Aladeen:  Ahh…America, built by the blacks and ruled by the Chinese.

This time Cohen plays Admiral General Aladeen, the evil and oppressive dictator of the North African Republic of Wadiya.  After some setup that establishes Aladeen as a cartoon version of many infamous dictators combined, the film’s story gets underway.  As it is revealed that Aladeen is developing nuclear weapons and is a terrible person in general, he is forced to travel to the UN Headquarters in New York to address the council.  Upon arriving, Aladeen’s traitorous uncle, Tamir (Ben Kingsley), sets it up to have Aladeen assassinated and replaced by a double.  Aladeen’s signature beard is shaved off, but he manages to escape; though finds himself trapped in New York with no recognizable identity.  An activist, Zoey (Anna Faris), befriends Aladeen and offers him a job at her vegan-lesbian-immigrant-friendly co-op or something like that.  Aladeen now has few options, but does manage to find aid from a man he thought he had executed in the past, Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), and the two plan to find a way to get the true Aladeen back in the public eye, before Tamir and the decoy turn the nation of Wadiya into a democracy.

Among other reasons, The Dictator falters for me by taking away the aspect that at least provided Cohen’s previous films with a credible level of shock-value entertainment.  I am referring to the idea of having this be an actual film, as opposed to planting one of Cohen’s characters in the real world and getting real or “real” reactions.  That element of Borat and Bruno made them a bit more enjoyable for me, mainly because I could not only enjoy the comedy at times, but also admire how brave Cohen would have had to have been in the process of taking his characters as far as they could possibly go.  Stripping that away, what is left is how well Cohen and his collaborators could function based on how clever their screenplay for the film is, how effective the direction manages to be, and how willing the participants are in joining in on the “edgy” fun.

Regarding the comedy and its purposefully offensive nature, I found it hit or miss.  That said, the hits work well, while the misses are not so bad.  When the film is good, it is very funny and those moments are usually within the very quick jokes that appear on screen for a few seconds, before moving on to something else.  One of The Dictator’s best aspects is that it only clocks in at around 80 minutes.  The less exciting jokes come from feeling like they are telegraphed and not all that clever.  I would not really say The Dictator gets away with taking crazy turns as to how the humor is approached, which ultimately works in the film’s detriment.  Given that it has a very standard plot (mistaken identity, supported by the obligatory romance aspect), the room to play around is there, but it will come down to how well one responds to the jokes.

The idea of playing up the offensive angle on this film’s comedy does not really add too much to the proceedings.  The Dictator comes of more like a modern age Marx Bros. film, with the added incentive to offend people, except it is not all that offensive.  You would have to be incredibly sensitive and have no familiarity with Sacha Baron Cohen to really feel shocked by what goes on in this film, because the whole tone is way too playful to feel biting.  There are some subtler moments here and there, as well as a couple bits that really do work at combining political satire with some smarter ways to be offensive, but the film is mainly just trying to have R-rated fun.

Quite the big cast shows up for The Dictator, which ranges from a number of funny cameos (Megan Fox plays a convincing whore) to Ben Kingsley (slumming).  The two key supporting parts come from Faris and Mantzoukas.  Faris is fine with what she has to do, which is a mix of having confused reactions to her wacky Wadiyan friend and getting a few humorous moments of her own, given the extreme activist nature of her character.  Mantzoukas is a lot of fun, namely because I like him in general, but also because his character is a Wadiyan who is able to provide an informed perspective in regards to Aladeen, as opposed to more and more characters that find him so “crazy”, and is thusly able to provide a fun sort of chemistry with him.

I will be curious to see what the reaction is to this film.  Despite being an R-rated comedy, mainly due to vulgarity, it is too light-hearted to be controversial.  It also has too much structure and conventional elements to convey shock comedy effectively, in the same way that Borat achieved.  I remain fairly in the middle on all of these, despite finding The Dictator to be the weakest of all these films, but it will be interesting to see how this film fares with those who really enjoy these types of Cohen’s film.  Still, I will happily look forward to the upcoming choices that Cohen makes for his future starring projects.  While The Dictator felt slight to me, Cohen is certainly capable and has an inspired comedic mind, especially if he can apply it well.

Nadal:  Don’t do anything to arouse any suspicion.
Alaadeen:  Don’t worry; I am Wadiya’s number one actor.  You don’t win four Wadiyan Golden Globes for nothing.
Nadal:  Yes, you do, because you gave them to yourself.

A great deal of the public’s first exposure to The Dictator came about at this year’s Oscars when Cohen, in character as his dictator character, navigated his interview in character with Ryan Seacrest while holding an urn with the fake ashes of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.  Cohen purposefully spilled the ‘ashes’ (which turned out to be pancake mix) on Seacrest’s tux, creating a moment of discomfort for Seacrest and viewers alike.  Bad start.

Here were are today with the movie’s release, and as a fan of Cohen’s, but very turned off with his Bruno movie, I held caution going into this.  That caution turned out to be extremely warranted as the film was an awful mess of forced humor.  As previously mentioned, Cohen plays fictional middle east leader Admiral General Aladeen.  The United Nations has threatened military action against his country for its creation of weapons-grade plutonium.  In order to temper the situation while attempting to maintain his own agenda, Aladeen heads to a UN summit in New York City.  His plans get derailed when an attempt on his life leaves him without his trademark beard.  In lieu of this, Aladeen is forced to blend with NYC’s populace while trying to regain access to the UN.

The premise is certainly do-able for a comedy, but it just comes together has one big forced mess.  I have no problem with vulgar humor and taking something to the limit in order to achieve a laugh.  However, I can’t reiterate enough just how forced the material is here; vulgar, mild and anything in between.  Yes I got a few laughs out of it (more so than that horrible Dark Shadows I experienced last week), but if I can count those laughs on one hand, then the movie failed and the $8.50 I paid for a matinee was a hosing.  I liken Cohen’s future in film to M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan wowed audiences with his ability to tote them along on a path of intended misguidance, only to offer sizeable shock value at the end.  Unfortunately, audiences grew tired of this after a while because they pretty much knew what to expect.

Cohen is taking a similar road in the sense that his style is a one-trick pony.  You get vulgar, no longer surprising comments, then it’s on to the next scene.  In Borat, he tells a manner-proper woman to wipe his behind after he finishes his business in the bathroom. That’s humorous because it was unexpected, though in context and still had a least a little shock value to it.  Then in Bruno he’s flashing his penis and pushing the sexuality envelope to new horizons.  Ehhh, not my thing.  It’s got shock value yet it’s not funny.  It worked for some, not others.  Now we’ve got The Dictator and it feels like an extension of the Borat character with elements of the crude, once shocking material he could surprise audiences with.  The Dictator is anything but shocking and certainly isn’t an engaging comedy.  Throwing crude lines or actions out there without a factor of cleverness or proper placement renders a scene unfunny, not to mention useless.  There are some funny (though far from hilarious) moments in this movie, but the bottom line is, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie.  Not even the great Ben Kingsley, nor the cameos of a few well known actors, could resuscitate any lingering breath into this film.

Film: 

GREG KINNEAR AND ALAN ARKIN ARE ON

THIN ICE

Caper Comedy Featuring Star-Studded Cast Breaks Through To Blu-ray and DVD June 12

Mickey Prohaska (Kinnear) is a small-time insurance agent looking for a way to jump-start his business, reunite with his estranged wife (Thompson) and escape the frigid Wisconsin weather. This self-proclaimed master of spin believes that salesmanship is about selling a story — all he needs is a sucker willing to buy it.  He hits pay dirt with a lonely retired farmer (Arkin) who is sitting on something much bigger than an insurance commission.  But Mickey’s attempt to con the old man spins out of control when a nosy, unstable locksmith (Crudup) with a volatile temper dramatically ups the stakes, trapping him in a spiral of danger, deceit and double-crossing.

The Thin Ice Blu-ray and DVD offers three bonus features including a behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes and a look at the Sundance premiere.  The Blu-ray will feature both the theatrical and Director’s cuts of the film.   Prebook is May 16.

Thin Ice Blu-rayand DVD Special Features
·      Behind-The-Scenes of Thin Ice
·      Deleted Scenes
·      Sundance Premiere Featurette

Pre-Order Your Copy Here:

THE FILM THAT CAPTIVATED CRITICS IS THE MUST-OWN RELEASE OF THE SEASON

Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Matthew Broderick Impress in Writer/Director Kenneth Lonegran’s Masterful Portrait of a Young Woman’s Haunting Coming-of-Age Story on Blu-ray Combo Pack July 10

Synopsis: From Academy Award® nominated* writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me) comes a stirring drama Rolling Stone calls “a film of rare beauty and shocking gravity.” Anna Paquin, Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo lead a celebrated cast in the story of a Manhattan teenager whose life is profoundly altered after witnessing a terrible accident. Experience an emotional teen’s extraordinary journey to set things right as her innocent ideals come crashing against the harsh realities of the adult world. It’s an “extraordinarily ambitious film,” raves Time Magazine.

Order Margaret on Blu-ray!

Frank: I wish I was a super-genius inventor and could come up with a way to make a telephone into an explosive device that was triggered by the American Superstarz voting number. The battery could explode and leave a mark on the face, so I could know who to avoid talking to before they even talked.

The film stars Joel Murray as the ever-embittered Frank.  That may be a bit strong.  Frank has been having it rough dealing with what the rest of the country seems to enjoy.  We get a glimpse of all the nonsense Frank tries to avoid, as he skips through a bunch of reality TV shows (not too far removed from ones that actually exist), while up late due to his annoying neighbors putting in no effort to keep their baby quiet.  During one terrible day, we see the extent of what Frank puts up with.  On this day, Frank first tries to deal with his ex-wife and his spoiled daughter, who wants no involvement with her father, because he is poor.  Later, after ranting about how stupid reality television is, Frank is fired from his job and diagnosed with a brain tumor.  As I said, it is a terrible day.  After Frank arrives back at home, he decides that maybe suicide is his only escape.

Before pulling the trigger, however, Frank makes a decision.  In the process of planning to kill himself, Frank had the television on and watched another reality show where a teenager threw a tantrum because her parents would not get her exactly what she wanted.  Figuring that he has nothing to lose, Frank decides to steel his neighbor’s sports car and drive hundreds of miles to kill this teenage girl, before killing himself.  Frank succeeds in the first part of this plan (with some bumbling in the process), but before he kills himself, he is interrupted by Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr); a teenage girl who saw what Frank did.  She thinks he could do more “good” by taking out other “not so good” people, and bring her along to help.  Therefore, the two set out on a bizarre road trip/killing spree across the country.

The problem with this movie is how it does not really settle on anything, as opposed to simply providing sequences where characters can openly rant about what they hate about society in general.  Goldthwait, who wrote and directed this film, seems to clearly enjoy having a platform of sorts to really go into why he finds reality television and a lot of what goes on in American pop culture to be insipid and dumb.  Unfortunately, the film just feels like many various rants, with obvious setup for when these rants will occur.  Goldthwait’s past films have tended to start out with some key ideas, only to reveal themselves as something more introspective.  God Bless America does not really get to that place.  It just continues along the same path for the duration of its runtime.  However, it does help that, despite being a series of rants and murderering mayhem, they are entertaining rants and scenes of murdering mayhem.

Roxy: You really had the chance to do something awesome here. But you’re blowing it, Frank. Now you’re just gonna be remembered as some creepy old stalker dude who was in love with some young twat on a television show. Just a pervy old dude that killed that girl and then himself when he couldn’t have her.
Frank: I didn’t kill her because I couldn’t have her. I killed her because she wasn’t nice.

While something like Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers may have done what this film has attempted nearly 2 decades ago, there still is a sort of twisted joy in seeing a deranged couple (they’re friends, nothing more) go off and provide a kind of sick wish fulfillment of having obnoxious and mean people get a comeuppance of sorts.  I am of course not in support of murdering people because I do not like them or am annoyed by them, but in the realm that this film exists, there are some funny, exaggerated sequences that depict this.  ‘Exaggerated’ is a good term to stick with too, because this film really does not exist in a real life sort of world.  It is exists because of a convenient screenplay, as opposed to being something grounded in reality, which is to both the film’s benefit and its detriment.

It helps that the two main performances are quite good.  Joel Murray does a great job at embodying a man who does not necessarily think he is better than anyone is, but does feel he has the right to speak against the stupidity of a lot of what the country seems to enjoy.  This role could have been played with a much darker cynicism that would have sucked the fun out of this movie, but Murray’s take on the performance does well at combining his sad sack nature with an angry, but likably warm presence.  There could have been more development for Roxy’s character, but at least Tara Lynne Barr’s performance brings a fun character for Frank to interact with.  Combining that with her psychotic pleasure that she gets from offing the idiots and hate-filled folk of the country (which is encapsulated just as much in her grin as it is in her actions) allows the movie to at least move along at a breezy pace.

The other movie I could refer to, which this film may owe a bit to, is perhaps one of the best films from Joel Schumacher, Falling Down, with Michael Douglas as a man who goes on a violent rampage during particularly hot day in Los Angeles.  That film tackles many similar issues, but was better for really delivering on the main character and having the story be about something overall.  God Bless America does not quite get there.  It has many scattered moments drenched in satire and likes speaking out against things going on in America currently, but it does not really wrap up into a story that completely comes together.  It is still a bit of fun; a twisted dark comedy, with a couple memorable moments, but the film does not amount to more than just an average story.

Frank:  [after finishing shooting practice] You did a good job.
Roxy:  I have a good coach. That and I was pretending the targets were the cast of Glee.

Note:  After writing this, I heard in a hilarious interview with Bobcat Goldthwait that he hates Falling Down.

God Bless America is currently available on Video On Demand

THE BODIES AND THE LAUGHS PILE UP AS THE CLASSIC
COMEDY-MYSTERY MAKES ITS BLU-RAY™ DEBUT

CLUE

Featuring an All-Star Cast, Hilarious Comedy Arrives in High Definition August 7, 2012
with Three Alternate Endings and More

The CLUE^® Blu-ray includes three completely different endings, with an option to watch them all or have them played randomly, as well as the theatrical trailer.

CLUE^® Blu-ray

The CLUE^® Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English Mono DTS-HD Master Audio, French Mono Dolby Digital, Spanish Mono Dolby Digital and Portuguese Mono Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  Bonus features are as follows:

·         Three Alternate Endings

o   Option #1—Show all three endings

o   Option #2—Play a random ending

·         Theatrical Trailer

CLUE^® Blu-ray

Street Date:                          August 7, 2012

Suggested retail price:            $19.99 U.S.

Runtime:                                94 minutes

U.S. Rating:                            PG

Canadian Rating:                   PG

Order Clue on Blu-ray!

Dark Shadows

Barnabas Collins: How soon can the horses be ready?
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard: We don’t have horses, we have a Chevy.

Based on the cult classic soap opera of the same name, which ran from 1966-1971, this theatrical adaptation of Dark Shadows stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins.  We learn early on that the Barnabas’ family helped developed the town of Collinsport, Maine and he was the master of Collinwood Manor, up on Widow’s Hill.  During his time as a playboy, Baranabas makes the mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), a witch, in favor of another woman, Josette (Bella Heathcote).  As a result, Angelique curses the Collins family and forces Josette to jump off a cliff.  Barnabas attempts to kill himself, but finds that he has been cursed to be a vampire and live for an eternity.  To make matters, Barnabas is buried alive in a chained-coffin by angry townspeople.

Nearly 200 years later, Barnabas is finally released from his prison and makes his way back home.  Upon returning, he finds a few remaining members of the Collins family still residing at the manor.  This includes the family matriarch, Elizabeth Collins (Michelle Pfeiffer); her brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller); Elizabeth’s rebellious daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz); and Roger’s son David (Gulliver McGrath).  Also at the house, Elizabeth’s hired live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter); the manor’s caretaker, Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley); and the new governess, Victoria Winters (played by Heathcote again), seemingly a re-embodiment of Barnabas’ lost love.  As Barnabas attempts to adjust to life in the 1970s, which includes restoring the family name, things become much more complicated as Angelique is still in town and still hopes Barnabas has a change of heart, even though she’s cursed it for all time.

I have no issue with the fact that director Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter continue to work together.  If they all get along and like making movies together that is fine.  I actually think the movie is benefitted by the presence of these people.  Depp brings a lot to the role of Barnabas Collins, with his best scenes in the film revolving around the fish out of water notion of him being a very old-fashioned man/vampire now stuck in the 70s.  Bonham Carter has a smaller role, but I did enjoy what she tried to do with her character, despite some of her motivations feeling a little undercooked (a common problem with the characters in general, which I’ll get to).  Then you have Burton, who at least makes this film feel like something clearly in his wheelhouse.

Regardless of how much one likes Tim Burton’s work as a filmmaker, one of his greatest accomplishments as a director is the fact that he is one of the few current filmmakers whose stamp someone can instantly recognize.  With Dark Shadows, while not even close to being one of his best films, Burton at least seemed to be able to inject a lot of his personality into an expensive looking studio feature.  Pale faces, gothic interiors, an almost too colorful town mixed with a darker setting outside town (akin to Edward Scissorhands), and of course, the Danny Elfman score (which is forgettable) all do a lot to make this feel like a Tim Burton film, but also apply an effective amount of style to the feature.  Burton seems more involved here than he did on Alice in Wonderland, which was nice to see, but unfortunately, there were still issues with how this film was structured.

Basing this off a soap opera that had 1000+ episodes, there was certainly plenty of story to cull from, but unfortunately the story by John August (Big Fish and other Burton films) and Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is excessively busy, despite having many characters that do not add much to the story.  Despite having a great cast, the majority of them are only defined in very broad terms and we learn very little about them.  For example, Jonny Lee Miller is defined as greedy, Jackie Earle Haley is a drunk, and Michelle Pfeiffer simply exists as the head of the family, but has little else to do beyond believe in the family.  The other characters that we do learn a bit more about mostly have developments that either come too late in the film or do not amount to much that is interesting.  Namely the Victoria Winters character, who seems to be introduced as the lead female character of the film, before disappearing into the background for a good majority of the film.

Fortunately, Eva Green at least seems to be trying to have a lot more fun, which is nice given that I do not think I have ever seen her smile before this film, as Cheshire Cat-like as it may be.  She provides a level of menace that is welcome and shares one of the film’s funnier sequences, involving Depp and a full use of one specific room.  I also enjoyed the interactions between Depp and Chloe Grace Moretz, which was a good way to emphasize the massive generation gap.  Again, no one is particularly bad in the film, there are just a lot of instances where characters are not given much to do or written too thinly to make us care for their parts of the story.

The story plays out awkwardly as well and not at a decent pace.  I felt a lot of drag in various points during the film, which was not aided by the fact that the humor could be very hit or miss at times.  The attempt to really balance the campy tone and dialogue with some of the film’s darker sensibilities unfortunately did not pay off as well as it has in other Burton films where the macabre and the comedy felt like a more natural mix (i.e. Sleepy Hollow or even Beetlejuice).  If Tim Burton wanted to reboot the actual TV show (direct the pilot, scale down the star power, expand the story), I could have easily seen this working out better, but as it stands, there are just a lot of good elements not coming together to really deliver on the promise of the idea of turning this show into a movie.

Dark Shadows is certainly not an insult to its TV counterpart (I watched a few episodes, so I am not speaking blindly), it just feels like many good ideas did not come together quite right.  Johnny Depp is good, as one would expect, but why couldn’t I get to see more come from his perception of Alice Cooper?  Why did I not care more for Victoria?  What else was going on in Collinsport.  Too much of what this film showed me ended up not being interesting enough, while many people involved in this film ended up not having enough to flesh out what had been vaguely developed.  I will continue to entertain the idea of Burton and Depp working together; I just hope we get more interesting stories (hopefully original ones) to sink our teeth into in the future.

Barnabas Collins: What is your age?
Carolyn Stoddard: Fifteen.
Barnabas Collins: Fifteen, and no husband? You must put those childbearing hips to good use.

