G.I. Joe: Retaliation

G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a stupid movie. Its plot is razor thin, the structure is utterly bizarre, and the exposition-laden dialogue regularly borders on the ridiculous. But when you realize that you just watched Dwayne Johnson ride on a tank that looks exactly like the toy you played with as a kid and have just as much fun doing so, it?s hard not to say it was all worth it.

The film knows exactly what it is: a piece of pulpy fun that?s meant to be watched and then immediately forgotten about. Fully embracing the spirit of the source material, the movie doesn?t waste time making sure you connect with the emotional plight of its main characters, who have been left for dead after being turned on by their own government. Retaliation operates in a black and white world where you just expect to see the heroes take their hits, get back up, and then beat down the bad guy. It feels choppy and rushed at times because it?s constantly on the move to get to the next action sequence. Obviously making a movie this way is a gamble, as there?s the ultimate risk of making a movie that?s both a mess and incredibly boring, but nobody will be able to accuse G.I. Joe: Retaliation of being the latter.

After starting his career with the dance film Step Up 3D and Justin Bieber's concert doc Never Say Never, director Jon Chu makes his an impressive action film debut with the G.I. Joe sequel. Taking full advantage of the fact that the most popular characters in the franchise happen to be ninjas, the middle of the movie features a high-flying, dialogue-free sequence that has Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and Jinx (Elodie Yung) battling against a team of masked martial artists in a snowy mountain location that is a perfect big screen experience and thrilling to watch play out. Likewise, the filmmaker recognizes that you could create a 90 minute movie called Dwayne Johnson Blowing Shit Up and gives audiences exactly what they want.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation has its ups and downs in terms of performances, but its bright spots are actually particularly excellent. Once again playing the role of ?franchise Viagra,? Johnson once again proves that he is one of the best, most engaging action stars we have, and continues to look like he?s just having a ball on the big screen, wielding a big gun and taking out the bad guys left and right. And while Johnson doesn?t get a great deal of support on the hero side of things ? as D.J. Cotrona, Adrianne Palicki and Bruce Willis? characters are far too flat to do anything interesting ? the villains are packed with plenty of pulpy goodness. Playing Zartan in disguise as the President of the United States, Jonathan Pryce has not only a surprisingly big role, but is one of the best things about the film, just chewing through the scenery and reveling in playing the bold, confident baddie. Add in elements like Ray Stevenson?s Firefly (who plays the character with an accent that sounds like a weird mix of Cajun and Australian), and a quick-but-excellent appearance by Walton Goggins, and you have a handful of actors who not only keep the movie going, but make it a lot of fun to watch.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation isn't exactly a ?good? movie thanks to its weak narrative, but nobody is going into the movie for a story. Buy a ticket, enjoy watching ninjas on zip lines and The Rock kicking ass, and when the lights go up try to avoid thinking about it on any deeper level.

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Beautiful Creatures

Your Twilight alarm may be screaming at first glimpse of Beautiful Creatures, a supernatural romance between two teenagers-- one human, one immortal-- who long to be together, and express that longing in a lot of gorgeous natural locations while scored to modern pop music. And while the world of Beautiful Creatures is no less absurd than Twilight, filled with witches called "casters" and curses from the Civil War and an all-knowing Viola Davis, it possesses a crucial self-awareness to actually allow you to get in on the fun. It's not always easy to follow the rules of this new supernatural world, but by not getting caught up in the details and exploring the giggly thrill of teen romance, Beautiful Creatures is way more fun than your Twilight-weary soul might imagine.

It starts, surprisingly enough, with the two attractive young leads, both of whom commit to the high emotions of romance without forgetting that they're supposed to be, y'know, enjoying each others' company. Alden Ehrenreich slaps on a syrupy Southern accent to play Ethan Wate, a sweet-natured kid itching to escape his South Carolina hometown, but also stuck caring for his dad following his mother's death. He's drawn immediately to the new girl in town, Lena (Alice Englert), who's staying with her uncle Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons) in a run-down old mansion that everyone thinks is haunted (the connection between Macon and To Kill a Mockingbird's Boo Radley is stated early, one of many hints that Beautiful Creatures is smarter than it looks). Ethan pursues Lena not with smoldering glances but an easy smile and a willingness to look silly, and the imperious Lena eventually softens-- but not before revealing the family secrets that could keep them apart.

You see, Lena is a caster-- the terms for witch used in Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's novels-- and on her approaching 16th birthday she will be "claimed" for either the dark or light side. In the chaotic group of supporting characters we see both the light side (Margo Martindale in an insane wig, mainly) and the dark (Emmy Rossum's vampy Cousin Ridley), and Lena's own dark caster mother Seraphine comes to town, possesses the body of the local Moral Majority snoop (Emma Thompson) and tries to meddle in Lena's life enough to make her dark transition a guarantee. On top of all that, there's also a curse left over from the Civil War that guarantees that Lena's love for a mortal will make her dark forever. Being 16 ain't easy, y'all.

When Thompson first appears as the schoolmarmish yokel she seems wildly out of place, but when she transforms into Seraphine with one delicious monologue delivered to Irons, she lights a rocket under the movie and delivers its purpose. Yes, all the Southern accents in this movie are awful. Yes, it's impossible to keep track of which caster is meddling with Lena in which way. Yes, there are moments where we peek into Lena's magical world and something completely nonsensical-- like a man with his entire body painted like clouds-- is presented as if we should understand it. But even when Beautiful Creatures is nonsense, it is stylish, captivating, gloriously enjoyable nonsense, with all of its performers well aware of what they're given. Director Richard LaGravanese, seemingly grateful to have assembled this kind of cast, lets his actors cut loose, but all are smart enough not to turn it into a joke. You'll find yourself believing in it all despite yourself; like the Civil War re-enactments featured in the final action scene, it all looks insane on the surface, but has a mighty power to suck you in.

Englert, with her moody eyes and powerful charisma, is an obvious star in the making, but Ehrenreich matches her not in sex appeal, but boy-next-door relatability-- the two of them alone are worth a sequel to dip back into this loony-tunes world. As a South Carolinian I think I finally understand what it's been like for Louisianans to watch True Blood all these years, seeing their culture transformed into something howling and maybe even offensive. I also can't wait to see it happen again.

