Killer Elite Blu-ray and DVD Debut January 10th

Nov 25, 2011 by Brian Gallagher

Based on a shocking true story, Killer Elite is a gritty battle between guns-for-hire that has been hailed as "one of the best action thrillers of the year!" by Richard Roeper, ReelzChannel. Pitting two of the world's most elite operatives against the cunning leader of a secret military society, Killer Elite stars Jason Statham (The Transporter, Death Race), Academy Award winner Robert De Niro (The Godfather: Part II, Raging Bull) and Academy Award-nominee Clive Owen (Children of Men, Closer). Directed by Academy Award-nominee Gary McKendry (Everything in this Country Must), Killer Elite is available on Blu-ray Combo Pack with UltraViolet, DVD, On Demand and Digital Download January 10, 2012 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Open Road Films.

Featuring unstoppable action and a tremendous cast - including Dominic Purcell (Prison Break, Straw Dogs), Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost, Oz), Aden Young (Sniper, The Starter Wife) and Ben Mendelsohn (Trespass, Knowing) - Killer Elite is "a classic action thriller that will keep you guessing till the last scene." (Patrick Carone, MAXIM).

With the Killer Elite Blu-ray Combo Pack, consumers will get an all-new UltraViolet™ copy of the film. UltraViolet is the revolutionary new way for consumers to collect movies and TV shows, put them in the cloud and stream instantly to computers, tablets and smart phones and soon, consumers can download to devices of their choice too. The Killer Elite Blu-ray Combo Pack also includes a Digital Copy of the film which is compatible with iTunes, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android or other retail partners. So now, consumers can truly enjoy their movies and TV shows anytime, anywhere, on the platform of their choice!

UltraViolet: The revolutionary new way for consumers to collect movies and TV shows, put them in the cloud and stream instantly to computers, tablets and smart phones, currently available in the United States only.BD-Live: Access the BD-Live Center through your Internet-connected player to watch the latest trailers and more!pocket Blu app: The groundbreaking pocket Blu app uses iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android, PC and Mac to work seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray player. Plus iPad and Android tablet owners can enjoy a new, enhanced edition of pocket Blu made especially to take advantage of the tablets' larger screen and high resolution display. Consumers will be able to browse through a library of Blu-ray content and watch entertaining extras on-the-go in a way that's bigger and better than ever before. pocket Blu offers advanced features such as:Advanced Remote Control: A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray player. Users can navigate through menus, playback and BD-Live functions with ease.Video Timeline: Users can easily bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in the film.Mobile To-Go: Users can unlock a selection of bonus content with their Blu-ray discs to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there is a Wi-Fi network, enabling them to enjoy content on the go, anytime, anywhere.Browse Titles: Users will have access to a complete list of pocket Blu-enabled titles available and coming to Blu-ray Hi-Def. They can view free previews and see what additional content is available to unlock on their device.Keyboard: Entering data is fast and easy with your device's intuitive keyboard.

Killer Elite was released September 23rd, 2011 and stars Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro, Dominic Purcell, Aden Young, Yvonne Strahovski, Ben Mendelsohn, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. The film is directed by Gary McKendry.

Sources: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

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Jesse Eisenberg Sues Lionsgate Over Camp Hell

Nov 30, 2011 by B. Alan Orange

Jesse Eisenberg sues Lionsgate over their use of his image on the Camp Hell DVDHow bad could the horror movie Camp Hell be? Well, actor Jesse Eisenberg is suing Lionsgate Entertainment over the movie, so it must not be too terrific.

The actor is seeking $3 million in damages, accusing the studio of capitalizing on his name to sell DVD copies of this critically panned supernatural thriller, which finds a group of children becoming possessed at a local community camp. The DVD cover offers a prominent image of Jesse Eisenberg, with only his name above the title, selling the film as a starring vehicle for the Oscar nominated actor.

Jesse Eisenberg only has a cameo in Camp Hell, clocking less than five minutes of screen time. And he was only paid $3000, which is considerably less than what he usually receives for his acting services. Because of this, Jesse Eisenberg has cited alleged misappropriation of right of publicity and unfair business practices.

