Synopsis:
Upon discovering her husband’s infidelity, Sandy (Zeta-Jones) and her two kids move from the suburbs to pursue a new life in the big city. There she meets Aram (Bartha), a local coffee shop employee whose wife only married him as a means to getting her green card. The two strike up a friendship which eventually evolves into something more. But it isn’t long before they’re faced with the big question – “Is this real or just a rebound?”

Technorati Tags: The Rebound, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Justin Bartha, Quiz, February 7, Fox, Movie

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE SYNOPSIS

Hailed as “pure enchantment,” (New York Times), Shakespeare in Love garnered seven Academy Awards® in 1998, including Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Gwyneth Paltrow and Best Supporting Actress for Judi Dench. Co-starring Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth and Ben Affleck, the film captivated audiences with its intoxicating love story, endless wit and all-star cast. For the first time on Blu-ray Disc, the release will also include audio commentaries, a “making of” featurette, a look at the Oscar® winning costumes, deleted scenes and more.

Out of ideas and cash, a young Will Shakespeare (Fiennes), is in search of a muse to break his creative drought. After meeting the lovely Lady Viola (Paltrow), the two find themselves entangled in a secret romance that rejuvenates Will’s creativity. His pen flows like never before until he uncovers two unexpected truths about his new lover – she’s promised to marry someone else and she’s successfully impersonating a man to play the lead in Will’s latest play.

Shakespeare in Love – Film Clip: “The Kiss”

BLU-RAY DISC SPECIAL FEATURES*
• “Shakespeare in Love and On Film” – “making of” featurette
• Academy Award® winning costumes featurette
• Audio commentary with John Madden
• Audio commentary with cast and crew
• Deleted scenes
• Theatrical trailer
• Television spots
*subject to change

Shakespeare in Love – Film Clip: “Ned’s Return to Rose Playhouse”

DIRECTED BY
John Madden (The Debt, Proof, Her Majesty Mrs. Brown)

WRITTEN BY
Marc Norman (The Aviator, The Killer Elite, Breakout)
And Tom Stoppard (Enigma, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Empire of the Sun, Brazil)

Shakespeare in Love – Blu-ray Trailer

CAST
Gwyneth Paltrow (Contagion, Iron Man 2, Iron Man, Emma, Se7en, Two Lovers)
Joseph Fiennes (TV’s “FlashForward,” Luther, Enemy at the Gates, Elizabeth)
Geoffrey Rush (The Pirates of the Caribbean series, The King’s Speech, Shine)
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Mamma Mia, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The English Patient, Then She Found Me)
Ben Affleck (The Town, The Company Men, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Good Will Hunting)
Judi Dench (J. Edgar, Casino Royale, Chocolat, Her Majesty Mrs. Brown)
Simon Callow (TV’s “Doctor Who,” Amadeus, HBO’s “Rome”)
Jim Carter (My Week With Marilyn, Creation, TV’s “Downton Abbey”)
Martin Clunes (TV’s “Doc Martin,” TV’s “Doctor Who”)
Antony Sher (TV’s “Murphy’s Law,” Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown)
Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake, the Harry Potter series, Another Year)
Tom Wilkinson (The Conspirator, Michael Clayton, Batman Begins)
Mark Williams (upcoming Albert Nobbs, the Harry Potter series, Stardust)

Technorati Tags: Blu-ray, Shakespeare in Love, Tom Wilkinson, Colin Firth, Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clips, Movie, Romance

Keep reading for additional info:

Synopsis:
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which Tributes? must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

THE HUNGER GAMES is directed by Gary Ross, and produced by Nina Jacobsons Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. Suzanne Collins best-selling novel, the first in a trilogy published by Scholastic that has over 16 million copies in print in the United States alone, has developed a massive global following.

The world will be watching when The Hunger Games hits theaters on March 23!

Technorati Tags: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, March 23, Book to Movie, Movie, Poster, Scholastic, Fantasy, Survival

The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack breakdown is as follows:

Blu-ray:
o Original Theatrical Version of the Film
o Unrated Version of the Film
o Lost Tapes

DVD:
o Unrated Version of the Film
o Digital Copy of Unrated Version—Compatible with iTunes® and Windows Media

On February 14, single disc DVD versions of both the unrated and the theatrical versions will be available at Wal-Mart, as well.

