Hit and Run [Blu-ray]

Hit and Run will probably reaffirm fans? love for the real-life relationship of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, while simultaneously making fans hate heist capers based on car chases. Its low budget road trip story with a criminal bent is never even saved by its slew of guest stars, making it mostly an unfortunate waste of talent.

The Movie:

Written and directed by Shepard and co-directed by David Palmer, Hit and Run follows the story of Charlie Bronson (Shepard) and Annie Bean (Kristen Bell), who are reaching a critical point in their relationship. Just as things get serious, however, Annie is offered a job in Los Angeles, which both happens to be located far away and be a place Charlie is not supposed to head to. Unbeknownst to Annie, Charlie was formerly a bank robber who turned a new leaf after giving up his cronies and entering the witness protection program. When his old partners sniff out some news on Charlie?s whereabouts, a chase across part of the country ensues.

While Shepard and Bell seem to mostly be playing themselves with different backstories, the rest of the cast is filled with stock characters or characters that are too strange to be watchable. In the former category we have Neve (Joy Bryant?hello, Parenthood cameo), an African American female criminal with more than a bit of an attitude. In the latter category, we have Debby Kreeger (Kristin Chenoweth), a college administrator with a drug and sex-laced past who has a dirtier mouth than a prostitute. The worse offender is probably Gil (Michael Rosenbaum), Annie?s besotted ex, who would go to any lengths to prove he still belongs in the young woman?s life. This isn't including any of the one-scene side characters, either.

It?s not that the film?s issues stem from the acting, even when some of the characters are nothing short of outrageous. There are some compelling performances here, especially from the main couple, who still manage their rapport when delving into absurd ?I didn?t know you were a bank robber? conversations. Additionally, Bradley Cooper, who appears in Hit and Run as a dreadlock-sporting bad guy after revenge and some hidden money, sometimes manages to harness his wild character and provide some funny moments onscreen. Unfortunately, the movie is more about the testosterone-filled car chases that begin soon after Charlie leaves with Annie on her big trip to Los Angeles. Everyone wants a piece of Charlie and his pretty sixties Lincoln, including Charlie?s parole officer, a couple of cops, and Charlie?s former crew. Which means fans get lots and lots of moments with Charlie and Annie in various cars as they are getting chased.

I may be female, but cool cars and interesting chase scenes can still pique my interest. There are a few of these moments that are completely investing, including when Charlie grabs an off-road race car and jumps it over a few police and civilian vehicles. However, there are plenty of excessive moments, too, including a lengthy scene where Charlie and Annie do donuts to kick up dirt and escape from ex-boyfriend, Gil. Maybe the movie should have foregone some of the comedy for better action or should have forgone some of the action for better comedy, but at the end of the day, there?s something missing in Hit and Run?s formula. It?s not the biggest waste of time, ever, but, in all likelihood, it?s probably not worth chasing down a copy.

The Disc:

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has a certain flair for its discs, and the studio even pulls out all of the stops for smaller movies like Hit and Run. The menu is clean and easy to navigate, and the desert colors within the film pop, although the yellow backdrop on the menu page makes the characters look a little washed out.

The set doesn?t feature a ton of extras, but six deleted scenes are present, although none offer commentary. The deleted scenes are actually extended scenes, focusing extensively on the early scenes between Bell and Chenoweth, as well as Charlie and his parole officer. Finally, even more car chase scenes are highlighted and a couple of these are even more ridiculous than the stuff that shows up in the movie itself.

Three featurettes follow. The first, ?Street Legal,? takes a look at the vehicles that pop up in the film, which apparently are mostly made up of cars Shepard owned prior to shooting, which makes sense, since he likely wrote the script with his own cars in mind. The other featurettes take a look at other aspects involved in shooting the film and featuring interviews from Shepard and Bell.

It?s actually a decent Blu-ray for a less decent film, and may be worth a purchase if you did enjoy the movie.

Distributor: Universal StudiosStarring: Dax Shepard, Bradley Cooper, Kristen Bell, Michael RosenbaumDirected by: Dax Shepard, David PalmerProduced by: Andrew Panay, Dax Shepard, Nate Tuck, Kim Waltrip

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Texas Chainsaw 3D

Contrary to what you may think, Texas Chainsaw 3D is not a shameless exploitation of a beloved franchise to make a quick buck, at least not from anyone involved at the actual filmmaking level. Director John Lussenhop and his team were clearly very invested in trying to make a film that pleases the fanbase and smoothly transitions from the classic first installment. For the most part, those involved accomplish those two goals. Unfortunately, jarring alterations in the quality of both acting and story keep the movie from being anything better than mediocre or even mediocre minus.

