This week’s releases include: a cancer drama made lighter; a Woody Allen masterpiece; director Billy Wilder’s best picture winner; a man giving up everything for love; a spy with a difficult choice to make; a found-footage horror prequel; Rocky with robots; a woman haunted by her competition; a chance meeting leads to an unusual friendship; a murder mystery; a throwback adventure film; an eye-opening look at the Bosnian underworld; and a film that made Oscar history. Read the rest of this entry »
New on DVD & Blu-ray: January 24, 2012
Posted: January 24, 2012 in DVD & Blu-ray ReviewsTags: 50/50, Alfred Hitchcock, Anjelica Huston, Annie Hall, Ariel Schulman, Buddy Rogers, Cary Grant, Clara Bow, Dakota Goyo, diane keaton, Gregory Peck, Henry Hooper, Henry Joost, Hugh Jackman, Ingrid Bergman, Jack Lemmon, Joan Fontaine, Jonathan Levine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kathy Bolkovac, Kevin Sorbo, Laurence Olivier, Manhattan, Meryl Streep, Mia Wasikowska, Notorious, Paranormal Activity 3, Rachel Weisz, Real Steel, Rebecca, Restless, second screen, Seth Rogen, Shawn Levy, Shirley MacLaine, Spellbound, Tales of an Ancient Empire, The Apartment, The Whistleblower, Will Reiser, Wings, Woody Allen
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Review: In the Land of Blood and Honey
Posted: January 20, 2012 in Film ReviewsTags: angelina jolie, Goran Kostic, In the Land of Blood and Honey, Rade Serbedzija, Zana Marjanovic
There is an art to telling a story through film that goes beyond the technical elements. The key is to engage the audience and make them care about the characters. Despite the number of films writer/director Angelina Jolie has starred in, she does not appear to have absorbed the details of that lesson. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Haywire
Posted: January 20, 2012 in Film ReviewsTags: Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Haywire, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Steven Soderbergh
Recent years have brought several films featuring tough, female protagonists that out match their male opponents in every contest, whether they faceoff physically or mentally. Stars of this action subgenre have included Angelina Jolie, Kate Beckinsale and Milla Jovovich. But the vicious fight scenes in Haywire show former MMA fighter Gina Carano could match, and maybe even take, the best of them (at least physically). Read the rest of this entry »
Humanity divided: A conversation with The Divide’s Michael Biehn and Michael Eklund
Posted: January 18, 2012 in Q&AsTags: Xavier Gens, Michael Biehn, The Divide, Michael Eklund
With the end of the world on the horizon (if you believe in the Mayan-related predictions), 2012 is the ideal time to release any “last days on Earth” pictures. But it’s unlikely any of them will match the intensity and squalor of The Divide. The post-apocalyptic thriller from French director Xavier Gens slowly and graphically peels away the layers of humanity in a sealed basement as the outside world crumbles. But with time and despair, civility erodes and people become cruel and barbaric. We had a chance to speak with two of the film’s stars, Michael Biehn and Michael Eklund, after the movie’s red carpet premiere at last year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Read the rest of this entry »
