Sundance 2014 Movie Reviews: 'Life After Beth' and 'Cooties'

Article first published as Sundance 2014 Movie Reviews: 'Life After Beth' and 'Cooties' on Blogcritics.

Horror films are nothing new at Sundance. While they typically wind up in the Midnight category, Life After Beth — a zombie movie — has wedged its way into the U.S. Dramatic. Meanwhile, Cooties — more zombie-esque — fits the bill for the Midnight category, but is nowhere near as watchable. Both throw their jokes with an aimless effort, but neither are particularly memorable as some of the past Midnight entries — Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and both of the V/H/S films.

Life After Beth features Aubrey Plaza as the title character, playing the kind of part she was born to play when she returns from the dead after a snake bite. Beth’s boyfriend Zach (Dane DeHaan) is in mourning over her death, spending his free time staying out till 3 a.m. playing chess with her father, Maury (John C. Reilly). After Beth’s parents start ignoring him, he spies Beth walking through the house, and it turns out that she has either come back as a zombie, or resurrected. Now, Zach has to deal with a new Beth who seems to have incredible strength, a lust in her loins, an affection for jazz, and a boiling hunger, as the zombie apocalypse spreads through town.

DeHaan and Plaza make a nice enough couple, and thankfully, writer/director Jeff Baena runs with his concept to the very end. Reilly and Molly Shannon get the most laughs as Beth’s overprotective parents, while Cheryl Hines and Paul Reiser seem like stunt casting, and poor Anna Kendrick is completely wasted as she’s only in a couple of scenes. The gore effects are kept to a minimum, but it was fun to watch Beth’s slow transformation into a full-blown zombie. It comes off as a cross between World War Z, Warm Bodies, and My Boyfriend’s Back. The gore effects are surprisingly kept to a minimum but are effective whenever something gross finally happens. Considering the cast involved, don’t be surprised to find this one making its way to theaters or at least VOD.

And then there’s Cooties. A movie that has one of the funniest and grossest opening sequences I’ve ever seen, only to be followed up with an abysmal descent into mediocrity and brazen inconsistency. Elijah Wood stars as Clint, a substitute teacher called in to his old elementary school where a rancid chicken nugget has given the students a case of cooties and turned the children into rabid monsters. Trapped inside the school, Clint joins forces with the rest of the teachers — Lucy (Alison Pill), Wade (Rainn Wilson), Doug (Leigh Whannell), Rebekka (Nasim Pedrad), and Tracy (Jack McBrayer) — as they try to make their last stand and escape with their lives.


While there are some amusing, obviously adlibbed lines, writers Whannell (the other half behind the original Saw and both Insidious films) and Ian Brennan (co-creator of Glee and playing the school principal) think every line they’ve written is funnier than it actually is. Some of the cast could have been replaced resulting in a possibly funnier movie. Pill seems like she’s trying to act like Kristen Bell and Wilson’s jealous gym instructor would have been better played by David Koechner.

Sadly, Cooties also drags on when it’s merely only 96 minutes, never a good sign when you’re bored in a comedy. Armed with a few fun visual gags — the grotesque nugget, a ripped off pony tail, intestines used to jump rope, and a severed head in lieu of a tetherball — the dialogue is rarely funny and co-directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion careen their tone from scene to scene. There’s also an underlying mean streak that deflates the fun out of the movie at will. I have been waiting to see this one for what seems like forever, reading about it in the horror news sections online but unfortunately, Cooties is never infectious and should be avoided like the plague.

Photos courtesy of Sundance Institute

Sundance 2014 Movie Reviews: 'Life Itself,' 'Ivory Tower,' 'What We Do in the Shadows'

Article first published as Sundance 2014 Movie Reviews: 'Life Itself,' 'Ivory Tower,' 'What We Do in the Shadows' on Blogcritics.

At the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, 40 entries are split between the U.S. and World Cinema Documentary categories and Doc Premieres. I readily admit that I don’t have a fondness for documentary cinema and usually don’t see very many; if all year. This year’s festival was no exception: I saw two. Thankfully, they were both well worth my time. I’ve included a mockumentary as well, because it’s basically the same format.

The better of the two is unsurprisingly Life Itself. A Doc Premiere about the one and only Roger Ebert. Director Steve James bases the documentary on Ebert’s same-titled book. James covers a lot of ground, which is no surprise considering how long Ebert has been in the spotlight. From his early days as a sports reporter, being handed film critic duties at the Chicago Sun-Times, a bout with alcoholism, the TV show with Gene Siskel, his marriage to Chaz Ebert, and finally, his battle with cancer, the life of Roger Ebert is definitely one for the books.

