Recent Stories with tag criterion

Yes, awards season is finally over--blah blah blah boringest Oscars ever, blah blah blah.  But all in all, the films nominated this year weren't so bad (even if the wrong film won Best Picture), so now's your chance to catch up with some of the recent Oscar losers. Let's take a look at recent DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. In terms of the big releases of late, 127 Hours is out this week, and if ninety minutes in a cramped space with James Franco isn't enough for you, Danny Boyle's film is also bundled with the Oscar winner for Best Live Action Short (and probably the best Oscar speech of the night), Luke Matheny's God of Love. 

Also out now is Love and Other Drugs, which didn't get Anne Hathaway a Best Actress Oscar nomination, even though she was naked and dying (which usually does the trick). Same goes for Get Low, starring Bill Murray as Bill Murray and Robert Duvall as a crotchety old hermit who wants to throw his funeral party before he's dead. Sorry Duvall, any other year you'd get an Oscar nom, but this year his slot (Old Dude) went to Jeff Bridges instead, not that anyone had a shot at beating Colin Firth. From the creators of The Triplets of Belleville, very French full-length cartoon The Illusionist lost Best Animated Feature to Toy Story 3. You'd think that the Christina Aguilera/Cher musical Burlesque would've at least gotten a Best Song nomination, since that category was so weak this year.

Last Friday marked the release of the one- and two-disc version of Megamind, a computer-animated hero/villain story with the voices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, and Tina Fey. The other big release from last week was Due Date, aka Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 2. The odd couple buddy road trip is uneven and overly long, but it has its moments, and if you like Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, then you'll like the movie well enough too. No comment on The Rock and Billy Bob Thorton in Faster.... (more)

Back from Sundance, back to reality. Which means movies of fair to middling quality out on DVD. Let's take a look at the newest releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Some of the biggest recent releases include AARP action flick Red, glorified Lifetime movie Conviction, and what is hopefully truly The Final Chapter of Saw. There's also the original Swedish version of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the adequate American take on Swedish vampire moodpiece Let the Right One In, Let Me In, and a lifeless Never Let Me Go. In happier news, you can now see Gareth Morris' DIY post-alien apocalyptic romantic road trip Monsters.

Get ready for the Academy Awards with Greece's offbeat Best Foreign Film entry Dogtooth. Do yourself a favor and skip the nearly three hours of Gasper Noe's Enter the Void. But see a young Aaron Johnson play a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy or Andy Serkis (that's right, Gollum) as Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Gerard Depardieu bloats it up for Claude Chabrol's final film, Inspector Bellamy. And two from last year's Sundance: Kristen Stewart as a bored lip-bitey stripper with James Gandolfini in Welcome to the Rileys and Philly black power in Night Catches Us.

In documentaries, resign yourself in disgrace to watch Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. Almost as harrowing is the plight of children migrating from Mexico in the Oscar-nominated Which Way Home, or a look at Portland roller derby in Brutal Beauty: Tale of the Rose City Rollers. Meanwhile, Eric Bana (yes, the Hulk) really likes his car in Love the Beast, Thomas Frank once again tries to figure out What's the Matter with Kansas?, and Bill Withers writes great songs (including "Lean on Me") in Still Bill. And be sure to catch one of the finest films of 2010, the portrait of mixed emotions of football player/Afghan war soldier Pat Tillman in The Tillman Story.... (more)

We are really in the thick of it. I just mentioned last week that there were a bunch of bad DVDs to come, and that is borne out with the new batch of releases. The biggest relatively high profile release is Ryan Reynolds' confined space thriller Buried, which I never saw, because I'm not into claustrophobia. Besides that, the terrible Photoshopped poster of Takers tells you everything you need to know about that one. And in Stone, Edward Norton continues to demean himself (this time with cornrows!) just to log some quality time with Robert DeNiro.

In the indie realm are several films I barely remember: YouTube high school raunch com The Virginity Hit; Freakonomics, which used the pop economists' book as the starting point for a disjointed multi-storyline ensemble piece; Paper Man, with Ryan Reynolds as Jeff Daniels' imaginary action hero friend; and Jack Goes Boating, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut. (Did you realize any of those films even existed? I did that from memory!) One film you should actually see: Animal Kingdom, the Australian crime thriller that just might get Jacki Warner a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nom. And if you didn't get enough Death Race, check out Death Race 2.

