Blast from the Past is a romantic-comedystarring BrendanFrasier (The Mummy) and Alicia Silverstone (Clueless).The film wasproduced by Renny Harlin (TheLong Kiss Goodnight, Cliffhanger) and Hugh Wilson (DudleyDoRight, WKRP in Cincinnati). Directed by Hugh Wilson(TheFirst Wives Club, Guarding Tess), Blast from the Past blends the 60's and 90's while telling asweet, charming, and entertaining story.

The story centersupon Adam (Brendan Frasier), who is raised underground in ahigh-tech shelter with his dad, Calvin (ChristopherWalken) and mom, Helen (Sissy...Read the entire review

The Film:

The Movie:

One of the ways one can tell whether or not a movie made for a very niche audience works is if the manner in which the story and the characters are executed still resonate with audiences who don't fit into the narrow market the film is desperately catering to. That's why I know that Detroit Rock City works, because although not being a Kiss fan in the slightest (In fact I always found them to be quite annoying and inconsequential to the mythos of classic rock. Come at me, Kiss Army), I always have a blast watching it.

Written by Carl V. Dupre and directed by Adam Rifkin, both die-hard Kiss fans, Detroit Rock City does a great job at becoming a loving tribute to the band while constructing a simple yet charming and giddily boisterous high school rock comedy about a quartet of friends doing anything they humanly can to score tickets to a mega concert by their favorite ban...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Let's get it out of the way: Peter Jackson films are long mofos, and I understand why he wants to do this, so as he gets as comprehensive a picture for the fan or devotee. However, the simple fact is that in his desire to tell as an exhaustive a story as he can, he forgets about some basic things when it comes to telling a story. This was what I could not help but return to in his second film of three in The Hobbit series, titled "The Desolation of Smaug."

By now, we all know the basic components behind these, right? Jackson did The Lord of the Rings films and was working on J.R.R. Tolkein's other notable work The Hobbit as a two film saga when he decided to do a third. At the center of The Hobbit is Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman, Read the entire review

THE FILM:

Perhaps you've heard of "middle-film syndrome." That's my own terminology, but you've seen the signs in films infected with this ailment: superfluous plotting, lack of narrative drive, and general pointlessness. Fortunately, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is not content to be the filler in Peter Jackson's newest fantasy trilogy, and in some respects is a more exciting, confident film than its predecessor, Read the entire review

The Movie:

After a seven year break from filmmaking following the 1981 release of Polyester, Baltimore's John Waters returned to directing films and made what would be his first shot at 'the mainstream.' This picture, 1988's Hairspray, would also be the last film he'd make for New Line for a decade. The film would also be a historic moment in his career as it would make the first time one of his films would be shown with a PG rating. While this film has Waters' stamp all over it, gone is the intentionally offensive and challenging humor of his earlier pictures but even with that large part of his ‘tone' neutered, the film still works incredibly well. Call it a maturity on the part of the director if you want, but even more than twenty years since it hit theaters, this one remains a whole lot of good hearted fun.

The movie is in the early 1960s and follows the exploits...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Friends of mine had occasionally praised the merits of Boiler Room long before The Wolf of Wall Street had become a cinematic reality. While the films share similar backdrops, their story appears to be told at two different levels, one as the ground level of a broker, the other an owner, but both in stock brokerage firms. They also appear to have similar messages in the sense that the prospective buyer is the sucker to a certain degree. But while Wolf is slicker and helmed by one of film's true talents, Boiler Room has the same type of feel at a more heartfelt level.

Boiler Room is written and directed by Ben Younger (Prime), who used his own experience of interv...Read the entire review

See? That's what happens when you stick your neck out for someone. ...or, well, that's what happens when you stick your neck out for someone who's sticking his neck out for someone.

Wait, let me start again. Kenny (Will Poulter) swoops in to save the day when he sees a bunch of thugs ganging up on a homeless, teenaged gutterpunk (Emma Roberts). It's just,

Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/62076 Sun, 17 Nov 2013 22:22:43 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution. To say that bringing an adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to the silver screen was a labor of love for director Peter Jackson would be an understatement. The turbulent development period for Jackson's newest fantasy trilogy began before his massively successful Lord of the Rings Trilogy made New Line Cinema millions. Before a frame of film was shot on The Hobbit: An Unexpect...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/62072 Sat, 16 Nov 2013 14:52:06 UTC Highly Recommended In 10 Words or Less A drug caper for the whole family Reviewer's Bias* Loves: Jason Sudekis, Nick Offerman Likes: Funny raunch Dislikes: Jennifer Aniston Hates: Unnecessary sentimentality The Show When Jason Sudekis said his understated good-bye to Saturday Night Live, it was surprising how many viewers fell into the "good riddance" camp. Sure, he didn't have a huge arsenal of fan-favorite characters, often playing the straight man, but his track-suit-wearing dancer on "What's Up With That?" was a guaranteed laugh and Pete Twinkle (Greg Stink's ESPN co-announcer) was hilarious. But of anyone on SNL, Sudekis was the most likely to make the transition to leading man, as his role on 30 Ro...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61888 Mon, 21 Oct 2013 18:07:46 UTC Highly Recommended The Movie: Directed by James Wan, 2013's The Conjuring did pretty serious business at the box office and was actually given an R-rating despite the absence of any real gore or adult language and a complete absence of sex. Wan might be best known for Saw but as his filmmaking style has evolved over the years, he's started showing a knack for more atmospheric work and with this film, well, he nails it. The Conjuring is pretty scary stuff. The story is set in the early seventies and it follows the Perron family, led by father Roger (Ron Livingston) and mother Carolyn (Lili Taylor). Together they have five daughters: Andrea (Shanley Caswell), Nancy (Hayley McFarland), Christine (Joey King), Cindy (Mackenzie Foy) and April (Kyla Deaver) and the whole crew have just moved into an old farm house in rural Rhode Island. Things are fine at first but not long after moving i...Read the entire review ]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61633 Sat, 14 Sep 2013 17:02:41 UTC Rent It Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Ed Helms Year: 2013 I absolutely did not expect to like this movie, for many many reasons. The first would have to be that I don't really like comedies. Of course there are movies that I find funny, but as a genre comedies are something I stay away from. They're usually just so stupid, with bad acting & ridiculous plots. And the comedians themselves are usually so unlikeable, so off-putting. I don't have a defined opinion on Jason Sudeikis I guess; he's good as Joe Biden on SNL, which I guess is something. Jennifer Aniston I attribute to Friends, as I'm sure 99% of you do. She's not a bad actress on that show, but she has definitel...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61229 Sat, 22 Jun 2013 03:49:20 UTC Skip It The 90's had been rife with goofy comedies, exploiting the talent of adults who had a knack for delivering over-the-top hijinks. In this respect, Jim Carrey was the undisputed king. Sure, there were other actors who helped to define the decade with outrageous physicality, but Carrey was truly one of a kind. Of course, his silliness had practically typecast him as the village idiot, so he's spent the latter half of his career laying low and taking roles that showcase a broader range of emotions. In parallel, funnyman Steve Carell has also made attempts to diversify his filmography, although he's continued to embrace the shtick that jumpstarted his career. In the end, I respect them both for attempting to shed the skins of expectation and routine, but it's their contributions to comedy that's always won me over. It's for this very reason my ears perked up when I heard about The Incredible Burt W...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61060 Fri, 21 Jun 2013 22:21:37 UTC Skip It C'mon, as if you really need me to tell you about The Incredible Burt Wonderstone...! Skewering doofy Vegas magic shows at the peak of Criss Angel and Siegfried & Roy's popularity -- not to mention those leading turns [click on the thumbnail to enlarge]Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/60957 Sun, 09 Jun 2013 13:48:00 UTC Recommended Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Jack the Giant Slayer shows the problem today's film companies have playing the big box office moviemaking gamble. Roll a winner and a single blockbuster can vacuum up the better part of a billion dollars. Why, I'll bet that The Avengers might actually have paid out some participation money to point-holders. But with so much development and production money sunk into individual projects, it's increasingly difficult to take a real risk, or to make anything much different than what pleased audiences a few months before. One better have a bankable cast and if possible a pre-sold theme or character - this is clearly why Marvel and DC comic characters dominate the screen. When things don't work out, as with last year's John Carter, the loss must be inconceivable. It's no longer a matter of a movie that underperformed - the los...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/58789 Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:13:55 UTC Rent It THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution. Catherine Hardwicke is a polarizing director, and her projects are all over the map. There's the teens-gone-wild drama Thirteen and gritty skateboarding odyssey Lords of Dogtown. Her biggest job? A little film called Twilight. She wasn't invited back to direct it...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/59587 Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:05:07 UTC Recommended Many horror movies were released in the 1980s, some great, some awful. The ones that made money usually had at least one sequel made, and in the case of 1980's Friday the 13th and 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street, they became full-blown franchises with new movies released every year or so. Both of these have been released in DVD sets with their initial offerings together. This Blu-Ray set of the seven "Elm Street" films is comprised of discs that were previously released separately, although only the ones containing the first through third movies have previously been available in the US. The set has been available previously in the US as a Best Buy exclusive but is now available through other retailers as well. The basic premise for this series is that Freddy Kr...