Considering he wrote the book himself, and never wants to keep anything a secret from the public, we even get treated to the one thing people never see in a rehab situation: suction. There’s not much anyone can say about Ebert that hasn’t already been said. The man is a legend, and, without a doubt, the main inspiration for anyone within the realm of film criticism. Life Itself is both hilarious (just wait till you see the Siskel & Ebert outtakes) and heart wrenching, throwing a final spotlight on a man in only the most fitting fashion.

Ivory Tower is from CNN Films and brings up two questions: is college overpriced, and is it worth the cost anymore? Of course, director Andrew Rossi never delivers a definitive answer, because, let’s face it, there really isn’t one, but he also fails to pick a side as well. Featuring interviews with Andrew Delbanco (Director of American Studies at Columbia University), Anya Kamenetz (author of Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young), and Daphne Koller (cofounder of Coursera), Ivory Tower works best as an elongated news program but also features a few fascinating subjects.

The student occupancy at Cooper Union in New York builds tension without any resolve — they edit the circumstances to feel like a boiling thriller, but as often happens in real life, there has yet to be any final resolve. The students fight to keep their education free, but before the credits roll we are told that the class of 2018 will be the first to pay tuition in more than 150 years. They also shed light on schools such as Deep Springs College and online courses like Coursera, Udacity, and the MOOC (massive open online course) EdX founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The information provided is very eye-opening, but is a lot to take in at once.

What We Do in the Shadows is a hilarious vampire mockumentary from Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi. Both are no strangers to Sundance — after Eagle vs. Shark and Boy — and have returned with a Midnight selection that is literally a bloody good time. A true crowd-pleaser, Shadows follows a group of filmmakers granted access to a Wellington flat of vamps consisting of Viago (Waititi), 379 years old; Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), 183 years old; Vladislav (Clement), 862 years old; Nosferatu-lookalike Peter (Ben Fransham), 8,000 years old.

We follow the hilarious bloodsuckers over the course of a few months as they prepare for the annual “Unholy Masquerade” and hear about the ins and outs that come with being creatures of the night. We also witness the birth of their newest member, Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), whose pal Stu (Stuart Rutherford) is always hanging around, and get treated to the everyday servitude of Deacon’s servant Jackie (Jackie van Beek), who is dying to be granted her promise of immortality.

Waititi and Clement hold back nothing as they spoof the living daylight out of the vampire genre, and things get even funnier whenever they run into a pack of werewolves led by Ryhs Darby. He even steals the movie with the funniest line: “We’re werewolves, not swearwolves.” That is exactly the kind of hilarious brilliance delivered through most of the scant runtime. While almost runing out of steam with a few jokes lingering far longer than they should, some stretches consist most of chuckles while we wait for something laugh-out-loud to happen, and almost always does. Expect to see this one in theaters at some point — it’s worth the wait.

Photos courtesy of Sundance Institute

Movie Review: 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit'

**** out of 5
105 minutes 
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and intense action, and brief strong language
Paramount Pictures

Article first published as Movie Review: 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit' on Blogcritics.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character has had a bumpy, yet satisfying, history on film. Surprisingly, only four films have been made from the nine official Jack Ryan novels. Since Jack Ryan has been played by three different actors — Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck — it seems only right to not just reboot the franchise with someone younger, but to also start from scratch. That’s exactly what Paramount has done with casting Chris Pine (aka Captain James Tiberius Kirk) to kick off the franchise from the beginning, and alas, the Jack Ryan films have begun anew in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

With a quick scene showing Ryan in college at the London School of Economics during 9/11, we skip ahead to 2003 where his chopper is shot down in Afghanistan. Avoiding paralysis, Ryan is learning to walk again where he eventually falls in love with a medical student Cathy (Keira Knightley) and is recruited by William Harper (Kevin Costner) to join the CIA. For them, he will earn his doctorate and go undercover as a financial analyst where he stumbles upon a possible terrorist attack. Promoted to field agent, Ryan is sent to Moscow to investigate hidden funds within the Cherevin Group, run by Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). Now, Ryan is in over his head and out of his league as he attempts to uncover the truth and save the U.S. from another attack and a second depression.

For anyone worried Pine is going to just be playing Captain Kirk in another franchise, rest easy. Pine gives Ryan a sense of insecurity and he’s truly traumatized after making his first kill. Screenwriters Adam Cozad and David Koepp have gone their own way with the Ryan character, at least in the fact that they’ve started him from scratch and haven’t adapted another one of Clancy’s novels. Branagh continues to show he can deliver stellar action films, on top of adapting Shakespeare, but does rely on a little too much shaky cam when it comes time for a few key action scenes. However, a brawl in a hotel room is brutal and intense and the finale is a real nail biter. Think love child of the Bourne and Mission: Impossible films.

