I liked parts of And Soon the Darkness. Even though the first act is a bit on the plodding side, I do understand the need to establish the two friends and get a little suspense built up and on the first part, the movie does succeed.
Admittedly I am not a fan of either Fantasia or Fantasia 2000 but I can still appreciate what they were trying to do and the experiment Walt Disney himself was trying to accomplish. It might have failed back in 1940 but the film has its devoted followers and while I may not be one of them, this is still a set well worth picking up. Personally, I loved the Destino animated short which, as far as I can tell, is the first time it has been available on home video.
Salt isn’t the best action movie out there and when it compares to the Daniel Craig Bond or Bourne movies probably a cut above Quantum of Solace but well below Bourne, I still enjoyed it for what it was and to appreciate the skill and beauty of Angelina Jolie.
After a long delay, I finally got the entire review done of this massive 6-disc Blu-ray set and I will admit, this is easily the best movie collection on Blu-ray that I’ve encountered as it not only ported over every feature from not only the 9-disc DVD set.
The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a nice indie picture from that is pretty intense and unrelenting from beginning to end. The film also features three great performances with rising star Gemma Arterton standing out amongst them. The Blu-ray has a surprisingly amazing looking picture and good if not adequate audio.
Overall, A Nightmare on Elm Street is just a plain nightmare for all the wrong reasons. It’s not the least bit scary and the acting by Haley is utterly laughable with each of his numerous, eye-rolling cackles. I do think the movie tries to do some things to make the film more visually interesting but visuals are only a quarter of the battle and that isn’t nearly enough to save this trash.
Predators may not have been as successful of a franchise reboot as last year’s Star Trek in terms of quality, but as someone who wasn’t as enamored with the original as some, I thought there were some elements that did work and the casting was well done.
The Peacemaker has all earmarks of a generic mid/late ‘90s action-thriller and is only remembered thanks to the then up-and-coming star in George Clooney and the beauty of Nicole Kidman otherwise this could’ve easily been just another direct-to-video affair.
Valentine’s Day may be a two-hour cliché but at the same time it’s fairly harmless and might please some people out there, but for me, I like my romantic-comedies to have, oh I don’t know, a little comedy thrown in there. I know… that’s a silly thing to expect.
As a comic book fan, in general, I found Elektra to be one of the most mundane and average comic book movie ever. There’s nothing really memorable, such as an action sequence, nor the performance from the lovely Jennifer Garner. However, Elektra does make a good time-waster and a film you don’t have to think about… at all.
The Relic may not be a top notched film but looking at it as a call back to the old days of monster horror flicks, I think it works well enough to be a satisfactory Saturday movie night viewing party.
Jade may be underrated in its vitriol but by the same token it’s still not a very good movie even with some erotic sex scenes meant to titillate and instead are weird (nothing new from Friedkin) bordering on boring. You add in a plot that isn’t very intriguing and a lead actor who is even less so and you’ve got a movie that deserves to be forgotten.
Sorority Row may just be another slasher pic with some unique kills but the finale is the real killer of this film. However, the audio and video are both solid and although I would’ve liked to have seen better featurettes than the standard EPK-like one’s we got.
The Brothers Bloom is writer-director Rian Johnson’s follow-up his surprisingly fantastic 2005 film, Brick starring Joseph Gordon Levitt. But often sophomore efforts after promising starts tend to greatly disappoint but Johnson’s latest once again surprised me as it wasn’t your typical con genre flick.
I was absolutely enthralled with 2006’s Paris, I Love You as it beautifully showcased the City of Love, Lights, Dreams, Art, et cetera while also giving us stories that made use of each precious minute allotted; and I had high hopes for the follow-up, New York, I Love You where we get to see the City That Never Sleeps. Unfortunately even though the directors try their best to showcase New York, the stories never quite hit the emotional levels (be it for comedy or drama) that I felt with Paris.