At times, TC 3D feels like a low quality, low budget horror film that should have gone straight to DVD. Not Blu-ray. DVD. One of its female characters is a scantily-clad, dick-grabbing, shrieking idiot every horror fan has seen dozens of times. Another of its female characters runs like an uncoordinated buffoon, tripping over every object in a hundred yard radius, and a few of its more emotional moments are unintentionally funny and filled with melodramatic nonsense. Other times, however, the whole thing plays like a wonderful addition to the franchise and a damn scary movie. TC 3D brilliantly uses cell phones/ new technology in one scene that?s among the more well-shot the horror genre will offer this year. A few of the kills have great surprise elements to them, and most importantly, the film feels like an authentic, albeit absurd, next step following the original.

The action picks up in 1974 after Sally?s escape, which is helpfully chronicled in the film?s opening credits for those less familiar with the franchise. The police and an angry mob quickly descend on the house, calling for Leatherface to be sent out. Unfortunately, before that can happen, a few Molotov cocktails are sent into the homestead, laying waste to numerous members of the Sawyer family and setting in motion a chain of events that leads to an infant being snatched from the rubble and raised without a clue to her identity.

That girl grows up to be the angsty Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario), and after her real grandmother Verna dies, she inherits a giant mansion filled with expensive antiques and, of course, a hulking, mentally stunted murderer (Dan Yeager) who lives in the basement. Thanks to a serious lack of communication and common sense, Heather heads to the property with her boyfriend (Trey Songz), her best friend (Tania Raymonde) and a drifter (Shaun Sipos) without any knowledge of the horror that awaits. Upon arrival, they figure out the score pretty quickly, but where the film goes from there is less of what we expect from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series and more of a ludicrous curveball that will likely polarize audiences.

I?m fine with the second-half wrinkle, but what bothers me about the film, beyond its occasional dips in quality, is the frustrating middle ground it often takes on sexuality/ humor. If you?re going to give viewers a slutty, absurd caricature who unnecessarily changes in front of people in a van and genuinely acts like a woman put on the Earth to do nothing other than fornicate, then it?s stupid not to have her actually get naked. If you?re going to make a few sick jokes about the ridiculous situation everyone finds themselves in, take that concept to the extreme. Properly carry on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre legacy of disgusting black humor weirdness. If you?re going to go there, indulge. The R-rating has already been secured. Use it.

Texas Chainsaw 3D isn?t nearly as good as it could have been. Like all of the sequels it mostly chooses to ignore, it will likely be forgotten and passed over when a new generation of filmmakers takes a crack at Leatherface. With a few creepy scenes and a great transition from the first film, however, it should still please a high percentage of horror fans looking to find an unnerving way to spend an hour and a half out of the cold.

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End Of Watch [Blu-ray]

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Looper

Made on a $30 million budget, Looper is notable for proving two things. The first is that a futuristic science fiction flick can be made to look compelling on a relatively low budget, and the second is that a low budget science fiction movie can also be a box office success story. The greater question is whether or not Rian Johnson?s film holds up so well on DVD.

The Movie:

Looper tells a story set in a not-so-distant future. As a voiceover tells us at the beginning of the film, time travel has been invented some time in the years following the film?s starting point, and now the bad guys send the criminal trash from the future to the past for disposal by a group known as loopers, who work until their own numbers come up. If it sounds complicated, it is, but don?t think too hard about it?if director Johnson isn?t worried about the specifics of time travel, we shouldn?t be.

We meet Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young drug addict who works as one of these aforementioned loopers. One day, he?s confronted with killing the future version of himself, a hardened, balding badass played by Bruce Willis. The next moves he makes are tricky chessboard plays that lead to young Joe chasing old Joe, the whole looper crew (led by Jeff Daniels) chasing both Joe?s, and a few five-year-olds standing in the way of life returning back to normal, or as normal as it can be. There?s so much chasing going on onscreen, it?s almost comic, but plays out in quite a serious manner.

