A family moves to California with their trouble-making dog, Marmaduke (Owen Wilson).  The dog can talk and his lips move to prove it, however people don’t see or hear it.  The story is in two parts.  One part is about the family where the father (Lee Pace) is career driven and neglecting his family.  He needs to find a balance and Marmaduke seems to unintentionally fuel the job mishaps.  The second part is about Marmaduke, as the new dog on the block, he tries to fit in with the cooler dogs headed up by the alpha bully Bosco (Kiefer Sutherland).

They should have followed the lengthy awkward human teenager who appeared in the opening of the film as a comparison to Marmaduke rather than the dog.  Dogs are cute.  You can’t really compare them to zitty-faced teenagers.  However, the filmmakers did a fantastic job of making our lead dog as unlikable as possible.  The digital effects are too often and too terrible, giving off a Scooby Doo vibe.  The constant mouth moving doesn’t help anything; it’s actually creepy and unsettling. The voice acting is atrocious and off-putting.  I’m not sure who would be good at this horrific job but I can clearly say that Owen Wilson was not the right choice.  Other over paid animal voices are Sutherland, Emma Stone, Fergie, Steve Coogan, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and George Lopez as the cat Carlos, who is the only one who musters up a possible laugh.

The message is basic but the way the story goes about it makes no sense.  The wife played by the usually funny Judy Greer supports the dog and not the husband.  The father is barely at work and genuinely is involved in his family’s life, but they basically wish he didn’t have a job.  Looking for your missing dog and getting fired is irresponsible to your family.  It’s saying your dog is more important than your wife and children, especially when they are all just as capable of looking for the animal as he is.  I understand the message that family and loved one’s are more important than work but the examples provided did not give that affect.

In the end, MARMADUKE is absolutely terrible.  Full of bad writing, bad acting, bad CGI and a couple of bad fart jokes to boot.  The film’s title and characters are based off the famous one-panel comic strip.  Do yourself a favor and read a panel of the strip instead.  Skip Marmaduke and watch your own pet, whether it be a dog or a rock, for an hour and a half and you will be far more entertained.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (Widescreen 2.35:1) Despite everything, the picture is dog gone good.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio) The barks and pants sound like they are right outside the window keeping you awake at night.  It doesn’t happen too often since these dogs can talk.

Puppy Marmaduke & Kitty Carlos: Home Movies (3:28): You know the horrible home video’s your uncle makes when he say’s exactly what is happening like, “this is grandma and she’s knitting in her chair” as we clearly can see that grandma is sitting there knitting?  Well the son does that exact atrocious home vide commentary as the pets, Marmaduke and Carlos, first meet and lay around doing normal pet things that are only cute to the owners.

Marmaduke Mayhem! Gag Reel (2:40): The cast makes smiley faces when they shouldn’t.  Nothing gag worthy here unless you are using it in the sick term.

Deleted Scenes (9:28): 8 scenes that do not improve the film in anyway.  These also have yet to be digitally enhanced to make the animal’s mouth move, which frankly was less creepy.

Cowabarka! (5:17): Dog surfing is an actual thing and this is the process of training the dogs to get use to the water then gradually surf.

Canine Casting (2:49): This is more bad commentary but by an adult this time as we see some dogs showing off their obedience training in order to get a part in MARMADUKE.

After a suggestion by his girlfriend Carrie (Michelle Forbes), Brian (David Duchovny) decides to set out on a road trip to California. The journey isn’t as playful as it might seem. Brian is trying to put together a book that goes inside the minds of serial killers. On the way to the sunshine state, the couple stops at several locations where brutal murders were committed. Brian records his thoughts on his tape recorder while Carrie takes photographs. However before they take off Brian hangs an ad up looking for someone to join the trip that can pitch in some gas money. This was not the brightest of ideas.

Before their descent into a hell on the roads less traveled, Brian and Carrie meet Early (Pitt) and Adele (Lewis). Carrie is leery of the pairing before they even speak to them and in this case the first impression is the correct one. The child like Adele makes a painfully awkward pairing for the overtly redneck Early. Each minute either of them are on screen there’s this skin crawling tension that you are compelled to feel.

The shift of the film then quickly focuses on Early. Adele comes with background information at some point, but there is never much said about Early. The only thing that is mentioned is the possible issue with his Father, but they don’t come close to explaining his actions. As someone residing in Texas, Early is the type of guy that you could easily run into at Wal-Mart or some dive bar at the edge of town. The point is, Early is one amongst many that we could be next to at any given time—but his darkness starts to show through. At one point he engages Brian by asking about the motive behind The Black Dahlia murders. You think that Early will provide some redneck insight, then he asks Brian if he’s ever killed before. “How can you get in the mind of a killer if you’ve never killed anyone?”

What’s scary is that the true motive behind Early and Adele going along for the ride is never presented. As they make each stop, Brian seems to get closer with Early who shows him what a real man is like–so to speak. Carrie also learns more about Adele, although this knowledge does nothing but fuel her existing fear. Duchovny and Forbes play very one-dimensional stiff roles. Brian at times is an intriguing character then you lose what’s so great about him when he slides back into being a man-boy. Carrie borders on uninteresting dominatrix, sadly her character never picks up any steam.

California might be the place to take your dreams, but along the way those dreams shatter and turn to dust. The film resonates with you long after you are done with it. It brings the thought back into your mind of, “Who can you trust?” KALIFORNIA shows the reality of serial killers—they are not overdramatic characters in masks, they are the ones we don’t bother paying a second look to. As Brian says about California, if it wasn’t okay there, well, it probably wasn’t going to be okay anywhere.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The video transfer on this one is great. There are only a couple of snags, mostly blurs. Also, the coloring presents a good balance and never comes across as too bold.  (2.35:1 Widescreen).

Audio: I did not come across an inconsistencies in the audio. The score for the film compliments every scene. (5.1 DTS-HD).

I thought it oddly curious that there was a sticker on the front of this Blu-ray that read “Sweet’N Low coupon inside” (Sweet’N Low being another kind of Sugar Twin if you didn’t know) but laughed out loud when I saw that Flynn and Nat’s cross country vehicle was a pink Sweet’N Low car.  Despite the issues between father and son, the Sweet’N Low gag pretty much sets the overall tone of this film, which for me was a delightful hoot from start to finish.

The defining factor here in my eyes is Christopher Walken and rest assured the man’s still got it.  He brings a one of a kind energy to each and every character he plays making them empathetic, eccentric, lovable and above all else unforgettable (I’m still moved by his and Dennis Hopper’s back and forth in TRUE ROMANCE and also still believe you can’t get much more for your money than SUICIDE KINGS).  Walken is the perfect swindler with an eye for scams like you wouldn’t believe.  And don’t get me wrong as much as he doesn’t want to do it anymore, Flynn (a grown up Pollux Troy) is the perfect wing man to have in his corner.  I’ve always had a soft spot for workplace scams but these guys take the cake.

As much as I enjoyed this film I will admit that the whole “dying of cancer” bit is getting used up.  I’m not trying to be insensitive, quite the opposite in fact, my dad just got done battling prostate cancer and won so I guess maybe that’s why I cringed a bit at the mention of it.  That aside, I’m all for rekindling the father son bond and it was rather touching to see these two doing just that.  The girlfriend aspect of the film was weak (on that note, what happened to Amanda Peet’s career anyway?) but it did help deliver a happier ending so I’ll let it slide.  Also, props to Sharon Stone, she didn’t have the meatiest role here but she still looks really good !

$5 DOLLARS A DAY was a refreshing treat of a film.  I would never have picked this up, much less even noticed it at the movie store but I’m always happy when I go into a film with zero expectations and come out surprised and happy to have seen it (case in point, check out THE JONESES which was also a solid “out of nowhere” flick).  This film does feel a little sombre in the opening moments but rest assured there’s a ton of laughs and feel good moments making this one worth checking out.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 1.85:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  I loved the ride to Mexico, the landscapes looked great and so did Sharon Stone in a bikini.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English, French and Spanish with the same subtitle options.  The dialogue was as sharp as the witty story line, making it pleasant on the ears.

Interviews (35:09): The most alarming part about this is that they interview everyone but Christopher Walken.  I mean hell, Dean Cain’s in the flick for like five minutes and he got an interview so I’d like to know who dropped the ball on this one.

Still Gallery: Here we got a collection of stills from the film as well as a few of the cast and crew.  There’s also a theatrical trailer for the feature.

Any discussion about the 6^th and final season of ‘Lost’ starts and ends with the two hour season finale.  Holding true to his promise, J.J. Abrams tied everything together in 6 seasons and fans everywhere have been debating the finale’s merit ever since.  Looking back at the series, I don’t think it would be possible to create a finale that everyone loved.  Some people wanted more answers, some people wanted less and some wanted different answers.

The 6^th season starts off confusingly by creating a parallel world where the Oceanic flight didn’t crash.  Each character has a different life and different problems, but the inherent issues for everyone were still the same.  I say this was confusing at first because in the first handful of episodes, it felt like we were retreading old ground and that the events on the island were either being ignored or maybe didn’t happen at all.  For a while, I was nervous that everything on the island was going to be considered a dream ala old school ‘Dallas’.  And then I was convinced the parallel world was actually the future and then the time on the island was a chance for the characters to “grow” like in an 80′s body swap movie.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case (more on that later).  But unlike other seasons that jumped right into the action, I felt the sixth season took a while to get going.  I really didn’t like the introduction of the temple and the people in the temple.  After six seasons, we didn’t need new characters introduced, especially ones that ended up dying so quickly and apparently served little to no purpose.  The focus should have remained on our heroes the entire time and there was plenty of minor mysteries who’s solving should have taken priority over setting up new characters and mysteries.

However, about halfway through the season, the show picks up and then it becomes typical “OMG LOST!” fodder.  For the last 8 episodes or so, every episode had something in it that prompted a scream or a reaction.  Looking back on the show as a whole, those every-episode cliffhangers were what really made this show incredible and the sixth season was filled with them.  Special mention should be given to the some of the death scenes, which proved to be intense and heartbreaking.

As much as I liked the ending, I still have trouble focusing on anything but the numerous questions it left.  I think I understand the purpose of the island, but how they ended up in the “purgatory” alternate world is still a mystery to me.  If each character had to die on the island to make it there, it would make more sense.  But since we didn’t see the death scenes of every character, I was left questioning what happened to them back on the island.  I loved the pseudo-heaven insinuation the show suggested, but I felt it left some holes.  As for the other mysteries the show failed to solve; I didn’t really care.  I’m glad they didn’t spell everything out for us and I thought they did a great job of clearing up some of the bigger mysteries.  I don’t really care about the molecular structure of the black cloud or how Jacob’s fake mother arrived on the island.

Taking the show as a whole and looking at all the six seasons, I’m in awe.  This is such a great show and I question whether we’ll ever see anything like this again.  Taking the sixth season by itself, I thought it might have been a little weaker than some of the other seasons, but the handful of great episodes made up for it and the ending was a nice wrap to a great show.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: TV doesn’t look better than Lost on Blu-ray.  Every episode was spectacular.

Audio: The same can be said for the audio.  Seriously, if you haven’t upgraded your DVD’s of Lost to the Blu-rays, you’re missing out.

Lost in 8:15 (8:15): Possibly the best part about the Lost sets is watching the “Lost in 8:15” recaps.  This one takes us to the beginning of the sixth season.  I want one that covers the entire series.

Commentaries on LA X, Across the Sea, Dr. Linus, Ah Aeterno with various creators and actors: All of these are great, but I recommend the Across the Sea with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.  They give a wonderfully detailed commentary on the episode and even point out some of their mistakes.  It was also nice to hear Michael Emerson (Ben) talk about his episode.  These are just really good listens and if you want more lost, watch these episodes again with the commentaries.

Lost University – Master’s Program: This is just too much to cover in one paragraph.  This is an insane amount of content with multiple hours of featurettes, speeches, interviews and random other segments.  Some are better than others, but after attending the Master’s Program, you’ll definitely have your fill of Lost.

New Man in Charge (11:56): This is the feature that has gotten so much press because it’s kind of like 25% of a follow-up episode.  I enjoyed this, but for those hoping to get answers or explanations for all of your questions, you won’t find it here…at least not entirely.

Crafting a Final Season (39:02): Another great feature, this time a documentary about the last season (although it really focuses on the last episode).  I loved that they involved some creators from other shows.  Some of this was a little dry, but when they started talking about the difficulty of how to end the series, it got really interesting.

A Hero’s Journey (9:03): This is more of a straight-forward “Lost in 8:15” and takes an aggregate look at the show.

Lost on Location (28:57): I found myself a little bored with this feature since I wasn’t really interested in the making of specific episodes.  Six episodes are looked at a little closer and we get some specific tidbits, but nothing earth shattering.

See You in Another Life, Brotha (8:56): Various cast members show up to talk about the alternate world they created for the sixth season.  Not much insight here, just the cast talking about it in general terms.

Deleted Scenes (10:02): Deleted scenes on TV shows are usually nothing noteworthy and these are no different.

Lost Bloopers (3:59): The bloopers were kind of fun, just to see what moments and scenes caused the actors to mess up or laugh.

Everyone should know the story of Hamlet. Most people are required to read it as part of their high school English curriculum. There’s another part that has been largely exposed to the theater production, as it is one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays. The last half I’m sure have just heard of Hamlet from various places, or even watched one of the films in class or on television. My point is that HAMLET is possibly the most known play in the Shakespeare catalog. It’s almost impossible these days to find anyone who hasn’t been exposed to the tale in some form or fashion. Branagh brings his own touches to his version that pay off in a huge way. In general, the language used in Shakespeare’s work easily puts off people. It’s never a breeze for anyone, especially me. I actually took a full semester plunging deep into the world of Shakespeare. Sadly though, “Hamlet” was not covered due to the fact that the teacher did not want to just touch on the Baird’s more popular plays.

For those of you who haven’t entered into the secret Shakespeare society, I’ll give you a brief rundown over HAMLET (even though that’s a task within itself). After the mysterious death of his Father, Prince Hamlet immediately has to deal with the fact that his Mother and his Uncle have decided to marry. While Hamlet does love his Mother, he also feels betrayed and full of grief over the loss of his great Father. Very suddenly his best friend Horatio and two night guards come to tell Hamlet of a ghost that resembles his dead Father. Upon hearing this news Hamlet immediately wants to see the ghost. The ghost is in fact his Father, who tells him that his Uncle is actually the one that killed him. His Father demands that Hamlet seek revenge at all costs. Hamlet spends the rest of the play planning his attack against his Uncle. This mind-exhausting task takes its toll on his sanity pushing him between what is real and what is not. His wavering sanity is a huge cause for concern amongst his friends and family. While all this is happening, Fortinbras, prince of Norway is planning his revenge against Hamlet. Fortinbras’ Father was killed at the hands of Hamlet’s Father, so in order to exact his revenge he is planning to attack Denmark. Everyone that surrounds Hamlet is struck by tragedy during his path to revenge.

This is perhaps my favorite film adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s plays. The other is TITUS by Julie Taymor, which is also a very stunning piece of cinema. It’s fair to look upon Branagh’s version of HAMLET as many things whether it is a piece of art or just a piece of classic filmmaking. One of the most eye-catching scenes of the film is when Hamlet (Branagh) is standing between the throne of the King and the Queen while thousands of white confetti disks fall upon him. He is dressed in all black with an expression on his face carries the look of woe and melancholy. You sense that every tiny detail was taken with great consideration and care. Branagh kept true to Hamlet, while bringing his own style to the story and direction.

Besides the performance of Branagh, there is never one actor/actress that stands out more than the other. This cast is fairly huge and filled with actors from everywhere. There are those who can be plucked out of a crowd and the others are ones that you may remember from other appearances. Julie Christie plays the role of Hamlet’s Mother, Gertrude. She remains as optimistic as she can about her son throughout the duration of her time in the film. With her Motherly sadness and her guilt over the marriage to her husband’s Brother, Christie makes it easy to sympathize with. Derek Jacobi channels the role of Claudius all too well. When we first meet his character, he seems like an okay guy, but as time goes on the string starts to unravel. Jacobi brilliantly displays the tiresome restraint that Claudius holds even after Hamlet reveals him. As Ophelia, Kate Winslet borders the lines of innocence and naivety. When Ophelia goes mad after the intermission, Winslet never plays it too over the top. You can sense her pain and yet somehow feel uncomfortable when she starts to ramble. Another notable player would be the late Charlton Heston who steps out of himself and gives a great speech as the player King of an acting troupe. Other names you may recognize that give wonderful performances in the movie are: Billy Crystal, Richard Attenborough, Judi Dench, Gerard Depardieu, Nicholas Farrell, John Gielgud, Jack Lemmon, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Spall, and Robin Williams.

Again, I encourage you to pick this up, even if you don’t buy it. I know a lot of people don’t tend to give 4 hour movies repeated viewings. It’s such a magnificent work that really sets a bar not only for adaptations of classics, but also the filmmaking industry as well. Another reason a viewing of this film is important lies in the fact that the plays of Shakespeare as well as many others are getting lost in the generations. The younger audience is less interested in history and therefore loosing the grasp on the structure of literature. These are stories that need to continue to be told until we are all taken from this Earth. We do not want people to become void of a genuine experience, left to quote HAMLET like Michael Grates in REALITY BITES, “They find his skull in a grave, and they go…’Oh, I knew him, and he was funny.’” No one wants that.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Not to sound like a robot, but the colors are gorgeous. This is one of those instances where Blu-ray really pays off. Everything is nearly perfect and maybe at times too perfect. There was a nice balance throughout the duration of the film. The only times I saw a problem were during nighttime scenes. Otherwise, the video transfer is crisp and clean. (2.20:1 Widescreen).

Audio: The audio here is right on. At some points it was a little unbalanced with the loud booms and cheers, but then again it leaves you with the feeling that you are right there. (5.1 DTS-HD).

Commentary with Kenneth Branagh and Russell Jackson, Ma, PhD, editor of The Cambridge Guide to Shakespeare on Film and Professor of Drama and Theatre Arts at The University of Birmingham (12:00): Usually I’m like, “Commentary…sigh.” A lot of the commentary I’ve listened to lately is not really worth the time, especially with the more dated films. However, you’ve got to at least listen to this one once. I know the movie is insanely long, but it’s worth the time. Branagh is so passionate about this film and you can really hear it in his voice. Jackson is the perfect balance and gives a great insight.

Introduction from Kenneth Branagh (7:50) The director/star talks about the production and vision of the film. He also details the emotion of the process of getting the film out on DVD. Filmed in 2006.

To Be On Camera: A History with Hamlet (24:34): This feature was released when the DVD came out in 2007. The good thing is you get interviews with the majority of the cast. There are a lot of funny comments made as well, the best about Gerard Depardieu. Also any moments with Billy Crystal are good moments. You may also experience TITANIC flashbacks when you see a younger Kate Winslet. Filmed in 1997.

Vintage Cannes Promo (12:07): A little piece put together for the Cannes Film Festival.

Blu-ray Book: Honestly, this was my favorite part about receiving the Blu-ray. The packaging is beautiful and is a nice little companion piece. There are 35 pages here covering the cast, trivia, and the journey to Hamlet walked by Branagh. If you are a fan of Shakespeare or any of the actors, run, don’t walk to pick this one up and add it to your collection.

Aside from the lead character being a realistic old man, the story follows the typical man-on-a-mission synopsis we’ve seen several times before, most recently by Mad-Mel in EDGE OF DARKNESS or Denzel in MAN ON FIRE.  We quickly realize Harry Brown is a lonely man with nothing to lose, which means he has no fear.  Then the thugs kill his best friend, which gives him a reason to be violent.  Then we learn that he was a former marine officer, which legitimizes his murdering skills.  None of that is anything new to the genre and it’s all stuff we’ve seen several times before.  So the focus turns to how well they deliver with the violence and that’s where the film stutters.

To be fair, I was okay with some of the killings when they first started.  Although Harry’s hesitation didn’t make a whole lot of sense, the killings themselves worked for what they were.  It wasn’t until the tunnel scene that I started questioning how Harry was going about exacting his revenge.  Up until that point, the tunnel was packed with thugs, but when he shows up, it’s just the two guys he wants to kill and their girlfriends.  But okay, I’ll buy that; why didn’t they just open fire and start shooting?  Or better yet, why didn’t he open fire and speed up the process?  I guess the point to these questions is that the scene felt awkward and they could have done more with it.  But that scene brought us into the grand finale, which took place in the midst of a giant riot against the police.  This again felt a little over the top, which led to what I felt was an unfitting ending.

It was refreshing to see an action film with an older actor actually acknowledge the actor’s age and then incorporate that into the film.  In the days of a 60-year old Sylvester Stallone doing the same stunts of a 30-year old Jason Statham, I liked the fact that Daniel Barber told a realistic story.  However, that representation of reality needed to be continued with other aspects of the film, along with some more creative “action” scenes.  Few things in film are more exciting than watching the good guy kill a deserving bad guy, which makes the death scenes in HARRY BROWN that much more frustrating.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: We get a nice video transfer here, which was very surprising given the independent British quality of the film.  But the transfer was consistent throughout and looked wonderful.

Audio: The audio was also impressive and delivered an even mix with great effects and clear dialogue.

Commentary with Michael Caine, Daniel Barber and Kris Thykier: This commentary isn’t as great as you might expect it to be, but they give an average commentary and cover the normal commentary elements.

Deleted Scenes (17:11):  Nothing special with these scenes and most would have dragged the story out, so it seems they were cut for pacing reasons.

I was enamored with the way director Anton Corbijn shot the film, using the Italian backdrop as a supporting character for Clooney.  And much like UP IN THE AIR, Clooney’s character was developed by having the audience watch him do boring, mundane things like doing push-ups and building a gun.  But these things are important as this is really the only thing that develops his character.  That’s a double edged sword for the film because although the style was enjoyable, the slow, meticulous pace needed a bigger, more original payoff than what we ended up with.  Through the entire film, I kept hoping that it wasn’t going to choose one of those two paths and when it did, I was severely disappointed with everyone involved.

I can’t stand heaping praise on people that receive so much of it, but George Clooney deserves all the credit in the world for making the audience care about his character.  When it comes to acting, Clooney is on a whole new level and he can make any character cool.  In this, he creates a character that we never learn anything about but we still root for him to “win” in the end.  Unfortunately, because the biggest driver of this film is Clooney’s coolness, the audience struggles to get completely attached to him and therefore that “win” doesn’t seem as important and the inevitable failure to win kind of feels anticlimactic.

The inclusion of a pseudo-love story between him and Clara was another obvious progression.  But again, we’ve seen that result before where a loner, self-exiled man falls for a prostitute with the heart of gold.  But credit needs to be given to screenwriter Rowan Joffe for not making too much of it and not having it progress to something we couldn’t respect.  The relationship made sense and served its purpose.

The appeal of assassins in Hollywood makes perfect sense.  An assassin sounds like a cool, mysterious jobs with many layers to uncover.  Which is why I was excited that Clooney had chosen to play an assassin in THE AMERICAN.  But overall, this is a film that I felt like I’d seen before.  Assassins have had many incarnations on film and now that the path is so worn out, the pressure is on the filmmakers to do something new and different with it.  Yes, Clooney was great and yes, Corbijn shot the film beautifully, but the story wasn’t enough to keep us involved.

Dear God where to begin.  I’m not a fan of this animal craze Hollywood keeps clinging to with an iron fist.  Watching animals do “cutesy” things, operate hi-tech machinery or in this particular case, lay siege to anyone or anything that messes with their forest homes doesn’t particularly impress me.  Most of the animals found in this film are brainless pests in real life so watching them outsmart people, act surprised with eye bulging expressions, communicate to one another through a series of clouded blurbs and then pull off some insane booby trap action that would make MacGyver himself jealous with envy, came off as loathsome and ridiculous in my books.

To add insult to injury this story has been done a million times in both cartoons and film so having to sit through it again is a mind numbing slap in the face.  We live in a day and age when the envelope must be pushed each and every day or audiences lose interest.  I lost interest in this film after seeing the cover but it was only after the initial five to ten minutes that I began wishing I would suddenly go blind and deaf.  The dialogue in this movie is pure murder and by that I mean they simply kill each and every attempt at humor by redoing the same lame jokes over and over until I shook my head and whispered, “Seriously, another poop joke?”  Everything was overacted cheesed up here, brutally at that.

I’m mostly disappointed in Brendan Fraser.  What happened to you Brendan?  ENCINO MAN was a great way to come into the biz, sure you stumbled a bit with stuff like GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE but the first MUMMY film was a complete and total redeemer.  That series started to lose its edge by the second (and was totally dull by the third) but at least you still had your dignity man!  I was mortified to discover that Jeremy Piven was originally set to lead (Steve Carell also but that I could see), thankfully he didn’t or I would have a hard time enjoying ENTOURAGE.  The only saving grace this film had talent wise was Ken Jeong (who’s always funny and a delight to see) but it pained me to see him here as this film is so far below him.

FURRY VENGEANCE stank to the high heavens with an uncanny vengeance.  Some might try to defend this film in a “oh, but the kids will love it” sort of way but don’t believe the hype as any kid old enough to distinguish between cute animals and what’s really happening on screen will quickly lose interest.  This film is not worth your time anymore than it was worth the time of those sad souls involved so don’t waste your money or your brain cells here as it would be about the equivalent to sniffing glue…no offence to glue.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 1.78:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  The landscape looked fantastic in HD but that’s about all the flattering feedback I can give.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English, French and Spanish with the same subtitle options.  Listening to the animals jabbering wasn’t nearly as annoying as the human jabbering.

Commentary (1:31:19): This commentary with director Roger Kumble, Brendan Fraser and Brooke Shields is hilarious as they all try so hard to glorify (and justify) this steaming nugget of crap.  Thankfully we can’t see them as I doubt they could do so with straight faces.

Deleted Scenes (6:11): Three words:  Brendan Fraser naked.  No, it’s not flattering, anymore than extra screen time with him in his “yum yum” pink jumpsuit was.  Terrible.

The Pitfalls of Pratfalls (9:57): Here we get the director explaining how and why Brendan Fraser was the guy they wanted (after Piven and Carell said no of course) as he fit the bill physically as far as all the zany animal abuse was concerned.

Working with Animals: A Profile of Kenn Beggs (8:42): Here we have animal trainer Kenn Beggs giving away all his trade secrets about how he gets these animals to walk the walk.  I find it curious how they all go on like this was the first film to do something like this.

Gag Reel (3:54): There’s a lot of yelling and gibberish found herein but most of it is quite sad and just plain awful.  Shame on them for implying this was funny.

Previews: There are a couple trailers that play before the feature as well as a DVD version of the film.

The cast was excellent in PIRAHNA 3D, only because they didn’t take themselves seriously and totally understood how over the top the screenplay was.  Elisabeth Shue and Ving Rhames play the sheriff and deputy who are trying to keep all the tourists safe, Christopher Lloyd plays a local fish aficionado (who also happens to know about local prehistoric fish) and Jerry O’Connell plays a director/producer of a pornography company that is shooting a Spring Break special.  All of the actors do well considering what they have to work with and it’s great that they are willing to do these kinds of films.  We even get a Richard Dreyfuss cameo ala Drew Barrymore in SCREAM.

