Found 56 posts tagged as "DVD Reviews"
Unforgiven: 20th Anniversary Edition (Movie: 10/10; BD Disc: 8/10)
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning masterpiece, Unforgiven (one of the greatest and most authentic Westerns ever made), is being re-released today in a special 20th Anniversary single disc BD/Digibook Edition. The movie itself, of course, is an all-out masterwork–a gritty yet poetic meditation on violence, revenge, hypocrisy, and masculine identity. Like an ever-evolving melody, its script, dialogue, images, performances, editing, and music all fuse together as one purpose-driven path towards fate and mortality. Made as Eastwood's cinematic farewell to the Old West, Unforgiven remains today the last truly great American Western.
The Rum Diary (6.5/10)
It was a long and messy road that led to last year's theatrical release of The Rum Diary. Having mirrored its own muddled pre-production process, the film–based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel of the same name–suffered from a lack of narrative focus and underdeveloped characters–flaws that may be easier to forgive in the comfort of one's own home theatre environment.
If you’re a Twi-hard then the only reason you could possibly be reading this review is to confirm what you already know—that Breaking Dawn—Part 1 was the best movie ever and that Bella and Edward (Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson) were meant for each other.
For everyone else, a surprising revelation: Breaking Dawn—Part 1 is not awful. It should be—after all, it’s preceded by the legacy of Stephenie Meyer’s heinous source material and three hokey prequels, but under Bill Condon’s direction, Meyer’s ridiculous premise becomes not only palatable, but dare I say it, enjoyable. In any case, I blame Bill Condon for my reluctant conversion to the Twilight franchise.
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (7/10)
After the disappointing outing of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, I was somewhat hesitant in my approach to A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. For one thing, so much of the latter's title just reeked of wrong; thankfully, my hesitance paid off, as I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer revelry and over-the-top scope in which the film made use of current 3D technology (an achievement that many misleading Hollywood blockbusters could learn from).
Was Shakespeare a fraud? Did someone else write his plays? These are but a few of the many controversial questions posed in Roland Emmerich's dramatic political thriller, Anonymous. Upon its theatrical release in late October/early November, this grandiose Shakespearean conspiracy thriller seemed like the least likely type of film to be helmed by the director of such epic disaster flicks as Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012.
Drive (9/10)
The man simply known as "Driver" (Ryan Gosling) wheels his way into our homes this week, with the Blu-ray/DVD release of last year's cult-hit-in-the-making: Drive. Gosling's performance as a Hollywood stunt driver/mechanic who moonlights at night for gangsters as a hired getaway driver was the best he gave in a year that's been informally dubbed "The Year of Ryan Gosling". A story of violence told for the eyes, this meticulously directed film by Nicolas Winding Refn looks and sounds spectacular in its high-def Blu-ray transfer, but not at the expense of its brilliantly stylized B-movie/noirish aesthetics. Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, and Ron Perlman also star.
50/50 (8/10)
If you didn't get the opportunity to see last year's critically acclaimed "cancer comedy" 50/50, now's your chance to see what all the fuss was about. Out on Blu-ray and DVD this week, this third directorial feature of Jonathan Levine's has just the right blend of comedic and dramatic warmth to get you through a cold, windy night in the remaining months of winter. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anjelica Huston, 50/50 delivers a unique combination of raunchy comedy, dark and witty humour, and tear-jerking pathos that blend together surprisingly well.
The Ides of March (6.5/10)
Sporting one of last year's biggest all-star casts, The Ides of March is a well-acted political thriller from fourth-time director George Clooney that is dramatically engaging to a degree, but slight to a fault in presenting anything new regarding its subject matter. Starring Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, and Max Minghella (see what I mean about that cast), this somewhat obvious and heavy-handed take on the spinning wheel of political corruption certainly makes for some compelling dramatic pathos, but rarely seems capable of transcending its all-too-familiar territory.
Moneyball (8/10)
Before Moneyball came around, who would have thought that a movie about baseball statistics would make for such engaging and entertaining storytelling? Of course, in a way, to summarize Bennett Miller's biographical sports drama - based on the true story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics baseball season in which the team was rebuilt from zero to hero through rigid statistical analysis - in such a manner, does its multifarious script and performances a slight injustice. Almost a bit too larger than life for its dry subject matter, Moneyball is nonetheless a remarkable achievement in dialogue and storytelling (an Oscar nom for Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillian, and Stan Chervin for Best Adapted Screenplay is all but guaranteed), as vividly realized on screen by the terrific pairing of Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.
Contagion (5.5/10)
As has too often been the case with movies loaded with Oscar-winning/nominated talent, Steven Soderbergh's docudrama-esque pandemic film, Contagion, was, to me, something of a disappointment. Starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Marion Cotillard (amongst many others), Contagion is an apocalyptic film written by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!) that in many ways feels like a B-movie made by A-list talent. Appropriately (and deceptively) simplistic in its depiction of a widespread global pandemic, the film is otherwise disjointed and uneven in its pacing, transitioning awkwardly from scenes of gritty, detached realism to those of contrived, Hollywood-esque hyperbole.
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