Posts Tagged ‘dvd review’

Anne Hathaway nearly earned herself an Oscar for her stunning performance in Rachel Getting Married, but she also starred in another 2008 movie, the little-known Passengers. A thriller about a young psychologist who is assigned to deal with the survivors of a jet liner crash only to find that the survivors not only have conflicting stories about the events but that they are apparently being hunted by the government, Passengers had potential… But there’s a reason why no one has heard of this movie.

Passengers barely received a theatrical release and almost no promotion; the trailers were downright terrible. Still, the movie has a strong cast including Hathaway, Patrick Wilson and a few others, so it was worth a chance – though I only watched it because Sony sent me the DVD to review. Unfortunately, Passengers is exactly what I suspected; a forgettable, dull thriller.

Read the rest of the Passengers movie review.

One of the leaders during the Academy Award race, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button came away with “only” three minor awards, its thunder reduced to a whisper by the underdog-that-never-really-was Slumdog Millionaire.  The movie, which stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and is directed by David Fincher, is now available on DVD.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a very good movie, but the more I think about it, the more overrated I realize it is. While the concept is ingenious and the performances excellent, the movie lacks real conflict and just sort of plods along without tremendous drama or humor. Written by Eric Roth, who wrote Munich and, more importantly, the very similiar Forrest Gump, the movie just pales in comparison. In other words, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button doesn’t live up to its full potential.

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With Star Trek coming to theaters this week, it only seemed fitting – at least according to Paramount – to re-release Galaxy Quest in an all-new Deluxe Edition format (on May 12, 2009). This sci-fi spoof, which can only be described as a direct yet intelligent spoof of Star Trek and its fans, is a well-made and funny comedy starring Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Signourey Weaver and Sam Rockwell, among others.

You don’t have to be a fan of Star Trek to enjoy the film, and in fact it’s fun going back after ten years and watching things all over again. For instance, at the time, Rickman was mainly known as that guy from Die Hard, whereas now he’s that guy from Harry Potter. No one knew who Rockwell was at the time, and if you look closely, Dwight from “The Office” even makes an appearance.

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I was born in the 80′s and grew up watching cartoons into the early nineties. One of my staples on Saturday morning was the X-Men animated series.

Despite being a DC Comics fan and not a Marvel one as much, there was something about the show that had me waiting with bated breath for every episode. Compared to some of the other cartoons going on those days – such as the Batman animated series – the artistry was more in tune with the comic book art, the stories grittier and more realistic. In reality, the Batman series – which I also watched – was all-around better, but the X-Men series was the one to watch.

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2008′s remake of the science-fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still was not, when all things were said and done, a box office failure, but Fox had to be disappointed with its lackluster opening weekend, lukewarm critical reception and quick fade from theaters.

The overall so-so response sums up the movie pretty well. The Day the Earth Stood Still is good, but not great. It’s entertaining, but not thrilling. It’s intriguing, but not exciting. In other words, it’s sort of like the original, only… not original.

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A little known movie called No Country for Old Men came out a couple years back, raked in a few random awards and then settled into obscurity. With few critics or audiences avidly backing the film, the movie disappeared quickly, taking with it its shoddy acting and direction. Good riddance.

Alas, Miramax believes it can make a few more dollars on the unsuspecting moviegoer, as they are about to release on Tuesday a 3-Disc Collector’s Edition. You can read my full No Country for Old Men movie review, where I fault the picture for a variety of things including its lack of excitement, questionable acting – especially by the awful Javier Bardem – and horrific direction by the Coen brothers, or you can read on for my review of this new DVD collection…

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Will Smith is one of the most consistent box office forces there is. Even his intentionally misspelled 2007 drama The Pursuit of Happyness went on to make well over $100 million in the United States.

So, the odds were good that his 2008 follow-up Seven Pounds, which is directed by the same man, Gabriele Muccino, would continue Smith’s streak of consecutive $100-million earners.

Unfortunately for Smith – though we can hardly feel sorry for his rare flop – audiences read right through the obscure previews and opted to not see the flick – or at least wait until DVD. It was a good choice.