I’m sure you’ve guessed that this film is chalk full of cheese and campy to the extreme, what you may not have known is that this movie got it’s “R” rating due to excessive nudity as opposed to gruesome piranha attack scenes (although those are in there as well).  However, the 3D effects were not as fully utilized as it should have been. With all the 3D films coming out, it would have made perfect sense to have many, many scenes where the piranha or body parts are swimming at the screen but there was hardly anything.  Of all the problems with this film, lack of 3D is by far and away the worst.  There was a perfect opportunity for the 3D gimmick and they just let it slide.  Hopefully, they will redeem themselves when they make PIRANHA 3D:THE SEQUEL (and yes, that is coming in 2012).

Of course, the plot was also absurd, but what did you expect?  The plot is completely formulaic and over the top but completely fun to watch unfold anyway.  For instance, how did these two million prehistoric fish survive this long without having any other fish to prey on–cannibalism , of course!  And what kind of campy horror film would this be if you didn’t have the obligatory feeding frenzy that was gratuitous and went on way longer than expected.  This is all part of the charm of PIRANHA 3D and what makes it a great ride.

Overall, this film was just a fun watch and a great flick to catch with a couple of friends.  I don’t think I would ever watch it again because it was so bad, but it was so bad that it was good.  If anything, this film made me especially happy and grateful that I was a nerd in high school and never went on a crazy Spring Break at the lake, it just doesn’t seem to end well.

CHARLIE’S ANGELS was one of those films that is fun, colorful, has lots of action and surprisingly enough, holds up pretty well ten years later.  Sure, it’s full of some over-acting and cheesiness, but overall it’s still a good time.  I think a lot of this is due to Bill Murray who plays the charming and oblivious Bosley (which may be a reason the sequel was unbearable) as well as the fabulous performance from Sam Rockwell. Oh, and let’s not forget Crispin Glover as the cool Thin Man.  He really is a great bad guy who should be doing more in Hollywood.

One of the best things about this film is the obvious campiness which is done so well.  In many places it went over the top and held nothing back which was a risk but they managed to pull it off.  The actresses and actors don’t really take themselves seriously and you can tell they had a good time filming this movie.  CHARLIE’S ANGELS could have easily been a complete bust if it would have been cast differently, but this ensemble pulled it off with little effort.  We even get some nice smaller performances from: Luke Wilson, Matt LeBlanc and Tim Curry.

However, admittedly, this film does have some flaws.  Although, the punning throughout the film is fun at first, it does get really old after a while, as does some of the dialogue.  This film really leaves nothing to the imagination and spells everything out to you through dialogue and voice overs.  If you can get past this then you’re almost home free.  The other thing that will really hold you back is if you have an aversion to any of these actresses, and if that’s the case then I would go ahead and skip this film altogether.  There is no shortage of these three ladies and their parts are equally split throughout the film.  Oh, and the wire work was a bit over the top as well, but that’s not a big deal now like it was in 2000 when that was in all the movies for those few years.

Overall, CHARLIE’S ANGELS is a pleasing combination of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and SPICE WORLD, as in cool spy stuff and action mixed in with a lot of girl power.  Even though it definitely has its flaws, it’s still a fun flick to throw in on a Friday night with a bowl of popcorn.  Plus the music is great-I mean really, how can anyone hate a film that can throw in some Prodigy as well as Sir Mix-a-lot and still make it work?

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video:McG lays on the style pretty heavy and it comes through beautifully in this Blu-ray.  This really is a great transfer.

Audio: The audio is just as impressive with surround channels being put to the test, especially during the action scenes.

Commentary with Director McG and Cinematographer Russell Carpenter: These guys really keep the ball rolling and actually give us some good technical stuff to absorb. Cinematographer commentaries are usually interesting and this is no exception.  There are some really good insights so this is really worth a watch.

Deleted Scenes (4:42): These didn’t add anything to the overall plot, however, we did get to see some more interaction between Curry and Murray which wasn’t necessary but still fun to watch.  We also get some other various scenes that were rightfully cut.

Outtakes and Bloopers (2:39): These were very similar to the ending credits and gave very little more, too many movie clips and not enough bloopers.  They really shouldn’t have added this.

Getting G’d Up (6:32): This was a short featurette of McG directing various scenes and then the cast and crew telling us how awesome he was to work with and how much they loved working with him.  He seemed to have a great energy on the set, which may have been fun if you were there but looks exhausting and annoying from our perspective.

The Master and the Angels (7:25): Cheung-Yan Yuen is the master of the martial arts in the films and this is a featurette about him and his work on the film. This includes a lot of behind the scenes stuff which is always fun to watch, and of course the obligatory training montage.

Welcome to Angel World (4:48): This was about the over the top world they built for the Angels. It’s almost a comical world and very scene specific, this was actually interesting to watch.

Angelic Attire: Dressing Cameron Drew and Lucy (3:25): Obviously, this is about the wardrobes in the film, there were some cool costumes and this was short enough that it was an enjoyable.

Angelic Effects (6:45):This is about the special effects in the film, now obviously this is dated but it’s actually kinda cool to watch just to see how far technology in film really has come.

Wired Angels (2:35): All about the wire work, which like I said before I remembered as being a bit cheesy but wasn’t as bad now as it was back then.  This is a raw scene of the fight between the Angels and Thin Man in the alley.

Music Videos: “Independent Women Part 1” by Destiny’s Child and “Charlie’s Angels 2000” by Apollo Four Forty

Previews

Snake Plissken is a patch wearing bad dude who has countless heroic medals but has been convicted of a crime for mostly marching to a beat of his own drum, meaning, he does what he wants.  By 1988 crime had risen 400 percent so by 1997 (when the film takes place) the government has turned New York’s entire Manhattan Island into it’s own prison, guarding the water around the borders.  Criminals get in but they don’t get out.  Some freedom fighters kidnap Air Force One and crash it into Manhattan Island.  Snake is offered a full pardon if he can rescue the surviving President of the United States and the confidential items that are locked in a brief case and handcuffed to his wrist.  In order to make sure Snake follows through, the officer in charge injects a chemical in him that will kill him in 24 hours if he hasn’t returned.  Snake is given a variety of Bond like weapons to achieve his mission of infiltrating the prison, fighting off the crazies and rescuing the President safely.

So some of this is a bit ridiculous since we are currently 13 years past the future in which the story takes place, but it’s important to remember ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was made in 1981.  How is 1981 supposed to know that by 1997 information would be put on a disc rather than a cassette?  Or for those in 2010 looking back with our iphones using the Internet to visually and audibly send information anywhere we want instantly?  So yes, the film is clearly dated but that is the risk that is ran when making a film in the not so distant future and relying on current technology rather than creating new possibilities.

A few unlikely stars show up as well.  Oscar Winning Ernest Borgnine as a helpful goofy cab driver name Cabbie, Harry Dean Stanton as the smart guy named Brain, musical artist Isaac Hayes as the prison villain named The Duke and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY’s Lee Van Cleef all round out the colorful cast.  Even though Russell holds strong as one of his coolest characters and delivers some fun scenes in an interesting futuristic idea, ultimately the film just doesn’t stand the test of time.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (Widescreen 2.35:1) The black levels are pretty heavy even for a dark sci-fi film.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio) Not bad, the score by John Carpenter is simple but effective for the futuristic feel.  Not too many stand out surround sound moments.

This Blu-ray offers nothing special except for an extra DVD copy of the film, which is probably nearly as good.  If you are a fan of the film grab it from the ten-dollar bin but I want and expect more from this classic.

CEMETERY JUNCTION was unknown to me but I’m not surprised as a lot of British based films and TV shows generally fly below radar.  Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (two actors made famous by one such TV show, EXTRAS, which I discovered by accident and ended up really enjoying) co-wrote and co-directed the film which gave it merit in my opinion and definitely helped the comedic bits flow as Gervais’ style of humour was all over it.  Gervais in particular played a small role but despite playing a deadbeat father, his few lines were gold in the funny bank.

What humour there was (I wish there’d been more) carries the film rather well through the dramatic odds and ends.  The storyline, values, drama and conflicts were a connect the dot series of clichés that have been done so much better in films like GOOD WILL HUNTING for example.  The struggle with becoming worthless and living out a life of mediocrity is a common worry in us all but I fail to see the need for yet another film based upon it.  The dialogue here is “win or lose” depending on how much (if at all) you enjoy British flicks and or humour.  Some of it grows on you for sure but as with EXTRAS, there are cringe-worthy moments that don’t make a lot of sense.

The acting was decent for a bunch of dudes who’ve mostly starred in TV roles and then you have Ralph Fiennes (who’s mostly starred in HARRY POTTER roles lately) making a dull appearance alongside WATCHMEN’s Matthew Goode and the once hot but now frumpy Emily Watson (a shame).  Fiennes and Goode have real acting potential but seem to be struggling when it comes to finding decent roles lately.  Fiennes’ Potter bus will be leaving the station here soon so he needs to revisit some of his old swagger from films like RED DRAGON and even STRANGE DAYS (if you remember that one).

CEMETERY JUNCTION isn’t all bad for a film you’ve no doubt never heard of and hence don’t really care too much about seeing but even then it’s only a rental and only watchable if you can tolerate British style comedy.  I liked Merchant’s brief cameo at the winner’s ball but would have liked to see he and Gervais both have some more screen time (then again, I guess they didn’t want to force their way into the film).  The dramatic and romantic sides of this tale play out exactly as I figured they would (it’s quite obvious) but I’ve seen worse endings.  Besides, if for no other reason, you should watch this movie simply because of Snork’s tattoo which was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 2.40:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  I don’t know much more about the 70s than I got from movies and THAT 70s SHOW but from what I could tell it was well done and looked legit.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English and French with the same subtitle options.  I can’t help but laugh at British cursing as most times I have absolutely no idea what they’re saying but it still sounds cool.

Commentary (1:34:35): There are two commentaries; one with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant which is funny as hell thanks to this great duo and the second is equally well done and noteworthy as the three main cast members take it away, something most films fail to include these days.

Deleted Scenes (13:36): Most of this is junk but the extended scene with Freddy’s family and the funeral appointment scam were pure gold.

Blooper Reel (13:42): This is the longest blooper reel I’ve ever seen which wouldn’t be so bad if it was funny.  The British must do things a little differently.

The Directors:  A Conversation with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (15:07): Here the boys give us a making-of segment where they explain how this film was a long time coming.  I thought it would be funnier but the guys said they distinctly went away from standard comedy.

The Lads Look Back:  The Stars Discuss Cemetery Junction (10:14): Here the three lead actors reminisce about their auditions, meeting Ricky and Stephen and their real chemistry on and off set.  These guys had a blast.

Seventies Style:  Production and Costume Design (8:44): I thought they did a great job bringing back the seventies but the real deal closer for me was wardrobe, music and dancing in the nightclub.

Production Featurettes (6:45): This is just another brief making-of piece that breaks the film down in weekly intervals.

Previews: There are six very decent trailers to choose from.

But it’s not like the film was ripe with opportunity.  The idea of a man and woman meeting and falling in love shortly after the woman gets artificially inseminated is awkward before the first scene is even filmed.  No matter who you have playing in the lead roles, there’s always going to be this level of discomfort that exists in the film.  Therefore, the screenwriter has a great burden to write likable, fun characters that the audience can relate to.  In this case, screenwriter Kate Angelo didn’t come close.  Temporarily ignoring the uninspiring performances from Lopez and Alex O’Loughlin, the characters we should have been rooting for were shallow and poorly developed.  We knew next to nothing about them or their motivations and that put extra pressure on the two lead actors that seemingly couldn’t be bothered to add anything to their characters.

Missing all of his TV performances, this was my first exposure to Alex O’Loughlin and my initial thought is that he’s not ready to be a leading man.  Every line was delivered awkwardly and out of rhythm.  Part of that is poor directing, but the other part is O’Loughlin not being able to relate or understand his character.  A guy dealing with the frustration of falling in love with a woman who is having a kid from another guy is a tough, tough concept and there were times his character could have used some inspiration and some emotion.  But we didn’t get that and therefore, the audience couldn’t connect with him.  J-Lo was just as bad and despite numerous movies, J-Lo’s timing couldn’t have been worse and she looked so fake and unnatural that her appearance didn’t fit the character.  I understand J-Lo always looks good in real life, but her character didn’t seem like that and having her with perfect hair and make-up right after getting soaked in the rain was an insult to the audience.

As with all romantic comedies, THE BACK-UP PLAN had a handful of supporting characters that were there to provide some quick laughs.  But I was confused as to their purpose since it felt like the filmmakers went out of their way to include them in the film. Anthony Anderson appeared a couple of times as a random father on the playground.  He would have worked much better as the best friend and needed a bigger role.  J-Lo’s best friend, played by Michaela Watkins also had some good lines, but again, her role was too small and was never fully explored.

I understand rom-coms are meant to be cutesy and provide some feel-good romantic moments to the audience, so nitpicking on specific plot points is pointless.  With that in mind, the ending came together in ridiculous fashion.  We had the quick break-up-then-realize-they-love-each-other, but the whole thing was forced to an obnoxious degree.  By the time the ending came around, I didn’t want them to be together because I was afraid the filmmakers would have them break-up again, and then the movie would never have ended.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Surprisingly enough, the video looked really, really crisp.  This is one of the better transfers from Sony, despite being one of the more disappointing films.

Audio: The audio wasn’t quite as nice, but it was sufficient for the dialogue.

Deleted Scenes (5:12):  I would say these were on par with the quality of the film, which of course means they were pointless and unnecessary.  Plus, we get more Alex O’Loughlin, which by this point was too much.

Belly Laughs: The Making of The Back-Up Plan (11:36):  We got off to a bad start when Alan Poul tells us he laughed out loud at the script and then cried at the end.  Did he read the right script?  After that, we get the typical making-of featurette.

Carell and Fey are Phil and Claire Foster, a married couple stuck in a rut that decides to branch out and go have dinner in the city.  But when they take another couple’s reservation, they get mistaken for that couple, who happens to be involved in blackmailing a top government official that may or may not have ties to the mob.  So our heroes go on the run and must find a way to clear their name, enlisting the help of a shirtless Mark Wahlberg.  There are several issues with the film that prevent it from ever taking off, but one of the main problems is that they tried to hard to create a twisting, complicated plot.  The point is not to try and tell a government conspiracy story or anything like that, the point is to get the two comedians into humorous situations.  It’s not complicated and in 88 minutes, they didn’t have time to develop the story they tried to tell.  If they had stuck with the two comedians running from the mob boss, it would have given more time to Fey and Carell to provide some laughs and less time trying to figure out a subplot we didn’t care about anyway.

We also have some other subplots going on that would have done well if they had been explored further.  The Fosters kept comparing themselves to their friends (played by Mark Ruffalo and Kristen Wiig) who were going through a divorce because their marriage became stale.  Obviously, the Fosters are concerned they’ll suffer the same fate.  This worked as an underlying issue they deal with while on the run, but it could have also been a source of laughs that instead got pushed to the side.  A stale marriage is something that every married person can relate to and it felt like there were more things to explore with that idea.

I actually liked the addition of Mark Wahlberg’s Holbrooke character as it gave them a legitimacy that they otherwise wouldn’t have had.  Since he actually knew what he was doing, it allowed the audience to accept some of the situations and some of the plot connectors.  I also loved the running shirtless gag and enjoyed how everyone that came in contact with him had to mention it.  But the single laugh-out-loud moment came when Carell impersonated Wahlberg to a hilarious degree.  It made me want another like-scene in which Carell could play off the seriousness of Wahlberg.

Tina Fey’s strength comes with her comedy structure and the “unraveling” of comedy.  As an actress, she’s not a naturally funny person and so I found myself not liking her as much in this as I have in her previous works.  She, like Carell, is best when playing off someone else and we didn’t get enough of those moments.  The whole film felt like it was being held back and the proof of this can be found on the outtakes, which turned out to be funnier than many of the scenes in the film.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: This transfer had some problems, most noticeably during dark scenes in the city.  Although overall it is a decent transfer, there is some considerable grain/noise that can be distracting at times.

Audio: The audio was fine.

Deleted Scenes (5:47): These added nothing to the film but they were funny to watch, but that’s just because it’s Fey and Carell and they are funny no matter what.

Alt City (1:48): These were just alternate takes of some scenes, they were funny but we saw most of them during the credits.

Extended Scenes (10:25): It was good that these scenes were trimmed down because they added nothing to the plot, but they were worth the watch.

Directing 301 (21:48): This featurette follows director Shawn Levy and his crew as they work behind the scenes.  They put a lot of work into this feature and it’s well worth the watch, you really don’t get too many features that aren’t full of film clips.

Disaster Dates (4:43): Just like it sounds, the cast and crew reminiscing about their bad dates.  Not as many good stories as you would expect but worth the watch.

Directing Off Camera (3:46): This is really interesting to watch but hard to explain, basically Levy rolls the cameras and give direction during the scenes.  He gives an introduction to this little featurette in which he explains everything.

Steve and Tina Camera Tests (3:10): Another introduction from Mr. Levy and then the screen test.  Nothing too special here.

Gag Reel (5:49): Not a bad gag reel and quite fun to watch although there was some of that giggling at some unseen joke.

PSA’s (2:02): These were cute and a great way to promote a movie.

Theatrical Trailer

The premise that has so many people up in arms revolves around Kassie’s (Jennifer Aniston) decision to conceive a baby through artificial insemination.  But this idea alone is addressed several times in the movie, both from a naysayer and a supporter of the idea.  The movie doesn’t support the idea of single women purposely having babies alone, but it handles the topic subjectively and provides several different viewpoints.  The joke is that the movie really isn’t about her artificial insemination.  In fact, the movie isn’t about Jennifer Aniston’s character at all.  It’s about Wally Mars, played to utter perfection by Jason Bateman.  Much like LOVE HAPPENS was actually Aaron Eckhart’s movie, THE SWITCH belongs to Mr. Bateman.

Aside from some awkward narration that opened and closed the movie, Jason Bateman was nearly flawless in depicting a complex, neurotic character that almost everyone can relate to.  While some romance films make you want to scream at the screen as a character bewilderingly doesn’t say something or makes a questionable decision, we never get that in this film.  Part of that was Bateman nailing the character and the other part was screenwriter Allan Loeb weaving the story in a way that it never really made sense for Wally to divulge his feelings or come clean on “the switch”.  In a movie that was ripe for plot pitfalls and questionable character developments, Loeb managed to make everything believable and create characters we liked and rooted for.

I’m not Aniston’s biggest fan, but she played her supporting role wonderfully here, much like she did in LOVE HAPPENS.  The film shined when Wally was teamed up with his son, Sebastian, played by newcomer Thomas Robinson.  The little similarities they inserted in the film that showed Wally was his father were both cute and creative, making us fully invested into their relationship.  But this wasn’t us watching Wally go head over heels for the kid or for Kassie, the development was slow and it felt natural, which is hard when a film is trying to develop two separate relationships, both of which have to work out in the end.  The other supporting characters (Jeff Goldblum and Juliette Lewis) were a little too cliché to be noteworthy, so the best thing about them was that they didn’t distract from the story too much.

I can imagine that people that have become disillusioned with Aniston over the years will avoid this, thinking this is her showcase.  On the flipside, her biggest fans might flock to the theater, thinking this is her showcase.  Either way, some fans are going to be disappointed.  The people that should be seeing this film are anyone that appreciates an original take on the rare romantic dramedy genre and wants more depth to their characters than what most films offer up.

I’ll be honest in that I loathe films with subtitles.  Yes, on the one hand, after awhile you forget they’re there (if the movie’s good of course) but I find trying to read the words and watch the screen tedious.  It can start to feel like work rather than a relaxing watch.  That said, this was thankfully an engrossing watch and the subtitles were quickly forgotten.  I enjoyed A PROPHET but I can’t help but wonder why this film needed to be made.  Films like this take themselves seriously and usually try to prove a point but we’ve seen this scenario countless times before (of sorts), lately even, with stuff like PRISON BREAK, FELON (which I really liked) and the upcoming STONE with Ed Norton coming out later this year.  So again, regardless of its pros and cons, I still have to ask why?

On a positive note I dug Malik’s character.  He’s the poster boy for underdog and despite him being guilty of a crime and sent to prison, you can’t help but like the kid.  They make it painfully obvious that Malik doesn’t want to make his first kill and what I loved about it was the whole DEXTER angle they played with in the aftermath.  Talking to his victim (who isn’t really there but we see him) as a means of coping with the impending madness of it all is a sobering sight in my opinion and I especially dug the smoking scene where the dead dude’s exhaling through the razorblade gash on his neck which freaks Malik out a little.

I also dug Malik’s deer vision though I have to say I was perplexed by where it was headed at first.  I’m also rather confused about this particular prison system.  These inmates seem to eat better than most people, have access to all the drugs they can handle, TVs and even DVD players.  Malik even gets to bang a chick in his cell.  Add to this that Malik’s rise to power (from a scrub nothing) seemed pretty easy if you’re willing to take a life…which he had all the help in the world with.  The real irony is that Malik didn’t want to do it and even tried to rat them out a couple times and they still didn’t kill him for it.  I’ve seen some pretty hardcore prison movies and I have to say this was not one of them.

A PROPHET was a cool watch for someone like me who digs prison flicks but when I think of prison I keep wondering when the Toss Salad Man’s going to start terrorizing the new guy or shanking him in the face.  This prison didn’t feel all that tense and almost seemed like it could make Gods and gangsters out of anyone there, on the inside and on the outside.  I also wasn’t crazy about the ending but see the sense in it I suppose.  This flick isn’t for everyone and is far from perfect but it’s worth checking out if you think the way I do and/or don’t mind subtitled films.  The pace is spotty and the cast is mostly unknowns (though they all performed well) but if you let yourself get into it you probably won’t be disappointed.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 1.85:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  Not much to see in the visual department other than a cold, dull prison most of the time.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in French and German with those, English and Turkish subtitle options.  If you speak French or German you’ll enjoy this film much more.

Commentary (2:35:22): Director Jaques Audiard, co-writer Thomas Bidegain and actor Tahar Rahim (Malik) lead us through it and as with my audio input, if you speak French this will be a bit easier to enjoy but if you don’t you’ll have fun with a second set of subtitles.  Yay.

Deleted Scenes (10:34): There really isn’t much here and for the most part it’s more of the same and seems easy and logical to cut.  To be honest, I feel they could have easily shaved a cool ten to fifteen more minutes off the runtime.

Rehearsal Footage (8:50): Here we get some improve with some of the film’s key scenes from the audition reel.  I think Thar Rahim (Malik) was a solid choice talent-wise.  There’s also five more minutes of individual screen test footage.

Previews: There’s a theatrical trailer for the feature as well as eight other trailers for flicks you probably never heard of.

Troubled teen Ronnie Miller (Miley Cyrus) and her talkative little brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) are headed off to a beachfront property to live with their father (Greg Kinnear) for the summer.  Ronnie has some built up anger towards life and her father for leaving them after divorcing their mother.  Luckily she meets a cute boy name Will (Liam Hemsworth).  This quickly becomes more than just a summer fling and their relationship grows, as does the one with her father.  More unforeseen problems arise when she finds out her father was accused of burning down a church and diagnosed with cancer, which he had kept secret from his children.  Ronnie must learn not to push people away but cherish those that love her and embrace her gift as a talented pianist.  Wait, what?  Actually they fit that storyline in nicely.

The film narrowly pulls through due mostly to Greg Kinnear who was not utilized enough.  He is just so darn likeable that I want the film to work and all the relationships to work within.  Ronnie and Will’s relationship takes off a little too contrived and quickly for my taste.  As the film progressed I did feel like their relationship was true and strong, however, there were far too many scenes of Ronnie running off angry pushing Will away.  It got old.  I hate it when bad communication and lack of logical thinking are the dilemmas.

Other than the natural Kinnear, the acting isn’t the best but it isn’t the worst either.  Miley Cyrus had bad moments but also had some ok moments.  I think with a little more practice she could become a little above adequate.  She did a good job of shedding her Hannah Montana child image but then again I have never seen HANNAH MONTANA.  I think Liam Hemsworth has a promising future and expect to see him blowing up everywhere.  Bobby Coleman as the cute little kid was trying a bit too hard coming off more annoying than funny but I’m sure he will have his fans.

What we have here is a film split with two stories, the young love story and the father daughter relationship, and on both accounts I’ve seen other films do it better.  It’s consciously hard for me sometimes to bash a nice, good clean film with positive relationships so if that sounds like your cup of tea go for it, but I recommend watching A WALK TO REMEMBER or the far more mature LIFE AS A HOUSE.  They will give you those touching inspirational moments that I wished THE LAST SONG had.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video:  (Widescreen 2:35.1) A nice clean picture with beautiful ocean line shots.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD MA) Sound was clear with great music cues

Audio Commentary with Director Julie Anne Robinson and Co-Producer Jennifer Gibgot: A typical commentary, the two do a good job keeping thing moving.  They chat about the actors, story and the making of the film but nothing overly interesting.

Alternate Opening Sequence (2:55): An extension of the short church fire opening.

Deleted Scenes (7:08): Five deleted scenes with optional commentary by the director.  All our a bit redundant and unnecessary, so they were wisely cut.

Set Tour With Bobby Coleman (5:06): This is basically a bunch of short interviews with the crew including a producer, make-up artist, hair stylist, craft service, video assistant, grip and security.

Miley Cyrus Music Video “When I Look At You” (4:16): I genuinely really like this song.

The Making of the Music Video with Miley Cyrus (4:20): Director Adam Shankman who also produces the film and is a judge on So You Think You Can Dance leads us through a quick making of process of the video.

Kevin Costner plays baseball players too well.  He captures that arrogance that all ball players have, but always manages to let out a hint of insecurity, causing you to relate to his characters.  Although some would argue that Billy Chapel in FOR LOVE OF THE GAME is his best baseball player character, for my money, it’s Crash Davis in BULL DURHAM.  Crash is a real person, with real dreams and that brings him to a level that all of us can relate to.  The scene where he talks about making it to “the show” on the bus is great, only because it allows us to sympathize with him as a person.  One of the things that made Crash so great was his rapport with Tim Robbins’ Nuke LaLoosh and Susan Sarandon’s Annie Savoy.  It’s those relationships that make us like Crash Davis and in the end, make us like the movie.

In fact, one could even argue that Susan Sarandon turned in the best performance in the film.  I don’t think she’s ever been sexier on camera and her character was a hard one to pull off.  To put it bluntly; she’s…promiscuous.  But she’s really the character that drives the story, so the audience has to relate to, care for and at the end, root for her to come out on top.  A lesser actress could have easily blurred that line and turned the character into a villain of sorts.  But that argument could be made for the big three, because without their natural charm and charisma, the film would have suffered.  Give credit to director Ron Shelton for realizing the talent he had in front of the camera and for letting them carry the film.  And be honest for a second; if you haven’t seen BULL DURHAM in a couple of years, do you even remember any of the baseball scenes?  Do you remember any of the games played in the movie?  I don’t.  I remember the characters, and there’s not too many sports movies where you remember the people playing the games and not anything about the games themselves.

The greatest achievement of BULL DURHAM is how it manages to be so many things at once.  It’s funny, dramatic, authentic, touching and at the same time, it manages to develop three characters that are remembered twenty years later.  First time director Ron Shelton balances the various elements of the film surprisingly well and the result is a baseball movie that has proven to stand the test of time.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The transfer is a little disappointing considering how far we’ve come with Blu-ray video quality lately.  It’s better than the DVD version, but not by much.

Audio: The sound is better, but again, not so much so that it makes you want to throw away the DVD and buy the Blu-ray.