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Safe Haven

Nicholas Sparks has become such a massive force in American romantic films that it only takes a few signifiers to recognize his work. A beach setting, with marshes in the background glinting with sunlight. A couple, almost always white, either in casual resort wear or bathing suits, embracing. There's always something dark looming, be it a secret from the past or a tragedy the characters don't see coming, but the glowing smiles of the lovers overcome it-- these are movies painstakingly engineered to bring its fragile audience just to the brink of raw emotions before planting them back in the pastel-colored, soft and generous Sparksian world.

Safe Haven, the latest film to roll off the Sparks assembly line, follows every one of those instructions to the letter, though he fiddles with the formula enough here that longtime fans might be wooed. The darkness in Safe Haven comes not from some looming future tragedy but from the past, as Katie (Julianne Hough) tries to start a new life in Southport, North Carolina while her abusive husband Kevin (David Lyons) tracks her from Boston. The parallel narrative structure is unusual for a Sparks film, as we watch Katie flirt and fall for local shopkeeper Alex (Josh Duhamel, 16 years older than Hough but who's counting?) while Kevin, a detective, hunts her like a bloodhound.

The contrasting styles of a stalker thriller and a fluffy romance could lend Safe Haven some interesting wrinkles, but director Lasse Hallstrom has no idea how to play out that tension, offering pointless misdirection about Kevin's real identity and revealing clues about how he'll hunt Katie down well after the audience has noticed them. He's more comfortable with the brighter romantic scenes, thanks to experience on the likes of Dear John and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The North Carolina locations are sumptuous as ever, and Alex's two moppets (Noah Lomax and Mimi Kirkland) are actually cute, at least when not saddled with dialogue. Hough and Duhamel have no chemistry whatsoever, and their characters are bland and featureless as a bowl of grits, but you paid money to see them romance each other in bathing suits, and they dutifully comply.

Even though it's essentially the same as every coastal Southern town depicted in a Sparks novel, Southport and its easy way of life is surprisingly alluring, and credit to production designer Kara Lindstrom for the effectively weathered general store that Alex owns, and Katie's bungalow in the woods that's the kind of place we'd all run away to, abusive husband or not. Safe Haven's February release is obviously timed for Valentine's Day, but it works as a mental summer vacation as well-- when you get bored of watching Katie and Alex gaze at each other or the convoluted plot that keeps them apart, you can admire their summer clothes and the coastal greenery and start counting down the days until your own beach vacation.

Until, that is, the film's climax, which includes one twist you definitely saw coming-- that abusive husband wasn't going to stay away forever, now was he?-- and one you might not have, a twist so gutsy it will probably be all anyone talks about after. As it turns out, you can complain all you want about Nicholas Sparks's conflict-free stories, but when conflict is introduced it totally ruins the gauzy vacation vibe. Safe Haven doesn't have a whole lot to offer, with a plot so familiar and stars so uninterested in each other, and its resolution only undermines what it's truly best at being-- a cheap North Carolina vacation.

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Identity Thief

Shitting in a sink is a tough act to follow.

Melissa McCarthy may have logged hours on Gilmore Girls and Mike & Molly, but her star broached the stratosphere the moment she soiled a posh, cream-white dressing room in Paul Feig?s irreverent Bridesmaids. That scene-stealing performance earned McCarthy two chances this year to convince audiences she?s capable of carrying oneleg of a harmless buddy comedy (the next being Feig's The Heat). So far, though, the gifted comedian?s only being asked to recycle the obnoxious, uncouth and inappropriate persona that she already milked for laughs.

If you weren?t paying attention to the credits, Identity Thief could be mistaken for the latest Todd Phillips comedy. Whether that?s an endorsement or a warning depends on your tastes.

McCarthy plays Diana, an unseemly Floridian con artist who ? in the opening scene ? dupes her mark into sharing his vital statistics (name, date of birth, credit card number) over the phone. That would be Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Jason Bateman) a mild-mannered Denver accountant with a gorgeous wife (Amanda Peet), two precocious kids, and a selfish boss (Jon Favreau) who is screwing him at every turn.

Sandy?s thrown a lifeline by an entrepreneurial colleague (John Cho) starting his own company. Better salary. A vice president?s title. It all sounds too good to be true. Unfortunately, before Sandy can move in to the corner office, he?s told that his credit scores are in the toilet and he?s wanted in the Sunshine State for skipping a mandatory court date. His identity has been stolen.

Proper authorities would attempt to assist Patterson at this point. But because Identity Thief was plotted by Craig Mazin ? whose screenwriting credits include two Scary Movie sequels, two Hangover sequels and Superhero Movie -- we instead plunge headlong into the improbable and flail around in search of broad comedy.

Sandy convinces his employers to give him one week to lure Diana back to Denver. He cooks up an elaborate sting operation that will trick the diminutive crook into confessing her crimes. Apparently flying from Florida isn?t an option (because a deceptive identity thief like Diana supposedly doesn?t have false credentials that will get her on an airplane), so Mazin and director Seth Gordon do their best impersonation of Due Date, putting polar opposites behind the wheel for a series of ludicrous, violent and demeaning pit stops.

McCarthy and Bateman riff on variations of the established snob-and-slob personalities. Twenty years ago, this vehicle would have been shaped around Chris Farley and David Spade. The pair does find ways to make the inevitable odd-couple clich? click, though. Thief works best when its leads can dance around whatever silly situation Mazin hands them, be it a motel tryst with an amorous cowboy (Modern Family?s Eric Stonestreet) or the film?s purest blast of guilt-free comedy involving Bateman and a six-foot-long snake.

For whatever reason, though, Thief keeps slowing down to introduce new characters through subplots that ultimately add little to the mix. Comedy might be the only genre that can be done in by too much plot. Do we really need Genesis Rodriguez and hip-hop artist T.I. as gangsters looking to kill Diana because she scammed them with bogus credit cards? No. They answer to Paolo (the great Jonathan Banks), a Godfather-type mob boss who pulls strings from his prison cell in a series of scenes that likely beefed up a subplot that landed on the cutting room floor. Speaking of, that?s where Gordon should have left Robert Patrick?s contributions as Skiptracer, a bounty hunter also assigned to capturing Diana. Remove any ? or all ? of these characters from the mix and you?re left with a blessedly shorter version of basically the same movie.