Eventually, we are led to a farm in the middle of nowhere, where Sarah (Emily Blunt) and Cid (Pierce Gagnon) live a simple and somewhat difficult life. This may be the first time I?ve seen Blunt play a badass on film, with a shotgun nonetheless, but it?s Gagnon who is captivating to watch. The young kid manages to fluctuate between piercing intelligence (for a five-year-old) and uncontrolled rage, and by the time Joe steps into the little family?s path, a can of worms has been opened up that will lead to a story that rapidly spirals out of control, until we reach an ultimate shoot ?em up concluding set of scenes.

This doesn?t mean Johnson?s script is ever out of control. Just as in his other films?most notably Brick--there are constant nods to other cinematic achievements and premises, from Gordon-Levitt?s costume to Daniels? clever aside, "The movies that you're dressing like are just copying other movies.? It?s not just the script that?s careful, it?s the casting?which also feature small roles from Paul Dano, Piper Perabo, and Garret Dillahun-- and the setting?the grimy, dark, and sometimes lively 2044, which was shot in present-day New Orleans.

All of these things work for the movie, and grow even more impressive once we realize how much was achieved with how little money it was achieved with. DVD quality picture even hides any notable CGI misses within the frame, which can be taken as a bonus or a miss regarding the quality of the set. First time viewers will probably be too busy considering the story unfolding on screen, however, to contemplate some of the more intricate shots?like the screen tumbling upside down before righting itself during one of Joe?s drug trips.

In any body of work, fully realizing a premise that has not yet been invented would be tricky, and I think the director was right to leave the explanations to the audience?s imaginations. Johnson may not be the most literate on the concept of time travel, but time travel is never really the focal point of Looper, just the starting point. When all of the seemingly never-ending possibilities line up and begin to unfold in a cane field in the middle of nowhere, we may not be given the most satisfying ending of all the thousands of possibilities, but it?s still one worthy of the fluidity of the movie, the idea that if any one choice, one moment, or one bullet had been flipped on its head, the narrative of the script could have totally changed, as well. If anything else, that?s a commendation on Johnson?s writing talent.

The Disc:

For a lower budget film, Looper still relies a lot on its visuals, and while the transfer on to DVD is fine, the picture doesn?t pop on my television as it did at the movie theater, and as I?m guessing it would on Blu-ray. The good news is, if you haven?t transitioned to Blu-ray, yet, or don?t love the film enough to spend an extra few bucks, the extras on the disc are still worth a watch.

There are several deleted scenes on the disc, including the original cut of ?The China Sequence? which was initially going to be played over a piano piece. These can be played with or without commentary, and I would suggest you watch ?The China Sequence? with commentary and the rest without, as the others help explain some of the time travel stuff and the more key plot points. The scenes are pretty good, but fans will get to watch even more deleted scenes if they roll with the Blu-ray copy of the flick.

There?s a shoddily animated trailer to go with the flick that's fine to skip. Following this is a set of lengthy featurettes that take a look at the different instruments and musicians used to score the movie. Composer Nathan Johnson created a score using a lot of found sounds that he recorded with a field recorder while the film was shooting in New Orleans. ?The Time Machine? sequence and a couple of others are even shown in full, with a focus on the music. The entire process the team went through is pretty strange, and a welcome addition on the disc.

Commentary rounds out the bonus features, and while Johnson is pretty dry, he does offer tons of insight, and Gordon-Levitt keeps things fun and joke-oriented throughout. Pretty early on Blunt shows up as well, and enjoys poking fun at her performance. DVD and all, it?s a better-than-average set to go with a good film.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentStarring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Bruce Willis, Jeff DanielsProduced by: Ram Bergman, James D. Stern

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A Haunted House

A Haunted House is unapologetically crass. There are no boundaries it?s unwilling to cross and no subject matter it?s unwilling to mine for comedy. It?s aggressive, in your face and smelly. It?s the type of humor many people might disparagingly call ?lowest common denominator?, but really, that?s not entirely accurate. Many of the jokes in A Haunted House are of the easy, low hanging fruit variety, sure, but many others are also more clever sideswipes. Just because a laugh is grimy or dirty doesn?t mean it didn?t require creativity to write. Plus, it takes some balls to go there in a spoof movie.