Note that the Blu-ray contains zero special features, but the DVD that’s included in the set contains all of the below features, making it identical to the DVD special edition.  I can understand not bothering with some of the lame features, but the commentaries really should have been transferred over.

Commentary with Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins: This isn’t as great as it sounds because it feels like neither of these guys have seen the movie in many, many years.  There are a lot of dead spots, which makes it hard to get into.

Commentary with Ron Shelton: Ron drops a lot of great facts, like the fact he played minor league baseball, and keeps the commentary rolling.  This was his first film, so he was very passionate about what he had to say.

Featurettes, including The Greatest Show on Dirt (19:21), Diamonds in the Rough (15:54), Between the Lines (29:17): Normally, I’d review all of these separately, but these were so similar in style that they should have been combined or deleted completely.  They’re basically making-of featurettes that show some classic footage as well as updated interviews.  I’d pick one and go with it.

Kevin Costner (2:10) and Sports Wrap (2:58): I can’t believe these pass as a special features.

Basically, they’re long trailers for the film and not worth the time.

There are also some Previews

We start our story with Scott Pilgrim, age 22, in a mourning period after losing an old girlfriend, Envy (Brie Larson), who became a huge music success and left him for bigger, better things. In his mourning he starts dating a 17 year old, Knives (Ellen Wong – and for the record, fellas, never date a girl named “Knives”). Pilgrim plays bass for a local Toronto band trying to make it big, Sex Bob-omb, and Knives is their biggest fan. But then he meets Ramona Flowers (Winstead), first in a dream and then real life, and despite his awkwardness – or maybe because of it – they begin dating. It’s then that Scott finds out that he must face off against Ramona’s evil exes, the back stories for these relationships are told in slow monologues with accompanying comic strips, and his first battle with Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) is a hilarious, out-of-left-field, fight/dance sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the insane battles he will take part in throughout the flick. For advice and hip commentary, Pilgrim has his roommate and best friend Wallace (Kieran Culkin doing great comic work throughout) and his sister Stacey (Anna Kendrick), while his band mates are just tired of him bringing girls around to their practices. The exes Scott must face are diverse in talents and gender, pitting him against Brandon Routh as a Vegan with special powers (and a great, unexpected cameo dealing with vegans), Chris Evans as a conceited action hero actor/skateboarder, a pair of twins, a psycho girl, and the creator of The League of Evil Exes – Jason Schwartzman.

The battles are fast and fun, with weapons as random as swords, a mallet, a bass guitar and coffee, and the emotions behind all of it are real, which grounds a story so fantastical it has Michael Cera kung-fu fighting Jason Schwartzman. How many writers can do that? Cera is great, playing everything from sad sack to confident crusader, and delivering all of his lines in the best way to maximize their comedic effect. Kieran Culkin is funny as the gay best friend who steals a great deal many scenes. The exes when they come on all have their unique elements which get laughs at every turn – particularly Evans and Routh (actual super-hero’s in other movies who fight Michael Cera in this universe) – while other bit parts like Aubrey Plaza as Julie get their own comedy bits and nail them. Winstead is mostly mysterious and aloof, but we all love that girl, and I could see myself fighting to the death for her. But this flick is all about Scott Pilgrim, and watching him fight through his respective levels, but also grow through them as well. It is an original concept populated with great characters we like and believe in…even as they burst into coins after a battle.

This movie couldn’t be more perfectly cast –Gordon does a great job as likeable yet frustrating Greg by delivering the right amount of good intentions to keep you torn between wanting him to succeed and wanting him to learn life lessons. Greg combines every kid’s worst instincts into one; he’s really not a great friend and you wonder why Rowley is so loyal to their friendship. Whoever selected Capron for the role of Rowley deserves a standing ovation. His story line is by far the most interesting one and you cannot get enough of him on screen. What a genuine performance that was delivered perfectly!  It was fun meeting  a handful of fantastic supporting characters from class spazz Fregley and alpha female Patty, to Greg’s parents (Rachel Harris and Steve Zahn) who are brilliant as the bumbling parents.  I wasn’t crazy about the performance of Greg’s older brother, Rodrick (Devon Bostick) but cannot pinpoint what I wish was different about his performance. The only time I was amused when he was on screen was when he shouts “get off of me baby hippo!” to Rowley and when he startles Greg in the bathroom.

The Physical Education scenes were by far my favorite and included a few genuine belly laughs, Zahn’s overzealous attempt at stopping teens from toilet-papering his yard on Halloween made me chuckle a bit too. Loved the routine performed by Rowley and his mom at the dance – so great! Despite those fun moments, overall, I was mildly disappointed in the film and found it to be a bit of a snooze. Granted, if I were the target audience, I might feel differently or if I were looking for a film that kids might like, I would probably suggest they watch this movie.  It’s hard to be unsupportive of a film that has the underlining message of ‘be yourself’.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (1.85:1 Widescreen) Sharp picture, great for the ever changing moldy cheese that continually gets pushed into the storyline.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio) Nice sound, you can feel the thundering herd of big kids running toward little Chirag in the PE scene.

Deleted Diary Pages: 9 minute long snippets including Fregley’s Scavenger Hunt, Rowley’s Lost Zoo-Wee-Mama Cartoons, Greg Has the Cheese Touch, Greg Meets Fregley’s Mom, Mom Suggests a Friendship Card,  Mr. Winsky’s Safety Patrol Assignment, Greg and Rowely Jump Over the Wall, Mom Drops Greg Off at School, Fregley’s Shuffle, and Chirag’s Trail of Tears.  The only diary pages worth watching are Greg Has the Cheese Touch (this should have been in the film), Chirag’s Trail of Tears and Rowely’s Lost Zoo-Wee-Mama Cartoons.  The rest are superfluous. These snippets desperately needed a “play all” button. The wait for each one was annoyingly long.

Feature Commentary with Director Thor Freudenthal and Writer Gabe Sachs: We learn where the movie deviates from the book, random facts about the cast and characters and how they incorporated drawings from the book into the scenes.

Theatrical Trailer

The premise of the film centers on four actors/salesmen that are hired by a marketing firm to do some targeted selling in a specific neighborhood.  The idea is great, even if I question the idea that four individuals could influence enough sales to justify the cost of keeping them employed, but the idea is an interesting one.  The filmmakers had a tough choice to make with the story and they could either focus on the individual emotional toll the job had on the four salesmen and saleswomen or look at the broader picture and focus on the impact their selling had on the town they were in.  Director and writer Derrick Borte chose somewhere in the middle, which of course meant that neither storyline was developed to its fullest extent.

Obviously, the theme of the film is that the old saying of “keeping up with the Joneses” is one of the many things that can kill the traditional American dream.  The Joneses in the film embody the need people have to buy the latest gadgets or to keep up on the latest trends.  The idea of a marketing firm actually hiring actors to live in a subdivision and secretly sell products is brilliant, but the theme is written in the title of the film.  Therefore, the burden is on the filmmakers to run with the theme and take the audience somewhere we don’t expect to go.  There are numerous side-effects to buying frivolous things, but the filmmakers used their neighbors as the only example.  We needed more tragedy coming from what they were doing and we needed to see the negative impact their actions had on the school, their friends and the local businesses.

The subplots with the “kids” (Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth) were too underdeveloped and ended up being distracting.  Between the “daughter” having a thing for older men and the “son” realizing he’s gay, I found myself disinterested in both of their plights.  Each of their situations could have been its own film and touching on them briefly just took us away from the broader scope of the film.  I also failed to understand what the purpose was of having his “girlfriend” involved in a car accident, other than the subtle context that she was drinking one of the products the family was trying to sell.

With all of the problems the film has, the originality of the story and the charm and likability of David Duchovny manage to make this an enjoyable film.  Sure, I was disappointed Bort didn’t use the opportunity to make a greater statement on America’s materialistic society and I would have liked more character development, but the ride we got was enjoyable in its own right.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The transfer had a few problems with colors looking washed out at times.  Nothing about the video presentation popped out, leaving the film saturated and dry.

Audio: The sound also had some issues and I noticed some inconsistencies with the dialogue volume throughout the film.

Deleted Scenes (4:24):  In the film, we got a peek at the interview Steve (Duchovny) did to get the job, and here we get the actual interview.  I liked it and it might have been a good way to start the film.  It would have been a great way to set the tone right off the bat.  The other scene featured Duchovny teaching kids to play golf.  I’m not sure where they would have put that scene.

Let’s start with directing and dialogue-both were tragic and we have Sly Stallone to blame for both of these issues.  Too many close-ups are okay when you’re filming Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, but I don’t think anyone wants that close a shot of either Sly or Bruce Willis.  The audience will get the point if you pan out a little, trust me.  Add in the graininess (which could be homage to the classic 80’s action flick) and the oversaturation and it was just an eyesore the entire film.  Technology has come too far for this to happen in a film with so many stars and with a budget this big, so a little more care could have been taken and done wonders.  The same care could have been taken with the dialogue, it was cheesy as expected with the only redeeming scene being the short exchange between Arnold, Bruce and Sly.  But what made that great scene frustrating is that almost every line was delivered with a single, close shot, so we barely got to see the three legends on camera at the same time.

Violence in any form is always fun to watch, but there comes a point when it’s just too over the top, which quite frankly happens very rarely.  Watching people have their heads blown off and seeing big explosions are two of the things I really treasure in a good action flick, but it was just too ridiculous in THE EXPENDABLES.  There was a five minute montage of Jet Li, Terry Crews, Sly, Jason Statham and Randy Couture running around a mansion placing explosives on the walls and ceilings setting the audience up for a fireworks show.  I’m not an explosives expert, but I think this was a little overkill, and by the way, it added absolutely nothing to the plot but just gave us a full minute worth of fire and a crumbling building.

The aforementioned problems are bad, but the most disappointing part is that none of these characters came across as cool.  There were few kids back in the day who didn’t dress up as Rambo, Rocky or Schwarzenegger for Halloween. These iconic action stars made up our childhood and we wanted to emulate them.  To see all of our favorites reduced to this lame excuse for a film is just sad.  I don’t want to think of Jet Li as an old washed up martial arts star who gets his butt kicked by a wrinkly Dolph Lundgren (yes, this happened in the film, but would never happen in real life), he’s just too good for that.  Shame on you Sly for making our heroes of the past these exhausted and old action stars who should be remembered for their glory days, not your crappy quick-edited big-budget film.

That quote from a deleted scene in PULP FICTION is one of my favorites and with that quote in mind, I’m definitely a “The Beatles” person.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t like Elvis, because even though he’s become somewhat of a punch line over the last decade or so, it’s impossible to listen to some of his best songs and not have them stuck in your head.  But I know a lot of fans out there aren’t familiar at all with his films and even though the films aren’t great by any means, they are a part of American history.  I look at Elvis’s films as music videos before there were music videos.  A movie like JAILHOUSE ROCK is riddled with problems, but the purpose was to sell records and I can imagine it sold a ton of them.

JAILHOUSE ROCK

Speaking of JAILHOUSE ROCK, the plot is pretty basic; a man gets into a bar fight and accidentally kills his opponent, so he gets sent to the slammer.  While there, his cell mate teaches him to play the guitar and pretty soon, he’s on the outside making records and living the high life.  The frustrating thing about this film is that it’s set up to be an epic coming of age tale about a musician struggling with his fame.  However, it felt like they had to meet a certain runtime and so they cut out half the film and edited around the music numbers.  So what’s left is a hodgepodge of a film that doesn’t really go anywhere.  With that said, I dare you to watch this film and not listen to ‘Jailhouse Rock’ at least a dozen times the next day.

But the movie is famous for the big ‘Jailhouse Rock’ dance number and it doesn’t disappoint.  Like I said, this would have made a great music video back in the day, it’s just a shame it came so far into the movie.

VIVA LAS VEGAS

The second film is in color, but it doesn’t do much better than the first.  While JAILHOUSE ROCK tried to add a story around the music, VIVA LAS VEGAS didn’t even try.  In the filmmaker’s defense, they had a lot more musical numbers and they also had the talented Ann-Margret doing her own musical numbers as well.  In this one, Elvis is a racecar driver trying to win enough money in Vegas to buy a new engine for his racecar.  Like Jailhouse, this one came to an abrupt end and didn’t really make a whole lot of sense.  But again, like Jailhouse, it’s impossible to watch this film and not be singing ‘Viva Las Vegas’ the next day.

But the most interesting thing about this film is that it’s the only Elvis film I can think of where he has a co-star that’s probably more talented than he is.  I think the case could be made that this is actually Ann-Margret’s film, which might explain why Elvis never again had another comparable female co-star.

ELVIS ON TOUR

The last film in this set is just a concert film of sorts, featuring an older, heavier Elvis on his 15 city tour.  It’s a little sad to watch this after watching the first two movies because Elvis has really let himself go at this point.  My biggest complaint on the film is that we don’t get any of his biggest and best songs and instead get some of the more common covers.  I would have liked to see a performance of my favorite Elvis song “Suspicious Minds”, but had to settle for “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (see the video below).

But the best part about this concert film is seeing how absolutely nutty his fans were and how iconic of a person he really was.  Elvis would actually stop in the middle of his songs to lean down and kiss one of his adoring female fans.  It’s amazing that one man attracted so much love and adoration and the funny thing is; he didn’t write even one of his own songs.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The amazing video transfers of all three films really blew me away.  These aren’t classic, Oscar winning films, so Warner Brothers should be commended for taking such care in restoring these fan favorites. Even the most die-hard videophiles will be amazed at how crystal clear these films look.

Audio: The sound was also incredible and Elvis has never sounded so clear.

Commentary with Steve Pond:  Steve Pond is the author of ‘Elvis in Hollywood’, which, as you might have guessed, is an extensive look at Elvis’s movie career.  He does a commentary to JAILHOUSE ROCK and VIVA LAS VEGAS and gives a very interesting look at the films, which actually made me think more highly of them than when I watched them.  I liked this commentary best when he dove into some of the behind the scenes drama between Elvis and his co-stars, which he tended to touch on, but not dwell on.

The Scene That Stole Jailhouse Rock and Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas (20:00): These are two 20 minute featurettes that quickly go over the famous dance scene in Jailhouse and Elvis’s Vegas legacy in Viva.  Both are average, but I enjoyed the Vegas featurette better since I always find the early years of Vegas to be fascinating.

A recently divorced Alice (Rachel Blanchard) is trying to sell her spacious two-story home.  When a psychotic couple, David (Brian Geraghty) and Lila (Tricia Helfer) take over the house pretending that it is their own.  When people come over, whom they usually invite, they kill them.  Meanwhile, David has kept Alice alive, bound and hidden in a cubby space (which appears to have a window that was never utilized for an escape).  He has kept her a secret from Lila and uses Alice as a sense of normality during the day while his sociopath of a worse half is away.  Will she be able to escape?

I would have loved to reedit and shoot scenes in this film.  I’m not claiming to know what I’m doing, but there are some basic things to up the intensity.  First, they should have opened the film with a surprise kill during an open house.  It could have been done without showing David, keeping the suspense heightened.  As it stands, Alice discovers a dead body and then is quickly grabbed from behind.  Then we see David and Lila.  The story becomes about them playing house right away.  This reveal should have been slow.  Lets get attached to our hero by spending more time with her feeling the looming danger then drop us onto the villains.  Unfortunately, her danger happens immediately then we jump right into the psychos that we obviously don’t care about who lose all scare appeal.  With the exception of a couple of kills the murder scenes felt a little anticlimactic but again that goes back to the filmmakers revealing their hand too quickly.

On some positive notes, the score is done well by composer Nathan Barr who is also from the acclaimed vampire series True Blood.  Andrew Paquin really cashed in a lot of favors through his little sister.  Visually, the shots were well lit with some sharp composition.  Technically the film was very sound.  The acting was solid all around too, specifically from Rachel Blanchard and Brian Geraphty who really is the main star as a terribly disturbed human being trying to be normal.

Ultimately, OPEN HOUSE lacked anything remotely close to intensity or suspense and had many questionable moments of reasoning.  It’s a shame, because with a few pick up shots, a restructure and a completely different edit, the film would have improved immensely from bad to less bad.  Instead we are left with a bloody, uninvolved borefest.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (1080P High Definition 16 x 9 Widescreen 2.35:1) Picture was crisp and clear.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD) Sound was decent using quietness with explosive sound mixing devices like washing dishes or stabbing.

Commentary with Actor Brian Geraghty and Director Andrew Paquin: They give a semi-interesting commentary consistently talking about the film.  However, Paquin thinks too highly of it and is proud of his wrong choices.  He claims the film is more relationship driven than suspense.  I agree that there is zero suspense but the relationship drama is poorly conceived when you don’t care about or find the relationships interesting.

Deleted Scenes (9:45): Three deleted scenes that I think add more intensity.  I had two jump moments.  These scenes are exactly what I described earlier as being sorely needed.  This wouldn’t have been near enough but they are better.

Trailer and Previews: Yes!  This trailer is proof that there is a scary movie somewhere in here.  The trailer actually makes OPEN HOUSE look like an interesting movie and is far better than the actual film.  The film should have taken notes from the trailer and told their story in the same order the trailer tells it.

I had reservations about sitting down to watch Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan put their collective talents together for the big screen remake DEATH AT A FUNERAL.  All three comedians have similar styles and humor and all of them command the screen when their doing their schtick.  Not only that, but their comedy is usually offset by a “serious” actor like Will Smith or Bruce Willis in order to highlight their comedic styles more efficiently.  Knowing that there really were no serious characters in this, I was pessimistic that they could be reined in.  So consider me shocked when I found myself enjoying the film and the performances of everyone involved.

The premise is simple enough; Chris Rock is Aaron, one of two brothers that has just lost his father and is in the process of hosting a funeral for him.  But nothing is going well and he can’t get help from his more famous brother (Lawrence) or any of the close family friends that are in attendance.  To make matters worse, a man (Peter Dinklage) has shown up claiming to be his father’s lover and is trying to extort money from the family.  So right off the bat, there’s a lot going on, not to mention subplots with Aaron and his wife and his struggling career.

In fact, everyone has a subplot or two that gets developed as the film goes on.  Normally, having so many subplots and so much going on in a short film like this would frustrate me, but in this case, it served it very well.  By having so much going on, it reduced the need to have laughs thrown at you every two seconds.  Although the laughs are there, this film actually tries to develop some characters and keep the audience interested in the story.  Like I said; the three main comedians hold it back a lot and their efforts made for a better film.

The actor that has seemed to get the most credit is James Marsden, who plays a character that accidentally takes a hallucinogenic.  That simple character alone provides ample sources for comedy and the irony in the film is that the one actor normally associated with serious, straight-laced characters is the one that gets to cut loose and do whatever he wants to bring a laugh.  Marsden does well in the role, but I can’t help but wonder if it would have been funnier if given to a comedian accustomed to going over the top and getting the big laugh.

This was a bit of a pet project for Chris Rock and the one complaint I always have with Rock’s films is his acting.  He doesn’t do much better here, but he’s slowly getting better.  He just really needs to accept he’s not a good actor and it’s up to his director to help him.  Basically, any time Chris isn’t talking, the camera should be somewhere else.  He just doesn’t do very well when he’s not talking.  Tracy Morgan is another actor that takes flack for just rehashing his ’30 Rock’ character, but it works and here again, he made me laugh.

Overall, I think this film will surprise a lot of people.  It was funny, interesting and the cast worked extremely well together.  Just about everyone involved was responsible for one or two laughs and the film worked.  It had some slow moments and failed to live up to its potential at times, but overall I enjoyed myself.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Shot completely digital, this transfer is beautiful.  In a movie void of a lot of color (it took place at a funeral, remember), the colors and black levels were stunning.

Audio: The sound was also wonderful, although given this is a dialogue heavy film, surround channels weren’t heavily utilized.

Commentary with Neil LaBute and Chris Rock: Some comedians are just naturally funny and can’t help but make you laugh every time they talk and some comedians are funny only when they really try to be.  I think Chris Rock falls into the latter category.  On this track, he and Neil provide a few laughs here and there, but this is a pretty normal commentary with them talking more about the way the film was made and less about the people involved.

Last Rites, Dark Secrets (20:11): This is your typical behind the scenes feature with everyone showing up to talk about how great the film is and how much fun it was to get the great cast together.

Deleted Scenes (7:11):  These weren’t bad by any means and could have been inserted back into the film without a hitch.  So it seems they were removed for pacing reasons.  But fans of the film will want to give them a look.

Gag Reel (2:36):  So with this great cast, this is the best gag reel they could put together?  Yes, it’s worth the time and is mildly humorous, but I’m guessing there were funnier gags during the making of the film.

Family Album (10:58): Simply put; the cast members talk about their characters.  Not sure what the purpose was of having this a separate feature.

Death For Real (5:54): Again, a worthless featurette where the cast talks about death.  Why put this on a disc that had largely managed to avoid the serious issue?

In STEP UP 3D, we reunite with fan favorite from STEP UP 2: THE STREETS, Moose (Adam G. Sevani) and Camille (Alyson Stoner), Tyler Gage’s foster sister in STEP UP, as best friends and NYU freshmen. Moose has given up dance for an engineering degree, but not for long. On their first day on campus he gets pushed into a dance battle where his victory lands him a bit of trouble with leading dance crew House of Samurai and into the warm embrace of The Pirates, Samurai’s arch rival.  As The Pirates leader, Luke (Rick Malambri – who, by the way, looks like a slimmer version of Eric Dane – meow!) invites Moose to join their crew in the biggest battle yet, The World Jam.  Winning The World Jam will give The Pirates the money they need to save their dance club and house both being threatened by the bank.  We also meet Natalie (Sharni Vinson) who not only has caught Luke’s eye and is an amazing dancer, but also looks just like Andie from STEP UP 2: THE STREETS but with Nora’s hair from STEP UP.  Not sure why that detail is important to share but I found myself focused on that most every time she was on screen.

This STEP UP film had more focus on dance than character development or story line but with all the amazing dancing you tend to forgive it those details.   Other than the relationship between Moose and Camille, I had a hard time rooting for the characters no matter how hard I wanted to become invested in the relationship between Luke and Natalie or find the friendship between Luke and Moose as believable.  Despite the lack of connection between the characters the supporting cast did a great job and I was excited each time I saw them working it.  And, when the quote above is said in the film, it did not come across as cheesy as it sounded on the trailer.

The dance sequences were frequent and in your face (3D style as the title promises) and you better enjoy hip hop because it is incorporated throughout the entire movie. I loved how many dance moments there were, found it refreshing that there were no line or group dances that everyone just happened to know.  The 3D portion of the film was a great way to feel like you were a part of the dance crew or a fan in the crowd at the dance battles.  The best part of the 3D is when the credits roll – I think this is the first time I’ve been in a theatre when the entire crowd stayed to watch the ending credits all the way through.  Overall STEP UP 3D is easy and entertaining.

I remember reading JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH around the second grade. Roald Dahl was such an exceptional and creative mind when it came to writing interesting stories for children. While at times they were a bit more terrifying, they also took you on an adventure that had some sense of hope waiting for you on the other side. Director Henry Selick hit it out of the park when he helmed NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. It was a film that not only kids could enjoy, but their parents could as well. Not to mention it will also be a film that stands the test of time. After the success of that film, Selick decided to move onward with JAMES with producer Tim Burton in hopes to spark more of that same magic.

While JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH is certainly a heart-warming, magical journey, it doesn’t seem to entertain on the same level as CHRISTMAS. In all honesty, at times it might border on slightly annoying. I guess this all really depends on how many musical numbers you can take. The characters in this film are awfully cheery, and even when they aren’t cheery; they still want to express their emotion in song. Plus, it’s hard to beat Danny Elfman’s voice. Here’s a simple equation when it comes to comparing actors who can carry a tune: Elfman > Richard Dreyfuss.

After viewing this film, I also have to wonder if Henry Selick has an awful family, as he is drawn to direct movies that have poor family structure. In NIGHTMARE, Sally’s only parent figure was a cruel old man. In CORALINE, the title characters parents neglected her, and then she in turn stumbled across a world with even worse parents with button eyes. Then there’s JAMES, who sadly looses his parents when a Rhino eats them. I know rhinos are known to charge, but I’m pretty sure I never caught anything on the Discovery Channel about rhinos dining on human flesh. But this is Dahl’s “fairytale” not mine.

When James’ parents pass away, he goes to his two scary looking Aunts (Joanna Lumley & Miriam Margolyes) who look more like Christopher Walken as the headless horseman in SLEEPY HOLLOW. They basically treat James as a Cinderella type–making him do chores, etc. All James does is dream about going to New York. His parents were planning to go there to visit the top of the Empire State Building before they passed away. The harassment from the Aunts continues and only gets worse when a giant peach grows from a tree in their yard. Soon after they find the peach, an old man (Pete Postlethwaite) visits James and gives him these hot green glowing worms. Obviously, these are no ordinary worms. Next thing you know, James is running after one of the little worms and into a hole in the giant peach. This hole animates him and leaves him in the care of a group of insects: Centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), Miss Spider (Susan Sarandon), Earthworm (David Thewlis), and Ladybug (Jane Leeves). Sadly, this is where it gets annoying. The songs start to break out more consistently now and the insects aren’t the coolest bunch. The only one that I found tolerable was Sarandon and this is simply because I love hearing her voice. Is that awkward? Nah. The rest of the film consists of the crew taking the trip to New York and grow as friends along the way.

One thing I really love about Selick’s film is the use of stop motion animation. This is one of my favorite techniques used in film, especially when it comes to a children’s story. FANTASTIC MR. FOX is a perfect example, although that is not Selick’s work. It does show you what that world is truly capable of, beyond the days of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. The animation is fantastic, but I feel like the story wasn’t fleshed out as it could have been. I was stuck feeling like the film relied too much on the musical numbers and not enough on the dialogue. For those of you who are huge fans of the book, I highly recommend this. To me, it wonderfully transfers the pages to the big screen. For the rest of you, unless you are a Dahl or Selick fan, you might want to leave this one to the youngest age bracket.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: I expected animated scenes to shine through on this Blu-ray and they did, to an extent.  But the real life scenes were disappointing, making for an overall dull transfer.

Audio: Nice and loud. I often had to turn it down during the musical numbers, not because I was mildly disinterested, but it was the fact that it was just so loud. There are also a few times when I had to turn the volume up to hear the dialogue. (5.1 DTS-HD).

Production Featurette (4:34) Something good for fans of Selick and the film. Interesting and short, but sadly no new footage here.

“Good News” Music Video (2:26): Just an old video with Randy Newman singing over clips of the film. Not my idea of “Good News”.

If you like animals or if you like beautiful scenery, then I think you’ll find something worthwhile in this release.  I’m not a big bug guy, so the insect segment didn’t do much for me, but I loved the segment on sea life and mammals.  But every segment has something positive and there’s no way you can view this without learning something about the animals you’re watching.  Although PLANET EARTH was informative, I found LIFE to be even more interesting and I actually felt like I learned something after each segment.

But all is not well in LIFE-land.  My view on this is that we’ve come too far in life (no pun intended) to have a set this popular and this expensive be released in 1080i.  If this was all there was and all that was available, maybe I could understand.  Or, if the price was dirt cheap (like the Over America series), then I would definitely understand.  But the most frustrating thing about this release is that there are basically two identical releases for LIFE; one contains a 1080i transfer and is narrated by Oprah Winfrey and the other contains a 1080p transfer and is narrated by David Attenborough (technically, there’s also a more detailed featurette on this version).  Now, truth be told that the differences are unnoticeable on about 75% of the set, but it’s still a serious disappointment for video enthusiasts.  A set like this should be reference-quality and the fact is that people who bought/have this version are getting slightly cheated.