Identity Thief isn?t odious. It?s just predictable. Lazy comedies cast the overweight McCarthy as the bullish deadbeat and the conservative Bateman as the buttoned-down bean counter. Gordon could have helped his film establish its own identity by having his talented leads switch characters. Make Bateman ditch his uptight comedic crutch to play a low-life criminal dirt bag. Gamble on McCarthy as the respectable female executive who?s victimized by a con. The gifted comedian has to start playing against type in big-screen comedies if she wants to be remembered as anything other than that heavy-set woman who crapped herself in a Kristen Wiig comedy.

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Stoker

The best way to watch Stoker, the new film from director Park Chan-wook, is as if you have the senses of its lead character. India Stoker, played by the brilliant Mia Wasikowska, has a special gift where she can hear and see things imperceptible to the rest of us, seeing the world for all of its smallest details and elements. Watching the movie, audiences should completely absorb themselves in it, pushing back reality to focus on every line, every cut, every pan and every sound. It?s the only way to properly view something this magnificent.

Mixing elements of the modern day, the Victorian gothic era and the mid-20th century, Stoker is a stunning mix of coming of age tale and horror/thriller that begins on India?s 18th birthday ? the day her father (Dermot Mulroney) is killed in a terrible car accident. But it isn?t until the funeral that she discovers she won?t be alone in her giant house with her unbalanced mother, Evie (Nicole Kidman). It is there that she first learns of her mysterious Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), family she has never knew existed. From there, Park and screenwriter Wentworth Miller weave a captivating and phenomenal tale of mystery and terror, as sexual and psychological tension constantly rises between the mother, daughter and uncle and India?s fascination with her estranged relative unravels not only his past, but also her future.

Every frame in Stoker feels like it was crafted with satin-gloved fingertips and a pair of tweezers held by a filmmaker in complete control. Park makes regular use of long, flowing shots that take the audience around the palatial Stoker estate, lending the film not only a feeling of elegance, but a creepy, underlying voyeurism. ?The sound design is otherworldly, as we occasionally dip into India?s perceptions and listen to the world the way she hears it, from the light breathing and shallow gulps during a quiet family dinner to the shatter of a gunshot and gurgling blood. The film creates an opulent, wonderful landscape of senses that lures you in and snaps like a bear trap when the dark undertones become extreme overtones.

Leading the cast and lending a stoic, mesmerizing quality to India, Wasikowska is a stand-out in a cast replete with awesome performances. The young actress creates an impressive balance for the character, accentuating her great strength (like when she strikes back at bullies tormenting her at school) while also making her vulnerable (particularly when in the presence of Uncle Charlie). Goode?s take on the film?s mysterious antagonist is frighteningly reminiscent of Anthony Perkins? Norman Bates in Psycho, while Kidman?s turn is blessed with subtlety that makes Evie?s instability all the more engaging. When the three gather in one room you can palpably feel the emotions between all the characters and it?s immediately clear you?re watching something special.

You won?t find any jump scares in Stoker. Nor will you find any demonically-possessed children, CGI beasts, or half-assed twist endings. The movie forgoes any stunts and tropes and instead generates genuine terror from flawless filmmaking, a collection of outstanding performances and a story of bubbling monstrosity and bad blood. If this is what Park Chan-wook can bring to the American film world, then hopefully he will stay for a very long time.

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Putting over-the-top descriptive adjectives in one?s title isn?t a great idea. Because The Amazing Spider-Man isn?t, Fantastic Four wasn?t, and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone wold have to change its name to The Perfectly Acceptable and Occasionally Hilarious Burt Wonderstone if it wanted to be as accurate as possible.

Pairing the dry Steve Carell with an unpredictable Jim Carrey promised more of a charge than what?s delivered in Burt, a decent comedy about dueling magicians that ? ironically ? says interesting things about pushing the envelope to entertain the audience ? then stops short of pushing the envelope itself.

Wonderstone is Carell?s show. The sometimes (intentionally) buffoonish comedian tries on Will Ferrell?s oversized ego to play the title character, a bullied child who found escape in magic and parlayed it into a headlining gig at Bally?s on the Las Vegas Strip for both himself and his life-long partner, Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi, who is tender, childlike and wonderful). But after decades of churning out the same boring stage show night after night, Burt and Anton feel the heat of competition from an up-and-coming, David Blaine-esque street act named Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), who mistakes magic for torturous exercises in pain tolerance. Can Burt see through these current troubles and learn to love magic again?

The glitzy backstage settings of Burt Wonderstone give director Don Scardino enough wiggle room to work in unusual laughs we don?t see in these man-child-grows-up comedies. Olivia Wilde plays it straight as Jane, the stage assistant hired for Burt and Anton?s gig who?s shoehorned into an uncomfortably awkward romantic sidebar with Carell. It?s hardly a surprise that the Office star can switch gears once again, this time playing an insufferable, impatient lout who earns redemption by following Ferrell?s pre-determined cinematic paths. And Alan Arkin shines in a small role as the once-great magician Rance Holloway, who inspired Burt at a young age and might have a trick or two up his sleeve to help the struggling performer.

Scardino?s resume is littered with impressive sitcom work ? from 30 Rock to Cosby -- so its understandable why Wonderstone can feel episodic in spots. As you might have guessed, the film hits its comedic strides when Carell and Carrey play absurd games of one-upmanship (with Carrey winning the battle hands down). The duo?s battle involving a puppy at a kid?s birthday party is surprisingly sharp, while Carrey lands the film?s biggest laugh with a simple act of levitation in a magician?s bar. (The second-best laugh, if you are keeping track, belongs to Buscemi and his efforts to better the lives of Cambodian refugees who only want food and water. Trust me, in context, it?s funny.)

The laughs in Wonderstone may be intermittent, but when they land, they?re large. It?s barely enough to recommend the uneven comedy, though if you?re fond of Carell and/or Carrey, Wonderstone won?t deeply disappoint. And while a magician shouldn?t reveal the secret to his or her best tricks, stick around for the post-credits stinger, which explains in hilarious detail how Burt and Anton pull off a mesmerizing illusion. Burt saves its brightest physical gag for last.?

