Category: Movie DVDs (Page 66 of 100)

Originally filmed in 2003 (only to get shelved for the next five years), “The Onion Movie” may seem like a low-rent rip-off of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer’s recent barrage of spoof movies, but its from a completely different ilk. Sure, it follows the same formula of slapping together a bunch of random sketches that have nothing to do with one another, but “The Onion Movie” plays more like a bad episode of “SNL” than a game of pop culture Russian roulette. The basic idea of the film is that the Onion News Network has been assimilated into a media conglomerate, and as a result, disgruntled anchorman Norm Archer (Len Cariou) has been asked to compromise his journalistic integrity in favor of less newsworthy events. Though most of the sketches are clever on paper (and would no doubt garner a giggle or two if you saw it in an issue of The Onion), they never quite develop on screen. Steven Seagal’s cameo in a fake movie trailer for “Cock Puncher” would have been funny if it weren’t featured so prominently in the real trailer, while jabs at underage sex icons like Britney Spears and a commercial for a company that specializes in “penis retrieval” are mildly humorous. If there’s anything to learn from an experiment like “The Onion Movie,” it’s that just because a certain style of comedy works in one medium doesn’t mean it will work in another.

Click to buy “The Onion Movie”

After directing some of the worst films of the past decade (“The Covenant,” “Exorcist: The Beginning,” “Mindhunters”), Renny Harlin delivers a welcome return from the basement with “Cleaner,” a by-the-numbers thriller that, while totally predictable, succeeds thanks to a solid cast. Samuel L. Jackson stars as Tom Carver, a former cop who now makes a living cleaning up crime scenes. When Tom is called in to sterilize a home following a suburban shooting, however, he’s surprised to discover that in erasing crucial evidence, he’s unknowingly become an accomplice to the much-publicized murder of a wealthy community leader. Though Jackson is more timid in this film than usual, it’s exactly what’s required of the role. The veteran actor has a pretty good track record when working with Harlin, and while the final product isn’t always a slam dunk (see: “Deep Blue Sea”), it’s usually at least fun to watch. The rest of the cast (including Eva Mendes and Luis Guzman) also deliver safe performances, with the exception of Ed Harris, whose onscreen relapse into his “Gone Baby Gone” character fails to retain even an ounce of surprise in the film’s ending. It’s not like you won’t see it coming on your own, but had the journey there been a little less predictable and “Cleaner” could have been even better than the average thriller it seems so comfortable being.

Click to buy “Cleaner”