Blu-Ray – Comedy Movies

Ocean’s 11 (50th Anniversary) [Blu-ray]

New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas. Roulette wheels spin, cards snap, slots chime, champagne fizzes, shows go on…and the lights go out. It’s the perfect time to steal a kiss or a chip. But for Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) and 10 partners in crime, it’s the ideal moment to steal millions. Sinatra and off-screen pals Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and more play army buddies who scheme to knock out power to the Vegas strip, electronically rig five big casino vaults and raid them all at the same instant. Packed with location-lensed glamour, sweaty suspense, swinging comedy and a stunning twist ending now in gorgeous hi-def, Ocean’s 11 is your entertainment best bet.

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Add comment June 26th, 2010

She’s Out of My League [Blu-ray]

A gorgeous girl takes an interest in an ordinary guy in She’s Out of My League, only to find their relationship questioned, criticized, and outright scoffed at by their friends and families. When airport security guard Kirk (Jay Baruchel, best known from supporting roles in Knocked Up and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) recovers the cell phone of knockout Molly (Alice Eve, Crossing Over), she asks him out to a hockey game as thanks. When a romance blossoms, Kirk is amazed–but not half as amazed as his buddies, who explain at length why Kirk is inferior in every way to this “perfect girl.” This emphasis on the social ripples of the romance separates She’s Out of My League from the usual average-guy-beautiful-girl romance; the web of admiration, envy, insecurity, and social anxiety is the real topic of the movie, not bland morals like “love is blind” or “true beauty is within.” Well, that and a lot of embarrassing comic bits involving shaving, premature ejaculation, and more–some bits wouldn’t be out of place in There’s Something About Mary. It’s not a great movie (Molly’s role is underdeveloped, though not as badly here as in most boy-centered sex comedies), but Baruchel’s puppy-dog charm, the better-than-average dialogue, and a strong supporting cast (particularly T.J. Miller, Cloverfield, and Krysten Ritter, Confessions of a Shopaholic) lift She’s Out of My League above the ordinary. –Bret Fetzer

SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE

STARRING: Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, Nate Torrence, Lindsay Sloane, Kyle Bornheimer, Jessica St. Clair, Krysten Ritter, Debra Jo Rupp, Adam LeFevre, Kim Shaw and Geoff Stults

WRITTEN BY: Sean Anders and John Morris

DIRECTED BY: Jim Field Smith

Rated: R
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Release Date: 12 March 2010
Review Date: 11 March 2010

Ever seen an action film with a character hanging onto something for their dear life, with a villain trying to pull them down by dangling from their leg? Of course you have. She’s Out of My League is not an action flick, but it is a byproduct of this overly used cinematic scenario. It’s clinging to the status of `good’ by a measly thread, while the word `mediocre’ is tugs eagerly at its leg.

It reminded me of a watered down version of The 40-Year-Old Virgin. From the very first shot, the movie had the potential to be hilarious, and instead was just funny. One of the things that made The 40-Year-Old Virgin so enjoyable was the main character’s obnoxious but realistic friends. She’s Out of My League encases this concept nicely. Where it falls short, is in its lead character; not the actor but the character. He’s not funny and the friends get all the laughs.

I get that Kirk (Jay Baruchel) isn’t supposed to be the funny guy; but neither was Andy in The-40-Year-Old Virgin. He simply was funny, because he was such an insecure weirdo, with a smothering oddness to him. Kirk is just pathetic and it takes the film down a notch. It’s not Jay Baruchel’s fault; he is hilarious. I’ve seen him in other comedy hits like Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder, and he killed. For whatever reason, he was being held back here. Luckily the things that happen to his character are amusing enough to hold our attention and make us still like the film.

Kirk is working a foreseeable dead-end job as a TSA agent for an airline. We’re told in act one that it’s his dream to become a pilot, even though it’s never brought up again in the remainder of the film. This could be due to his run-in with a very gorgeous girl, who comes through his security check-point. She has an affect that could very easily cause amnesia, to virtually every man that sees her in the film.

Her name is Molly, and she’s played by Alice Eve, who’s gonna make it big for sure. Molly is a 10 and Kirk is a five. This is explained to Kirk and us, by his slap-stick Motley Crew of pals, that all work at the air-line with him.

When Molly leaves her phone in security by mistake, and then calls it from the airplane, Kirk finds it and answers. He’s her hero and she awards him with a dinner invitation. Not even suspecting that she could possibly be interested in him; he accepts.