The actor states that he has sued Lionsgate to "warn his fans and the public that, contrary to [the film's advertising], he is not the star of and does not appear in a prominent role in Camp Hell."

The Camp Hell DVD debuted this past August. If you're interested, you can purchase it direct from us:

Camp Hell was released August 13th, 2010 and stars Dana Delany, Andrew McCarthy, Caroline London, Will Denton, Bruce Davison, Juliana Monin, Jesse Eisenberg, Connor Paolo. The film is directed by George VanBuskirk.

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The Smurfs Blu-ray Invades Sony Pictures Animation

Dec 2, 2011 by Brian Gallagher

The Smurfs take over Sony Pictures Animation with the new Blu-ray releaseBack in June, I was invited to the Sony Pictures Animation facility to get an early look at The Smurfs, so it's only fitting that I came back to SPA for an event celebrating The Smurfs on three-disc Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD December 2. The three-disc Blu-ray includes the brand new animated short The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, a smurfy version of the classic Charles Dickens story. The short centers on Grouchy (George Lopez), who is normally rather happy during Christmas, but is his usually cantankerous self this year. Papa Smurf brews up a potion to get Grouchy back into the Christmas spirit, which features the Smurfs of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

I got to watch this animated short at SPA, which is a lot of fun, especially for longtime fans of the original animated series, since most of the short is done in the traditional hand-drawn style fans of the original animated series will recognize. It's a wonderful trip down memory lane for those like me who grew up on the original show, with many of the voice actors returning from the The Smurfs movie such as George Lopez as Grouchy, Anton Yelchin as Clumsy, Fred Armisen as Brainy, and Hank Azaria as Gargamel. It was interesting watching the old-school version of Gargamel with the new-school voice of Hank Azaria.

We also had the chance to preview some of the special features on Blu-ray, including the Smurf-O-Vision Second Screen Experience, which allows users an interactive experience in sync with the movie on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. When you watch the movie and have Smurf-O-Vision synced in with the movie, you can open Jokey Smurf's presents, fill up your screen with Smurfberries or mushroom houses, pop popcorn, or even zap Gargamel with a lightning strike. If the young boy sitting next to me was any indication, kids will love these activities, especially the Gargamel lightning strike. That kid must have zapped Gargamel 100 times in just a few minutes, and he was having a blast doing it. to download this app for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

There are also several other interactive activities the kids will love on this Blu-ray, including the GoldRun app for your iPhone or iPad, where you can literally take a picture with one of the Smurfs. There are six different Smurfs, such as Brainy, Grouchy, and Papa Smurf, which you can add into your own photos with this app. You can to download this app from the Apple store. If the kids loved zapping Gargamel, I have to imagine they'd get a kick out of a Smurf standing next to them in a photo.

This Blu-ray set also includes a holiday-themed add-on for the popular Smurfs Village game, which is available for Apple and Android devices. This add-on can only be accessed through the Blu-ray, which includes new holiday quests and characters from The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol.

The Smurfs Blu-ray will also be the first title to feature Sony's new UltraViolet Digital Copy, an innovative new version of the digital copy which puts your movies in "the cloud." Users can sign up for a free account at UVVU.com, and then you can either stream The Smurfs directly from their servers, or download your own copy onto your laptop or smartphone. Here's what Jeremy Glassman had to say about this emerging technology.

"What you do is, your Blu-ray disc comes with a code, and you're actually able to add the digital rights for The Smurfs to your UltraViolet digital library, and you're able to stream the movie, or download a copy to your PC or Mac. It's an entirely new way to watch a movie. You can watch it at home streaming or on the go."

Jeremy Glassman also mentioned that you can add up to six friends or family members to your UltraViolet account, who can access your library. This UltraViolet Digital Copy really takes your viewing experience to the next level, with this Cloud-based platform that allows the flexibility to stream the movie from the UltraViolet servers, or download a copy to watch on various devices. Other upcoming titles which will feature UltraViolet Digital Copy are The Hangover Part II on December 6, Colombiana on December 20, and Final Destination 5 on December 27.