Technorati Tags: Paranormal Activity 3, Movie, Horror, Ghosts, Haunting, Paramount Home Video

Synopsis:

Director: Boaz Yakin (writer of Prince of Persia)
Cast: Jason Statham (Chaos, War), Catherine Chan, James Hong, Reggie Lee (Tropic Thunder), Robert John Burke
————————–
A second-rate cage fighter on the mixed martial arts circuit, Luke Wright lives a numbing life of routine beatings and chump change…until the day he blows a rigged fight. Wanting to make an example of him, the Russian Mafia murders his family and banishes him from his life forever, leaving Luke to wander the streets of New York destitute, haunted by guilt, and tormented by the knowledge that he will always be watched, and anyone he develops a relationship with will also be killed.

But when he witnesses a frightened twelve-year-old Chinese girl, Mei, being pursued by the same gangsters who killed his wife, Luke impulsively jumps to action…and straight into the heart of a deadly high-stakes war. Mei, he discovers, is no ordinary girl, but an orphaned math prodigy forced to work for the Triads as a “counter.” He discovers she holds in her memory a priceless numerical code that the Triads, the Russian mob and a corrupt faction of the NYPD will kill for.

Realizing he’s the only person Mei can trust, Luke tears a swath through the city’s brutal underworld to save an innocent girl’s life…and perhaps even redeem his own.

Technorati Tags: Safe, New Poster, Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, James Hong, Reggie Lee, Movie, Action

The Birth of a Nation (1915) – Directed by D.W. Griffith
One of the most challenging of all film masterpieces, D.W. Griffith’s first great feature demonstrates filmmaking innovations and a shocking example of the medium’s potential for cultural impact. Griffith wanted to make a film that would rival the feature-length epics coming out of Europe. With his innovative use of panoramic long shots, iris effects and panning shots, among other techniques, the film was a marvel, and its Civil War battle scenes, staged with the help of West Point, are among the most effective ever put on film. He almost single-handedly established the American film as an art form. The story of two families split by the Civil War and the combination of historical and fictional materials would become Hollywood mainstays. But Griffith’s material – two novels and a play written by Thomas Dixon in a personal campaign to maintain laws against racial intermarriage – triggered massive protests and violence around the nation. The political message so tarnished Griffith’s reputation he made Intolerance (1916) the next year to counter charges of racism. The racist depiction of freed slaves and the glorification of the Ku Klux Klan in The Birth of a Nation inspired both the Klan’s modern resurgence (it would use the film in recruiting drives into the 1970s) and a series of protests that thrust the still young NAACP into national prominence. It also further encouraged black businessmen to finance films of their own, leading to the “race film movement” that flourished into the 1950s.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) – Directed by Rex Ingram
This early anti-war drama, the sixth-highest grossing of all silent films, is a testament to the medium’s cultural impact, particularly when manipulated by master artists like writer June Mathis and director Rex Ingram. Mathis was one of the industry’s first female executives, heading Metro Pictures’ scenario department. Her interest in spiritism drew her to the Blasco Ibañez best seller, which used biblical imagery to depict an Argentine family torn apart by World War I, even though most studios had deemed it unfilmable. When she came up with a script that worked, studio head Louis B. Mayer was so impressed he gave her director and star approval. Hiring Ingram to direct was no issue as he had been rising steadily in the industry, but her choice of Rudolph Valentino to play a key role was controversial. Not only was he a bit player at the time, but Hollywood had never promoted such an ethnic leading man (the dark-skinned sex symbol was of Italian and French lineage). One look at the rushes, though, and Mathis and Ingram not only expanded his role but added the tango sequence to show off his dancing abilities. The result was a national craze for the tango and the gaucho pants Valentino wore in that scene. The role of a society playboy shamed into military service made Valentino a star and turned the “Latin lover” into one of the screen’s most bankable commodities.