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Escape From Planet Earth

It?s one thing for a movie to have weaknesses. Even the better films released every year have some flaws, or at least a few areas that could use improvement. The problem with Escape From Planet Earth is that it doesn?t have one single strength to counteract any of those weaknesses. Every single facet of the film is at best, slightly below average and at worst, downright terrible.

The characters are poorly conceived stereotypes that lack depth. The animation is not bad but still below recent standards set by DreamWorks and Pixar. The jokes are mostly obvious, base level gags that will seem too foolish and immature for any child above the age of four that?s ever been described as ?advanced? or ?accelerated?. The song choices are misguided and occasionally even uncomfortably disconnected from the action. And the plot, well, multiple paragraphs need to be devoted to that lunacy.

The basic premise follows two brothers named Gary Supernova (Rob Corddry) and Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser). The former is an inventor and proud employee of the Mission Control Department of planet Baab. The later is an astronaut and arguably, the most famous member of the blue species. Together, they partner to save babies and fight the more malevolent alien races, but after a falling out, Scorch winds up imprisoned on Earth by the evil General Shanker (William Shatner), and it?s up to the normally reserved and office-bound Gary to save the day.

Along the way, Gary meets both aliens and human beings, but more importantly for viewers, he also meets that aforementioned story arc that doesn?t stand up to scrutiny or even a basic level of common sense. Anyone paying attention will be left with dozens of unanswered questions that director Cal Brunker doesn?t even bother attempting to answer. For the hell of it: let me throw out a couple of questions I?m still wondering about.

How is a fired employee able to steal a large spacecraft from a secure facility? Why is General Shanker allowed to make universe-altering decisions without anyone informing the President or anyone else in government? How do so many different aliens from so many different races land next to desolate 7-11s that it?s a running joke? Why does Ricky Gervais? OnStar knockoff sometimes have agency and sometimes behave like he?s powerless to counteract orders? Why? Why? Why? There are no good answers.

You know how great children?s movies work on two different levels in order to entertain both kids and adults? You know how mediocre children?s movies work on one level to entertain kids? Escape From Planet Earth doesn?t work on any level, and even worse, it doesn?t seem bothered by that failure. It?s as if every single person involved thinks children are so stupid that they don?t deserve entertainment with any effort behind it. It?s as if someone thought, ?They?re kids? so, who gives a damn?? In short, kids do. They do give a damn, and there?s a reason why they?ll rewatch The Lion King until they?re blue in the face and immediately forget this waste of time even exists.

As we speak, people involved in this production are currently in court arguing over who should get the profits or lack thereof from this movie. Well, let me save the court some time. No one should profit from this movie. No one. Not one single person. If there is any money left over, which there shouldn?t be, it should be burned because not even a charity should see a piece of this blood money. Everything about this movie sucks. It's so boring and listless that I can?t believe so many talented people were a part of it.

If you?re looking for something to do with your kids this weekend, take them to the park. There?s nothing for you or them to see here except frustration.

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Snitch

If you're looking to see Snitch because you can't get enough of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's blend of electric charisma and unbridled machismo, you're destined to be sorely disappointed. Helmed by stuntman turned director Ric Roman Waugh, this is decidedly more father-son drama than action film, wasting Johnson's best assets and demanding he bring his acting ability to a new level. It just sets him up to fail.

Based on a true story, Snitch centers on John Matthews (Johnson), a successful business owner with a big house, loving family, bitter ex-wife and an estranged son named Jason (Rafi Gavron). But Matthews is deeply devoted to his boy, even when a stupid decision lands him in jail for drug charges that could earn Jason 10 years in prison. Seeking re-election, US Attorney Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon) refuses to pull strings to get Matthews' son out of jail?unless he can snitch on a bigger dealer. So, Matthews steps into the world of hard drugs, hoping to find enough intel that he can spare his boy conviction.

This drama is earnest in its storytelling, but stumbles in its execution. Johnson is painfully miscast, playing a supposedly powerless everyman who must pose as a tough guy to win the trust of dangerous drug dealers. The costume department diligently attempts to play down Johnson's massive muscles with dress shirts, but it doesn't work. He still looks like a professional bodybuilder, which makes it laughable when he is beaten up with ease by a bunch of teen pushers. Worse yet, there are no fight scenes for Johnson to show his stuff in. There are action sequences?including a pretty intense one involving a high speed chase with loads of gunplay?but never any hand-to-hand combat, which means his trademark brawn is not just hidden, it's wasted.

Instead, Johnson is asked to rely on his acting chops?which let's be honest?is not his strongest skill set. He's a great screen presence; he's not a great actor. Scenes between him and Sarandon are actually hard to watch. The dialogue doesn't help, filled as it is with clunky and on-the-nose lines. But barred from being a badass, Johnson delivers his lines with dead eyes and a flat tone. In response, Sarandon goes into overdrive, chewing scenery to the point where?I admit?she won me over completely. It was bonkers, but at least she was entertaining.

There are also some strange structural issues. Nearly half of the movie is spent on an ex-con gone legit who Matthews bullies into getting him into the drug game. Played by The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal, the character is compelling but seems a distraction from the main plot line. The question of what would happen to this two-strike offender when Matthews brings in the DEA is ignored for most of the film, which is bizarre considering we meet the guy's entire family and get monologues about his attempts to start over. Similarly strange is Matthew's neglect of how his actions (dealing with deadly drug cartels to save his son from a previous marriage) will impact his new wife and young daughter.

Snitch is a movie that overreaches. Waugh, who co-wrote the script with Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road), doesn't seem ready for such straightforward drama. Johnson isn't prepared for a role this emotionally demanding, and really he is physically unsuited for the part of an underestimated everyman. There are amusing turns from Sarandon and Barry Pepper?as a DEA agent with the worst facial hair ever constructed?but even with Bernthal's soulful subplot, this drama lacks momentum and weight. The highlight of the film is definitely the final action sequence teased on its poster, where a semi truck careens around a highway, fending off gun-toting baddies. But there's not enough action for this feature to satisfy on that score. All muddled together, this makes for a movie that's sometimes crazy enough to work, but often bland.

