American Ultra has some things going for it from an interesting story that combines Bourne with Pineapple Express to fun performances by Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart who shows some actual charisma utterly lacking in many of her other movies; yet at the same time, and as outlandish and fun as the story is, it’s not terribly memorable.
John Wick is one of the surprise hits of 2014 and even though Keanu Reeves might not be a great actor, this role was tailor made for his skill sets in fighting and stunt work. Add to that, the story, albeit thin, is good enough to carry the 100-minute running time. The Blu-ray released by Lionsgate has great video/audio transfers and OK selection of bonus material.
Ride Along had the potential to be a good action-comedy and despite good on-screen chemistry between its two leads, it gets bogged down with a clichéd screenplay and ho-hum direction.
I cannot describe how much I didn’t like Walking with Dinosaurs from the voice over work to the humor which doesn’t work at all. Also, although the landscape is stunning, the CGI elements aren’t overly impressive but can easily be overlooked.
Although hardly a great sequel even when compared with the others, Ice Age: Continental Drift overcomes any problems with a thin plot with at least a modestly fun adventure with likeable characters and jokes which mostly hit the mark. No, it’s not remotely close to anything Pixar has put out or even DreamWorks Animation for that matter, but since it only clocks in at 88-minutes, it’s a breezy flick to watch on a slow afternoon which the entire family can enjoy.
Spawn is a poorly made feature film with campy, over-the-top acting, laughable visual effects, lousy editing and a choppy story that doesn’t give the main character any sort of development. Simply put, this wasn’t a very good adaptation of an otherwise, last I read anyway, cool comic book series.