“WORKAHOLICS” SEASON TWO DVD AND SEASON ONE AND TWO COMBO DOGGY BLU-RAY TO BE RELEASED ON JUNE 5 WITH EXCLUSIVE BONUS MATERIAL

——–

“Workaholics” Third Season Premieres on Tuesday, May 29 at 10:30 p.m. on COMEDY CENTRAL

——–

Fans Can Visit comedycentral.com for the “Workaholics: The Other Cubicle” Limited Web Series,

Exclusive Video Content and Behind-The-Scenes Footage

The notorious co-workers and roommates, Adam, Blake and Ders, are back in their cubes and ready for more office hijinx in the third season premiere of the COMEDY CENTRAL hit series “Workaholics.”  Ten all-new episodes kick off on Tuesday, May 29 at 10:30 p.m., following the summer premiere of “Tosh.0.”

Fresh off its sophomore season, during which “Workaholics” averaged 2.2 million total viewers and was the highest-rated series in its timeslot across all of television among Men 18-34 and Men 18-24, the gang returns for more adventures including: taking a business trip while tripping; cheating on Karl,their dealer; and attempting to throw the best summer kick-off party ever.  A huge hit among young adults, especially men, “Workaholics” was the second highest-rated show in all of television with Men 18-24 on Tuesday nights and the second highest-rated show on cable on Tuesday nights with Men 18-34, finishing behind only its lead-in, “Tosh.0.” (Source: Source: Nielsen Media Research.  Period: 9/20/11 – 11/22/11.  Premiere episodes only.  Most current data)

From the minds of the hilarious and irreverent Internet sketch group Mail Order Comedy, “Workaholics” is a single-camera comedy featuring three friends who work together from 9 to 5, live together from 5 to 9 and party together 24/7.  Dress codes, deadlines and waking up before noon are not things these guys are used to.  They do their jobs and sometimes they even do them well, but they show up late, leave drunk and always live for the day…even if they don’t know what day it is.  Whether it’s Blake (Blake Anderson) dressed in a bear coat, Adam (Adam Devine) singing about Catherine Zeta Jones while high on mushrooms or The Ders (Anders Holm) celebrating his birthday with a drinking triathlon, the boys always seem to run into trouble wherever they go.

The “Workaholics” Web site features a wealth of video content including a limited run web series, “Workaholics: The Other Cubicle,” featuring your favorite cubicle neighbors “Montez,” “Waymond” and “Jet Set”!  The site also features show clips, exclusive video, cast interviews and behind-the-scenes action.  The guys are active on Twitter (@UncleBlazer, @ADAMDEVINE, @ders808, @kylenewacheck), live tweeting each week on show nights.  The “Workaholics” Facebook page is updated daily throughout the season and fans can follow the show’s tumblr at workaholics.tumblr.com, featuring exclusive photos, videos and updates.  In addition, mobile will feature a WAP site loaded with video content and periodic SMS challenges.

Episodes from the third season of “Workaholics” will be available in SD and HD the day after air on iTunes, Zune Video Marketplace on Xbox, Amazon Instant Video and Sony Playstation Store.

“Workaholics” was co-created by Mail Order Comedy’s Blake Anderson, Adam Devine, Anders Holm and Kyle Newacheck and 5^th Year’s Dominic Russo and Connor Pritchard.  The series stars Anderson, Devine and Holm and is directed by Newacheck.  Executive Producers include Mail Order Comedy, Kevin Etten, 5^th Year’s Russo and Pritchard, Avalon Television’s Richard Allen-Turner, David Martin, Jon Thoday and Isaac Horne, as well as Gigapix Studios David Pritchard.  The series is co- executive produced by Avalon’s Dan Lubetkin.  Seth Cohen and Jackie Phillips are the Executives in Charge of Production for COMEDY CENTRAL.

Order Workaholics: Season 1 & 2 on Blu-ray!

The year is 1907 and ten years have passed since the Phantom’s disappearance from the Paris Opera House.  He has escaped to a new life in New York where he lives amongst the screaming joy rides and freak-shows of Coney Island. In this new electrically-charged world, he has finally found a place for his music to soar. All that is missing is his love – Christine Daaé.  Now one of the world’s finest sopranos, Christine is struggling in an ailing marriage to Raoul.  So, it is with excitement she accepts an invitation to travel to New York and perform at a renowned opera house. In a final bid to win back her love, the Phantom lures Christine, her husband, and their young son Gustave from Manhattan, to the glittering and glorious world of Coney Island… not knowing what is in store for them.

In order to win your very own copy of Love Never Dies on Blu-ray, simply answer the following question:

Where does the Phantom now reside?

• Jersey City
• Coney Island
• Baltimore
• Atlantic City

Fill in the blanks below with your email and please…please…please…your full U.S. or Canadian mailing address (NO PO BOXES), the answer to the question above and the name of the contest (Love Never Dies) and you’re automatically entered.  It couldn’t be any easier!  Two lucky winners will be picked on Tuesday, May 29th, and notified via email.  Again…US and Canada entries only.  Good luck!  *** Any entires that don’t follow the rules set forth within this paragraph will be instantly dismissed ***

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Highlighted by an exclusive, never-before-seen interview with director Paul Verhoeven and restoration comparison, Total Recall: Mind-Bending Edition also contains additional bonus materials that fans will love including a behind-the-scenes documentary, a “making of” featurette, a special effects featurette, audio commentary with Arnold Schwarzenegger and director Paul Verhoeven, a photo gallery and the theatrical trailer.  Total Recall: Mind-Bending Edition will be available on Blu-ray Disc July 31st.  The new HD version of the film will also be available on Digital Download July 17th featuring the new interview with director Paul Verhoeven.

Action star extraordinaire Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as Quaid, a construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars in the year 2084.  Against the wishes of his sexy wife (Sharon Stone), Quaid goes to Rekall, a company that implants artificial memories so he can “remember” visiting the red planet that is now being settled by human inhabitants. However, Quaid soon learns he is actually an amnesiac secret agent from Mars – or is he?

BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES*

• ALL-NEW Interview with Director Paul Verhoeven (exclusive to release)
• ALL-NEW Restoration Comparison- a look at high-definition transfer from original film negative (exclusive to release)
• “Models and Skeletons: The Special Effects Of Total Recall” featurette
• Audio commentary with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Verhoeven
• “Imagining Total Recall”- documentary featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with the film’s stars and special effects specialists
• “Making of” featurette
• Photo gallery
• Trailer

Make no mistake, some out there may be turned away from this avenue when I mention Disney and cartoon in the same sentence.  However, Tron: Uprising stays very true to the entertainment level of its predecessors while bringing viewers into a wonderfully animated environment that combines elements of the traditional ink and sketch along with the more modern use of computer-generated imagery.  The creative team behind this project has managed to seamlessly blend the two while combining a solid story that falls at least somewhat in line with the last film.

To catch you up to speed, the last film (Tron: Legacy) partially covered the fall of Tron, his transformation to the evil Rinzler, and then back to Tron by the end, as he slowly sank into the aquatic depths of the Grid he was sworn to protect.  The timeline of this series is a little difficult to put my finger on though.  CLU was wiped out at the end of Legacy along with what pretty much looked like the entire landscape of the Grid.  In this new series, however, CLU is still up and about in a post-Tron age while a new program named Beck seeks to carry on the uphill fight for freedom.  While the upstart underdog story is one we’ve previously seen used in other genres, it serves its purpose well here and is executed with believability.  Beck has his faults as a program and is certainly not invulnerable, giving the show a welcomed degree on unexpectedness.

A good story, however, can be sunk by a roster of insufficient acting talent.  Thankfully, we don’t even have to come close to worrying about that here.  Maintaining casting continuity, Bruce Boxleitner, the original Tron, renews the roll while Elijah Wood provides the voice of our hero, Beck.  Also on the roster is Mandy Moore, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Paul Reubens, and sci-fi standout Lance Henriksen as the evil General Tesler.  The well-rounded group of actors breathe life into the cold digital environment, which spills over into other aspects of the show.  The action is solid and the story is one that I am eager to see unfold.  My only complaint is that I hope a little more explanation is given to the continuity and timeline of events following Tron: Legacy.  We saw CLU vaporized on the big screen, though his presence is still mentioned here.  That aside, Tron: Uprising is a wonderfully animated piece of work that is candy to the eyes and engaging to the mind.

Disney XD debuted Tron: Uprising on April 30th and will resume the series on June 7th at 9:00 pm Eastern.  To watch the 31-minute uninterrupted premiere episode, please visit the Tron Sector fan site at http://www.tron-sector.com/.

Overall:

Film  

Having already seen Phil Collins live in concert twice, I was happy to review this new release of two of his past concerts that were held at the Montreux Jazz Festival back in 1996 and more recently in 2004.  I was struck by how similar the 2004 concert was to the one that I had seen, but at the same time I was pleasantly pleased as I had really enjoyed it.  Collins show started like it had before, with Collins doing an amazing drum solo which reminds the audience of his roots, but it also supercharges the show from the start.  This sequence listed on this disc as “Drums, Drums, & More Drums,” also includes the regular drummer Chester Thompson joining in and then percussionist Luis Conte follows suit which is pretty cool to see all three perform a high energy synchronized performance.

For this stop along his “First, Final Farewell Tour,” Collins is in fine form and this set-list showcases the majority of his many hits, both as a member of his off and on band Genesis and his own successful solo career.  The majority of songs in this concert like “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven” and “Another Day in Paradise” among others, are from his “But Seriously” album which was a massive hit as just about every song dominated the airwaves. The rest of the songs are handpicked ones from his later albums such as songs like “Dance Into the Light” and “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You.”  Every one of these songs are very close to their original arrangements from the albums although of course the duets are sung by different partners than the originals.  For example, Amy Keys replaces Marilyn Martin on “Separate Lives” and Arnold McCuller fills in for Philip Bailey on “Easy Lover”  and both of them are excellent as is the backing band.

The 1996 concert is a lot different than the 2004 concert as it’s mostly instrumental due to being arranged as a big band performance.  There’s a few songs that include vocals such as “Always” and “Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me” and guest star Tony Bennet’s “There’ll Be Changes Made.”  The majority of songs however are big band versions of Collins’ past hits and the band is conducted by the legendary Quincy Jones.  Another guest star is saxophonist David Sanborn who lends his talents to “In the Air Tonight.”  While I prefer the 2004 concert, I did really enjoy the 1996 concert too as it was interesting to hear the songs reworked with a jazzy big band sound.

Here is the set-list for both concerts:

2004

1. Drums, Drums and More Drums
2. Something Happened On the Way to Heaven
3. Against All Odds
4. Don’t Lose My Number
5. You’ll Be in My Heart
6. One More Night
7. Can’t Stop Lovin’ You
8. Hang in Long Enough
9. True Colors
10. Come With Me
11. Groovy Kind of Love
12. I Missed Again
13. Another Day in Paradise
14. No Way Out
15. Separate Lives
16. In the Air Tonight
17. Dance Into the Light
18. You Can’t Hurry Love
19. Two Hearts
20. Wear My Hat
21. Easy Lover
22. Sussudio
23. It’s Not Too Late
24. Take Me Home

1996

1. Two Hearts
2. That’s All
3. In the Air Tonight
4. Invisible Touch
5. West Side
6. Against All Odds
7. Hand in Hand
8. There’ll Be Some Changes Made (featuring Tony Bennett)
9. Milestones
10. The Los Endos Suite
11. Always
12. Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me
13. Sussudio

Video  

Eagle Rock Entertainment’s 1080i (1.78:1) transfer of Phil Collins Live at Montreux is for the most part excellent.  The transfer is sharp and full of nice detail that shows every bead of sweat on Collins’ head.  Colors are nicely reproduced but the show’s lighting does cause some minor issues from time to time.  Flesh tones are natural and consistent even with the varied lighting on display.  Black levels are solid and dark and the contrast is fairly good as well.  Overall, this is a very nice transfer with only the smallest of issues from lighting that plague many of the live concert shows.

Audio  

In a fairly generous movie, Eagle Rock Entertainment has three different audio options available on this disc including lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.  All of these tracks sound good with the songs all sounding clear and intelligible.  The aforementioned drum sequence in particular sounds impressive in all of its percussive glory, but every instrument comes through clearly and is well balanced with the rest. These are excellent tracks and they do a nice job of making it feel like a live experience.

Extras  

In a rare and very cool example, there is an additional full length concert included from the earlier 1996 show.  It’s in standard definition which is a shame, but it’s still great to have and the big band format provides an alternative way to appreciate Collins’ songs.

• Phil Collins Big Band Live at Montreux in 1996 – See above for the set-list and details about this bonus concert.

Summary  

For fans of Phil Collins, this Blu-ray set provides two great concerts to watch that shows off his songs in different styles in an affordable single set.  The concerts look and sound great and having an extra concert included as a special feature is pretty cool too.  While these concerts may not be the same as Collins’ usual arena concerts with all of their extra production, but they do offer a more intimate kind of show that’s equally good in a different way.

Order your copy today!

]]> http://whysoblu.com/phil-collins-live-at-montreux-2004-blu-ray-review/feed/ 2 http://whysoblu.com/the-aggression-scale-blu-ray-review/ http://whysoblu.com/the-aggression-scale-blu-ray-review/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 00:52:19 +0000 Gerard Iribe http://whysoblu.com/?p=45036 Aggression Scale: (noun) A psychological test measuring the frequency of overt aggressive behaviors that may result in physical or psychological injury to others. What a cool and evocative title for a film, if I do say so myself. The first things that come into my mind are…aggression (duh) and violence (double duh). Anchor Bay is on a roll as they bring us this feature film by director Steven C. Miller. It made a big splash over at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival this past year, so I’m hoping that it will make a big splash on Blu-ray. I love the one tagline used on the back of the box by Indiewire.com – Like Home Alone, but with more death! Well you don’t have to tell me twice. This should be a neat romp. 

Film   

The Aggression Scale is a neat little thriller about a mob boss named Bellavance (Ray Wise) who has been released on bail for a limited time. He’s organized a hit squad to kill every witness or person that has had any connection to him being locked behind bars. In addition to this he has lost $500,000 that he wants back by any means necessary. He also wants proof of death in a picture taken of the deceased target. It will serve as a reminder to anyone that crosses him.

We move on to the Rutledge family who are moving in to their dream home out in the middle of the countryside and far from the prying eyes of the city. Owen (Ryan Hartwig) and his step sister Lauren (Fabianne Therese) are teenagers, but do not get along, because she’s a bit too into herself too care about anyone but herself. She’s upset that she’s had to relocate to this new house on such short notice. Owen doesn’t say a word, because he’s obviously got emotional problems. He takes medication and is a mute, for the most part.

Once the hit squad sent out by Bellavance enters the quiet landscape of the property hell will be unleashed, but it won’t be by them. You see, young Owen has a history of documented violence. He’s a bit like McGuyever in that he’s ultra smart, absorbs knowledge, and uses anything and everything in the vicinity as a weapon. When the shit hits the fan, young Owen is unleashed!

I had small expectations going into The Aggression Scale, because I had not heard anything about it. I decided to review the film based on the cool title of the film alone. Boy, am I glad I did. I was never into the Home Alone movies, because the amount of damage those thugs received would have killed them many times over. Too slapstick. Let’s just say that The Aggression Scale is Home Alone on ACID. Yes, there will be blood. Buckets and buckets of crimson red.

Owen dispatches hitmen with stunning precision and no remorse. Dude is a killing a machine and not even old enough to drive, but pretty handy with an aluminum bat. The rest of the supporting cast is adequate – it’s always great to see Ray Wise (Robocop, Chillerama) amping it up as  a bad guy.

The Aggression Scale is a bit of a “shake n’ bake” operation in that it doesn’t last long and gets the party started with the very first scene. In fact, it gets the party started with the opening credits that were somewhat reminiscent of Drive. I wonder if that was a coincidence or just perfect timing? Whatever it was, it fit the picture nicely. I give the film a slight above average rating, but not because it’s an awful film (far from it), but because of its running time. Yes, I’m a bit selfish and could have easily used an extra 20 minutes of more killing. I understand it’s a low budget film, but that’s how I feel about it. However, this does not mean that I hate the film or that I won’t recommend it. Far from it. I think this is another film from Anchor Bay that deserves to be seen by the masses.

Highly recommended!

Video 

The Aggression Scale is presented in 1080p, 2.40:1 widescreen. They didn’t skimp on this transfer, that’s for damn sure. The color palette is brilliant as the majority of the film takes place out in the country and woods near by. The scenery is lush and beautiful. The greens are extremely green as are the browns of the trees, and the red of the blood. Flesh tones also appear natural and supple, black levels never crush and remain deep and inky. Contrast levels also stay on the steady side. I did not detect instances of boosting or aliasing. Edge enhancement was not a problem a either. I’ll go ahead and reward The Aggression Scale a near reference rating in the video department. It’s a great looking film.

Audio

The Aggression Scale is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless surround sound. Here’s another exceptionally solid lossless track to a film one would not think deserves it upon first glance. Dialogue is centered, voices travel well throughout the sound field. This is great, because since everyone is running around chasing and being chased, it’s cool to actually understand what’s being said and shouted. Gunfire erupts in a realistic fashion and the LFE handles some of the low end effects (along with the occasional shot gun blast) nicely. Ambient tones are also handled well especially during the outside wilderness scenes. There’s a creek and one can hear the water traveling through the rear channels. This lossless presentation is solid all around.

Extras

As what seems to be a bit on the customary side, Anchor Bay has seen fit to not include worthy extras. We do get an interesting behind-the-scenes making of, but that’s it. This will lower the final score of the Blu-ray substantially.

• The Making of The Aggression Scale
  

Summary  

The Aggression Scale was a whole hell lot of fun! I wish it were longer as it clocks in at just over 80 minutes without credits. Then again, that’s just the violence-gore hound in me talking. It does work as an effective thriller and we root for young Owen all the way through once he is “activated.” The Aggression Scale has cult-film status written all over it and what better way to discover the madness than with the Blu-ray. The technical specifications are rock solid, but the overall lack of special features drag the score down a bit. Still, the film needs to be seen by as many people as possible. Why? I’m anxious to see what Steven C. Miller can do with a real budget. Dude has potential.

Order The Aggression Scale on Blu-ray!

Film 

Playback is the latest independent low budget film starring a bunch of young people you’ve never heard of, which includes someone that you have heard of: Christian Slater. No, he’s not the main star, but it’s kind of cool to see him in anything nowadays. Unfortunately, this is not one of those films that works out in the end.

Julian (Johnny Pacar) and his friends all team up to film a reenactment of the town’s famous Harlan Diehl’s family murders for a school project project. Little do they know that the Diehl’s held a supernatural secret of their own before they were all killed by a family member. Julian’s friend, and misfit outcast Quinn works at the local television station and is Julian’s equipment liaison aka hook-up with the camera gear.

What Julian doesn’t know is that in doing research at the station and going through tapes of the original murders, Quinn unleashes an ancient evil that is hellbent on returning back to the world of the living. This evil uses the magic medium of the camera and television to basically swap and take over bodies. Soon after the swapping of the first body, I totally forgot or stop caring why the evil was doing what it was doing. It’s not that it didn’t make sense, because quite frankly it didn’t, but I didn’t get the origin portion of the story. It lost me. I was like, okay, and now you need to repeat yourself one more time to make sure I got it. I didn’t get it.

I initially had an open mind about Playback – it starts of really strong, but goes downhill really fast. All of the high school kids are supposed be, well, high school aged, but no one in this film is under the age of 25. Christian Slater plays it up as a pervert police sheriff who gets off on watching video clips of girls in the locker room that Quinn supplies him in exchange for cash. This is problematic in that the marketing of the materials for Playback frame Slater as the hero of day. Yeah, no. In fact, ewwwwwww.

What really brings it down a whole bunch of notches is that the film gets very incoherent early on. It also doesn’t help that for such a short film (98 minutes including credits) it drags and feels like it’s much longer. I do think that there’s enough material here for a television show or maybe as part of a horror anthology, but it just doesn’t work as a film. It’s incoherent, badly edited, badly paced, and the story could have used a massive overhaul.