The other main difference is that this Discovery Channel edition features narration by Oprah Winfrey.  I’m not Oprah’s biggest fan, so I was expecting to find her narration annoying, but I actually did not.  She sounded a little more unnatural and “childish” (I don’t mean that as insulting as it sounds) with her delivery, but her voice was easy to listen to and she kept the high pitches to a minimum.  I’m one of those that prefer Attenborough’s British, more “proper” narration, but I was fine with Oprah’s.

I think the BBC version of LIFE belongs on every Blu-ray collector’s shelf and if the 1080i transfer doesn’t bother you and you prefer Oprah Winfrey to David Attenborough, then this isn’t a bad purchase.  Either way you go, you’re going to love what you’re watching.  I continue to be amazed at what the BBC can do with these sets and look forward to future releases.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: I think I covered this in the review, but the 1080i transfer is a little frustrating.

Audio: The audio was incredible and at times it felt like you were with the animals.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the score, but it wasn’t overly distracting.

On Location Documentaries (68:57): These are actually 10 separate documentaries, all discussing the various aspects of filming some of the difficult scenes.  These are pretty interesting, if only to revel in some of the ingenious ideas the filmmakers came up with to capture various moments.

The Making of Life (41:42): This is similar to the above featurettes, but it takes more time to introduce the crew that actually did the work.  While the featurettes discussed specific scenes, this one spoke at an aggregate level and looked at the overall process.

Deleted Scenes (18:24):  I was surprised these even included narration and I can only assume they were axed to meet a specific runtime requirement.  Otherwise, they could have been included right along with any of the segments that made the cut.

Ewan McGregor is a ghost writer, tabbed to pen the autobiography of the former British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan).  We start out with the murder of McGregor’s predecessor, setting the tone that something is not quite right with the assignment.  When we meet Lang, we learn that he’s being charged with war crimes for approving the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and handing them over to the CIA.  But the actual mystery that the ghost writer is investigating is how exactly Lang is involved with the CIA and if he really is who he says he is.  So there are a few mysteries going on in the story and none of them really work together.

One of the issues with the film is the impending doom facing the ghost writer.  We know that his predecessor died (presumably murdered), but I never felt that he was actually in any danger.  A more effective way to heighten the intensity would have been to do away with the predecessor all together and instead of having a murder of a character we never saw or cared about, have one of Lang’s employees (or maybe the writer’s agent) get murdered while the writer is at Lang’s house.  That would impact the audience more and create a more dramatic situation for the ghost writer.

Polanski also focused way too heavily on Lang’s impending war crimes trial.  The audience never cared whether Lang was guilty of war crimes and this felt like an attempt on Polanski’s part to push his political agenda, which he did at the sacrifice of his film.  The real mystery that the audience was interested in was whether or not Lang was actually a CIA agent.  I wanted that to be explored more and all of the drama in the film should have centered on the ghost writer investigating and unraveling that mystery.  That could have sparked a cat and mouse situation with each party trying to outsmart the other.

At this point, I’ve basically re-written the entire script, but that leads me to my point that there’s a great, basic idea in THE GHOST WRITER, Polanski just lost sight of it.  Spike Lee is also guilty of sacrificing his story for the benefit of making his political point and it seems Roman Polanski fell victim to the same trap.  I’m all for directors making political points with their films, but never at the expense of developing a story that audiences can relate to.

Despite the problems with the script and story development, I did enjoy Polanski’s direction.  I loved the use of dark, dreary colors and the film had a great feel to it.  I also enjoyed Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, who did very well in their roles.  That made it that much more frustrating that they didn’t get a chance to really shine when pitted against each other.  The only negative as far as performances comes from Kim Cattrall, who delivers one of the worst British accents in the history of film.  Seriously, Polanski, were there no British actresses available?

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: I loved this transfer.  This is the first double sided disc I’ve seen from Summit, but it definitely didn’t result in a loss of video quality.  The darker tones to the film were beautiful

Audio: The sound was efficient although given the nature of the film, surround channels weren’t used very often.

The Ghost Writer: Fiction or Reality (10:46): It’s kind of funny when screenwriter Robert Harris talks about aspects of the story he struggled with, most of which I didn’t like.  He does most of the talking and speaks openly about the similarities with Tony Blair.

The Cast of The Ghost Writer (11:49): I needed an explanation for why Kim Cattrall was there, but I didn’t get it.  The rest of this is dedicated to how great Roman Polanski is and how much everyone enjoyed working with him and each other.

An Interview with Roman Polanski (8:39): More love given to Roman Polanski, this time Polanski answers questions from an interviewer we can’t hear.  He keeps it pretty light, but it was nice to see a lot of the behind the scenes clips.

Prison, that’s the one place I hope to God I never see in this lifetime.  I do enjoy a good prison based flick but after seeing just about every one of them out there I’ve come to realize that it’s no place for me.  Frank Leone feels the same way but unfortunately he’s passed the point of no return.  I liked this flick when I first saw it and re-watching it now is like singing and eighties farewell tour which is good and bad.  The good part being that I love eighties flicks, the bad part being that we don’t get that kind of movie anymore.

There’s a lot of my favourite eighties nuances here from the gritty finish, the ballsy language and the no holds barred violence, all of which are good to see but truth be told this is one of my least favourite Sly flicks from back in the day.  I will say that this movie bridged a nice gap for his performance in TANGO AND CASH (now THAT was a prison scenario that kicked some ass!).  I enjoyed Frank’s character here but the movie I wanted to see was the back story between him and warden where Frank busted out of his prison and made him look like a fool.  Sadly this isn’t the case which doesn’t make this film bad by any stretch, just a little mildly paced.

It was nice to see Donald Sutherland in action (I miss that guy and always picture him in BACKDRAFT which makes me smile) and of course there were some other familiar faces but the one that sticks out the most is Larry Romano (First Base) who I wouldn’t have known then but recognize now from one of my favourite comedy sitcoms THE KING OF QUEENS.  One of the best parts about revisiting oldies for me is catching small cast things like this, and you’d be amazed how many of them there are to catch.  The acting, dialogue and overall performances were pretty tight and not all cheesy like some eighties fodder, which is also nice considering many of these films are known for that.

LOCK UP is nowhere near Sly’s best film, if anything it felt like a dramatic roll of the dice from a man who was used to just doing shoot ‘em up action pieces.  Is that a bad thing, not really, it’s just not the adrenaline rush you might be used to when it comes down to Sly’s older stuff.  Flicks like this one are what made me love PRISON BREAK and or prison films in general.  Nobody wants to be in general population but I think we’re all very curious about what goes on in there…aside from the soap dropping end of things.  The upgrade to Blu-ray is solid but this one’s for Sly fanatics in my opinion.  One thing’s for sure, this has made me want to go out and hunt down OVER THE TOP on Blu-ray and re-watch TANGO AND CASH on Blu-ray which I happened to pick up last week (new) for nine ninety-nine.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video:  2.35:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  Prison never looks fun, but the transfer to Blu-ray is slick here and the prison football game did look fun…well sort of.

Audio:  5.1 DTS-HD in English, French and Spanish with the same subtitle options.  As I mentioned before, the writing and dialogue were exceptionally well done for an eighties movie.

The Making of Lock Up (6:50):  This old school look at how the film was put together has Sly backing his character and a lot of talk about the ups and downs of shooting on location at a real prison which hadn’t been done much at the time.

Sylvester Stallone Profile (3:13):  I was hoping for a movie profile here but this is more Sly giving us a profile of his character Frank Leone than of himself as an actor.

Behind the Scenes (8:12): Here we get more insight into how a movie gets filmed when you’re in a real prison.  It was more than enough to put everyone involved a little on edge.

Interviews (7:01):  There are five brief interviews with cast members who share their thoughts about the film, Sly’s is a five minute repeat of stuff he’s already said leaving the other ones clocking in at between twenty and thirty seconds, which as you can imagine isn’t enough time to say much.

Previews:  There’s also a trailer for the film.

Rudd’s Tim has ideas to move up the corporate ladder, but as an audition his boss, played slyly by Bruce Greenwood, he must find a loser to be judged in this dinner. At first he is convinced to forgo the dinner by his girlfriend, Julie (played sparingly by Stephanie Szostak), but then he runs into Barry (literally), played ridiculously clueless by Steve Carell, and he can’t pass up the chance. Barry’s schmuckiness exists on many levels, but he’s always trying to help his new friend in the days before the dinner, which lead to disastrous misunderstandings with Julie. Barry’s key schmucky talent, however, is taxidermy – and he recreates classic masterpieces with dead mice. There is a riotous side story with Tim and a psycho ex-girlfriend, played great by Lucy Punch, and good laughs at the expense of the Swiss, but the let down is the dinner itself. We get to meet the collection of circus freaks the execs bring, but they are quick laughs that are either not used enough or just sophomoric. That and the awkward way the tables get turned on the executives are the shortcomings, but the film as a whole has many great laughs, and that’s what we’re there for, right?

Steve Carell does great things with Barry, making him an unbelievably clueless character that we believe in. He has a history that gets revealed through his mouse-terpieces, and when it is brought up his heartbreak is palpable…because we care about him. Other great laughs come from “Flight of the Conchords” Jemaine Clement is a great character as an artist working with Julie, and the scenes he gets, he owns – with hilarious dialogue and eccentricities. Another very funny character is played by Zach Galifinakis as a co-worker of Barry’s…with talents of his own. But Paul Rudd is not just a straight man, and posing him solely as such is a waste of talent. He played it straight in I LOVE YOU, MAN, but still was given comical lines to match Jason Segel. No such writing was given to him here, and that’s a shame. But the film still supplies copious amounts of comedy jokes that had many in the theater laughing out loud. This is a summer comedy worth a viewing.

In 1987, this was a masterpiece of action-thriller filmmaking. You’ve got Arnie, Jesse Ventura, and Carl Weathers ready to bust some heads open. A Special Forces team is sent to a remote location in Latin America (down in the jungle deep) to “extract hostages”. Actually, it’s a little more than that. Before the Special Forces team had to come in, a group of Green Berets are sent in to take care of things. They didn’t exactly get too far into their plan. Arnold and his men stumble upon some of the Green Berets hanging upside down from trees missing their birthday suits—quite gruesome. Could the guerillas from the nearby village have done such a vile thing? Nope. They are the least of their problems. Something else entirely is looking to hunt each and every one of them. Don’t run…there’s nowhere to hide.

The rest of the film is a struggle for survival. There are plenty of tension filled moments, and there were a few times when I actually jumped. The film after all these years still manages to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering who is going to get picked off next. If you’ve never seen this film, be prepared for constant action from one minute to the next.

Like I said at the beginning, what’s great about PREDATOR is the simplicity. The story is easy to follow and the characters are one-dimensional manly men—except for that hardcore chick they were keeping as a hostage. The manly cast works so well together: Arnold, Jesse, Carl, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham, and Richard Chaves. They spend most of their time trying to one up another or laughing at each other’s girly men qualities. Sadly, they don’t all stick around for too long. A few of them put up a decent fight for their own lives, and some of them just like to stare death in its cold hard face.

John McTiernan did a great job with making this a film that still stands the test of time, especially with all of the action films that have come out over the years. You don’t even end up laughing at the cheesy effects used back in ’87. In fact, you sort of admire the film. When you were a kid, this was some serious stuff. I think if you sit down and give PREDATOR another viewing you might realize how much you really like it. I promise you an epic battle scene between Arnold and the predator. Unleash your inner child and let he/she indulge in a little violence. The film is worth it.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: For the most part, the video looked decent. At times the some colors were more vibrant than others, but it was never horribly distracting. I think the only real problem I had was the fact there were quite a few scenes that looked like they were transferred straight off the VHS version. It seemed sort of lazy. (1.85:1 Widescreen).

Audio: The audio is clear and at times seemingly perfect. If you like your action loud like a stealth karate tiger carrying machine guns, then this should make you pretty happy. (5.1 DTS-HD).

Commentary from director John McTiernan- I recommend this for hardcore fans of the series only. This just wasn’t one of the more memorable ones.

Text commentary from Film Historian Eric Lichtenfeld- This was actually more of a treat than the director commentary. It’s basically like the pop-up trivia you’d see included on some disks.

Predator: Evolution of a Species- Hunters of Extreme Perfection (11:13) This goes into the process of the script and development of the movie. There is an interview with John Davis, a producer on the film. Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal were also part of the interview process and there was some behind-the-scenes footages from PREDATORS included as well.

If It Bleeds We Can Kill It: The Making of Predator (28:47): I got really excited to watch this then I was informed by a massive Predator fan that a lot of this was included on a past DVD release. It’s still a cool feature with interviews of the cast, except Arnold. That was sort of a disappointment that he was not included.

Inside the Predator Featurettes (30:00): There are seven short featurettes here that cover a lot of production ground. It’s also a lot of older material that is really cool to see now. Check out how the alien is designed, stunts, and pulling Arnold into the film.

Special Effects Featurettes (5:00): Two really short featurettes that go into the red suit effects and camouflage tests.

Short Takes With the Filmmakers (10:30): Short interviews with director John McTiernan, Jesse Ventura talking about how he got into politics, and an entertaining look at Stan Winston effects master.

Deleted Scenes and Outtakes (6:00): A few cool scenes that were left out of the original. Very short.

Photo Gallery and Predator Profile (2:36): This includes a gallery of still photographs and a profile on the Predator himself. Another awesome feature for huge fans.

Sneak Peek at the new Predators (1:44): I saw PREDATORS previous to reviewing this blu-ray, so it wasn’t much of a peek for me. It did give me an idea of what the film will look like when it does release on blu-ray and there are no complaints here.

In 1975, a young Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) is defying societal norms by playing electric guitar as a female.  She meets up with flamboyant music producer Kim Fowler (Michael Shannon).  The two of them like the look of very inexperienced 15- year-old Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) and enlist her as the lead singer to form one of the first all teenage girl rock bands called The Runaways.  Their quick rise in fame leads to drug abuse and sexual exploration to Cherie’s final departure.

The performances here are top notch.  While I’m not the biggest fan of Kristen Stewart in the TWILIGHT films, she does show some promising talent as Jett.  Dakota Fanning is the true lead in the picture proving once again that she is a real force to be reckoned with in Hollywood.  When most child actors hit an awkward stage in their teenage years (I’m looking at you Haley Joel Osment), Fanning flourishes with a gritty exposing performance as Currie.  The major stand out is Michael Shannon who gives another scene stealing Oscar worthy performance as Fowler.

The music is terrific and is played throughout the picture.  The use of color and visuals in cinematography are also very good.  The entire feel of the film has great potential.  However, everything else about the film felt very surfaced never delving deep enough into the characters and their story.   Even though the film is called THE RUNAWAYS, the story is based on Cherie Currie’s book “Neon Angel” a biography of her two-year time with the band.  I would have liked to seen more of the rest of the band and their relationship or at least gotten more in depth with Cherie’s feelings and what her motivations were.

I can never fully get into biography stories of famous musicians because they almost are nearly all the same, lacking any original storyline worth telling.  It’s not that I think they are bad, it’s just I find them uninspiring.  THE RUNAWAYS has a lot of talent working for it, but lacks too much substance and direction in story to propel it to anything great.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (1080p High Definition/ 2.35:1) The picture looks great and uses an interesting color pallet that really comes through giving a strong feel of the time period.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD MA) The music is fantastic and sounds great on the surround sound, however it does drown out the dialogue so the sound levels are too uneven.

Commentary with Joan Jett, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning: The three of them give a fairly interesting and fun-listening commentary.  Fanning being the youngest doesn’t speak too much, Joan Jett is informative on what was and wasn’t true from the film and Kristen Stewart is definitely the most candid, monopolizing most of the conversation using a surprisingly filthy potty mouth.  Stewart also reveals a lot of over-protectiveness for Fanning and her adult scenes.

Plugged In: Making the Film (15:37): A typical featurette with interviews from Joan Jett, Cherie, actors, director and several other filmmakers discussing the process and how great the movie is.

The Runaways (2:19): A trailer of sort, but with the actors and filmmakers promoting the film as clips are shown.  All are snippets from the previous featurette

First Blood

Rambo: First Blood Part II

Rambo III

Rambo: Extended Cut (Note: The “Extended Cut” is not included in this set)

“What most people call hell, he calls home.”  This is one of many clever, overly ridiculous taglines and quotes that come from the killing good time that is the RAMBO series.  In RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, Rambo asks Colonel Trautman, “Sir, do we get to win this time?”  Rambo, you always win.

The Rambo films are definitely a love them or loathe them style of movies.  What makes Rambo so comforting and easy to root for as a hero is it is very black and white.  The bad guys are really bad and the good guys, who is basically just him, are really good.  He has a heart of gold but has no problem killing every person he comes across that stands for evil.  And believe me each enemy get progressively worse and the bloody mayhem that Rambo wreaks upon them gets more gruesome.

I have to hand it to Sylvester Stallone; he understands what is entertaining to the mass audiences.  Stallone had a hand in writing every script and finally got behind the camera to direct the fourth installment.  Although from the special features, it sounds like he practically directed the others with most of the creative control.   Stallone deserves a lot of credit seeing that sometime his acting was not where it should be and needed to cut out many of his speaking scenes.  As it stands, the RAMBO films are short on dialogue and heavy on action.

A key component to keeping a film moving without dialogue is an adrenaline filled soundtrack.  Composer Jerry Goldsmith created an iconic score for Rambo.  Without the driving force of the music, I firmly believe these films would not have worked.  Another key to the success is the short length of the films.  Every RAMBO movie comes in at about an hour and a half, except for the third one, which is closer to two hours.  RAMBO III is the weakest of the series and I believe if you trimmed it up a bit it would do wonders.  I usually hate movies that are short because I don’t feel like the filmmakers cared enough to give me my money’s worth.  However, this is the exception to that rule.  RAMBO gets in and gets out with so much energy and destructive fun that the audience doesn’t have enough time to poke holes at all the improbable and silly scenarios.

The films individually show a lot of weakness, but when you put all the films together for the Blu-ray set, you realize it’s all about the brand that Rambo brings as a character and as a movie.  If they didn’t have those outlandish moments the films would suffer.  This is what audiences love about Rambo.  He can go into any situation and single handedly win wars without consequence.  He always wins, even against corruption from the side he is fighting for.  He is not afraid to die and will die for anyone and anything that we all believe to be right.  What’s better than one Rambo?  Four Rambo’s.

In OUR FAMILY WEDDING, Lucia Ramirez (America Ferrera) and Marcus Boyd (Lance Gross) are in love and traveling to tell their families of their engagement and plans to be married in three weeks time prior to moving to Laos.  The kicker? The dads, Brad Boyd (Academy Award winner, Forest Whitaker) and Miguel Ramirez (mediocre comedian, Carlos Mencia) met on the very day of the engagement announcement dinner when Miguel towed Brad’s luxury car – making it impossible for the two men to get along.  How-oh-how will these two competitive men get through their differences without spoiling their child’s wedding? Predictable ‘hilarity’ ensues including a FATHER OF THE BRIDE bathroom moment, some random male bonding and an unnecessary goat scene.

Other than the feuding dads, there was a lot more heart to this film than what I was expecting, including some side stories that weren’t necessary but were enjoyable to watch. Those moments are what saved this movie from being a total mess. Forest Whitaker plays the smooth talking radio DJ with a complicated relationship with Regina King’s character, Angela (this is one of the unnecessary side stories mixed within this rom-com).  His performance was a disappointment having last seen him in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND; I thought he could have done something more with the character but maybe the material was just so stale that there wasn’t much to work with? Regardless, I expected more from him. Carlos Mencia on the other hand, I expected nothing from so was semi-pleased with his so-so performance. His heart to heart moments were painful but nothing like the forced relationship between the main love-birds. The only time I saw a spark of romantic chemistry between Ferrera and Gross was at the very beginning of this film, and when she serenades him outside his house. Other than that, I didn’t have much of a reason to root for them as a couple and empathize with the plight of ‘their wedding, our marriage’.

Without a doubt, my favorite character throughout the movie was Lucia’s tomboyish sister, Isabella, played by Anjelah Johnson. I wanted more scenes with her in it, as she was the breath of fresh air this bland comedy needed.  The banter and side comments she made about everyone and everything made me laugh out loud.

Although I have plenty to identify with in Rick Famuyiwa’s OUR FAMILY WEDDING, coming from a mixed cultural background (Paraguayan-American) and currently in the throes of planning a wedding, this movie didn’t really do much for me other than want to rewatch FATHER OF THE BRIDE and THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (2.35:1 Widescreen) If only the vibrant colors and sharp picture would make this movie better.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio) Nice clear sound, great for the Mariachi band at the end.

Gag Reel (2:40): Made me want to gag.

Deleted Scenes (16:52): Out of the six I thought there would be one that could have made a positive impression on me. However, as that was not the case, I’m thankful that they opted to delete these scenes from the movie. Wish they would have deleted them as an extra feature.  Remain deleted.

Extended Scenes ( 4:02): One extended scene featuring Carlos Mencia, the other featuring Forest Whitaker . Mencia’s extended scene made me laugh, but only because of his wife, Sonia, leaves him in jail to go shop.

‘Til Dads Do Us Part (15:02): Carlos Mencia, Forest Whitaker, Lance Gross, America Ferrera and director, Rick Famuyiwa talk about how fun it was to work on this film.  They also discuss the various traditions from two cultures and how awesome an actor the goat is.

Theatrical Trailer

While watching it, the biggest question that popped into my mind was; why hasn’t this been done before?  The idea of crafting an entire film that pits dogs and cats against each other is so obvious, I’m surprised Hollywood hasn’t already milked it to death.  In this film, they’ve created a world where dogs are kind of the “G.I. Joes” and cats are the “Cobras”.  When you boil it down, that’s essentially what this is, just with more fur.

The plot is straight out of your typical spy/action movie where a young Beagle pup (voiced wonderfully by Tobey Maguire) is thrust into the secret agent world when he gets mistakenly chosen by a family.  Reluctantly, the seasoned vet (voiced by Alec Baldwin) trains the young rookie to protect a formula the pup’s master is working on that would cure all dog allergies.  Unfortunately for all of them, Mr. Tinkles is out for that formula, but for his own evil plans.  This is not a complicated premise, it’s really just an excuse to get cute dogs and cute cats together for 90 minutes.

I really appreciated the inclusion of so many subtle inside dog and cat jokes.  I loved the play on the different stereotypes for each animal and got a kick out of seeing how they used the animal’s habits in the spy world.  I only wish they had done more of it and focused more on the intelligent subtleties and leave the childish slapstick out.  There’s a surprisingly fun film here, but sometimes it gets lost in the unnecessary silliness.  But like I mentioned earlier, some of the film’s shortcomings can be forgiven because the animals are so darn cute.  That’s a positive for those of us that love animals, but I’m not sure non-animal lovers will be so kind.

Even though some of this will make a lot of adults roll their eyes, there are enough puns and funny bits that will keep the interest peaked.  Sean Hayes does a fantastic job voicing Mr. Tinkles, who alone is worth the price of admission.  If you have little ones and you want something to keep their (and your) attention for 90 minutes, CATS & DOGS is a safe bet.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

When CATS AND DOGS first came out on DVD, there was no widescreen edition.  For some reason, Warner Brothers didn’t release the widescreen version for many months later.  So a lot of you might never have seen the widescreen version of the film.

Video: The eventual widescreen DVD wasn’t bad, but this is a notable upgrade for the film.

Audio: The audio was also a significant upgrade

Commentary with Lawrence Guterman, James Bissell, Chris DeFaria and Sean Hayes: I imagine that working with animals is a very difficult and challenging feat and I was happy to hear the director and producers talk about the difficulties revolved around filming an entire film with animals.  Sean Hayes was a little out of place, but he offered up some humorous tidbits that helped keep the track rolling.

HBO First Look (15:03): This is just an extended commercial for the film.  Some First Look’s have a lot of behind the scenes footage, but this one had more movie clips than anything.

Teaching a New Dog New Tricks (5:58): This is a great featurette, although a bit short.  But they talk to the dog trainer about how they got the dogs to do various stunts and behave naturally.  They also go into the different CGI effects that were used.  Well worth the 5 minute investment.

Dog’s Rule (:52): A quick montage of various scenes from the film featuring dogs.

Mr. Tinkles Screen Test (1:37): This is a silly montage of Mr. Tinkles acting out various scenes from famous movies.

Mr. Tinkles Speech (1:10): Mr. Tinkles gives a speech about the state of the film industry.  Pretty funny, but not sure who this was for.

I didn’t care for RAMBO the first time I watched it and I hoped that this second run through the jungle would fare better.  Thankfully it did, though this film is not without its faults.  The first Rambo flick was pretty good for its time but RAMBO 2 is what blew my mind and had be wearing headbands and bugging mom to buy me a huge knife.  The third one was “meh” but I can’t say that I was unhappy with Sly’s decision to expand both Rambo’s and Rocky’s worlds with new age sequels (for the record I loathed ROCKY 5).  On both counts Sly brought back his two most iconic characters with class and style and in Rambo’s case, this setting is exactly what I would have expected from the character.

The opening scene is one of my favourites as who else but Rambo would be crazy enough to be out catching cobras and water snakes (two of THE most deadly snakes in the world), not that the Asian dudes with him were any better, taking the snakes out of the bag so that they could poke and prod at them, pissing them off royally.  The boat scene with the mercenaries was another good one, when the leader was giving Rambo some lip.  The look on Rambo’s face was a lot like the look Arnie gave Bill Paxton in TRUE LIES just before he broke his neck.  Rambo could have smoked all those fools before they even knew what hit them, he didn’t but the fact that he could have if he wanted to was enough to make me smile.

The psychological approach this movie took to the character was also worthy of note even if they only did show his restless dreams from the past only once and briefly at that.  Rambo’s a tortured soul and a few more years certainly didn’t change that.  I found this film aged him gracefully though and even made him more humble.  The war end of things is where I was let down.  Though in all honesty Burma is one of the few places left in the world that we could have sent Rambo in shooting (I’m very curious to see where he goes next).  The gore was a tad over the top.  War is brutal, I get that, but having soldiers bet on which prisoner will blow up on a landmine as they’re herded across a body of water is a touch much.  Add to that an excessive amount of body parts whizzing through the air and gallons of red stuff and you can visualize the kinda party I’m talking about.

JOHN RAMBO is a solid action flick that digs down deep into the roots of its protagonist hauntingly well and paints a dark picture of war and cruelty.  This is not a film for the squeamish that’s for sure, even I winced a couple times and I was brought up on this stuff (RAMBO was the first R rated action flick I ever saw, that, COMMANDO and then COBRA).  Sly did a great job keeping the game going and though it’s not the best in the series it’s good for a watch here and there.  I’m not sure about the whole “extended cut” end of things as I didn’t feel I saw anything different (and the runtime was still a slim hour and thirty nine minutes which is pretty short) but I can’t say it was a bad ride.  Onward to THE EXPENDABLES baby!

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 2.40:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  Let the bodies hit the floor baby, cause in HD you can almost feel the warm blood a flowing.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English, French and Spanish with the same subtitle options.  Rambo’s a man of few words but I was impressed with the dialogue Sly gave him, though I’m still on the fence when it comes to that “live for nothing, die for something” quote.