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Hotel Transylvania [Blu-ray]

Hotel Transylvania is a movie that almost never happened. The film was in the making for six years, and cycled through five directors before Genndy Tartakovsky finally signed on and got the project rolling for good. It?s a good thing he did, because Hotel Transylvania broke box office records back in September, making Hotel Transylvania one of the more successful animated films this year.

The Movie:

Hotel Transylvania follows Count Dracula (Adam Sandler), a hotel entrepreneur and over-protective father who has built a niche for himself and his vampire daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), in the middle of Transylvania. The hotel has developed a reputation as a secret haven for monsters like the Frankenstein family (Kevin James and Fran Drescher), werewolves (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon), the Invisible Man (David Spade), and even Quasimodo (Jon Lovitz). However, when a human boy named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) happens upon the hidden hotel and begins to fall for Mavis, the Count must determine whether to intervene or let his baby girl make her own chances.

The story is surprisingly touching for a cast that features frequent Sandler collaborators and was written by Borat co-writer Peter Baynham and SNL?s Robert Smigel. Sandler?s movies have always been tinged with family lessons alongside the jokes, but in Hotel Transylvania there?s a great balance between Sandler?s Count and a focus on Mavis? wants and needs, and the movie subsequently becomes more than just the Adam Sandler Show.

Still, there are touches of more standard, juvenile jokes throughout. There?s a lengthy fart joke involving Frankenstein?s legs going rogue that Tartakovsky openly admits in the commentary to being a part of as well as a werewolf bum sniffing joke that pops up later on. Audiences that can patiently sit through the kiddy laughs will find some performances and side comments that are terribly clever, and besides, even the fart joke isn?t the worst I?ve seen.

In a year filled with strange, scary and macabre animated films, Hotel Transylvania stands out with its animated characters, who retain many of the looks and appeal of the most horrific monsters from legend, while giving them cute or goofy faces and expressions that won?t make them intimidating for kids. Part of the reason I believe Frankenweenie and ParaNorman didn?t do so well with audiences was that those films focused on animation that was strange and scary. While the looks of those movies may be innovative and gleeful for some audiences, a lot of children don?t want to be frightened, and Hotel Transylvania doesn?t fall into that trap.

Hotel Transylvania isn?t the type of movie that will stand out as one of the greatest animated films of all time. It won?t break down barriers or usher audiences into a brand new era of animation, but it is a pleasant family tale that can be enjoyed again and again, and as such, it?s likely a worthy addition to any family collection.

The Disc:

The packaging for Hotel Transylvania is oddly sized. The set itself is thicker-than-normal, and I was surprised the 3D Blu-ray didn?t feature a signature blue case, like most other standard Blu-rays. While I didn?t catch the 3D version of the film while watching, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment?s film is crisp and heavily detailed on Blu-ray, and the menu page is easy to navigate.

As far as special features go, ?Goodnight Mr. Foot? is a cartoon extra which gives us another glimpse at the hotel featured in the movie, but focuses on different lead characters, with an almost Tom and Jerry-like plotline with a witch and a spider. This aired in certain theaters with the theatrical release.

I?m never a huge fan of deleted footage in an animated movie. Most of the scenes are never fully realized before they become part of the disc and are crudely drawn and difficult to watch. With Hotel Transylvania there are several deleted scenes. One in particular is a lengthy scene that explains more about Dracula?s meet-cute with his wife that is worth a watch if you liked the film. However, they are still unfinished scenes.

?Making the Hotel? is actually a great segment. For some reason, animated films are often a lot better at giving behind-the-scenes looks that focus a little more on process. In this segment, the animators discuss their love for their work and then show us some of the changes that are made while working on scenes as well as how animation goes through multiple stages of drawing and computer effects to achieve a final project.

?Progression Reels? is actually an explanatory piece that shows some of the effects different types of animation can achieve. This is really dry, so if you aren?t in to specifics on animation, it?s not the best use of your time. Additionally, the segment looks at some 3D effects, which obviously aren?t nearly as cool on the regular Blu-ray copy. However, if you want a step-by-step look at certain processes, this is one of the most comprehensive segments with a set I?ve ever seen.

A few other bonus features are available with Hotel Transylvania, including ?Meet the Staff" and "Guests: Voicing Hotel Transylvania,? which focus on the actors, a music video and a behind-the-scenes segment for the music video, and commentary from director Tartakovsky, producer Michelle Murdocca, and Daniel Kramer, the visual effects supervisor. There?s a nice mix of extras for kids and grown-ups, and a few oddities aside, it?s a spectacular set.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentStarring: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kevin JamesDirected by: Genndy TartakovskyProduced by: Michelle MurdoccaWritten by: Robert Smigel, Peter Baynham

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Seven Psychopaths [Blu-ray]

From exploding cars and a stolen Shih Tzu to a heartwarming romance between two lovestruck serial killing serial killers, Martin McDonagh?s second feature film Seven Psychopaths has a little bit of everything in it. Now that it?s coming to home video, let?s go see if it?s a set that's worth a purchase.

The Movie:

For Martin McDonagh, a playwright and director celebrated for his dark comedies, the cruelest joke of all is probably that his films are consistently undermined by underwhelming marketing campaigns. When his first feature, In Bruges, came out it was to the tune of an extremely dull trailer, but the film was such a truly captivating experience that word of mouth has given it new life. Seven Psychopaths followed suit with a dated lime green poster accented with a small dog did all but promise prospective theatergoers that there would be some adorably quirky comedy coming their way. But the marketing team, the relentless villain that it is, has somehow managed to twist the knife in even deeper with the home video box art. The four male leads stand with the all but muted grit of an Expendables group shot in front of an exploding ?7,? thus ensuring Seven Psychopaths will be dismissed as a generic action movie, something it is decidedly not.

For those of us who aren?t fooled by the marketing?s chicanery, getting past the posters allows us to experience a vibrant film that is both smart and disarming. The characters and the scenes in which they breathe have such an inherent value to them that they are nothing short of precious stones sticking out in what could?ve been just another ?fun and gun? action movie. We follow the story of an aspiring screenwriter Marty (Colin Farrell) and his relationship with his best, and only, friend Billy (Sam Rockwell). Marty is struggling with his screenplay called ?Seven Psychopaths? and Billy is desperately trying to support him with inspiration whenever he?s not occupied with partner Hans (Christopher Walken) in his side business of stealing dogs and returning them to their owners for reward money. Through their interactions we are treated to the men?s ideas for the screenplay and these scenes enrichen the film with a quality almost similar to a collection of shorts but nowhere near that obvious.