That about wraps it up from my day at Sony Pictures Animation for The Smurfs, which arrives on three-disc Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD December 2.

The Smurfs was released July 29th, 2011 and stars Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofía Vergara, Tim Gunn, Madison McKinley, Meg Phillips, Julie Chang. The film is directed by Raja Gosnell.

The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol was released December 2nd, 2011 and stars Jack Angel, Fred Armisen, Hank Azaria, Gary Basaraba, George Lopez, Melissa Sturm, Anton Yelchin. The film is directed by Troy Quane.

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The Muppets

Chris Barsanti has been a Filmcritic reviewer since 2002. So there.

One of the great things about Jim Henson's Muppets shows and films was really just how much of the Muppets there were in them. Sure, humans continually popped into frame -- whether it was Steve Martin mugging for his ten seconds of screen time or Charles Grodin playing baddie. But mostly Henson stuck to his gloriously personable sock puppet weirdos destroying the set or bringing the house down with a big musical number. So while it's fantastic to see Jason Segel bringing the guys back to the big screen in proper form, it's disconcerting to see humans so prominently displayed. Amy Adams certainly does pull off a sweet solo number with admirable flash, but wouldn't it have been better with a backup chorus led by Rizzo the Rat?

Segel stars in and wrote this snarky-smart film, and he deserves credit for bringing back a franchise that had been driven into the ground by the uninspired likes of Muppet Treasure Island -- and with no less a creativity-killer behind him than the Muppets' new bosses: Disney. A soft-featured giant with a penchant for innocent-faced hangdog types, Segel plays Gary, mild-mannered resident of Smalltown whose brother Walter just so happens to be a Muppet who's obsessed with the TV Muppets. Gary agrees to bring Walter along on the anniversary trip he and his longtime girlfriend Mary (Adams, beaming to beat the sun) are taking to Los Angeles, blithely ignoring Mary's total disatisfaction with the arrangement.

A high-stepping song in which Gary and Walter sing about how perfect everything is kicks things off like a chirpy, hard-working Broadway musical. The smiles are stretched as wide as an IMAX screen and an air of mildly trippy surrealism pervades (perhaps the film's best nod to the original 1979 film). Disappointment looms when Walter discovers that the Muppet theater is a run-down dusty shell on Hollywood boulevard, and the old gang scattered to the winds. That blow is followed up by the arrival of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who's exploiting a loophole in the Muppets contract that gives him control of the theater --  and the oil deposits underneath -- if the Muppets can't raise $10 million in a few days.

Like a latter-day Blues Brothers, the film quickly pivots into "we're getting the band back together mode," always a convenient excuse for giving a large cast of characters their moment to shine. As great as it is to see Miss Piggy swanning around the Paris offices of Vogue and Gonzo as a filthy rich toilet magnate, though, Segel earns extra points for imagining Animal in anger management class ("Jack Black says no drums!").

Segel and director James Bobin set the mood to full, beaming grins. All this sunshine is layered with gags that mostly zing (Kermit blowing dust off his old guest-star rolodex and calling up President Carter is a nice touch) but don't come as fast and thick as they could. Surprisingly, given Bobin's experience directing Flight of the Conchords, he doesn't pack the film with songs. Earlier films like The Great Muppet Caper had so many production numbers they were essentially musicals. The Muppets has just a few original numbers, including one with Cooper that could be the best solid minute of film audiences will see all year, padded out with covers ranging from the good (Gonzo's chickens doing Cee-Lo) to the sublime (a barbershop quartet rendition of "Smells Like Teen Spirit").

The Muppets is most satisfying the closer it hews to the glorious chaos of the old TV show, a mood heavily replicated in its last third. That sense of flailing vaudeville anarchy is missed in the rest of the film, which is funny enough and even occasionally touching, but sometimes forgets the cardinal rule of any Muppets creation: the humans should be there for cameos and celebrity hosting, not to star.