Unlike a high percentage of spoof movies, A Haunted House is R-rated. That decision to go for the jugular will probably cost the film some money at the box office, but from a quality standpoint, it really helps the film differentiate itself and generate laughs. In fact, that no holds barred strategy is probably the movie?s biggest single asset. From anal rape to partner swapping to naked drug deals to lots and lots of four-letter word, A Haunted House doesn?t hold back, and given all the blandly offensive spoof films we?ve seen over the last decade, that?s actually refreshing. Unfortunately, all of those positives aren?t quite enough to qualify A Haunted House as a good movie. It?s more in the okay to the okay-minus file.

The film follows Malcolm (Marlon Wayans) and Kisha (Essence Atkins) as they move in together. He?s so excited about the big life transition that he buys a whole bunch of camera equipment to document their lives Paranormal Activity style, but, of course, it doesn?t work out as expected. She refuses to let him tape them having sex, and perhaps even more importantly, a ghost takes up residence in the house, acting like a perverted invisible monster that thrives off attention, negativity and weed in equal measure. Eventually, a psychic (Nick Swardson), an ex-con priest (Cedric The Entertainer), a security specialist (David Koechner) and his slow brother (Dave Sheridan) are hired to help ?unpossess? the house, but those efforts don?t exactly go as planned either.

There are quite a few laughs to be had during A Haunted House?s eighty-six minute runtime. As usual, Wayans has a certain charisma on screen, and the first person camera, documentary style footage actually lends itself to his talents. Most of the veteran comedic ringers the film brings in do their part to carry the action too, but the basic format still really runs out of gas. It feels 10 or 15 minutes too long, and it?s very clear scribes Wayans and Rick Alvarez had no idea how to wind up the plot. Most spoof movies share that same problem, but that doesn?t change the fact that it?s still awkward here, as are about twenty to thirty percent of the jokes that are just complete misfires.

A Haunted House isn?t funny enough or original enough to be fondly remembered for decades to come, but for those without a stick up their asses who are willing to be open-minded, it?s a funny enough kick to the ghost balls.

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Dredd [Blu-ray]

There was a time that I thought that no movie based on a comic book could be better than The Dark Knight. But then, this past summer, I saw The Avengers, and I had a new faith in comic book adaptations. I hoped to be wowed yet again only a couple of months later with The Dark Knight Rises, but it turns out I couldn?t really stand that movie, and it looked like Marvel had overtaken DC with the best comic book movie ever. But then, a flick that no one even bothered to see?and a reimagining, at that?came out a few months later that made me change my mind yet again. And that movie is Dredd. All hail the new king of comic book cinema!

The Movie:

Dredd is the greatest comic book movie I?ve ever seen. Here?s why: Judge Joseph Dredd is just an ordinary man who stands by his principles, and that?s it. He doesn?t have a bazillion dollars and a utility belt like Batman. He doesn?t have superpowers or a suit of mechanized death like Iron Man. He doesn?t have anything but his adherence to the law. So much so that when he says, ?Ma-Ma?s not the law. I am the law,? in this picture, you believe it, and you can see that his soon-to-be-victims believe it, too. The audience, just like the criminals, is left with a man who, against all odds, stands against the scum and takes back the streets, if only in just one area of a crime-ridden city. He?s like Travis Bickel or Dirty Harry, but set in a fantasy world of intense crime and violence filled with a new street drug called Slo-Mo. What?s not to love?

Well, apparently a lot, since nobody bothered to see this movie back when it hit theaters. I think a big reason for that is because of the stain the original Judge Dredd left on the name of the character. Being one in probably only ten people who liked the original movie though, I can mildly understand. Most people don?t fully understand that the Judge Dredd from the first movie is not the same Dredd that Karl Urban is portraying, here. This Dredd is much closer to the character in the British comic 2000 A.D., and since Judge Dredd isn?t a household name like Batman or Superman, most folks don?t know how great an ultraviolent picture could be with a very serious Dredd in it, which is what Dredd is. In fact, it?s probably the most badass comic book adaptation ever made. If you like gritty films with morally ambiguous protagonists, then you need to see this movie. It?s one of the best.

