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Blu-ray Review - K-11

"K-11" marks the directorial debut for longtime script supervisor Jules Stewart, though she's probably best known as the mother of "Twilight" superstar and famed stammer queen Kristin Stewart. Only able to talk her kid into a voice cameo for her first helming gig, Stewart is left without star power and a decent budget to bring her prison epic to life, with only a few tricks, some unusual sexual tension, and an overabundance of quirk and chaos to help sell her vision to the audience. "K-11" is an odd feature and it's rarely a successful one, sweating up a storm to come off edgy and unconventional. Tonally unsteady and dramatically asthmatic, the picture is only moderately tolerable due to few technical strengths and a key role played by Kate del Castillo, who manages to make a slight supporting turn into a grand display of camp, menace, and cockeyed sex appeal Stewart should've made the focus of the entire film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - The Bletchley Circle

"The Bletchley Circle" has an irresistible hook for crime-solving entertainment, following the actions of four brilliant codebreakers from WWII as they reteam to track down a serial killer in their hometown nearly a decade later. I'm surprised this isn't a Hollywood blockbuster, as the premise is ripe for maximum genre exposure. Instead of overblown theatrics, we have this humble ITV production that's made its way to America via PBS in an effort to show the audience there's a little more bite to public television than one might expect. Sensible with a few outrageous touches and smashingly acted by the four leading ladies, "The Bletchley Circle" is addictive and fulfilling, carrying on like a traditional British procedural, only with a delightful push of empowerment to give it identity and a spirit to celebrate. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Dead Sushi

"Dead Sushi" hits a note of insanity that's wholly entertaining and frequently uproarious. It's a Japanese production that manages to merge the madcap and the macabre with a defined sense of humor, making sure to remind those horrified by the geysers of blood and peels of filleted skin that, in the end, it's all about having a good time at the movies. It's a difficult tonal tightrope walk, yet writer/director Noboru Iguchi manages to construct an outlandish feature that never overstays its welcome and offers some true originality as it mines the monster madness of old. After all, it's nearly impossible to dislike a film that highlights flying sushi, a man-sized tuna antagonist (wielding an ax, natch), and offers a song performed by a friendly portion of tamago. "Dead Sushi" is nuts, but its absurdity is most appetizing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Earth from Space

Earth is an extremely complex planet, and we don't always have the best perspective when it comes to assessing its sophisticated performance. Up high in the sky is a network of satellites (some reaching up to 25,000 miles above Earth) tasked with studying the meteorological systems of the planet, helping to create useful graphics that provide a deeper understanding of routines and changes in the atmosphere. "Earth from Space" is a "Nova" episode that details the work of this eye-in-the-sky team as it isolates planetary habits and sudden changes, helping scientists understand significant threats facing the continents, while solving a few mysteries along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - The Central Park Five

With "The Central Park Five," Sarah Burns enters the filmmaking scene, accepting the challenge of a documentary concentrating on a monumental perversion of justice. Of course, Burns has a few aces up her sleeve, bringing in husband David McMahon and father Ken Burns (the man behind such iconic programming as "The Civil War," "Baseball," and the recent "The Dust Bowl") to co-direct, joining the family business as a seeker of truth and an admirer of history. Those already in step with the Burns way won't be surprised by the look and feel of "The Central Park Five," but the story is unforgettable, detailing a nightmare scenario for five Harlem teenagers facing hard prison time and the condemnation of America for a crime they didn't commit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Mr. Selfridge

After the rampaging worldwide success of "Downton Abbey," it was inevitable that a knockoff would emerge, cut from the same elegant cloth. With "Mr. Selfridge," a game of rumor, disaster, and manners returns to the small screen, though it's miles away from countryside opulence and aristocratic concerns, turning to the inner workings of a department store to embark on a multi-character odyssey of melodrama. It's tart, expansive material, yet the endeavor is weighed down by a significant case of déjà vu. Hoping to satisfy ravenous "Downton" fans between seasons, "Mr. Selfridge" comes across as a soggy carbon copy, laboring to cook up the same regality and ridiculousness that defined the smash Julian Fellowes show, only here the results are uneven, uninteresting, and anchored by an actor who's physically and psychologically uncomfortable in the leading role. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Bachelorette