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The hit James Bond action flick Quantum of Solace speeds its way onto DVD and Blu-Ray this coming Tuesday, March 24, 2009 in a two-disc special edition. The follow-up to the immensely popular reboot Casino Royale finds us with a new director, an angrier Bond and of course a new set of Bond girls, and the combination is a bit of a disappointment.

While perfectly fine as a non-stop action movie, Quantum lacks the craftsmanship and character development of its predecessor, which was honed by the direction of Martin Campbell. Marc Forster, having never directed such an action film before, was an odd choice to helm the follow-up, and his style is largely a poor knock-off of Campbell’s direction. Funnily enough, in one of the special features on the DVD, Forster explains that his approach is to just “throw everything on the screen,” which explains the lack of deleted scenes – and the senseless barrage of action in the movie.

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Primal Fear is one of the best courtroom dramas in the history of cinema. Not only does it feature great performances by Richard Gere and Laura Linney, but it also marks the debut of a talented young man named Edward Norton – some of you may know him. His startling performance earned him an Oscar nomination as the stuttering murder defendant and put him on the map as one of the best actors on the scene. Even better, Primal Fear features one of the best twist endings to ever grace the silver screen.

Needless to say, I like this movie. I like this movie a lot. And since Paramount Pictures just sent me the all-new Hard Evidence Edition, I now have two versions of the DVD.

This latest release of the 1996 thriller doesn’t offer enough bonus features to warrant repurchasing the picture, but Paramount has packaged a couple of short featurettes to accompany this amazing film:

• The Final Verdict – this 17-minute featurette examines the making of the film, with a focus on the challenges the crew went through to get it made. Though Richard Gere was signed on to star, he almost backed out due to a lack of a convincing script. Once the script was rectified, the director and producer faced the challenge of selling a $30-million film with only one recognizable name to the studio. Furthermore, setting up the story in a way that the twist ending would remain hidden required the right mixture of acting, writing and directing. The featurette is short, but does offer some sincere interviews with everyone involved, save Gere.
• Star Witness – Casting Edward Norton – the other 17-minute featurette on the DVD focuses on how Norton came to be casted in this role. This interesting segment of interviews has Norton talking about his experience of going into the initial audition with no expectation of landing the role through his wide-eyed realization that he’s been offered the part. This featurette offers some insights I wasn’t aware of and also offers more sincere interviews with Norton, the director and the casting director.
• The Psychology of Guilt – this 13-minute featurette explores the legal ramifications of multiple personality disorder and whether it actually exists or not. While short, the featurette is smartly put together and tackles a lot of different aspects of the alleged disorder. It was good enough to compel me to look up the Hillside Strangler(s) and a few other serial killers who all seem to have crossed paths with my alma mater’s town, Bellingham, WA.
• The original theatrical trailer and a commentary with the director, writer, producer and casting director are also included.

In all, there are only 47 minutes worth of raw bonus features – hardly enough to warrant an all-new edition. Yet, those 47 minutes are packed full of insightful interviews with most of the big names involved in the picture. My only real fault with the DVD is the DVD cover… the cheesy crime scene layout makes the picture look like some B-grade action flick rather a quality drama. Still, if you don’t own Primal Fear, this would be a good time to buy. The Hard Evidence Edition comes to stores on March 10, 2009, available in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats.

Choke arrives on DVD on Tuesday, February 17. Though the movie is from writer Chuck Palahnuik, who is best known for Fight Club, this movie isn’t anything that classic, and as such, fans may be disappointed. Nevertheless, for what it is, it works, offering some entertaining dark comedy about sex addicts and a delusional mother.

You can read my full Choke movie review here. As decent as the movie is, the DVD is nothing to scream about. While at first glance there are a lot of special features, most were made to make it look like the DVD is worth buying. Aside from some deleted scenes and one short featurette on the film’s casting, most of the bonus features are a complete waste of time.