The primary reason for its greatness is Karl Urban?s portrayal of Dredd, which is spot on. He plays Dredd gruffly throughout the entire film. He has no character growth whatsoever, much like Dredd in the comics. And instead, it?s the world around him that changes because he?s in it, which is a unique approach to storytelling, but one that pays off big time in this film. His rookie sidekick, Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), also changes, making for an interesting team dynamic. The law is unflinching, and as established earlier, Dredd is the law.

The setting primarily takes place in a single building located in Mega City One called Peace Trees, which is another key to this film?s success?it stays grounded. Dredd?s fight to the top of the building is a scenario that was also used effectively in last year?s The Raid: Redemption, but I think it?s more effective here, and surprisingly, more realistic (Come on, you?re going to tell me that everybody in that building knew martial arts in The Raid?). With Slo-Mo, on the streets, Dredd is sent to investigate some murders and finds that the main source of the drug is in Peach Trees. He finds the drug runner to be a ruthless boss called, ?Ma-Ma? (Lena Headey). It?s refreshing to have a female antagonist.

I don?t have a single complaint with this film, other than the fact the humor found within the comic is all but absent in the film. That said, the pacing is great, the acting is phenomenal, and the slow-motion special effects are beautiful and stylistic. See this picture now, and give Dredd the audience that it?s deserved all along.

The Disc:

The special features in Dredd are many, but most are very short. ?Mega-City Masters: 35 Years of Judge Dredd? featurette is one of the longer extras. It features the creators of the comic and subsequent artists and writers discussing the history of Dredd. If you know nothing about the character, than this is a good place to start. ?Day of Chaos: The Visual Effects of Dredd 3D? featurette is an interesting look at the 3D effects that went into the film, and also the limited computer effects. The film was shot in Cape Town, Johannesburg and very few added effects were even put into the film digitally. It?s kind of sad to see that only a few buildings needed to be included to make parts of Johannesburg look like a post-Apocalyptic wasteland.

Those are the longer features. The rest are much shorter. There?s a ?Dredd? featurette that actually features Karl Urban talking about the character, but that segment is only a couple of minutes long. Another short segment is the ?Dredd?s Gear? featurette that talks about his outfit in the film. ?The 3rd Dimension? featurette goes into detail about how cumbersome the technology could be, so they had to build new cameras. It?s fascinating stuff. ?Welcome to Peach Trees? goes into the primary location of the film. Finally, besides the trailer, there?s the ?Dredd Motion Comic Prequel.? It goes into the character of Ma-Ma, but the movie fully describes her history anyway, so it?s a nice feature, but it?s totally unnecessary.

Overall, the special features are good, but some are too short and I really missed a commentary track. Honestly, I can?t get enough of Dredd. This disc is lacking a bit, but as a whole, it?s excellent. Pick it up.

Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Wood Harris, Lena HeadeyProduced by: Alex Garland, Andrew MacDonald, Allon Reich

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Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad will likely be remembered as the violent movie that was delayed and reshot after one mass shooting tragedy, only to come to theaters barely a month after another one. If it were a good movie, this would probably be an unfortunate case of reality infringing on art. But Gangster Squad is bloody, sloppy and far dumber than it looks, a Hollywood spectacle of slo-mo bullets and explosions perfectly calibrated to be soulless.

Ruben Fleischer, whose first two films Zombieland and 30 Minutes Or Less had a spry and comic approach to genre, seems crushed by the weight of what he considers a Big Serious Movie, dressing up Gangster Squad in glossy period trappings and forgetting to have any fun with it at all. That extends directly to his lead actor, Josh Brolin, who continues his gruff Tommy Lee Jones impression from Men in Black III as Sergeant John O'Mara, who we are told repeatedly is the only honest cop left in Los Angeles-- probably because he's such a stick in the mud that the crooked cops are sick of him. O'Mara is charged with heading up a secret police force specifically dedicated to bringing down Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), the real-life gangster who already ran most of Los Angeles's underground and was ambitious for more.

"I want to talk to you about the war for the soul of Los Angeles." That's the exact line Nick Nolte's police chief uses to give O'Mara his assignment, and the dialogue only gets chewier and more ridiculous from there, with screenwriter Will Beall aping the hard-boiled detective films of the past with no understanding of what made that purple dialogue work. The story doesn't help much either, starting with two scenes of grotesque violence and then idling forever before putting together the actual squad you've come to the theater to see. With the help of his angelic, pregnant wife (of course she's pregnant) O'Mara assembles the customary blend of outlaws and roughnecks; the only one with any actual personality is Ryan Gosling's Jerry, a smooth-talking cop with a gangster for a best friend and a dangerous eye for Grace (Emma Stone), Mickey Cohen's kept woman.

