The Call Blu-ray review

Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: Danish, English, French, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish

Dubbed: French  

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Number of discs: 2

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Release Date: June 25, 2013

Run Time: 94 minutes

 

        Somewhere in The Call is a fantastic thriller, but the end result is not that film. Instead of being a completely effective film, The Call is 2/3 an excellently executed police procedural thriller, and 1/3 Hollywood dribble. While the accurate technical details make the procedural section engaging, it also serves as a stark contrast to the absurdly illogical manner in which the story concludes. Had the entire film being unrealistic and inaccurate, perhaps The Call could have been dismissed as mindless entertainment, but instead it is an uneven disappointment of greater magnitude. Director Brad Anderson (Transsiberian, The Machinist) is an effective director of suspense, though even he could not save a film from an ending like this. All that can be hoped for is an hour of enjoyment before a groan-inducing ending.

 

        The informational tagline of The Call informs us that there are 188 million 911 calls made each year, which sets up the premise for a film in which the operator is our protagonist. The biggest problem the screenplay seems to have is keeping the 911 operator at the center of the action, and this is done with an unbelievable coincidence and an asinine detour from any believable character decisions. Halle Berry stars as a veteran 911 operator named Jordon, whose mistake during a call results in the death of a caller. She takes leave from her position, until being pulled into another call with a victim in a similar situation. Seeing the opportunity to set things right, Jordon spends a majority of the film on the 911 call.

 

        On the other end of the call is a teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) who is abducted by a psychopath serial killer (Michael Eklund) and shoved in the trunk of his car. With the help of Jordon, this teenager is able to fight back in finding a number of ways to aid the authorities in finding her, from kicking out the brake lights to utilizing tools found in the trunk. Helping to tie in the police investigation to the call Jordon is on is the fact that she is in a relationship with one of the lead cops on the street (played by Morris Chestnut).

 

        This portion of the film is suspenseful while also remaining fairly intelligent. My biggest complaint in the first hour of the film merely has to do with the amount of time we must hear Breslin inaudibly crying her lines out, and the unbelievable way that the operator understands every word she is saying. Realism aside, it is simply unpleasant to listen to someone panic and cry for such a length of time. It deters from the suspense in the situation, focusing a bit too much on engaging the audience in forced emotional attachment which will help make the terrible ending easier to swallow.

 

        The Blu-ray includes an exclusive alternate ending, but it is too little, too late to save this film. There are also some deleted and extended scenes, two set tours, a stunt featurette and Eklund’s audition tape. The Blu-ray also has the DVD special features, which include a making-of featurette and a commentary track with Berry, Breslin and the filmmakers. The combo pack includes a DVD and digital copy as well.   

Entertainment Value: 7/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 6/10

Historical Significance: 3/10

Disc Features: 7/10

 

 

Rectify: Season 1 DVD review

Writers: Ray McKinnon

Producers: Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein

Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: English

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Number of discs: 2

Rated: NR (Not Rated)

Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay

DVD Release Date: June 18, 2013

Run Time: 272 minutes

 

 

        Finding words for a show like this is difficult, both because of the fact that it defies the structure normally adhered to in television drama and because I found myself so completely moved by the experience of watching “Rectify.” I’m no stranger to emotion, and I can be manipulated into reacting to even the most cliché and predictable sentiments, but the way in which “Rectify” was able to move me was different. No manipulation was needed for the amount of empathy this series was able to inspire, and I found myself shedding tears for fictional characters as though they were real. The way in which this series is expertly written, directed and acted suspended my disbelief entirely, and for the moments I was watching each episode, the characters may as well have been real people. In other words, “Rectify” is without a doubt the best drama on television, and it very well may be the best show currently airing in any genre.

 

        There is a compelling premise for the series, involving a man released from 19 years of isolation on death row after new DNA evidence forces the case back open and at least temporarily exonerates him. Daniel Holden (Aden Young) returns home to his family home, although the dynamic has changed since his departure nearly two decades earlier. As well as these adjustments, Daniel also must face the local Georgia community who still believe him to be guilty, despite his release.

 

        Though this storyline would most often result in either a revenge or mystery narrative, “Rectify” is content simply examining how these events affect the characters. This is not an action, mystery, suspense or thriller. It is a drama which has the bold audacity to present audiences with nothing but character development. The closest comparison that I can think to make is “Mad Men,” and that series falls back on the novelty of being a period piece. Still, both these shows share the common ability of carrying audience’s undivided attention by merely creating compelling characters for us to spend time with.

