All Articles by Andre Dellamorte

MALCOLM X Blu-ray Review

Posted: February 9th, 2012 at 5:00 am

Spike Lee’s Malcolm X is twenty years old, but the controversy surrounding it still feels fresh. At the time, Lee was considered a dangerous filmmaker, and no one was sure how the film would be received and if it would start riots. And Lee made it of the moment; he opened with the Rodney King beating, which now may have no context to younger viewers. But now, it’s simply a great movie that is saddled with a bio-pic structure. Denzel Washington gives a career best performance as the criminal transformed into a great leader and thinker. Our review of Malcolm X on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

SHARK NIGHT Blu-ray Review

Posted: February 7th, 2012 at 6:00 am

There are a number of things to recommend about Shark Night, which is unfortunate. Had there been a little more care in the first act, had there been nudity and had the majority of the shark effects been practical, they might have had an engagingly stupid B movie on their hands. Alas, the film comes close, but there is no cigar. Sara Paxton, Donal Logue, Joel David Moore and a bunch of random teenagers star in Shark Night, and our review of the Blu-ray follows after the jump.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Trailer and Sizzle Reel Recap; Plus 5 Things to Know About the Footage

Posted: February 6th, 2012 at 2:35 pm

In an awkwardly telecast multi-location event, The Amazing Spider-Man is attempting to steer the film geek conversation away from the Super Bowl TV spots and onto itself. The reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, Marc Webb directs Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans in the latest iteration of our friendly neighborhood webslinger. Today people around the world got to see the new 3-D trailer and a sizzle reel, and Collider was onhand for the entire presentation. Hit the jump to read the top five things we learned from this event, and be sure to check back on Collider tonight at midnight for the debut of the new trailer. You can check out a full gallery of all the Amazing Spider-Man images released thus far here.

ARCHER Season Two Blu-Ray Review

Posted: February 6th, 2012 at 10:28 am

Adult Swim created a new language for cartoons. From the style of animation (which combined old school cell animation with new digital technology) to the nonsense plots that would often run for fifteen minutes or less, it’s a formula that has become something of a standard – until then, animated shows often went The Simpsons route. Archer, the FX adult cartoon show, is a mixture of both, but with a lot of that Adult Swim style. It’s no surprise that creator Adam Reed also worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Sealab 2021.

The show stars H. Jon Benjamin as Archer, the would-be Bond spy for ISIS, a spy organization run by his mother (Jessica Walter). There he works with fellow spy Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), desk girls Cheryl Tunt (Judy Greer) and Pam Poovey (Amber Nash), and with Lana’s former lover Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell). The show mixes spywork with the clash of office mates, most of whom are functionally insane. Our review of the second season of Archer on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

50/50 Blu-ray Review

Posted: February 5th, 2012 at 6:00 am

How do you deal cinematically with cancer? That’s the question of Jonathan Levine’s 50/50, which was based on the experiences of its writer Will Reiser. It’s a tough subject matter because cancer touches so many lives and rarely offers happy endings. But 50/50 manages to be charming, and more about friendship and family in crisis than just pain. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars with Seth Rogen, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anna Kendrick in this warm dramedy. Our review of 50/50 on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

ABDUCTION Blu-ray Review

Posted: February 2nd, 2012 at 11:30 am

Abduction was supposed to be Taylor Lautner’s coming out party as a leading man. Post-New Moon (where his part was more than a brief walk-on), he got a lot of heat as the third member of Twilight’s love triangle, and studios and projects were being thrown at him. Sure, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart couldn’t bring the twi-hards in to their work outside of Forks, but perhaps Lautner was different. And in Abduction he proves how he really is different from those two: he can’t act. Abduction misfired at the box office, and has hurt Lautner’s post-Twilight chances, which is probably for the best. Jason Isaacs, Mario Bello, Lily Collins, Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina and Michael Nyqvist co-star in this John Singleton film, and our review of Abduction follows after the jump.

THE THING Blu-ray Review

Posted: February 2nd, 2012 at 5:00 am

We’ve seen many of the great horror films of the 70’s and 80’s remade and yet few if any have lived up to their predecessors. So remaking John Carpenter’s The Thing must have been a tempting but dangerous proposition. The film is considered one of the greatest horror films of that or any time, and a remake might aggravate fans (even though the 1982 film itself was a remake), on top of the knowledge that the Carpenter film was a flop when released. To circumvent that they made a prequel, which copies the original in a lot of ways, and takes place days before the original remake. 2011’s The Thing stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, and Eric Christian Olsen as the victims, and our review of the Blu-ray follows after the jump.