As the story progresses, and a particular stolen dog gets our guys in trouble with a local hothead crime boss named Charlie (Woody Harrelson), the movie evolves into something else. If a film written by McDonagh led by a character named Marty who is working on a screenplay wasn?t a big enough hint, the audience should soon realize that what they watching is about to get even more self-referential. The characters in the movie begin to run through possible scenes in their movie and before long I started to realize that this whole adventure might just be McDonagh talking to himself. Suddenly there is no Billy or Hans. There is only Marty. Billy and Hans are merely the voices in his head suggesting what Marty should be writing. Should he be making the smart intellectual movie that Hans wants or the blood thirsty one that Billy craves?

Watching this play out, I realized that Marty may just want to write both of those movies and the challenge is set for McDonagh to try and pull it off. It?s a little bit like Spike Jonze?s and Charlie Kaufman?s Adaptation, but where that film has this debate as the climax, Seven Psychopaths plops it somewhere near the middle and covers its own tracks just enough to make you question if those scenes are even important to the larger narrative. Essentially, the viewer is allowed to be Marty, Billy, Hans, or even the ?played for laughs? gangster Charlie, in how they choose to enjoy the movie. To its credit, no one voice overpowers the other (except maybe for Billy?s since his scenes have more flamethrowers). If I am exploring the film on this level, maybe the whole ?stealing dogs to return them for reward money? is some big metaphor for selling the same old movies to audiences year after year. Hey, in that case, maybe the generic marketing is actually a genius joke.

Seven Psychopaths may not be a movie that audiences will watch every week and quote with their friends, but it is an experience that leaves you with a lasting impression and only gets better when remembering certain scenes and marveling at how they all fit together in this film about the writing process that refuses to settle on ever being finished. This lack of finality comes in the form of a coda which suggests that the film might not be ready to end just yet--but it?ll get back to you whenever it is.

The Disc:

The disc might as well be barebones. Out of its six featurettes (or a poetic seven if you count the trailers for upcoming releases) none of them exceed two-minutes. All of the extras are little more than teasing trailers with bits of interview cut into them--reused interviews at that. If anything is a highlight it is the novelty ?Seven Psychocats? which recreates the film?s trailer with cats. However, even this segment loses its appeal seconds in and would be nothing more than an easter egg in a standard Blu-ray release. The worst featurette is called ?Layers.? In the segment, clips of the movie are cut in a way to create some sort of rhythm, but this will probably only make you question why the extra even exists.

Picture and sound quality are fine, although the film seems extremely grainy and the opening scene looks so blown out that I wonder if it?s intentional or the result of poor quality control with the transfer. Surprisingly, the menus are nice and the copious use of typewriter sound effects do a great job to underline that you?re watching a movie from the writer?s point of view. This is not a disc to buy for anything other than the film itself because unfortunately, thanks to the lackluster box art, it does little to improve the look of your shelf.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentStarring: Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits, Abbie Cornish, Olga Kurylenko Produced by: Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin

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Jack The Giant Slayer

The beanstalk has been eliminated from the title of this version of Jack and the adventure that happens when he brings home magic beans, and we have to wait a hell of a long time to see it. When padding out a children's fairy tale to become an epic, CGI-heavy film, you've got to add some story in there somehow, and in its opening act Jack slides painfully from animated recreation of the giant legends to meet-cute between our hero and heroine to the political instability of a kingdom that doesn't exist.

Even when the beanstalk erupts, and Jack (dewy and engaging Nicholas Hoult) joins a rescue party to rescue the pretty princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) who's trapped atop it, director Bryan Singer can't quite wrap his arms around this wily revisionist fairy tale. Only when those titular giants emerge, miraculous creations of motion-capture and imagination, do Jack the movie and Jack the person seem to find their purpose, spinning a children's film with surprising violence and even more goofy humor, a fairly standard-issue fantasy with just enough sparks of wit that show someone cared enough to make it better.

That's not necessarily what I'd hoped for from Singer, who's spent the the four years since the muddled release of his terrific film Valkyrie working on this and overseeing the X-Men universe. Though Jack works with some excellent moments of tension-- like when Jack and his princess love are on the verge of being cooked into a giant pie-- it's not nearly the high wire expertise Singer has shown in the past, and the grinding mechanics of the script credited to four different people keeps the film leaden for far too long. A movie that gets good only after 45 minutes is a tough sit, but Jack only manages to become OK-- a hard sell both to the kids it's aimed at and the parents who might know Singer is capable of better.

Jack isn't as chaotic as Clash of the Titans and not nearly as self-serious as John Carter, which at least puts it ahead of some of its fellow early-spring fantasy competition. And its bright spots are often remarkable, like the swashbuckling Errol Flynn-style performance from Ewan MacGregor as the head of the rescue party, or Stanley Tucci as the princess's sniveling intended, with his own secret plans for how to rule the kingdom. When the rescue party begins the men-- of course they're all men-- are an unruly gaggle of about a dozen, and only after about half of them literally fall off the beanstalk is it possible to figure out group dynamics (Eddie Marsan is in there somewhere, but has a hard time breaking out of the pack). And though it's hard to to sense the love connection between Jack and Princess Isabelle that sends him clambering up that beanstalk, once they're reunited they have a nice thing going on. It's a shame the adventuresome princess barely gets to be a part of the actual action, but with so much else going on in the plot, it's almost a relief to have one less story to deal with.

The giants, and especially a motion-capture Bill Nighy as the leader Fallon, are a mighty impressive CGI creation, covered in all kinds of weird warts and growths and, on one of them at least, a second head. Shooting much of the film outdoors allows the giants to feel even more authentic, though parents might find that realism a bit too intense for kids. In an effort to balance that intensity Jack is crammed with silly humor, leaving it in an odd middle-ground between straight-up family adventure and a more familiar fantasy cribbed from Lord of the Rings. It's a strange hybrid, and not entirely a successful one, but hey, at least it's trying something different.