 

        This is not to say that nothing ever happens in “Rectify,” simply that the show’s characters are what makes the series so compelling. We understand the characters more because of the events which occur, but they never seem to manipulatively occur so that this is possible. Events occur slowly, but they feel more sincere because of it.

 

        The first season only has six episodes, leaving audiences waiting for a second season. All episodes are fit onto two discs, along with a handful of special features. The extras include a few promotional featurettes, including an on-set promo ad which ran on the Sundance Channel. There are also several other behind-the-scenes features, including a look at the cast and series creator Ray McKinnon, a man who has mostly made his career as an actor.

 

Entertainment Value: 10/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 10/10

Historical Significance: 8/10

Disc Features: 7/10

 

 

Stoker Blu-ray review

Actors: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode

Format: AC-3, Blu-ray, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English (DTS 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Dubbed: English, French, Spanish

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Release Date: June 18, 2013

Run Time: 120 minutes

 

 

        South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Thirst) made his name with disturbing thrillers with splashes of aberrant sexuality and shocking body horror, and his English-language debut is a confident continuation of the director’s usual style and themes in a Shakespeare-via-Hitchcockian narrative. Stoker is a unique slow-burn thriller which is highly visually effective in creating an unsettling and disturbing viewing experience, with a unique screenplay by Wentworth Miller which will keep you on the edge of your seat just trying to figure out what will happen next.

 

         Mia Wasikowska heads up the cast as India Stoker, an antisocial teenager whose father has just died in a tragic accident, leaving her and her mother (Nicole Kidman) to grieve. The death of her father also brings a visiting uncle (Matthew Goode), whose intentions are unclear. He draws closer to India’s mother, but seems to share more in common with the dark India, who shared a particularly adept skill at hunting with her deceased father.

 

        Things move slowly in Stoker, though this allows for the tension and suspense to build. We are not given a direct line into the thinking and logic of the film’s characters, and therefore their actions often come as a surprise.  Park’s films invite us to watch the actions of his characters, rarely ever inviting us to empathize with what they are feeling. Some may find Stoker is too full of unlikable or disturbing characters, but the excellence in the filmmaking makes this a compelling film despite any emotional detachment it requires.

 

        The Blu-ray release of Stoker includes a digital HD instant stream and download. The special features on the disc include a promotional featurette, three making-of features, a handful of deleted scenes and some red carpet premiere footage, including a performance by Emily Wells. There are actually quite a few extras for a small thriller like this.

Entertainment Value: 7.5/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 9/10

Historical Significance: 8/10

Disc Features: 8/10

 

 

Movie 43 Blu-ray review

Actors: Emma Stone, Stephen Merchant, Richard Gere, Liev Schreiber, Chloë Grace Moretz

Directors: Elizabeth Banks, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, Griffin Dunne, James Duffy

Format: AC-3, Color, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English (DTS 5.1)

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Dubbed: English

Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1

Number of discs: 2

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Release Date: June 18, 2013

Run Time: 120 minutes

 

 

        Websites like Funny Or Die have opened up the world of short comedy skits online, and Movie 43 feels like a Hollywood attempt to cash in on this type of humor. Even when moments of the film work, the entirety is pretty much doomed to fail from the beginning. The inconsistency of all anthology films is to be considered, and the modern audience is accustomed to watching short comedy skits like this on the internet, where it can be skipped or stopped if not meeting the viewer’s requirements for entertainment. In watching this film, the audience is stuck into the forced enduring the whole of comedic excess and miscalculations.

 

        Part of the problem with the theatrical cut of the film is the half-ass way in which the short films are all joined together in a loose book-ending structure starring Dennis Quaid as a desperate washed up filmmaker attempting to sell any number of ideas to a producer played by Greg Kinnear and a studio executive played by Common. This through-line contains a number of name actors, but the short films just seem spliced into the storyline sporadically. It often makes very little sense, nor do the filmmakers seem to care, even tossing the illusion of filmmaking aside entirely by the close of the skit. The alternate version, which is included in this Blu-ray release, is actually much more coherent despite missing the star names. It features a group of teens seeking out a mysterious film on the internet, finding other banned films in the process.

 

        As for the individual shorts included in each of the versions, they are filled with humor which is continually intentionally offensive while only momentarily humorous and not always intentionally so. Most films just attempt shock humor, though few actually succeed in anything funny or unexpected. What is most shocking about this film is the large number of actors involved, and not surprising is how long it took to get made. Along the process, some of the wiser actors like Richard Gere attempted to escape the project. Others such as George Clooney were wise enough to stay away altogether.

