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The FilmJabber Movie Blog

SIFF Review: ‘In the House’

May 19th, 2013
in-the-house

Now playing at SIFF, the French drama In the House (Dans la maison) presents an intriguing story about a teacher who is drawn to the writing abilities of one of his students, who in turn is drawn to the mother of his best friend. Reality and fantasy intertwine until they are indiscernible from one another, the outcome is  a largely positive, though hardly lasting, experience.

Read FilmJabber’s full In the House movie review.

Review: ‘Kon-Tiki’ is Like ‘Life of Pi,’ Only Great

May 17th, 2013
kon-tiki-movie-2012

The more I think about it, Life of Pi was a stupid movie. Sure, it looked great and was downright dazzling on the big screen, but watch it on a television and it’s a film about a CGI tiger that fluctuates between having terrific and mediocre special effects. The story is sort of dull, the ending anticlimactic and the whole religion piece doesn’t make any sense. Thankfully, there’s Kon-Tiki.

Read FilmJabber’s full Kon-Tiki movie review.

Review: ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, or Into Blasphemy

May 16th, 2013
star-trek-into-darkness

So this little film called Star Trek Into Darkness is now in theaters, and it features among other things a scary performance by baddie Benedict Cumberbatch, lots of entertaining action scenes and the most horrendously bad ending in the entire franchise. Whether you can forgive the movie for its final 20 soul-sucking minutes will determine whether you’ll give Star Trek a positive or negative grade.

Read the rest of the Star Trek Into Darkness movie review.

Review: Texas Chainsaw Hits DVD, Causes Mind Pain

May 14th, 2013
texas-chainsaw-3d

Leatherface is back, and oh boy. Texas Chainsaw 3D is the worst kind of horror movie: a movie so bad it goes beyond being funny bad back to just being bad.  At least the filmmakers were clever enough to do something new and remove "massacre" from the title.

Read FilmJabber’s full Texas Chainsaw 3D movie review.

Review: A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III

May 13th, 2013
glimpse-inside-the-mind-charles-swan-iii

Well, that happened. A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III is a less-than-winning drama-comedy starring Charlie Sheen as a successful graphic designer whose life crumbles apart when the love of his life (Katheryn Winnick) leaves him. Thanks to a few too many Brandy Alexanders and an active imagination, Charles Swan descends into a series of "fantasy-inspired reflections on his colorful past."

Read FilmJabber’s full A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III movie review.

Review: Is ‘The Great Gatsby’ Great?

May 10th, 2013
great-gatsby-leonardo-dicaprio

The traditional love story/social drama gets upended Baz Luhrmann style, with flashy special effects, dancing, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jay Z music. This isn’t your grandma’s The Great Gatsby, but that’s okay. Especially since I don’t remember grandma’s version to begin with, if I ever saw it in the first place.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Great Gatsby movie review.

Watch the Ender’s Game Teaser Trailer

May 7th, 2013
enders-game-ben-kingsley

Ender’s Game is one of my favorite books of all time. Ender’s Game is being turned into a movie. That is all.

Read the full article »

Review: ‘Iron Man 3′ Has Plenty of Laughs, Few Thrills

May 3rd, 2013
iron-man-3

And people said Iron Man 2 was stupid. Robert Downey Jr. is back in the first post-Avengers Marvel film, and boy is it a cluttered mess. Featuring a bland villain, a nonsensical plot and major tonal imbalance, Iron Man 3 has plenty of laughs but very few thrills. But hey, at least Robert Downey Jr. is in it.

Read FilmJabber’s full Iron Man 3 movie review.

5 Reasons World War Z is Going to Flop

May 1st, 2013
world-war-z-brad-pitt

Who else thinks World War Z is going to be a flat-out disaster? Yeah, I didn’t think I was alone.

Vanity Fair just released a preview of their June 2013 exclusive with Brad Pitt, which provides more detail into what we already knew: the production has been a big, bloated mess. While there is a part of me that is morbidly curious to see the movie – and I hope, hope, hope that I am wrong and that the movie will be a fun thrill ride – this seemed like the best opportunity to outline why World War Z is prone to be a big, awful flop.

Read the full article »

A Silver Linings Playbook DVD Review

May 1st, 2013
silver-linings-playbook

How do I start this review? How do I write the rest of it? The subject is Silver Linings Playbook, but not the movie. This review is about the DVD, and DVD reviews can only go so far. I’ve never been interested in going on and on about how good the video quality or audio clarity is, because after all, 99% of people don’t give a damn, especially when the movie is a drama-comedy.

Read the full article »

Star Trek TNG: The Best of Both Worlds Blu-ray Review

April 30th, 2013
star-trek-best-of-both-worlds

“I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile.”

These are the defining words spoken in one of the best story arcs of Star Trek: The Next Generation, now embodied in high definition. The Best of Both Worlds is now on Blu-ray, and not only does the two-episode “movie” look fantastic, it still holds up extremely well.

Read the full article »

Review: ‘Pain & Gain’ Has More Pain than Gain

April 26th, 2013
pain-and-gain

Michael Bay returns to his roots, sort of, with Pain & Gain, a low budget crime comedy-thriller starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Tony Shalhoub. Please note that "low budget" for Michael Bay means $25 million.

Read FilmJabber’s full Pain & Gain movie review.

Review: Matthew McConaughey is ‘Mud’

April 26th, 2013
mud-movie

From the writer/director of Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter comes Mud, which stars Matthew McConaughey as a wanted fugitive who is befriended by two teenage boys who agree to help him elude a group of bounty hunters and reunite him with his on-and-off girlfriend while evading poisonous snakes and angry parents. Mud is Jeff Nichols’ most accessible and entertaining movie to date, but it’s also the least memorable.

Read FilmJabber’s full Mud movie review.

Review: ‘Arthur Newman’ Isn’t a Total Bust

April 25th, 2013
arthur-newman

Movies about losers tend to fall into one of two categories.  Either the characters are "lovable losers" who are able to elicit the viewer’s sympathy and desire to see the characters grow and change for the better; or the characters are so frustrating to watch that you want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them, yelling for them to snap out of it.  Unfortunately, Arthur Newman falls into that latter category.

Read FilmJabber’s full Arthur Newman movie review.

Watch the First Thor 2 Trailer

April 24th, 2013
thor-2

Thor is back, and so is Natalie Portman looking all Natalie Portman-ish! Disney and Marvel have released the first action-packed teaser trailer for Thor: The Dark World, which looks like the first one only with an even badder bad guy. The teaser isn’t all that great in the scheme of things, but it has some juicy nuggets.

Read the full article »