Indian Summer is a great film that hits all the right notes. It not only brings out the nostalgia for anybody who has attended summer camp but the story is well rounded with the right balance of comedy and drama. The cast is also pitch perfect with the highlights coming from Bill Paxton, Diane Lane and Alan Arkin.
While Pulp Fiction isn’t a masterpiece of filmmaking as some might contend, it’s still a very well made picture with the sharp writing we expect from Tarantino and one of the better ensemble casts put together.
The Ledge has some things going for it with two good performances and two others that are pretty much forgettable, but worse yet, the story doesn’t quite connect and even so, it’s so heavy handed and one-sided that it plays it too safe in making one character somewhat tolerable while the other has little redeemable value, though they try to give him a dramatic back story.
Scooby-Doo: Legend of the Phantosaur is a solid entry into the long-running, enduring animated franchise. Obviously if you’ve one, you’ve basically seen them all, but for the most part this is a fun movie for the whole family with good humor, at least a half-decent mystery (even if you can see who the villain is 5 miles away) and fine voice talents.
Airplane is a timeless comedy, one where one doesn’t necessarily have to get the references in order to find it funny. The Blu-ray, a Best Buy exclusive at the time of this writing, has a good video transfer and adequate audio.
Scream 4 might’ve come a few years too late after the last installment, but I for one enjoyed it as Wes Craven and company were able to update the franchise for the 21st century. The original cast slips into their roles nicely while the new generation offer up a certain and needed freshness, though writer Williamson didn’t succumb to the horror sequel clichés (though there a few).
As far as creature features go, Mimic is a well made movie, but little more than that. The characters are fairly one-dimensional despite the attempts in fleshing them out, though it was enough to give reason for at least the two main something to fight for. The effects and creature designs aren’t anything spectacular yet still evoke enough fear to give them weight and danger.
Scary Movie 2, while not an awful film, is just simply not very funny. It pales in comparison to the original and makes the two other sequels look absolutely brilliant. I’ve now seen this film twice and nothing has changed over the years; I might’ve chuckled a couple of times but otherwise I just had a blank stare counting down the minutes until it was over.
Set Up wants to be some personal revenge/vendetta-centric crime drama but instead we get poor writing, even worse acting and uninspiring direction not to mention an odd portion where some dark comedy is thrown in at random.
Hostage is an effective enough thriller with Willis fitting into his role of a worn out veteran cop like a glove, heck probably better than in Live Free or Die Hard even, but the story itself doesn’t quite past muster despite some decent performances from the supporting cast.
Despite some plot holes, Hanna is an entertaining film with three great performances from Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Tom Hollander and a serviceable one from Eric Bana.
Prom is a mediocre film, with poor picture quality and a short amount of special features. This won’t be a top buy, but I wouldn’t ignore it completely. I’d say give this one a rent… you might be surprised.
“Justice League” remains one of the best animated series ever made with some great action scenes intermixed with compelling stories and character development rarely seen in the genre. This season is probably the best but the remaining two, under the title “Justice League Unlimited” are still fantastic viewing.
Demolition Man is a fun ride and one of Stallone’s better entries in the 1990s second maybe to Cop Land and just ahead of Cliffhanger. One can’t discount Wesley Snipes who to that point had been the hero and takes a fun villainous turn with an over-the-top performance that matched up well with Stallone’s macho personality.
The Specialist is the tale of three movies: Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone are in one (average film); James Woods in another (an over-the-top but fun one); and Rod Steiger, with help by Mr. Camp himself Eric Roberts (in a bad film) who seemed to be on a different page from everybody else. As a whole, this is an uneven movie with poor pacing for the first two-thirds and it wasn’t until the action-packed finale that things come together.