The Poison Rose is just another failure in John Travolta’s ever fading career, and I say that with no glee or happiness as he has shown to be a fantastic actor so I can only hope a Tarantino or Nolan might re-vitalize his career one more time.
The Big Lebowski has garnered a huge following over the course of 20 years and it’s easy to see why with some easy to quote lines that, often times, relates so well to real life. I’ve never been a huge fan of the movie though have grown to appreciate it over time.
Kill ‘Em All could’ve been a fun little film but instead it has choppy editing, lousy writing and lazy performances (Autumn Reeser at least wasn’t bad) and a story that became overcomplicated, or came across as such, jumping back and forth in time.
Wim Wenders’ character-driven drama wants to be emotional and weighty but fails in both regards. While the performances from McAdams and Croze weren’t bad, Franco seemed to be miscast though he still does enough to make for an amiable character. The screenplay could’ve used an extra draft however all in all, I still found Every Thing Will Be Fine to be satisfyingly above average.
This 5-movie collection release, Possessed by Evil, is a bargain-bin fodder from Mill Creek. If you don’t own a couple of these titles, it might be worth picking up given the cheap SRP, just don’t expect too much.
Bad Boys I & II is another bang-bang series from Michael Bay and although I disliked the sequel, the original at least is enjoyable enough. The pairing of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence offers fun chemistry between the two and the action scenes are at least unique in some sense although done to death by Bay himself to the point where you’re not sure if you’re watching Bad Boys or Transformers.
Penguins of Madagascar isn’t a great movie yet highly watchable with plenty of inside jokes the adults will like and yet will still be highly entertaining for the kids. The third act seemed to lose some steam but in the end, I laughed at the jokes and found it to be on par or even better in some instances compared with the Madagascar films.
22 Jump Street, as with its predecessor, was a surprisingly hilarious movie both mocking the genre while also giving us a half-decent plot, even if its copied from the first for a fair portion of the movie, and two leads who share some great on-screen comedic chemistry and timing.
Autumn Blood is slow-moving, a bit too slow actually, but the performance from hopefully star-in-the-making Sofia Lowe at least makes it tolerable and not a complete waste of time. The DVD distributed by Arc Entertainment offers up good looking and sounding video and audio transfers but there’s nary a feature in sight.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunter had an interesting and different premise but from the beginning it never quite found its footing. For one thing, I didn’t buy Renner and Arterton in their roles although the script didn’t help matters so their performances are somewhat forgivable. All told, sadly this is a downright forgettable movie with nothing to offer except for Famke Janssen’s hammy, yet fun, performance.
Big Top Scooby-Doo is probably in the middle of the pack compared with the other recent direct-to-video Scooby releases. The voice talents are the highlights to go along with a story that at least didn’t telestrate who the villain(s) is/were.