Maleficent (Blu-ray Review)
Disney’s Maleficent was not only one of the biggest hits of summer, its one of the biggest movies of the the 2014 cinema-going year. The film has grossed over $241 million just domestically and dominated worldwide taking in over $757 million. Its another instance in helping prove that female-led and driven blockbusters should be more commonplace in our theatrical release slate. The film also goes to show Angelina Jolie is just a genuine superstar. She doesn’t do many films of this ilk anymore, but when she does, people will flock out to go and see it. Plus, there’s also the perfect joining of her and Disney to take on this character for the film. A film that tells a different angle on a classic fairy tale.
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Back in 2oo6, I was a big big fan of the sort of musical film Once. Love the movie, loved the soundtrack even more. It was a daring film, because above all else, that music had to be excellent in order for the film to truly work, and it did. Then, it wound up winning an Academy Award for one of its songs, all was great and then I never really followed anyone involved from the film afterward. Writer and Director John Carney has made two films since, but I didn’t know about them until I looked him up for this review. He returns to craft another music based film, this time focused in a bigger city, with bigger stars and a story dealing with a similar musical mission to Once, but this one with a little more promised success and bigger ambition. And wow, Keira Knightley isn’t too bad of a singer. I was surprised to learn she actually sang for her own songs that were performed in the film. 
Life Of Crime interested me because it features characters from Jackie Brown. On any given day, Jackie Brown is either my absolute favorite Quentin Tarantino film or at the very least Top 3. Life Of Crime takes place with Ordell, Louis, Melanie and brief appearance from Ray in the year 1978. This was a festival touring film that wound up playing in theaters finally around the end of August. A side note, I’m just curious, but the film takes place in 1978 and features a scene with Will Forte trapped in a closet and he begins smashing his way out of the door just like Michael Myers did in the original Halloween. I’m wondering if this was intentional, as Forte strangely knocks the pieces of the door out in the same manner that Michael did even. Oh well, the Halloween season is upon us, so I thought I’d take note of that. 
Remember that huge 4th of July weekend this past summer that everyone overly criticized, yet didn’t realize no “majory” blockbusters or anything were released? You know, that the film Tammy got most of the blunt negativity from? There was another film that showed up, the found footage kids sci fi movie Earth To Echo. Earth To Echo was deemed a disappointment, but a further look at it…it was actually a pretty nice success story. The film only had a budget of $13 million and wound up taking in $38.9 million domestically. Factoring in overseas money, it made an additional haul for a total of over $45 million dollars. That’s almost four times its budget back. A very very very good investment. So, this movie was actually a pretty darn big success even if it was huffed at by “experts”. The film is hitting Blu-ray to the possibility of just adding to that financial success and possibly bringing in some more fans. 
Don’t look now, but apparently we are on Wrong Turn number 6. Personally, I haven’t seen any of them past the original. That one had Eliza Dushku, Jeremy Sisto, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Desmond Harrington and was the only one of these released theatrically (Others played at events like ScreamFest and the like). When I signed up for Vudu I got Wrong Turn 2 for free but I’ve not watched it. That one was directed by Joe Lynch and actually was critically acclaimed with a unanimous approval that its better than the first film. I’ve still not had a chance to check it out, but I want to. Every one following has been reviled though. So, of course I’m going into part 6 with the lowest expectations. And I hope I can keep up having missed the 4 previous installments. 
The Prince is brought to us from producers behind last year’s films Lone Survivor and Escape Plan. That’s a weird balance as I really enjoyed one of those quite a bit and sort of despised the other. And if you want a clue as to which, lets just say its the one that wasn’t based on a true story. The film boasts an impressive one-two punch of actors for me as I’ve never seen two of my favorites, John Cusack and Bruce Willis in a film together before. According to my research this film did play in theaters, but seems to be more of a straight to video or Video OnDemand kind of film. And no, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that as there have been some truly terrific films going by way of VOD over the past couple years and sort of the replacement of sorts for an outlet for independent genre films. 
Millennium Entertainment brings us the home entertainment release of the crime-thriller, Good People. The film feature plenty of prestige and award respect flaunting talent in front of and behind the camera. Let’s just start listing off shall we? Academy Award nominee Henrik Ruben Genz directs the all-star cast lead by Academy Award nominee James Franco, Academy Award nominee Kate Hudson, Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson and Omar Sy of Gregg Senko’s favorite film that he loves The Intouchables. Written by Kelly Masterson (Same person who wrote Snowpiercer!) and adapted from the book of the same title by Marcus Sakey, Good People. 
