Category: 2/4
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Deliver Us From Evil [2014] ★★
Horror movies have fallen on hard times. Amidst the deluge of pointless remakes (“Friday the 13th”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Carrie”…) and some original ideas (“The Conjuring), “Deliver Us From Evil” goes with “based on a true story” to try and shock its audience. But isn’t it always the case? Eric Bana (why oh why?)…
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A Million Ways To Die In The West [2014] ★★
Welcome to a million ways to laugh yourself silly. Your host? Seth MacFarlane, the genius behind “Family Guy” and the hilarious “Ted”. “A Million Ways” is MacFarlane’s take on the Western genre, with plenty of sex jokes and gross out gags to inspire haters. Fair enough. But for all its ups and downs, the movie…
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Blended [2014] ★★
“Blended” rolls unapologetically off the Adam Sandler assembly line. It’s another farce high on silliness, sentiment, sex jokes, toilet jokes and a love for grossout gags that is too sincere to be faked. Say what you will about him, and to most people, Sandler is the Ed Wood of comedy. He’s a 48 year old…
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Maleficent [2014] ★★
Few filmmakers can frame a film with the visionary flair of Oscar winner Robert Stromberg, who worked on the amazing “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Hunger Games”. As a result, “Maleficent” (Angelina Jolie’s major comeback since 2010’s “The Tourist”)- a spin on Sleeping Beauty for audiences who really think they need another one- offers sets, costumes…
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Only Lovers Left Alive [2014] ★★
Jim Jarmusch (“Mystery Train”, “Dead Man”) is a smart filmmaker, and his new movie is so original, that I wish I liked it more. I was fascinated by its premise at first, about two vampires (Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton) who’s been in love for centuries. For reasons unexplained, they now live in different parts…
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In The Blood [2014] ★★
If you like brainless action thrillers, “In The Blood” is probably the movie for you. It stars Gina Carano (who made a strong impression in Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire”) as a woman who sets off to take down the men who kidnapped her husband during their Caribbean honeymoon. The plot may be silly, but there’s no…
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Bad Neighbors [2014] ★★
What can I say about a movie that made me want to slap everyone in the face? “Bad Neighbors” is so shallow, self-satisfied and downright silly that I hesitate to discuss it. It has none of the qualities of director Nicholas Stoller’s debut feature, “Forgetting Sarah Marhall”, and it’s a long way from Seth Rogen’s…
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Oculus [2014] ★★
Here’s a hit and miss horror film that doesn’t live up to its potential. Why? Because director Mike Flanagan wastes a solid premise with repetitive cliché. Damn shame, I really wanted to like this one. The setup is achingly familiar: when brother/sister Tim (Brendon Thwaites) and Kaylie (Karen Gillan) Russell were kids, their father murdered their…
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Rio 2 [2014] ★★
The first “Rio” was a huge hit and one of my favorite animated movies of 2011. But even animation isn’t immune to the greed that drives Hollywood studios nowadays. That’s how an imaginative feature has managed to spawn a pointless sequel. The first film had everything going for it: an ingenious storyline, an unusual setting,…
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A Case Of You [2013] ★★
Justin Long and Evan Rachel Wood would be assets to any romantic comedy, but they can’t make “A Case Of You” rise above the routine. He plays a writer who falls for a barista (Wood) at his local coffee shop in Brooklyn. Problem is: he’s too shy to approach her, so he checks her Facebook…
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That Awkward Moment [2014] ★★
You can tell “That Awkward Moment” is cheesy and predictable from watching the trailer. There’s Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller (so good in “The Spectacular Now”) doing sitcom shticks as twenty something best buds who decide a marathon of one-night stands is what they need. No relationships or commitments whatsoever. Then Efron falls for…
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Nymphomaniac (Volume I and Volume II) [2014] ★★
Depending on your reaction to the cinematic outrages perpetrated by Danish director Lars Von Trier (remember Antichrist?), you might want to add or subtract two from the rating I just gave “Nymphomaniac”. It seems that Van Trier enjoys courting controversy, and some of his films are deliberately designed to provoke and upset audiences. But he’s…
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Need For Speed [2014] ★★
Aaron Paul can act. If you want proof, check him out in the little seen “Smashed” or the hit series “Breaking Bad”. That said, I don’t think he belongs in “Need For Speed”, the big screen adaptation of the famous video game. As a Twitter user, I could describe everything that makes sense in this…
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Divergent [2014] ★★
Having suffered through “The Host” and “The Mortal Instruments” last year, I wasn’t eager to see yet another movie based on a best selling book. The only reason I had any hope was the presence of Shailene Woodley (“The Descendants”, “The Spectacular Now”) in the leading role—and indeed, she is the main reason the film…
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3 Days To Kill [2014] ★★
Luc Besson movies tend to be, well not so great. If you’re still enthused about his 1994 film “Leon”, my apologies. I’m not. In his latest film, directed by McG, Kevin Costner plays an international spy who tries to build a closer relationship with his family when he is diagnosed with a terminal disease. The…
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300: Rise Of An Empire [2014] ★★
This may sound harsh, but I’m getting Zach Snyder’ed out, at least with his “300” series. The loose cannon vibe that hooked me up in the 2007 original has turned into a sorry excuse of a sequel/companion piece. And yet at the screening I attended, many people loved it, while others said that they were…
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Pompeii [2014] ★★
What can you say about a movie that stars Kiefer Sutherland as a cruel Roman Senator? Some viewers (including me) may have silliness on their minds and I don’t blame them. I even felt a certain amount of wrath over the cheesy 3D effects, but the film itself isn’t as bad as I thought it…
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Endless Love [2014] ★★
Unlike popular belief, I have nothing against romantic movies. But ever since 2004’s “The Notebook” became the ultimate choice in chick flicks (mainly because of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams), the cheesy bestsellers of Nicholas Sparks have ignited a plague of Hollywood movies. “Nights in Rodanthe”, “The Last Song”, “Safe Haven” to name a few.…
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Ender’s Game [2013] ★★
I don’t know what “Ender’s Game” purists would make of this big screen adaptation, but as someone who has never read the book, I wasn’t impressed with the overall result. This is not to say that the movie doesn’t have impressive visuals. The futuristic settings, costumes and overall production design are a treat to watch.…
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The Right Kind Of Wrong [2013] ★★
An entirely predictable chick flick that will probably go down much easier on DVD with a few Margaritas and a slice of pizza with extra cheese (pun intended). It’s a date! Rating: 2/4
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