Audiences need not worry about Jack Ryan being a January release. Paramount has clearly stated that it was moved back from its December release to avoid competition with themselves between this, Anchorman 2, and The Wolf of Wall Street. It deserves to do well and is a great change of pace from the typical January dump month releases. Considering how abysmal 2014 kicked off last week with The Legend of Hercules — a January film if there ever was one — it just got a shot of adrenaline and is right back on track. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit kicks the new series off with a bang and hopefully additional entries will make our way sooner than later.

Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures

DVD Review: 'We Are What We Are' (2013)

Article first published as DVD Review: 'We Are What We Are' (2013) on Blogcritics.

With the Sundance Film Festival kicking off, it was fun to revisit Jim Mickle’s We Are What We Are — a companion piece/remake of Jorge Michel Grau’s film Somos lo que hay — which I covered at last year’s festival. A slow burn film if there ever was one, Mickle has a way of turning genre conventions on its head while relishing whichever topic he’s tackling. From zombies in Mulberry St. to vampires in Stake Land, We Are What We Are brings us a story of a family of cannibals the likes we’ve never seen. And now, We Are What We Are was finally released on DVD from Entertainment One on January 7.

The Parker family has just lost their patriarch Emma (Kassie DePaiva, Evil Dead II’s Bobby Joe to you and me) when she drowns. Now, daughters Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner) are forced to pick up the slack. Meanwhile, their father Frank (Bill Sage) must find a way to carry on the family traditions. Outside, a storm has brought on a flood causing human bones to begin washing up in the creeks nearby the Parker’s house. Soon enough, Doc Barrow (Michael Parks) realizes that the Parkers’ mother was suffering from a rare form of Kuru Disease (linked to cannibalism in Papua New Guinea), and begins to wonder if the disappearance of his own daughter — along with at least 29 other people over the last 20 years — may have something to do with the Parker clan.

We Are What We Are comes with a healthy supply of special features. An audio commentary features co-writer/director Mickle, co-writer Nick Damici (who also plays Sheriff Meeks in the film), cinematographer Ryan Samul, along with Julia Garner and Bill Sage. Informative, enlightening, and sometimes hilarious, the group reminisces about the production and offer up lots of anecdotes; a surprisingly fun listen if you’ve already watched the film.

“An Acquired Taste: The Making of We Are What We Are” runs 55 minutes and is a behind-the-scenes peek at what it’s like to work on a film shoot. From setting up cameras to lunch breaks, everything is covered from the first day of the shoot to the last. A set of “Interviews” runs 16 minutes featuring Mickle, Sage, and Garner. As with the audio commentary, these are very fun and informative. I think these low-budget productions always tend to ramp up everyone’s enthusiasm and at least this time it’s for a deserving film.

Julia Garner, Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Jack Gore

Everything I said in my original review still holds true: Mickle and Damici bring a brilliant slow burn to the proceedings and an ending that will knock your socks off. The final 20 minutes are unrelenting. Sage is terrifying as the tyrannical father, Childers effortlessly plays a young girl way out of her comfort zone while trying to keep traditions alive, and Garner really gives us something to chew on once she figuratively, and literally, lets her hair down.

During the interviews, Mickle says, “I kind of live by the idea you make movies that you think you’d want to see and trust that there’s enough other weirdos out there that have similar sensibilities.” Well, I am proud to admit that I am one of those weirdos and can’t wait to catch Mickle’s Sundance offering this year (Cold in July with Michael C. Hall), and anything else he has coming down the pipeline. We Are What We Are is more than a companion piece to the original; it’s a new horror classic in its own right, that should not be missed.

Blu-ray Review: 'Blind Date' (1987)

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'Blind Date' (1987) on Blogcritics.

The names Bruce Willis, Kim Basinger, John Larroquette, and Phil Hartman certainly bring you back to the ’80s, don’t they? With all of them together in a comedy from director Blake Edwards, who wouldn’t be excited? Well, back in 1987, critics sure weren’t. Blind Date opened to lukewarm reviews, but still managed to become a box office hit, paving the way for Willis in starring roles. And as hard as it is to imagine that this came out before Die Hard, it’s probably even more unimaginable for today’s audiences to think that Willis used to be heavily involved in comedy. Remember Moonlighting? Anyone? In any case, Edwards’ screwball comedy makes its Blu-ray debut on January 14.

