Are you in the market for a no holds barred, martial arts-infused, action movie?  Well, if you purchase Warner Brothers’ Ninja Assassin, then that’s exactly what you are going to get.  Make no mistake that the action sequences are zany and over-the-top, but that’s the appeal of Ninja Assassin.  Even our own reviewer, Gregg Senko (see his review here), loved this film.  That says a lot coming from a man who could not stand the non-stop crazy mayhem of one of my favorites, Crank.  It can be easily be said that Ninja Assassin isn’t for everyone, but instead of spinning wheels debating one view or the other, let’s take a few moments to examine the film and its kung fu grip on US filmgoers. Read the full story

They say that truth is stranger than fiction and in the case of The Blind Side, that is certainly true. Had the book and the film been a work of fiction, we all would have rolled our eyes and said, you’ve got to be kidding me! What a tall tail! However, die to the confluence of too many improbable circumstances to count, The Blind Side is true. While it is a an enjoyable film featuring several wonderful performances, the question to be answered today is how well does it look and sound on Blu-ray? I guess you will just have to keep on reading. Read the full story

Ever since Toy Story burst on the scene with its incredible computer generated images, hand drawn animation began to fade away. After the release of Toy Story, each new CGI feature seemed to outdo the others, advancing the state of art even further, with more realistic and lifelike animation and movement. When it comes to CGI, the sky really seems to be the limit. However, lost in all this technical advancement was the sheer beauty of hand drawn animation, the kind that the folks at Disney Studios made so famous. I guess it was fitting that Disney, under the helm of John Lassiter of Pixar fame, would be the ones to bring hand drawn animation back to the screen with 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, which has finally made its way to Blu-ray. Read the full story

Ever since Toy Story burst on the scene with its incredible computer generated images, hand drawn animation began to fade away. After the release of Toy Story, each new CGI feature seemed to outdo the others, advancing the state of art even further, with more realistic and lifelike animation and movement. When it comes to CGI, the sky really seems to be the limit. However, lost in all this technical advancement was the sheer beauty of hand drawn animation, the kind that the folks at Disney Studios made so famous. I guess it was fitting that Disney, under the helm of John Lassiter of Pixar fame, would be the ones to bring hand drawn animation back to the screen with 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, which has finally made its way to Blu-ray. Read the full story

When you hear that a classic true story that is beloved in Japan was re-imagined in a westernized setting and released straight to video… What immediately comes to mind? The original story always pulled at my heart strings and was about one of the most loyal dogs around. Does this new film breathe new life into the actual dog’s tale or is it another sugar coated Hollywood cash grab?

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“Promise me no one will get hurt.” “No one will get hurt, I promise.” Once those two sentences are uttered near the beginning of Armored, you knew just how this film was going to unfold and that despite the promise, there will be quite few fatalities. Armored, the subject of today’s review, is a heist film that is rather formulaic and predictable. Be that as it may, is is still worth a look on Blu-ray? Sort of. Read the full story

As a film reviewer, it is almost embarrassing to admit that I have viewed none of the films created by directors in the French New Wave.  In my defense, I can offer that this “new wave” took place before I was born, and that by the time I was able to cultivate a taste for movies, many of the “new wave’s” inventiveness had already been co-opted by others.

This led me to two important questions I hope to answer in my review.  Firstly, if subsequent movies have taken advantage of a once-new filmmaking technique, does this make the originating movies any less relevant?  And secondly, can entertainment value survive in what is considered “experimental” cinema?  Although films can have artistic merits on their own, they must still be accessible to the common movie viewer.  Read the full story

I will admit that I did not know what to expect when Broken Embraces arrived for a review. The fact that it stars Penelope Cruz was a good sign. That plus the fact that it was directed by Academy Award winning writer and director Pedro Almodovar was even better given his past track record. I had also heard some good critical buzz about the film but have found in the past that good critical buzz is not necessarily a harbinger of an enjoyable film or one that would be assessable to a mass audience. Thankfully, Broken Embraces, merits the praise that has been heaped upon it by the trade press and contains yet another in a string of amazing performances by Penelope Cruz. Read the full story