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Loyal readers should know that I’m an atheist. And as an atheist, I’m a big fan of Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous. It’s not that I think the movie is an incredible documentary that will convert believers – after all, believers wouldn’t come within ten feet of this movie – but it makes some pretty valid points…  Most importantly, it makes the point that religion doesn’t make any sense. It never did, and it never will.

Religulous (read my Religulous movie review here) arrives on DVD next Tuesday, February 17, and with it a few bonus features including an audio commentary and a slew of deleted scenes. I haven’t listened to the audio commentary, but plan to: after all, Bill Maher should make for a good commentary. The deleted scenes are actually several deleted segments, each of which focus on a different set of people that were entirely removed from the movie. There are some funny moments found in these segments, though it’s understandable why they were removed from the final picture; some of them aren’t that entertaining, and the others are redundant when placed against existing scenes.

Unfortunately, the polygamist wives segment is surprisingly short; I would have liked to see more of them.

Complementing the deleted scenes are several “Bill Maher rants,” which feature the comedian speaking to the camera about why certain religious facets don’t make sense. Some variations are included in the movie itself, but there are several new segments that raise some good points.

All in all, I was a little disappointed to not find more deleted scenes on the disc; I would have imagined that a lot of good material was cut from existing segments (most notably at Jesus Land or whatever that place was called). Nevertheless, the Religulous DVD offers a decent set of features given the type of movie it is – I wouldn’t have expected much more.

For moderates or the downright non-believers, Religulous is a must-see. As entertaining as it is, it’s not worth purchasing – unless you plan to show it to a bunch of children to spread the truth.

The new Friday the 13th movie comes to theaters this Friday, just in time for Valentine’s Day. From the director of the surprisingly good Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, the movie is destined to be the best of the franchise, even if by default. After all, let’s face it: the Friday the 13th series is terrible. Compared to all of the other big horror franchises such as Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween, this series is C-grade garbage.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from watching the first three movies over the weekend. Why? Because Paramount sent me the new DVDs, which were just re-released on February 3, 2009 to take advantage of the new film. I watched all three in a 24-hour span, and have to say that they’re better than I remembered… but not by much.

Here are my Friday the 13th movie reviews…

• Friday the 13th (1980)
  I came home from a long day at work earlier this week and there, sitting on my doorstep, was the first three Friday the 13th movies. In conjunction with the upcoming release of the new Friday the 13th remake, Paramount is understandably trying to cash in by re-releasing several of the films on DVD. Despite loving slasher flicks, I’ve never been a fan of the series, but that night, with nothing better to do other than watch the utterly boring Miracle at St. Anna, I figured I might give the franchise another chance. More…
• Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
  Having just received the first three Friday the 13th movies in the mail the other day, it didn’t take me long to start watching them. In fact, about five minutes after I finished the first movie, I went right onto the second, eager for some Jason goodness. Of course, ‘Jason goodness’ is relative, given that Friday the 13th is one of the worst horror franchises on the market. More…
• Friday the 13th Part III: In 3D (1982)
  The wonderful director who made Friday the 13th Part 2 returns to direct Friday the 13th Part 3: 3-D. Unfortunately, he didn’t learn from his mistakes and Part 3 is shockingly worse than the last one. More…

The Weinstein Company will release Jet Li’s The Enforcer in a Special Collector’s Edition DVD on Tuesday, February 10, along with a variety of new bonus features including interviews with the producer, former child star Tse Miu and the villain of the picture, Ken Lo – as well as a feature commentary.

What The Weinstein Company really should have done instead is included a Cantonese audio track so I wouldn’t have had to sludge through a poorly dubbed English version.

Yes, this special collector’s edition is so special that it doesn’t even include the original audio. For someone who has never seen The Enforcer before, like me, it doesn’t do much to win me over by forcing me to listen to dubbed audio, something I vowed never to do after sitting through one too many cringe-inducing Jackie Chan dubs. Dubbing automatically pisses me off, especially when the voice-over actors speak non-accented English. At least have Chinese people with Chinese-accents do the voices!