Kirk has just been dumped by his emotionally high maintenance girlfriend, Marnie (Lindsay Sloane). Marnie has taken such a liking to Kirk’s parents that she continues to hang out with them even after she’s began seeing someone else. Kirk thinks he wants her back, and there are some very hysterical scenes that take place between the two of them, Kirk’s parents, and Marnie’s irritating new boyfriend who has also become part of the family.

I loved all of the side characters in the film. The friends are sincere with their intentions for their friend, and are a blast. Kirk’s parents are adorable and his brother and his brother’s girlfriend are ridiculously amusing. The problem is however, that we spend way more time with them, than we do with our two main characters.

It almost seems like the supporting characters were given significantly more attention than Kirk and Molly, because they just seemed two-dimensional to me. Why were they attracted to each other? What was it about their relationship that justified them both fighting for it to survive the predictable third act split-up? The movie was like a delicious Thanksgiving Day feast, with all the tasteful sides; but with a PB&J where the turkey should be.

Hilarious! – Afro Bat – Huntington Beach, CA USA
The best part of this movie was the friends and family of the lead character. My buddy and I were busting up the whole movie. I give it an A++, but I should add a disclaimer that I saw this right after seeing “The Green Zone”, which is a real downer, making you disgusted with politics and governments in general (as if we weren’t disgusted enough). Anyway, if you’d like a good romantic comedy that is for guys who’ve felt inadequate for their ladies, this one is perfect. The only problem I had with this movie is that when I saw “How to Train Your Dragon”, I couldn’t match the digital character’s face to the voice of the actor. I kept seeing the queeby guy’s face in my mind from this movie, and it just didn’t work.. Sooo it kind of altered my perception of How to Train Your Dragon, making that movie less enjoyable.

She’s so hiiiiiiieeeaaaiiigh, high above me, she’s lovely – Jason – Backwater, Alabama
Emaciated and timid, Kirk (Jay Barachul) is a man who is referred to by his friends as a moodle – man poodle. He’s the fixer-upper who never gets the girls. When graded by his friend Stainer (TJ Miller), the best Kirk can be is a 6 out of 10, and that’s being generous considering his atrocious car. It’s Kirk’s fortuitous encounter with Molly (Alice Eve), however, that begins to change not only his mind, but the opinions of his unsupportive friends and family.

Filmed in Pittsburgh – Primanti Brothers and Mellon Arena are highlighted – the movie really comes off as genuine. Sure, the hot chick never goes for the guy who is so skinny his nipples touch, but it was even less believable thanr that execrable disgrace The New Guy; somehow it worked, and it even had a little Serendipity vibe to it. Everclear said it best with their definitive song: “She’s so high above me, she’s so lovely.” She’s too good for him, yet realism oozes out of the movie.

Perhaps it’s because the actors played who they actually probably are in real life. Alice Eve looks like she has always been the over-achieving cheerleading captain who buckles men’s knees, so the role was probably not a stretch. Similarly, there is no doubt in my mind that Jay Barachul has received multiple toilet swirlies in his time. Stealing every scene, however, is TJ Miller. What a cool, socially aware Napoleon Dynamite might be, Miller is hilarious, and looks like the guy who got big laughs since he was a child. For such a young, somewhat inexperienced cast, there are no lulls or weak links.

The one glaring flaw in the screenplay (other than the aforementioned improbable skinny dude and hot chick connection) is an uncomfortable ball shaving scene – the most unbelievable scene in movie history. Yes, more unbelievable than Ben Affleck as an oil worker who goes into outerspace as a temp astronaut to land on an asteroid and mine into it to deposit a bomb which will split the asteroid – which is the size of Texas – into multiple pieces that will narrowly miss the Earth and avoid an extinction level event.

Fun, quick-moving, and worth the time. I recommend it, even if it does toe the line of chick flick.