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A Dangerous Method

Chris Barsanti has been a Filmcritic reviewer since 2002. So there.

The history of pairing historical figures in fictional films is a mostly unfortunate one -- bold-face names facing off in situations contrived for maximum melodrama. David Cronenberg's scalpel-sharp rendering of the psychosexual triangle between Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Sabina Spielrein (a patient, and later therapist in her own right, who fascinated them both) almost falls prey to this failing. But a trio of astonishingly committed performances and a taut screenplay free of hyperbole and overstatement keep this drama relatively free of melodramatic pitfalls, while still relating a fully engaging story of an intellectual love triangle.

For all his obsessions with bodily fluids and tissue (and the excreting and viscous rendering thereof), Cronenberg has always been something of a fussy director. That tidiness can be overwhelming and stultifying in cases like Crash, where his own reticence piled up with the source novel's clinical distance to create the film equivalent of viewing an accident through many panes of glass, darkly. In A Dangerous Method, the filmmaker's inclination towards coolness is plain to see in its nearly too-tasteful surroundings. Set in a number of fine homes and clinics in pre-World War I Austria, the film's vistas are all spectacular (manicured lawns, sharp blue lakes, and lush green trees) and the rooms rendered with crisp and bright, catalog-ready neatness. There's nary a dust mote or stray hair to be seen here.

Christopher Hampton's screenplay (adapted from his play The Talking Cure, itself based on John Kerr's nonfiction book A Most Dangerous Method) is just as cool and tidy. This is remarkable, given the story's opening in which Spielrein (Keira Knightley, bravely taking on a performance which can't help but be over-the-top) is sent hurling and howling into the picture. She lunges and screams in the back of a carriage hauling her down picturesque lanes toward a sanitarium. There, Jung (Michael Fassbender) engages her in the not new but still novel "talking cure," in which he simply sits behind her and probes her with psychoanalytic questions. Unlike many of his patients, though, Spielrein is an intellectual herself, and fully able to grasp what he is trying to suss out. She then becomes more of an active assistant in his analysis of her than a passive patient. Jung's fascination with Spielrein's case grows, particularly the roots of her neuroses in the sexual excitement she remembers from being hit by her father in childhood, and the concomitant guilt those feelings engendered. It isn't long before that fascination shades into a deeper attraction.

Spielrein's case, with its deeply knotted and highly symbolic strains of sex and guilt, is something close to a eureka moment for Jung, whose intellect seems equaled only by his ambition. Straining as he is for greater acceptance in the burgeoning psychoanalytical movement, Jung uses Spielrein as essentially his calling-card for a momentous visit to Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). The relationship that springs up between the men after their first meeting (where they talked for thirteen hours straight, a montage of scenes that Cronenberg handles with a lightly comic touch) becomes less that of a student-mentor than of a father-son: Jung idealizes Freud but also can't wait to dethrone him.

Cronenberg and Hampton have a good time playing Jung's uptight nature off of Freud's loose gregariousness. Against Fassbender's superb (if probably historically inaccurate) take on Jung, which makes him look so controlled as to be practically machine-tooled, Mortensen's Freud is expansive and generous, a welcome dose of dirty humor in this spic-and-span film. Although the deep racism embedded in much psychological thinking of the time isn't referenced, the film does take notable fact of how much more fragile Freud and Spielrein's place in this society is as Jews, as compared to Jung's thoughtlessly secure position as a moneyed Protestant.

There are a few moments that don't quite register here, particularly a going-nowhere sequence about Jung and Freud's trip to America which only seems included to showcase Jung's dismissive treatment of his supposed mentor. But the performances (particularly a showy turn by Vincent Cassel as a seductively amoral patient of Jung's) are electric, and the story deeply engaging on intellectual and personal levels, albeit with a heavy dose of stiff psychoanalytic terminology). A Dangerous Method is a deftly handled historical drama in which the darkest demons are hauled out on stage for all to evaluate.