In reaction to the lack of its original Cantonese track, The Weinstein Company released this statement:

Dragon Dynasty strives to provide fans with only the highest quality DVD releases, including restored video and audio and extensive never-before-seen bonus features created exclusively for the label.

Though no usable version of the original Cantonese-language track was available in time for this release, every effort was made to bring together the best elements in the world in creating the greatest version of The Enforcer ever experienced on DVD in the U.S.

My reaction to this: then don’t release the DVD until you have that audio track available. I thought we were well past the day of dubbing movies, or at least not giving the viewers a choice. Dubbing erases an actors’ performance and reduces the picture to a cheesy mockery of its former self. It’s preposterous that the studio would provide a version like this to Jet Li fans.

As for the movie itself, The Enforcer is just OK. Had I watched the original Cantonese version, I might have thought differently, but with a bunch of English actors providing their voices, most of the dialogue in the movie comes off as overly cheesy and ridiculous. Some of the dialogue, frankly, is painful to listen to.

Beyond the audio issues, however, the movie does suffer from a few unintentionally goofy moments. Some of the wire work at the end, where Jet Li is throwing his kung fu son at bad guys and then withdrawing him with a piece of rope, is funny but completely stupid. The son should also have been brain dead a few times over by the end, yet he always manages to come back to life even after being declared dead by a surgeon. My favorite is that after the boy “dies,” his dad’s first reaction is that, “We need to get him out of here!” rather than to set him down and give him immediate CPR. It’s just little things like this that add up to make the movie look sort of foolish.

That being said, there are some excellent action scenes. The final climax is non-stop and enjoyable, with some good, gritty fighting and stunts. For Jet Li fans, this is more than enough.

When all is said and done, The Enforcer comes off as a lesser version of Infernal Affairs (or The Departed, for that matter), with some good action but a plot full of holes. Unfortunately, without being able to watch a subtitled version of the picture, I can’t give a very good assessment. I’m still amazed that The Weinstein Company would release a movie on DVD without its original audio track.

One of my most anticipated movies of 2008, Blindness is directed by Fernando Meirelles, the man behind such visually stimulating films as The Constant Gardener and City of God. Given his stunning resume, Blindness looked like a sure lock for one of the best movies of the year. Starring Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore, the movie is about a horrifying virus that spreads throughout the country, causing everyone – except for Moore’s character – to go blind. That’s pretty bad ass.

Unfortunately, Blindness isn’t nearly as good as I was expecting. Decent, yes, but the film never fully clicks. Some of the character reactions and plot points don’t make sense. Most shockingly, the film is visually dull. Maybe all of those protesters outside the theater stating, “Blindness is not bad,” or something could have saved their breath. While I’d still recommend the movie to people who want something different, it’s not nearly as good as it could have been.

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I love movies. I really love movies. I love watching them, I love playing them, and I love stroking them. Wait, what? Ignore that last part. Getting back on track, as much as I love movies, I’m really not a huge fan of bonus features. It’s not that there aren’t some really good bonus features that get packaged with DVDs – it’s just that the movies themselves are enough for me. The only reason bonus features are included on discs are to sell more – which is fine – but they are, in fact, bonus. And unlike bonus questions on a test that can raise your grade from a B+ to an A-, bonus questions don’t elevate a movie from one plateau to the next.

Given that, I was actually happy to see that W., the George Bush docu-drama from famed director Oliver Stone, had only one real bonus feature. That’s not to say I’m going to recommend the DVD, but when I can knock off a DVD review in a matter of minutes… that’s just awesome.

W. itself is a decent movie, with strong performances from some of the actors (Josh Brolin and Richard Dreyfuss as Bush and Cheney, respectively) and others that are just plain strange (Thandie Newton as a nasally Condoleeza). The movie works for the most part, even though it clips over some important aspects of the Bush presidency and would probably have worked better had it been made a couple years from now, when the taste of Bush is more of a nagging thought than a cringing reminder of what has happened to our country. You can read my full W. movie review here.

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