Walter Davis (Willis) loves his job – despite dealing with grotesque sex stories dealt from a co-worker. Walter’s brother Ted (Hartman) thinks Walter works too hard and wants to set him up on a blind date. After some resistance, Walter finally agrees to go out with Nadia (Basinger). And thus begins the worst night of Walter’s life. As Walter ignores his sister-in-law Susie’s (Stephanie Faracy) warning about Nadia and alcohol because of Ted’s facetious encouragement, Nadia transforms into the wildest party animal outside a college on spring break. Things go from bad to worse as Nadia’s ex-boyfriend David (Larroquette) begins stalking them, and Nadia proceeds to ruin Walter’s life in a matter of hours. But will true love prevail? In typical rom-com fashion, you probably already know the answer. But it’s the getting there that’s the fun part.

Image Entertainment debuts Blind Date in a better-than-average transfer. As it is presented on a 25GB disc in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, I was worried about how the rest of the film would look considering how soft the first few scenes were. But once Walter gets to work, the image is consistently sharp, and fine detail is probably better than it was in theaters. From Willis’s suits to Basinger’s hair to pine trees and couches, the level of detail on display is quite surprising for an ’80s comedy.

Contrast is stable and blacks are dark but never crushing. Colors pop, especially Nadia’s red dress, but never bloom or bleed. Noise never creeps in during the night scenes and the typical anomalies never try to drag things down: banding, aliasing, all absent. The only audio track available is a pretty sad 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Normally I can review discs with the volume set around 23, but for this one, I had it cranked up to 35, and even then, I only noticed surround activity when shifting closer to the speakers. Once you find a higher listening level, it sounds quite good however. English subtitles are included, but there are no special features whatsoever. Not even a trailer.

Blind Date will never go down as a classic, but we all know Blake Edwards has cobbled together far worse. While never living up to his early career standards, it never pretends to be in the same league. But Edwards is still better than most at whipping up his farce to hilarious extremes. Willis and Basinger make a fun couple on their disastrous night out and the supporting cast – particularly Larroquette and Hartman — even steal a few scenes. Boy Meets World‘s Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) also gets some big laughs. I used to watch Blind Date quite often back in the time of VHS and I remember being excited to see the film finally available in widescreen for its DVD release. Now, Blind Date looks better than ever on Blu-ray and is worth a purchase, even if it is a bare-bones release.

Blu-ray Review: 'A Single Shot'

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'A Single Shot' on Blogcritics.

Back in 1998, director Sam Raimi proved he could still deliver a nail biter without his signature graphic content in A Simple Plan. Author Scott B. Smith adapted his own best-seller about a group of backwoods folks’ lives turned upside down after finding some lost cash into a classic thriller. Now, author Matthew F. Jones has adapted his own novel, A Single Shot, into another Simple Plan-esque thriller about another lonely woodsman up to his neck in a dangerous situation — with less satisfactory results — on Blu-ray January 14.

John Moon (Sam Rockwell) lives alone in a trailer after his wife Moira (Kelly Reilly) leaves him and takes their son. One morning while John is out hunting deer, he accidentally shoots and kills a young woman, leaving John to find a container with $100,000. John hides the body and takes the money to try to win back his estranged wife. Meanwhile, John begins to receive threatening phone calls and his dog is shot. Soon enough, the dead girl shows up again with a note attached, and now John must find out who he’s stolen the money from with red herrings — including local lawyer Pitt (William H. Macy), the tattooed Obadiah (Joe Anderson), and new-face-in-town Waylon (Jason Isaacs) — piling up around him.

If there’s one thing about reviewing Blu-ray discs for Well Go USA, it’s their exception presentations. A Single Shot shoots onto Blu-ray on a 25GB disc, framed in its 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Cinematographer Eduard Grau makes the most of filming in the woods. It’s interesting to see just how much director Rosenthal has degraded the picture in post-production, because in one of the special features we see on-location shooting where it’s mostly bright and sunny whereas the film takes on a very cold and muted look. Detail is always on spot on but the color desaturation sucks the life out of contrast of skin tones à la Winter’s Bone. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio keeps the ambience alive with the use of surrounds throughout, making you feel like you’re out in the woods alongside John in his misadventures. An optional 2.0 Dolby Digital track is also available, along with English subtitles.

Special features are scant, even while being lengthy. Unfortunately, they’re very repetitive. “The Making of A Single Shot” runs 26 minutes and features on-set footage, along with interviews with the cast and crew. Director Rosenthal, screenwriter Jones, and the cast all talk up the film as expected. “Interviews” is full-length versions of the interviews with Rockwell and Macy. A trailer for the film is included and pre-menu previews include: Child of God, McCanick, and The Truth About Emanuel.

