All Articles by Harrison Pierce

SEASON OF THE WITCH Blu-ray Review

Posted: July 31st, 2011 at 5:54 am

You’ve got to hand it to Nicolas Cage: while age peers Brad Pitt and Sean Penn refuse to work on anything but highbrow, Malick-ian fare and Tom Cruise rejects any role that doesn’t reflect his Level VII OT superhuman awesomeness, Cage willingly rolls around in the muck of any and all genres, with even the most dubious of filmmaking talent. In the past year alone, he’s starred in the action/horror hybrid Drive Angry, the family friendly The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the meta-comic book movie Kick-Ass and the gritty drama The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Seriously, you’ve got to love this guy for working so much. He’s like a hungry immigrant but with the net worth of his fatherland. (well, before back taxes).  Continued after the jump.

ALL GOOD THINGS Blu-ray Review

Posted: April 8th, 2011 at 12:15 pm

All Good Things falls into the tricky subgenre of unsolved crime drama. Whether handled expertly, as in the case of David Fincher’s Zodiac, or sloppily, as in Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia, there’s something inherently dissatisfying about these films. Perhaps it’s because, on a primal level, we prefer our monsters caught and killed. Ancient myths were certainly never built on ambiguity and irresolution. Then again, ancient listeners never had the chance to watch a Blu-ray like Magnolia’s All Good Things, which not only includes the speculative story of a possibly monstrous human being, but also a fascinatingly bizarre audio commentary from the possible monster himself, Robert Durst. My review after the jump.

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER Blu-ray Review

Posted: February 13th, 2011 at 7:03 am

I take great comfort in the fact that moviegoers are flocking to see Black Swan, The Fighter and The King’s Speech right now. Hollywood loves to proclaim the adult drama dead, but all three R-Rated films are quickly on their way toward a $100 Million gross. Perhaps this is owing to awards season hype and filmgoers’ desire to feel part of the Oscar race, but whatever the reason, it’s encouraging to see films made for people other than teenage fanboys succeed. Now, if only viewers would partake in well made adult films that fall outside the awards season calendar. Then, they might not have missed September’s endearing and entertaining You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.  My review after the break:

HOWL Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 24th, 2011 at 10:43 am

James Franco, 2010’s most oddly ubiquitous entertainer, played two real life figures onscreen last year: poet Allen Ginsberg and survivalist Aron Ralston. While Ginsberg is presumably still the better known name, far more moviegoers checked out 127 Hours than Howl, the little seen biography about the Beat founding father from acclaimed documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Although Howl marks the duo’s narrative film debut, they break from traditional biopic form by utilizing a unique mix of documentary-style interviews, Hollywood-style courtroom dramatics and animated sequences to depict the inspiration behind, creation of and aftermath of Ginsberg’s most famous poem, “Howl.” While pretty boy Franco is a somewhat odd choice to play the less-than-beautiful, but never less-than-charismatic Ginsberg, the actor adeptly portrays the poet’s repressed romantic yearnings, heartbreak over friend’s and family’s treatment by mid-century mental health professionals and, most importantly, his electrifying ability to manipulate the English language. The film itself, however, is a mixed bag: poetic where it should be prosaic; diffuse where it should be focused.  My review after the jump:

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 10th, 2011 at 1:20 pm

Regardless of its quality (or lack thereof), people are likely to check out Dinner For Schmucks based on its menu of comic talent. Pop-com director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers series) offers up funnymen and frequent co-stars Steve Carell and Paul Rudd (The 40 Year-old Virgin, Anchorman) as the film’s main comic courses, along with The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis and Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement as potentially humorous side-dishes. Like a food critic – or, more fittingly, like one of those minions who tests the king’s entrée to make sure it isn’t poisoned – let me warn you: despite its ingredients, this Dinner is cold, tasteless and oddly unfunny.  More after the jump:

DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL Blu-ray Review

Posted: November 18th, 2010 at 9:01 am

Disney’s A Christmas Carol is a holiday feast for the eyes and a boon for the soul. Robert Zemeckis and the crew at Imagemovers Digital have achieved something quite remarkable with their latest motion-capture based animated film. They’ve managed to remain uniquely faithful to the spirit and text of Dickens’ classic novel while infusing the storytelling with a soaring quality that transcends the stodgy stagings we’ve seen of this beloved tale in the past. The Polar Express may have earned bigger box office, but this is Zemeckis and crew’s true holiday masterpiece. Oh, and don’t be put off by the “Disney” possessive. This is every bit the dark and frightening tale Dickens intended, not some sanitized version for the kiddies.  Hit the jump for more:

SEX AND THE CITY 2 Blu-ray Review

Posted: November 6th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

With a 16% Rottentomatoes.com rating and a final box office take of $95 million against a $100 million budget, it’s fair to call Sex and the City 2 a critical and commercial failure. At the time of its release, however, you would have thought the film’s creators had perpetrated some violent crime against humanity. Critics spewed vitriol and, worse, avowed fans blasted the movie. The most common complaint was that the film strayed too far from the series’ original premise – four single ladies looking for love in New York – with its far flung, Middle Eastern setting. Now that the dust, or Abu Dhabian sand, has settled, I proffer my own take on how, with this sequel, Sex finally lost its appeal.  My review after the jump:

DATE NIGHT Blu-ray Review

Posted: August 18th, 2010 at 9:42 am

I can’t think of two more likeable stars than Steve Carell and Tina Fey so it’s no surprise that their cinematic joint effort, Date Night, exudes a quality of general likability. Carell and Fey have an easy, natural chemistry playing Phil and Claire Foster, a married couple from New Jersey who decide to reignite their romance with a night out in the big, bad apple. When they end up mistaken for a couple of low-life crooks running a blackmailing scheme against a local politico, they end up on the run from corrupt cops and big-city mobsters. There’s a tradition of Manhattan-set screwball comedies that place during the course of one wild urban night – Martin Scorsese’s After Hours comes to mind – and while Date Night doesn’t do much to advance the sub-genre, it’s still a breezy, funny way to pass the Night. Continued after the jump:

