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Posts Tagged ‘movie review’
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013
THE HANGOVER PART III catches up with the Wolf Pack as they host an intervention to convince Alan (Zach Galifinakis) to receive help from a facility in Arizona called New Horizons after the death of Sid, Alan and Tracy’s father. En route the Pack is attacked and run off the road by a mobster, Marshall, [...]
Tags: bradley cooper, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, movie review, The Hangover Part III, Todd Phillips, Zach Galifianakis
Posted in Reviews |
Friday, May 17th, 2013
In 2009, J.J. Abrams rebooted and reinvented the Star Trek franchise. Breathing incredible new life into a series that was all but dead, STAR TREK came onto the scene with exciting action, clever humor, great characters and most importantly, brains. The film landed number 5 in my Top Ten List for 2009 (click the [...]
Tags: benedict cumberbatch, chris pine, J.J. Abrams, movie review, Star Trek Into Darkness, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana
Posted in Reviews |
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
Some films just sneak up on you. You don’t expect much, but then you are pleasantly surprised by the results. THE DETAILS is one such case. I had not heard of this picture before watching it. The cast though was impressive, so it definitely piqued my curiosity. If you are looking for a television show [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, Elizabeth Banks, jacob aaron estes, Laura Linney, movie review, Tobey Maguire
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
Baz Luhrmann is a visionary artist that definitely has a unique stamp on his work. STRICTLY BALLROOM was light-hearted fun, ROMEO + JULIET was an unexpected breath of fresh air in a played out genre, and MOULIN ROUGE was an underrated crowning achievement that rejuvenated and reinvented not only musicals but film in general. Unfortunately, [...]
Tags: baz luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Isla Fisher, jay-z, Joel Edgerton, Leonardo DiCaprio, movie review, the great gatsby, Tobey Maguire
Posted in Reviews |
Friday, May 3rd, 2013
After last year’s summer extravaganza in THE AVENGERS, the individual pictures of said team have a lot to compete with. That’s the major problem when you make a great film, it’s hard to meet expectations for the follow up. I’m happy to say, while a bit uneven, IRON MAN 3 is still able to deliver [...]
Tags: Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, guy pearce, gwyneth paltrow, iron man 3, jon favreau, marvel, movie review, Rebecca Hall, robert downey jr., Shane Black
Posted in Reviews |
Sunday, April 28th, 2013
In the 2003 animated Disney feature BROTHER BEAR we follow Kenai, a wreckless Inuit boy who wants to prove his bravery and strength to his tribe and to his older brothers. When Kenai’s careless attitude causes a bear to wander to their village and eat their fish, instead of rightfully taking the blame, Kenai goes [...]
Tags: Aaron Blaise, Ben Gluck, Blu-ray, Joaquin Phoenix, Mandy Moore, movie review, patrick dempsey, Robert Walker
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Sunday, April 14th, 2013
When a delivery takes timid Emile and boisterous Raoul to the botanical gardens, Raoul uses the owner’s absence as an opportunity to explore. Despite attemps made by Charles, the owner’s assistant/monkey, to keep the duo from handling assorted potions, Raoul manages to cause an explosion when mixing two substances together. Using his new camera, Emile [...]
Tags: Adam Goldberg, Bibo Bergeron, Blu-ray, Jay Harrington, movie review, Sean Lennon, Vanessa Paradis
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Friday, April 12th, 2013
Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO is one of my all-time favorite films. So it is with great joy that the film HITCHCOCK is about one of my favorite directors (REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO, ROPE) making one of my favorite films. Perhaps the film is geared more toward others like me, but HITCHCOCK is a delightful “rear window” (yeah [...]
Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Blu-ray, helen mirren, HItchcock, Jessica Biel, movie review, Sacha Gervasi, Scarlett Johansson
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Sunday, April 7th, 2013
Although, the specific date is never stated, DAY OF THE FALCON takes place roughly during the 1920′s -1930′s in the peninsula now known as Saudi Arabia. Two feuding tribes have been at war for a large barren dessert land called The Yellow Belt. The leaders from each kingdom meet and agree on peace treaty terms. [...]