Nanook of the North (1922) – Directed by Robert Flaherty
Although Robert Flaherty is often hailed as the father of the documentary and Nanook of the North often called the first feature in that genre, his work is far from what filmmakers would consider documentary today. The director readily admitted that some of his sequences were staged, which would become a common practice for early documentarians. Among other things, Flaherty changed his subject’s name from Allakariallak to “Nanook” and cast his own common law wives to play Nanook’s two mates. He also had Nanook and his fellow Inuit hunt walrus and seal with spears, even though they had recently begun using guns, because he wanted to capture the way they had lived before European influences took hold. Since the only cameras available to the director were large and bulky, his crew even had to construct a special three-walled igloo so they could shoot interiors. The director also may have invented the story that Nanook was dying of starvation as the film premiered. Allakariallak died at home two years later, reportedly of tuberculosis. The filming, however, was the real thing, shot in the remote locale when many so-called documentaries would be made in film studios with actors. With funding from a French fur company, Flaherty brought cameras, a generator and a portable lab halfway to the North Pole with him. When he showed the film’s participants the footage of the walrus hunt, it was the first film any of them had ever seen.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) – Directed by Wallace Worsley
After years of character work, Lon Chaney shot to stardom and started his reign as the “Man of 1,000 Faces” with this lavish adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic tale of the deformed bell ringer in love with a beautiful gypsy. Although most fans know the 1939 Charles Laughton version better, connoisseurs like Orson Welles have hailed this as the story’s and character’s definitive screen version. Chaney fought for three years to get this film made. Nothing came of his efforts until he shared his dream with Irving Thalberg, recently named head of production at Universal Studios. Thalberg helped spearhead a lavish production that established Universal as a major studio, and the film proved to be their most successful silent. The sets covered 19 acres, while the production required a crew of 750, particularly during two months of night shooting – an unprecedented undertaking at the time. Chaney put himself through the wringer for the role, wearing a 15-pound plaster hump and false chest that made it almost impossible for him to stand up straight, while the contact lenses he wore for the role caused permanent vision problems. But the makeup was so convincing at the time that many patrons thought the studio had hired a real hunchback for the role. Beyond his physical transformation, the star delivered a sympathetic, deeply felt performance that set the standard for “human monsters,” to be followed by the likes of Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and Chaney’s own son, Lon Chaney, Jr.

The Ten Commandments (1923) – Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Today, the biblical epic is viewed as a product of the 1950s, when filmmakers used spectacular tales like The Robe (1953) to lure audiences away from their TV sets and back into theatres. The roots of the genre, however, lie in such silent spectacles as the Italian Quo Vadis? (1913), D.W. Griffith’s Judith of Bethulia (1914) and Cecil B. DeMille’s original tale of Moses and the exodus. Always aware of his audience, DeMille had already popularized the risqué society comedy with films like Old Wives for New (1918) and would anticipate the return of the Western with The Plainsman (1936). He brought back the epic twice, first with the lavish The Ten Commandments, then with Samson and Delilah (1949). He hedged his bets somewhat with The Ten Commandments; the biblical story comprises only a third of the film’s running time, followed by a modern morality tale illustrating the importance of Christian values. But that first section was as eye-popping as DeMille could make it, even including 2-strip Technicolor sequences. Sixteen hundred workers created the Egyptian sets, which featured 36 foot tall statues of the Pharaohs, 21 sphinxes and 110-foot-tall gates. The parting of the Red Sea was created with miniature shots of Jell-O, which jiggled to approximate the surging waters. Even the modern sequence featured the spectacular collapse of a church built with shoddy materials, a visual comment on defying the commandments. The only director who could top such grandeur was DeMille himself, when he remade The Ten Commandments three decades later.

The Gold Rush (1925) – Directed by Charlie Chaplin
When Amy Adams is left on her own in The Muppets (2011), she sits in a restaurant, sticks two forks into a pair of dinner rolls and makes them do a little dance. The scene is a loving tribute to one of the great sight gags in film history, Charlie Chaplin doing the Ocarina Roll in The Gold Rush. Often hailed as “The Little Tramp’s,” and even the silent screen’s, greatest comedy, the film is a treasure trove of brilliant comic routines and heart-rending pathos. The plot, about Chaplin’s involvement in the Klondike Gold Rush, had an unlikely inspiration – the fate of the Donner Party. That may explain the prevalence of food jokes, as the starving Chaplin cooks and eats his own shoe, is chased around a snow-bound cabin after equally ravenous partner Mack Swain imagines him a chicken, or dreams of entertaining the woman of his dreams (dance hall hostess Georgia Hale) by making the dinner rolls dance. That sequence, possibly inspired by a Fatty Arbuckle routine in 1917′s The Rough House, would be echoed by everyone from Curly Howard in the short “Pardon My Scotch” to Johnny Depp in Benny and Joon. The Gold Rush was Chaplin’s first successful film at United Artists, the studio he co-founded with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith. At the time, it was the longest comedy every made and would become the highest grossing of all silent screen comedies. It was also the film by which Chaplin said he would most want to be remembered.