While I didn't find myself overwhelmed with the insanity of the 2011 hit, "Bridesmaids," its absurd length and dramatic decline is a Caribbean vacation compared to the forced acid bath of "Bachelorette." Shockingly unlikable and unfunny, this latest round of women behaving badly is crippled by unnecessary excess, botched characterizations, and a calculated round of 1990s nostalgia to appeal to the core demographic. Aching to be irreverent and insightful when it comes to the flattened soul of the thirtysomething party girl facing the cell clank of adulthood, "Bachelorette" would be better off as a soulless farce, not the noxious semi-melodrama it eventually becomes. It's a movie that doesn't know whether to hug its characters or push them off a bridge. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - The Missing Lynx

We see this type of production pop up every now and again. Trying to compete with Hollywood animation factories like Disney and Dreamworks, independent studios typically have a devil of a time trying to get a foothold into the global market, often faced with lackluster budgets and wheezy scripts as they cook up colorful CG-animated antics for the kiddies. A Spanish production presented and produced by Antonio Banderas, "The Missing Lynx" is similar to releases such as "The Wild" and the recent "Escape from Planet Earth," attempting to drum up some excitement with little in the way of cinematic might, relying on frantic action, crude comedy, and artificial sincerity to make an impression with wee ones who'd gladly watch a test pattern if it included the promise of candy, soda, and popcorn. Exhaustively underwhelming and cheapy all around, "The Missing Lynx" isn't even passable babysitting fodder, asking children to sit through a routine adventure with anthropomorphized animals engaged in acts of panic and elastic derring-do. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Judas Kiss

It's easy to admire "Judas Kiss" for its ambition to be original. It's another thing to actually sit through it. Attempting to avoid the pitfalls and clichés of gay cinema, "Judas Kiss" heads into a borderline sci-fi direction, often playing like the most sedate "Twilight Zone" episode of all time. Credit goes to screenwriters J.T. Tepnapa (who also directs) and Carlos Pedraza, who reveal a drive to juice up their work with strange occurrences and unexplained behavior, while pushing forward as a searing emotional experience concerning regret and sexual abuse. However, that's a heavy workload for such a modest movie, and the script's interest in magical realism is undone by half-baked characters and inconsistencies, keeping focus off the key elements of heartache Tepnapa and Pedraza hope will be strong enough to define the viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Cold Warriors: Wolves and Buffalo

Although this "Nature" program is titled "Cold Warriors: Wolves and Buffalo," most of the program takes place during the spring and summer seasons, while the production's preference for wolves upsets any promised balance. It's a strange documentary that seeks to understand how the animals work to survive harsh, remote conditions, yet ends up a highlight reel of hunting, following a group of wolves, the Delta Pack, as they figure out how to pick off buffalo calves and maintain nourishment to keep their cubs fed. Those expecting a detailed inspection of wildlife and instinct are bound to be disappointed with the effort, and if you happen to adore the buffalo, I wouldn't recommend a viewing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Endeavour

A prequel to the popular British television series "Inspector Morse," which enjoyed a healthy run between 1987 and 2000, "Endeavour" intends to restart the franchise in a younger direction, hoping to entice a new generation of viewers willing to be sucked into fussy behaviors, dire crimes, and extended sequences of clue gathering. To be completely fair to "Endeavour," I'm not familiar with the original "Inspector Morse" program; however, to the production's credit, they've managed to create a story that doesn't require complete fandom to figure out and embrace, managing to reintroduce the beloved character without leaving outsiders in the dark, while admirers will still be able to detect familiar pieces of personality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - The Preacher's Wife