An early scene between Gosling and Stone-- who were so fantastic together in Crazy Stupid Love-- falls flat under the weight of the old-fashioned patter, and it's a dismal preview of the many flat scenes to come, even among squad members played by greats like Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie and Michael Pena. Everyone is acting furiously-- Penn under pounds of face-altering putty, Gosling with an odd high voice, Brolin with his locked grimace-- and nobody is getting anywhere, as the gangster squad embarks on a few half-baked schemes for catching Cohen with no sense of strategy or rising tension. We're told that Los Angeles is crumbling under Cohen's corruption, but we're never shown it, and the stakes behind all these bloodbaths start to feel further away, until Fleischer's stylized and slowed-down violence becomes dull, then repulsive.

Combining the worst of modern action sensibilities with a Disney World recreation of the past, while also wasting some of the most interesting screen talents out there, Gangster Squad is an incredibly frustrating start to a new year of moviegoing. It is not this movie's fault that it comes at a time when no one is especially in the mood for big bloody gun battles-- but that ought to make it all the easier to forget it.

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Broken City

Broken City has extremely high aspirations for itself. It desperately wants to be one of those smart, fast-paced thrillers that leads normally sane people to stay up late loudly arguing over its ending, but the final product isn't that engaging, surprising or even thought-provoking. If there are heated discussions about any of it, they'll likely include theories about why the film isn?t better.

Honestly, that sucks. Most of the films released every year don?t contain anywhere near the level of thought this one does. Broken City makes a serious effort to give the audience complex, multi-layered gray area characters. It takes aim at politics, the media, people who read the New York Post, people who read the New York Times, Wall Street, Main Street and even overly sexual art house films, but somewhere in the midst of tackling all of that, it loses sight of the fact that its primary narrative really isn?t that good. Even worse, its characters-- while well-drawn--aren?t really very fun to watch.

The most important of those dull characters is Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg). He was a proud cop for the NYPD back in the day, but after gunning down a suspected murderer and rapist, he was forced to resign from the force and take a job as a private investigator. Seven years later, he?s contacted by Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe) to do a little job. The mayor's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is cheating, and he wants to know who she?s doing it with by the time the polls open for his reelection bid in less than a week.

What follows is a chaotic mess of back-stabbings, double-crosses, media manipulations and vicious right hands. Unfortunately, the proportions are all off. Sometimes we're given every single detail we could possibly want to know about a situation, and sometimes there's barely enough information to follow along, let alone predict where it might actually be going. Some of the characters behave in ways people will have expected all along, and some of the characters make sharp, right hand turns for strange and inexplicable reasons. It?s just a big mess, and occasionally, it doesn?t even logically make sense.

The key to The Usual Suspects or Murder On The Orient Express or King Of New York or any other successful and complicated thinker is that they leave a little Hansel and Gretel trail of bread crumbs throughout that makes a viewer say, ?Ohhhhh! That?s why??. Broken City doesn?t do that, and its reveals, which may have sounded good on paper, don?t have any real impact. They?re either so obvious from the beginning that there?s barely point in even acknowledging them, or they come from so far in left field that they?re borderline infuriating. Plus, half of them were spoiled by an idiotic marketing campaign hellbent on spelling it all out.

There are no bonus points for trying hard. In the end, a film is only measured by how enjoyable it actually is to watch, and on that count Broken City is closer to failure than it is to mediocrity. It?s less watchable than A Haunted House. I wish that wasn?t the case, but it is.

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Cosmopolis [Blu-ray]

David Cronenberg?s most recent film, Cosmoplis, is about sex, commerce, alienation, white stretch limos, a haircut, sensitivity and the lack thereof. He calls it a comedy. Trudging its way from a limited run in theaters across town into home video, let?s see if it was worth the drive.