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF Blu-ray Review

Posted: July 16th, 2010 at 6:39 am

Growing up in a strict monotheistic household, it really wasn’t a priority for anyone to teach me about the ancient Greek gods. Perhaps my devout Catholic parents figured it best not to confuse my evolving young mind since the Bible was already dense enough with tales of one wrathful God and his demigod-like son. Children’s author Rick Riordan, however, raised his son in far more Greco-friendly fashion, regaling his boy with nightly bedtime stories featuring Zeus, Poseidon and the Olympian gang. When he ran out of myths to retell, he made up a new Greek demigod: “Percy Jackson,” modern teenager with human learning disabilities (A.D.H.D. and Dyslexia) and godly lineage (he’s the son of Poseidon). Well, at least, that’s the origin story for the best-selling “Percy Jackson” book series provided on one of the making-of featurettes of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief blu-ray.

THE CRAZIES Blu-ray Review

Posted: June 23rd, 2010 at 6:19 am

Every once in a while, you’ll hear a disturbing news account of some mild mannered office employee who suddenly opened fire on his coworkers, a quiet student who abruptly turned his classmates into target practice or a nice father who shockingly hacked his family to pieces. The Crazies preys on our fears of these random, unexpected acts of violence, most effectively in its opening sequence, in which a small town father shows up at a local baseball game presumably loaded and carrying a loaded weapon.  More after the jump:

ALICE IN WONDERLAND Blu-ray Review

Posted: June 5th, 2010 at 8:19 am

It was reported in the trades this week that Tim Burton’s 3-D, live action Alice in Wonderland crossed the one billion dollar mark at the international box office. That’s a serious quantity of dollars, euros, rubles and yen spent on less than two hours of escapism during the middle of a global economic crisis, but at least this escapism has quality in spades (or is it red hearts?). A sort-of sequel to Disney’s animated film and mash-up of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Alice in Wonderland spins the fantastical tale of an older, if not wiser, Alice plunging back down the rabbit hole into an underworld that’s now a delightful combination of Carroll’s inventive imagination and Burton’s delectable visual style.  More after the jump:

VALENTINE’S DAY Blu-ray Review

Posted: May 23rd, 2010 at 8:57 am

After the success of last year’s He’s Just Not That Into You, New Line Cinema attempted to repeat the formula this year with another star-studded romantic comedy tied to a Valentine’s Day release. The resulting film, the unimaginatively titled Valentine’s Day, featured an even bigger roster of stars and proved an even bigger hit at the box office. It probably didn’t hurt that its cast included not only ms. romcom queen herself, Julia Roberts, but all the heirs to her big-hearted, wide-mouthed throne, including Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba and, most disconcertingly of all, Emma Roberts, the niece Hollywood keeps trying to convince us has the same appeal as her famous aunt (she doesn’t). Creatively, the film’s a bust. While He’s Just Not That Into You dared to ponder a question or two about the nature of romance in the digital age, this vacuous mess doesn’t have a single idea in its head. All it has are characters; a giant candy box of flavorless, forgettable characters. More after the jump:

TOOTH FAIRY Blu-ray Review

Posted: May 15th, 2010 at 8:38 am

As his above-the-title credit indicates, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is still stuck somewhere between his wrestling past and his acting future. His incessant mugging in the treacly new family comedy Tooth Fairy suggests he’s more or less given up on real thespian-ism, despite his acclaimed, against-type performance a few years back in Be Cool. Lately, Johnson’s simply stuck to playing it closer to the (ham)bone persona he developed during his WWF years in a series of middling fish-out-water family films, the latest of which, Tooth Fairy, recently hit Blu-ray.  My review after the jump:

UP IN THE AIR Blu-ray Review

Posted: March 14th, 2010 at 6:45 am

At some point between sweeping December’s National Board of Review Awards and coming up empty handed at last week’s Oscars, the critically praised Up in the Air lost altitude as 2009′s most likely best picture winner. This may be owing to the fact that this smart, sophisticated comedy faced surprising last minute competition from the better-than-expected Avatar, which, in turn, thrust the overrated The Hurt Locker back into the spotlight (Locker being the easier film for Academy members to pit against Cameron’s – big budget vs. small, high-tech vs. low, Cameron vs. ex-Mrs. Cameron). Even the buzz about Clooney’s career best performance faded when Crazy Heart was bumped up from its 2010 release and Hollywood finally stopped taking “The Dude” for granted. I could speculate all day as to why this great movie didn’t quite land in Oscarville, but it’s better to celebrate its recent, smooth arrival on Blu-ray.  My review, after the jump:

FOUR CHRISTMASES DVD Review

Posted: December 2nd, 2009 at 7:18 am

Pop quiz: what’s big, bloated and rapidly losing comic edge? If you guessed Vince Vaughn, you’re close. But instead of ripping on Vaughn, the man, let’s pick on his films: a steady stream of increasingly mediocre “comedies” of which Four Christmases falls perfectly in line. Gone are the days when Vaughn acted in smarter comic fare like Swingers and The Wedding Crashers. Now he seems perfectly willing to act in any witless big studio offering. (In fact, between this and Fred Clause, he’s basically cornered the market on non-classic holiday entertainment). The thing is Vaughn, the man, is so damn likable (well, I like him), that audiences are willing to fork over big money for these movies. Maybe Vaughn signs on board these lukewarm scripts because he believes he can save them with his improvisational comic riffs. Unfortunately, not even his skill at that can save this Christmas. More after the jump:

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