All the good intentions in the world can't help make 1996's "The Preacher's Wife" anything more than a mediocre movie. It's a shame, since there's some incredible talent working to bring the picture to life, to gift it wings of soaring gospel and cheery do-goodery, yet all the production can muster are a few smiles and an admittedly euphoric soundtrack. It's a remake, drawing inspiration from the darling 1947 picture, "The Bishop's Wife" (starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven), which is a fairly strong launch pad for the feature. However, the miracle doesn't carry for a second cinematic round, finding director Penny Marshall struggling to locate the pixie dust that should rightfully blanket every frame of the film, while stars Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, and Courtney B. Vance fight to maintain a semblance of personality as the material gradually, and rather peacefully, falls asleep. Kindly to a fault, "The Preacher's Wife" has a big heart, but no sense of pace and conflict to sustain the viewing experience for an unnerving two hours. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Life on Fire: Wildlife on the Volcano's Edge

Volcanoes are mysterious, terrifying, and quite beautiful from a safe distance. Their secrets are nearly impossible to discover, buried deep in the Earth under layers of lava and furious gases, requiring a fine touch of science to extract samples for study, and even those efforts aren't nearly enough to understand the fury that powers these fire-belching titans. Endeavoring to paint a larger portrait of volcanic activity, director Bertrand Loyer has assembled "Life on Fire: Wildlife on the Volcano's Edge," a six-part series that inspects the balance of nature that sprouts up around these danger zones, heading around the world on a mission to understand instinct, survival, and risk with an epic cinematic sweep that provides atypical access to creatures conducting daily business in the shadow of certain doom. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Natural Selection

"Natural Selection" has all the hallmarks of an average independent production, with its HD cinematography, mild razzing of religious conviction, and unshowered performers embodying the middle-class and the borderline insane. Writer/director Robbie Pickering isn't shy about following trends, but he's also smart about storytelling, endeavoring to disrupt the norm with a strange tale of devotion and love buttered on a road trip saga where things often go horribly wrong for the lead characters. "Natural Selection" is a comedy, with excitable personalities and broad confrontations, but Pickering clearly loves these screwed-up souls, bending the material away from mockery, gradually revealing his sincerity in a manner that's contagious. Supported by marvelous performances and a prominent soundtrack, the feature satisfies and even surprises on occasion, introducing Pickering as a filmmaker with an interest in emotional content instead of serving up pedestrian acts of humiliation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Hoffa

"Hoffa" is a presentation of shameless mythmaking, though one that's supported by such barnstorming direction, it's impossible to dismiss it outright. It's a boldly designed, volcanically acted endeavor that doesn't seek to understand its subject on anything more than a surface level of engagement. This is not "Jimmy Hoffa: The Movie," but a valentine to a shifty guy who didn't let anything stand in the way of his vision for a unionized America, shielding his unsavory interests behind an ideal of blue collar protection, where the common man could be comfortable in the knowledge that loyal brothers and sisters were there to defend his right to work in a safe, financially rewarding environment. There's little dimension to Danny DeVito's picture, replaced with shockwaves of cinematic orchestration that help to preserve interest in the titular titan, even if viewers walk away from the film with only a slightly more refined appreciation for Hoffa's dedication to the cause. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Life Happens

The easiest way to describe "Life Happens" (which is technically titled "L!fe Happens," but let's pretend it doesn't) is to compare it to Judd Apatow's hit, "Knocked Up." While the general comedic ambiance isn't nearly as sharp, the same message of extended adolescence smashing up against the demands of responsibility is shared by both pictures, with "Life Happens" electing to portray the female version of slackerdom, which, to be fair, is rarely explored in film. Credit co-writer/director Kat Corio (a longtime actress making her feature-length debut) with the inspiration to shake up the routine, forging a dramedy about best friends and the arrival of adulthood. However, this isn't a terribly compelling effort, often wasting energy on dreary ideas for comedy while being too permissive with its actors. In fact, for a movie that hopes to tickle, it actually finds surer footing expressing deep emotions, pinpointing the terror and grief that comes when pleasurably distracting routines are abandoned. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Rosewood Lane