I do give it props for actually being made, because as a horror fan, we need all the help we can get when it comes down to releasing new horror material for the world to see. Playback just isn’t very good. If at first you don’t succeed then try again, because the filmmakers DO have lots of potential.

Video

Playback is presented in 1080p, 1.78:1, widescreen. I don’t really know what when on during filming or after the filming for that matter, but Playback looks really weird in places. There are times where the image has an almost “too digital” look going on before it switches over to a more “film” like mode. I can usually tell when it’s done for stylistic purposes, but it doesn’t look that way here. Flesh tones look natural and unnatural, depending on who is getting possessed or whatnot. DNR has been kept in check, but softness creeps up during CGI enhanced close-ups of the actors while under demonic possession. Hey, the devil needs clean pores, too. The video score gets split down the middle, because even though some shots look bad there are other shots that look really good. It’s only fair to grade it that way. 

Audio

Playback is presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1. Okay, so where Playback loses steam in the video department, it more than makes up for it in the audio. This is one scary ass audio presentation. Dialogue is clean, clear, and crisp. There’s never any clipping or echoing, no matter how loud or aggressive it gets. The LFE channel rumbles and shakes, but that’s to be expected when the devil shows up. The different uses of shaky-cam are put to the test, as the rear channels send in background noises that encapsulate the viewer from all around. I may not have liked the film itself, but there’s no denying that Playback has a pretty kick ass soundtrack. It’s loud, too.

Extras

You’d think that they (whoever) would try to pad the Blu-ray up with some semi-decent  supplements, but we don’t get that at all. We have extras that probably add up to around a whole 10 minutes or so and it’s mainly of the fluff variety. There’s a short behind-the-scenes, photo gallery, trailer, and the usual HDNet promo. Fin.

• Behind the Scenes
• Photo Gallery
• HDNet: A Look at Playback
  
• Trailer

Summary

Playback could have been a decent little horror romp, because it definitely has a more than adequate budget for it, but the script is a mess, so more time and effort should have been put into that than into some of the decent visual fx. The gore fx are great, though, but the overall product plays like a CW Network reject. If you’re really curious about the film then I would suggest waiting for it to stream somewhere like Netflix or Amazon rather than buying the actual Blu-ray. Seriously, you’ll thank me for it.

Order Playback on Blu-ray!

Marciano: Is that all?
Vincent: The rest is in a safe place.

The film begins with a drug heist that goes wrong. Two men attempt to rob two drug carriers, but one of the carriers stabs a robber and is killed, while the other gets away. The drug carrier that escaped even managed to see the face of one of the robbers. The robbers did manage to steal the drugs however, which becomes more interesting once we learn that the robbers are in fact two police officers. Our lead, Vincent (Tomer Sisley), was the one who was stabbed, but finds that he has even more to worry about, due to what happens next.

The drugs that Vincent and his partner stole belong to a powerful mob boss/nightclub owner, Jose Marciano (Serge Riaboukine), who kidnaps Vincent’s son in an effort to force Vincent to give back what he stole. Vincent now has until the end of the night to return the drugs and save his son. This leads to a long and exhausting ordeal, which finds Vincent losing control of the situation frequently, as returning the drugs is not as simple as it could have been, given the presence of a couple internal affairs officers that follow him to the nightclub. Tired, wounded, and relying only on his wits, Vincent will have to do whatever he can to get his son and leave safely.

While films like Die Hard and Taken clearly come to mind when watching and describing this film, the other clear influence, right from the start, is The Dark Knight, which I found equally intriguing. The opening heist, right down to the score, is very similar to how The Dark Knight opens, and there is a way in which the action is filmed, which continues that notion. There is a realistic element to how things play out, which keeps it in the same realm as a lot of these Die Hard-like films, but it tries to setup a lot of the tension through the use of its music and various reactions to what is taking place, in addition to the actual action that occurs.

Having spoken about the action, Sleepless Night relies less on actual fights and gun battles and more on cat and mouse-related thrills. Given the nightclub setting, that makes the film even more intense, as we see Vincent barrel his way through huge crowds, with the camera following him at a close distance. It certainly appears to be a complicated film to have shot, given the vast amount of people present. Observing the way that the film establishes its location is a compliment to the film as well, since the geography of the film seems so clear. The nightclub has plenty of areas for Vincent to either evade his foes or fight them, and we are quite clear on where the locations are in relation to the characters. In addition, when there is violent action in the film, it is intense. One sequence features two people improvising their way through a kitchen, using all that is at their disposal to try and takedown the other person. When this film wants to get more hectic, it goes there and does it well.

The biggest reason as to why Die Hard is such a key film to reference is the nature of our lead character. Vincent is very human. He bleeds, he makes rash decisions, he is vulnerable, and nothing is ever easy for him. The added difference is the fact that Vincent is a little more morally questionable, given that we are not quite sure how on the level he is. We know that he cares for his son, but the reason as to why he steals the drugs is never completely made clear and we also see him take some questionable actions towards others in the nightclub. With all of this in mind, Tomer Sisley is fantastic in the role. He does well at portraying the heavy amount of stress his character faces, which really worked in keeping me incredibly engaged with how the film would play out.

The other focus of the film concerns the various other characters involved; namely the villains, which supplies both positives and negatives for the film. On the one hand, the fact that they are not very confident keeps the film set in a semi-realistic world, from an action film standpoint. Still, there is no question that some poor decisions are made by many of these people over the course of the night. The plot never becomes too overly complex, but the various character relationships becomes a pretty twisty ordeal to keep up with and it somewhat distracts at times or makes you question better ways one could have handled a situation.

Getting back to the direction and construction of this film, writer/director Frédéric Jardin did some great work for a film whose tagline states, “He took their drugs, they took his son!”. On the one hand, the premise is very simple, but Jardin did a lot of solid work in complicating things for Vincent and the other characters, without making anything far too complex for the audience to work out. Despite questionable choices, we understand the motives of the main players involved and get to enjoy a lot of the clever setups that have interesting pay offs as the film moves along. A lot of credit also goes to how well the tension is built in this film, which is a real key to making Sleepless Night such a success.

I really enjoyed this film for what it accomplished. Despite the references I have made, Sleepless Night does not feel like a knock-off of any of them, but rather a strong, well-made entry into the genre. It provides a cool and claustrophobic location (despite the presence of so many people) to base an action film in and a morally ambiguous hero (approaching anti-hero) to follow. The film is tightly paced, especially once we get to the nightclub, and provides plenty of clever thrills throughout. It is a solid film that I hope people go and seek out.

Vincent: Thomas…I’m coming to get you.

Sleepless Night is currently available on Video On Demand:

Film 

Welcome to our review of Mathieu Kassovitz’ legendary film, La haine. La haine means HATE in English. It’s the story of three friends who live in the projects (also known as banlieue) of France outside of Paris. Way outside. They spend their time getting into fights, dealing drugs, and all sorts of trouble. They’re all French, but are seen as second class citizens due to their ethnic backgrounds. Said ( Said Taghmaoui) is an Arab, Vinz (Vincent Cassel) is Jewish, and Hubert (Hubert Kounde) is African. Yes, they also used their real names in the film. Keeping it real, indeed.

All of this revolves around the beating of one of their friend’s by the police that leaves the housing projects where they live on edge and in ruins. The police have come in and “occupied” the area and in doing so have broken up sections where the youths of the ghetto congregate. The boys are left with nothing to do but wander aimlessly throughout their banlieue in search of meaning. Said is the naive and “innocent” one who has an almost child-like quality to him, but is always getting punked. Vinz is the hot-head who is ready to throw down at a moment’s notice, and Hubert is the smart one who has a mean streak, but also dreams of escaping the trappings of the projects.

La haine takes place within a 24-hour time frame and the lads will get into lots of trouble before the day is over – boy, will it be a long day. We are the fly on the wall and it is a sumptuous feast for the eyes. I’m not even talking about the scenery, because the film was shot in actual housing projects. I’m talking about the level of access afforded to the production. You are with these kids every step of the way and it’s pretty fascinating. I had first discovered La haine 2-3 years ago when I blind-bought the UK import on HD-DVD. I was captivated then and was even more captivated upon the Criterion Blu-ray release. As good as the HD-DVD looked and sounded, there was no comparison to the Criterion version.

Continuing with the film, La haine tackles the marginalization of a certain group of individuals. In this case, it’s three young men from the projects with different ethnic backgrounds. They’re treated with contempt and are seen as second class citizens even though they’re French born. It’s ironic, because that’s actually how it is here in the states, but it gets pushed to the back of the line as most people don’t care and put their apathetic blinders to these issues.

My initial reaction to a film like this would normally be that these punks should get what they deserve, but there are so many factors that have contributed to how they are. No, I won’t use that whole “product of your environment” excuse as a crutch, because it goes much deeper than that. I’m also no social expert, so I’m just speaking freely as someone who somewhat understands the projects, considering I live in them. Hubert, for example, has a wonderful family life, for the most part, but his gym was burned and emptied out. What does that level of bad luck and tragedy do to a person? You gotta get your hustle on somehow.

La haine is a powerhouse of a film that has many social implications, raises questions, has colorful characters, scathing commentary of the law and government, but also tells an entertaining story about living in the ghetto. It really isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. I hope that you will give La haine a chance now that there’s a beautiful Criterion Collection Blu-ray to get your hands on. If La haine makes think and talk about its contents afterwards then its done its job as a complete social/entertainment package.

Video 

La haine is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format. Supervised by director Mathieu Kassovitz, this new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm fine-grain master positive. Further color correction was done on a Specter Datacine. Thousands of instance of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, and jitter were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image Systems’ DVNR was used for small dirt, grain, and flicker.

We were almost there in terms of having a flawless presentation, but that has nothing to do with the efforts put into the transfer itself, because outside factors figured in. The image is stellar and is the best possible presentation there is outside of the 35mm it was sourced from. What brings it down a smudge is that there were several scenes throughout the film that used archived footage of real events edited into the film to move the story along. These images are anything but stellar. Once we shift back to the real world of La haine, it’s bloody brilliant. Grain levels are incredible as are flesh tones along with contrast levels. La haine is in black and white and the wizards over at Criterion have done a remarkable job in keeping the integrity of the film in check. Black and white features tend to flicker or strobe, but La haine did neither. Flesh tones look detailed as hell without having the actors look like they belong at a wax museum. Edge enhancement was also absent with regard to the main feature, but present in those archived footage segments we talked about earlier. I could honestly just go ahead and give La haine a spiritual 5-star, but gotta keep it real this time out. All things considered, the projects have never looked so good.

Audio 

The 5.1 surround soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original stems. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

Okay, so here’s one audio presentation I don’t have to apologize for giving it a perfect score. It’s awesome! Dialogue is crystal clear and comes through the center channel in a dynamic fashion. In fact, the entire 360 sound field is extremely detailed and realistic. There are many scenes that take place in the projects and the city and all of them came through without fail. The LFE just bumps during some of the musical numbers and especially when one of the residents begins to cut it up like a DJ. La haine is presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless surround sound and it floored me with its wall of sound presentation.

Extras 

La haine is on a roll now, and the special features are insanely awesome. We have a very detailed introduction by Jodie Foster, which runs at about 15 minutes, so I’d say it’s more of an interview than an actual introduction. It’s a great interview and she really goes all out in describing her love and admiration for the film and those involved. You may also wonder why out of all people she would be on this disc. I believe she brought the film over to the states back in the mid-90′s through her production company. I’m assuming, though. There’s an 80 minute documentary that chronicles the film in all aspects, which also acts as a 10-year retrospective. From its humble beginnings to its success in France. All the key players are here. Following this there’s a 35 minute segment that shows us the social aspects of the projects and how it plays out in today’s society and how it originated in France and the U.S. This one is my favorite, because it hits close to home. If you know me personally, then you’ll understand. Deleted and extended scenes, trailers, featurettes, making-of segments round out an excellent supplemental package along with an awesome English audio commentary by Mathieu Kassovitz. These are ports from the 2006 Criterion DVD and most of them are presented in HD

• Audio commentary by Mathieu Kassovitz
• Introduction by actor Jodie Foster
• Ten Years of “La haine,” a documentary that brings together cast and crew a decade later after the film’s landmark release
• Featurette on the film’s banlieue setting
• Production footage
• Deleted and extended scenes each with an afterword by Mathieu Kassovitz
• Gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
• Trailers
• A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and a 2006 appreciation by filmmaker Costa-Gavras

Summary 

La haine is indeed a wake-up call to complacency and normalcy. It’s social commentary of the highest caliber and a pretty grim reminder that this shit happens in real life. The cast and crew of La haine lived and breathed it for quite a while during the making of the film and came out changed human beings. There’s only so much that they could have done with the film, though. They dropped it on France’s head and the country noticed. It’s valid just for that. It’s an almost haunting and prophetic piece of art that 10 years after its theatrical release riots took hold of France. Fast forward it a few more years to the present, has anything really changed? La haine is a timeless and powerful statement on what this marginalized  world is like. There is no sugar coating it for the masses. Here’s hoping that the Blu-ray will wind up in  your player so that you can see what a sincere film about the inner city is really like. Yes, it’s French, but transcends all barriers.

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Film  

Clueless is the story of teenager Cher Horowitz, who believes her life resembles a Noxema commercial.  She is privileged, spoiled and extremely superficial.  Cher is best friends with Dionne (Stacey Dash) because she also knows what it is like to have people be jealous of her.  Cher’s mother died of complications during routine liposuction and her portrait hangs in the hallway of Cher and her father’s (Dan Hedaya) Beverly Hills mansion.   Cher’s ex-stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd) still feels like he is a part of the family and the two semi-siblings tease each other often.  Josh claims Cher’s only direction in life is towards the mall and he suggests sterilization when she wants to do something good for mankind.  Cher fires back suggesting Josh try NYU where the girls aren’t particular.

Cher’s father is a litigator and when her grades are less than expected she convinces all but one teacher to change her grades.  Her debate teacher Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) won’t budge and Cher devises a plan to play matchmaker with him and Miss Geist (Twink Caplan).  As the relationship blossoms between the two teachers everyone’s grades improves.  Cher brings home a report card in which she argued her way from a C plus to an A minus and her father exclaims he “couldn’t be prouder than if they were based on real grades.”

Doing good deeds, even with selfish motives, makes Cher happy.  When new girl Tai Frasier (Brittany Murphy) transfers to the school with baggy clothes and bad hair, Cher and Dionne swoop in for a physical and personal makeover.  Tai is immediately attracted to a local  bad boy Travis (Breckin Meyer) but Cher decides that the uber-popular Elton (Jeremy Sisto) is a better match.  Elton appears to be interested in Tai when he asks for a picture of her.  Later it will be revealed he wanted the picture because Cher took it, not because of the subject and Elton will make an unwelcome pass at Cher.

Although Cher doesn’t usually date high school boys, new kid Christian (Justin Walker) catches her eye.  She immediately starts trying to make him jealous sending herself flowers and candy.  While he eventually does date her, Christian turns out to be a “disco dancing, Oscar Wilde reading, Streisand ticket holding friend of Dorothy” aka gay.  After Cher’s crush turns out to be gay, she fails her driver’s test and is unable to argue her way out of it.  In the end, Cher realizes that she has fallen in love with her brother Josh and she begins to rethink her clueless ways.

Clueless is one of those movies that you will likely either love or hate.  On the surface, almost everything about it should irritate me.  Clueless is one of the reasons people used phrases like “whatever” – do they still do that?  I’m not a fan of director Amy Heckerling, and I don’t really like Alicia Silverstone, but for some reason I love Clueless. Perhaps it’s because of the witty script, or maybe it is because of the brilliant cast that would later go on to bigger things, but this movie definitely has a lot going for it.  There’s very few movies that capture teens in all of their complicated glory where they can make up the rules in their insular world complete with their own language along with their complete self-absorption.   Heckerling and Silverstone do a great job balancing Cher’s shallowness with her underlying sweetness which keeps the movie from going overboard in any one direction.  I’m happy to say that I love this just as much as I did years ago when I first saw it as it remains timeless.

Video  

Clueless is presented on Blu ray in 1080p high definition with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  Flesh tones are even and accurate and detail is sufficient to be able to see the pores on the actor’s faces.  Black levels are nice and inky and the contrast is excellent.  The colors (of which there are many on display) are vivid and Clueless looks great for a movie shot in 1995.

Audio  

Clueless is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD master audio with optional 2.0 Dolby Digital in French, Spanish and Portuguese.  Subtitles are available in English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese.  Clueless offers a rich soundtrack and clear consistent dialogue levels.  Many small details were about to be heard and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones sound great playing “live” at a party in the film.

Extras  

The Clueless Blu ray contains an impressive list of special features and a lot of behind the scenes footage including the following:

• Clue or False Trivia Game – A pop up trivia game that plays during the movie.
• The Class of ’95 – A behind the scenes look at the Clueless cast.
• Creative Writing – Director Amy Heckerling discusses the script and the process of getting the movie made.
• Fashion 101 – The director and cast discuss the look and style of the film.
• Language Arts – A look at the Valley Girl slang used throughout the film.
• Suck ‘N Blow A tutorial – How to play “suck n’ blow” as done at the Valley party in the movie.
• Driver’s Ed – A look at the driving scenes in the movie.
• We’re History – Cast and Crew discuss the film.
• Trailers – The original teaser and theatrical trailers.

Summary  

Clueless was just as enjoyable, if not more so, than I remembered.  I would never have guessed that a silly comedy like this would be one of my favorites.  This is the type of movie that I always stop on when it comes on television and watch from any starting point.  It’s light-hearted, requires no thinking whatsoever.  Director Amy Heckerling talks about it being loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma, and I would say it’s extremely loosely based.  Clueless is a fun and entertaining experience!

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A FRESH AND FUN MOTION PICTURE BASED
ON THE SNOW WHITE LEGEND

With Magical Extras and Special Features,
Enjoy the Classic Tale Retold on Blu-ray and DVD June 26

MIRROR MIRROR tells the story of Snow White (Collins), a princess in exile and the evil Queen (Roberts) who ruthlessly rules her captured kingdom.  Seven courageous rebel dwarfs join forces with Snow White as she fights to reclaim her birthright and win her Prince in this magical comedy filled with jealousy, romance, and betrayal that will capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences the world over.  The film is produced by Bernie Goldmann (300), Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh (The Fighter) and Brett Ratner (Rush Hour franchise).   MIRROR MIRROR’S screen story was written by Melisa Wallack, and the screenplay was written by Marc Klein and Jason Keller.

MIRROR MIRROR was theatrically released by Relativity Media and will be available on Blu-ray and DVD June 26 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

MIRROR MIRROR DVD Special Features:
·      Looking Through the Mirror
·      Prince and Puppies

MIRROR MIRROR Blu-ray Special Features:
All of the DVD Special Features, plus…
·      “I Believe in Love” Dance-along
·      Mirror Mirror Interactive Storybook
·      Deleted Scenes
o   “Alternate Opening”
o   “So You Are From Valencia?”
o   “I Need Meat”
o   “Snow White is Dead”
o   “Thank You For Coming”
·      Digital Copy of the film

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What can you say with only a thousand words?

EDDIE MURPHY STARS IN A HEARTWARMING AND HILARIOUS COMEDY ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF EVERY WORD WE SPEAK

A THOUSAND WORDS

Debuting June 26, 2012 on Blu-ray™ and DVD, the Film Also Features
Kerry Washington, Allison Janney, Clark Duke, Cliff Curtis and Jack McBrayer

Directed and produced by Brian Robbins (Varsity Blues) and written by Steve Koren
(Evan Almighty), the film boasts a terrific supporting cast including Kerry Washington (“Scandal”, Ray), Allison Janney (The Help, “The West Wing”), Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine, “Greek”), Cliff Curtis (“Missing”, Live Free or Die Hard), Jack McBrayer (“30 Rock”, Savannah) and
John Witherspoon (“The Boondocks”, Friday).