Jason Elin

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Add comment May 19th, 2010

Crank 2: High Voltage [Blu-ray]

The critics have not been very kind to Crank: High Voltage. But what do they know? Here’s what this movie has going for it: gratuitous nudity, mindless violence, constant profanity, and a ridiculous storyline. Add to that stereotypes galore (gay, Asian, Latino, the neuropsychiatrically disabled, you name it), strippers with guns, a strike by porn actors (with a cameo appearance by Ron Jeremy), and a guy who refers to his heart as a “strawberry tart,” and one can only wonder what’s not to like. In fact, writer-director-producers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s sequel to 2006’s Crank is an absolute hoot, a non-stop assault of crazy sights and sounds that will leave you breathless and laughing. As the action starts, Jason Statham’s Chev Chelios has not only survived the fall from a helicopter that ended the earlier film, but is now on the operating table, awake and watching as some Chinese villains harvest his “tart” in order to implant it in their aging leader (a wacky turn by David Carradine). Chev quickly dispatches the bad guys, but the fun’s just starting; the mechanical ticker they’ve put inside him needs constant recharging, so as Chev pursues the real organ, he must use whatever’s available (jumper cables, a police taser, a car cigarette lighter, high voltage power lines) to keep the fake one going. Storywise, that’s about it. But it’s plenty, as the filmmakers’ ultra-kinetic style–with its manic edits, cartoony subtitles, and other envelope-stretching effects–and amusing performances by Amy Smart (as Chev’s girlfriend), Dwight Yoakam (as a “doctor” who helps him figure out what’s happening), and others keep things going. No, Crank: High Voltage ain’t exactly Masterpiece Theater, but this is without a doubt one of 2009’s most entertaining films. –Sam Graham

Ok, maybe not on the calibre of the Academy Awards, but this film too often gets subjegated to the “crap” category. To that, I cry foul. If you cannot suspend disbelief or you lack a wild imagination, then my review cannot help you. Please move along.

This film is an amazing experiment in cinema techniques, story telling, and plain old exploitation. This is THE film America needs. Why?

It’s brutal. And not just rough and tumble bvrutal. No. It’s brutal beyond belief. I had to rewind the “sushi” scene at least 4 or 5 times just to make sure I actually was seeing what was going on. Then, some guy cuts his own nipples off. Ever wonder what happens if a stripper gets shot in her boob job? Wonder no more.

It’s offensive. Besides the racial and sexual stereotypes, it’s as though everyone in LA is scum. The cops, the gangsters, the old ladies. Everyone. (I’ve heard that’s the case, but I’ve never been there so I can’t confirm. but it seems like fun.) And Bai ling is great as the kooky prostitue that murders the English language. Yes, baby. I will be your shiny lunchbox. It’s about time a film lays it out and puts everyone on guard in this PC world that makes us scared to think freely. Does it promote prejudice? Hell no. Does it make fun of stereotypes? Hell yeah.

It’s got lots of sexual stuff in it. Maybe it’s the hormone charged 16-year-old that still controls my brain, but I loved that aspect of the film. Stripper lesbian making out in a cop car,. Porn star protests. A chinese crimelord witha fetish for black chicks and a yen to steal our prtagonist’s johnson. BAM! Suddenly there’s a horse dong thrown in for good measure.

It’s absurd. The use of video game graphics, flashbacks, surreal asides, and the full-blown kaiju battle make this morsel of celluloid worthy of your time and appreciation. Plus, it’s centered around a guy who needs to electrocute himself to stay alive. throw in a gay biker gang, a floating head in fluid with a robot voice, and an one of the best endings EVER: FLAMES, BURNING FLESH AND THE MIDDLE FINGER.

This film does not set out to change the world. It does not take itself so seriously, as it constantly laughs at itself and the characters within. And that’s what makes it so important and awesome. We forget to laugh at ourselves and each other. We forget how absurd life is and can be. And we forget to have fun. America needs films like this. We’re so caught up with the human condition that we forget that the human condition sucks.

That’s why I love this film so much. And that’s why you need to watch it.

The best joy ride you’ll ever take! – C. Pina – u.s.a.
Crank 2 is def. a step up from Crank. Quite possibly the BEST sequel ever. Period. Not to be taken seriously but enjoyed as a true Hollywood action and adventure movie. This movie is everything a video game movie should be. Done the right way! Bring on Crank 3!!!

Mania – K. Egbuna – New Jersey
This movie made me feel like I was on some sort of drug induced high for an hour and a half. It’s relentless in how aggressive it is and does not shy away from delineating from its core plot in order to explore some tangential themes.