In TV on DVD, if you miss Comedy Central's airing of Denis Leary and friends in Douchebags & Donuts, it's out this week, with a portion of the proceeds going to Leary's firefighter charity. There's Justified's first season, Merlin's second season, and Anthony Bourdain has another disc of No Reservations out. And at long last you can own Hey Vern, It's Ernest!: The Complete Series.... (more)

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been loving the weather lately. Sunny and clear, crisp and cool--it just feels like fall.  Time to break out the warm jackets and bright colors in this brief interlude before the late October rains begin with a vengeance. On these autumnal nights, when the temps are starting to dip into the 30s, you might be tempted to turn on the heat for the season, or at least light a fire. Well, throw another log on the pile, and check out the latest DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Out on Friday (like a real movie) was the DVD release of computer-animated How to Train Your Dragon. Along with standard and Blu-ray formats, How to Train Your Dragon is also one of the first films available on newfangled Blu-ray 3D DVD. Yes, this requires a special TV, Blu-Ray player, and glasses, and none of it is cheap. But it is another option for how one can watch a movie in the privacy of their home, with all their glasses.

Or you could just watch Jonah Hex. I don't think 3D would've helped things much in this case. With Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, and John Malkovich in a comic book movie, it was bound to be bad.

On the indie tip, there's Edward Nelson and Edward Nelson starring as two brothers (one straight-laced, one stoner) in Leaves of Grass. And there's the Italian tour de force I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton as an Italian matriarch who loves her children, her fine clothing, and the sumptuous feasts prepared by her son's friend. The film's pacing is nearly as divine as the food, the costuming, and the countryside vistas.... (more)

It's finally the beginning of the fall movie season, which means that there's actually decent stuff in the theaters. This weekend marks the cinematic arrival of two films well worth your while: The Social Network, in which the methodical, artistic eye of David Fincher, a whipsmart script by Aaron Sorkin, and a universally strong cast team up to tell the story of how an Aspergery sociopath who doesn't know how to be anyone's friend created a new method of friendship for the modern era, and Waiting for 'Superman', in which An Inconvenient Truth director David Guggenheim gives a pointed, devastating blow-by-blow on the failures of the American public school system.

But there's also new releases on DVD this week, so let's get to the rundown, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The biggest release this week was Iron Man 2, but you wouldn’t know it from all the promotion for rowdy rock comedy Get Him to the Greek. And you know Banksy doesn't follow conventions--out Friday was his doc lampooning the art world, Exit Through the Gift Shop.

I didn't see Michael Winterbottom's The Killer Inside Me at Sundance last year. While I love the director's varied work, I just don't wish to watch Casey Affleck spend two hours raping, beating, and killing women, even if the women in question are Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba. Also at Sundance was Frozen, a thriller in which three snowboarders get stranded on a chairlift and now must face the cold night and everything it brings. Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is a lush period piece that tells the tumultuous romance between the two artistic luminaries, while Good stars Viggo Mortensen as a doctor whose beliefs are twisted for nefarious Nazi purposes.

In TV on DVD, there's the new Kids in the Hall series, Death Comes to Town. There's also the second season of beloved (read: gone too soon) ensemble catering comedy Party Down. Epic '70s miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man is now available in Complete Collection form.... (more)

The weekend's over, but that doesn't mean you can't still catch up on the latest DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The biggest release last week was Robin Hood, the latest Russell Crowe-Ridley Scott joint. For something a little more Oscar-worthy, check out The Secret in Their Eyes, the Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film last year. Repo Man director Alex Cox has another culture-skewering film in Searchers 2.0. And then there was Ondine, the Colin Farrell mermaid movie that played at SIFF earlier this year.

In terms of documentaries, there's Directors: Life Behind the Camera, which gathered together such cinematic luminaries as Altman, Lynch, Gilliam, and Scorsese to talk about their craft. In Todd P Goes to Austin, DIY indie rock promoter Todd Patrick takes some of the bands he reps (Matt & Kim, Dan Deacon) from Brooklyn all the way to Texas, and When We Were Boys follows childhood friendships over two years at Royal St. George's, an elite Toronto boys' school.

In the arthouse grab bag is the Criterion edition of Audrey Hepburn-Cary Grant classic comedy-thriller Charade, because who doesn't like two beautiful people being beautiful together in a beautiful locale, all in HD? There's also My Dog Tulip, the touching animated story of a man (voiced by Christopher Plummer) and his dog, and The Pool, a realistic drama (directed by American Movie's Chris Smith) about a poor Indian boy who becomes obsessed with a wealthy family's swimming pool. If you wanna get real indie, check out (Untitled), an art world romance with Adam Goldberg, or Trash Humpers, the latest from garbage auteur Harmony Korine.... (more)

Here we are in the thick of August's silly season, which last year was focused on talk of death panels and this year is dominated by the threat posed by a ZOMG Ground Zero terror mosque.  It's almost as if the media has nothing else to do with their time, besides quash intellectual debate and foment fear.  Might we suggest they take a break from the crushing twenty-four-hour news cycle, in favor of a movie or two?  With that in mind, here's a look at recent DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

The silly season of August also means fewer new DVDs of note, but there have been a few out recently that are worth your while: last week brought Date Night and this week marked the release of The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, a Korean take on the spaghetti western. There's also Cemetery Junction, which I honestly don't know much about, but when the words "written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant" are used, I say, "yes please."... (more)