Frankenweenie [Blu-ray]

I really expected to hate Frankenweenie. Tim Burton?s idea generator is so bankrupt that he?s taken to remaking his own 1984 live action short as a full-length stop motion animated film. It just sounded horrible. It?s not though, it?s pretty sweet and looks great and doesn?t suck. So?nicely done, Tim!

The Movie:

The biggest surprise in Frankenweenie is not that it?s a decent horror homage. I guess you would figure a guy like Tim Burton could get that right and he does. Another surprise is that it?s a very sentimental story about a boy and his best friend. In this case the boy is Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tehan), a loner with a gift for science and experiments, and his best friend is Sparky, a dog. When Sparky?s life is brought to an untimely end by a car, Victor just can?t let go. So, after his science teacher (who is dead ringer for Vincent Price but is voiced by Martin Landau) show him that electric jolts can make dead limbs move, Victor decides to dig up Sparky and get cracking.

It?s the relationship between the boy and his dog that keeps the movie interesting. It?s not the weird characters, strange look, or oddball plot that involves other kids reanimating other animals to negative consequences. That all helps with the ?horror homage? vibe, but it?s really that Victor is likeable and the tears in his stop motion eyes are, well, touching. Also, his parents, Ben (Martin Short) and Sarah (Catherine O?Hara) present a caring counterpoint to the rest of the weirdo town.

It?s that weirdo town where the movie sags. Yeah, everyone has skinny legs and although it?s suburbia, there is something sort-of creepy lurking beneath the surface. You should know what I?m talking about, as this is the typical Tim Burton thing. But, it?s old hat and not well-developed, here. Victor?s teacher and classmates get short shrift but play key parts in the plot, so there is a lot of ?why is the fat kid doing that?? and ?why does the kid who looks like Frankenstein?s monster want to win the science fair so badly?? Nothing really clicks with these characters.

The stop motion look is fantastic, so if you?re just up for black and white, kid-friendlybut scary looking, detail rich puppets, then you are in luck. Burton had a crackerjack team making Victor, Sparky, and the rest look amazing and putting the right tone on the monster movie feel. Again, it doesn?t work quite as well as the touching relationship, but it?s good for a few laughs, and if you are a horror movie buff you probably get a lot more out of it then someone who didn?t grow up watching Christopher Lee as Dracula.

It?s not the best stop motion scary movie, and not even the best most recent scary flick?that ParaNorman, which beats this by a wide margin. Still, it?s nice that Burton can get it at least half-right sometimes.

The Disc:

The Blu-ray for Frankenweenie is being released in a few versions, including 3D. Unfortunately, you need a 3D Blu-ray player to watch it and who has that? Not me or you either, probably. Still, the old 2D version looks great, with rich HD picture that brings out the detail. You don?t get the ?here it comes? 3D fun, but it?s the best way to watch a movie that has its overall look as one of the stronger points.

Burton doesn?t provide a commentary, but he does include the original 30-minute Frankenweenie live action short. This is what made his name as a director back in 1984, and while you might not be able to see why, it does make for an interesting companion to the new film. Some shots are directly copied in the new movie and it?s fun to recognize that when it happens. Also, it?s interesting to see what was added to get the movie from 30 to 87 minutes. Most of it is the weirdo classmates , who, as I mentioned prior, are the weakest part of the new movie.

There is also a 30-minute making of featurette called ?Miniatures in Motion.? It?s really great. If you want to know how to make a stop motion film, this segment shows that it?s a buttload of meticulous work. They show it all. Not super in-depth, but it does show how they make the puppets, the sets, everything. It?s really enjoyable to watch as it doesn?t take a film school degree to understand it, but it does give you a sense of the artistry and effort involved.

The beginning of both versions of Frankenweenie show a monster movie that Victor makes with Sparky as the star. It perfectly captures young kid filmmaking in all of its glory, including bad special effects. The Blu-ray includes a 2- minute short called ?Captain Sparky and the Flying Saucers? that is in the same vein. I actually wished there was a whole series of these Captain Sparky movies where you could see Victor?s hand holding the army men figures or the wires for the flying saucers, it?s such good fun.

The final extras are a terrible music video of some song that isn?t actually in the movie and a brief video showing the art of the movie that was taken on tour to promote the theatrical release. Besides the last few, Frankenweenie offers a nice set of extras and fans will like the original live-action movie, if they don?t already have it from earlier Tim Burton DVDs, and the behind-the-scenes featurette. Definitely worth checking out.

