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Trailer Tuesday - Pieces (1982)

Blu-ray Review - Fortress of the Bears

The life of the American bear is a demanding existence of hunting and evading, constantly on the lookout for predators and prey necessary to the animal experience. It's not an easy cycle of survival, often merciless when it comes to displays of aggression, but it's nature in motion, carrying on unmolested for centuries in the great wilds of the world. "Fortress of the Bears" travels to the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska, where a community of Grizzly Bears and Brown Bears embark on this yearly process of endurance, awakening from their winter slumber to gorge themselves on the bounty of the river, which pipes in thousands of salmon every spring and summer to the delight of these furry rulers. However, feeding bears is only a small portion of the salmon function, and when that lifeline is disrupted for any reason, it creates a chain reaction throughout the land, robbing trees, insects, birds, and bears of the routine they rely on to make a life for themselves. Although it's cliche to remind readers of the "circle of life," the truth is no joke. Without salmon, the bears are forced to survive beyond their instincts, a development that could cause cataclysmic damage to this lush land of astonishing wildlife personality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sunday in the Park with Brian - Francis Ford Coppola Winery

Saturdays with Siskel & Ebert - Tootsie / Airplane II / Sophie's Choice / The Verdict (1982)

Film Review - Casa de mi Padre

It’s difficult to tell if “Casa de mi Padre” is an experiment or an extended prank. A Spanish-language farce spearheaded by Will Ferrell, this is one oddball feature, making fun of telenovelas and those strange, stationary Mexican movies typically screened on Telemundo on Saturday afternoons. As bizarre as it aspires to be, “Casa de mi Padre” isn’t nearly as insane as it could’ve been. Something tells me the production didn’t want to overwhelm audiences with a steady display of comedic madness, instead portioning out the lunacy carefully, hoping to maintain interest in this spread of Mexican violence, song, and sex. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Jay and Mark Duplass have a specialized way of filmmaking they’ve perfected over the years, through pictures such as “Baghead,” “The Puffy Chair,” and “Cyrus.” Their aesthetic, once branded “mumblecore” and fitted for a leather jacket, has now gone mainstream, and so have the Duplass Brothers in a way, with “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” their most accessible effort, fixated more on the millimeter moves of emotional growth than a grand dramatic scheme. It’s a feature of small moments and open hearts, captured with the semi-irritating improvisational and zoom-happy elements the directors favor. Perhaps this is the ideal entry point for those new to the Duplass view of the world, supported by familiar faces visibly enjoying the slack atmosphere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - Detachment

All is not well in today’s educational system, and Tony Kaye’s “Detachment” is here to push our faces in the failure of those who teach and those who learn. Crafted with an eye toward performance art, the feature is a troubling, exasperating mess of aches and pains, spraying the screen with a morose fixation on dire developments in the average high school community. Impassioned and frequently aimless, “Detachment” is only interested in stirring debate, wallowing in the muck to push viewers up against the wall, forcing outsiders to consider the state of the scholastic union. There’s a searing cry for help here, buried somewhere underneath Kaye’s unrelenting directorial pretension. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - 21 Jump Street

“21 Jump Street” is a goof of a film that continually reminds the audience of its superfluousness. Refusing to be the victim of agitated scrutiny from movie geeks, the production makes it perfectly clear it’s in on the joke, striving to find ways to pants the supercop genre and high school cinema, not to mention its foundation as big screen update of a cult television series from the 1980s. Thankfully, “21 Jump Street” understands the basics in absurdity and overstimulation, steamrolling forward as a profane, ridiculous action comedy with two motivated lead performances. It’s no tribute to the original program, but a wink-happy perversion of the concept, raising hell in its own somewhat tedious, frequently hilarious way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - Seeking Justice

The curious career of Nicolas Cage takes another step downward with the release of “Seeking Justice,” a dopey conspiracy thriller that asks nothing more of the actor than to sweat, grimace, and run. It’s not a thespian challenge for Cage, but there hasn’t been much of that in recent years. Instead, it’s another paycheck gig for the once exciting, magnificently peculiar actor, who appears completely detached from the production, keeping to a low-key glumness that suggests a goal of professional survival over an artistically fulfilling dive into a formulaic genre. Perhaps Cage has finally run out of gas. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - The Decoy Bride

“The Decoy Bride” is as formulaic a movie as can be, working with trite romantic comedy clichés and a premise that will likely cause more seasoned filmgoers to break out in hives. It’s a harmless trifle with a Scottish slant, but there are no surprises to be found, leaving the heavy lifting to the cast. Mercifully, the actors collected here are charming and willing to please, with star Kelly Macdonald a lifesaver, giving punishing predictability a light spin with her bright personality and commitment to even the hoariest of sitcom situations. She’s the miracle “The Decoy Bride” needs to remain afloat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - ATM