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Arthur Christmas

There are two types of movies that are particularly hard to judge at this strange juncture in cinema: animated films and Christmas movies. The former is not, really, due to a lack of offerings in the medium but more the fact that Pixar has dominated the genre for much of the last two decades; save for the occasional burst of brilliance from Dreamworks (How to Train Your Dragon), the studio's supremacy in this area has rarely been in dispute, so everything else tends to pale in comparison. Even this summer's woebegotten Cars 2 had more originality than a good chunk of the latter three Shrek movies. Christmas movies, meanwhile, generally are what they are, which is to say mildly amusing seasonal escapism with no real purpose or function outside the winter months, originally guaranteed heart-warmers, they've become more formulaic by the year and critics have generally treated as such, rendered cold by the skepticism of a skeptical age. (Case in point: they're usually released on DVD a full year after their theatrical run to coincide with the next year's holiday season. Ho ho ho, meet sell sell sell.)

In any case, the rarely-heard-from Sony Pictures Animation is throwing their own horse into both races, a 3D-enhanced, Bieber-cosigned (the music video for his Jackson Five-interpolating cover of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" precedes each screening, in full 3D no less) holiday jaunt called Arthur Christmas that's hardly a home run on either front, but with an impressively invested voice cast and a genuine heart at its center, it will certainly qualify as a high-pop double. The film is hardly memorable for any of its plot points (except for a genuinely touching ending, but more on that later) but it is infectiously genuine. For all its 2011 bells and whistles, it seems to have come from an earlier, more innocent era of filmmaking when audiences were not yet so jaded; it's heavy-handed at best yet so completely invested in the candy-coated shtick it's selling you can't help but get swept up in its better moments.

The film borrows its wildly amusing premise from the notion that, yes Virginia, Santa Claus (voice of Jim Broadbent) exists, his name is actually Malcolm, and he's got a bustling, Modern Family-style brood to call his very own. Our Arthur Christmas (James McAvoy) is his youngest son, a clodhopping goofball in an itchy-looking sweater and slippers that beep and boop Yuletide carols with every step. Designated responder for all of Santa's fan mail, Arthur is this film's embodiment of the Christmas mythos as applied to young kids; all he wants is for everyone to get a present and believe that Santa loves them enough to have paid them an honest-to-gosh visit. The character himself doesn't really have much to do besides recite the usual Christmas message, but McAvoy's delivery of each line at a high-pitched squeal, as if Arthur is waking up every day on, well, Christmas morning, is as infectious to experience as it is irritating to have described to you. If you have to be force-fed a heap of Yuletide mush, you want it to be from a guy like this.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Santa's eldest son and heir to the big guy's mantle, an enterprising meathead named Steve (Hugh Laurie) who has streamlined Christmas night into a full-scale, military-style operation complete with a giant, sleigh-shaped spaceship and an army of elves (hilarious, every one of them) who deliver presents and slip into houses in the same manner as Tom Cruise tends to infiltrate evil foreigners in the Mission: Impossible movies. If Arthur is the Miracle on 34th Street version of Christmas, all wide-eyed and wonder, Steve is its Jingle All the Way, focusing his attentions on the bells and whistles of the holiday season and not so much on the soul. At one point, he purports to give a child an upgraded version of the toy they had originally asked for. "Bigger, ergo, better," he chips in Laurie's impeccable British accent.As mentioned before, the plots in these movies are almost superfluous, but it does help that this one is genuinely interesting: Steve is denied the Santa Claus title and forgets to deliver a kid's present to boot. While he convalesces in jealousy and Malcolm snoozes away, Arthur hijacks the original Santa sleigh to deliver the lost gift. Comedy ensues, some impressively adult cultural references are tossed around, the ornery coot "Grandsanta" (a fantastic Bill Nighy, doing what appears to be a Geoffrey Rush impression for some reason) all but steals the show, and the movie generally lives up to its kid-friendly premise while keeping the adults entertained.Suffice it to say, everyone knows exactly where this movie is headed, except not. While you'd expect the coda to be treacly, preachy, condescending or some unholy marriage of the three, director and co-writer Sarah Smith smartly keeps it quiet and intimate, focusing on the little sounds that make Christmas morning pop in the memories of even the most jaded adults: the creaking of the steps, the cracking of the wrapping paper, the peek of the morning light through the window, and the child's squeal that brings the whole thing home (that this film came from Wallace and Gromit masterminds Aaardman Animation makes it seem less surprising that they nail the scene so beautifully, but at the risk of spoiling the party, one does wonder how the movie would have played out in Claymation). And yes, there is a certain amount of mush following that particular scene, but that, it seems, is the trade-off. Still, there is something to be said for a movie that, at the end of the day, puts its money in faith and fancy to carry the day. Grinch about it all you want. Resistance is futile.