Battleship Potemkin (1925) – Directed by Sergei Eisenstein
The image of an untended baby carriage relentlessly rolling down a flight of stairs is one of the most iconic in film history. Brian De Palma used it to dramatic effect in The Untouchables (1987), while Woody Allen lampooned it in Bananas (1971). But the legacy of using montage as a tool to move the audience emotionally goes beyond that one masterful image. Drawing on early work by D.W. Griffith, Abel Gance and fellow Soviet Lev Kuleshov, director Sergei Eisenstein used montage to engage viewers, particularly to generate sympathy for the revolutionary sailors on the Potemkin and their sympathizers. By combining rhythmic cutting and recurring images – the czarist soldiers descending the steps, a nurse wearing pince-nez and the legendary baby carriage – he created a powerful narrative entirely out of images. Battleship Potemkin was not an instant hit, even in the Soviet Union. Initially it was banned in some countries because of its shocking violence. Later, countries would ban it for its revolutionary message. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels declared it off-limits for Germany’s military personnel. But as prints circulated around the world, filmmakers gathered in small groups to view it with admiration. When David O. Selznick saw the film in 1926, he wired his boss (later to be his father-in-law), Louis B. Mayer, advising him to screen it at MGM to teach studio employees how to edit. Filmmakers, and film students, have now been learning from Battleship Potemkin for more than three quarters of a century.

Metropolis (1927) – Directed by Fritz Lang
Without Metropolis, there would be no Star Wars, no Alien no Blade Runner. Fritz Lang’s science-fiction masterpiece was one of the first films to create an entire world convincingly on screen. Working with cinematographer Karl Freund, special effects supervisor Eugen Schüfftan rose to new heights with this film, supervising dazzling miniature sets, mounting a camera on a swing for one sequence and creating the Schüfftan Process, a system using mirrors to combine actors with the miniatures almost seamlessly. That particular effect would become a mainstay of filmmaking around the world, while the sleek, modernistic design of the mad scientist’s laboratory would set the standard for science fiction for decades to come. Beyond that, Lang’s dystopian vision of a future dominated by unbridled capitalism until a workers’ revolt forces some kind of détente represented one of the screen’s first and still most effective uses of science fiction as social commentary. Even the performances – particularly Rudolf Klein-Rogge as the mad scientist Rotwang and Brigitte Helm as the noble Maria, who inspires the workers, and her evil robot doppelgänger – have been echoed in other films. In later years, Lang dismissed the film, partly because of its popularity with the Nazi Party, but even he could not deny its influence and, in many ways, its prescience, particularly when he saw the first manned space flights of the 1960s.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) – Directed by F.W. Murnau
Oscar lore labels Wings (1927) the first film to win Best Picture, but the same year it won, in a category then called “Best Picture, Production,” Sunrise won for “Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production.” Even such an overstated award title ultimately understated the importance of this film, which first brought German Expressionism to Hollywood thanks to the work of director F.W. Murnau. The German filmmaker had developed his craft with such international classics as Nosferatu (1922) and The Last Laugh (1924), but arguably reached his highest level of achievement with this film. Murnau chose a simple story so like a fable the characters don’t even have names. Farmer George O’Brien is tempted to kill wife Janet Gaynor for love of The Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). In other hands, it might have been old-fashioned melodrama, but Murnau raised it to a level of dreamlike poetry by inventing new ways of telling the story visually. Where most films of the time made only limited use of camera movement, he suspended a camera platform from above the sound stage so the camera could glide, even as it followed his characters through rough marshlands. He also created compositions of depth by having cameraman Karl Struss shoot multiple superimpositions before the invention of the optical printer. It all creates a dreamlike effect that would influence filmmakers as different as John Ford and Orson Welles for years after Murnau’s tragic death, just four years later in an auto accident.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) – Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
It was this film from Danish pioneer Carl Theodor Dreyer that played the largest role in convincing critics the cinema was an art form. Dreyer threw out the elaborate script his French producers had prepared, instead basing his film almost entirely on transcripts of Joan of Arc’s trial. Then he made the amazing choice to cast a popular stage comedienne, Falconetti, to star. Though he had only seen her in a light comedy on the Parisian stage, he could tell even then that she had a spiritual side he could exploit, which is exactly what he did. To get just the right facial expressions, Dreyer forbade Falconetti and the other actors to wear makeup and moved his camera in as close as possible, using newly developed panchromatic film to capture even minute variations in skin tones. At times he forced his cast to work under extreme duress. Falconetti had to kneel for hours on bare stones, forbidden to show any expression on her face as Dreyer shot repeated takes to capture every nuance of her inner pain. And just to make things more grueling, he shot the entire film in sequence. Her suffering, captured in a film shot entirely in close ups and medium shots, makes the film a profoundly spiritual experience and has been hailed by many as the greatest piece of acting in film history.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Classic Movies, Silent Films, Turner Classic Movies, TV, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Fritz Lang, The Birth of a Nation