Starring: Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Winona RyderProduced by: Tim Burton, Allison Abbate

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The Possession [Blu-ray]

I love my dad. He?s been there for me through thick and thin, and he?s always encouraged my writing career. He?s the best. That said, his taste in movies is awful. Many of the films he told me that he used to watch in the Army and loved are absolutely terrible. Not only that, but he?s an M. Night Shyamalan apologist, constantly telling me how good he is, even though he hasn?t made a decent film since Unbreakable. (My dad even liked The Happening! Can you believe it?). So when he told me that The Possession was a good movie when he saw it in theaters, I rolled my eyes. But he assured me it was actually pretty good. Well, having seen it now, I can admit that it?s a lot better than I thought it would be. Mostly because I thought it would be absolute crap.

The Movie:

I won?t lie. The Possession is generic garbage for about 80 minutes of its 92 minute runtime. But those last 12 minutes, well, they?re not fantastic, but they definitely make up for an otherwise subpar exorcism film. And the main reason for this is because they?re actually creepy and unique. Most exorcism films are based solely in Catholicism, so we?re used to seeing the same Catholic priest archetype like the one in The Exorcist. But The Possession is based off of a Jewish demon, and that little factor alone changes everything. With the rabbi (played by hip-hop/reggae musician, Matisyahu) bobbing as he says religious scripture, it presents a plot I haven?t seen before in these kinds of movies. The act of expelling a demon is similarly different here. I like it.

Having said that, there?s very little to like about the rest of the movie. The plot focuses on a box that contains a Dibbuk--an evil spirit seeking a body. Once the box is open by a young girl named Emily (Natasha Calis), her parents, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick, must find a way to help her rid of the spirit as it takes over her body. But this story is told in the most predictable way imaginable, especially if you?ve seen a number of crummy horror movies over the past few years.

The parents are of course divorced, and they fight over the very kids that they need to protect. The little girl in question makes scary faces and her eyes roll to the back of her head. And the parents eventually come together to stop the demon inside of their daughter. It?s everything you?ve seen before and nothing more. It?s pure PG-13 crap. Not even 13-year-old girls would scream at this. Most of it isn?t scary at all.

In fact, the legend of the Dibbuk box is much creepier than the movie itself. Maybe it?s because I?ve never heard of it before, which is why it?s such a shame that more care wasn?t put into that part of the story. All of the Jewish history behind the box comes too late, and it?s not emphasized enough until the last few minutes. It?s one of those films that could have been better with a more polished script. And while I?m not saying that the film should have been R-rated (The Ring and Insidious were PG-13), I definitely think the images in this film could have been much more horrific and grounded in darkness. In fact, until the end, most of the film is bathed in light. Why the hell would they do that? I mean, sometimes, that can work if the scenes are unpredictable. But as I said earlier, everything is so cookie-cutter in this film that it just doesn?t work out.

As a whole, The Possession is mostly a pretty bad movie, but the last few minutes are pretty great. I don?t recommend seeing it. But if you?re in a room and people are watching it, then there are much worse modern-day horror movies that you could be stuck watching. Trust me, there?s much worse out there.

The Disc:

There really aren?t too many special features here, but the ones that are here are pretty good. There are two commentaries. Normally, with a mediocre movie like this, I?d bemoan how boring these commentaries are. Here, both of them are actually pretty enjoyable, including the screenwriter one. In the director?s commentary, Nightwatch director, Ole Bornedal whisper talks his way through the the whole thing, and it?s actually pretty interesting. He discusses the film, the legend of the Dibbuk, and the actors, but he doesn?t just talk them up like most directors would. He actually discusses why they were important for the role and how they worked in the scenes. The best part is probably when he says, ?Don?t believe in ghosts,? at the end of the movie. That?s just perfect. He buys into the film, but not into the legend. I love that.

The other commentary is by the writers, who are a married couple, and they discuss the story all the way through, giving insightful comments. It?s a shame that it?s such a lame script, but you can definitely tell that they?re passionate about the legend of the Dibbuk. You really buy into it. And finally, there?s ?The Real History of the Dibbuk Box? featurette. This is definitely the best special feature on the disc. Here, we learn about how this movie is ?based on a true story,? in the first place. And while it?s not as outlandish as the story in this film, it?s actually quite scary. There?s even a warning before the feature that says they?re going to reveal the real box that the story is based on. It creates a sort of Blair Witch Project quality to it. I actually got some chills watching it. The trailer is the last special feature. Overall, the features on this disc are sparse but full of quality. You?ll like them if you like the film.