Tags: Antonio Banderas, Blu-ray, Day of the Falcon, Freida Pinto, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Mark Stong, movie review, Tahar Rahim
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Saturday, April 6th, 2013
When I finished watching TRANCE, I needed to sit and process it a bit. Not because it was overly complicated with several symbolic interpretations. No, quite the opposite. The story was so dumbed down and telegraphed, I thought surely there must be something I’m missing from this uniquely stylized thriller from Oscar winning director Danny [...]
Tags: Danny Boyle, James McAvoy, movie review, Rosario Dawson, Trance, Vincent Cassel
Posted in Reviews |
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
Twenty-five years ago, my parents took me to a mesmerizing epic adventure full of trolls, fairies, swordsmen and sorcery. At the time, outside of STAR WARS, WILLOW was the grandest story I’d ever seen on the big screen. Granted, I was only eight years old, but it had all the elements a boy could ask [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, fantasy, Joanne Whalley, movie review, Ron Howard, val kilmer, Warwick Davis, Willow
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Friday, March 29th, 2013
ON THE ROAD follows the adventures of a young writer named Sal Paradise (Sam Riley, CONTROL) as he follows his free-spirited and wreckless best friend Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund, TRON: LEGACY). Traveling across country during the late 1940′s, Sal encounters numerous experiences and meets a variety of different people who influence his thoughts about religion, [...]
Tags: garrett hedlund, Kirsten Dunst Amy Adams, Kristen Stewart, movie review, on the road, Sam Riley, Steve Buscemi, Terrence Howard, Viggo Mortensen, Walter Salles
Posted in Reviews |
Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Eep, Grug, Ugga, Thunk. No, I’m not babbling incoherently (although I’m known to do that from time to time), I’m actually repeating the names of the prehistoric family from Dreamworks most recent animated adventure, THE CROODS. A fun-loving, light-hearted family film, THE CROODS combines cartoony wackiness, gorgeous visuals, universal humor and positive life lessons that [...]
Tags: animation, catherine keener, Chris Sanders, clark duke, Cloris Leachman, Emma Stone, Kirk De Micco, movie review, Nicolas Cage, ryan reynolds, the croods
Posted in Reviews |
Sunday, March 17th, 2013
CHASING MAVERICKS is the story of Jay Moriarty, a good-natured kid with exceptional surfing talent and skill. When he discovers that the legendary extra-large waves known as Mavericks really do exist and are not just those of local lore, he enlists the help of his rugged and gruff surfing neighbor, Frosty, to help him prepare [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, Curtis Hanson, Elizabeth Shue, Gerard Butler, jonny weston, Michael Apted, movie review
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Friday, March 15th, 2013
Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, THE THING) and Charlie (Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad) are a young married couple who spend almost their entire time drinking alcohol. When Kate wakes up having wet the bed, neither seem to bat an eye. After a couple of drinks in the parking lot before teaching her elementary class, Kate throws [...]
Tags: aaron paul, Blu-ray, James Ponsoldt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Megan Mullally, movie review, Nick Offerman, Octavia Spencer, smashed
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Friday, March 15th, 2013
A spoof on dueling magicians seems as good a premise as any for a comedy staring Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. Unfortunately, THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE can’t quite pull off the trick to makes us laugh for the full 100 minutes. To be fair, the film does have a handful of funny moments and I [...]
Tags: Alan Arkin, comedy, Don Scardino, James Gandolfini, Jay Mohr, Jim Carrey, movie review, Olivia Wilde, Steve Buscemi, Steve Carell, the incredible burt wonderstone
Posted in Reviews |
Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
Beth (Rebecca Hall) is giving up life as a private dancer and heading to Las Vegas with the oh-so high aspirations of being a cocktail waitress. However, she almost immediately gets an unlikely job as an assistant to sports gambler Dink (Bruce Willis). Incidentally, Beth is quite the good luck charm for Dink and it [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, bruce willis, catherine zeta-jones, joshua jackson, Laura Prepon, Lay The Favorite, movie review, Rebecca Hall, Stephen Frears, vince vaughn
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Monday, March 11th, 2013
Two lost souls consumed by revenge meet and form and complicated alliance in hopes of seeing both of their dark ambitions to fruition with no thought of the devastating consequences that may follow. One of the things I loved about director Niels Arden Oplev’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was his artistic style and [...]