A THOUSAND WORDS will be available on Blu-ray with 11 deleted and extended scenes, including an alternate ending.  The DVD will include six deleted scenes.  All Blu-ray and DVD releases available for purchase will be enabled with UltraViolet, a new way to collect, access and enjoy movies.  With UltraViolet, consumers can add movies to their digital collection in the cloud, and then stream or download them – reliably and securely – to a variety of devices.

A THOUSAND WORDS BLU-RAY FEATURES:

The A THOUSAND WORDS Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The Blu-ray Disc™ includes the following bonus features:

Blu-ray

·         Feature film in high definition

·         Deleted Scenes

o   Good Job, Jr.

o   Expose Your Soul

o   Five Pages!

o   Blind Man Crossing Extended

o   How Do I Look?

o   Art of War

o   Leaf Blower

o   Jack Gets Fired

o   At Caroline’s Work

o   Stuffed Animal Talk

o   Train Tracks

·         Alternate Ending

A THOUSAND WORDS DVD FEATURES:

The A THOUSAND WORDS DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, French and Spanish subtitles.  The DVD includes the following bonus features:

DVD

·         Feature film in standard definition

·         Deleted Scenes

o   Expose Your Soul

o   Five Pages!

o   Blind Man Crossing Extended

o   Art of War

o   Leaf Blower

o   Stuffed Animal Talk

A THOUSAND WORDS Film Synopsis

Fast-talking Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy) says whatever it takes to close a deal. But after stretching the truth with a spiritual guru, he suddenly finds his life depending on a magical tree with 1,000 leaves…one for every word he has left. Now Jack’s got to stop talking and conjure up some outrageous ways to communicate or he’s a goner. See why A Thousand Words is the hilarious, feel-good comedy that has it all: “great cast, great laughs [and a] great time!” (Julie Harkness, “Made In Hollywood”).  Eddie Murphy stars along with Kerry Washington, Allison Janney, Clark Duke, Cliff Curtis, Jack McBrayer and John Witherspoon.

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Dark Shadows, on the surface seemed to be a great vehicle for director Tim Burton’s unique talents.  In his hands, Dark Shadows could have been a straight up dark thriller, a comedy, or a hybrid of both which is his usual modus operandi.  Once again, Burton has crafted a darkly humorous tale about a bunch of misfits that don’t easily fall into society’s stereotypes.  If you wonder what the final result of this movie is, imagine if you combined the atmosphere from Sleepy Hollow, the fish out of water antics from Edward Scissorhands, and the pitch black humor of Death Becomes Her, the end result would be very close to Dark Shadows.

After being buried for two centuries, Barnabas (Johnny Depp) is accidentally discovered and freed by a construction crew.  He’s quite thirsty after all of this time and he quickly kills all of the men after apologizing in advance.   Now that it’s 1972, Barnabas has a lot to catch up on and that’s the best part of the movie and the main source of the movie’s many humorous scenes.  Simple things like roads and the sight of a McDonald’s sign throw him into a tizzy and Depp is at his best conveying his horror or fascination at each of these new changes.  When Barnabas returns to his ancestral home Collinwood Manor, his bewilderment only increases when he sees that the estate has fallen into disrepair and that the once-booming family business has been mostly crushed by his old nemesis Angelique (Eva Green) who is still very much alive and running the town.

The remaining Collins are a mixed bunch with secrets of their own, including family matriarch Elizabeth (Michelle Pfeiffer), her loser brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller) and his children Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz) and David (Gully McGrath) as well as the family pyschiatrist Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter).  Barnabas confides his true nature to Elizabeth in order to convince her that he is the original Barnabas who belongs in the manor and once he also shows her his hidden treasures, she agrees to keep his secret and allow him to stay with the family.  The rest of the family warms up to him once he reverses the family fortunes and rebuilds their business.  That success doesn’t go unnoticed by Angelique (now known as Angie) who isn’t happy to see the Collins family make a comeback.  Having cursed Barnabas because he loved Josette instead of her, Angie’s fury is reawakened when Barnabas falls in love with Victoria (Bella Heathcote) who happens to be a splitting image of Josette.

The rest of the movie is basically the battle between Barnabas and Angie with little more involved.  There isn’t a deep plot in this movie and there’s many plot-lines that go nowhere like the ghost Josette who not only grows up with Victoria and the unexplained fact that Victoria is a doppelganger of Josette.  There must be a lot of deleted footage that contained other paths that were left unexplored.  Dark Shadows is fun to watch but it’s also somewhat aimless and simple, which is a shame since this could have been even better.  This movie also serves as Burton and Depp’s eighth collaboration and the movie is a who’s who of other past Burton favorites including Danny Elfman.  While I like seeing Burton and Depp work together, it’s starting to blend together.  It’s almost as if there’s a checklist between them that they follow for each film including having Depp wear white face-paint fo every role (at least this time it’s for a good reason).   Despite the film’s shortcomings, Depp and the rest of the cast are a lot of fun to watch but fans of the original TV series may not be as pleased to see this more comedy-centric remake.

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I just wanted to give everyone a little example below of the quality yet to come from Just Seen It.  Although this one may become its own little post eventually, and only if you have the time, check out their video review of a little movie that you probably never heard of before…The Avengers!  Good stuff!

Film  

The best documentaries are the ones that capture a moment in time that captures the mood and culture of the events recorded.  Sometimes they can be planned, other times it can be caught purely by chance, and every once in a while both can happen and you’ve caught lightning in a bottle.  The War Room is such an example.  When the filmmakers failed to get permission to film Bill Clinton up close during his 1992 presidential campaign, they requested access to film his campaign staff instead which was approved.

So instead of Bill Clinton, the filmmakers took the risky chance in following a pair of largely unknown at the time James Carville and George Stephanopoulos along with their staff.  General wisdom said that if Clinton failed to win the presidency, there really wouldn’t be much to show for it, but fate and some deft coverage made sure that didn’t happen.  Luckily for directors D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Clinton did win the presidency and Carville and Stephanopoulos were naturals before the camera, a talent that served them both well after this film came out and still does today.

By the time the film started filming, a lot of the campaign’s problems like Clinton’s affair with Gennifer Flowers and the issue of his draft letter had already passed, but even so they do pop up on occasion during the film especially footage of Flowers’ press conferences.  That footage was included to show how the Clinton political machine would address it and get ahead of the story.  With Carville handling the overall campaign strategy and Stephanopoulos handling the press and public relations, they proved to be a formidable team as well as friends, despite appearing to be polar opposites.  Carville (also known as the Ragin’ Cajun) was a fast talking unattractive political genius who guided what initially appeared to be a questionable campaign and took it too the White House with pointed attacks like “It’s the economy stupid.”  Stephanopoulos was  the good looking polished media pro who changed the way campaigns were run.

Together, they created a new media model that is now the standard that was enabled by today’s voracious 24 hour news cycle, Super PACS, attack ads, and the endless spin from campaigns and partisan news channels.  Part of the fascination with the documentary is seeing the old paradigm that had always existed (and still continued in George H.W. Bush’s re-election campaign), start to crumble before this new leaner and meaner model that characterizes American politics today.  Another fun aspect of the film is seeing the personal lives of the people involved (as much as we are allowed to), especially the wildly improbable romance between Carville and Mary Matalin who just happened to be the Deputy Campaign Manager for President Bush and Carville’s competition.  How these two political savvy operatives found love in the middle of a campaign on opposite sides of the conflict is as interesting as it is incredible.

Seeing this campaign like a fly on the wall was very illuminating to see the real work being done in the political trenches and it also nicely serves as a an eye opening primer for anyone interested in politics.  The filmmakers have done an excellent job of capturing the moment when politics changed forever and thanks to this film we can witness each step of the way that it occurred for better or worse.  It would be interesting to see someone film a current campaign to see how much things have changed or have remained the same.  It would be easy to blame Carville and Stephanopoulos for a lot of what followed afterwards but as they say, “Don’t hate the player; hate the game.”

Video  

The War Room is presented in it’s original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 from a new 1080p high definition digital transfer which was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from the original 16mm camera negative.  For a low budget documentary, this transfer looks incredibly good with vibrant colors, sharp details, and excellent black levels.  This is an excellent transfer but there’s only so much that can be done with all of the archival footage that is incorporated into the film. According to the booklet that was include by Criterion asserts that the new transfer was ”approved by filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker and producer Frazer Pennebaker, this new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from the original 16mm camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI’s DRS, while Image Systems’ Phoenix was used for grain, noise reduction, jitter, and flicker.”

Audio  

The War Room only has audio track on this disc and it’s a really good DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix.  This isn’t the most robust mix however, as it is a documentary that captured sound on the fly.  The good news is that the dialogue captured in the film has excellent clarity throughout which is extremely important for a documentary.  According to Criterion’s booklet, ”the soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original 35mm magnetic audio tracks.  Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD.  Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.”

Extras  

The Criterion Collection has provided some interesting extras and even a complete feature length sequel! All are in high definition so this is a win-win for everyone.

• William J. Clinton Foundation Panel – The William J. Clinton Foundation hosted a panel discussion that included many of his former campaign staff including James Carville, Vernon Jordon,  and others talk about the difficult campaign.  They don’t get much time to talk however since President Clinton can’t resist the spotlight and takes over the discussion.  This isn’t the full panel but just excerpts and it runs almost thirty minutes.

• Return of The War Room – The Return of the War Room is a sequel that delves more into the personal lives of the original participants of The War Room. We learn more about James Carville and his wife Mary Matalin, George Stephanopoulos, former deputy communications director Bob Boorstin, former press secretary Dee Dee Myers, Newsweek journalist Mark Miller, and more.  We also learn about how influential the 1992 campaign was on modern day politics from Mark McKinnon and Frank Luntz.  This was my favorite extra on this set and I liked it even better than the original War Room.  This follow up focuses mostly on Carville and Matalin’s unique relationship and we finally learn what happened between them after Clinton’s win fueled Matalin’s anger and frustration when her campaign for Bush failed.

• Making The War Room – We hear from the people that made the film including: directors Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker; producers R.J. Cutler, Wendy Ettinger, and Frazer Pennebaker; and camera operator Nick Doob.  The group discusses how they came about filming the campaign staff instead of Clinton when their original request was denied and the process of filming the documentary and the overall campaign.

• Stanley Greenberg – A short talk with the Clinton ’92 campaign pollster Stanley Greenberg about his profession and his past experiences doing polls for Clinton.

• Booklet – This booklet includes an essay by Harvard professor Louis Menand called “Being There”.
• Trailer

Summary  

The War Room is a perfect snapshot in time that shows just how far we’ve come and conversely just how much some things haven’t changed.  The film was the perfect springboard for Carville and Stephanopoulos who went on to big things in the media world.  This is a uniquely American movie that shows both the strengths and the weaknesses of our political system.  The Criterion Collection has done an excellent job putting this release together and this is by far the best version of the film that’s been issued.

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In 1752 the Collins family set sail from Liverpool, England to America.  They built a successful fishing business.  Life is good for the Collins family, until Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), a young bachelor/playboy, betrays the love of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), an evil witch.  Angelique takes vengeance on him, but death would have been too good for him.  Scorned, she turns him into the undead, a vampire, and curses the Collins family.  Barnabas was entombed by Angelique and the town people to spend eternity alone.  You are going to love to hate Angelique as she really is an evil witch.  However, she’s  every bit as beautiful as she is mean and nasty.

Two hundred years later, Barnabas is unearthed by construction workers.  The year is 1972 and boy have things changed.  It’s hilarious watching this blood covered vampire walk through town confused, not understanding the things he is seeing.  Barnabas makes his way back to the manor only to find it run down and neglected.  The manor is occupied by his distant dysfunctional relatives, and psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), hired by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) to help with the family issues.  And boy are there ever a lot of them!  Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote) has just been hired as a nanny for David Collins (Gulliver McGrath).  Victoria has her own dark secrets that she is hiding as well.  She also becomes Barnabas’ love interest.  Victoria seems to be in and out of scenes.  She’s not one of my favorite characters, but the lucky girl does get to kiss Mr. Depp.  She also plays Josette DuPres, the woman that Barnabas fell in love with long ago.  Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz) plays Elizabeth’s daughter.  Needless to say, she’s a troubled teenager.  She is into music, and wants to move to New York when she is 16.  Chloe’s character has a dark secret also, but on the plus side she has “good birthing hips.”  Next to Johnny, Chloe gave the next strongest performance.

Barnabas vows to restore the family business and bring the mansion back to its original glory.  But Angelique is every bit determined to destroy him unless he gives her his heart and vows to spend eternity with her.  This poor vampire is trying to win a girl’s heart, lose a witch, restore the family manor, rebuild the family business and still trying to adapt to the 70’s. Wow!  In his adjustment to everyday life in 1972, Barnabas encounters a McDonald’s sign, lava lamps, resin grapes, macramé owls, hippies, the book Love Story and even Mr. Alice Cooper.  Wow again!  Doesn’t that sound like a mouthful?  I have to admit I felt at times it was all over the place, but all in all I enjoyed Dark Shadows.  It was fun, made me laugh and best all…there was Johnny Depp’s performance.  Look for a cameo from Jonathan Frid (the original Barnabas Collins) and few of the original series cast at the beginning of the ball.  However, I hate to end this review on a sad note, but proper respect must be given to Jonathan Frid who passed away this past April on Friday the 13th.  He will be sadly missed.  Now go buy your tickets!

Film 

Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender) is a handsome and successful business man of some kind, as it’s never revealed what he actually does. He lives in a bomb ass highrise apartment in New York, is an obvious baller who spends his time meeting and sleeping with many attractive women from all over the city. He seems to play hard and party even harder. All of this is suddenly interrupted when his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) drops in on him unexpectedly.

Sissy is a musician and has a gig or two in the city, as well. This throws Brandon’s life into a bit of a whirlwind, because he’s used to the solitary and loner life of coming, going, and doing whatever he wants without having to worry about anyone else. Sissy kind of kills this. Oh, and the rub (insert penis joke) is that Brandon has an extreme sexual addiction. He sleeps with women as if they were going out of style, watches porn at home and at work, masturbates non-stop at home and at work, and pretty much lives life on the edge of almost getting caught doing these things without really caring.

This throws him for a loop, because now his interactions at work, and home life have been shaken upside down by the arrival of Sissy. Sissy also has problems of her own, as well. She’s a struggling singer whose got nowhere to go and crashes at Brandon’s place. She’s also a very uninhibited person who does things without weighing in on the consequences. This leads to some awkward moments with Brandon and his boss.

Shame is a great film in that it doesn’t blatantly give you every single tidbit of back story or shows you flash backs about these two characters. It’s telegraphed throughout the film that they probably had a screwed upbringing, but somewhere along the way they distanced themselves from each other. What happened? Who knows. Sissy wants to be closer to her brother, but Brandon, for the most part, does not want anything to do with her, because she screws up his routine. I’ve already mentioned what his routine is, so no need to repeat myself on that.

It was kind of funny that during the beginning of the film I was all like, “Man, this is pretty damn cool. Big baller, shot caller in the big city making money and doing his thing with the ladies,” but then the you know what hit the fan and I quickly changed my mind and was like, “This is one whacky game show!”

Shame is a great film that features some stellar performances and assured direction behind the camera. The material showcased in Shame is extremely dark, so enter at your own risk and please keep in mind that the film is rated NC-17. It does have “The Fass” hanging ten throughout the whole film, so don’t let the kids walk in on this one. Better safe than horrified.

Video  

Shame is presented in 1080p, 2.35:1 widescreen. Wow, they went all out in the video department, I’ll tell you that right now! Flesh tones appear natural and razor sharp. They never soften with exception to the women, but that’s due to some of the beauty make-up styles used. Grain levels are steady and consistent. There is never any indication that you are watching anything other than an actual “reel” film. Whether it was shot on digital or not, I can’t say, but can say that it’s a beautiful looking picture that captures the Big City in all its majestic glory. Black levels are clean and never crush. Contrast levels never come off as boosted or manipulated in post production – you won’t see a lens flare in there either. Brilliant would be one of many adjectives to describe Shame’s video presentation on Blu-ray.

Audio 

Shame is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Here’s a double whammy with regards to a perfect ratings score, too. Dialogue is powerful, vivid, and comes through that center channel like a missile without causing any collateral damage. Yes, it isn’t that type of film, but that doesn’t mean that a drama cannot get a great score with regards to its audio presentation. There are several scenes at restaurants and nightclubs where the music just envelopes the sound stage – I had to take out my I.D. just in case they wanted to card me; I thought I was in line at the club. The ambiance and city sound-scape also comes through the rear channels in a realistic fashion, in addition to the LFE bringing in some nice low-end rumble in said night clubs. Me like. 

Extras 

This is ain’t no Criterion Collection film, I’ll tell you that much. There’s probably less than 20 minutes worth of special features. It’s a shame considering that McQueen and Fassbender’s previous collaboration received the royal treatment. I don’t know why Shame did not receive it as well. It’s a major bummer and it will lower the overall score a bit, too.

• Focus on Michael Fassbender
• Director Steve McQueen
• The Story of Shame
• A Shared Vision
• Fox Movie Channel presents: In Character with Michael Fassbender

Summary 

I’m all for dark and compelling character studies and think that Shame fills the current void nicely. For such a short film, it delivers a rich portrayal of such messed up human beings that we actually come to care for them towards the end. Whether the issues presented get resolved or not is another matter. I do think the Academy was wrong for not nominating Michael Fassbender for Best Actor since he does pull off a daring and great performance. It was probably due to the amount of full frontal nudity and sex on his part (the women too). Prudes. If you’re not easily offended by the human condition or extreme sexual dramatizations then I highly recommend Shame on Blu-ray.

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Film   

After a bank robbery gone wrong, three brothers on the run from the law escape to their mother’s home, which is no longer her home, because it was lost in a foreclosure. The new owners and their guests are in for an unbelievable night of terror as “Mother” Koffin (get it?) is on  her way to clarify things in her own special way. It’s going to be one hell of a long night for all of those involved.

I wasn’t necessarily in the mood for another remake this early in the reviewing game, but I had seen the trailer for Mother’s Day in some of the most recent Anchor Bay release promotional materials, so I began to warm to it. That, and it also helped that Rebecca De Mornay was the lead. Have mercy, she’s still gorgeous. Of course, other familiar players would be involved in the picture like Jaime King (My Bloody Valentine 3-D), Alexa Vega (Repo! The Genetic Opera), and Shawn Ashmore (X2: X-Men United). I was in.

I’ll also be honest right here, right now, and say that I have NOT seen the original film, which was released in 1980 by the Kaufman Brothers. I did read the synopsis and it read more or less like a Texas Chainsaw Massacre film light on the scares, but full of dimwits. I wouldn’t say that the remake of Mother’s Day follows that same storyline at all. What a relief. Here you’ve got the setting of a small town that is about to be hit by a tornado and everyone is preparing for the worse, but hoping for the best when circumstance and fate take over. There are bad men involved who have committed crimes, and there mother, who in essence is the ringleader, comes in to try and salvage the situation, collateral damage be damned.

De Mornay is scary and electrifying as Mother Koffin, and watching her her family interact with her is pretty cool in that they love their mother dearly, but also fear and respect her. She wields lots of power over her family in plain view of the hostages, which makes it even scarier for them as they witness what she is capable of doing. I also like that Mother Koffin was played as a classy, strong, and intelligent character and not some backwoods-type one. That only enhanced her character and made me fear her. Honestly, she played the shit out of Mother Koffin.

The rest of the cast were more than capable in there parts and all had more than enough screen time to go around. I bought into their dilemmas and what they were going through and also enjoyed Mother Koffin’s 3rd degree techniques used to extract information from them.

Mother’s Day had one scene that confused the hell out of me only to be resolved later when I least expected it too. I’m assuming most of you will know what scene that is, so please be patient as it will be cleared up. The film runs at a hearty 112 minutes, which is great. It’s not one of these “wham, bam, thank you ma’am” jobs go for horror thrillers these days. There’s lots to cover in Mother’s Day and this Mother’s Day should be the perfect opportunity to experience this thriller on Blu-ray. I’m only joking…or am I?