The Movie:

There?s an exchange early in the film where Robert Pattinson?s character Eric Packer poses a question and the person across from him states that any attempt at an answer would be met with a loss of respect. Taking on this film in a brief critique is like trying to answer that question. To discuss this movie one would need in depth knowledge of the original book by Don DeLillo, Cronenberg, philosophy, capitalism, and a grab bag of at least seven other provocative words. It?s that kind of movie. The good news is that the full Cosmopolis experience is not going to be found in this review, so it?s perfectly alright to be superficial.

The film begins with a blank canvas soon splattered with the look of a Jackson Pollock painting that comes into form below the credits. These paintings deceive the audience into thinking something is happening--an illusion of movement that becomes the base of the narrative. We are then introduced to the protagonist?s mission: To ride in a white stretch limo across town to get a haircut. To achieve this goal he must endure traffic (one illusion of movement) and guests who challenge his outlook (a second illusion of movement).

In this stretch limo, Eric Packer, a billionaire 28-year-old trader who analyzes the world and speaks in a cadence taken from DeLillo?s textual rhythms, introduces the viewer to other hyper-realized characters who inform his life and share in his conscious. From the characters? extremely well-crafted discourse, the audience can glean not only narrative progress but also a continuous flow of heady intellectual diversions that inform a larger conversation. These characters include Packer?s wife of 22 days, a young analyst, an older art dealer, and a few madmen. The relationships are intriguing through how each person relates to one other and what they all represent to Packer.

As the film progresses, we try to draw connections, but even when we think we?ve cracked the case, we are reminded that it?s only an idea of an answer. This is personified by Samantha Morton?s character, a woman who offers the only tangible solutions and then reminds Packer she?s just a theorist. Thus, her take can?t be given full weight, either.

Unlike talking head movies that seize a certain privilege to spit ideas at its viewers, Cronenberg?s adaptation instead takes continual risks to subconsciously isolate the audience so that they feel as separate from the everyday world as Packer. The limo is used to achieve this effect. Outside its windows lives a world made of extras, set dressing, and plates of a city replacing a green screen. The existence of the unreal puts you in Packer?s seat allowing you to observe from afar while at the same time living inside the limo.

This visual trickery helps the audience submit to the character?s mindset. Packer knows that he is unphased by elements outside his bubble and this leads to his fascination with being hurt. Even when he?s losing everything he is still unaffected-- because nothing affects his physical person. He even turns against the one man specifically in charge of protecting his psychical self to run toward someone who means him harm. Only when Packer abandons the limo is he finally exposed and we, with him, move on to the next big thing.

Packer?s journey ends when he goes out of his way to enter a place he deems to be real. What follows is an interaction with his last guest who is so much his polar opposite that I?d argue they?re supposed to be the same person. The film goes out of its way to end ambiguously so I?ll take the allowance to make up my own ending. I?ll say that the last 22 minutes takes place in a fraction of a second during the haircut. This is a unit of time that Packer romanticized earlier in the film, and since this whole film seems to be about taking ?everything? in at a glance it might as well end on one.

The Disc:

The picture quality is super sharp but there is a strange artifacting or digital fuzz that sometimes looks like an artificial film grain onscreen at times. Benefit of the doubt says this is intentional and it doesn?t detract from the image?s larger impact, but if it?s not purposeful, it is a strange looking Blu-ray. The audio perfectly speaks to Packer?s journey and locations with incredible sound design, as well as a remarkable score by Howard Shore and Canada?s own rockers, the band Metric.

The feature length Citizens of Cosmopolis documentary is outstanding. Though everyone interviewed serves up their personal love letter to Cronenberg, it also provides an in depth look into the moviemaking process in general. Most importantly, it grants access into the reality of working with this auteur. Rather than having separate featurettes, the documentary combines makeup, score, cinematography, special effects, and more into one seamless experience, giving the audience a true look into Cronenberg?s techniques and making it a valuable ?DVD as film school? addition.

The cast and crew interviews on the disc are disappointing, offering mostly the same footage utilized in the documentary. Cronenberg?s feature length commentary is straightforward and speaks to theories on the book, creative decisions and the filmmaking process. After watching Packer go on his journey, it?s good to hear from someone else, and audiences are left with a deeper understanding of Cosmoplis the movie while still leaving impetus to explore the book.

