Into the Blu

I know that I have commented a few times in the past that there is really precious little in the way of original material coming out of Hollywood these days. I don’t know if it is the result of a brain drought or due to the economy, with film makers and their financial backers only willing to make or finance films that are based on tried and true formulas. Hence, copies of prior successful films seem to be what we are left with these days. The only real originality these days seems to be what for lack of a better term I will call combo films as opposed to the combo pack so common these days with Blu-ray releases. A combo film is one that combines two or more successful films into one which can lead to a mildly entertaining result. Such is the case with the subject of this review Battle: Los Angeles. Continue Reading

A neo-noir film painted in amazingly bright and clear colours. A sordid romantic thriller presented by the same duo that made Volver. Continue Reading

An Education is a critical darling of the previous Oscar season that features a major breakout role for lead Carey Mulligan, who received no less than 24 major acting award nominations for her performance. More a loss-of-innocence story than coming-of-age (which it is sometimes marketed as), this makes for a great character film. Continue Reading

I have always found The Green Hornet to be the most overlooked of the comic book action heros and one that was in desperate need for an updating. Given the recent incredible (both commercially and artistically) of the Batman movie franchise, it seemed to me The Green Hornet would be a natural as the two heroes had a lot in common thematically, namely Super heroes that were not really “super” and who were misunderstood by the general public. However, as films, there is a huge difference. Batman had a genius behind the camera, Christopher Nolan, with a real vision about how to bring the comic book to life, whereas, The Green Hornet has Seth Rogan. Not exactly a fair fight! Continue Reading

It’s really easy to spot a bad movie when you see one. One of the easiest things to spot is when a movie gets a direct-to-video sequel. Does S.W.A.T. Firefight break the mold or is simply cash grab with the S.W.A.T. moniker to try and increase revenue?

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There is an old saying in sports that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. It is used to describe a team that is better than the collective talents of the players would otherwise lead you to believe. The opposite is also true, as the team with the best talent doesn’t always win. This old sports cliche came to mind when thinking about the film that is the subject of this review, The Tourist. After all, it stars two of the biggest stars in film, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. It is set in two of the most romantic and glamorous cities in the world, Paris and Venice. It therefore has to be superb, right? Well, not quite. Continue Reading

Documentary films can sure stir up a bit of controversy, due in large part to the fact that that is often their purpose. They are designed to give exposure to a particular issue that may be unreported in the press and can go into a level of detail and insight not possible on a TV news program. They also have a very distinct point of view, a bias if you will, that can be either on the right or left of the political spectrum. How you view the documentary can often depend on your political leanings, regardless of the truth or merit of the film. There are some documentaries that, even with a particular bias, get the facts so right to be well worth a viewing regardless of your political affiliations. Just one of those documentary films if the subject of this review, Inside Job. Continue Reading

In watching the film that is the subject of this review, a number of sports cliches came to mind. You know, like “You’ll get them next time”, “You can’t win them all”, ‘Even a .300 hitter makes an out 7 out of t0 times.” For the sake of cliche completeness, you can also thrown in “Nobody’s perfect”. Well these cliches are all certainly applicable to the film that is the subject of today’s review, Woody Allen’s latest film, “You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger”. Woody, as my dad would tell me when I struck out in Little League, better luck next time. Continue Reading

In the sports world, one often hears that a team is greater than the sum of its parts, that is, the team is better as a unit than the individual talents of the players would have lead you to believe with team chemistry and the ability to work well together being the key elements to such success. In the movie business on the other hand, the opposite is too often true with the whole being is lesser than the sum of its parts would have lead you to believe. Usually a good story concept and even a good cast is undone by poor execution. Such is the case with the movie that is up for review, Takers. Continue Reading

It seems like Adam Sandler has pretty well given up on his vintage comedy style. With Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison over a decade old it appears like a whole new generation doesn’t know the Adam Sandler of Saturday Night Live and slapstick comedies like the aforementioned titles. Instead he’s done a plethora of family style comedies; Bedtime Stories, Click, Spanglish, etc. Initially I was hoping that Grown Ups would reunite a group of classic SNL alumni and be a laugh riot; do they come through? Starring Kevin James, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider the expectations are really high. Continue Reading

I guess it is due to the fact that I am now what you might call middle aged (you know, too old to be young but not old enough to be really old), I can’t say that the though of another teen comedy had all that much appeal to me. However, I had to admit that the idea of a John Hughes style teen comedy crossed with a classic piece of literature, i.e. The Scarlet Letter, did sound interesting. The subject of that interesting cross pollination is the subject of this review, the highly entertaining Easy A. Continue Reading

When I was first given this Blu-ray, my first thought without even reading the synopsis and just looking at the cover was that this movie is perfect for a teenager. Conveniently, my step daughter is 14 years old and just entered high school, so we watched it together. With no “A” list actors, I knew right away this is classified as a “B” list movie. There is nothing wrong with “B” list movies; they are the movies that tend to not reach the movie theatres. Continue Reading