Rambo:  To Hell & Back-Director’s Production Diary (1:23:33): Wow, this bad boy’s nearly as long as the feature film itself!  Sly goes above and beyond here to give us a bird’s eye view of how it all came together and top it all off, he shot this thing in forty two days when it should have taken him ninety.  This is great stuff, from carving the village and sets out of the wild jungle to playing with live cobras and who knew that chainsaws were illegal in Thailand?

Previews: There are a slew of LIONSGATE film trailers including (of course) one for THE EXPENDABLES.

We meet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) first with a shot of him tying on a bandana over his same semi curly locks flexing his shoulder and back muscles.  Then when he is summoned the music crescendos as he looks over his shoulder toward the audience.  A nice dramatic intro to a beloved character to get the crowd cheering.  After winning a highly intense stick-fighting match to make extra money, we see that Rambo is living in Thailand helping out a Buddhist monastery.   After turning down helping his former Vietnam superior, Colonel Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna), lead the Afghanistan rebels to fight off the Russian invasion, he learns the mission failed and Trautman has been kidnapped.  This information prompts Rambo to join the Afghan forces and rescue Trautman from being tortured by Russian Colonel Zaysen (Marc de Jonge).

Rambo is back to his usual stunts, being pretty much indestructible.  He fights and blows people up in a variety of ways and has stealth like moves being undetectable and unseen while in plain sight breaking into the enemy’s camp.  I’m personally glad he goes to so much trouble to save the guy who seems to continually put him in bad situations just so Colonel Trautman can say, “He’ll find you” when referring to Rambo for the third time in clever new ways, like this exchange:

Colonel Zaysen (Russian):  “Who do you think this man is, God?”

Colonel Trautman (American):  “God would have mercy.  He won’t.”

It’s always a bit funny to me how these battles or wars between nations become so personal between Rambo and the leading commanding officer from the opposing country.  In this case, Colonel Zaysen makes sure he personally is the one flying the helicopter doing the strikes and who is out to get Rambo rather than ordering his soldiers to do so.  I’m not sure this is the right man to be in charge.  As it stands, Rambo and the Russian Colonel’s final confrontation is an epic chicken battle between a helicopter (Zaysen) and a tank (Rambo).  I never understood why the helicopters kept fighting at ground level, hovering just a few feet above.  May the dumber man lose.

What is it with the horrendous overly sappy music at the end of these Rambo films?  “He Ain’t Heavy…He’s My Brother” by Bob Russell & Bobby Scott and performed by Bell Medley is the culprit of the third film.   I have to mention it because it sticks with you on just how awful it is.  The target audience and fans of the Rambo films need a little more push or energy for their film.  Thankfully the original score throughout the picture never changes here or in any of the movies.  Despite all it’s familiar flaws, RAMBO III just barely delivers for another good time.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (Widescreen 2.35:1) Very nice picture with beautiful visuals of the Afghanistan and Thailand countries.

Audio: (DTS-HD Master Audio) The sound was great for the explosive action movie.

Audio Commentary with director Peter MacDonald: A mediocre flat commentary with uninteresting information.  The director’s speaking pattern has an uninspiring tone, which makes it a hard listen.

Out of the Blu Trivia: If you choose, you can watch pop-up information and tidbits about the film during your viewing.

Afghanistan Land In Crisis (29:48): Like the previous films, this is the best featurette. The filmmakers including Sylvester Stallone discuss how the entire scenario has been switched how it was released right when we became friend with Russia so the film took a lot of heat.  They talk a little about our current War on Terror in Afghanistan and how the Afghans were a big fan of Rambo and the U.S.

The basis for the film is that Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a CIA agent who goes on the run after a Russian defector claims she’s a Russian spy.  I tread lightly when it comes to spoilers, so I’ll refrain from giving too much away.  But the gist is that at certain times in the film we believe she is not a Russian spy and at other times we believe she is a Russian spy.  The entire film is focused on Salt’s predicament, so how much we like and root for her is directly correlated with how much we enjoy the film.  This is where it gets tricky.  When we believe she is a Russian spy, it’s tough to root for her because at that time, she’s essentially the enemy and the CIA agents on her trail are the good guys.  So there’s a big chunk of the movie where we’re not sure we want her to get away with whatever it is she’s doing.

The other detraction from the film is Angelina Jolie herself.  I love having a female lead in an action/spy movie and I think Jolie is a superbly talented actress and one of the most beautiful people on earth.  But I don’t necessarily find her to be a likeable character.  Some actors and actresses are just very likeable onscreen and you find yourself rooting for them at all times, no matter what.  But Jolie doesn’t have that and when she does, it takes a lot of time to build her character and establish her as someone we like.  SALT fails to do that and although we want her to “win” as much as we want all heroes to “win”, we don’t really enjoy the ride as much as we might with someone a little more charming and a little less ruthless.

Even though the film did have an aura of familiarity, I did really enjoy some of the action stunts.  I had a blast with the highway chase, which they added a twist to by having her jump from truck to truck.  They also had one of the best bad-guy-killings I’ve seen in a long time, which had the entire audience cheering.  This is a fun movie that flows pretty well.  And watching Angelina Jolie knock out all the action scenes was a blast and I have to say that she did it better than some of her male counterparts.

John Sedley (Mickey Rourke) is a crafty criminal left with a rare facial deformity since birth. His deformities lend to the cruel nickname given to him, Johnny Handsome. However, Sedley is quite good at setting up possible jobs, and does these jobs with his mentor/father figure. Convinced he can pull off one last job, Sedley, his mentor, and his two partners—Rafe (Lance Henriksen) and Sunny (Ellen Barkin) knock off a coin collectible store in the French Quarter. In a twist unforeseen by Sedley, Rafe and Sunny double cross them. Sedley is left alone at the crime scene and his mentor is dead.

After being arrested, Dr. Steven Fisher (Forest Whitaker) thinks that Johnny is only a criminal due to his rough upbringing. The doctor there in turn decides to attempt to rehabilitate him and fix his facial deformities. Soon, Johnny is paroled and given a new identity along with his new, truly handsome face. He is given the chance to go back into the world and try to start another life for himself.  The real question is, will Johnny lead a normal life or go back for revenge? Lt. A.Z. Drones (Morgan Freeman) knows Johnny all too well, and is convinced that someone like him can never be rehabilitated back into normal society. Once a criminal, always a criminal.

Upon first receiving this film, I realized the reason it was most likely getting a Blu-ray release. A red shiny sticker indicated that a “legend from the upcoming film, THE EXPENDABLES” was in this movie. Perhaps they were hoping that hardcore Rourke fans, or maybe the new ones, would want to check this out due to the massive buzz of THE EXPENDABLES. I’m not sure that plan will work with the power of the sticker alone, but I hope that the film is given another chance with possible audiences.

While I can’t hold it to the title of “cinematic masterpiece”, I can say that it is something of a surprise. A great performance by a younger Rourke, explains why he is receiving a comeback in the recent years. Johnny Handsome could have been a role that anyone could have easily tried to play with the deformities overpowering the actor–this isn’t the case with Rourke. He brings a subtle charm and warmth to Johnny, but at the same time gives enough distance to explain why he feels no malice. In turn, the spotlight stays on him throughout the film even with co-stars like Freeman and Barkin daring to take it away.

Rourke’s co-stars are memorable in some aspects. Barkin nails the trashy, wrong side of the tracks partner to Henriksen’s Rafe. She’s always just the right amount of over the top. Henriksen plays a good sleezeball alcoholic, drug addict. At times I did get him confused with the guitar player for Def Leppard, but that’s only because they’re both so hardcore. When it comes to Morgan, he always calls attention when he’s on-screen. Sadly, some of his lines were a little ridiculous and his performance felt a tad forced. Whitaker only stay through till about half of the film, but manages to convince us with hardly any effort that Johnny will fly straight one day. My least favorite character in the film was Johnny’s mousy accountant lady friend played by Elizabeth McGovern. I think the thing that drove me nuts about her was that terrible Cajun accent.

As I’ve already said at least three times during this review, I really hope that people get a chance to see this film. It’s something that I will wind up watching more than once, basically because of Rourke’s stellar performance. Johnny Handsome gives the action when it’s necessary, but also leaves you with a little heart as well.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: A lot of things are off about the video transfer in this one. The colors are dull and there are noticeable blurry spots. When nighttime hits in the film, there’s no light contrast so you are often bogged down in the dark.  (1.85:1 Widescreen).

Audio: I thought the audio was fairly decent quality. There was never really a struggle to hear anything. I only found myself having to adjust the sound a couple of times. (2.0 DTS-HD).

Wordsmith (12:39) A nice featurette with screenwriter Ken Friedman talking about how the project got together and started from a “dusty old novel” by John Godey.

Eye of the Beholder (10:15): Michael Westmore, special effects make-up designer, talks about the unique task of providing a disfigured face for Mickey Rourke. They talk about trying to create a realism, instead of turning it into something out of a horror film.

Action Man (11:12): Stunt coordinator, Allan Graf talks about getting the job on the film, his interactions with director Walter Hill as well as the actors, and the difficulty of performing stunts in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is in prison when his commanding officer and only friend, Colonel Samuel Troutman (Richard Crenna) offers him his freedom if he accepts a top secret mission to take some pictures of American POW’s being held in Vietnam.  The corrupt official, Murdock (Charles Napier), overseeing the mission wants it to fail but Rambo is determined to rescue the POW’s and kill as many Vietnamese and Russians as possible.

Like I said before, Rambo is a full blown killing machine and this film definitely highlights the kill part.  He single handedly blows up hundreds of Vietnamese with his exploding tipped arrows and has an obligatory montage of killing men one by one.  Sure we never see his transition from one hiding place to the next but it sure is entertaining seeing Rambo blending with the background and surprise attacking his enemies in different ways.  Rambo also has a rather graphic run in with some leaches and gets partnered with a very attractive female freedom fighter, who has a terrible broken English and quickly falls for him.  The last monologue of Stallone’s is cheesy to say the least, especially since the whole formula is so similar to the original.  It’s only heightened by his dramatic walk away, which he appears to be heading absolutely nowhere, followed up by the atrocious song, “Peace in our Life” by Sylvester’s brother Frank Stallone.

The stunts are pretty impressive using helicopters and boats in a variety of ways, however the use of close up shots and smoke to mask improbable actions to get from point A to point B is an insult to the audience’s intelligence.   Your feeling toward the fact that each scenario is heightened by absurdity depends completely on your enjoyment of mindless action movies and this one definitely sets a standard.

It should be noted that RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II had seven Razzie nominations but did receive one Oscar nomination and was positively revered by President Ronald Reagan claiming Rambo as a Republican.  I think these drastic polar feelings toward the film are a little over dramatic and unwarranted.  I could go on and on about how the film isn’t very good in a lot of ways, but it still is a darn good time.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (Widescreen 2.35:1 Ratio) Very clear.  The jungle of Vietnam looks colorful and vibrant.

Audio: (DTS-HD Master Audio) Verbal audio was far too quiet compared to the sound mixing of the background noise, effects and music.

Commentary by director George P. Cosmatos: He is a little tough to listen to giving a mediocre interest level of generic information.  He sounds like he took more direction than gave it.

Out of the Blu Trivia: The same pop-up style commentary giving facts and information as you watch the film.

We get to win this time – Documentary (20:04) This is an interesting information talking about the difference for Rambo being more in control of this war compared to the first and allowing him to let loose on the enemy.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is a war vet who has returned to the states.  After discovering one of his last surviving war buddies has died from cancer he goes on the move.  As he passes through a small town the local sheriff (Brian Dennehy) gives him a ride to the outside of town and warns him to stay out.  All Rambo wants is a hot meal and bed so he defiantly returns.  The sheriff arrests him.  While being beat by one of the many officers in the police holding area, Rambo finally fights back and escapes to the nearby forest.  Rambo goes into war mode surviving and defending himself toward anyone that might come into harm him, which is now the entire police department and town volunteers.  Rambo’s commanding officer Colonel Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna) gets involved to mediate the situation but as he cryptically points out, not necessarily to save Rambo from them but save them from Rambo.

At an hour and a half running time, the film moves briskly.  Rambo has his montage of using the bare necessities, maiming his hunters in primitive ways.  He escapes near death numerous times and graphically cleans his wounds.  While the film is violent, the death toll is actually held to a surprisingly low number because he is a good guy.  Rambo does go a bit post-traumatic Vietnam crazy but “they drew first blood” and he’s just a product of the Vietnam soldier we created anyway.  At least that is the film’s appeared political stance.   It’s easy to get behind Rambo as the misunderstood unappreciated soldier but what I don’t get is why his adversaries had so much hatred for him.  Was it his long hippie hair?  Sure it doesn’t look good and he may be a bit smelly hitchhiking place to place, but is that a necessary reason to want to kill a guy.  I understand it all escalates from them just wanting to keep a perceived bum out of their town but that escalation is a bit excessive and drastic.

Major credit is deserved to the musical score “It’s A Long Road” by Jerry Goldsmith, which gives the film adrenaline and inspiration.  It’s unfortunate that the end credits include a slower lyrical cringe-inducing version of the song.  It gives off a vibe that makes me think the filmmakers thought their product was more serious than it was.  Nonetheless, the film is a joy to watch with some nice cinematic moments that remain in the public’s psyche today inspiring sequels and other action films to follow.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Nice quality.  The muted greens and grays never looked so good for the cast-over rainy weather of the film.

Audio: The voice levels compared to the background sound and effects are much quieter which causes a lot of turning up and turning down of the volume.  Luckily there isn’t much dialogue.

Commentary by Actor Sylvester Stallone: Stallone is an extremely talkative and down-to-earth type of guy who tells everything in a casual conversational style, which makes his knowledgeable tidbits easy to listen to.

Commentary by Writer David Morrell: His commentary is informative as well but definitely from a more literature stand point and not near as entertaining.

Out of the Blu Trivia: A typical pop-up information feature that you can play during the film.

Drawing First Blood (22:35): The producers, writers, director, actors all discuss the process and difficult efforts in getting the film made with some very interesting information of the near involvement of Kirk Douglas and an alternate ending.  Highly recommendable.

Deleted Scenes (5:33): A couple of very odd deleted scenes; one is an alternate ending where Rambo dies, the other is an extremely out of place flashback love scene.

THE ILLUSIONIST came out back in 2006 and is an example of the Hollywood’s “idea to the second power” principle where they release two films the same year about the same thing.  The concept here is magic and the other film is THE PRESTIGE.  Fresh off the BATMAN BEGINS/Christopher Nolan high (not to mention how cool the trailer was) I opted for THE PRESTIGE over THE ILLUSIONIST and as such never really got around to watching it until now.  Since I’ve only watched THE PRESTIGE once, I’ll have to re-watch both films a second time to see which is my favourite of the two but rest assured I’m not taking anything away from this film as it was truly amazing.

I’m an avid fan of magic, illusions and all things mysterious or supernatural.  I wasn’t around for the Houdini days but I’ve seen David Copperfield twice and still revel at his ability to captivate a crowd.  I consider myself a pretty smart guy but even I shook my head in amazement more often than not.  Both THE ILLUSIONIST and THE PRESTIGE utilize a fine arsenal of magic tricks though sadly more so in THE PRESTIGE than here.  What Eisenheim does on stage is nothing short of spellbinding but the film does shy away from magic as the story progresses and becomes something else.  The good news is that it works marvelously for many reasons, one of which being that it’s so well written and superbly acted.

Edward Norton has been (and will always be) one of my favourite actors since PRIMAL FEAR.  For some reason he’s able to pull of just about any sort of character, from a skinhead to the Hulk and you believe it from start to finish, at least I do anyway.  I had no problem whatsoever believing in Eisenheim especially once I saw the whole picture.  Paul Giamatti was sensational here as well, I mean I enjoy the guy and all but this was by far one the strongest and best characters I’ve seen him play (that and I enjoy his dark side because as ridiculous as it was SHOOT ‘EM UP was still lots of fun thanks to him).  Biel was Biel (I never feel she’s truly there) and Rufus Sewell is always a delight though I wish he’d go back to his DARK CITY roots and play another good guy for a change.

THE ILLUSIONIST was an impressive delight and my only real complaint is that I waited so long to watch it.  I should have known I’d love it as I loved THE PRESTIGE and Clive Barker’s underrated LORD OF ILLUSIONS, now there is a concept I’d like to see two more films employ, that being the evil side of magic.  Speaking of the evil side of the coin, I also enjoyed THE SKELETON KEY (though I might be the only one).  There are plenty of films that dabble in magic, the supernatural or the dark arts but rarely do we get films that are dedicated to it like this one.  That said, you rarely get such a phenomenal cast and epic script either so I feel extra lucky for being able to review this flick.  Take it from me folks, if you have yet to catch this film, there’s no time like the present.

When so many great things fall into place in a film it becomes nothing short of a delight to watch.  That’s how I felt while watching THE ILLUSIONIST, completely delighted from beginning to end.  This is a fantastic story of magic and intrigue told competently, in just the right tone and brought to life with just the right actors.  What more can you ask for, better special features I suppose but we can’t win ‘em all.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 1.85:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  Vienna looked fantastic as did the theatre stage settings, overall the transfer was phenomenal.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English, French and Spanish with the same subtitle options.  The score was excellent, the accents believable and as I said, the script was well written.

Commentary with Neil Burger:  Writer/Director Neil Burger walks us through the film expressing his love and admiration for all things magic.  I couldn’t agree more and share his enthusiasm as I wish they would make more films like this one, THE PRESTIGE and LORD OF ILLUSIONS.

The Making of The Illusionist (3:59): This short feature doesn’t explain how they made the film, rather has the actors (and actress) explain a bit about their characters and/or roles in the film instead.

Jessica Biel on The Illusionist (1:29): Yeah…this segment is about a minute and a half of Biel talking about her character just as she did in the previous feature including what she’s already said.  It annoys the hell out of me when they do this.

Previews: There is a theatrical trailer as well as a handful of other previews.  This combo pack features a separate Blu-ray and DVD copy of the film.

Despite his low-self-confidence, Chester (Dangerfield) is bound and determined to get a promotion at his sales job so he can marry his dream girl, care for her and her teenage son. In his over eager attempt to kiss up to the boss, he winds up head coach of the company sponsored girls soccer team, the Ladybugs. The deal: have a winning season, get the promotion. Not knowing a thing about soccer, he recruits his future step-son, Mathew (Brandis), to don a wig, wear a dress and play for the losing team.  From the silliness of seeing Brandis and Dangerfield wear dresses, mistaken identity, and the reveal at the end, LADYBUGS follows the cheesy movie template perfectly.

Dangerfield’s lines throughout the film feel like bits pulled from his standup routine applied to everyday life. Watching him schmooze the boss, he plays the desperate schmuck perfectly, the everyman who is in over his head.  My favorite scenes are not where he is doing ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ but where he’s sincere and gentle, in particular when you see how in love he is with future wife, Bess (Ilene Graff, you recognize her from her time as the mom from ‘Mr. Belvedere’) and how much he cares about his team of girls. I love it when he gives a pep talk to wallflower Penny Pester. It took me back to the days where I had frizzy hair, wore teal rimmed glasses and had a mouth full of braces. Where was Chester when I was that age?! Ahem. I digress… those scenes, however cheesy they might be, I cannot get enough of them.

Brandis does an adequate job playing the surly love sick teen over the wealthy, popular, out of his league, Kimberly.  When he throws temper tantrums it feels over acted but as the bossy ‘girl’ on the soccer field he cracks me up. Calling the girls “sweetheart” in a biting tone, that’s just funny.

I realized that some of the jokes went over my head when I first saw the film during its silver screen debut and I was blushing bright red when I watched this Blu-ray version.  To be exact, the dressing room scene had me hiding my face behind my couch cushion.  I almost had the same reaction to that scene as the poor lady who passes out when Chester and Martha/Mathew emerge out of the room.

Though this is no Academy Award winning picture, the score, wacky premise and ridiculous jokes make you smile and stick with you long after you’ve watched the film.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The video quality was nice. All the bright ridiculous colors from the early 90’s were sharp.

Audio: Nothing like hearing Rodney Dangerfield and Jackée sing “Great Balls of Fire” on this Blu-Ray. You’ll want to be sure you have surround sound.

The idea of a hooker trying to go legit as a Vegas showgirl is not a bad idea.  In 1995, it was something that hadn’t been explored before and with the right talent, it could be an enjoyable film.  Establish some back-story for the lead female, maybe towards the end of her hooking days, then get her to Vegas where she makes a promise to go straight.  A little bouncing around at different clubs and then let her have her big shot.  We’ve seen similarly themed movies with male criminals that are trying to turn their life around, so the basic mold can work.  So I’d like to think that when this film was early in the production phase, that’s what they had in mind.  I don’t know where the horribly wrong turns occurred, but they managed to go out of their way to screw up this movie.

In 1995, Elizabeth Berkley was desperate to break out of her bookworm, nerdy ‘Saved by the Bell’ character.  And what better way to prove to the world you’re a serious actress than to star in an NC-17 film that was just a few money shots away from being a porno?  To be fair to her, this movie is not her fault and starring in a movie directed by a good director like Paul Verhoeven and featuring some respected actors was actually a good move on her part.  No, if I’m going to blame anyone, it’s going to be Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.  Picking it apart so many years after every viewer has spouted off dozens of problems seems pointless, but the film’s failures all come back to amateur directing and second-rate screenwriting.

One thing I’ve always found fascinating about this film is how they managed to show so much nudity and sex, yet make it as un-erotic as humanly possible.  Berkley is a beautiful woman and Gina Gershon has a lot of sex appeal of her own, but Verhoeven manages to somehow show these two women naked and in the most unsexy way imaginable.  The seizure-sex scene is infamous now for making the audience laugh while we’re in a somewhat pivotal plot point in the film.

I don’t know the intention of the film, at least not from Paul Verhoeven.  If he set out to make a campy NC-17 film that made little sense, featured atrocious acting and uncomfortable sex scenes, then he accomplished his goal.  I find it hard to believe that he wanted to tell a real story and just failed so miserably.  He has made some decent films over the years, so there’s proof he knows how to make movies.  But with all of this said, every movie fan has to watch this so they can soak in just how horrible of a film it really is.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The glitter-soaked breasts never looked as good as in this Blu-ray.  The picture was crystal clear.

Audio: The audio was also nice, even though Verhoeven didn’t utilize the surround speakers very much.

Commentary with David Schmader:  Schmader is a writer from Seattle that gained notoriety by doing commentaries over SHOWGIRLS in screenings.  It’s hard to tell where he’s coming from in this commentary track.  He spends a lot of time ripping the film, but he does seem to have an appreciation for it and seems to really enjoy it.  I found his track to be funny for the most part, but confusing as to his real feelings of the film at others.

Pole Dancing: Finding Your Inner Stripper (11:53): This is a workout video utilizing various stripper moves.  No actual stripping occurs.

Lap Dance Tutorial (4:54): Some slutty stripper teaches women how to give a lap dance and then utilize your newfound skills to manipulate your man. Whatever. If you’re going to abandon all morals and use your sex appeal to make money from a man, there are other skills that would probably come in more handy.

A Showgirl’s Diary (10:56): This was an odd compilation of storboards and behind the scenes footage.  Not much to see here.

You can also watch the film with a Pop-up trivia track that continues to slam the film at every turn.

When I say “A-Team-like”, I mean it.  The similarities between the two films are numerous to a disturbing degree.  We pick up with a team of super-soldiers whose leader disobeys an order to destroy a village when he sees 25 school children walk into a building.  During his efforts to rescue said children, he and his team watch as the helicopter taking them to safety blows up in mid-air.  They trace the destruction back to an evil CIA mastermind, Max (although we never really learn who he works for) that was trying to kill them.  With the help of a wealthy, mysterious woman, they get the necessary funds to exact their revenge on Max.

Jason Patric portrays Max as a laughable, cartoonish villain.  It was clear the filmmakers had no natural way of making him look mean and menacing, so they establish his villainy by having him kill a couple of completely innocent people.  I assume this was to get a laugh from the audience, but all I could manage was an eye roll.  We’ve just seen that too many times for it to be shocking or humorous and I was frustrated the filmmakers took such an easy way out on the big bad guy.  But he wasn’t alone when  it comes to underdeveloped, unoriginal characters.  None of “the losers” (we never learn why they’re called that) offer anything we haven’t seen in a bad 80′s action series.  I felt the most sorry for Chris Evans, who of course signed on to this long before he knew he was going to be playing Steve Rodgers.  I’m sure if he’d known at the time of signing that he’d be leading the Avengers for years to come, he would have run out the room screaming.

The action scenes were also ruined by an overall lazy effort.  None of them were anything we haven’t seen before, but the few opportunities they had for originality, they flubbed up.  For example, the scene where Evans’s character points his hands at two guys as if to shoot them while a sniper shoots them from behind him was pretty cool.  But the horrible one-liners diminished the effect and the poor, quick build up and lightning fast ending to the scenes made me think they just wanted to throw that scene in the film without worrying about how it got there.

So clearly, I was disappointed with THE LOSERS.  I enjoyed THE A-TEAM because it had great characters and at least offered some story to go along with the ridiculous stunts.  I don’t ask for a lot from my summer action films, but this film felt like recycled garbage and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t shake the feeling you’ve seen it before.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Something about this transfer felt off to me, but I don’t know if it was the transfer or just the way it was shot.  Everything seemed brighter than normal and “plastic-y”.  And the black levels faded at times, making the darker scenes seem dull.

Audio: The audio great and given the numerous explosions and sound effects, this sounded wonderful

Action-style Storytelling (9:58): A couple of comic book guys sit in and talk about the comics and the inspiration for writing them.  They allude to the idea that the comics already felt like a movie and so the transition was easy.  This is great for people that already liked the comic.

Band of Buddies: Ops Training (16:03): I was hoping this would focus more on the actors involved, but no, this is more quick cuts of the making of the movie.  They talk to some soldiers, focus on the Puerto Rico shoot and touch on the action shots.  Nothing too in depth here.

Zoe and the Losers (5:54): Zoe Saldana and Sylvain White talk about her role in the film.

Deleted Scene (:59): Chris Noth shows up for a quick cameo for an ending that was actually better than what we got in the original cut.

The film opens with two homicide detectives, Briggs (Chris Klein) and Shepherd (Adam Rodriguez), on their way as back up to a gang related shooting.  In their custody is Tino (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), a reluctant gang informant.  Briggs (suspiciously similar to Riggs from LETHAL WEAPON), providing as much exposition as possible, delivers all this information loudly.  As soon as they reach their destination director Brian A. Miller chooses to use a Michael Mann hand held style of camera work.  He stays in tight on the action with an overly shaky feel.  This is very distracting and actually reveals how close in proximity the action was taking place when I believe it was intended to appear more distant.  Well nearly everyone is gunned down as our two detectives are caught in the crossfire…thus the title.  The rest of the film is shown in flashbacks as the two partners tell their side of the entire investigation inside an interrogation room slowly unraveling the corruption within the department.  Why aren’t the cops that did all the killings during the crossfire being questioned?  I never did figure out why they were the one’s in trouble.