It is not a movie meant to educate, influence, or impact anyone more than just providing a deep dive into how chaotic an experience can be. Chev Chelios I think will go down in movie history as a character that lives beyond the screen itself. He embodies what many wish to be; he is indestructible, unwieldy, intelligent (though not in the formal sense, one can see how he is able to interpret situations and act accordingly), and incredibly potent at what he does. He is not the kind of character that can take a place in a comprehensive story, rather, his place is in these short sprint-type tales where the premise and outcome can easily be extrapolated, allowing for the actual journey to have free reign.

If he is not already there, Jason Statham is on his way to becoming the premiere action star. He has a body type that does not try to overplay his brute strength. It allows for him not only to be powerful, but incredibly fast and agile as well. His facial expressions convey the rebellious nature of his character perfectly; he does not ever waver in his determination and would rather die than pull a punch.

I would love for Crank to turn into a series of movies, as I believe they offer not only a playground for the director to explore what this character can do, but also a brief ride for moviegoers to enjoy and use to raise their heart rates a bit.

I understand why this movie does not have a higher rating, as it can never appeal to a big portion of the general population, but I think one should look at it in a different light. My opinions do often vary from public opinion on many movies, but I believe it is mostly due to what I expect to see.

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Add comment May 9th, 2010

Phantom of the Paradise (Ultimate Edition) [Blu-ray]

French Import Blu-Ray/Region All pressing.

Please note all of the supplements are in 1080p-High Definition so they’re fully viewable on all US BR players!

Synopsis; Composer Winslow Leach (William Finley) is determined to seek revenge on Swan (Williams), an evil record tycoon who steals his pop cantana of the Faust legend to launch his enemy’s palace as the mysterious Phantom of the Paradise and continues to plan his gruesome retaliation.

2010.

Like many others, I saw this film in early adolescence, and it’s stayed with me all this time. I still enjoy the heck out of it, watch it every couple of years and am sorry when it ends. By age 13, I knew that “sarcasm” existed (thanks, Uncle Arthur of “Bewitched”!) but until I saw POTP I was unaware of this stuff called Black Comedy, and my world was well and truly rocked. “Somebody get a fire extingusher!” indeed.

But, as I aged, it occurred to me that it doesn’t make any sense. Why would a character with as much to lose as Swan risk it all just to screw over Winslow Leach? You want his music? BUY IT, fer cryin’ out loud. The guy’s an unemployed songwriter* in 1974, he made what, K last year? Oh, he’s in love with Phoenix? Let’s see how he feels after this blonde goes on her knees. Why single him out for humiliation (all the prisoners get to put the tiddlywinks in the boxes, note, but only WINSLOW gets to wear the little hat)? Why do everything in your power to make sure this guy is going to come after you?

The answer, I think, lies in the set design–all those mirrors– and in the casting of Paul Williams. We know from the mirrors he’s a narcissist, but when 5’2″, overweight guy speaks lines like “You know how I abhor perfection in anyone but myself,” you know he’s a DELUDED narcissist. And it is in Winslow, a narcissist so deluded he thinks an audience gathered to hear Sha-Na-Na wants to hear his 400+ page contata on the life of Faust (sung by him!) that Swan finally finds his perfect mirror, the mirror in which, like Narcissus himself, he will eventually drown. Once these two characters meet, the end is assured. Sorry, Phoenix.

I wonder though, given that this was one of De Palma’s early films, if HE was aware he was writing about a homoerotic death spiral? A commentary on the DVD would have been nice. I also wonder if it wasn’t trimmed for time by Fox, as there seems to be a scene missing before WL enters the tape room.

*Oh, that reminds me. I really want a t-shirt that reads MAD TUNESMITH BITES BULLET.

One of the best horror “spoofs” ever. – Jerry Butler – grand forks, nd USA
One of my all time favorite movies. You can watch it again and again and still feel like you’re watching it for the first time.I was so pleased to receive this movie. However, you would think they would add at least a few extras. Nope. Nothing. So being such a huge fan of this movie, I ended up ordering a copy of the French release. This one is a two disc set and features tons of extras. Why do the other countries make DVD’s so much cooler than us?

Brand new in packaging – Mr. Flip It – Los Angeles, CA
Got a great deal on a CLASSIC movie that you can’t find anywhere, “Phantom of the Paradise”. It arrived in just a few days. Thanks!

really 70′s – John P. Spitzner – GAINESVILLE, GA, US
this was a drive -in favorite of mine. the music is a
reminder of the talent of paul williams. phantom
is a great little movie, fun and the sound track is
great and lots of fun.

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Add comment March 8th, 2010