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Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection [Blu-ray]

The Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection has basically been released three other times with a few different tweaks since Live Free or Die Hard hit theaters in 2007. What audiences are getting that is different with this set is a bonus disc featuring seven brand new featurettes that retrospectively look back on 25 years of John McClane.

The Movie:

The 25th Anniversary Collection features three hard R-rated flicks, Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Die Hard with a Vengeance, as well as the PG-13 2007 film Live Free or Die Hard. Each of the films vary in picture quality, as they were shot during different time periods and don?t seem to have been particularly cleaned up for Blu-ray. Excepting the special effects in Live Free or Die Hard, these would probably all look similarly fine on DVD. I?d almost rather have grittier picture quality when it comes to a McClane movie, anyway.

It has been much easier to see how the Die Hard films have continued to resonate over the years when this set showed up and I could watch them one after another. Ever the reluctant hero, McClane (Bruce Willis) hasn?t really changed over the years, although the problems and circumstances he faces have changed and the spectrum has grown from one building to a much broader landscape over the years. Fans may always be privy to the same old McClane, but they never have to go on the same adventure.

Partially, this is due to the variety of rich villains and side characters the franchise has traditionally offered, with only a few missteps. Peppering each of the movies are fan favorite performances, from villainous characters played by Alan Rickman or even Maggie Q to side characters that have lived on in pop culture, including Holly Gennero McClane (Bonnie Bedelia), Sgt. Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson), Trudeau (Fred Thompson), Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) and Marvin the Janitor (Tom Bower)--the list goes on and on.

When considering the Die Hard movies, normally fond moments and characters pop up, first. However, the Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection offers the somewhat unique ability to view each of the four films released in the franchise in order, to really sit up and pay attention to the material, and to hone in on the deft dialogue, the recurring themes, and a few other delicately handled moments that make the entire franchise a cohesive entity. It?s really not just the, ?Yippee ki-yay motherfucker? that holds the franchise together, it?s a lot of careful work by several different directors who believed in the character of McClane and what that character can bring to audiences time and time again. Whether or not fans have favorites among the four movies, I still believe it?s worth it to own all four.

The Disc:

It was a big disappointment that there was not a ton of cohesiveness between discs. The first three movies are set up with the same menu and formatting and the fourth flick in the franchise is literally the regular Blu-ray release just tacked on as part of the set. In fact, the Live Free or Die Hard disc was still sporting previews for The Simpsons Movie, which I actually appreciated, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which I would otherwise have forgotten existed.

Each of the discs come with a set of bonus features that have been available with other releases. The first Die Hard film, for instance, comes with commentary and news reels, among others. With some of the other movies, deleted scenes and featurettes are available. With Die Hard with a Vengeance an alternate ending is even available. There?s more, but that?s the gist.

The Bonus Disc is split into two sections. Viewers can choose the ?Decoding Die Hard? path or the Die Hard Trailers path. I actually chose the trailers first, and was happy I did, as I was rewarded with the A Good Day To Die Hard trailer at the end.

?Decoding Die Hard? is a lengthy set of retrospective segments that take a look at the making of the first 4 films in the Die Hard franchise, as well as other retrospective interview footage. There?s a full segment on McClane?s character called ?Modern-Day Hero,? which discusses everything from Willis having firm opinions on his character to the gun click over the ?mother fucker? line in the fourth Die Hard film that kept the rating at PG-13.

Each of the bad guys gets a lengthy segment and each of the sidekicks and most of the side characters are remembered during another segment. ?Punishing Blows? takes a look at the action sequences and how Maggie Q?s big scene in the fourth film is the first time McClane has been evenly matched by a woman during an action sequence, which is worth a watch. Following this is a segment on the ?explosive? effects. The most exciting of these is the discussion of the miniature work that goes on in the first couple of films.

While the retrospective featurettes are certainly worth the watch, the packaging is unremarkable and even features a piece of paper listing the extras on the bonus disc glued to the back. If you?ve been hankering for copies of all of the movies in the franchise, the Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection certainly fulfills that niche and even offers some worthwhile extras, but it isn?t anything to write home about and it may be worth holding out until the newest film can be added to the mix.

Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Samuel L. Jackson, Justin Long, Maggie QDirected by: John McTiernan, Renny Harlin, Len WisemanProduced by: Joel Silver, Lawrence Gordon, John McTiernan, Michael FottrellWritten by: Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza, Doug Richardson, Mark Bomback

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The Last Exorcism Part II

New Orleans is a really spooky place. It?s a strange mix of buttoned up Christianity, hidden superstitions and nighttime sin. It has its own pace, its own bilingual history and its own demons. In many ways, it?s the perfect setting for a horror movie interested in creepy and off-putting visuals and/ or backstories involving slavery, vampires and old mansions that have fallen into disrepair.

At times, The Last Exorcism really seems to understand the potential in its location. It cuts to creepers in Mardi Gras masks and disturbing painted street performers. It even throws in some voodoo-like rituals, but none of it is enough to save a flat exorcism story arc that few of us asked for and even fewer will enjoy.

Even casual horror fans have probably seen at least one young woman?s body twisted, contorted and raised into the air. If not, they?ve at least seen one member of a weird cult or religious organization get called out of the bullpen to try his home spun remedies on a protagonist slowly losing his or her mind. That?s why exorcism movies have to be about the characters now, as as characters go, The Last Exorcism is short on good ones.

After the de-possession story of the first The Last Exorcism, Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) is discovered in the woods and brought to live in a group home for troubled young girls. After repeatedly being told the demon who possessed her, Abalam, isn?t real, she starts to make a real life for herself. There's a potential boyfriend (Spencer Treat Clark) to awkwardly go to the zoo with, a gaggle of girlfriends to talk about it with, and a job as a maid in a local hotel, but alas, we all know that bliss can?t last in an exorcism movie. Abalam reappears in various forms to sometimes torture her, sometimes woo her and consistently confuse the hell out of any viewers with common sense.