Video 

Mother’s Day is presented in 1080p, 2.40:1 widescreen. Wow, I was floored by the transfer on this Blu-ray. I’d say that 75% of the film takes place in the interior of the home. The cinematography is brilliant. I love the low light aesthetic that was used throughout the house of terrors. All this violence is happening around everyone, but the house looks solid, from the low lights to the hardwood floors, etc. Flesh tones look healthy and natural with exception to certain characters that have been injured or worse. Black levels are extremely dark, inky, and never crushed. Contrast levels also remained steady in that they never came off as boosted or artificially tampered with. Color levels were rich and I never noticed any instances of banding or pixelation. Mother’s Day looks brilliant on Blu-ray.

Audio 

Mother’s Day is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless surround sound. Dialogue is even, balanced, and audible. The center channel never clipped or distorted no matter how loud the screams of terror or pain got. That’s a serious testament to the sound engineering and overall transfer of this disc. The high pitch sounds were all captured to perfection. LFE (subwoofer) is low and deep and there’s a rumble here and there that adds to the dread. Ambient surround sound noise is filtered throughout the sound field, which creates a more in-depth listening experience. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Extras 

I’m quite puzzled by the lack of extras considering Darren Lynn Bousman makes references to extra material and a longer cut of the film, etc., but not having any of that in the supplements package is a bummer. Not even a trailer. What we do get is an extremely solid audio commentary by Bousman and actor Shawn Ashmore. It’s a very lively audio track and the chaps sound like they’re having a great time talking about the film. Other than the audio commentary included, there is nothing else on this disc. The overall score will be affected by the lack of extras.

• Audio Commentary with Director Darren Lynn Bousman and Actor Shawn Ashmore

Summary 

Mother’s Day is an extremely brutal film, but it’s an entertaining one. I don’t really know why it was shelved for so long, because it has all the makings of an instant contemporary cult-classic in its own right. The overall cast rocks with what they’ve got and everyone seems to be having a great time and really put their hearts into the project. Rebecca De Mornay is back and sexier than ever; this is one hot mom you DO NOT want to mess with. Check it out!

Order Mother’s Day on Blu-ray!

Culver City, CA (5/8/12) – Jonah Hill (Moneyball, Superbad) and Channing Tatum (The Vow, Dear John) swap guns for books in the hit action-comedy 21 JUMP STREET, which garnered more than $130 million at the box office and will be available on Blu-ray^™ and DVD with UltraViolet^™ June 26^th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. In this hilarious and action-packed comedy, Hill and Tatum star as a team of rookie cops forced to go undercover at a high school to bust a dangerous drug ring. The film has had both critics and audiences jumping in their seats with laughter, featuring a hysterical supporting cast, including rap legend Ice Cube (Barbershop, Friday), Dave Franco (Fright Night, Superbad), Brie Larson (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, “United States of Tara”), Ellie Kemper (Bridesmaids, “The Office”) and Rob Riggle (The Hangover, The Other Guys).  Bonus features on the DVD include director and cast commentary, four deleted scenes and “Back to School,” a featurette that provides a look into how the hilarious movie came together.  In addition to director and cast commentary and the “Back to School” featurette, the Blu-ray^™ bonus features also include 20 deleted scenes, a gag reel, “Cube-O-Rama,” featuring hilarious outtakes with Ice Cube (Captain Dickson), and four additional behind-the-scenes featurettes – “Brothers In Arms,” “Johnny Depp On Set,” “The Rob Riggle Show,” and “Peter Pan on The Freeway.”

Synopsis

Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier – and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind.

21 JUMP STREET was written by Michael Bacall (Project X, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), based on the TV show “21 Jump Street” created by Patrick Hasburgh & Stephen J. Cannell. It was produced by Neal H. Moritz (The Fast & The Furious series) and Stephen J. Cannell (The A-Team, TV’s “21 Jump Street). Executive producers are Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ezra Swerdlow (The Smurfs, Zombieland) and Tania Landau (Made of Honor, Vantage Point).  The film has a run time of approximately 110 minutes, and it has been rated R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material, teen drinking and some violence.

Blu-ray^™ Bonus Material

• Director and Cast Commentary
• Gag Reel
• Cube-O-Rama, featuring hilarious outtakes with Ice Cube (Captain Dickson)
• Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes, including:

o   Back to School, a look into how the hilarious movie came together

o   Brothers In Arms, taking an in-depth look into how Jonah and Channing worked together on the stunts and laughs for this buddy action comedy

o   Johnny Depp On Set, going behind the scenes to bring Tom Hansen back to 21 Jump Street

o   The Rob Riggle Show, discussing the comedy genius of Rob Riggle

o   Peter Pan on The Freeway, a behind-the-scenes look at shooting the action-packed freeway scene

• 20 Deleted Scenes

DVD Bonus Material

• Director and Cast Commentary
• “Back to School” Featurette, a look into how the hilarious movie came together
• Four Deleted Scenes

There have already been a few names to take the crimson arachnid mantle, but without a doubt the most popular has been Kaine Parker.  With a name like that, you’d think he’d be related to the one and only Peter Parker, right?  You wouldn’t be all that far off with an assumption like.  Kaine, you see, is the final result of a series of experiments by the villain known as the Jackal (aka Miles Warren) who cloned Peter.  We all know Spider-Man’s tagline, right?  “With great power comes great responsibility.”  Kaine holds the same DNA, but not quite the same mentality.  He’s adopted an “All of the power, none of the responsibility” mindset.

Donning his red and black suit and leaving a trail of havoc behind from the Spider Island story arc, Kaine headed to Texas in issue 1 (January 2011) where he got more than he bargained far after encountering the foul stench of death, one hulking pyromaniac serial killer from Mexico and mysterious lone survivor amidst the tragedy.  We’re up to issue 4 now and the storyline has only become more intense along the way, courtesy of writer Chris Yost (Red Robin, X-Force).  So just how much do the two costumed guys have in common?  Remove the conscience and sarcastic one-liners that Spidey has, and you’ve got yourself one very agile, non-joking, loose cannon swinging from the Houston skyline.  Okay, so Kaine may have somewhat of a soft spot in his heart for doing the right thing at times, but that doesn’t mean he’ll make a concerted to stop a robbery in progress.

Illustrating the pages of Scarlet Spider is Ryan Stegman, who is known for his work on She-Hulks and The Incredible Hercules.  Kaine’s super-human agility is soundly reflected in the equally agile and smooth, yet detailed lines of Stegman’s work.  “Flow” is an accurate term to describe his delivery and imagery that easily captures the reader’s eye.  Complimenting this brilliant artwork is inker Michael Babinski (Incorruptible) and colorist Marte Gracia, whose combined duties provides a beautifully lush environment and character portrayal that makes each issue more attractive than the last.  Simply put, this visual artistic team excels at bringing the pages of Scarlet Spider to life in an attractively gripping fashion.

Usually spin-offs tend to be watered down alter egos of the original content.  While Kaine is certainly a sort of alter ego of Peter Parker, he is definitely not watered down.  After four issues, Kaine is already on his way to achieve a more widespread stand-alone status, which, should the story and art quality remain consistent, propel him further up the Marvel ranks.  Granted, he’s not going to take over the popularity of Spider-Man, but this is proof that these rooftops are big enough for two webslingers.

SYNOPSIS:

Emily arrives in Miami with aspirations to become a professional dancer. She sparks with Sean, the leader of a dance crew whose neighborhood is threatened by Emily’s father’s development plans.

Save the Date stars Lizzy Caplan as Sarah, the manager of a bookstore and a somewhat aspiring artist, who is moving in with her boyfriend Kevin (Geoffrey Arend).  Kevin is the lead singer/guitar player in the band Wolfbird, with his best friend Andrew (Martin Starr) on drums.  Andrew is currently engaged and living with Sarah’s sister, Beth (Alison Brie).  Moving in with Kevin is a big step for Sarah, who has issues with the closeness of relationships, but things become disastrous almost immediately, when Kevin (very unwisely) decides to go for it and ask Sarah to marry him during one of his band’s performances, in front of a large audience.  Sarah declines, breaks up with Kevin, and moves back into her own place.

This fortunately comes as good news to Jonathon (Mark Webber), who has had a crush on Sarah (he visits her bookstore, not because they have the books he likes, but because she is there), and this leads to him starting up a relationship with her.  Meanwhile, Beth is dealing with sorting out her own wedding, while also trying to help Sarah along in her own romantic entanglements.  Things become tricky, as various forms of drama revolving around Sarah’s own issues with commitment put her at odds with the different people in her life who care about her most.

Having sketched out a plot, aside from a few details here or there, it is sort of easy to understand what kind of movie Save the Date is, how it will progress, and possibly how it will end for everyone.  The movie does not necessarily revel in clichés, but it does have a familiar structure.  What kept it a worthwhile feature for me, much like a number of the other recent and similar films that I have seen, is the strength of the cast.  This is a good group of people, with some cast members playing off of their charm, while others play off their sardonic sense of humor to great effect.

I was pleased right away to have Lizzy Caplan in the lead role in this film.  Given that I am a fan of hers in general (notably in the series Party Down, which also starred Martin Starr), getting to see a full length feature with her as the lead was a good way to get me into my seat.  I enjoyed watching Sarah for the most part, even though some of her actions became incredibly frustrating during later points in the film.  Having Alison Brie in this film (who currently pulls double duty on Community and Mad Men) was also a pretty nice plus.  She is in the role of the more responsible sibling, but gets to balance some of her overbearingness with chances to shine comedically.  Mark Webber (from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, further proving that this film has a desire to truly please me) is also welcome, embracing him a role that allows him to have an effortlessly cool persona, which is washed over by the occasional nervousness that makes him into a generally likable guy.  Geoffrey Arend has the somewhat unfortunate task of playing the ex-boyfriend character, which basically means that we get just enough to know that he’s probably not right for Sarah, but not a whole lot more.  That said, he has a number of moments in this film that provide nice little bits of shading to his character, so we at least never see him as unlikable.

Two more performances of note.  The first is Timothy Busfield, who enters into the film a bit later as the father of Sarah and Beth.  I don’t know what it is, but in the few scenes he has, Busfield nails what is required of him and his purpose for being in the film.  The other is Martin Starr who I found to be quite fantastic.  He and Brie’s character play a very believable couple, who are clearly in love with one another, but have arguments just as well, and also have conversations that go well in strengthening who they are.  Brie is very good in her role, but I thought Starr really nailed his performance.  Coming off roles like Party Down, which I mentioned, or the underseen film Adventureland, I think it is clear that Starr is very capable in providing more than just a biting sense of humor to fill in with supporting character work.

The film itself is well made.  Sarah’s artwork comes into play, in a way that establishes a nice sort of quirky touch, fitting for this kind of film.  The various ways in which this film jumps into showing us time passing and the relationship between Sarah and Jonathon evolving is done well enough.  I do think the film goes into pretty heavy territory towards the end, which comes off as somewhat irritating, given the reason of why a certain level of darkness is being revealed, but for the most part, there is a fair share of humor that surfaces throughout.  The script by Jeffrey Brown, Egan Reich, and Michael Mohan (who also directed) is thought out enough to keep the film interesting and not too much is done to make the film seem overly hip with unfavorable “indie” notions.

So I found myself enjoying yet another comedy-drama based around the romantic pursuits of a flighty female lead.  There is not much wrong with that.  Save the Date has a strong, likable, and funny cast and that really goes a long way for these types of movies.  The story goes through some familiar motions and does not quite nail the tone in a more consistent fashion, but I still was able to really enjoy myself, while watching this film.  And I also just really liked Sarah’s drawings.

So as I mentioned, Save the Date was the last film I saw at the Newport Beach Film Festival.  It was a fun, but exhausting week for me and I hope others are able to check out some of the film I managed to see and enjoy.  Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website and feel free to find the rest of my coverage of the festival HERE!

Check out director/co-writer Michael Mohan talking about Save the Date:

The film begins interestingly enough, with Karl (Tygh Runyan) delivering a note to Paul (Brad Dryborough), with information regarding what Karl has been doing.  Karl has been following Paul from a distance, believing him to be his doppelganger, the mirror image of himself.  This letter exchange was anonymous, which leads to Paul responding by leaving a note in the same spot where he first received his.  Despite initial confusion and hostility, Paul is intrigued enough to eventually meet up with Karl.

Upon meeting up with one another, (aside from the humorous realization that neither of these people really resemble each other) a bizarre chain of events begins to occur, which revolves around these two forming a strange sort of bond, as they deal with a new path for them to take.  This path leads to the divulging and releasing of Karl’s manuscript to the public, a piece of work that was 25 years in the making.  The issue here is that the manuscript was not released by Karl or Paul, but a random, separate party, after having been edited down into something much different than Karl’s intention, given that he was detailing why he hates himself.  As a result, Karl and Paul set out on a journey together to confront the issues they are facing, be it related to the lack of credit for the work that has been published or on a level of self-revelation.

Given the nature of the majority of films I have been seeing at the Newport Beach Film Festival, I was pleased to see something different.  Doppelganger Paul very much operates on the level of an offbeat, independent feature; complete with quirky characters, an inherent strangeness in where the story takes the viewer, and an improvisational tone to how scenes play out.  This film revels in being a lot of the things that either brings in or distances people from these types of art house films, but I never found myself thinking that the movie was being strange and different just for the sake of being that way.

I was intrigued by where this story was going and it was mainly due to the approach to these characters and how they attempted to embody the second part of the title of the film.  Given that Karl and Paul are guys who apparently are displeased by so much about themselves, the fact that I was able to see humor and various positive aspects in them kept a certain flow of the film alive.  I would not necessarily bill this film as a straight up comedy, but it is a human comedy that gets away with being somewhat mordant, due to the fact that I liked watching these people.

Both Runyan and Dryborough made for interesting characters, with Drborough’s Paul bringing a sort of nervous intensity, while Runyan gets away with all of his oddities based around his dryly humorous delivery of a great majority of his lines.  It becomes very interesting to see where these characters end up as the film goes on, given how the act shifts have a pretty particular way of breaking the film up into specific parts.  It is also worth noting the two supporting performances from Ben Cotton and Matty Finochio, who serve as the characters who claim false credit over Karl’s manuscript.  Their scenes mostly served as comedic divergences from the main narrative, but they brought a fun, broader sort of feel to a film that was spending most of its time in such a detached state, despite being a weird kind of enjoyable.

There are a few different themes explored in this film by directors Dylan Akio Smith and Kris Elgstrand (who also scripted the film).  I would be very intrigued to learn more about what went on in the development of the feature.  The concept of questioning the state of one’s identity (let alone the various odd touches further applied to the film) easily brought to mind people like Charlie Kauffman and Michel Gondry, despite the less pronounced style seen in ‘Paul’.  There is a notion that made me want to question more about how this film develops however.  While enjoyable for a variety of reasons, it does move at a fairly slow pace for an 84-minute film.  Certain scenes are easily more enjoyable or fascinating to watch, but I get curious as to how the editing process was in sorting out the overall arc of the film (which, I guess, is similar to how Karl’s manuscript gets pared down in the film).  Gathering a film together out of what seems to be an exploration of a particular motif, with humorous intentions, must certainly have been a challenge, just not a completely sound one.

Doppelganger Paul was an interesting change in pace for my Newport Beach Film Festival viewing experience.  Definitely sitting firmly in the realm of obscure indie films, there may be certain people who don’t quite have the acquired taste to really get into this film, but being open-minded has certainly held up for me in the past, just like it has here.  It is a different sort of film, but the premise goes into interesting and amusing territory and I had a good time.

Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website, and be sure to check back to Why So Blu throughout the week for more of my coverage of the festival!

Check out the trailer for Doppelganger Paul:

Gerwig stars as Lola, a nice enough person, living with her boyfriend Luke (Joel Kinnaman) in New York.  At the beginning of the film, Luke proposes to Lola and the during the entire opening credits montage, we see Lola getting ready for her wedding.  Reaching the end of this sequence, Lola comes home to an upset Luke, who breaks off the wedding entirely.  Smash cut to the title.  Lola is understandable devastated, but at least has good support coming from her best friend Alice (co-screenwriter Zoe Lister-Jones), the mutual, but sweet friend Henry (Hamish Linklater), and her caring parents (Debra Winger and Bill Pullman).

In the months that follow, Lola gets into some messy situations, as she deals with her break up somewhat haphazardly.  As Lola deals with being single for the first time in nearly a decade, her decisions lead her to hooking up with some less than ideal people, as well as people she never really considered to be possible suitors.  Her friends try to help her along, and even Luke still attempts to forge some kind of friendship with Lola, despite the way in which he hurt her.  However, Lola needs to work on moving on and getting out of the rut that she was forced into.

The main appeal of this film, for me, was Greta Gerwig.  I have been an admirer of the various films Gerwig has been a part of for a while now (Greenburg and The House of the Devil, among others) and I was happy to see a film that puts her in the starring role.  Aside from a key issue I had with the film, which I will address later, I was happy to have found plenty to enjoy in her performance.  Gerwig has a way of handling her characters in films with a sense of honesty, which is reflected in the way she reacts to other characters.  Having been a part of so many independent features, it is a natural sort of approach, which allows her to have believable chemistry with the various other characters.  She also has a nice smile, which is important in two ways.  Gerwig is an attractive, leggy blonde, yes, but she has a way of putting a lot of emotion behind her smile, which does not always suggest happiness (especially in this film).

The other characters were well played, for the most part, as well.  The character of Alice is an expected, but appropriate type of friend that Lola would have in a film like this.  She gets to string out a number of one-liners that are fun and adds to the supporting the lighter moments of a film dealing with Lola’s romantic troubles.  Hamish Linklater is incredibly sweet and laid back in the role of the male friend, who balances teetering on becoming too close with a person he is not sure about becoming so close to.  He has a way of equaling the natural sort of chemistry that Gerwig creates, which is neat given that he’s balanced doing independent films with a lot of TV work.  Debra Winger and Bill Pullman have the pretty simple task of providing support and sage wisdom to Lola, which is fine, because I liked the sort of breezy relationship their characters had with their daughter (Pullman in particular).  And lastly, Kinnaman is fine in the role of the man who dumped Lola in the first place.  Knowing him mainly for his much darker role in The Killing (though it should be noted that he’s coming up in the film world, with a number of big parts coming his way), it was at least nice to see him clean shaven.  That said, there is a lot to be said about how irritating his character is, given the decisions he has made and how he goes about trying to still be in contact with Lola.  It is fortunate that Kinnaman at least sells the role of being so unsure of himself.

As mentioned, the film was co-written by Zoe Lister-Jones, along with writer/director Daryl Wein, and the two manage to do fine work in making this a film about a woman caught up in despair due to her tragic and abrupt breakup, while still managing to inject the story with plenty of humor.  I would not necessarily say that I found the film to be deeply poignant (which can easily be attributed to the fact that I am male and have not gone through an intense breakup ordeal that preceded my approaching wedding), but I was also happy that Lola Versus didn’t plunge itself down too deeply into dramatic territory.  I did get caught up enough in the emotional journey of Lola to appreciate what she was going through, but I was happy that she found herself in humorous and awkward situations as well.

The main issue I had with the film revolved around the progression into the third act.  The film reaches a point where Lola finds herself at a very particular point in her life (and in the structure of this somewhat familiar story) and she needs to take some certain actions in order to grow and recover as a character.  I was put off by the way the film decided to handle this area of the story, where Lola essentially has certain developments that come from a place that is not fully developed and leads to a closure of the film that feels somewhat unearned.  It basically felt like the film cut off some bits in an attempt to rush into its finale, which rubbed me the wrong way.

Aside from the conclusion, which unfortunately did not feel fully developed (although I did enjoy the final minutes), my overall takeaway, regarding the film, was a positive one.  I like Gerwig and her relationships with the cast.  The script, for the most part, was pretty sound in portraying an entertaining take on a breakup story.  I also want to mention the music by the band Fall on Your Sword, which I was a fan of and am happy to see them scoring more films (they also provided the score for Another Earth).  I would be curious to see how people that have been in similar situations will react to this film, but I hope it is positively, as the film is charming enough in playing this character off of her friends and allowing her to stumble along the way, before finding her balance again.

Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website, and be sure to check back to Why So Blu throughout the week for more of my coverage of the festival!

Check out the trailer for Lola Versus:

Film  

Like most guys my age, I grew up watching admittedly crappy animated shows like the “Super Friends” or “Spiderman and his Amazing Friends” just to see superheroes team up.  It didn’t matter if it was Marvel or DC, I just wanted to see the all-star superheroes join forces to defeat evil enough to put up with bad writing and terrible characters (remember the wonder twins and their stupid monkey?) just to see it.  For most part, if you wanted to see something like the Avengers or the Justice League to fight alongside each other, you needed to buy the crossover comics which were always better than any of the animated shows.  There’s been countless crossovers between the superheroes and even between Marvel and DC characters (which are my favorite), but there’s never been a high quality live action film to do so.  DC Comics came close once, when George Miller almost made a Justice League movie, but that movie fell apart at the last minute.  So at long last, Joss Whedon had the honor and the challenge of coming up with a movie that would not only meet the sky high expectations from fans, but also one that would be true to the characters and their prior individual journeys that occurred earlier.  I am ecstatic to report that Whedon has done just that.

With The Avengers, Whedon not only skillfully handled the directing duties, but he also wrote the script as well. Whoever made the decision to hire Whedon should be commended since he was the perfect choice for this movie. Not only does he have a lot of experience in writing and directing fun, humorous, and action-packed story-lines for his previous shows like “Firefly”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and “Angel”, but he’s also a well-regarded comic book writer who had a fantastic run on The Astonishing X-Men among others.  Whedon specializes in writing for a large cast of differing personalities and viewpoints, which was essential for The Avengers to be successful.  Whedon not only had to reintroduce the characters to an audience that may not have seen their origin movies beforehand, but he also had to continue their personal story-lines in addition to moving their combined experiences forward for this movie.  I don’t know how he pulled it off, but he did with admirable results.

The movie opens with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) being called into one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. bases because the Tesseract (or the Cosmic Cube) which had been discovered in the ocean near where Captain America was recovered is seemingly acting on its own free will.  Fury had tasked Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) with trying to harness the potential limitless energy to provide both a new source of energy and also to develop some new “Phase Two” weapons that could be used against non-human foes.  With the Tesseract emitting low level gamma radiation and getting worse, Fury orders that the base be evacuated but before that can happen, the Tesseract opens a portal to allow Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) evil brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to arrive on Earth.  Loki wastes no time and he begins killing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents left and right and even uses magic to covert Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Selvig to join him as he steals the Tesseract.  Knowing full well the consequences that would result from allowing a being as powerful and angry as Loki to have something as powerful as the Tesseract in his hands, Fury has no choice but to activate the dormant Avengers Initiative.

To make that happen, he instructs Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson) to bring in Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) respectively.  While Stark is still unhappy with being previously rejected by Fury as a candidate for the Avengers, he still is willing to listen and offer his expertise.  Banner on the other hand, has spent years avoiding the authorities and is currently hiding in Calcutta and trying to do some good by providing his medical skills to those that need it.  Banner has come a long way since the events in The Incredible Hulk (when he was played by Edward Norton) and he’s learned to cope with his alter ego better and has even learned to control him better.  It’s been a year since he last turned into the Hulk and in that time S.H.I.E.L.D. has kept an eye on him and helped keep others away from him.

Fury goes to talk with Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) himself and tries to convince him that his country, indeed the entire world needs him back.  Rogers is still adjusting to his new reality after being frozen for sixty years and he isn’t too happy with how things have changed.  Being the dutiful soldier he is though, he agrees to return and he’s sent to confront Loki once the villain is spotted in Germany.  Loki ends up being a lot tougher than he expected but Iron Man arrives to help out and Loki is captured and then transported by plane to be placed into custody.  Thor arrives and removes his brother from the plane since he believes that Loki needs to face Asgardian justice instead of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s and Iron Man and Captain America follow in pursuit.

In one of his many genius ideas, by setting up this conflict between the heroes, Whedon gets to have his cake and eat it too.  Fans love seeing superheroes duke it out with each other and we get to see Iron Man take on Thor with spectacular results as well as seeing just what would happen if Thor’s hammer Mjolnir hit Captain America’s shield.  We also later get to see the Hulk vs. Black Widow, and the Black Widow against Hawkeye, but the real treat is seeing the Avengers fight as a team against Loki’s army of space aliens known as the Chitauri.  The cast does an amazing job bringing their characters to life (especially my favorite Robert Downey Jr.) and showing off their differences and flaws which makes them relatable and believable, especially when it affects their attempts to form a new group.

This film has so many iconic images and moments that I don’t want to spoil but I have to mention.  Finally seeing all of these superheroes not only in the same frame but fighting alongside each other is a wonder to behold for those of us that have always dreamed of this happening.  Whedon has captured the characters’ voices perfectly and has made an epic action packed movie, that is so full of humor and emotion that it will turn even non comic fans like my wife into true believers.  Marvel gambled big and is poised to win big and they have definitely thrown down the gauntlet to DC Comics which other than Christopher Nolan’s amazing Batman movies and the recent Green Lantern movie (which should have been better), they can’t seem to get their act together.  They have to be at least a decade behind Marvel at this point movie-wise since there can’t be a Justice League movie until they too establish their characters in stand alone movies first which is really depressing.  It has to be doubly depressing for DC since at one point Whedon was going to make a Wonder Woman film for them until that fell apart.  Seeing how well he executed The Avengers has to have some WB executives feeling pretty low at this point.

I can only hope that Marvel is wise enough to hire Joss Whedon to write and direct the next installments in this new series.  What would be even better is if the success of this movie gives Whedon the clout to bring back Firefly/Serenity in some fashion.  Hint.  Hint.  Another hope I have is that after audiences see how the Hulk is portrayed in this, that he will get another shot at a solo movie with Mark Ruffalo.  But then again, I would like to see more solo movies of all these characters. The Avengers will be the movie to beat this year and the only other movie that I think has a chance is The Dark Knight Rises which will mark the end of the Nolan trilogy.  The fact that The Avengers started off this strong with their first movie will only make future sequels have almost impossibly high expectations and excitement which isn’t a terrible way to start a new franchise.  The Avengers is without a doubt, the best movie I have seen in a long, long time and one that not only met my impossible expectations, but actually exceeded them.  Run don’t walk to the theater and see this on the big screen right now!  Excelsior!
 

Film  

Luckily for me, The Avengers did an excellent job telling you everything you need to know.  For the most part, my basic knowledge (being able to recognize and name the characters) was more than sufficient.  For the real comic buffs like my husband I’m sure there were numerous subtleties that went right over my head, and that’s fine.  I got all the information I needed from the movie, without it having to over explain things.

Having just seen (and loved) Cabin in the Woods, which Joss Whedon co-wrote and produced, I was for the first time excited about a movie based who directed it.  The Avengers is very well written by Whedon and it has the same witty humor that made me love Cabin in the Woods.  Each of the characters is showcased in different ways, but I especially enjoyed all of Iron Man’s banter and I now have a new appreciation for The Hulk.

As I said, I’m not into details with this kind of film, but I’ll do my best to summarize.  The Avengers stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D who has been looking into harnessing the power of the Tessaract, an energy cube.  Loki (Tom Hiddleston) he plans to steal the Tesseract to give it to some bad guys waiting to wipe out the Earth.  Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) reluctantly team up to save the world.  At first they spend more time fighting each other than anyone else but once united, they are an unstoppable force.

One of the most amazing things about The Avengers was the 3-D, which I actually enjoyed it.   I complain profusely about all 3-D movies being full of cheap gags where you could spot in the 2D version every stupid thing that was flying at your face for the benefit of the 3-D audience.  If given the choice, I will almost always take the 2D version in the theater over the 3-D version since most of the time I feel as though the 3-D effects take away from the film.  In The Avengers, that was not the case.  The 3-D action complimented the film and helped immerse the viewer in the action.   I forgot I was sitting there in those 3-D glasses and didn’t notice the two hour film fly by.  This is definitely the first time I have praised a 3-D movie and will recommend that everyone see it that way.

The hype surrounding this film is justified and Marvel’s The Avengers lives up to every bit of it.  Even for a non-comic book person and someone who clearly didn’t pay attention to the individual movies that occurred before this, it was an amazing movie.  I can only imagine what a true fan would take from it.   As expected, don’t get up and leave when the credits start or you will miss an additional scene – one for the true comic junkies, because I couldn’t recognize the character I was looking at.

America’s favorite – and quirkiest — exterminator is back for more unexpected on-the-job adventures with Billy the Exterminator: The Complete Season Four! In this funny family docusoap about the zaniest pest removal company on the planet, we join Billy Bretherton, who runs Vexcon, one of Louisiana’s busiest pest removal companies, with the help of his brother Ricky, whom he describes as “just as crazy as me,” his father Bill Sr., and his sassy mom Donnie, who runs the office.  In season four, sees Billy hit the road for the first time, in search of challenges that are bigger, better and badder than ever.  Whether he’s going after giant pythons in the Florida Everglades, wrestling 10-foot gators in Texas, chasing a herd of razor-toothed javelina in Arizona, or fighting off an aerial attack by 30-pound geese in North Carolina, Billy comes to the rescue with humor, compassion… and a whole lot of attitude. 

Film

My favorite white trash family is back with another season of Billy the Exterminator.  I don’t expect anything new.  Seasons 1 through 3 were all pretty much the same.  Gators, rats, raccoons, bees – but add in the Bretherton family and it always gets a bit more interesting.  Vexcon Pest Control is the family business lead by Billy Bretherton, aka Billy the Exterminator.  His brother Ricky, mother Donnie and father Big Bill work alongside him.  Previous seasons have included Billy’s wife but she doesn’t get along well with his family and wasn’t a helpful addition to the business.

Billy the Exterminator: Season 4 contains the following episodes on two discs:

1. When Gators Attack – Billy and Ricky head to Texas to get some training catching alligators at the Norton Family Farm, Gator Country.  The motto there is “quick hands or no hands.”
2. Desert Destroyers - Packs of Javelina (hairy pigs) are terrorizing an Arizona desert community.
3. What Lurks Beneath – Ricky and Billy are back at Gator Country to wrangle gators.  They head out on a gator call where they use a lasso and wrestle and alligator in a backyard.  Another home has a significant bedbug infestation.
4. Furry Infestation – The boys trap some raccoons and the little one covers his eyes when he gets scared.  A home has multiple squirrels, and Billy’s helper Brad gets bit.  Raccoons in the chimney of another house are taken care of with a detergent bottle full of rocks.
5. Aerial Attack – Billy and Ricky join the Goosebusters to learn their techniques, including protecting yourself with umbrellas.
6. Bobcat Battle – Billy teams up with Danger Dave who needs help with a bobcat and unexpected rattlesnake.  Warning for the squeamish – this episode contains a decapitated bunny.
7. Suck It Up – The brothers head to Miami where Burmese pythons are killing local wildlife.  They assist a local pest controller and relocate over 10,000 honey bees.
8. Dirty Rat – A rat has infested Citizen’s National Bank and is eating the wallpaper.  Billy is brought in to help, but the bank’s security man doesn’t seem to trust Billy.  Later, a newborn kitten is rescued from inside a wall.
9. Good Morning Gators – Alligators threaten kids in a public park and Billy teams up with Gator Jack and a reporter from Good Morning America to catch and release them.
10. Skunks on a Plane – A local water park has multitude of issues and Billy uses spam as bait for some of them. Ricky heads to an airport hanger that has a skunk problem.
11. Hoarder House Rats – A house that used to belong to a hoarder is infested with rats and a golf course has an armadillo problem.
12. Gators in Waiting - Trapper Jack threatens the safety of a grandmother’s pond where her grand-kids fish and play.

Billy the Exterminator: Season 4 seems a lot more contrived than previous seasons.  They aren’t going on hardly any local emergency calls.  There is a lot of training set up in other towns and states.  It seems like a producer stepped in and arranged some adventures that would potentially make good television.  There is also a lot less of Billy’s parents.  His mother Donnie makes an appearance in most episodes giving Billy the run down on the day’s work, and his father is barely seen or heard from.  The episodes seem out of order as well.  In one episode you see Billy working with someone and a few episodes later he meets the same person for the first time.

Video  

Audio  

The volume levels are consistent, so even when Billy is screaming for help you won’t need to adjust your sound levels.  Billy the Exterminator is full of gators hissing and bugs flying and it could make your skin crawl if they made better use of surround sound and your side channels.  Subtitles are available in English and Spanish.

Special Features  

For the first time, there are no special features on either of the discs.  In previous seasons I really enjoyed the features and it’s disappointing to see there are none in season 4.

Final Thoughts  

Billy the Exterminator: Season 4 seems like it was thrown together for DVD.  There are only 12 episodes, totaling a little more than 4 hours and no special features at all.  It seems like a random collection of episodes, not a season set. Watching Billy go after bugs, snakes, raccoons, gators and new foes like Javelina is still entertaining.  There is a significant decrease in the family and Billy’s personal lives.  This season is all about the cases.  I may have complained that previous seasons were a little too much about the family drama but this season has gone too far the other way.  I’d like to see a good balance of both worlds.  Overall, I still enjoyed Billy the Exterminator: Season 4, but it was a little disappointing compared to the previous seasons.

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Nick Fury: There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, so when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could…

In breaking down the story, it is actually incredibly simple to explain.  Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), leader of the secret peacekeeping, law enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D., is forced to recruit all of the known super-powered heroes from around the world and beyond (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America) in an effort to build a super team strong enough to stop Thor’s evil brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from destroying the Earth.  As Earth’s mightiest heroes all eventually gather, it will serve as a challenge to not only stop Loki, but to successfully work together as a true and capable team.

To give a bit of a roll call:  Iron Man (aka Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr.) is all about using his smarts and his wits to help supplement his super suit.  Captain America (aka Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans) is still getting a grasp on existing in present time, after having woken up from a rest that started back during WWII, but he at least knows what his true duty is.  Bruce Banner (aka Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo) seems to have found peace in helping others at a great distance from the rest of the world, but is still smart enough to know he needs to help S.H.I.E.L.D., even if he risks having another angry incident.  Thor (aka the Asgardian son of Odin, played by Chris Hemsworth) has traveled a great distance to deal with his revenge-minded brother, as he wishes to protect the Earth from harm.  Additionally, a few S.H.I.E.L.D. assassins, Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), are caught up in the action as well, because it will truly take a highly skilled and powerful team of people to stop Loki, the power he wields, and the army he has brought with him.

It truly is some sort of miracle that this film exists; however, when you get a clip of the film that literally has a 360º shot of all of these superheroes, it is safe to say that Marvel Studios and everyone else involved was able to pull it off.  And really, who better to be at the head of this massive comic ship than Joss Whedon?  Whedon, known to many as a comic book writer, along with the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly (he also co-wrote and produced the recent release Cabin in the Woods), is who many would consider a perfect fit for a live-action Avengers film.  He has most clearly established the usage of wry bits of humor in his dialogue, but his work also always does well in establishing true drama buried beneath all the fantastic that is going on.  He is also always one to bring an incredible fairness in his balance to women (a notably great aspect, as The Avengers consists almost entirely of supermen).  Putting all that forward, it really is great to see Whedon emerge so successfully, as he was basically given the keys to play in the castle filled with comics and toys that he is very familiar with already.

I most admired the balance in this movie.  Given that The Avengers has to do a lot to not only establish that there are four main superheroes, a few supporting characters, and a lead villain, I was really thrilled to see that no one got short-changed.  Especially in the case of dealing with the very different personalities clashing, this film could have easily become the Tony Stark show featuring a few other super folk, but it didn’t.  This is a film about the Avengers, and as such, we spend the right amount of time with each character and can properly witness a specific arc for each.  As fun as it is to spend time listening to Tony Stark banter with others, it is just as engaging to see Thor deal with a fairly emotional issue of stopping his own brother, or having to relate to the attempts by Bruce Banner in his struggle to maintain his solace, let alone deal with the repercussions of the raging alter ego lurking within.  Even the master archer Hawkeye (aka Clint Barton) has his own arc, as he deals with Loki’s manipulation.

Steve Rogers: Big man, in a suit of armor… take that away, what are you?
Tony Stark: Uh… genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist…

The actors are certainly up to the task of delivering big for this film.  Robert Downey, Jr. continues to embody Tony Stark tremendously, even managing to add a few layers, while still providing plenty of humor.  Chris Evans continues to capture the same earnestness that makes Cap such a strong character, even if some reported scenes of him further dealing with his present reality were left on the cutting room floor.  Mark Ruffalo is maybe the best Bruce Banner of the recent three (though I did like Bana and Norton, regardless of the films), providing the proper sense of reluctance and struggle in balancing the two sides of himself, while still being fun to watch (the intro scene of him with Johansson is great, as is watching him talk smarts with Stark).  Hemsworth also continues to make Thor just incredibly fun to watch, as he gladly embraces the fish-out-of-water aspects of being a super-powered being interacting with earthlings.

As for the rest of the cast, Renner is basically great in everything he does, so watching him basically play cool as ice was very satisfying.  I liked Johansson more here than I have in anything in a while, which I think is a testament to the strong role that Whedon has afforded her.  Samuel L. Jackson, after practice rounds with the Nick Fury character in small portions for the past four years, gets more to do this time around and certainly maintains a certain badass stature, though I am hoping to see more from him in the future with more regard for the deeper layers of someone in charge of a super-secret organization.  Clark Gregg, who has slowly built plenty of charisma as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson, gets in his moments as well; playing up his dry humor, while also hiding the excitement of seeing all of these guys come together (he collected Captain America’s trading cards).  And lastly, Tom Hiddleston continues to make for a wonderfully complex villain, as his Loki is still both duplicitous as well as crushed and conflicted on an emotional level, filled with anger and a desire for power.  Hiddleston makes Loki a villain that is fun to watch an interesting when it comes to seeing him interact with the others.

As there are plenty of highlights in this film, which I have not spoken of yet, let me first address some of the poorer aspects of this film.  To start, the beginning feels pretty bland.  Essentially a 10-minute cold open, the start of this film feels off-balance in how it sets up the remaining 2+ hours.  The dialogue doesn’t come off as strong and there’s a certain “whiz bang” factor that isn’t fully there, despite some expensive looking stuff going on.  Mirroring that response, the very end of this film sets up fake and somewhat predictable suspense, followed by a summation of things that occurred, which could have been better handled.

It does also seem almost too simple in how the plot has been realized.  By that I mean the film doesn’t do much beyond establishing that a bunch of really powerful guys (and some gals) need to get together, work together, and stop evil.  Now I don’t need much more than that, when it comes to something like The Avengers, but knowing that Whedon could have easily delved into some stronger additionally themes (which we only see in small doses), it does make me hope that future Avengers films will have more to say.  This could be partially blamed on the plot, which is simple, yet busy in the way it constantly adds various details onto the basic design of the film, which leaves little time for added motifs.

Lastly, as seen in all the previews, we know that the third act of this film is an epic battle that pits the Avengers against an extraterrestrial force, but those enemies, while intimidating, have little to offer in terms of getting us to see much in what they are fighting for.  The cheap and easy answer for this is that power always makes everyone want more, but given that the film starts off with Loki describing his plan to some unfamiliar character and then rides on without further exploring who this army is that is supporting him, it left me with wanting just a little more justification for their presence.

Getting back to why there is still an incredibly strong 2 hours of film to enjoy, I think a lot could be made from the fact that people are basically supposed to have seen five different films in order to fully enjoy The Avengers, but I do not think that is necessarily true.  Of course, it does help to be familiar with the people you are going to be following for the length of an entire film and each character has had one or two films of their own; however, Whedon (as well as story developer Zak Penn) has done a pretty great job of creating a film that is able to establish who these characters are well enough, without dragging the flow or spending too much time with any one character.  I will say that Thor is the one film (and Captain America to an extent), which really should be watched in order to be the least confused about what is fully going on, but this really is the kind of blockbuster film made for mass audiences to enjoy and not just all of the comic geeks that have been salivating for a film like this for decades.