THE IDES OF MARCH Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 31st, 2012 at 6:00 am

George Clooney’s The Ides of March is exactly what you’d expect from Clooney (as a filmmaker) at this point. It’s smart, smooth, well cast and put together. If there’s a modest hesitation, it’s that it’s a very small movie, and perhaps one that has delusions of profundity. Ryan Gosling stars as a campaign manager for one of the leading presidential contenders (Clooney). But to get the nomination, Gosling finds that he’s embroiled in double crossing by friends and foes alike. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffery Wright co-star in the film, and our review of The Ides of March on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM and DEAD POETS SOCIETY Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 31st, 2012 at 4:55 am

Will there come a time when people look back on the career of Robin Williams and wonder “was everyone who liked him on drugs?” Williams was championed as a great comic actor by the likes of Pauline Kael, but perhaps years of his schtick has turned it into a cliché. Or perhaps it’s living through the period where he eventually wore out his welcome as a comic performer, with films like Father’s Day, Hook and Jack ruining a lot of his goodwill. Fortunately he transitioned into a more serious actor, and films like Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets Society helped with that transition. Our reviews of both on Blu-ray follow after the jump.

REAL STEEL Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 30th, 2012 at 6:00 am

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a formula picture, the problem is with filmmakers not investing in the formula. There’s just too many big budget movies these days – like the Pirates or Transformers films – where the characters and what they do don’t make sense, and it’s near impossible to care about anything that happens to them. So it’s strange that director Shawn Levy managed to make a formula picture right. Best known for the sub-par Night at the Museum films, Levy came across as a hack. But Real Steel knows exactly what it’s doing and works you over. Hugh Jackman stars as a washed up boxer trying to make his living fighting with robots. Enter his abandoned son (Dakota Goyo) and a special robot that might be able to take them to the top. Our review of Real Steel on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER? Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 25th, 2012 at 5:00 am

These days romantic comedies have to be “not your normal romantic comedy” to be interesting at all. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Judd Apatow’s efforts, etc. may follow the same inherent structure of a Katherine Heigl or Kate Hudson film, but it’s the difference between a gourmet burger and McDonalds. And with those Heigl and Hudson efforts, the end result is usually the same, an hour and forty five minutes or so of high concept ridiculousness. Anna Faris has been smart about her work, but What’s Your Number? is a by-the-numbers rom-com. It’s also not very good, but it’s hard to get worked up over such blandness. Chris Evans and a host of supporting comics co-star in this tepid affair. Our review of What’s Your Number? on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

DREAM HOUSE Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 24th, 2012 at 7:00 am

When a studio dumps a horror movie, or any movie, it usually comes after some tinkering. Sometimes things don’t come out the way they were expected, and they try to fix what they can, or make it a harder or softer cut to make it more marketable. With 2011’s Dream House, one expects a terrible movie that was butchered or messed with in such a way that the release version seems a shred of the former movie. The weirdest thing about the film is that it feels like they made the movie they set out to make. Sure, it didn’t turn out well, but at least it’s a complete thought. Jim Sheridan directs Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz in the story of a haunted family that seems like a decade-late riff on The Sixth Sense. Our review of the Dream House Blu-ray follows after jump.

KILLER ELITE Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 19th, 2012 at 11:00 am

Jason Statham is like the only fast food restaurant in a small town. There’s really no other actor who can be counted on to deliver action films on a regular basis, and Statham fills that need at least once or twice yearly. Sometimes you just want a burger, and sometimes you just want to see Statham kick the crap out of someone. Killer Elite brought together Statham, Robert De Niro, and Clive Owen for playtime, and though the two others are relatively serious actors, here they’re playing on Statham’s turf. The results are a little sluggish, but deliver what’s expected. Our review of Killer Elite on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

POINT BLANK Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 17th, 2012 at 4:00 am

Every once in a while it’s nice to have a pleasant surprise, and 2010’s Point Blank – the French film with the title of a great American movie – is one of those surprises – it’s a really good action film. Perhaps it owes something to the Luc Besson school of French filmmaking with an eye toward Hollywood, or perhaps it’s in response to Besson’s repeated production of low budget action films. Regardless, writer/director Fred Cavayé delivers the goods. Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gérard Lanvin and Elena Anaya star in this pot-boiler about an innocent male nurse (Lellouche) who gets caught between a criminal (Zem) and corrupt police. Our review of Point Blank on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

MONEYBALL Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 16th, 2012 at 5:30 am

What if you made a scrappy underdog sports film that wasn’t funny? In some ways that’s what Moneyball is, it’s the story of Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and how he works with Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) to build a team to win using statistics over star players. Bennett Miller’s film is engaging enough even for those who don’t follow the game (and those that do may dismiss what they accomplished – as many have) but as a narrative it’s the rare serious attempt to tell an underdog sports story without focusing on jokes or the players. Our review of Moneyball on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Copyright ©2005 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. California web design