Tags: Colin Farrell, dead man down, movie review, Niels Arden Opley, Noomi Rapace, Terrence Howard
Posted in Reviews |
Friday, February 15th, 2013
Seeing the pages of Stephen Chbosky’s novel THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER come to life in the film adaptation of the same name, I let out a sigh of relief. Fully understanding that books and film are two different mediums, it delights me to no end when the movie manages to capture the spirit [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, emma watson, ezra miller, Logan Lerman, movie review, Stephen Chbosky
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
In 1953, Disney released another classic in animation with PETER PAN. The magical tale is based on a 1924 play by the same name written by J.M. Barrie and where I believe most of the credit belongs. Barrie’s inspiration for the story is portrayed in 2004′s wonderful FINDING NEVERLAND, starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, Bobby Driscoll, Clyde Geronimi, Disney, Hamilton Luske, Hans Conried, Kathryn Beaumont, movie review, peter pan, Wilfred Jackson
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
AMOUR, the French word meaning love, is a brutally honest story about the hardships that come with love and commitment during the later years in a couple’s marriage. As the latest endeavor from famed Austrian director Michael Haneke who previously gave us such greats as FUNNY GAMES, WHITE RIBBON, and CACHE, AMOUR clearly has to [...]
Tags: Amour, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Michael Haneke, movie review
Posted in Reviews |
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
Inspirational movies about educators fighting to save struggling schools, students, even failing sports teams, come around on a semi-frequent basis. This genre has been played out in every way possible, so when a new film comes out, I expect it to bring something original to the table. Unfortunately, WON’T BACK DOWN falls short of being [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, Daniel Barnz, holly hunter, Maggie Gyllenhaal, movie review, Viola Davis, Won't Back Down
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Monday, February 4th, 2013
UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING is the fourth official installment in the franchise, after 1992’s original, 1999’s UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN and 2009’s UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION. (Two direct-to-video sequels, released in the late ‘90s, aren’t officially apart of the series.) DAY OF RECKONING, like its predecessors, stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Luc Deveraux, a [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, dolph lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, John Hyams, movie review, Scott Adkins, universal soldier: day of reckoning
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
Explaining the plot to SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS, is a task only a member of the title name would try to attempt. The film follows Marty (Colin Farrell), an alcoholic writer working on his next film script but struggling with a hard case of writer’s block. Marty gets some unlikely inspiration when he gets involved with a [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, Christopher Walken, Colin Farrell, Martin McDonagh, movie review, Sam Rockwell, seven psychopaths, Tom Waits, Woody Harrelson
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Thursday, January 24th, 2013
You need a road map to follow all the plot lines of THE WORDS. This is what you would call a movie that is too clever for its own good. It could have told an involving tale about writer’s block or plagiarism or even lost love if it finally chose to focus on one thing. [...]
Tags: Blu-ray, bradley cooper, Brian Klugman, Jeremy Irons, Lee Sternthal, movie review, the words, Zoe Saldana
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
Every movie aficionado has been in this situation before. You’re looking for something new to watch on either cable, pay per view, Netfilx, etc., and you come across a title whose trailers and commercial ads bring you zero recall. You immediately profile it as a “direct to video” release, but further research reveals that it [...]
Tags: Aleksandr Dulerayn, blu-ray review, branded, Ed Stoppard, Jamie Bradshaw, jeffrey tambor, Leelee Sobieski, movie review
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
END OF WATCH follows Officer Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Officer Mike Zavala (Michael Peña), two young ambitious cops who patrol in highly dangerous South Central Los Angeles. The story is really about these two partners and friends as they encounter some brutal experiences as an every day product of their job. They are heroic [...]
Tags: Anna Kendrick, Blu-ray, David Ayer, end of watch, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, movie review
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Monday, January 14th, 2013
When people think of comic book films, the first images to fly through their heads are usually super powered and colorful costume clad characters that regularly bombard their lives through the overuse of commercialization. However many characters that would not even be found on a milk carton in the United States, have risen to “Man [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, dredd, Karl Urban, Lena Headey, movie review, Olivia Thirlby, Pete Travis
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Sunday, January 13th, 2013
The easiest and most cliché way to describe HBO’s ‘Girls’ is that it’s a younger, more realistic version of another HBO series, ‘Sex and the City’. That might be a little insulting to ‘Girls’, but the similarities run rampant throughout and series creator Lena Dunham even acknowledges the fact when one of the younger characters [...]