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We Need to Talk About Kevin

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Kevin (Ezra Miller) has the jet-black hair of a devil-child and a smug, self-satisfied smirk plastered across his face at all times. He preens from room to room with a kind of private, mischievous glint in his eyes, like he knows the dirty secrets of everyone around him. He's a distant, self-absorbed kid who thrives on mocking his family and friends and engineering cruel pranks; he encompasses the very worst stereotypes of a sullen teenage boy and yet, at the same time, something much more sinister is happening with him that nobody but his mother Eva (Tilda Swinton) seems to notice.

And if this setup for Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin sounds like a schlocky pitch for Psycho: The Next Generation or something like that, then, erm, it kinda sorta is. Kevin is clearly cut from the same cloth as Norman Bates, although he's a much more flamboyant presence than Anthony Perkins's classic character: he's a budding sociopath who looks with disdain on everyone else and flaunts his contempt in grand fashion, although his motives or particular gripes with society remain generally unclear. But give Ramsay's film credit for the exploitative feel of its elevator pitch; the film, based on a 2006 novel by Lionel Shriver, jumps back and forth between two time periods: one where Eva is married in a big house and running a successful travel agent office, and another where she is alone, borderline destitute, drowning herself in wine and wiling away the hours at a crappy mini-mall travel agency.

Kevin only pops up as an odd, distant, and cruel boy in the earlier timeline (big props to Jasper Neuell and Rock Dauer, whose portrayals of the younger Kevin fit in perfectly with Miller's) and it doesn't take us long to realize the whole thing is building to some explosive act of violence on Kevin's part. This incident serves as the transition from one time period to the other, yet, even with the threat of the crime looming over the narrative, the movie wisely avoids horror-movie territory and shies away from bloodshed. Instead, it is a masterful exercise in suspense and implication that benefits, first and foremost, from the fact that it refuses to train its gaze permanently on Kevin and keeps its focus on the people who observe (or ignore) his actions.

As Eva, Swinton gives a painfully raw performance; she inhabits Eva's desperation and helplessness without succumbing to hamminess, and so much of the character is conveyed in what she does not say than what she does, since We Need to Talk About Kevin is really a movie about silence. Eva looks like she's constantly about to scream out some kind of warning to the heavens, and Swinton admirably conveys the shaky resolve of a woman who is constantly clinging to the fast-fading hope that she might be wrong.

The movie does, in its earlier moments, succumb to an odd bout of art-house pretentiousness that threatens to derail the enterprise in a wave of moody, experimental mush. But Ramsay finds her way quickly, navigating the quick cuts and time jumps in her and Rory Kinnear's screenplay with a deft skill and an eye for building up suspense. Despite the movie's somewhat foregone conclusion, she never lets the audience lose the slightest bit of hope that everything will turn out OK.

And yet, despite the fantastic work of everyone involved, it is Miller who walks away with the entire thing. He gives a near-flawless performance, embodying every tic of a self-satisfied teenager while letting just enough of Kevin's deeper nature shine through at each turn to hint at the horrors to come. Given that he just played a variation on the same role in Another Happy Day, it's easy to wish, in the back of your mind, that he be cast in a role where he wasn't playing a troubled misanthrope. (One could say something similar for Reilly, who is fantastic as always but is too good an actor to constantly be playing dolts.) But the proof is in the pudding when it comes to Miller's performance here. He's all everyone will be talking about, and rightfully so.

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