For a film overflowing with such sensuality and eroticism, Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, available on DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, is a rather inert movie-going experience. Amongs the many explicit and steamy escapades of the central characters and the occasional compelling Fatal Attraction-esque revelation, this thriller leaves you with little to remember besides Amanda Seyfried’s titillating bosom.
What a year it has been for animated films. So far in 2010 we have had three great films from three rival studios. DreamWorks kicked things off with the surprise sleeper hit How to Train Your Dragon and animation juggernaut Pixar countered with the hotly anticipatedToy Story 3. Now Universal’s Illumination Entertainment has released the audaciously titled Despicable Me and while it may be the “worst” of the trio, it is certainly the most purely entertaining.
Seeing that Hollywood has been rebooting a number of franchises from the 80’s (e.g. Die Hard and Indiana Jones), it surprising that it took so long for the Predator series to be revisited (excluding the Alien vs. Predator movies). But this time Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal are taking a stab at his popular material in the producer and director‘s chairs.
Director Antoine Fuqua’s latest, which hit shelves on DVD and Blu-ray this Tuesday, treads a thin line between tragic and gritty and outright depressing. This is a gloomy film to be sure; everyone is either a cop, murderer, drug dealer or prostitute (sometimes many of the above) and there is no glimpse of sunshine, so to speak, in Fuqua’s Brooklyn.
You won’t find a more visually immaculate film than A Single Man. Gucci revolutionizer Tom Ford’s film debut, now available on DVD and Blu-ray, is something out of an inch-thick fashion magazine. His eye for beauty and sensuality might be unparalleled in Hollywood with just this one entry. Applied to the story of a man torn apart inside with the loss of his lover as he tries to get through a normal day, A Single Man gets directly inside its protagonist’s head with a barrage of emotion-evoking imagery. Although it sometimes feels like a cologne commercial, it’s a remarkable first effort and a touching story commanded gracefully by Colin Firth.
Having a horror film succeed on nearly every level is a rare manifestation these days, yet The Crazies, which came out this past Tuesday on DVD and Blu-ray, boasts beyond slick production values, is excellently acted and consistently tense. In addition to being a remake that for once does not disappoint, it joins the exclusive club of a revisit that trumps the original (and thoroughly at that). No offense to the great George A. Romero who created the minor “classic” back in 1973, but that movie was a weak effort in almost every capacity.
There’s only one pair of glasses that will make The Last Airbender a tolerable adventure and it’s not the 3-D kind. Based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series, “Airbender” is a kids movie, fully equipped with a PG rating and young protagonists asked to shoulder a majority of the workload. Expect just that: a film for young audiences.
To label Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which arrived today on DVD and Blu-ray, as Harry Potter with Greek mythology is to fault the zebra for having stripes because the tiger had them first. The hero’s journey story of a young protagonist realizing he or she has a destiny and entering a world previously unknown to him or her is as ancient as, well, Greek mythology. Was 20th Century Fox hoping that Percy would become the next Harry at the box office? Without question, but it should be judged on its own merits, no matter how similar the two are.
The emotional sweetness of family life has been a major force in Sandler’s work, but his patented insult and immature humor has not budged over that time. The latest result of that combination of family love and dirty adult humor is Grown Ups. It started with Click in 2006, a story about appreciating family moments, and continued especially in 2008 when he teamed with Disney for Bedtime Stories.
Action blockbusters have always had a special place in the hearts of moviegoers. Add some good comedy and recognizable stars, and you have the recipe for success. However, the finished product of that recipe doesn’t always turn out to be so delicious. Such is the case with Knight and Day.