Well, I never saw the original Planes, so right out of the gate know that my only experience with the Disney Planes films is this one here today. The original film really didn’t catch my interest as it looked like it was a cash in of Cars, which I’m not too big a fan of. And also it came and went and nobody really seemed to care or craft any buzz or praise for it. I didn’t even think it took the box office too big, but apparently it did good enough to get this sequel. That, or like Cars, the toys were just selling like hot cakes and they needed another go round. Even being a novice going into a sequel blindly without knowledge of the first, I was still open to this Dane Cook-led film to surprise me. Sometimes lowered expectations can help in situations. 
Akkad is a name that’s been so very familiar to me for many moons. My very favorite film of all time begins with the words “Moustapha Akkad Presents”. That name is forever the keeper of The Shape of our nightmares, Michael Myers. Many know and remember the last Moustapha, but the keys are now in his son, Malek Akkad’s hands now. Malek began following in his father’s footsteps being a production assistant on Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers. Beginning with Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers, he was a producer from then out and now the main man when it comes to all things Haddonfield. The series now begins with “Malek Akkad Presents”. Why all the Halloween talk? Because he’s now taken to the director’s chair (First time since 2002) for Free Fall. Free Fall isn’t his first directorial work, but its his first feature film. I was immediately drawn to the prospect of seeing what he could do here. 
When most people think of Mel Brooks, they always turn to the funny. Whether it be television with Get Smart or most notably his incredible directorial run of movies like The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and History Of The World: Part 1, that’s what he’s pretty much made his bread and butter on. However, he was also an active producer as well, and not limited to just comedy. Did you know Mel Brook produced David Lynch’s The Elephant Man? He indeed did. Scream Factory is releasing another film you wouldn’t think of being attached to Mel Brooks, but it is, called The Doctor And The Devils from 1985. It stars James Bond, Jean Luc Picard and Elliot Carver. Or Timothy Dalton, Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Pryce. 
The provocative political documentary from the creators of 2016: Obama’s America,America: Imagine the World Without Her steps onto the world stage on Blu-ray from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The sixth-highest-grossing political documentary of all time, the film has been referred to as “important, inspiring, informative”. During its theatrical release, America: Imagine the World Without Her joined the ranks of critically acclaimed films like Schindler’s List, The Godfather, Forrest Gump and Dances with Wolves by earning one of only 52 A+ Cinema Score ratings in the last 29 years, the benchmark for audience reactions. That’s some pretty high praise given. Though if you wander on over to Rotten Tomatoes, you’ll see it has an 8% critic score and an 88% audience score. Okay, so the film’s not unscathed, but my what a difference in opinion. 
A Letter To Momo marks director Hiroyuki Okiura’s first film in eleven years. It was a passion project for the man, spending seven years in its production with scripting, storyboards, directing and all sorts of planning. The film made its debut in 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it wasn’t shown in the United States until March 2012 at the New York International Children’s Film Festival. The film seemed to resonate with most critics and audiences alike globally. A Letter To Momo was also spun off into its own series of manga comics shortly after it started showing in theaters and festivals back in 2011. Oddly enough, its now 2014 and the film is finally coming here to Blu-ray. So, I guess the wait is over for those who have been eager to see it. 
Squirm is a film that I had never truly seen in its entirety before. I had caught scenes of it on television at different times (Maybe not even knowing what the movie was). It was a popular late night cable movie in the 80s and early 90s. Also, as a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, I know this film as one of the final episodes of the entire series (And the films are heavily edited for that as well). The director Jeff Lieberman also directed one of my all time favorite slashers a few years after Squirm called Just Before Dawn (Which I 
Moebius is the latest from Korean art-house auteur Kim Ki-duk. The film was originally banned on its home turf of South Korea, but after the ratings board took another look or two at it they rescinded their response and gave the film a rating. The film premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival and later was selected to play at the Stanley Film Festival. The film has been commended for being a daring and bold piece of disturbing art-house cinema that really pushes some limits. It has been coupled with the horror genre a bit, because of how disturbing things can get, but I’m not sure that’s an appropriate genre to classify it under. Its just really its own sort of thing. 