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Kevin Durand, Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Juliette BinocheProduced by: Paulo Bronco, Martin Katz

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Taken 2 [Blu-ray]

Theatrical reviews of Taken 2 have pointed out the sequel to Taken is bland and sometimes laughable, mainly due to following the exact format of the first film. Watching the flick for the first time on Blu-ray, it seems Olivier Megaton?s vision of Taken 2 is not a bland copy of its predecessor, but rather a movie that tries to borrow from its predecessor, but doesn?t quite know how to pull out the best spots and ideas while covering new ground.

The Movie:

Liam Neeson returns as the overbearing father and retired intelligence agent, Bryan Mills. Set just a short time after the events in Taken, the father of one of the bad men killed in the original movie is now overcome by anger and feelings of revenge. Murad (Rade ?erbed?ija) is determined to kill Mills, as well as Mills? ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).

In order to set up a hostage situation similar to the first movie, screenwriters Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen get into a convoluted and drawn-out narrative concerning Lenore, who was married in Taken but needs a convenient reason to leave the country with her ex. Over wine, the two commiserate about Lenore?s recent separation and Mills swoops in, determined to show Lenore that his spirited spy days are over and that he?s truly a good man. Somehow, the script manages to cobble the makeshift family together in order to visit Turkey for a vacation, where the hostage events in Taken 2 unfold.

Taken 2 would never have worked without Bryan Mills kicking ass and generally showing a brutish will to survive and overcome odds, but it?s biggest mistake is the continuation of the story from the earlier film. The story relies on flashbacks to remind viewers of what occurred in the past and it also chooses the wrong ideas from Taken to copy. Do we really need to see Kim in the fold of terrorists for a second time? Do we need the same vein of terrorists to be involved in this plotline? I?m not sure what else would have worked, but this storyline doesn?t.

Regardless, there are plenty of scenes that are engaging on their own merit. Neeson?s fights against dudes of all sizes are painful, occasionally flashy, and very fitting for the franchise. Additionally, a team-up between Kim and Mills creates an interesting dynamic, as well as a few smart moments where Kim behaves as a capable apprentice rather than as a helpless individual. She has more moxy than she had previously, and it works for her, especially in a scene where she and her father use a grenade-throwing device to help determine her parent?s location. Moments like these should invest the audience, but with a lot of sloppy writing surrounding these moments, it?s difficult to ever fully engage with the film.

With more ludicrous moments than captivating scenes, Taken 2 is the sort of movie viewers might put on in the background while accomplishing other tasks. For a film that in theory had great potential to be entertaining, it?s a pretty hard pill to swallow to proclaim that in practice a good chunk of the film doesn?t work. Taken 2 is definitely not the follow-up Bryan Mills fans envisioned after the first movie, but people who love the character may still want to check the film out.

The Disc:

There?s an unrated option as well as the theatrical version of the film available with the set. The unrated option doesn't add a ton of extra footage to the flick, but at least fans also get deleted scenes. There is plenty of deleted fodder on the disc, but it?s distracting that the scenes are in fairly raw form, with the information from the dailies still on the top and the bottom of the screen.

An alternate ending with a short introduction is also available, which offers viewers some of the final footage, but a new angle and several big changes which leads to more of a revenge-oriented closing sequence from Mills? end. I?m surprised this ending wasn?t used in the unrated cut, which would have created a cut that was far different from the theatrical cut, but if you are interested in watching it, this segment is lengthy and offers a totally new possibility for the film's ending.

?Sam?s Tools of the Trade? is a weird sort-of interactive segment that allows you to take a look at some cool spy tools. Mills has a suitcase kit within the film and all of the weapons are looked into in the segment. If you are really into information about weaponry, you can give it a watch, but otherwise this extra is tedious. There?s also a Q&A with Neeson where he discusses how the trick is to ?not make some sloppy sequel.? That might be humorous, but his love for the physical stuff is very serious, and since some of the action sequences work, it?s worth a watch.

Weirdly, the disc isn?t put together with easy accessibility in mind. Some extras are only available if you are in the menu for the unrated version and vice versa. Additionally, there are some BD Live features, but I had a hell of a time accessing them, having to restart the disc and then load the page, to get the Live stuff to open. With a DVD and a regular digital copy, as well as Ultraviolet capacity, there are plenty of options for watching the flick. Overall, it?s a decent set, but there?s nothing available that makes Taken 2 a really special Blu-ray.

Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie GraceWritten by: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

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