Category: Movie DVD Quicktakes (Page 25 of 41)

Hulk Vs.

January 22, 2009 /

There were quite a few surprises at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, but none as enjoyable as Marvel’s world premiere of “Hulk Vs. Wolverine.” As one half of the studio’s Hulk double feature, the film isn’t very long, but it actually works better than the full-length movies that Marvel has been putting out . Part of that has to do with the fact that “Hulk Vs. Wolverine” is more focused than the other animated films (it’s essentially just a 37-minute brawl), and when you throw four of Wolverine’s most famous enemies (Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red and Deadpool) into the mix, well, it’s bound to be awesome. In fact, it’s Wolverine’s fight against the Weapon X crew (and not The Hulk) that proves to be the most entertaining aspect of the film, and with any luck, we’ll get to see a rematch sometime in the near future. If nothing else, it only reaffirms why Deadpool deserves a movie of his own, because even alongside such heavy hitters as Wolverine and The Hulk, he steals the show every time.

Hulk Vs.

Unfortunately, “Hulk Vs. Thor” fails to do the same for the God of Thunder. Maybe it’s because the movie crawls in comparison, or that Thor has never really interested me as a character, but where “Hulk Vs. Wolverine” is riveting from start to finish, “Hulk Vs. Thor” is a bit of a bore. The last thing we didn’t need was another Avengers movie (especially after last year’s “Teen Titans”-esque “The Next Avengers”), but that’s exactly what it feels like. Still, despite the disappointing B-side, “Hulk Vs.” is hands down the best direct-to-DVD feature Marvel has produced, and they’d be wise to stick with this double feature format moving forward. It may not be ideal for telling the kind of epic stories that some of these characters require, but it’s the closest they’re ever going to get to bringing a comic book to life.

Click to buy “Hulk Vs.”

Action Movies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies

Underworld / Underworld: Evolution

January 21, 2009 /

Here’s a pair of movies that are so relentlessly tedious in their presentation that it only makes perfect Hollywood sense that a franchise was born out of the simple notion that vampires and werewolves would make a kick ass combo if they were beating the crap out of one another. Admittedly, the idea has a sort of kitschy appeal on paper; in practice, however, it leads to one repetitive fight scene after another, broken up by some of the absolute worst dialogue to be heard coming out of center channels in years. There isn’t an insightful or clever word uttered from even a single fanged mouth, which is a huge shame when you’ve got fantastic actors like Bill Nighy, Derek Jacobi and Michael Sheen thrown into the mix. There’s also Scott Speedman as the male protagonist, who is the blandest leading man ever to stream through a movie projector, and yet the dialogue manages to sound quite right as it tumbles from his lips (go figure). The real star of the “Underworld” movies, however, is Kate Beckinsale’s ass covered in tight black leather, since it’s the only thing that you can’t take your eyes off of during the proceedings. That ass will unfortunately be absent from the upcoming prequel, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” (probably to be replaced by Rhona Mitra’s posterior, and all things considered, that isn’t such a terrible trade-off). If someone is going to drag you kicking and screaming to what’s sure to be yet another misfire, you might impress them by beefing up on your “Underworld” history by picking up this affordably priced repackaging of previous releases (or, alternatively, use your experience with the set as the reason you don’t want to go).

Click to buy ” Underworld / Underworld: Evolution”

Action Movies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies

Toots

January 18, 2009 /

Saddled with a predilection, if not quite an outright addiction, to too much booze and excessive gambling, Toots Shor somehow avoided being just another Jewish tough guy/borderline crook and instead became one of the most legendary restaurateurs in the history of New York City. His food wasn’t gourmet fair, but that wasn’t really expected in mid-century Manhattan. The key to his success was his way with people, lubricated with plenty of whiskey, and that made his restaurant-saloon into a kind of Valhalla populated by legends of three worlds: sports, entertainment, and crime.

Directed by Schor’s filmmaker granddaughter, Kristi Jacobson, this affectionate but honest documentary portrait from 2006 is constructed largely from reminisces by authors Nicholas Pileggi (“Casino“), Pete Hamill, and Gay Talese; sports personalities Frank Gifford, Yogi Berra, and Joe Garagiola; uber-anchor Walter Cronkite, and many others. More comedy than tragedy, it’s the story of a man whose irresponsibility when it came to practically everything, especially money, was only matched by his sentimental attachment to both friends and family. A full-on gonif who once made his living as professional muscle, but apparently never crossed the line into Murder, Inc. territory, Toots was not a particularly “good” person by any normal definition — except often to the people he loved, and there were apparently quite a lot of them. It’s hard not to like a guy like that.

Click to buy “Toots”

Documentaries, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies, Reviews

Encounters at the End of the World

January 17, 2009 /

I’m a reasonably big fan of Werner Herzog, the film performer, documentarian, and wryly humorous, neurotically heroic philosopher-poet. When it comes to his hugely acclaimed fiction films, however, I can become impatient with their emphasis on pure thought over pure storytelling. Though it is a reasonably straightforward documentary, “Encounters at the End of the World” has elements of both sides of Herzog’s output. Instead of being driven by a sharply dramatic real-life narrative like the one in Herzog’s brilliant 2005 nonfiction, “Grizzly Man”, 2007’s “Encounters” is basically a quasi-philosophical and psychological exploration of just what it is that drives a certain species of extremely intelligent people to frozen (still, for the time being) Antarctica — a place that, as Ernest Shackleton learned the hard way, might as well have had a giant “no human beings allowed without space-age technology or a death wish” sign pasted on it.

Herzog obviously loves the hyper-intelligent rebels and happy misfits the place attracts as much as its sometimes mind-blowing beauty. There’s also plenty of cinematic and verbal rumination, including a soliloquy by Herzog in which he muses about what he sees as the impending end of all human life in a more or less fatalistic matter — not so much an “if” as a “when.” On the other hand, in a brief, intriguing interview with a former linguist, the director also appears to be deeply concerned with preserving dead languages for future generations…so, maybe he’s not expecting the end tomorrow. Still, for all its bone-deep beauty and for the sweetness of its intentions, its Herzogian concern with reality-based eschatology makes “Encounters at the Edge of the World” easily the most disturbing G-rated inquiry into science and possible end times since Robert Wises’ “The Andromeda Strain.”

Click to buy “Encounters at the End of World”

Documentaries, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies, Reviews

My Best Friend’s Girl

January 16, 2009 /

It’s hard to blame Dane Cook for making the most of his 15 minutes of fame – and boy did he, since it lasted more like five years – but one look at his IMDb profile will confirm that it’s finally over. This will likely please movie critics who hold the comic responsible for starring in some of the worst films of the last few years, because his latest rom-com, “My Best Friend’s Girl,” isn’t much better. The fledgling comic stars as Tank, a sort of anti-boyfriend who gets paid to take women on dates so terrible that they immediately run back to their former boyfriends. When Tank’s best friend Dustin (Jason Biggs) hires him to do the same thing with his new lady (Kate Hudson), however, Tank discovers that he actually has feelings for her. What follows is a series of events straight out of the Romantic Comedy Bible, and while the movie isn’t very funny, it’s never so bad that it’s unwatchable. I’m still not entirely sure what Alec Baldwin is doing in a movie like this (Dane Cook and Jason Biggs’ involvement makes sense, and even Kate Hudson has had some questionable taste in scripts lately), but at least he limits his time on screen to a handful of scenes. Bonus points to writer Jordan Cahan for coming up with the idea of a Bible-themed pizza joint named Cheesus Chrust. Now, if only someone actually had the balls to open one up.

Click to buy “My Best Friend’s Girl”

Movie Comedies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