Horror and thriller filmmakers have my deepest respect. It can’t be easy coming up with original ideas to fuel big screen madness, requiring a unique creative drive to dream up scenarios that audiences haven’t seen a thousand times before. “ATM” attempts to subvert traditional serial killer shenanigans by keeping the setting limited to a glass box located in the middle of a parking lot, while engineering a twist ending that’s more interesting than effective. “ATM” isn’t a convincing movie, but the production is at least breaking a sweat on this effort, making it a promising misfire that might enchant those on the hunt for something slightly cockeyed when it comes to the torment of innocents. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - Being Flynn

“Being Flynn” is a sad story trying desperately to register as tale of redemption and optimism. It’s difficult to break the bleak mood arranged by writer/director Paul Weitz, as it observes fits of self-destruction and madness, yet this is a human story about the recognition of failure, leaving the filmmaker room to explore vulnerable beats of awareness, captured through two fine performances from Robert De Niro and Paul Dano. It’s a demanding picture to watch, covering an assortment of despair that carries from start to finish. Nevertheless, Weitz fights to keep “Being Flynn” upright and moving forward, focusing on the life story being recounted, not the endless corridors of psychological darkness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - A Thousand Words

The most fascinating aspect to “A Thousand Words” is how it requires Eddie Murphy to play silent for a good chunk of the picture. The famed comedian has defined his career with his motor-mouth skills, presenting an exceptional thespian challenge. In better hands, the feature might’ve pulled off something special, merging amusing mime work with a heartfelt statement on the soulful fractures that restrain the human spirit. Instead, “A Thousand Words” has been brought to the screen by Brian Robbins, the filmmaker behind “Varsity Blues,” “Good Burger,” and “Ready to Rumble.” Not exactly an inspired choice to provide speechless hilarity with some degree of sincerity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Trailer Tuesday - The Abyss (1989) - Jack Nitzsche Starman Score Version

Blu-ray Review - The Amish

To imagine the Amish is to picture a gathering of secluded souls working the land together in hand-stitched clothing, the men carrying neckbeards while the apple-cheeked women tend to the children in the background. Because the Amish refuse the intrusion of cameras and recording equipment, it's been difficult to achieve a full-blooded portrait of the community, forcing filmmakers to turn to outsiders and educators to supply an appreciation of something few are even meant to understand. "The Amish" doesn't put forward a no-hold-barred look into this remote rural existence, but it does peel away another layer of restriction, inching closer to an intimate look as these hard-working American strangers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sunday in the Park with Brian - Winter at the Minnesota State Fair

Saturdays with Siskel & Ebert - Terms of Endearment / A Night in Heaven / Nate and Hayes (1983)

Film Review - John Carter

Utilized as inspiration for countless sci-fi epics (including “Star Wars,” “Flash Gordon,” and “Superman”), Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “A Princess of Mars” has finally found a widescreen translation in “John Carter,” Disney’s massive gamble to build a blockbuster franchise from the hallowed pages of 1917 novel. Enormous in scale and densely plotted, “John Carter” appears to do the source material justice, retaining a pulpy spirit while serving as a travelogue to the far reaches of Mars, greeting inhabitants both reverential and destructive. While possibly impenetrable to the casual viewer, the picture succeeds as grand entertainment, with dazzling technical achievements and wonderfully exaggerated performances of galactic heroism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - Silent House

It’s been eight years since directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau made a splash with their aquatic chiller “Open Water,” a film festival fave that fizzled upon its theatrical release. Considering the hype that surrounded their shark attack movie, it’s odd that the duo has spent so much time away from the cameras, failing to build on their career momentum. “Silent House” returns the pair to low-budget gimmick filmmaking, rejuvenating their reputation as they attempt to convince audiences they’re watching 80 minutes of uninterrupted terror. The fantasy is convincingly executed, but wasted on banal haunted house formula punctuated with a baffling conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film Review - In Darkness

Stories from the Holocaust are numerous yet they rarely cease to astonish. “In Darkness” is a worthy addition to this mournful assembly of wartime perspectives, though its horrors are hushed and gradual, hidden below in a subterranean tomb. Bleakness and hope are married effectively in director Agnieszka Holland’s latest effort, supplying a fresh viewpoint on unlikely valor and the many forms it takes when positioned opposite the need for survival. It’s a strong, unflinching picture, and a vital educational tool when inspecting the surprises of the human spirit during such a tumultuous period of anguish. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com