Journey 2: The Mysterious Island actually isn’t too bad of a movie. Even as an adult, I found it to be fairly entertaining and although I’d hardly say anything in the acting department was great and the characters are paper thin, the adventure and fantasy elements, along with a breezy plot, makes up for any of the movie’s flaws.
There are many reasons I should dislike, even hate, Gone from the simple story to the one-dimensional supporting characters, but there’s something about Amanda Seyfried that elevates this from forgettable made-for-television drivel to semi-forgettable, slightly entertaining, direct-to-video release. For sure, that’s not high praise but I think if you’re a fan of Seyfried’s, then it might be worth checking out, especially for a slow Saturday afternoon.
Bettie Page: Dark Angel is an all around bad movie, poorly acted and gives no insights into the character and instead is more of a porn film than anything of substance. The lead actress certainly has the look down but the acting is poor, although I can’t blame her too much given the director doesn’t have much going for him.
Dark Tide receives high marks for its underwater camera work but the story is lame and the acting is sometimes even worse. Halle Berry for her part is OK with a limited role.
The Father of the Bride two-movie collection is a nice set with two very good movies with more than adequate video and audio transfers which are a solid upgrade over their DVD counterparts.
Clueless is a timeless classic that even 17 years later is still relevant today as it was then even when styles and lingo changes. The movie features some great performances especially from Silverstone who probably deserved more award recognition than she got.
Lionsgate has repackaged these re-releases in anticipation for the upcoming Avengers live action summer blockbuster, so if you already owned these you’re getting the exact same content except in a more convenient single Blu-ray case.
This “High-Powered Action Pack” might not have the greatest movies – Equilibrium and The Lookout are the best – but at a low SRP of $30, it comes to $5 per movie and maybe less depending on which store you go to (i.e. Best Buy had it for $10), so if you’ve enjoyed any of these and don’t care about features or average audio/video transfers, then by all means check it out.
Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire might not be a homerun when compared with some of the more recent direct-to-video animated movies, yet there’s still some good humor and I will give the writers credit for at least attempting something new adding a musical element into the mix. The animation is good especially the few 3D animated scenes and the story is serviceable.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is easily the best of the series with the original and third movie after it. The action is intense, the suspense well done and the comedy is right on the money without going over-the-top.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy excels in the acting category, and more specifically an excellent performance from Gary Oldman, but the story doesn’t hold as much water as I’d hoped.
If you don’t have anything else on the shelf for your kids to watch, then Hop might be worth a rental. If you don’t have kids, then skip it completely.
American Wedding despite the issues I had with Stifler as he changed from obnoxious to plain annoying, still has some funny scenes and even though it doesn’t nearly stack up to its predecessors, retains some of the charm that made them so good and memorable.
American Pie 2 is another good entry in the series and in between the titillating and raunchy humor, the reason the film still resonates a decade later is because there’s a genuine heart at its core.
American Pie is still a fun movie that might not have any sense of reality given most of these characters only exist on celluloid, but even so, it’s a movie that even with its age still manages to make me laugh be it for the gross-out, raunchy jokes or sex humor.