Tags: Adam Driver, Allison Williams, blu-ray review, girls, Judd Apatow, lena dunham, movie review
Posted in Reviews |
Saturday, January 12th, 2013
After divorcing from her husband, overbearing Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) and her high school aged daughter, Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence), move to a new neighborhood to start fresh. It’s a beautiful home, tucked away from all of their problems. And they were able to get it cheap, too. See, four years earlier, a teenage girl killed her [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, Elisabeth Shue, House At The End Of The Street, Jennifer Lawrence, John Stockwell, Max Thieriot, movie review
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Friday, January 11th, 2013
If you are in the mood for a dramatic action thriller or something far less gripping, perhaps a bad comic book translation about 1940’s and ‘50s gangsters, then look no further. GANGSTER SQUAD is a schizophrenic mess of a movie with one foot firmly planted in each genre, it never fully commits to a specific [...]
Tags: Emma Stone, gangster squad, Josh Brolin, movie review, Ruben Fleischer, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn
Posted in Reviews |
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
COSMOPOLIS is a movie that would work much better as a stage play and was probably much better as a novel by Don DeLillo. Every character represents some aspect of American capitalism and doesn’t really represent much as humans, making it difficult for the audience to ever get involved with what’s happening. In truth, not [...]
Tags: cosmopolis, David Cronenberg, movie review, Paul Giamatti, Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon
Posted in Reviews |
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
The biggest news story of 2011 was the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, which left the al-Qaeda leader and five others dead. It was bound to inspire numerous dramatizations. Aside from the New York Times bestseller No Easy Day and the Oscar-nominated ZERO DARK THIRTY (click the link to read our review), there is [...]
Tags: Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner, Anson Mount, blu-ray review, Cam Gigandet, John Stockwell, movie review, seal team six
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
Following the tragic September 11, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers, ZERO DARK THIRTY explores the decade long hunt for the man responsible for the evil. Every behind-the-scene detail becomes a riveting exercise in anticipation and personal vengeance. Naturally, ZERO DARK THIRTY is a film that nearly all Americans will get behind because we felt [...]
Tags: Chris Pratt, jason clarke, Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Katherine Bigelow, movie review, Zero Dark Thirty
Posted in Reviews |
Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
HBO’s ‘Eastbound and Down’ is like an SNL skit that goes on too long. It’s funny, and has humorous characters, but there’s only so much you can do with the idea of a white trash, self centered baseball player that’s trying to get back to the big leagues. Every episode has about two minutes of [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, Danny McBride, eastbound and down, Jody Hill, movie review, Steve Little, will ferrell
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013
If you were told you’re going to be watching an early film comedy, written by Steven Brill and Judd Apatow and featuring Ben Stiller, Alan Covert, Tim Blake Nelson and a few of the Mighty Ducks, you would think you might be discovering a hidden gem. I know I did when I put HEAVY WEIGHTS [...]
Tags: Aaron Schwartz, ben stiller, blu-ray review, heavy weights, movie review, steven brill, Tom McGowan
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
LES MISÉRABLES is being hailed as the grand musical experience you won’t want to miss! Unless of course you aren’t into musicals. Then more than likely you can’t be dragged there, regardless of your love for epic filmmaking. Musicals are the ultimate divider. Those who love the musical will find this to be the best movie [...]