Now let’s get down to that other thing, the part that relates to that epic 360º shot of all the Avengers.  When this film fires on all cylinders and has all these heroes doing things that they are known to do, the film truly shines.  A few pretty astounding scenes involve Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow all performing the incredibly feats and signature moves they are capable of and it is freaking awesome.  Seeing Iron Man bounce lasers off Captain America’s shield into a bunch of enemies or the Hulk bounding great heights and landing his fists into enemies or seeing Thor’s Hammer and Hawkeye’s arrows all aid in doing crazy things is simply fantastic.  The action in this film is wonderfully realized, never hard to understand, always clearly presented, with fantastic moments that feature long shots zooming between our different heroes.

The effects are top notch as well and kudos to ILM, among the other special effects studios, for really delivering the goods.  Putting it simply – Hulk looks great in this film.  The interaction between humans, heroes, aliens, and buildings feels consistent enough and does well to communicate a good sense of weight.  It is always cool to see Iron Man flying around, Cap’s shield bouncing around, and Thor’s hammer traveling great distances on its own.  And seeing the S.H.I.E.L.D. Heli-carrier (a flying aircraft carrier) in action was wonderfully satisfying.  Even the 3D conversion is strong enough to not make it too much of an issue.

Thor: He’s my brother
Black Widow: He killed 80 people in 2 days
Thor: …He’s adopted

In addition to the great deal of action in this film, it is just a lot of fun seeing all of these people interact with one another.  I have already mentioned the Whedon dialogue, which serves this film well, but actually seeing Stark and Banner talk science, Thor and Cap argue for their causes, or Nick Fury tough talk all of them, is just a lot of fun to listen to and rewarding to see witnessed in an actual, live-action film.  A benefit of this film is how it feels like a comic book in the way scenes are presented.  Dialogue comes fast and quick, framing is set up in very particular ways, and action, in various forms, is properly punctuated throughout.  Few films that ride under the “comic book movie” banner gave me that similar feel (which includes the ambitious, but much maligned Hulk).

In praising how this film feels like a comic book come to life, that should not rule out the fact that the dramatic moments and stakes in this film registered just as important as the ridiculously fun aspects of the film.  Putting the Earth in peril is one thing (the darn planet can never stay out of trouble), but dealing with a character like Thor, who is worried for Loki, despite having to deal with fighting against him or Captain America, who learns to what end times have changed, or even Black Widow, who holds a strong concern for Hawkeye, when things get turned around on them, is important stuff that is not simply looked over.  One particular dramatic beat does a lot to stir this group together in an effective way that has come from crafting together an assembly of well-drawn characters.  This film has a soul and does not just play out like an empty-headed blockbuster film, with little concern for the characters we are rooting for.

Some other odds and ends before I close.  I mostly enjoyed the score by Alan Silvestri.  It brings a vibe that contains themes for each characters and does well at adding to the moments, though I wish a bit more was done in creating a strong theme for the Avengers as a team.  Maintaining the cinematic continuity between films was also a great touch.  While I may have missed seeing certain other heroes join the fight (what was War Machine doing, was he busy?), I was happy to see that the previous films were properly respected with regards to this film that unites everyone.  And lastly, I can’t emphasize enough how cool Hulk is.

The Avengers feels like some professionals managed to gather a bunch of the best Marvel Comics and toys and let a bunch of fans in on seeing how well they know how to play with them, and then let them see that again and again.  The film delivers in all sorts of awesome ways.  Coming off of an ambitious investment, this is a film that brings together every one of these recent Marvel heroes for the film that is the culmination of a lot of hard work and effort.  The payoff is a hugely entertaining spectacle, which is benefited by wonderful action, fun dialogue, fine work by the actors involved, awesome special effects, and some other ingenious elements that make this film all the more satisfying to behold.  The Avengers have certainly assembled and this is a fine adventure that will be enjoyed by many.

Tony Stark: When they come, and they will come, they’ll come for you.
Loki: I have an army.
Tony Stark: We have a Hulk.

First and foremost, I want to cover the artwork here, courtesy of Cary Nord (minus the cover).  Why?  Because one of the images I included in last week’s article that was released by Valiant showed more of a CGI portrayal of the X-O character instead of a traditional ink and sketch delivery.  That image is misleading as the pages of issue #1 look nothing like that, which for me and likely many other readers, is a big sigh of relief.  Cary Nord brings us a detailed landscape of artwork where emotions on the characters’ faces are easily understood without having to take one look at the dialogue to grasp the feeling of the scene.  Action sequences are also accurately portrayed, whether it’s the onslaught of a brigade or the hit-and-run tactics of a small group, Nord’s graphical layouts get the job done and then some.

The writing, and I’ll try and keep this as spoiler free as possible, is intense if nothing else.  The story Robert Venditti has conjured here is quite gripping at times and should even retain the attention despite the worst my potential A.D.D. has to offer.  Focusing on a great Visigoth warrior by the name of Aric of Dacia, the good-hearted yet cunning warrior leads his people as they defend their lands against the threat of the Roman Empire.  A phalanx, however, will be the least of Aric’s worries.  The story performs its duties successfully as it covers a variety of situations for the lead character in a seamless fashion, pitting our hero in one dire strait after another without being the least bit choppy.

For those unfamiliar with the X-O Manowar suit, it’s a living carapace of armor with a range of deadly weapons that are instantly created by itself in combination with the wearer’s thoughts.  With that being said, not anyone can don the armor and take the fight to the enemy.  The armor only allows the greatest of warriors to utilize its capabilities.  The outcome for an unworthy subject attempting to wear the suit relates to a most unpleasant experience, and while the lid isn’t blown off this vessel in the first issue (thank goodness), that bit of holding back only spells big things to come on the horizon.  My only beef is that one or two sequences made it difficult for me to suspend disbelief…yes, even in a comic book.  I’d explain myself, but I wouldn’t want to give too much away now, would I?

Venditti and Nord make for an awesome duo on the pages of X-O Manowar issue 1.  I didn’t put a lot of faith into this book going into it, and was not only surprised after flipping the last page, but highly entertained as well.  In an economy where it can be tough to stretch a dollar and one must limit their selection of title reading, X-O Manowar has only made it more difficult for me since I will definitely be pursuing issue 2 and beyond if the story quality remains at this high level.  Well done, guys.

Overall:

The film is setup pretty quickly.  We are introduced to five teens, who are supposed to be serving time in detention.  They include the geek, Eddie (Jacob Zachar); the jock, Brad (Jayson Blair); the cheerleader, Janet (Christa B. Allen); Brad’s jock friend, Jimmy (Max Adler); the goth girl, Willow (Alexa Nikolas); and the stoner kid, Ash (Justin Chon).  As detention gets started, the group notices that one guy in the corner isn’t looking so good.  He reveals a giant wound on his hand and soon enough, he turns into a zombie and bites the English teacher, monitoring detention.  Everyone is understandable shocked and even more so once they look outside and see that the school is being overrun with zombies.  Despite the differences seen between the different characters in this group, they are going to have to band together if they want to survive.  Luckily Eddie and Willow are zombie experts (based on movies, comics, and video games), but plenty can easily go wrong if these guys are not careful.

Getting to the main criticism I have first, the main issue I found with Detention of the Dead was the notion of setting up characters that claim to be experts in the field of zombies.  Characters like these can only be as smart as the screenwriters creating them, which tends to have a way of backfiring on how they have been setup.  Despite the film being very aware of what it is and having the characters make references to various forms of zombie lore, be it very obvious or more subtle, there are still choices made that reflect poorly on people like Eddie and Willow, when it comes time to making the right call.  I am very aware that the movie does not strive to be very serious, but I still took issue with things that one clearly wouldn’t do were they to be actually stuck in a zombie apocalypse and have full knowledge of that scenario, based on the various forms of zombie media the characters are supposedly obsessed with.

Getting back to the positive aspects, Detention of the Dead is apparently based on a play by Rob Rinow, which is supposed to rely on more of a sketch comedy-type structure.  Because of that, I can admire the way this film has ended up working, for the most part, as a narrative driven feature that contains various bits of comedy set pieces scattered throughout.  The story is incredibly straight-forward and does not really contain any surprises, but it creates a solid enough base and brings in the purposefully stock character-types to form a feature that plays out in an entertaining enough manner.

The characters in this film really do fall straight into the molds of the standard characters one expects to see in this kind of film.  After Cabin in the Woods, it is especially difficult to really accept what is being portrayed, but given that the film is coming from an independent world and seeks to simply be a breezy comedy filled with zombies, I was able to go along with it well enough.  It helps that the cast featured a decently fun group of individuals, with some working better than others (the stoner was annoying, but I enjoyed the over the top antics of Brad and the character of Willow in general).

It also helps that the film does well when deciding to be about zombies.  While the film is definitely a comedy at its undead core, there is plenty done here with gore to satisfy the fans of zombie movies who want to see people getting ripped apart or dismembered.  Especially given that the film was shot on a low budget, I was impressed with the makeup work and the sound effects used to convey deadly flesh-eaters taking over a school and devouring teachers and students alike.  I was also pleased that Detention of the Dead was smart enough to follow along with the “Romero Rules” when it came to handling the zombies.  They were slow moving, but deadly; and when people were bitten, they came back as zombies.  These are small details, but as a zombie fan myself, I was happy to see these choices made in the process.

Furthermore, I enjoyed the soundtrack and overall style of filmmaking.  The way certain songs were juxtaposed over the action occurring on screen was nicely handled and kept me entertained.  There were also bits of editing that worked for me, such as some of the rapid-fire cutting that occurred, which was of course calling back to The Evil Dead films, which I love.  And lastly, again, when being treated as a zombie film, as opposed to a straight comedy, there were ways in which the film felt appropriately lit and shot to feel like an actual creepy zombie movie.  This certainly is not a scary film, but it did know how to establish some suspense during a couple moments of peril.

Detention of the Dead is a very light film, which does not take itself seriously.  The characters are very deliberately designed to function a certain way.  The story is crafted to be just enough to allow the film to progress down a linear path.  And even some of the humor can be hit or miss.  Still, the film is also quite likable and features some pretty solid zombie effects work, given the independent nature of the film.  There is not much greater depth to be found here, but it is an easy enough way to spend 90 minutes, were one to be seeking an amusing zombie comedy.

Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website, and be sure to check back to Why So Blu throughout the week for more of my coverage of the festival!

Here is the trailer for Detention of the Dead:

The film begins with a woman boarding a train with her family.  After some irritating business that involves a few individuals on board the train not behind kind enough to allow the family to sit together, the woman flashes back to her own memories of a time when her entire, extended family got together for a reunion.  At this point, the film jumps back to 1979.  The woman we began with is now 10-year-old Albertine (Lou Avarez) and she arrives in Brittany, France with her parents, played by Julie Delpy and Eric Elmosnino, for the celebration of her Grandmother’s birthday.

The large family arrives as well, which includes several aunts and uncles, all of whom have their own various quirks and personas about them.  The film is largely set during one day of this eventful weekend, where some truths are revealed, personal rivalries are renewed, and Albertine experiences the painful delight of first love.  She is also convinced that an orbiting space satellite will crash down on their heads, which is what the title refers to.  The film serves as a retro slice of life that communicates the importance of celebrating family.

Watching this film, it would be very easy to be convinced that these people must be friends or spent plenty of time working together, as the script is quite solid and the cast does well to make you believe that they are all one big family.  The best aspect truly is how natural the family dynamics feel, regardless of how wild some of the humor may be, or how intense some of the rivalries become, or how poignant some of the more dramatic moments seem.  This group of people, which consists largely of well-regarded theater actors, all have very good chemistry together, which serves the film well, whether they are have scenes that revolve around everyone having a good time or if they are getting into big arguments with one another.

I also really enjoyed that this film was set in the 70s.  As Julie Delpy used a lot of her own experiences and memories that recall this time period, the setting allowed for a familiar but nuanced way of handling a big group like this interacting with one another.  So rather than having individuals acting in a more conservative manner or participating in activities that are less interesting, were the film to be placed in modern times, we get to witness a period that allows for adults and children to interact on a unique sort of level.  Adults do not do much to heed where their conversations take them, regardless of being in the presence of their kids.  The kids lack the technology of today and we get to watch them play around with each other outside, tell each other stories, and deal with pre-teen emotions.  There is a solid level of authenticity to all of this that better communicates the idea of all of these people really acting like a family and providing enjoyable moments for this film to revel in.

Further adding onto my appreciation of the time period, Le Skylab is a great looking film.  The characters have fitting costumes, clothing, and other various accessories.  The setting is appropriate, with a country home that is busy enough to show off the farm in the background, the style of décor within and around the home, and the nature the activities that these folks can participate in.  A late scene that involves the younger members of the family all going to a party together was also a fun and realized mini-adventure, getting a feel for the nighttime activities that kids can be involved in.

And lastly, the setting also provides a reason to bring up the various social norms and politics of the people involved.  Delpy’s character and her husband are portrayed as being strong supporters of the leftist political party, which becomes an issue for a few of the other family members.  In particular, this upsets the character Roger (Denis Menochet, who was featured in the opening of Inglourious Basterds), an ex-soldier that clearly has issues with living a civilian life.  It is the way that things like this and other differences that reflect the time period continue to make the film an interesting watch and provides for ways to give nearly every character an important scene or two (at least) to work with.

I mentioned early on that the story is essentially aimless, choosing to indulge in watching conversations between characters play out and observe the various family dynamics with undercurrents of humor or drama cutting through.  Albertine is basically our central character, but once the film settles into the reunion aspect, it has a pretty fair balance all around.  As a result, the film is a little long, choosing to better flesh out the majority of the cast, without speeding up some of the proceedings to make for a tighter picture, but it’s not something that bothered me too much.  It is a film that practically knows it is overindulging in showing us all these characters, but also understands that the family is working well enough at seeming like a real one.

Le Skylab was an enjoyable and interesting film.  It makes great use of the ensemble cast and their dynamics with one another.  The period setting adds a refreshing quality to how the interactions, activities, drama, and comedy play out.  And the film gets by on its charming nature (even when some of the darker elements factor in), despite the tendency to let things play out a bit too long in spots.  Entertaining, touching at times, and very well made overall.

Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website, and be sure to check back to Why So Blu throughout the week for more of my coverage of the festival!

Here’s the trailer for Le Skylab (Unfortunately, I could not find one with English subtitles):

Alex Karpovsky and Tarik Lowe star as Nick and Darryl, two friends who work on movies together as editors.  The project they are currently working on is a romantic comedy, which has been taking an extended amount of time to cut down to a reasonable length, while pleasing the various producers and filmmakers involved.  This has not been the best experience for the director, Adrian (Kevin Corrigan), and it has also annoyed Darryl, as he doesn’t like seeing certain characters get cut out.  Nick has been having a slightly better time in this process, as it has allowed him to meet the female star of the film.  Popular actress named Jamie Kirkland (Arielle Kebbel), spends plenty of time in Nick’s company, which she seems to be enjoying quite a bit.

I should mention that Nick is also currently engaged to Amy (Sophia Takal), who is currently living with him and getting ready to kick wedding plans into gear (after the discussion of possible prenup arrangements, of course).  Meanwhile, Darryl is having relationship issues of his own, as his girlfriend, Liana (Melonie Diaz), claims to love him, despite the fact that the two of them constantly argue.  The rest of the film revolves around Nick and Darryl working on the movie together, as well as working on their relationships and giving each other playful grief along the way.

Supporting Characters is a very low key film overall and that is a lot of the reason as to why I enjoyed it.  There is not a lot of time spent of making this film seem particularly flashy in any way and the characters do not really speak in dialogue that suggests they are overly knowledgeable or hip.  The film simply follows around these two main guys during a stressful (and fairly humorous) time in their lives and it has an all-around authentic feel, with maybe a slight edge, given the scripted nature of the dialogue.  It is not a film about large narrative turns, but a simple human comedy that provides a lot of space for the actors to cleverly and effectively bounce off of one another.

Karpovsky and Lowe have fun chemistry together, conveying a friendship that seems very natural.  I particularly liked the interplay they had together when it came to scenes that involved them at work in the editing room.  The various relationships in the film were also interesting to watch.  It could be easy to write off Liana as irritating, but I liked the way it made Lowe’s character have to work to try and keep the peace between them.  I also enjoyed a lot of the laid back charm in Nick and Amy’s relationship and even with him and Jamie, despite how easy it was for Nick to seemingly convince a “hot” actress to desire him so much.  Kevin Corrigan also provides fun support in his small role.

Tarik Lowe was also the co-writer of this film, along with his friend and director Daniel Schector.  The two apparently made this film, using a lot of their own personal experiences in the process to develop the story.  Shot for around $50,000, the film works at being a somewhat offbeat, slice of life-type film, which is semi-autobiographical, but not really overdone in any noticeable way.  The use of New York as a location grounds the film in a certain reality, but the photography is never too flashy to really emphasize where these characters are, rather than what they are getting done in the film.

The only real problem I found with this film was the way it basically stumbles through the notion of having a plot to wrap itself up in.  The film is not necessarily aimless, but it more or less follows a specific period of time and details the main events that occur.  By the time it gets around to sculpting a supposed narrative for the film as a whole, it brings in a couple elements that are established a bit too late, without giving the audience a good chance to take it in.  It is a minor gripe however, as I was happy to go along with these characters throughout the film, based mainly around the appropriate chemistry I found them to have.

Supporting Characters works well with what it has.  There is a good cast here, made up of talented young actors, who bring a nice liveliness to how the script and dialogue has been assembled.  The film thankfully does not revel in hipster New York culture either, instead playing out as a film with grounded characters, dealing with adult issues in a serious, but still humorous sort of way.  It is an entertaining film that works as a solid indie comedy/drama.

Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website, and be sure to check back to Why So Blu throughout the week for more of my coverage of the festival!

Here’s the trailer for Supporting Characters:

Jewtopia follows the stories of Chris (Ivan Sergei) and Adam (Joel David Moore).  The two were best friends from childhood, though Chris was a gentile with redneck parents (played by Peter Stormare and Nicollette Sheridan), while Adam was Jewish (his very Jewish parents are played by Jon Lovitz and Rita Wilson).  This should not be an issue, but it becomes one, as we see that Adam has heavy anxiety issues, while Chris is used to roughhousing with his brothers and his father does not really enjoy Adam being one of Chris’ friends.  As time passes, the two sort of drift apart.

In their adulthood, Adam has somehow landed a trophy fiancé, Hannah Daniels (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), who is Jewish and quite wealthy due to her and her parent’s (played by Tom Arnold and Camryn Manheim) work as successful gynecologists.  Adam has stuck with the family business of professional embroidery and is bossed around constantly by his bride to be.  Meanwhile, Chris has his own plumbing business, but is in search of love in the form of a Jewish woman.  You see, Chris had a Jewish girlfriend in college, who dumped him, but since Chris loved having all his decisions made by her, he hopes to find someone that can fill that same role.  Naturally, after meeting the perfect Jewish woman, Alison Marks (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Chris decides to pretend to be a Jewish doctor and goes to seek advice from Adam for how to properly act like a Jew.  And the “hilarity” ensues.

I have not been masking my opinions about this film already, but I will say it again – I really disliked this movie.  I thought it was terrible.  Everything about how this story unfolded was pathetic.  None of the characters are particularly strong or likable.  The jokes are never clever and have no subtlety to them at all, working instead as bad pandering that makes constant use of the lowest common denominator type of humor.  Whether it is an attempt to make various Jewish references seem funny or just lay deep in various raunchy bits of humor, the film never rises above any level that hints at any sort of sneaky intelligence lurking underneath.  Everything just falls flat instead, and left me bored and displeased with having to slump in my seat and hope it would end sooner rather than later.

