Pads & Panels

Title: John Carter

Format: Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Directed by: Andrew Stanton

Written by: Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews, Michael Chabon

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Willem Dafoe

Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Film Rating:

Blu-ray 3D Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

John Carter may be best known in retrospect as a bad business decision. One that saw a lot of money spent and not nearly as much made. And that comes, I think, primarily from its source material.

John Carter is the kind of fiction that has attained a certain cult status – an incredibly loyal contingent of followers staunchly stand by the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi adventure – but may be entirely unfamiliar to general audiences. And ultimately what happened is a group of those loyal followers pushed to get this made, and the mass audiences just weren’t there.

But that doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of the film. Financial success doesn’t always speak to quality, of course, but in this case there does seem to be a connection. What John Carter struggles with most is finding, or creating, an identity for itself. By the end of 132 minutes, we’ve all seen a lot of fantastic things but are left caring about very little of it. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Format: Blu-ray + DVD + Ultraviolet Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Directed by: Stephen Daldry

Written by: Eric Roth

Starring: Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, Max von Sydow

Studio:Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Rating:

Review by: Sarah Jones

The Film

Almost everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they found out about the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. Some were directly affected, knowing someone who was killed in the attacks or in the rescue efforts.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close portrays such a story, but it is also a story about trying to move on after losing a loved one and trying to find meaning in the pieces they leave behind. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: War Horse

Format: 4-Disc Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Written by: Lee Hall, Richard Curtis

Starring: Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Jeremy Irvine

Studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment, Dreamworks Pictures

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

War Horse is unique in that it essentially tells the story of a war from the perspective of an animal used in war. It features a number of human characters, the most prominent of which is Albert (Jeremy Irvine), the son of the owner of the horse Joey sold off to the cavalry, but ultimately the story is about the horse and what it endures in the midst of this human war.

But despite the promising premise and the acclaim it has received, War Horse is a disjointed, overly long film that lacks direction and more so focus in its execution, leaving viewers with a film that puts forth a lot of effort but fails to hit its mark. It boils down to a lot of action and moments, but the only lasting impression I had was one particularly amusing grammar joke made in the midst of some self-awareness that the Germans in this film speak English, but with accents. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Format: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Directed by: Rupert Wyatt

Written by: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Starring: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, Andy Serkis

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

It’s a wonder Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ ad campaign didn’t completely derail the film’s success. It was hard not be skeptical of the return of the series after the overly cheesy trailer teases of Ceasar unlocking his cage with a makeshift device, a sinister shot of apes looking down on a man in a rotunda and a gorilla jumping at a helicopter in a scene that drew comparisons to King Kong (and that’s not to mention the bad taste the 2001 Mark Wahlberg remake left in our mouths). It unfortunately made a cheesy trailer of what turned out to be a stylish summer blockbuster with incredible special effects, an engaging story and a groundbreaking performance by Andy Serkis. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: Fright Night 3D

Format: Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: R

Directed by: Craig Gillespie

Written by: Marti Noxon

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, David Tennant, Toni Collette

Studio: Dreamworks Pictures, Touchstone Entertainment

Film Rating:

3D Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

A remake of Tom Holland’s 1985 “my neighbor may be a vampire” flick, Craig Gillespie’s Fright Night may not be altogether necessary, but that doesn’t stop it from being a heck of a lot of fun. It offers just the right blend of scares, big moments, humor and performances to make it a standout in the genre.

Anton Yelchin (Like Crazy, Terminator Salvation) plays Charley Brewster, a suburban nerd of a teenager who somehow lands the school’s hot blonde Amy (Imogen Poots). Colin Farrell plays neighbor Jerry Dandridge who is quite possibly a vampire whose good looks are catching the attention of Charley’s mom, Jane (Toni Collette). (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

Format: Extra Dope Edition Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: R (Theatrical), Unrated (Extended)

Directed by: Todd Strauss-Schulson

Written by: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris

Studio: Warner Bros.

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle may have been one of the best surprise standout comedies when it was released in 2004 (not to mention one of the best product tie-ins around), but the series took a sharp dive with the 2008 sequel Harold & Kumar Escape Guantanamo Bay, which was nothing short of torture in its own right.

But maybe, just maybe, it was worth enduring to get to 2011’s unexpected sequel, A Very Harold & Kumar (3D) Christmas. While the duo’s Christmas special doesn’t quite find the former glory of the original, it is leaps and bounds better than its predecessor and in theaters it opted to embrace 3D technology fully, finding many of its laughs in jump-out-of-the-screen gags. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: Contagion

Format: Blu-ray + DVD + Ultraviolet Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Written by: Scott Z. Burns

Starring: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, Sanaa Lathan

Studio: Warner Bros.

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

As a procedural on the spread of a lethal, airborne virus, Contagion is fascinating. It follows a cast of characters who are dealing with the first case and ensuing epidemic of a spreading deadly disease and the social unrest that goes with it. But despite its star-studded cast, engaging premise and timeline structure, Contagion falls flat simply because it is hard to care about any of its characters. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: Batman: Year One

Format: Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Copy

MPAA: PG-13

Directed by: Sam Liu & Lauren Montgomery

Written by: Tab Murphy, based on a comic by Frank Miller

Starring: Benjamin McKenzie, Bryan Cranston, Eliza Dushku, Katee Sackhoff, Alex Rocco, Jon Polito

Produced by: Lauren Montgomery, Alan Burnett

Studio: Warner Premiere, Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment, Warner Home Video

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Eric Stuckart

The Film

Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One was a groundbreaking comic for the Dark Knight for a number of reasons. First off, it helped to definitively usher in a new age for Batman, one that eschewed the flavor-of-the-week enemies and cartoonish nature that the Adam West television series had imparted onto the comics. And secondly, it brought a grittier, darker tone to a comic book series that badly needed a resurrection.

The fact that the book practically serves as a storyboard for DC Entertainment’s animated adaptation only shows how great the source material was in the first place. Telling the story of how both Bruce Wayne and good cop Jim Gordon have arrived in the crime-ridden Gotham City, it’s a great starting point for those not familiar with the story behind the cowl. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: Arthur

Format: Blu-ray+DVD+Digial Copy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Directed by: Jason Winer

Written by: Peter Baynham

Starring: Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, Greta Gerwig, Luis Guzman, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Garner

Studio: Warner Bros.

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

It has been a long while since I’ve seen a movie quite as bad as Arthur. Imagine, for a moment, a drunkenly obnoxious friend who for cannot be begged for one moment to stop his antics. Stretch that out to a 110-minute feature film, and give that friend infinite wealth and take away half of his brain and you’ve got Arthur, the latest remake atrocity from Warner Bros.

Based on a 1981 film of the same name, Arthur tells the tale of its titular character (Russell Brand), who is a millionaire playboy, who, much like many of the famous children inheriting wealth nowadays, constantly finds himself in the public eye, embarrassing his family with his antics. And this is not good for business, with investors worried about getting involved with a company that Arthur is anywhere near. (more…)

 Print This Post

Title: Red Riding Hood

Format: Digital

Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke

Written by: David Johnson

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Julie Christie

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Rating:

Review by: Sarah Kumley

Teen books (and movies) these days are often about one of three things: vampires, werewolves or forbidden love. Although Red Riding Hood is a reimagining of the well-known fairy tale, it still manages to contain two of the three criteria to snag teenagers’ attention. Throw in a love triangle and attractive leads and the package is complete to draw in a crowd. There is sufficient tension throughout the movie and the sets look like a medieval village, but the story is mostly predictable and unforgettable. (more…)

 Print This Post