Day: January 31, 2013

The teaming of Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Alan Arkin seems like a
can’t-miss proposition, offering the screen legends a premise that
allows for light comedy and heavy emotion, making the most out of this
rare moviemaking event. And yet “Stand Up Guys” is the opposite of
inspiring, wasting the talent on a dreary collection of random
adventures and unimaginative tomfoolery, hoping the sheer radiation of
ability is enough to fog the fact that the script never decides what it
really wants to be. Mostly baffling with a handful of bright moments,
“Stand Up Guys” is a bust that doesn’t know when to quit. In fact, it
doesn’t really know when to start either. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With a documentary like “Sellebrity,” sympathy is in short supply.
Photographer Kevin Mazur, notable for his front-line access to famous
folks during red carpet events, endeavors to fashion a statement of
unease and outrage when it comes to the Wild West world of tabloid
photography, creating a portrait of anarchy to emphasize the divide
between self-promotion and exploitation. However, when dealing with
unshowered paparazzi types hunkered down on greasy street corners and
immaculate interviewees captured in their palatial homes, it’s a
lose-lose situation of sensitivity. “Sellebrity” is a numbing viewing
experience that’s oddly constructed and a touch too sanctimonious to
take seriously, eventually coming to blame the viewer for the ills of
the tabloid industry, despite Mazur feeding into the same diseased hype
with this cinematic effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Feminism meets exploitation in Austin Chick’s “Girls Against Boys,” a
particularly nasty revenge feature that attempts to explore a rattled
psychological space as it indulges in murders and a few grisly acts of
vengeance. It’s not particularly consistent or profound work from the
“XX/XY” filmmaker, but the effort has a certain style that holds
interest, scored to a throbbing range of soundtrack cuts that provide an
electronic pulse to otherwise banal events. Sure to divide audiences
with its fuzzy math and swing of the intellectual wiffle ball bat,
“Girls Against Boys” is best appreciated as a sensorial experience, with
the script successfully brushing against raw nerve endings of sympathy
and rage. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com