Director David M. Rosenthal does his best at keeping things cold and menacing, but fails to inject the ending with appropriate irony to make you care how things turn out. Sam Rockwell is as good as he always is, maintaining his crown for most underrated actor. While he continues to star in low-budget affairs, his Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 was one of the year’s most memorable characters.

As for the supporting cast, Anderson turns in a decent enough performance with his limited screentime, while Isaacs is completely wasted and unrecognizable. Jeffrey Wright is awful, mumbling his way through every line of dialogue; you can never tell what he’s saying. Considering how unnecessary he is to the plot, he could have been cut altogether to give the film a better pace as the 116 minute runtime is way too long. In the end, watching Rockwell perform may be reason enough to check out A Single Shot, however, the film could have used a shot in the arm of adrenaline. A rental is your best bet.

Blu-ray 3D Review: 'Run' (2013)

Article first published as Blu-ray 3D Review: 'Run' (2013) on Blogcritics.

The world of parkour (created by David Belle) invaded the U.S. when Sébastien Foucan’s character used it in a chase sequence to escape James Bond in Casino Royale. Until then, it was flying under the radar as the main means of action in Luc Besson’s District B13. It then was used to varying degrees of entertainment — even if in small bursts — in films from Tony Jaa’s The Protector and Ong Bak to The Bourne Ultimatum, Supremacy, and Live Free or Die Hard. Even a cold opening of The Office featured the cast doing their own version of parkour with hilarious results.

Using your body, surroundings, and momentum to propel yourself from point A to B as efficiently as possible usually makes for some spectacular action sequences. So it was only a matter of time before a movie tried to focus on the art of the act, and be filmed in 3D. Unfortunately, it also came in the form of the new “thriller” Run, on Blu-ray 3D January 14. Writer/director Simone Bartesaghi has cobbled together what can only be summed up as a Step Up rip-off infused with enough dubstep to give you a nosebleed or jump out of a window. Filled to the brim with actors who have no idea what they’re doing in front of the camera, it makes parkour look way more simple than it really is.

As for the story, Bartesaghi — along with co-writer Joseph Michael Lagana — plunge us into the nomadic world of teenager Daniel (William Moseley) and his father Mike (Adrian Pasdar). Together, they move from city to city, with Daniel looting local jewelry stores. Turns out, Mike has kept them on the move after the death of his wife who was shot and then died giving birth to Daniel. The time has come for Mike to make peace with the death of his wife, and he moves them back to New York City to face his ex-brother-in-law Jeremiah (Eric Roberts). Meanwhile at his new school Daniel makes friends who also love parkour, even if at first he pretends he doesn’t know what it is. But soon enough, a fire at the local hangout forces Daniel to use his skills to save a friend, and it isn’t long before the past catches up with them, putting Mike, Daniel, and Daniel’s hopeful-girlfriend Emily’s (Kelsey Chow) lives in danger.

While Run may be filled with mediocre action scenes, at least Millennium Entertainment brings it to life with an exceptional 3D presentation. With both the 3D and 2D versions on a 50GB disc, you wouldn’t think the quality would take a hit in either dimension. Unfortunately, the 2D is a mess. As for the 3D, depth extends far into your screen with characters leaping, bounding, or walking in their own space, never looking like popup-book characters. Blacks are dark and inky, never giving way to crush. Banding and noise never rear their heads. But on the 2D side, things look atrocious. Anomalies prevail from the first shot, with noise, banding, aliasing, motion blur, and even jutter make for an abysmal viewing experience. A fireball even looks like molten lava spewing from a window during an explosion. Run was filmed in 3D and if you’re going to bother with the movie, never watch it in 2D.

As for the audio, the 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track makes the dubstep as low-end-hitting as you can bear. The music gets the most use out of the surrounds, and while I can’t stand the style of Tree Adams’ dubstep score, fans will want to crank things up fo sho yo. English and Spanish subtitles are available. The only special feature is “The Making of Run,” running a quick five minutes, featuring the cast and crew talking about their experience making the movie. They all sound like they had way more fun in the production than you’ll ever have watching it. Pre-menu trailers are attached for Parkland, Ninja II, Charlie Countryman, and Hell Baby.

If you’re looking for a movie that features slow motion shots of hot girls walking in front of the camera, lame references to the Spider-man films, and fatherly advice in the form of: “Don’t trust people because they might hurt you, don’t trust them because they will,” then Run is right up your alley. While it may feature an exemplary 3D presentation, the wooden acting and horrible storytelling only further dumb down the action. Not even teens will find any reason to purchase this, and 3D owners would never think twice about the title to begin with. Run is direct-to-video filmmaking at its corniest.