bass goes into overdrive shaking the floor and walls.
Phenomenon is a well acted and finely dramatic film that seemed primed to be Oscar bait, especially in the acting category if you see a few of the scenes. However, it doesn’t hold much replay value because while the story is well done and features some fine direction by Jon Turteltaub, it’s just one of those movies that’s only worth one viewing every few years, despite a fine performance from John Travolta.