Having skipped the prequel Rise of the Lycans, Kate Beckinsale returns to rock skintight leather and kick quite a bit more butt as beautiful bloodsucker Selene in Underworld: Awakening, the slick but strangely spiritless fourth entry in the nearly decade-old vampires-vs-werewolves franchise.
Read More action, blu-ray, David, DVD, Fantasy, horror, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Ealy, Stephen Rea, Theo James, Underworld
Rarely have I rolled my eyes, or wanted to gag, more than while watching New Year’s Eve, director Garry Marshall’s nigh unbearable Valentine’s Day follow-up, a movie seemingly constructed to be the Gone with the Wind of soft-serve rom-com mash-ups, and run nearly as long.
Read More Abigail Breslin, Ashton Kutcher, blu-ray, comedy, David, DVD, Garry Marshall, Hilary Swank, Josh Duhamel, Katherine Heigl, New Year's Eve, Robert De Niro, romance, Sarah Jessica ParkerBlack Hawk Down meets Independence Day in Battle: Los Angeles, an entertainingly gung-ho alien-invasion epic starring Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez that practically doubles as a military recruitment film.
Read More Aaron Eckhart, action, Battle: Los Angeles, blu-ray, David, DVD, Michelle Rodriguez, Sci-FiHaving seemingly fallen off the Hollywood map after their 2007 remake of The Heartbreak Kid, the Farrelly Brothers return in a big way with Hall Pass, a raunchy and very funny comedy starring Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis in which the filmmakers once again mix over-the-top toilet humor with lots of heart.
Read More blu-ray, comedy, David, DVD, Farrelly Brothers, Hall Pass, Jason Sudeikis, Owen Wilson, R, romanceThe Concert, at least initially, is a goofy farce with a moderately ridiculous premise. A janitor working at the Bolshoi in Moscow, who himself was once its celebrated–and politically discredited–conductor (Alexeï Guskov), intercepts a fax from Paris inviting the orchestra to fill in for the L.A. Philharmonic, which has canceled. He decides to get the [...]
Read More Alexei Guskov, Dmitri Nazarov, drama, DVD, Melanie Laurent, R, The Concert, willIt’s said there are only seven plots in literature and film. Film has different strictures so depending on how willing you are to sub-define/divide “plot” and where you land online, you end up with a number over thirty. Maybe template is a better choice of words. We’re not deciding where these two films fall on [...]
Read More Chris Messina, DVD, Jonathan Hensleigh, Kill the Irishman, Monogamy, Rashida Jones, Ray StevensonMichael Bay was originally going to direct I Am Number Four, but he passed, and the job went to D.J. Caruso. Good thing, too, because in Bay’s hands this sci-fi action flick would probably have been a bombastic mess, whereas the director of Disturbia and Eagle Eye makes it into a thoroughly entertaining mix of [...]
Read More action, Alex Pettyfer, blu-ray, DJ Caruso, DVD, I Am Number Four, PG-13, Sci-Fi, thriller, Timothy OlyphantBeing the 11 year old I am, I would say that the ongoing garden gnome battle of the Reds and Blues would be better if there were more than just one death. But it is of course a Disney movie, so kids from the ages of 3-8 would enjoy this. But, even the speaking William [...]
Read More adventure, animation, blu-ray, comedy, DVD, G, Gnomeo And Juliet, Hulk Hogan, Matt Lucas, Patrick Stewart, VivianThis isn’t a real review–I’m just writing to bring a movie to your attention: Burning Palms. I previewed this movie–a collection of five stories–over the weekend, and it was good. Really good. Here’s my caveat, though: It is dark. Very black humor. The themes may be disturbing to some, including rape and incest, but the [...]
Read More Burning Palms, Christopher Landon, comedy, drama, DVD, joyce, Lake Bell, R, Zoe SaldanaThe characters in Vanishing On 7th Street spend most of the time running away from shadows, a notion that initially may sound as silly as seeing people flee from the wind in The Happening, but one that, in the capable hands of director Brad Anderson, gets turned into a nicely low-key hair-raiser of a horror [...]
Read More Brad Anderson, David, DVD, Hayden Christensen, horror, Jacob Latimore, John Leguizamo, Mystery, R, Thandie Newton, thriller, Vanishing on 7th Street