The acting by Rodriguez and Cent…errr…Fity…how about Half Dollar? Anyway their acting was adequate I guess.  Seriously, Curtis “$.50” Jackson, who was also an executive producer, did alright I guess, so I have to give him some credit.  But he definitely should keep to material he knows.  For the most part, everyone overacted some, but they were all overshadowed by Mr. Chris Klein.  What happened to that guy from ELECTION or even AMERICAN PIE?  Klein is absolutely terrible in this picture.  He has a charisma that makes him interesting to watch but his acting is atrocious.  He yells every single line enunciating so clearly it’s as if he is showing off his memorizing skills.  He held one angry note through his entire performance.  In the interrogation room he used big gestures pouring out all his emotional actions and movement that an Acting 101 class would consider overacting.  Maybe he should stick to intentional comedies.

To be fair, I see some potential in writer/director Brian A. Miller.  Sure this was bad but he is a young novice at this and I think with better actors and a little more care he could have faked this poor script into an OK script.  I found myself caught up in the drama every now and again but then my brain kicked in and recognized all the senseless plot holes.  My advice is have someone look over your material, put in a few rewrites, fix any area that may seem questionable.  Otherwise you need to get a production and style of Michael Bay proportion that the audience forgets your faults and mindlessly enjoys themselves.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (Widescreen 1.78:1) The picture quality was a bit poor.  Some of the scenes were too dark and certain edits were grainier not matching other shots within the same scene

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD) Lots of gunshots and yelling heard just fine.

Outtakes (10:33): I am shocked at how long this went on with absolutely zero funny outtakes.

Original Trailer and Trailer Gallery for Fox Searchlight Films

THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE begins with what seems like a long backstory on the origin of sorcery, explaining the history of Merlin, the epitome of power and wisdom in the field, and his three apprentice’s Balthasar (Nic Cage), Veronica (Monica Belucci) and Horvath (Alfred Molina). Merlin, in 740 A.D., takes on an evil sorceress, Morgana, and though she kills Merlin thanks to turning Horvath against him, Balthasar is able to trap her and Horvath into a Russian-looking nesting doll along with other evil sorcerer’s throughout countless centuries. But they are only incarcerated, not destroyed. Merlin stated before his death that the only one that could kill Morgana was the Prime Merlinian, a young child who could be trained as a sorcerer, found through a magical ring. The child is found in the year 2000, with young David Stuttler at age 10 stumbling across Balthasar and then accidentally releasing Horvath from the doll only to have them both trapped again for 10 years in a mystical urn. As the 10 years is up, Balthasar wishes to find Dave (Jay Baruchel) to train him, Horvath wishes to find the doll to release Morgana, and Dave just wants to win over his old sweetheart Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer) with his love of physics. Strewn throughout are fantastical action sequences and transformations with humor and levity, despite the gravity of the consequences, as Dave has to learn sorcery and kill Morgana before she can raise an army of the undead to enslave or destroy the human race.

Jay Baruchel plays the same guy we saw in SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE, but with cleaner language and sorcery powers, but then he’s good at it, it fits him and I don’t mind seeing him in the role again. Nic Cage does well and doesn’t go overboard in the sorcerer’s role, he is serious when he needs to be, has fun when he can, and the relationship between him and Dave comes naturally. Alfred Molina has fun as a villain, as we’ve seen in SPIDER-MAN 2, and his sidekick Drake Stone (played as a Criss Angel magician by Toby Kebbel) provides some really funny moments from the villain’s side.

The main flaw with the film – which is light, family fun – is its insistence on giving Dave a romantic story with Becky Barnes, despite the fact that he knows he has to work to help save the world. Other than that, the story and action works well, there’s an aside in homage to FANTASIA that is funny for a minute but then kind of out of place, and the actors all do well in the confines of this construct. It’s an entertaining film that knows what it is and delivers as such. Bruckheimer knows this business.

If you’re like me, then you may not have any clue what the movie is about from watching the previews.  The intricacies of the plot could take a whole novel to explain, but the gist is that the film takes place in an age where it’s possible for people to merge into your dreams while you’re asleep.  There’s a whole process for this to take place and once it happens, the intruders can extract your darkest secrets or, in this case, plant an idea in your head to make you think it’s your own (called “inception”).  Our hero, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is leading a team of extractors on a job for Saito (Ken Watanabe), who wants to get rid of his biggest competitor.  In order to do this, Cobb and his team have to do an inception into Robert Fischer’s (Cillian Murphy) mind and that’s where the action takes place.  In order to pull it off, they not only have to infiltrate his dreams, but they have to devise a plan to have dreams within dreams.

If it doesn’t make sense, don’t worry; it’s not supposed to make sense on paper.  I too was lost, even during the film and then I realized that the confusion was intentional.  As we’re learning exactly what this dream invasion is, Nolan is interweaving an incredibly engaging story between Cobb and his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard) and another one between Fishcer and his recently deceased father.  Discovering what all of these storylines mean and how they fit together is part of the joy of the film.  Before I even talk about the action scenes, these two character driven storylines are so well developed and involved that they could have carried their own film.  And to think these were subplots in a summer action movie is mind-blowing.

As great as the character plots were, the moneymaker for this film are the action scenes.  There are more than a couple of exciting moments, but Nolan has crafted the greatest intertwined action sequence in the history of film.  It’s tough to explain, but imagine the best, most well crafted, intense sequence in film that you can think of; maybe the bank robbery scene in HEAT or your favorite Jedi battle.  Now take that scene and imagine three of those scenes, all intertwined and connected, happening simultaneously, with the same characters and lasting about 45 minutes or longer.  Each shot, each scene topping the other as far as intensity and greatness and every time you think you know what’s about to happen, something different happens…for 45 minutes.  The best movies are lucky to pull that off once over a course of five minutes and INCEPTION keeps throwing it at you for the entire third act.

Someone asked me if I thought Leonardo DiCaprio would get an Oscar nomination for this and I said no.  It’s not because he’s not deserving, because he definitely is.  The problem is that he pulls off the conflicted, tortured hero character so effortlessly that we take him for granted.  But he added a depth to Cobb that made the audience care about his every action.  The film would have been great without Leo, but he elevated it to a whole new level.  Everyone was fantastic in this film, but it was Leo’s movie and he did an amazing job.

Time will eventually tell just how great INCEPTION is and whether it will achieve the critical and commercial acclaim I believe it deserves.  But I can tell you this; I don’t give 10/10 ratings on movies very freely.  I would bestow that honor on about 10 movies ever made and none in the past 10 years.  To be fair, I don’t really want to give INCEPTION a 10 either, but I have to, only because I can’t give it an 11.

Director Michael Haneke is quite the impressive director.  His previous work was 2005’S critically acclaimed French film HIDDEN and both versions of FUNNY GAMES.  He has a patient style that allows the action or lack there of tell the story, letting the audience use their imagination.  Some of the most intense scenes happened behind closed doors.  He keeps the camera following the characters but then plants the camera outside the room focusing on quiet simple items like a door, picture or mirror as the sounds from the other room carry on.  The tactic creates a feeling inside the viewer like an unwanted guest that is witnessing too much of the families personal dealings.  We don’t get the whole story but we just happen to catch a little piece of how the family operates and we can’t quite intervene.  The quietness of the film, dwelling on the small moments creates a very powerful intensity.  One of the most horrific verbal abusive acts I have ever witnessed on screen works because it is done in a quiet collected manner.

The black and white cinematography is exquisite.  The authenticity and impact of the film would have been lost if done in color.  The entire look was absolutely gorgeous and authentic.  All the acting was phenomenal, specifically from all the children actors who seem to have a grace and wisdom beyond their years.  They handled all the emotion and questions with genuine care.  Their natural intuitiveness captures the heart and essence of the film.

This is a hauntingly dark film, which cleverly masks itself like the village as simple and ordinary.  The scary thing is that these terrible situations the film exposes are becoming dangerously ordinary.  I had some questions about the choice of ending but I quickly realized it had stuck with me deeply and the quiet mystery of the film, never knowing the full story is what makes it so impactful.  Whether you like it or not, great art leaves a memorable lasting impression and THE WHITE RIBBON is a great piece of work that I will not soon forget.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (1080p High Definition 1.85:1) Great quality.  Clean as a whistle in the visual department, which helped take in the beautiful cinematography.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD) Very good sound.  A very quiet film with mostly words spoken, which I had to read subtitles for anyway.

Making of The White Ribbon (38:33): Shows the process during a few of the scenes.  Haneke is very candid when directing the actors, extras, hair, costumes and art direction.   We also get a few screen tests of the child actors who were phenomenal.

My Life (50:07): This is an interesting insight into Michael Haneke as a person and director gather interviews from himself and actors he has worked with clips from many of his films.  If you are a fan of Haneke, I highly recommend this feature.

Cannes Film Fesival Premiere (18:36): A long table interview with the director and actors who all speak talk about how great the experience was, followed by the actual winning of the award and speech at the ceremony.

An Interview with Michael Haneke (14:08): The director speaks about the process and working with the young actors.

Theatrical trailer and Previews

After he misses his surprise birthday party, Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore) begins to think her dashing husband David (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her.  Needing the proof for her own piece of mind, she hires a prostitute named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to see if her husband will go for her.  When Chloe reports back that he did, in fact, go for her, Catherine discovers that she’s not only upset at her husband’s indiscretion, but she’s also aroused by the young Chloe.  This leads to a dangerous obsession that is quickly taken too far for Catherine’s liking.

One of the biggest faults of the film is how they deal with and develop the character of Chloe.  In the beginning, she’s presented as this strong, confident seductress that knows what she wants and how to get it.  We continue this character development as we see her interact with Catherine and David and the audience begins to believe Chloe is much more than just a prostitute.  But the third act is predicated on Chloe being something other than strong and confident, which changes the whole tone of the film.  She inexplicably turns into a disturbed, weak and needy little girl that is neither strong nor intelligent.  This change comes too quickly and contradicts everything we had just seen.

I also kept waiting for the big payoff.  I liked the idea of a married woman hiring a prostitute to see if her husband will sway when tempted.  I also love the idea of the prostitute using the wife’s insecurities for her own benefit.  But neither idea was fully developed.  I was hoping there was going to be some master plan and we’d get a justification for everything we’d witnessed, but the ending fell with a thud and the events in the film turned out to be nothing more than what we saw.  Director Atom Egoyan has done this kind of thing before in films like EXOTICA and WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, which leads me to believe he relies too heavily on the erotic scenes and loses focus with the story.

As much as I enjoyed the eroticism between Chloe and Catherine, I need a lot more from my films than a well-filmed sex scene.  Egoyan missed a chance to tell a sophisticated thriller and instead he let the audience down by failing to develop any type of mystery or deviant plan.  The performances in CHLOE were top notch, but they couldn’t make up for the underdeveloped story.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: This is a beautiful transfer with black levels displayed wonderfully.  The movie goes from well-lit to dimly-lit several times, but the transfer held true, which can be a challenge for some smaller films.

Audio: The surround channels weren’t used often as this is a dialogue-driven film, but what we got was fine.

Commentary with Amanda Seyfried, Atom Egoyan and Erin Cressida Wilson: I was worried when I saw who was participating in this commentary that it would be a spliced together track, but thankfully, they’re all together, or at least do the track together.  Atom and Erin do most of the talking with Amanda chiming up when prompted.  I enjoyed hearing from Erin, the screenwriter, just to get some of her insights into the script.  Overall, it’s a good track and a definite must for fans of the film.

Introducing Cloe (25:42): The cast and crew show up to discuss what the film is and what the film means.  It feels like it’s a made for TV featurette, so everyone is trying to tell you how great the film is.  We get a little details on how the script came to be and how the cast became a part of the film.  It’s a nice featurette for those that don’t have time for the commentary.

Deleted Scenes (5:24):  The first deleted scene is a powerful one and adds a brand new element to the film with Catherine’s son.  The other kind of plays off that storyline and add more to Michael’s storyline.   I liked the storyline, but it needed more than two scenes to develop, so I’m glad these were cut.

]]> http://www.flix66.com/2010/07/13/chloe-blu-ray/feed/ 0 http://www.flix66.com/2010/07/12/predators-from-robert-rodriguez/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=predators-from-robert-rodriguez http://www.flix66.com/2010/07/12/predators-from-robert-rodriguez/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:34:32 +0000 Brad http://www.flix66.com/?p=8044 I was ready to trash this new incarnation of the PREDATOR series. Expectations had been lowered thanks to the director, one Nimrod Antal, who last directed ARMORED, a ridiculous excuse for a caper movie which took down good actors like Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno and Matt Dillon (after an Oscar nomination). Now here he was with another action movie now with an Oscar winner in Adrien Brody, an up and coming likeable star in Topher Grace, and Laurence Fishburne again (as if he has some vendetta against Mr. Fishburne’s career). The theory of this movie’s suckiness was furthered in simply looking at every PREDATOR related movie after the first one (PREDATOR 2, ALIEN VS. PREDATOR, and ALIEN VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM). But the writer’s and maybe even Mr. Antal himself looked at that trend and did a surprising and seldom seen thing with this latest film: they went back to the basics of the original. I am, of course, not likening Adrien Brody to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but let’s not kid ourselves, Mr. Brody has some game in the acting department, and in this case the director asked him to act like a badass, and he delivered. And in returning to the basics of a team of elite killers against the futuristic, alien, predatory creatures of Arnold’s 1987 original, this movie makes us remember the little nuances we liked about those  movies of yesteryear. It’s not about the CGI, it’s not about the green screen…sometimes, it’s just about an all out classic fight between man and beast. PREDATORS taps into that void in the current movie landscape, and delivers an entertaining movie in the vain of the original.

We begin as confused as the main players, with all of our characters being dropped from the sky onto this alien planet. They hesitantly form a group, with Brody working as the de facto leader, though reluctantly. They are a collection of the worst killers from earth chosen as the game on this hunting preserve for the Predators of the title to hunt and prove their mettle. The eclectic collection of killers we have in front of us leads to a variety of cultures and therefore fighting styles and philosophies on war and death. The outlier in this group is the meek Topher Grace, a doctor who finds himself a sheep among wolves…or is he? Brody and the gang find out their role on the planet through clever patterns the Predators follow, typical to hunters, and Brody uses similar tactics in his discovery of their motivations. Alice Braga plays a mercenary with heart, formerly of the Israeli Defense Force, and she provides the foil for the rest of the team of stone-cold killers. The film has its share of individual battles not unlike the original, only in this case, with more Predators, the prey actually get to win every once in a while. There is a scene between a Yakuza gangster in a samurai sword fight which is contrived for its own sake but also well shot and interesting. And the final fight with Adrien Brody is very similar to the original, but with the well cut Brody (maybe 80 pounds more than THE PIANIST, all muscle) using speed and intellect to an audience rousing degree.

Brody does well as the detached killer making the best of his situation. Leading this group without trying or forcing it, but who’s skills are respected as well. Alice Braga plays a stock character, the one in the group that actually cares about people, but we are also surprised by other characters who show this trait at unexpected times. Topher Grace comes onto the scene with his usual winsome schmuckiness, but some of his lines during the flick just seem like they were trying too hard for easy laughs. Other times – thanks to his delivery, not the writing – they were spot on. Laurence Fishburne plays only a minor and mostly unnecessary role, and though he has some fun with it, it could have been left on the cutting room floor; though so could much of the slow times in which the mercenaries try to get to know each other. The big payoof comes with Adrien Brody in his action scenes, which not many people would have thought he could carry out, especially after THE VILLAGE, but I guess that just means he’s a good actor…and what do you know, Nimrod Antal didn’t ruin that for him.

Sweet Jesus where do I begin!?  This movie was beyond the realm of ridiculous, it was painstakingly horrible from start to finish!  Now before you begin to think I’m judging this thing too harshly, I assure you I go into every film with an open mind (this might be a good time to mention I watched ECLIPSE over the weekend and enjoyed it.  SEE, I told you I was fair).  I won’t say I’m a fan of Mel Brooks per say but I don’t dislike the guy either.  Some of his other films were indeed funny (or at least funny-ish) such as DRACULA:  DEAD AND LOVING IT, ROBINHOOD:  MEN IN TIGHTS and of course SPACEBALLS.  HIGH ANXIETY is a far cry from any of those.

First off I thought this was a comedy but I didn’t laugh…not once.  I would further love to add that I could hear the sound of crickets chirping every time a lame as hell joke slithered its way into the dialogue but even the crickets knew better than come out for this nonsense.  I know this was made in seventy-seven but so were STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and THE DEEP.  I’m all for older films as there are many great ones to choose from but this is not one of them.  I’m not a fan of overacting antics, unless of course your name is Leslie Neilson but even he didn’t do it like this.  These characters are cringe worthy on every level, especially the nurse.  I wanted nothing more than to snap her neck every loathing second she was on screen.

Next we have the ode to Hitchcock angle which also didn’t set well with me.  If I were Alfred Hitchcock not only would I be rolling over in my grave each and every time someone uttered the words “High Anxiety”, I ‘d have also risen from the grave to nut punch Mel Brooks and crane kick the holy hell out of anyone and everyone involved with this movie as well as their friends and families.  The James Bond reference to the Jaws villain was also a slap in the face.  Between the sad borrowed references, the annoying musical number that I still can’t get out of my head and the irritating bondage content I seriously don’t know how I avoided shooting myself in the face.

HIGH ANXIETY may have a place in the hearts of older crowds or people who share a complete opposite idea of comedy that I do but like I said, I’m not against Mel Brooks or some of his older works so I can’t help but chalk this up to just being a bad film overall.  Of course, that said when it comes to older films we all have our favourites yet I’ll be the first to admit that what makes these oldies nostalgic and fun is the fact that we saw them back in the day first.  Watching old films like this one now, for the first time, is never a particularly good idea regardless of how good or bad it’s supposed to be.  So bare that in mind if you have yet to watch this movie.  My suggestion, watch SPACEBALLS instead.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 1.85:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  I saw far too much, far too clearly by being exposed to this film in HD.  Yes, I feel optically violated.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese with the same subtitle options.  I’m firmly sure that this film is equally awful in all four languages.

Hitchcock and Mel: Spoofing the Master of Suspense (29:20): Brooks and some greatly over-the-hill actors and actresses take this opportunity to express their love and admiration of the Hitchcock era and talk about why they went in this direction.  I can feel Hitchcock stirring in his grave.

The “Am I Very, Very Nervous?” Test (1:34:05): This incredibly lame feature plays along with the entire film showing a heart rate monitor in the top left corner to let us know when Mel is getting nervous.

Don’t Get Anxious!  The Trivia of Hitchcock (1:34:05): Another play along feature for the film that’s pretty much a “Much Music Pop-up Video” deal only with Hitchcock trivia instead.

Previews: There’s a theatrical trailer as well as trailers for various other Mel Brooks films.

At first glance one might ask themselves why Joe Pesci and Christian Slater would take on a project like this one (seeing as how I’d never heard of this, I myself asked this very question).  JIMMY HOLLYWOOD is a different take on the search for stardom.  So many people dream of running away to Hollywood and becoming a famous actor or actress but I think we all know how that tends to end most of the time.  Case in point, a High School buddy of mine Mike went off to L.A. and then Vancouver to do just that.  Like Jimmy, he even referred to himself as an “actor” despite never really starring in anything substantial.  Frustrated, Mike moved back home and got into personal training where’s he’s now happy and doing well.  Jimmy takes a different route and it’s plainly obvious how he suffers because of it.

With that in mind, the story does shed a distinct light upon the deconstruction of Hollywood California compared to the glory days of celebrities and stardom.  The pace is regrettably slow at first, but the underlining themes and emotions tied to these characters are justifiable and even endearing.  That said, Jimmy’s so called solution to his acting draught brings about the comedy aspect of this film but ironically enough brings with it a fair amount of truth.  I’m not going to say things would play out the same way in the real world but I will say that the end result would no doubt be similar (I won’t go into details and ruin an ending that made the two hours well worth while).

The easiest thing to love about this film is Pesci himself.  Sure, the man’s made just as many throwaway flicks as he has blockbusters but there’s no questioning his flawless personality and ability to entertain (I’ll always love his pen scene in CASINO and pretty much his entire performance in GOODFELLAS most of all).  I was disappointed in Slater here though, I mean really, this was the best you could pull off in the nineties!?  I met Slater in Toronto about four years ago when he was promoting a film at the Toronto Film Festival and he’s a hell of a cool guy.  He was stone cold sober and I was absolutely trashed but he was able to look past that and we had a pretty good conversation about the business.  He’s a fantastic actor and I hope he gets a comeback role he can bank on here soon.

JIMMY HOLLYWOOD isn’t awe inspiring or “must see” cinema but I won’t argue the accuracy and relevance of this film’s underlining message concerning Hollywood’s days of old.  If you’re a fan of Pesci’s work you’ll no doubt enjoy him here but don’t expect much out of Slater as his role is sadly hollow aside from the remotely humorous Mummy phobia from his childhood.  All in all I could recommend it for that rainy day when nothing else is on but don’t waste your cold hard cash on it, especially considering the lack of extras.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video:  1.78:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  Hollywood looks rather glum through the eyes of Jimmy Alto but the transfer’s decent for a mid nineties flick.

Audio:  5.1 DTS-HD in English and Spanish with the same subtitle options.  For all the dialogue Slater has, most of it is annoyingly repetitive and that’s a shame.

Previews: Sadly there isn’t much here to work with aside from one commercial sporting some LIONSGATE flicks coming soon to Blu-ray.  I’m glad to see CHAOS is coming though.

The plot centers on the age old story of Robin Hood and his merry men. Except this tale is a little different. It seems director Mel Brooks wants to give his take on Robin for a while, but around the same time another Robin film was getting the attention. That particular film I speak of starred Kevin Costner and had a bitchin’ song by Bryan Adams. The point was to poke a bit of fun at the Costner version while pulling other influences in, like the 1938 Robin with Errol Flynn. Even at times, whether intentional or not, the Disney version as well.

This spoof starts with Robin being jailed during the Crusades. Upon his imprisonment, our hero meets a prisoner by the name of Asneeze played by the late and great Issac Hayes. The two join together to break out of jail, and upon their release Asneeze asks Robin to find his son Ahchoo (Dave Chappelle). When Robin arrives back home in England, he finds that things have been turned upside down. Prince John (Richard Lewis) has assumed the throne while his brother King Richard is fighting in the Crusades. The Prince is assisted in power by the Sheriff of Rottingham (Roger Rees) who has a huge thing for the beautiful and quirky, Maid Marian (Amy Yasbeck).

One could look upon MEN IN TIGHTS as a time machine. Every other joke is a 90’s pop culture reference from Arsenio Hall to Reebok pumps. If you are feeling nostalgic for that specific time, then the schtick will work for you. However, if you were born a little late in the game, it may not be as easy to pick up on. Still I think the movie works on many levels. The film has something for someone of any age. The physical comedy is a riot for the wee ones and there is a bit of sexual innuendo for the adults.

As far as the performances, you couldn’t ask for a better Robin than Elwes. He plays a lot of the same cards comedically as he did in PRINCESS BRIDE. Lewis, whom has been a personal favorite of mine for a long time does a splendid job as the cowardly prince. Then there’s Chappelle who stretches his legs for his first big feature appearance. His jokes aren’t the best of the crop, but it’s interesting to watch him here and then reflect on who he is today. So, if a bit of nostalgia, goofballs antics, and a new spin on an old tale interest you, then I’d check this one out.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Quality is decent on this one. The colors are a little bolder than say the VHS, but at times it’s almost as if you don’t even notice the transfer. If I didn’t know it was a Blu-ray, I would have just figured I was watching another DVD. (1.85:1 Widescreen).

Audio: The audio fluctuates often. During some of the scenes the dialogue is clear, then in others it is quite low. However, when it comes to musical numbers, it’s very loud. (5.1 DTS-HD).

Commentary by Mel Brooks: The commentary originally came from laserdisc and isn’t too terrible of a transfer.  In short, Brooks is basically the guy who really enjoys the movie and comments on every little thing that pops up on screen, lines included. Very enjoyable for Brooks fans.

Funny Men in Tights: Three Generations of Comedy- HBO featurette (14:00): This is a look on comedy generational wise from Brooks all the way to Chappelle. They also talk about how the story got started and the development.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights: The Legend Had It Coming- HBO Special (26:00): A very cool behind the scenes look. The taping was done in 1993 so it’s a nice little time capsule. Cary Elwes hosts the segment and spends most of the time just being silly. You get a look at the characters, stunts, jokes, and other aspects of the film. The cast discusses their favorite Brooks films.

Isolated Score Track (3:00): Here you can watch the film with the Hummie Mann score. It’s funny because you can hear the musicians prepping between tracks. I think it would be great for someone very, very much into scores.

At its core, THE EDGE is more than just a tale of survival. Wonderfully written by well-known playwright David Mamet, the story centers on two men- one a billionaire named Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins) and the other a cocky fashion photographer named Robert “Bob” Green (Alec Baldwin). The men come together for a fashion shoot for Charles’ much younger wife Mickey (Elle MacPherson). During the shoot, Charles is looking on at his wife while Bob gets ready to take the photographs. Before he starts, he noticeably kisses Mickey on the cheek. Mickey immediately glances at Bob and gives him a wink. This sets something off in Charles, and not even a small birthday celebration can take his mind off it. This is hardly the beginning of their troubles…

The next day Bob is looking to scout a new model. Charles lends his plane and their friend Stephen (Harold Perrineau) joins the ride. While in the air, Bob tried to push Charles’ buttons. Bob humors Charles by questioning him on the comfort in his riches, saying that it must be hard to trust anyone. Charles is intrigued by his questioning and asks him why he even likes him. Bob simply answers, “Your style, your wife…” Then moments later, the plane collides with a flock of geese that destroy the planes propellers. The plane goes down into the wilderness at terrifying speeds. When they hit the ground, they find the pilot was killed, but everyone else is still breathing.

The rest of the film is the struggle between Charles and Bob. Bob spends most of his time taking shots at Charles. Bob’s jealousy is obvious from the first couple of scenes, and yet he is bound and determined to make Charles break. A very calm, collected, confident man, Bob does not spend the time they have in the wild worried over trivial things. Although Bob is just picking at Charles to anger him, Charles takes the words and turns them into an experience. The progression of the movie is basically watching Charles come into himself, while Bob’s feeling perpetuate.

While the movie didn’t immediately pick up for me until the crash, it was still a great piece of filmmaking.  Hopkins and Baldwin play tremendously well off of each other. This film also made me think about Baldwin and his overall acting skills. Oddly this was never anything I really thought about before. Baldwin is a solid comedy actor in my opinion, but I don’t usually feel him as much when it comes down to a dramatic role. I always feel like he’s taking his character much farther than he has to. But here, he nails it. It almost seems like Bob fits that Baldwin persona. So in turn it’s so easy to buy into. Another thing I immediately noticed was that someone who had a strong background in playwriting wrote this story. All the elements are there for the set up—a slow beginning, plenty of dialogue between two central characters, and an ending that is fulfilling in a bittersweet sort of way. I’d say that this one is a can’t miss. Besides, you want to make sure you catch Hopkins vs. the bear.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: I was really surprised at the transfer on this one. Great quality for a film that was made 13 years ago. No grainy patches, color is great, and overall very smooth.  (2.35:1 Widescreen).

Audio: Crystal clear sound on this one. Again, the transfer is great. If the video/audio weren’t so great I would have given the blu-ray a much lower score, especially since there were no special features.  (5.1 DTS-HD).

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

“This short cigar belongs to a man with no name.  This long gun belongs to a man with no name.  This poncho belongs to a man with no name.  He’s going to trigger a whole new style in adventure.”