Release Info:
Original Release Date: August 12, 2011
DVD Release Date: December 27, 2011
Online Availability: Amazon for $22.99

Some movies do not need five follow-ups under their franchise belt. In fact, if you want to get technical, almost no franchise out there needs five followups. However, in the case of Final Destination it has received exactly that many. I saw the first Final Destination when the film was released on DVD back when it first came out. I am sure I have seen (at the very least) bits and pieces of some of the other movies in the franchise, as well. That being said, I have only ever supported the idea of the first film. While I liked the first film, it seems like there is no room for growth in the series and that makes the additional films pointless in my mind.

Final Destination requires a specific format to be done properly. The only problem with that is that the format is known by the time you watch the first one. Obviously, no matter what the circumstances are, you know what is inevitably going to happen in every other movie to some major degree. In every film a group of people cheat death. Whether they are on a high school trip or a work retreat does not matter as much as the fact that death got screwed out of a couple of extra bodies. One of the people cheating death has a premonition of impending doom right before the life-changing event happens. This allows him to get a small group together and to get them to safety. Of course, death doesn’t like to be cheated so people end up dying regardless of getting out of that original danger.

In theory, this sounds like an awesome plot for a movie, and it is pretty awesome. It’s awesome the first time. I can only assume that the thing that keeps people coming back to the box office for each additional Final Destination are the kills in the movies. While nothing in any of these films is particularly scary, there is an art to causing someone’s death during Lasik surgery that would have gone fine, except for the water that drenched the computer and made the laser heat up, causing the patient’s eye to be burned and eventually cause her to fall out a window after tripping on the missing eye of a teddy bear.

While the plot, though basically predictable, did not get on my nerves, there was something that did. The idea of the movie coming full circle was so annoying to me (once I figured out what that meant) that I considered throwing the Blu-ray out the window in protest. Final Destination 5 serves as a missing piece in a puzzle that was never missing a piece to begin with (and you can only understand what I mean by this if you’ve seen this or have read about the twist ending). They could have come up with nearly anything else and I might have tried to say something nice. I hated this idea. I hated it once I figured out that’s where they were going (I didn’t catch the twist until the end, mind you) and I hate it now as I write this. While the acting was fine and the kills had some interesting moments, the stupid full circle idea would make me consider a number of movies I probably wouldn’t want to watch before watching this again.

The Final Destination 5 Plot
It feels almost silly writing this section because anyone that has seen any of the Final Destination films already knows the plot. A group of people cheat death and death comes looking for them. Still, I will attempt to offer you a few more specifics about this cast of characters and how they are able to cheat death.

Sam Lawton (Nicholas D’Agosto) is caught between two jobs, one he loves as a chef, and another where he works in an office with his friends and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell). When the movie starts we learn that Sam and his co-workers at the office will be going on a work retreat. After the breakfast Sam made them, they will board a bus and head off into the great unknown for some team building things and some time alone. Unfortunately, it’s a little windy outside and the suspension bridge the bus is going over is being worked on by construction. One thing leads to another and Sam is seeing some pretty wicked visions including co-workers impaled on sails and falling head first into the water as they fall out of the bus.

Naturally, these visions do not sit well with Sam, especially when he realizes that the same things are happening. He urges everyone to get off the bus. While not all of them listen, a small group does, and naturally those are the ones that manage to cheat death. Among Sam and Molly are his best friend (who does a horrible, yet amusing impression of Tom Cruise throughout the whole movie) Peter (Miles Fisher), Peter’s girlfriend and office intern Candice (Ellen Wroe), the company boss, Dennis (David Koechner), eye-catching office assistant, Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), the likable warehouse foreman, Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), and the no-good weirdo, Isaac (P.J. Byrne).

Death, not liking the idea of being cheated, goes after each and every one of the survivors in order to fix the wrongs that Sam created by getting them off the bus. Eventually, the group figures this out when the helpful coroner (Tony Todd) explains the details about death’s unwillingness to be cheated. Of course, he also tells them that they have the option of offering death another person’s life which would allow them to take that person’s lifespan and not have to die. While some view this as a viable option, others do not and one by one, they all begin to pay the price.