I recognize that the 2001 Victor Salva horror film, "Jeepers Creepers," is revered in some corners of genre fandom, but I don't share the enthusiasm. Plodding and poorly acted, "Creepers" (and its 2003 sequel) nevertheless managed to make the notorious director into a brand name, with threats of a third installment possibly surfacing in the next few years. At this point, Salva needs the second sequel more than the public does, forced to taste the bitter pill of the cruel DTV market with "Rosewood Lane," a wretched, idiotic chiller that makes "Jeepers Creepers" look like "The Exorcist" by comparison. Absurdly scripted with no attention to detail, "Rosewood" is Salva's attempt to generate a fright feature built entirely out of mood, dismissing storytelling to maintain a tight focus on unexplained supernatural events, unexplained characters, and unexplained explanations. The picture is a mess without a resolution, perhaps only of value to students of genre cinematography and Rose McGowan fans who enjoy seeing their favorite actress look as confused as they are. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - The Night of the Devils

"The Night of the Devils" arrives with a little extra pedigree than the average Italian shocker. The 1972 release was based on Aleksey Tolstoy's 1839 story, "The Wurdalak," providing inspiration that's more interested in mood than overt scares, aided by leadership from director Giorgio Ferroni (the mind behind "Mill of the Stone Woman," in his penultimate film), who embraces the hauntingly straightforward interests of the material. Startlingly fulfilling while remaining minimal in its terror output, "The Night of the Devils" is an engaging viewing experience, perhaps best suited for those open to its simplistic narrative design, odd sensuality, and period-rich macabre details, shaped into an entertaining examination of trauma and vampirism, sold with all the sustained stares and zooms a viewer could ever want. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Fear

Before he was Mark Wahlberg, king of Hollywood, he was once Marky Mark. A flexing rapper with his group The Funky Bunch, Wahlberg enjoyed some degree of MTV-assisted success, but clearly there was no future in shirtless video dancing and the occasional modeling campaign. Acting was his big ticket out, and the industry welcomed him with open arms, feeding him supporting work in "The Basketball Diaries" and "Renaissance Man," but the real test of Wahlberg's skill as a potential leading man arrived with 1996's "Fear." Handed a role that required a certain level of insular emoting and broad display of serpentine brawn, Wahlberg was a perfect candidate for the part, guided by director James Foley, who was coming down from a career high working on 1992's "Glengarry Glen Ross." Cruelly, instead of creating a feature of sinister ooze, the production serves up a laughable thriller that's one of the all-time goofiest movies, avoiding a tough inspection of troubling emotional speeds and stunted communication to sneeze out a confused, half-realized story of obsession and domination, with the layers of ultimate evil handed to a guy who can't act. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blu-ray Review - Porky's

Part of the mystery of Hollywood is the general inability of anyone to predict a hit movie. Sure, there's a handful of blockbuster formulas that are often used to great success, but the general rush of box office triumph usually emerges from surprising titles. In 1982, the sleeper hit of the year was "Porky's," a little raunchy comedy that home studio 20th Century Fox didn't even want to release, yet the picture ended up as the fifth highest grosser of the year, just above such classics as "Star Trek II" and "Poltergeist." It was lambasted by critics and beloved by audiences, but why? Could it be that writer/director Bob Clark tapped into a vein of nostalgia much like George Lucas did with "American Graffiti," returning viewers to the eroding innocence of youth? Was it the evocative Floridian atmosphere of backwoods clowning? Maybe the compulsively silly performances were just that irresistible? Or was it the boobs? I'm guessing the latter, as "Porky's" isn't a very accomplished storytelling effort, wandering blindly around pranks and melodrama as it fights to find a higher purpose beyond being just another horndog teen feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com