This was a tagline created by some uncredited advertiser for FISTFUL OF DOLLARS after it had already been wrapped.  Thus starting a legendary character and bringing attention to a great filmmaker in Italian Director Sergio Leone and his infamous Spaghetti Westerns.

Ironically, The Man With No Name actually has a few names.  In FISTFUL OF DOLLARS he is referred to as “Joe” however, it was never stated officially.  In FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE his name is “Monco,” which is deleted out in the American cut to uphold the mystery.  And in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY he is referred to as “Blondie” throughout the picture.   All three films combined are hugely successful for three powerful reasons:  Actor Clint Eastwood, Composer Ennio Morricone and Director Sergio Leone

I’m gonna start with “The Man” himself, Clint Eastwood, who took the job strictly for a free trip to Italy and Spain.  The film had hardly any budget so Clint brought his own costume for his character, which was used for all three films.  He took his wardrobe to his motel in the evening because there were no duplicates.  If one ever went missing there would be one major continuity problem.  Clint also fought to have lines taken away to make his character more mysterious.  His wise instinct at an early age into filmmaking and likeable quiet strength as the least bad guy in a bad guy world, helped propel him to stardom and his character into one of the most iconic of all time.

Ennio Morricone’s music in all three films is exquisite.  Each film has it’s own anthem that I challenge you not to hum after watching any of them.  They are fun and catchy while pushing the gunslinging action and intensity.  The upgrade in audio brings the gun fights and music to life.  THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY still has one of the most recognizable scores in the history of film.

Sergio Leone is definitely one of the most influential directors.  He was very creative and deliberate with every shot and angle.  His style, while may not be loved by everyone, can be used as a valuable learning tool.  Any aspiring filmmaker would be wise to pick up this set and watch the features.  The use of camera and editing with minimal dialogue and heavy score is undeniably unique.  It is no wonder that many directors today respect and cherish many scenes from these pictures.

The Blu-Ray transfer is simply amazing.  The low budget pictures only got bigger and better with each one due to the originality and talent in Sergio Leone and the charismatic tough man in Clint Eastwood.  This is one of the most complete compilations that have graced Blu-Ray.  If you are not familiar with the movies you’re introduction to them should be here.  The new format vastly improves the film from its original poor production quality.  If you are a fan of these films in any way you will immediately want to purchase this set.  There is not a single item missing and every feature adds insight that is worthwhile.  THE MAN WITH NO NAME TRILOGY goes beyond anything you could possibly want to know about the film.

Tuco, a wanted man with a bounty on his head, has teamed up with Blondi, a drifting gunslinger, to make a few dollars cheating the system off Tuco’s bounty.  Blondie cuts the bond and Tuco makes it his mission to cause Blondie to suffer.  Angel Eyes, a bounty hunter who always finishes a job that he’s paid for, is looking for a man that knows the whereabouts of a hidden treasure.  That same man is killed but before he dies gives Tuco the location of a gravesite and Blondie the name of the tomb the money is buried under.  The two once again make an untrusting partnership to find the gold.  Angel Eyes discovers their knowledge and forces the two men to lead him to the gold as well.  The three nemeses find themselves needing each other but looking for the right time to betray one another.  Set against the Civil War backdrop their journey crosses paths with many interesting characters and scenarios.

The musical score is the strongest in this picture and Sergio wisely uses it often rather than the dialogue to push the picture along.  It should be noted that THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY is nearly three hours long and most of it is Leone’s directing choice to let the camera linger on action or show many cuts of the same scene.  While I thought the style was a bit much in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, it’s done to perfection here and actually more often.  Many action directors today use slow motion on the action to draw out the final moment.  Sergio Leone instead has his final action very quickly but draws out the moment leading up to it.  You might say it’s his own version of slow motion.  The final three-way shoot off at the end is intensely mesmerizing and a perfect example of Leone’s style.  I guarantee anyone who comes across this moment on screen will be unable to look away and have to finish the picture.

I am truly fascinated with the depth and elaborate story telling of this picture compared to the rest.  Sure some of it may be unnecessary but it all makes for an entertaining, heart-pounding great time.  I see more and more of the influence this picture has on many of my favorite films.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (Widescreen 2.35:1) A terrific Blu-ray transfer.  I am giving leeway to the fact that the original does not look near as good and you will be able to see the difference.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD) Again, like all of Sergio’s spaghetti westerns, he films without sound then dubs it over.  Obviously there will be problem with the spoken audio but the Blu-ray does everything possible to improve the issue.  The sound affects and score are top notch.

Audio Commentary from Film Historian Richard Schickel: A detailed look into the film from the biographer for Clint Eastwood films.  Schickel’s voice is a bit drone but he does get tickled at some of the scenes.

Audio Commentary from Christopher Frayling: A detailed look into the film from the biographer for Sergio Leone.  Of the two I enjoy listening to Frayling more but both give excellent historical, technical and random information in their commentary as true fans of the film.

Leone’s West (19:55): Interviews with the cast and crew discussing the location and Sergio’s directing style.  You get pieces of interviews from some of the features in the previous films but this is still interesting nonetheless.

The Leone Style (23:48): Many of the cast and crew are interviewed again about Sergio’s lengthy scenes and how they affected the feel for the film and have influence others filmmakers.  They also discuss how he worked with the cast.  I highly recommend this feature.

The Man Who Lost The Civil War (14:23): A short documentary that chronicles the true conflict during the Civil War battles, that provides the background during the treasure hunt of our three lead characters.

Reconstructing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (11:08): This is extremely fascinating, explaining what the technical process was just to restore all the films, so they look and sound better.  They found old footage and added or re-edited to help continuity.  They even went so far as to having Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach redub some of their lines.  Most Impressive.

Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly- Part One (7:47): Jon Burlingame gives an in depth interview about how influential and important the score is to the film.

Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly- Part Two (12:26): Music Scholar Jon Burlingame gives his analysis of Morricone’s brilliant score.  This time it’s sort of a verbal essay over the music.  This is strictly an audio feature but fascinating nonetheless giving a history of Morricone and Leone’s relationship.

Deleted Scenes (10:19): Two scenes the first is an extension of the Tucco Torture Scene, which goes on way too long.  The second is a reconstruction of The Socorro Sequence, which is never seen in the film.  They only have snippets so short cuts and images are put together as words are describing what would be happening.  It’s like a book for the scene.

Trailer (6:48): Theatrical and French trailer.  Both trailers mix up “The Bad” and “The Ugly” characters.

The film opens with Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), a bounty hunter with an arsenal of weapons stored away on his horse.  Dressed in black, his tall demeanor matches that of No Name but his cocky smirk contrasts Eastwood’s keen squint.  Mortimer’s patience and accurate shots with his James Bond-ish gadgets make him a deadly bounty hunter.  Then we are introduced to Manco (Clint Eastwood).  Yes, he does have a name in this extended installment.   His mysterious calm demeanor along with his familiar cigar and poncho walks into a saloon and quickly guns down four bad guys.  He too is a dangerous bounty hunter.  Finally, we are introduced to the evil that is Indio (Gian Maria Volonte).  With his maniacal laugh, he is definitely meant to portray a psychotic, willing to kill anyone from his own gang to women and children.  He eases his pain, by hallucinating from the affects of pot.  Yes that is correct, smoking marijuana is thought to make him more evil and crazy.  Our two bounty hunters go after Indio and his gang individually then decide to team up to prevent a spaghetti western OCEAN’S ELEVEN style bank heist.  The two are hesitant to trust each other and one secretly has different motives other than the bounty.

Although FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE sounds like a sequel it’s more of another film in the same style as the first.  It is a different storyline but has some of the same actors who are not necessarily the same character.  I mean the actor who played the villain in the first is playing the villain here but obviously as a different character because he along with all the villains die.  The film actually belongs to Eastwood and Van Cleef and I would argue in a lot of ways the film actually belongs to Van Cleef’s Mortimer.  He seems to have more screen time and back-story, but then again what makes The Man With No Name so great is the less we know about him, which is due to Eastwood’s understated performance.

Once again the casting and camera work is phenomenal.  This time around every character has a strong unique face that Sergio is unafraid to closely frame.  Volonte is a little over-the-top as the villain but Eastwood and Van Cleef really seem to grasp the look of their character trusting the less is more attitude.  The visual look of the film along with the score by Ennio Morrocone is once again magnificent.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (2.35:1 Widescreen) Another decent transfer capturing the beautiful cinematography.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD) The gunshots and music are terrific, however, once again the dubbing of the voices is a little off but again, that was how the film was shot.

The Christopher Frayling Archives:  For A Few Dollars More (19:02): An interesting look at the artwork and advertisements for the film through all nations.

Commentary by Noted Film Historian- Sir Christopher Frayling: Another highly detailed commentary covering everything from technique and production to symbolism and history in the making of the film.

A New Standard:  Frayling on For A Few Dollars More (20:14): Frayling discusses Sergio’s intention “to make fairy tales movies for grown ups”- I would take that to mean over-the-top shoot-em-up westerns.

Back For More:  Clint Eastwood Remembers For A Few Dollars More (7:08):
In 2003, Clint spoke about his work with each of Sergio’s films.  This is particularly on FAFDM.  Eastwood always gives a fascinating insight and believed the pictures were too long, which I tend to agree with.

Tre Voci:  For A Few Dollars More (11:05): The same “Three Voices” from the first film, producer Alberto Grimaldi, screenwriter Sergio Donati and Actor Mickey Knox all discuss interesting aspects working with Sergio Leone

For A Few Dollars More:  The Original American Release Version (5:18): Three scenes with trimmed cuts for the American version.  Most notably, a scene is cut where The Man with No Name is given a name.

Location Comparisons (12:12): These show stills of the film then what that same place looks like now.  Most of the places are just empty land but one of the saloons is now a tourist spot

12 Radio Spots (7:36)

Theatrical Trailer 1 (2:29)

Theatrical Trailer 2 (3:44)

After a failed suicide attempt of one of their friends, three guys get together and take their troubled friend to their old partying grounds on a ski resort.  But time has not been kind to their old party place and now it’s a run down hole in the wall.  Luckily, there’s a hot tub and so the gang hops in and gets plastered while wishing their lives had turned out differently.  As you know from the title, the hot tub is also a time machine and the gang awakens to find themselves in 1986.  While there, they have to decide if they want to change their future, or keep everything exactly as it was.

The story itself is completely far fetched, but there were a couple of things they could have done to make it a little smoother.  First, Chevy Chase’s Repairman acted as the guide on the journey, but he was more confusing than anything and didn’t serve much of a purpose, other than to give the group a reason to get their deeds done before dawn.  What I didn’t like was the gang’s initial decision to be careful not to change anything in fear of altering the future.  This didn’t last long, but it felt like an unnecessary plot point and things didn’t get funny until they decided to change the future.  I would have liked more time with the gang trying to live the perfect night of their youth and less time with them worrying about how the future was going to unfold.

As for the 80’s gags, there were plenty, ranging from the obvious 80’s background music to the subtle wardrobe choice of John Cusack wearing his trench coat from SAY ANYTHING.  But the funniest part of the film was Rob Corddry, who was seemingly told to let loose and go crazy with this role.  He did a great job and had some of the best comedic dialogue we’ve seen in a while.  I haven’t really liked him in anything before this, so it was a nice treat to watch him hit this out of the park.  Cusack and Craig Robinson played their typical characters with Robinson almost playing the exact part he played in ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO.  But it works for him, so there’s no reason to change it up.

We’ve seen some of the time-traveling gags before in movies like AUSTIN POWERS, but they work again here because the four characters are pretty likeable.  We accept their outrageous circumstances almost immediately, and we begin to care about their plights.  It helps that the gags keep coming and although some were obvious, most were clever enough to make for some original comedy.  It’s also impossible to watch this film only once and catch all the 80’s references.  John Cusack alone digs at his 80’s resume several times, each time making the film that much more enjoyable.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Fox delivers a great video transfer with even the 80’s wardrobes looking good on this Blu-ray.

Audio: The audio was also impressive and this comedy used the surround channels more than most comedies to the fullest effect.

Deleted Scenes (11:45): A lot of these are extended cuts, but they’re worth the time.  Rob Corddry does some nice improv and several other scenes add in a few gags.

Mini-Featurettes (6:34): I wasn’t sure what to call these since all of them are so short.  They’re listed separately on the back cover, but they shouldn’t have been.  None of these offer any information about the film and feel like they were made for marketing purposes.

Overall, I’m disappointed with the special features on this disc.  Every comedy, especially one like this, has a ton of extra scenes with actors improv-ing various scenes.  It would have been nice to get some of those gags on this disc.  And how about a group commentary with the gang cracking each other up?

Clearly, this is a small budget film with a limited production.  The dubbing is poor, story continuity is a little off and I hope this doesn’t sound racist but I had trouble, keeping track who was who.  Eastwood’s character would jump between the gangster lord’s houses; I had no idea what henchmen belonged to whom.  First he would be at Ramon Rojo’s camp then the next minute at John Baxter’s camp.  Many of the night time scenes appeared to be filmed during the day and time and distance were inconsistent.

With that said, the important thing is we always knew who our anti-hero was and we always knew who the lead villains were.  Leone makes up the lack of order and production with great camera work, music and casting.  This is definitely the director’s film.  Give the same story and money to someone else and this film would fail to be remembered.  It’s not quite there yet but you see great brilliance and style in this early work of Sergio Leone.  His extreme close ups and interesting angles from the feet and pistols creates a tension and brings a higher quality level of excitement for a film obviously thought to be forgettable on paper.  It doesn’t hurt that he hired Ennio Morrocone to fill in the memorable energy-generating score.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the film is that our hero isn’t really a good guy.  He watches evil happen and then only seems to kill the villains for his own profitable gain.  Eastwood is the other key ingredient with the charismatic quiet strength that keeps you rooting regardless of his actions or motives.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (2.35:1 Widescreen) This is a terrific transfer quality especially after seeing some of the original footage.

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD) As I said before the film is poorly dubbed.  The sound of the words does not sync up with the movements of the mouths.   But the music and sound affects come in nicely.

The Christopher Frayling Archives:  Fistful of Dollars (18:40): An expert goes over all the different posters and marketing for the film covering all nations and explains how the film was based on Akira Kurosawa’s YOJIMBO.  This is quite a fascinating piece.  Some of the posters and artwork are excellent but don’t necessarily capture the movie nor even contain pre-superstar Clint Eastwood.

Commentary by Noted Film Historian- Sir Christopher Frayling: I wish all films had commentaries by film experts.  Frayling discusses the film as an extremely intelligent fan giving many technical and historical tidbits.

A New Kind of Hero (22:54): This is also by film historian Christopher Frayling who was also the biographer for Sergio Leone.  He talks about the influence of the character on action heroes and how the character came to be and what Eastwood brought to the table.  He also speaks about the close up shots and why the movie was poorly dubbed or synched up.  This is an extremely fascinating look at the film.  Find out who originally was meant to be the man with no name.

A few weeks in Spain:  Clint Eastwood On the Experience of Making the Film (8:42): An excellent 2003 interview with Eastwood discussing the low budget production of the film and his experience.  .

Tre Voci:  Fistful of Dollars (11:12): Translated to “Three Voices,” these are interviews with producer Alberto Grimaldi, screenwriter Sergio Donati and Actor Mickey Knox who all discuss working with Sergio Leone

Not Ready For Primetime:  Renowned Filmmaker Monte Hellman Discusses the Television Broadcast of a Fistful Of Dollars (6:20): An explanation about the making of an additional scene to help create the illusion that the man with no name actually has a cause in what he is doing rather than being a villainous hero.

The Network Prologue – With Harry Dean Stanton (7:44): A short intro from the fan who owns this rare piece of footage that this added made for TV scene comes from.  The scene is very poorly constructed with a stand in double far too short to be Eastwood.  It is very funny yet interesting to see how the network forced this scene to be created which was only aired one time.

Location Comparison: Then to Now (5:22):

10 Radio Spots: All basically the same short variations of radio ads.

Double Bill Trailer: This is a trailer for both A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and A FEW DOLLARS MORE as a double-header movie experience.

Fistful of Dollars Trailer: Its always interesting to see how a film is advertised and what scenes they chose to show in the trailer.

Colin Firth is George, a professor at a local university that is now eight months removed from dealing with the death of his longtime lover, Jim.  Typically in film, when we reach characters that experience a devastating loss, we follow them as they try to deal with the grief, whether it be to a positive or negative outcome.  But with A SINGLE MAN, George has already dealt with the grief and has decided he can’t take it.  We pick up with him on what he has determined is his last day because at the end of the evening, he presumably is going to take his own life.

As he goes about his day, he meets Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), a young student of his that is stricken with the older George.  He also has an evening with Charley (Julianne Moore), an old friend of his from London that lives near by.  But it’s the relationship with Kenny that breathes life into George and that will hopefully give him the motivation he needs to continue living.  Moore is her usual wonderful self as Charley, but the relationship is relatively meaningless and teeters on that off-putting ‘Will and Grace’ style of friendship where she tries to seduce George despite his clear affinity for men.

First time director Tom Ford proves that he can do more than design a sharp looking suit and he adds plenty of stylistic scenes to liven up the film.  He has a tough job as the entire movie is a depressing look into one man’s hopelessness.  But he inserted some nice editing and some innovative use of colors and film types to heighten the moods and give George, and the audience, hope that everything is not loss.  The downfall of the film is the fact that nothing really happens to George.  He goes through his day and engages in conversations and meets some new people, but he doesn’t actually do anything.  That leaves some dry spells in the film, which makes it drag at times.

It was refreshing to watch a film with a homosexual lead not address the homosexuality or make it the predominant theme of the film.  Too often a gay character’s focus is on his sexuality and not the other emotions he may be dealing with.  But this film is about a man dealing with the loss of his life love and his homosexuality is not a focus for the film.  This isn’t a mainstream film and it definitely won’t appeal to everyone, but gay or straight, the pain George deals with and the emptiness he feels is something that anyone who has lost someone they love can relate to.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The first time Tom Ford changed the color palette of the film, I thought my projector was acting up on me.  But I noticed that Ford would change the colors of the film to match whatever mood he was going for.  The result was not only innovative, but it was displayed perfectly with this Blu-ray release.

Audio: The audio was also wonderful.

Commentary with Tom Ford: At times I got the feeling that Tom Ford was reading from a note card, but then he settles down and gets comfortable with the commentary.  He has too many dry spells, but when he does talk, he gives great details about the film and I found him really interesting to listen to.  The track could have used someone for him to play off of, just to keep it rolling, but it’s still a really good listen.

The Making of A Single Man (16:08):  Even the making-of featurette is filmed in a stylish manner.  We have too many movie clips to make it fully enjoyable, but everyone shows up to talk about the film and what it meant.  I liked hearing from Tom Ford, but no one else offered anything I didn’t already know.

The story starts with a brief but effective description of the mythical aspects of the world we are about to watch, though we have to stomach more explanations delivered by actors or voice-overs that don’t deliver them well at all. An Avatar, who can control all elements and bring peace and balance to the world, has been missing for a hundred years. Cut to: a brother and sister from a small village find the Avatar in ice, and apparently finding someone in ice and saying two words to them means you’re responsible for them in this world. The villain in this world, the evil empire not unlike that of the STAR WARS universe, is the Fire Nation, led by Fire Lord Ozai (an underused good actor in Cliff Curtis) who want to be the strongest nation and prevent or imprison all who know how to bend the other elements, including killing all but one of the Airbenders…hence the title. The Airbender, Aang (Noah Ringer – who delivers no lines with any gravitas), has difficulty accepting his role as the one who must bring balance to the world, and the sacrifice that comes with that responsibility, and ran away all those years ago to get away from that responsibility…running away before learning how to master all the elements. As he trains to learn them, he starts a rebellion against the Fire Nation. The leader of the Fire Nation has banished his son, Prince Zuko (SLUMDOG’s Dev Patel), and the only way his son can get back into father’s good graces is to collect the Avatar, while other commanders (comedian Aasif Mandvi) throughout the Fire Nation also wish to capture Aang as a prize for the King. There are a few fight scenes, but even at fighting it is more like something from Michael Flatley rather than Yuen Wo Ping, too much dancing. Meanwhile, every occasional real fight, not using fire or water or air or earth, looks weak. There is a side plot about the spirit world, a character put into the mix and taken out in furtherance of this side plot, unnecessary as a balloonist on an aircraft carrier. This all culminates in a battle between an attacking Fire Nation armada and an army of Water benders teaching the Avatar in a fortified city in the Northern Water provinces.

The actors used are weak and deliver their lines poorly, which is the fault of the actors, but the lines they are given seem to force movement of the story with no motivation given behind them, which is the fault of the writer. The actor that does the best job is Dev Patel, but his character only seems to sometimes know what he’s doing. The brother and sister, Katara and Sokka, teeter between main characters and side characters, so we don’t know if we’re supposed to care about them or not. And though the Airbender is given flashbacks and side stories to describe his conflict at being the Avatar, when he speaks about it, he sounds like a child actor dumped into a big role by a stage mom, when he obviously wasn’t ready for it. This is a disappointing movie and not worthy of the Shyamalan cannon. But then, neither was THE HAPPENING. Advice…get back to working with Bruce Willis, Night. Get your groove back.

After Bella (Stewart) and Edward’s (Pattinson) reunion from the epic breakup in TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, we find the couple still madly in love and considering holy matrimony.  However, their enemy from the previous movies, Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard), is skillfully building a newborn vampire army to destroy the Cullen’s and Bella in order to exact her revenge.  With the help of Jacob (Lautner) and his wolf pack, the Cullen’s will fight for their lives before the Volturi come and destroy all of them for exposing vampires to the rest of the world.

First off, I’d like to give kudos to David Slade for making TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE less corny and more entertaining than the previous two films.  The first two chapters of Bella and Edward were tough to stomach because of the acting, directing and screenplay, but Slade was able to take the exact same characters with the same storyline and make the film more enjoyable to watch.  If only he could have gotten Kristen Stewart to close her mouth more often, this film would be a complete success.

The best part of ECLIPSE would have to be the flashbacks where we get a little more information on a couple of the Cullen’s as well as the legend of the wolf pack.  These scenes were done so well that it would have been nice to see a few more added.  One of the biggest problems with the Twilightverse (films only) is that the audience doesn’t really get enough background information on the characters, so it’s hard to understand why they act the way they do.  This disconnect was not present in this film and that can only be due to the director.  Thankfully he decided it was more necessary to tell a story as opposed to giving the audience two hours of Bella and Edward staring longingly into each other’s eyes.

During this third part of the series, it was painfully clear to me that the biggest problem with the film (and story) is the relationship between Bella and Edward.  Yes, I know that their love is a love that will last all time, but step back for a second and consider that Edward may be taking his jealously too far when he, for example, breaks Bella’s car and refuses to allow her to see Jacob, or gets overly upset when she comes home too late from the reservation.  Could his overprotection for her (read: love) be making him go down a dangerous path of abuse?  Maybe or maybe not, but the fact that I’m questioning it at all makes it clear that I’m firmly invested in these character’s plights.

Logan Lerman is Percy Jackson, a struggling student that suffers from dyslexia and ADHD, but also happens to be the son of the Greek God Poseidon.  He discovers this nifty fact when a fury (demonic, flying beast) attacks him on a field trip.  It seems our hero has been accused of stealing Zeus’s lightning bolt, which sets of a series of events, including the kidnapping of Percy’s mother, in which Percy must clear his name.  He’s accompanied on his quest by his faithful protector Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and a love-stricken Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario).

In a fantastical quest such as this, it’s imperative that the audience relate to the lead characters.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to do that since we barely get to know Percy Jackson, Grover or Annabeth and they’re never really in a situation that we care about.  I hate to draw comparisons to Harry Potter, but one thing Potter has that Percy does not is friends we like and root for.  It’s easy to get caught up in the special effects and the grandness of this film, but at the end of the day, I never cared about any of their plights.  In fact, Percy was forced to find the lightning and return it by a certain time in order to prevent a galactic war of the Gods.  But a part of me was kind of hoping to see that story rather than the one I was watching.  Seeing Zeus and Poseidon battle it out seems more exciting than watching Logan Lerman whine his way through this film.

Any time you deal with Greek mythology, you have your world cut out for you.  It’s so tough to combine the fantastical world of the Greek Gods with the normal world we live in today.  Doing so without sticking to a set of rules (whatever they may be) will leave the audience questioning the film and the breaking of those rules does nothing but pull the audience out of the moment.  Columbus didn’t spend enough time establishing his world and laying down the guidelines.  I still don’t fully know what Percy can and can’t do, nor do I understand how he learned how to use any of his powers in four days.  And does everyone in this world have superhuman strength?  Whatever the decision, it’s fine; you just have to set those guidelines at some point in the film.

Even with the b-grade dialogue and poor character development, Percy Jackson did have some nifty special effects and fun action sequences to keep the film rolling.  I can assume younger audiences will easily be able to look past the film’s faults and enjoy the fun ride that Columbus has crafted for us.  But for the rest of us, the film had too many problems and the overall lazy effort of the screenwriters made for an empty film.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: For their new movies, Fox usually delivers top-notch video transfers, but I found this one to be a little soft, especially during the darker scenes. This is noticeable early on in the film, but whenever the special effects came in, it was obvious.

Audio: Whatever problems the video had, the audio definitely erased.  This is an incredible DTS-HD transfer that will rattle your walls.

Deleted Scenes (8:01)-If you are a fan of the books, these deleted scenes will be interesting to watch.  However, they don’t really add anything to the overall advancement of the story so it was good that they were eventually cut.  Although, when watching these scenes, you will have to endure a terrible CGI dance sequence with Grover which was thankfully deleted from the final cut of the film.

The Book Comes to Life (4:24)-This is a short little featurette with interviews from the cast , director and author of the books.  Unfortunately, it is riddled with scenes from the movies.  The good part is that we get to hear from Rick Riordan (the author of the series) about his journey writing the book.  Since it is so short, it’s worth the watch if you are a fan of the film or book series.

Secrets of the Gods-This is an interactive menu where viewers can get a small blurb about the various gods of Greek mythology.

Inside Camp Half-Blood (5:09)-  A featurette about Camp Half-Blood, the home of the demi-gods.  There are the typical cast and crew interviews with movie scenes but also some behind the scenes of the training the cast went through.  This was okay to watch, it  is more behind the scenes as opposed to just movie clips but nothing exciting is really going on.

On Set with Brandon T. Jackson (5:56)- Why we would have a separate featurette about a supporting character is beyond me, but here it is.  Jackson plays the satyr Grover in the film and although he’s good in the movie, he sure doesn’t deserve his own feature.

Meet the Demigods (3:49)-You would think that this was a quick rundown of who’s who in the Percy Jackson world, but this is really just a quick recap of the story with just a little bit more information about each of the characters.  This was nothing more than a puff piece.

Composing for the Gods: A Conversation with Christophe Beck (3:28):I’m not sure the score was memorable enough to deserve a whole feature, but here it is.  It is short and interesting and worth the watch if you are into music.

Discover Your Powers Quiz

Theatrical Trailer

Previews

Mel Brooks runs through a small gauntlet of historical moments in the world.  Narrated by the great Orson Welles, we start off with the beginning of man from apes to cavemen.  We get a few instructions on how the first creation of art begat the first art critic and pain begat singing.   A little too much time is spent during the Roman Empire with sprinkles of biblical times thrown in, followed up by a musical number of the Spanish Inquisition.  The film ends with an uninspiring sexually charged time in the French Revolution.