Storyline/Plot: 2 out of 5 stars
Replayability: 2 out of 5 stars
Acting: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Directing: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Audio/Visual:
While Warner Bros goes all out for the 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encoded transfer of Final Destination 5, the film, at times, has a muted feel to it. Truthfully, the CGI-kills look decent. That’s the advantage of a mainstream series – the horror does look better than the cheese so often experienced with low-budget horror. Still, I would hardly call this worthy of a horror distinction. The only similarity this film has with standard horror is the amount of deaths that occur, with humorous yet gruesome clarity.

Final Destination 5 is presented at a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The color palette is dark and sinister for this film. Skintones are solid, blacks are rich, and the vibrant array of colors that accompany the special effects present a realistic color palette. It makes the film look even more realistic than its convoluted nature implies. There are minor instances of artifacts present, but these are few and far between. If only the movie were as good as it looks, visually.

The best part of the entire film, no lie, is the superb audio. The deaths look and sound realistic, even if every single death is ridiculous and could only happen in a movie. Warner Bros. went all out for the Blu-Ray with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio surround track. The sound effects come through with chilling clarity and the atmospheric soundtrack builds to a crescendo with every single kill. The booming sound echoes through multiple channels, with rear speaker activity enhancing the already robust front channels. This is a full, clear sound with no discernible audio foibles. For the most part, the dialogue is clear and even so you can hear it without too much volume toggling. If you are more into the auditory than the visual this film will definitely awaken and tease your senses.

Visual: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Audio: 5 out of 5 stars

Bonus Features:
The lamest part of the film, beyond its lack of plot, of course, is the fact that fans of this ending franchise get screwed when it comes to special features. There are absolutely no special HD features or easter eggs hidden. What you see is what you get and its mediocre, at best. What is here, is technically in HD, but that’s the quality of the film.

The bonuses are really just a series of Alternative Death Scenes (16 minutes worth – can we say OVERKILL?) that appear to be incredibly similar to what is already in the film and a couple of fairly uninteresting featurettes.

The featurettes include:

‘Final Destination 5:’ Circle of Death: This explains the twist in the film and it also ruins the already abysmal “ending” of the film. If you don’t want to know the twist, watch this after you check out the film.

Visual Effect of Death: Collapsing Bridge: This is not a how they did it feature. It is, instead, a split screen before and after of the shooting of the scene. You need to figure out how it was accomplished for yourself.

Visual Effects of Death: Airplane Crash: This is just like the last featurette, only it is for the plane crash, not the collapsing bridge.

Overall, what is here is pretty crappy and is a disservice to the five or so people who are totally into this series.

Bonus Features: 0.5 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line:
Final Destination is one of those franchises that makes a lot of money based on how interesting the deaths are for the characters. This is a huge series full of nameless actors that really do not matter unless their characters are dying in interesting ways. If that is all you’re interested in seeing in a film, then you are going to LOVE Final Destination 5. If you are looking for something a bit more cerebral, you know, with say, a plot, then you are going to find this film and all but perhaps the first in this franchise, to be a major let down. Fans of the franchise get screwed in the extras department, so if you really want to see this, I recommend waiting until it comes on cable.

Overall Rating: 2.86 out of 5 stars

Technorati Tags: Final Destination 5, Warner Bros, Blu-ray, Movie Review, BD Review, Final Destination, Tony Todd

Synopsis:
A suspenseful and gripping psychological thriller, Lynne Ramsay’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN explores the factious relationship between a mother and her son. Tilda Swinton, in a bracing, tour-de-force performance, plays the mother, Eva, as she contends for 15 years with the increasing malevolence of her first-born child, Kevin (Ezra Miller).

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN explores nature vs. nurture on a whole new level as Eva’s own culpability is measured against Kevin’s innate evilness.

Ramsay’s masterful storytelling simultaneously combines a provocative moral ambiguity with a satisfying and compelling narrative, which builds to a chilling, unforgettable climax.

CAST
Eva – Tilda Swinton (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Michael Clayton)
Franklin – John C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Chicago)
Kevin – Ezra Miller

CREDITS
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Screenplay by Lynne Ramsay
Rory Stewart Kinnear

** All images Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories **

Technorati Tags: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Trailer, Screenshot, Lynne Ramsay, Rory Stewart Kinnear, Tilda Swinton, John C Reilly, Ezra Miller, Thriller, Drama

Release Date: March 16, 2012

Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Written by: Melisa Wallack, Jason Keller
Cast: Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman, Valentine’s Day)
Lily Collins (The Blind Side)
Armie Hammer
Nathan Lane (Lion King, Birdcage, Trumbo)
Mare Winningham (St. Elmo’s Fire)
Sean Bean
Michael Lerner (No Way Back)
Produced by: Bernie Goldman, Ryan Kavanaugh, Brett Ratner,
Executive Producer: John Cheng, Jamie Marshall, Josh Pate, Tucker Tooley, Tommy Turtle, Jeff G. Waxman

Mirror Mirror is a reimagining of the classic fairy tale starring Oscar® winner Julia Roberts as the Queen, Lily Collins as Snow White, Armie Hammer as Prince Alcott, Sean Bean as the King and Nathan Lane as the Queen’s hapless and bungling servant, Brighton.