I won’t say that this movie is offensive.  Jewtopia is way too stupid to be offensive or have me care about the various Jewish stereotypes that are portrayed with an over-the-top sense of bad taste.  And of course, given that the filmmakers are Jewish (as am I), I know that this film was trying to essentially dare people to laugh at how ridiculous the stereotypes being delved into on screen are.  With that said, the film still failed in creating any sort of effective comedy out of  the types of jokes they were going for.  None of the same old jokes are ever given any sort of fresh life; no, instead we get funny accents, jokes about acting neurotic for no apparent reason, fun with circumcision humor, and various uses of old Yiddish terms to emphasize all of this “amusement”.  If Jewtopia was attempting to be some sort of satire, knowing how bad these jokes were and playing off of that factor, then the film definitely failed in every way possible.

There is not too much to say about the actors, other than the fact that few of them escape without embarrassing themselves too much.  Ivan Sergei basically serves as a substitute for a Brendan Fraser-type character, accept with no real charisma and the status of playing a pretty terrible person, who learns practically nothing over the course of the film and does not deserve his happy ending.  Joel David Moore reaches a point where he must hump a plastic dolphin for…I don’t know why.  For whatever reason, Peter Stormare is given the chance to flex his chops by donning a southern accent, which goes over terribly, while Tom Arnold and Jon Lovitz do their best at hanging around the film long enough to cash their paychecks.  Jamie Lynn-Sigler gets the chance to put her comedic timing to work; as she deals with being overly concerned about how pretty her vagina is (I can’t make this stuff up).  And Jennifer Love Hewitt apparently plays an idiot who can’t figure out what’s going on with her silly “Jewish” boyfriend.

Anyone that really loves movies like Epic Movie or Meet the Spartans will probably feel right at home with Jewtopia and for those that do have fun with those kinds of movies, let alone this movie, I can assure you that I have no problem with that.  It is not a matter of me being better than the humor that is presented here; I just don’t find it entertaining at all.  The film combines a slew of ridiculous raunchy humor, cracks at Jews vs. Gentiles, and various other jokes that I could see coming a mile away, with hopes that it would go another direction, but doesn’t and just left me feeling more numbness than anything really.  I have so far seen other films at the Newport Beach Film Festival that I enjoyed and I am sure the play must be something that is far more enjoyable, but Jewtopia gave me nothing to enjoy.  A great, big dud.

Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website, and be sure to check back to Why So Blu throughout the week for more of my coverage of the festival!

Film

Even though my score is relatively low, I had a decent amount of fun with One for the Money, flaws notwithstanding. While I mentioned that Heigl didn’t give a very good performance, it was bearable due to the silliness of her role. My problem with her performance was the constant switch Heigl did with that god-awful southern accent. Seriously, she goes 10-20 minutes without it until she switches back for a few minutes. To be honest, not a bunch of big names come up, but we have less-than-average supporting performances from Jason O’Mara (Resident Evil: Extinction), Daniel Sunjata (FX’s Rescue Me), and Debbie Reynolds (The Unsinkable Molly Brown).

Another issue I had was how painfully redundant this was like another useless vehicle, The Bounty Hunter. One for the Money tries to pack in one-too-many clichés into a 90-minute film. Although I am unfamiliar with Janet Evanovich’s novel of the same name, I’m fairly certain that I would not care much for it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather watch a movie than read a book (sorry to all book enthusiasts), but is it really necessary to adapt pointless prints? Would a little originality hurt? To Hollywood, apparently, it would, but since I haven’t read the books, I can only speculate.

Ironically, One for the Money is the beginning of a set of books, originally set to be movies, until opening week, when the film bombed at the Box Office with a depressing $11 million opening weekend and an even more depressing $26 million total gross, and only $7 million worldwide. The budget was $40 million, and it could not even make THAT back. Well, if the Blu-ray sales do well enough (which they won’t), it might. As the big Box Office aficionado I am, I just wanted to share that.

The whole film relies on thawed-out characters and cheap, nudity-induced gags to catch the audience, while it proves ineffective for an avid film geek. Sure, for a group of pre-teens looking for a fun time or a Katherine Heigl fan (if there are any) out there, then I guess you would have a reasonable time with One for the Money, but please, never use the “One for the Money” and “classic” in the same sentence. Wow, reading this back, I’m sure of it – One for the Money is a plethora of awfulness bottled up into one poorly made, uneven “comedy”.

It tries to be funny when it isn’t, and tries to be serious (really?) when it shouldn’t. The acting is sloppy, the script is dull, and the direction is nothing to brag about. One for the Money didn’t have much potential, but I expected something a bit better than this. How does the Blu-ray presentation bode? Read on to find out, folks.

Video 

Since the film was quite shabby, at least we get a fine Blu-ray presentation. One for the Money is presented in 1080p (2.40:1) and looks good in its presentation. The film was nicely shot in multiple locations. The image is clear and includes accurate color representation with nice textures and deep, smooth detail throughout. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.

Audio 

Another contributing factor to the Blu-ray presentation of One for the Money is its superb audio presentation. One for the Money is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and sounds absolutely terrific. The film has a fitting soundtrack with smooth tones and suspenseful during the action scenes. Ambient sounds are nice and well balanced, as well as dialogue situations, which are handled with solid clarity. No complaints here!

Extras

The special features on One for the Money are dull and uninteresting, and will *fortunately* bring down the final grade.

-       Making the Money: Behind the Scenes

-       Bond Girls: Kicking Ass in the Bail Bonds Industry

-       Gag Reel

-       Deleted Scene

-       Theatrical Trailer

-       iTunes Compatible Digital Copy

Summary

Even with a solid Blu-ray presentation that kicks up the overall presentation a notch, I can’t help but feel that One for the Money is a completely unnecessary flick that shouldn’t have gone into production in the first place. The acting is mediocre, the writing is weak, and the direction is run-of-the-mill. One for the Money is simply not up to snuff.

Order One For the Money on Blu-ray!

“Sly and big-hearted, funny and moving”— Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair

JASON SEGEL AND ED HELMS STAR IN THE HILARIOUS, CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED COMEDY ABOUT FAMILY, DESTINY AND FINDING YOUR WAY

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME

Follow the Signs on Blu-ray™ and DVD June 19, 2012

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME is the story of one man’s hilarious search for the meaning of life.  As slacker Jeff stumbles towards enlightenment, he uncovers answers to his nagging family’s problems.  Jeff has no idea where he’s going but when he finally gets there, he might just find out what it’s all about.  Judy Greer (The Descendants) and Rae Dawn Chong (“St. Elsewhere”) also star in this delightfully entertaining film that is “funny, tender and ultimately moving” (Mark Adams, ScreenDaily.com) and is filled with “moments of comedy gold” (Lou Lumenick, New York Post).

The JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME Blu-ray will be presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description, as well as English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The DVD will be presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description, as well as English, French and Spanish subtitles.

All Blu-ray and DVD releases available for purchase will be enabled with UltraViolet, a new way to collect, access and enjoy movies.  With UltraViolet, consumers can add movies to their digital collection in the cloud, and then stream or download them – reliably and securely – to a variety of devices.

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME

Street Date:              June 19, 2012

SRP:                            $29.99 U.S. (Blu-ray)

$19.99 U.S. (DVD)

Runtime:                     83 minutes

U.S. Rating:                R for language including sexual references and some drug use

Canadian Rating:       14A for coarse language and substance abuse

Order Jeff, Who Lives at Home on Blu-ray!

BAD ASS

Directed by Craig Moss (The 41 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall And Felt Superbad About It), Bad Ass is inspired by the Epic Beard Man video that captured two men’s highly charged verbal and brutal physical altercation on a public bus in Oakland, California.  Posted to YouTube, the video spread like wildfire and the heroic elder bearded man was anointed Epic Beard Man.  The video has garnered more than five million views.

The Bad Ass Blu-ray and DVD has a featurette and audio commentary.   Both the Blu-ray and DVD are now available for pre-order.  Prebook is May 9.

Bad Ass Blu-ray and DVD Special Features

Order Bad Ass on Blu-ray!

Alex Rosen: You’ve got huge balls.
Luke Wright: Yeah, it’s amazing I can even walk.

The Stath stars in this film as Luke Wright.  The film’s first act is cleverly layered and chaotic, so bear with some the description.  We first see Wright as a man down on his luck.  Jumping back a year, we see that Wright was an underground boxer who fails to go down in the second round of one particular fight, as instructed and the results are disastrous.  Wright has everything taken away from him by the Russian mob and is forced to live his life in solitude, if he doesn’t want anyone else he meets to get hurt.  We learn even more about who Wright is later on.

Concurrently, we learn the story of Mei (Catherine Chan), a Chinese girl, very gifted with numbers, who is abducted by Triads in order to memorize everything regarding accounts and profits from their various connections, in an effort to keep their organization electronics free and off the grid.  Getting past this setup up, things really take off when Mei learns a highly desired string of numbers, only to have her protectors attacked by the Russian Mafia.  Mei manages to escape both, but before she is captured again, a chance encounter with Wright has Mei suddenly under his protection, as the two try to make it through the city alive, despite the precious information in their possession.

It is surprising how effective the first act is.  I really loved how the film is set up, effectively combining a kinetically achieved series of flashbacks with a hardboiled, noir-ish type of plotting.  The early goings of Safe play out a lot like an ambitious 70s action film as well as it does a 40s crime film, with an added does of ass kicking.  A lot of action films take their plots for granted, which is not a terrible thing (The Raid: Redemption is light on story, but still amazing), but Safe treats its story with a level of respect that is appreciated, even if the film does settle for plenty of clichéd dialogue in the process.  Writer/director Boaz Yakin clearly wants to do more than just have a reason for Jason Statham to beat up people and look cool, he wants to add some layers and have you root for the character based on more setup than just his natural charisma.

Statham really is quite solid in this role.  There is not a lot to distinguish the various characters that he has played throughout his action star career (though I could personally cover what distinguishes the attitude and fighting style of Chev Chelios in Crank versus Frank Martin in The Transporter), but Safe provides Statham with a role that is up to the level of The Bank Job in terms of layered characters you feel sorry for.  After the first twenty minutes of the film, you really have to hope Statham is going to be alright, because the film does a lot to provide some emotional depth for him, before deciding to let him unleash some rage and pound in some faces.

And speaking of pounding faces, once this movie does get into the action stuff, it is rare to let up.  Safe puts its R-rating to use by not delivering on too much blood, but making sure that when hits land and people get shot, they stay down.  Luke Wright has nothing to lose and is plenty angry, so watching him delivery beatings to those who are in need of them is pretty satisfying.  The action scenes themselves are somewhat stylized, a bit over-the-top, and at times too hectic (an early one is done so on purpose and it is effective), but, for the most part, there is a lot of entertainment value to be had with how some of these fights, car chases, and gun battles play out.  The use of New York locations also lent the film a sense of authenticity to better emphasize some of the craziness of the action in general.

I will say that while there is a bit of maturity in the Statham character, the film is pretty busy throughout and eventually comes to the point where I knew it was never going to quite ascend to peaks greater than standard action fare.  Frankly, the best portions of the film come pretty early on, with the later action in the film being sufficient enough (Statham kicking ass is satisfying in general), but nothing more than a fun way to see how things play out for the rest of the flick’s runtime.  I would also call into question the total number of dead bodies in the film, as there is a lot of death distributed throughout and not much time spent reflecting on that aspect.

Safe is overall a fun time at the movies that front loads itself with a surprisingly strong setup, before letting all hell break loose.  Statham does more than just play it *ahem* safe this time around, but later manages to provide all the fisticuffs people want to see.  I guess I would be remiss to not mention James Hong somewhere in this review as well (check out his awesome filmography), so to close, I will just say that this 83-year old Asian American actor brings a sturdy and effective presence to a film that deserves it.  It has an overall average sort of quality, but it is aided by the hardboiled tone and willingness to layer its story.  And Statham rocks.

Mei: I’ve seen him fight.  Bad business for you.

Suzie: This is supposed to be exciting.  This is your wedding.  You only get a few of these.

The film begins with Tom Solomon (Jason Segel) proposing to his girlfriend Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt).  She accepts and the two are on course for marriage.  Following an engagement party, which leads to Tom’s best friend Alex (Chris Pratt) and Violet’s sister Suzie (Alison Brie) hooking up and delivering a surprise series of events on their own, Violet receives game-changing news.  Having applied to various colleges to pursue further education in psychology, she gets accepted in the University of Michigan, which has a post-doctorate program that lasts for two years.  Tom is successfully employed as the sous chef at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco, but decides to stick with his love and move to Ann Arbor with her, effectively delaying the wedding.  It is only after he makes this decision that he learns he was in line to be made head chef at a new restaurant.

In moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Violet settles in quickly with her new professor, Winton (Rhys Ifans) and the other students she will be working with, while Tom seeks a new chef job.  Tom ends up working at a sandwich shop with friendly enough people, but even as time passes, Tom does not find himself satisfied.  Things get more complicated as Violet’s work in school proves to be successful enough to extend her stay in the area.  This delays the wedding further and leaves Tom in a difficult position.  The rest of the film balances the difficulties with Tom and Violet’s relationship with the scattered laughs found in their interactions with the various other cast members.

Scattered laughs are problems that this film deals with throughout much of its runtime.  The first half hour is pretty solid, working well at establishing all that is going on, with a genuine likable quality, despite the drama that lurks beneath.  Segal and Blunt have good chemistry together, which works well in grounding the film.  However, after arriving in Ann Arbor and then really settling into this location, the film stretches the story out for way too long.  As a result, despite bouncing humor around throughout, the inherent nature of the drama unfolding and the thin ways in which the story progresses gives the film an uneven issue when it comes to keeping the comedy alive.  The humor is there and it even becomes more assured again during the later parts of the third act, but this is definitely a case where less would have been more.

There are quite a few highlights, which all stem from the large comedic cast involved with the film.  A solid group that includes Kevin Hart, Mindy Kaling, Randall Park, Brian Posehn, Chris Parnell, and David Paymer, among others, all provide a lot of great supporting character work that ranges from quick one-liners to fun instances of jokes that pay off well.  The best work in this category comes from Chris Pratt and Alison Brie (quite a lot of NBC players in this film), who get a lot of space to play out their arc of the film.  As the film was way too long anyway, I can easily see the axe taken to any of these characters, without much loss, but at least there was a lot of good comedic support to achieve laughs within all the film’s excessive padding.

The Five-Year Engagement comes from the Judd Apatow world of comedy (he produced) and has the familiar issue of these films having a lot of raunchy-but-funny comedy, a lot of heart and dramatic tension, but being too long overall.  There are examples where this has worked in spite of the issues (everyone has their own favorite), with my favorite example being Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Somewhat coincidentally, the team behind ‘Marshall’ is the same group behind ‘Five-Year’, Jason Segel co-wrote this film with writer/director Nicholas Stoller (who are also coming off of their wave of success, after writing/producing The Muppets), but unfortunately, the results are not as effective this time around.  I think the difference surrounds narrative focus, as the film simply drifts along and pads out space with random bits of comedy and redundant amounts of drama, as opposed to handling a familiar premise with any sort of interesting take to make it better.

Two more things to point out about this film.  The first is the weirdness that goes on in it.  Despite being a ultimately forgettable (yet mildly entertaining and warm romantic comedy), we get to see strange moments like Tom’s decision to really let his beard grow at one point, during his lowest points of living in Ann Arbor.  There is also the decision to have at least two moments of severe bloodshed occur.  It is moments like these that really make the film feel unbalanced, despite how “funny” some of these ideas may have seemed in the writer’s room.  The other thing is the soundtrack.  Either Stoller or Segel, or both, made the choice to populate the film with Van Morrison songs and covers.  This is not at all a bad thing, so even during times when I was not to fond of how the film was progressing, at least I had a solid soundtrack to work with.

The Five-Year Engagement is basically a miss for the Apatow Productions team, but not a strong miss.  I would have been happy to appreciate this film more if it took better notice of how everything was balancing out.  I did like the cast and found a lot to enjoy in the many comedic supporting performances, but overall the film is just as I have already described it – mildly entertaining, with a layer or warmth in the chemistry, but ultimately pretty forgettable; unlike the past work that has come from Stoller and Segel working together.  It is unfortunate and although I did not have a terrible time, I hope these two do something again that I can really enjoy.

Tom:  I hope you know that I deserve to get like super-laid for this.
Violet:  What?  Do you want me to wear a cape or something?

The film stars Askel Hennie as Roger Brown.  Roger’s profession is a headhunter, who is looking to find the perfect candidates to become a part of the corporation he represents.  Roger also moonlights as an art thief, in order to cover his expenses and keep himself and his oblivious wife Diana (Synnøve Macody Lund) living a fairly high class lifestyle.  During the opening of Diana’s first art gallery in Oslo, Roger meets Clas Greve (Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).  Clas is a former soldier and, until recently, a successful senior manager at a corporation that rivals Roger’s own place of business.  These various facts make Clas very qualified to be recruited by Roger.  The biggest kicker is that Clas is also in possession of a very rare painting, which Roger could easily help himself to, once he has the chance.

Roger has been having financial issues as of late, so stealing the painting from Clas is definitely a priority, but upon doing so, Roger discovers something very alarming.  With little time to really process what is going on, Roger finds himself in some serious trouble and is forced to go on the run, with not much hope in trusting anyone around him.  All he wanted to do was support himself and his wife, but Roger is going to have to use all of his cunning, if he ever wants to continue on with his desired lifestyle.

I hate being so vague in the twist that occur, but the film did well by me for not completely telegraphing how it was going to play out in the early goings.  I knew that the film was a thriller to some extent, but the way the plot unfolds was done so in a fairly entertaining way, as the thrilling aspect is essentially thrust upon Roger and the audience, with little warning beforehand.  Once the plot really kicks into gear, the film rarely lets up and instead has Roger basically suffering for a large portion of the film.  The man gets beat up in all sorts of ways, with only his fairly clever mind working to get him out of some pretty crazy situations.

On the whole, this story is not very deep.  Headhunters is based on a book by popular Norwegian author Jo Nesbø, which seems to have taken a cue from various other pulpy crime novels of the past.  It sets up the characters, some various pieces of information that may or may not be important down the road, and then provides various thrilling scenarios for Roger.  That said, there was a good amount of creativity and solid filmmaking at work to keep the film moving and myself engaged in the action.  Some bumps here or there in how to make some of the action-type scenarios more watchable, but I did admire the way Roger was forced into a number of do or die situations.

The film itself is never overly serious, which is reflected in the way the film bounces around some extremely violent scenarios with a filmmaking style that almost revels in the way the over-the-top nature of some of the thrills takes hold.  I could not help but think at times that the film was one of most violent live-action cartoons imaginable.  Headhunters is ostensible a chase film, with Roger on the run and in hiding for a large portion of the runtime, but the extent to which he needs to get out of precarious situations is at times almost too ridiculous, with moments that are resolved through pure luck.

One thing that really worked for me in this film was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.  The blond, Danish actor was solid in the role that requires him to essentially only speak when he has to (and when he does, he’s actually pretty charming), but provide plenty of menace in the way his role plays out.  While Roger is basically a really lucky (and occasionally very clever) dweeb, Coster-Waldau’s Clas is a man on a mission, who has the know how to accomplish his goals.  I also appreciated the humor that came from the character Ove (Eivind Sander), Roger’s crime partner in the art theft world, who brought some lightness early on to the film.

Headhunters is a fine thriller overall.  It manages to be quite violent and stirs some tensions in various moments, but is entertaining to watch.  If one were to step back and think about how some of the twists in the story would work from a logical perspective, there is the chance that one could be less impressed with it, but I was caught up in the moment enough to not really focus too hard on the various and inherent flaws in a story built around many plot reversals.  The film is plenty fine in being a fun enough chase thriller.

Click on the poster to visit the Newport Beach Film Festival website, and be sure to check back to Why So Blu throughout the week for more of my coverage of the festival!

Here is the trailer for Headhunters: