In other words, the guy is definitely not the lovey-dovey type. But that unblinking, cold-blooded aesthetic is largely what makes Amour, coming to home video after an Academy Award win for Best Foreign Language Film, so remarkable. In its depiction of an elderly Parisian couple coming to terms with illness and looming death, the film […]
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Dark Angel
Oh, well. At least it’s finally available on Blu-ray, so I can ditch the MGM burned-on-demand DVD (an overdue 2011 release that finally allowed me to ditch my VHS — Google it, kids). Any Dolph Lundgren fan worth his weight in protein powder knows how welcome this high-def release from Shout! Factory is. In a […]
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On the Road
An ode to poet Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, On the Road fails to elicit nostalgia for all things Beat, but not for lack of ambition. Its Americana backdrop depicts the unbridled beauty of the West. The visuals are a testament to a time when these United States were more innocent and collectively curious. […]
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The Place Beyond the Pines
The opening minutes serve as a nifty precursor for the action, both physical and psychological, to follow. Stunt motorcycle driver Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling, Gangster Squad) emerges from a darkened trailer and into a traveling carnival. As the camera trails him over his shoulder, Luke gets on his cycle, enters the caged globe of death […]
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Disorderlies
While most of it is my fault, I like to take comfort in the idea that I was doomed from the get-go: • Blame a Depression-era father who forced me to clean my plate through shame and guilt.• Blame a public school free-lunch system that taught gravy as a food group.• Blame cable television for being so […]
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Hatchet III
Mind you, this is played as a punch line in itself. If you can see the absurdity within the annihilation, Hatchet III is recommended for you. And if not … well, hell, you already knew that. Written — but not directed this time — by series creator Adam Green (TV’s Holliston), the third flick depicting […]
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Errors of the Human Body
Fresh from relishing villainy in The Call, the near-unrecognizable Michael Eklund cleans up nice as Dr. Geoffrey Burton, a reluctant geneticist specializing in embryonic abnormalities for very personal reasons. He leaves the University of Massachusetts behind to continue his controversial research in Dresden, Germany — a far less-politicized environment. But Eron Sheean’s film is not […]
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My Amityville Horror
Now a father himself of two teenagers, Lutz — a dead ringer for actor Michael Chiklis (Parker) — recounts what he, his siblings, his mom and his wretched stepfather went through in the Long Island home at 112 Ocean Ave., reportedly haunted because of the six murders that occurred there. Whether speaking to a psychiatrist, […]
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Olympus Has Fallen
I’m talking about Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, just to be clear. In Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen, Aaron Eckhart grows angry and Morgan Freeman pulls strings from the sidelines, while a possibly crazy but altogether decent man dishes out some superheroic justice to save the city, yet the result is a terrible movie, arguably […]
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Oblivion
In 2077, post-nuclear war, Earth is largely uninhabitable, sending survivors to live on one of Saturn’s moons. Cruise’s Jack Harper cruises the skies over the former New York City to guard giant water-sucking machines from attacks. He’s aided in his daily missions by the watchful eye of Victoria (Andrea Riseborough, Disconnect), who works behind a […]