When Mel Brooks makes a film he definitely pushes the envelope.  In today’s time that envelope is pretty much non-existent and the humor feels a bit sophomoric.  It is funny that he gets away with so many overt sexual jokes, which I did appreciate, but more for the shock value from an older film.  The real shame is holding back during the biblical times which was by far the funniest moments, but unfortunately the shortest.

I think the main problem is that everyone remembers some key lines like the overrated “It’s good to be the King” and they think the entire film is funny.  All the best scenes can be summed up in a short trailer, which is exactly what is shown when advertising the film.  This is a classic case where the best stuff is shown in the trailer and has burned its images into people’s memory.  As short comedic skits the film works but as a whole it drags with no clear direction and a definite lack of energy in pacing.

I want to be clear that I respect Mel Brooks and find him to be clever and funny.  But not all his jokes work and not all his films work.  For every ten jokes he might only have one land.  I know people love Mel Brooks and I’m sure this will be great for their collection.  My dad belly laughed more than a few times but that was after he had fallen asleep and woken back up during the course of the film.

There are a lot of jokes with a few that are extremely funny and have found their marks in film history.  But those moments are so few and surrounded with such boring dread that I can’t in good conscience say I enjoyed HISTORY OF THE WORLD: PART I.  I’m sure I sound like the caveman critic peeing on the first creation of art but I don’t really need to watch the film ever again.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: (2.35:1 Widescreen) The picture was very clear for a film made in 1981

Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD) The audio is definitely lacking which directly affects the enjoyment of the film.  Many moments are too quiet or unclear to keep the pacing and energy up.

Musical Mel:  Inventing “The Inquisition” (10:38): This talks about Mel Brooks talents as a comedic songwriter and how he incorporates them into his film.  It particularly covers the making of “The Inquisition” song and dance segment.

Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World (10:04): This covers the origins and retrospect of the film and how Mel came up with the idea.

The Real History of the World Trivia Track: Pop up information some pertaining to the film, history or randomness while the movie plays

Isolated Score Track: A completely unnecessary feature that only plays the music while watching the film.

Robert Pattinson is Tyler Hawkins, a young New York college student that can’t seem to get past his brother’s suicide.  He takes his anger out on everyone around him, most notably his lawyer father.  After a scuffle and a run-in with a grumpy detective, his roommate decides the best revenge is to get Tyler to date the detective’s daughter, Ally (Emilie De Ravin).  Of course, as we all know, any time a relationship is founded on a lie, one party is bound to find out about it and thus force the other party to prove their love.  This is no different, although the ending does take an unexpected and questionable turn.  The one thing about the ending that I can say is when you make that subject matter part of your movie, it tends to overshadow everything else you do.  I will also say that the ending was horrible and it’s a crime no one spoke up during the editing process.

Most fans of the film seem to be Rob-sessed fans of Robert Pattinson.  That makes sense because in order to enjoy this film, you have to enjoy his screen presence, which I feel needs some work.  He has the talent, he just doesn’t know what to do with it.  He spends the entire movie bruiting about and staring off in the distance to the point I found myself shouting “make eye contact!”  But in his defense, we needed more back-story from him and it would have been nice that rather than opening on Ally as a child, we opened on Tyler as a child so we can set up his character.  Ally’s tragedy could have been told by Emilie De Ravin or shown in a quick flashback.  Establishing her character early on was unnecessary as the film relied heavily on Tyler’s past, not hers.  I did like the board room showdown between Tyler and his father, and it made me feel their relationship should have been explored deeper.

I can’t understand the obsession with Pattinson, but I think obsessed fans of his will appreciate this effort, only because he has so much screen time.  The story felt forced and I couldn’t buy into the extreme mental anguish Tyler was feeling, but once I realized Tyler wasn’t going to smile, I settled into the film and it was fine.  I don’t think this is the film that will change any naysayer’s opinion of Pattinson, but at least he didn’t sparkle this time.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The film looked pretty nice and although I’ve been hard on Summit in the past, the majority of this transfer looked sharp.

Audio:  This is a very simple audio mix, but the DTS-HD mix sounded great.  We didn’t need much from it, but the audio was crystal clear.

Commentary with Robert Pattinson, Emilie De Ravin, Ruby Jenkins and Nicholas Osborne: This commentary is more lighthearted, but again, it features a lot of Robert Pattinson.  They really don’t have much to say, but they do what they can and offer enough fun tidbits to make non Twi-hards interested.

Commentary with Allen Coulter: His commentary is more straight forward and he focuses on the making of the film and the technical aspects.  It’s a typical director commentary.

I waited for chapter 17 to hear what everyone had to say about the ending and everyone loved it, especially Allen Coulter, who went on and on about the characters and their reactions to the ending.  I was hoping at least one of them would say something negative about it, but alas, it didn’t happen.

Making of Remember Me (14:32): This is just a typical making of featurette with everyone, including Robert Pattinson, chiming in on how great the film is and how much they enjoyed making it.

There are also some Previews

We start with a meet-cute between Cruise and Diaz in an airport and then on a plane to Boston. As Diaz debates in the bathroom whether or not to make a move with this flirty stranger, Cruise is dispatching villains that have used the plane as a cover to capture him and retrieve some hidden, valuable MacGuffin called the Zephyr. Seeing Cruise go from charming stranger to man of action would have been better had the previews not shown so much of it, but still the action is done well, played with machismo and a few laughs. As the plane crash lands, super spy Roy Miller drugs Diaz’s June and sets her back in her bed in Boston, with a warning about future problems with agencies like the FBI and CIA sending people after her thinking they work together. Of course those government agencies do come after her, led by the evil double agent, Agent Fitgerald (Peter Saarsgard – who should really always play evil, I can’t see him as a nice guy), and Roy must rescue June in a car chase through Boston. We are then taken all around the world to safely transport the Zephyr, to save the scientist who created it (an underused Paul Dano), and capture/topple the rogue agent Fitzgerald and a random Spanish arms dealer played forgettably by Jordi Molla (a better Hispanic bad guy in BAD BOYS 2), with June screaming through most of the actions sequences and Roy calmly working his way through them.

I did like how Cruise was nice and calm with Diaz’s character through most of the movie. All too often, these movies have the action hero yelling at the lost and befuddled Everyman that’s caught up in the situation, but we can see that Roy likes June, and regrets putting her in this situation, so even as she does some stupid things, he calmly corrects her. However, I could’ve done without the easy device the movie uses to get them out of tough situations. To calm her down, Roy drugs June at many occasions in the film, and what we as the audience see after that are only flashes of what she sees, making us miss out on whole action sequences as Cruise kills bad guys and escapes capture while June is passed out. It became a running gag, but those are only good if they’re funny and you don’t feel like the writers are taking short cuts. Cruise was a good guy and an affable action hero. He was likeable when he needed to be, tough when he needed to be, but there was nothing that really stood out in his performance. It could have just as easily been played by Ben Affleck and maybe even better by Ryan Reynolds. As for Cameron Diaz, she had her moments throughout, but she is a long way from 1998 and the likeability she showed in THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. In fact, this movie might have been great if it came out then in 1999 or 2000, arriving at the peak of these stars’ prominence. But in 2010, this is not the vehicle that reminds us of the clout they once held…instead, it makes us long for those happier days.

Oh, and side note: the title makes no sense. We sort of see the point ¾ of the way through, but it still makes little to no sense. However, if you are going to use this as the title, we at least need the Sinatra song “Night and Day” during the opening or closing credits. Come on!

The movie begins in Detroit with Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother (Taraji P. Henson) moving to China, where she has been transferred with her car company. His first day there he meets a girl, a violinist, in his local park and wins her over with his hair that she asks to touch (I’m not sure if that’s offensive or not). Her other suitor, an angry looking Chinese kid named Cheng (Wang Zhenwei), makes his displeasure at the new kid known by beating him up to the applause of his friends. His buildings maintenance man, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), overhears his problems with his new environment in arguments with his mother and then saves him from the school bullies, Miyagi-style. The bullies are all students of the Fighting Dragons under the sadistic tutelage of Master Li (Yu Rongguang Yu), and the only way Master Li will allow them to let up on his “No Mercy” rule is for Dre to challenge them all in a tournament. Cue the training montage in amazing venues around China. Mr. Han keeps to his maintenance duties and does not teach kung fu due to an inability to overcome a tragedy in his past which Dre finds out through a touching moment in the story which does not feel like an aside and leads well into another, more intense training montage. The tournament itself has easy enough rules to follow, limited subtitles throughout, and the tension still builds to that climactic last point for our hero. Is there a crane kick? Does it go back to that KARATE KID staple? I’ll never tell.

The cinematographer, Roger Pratt, does great things with the Chinese venues at their disposal, another benefit this film has over the original, and the script by Christopher Murphey makes us care more about our lead actors than the original ever did. Taraji P. Henson makes us feel the exasperation and support of a single mother trying to do what’s best for her child. There is a nice aside of cross-cultural romance between the young violinist and Dre that maybe doesn’t equate to Elisabeth Shue, but these are younger kids and its played for sweetness that comes off well. Jackie Chan showcases his kung fu stylings minimally, not wishing to take over the film, but his emotional scene is played with tenderness and his training methods do not mirror the “wax on, wax off” style from 1984, but the lessons of kung fu and its other applications are taught with care and limited cheesiness. Yes, this movie hardly ever says “karate,” this is about kung fu, and I’m sure we’ll all have no problem with that distinction, we just want to see people getting kicked in the face. Jaden Smith gets to do that a bit, and does it well. But that’s not all he does. Jaden, the son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, has his father’s affability and uses that to make us care about his acclimation into Chinese society. We like this kid and if he keeps it up, we may watch him grow into a megastar on par with his father.

The opening sequence is a nostalgic, fun piece reminiscing on the days when Andy used to play with his toys. But we then cut to the present day, when Andy is 17, going to college, and the toys have to plan elaborate scams to even have Andy pick them up out of the toy box again. Then the toys have to be chosen as to which ones will go with Andy to college, which ones will go to the attic, and which ones will be thrown away (and honestly, how many of our childhood toys did we take with us to college). Due to a mishap, most of the toys end up going to the Sunnyside Day Care Center, which seems okay at first, as the Day Care Center toys, led by lovable plush bear Lotso Huggin’ Bear (Ned Beatty). However, as the new toys are handled and mishandled by toddlers, Andy’s toys realize Lotso is not the benevolent leader he appeared to be. Woody also deals with an existential crisis, as he debates staying in the DayCare Center or returning to Andy, knowing full well Andy doesn’t play with him anymore. Woody is found by a young girl and added to her play room, so he can remember the original glee of being played with by an age-appropriate child. All of these stories culminate in countless tense chase and escape sequences for the toys we’ve come to care so much about all these years: the toys avoiding the trash, the toys escaping the nursery, the toys escaping the trash again, and finally trying to get back to Andy before he leaves for college. All of these chase and escapes, despite the fact that they are undertaken by toys, was genuinely suspenseful to all those in the theater, and for Pixar to make us care that much for plastic and plush toys is again a tremendous credit to their creative abilities.

There are bit jokes with other toys that are played for good laughs. Everything Rex the Dinosaur says is hilarious thanks to the voice of Wallace Shawn. The other characters are given their share of funny lines and situations as well, from John Ratzenberger as Hamm the Piggy Bank, to the new character, Ken (Barbie’s counterpart), voiced by unknown pretty boy Michael Keaton. There is also a hilariously innovative take on Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) which had me laughing every time I saw it. Buzz Lightyear is given a few funny scenes as well, as he is reprogrammed into several different settings, making me believe that Tim Allen can be funny again (briefly, I still can’t abide FOR RICHER OR POORER). And Tom Hanks lends his great voice again to that lovable cowboy Woody, that we all wish was at one point our childhood toy. The situations these characters get into, fantastic as they may be, have us all at the front 1/3 of our seats. And the reason…we care about them. Pixar has done it again.

Also, as post script, or rather pre script…the short before the movie “Day and Night” is truly original, entertaining, and it deserves praise, though it is a bit abstract and may confuse the younger audience.  You will enjoy this as well. All in all, a dang fine way to spend 2 hours. Thanks again, Pixar

Michael Cera has been criticized for playing the same character over and over but I would challenge the fact that he’s in comedies for that very reason.  Chris Farley didn’t change things up much but we always found him hilarious.  The fact is Cera plays the unsure, nervous well-spoken nerdy teen to perfection.  Every line he speaks seems to be unrehearsed and natural.  Cera plays that character well again in YOUTH IN REVOLT.  However, this time around he has an alter ego, Francois Dillinger, which is pretty much his exact opposite.  Cera still provides his quiet voice but with a confidence-filled ego while wearing a thinly grown mustache, with tightly fit dress clothes smoking French cigarettes.  As comedy actors go, this is a stretch and Cera pulls it off with a cocky sweetness.

Along with Michael Cera and the previously mentioned actors Fred Willard, Justin Long, Ray Liotta and Adhir Kalyan also provide some funny moments with minimal screen time.  The all-star cast really helps round out the comedy but make no mistake this is Cera’s vehicle.  He has a charm that makes you overlook his villainous actions.

YOUTH IN REVOLT cleverly gets into the mind of the teenage boy and exploits all his desires and shortcomings.  The film uses a variety of animations to portray Nick’s thoughts and actions which isn’t necessary but does convey a certain fun, adolescence to the film to keep things moving and helps set the light-hearted tone.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The picture looks great especially with the animated sequences.  Lots of bright colors to give the young summery feel to the film.

Audio: The sound quality was decent but didn’t call for anything to spectacular.

Commentary with Miguel Arteta and Michael Cera: The two joke and laugh about the making of the film.  It’s not too technical or even interesting but the two are likeable enough while they amuse themselves to make the commentary mildly amusing to the audience…sometimes.

Deleted Scenes (10:43): Nine deleted scenes that do contain a few funny moments but I’m sure were cut for time issues or making our lead seem too unlikable.

Off-the-Chain Deleted and Extended Animated Sequences (7:11): A few of these show up on the deleted scenes but this is exactly what is says a little extensions of the animated scenes which are mildly amusing.

Audition Footage (8:32): These are short audition videos for the following actors:  Portia Doubleday as Sheeni Saunders, Zach Galifianakis as Jerry, Erik Knudsen as Lefty, Jonathan B. Wright as Trent, Adhir Kalyan as Vijay Joshi – all are pretty lame.

Our story is centered on the young and talented art curator, Beth (Kristen Bell). When her little sister shows up on her doorstep to tell her she’s marrying a man she has only known for two weeks, Beth’s skepticism immediately kicks in. Reluctant of the odds they’ll stay together, she heads off to Rome to be in her baby sister’s wedding.

When she arrives, Beth is consumed with work. Rome doesn’t seem to provide or aid in any hope that true love will be found. During the reception she embarrasses herself until the best man, Nick (Josh Duhamel) saves her from furthering her humiliation. The two immediately hit it off and when Beth goes to make a grand romantic gesture, she sees Nick kissing another woman. In turn, Beth gets drunk and curses the Fontana de Amore (Fountain of Love). The fountain holds the coins of people who believe that it will bring them true love one day. Beth saves five suitors by plucking their coins out of the fountain.

When she gets back home, the coins have caused her a bit of pain. The five men (Will Arnett, Jon Heder, Danny Devito, Dax Shepard, and Duhamel) attached to those coins are desperately in love with her. This love borders on obsession when the guys start to effect her personal and work life. Beth must find a way to get the guys off her back, but find what real love is in the process.

When I said this movie wasn’t fair, I meant it. It’s not fair that Kristen Bell’s talents aren’t used to their fullest potential. For any of you who have seen the girl in REEFER MADNESS, you know there’s potential there. I never got into Veronica Mars, but there was a reason the show had a huge following. Bell also has great chemistry with Duhamel throughout the film. To be honest with you, Duhamel never came across as an actor that stood out amongst the others. In this film though, he came across a slightly charming.

When you get down to it, the actors aren’t the problem. The cast would lead you to believe that this movie is going to be something entertaining. However, mediocre dialogue screws it up. Most of the funny bits are due to more physical comedy and the personas that the male suitors take on are just terrible. Out of Devito, Shepard, Heder, and Arnett you think one of them will be remotely funny—this never happens. If they were given opportunity to improvise more there might have been more to laugh at, but their performances are all phoned in. Not even two of my favorite female oddballs, Kristen Schaal and Kate Micucci could make me feel any better about the crap script.

As for the romantic aspect of it since this is a romantic comedy, it never really does anything for me. There were moments where Bell and Duhamel had me then I got lost in the sea of terrible dialogue again. It also didn’t help that the soundtrack was off the charms annoying. I don’t even think that a Justin Bieber fan would be into these songs. The only one that caught my ear was a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love”.

Overall the movie was just one of those brain off popcorn chick flicks. I think that the director, Mark Stephen Johnson was a bit rusty when it came to doing a lighthearted film again. His first film, SIMON BIRCH was a wonderful tearjerker, but this movie had no hold on my emotions. In my humble opinion, it all came down to a lackluster script. What boggles my mind even more is the fact that there were two writers involved in the screenplay, David Diamond & David Weissman. Why didn’t one of them just say, “Hey, this isn’t so great”. Instead they offered to hand us a film that doesn’t even do justice to the actors and actresses involved. Instead of falling in love, I think this one scared me away from it. Maybe one day I’ll watch it again, but I wouldn’t count on it.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Great quality. The colors were bold, certainly not a bad thing. No complaints here. (2.35:1 Widescreen).

Audio: Everything was as clear as a bell on this one. No pun intended. The music offers some cheesy chick flick stuff that you would expect. Personally, not my cup of tea. (5.1 DTS-HD).

Alternate Opening & Ending (7:00) There is a reason that these are the alternates. This is not a great start to the bonus features.

Crazy Casanovas: Mischief from the Set (12:00): This is the only part I really was interested in. Mostly just to see Kristen Bell being adorable. You’ll get some background on the film, cast, and crew on this feature.

Extended Pain With the Suitors (2:00): The suitors act as their own exhibits. Didn’t really do anything for me.

Kerplunk!: Bloopers from Rome (3:00): Bloopers are usually supposed to be funny…these aren’t. Sort of a disappointment.

Deleted Scenes (7:00): A collection of deleted scenes that obviously should not have been used in the film.

Music Videos: “Starstrukk” by 3OH!3 featuring Katy Perry & “Stupid Love Letter” by Friday Night Boys (7:00): Unless you are a die-hard Katy Perry lover, or enjoy the torturous sounds of today’s excuse for what passes as music then I’d suggest skipping this entirely.

“Craziest Thing You’ve Ever Done for Love?” (0:56): Little easter egg that’s right under the last bonus feature. They just asked a few members of the cast that question. It’s cute, but could have done without it.

Eli (Denzel Washington) is a man surviving alone on a mission to protect the last King James Bible and bring it to his foretold destination.  Along the way he must fight against the evil and opposition of the post-apocalyptic world, scarce of food and water.  Specifically Carnegie (Gary Oldman) who is a kindred educated man, whom there are very few in this younger generation, chaos-driven world.  Carnegie is searching for the same Holy Book and willing to sacrifice and use any means necessary to obtain the literature.  He understands the power of faith and wants to use and manipulate it for evil.

The cinematography is exquisite with a wonderful color pallet that transforms an ugly world into a visual beauty.  The opening scene finds a suited man patiently hunting an undernourished cat in an ash-filled forest, but the thought of this gruesome act is captured in gorgeous camera work that really sets the tone for the rest of the picture.  There are three main action sequences that are beautifully choreographed and filmed in one extended take.  Every shot seemed very deliberate and well prepared so I believe the film makers achieved their goal, however, I would challenge that they spent too much time breathing in the desolate landscape.  The film was poorly paced seeming to drag a bit with gaps missing some much needed action.  The audience is introduced early and quickly to Eli’s impressive weaponry and skills as a fighter, which is never fully revisited again.

The performances by both Washington and Oldman are naturally great.  They consistently give a believability and weight to all their roles and here is no different.  Washington as Eli has a cold mysterious demeanor that commands respect and breathes wisdom.  Oldman as Carnegie provides logical understanding with a controlled psychoticness.  THE BOOK OF ELI entertains while giving a moving message about the importance and power of faith, along with the characteristics and choices of human nature.  The ending has a slightly questionable twist but overall delivers an interesting and beautiful film.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The look of the film is magnificent and thrives with a practically flawless transfer.  This is a film perfect for what Blu-ray can do.

Audio: The sound is just as good as the visual…stunning.

WB Maximum Movie Mode: A picture in picture commentary-esque feature that can be played during the film.  It’s mostly comprised of clips from later features but also with some comparisons with the beautifully done storyboards.

Focus Points (34:24): A compilation of ten mini featurettes.  These were all short and very interesting covering the look, story and action of the film.

Starting Over (13:03): The filmmakers and actors discuss and explore what would happen as far as people’s reactions, feelings and wants and needs during a post apocalyptic world.

Eli’s Journey (17:54): The filmmakers and actors discuss the character of Eli and Denzel’s performance.  They also discuss his faith and mission from God.  They also discuss Oldman’s character and belief and knowledge for evil.

The Book of Eli Soundtrack (4:59): Basically a small discussion about the music and collaboration with the composer

Deleted/Alternate Scenes: Four extremely short scenes, which did not make any difference to the film.  I was really hoping for more here.

A Lost Tale: Billy (5:02): A short moving picture graphic novel about the origins of our villain during his childhood

I’m all about the action, an adrenaline junkie if you will, so what better way to start this pairing up than with an angry Travolta arguing with Paris customs over bringing a carry-on bag full of energy drinks into the country.  This flick didn’t get much advertizing and I’ll admit to not being blown away by the premise when it hit theatres.  I should have known better though as Luc Besson doesn’t put out too many duds.  FROM PARIS WITH LOVE may not be TAKEN (but it does have the same director which is a bonus), however I couldn’t help but find myself immediately overtaken with glee by what these boys are selling.

Travolta as a villain (or in this case anti-hero) is just my game.  I don’t remember the guy for LOOK WHO’S TALKING or MICHAEL, I worship the man for character driven flicks like PULP FICTION, FACE/OFF, BROKEN ARROW and SWORDFISH.  Travolta is a lot like Anthony Hopkins, both men are destined to dance with the devil and we love them for it.  In XXX Sam Jackson joked about the idea of dropping another mouse in the snake pit or sending in their own snake to get the job done right, Travolta IS that snake and man does he love to bite.  Meyers isn’t a bad actor, nor does he do a bad job here but this particular setup makes him look like Robin with Travolta of course being Batman.  And when it comes to Robin, he’s good for an “oooh or ahhh” here and there but you don’t really need him when Batman’s around which is exactly how their relationship plays out.

The story’s not half bad for a “shoot first, ask questions later” flick with Travolta bringing the pain at every turn.  His persona is epic and his dialogue pure gold from start to finish (reminding me a lot of his character from THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123).  Having Meyers carry around a vase full of cocaine was almost as funny as how they ended up with it in the first place, then we’ve got hookers, bazookas and my personal favorite, a “royale with cheese” shout out.  There were enough winks and nods of pure genius in this film to keep my smile ear to ear for the entire hour and a half.  I did put two and two together with the ring and what not when the plot started to thicken but I’m not complaining as this is nowhere near the connect the dots flight a lot of action films charter these days.

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE may sound a touch cheesy but rest assured if action is your game this will have you hooked in a heartbeat.  Travolta still has a couple aces up his sleeve and makes for a hell of a good action star when he’s not making buddy comedies or kid flicks (OLD DOGS was pretty rough).  The R rated action flick seems few and far between lately but it’s nice to see decent actors still able to get the job done.  This flick caught some flack (like most action vehicles do) but for those of you who haven’t seen it, I urge you to forget what you’ve heard and check it out.  For those of you hating, I suggest you calm down and appreciate these films for what they are:  mindless action escapes.  It’s not supposed to make sense people it’s supposed to be fun and trust me, it was.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 2.35:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  I’m not much for Paris, but the city looked lively here with lavish over the top visuals that can only be found on Blu-ray.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English and French with the same (as well as Spanish) subtitle options.  Travolta’s dialogue was insane and I loved every minute of it.

Commentary with Pierre Morel: Director Pierre Morel gives us a surprisingly bland play by play for a flick so ripe with intense action.  Where the hell was Travolta for this sit down!?  I was totally hoping to hear things from his point of view.

From Paris with Love-Making-of (26:42): This feature has the production team reeling over Morel’s work with TAKEN and shows us how excited Travolta was to create yet another one of his off the wall characters.  I’d love to see more Charlie Wax in the future.

Spies, Spooks and Special Ops:  Life Under Cover (16:06): Here we get the inside scoop on the life and function of CIA agents straight from the mouth of former operatives.  How in the hell these guys can walk away from the life and not end up being paranoid wrecks is beyond me.

Secrets of Spy Craft:  Inside the International Spy Museum (4:26): Here we get a quick tour of Washington DC’s Spy Museum and all its sweet toys and gadgets.  I’ve always wanted a pair of info red goggles.

Friend or Foe Trivia Game: This cool little game has you answering movie based questions for “intel” so you can determine which of the three characters they show is out to kill you.  I dug it.

Charlie Wax’s Gun Locker Featurette: Another cool mini game that lets you test out all of the weapons used in the film.  You can also fast forward to the scene in which they are used.  Getting to shoot a bazooka is always fun.

Previews: There’s a theatrical trailer, a slew of Lionsgate trailers, a Blu-ray commercial, some BD-LIVE content for hooking up to the net and a Digital Copy of the film.

I’ve been an avid fan of martial arts flicks since I discovered Loren Avedon and KING OF THE KICKBOXERS back when I was first coming into movies.  I had the distinct pleasure of talking back and forth with Mr. Avedon (he’s a super cool guy) and it was he who actually told me about UNDISPUTED 2 while talking about life and movies.  I immediately watched it and loved every second of it.  Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White are phenomenal athletes who can do superhuman things in the ring.  I was very excited to hear they were going ahead with a third film and I was not disappointed in the least.  The fight sequences were just as stellar as the second (if not more so) and again it just blows me away seeing what these guys can do.

The only sad part here is how few and far between these martial arts epics have become and that they still have to get by on the direct to DVD market.  Don’t get me wrong, the production value here is top notch, so I can only imagine how much better it could have been with a bigger budget.  Michael Jai White’s BLOOD AND BONE was the same way but like the UNDISPUTED films could have blown the roofs off theatres with a little more money and finesse.  Instead, we end up with farces like FIGHTING in theatres which is nothing short of an insult.  But on the opposite side of things, Larnell Stovall, the dude behind UNDISPUTED 3’s amazing fight choreography, was also in league with the MORTAL KOMBAT:  REBIRTH short film now online starring Michael Jai White and a few others.  If you’re reading this review you clearly dig martial arts as much as I do so you owe it to yourself to look up the MK video after this.  Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

Scott Adkins is working hard to get THAT break and though he did pop up in the underrated X-MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE (I have no idea why I’m the only one who loved that film) as Weapon X1, played a small role in THE TOURNAMENT and landed the lead in NINJA, he’s still not there yet.  Adkins doesn’t get much in the way of lines in either UNDISPUTED film and his dialogue in NINJA was somewhat cheesetacular (though I won’t blame him for that as it WAS a ninja film and the entire script emanated a cheesy eighties vibe) so the man is clearly doing the best with what he’s got to work with.  But let me tell you, physically he’s far superior to just about any other martial artist in the business (with the exception of Michael Jai White, though he’s just about on par) with incredi