Recommended THE FILMS: With Paramount’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit on the horizon, it is appropriate to revisit the four older Ryan thrillers. Culled from Tom Clancy’s novels, each film has its merits and all are worth watching. The series has thus far had three leading men – Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck – and Chris Pine is set to play the sometimes CIA agent Ryan in Shadow Recruit …
Highly Recommended The Film: Thomas Vinterberg has found a way to turn a pre-school girl into something of a villain in The Hunt ( Jagten ), a morally and psychologically complex dramatic-thriller — perhaps even a bit of a horror film — centered on the crowd mentality of inquisitions based on unfalsifiable accusations. By design, the material here is tough to digest: it focuses on how a …
Highly Recommended THE MOVIE: Please Note: The stills used here are taken from promotional materials and other sources, not the Blu-ray edition under review.
Skip It THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution. By all accounts, the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs was a complicated man.
Recommended The Movie: Written and directed by David Schmoeller in 1986, Crawlspace (not to be confused with the made for TV movie of the same name) is a twisted thriller that once again found the writer/director working with producer Charles Band (then with Empire Pictures, prior to starting Full Moon).
Highly Recommended In 10 Words or Less More minions, but too much stuffing Reviewer’s Bias* Loves: Animation, Minions, Despicable Me Likes: Kristin Wiig, Steve Carell Dislikes: Meaningless sequels Hates: The Story So Far… The first film from Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Entertainment, Despicable Me was a out-of-nowhere hit, telling the animated story of Gru (Steve Carell), a supervillain …
Skip It THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution. I may not be the target audience for young adult film adaptation The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones but I was willing to give it a fair shake.
Rent It Please Note: The stills used here are taken from promotional materials and other sources, not the Blu-ray edition under review. The TV Series: Time for more cha-cha music, manly men, swanky dames, and Rat Pack-era swellegance. In an unfortunate coincidence, we happened to watch the second and final season of the Starz “mobsters and mayhem in 1959 Miami” drama Magic City at the same time …
Skip It THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution.
Recommended In 10 Words or Less The little blue girl gets center stage Reviewer’s Bias* Loves: Good animation, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays Likes: The Smurfs cartoons, Hank Azaria Dislikes: Most TV-show movie adaptations Hates: Grouchy, wasted talent The Story So Far… The Smurfs, little, magical, blue forest creatures, were a phenomenon in the 80s thanks to their popular TV cartoon, but …