Tags: Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway, helena bonham carter, Hugh Jackman, movie review, musicals, russell crowe, Sacha Baron Cohen, tom hooper
Posted in Reviews |
Sunday, December 16th, 2012
Imagine (figuratively, of course) that someone had a giant ball of emotion and sappiness and was cramming it unwillingly down your throat for 105 minutes without ever giving you a chance to catch your breath. That’s what it’s like watching Disney’s THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN. The film is so obsessed with trying to [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, CJ Adams, Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, movie review, Peter Hedges, the odd life of timothy green
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Friday, December 14th, 2012
One of my pet peeves with some movie critics is when they spend the whole review comparing a sequel to the original or comparing the movie to a book. Although everything has to be considered, I’ve always been under the belief that movies should be judged by themselves, without the weight of their predecessors, or [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, Edward Norton, Jeremy Renner, movie review, Rachel Weisz, The Bourne Legacy, Tony Gilroy
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012
When I discuss the brilliance of Pixar, the movie I most often use as reference is UP. It’s not the best Pixar film (that honor goes to WALL-E) and it’s not even the funniest (FINDING NEMO), but for my money, it’s one of the most creative, well executed animated films ever made. You realize this [...]
Tags: 3d, blu-ray review, Bob Peterson, Ed Asner, John Ratzenberger, Jordan Nagai, movie review, Pete Docter, up
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012
I typically associate Seth MacFarlane with Family Guy or American Dad, neither of which I’m a fan of. So I had no interest when it was announced he would be directing a live action comedy that he also wrote. But then a few hilarious trailers came out and I thought that maybe TED would be [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, Joel McHale, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, movie review, seth macfarlane, Ted
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Monday, December 10th, 2012
It’s that time of year again, when kids and adults alike start to mentally figure out whether they’ve been nice or naughty for the past twelve months. If you’ve been nice, you might get that new fire truck toy or a top-of-the-line grill or a new mistress. If you’ve been naughty, well…you might get tied [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, Donal Logue, Jaime King, Malcolm McDowell, movie review, silent night, Steven C. Miller
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Friday, December 7th, 2012
Following a love affair between Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his cousin Margaret Stuckley (Laura Linney) also known as Daisy, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON focuses in on their time spent at the President’s home in the beautiful countryside of Hyde Park – specifically one weekend in 1939, when the newly crowned King and Queen [...]
Tags: bill murray, Laura Linney, movie review, movies, Roger Michell, Samuel West
Posted in Reviews |
Thursday, December 6th, 2012
When the world was introduced to Heath Ledger’s Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT, it was hard to imagine that Batman would ever have to face a villain as sinister and dedicated to his cause. Then this past year audiences became familiar with Bane (Tom Hardy), a truly bone-chilling bad guy that gave Batman the physical [...]
Tags: Anne Hathaway, blu-ray review, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, movie review, The Dark Knight Rises, tom hardy
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Monday, December 3rd, 2012
Murder, mayhem, mobsters and… talking. Lots of talking. Perhaps I’m over-simplifying writer/director Andrew Dominik’s new film KILLING THEM SOFTLY and his ambitious vision to parallel American politics with the leadership of the mob. But it is important that one doesn’t go into the film thinking they will be watching a typical mafia film. The murder [...]
Tags: Andrew Dominik, Ben Mendelsohn, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, movie review, movies, Ray Liotta, richard jenkins, Scoot McNairy
Posted in Reviews |
Friday, November 30th, 2012
ANNA KARENINA is the beautiful film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s 1877 novel of the same name. Brilliantly crafted, director Joe Wright smartly unfolds this story in the most creative way possible. Captivating audiences from the start with the spectacular set design and fantastic rhythm, it is inevitable that you will be drawn into the passion [...]
Tags: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joe Wright, jude law, Keira Knightley, movie review, movies
Posted in Reviews |
Friday, November 30th, 2012
If you followed MEN IN BLACK 3 through the production process, then you know that the entire film was plagued with problems from the very beginning. Rushed into filming, the filmmakers actually started without a completed script (not a good sign), then took a hiatus when they could resolve the issues (another bad sign), then [...]
Tags: 3d, Barry Sonnenfeld, blu-ray review, Josh Brolin, Men in Black 3, movie review, tommy lee jones, Will Smith
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Thursday, November 29th, 2012
It’s hard to go wrong with The Muppets, even during their dark ages in the 90’s. Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear and the rest of our favorite characters have personalities and charms that come through no matter what situation they’re in. But things get a little wonky when The Muppets are playing other characters and things [...]
Tags: blu-ray review, Brian Henson, Dave Goelz, Michael Caine, movie review, muppets christmas carol, Steve Whitmire
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
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