An evil queen steals control of a kingdom and an exiled princess enlists the help of seven resourceful rebels to win back her birthright in a spirited adventure comedy filled with jealousy, romance and betrayal that will capture the imagination of audiences the world over.

Visionary director Tarsem Singh rewrites fairy tale history as a wicked enchantress (Roberts) schemes and scrambles for control of a spirited orphan’s (Collins) throne and the attention of a charming prince (Hammer). When Snow White’s beauty wins the heart of the prince that she desperately pursues, the Queen banishes her to the forest, where a ravening man-eating beast hungrily awaits.

Rescued by a band of diminutive highway robbers, Snow White grows into an indomitable young woman determined to take back her realm from the treacherous Queen. With the support of her subjects, she roars into action in an epic battle that blends spectacle, magic and contemporary humor in Singh’s signature, jaw-dropping visual style.

Technorati Tags: Mirror Mirror, Upcoming Movie, March 2012, Fairy Tale, Julia Roberts, Sean Bean, Mare Winningham, Movies, Screenshots

Release Info:
Original Release Date:
DVD Release Date: October 18, 2011
Online Availability: Amazon for $15.99

In my house, Pirates of the Caribbean is a tradition. My nephew, who is seven years old and convinced that he will one day be a pirate (he enjoys their work ethic), demands it. He has loved Captain Jack since he was old enough to speak. He has grown up with the movies and he continues to love them as he gets older. It’s hard not to like a movie with elements of fantasy, drama, and fun that is also well-acted and has great special effects.

Of course, there were some big changes to this, the fourth installment in the Pirates series. The biggest changes have to do with the acting talent. Both Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom are absent from this film, as At World’s End implied. On the plus side, the talented Ian McShane has been added to the mix, portraying Blackbeard.

Stepping away from the role of the aunt that has a nephew obsessed with Captain Jack, I have to say there were some pluses and minuses to this film. The biggest problem I encountered was that many of the new characters were undeveloped so I did not gain any true interest in them or care what happened to them. Another issue I had was that things felt like they had been done before. This is most likely because I had watched them in the previous films. Since we have all seen Captain Jack escape from the law, other pirates, or some other evil force, we can’t help but want each escape to feel new and fresh. In this case, I can’t say that they did.

Logically, I know this film was made to make money. From a business sense another film was going to be made whether or not it should have been. The loss of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley (The Duchess) eliminated the love story that many disliked, but it left a hole in the series, as well.

What is left is the addition of two main characters, Blackbeard (Ian McShane – LoveJoy) and his daughter, a former love interest of Captain Jack, played by Penelope Cruz. Cruz seems to be there because of her body and the remarkable way in which she can appear to be Captain Jack. Otherwise, her character seems rather pointless. On the other hand, the skill of McShane and the lore of Blackbeard give this series so many places to go. Sadly, McShane is underutilized. The story is rather bland and though his interpretation is good, there are few places for him to take the role with what he is given.

What I loved, beyond seeing McShane man his own pirate ship, was the interesting spin on the use of fantasy characters. The Mermaids were quite different than the ones we’re used to seeing. The beginning of the movie had parts that made me consider falling asleep, but as things progressed I was interested enough to watch the movie. I can’t (and won’t) say that it’s my favorite of the four, but it serves its purpose for Pirates fans. A fifth film has been confirmed. One can only hope that when they continue with the series they will return to some of the things that made each movie whimsical and delightful every time you watch it.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Plot
Captain Jack has lost his ship and has narrowly escaped more trouble, only to dive head first into some new and dangerous adventures. It seems that everyone is on a quest to find the Fountain of Youth. King George II of London wants Captain Jack to locate the Fountains before the Spanish find it. The Spanish hired Jack’s old shipmate, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) who is one leg and a Black Pearl lighter these days, to find the Fountain first.