I will admit that I did not know what to expect when Broken Embraces arrived for a review. The fact that it stars Penelope Cruz was a good sign. That plus the fact that it was directed by Academy Award winning writer and director Pedro Almodovar was even better given his past track record. I had also heard some good critical buzz about the film but have found in the past that good critical buzz is not necessarily a harbinger of an enjoyable film or one that would be assessable to a mass audience. Thankfully, Broken Embraces, merits the praise that has been heaped upon it by the trade press and contains yet another in a string of amazing performances by Penelope Cruz. Read the full story

I guess with the economy being what it is, I can’t begrudge anyone for taking any job they can get to get by. The difference between Hollywood and the rest of us is that when actors take whatever is offered irrespective of quality, millions of dollars are involved. There is nothing like cashing in on your name in Hollywood to fatten up the old bank account. Exhibit A of such a practice is the subject of today’s review, a mildly humorous and forgettable comedy starring Robin Williams and John Travolta, Old Dogs. Read the full story

Reviewing one of the most respected films of all time is a bit daunting. I hadn’t seen the Godfather trilogy in years so when it came time to review Godfather II I immediately went out and purchased the trilogy in order to refresh my memory… That’s how important these films are. Do they still hold their ground now though?

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Making a movie out of a popular book is hard enough. Having the condense several hundred pages of text into a coherent two hour film can be quite a daunting task. The list of great books being made into mediocre films is long indeed. Even more difficult I would imagine is taking a very popular short illustrated children’s book and fleshing it out into a full length motion picture, while keeping true to the spirit of the book. Well that is just what director Spike Jonze has accomplished with the subject of today’s review. Where the Wild Things Are. Read the full story

Making a movie out of a popular book is hard enough. Having the condense several hundred pages of text into a coherent two hour film can be quite a daunting task. The list of great books being made into mediocre films is long indeed. Even more difficult I would imagine is taking a very popular short illustrated children’s book and fleshing it out into a full length motion picture, while keeping true to the spirit of the book. Well that is just what director Spike Jonze has accomplished with the subject of today’s review. Where the Wild Things Are. Read the full story

I was somewhat surprised to see the movie Halo Legends in my docket for upcoming review.  As a long-time Sony and Nintendo gamer, I had never played any version of Halo, and saw no need to, based on my age-related dislike of first person shooter games.  Really, my complete knowledge of Halo could be summed up as there was a green armored guy named Master Chief, and you use him to shoot lots of aliens.

 As a general rule of thumb, movies based on video games tend to well, lets say, not quite meet expectations.  Although there are exceptions to the rule (like Pokémon, or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), for each good movie there is three or four bad ones (like Street Fighter or Super Mario Brothers). Read the full story

I was somewhat surprised to see the movie Halo Legends in my docket for upcoming review.  As a long-time Sony and Nintendo gamer, I had never played any version of Halo, and saw no need to, based on my age-related dislike of first person shooter games.  Really, my complete knowledge of Halo could be summed up as there was a green armored guy named Master Chief, and you use him to shoot lots of aliens.

 As a general rule of thumb, movies based on video games tend to well, lets say, not quite meet expectations.  Although there are exceptions to the rule (like Pokémon, or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), for each good movie there is three or four bad ones (like Street Fighter or Super Mario Brothers). Read the full story

One of the problems with the study of history is that it can get rather dry when you limited yourself to the printed page. Movies on the other hand, can really help to bring historical characters to life, offering a glimpse into the lives of those figures that you wouldn’t otherwise get to see, even though films often times take a bit of liberty with the facts for the sake of a more interesting film. Such is the case with the film that is the subject of today’s film, Amelia, which gives us a glimpse into the life of the famous aviator, that one may not have been able to appreciate from the pages of history. Read the full story

The old joke about The History channel was that the H stood for Hitler, as it seemed that every time you turned on the channel, there was a show about World War II. Recently, the History Channel has changed its focus, from actual history to what I will charitably refer to as pseudo-history. One of the staples of that “pseudo-history” is the fixation with end of the world prophecies, and in particular, the claim that the Mayan calender ends on 12/21/2102 and that somehow, this fact portends the end of the world. Read the full story