There?s a difference between a genre movie not answering every possible question a viewer might have and a horror movie straight up not making sense, and The Last Exorcism 2 is on the wrong side of that unforgiving line. We?re told Abalam is powerless without Nell; yet, he?s apparently capable of inhabiting people?s bodies and committing a boatload of felonies with only a marginal bit of effort. Sometimes we?re given evidence to believe certain characters and certain behaviors are figments of people?s imaginations, and sometimes we?re given evidence to believe certain characters and certain behaviors are actually happening. It?s a big jumbled, needlessly complicated mess.

The Last Exorcism worked because it made clever use of a skeptic, got a great performance from its lead actress and offered just enough genuine scares. The Last Exorcism 2 gets that same great performance from Bell, but beyond that, it doesn?t offer much more than confusion and the occasional New Orleans shoutout. Unlike its predecessor, this one isn?t destined for good word of mouth, and if we?re in luck, it won?t be destined for another sequel either.

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Dark Skies

There are times when I think that the horror genre is a club that?s slowly trying to exclude me because I?m not afraid of children. In the past six months I have reviewed three underwhelming horror movies that used creepy children to spook audiences, but with each one I was left pleading for studios to find another trope to run into the ground. Instead I get Dark Skies, or as I like to call it, ?Number Four.?

Unlike The Posession, Sinister and Mama, at the very least writer/director Scott Stewart?s new film trades demons and spirits for aliens, but doesn?t do much more than put a sci-fi twist on a plot device that has sincerely worn out its welcome. It?s not hard to see what the filmmaker was trying to do with the story; the problem is that it fails in execution.

The film stars Kerri Russell and Josh Hamilton as parents of two kids (Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett) who are dealing with the usual suburban family problems when they begin to experience strange events that could be the work of extraterrestrial forces. Of course, it?s the children that have the most direct contact with the otherworldly beings and come to harm as a result. To his credit, Stewart broaches on interesting themes and social conflicts, like innocent parents being suspected of abusing their children, but anything even remotely interesting is dragged down by the languid pace and overuse of clich?s. How many more times do I have to see a stoic youngster draw a crude crayon drawing of their spooky invisible friend?

Dark Skies isn?t a found footage film, but it uses a very similar story structure to the Paranormal Activity films and succeeds in being just as boring. Each night Russell?s character wakes from her sleep, walks around the house and discovers something weird. The next day they deal with the weirdness, call the proper authorities, and try and figure out what?s going wrong while the youngest son acts strange and talks about the Sandman visiting him at night. This pattern is repeated multiple times with each night escalating the situation and therefore the drama between family members. It doesn?t take long to see the structure and it gets old fast.

Slow as it may be, the film shows some flashes of subtlety. While Stewart has a long background in visual effects he keeps them to a minimum here, taking the Jaws approach and understands that sometimes less is more. The film does occasionally take a heavier-handed approach to scares, such as scenes where small birds suicide bomb the family?s home and Russell gets put into a trance and bashes her head against a sliding glass door (which comes across as absurd more than frightening), but sometimes you have to appreciate convention being bent when it?s not being broken.

In the film?s second act the parents go to visit an alien expert played by J.K. Simmons who proceeds to give them a test to see if they are legitimately experiencing extraterrestrial contact. As he reads off the list of strange events and the parents begin to nod and share worried expressions you begin to realize that this was the same list that the writer/director got his hands on before writing the script and used it to structure the film. But while Dark Skies may live up to ?Believer? codes, that doesn?t make it an entertaining time at the cinema.

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Oz The Great And Powerful

In a world of sequels, reboots, remakes, re-adaptations and re-imaginings, prequels have become one of Hollywood?s hardest nuts to crack. There have been far fewer successes than notorious missteps, from George Lucas? second Star Wars trilogy to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In directing Oz The Great and Powerful, Sam Raimi was facing an uphill battle working to live up to the legacy of Victor Fleming?s classic The Wizard of Oz, but by embracing what was great about the old film while introducing plenty of new to the world, he has succeeded.

The legacy of both Disney and Oz both could have found a way to stifle Raimi?s style, but Oz The Great and Powerful is undeniably a Raimi film. The director brings all of his little flourishes that he?s had since The Evil Dead to the new blockbuster - most notably the quick-zooms that distinguish scenes of chaos ? and he?s also even able to play around with some scarier elements. The film is never any more frightening than The Wizard of Oz is, but between dragon-winged baboons, intense witches and a scene involving some freaky plant monsters, the movie will raise your pulse at times.

And credit to Raimi for actually building Oz for his actors to interact in instead of a bunch of green screens. Not only does it give the film a surreal quality, convincing the audience of its otherworldliness, it?s also a boon to the 3D cinematography, which succeeds in not making the characters look like cardboard cutouts against a matte painting. But where the CGI does come in its fantastic, particularly in the design and integration of the China Girl, who looks impressively photorealistic.

As an origin story for The Wizard of Oz, this film cleverly balances its own story while also embracing the elements that made the original great to begin with. Raimi includes many nods to Fleming?s movie, including the sepia-toned 4:3 aspect ratio opening that turns to color and widescreen in the Land of Oz, and the fact that both stories have a group of unlikely heroes joining together to go on a great adventure, but keeps the story surprising and clever enough for it all to play as loving homage. The troupe that the movie pulls together - which includes Oz (James Franco), the con-man/magician/presumed wizard destined to save the land from the wicked witch; Finley (Zach Braff), a flying monkey who owes a life-debt to Oz; and the aforementioned China Girl (Joey King), a sassy young porcelain doll who Oz rescues ? has wonderful chemistry and conflicting personalities, while the three witches Glinda, Evanora and Theodora (Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, and Mila Kunis) all get interesting new backstories that add surprising depth to previously underdeveloped characters.

Fun as Franco is in the eponymous role, it?s surprisingly his CGI co-stars that wind up stealing the show. As Finley, Braff has the benefit of getting the lion?s share of the funniest one-liners and quips, but the actor deserves the credit for his great timing and simply having the perfect voice for the part. King, meanwhile, brings the ideal level of pluck and cute humor to the China Girl without ever being cloying or reducing the character to being a stereotype.

Unlike 2011?s The Thing, Hannibal Rising or Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, Oz The Great and Powerful is the rare prequel that fans will want to rewatch back to back with the original classic, not only finding the places where the stories sync up, but also just enjoying the story of it all. It?s an entertaining family movie, a true Sam Raimi film, and a fun return to a merry old land.

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