While Jack declines the offer in his own subtle way, he soon ends up captured by Blackbeard (McShane) and his daughter, Angelica (Cruz) on his ship, The Queen Anne’s Revenge. It seems that Blackbeard has heard about the ability of the Fountain to extend one’s life under the right circumstances and he wants to make sure that he lives as long as he can. In order to extend your life, you need to drink water from one of two silver chalices and the chalice that you drink from must contain a mermaid’s tear. If you drink from the chalice with a mermaid’s tear you shall live an extended life. The other person drinking will not.

Jack and crew are attacked by mermaids, capture a mermaid, and see the power of the Fountain work its mysterious ways, even though things don’t go according to plan for some. On Stranger Tides offers supernatural forces, mermaids, intrigue, a budding (but not fully developed) love story, and the promise of a potential sequel/addition to the series for some.

Now remind me why I almost fell asleep again?

Storyline/Plot: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Replayability: 2 out of 5 stars
Acting: 4 out of 5 stars
Directing: 3 out of 5 stars

Audio/Visual:
Disney always does 3D films justice, so when I put On Stranger Tides into the player I wasn’t expecting to be let down on a visual front. The thing that separates this film from some of Disney’s other recent 3D offerings is that On Stranger Tides was filmed in 3D. The dark scenes manage to come out beautifully and with little problem, but the city of London is miraculously gorgeous when color and a lighter image comes into view. Of course, the scenes on Queen Anne’s Revenge also stand out, as well, when it comes to being visually stunning. There are some consistency issues concerning the 3D, which can be a pain. However, if you like the thrills and pops of images that come from 3D this shouldn’t disappoint. Of course, if you have no access or use for 3D you might find a better visual quality on the 2D offerings that do not have some of the same visual issues with consistency that can be a problem with the 3D version.

When you hear a near flawless DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack you generally won’t have anything to complain about. Frankly, this soundtrack was created to shine and it does. This type of movie is perfect for a robust sound platform. You get all the right sounds with the level of intensity that should match them. The fights sound wild, the waves crash with ferocity, and the dialogue is always easy to hear. There really is nothing bad to say about the sound for On Stranger Tides. It is absolutely fabulous. Naturally, as with most Disney releases a host of other audio tracks and languages are available, as well as subtitles.

Visual: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Audio: 5 out of 5 stars

Bonus Features:
There are a number of special features available in the combo pack for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The majority of the features are available on both discs, but the Blu-ray does have some special options, so if you’re into the features your money would be best spent on the combo pack.

The Audio Commentary is offered by Rob Marshall and John DeLuca. A lot of talk is devoted to the process of making the film, which is par for the course in many commentaries. They do mention a fair bit about the casting that was done, the art and set design, and the extras. In the end, this wasn’t the worst audio commentary that I’ve ever heard, but it certainly wasn’t the best.

Bloopers of the Caribbean: This is just a three minute set of gags and bloopers that happened on set.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: Captain Jack’s Brick Tales: Here you have five Lego shorts. These are just recreated scenes from the movie. It would have been more exciting to see small shorts made up just for the purpose of having the Lego shorts. These aren’t as exciting because they are just re-done scenes that you’ve already watched. The only difference is that they are in Lego form.

Legends of On Stranger Tides: This is your basic making of feature that shows you various areas of production. There is some back patting that occurs, so be prepared for that, but there is also some pretty good moments with behind the scenes footage and interviews.

In Search of the Fountain: This is an eleven minute feature that looks at the basics of the film. This is one of the best features on the Blu-ray, with a look at the conceptualization of the film to the actual filming.

Last Sail, First Voyage: Ian McShane is the man of the hour in this feature. As Blackbeard, much of the film takes place on his ship. This feature is cool because they take the time to show how they transform the Black Pearl into Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Under the Scene: Bringing Mermaids to Life: This is a nine minute feature that looks at the visual effects involved in making these interesting (and occasionally hot) mermaids come to life!

Also included are trailers, nearly ten minutes of deleted and extended scenes, a two minute feature looking at the relationship between Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush, Disney’s Second Screen Technology, and a Digital copy of the film.

Bonus Features: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line:
Pirates of the Caribbean is a good series, but this particular movie is not without it’s disappointments. The transition that comes with new characters and getting rid of some of the others, in order to tell a new tale leaves the series, as a whole, especially this movie, up to extreme criticism. Johnny Depp is always amusing as Captain Jack, but at this point, with this story, too many elements felt overdone, because they have been done before. You might want to rent this one before buying, unless you’re a die hard Captain Jack fan.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Technorati Tags: Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, Blu-Ray, DVD Combo Pack, Review, Blu-Ray Review, Movie, Film, Johnny Depp, Ian McShane, Disney, Pirates, Blackbeard