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/58392 Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:42:45 UTC Recommended Having previously reviewed Nights in Rodanthe and The Lucky One, I made it pretty clear that I'm not a fan of generic chick flicks. Hollywood has crafted a mold that goes a little something like this - Man and woman meet, but one of them isn't exactly forthcoming with who they truly are. Although they hit it off and fall madly in love with one another, the dishonest party grows a conscience and ...Read the entire review ]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/59082 Sun, 16 Dec 2012 12:04:49 UTC Recommended The opening entry in Peter Jackson's "prequel trilogy," "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is a painful review to write. After achieving the impossible with the original "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, fans of the director (myself included) felt Jackson could do no wrong. While not as amazing, his remake of "King Kong" was thoroughly pleasing, but gave early warning signs that the filmmaker had become overindulgent in terms of pacing. Then "The Lovely Bones" happened and apart from being visually pleasing, doubts regarding Jackson's ability had to be addressed. Still, with him initially attached to what was to be a Guillermo del Toro helmed duo of "The Hobbit" films, Tolkien fans felt the project was in safe hands, and some even more so when del Toro left over delays and Jackson took over. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is very much a film in the look and feel of Jackson's "Lord of the ...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/55303 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:37:03 UTC Recommended The Film: "Just think of your mind as a movie: you can pause, rewind or slow down any details you want." So says a hypnotherapist in The Butterfly Effect, Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber's fantasy suspense film about tapping into the dark spaces of repressed memories as a way of altering the past. The central idea behind the title -- and its effects on the future -- has been explored ad-nauseum in many different forms, ultimately arriving at a unified idea that even small changes, no matter how righteous on the surface, could lead to dangerous and unpredictable side effects. Caution goes out the window when one can heal old scars, I suppose. The Butterfly Effect's focus on the "chaos" of the Chaos Theory compels enough i...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/53721 Thu, 10 May 2012 12:02:34 UTC Highly Recommended Iwanted to begin thisreview with a slant on how Don Juan Demarco is that rareexception tothe rule; a genuinely surprising and satisfying romantic comedy. Butit's tooaffecting and whimsical to merely be referred to alongside the likes ofschlocklike Fool's Gold (2008), Alex and Emma (2003), and FailuretoLaunch (2006). Okay, so I technically just did exactly that anyway.Atleast you got the point. Theoret...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/54459 Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:07:33 UTC Recommended THE FILM: By dialing back the weed humor and bringing the action home for the holidays, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas earns fresh laughs despite its string-of-high jinks story. Stoners need not worry; pot still plays a central role in the plot, as does cocaine and a waffle-making robot, but the follow up to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay finds new targets to lampoon - 3D movies, Christmas plays - and is more satisfying than the last outing.Read the entire review ]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/53097 Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:22:48 UTC Recommended Either the "Harold & Kumar" movies are getting progressively better, or I'm just warming to these idiots. Their inaugural outing, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, was intermittently funny but mostly slapdash, sloppily made and wildly uneven (the "Battle-shits" scene is the low point of the series, and maybe of modern film comedy). The follow-up, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, was a modestly more successful affair, its coarseness and rough edges made more forgivable by the surprisingly sharp sociopolitical satire smuggled in among th...Read the entire review ]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/53098 Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:22:48 UTC Skip It The original Harold & Kumar is a triumph, taking the elements of the average stoner comedy and tweaking them into a smart, self-aware satire. Despite gags like Kumar (Kal Penn) dancing around a park with an anthropomorphic bag of weed, or Harold (John Cho) being attacked by a rabid raccoon, the filmmakers used that heightened reality and goofy humor to poke fun at -- of all things -- racial stereotypes in America. The sequel is considerably broader, trading "heightened reality" for "full-on cartoon," taking the duo to Guantanamo and back, but it's reasonably funny; it's a noticeably lesser sequel, but not as bad as some. The premise for A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas suggested the series might be going back to basics, but the filmmakers can't resist the "bigger and better" sequel mantra, and the results are the weakest yet. Three years after Amsterdam, Harold and Kumar are n...Read the entire review ]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/51801 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:57:08 UTC Rent It The last sequel was titled "The Final Destination," but clearly New Line Cinema is run by a bunch of sneaky little liars. Thanks to a 3D boost at the box office and renewed interest in the slaughter of no-name actors, the franchise has been pulled out of retirement, revving up again with an all-new multi-dimensional gore show. While the thrill was officially snuffed out once the end credits rolled on the first "Final Destination," that hasn't stopped the producers from mounting a surprisingly snoozy fourth sequel. On a tour bus heading to a corporate retreat with his co-workers, including friend Peter (Miles Fisher) and girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell), Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) has a premonition about a terrible bridge collapse that kills most of the department. Freaking out, Sam c...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/49662 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:43:53 UTC Recommended The Movie: David R. Ellis, who directed Final Destination 2 before skipping out on the series for Snakes On A Plane, returns to the series for this fourth entry, simply titled The Final Destination, now being re-released on Blu-ray just in time for the fifth film to hit theaters. This one differentiated itself from the first three by playing out theatrically in 3-D, a fun novelty that New Line has wisely decided to carry over to the film's Blu-ray release (the previous Blu-ray release had a standard 3D option with it, this new Blu-ray release is more or less identical but includes a Blu-ray 3D option). But how does it hold up? Fans of the first three entries will enjoy this one as it really is more of the same, while those not previously sold on the franchise will probably find little to convince them. The film follows a group of four friends lead by Nick (Bob...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/48823 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:04:53 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series Waxing poetic about Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy almost seems like a moot point; it's achieved high-balled box office success, garnered a slate of Academy Awards, and left movie-goers spellbound by its whimsical, dark, alluring construction. After close to four years of hardcore development strains, the New Zealand director cranked out a series of adaptations on J.R.R. Tolkien's books that brought fantasy back to the modern era -- a period where the likes of Gladiator and Braveheart had reinvigorated the epic-scaled picture, bringing the genre back into the spotlight. The path to creating the films, all three shot back-t...Read the entire review ]]>