 

        The Blu-ray release features an additional short film directed by Bob Odenkirk and starring Tony Shalhoub and Julianne Moore. I would work harder at panning this film, but the critics have already bashed this tasteless comedy far more than it deserves. Far from good, Movie 43 is simply harmless bad taste and lowbrow humor; albeit so low it may as well be pubic hair.

 

Entertainment Value: 5/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 4/10

Historical Significance: 3/10

Disc Features: 4/10

 

 

The Last Exorcism Part II Blu-ray review

Actors: Ashley Bell, Julia Garner, Spencer Treat Clark, David Jensen, Tarra Riggs

Director: Ed Gass-Donnelly

Writers: Ed Gass-Donnelly, Andrew Gurland, Damien Chazelle, Huck Botko

Producers: Eli Roth, Eric Newman, Gabrielle Neimand

Format: AC-3, Blu-ray, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Release Date: June 18, 2013

Run Time: 88 minutes

        The only way I can think to review a film like this is by directing it at the type of people who enjoyed the first film. I myself don’t enjoy supernatural horror, including exorcism films, as much as I do other sub-genres, so I was not the target audience for a film like this. I can understand preference playing into most people’s choice in watching a film like this, but even without enjoying them I am able to appreciate which are well made and which are not. I was surprised by the effectiveness of certain elements of The Last Exorcism: Part II, and under-whelmed by the rest. Despite a few sincerely eerie moments and a creative reinventing of the franchise’s format, this sequel is more forgettable than not.

 

        The first film utilized the found footage format from a fake documentary crew traveling to perform a fake exorcism on a girl whose family claims her to be possessed. This sweet backwater girl named Nell Sweeter (Ashley Bell) returns after the carnage at the close of the first film, surviving without any hint of her former demonic possession. After being sent to a group home, Nell becomes convinced that the entire incident was merely a hallucination of her mind, until the truth is revealed.

 

        We are no longer in the found footage format in this sequel, but this doesn’t necessarily make any of the possession material any less harrowing. Unfortunately, there is far too much of an attempt at a complex back-story. By the time we begin dealing with the demon possession, it is difficult to care about what is happening. There is not a clear enough villain or victim in this franchise to ensure repeat sequels. There is a reason everyone remembers The Exorcist and very few have seen its many sequels.

 

        The Blu-ray release includes a digital copy of the film, as well as a number of special features which are exclusive to this disc. There is a featurette about Nell’s story and a commentary with producer Eli Roth and director Ed Gass-Donnelly which can only be found on the Blu-ray release. There is also a featurette about the films setting in New Orleans.

Entertainment Value: 3/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 5/10

Historical Significance: 2/10

Disc Features: 7/10

 

 

The Brass Teapot Blu-ray review

Format: AC-3, Blu-ray, Closed-captioned, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: Spanish

Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: Magnolia

DVD Release Date: June 18, 2013

Run Time: 101 minutes

 

 

The Brass Teapot plays like an episode from any number of the more lighthearted genre anthology television shows such as “The Twilight Zone.” The format of anthologies in television often restrict the time to the point of permitting a single idea or concept. The Brass Teapot feels as though it is abiding to these restrictions despite having a feature length running time.

 

         John and Alice (Michael Angarano and Juno Temple) are high school sweethearts trying to make a life for themselves despite their depleting income. John works as a failing telemarketing insurance salesman, while Alice relies on him financially as she works on a useless Masters degree in Art History. Alice appears to be Eve in this transparent fable about the loss of innocence paired with greed and money, as the one who steals the magical teapot and easily transforms into a bully who abuses and picks on her nerdy husband whenever he doesn’t do as she pleases. Alice is more attractive than john, so we allow her to be the more unsavory of the two, though by the end I found myself only wishing for a happy ending for one of them.

 

        The teapot in question is discovered in a small shop, and soon after she steals it from a little old lady, Alice finds that it has special powers. The mystical teapot reacts to pain with a reward, spitting out money for every act of abuse occurring near it. First Alice hurts herself in order to get money, but as soon as her husband arrives home from real work, she begins abusing him instead. By beating her husband, Alice becomes the breadwinner in the family. Next comes the emotional abuse, and instigated by Alice, the couple sit at a table and say mean things to each other. We discover Alice’s disloyalty, and yet we are still supposed to care about this deranged couple.

 

        The film progresses naturally from there, until finally resolving a manner which was too neat for me too appreciate. Somehow it feels as though no lesson was learned if the offenders end up rewarded. The Blu-ray includes a number of special features, from promotional featurettes to additional material. There is even a commentary track with director Ramaa Mosley and executive producer P. Jennifer Dana.

 

       

       

Entertainment Value: 7/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 5/10

Historical Significance: 4/10

Disc Features: 7/10