Starring: Natasha Calis, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, MatisyahuProduced by: Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, J.R. YoungWritten by: Juliet Snowden, Stiles White

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The Last Stand

After years away from the film industry, '80s and '90s action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger has been easing his back into the genre that made him an A-lister. Growing roles in The Expendables' movies have paved the way to his first headlining vehicle since 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and The Last Stand is custom-fit for the now paunchy yet still undeniably intimidating star.

Set in the tiny and quiet town of Sommerton Junction, Arizona, which is nestled right on the American-Mexican border, The Last Stand has Schwarzenegger playing Ray Owens, a long-time sheriff who once worked in narcotics for the Los Angeles Police Department. After one particularly grisly drug bust left him the lone survivor, Owens purposely sought out a little town where he wouldn't have to face such carnage ever again. But the downside to being a small-town sheriff with only four policemen under your employ is that people tend to underestimate your capability in times of crisis, like for instance when a vicious drug lord freshly busted out of bonds is blazing toward your town in a specially rigged race car, gunning for the border.

You wouldn't think with his thick Austrian accent and massive bulk that Schwarzenegger would be a believable everyman, but the character of Sheriff Ray Owens is perfectly suited to him. Owens was once a man to be reckoned with, but years away from the deadly urban streets has made him soft. Similarly, this is not the Schwarzenegger from his prime. He's a bit slower, a bit world-weary, but this all adds weight to Owens' character, since after all he is underestimated by everyone, from the local who scoffs at his demand to remove his car from a fire zone, to the FBI agent (Forest Whitaker) leading the recapture effort, to the the menacing Mexican cartel leader, Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega).

It's almost sad to watch others scoff at Owens, except that we know Schwarzenegger will have his redemption. And he does, through several jaw-dropping action sequences and numerous one-liners that had the audience in I saw it with cheering and applauding. This builds to a climax where Schwarzenegger faces off against Noriega in a mano-a-mano fight that is utterly exhilarating. In fact, I'll say it: it's the kind of burly and brash violence I was hoping to see in the Bane versus Batman fight in The Dark Knight Rises. Frankly, this climactic battle alone is worth the price of admission.

Still, it's far from a flawless film. For one, surrounded by actors as talented as Whitaker, Peter Stormare, Luis Guzman, and Friday Night Lights' Zach Gilford, it's clear Schwarzenegger is not so much an actor as he is a screen presence. He is mesmerizing yes, but with those around him displaying fear, anguish and rage, his performance pales in comparison. But who cares, right? It's still his movie. Except that it's not entirely.

The Last Stand marks the English-language debut of South Korean director Jee-woon Kim, who helmed the mind-blowing revenge thriller I Saw the Devil. And while Kim shows an impressive understanding of American culture?from our lust for impossibly fast cars to our conflicted gun culture?he doesn't seem to know to keep the focus on Arnold. Instead, the thriller bounds between the frantic FBI offices where Whitaker sets up one useless roadblock after another to Cortez's hours-long getaway complete with Fast and the Furious-style stunts, to various pockets of Sommerton, from its cantankerous farmer, to its chipper waitress, clumsy cops, and local gun nut (Johnny Knoxville)?oh, yeah and Arnold.

In the end, the movie is a bit overstuffed, and the pacing suffers because of it. But within its 107 minutes, The Last Stand offers insane action, solidly funny sight gags?courtesy of Knoxville and Guzman?and a welcome amount of Schwarzenegger swagger.

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The Words

Sandwiched between a Hangover sequel and the Oscar-worthy Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley Cooper also found time for a somber literary fantasy about creative ownership and the ethereal nature of characters, ideas and crippling writers block. Yes, it?s every bit as ?exciting? as that sounds.

The Movie:

What is The Words really about, anyway?

Is it the story of struggling writer Rory Jansen (Cooper), who?s fed up with his stalled, fragmentary professional life despite the presence of supportive fianc?e Dora (Zoe Saldana) and a patient father with a limited income (J.K. Simmons)? Is it the story of a mysterious old man (Jeremy Irons), who wanders into Rory?s life with a lengthy tale about romance and tragedy during time of war--a story the best-selling author doesn?t want to hear? Or might The Words actually be about successful novelist Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid), who?s book ? titled The Words, of course ? seems to be about Rory, the old man, and a few other devices I?ll leave for you to discover.

The Words doesn?t seamlessly gel is because co-directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal can?t calculate how to make all three storylines gracefully merge in a fashion that maintains literary tension or, sadly, the audience?s interest.

They have an excellent hook: Jansen, while on a honeymoon in France, discovers a manuscript in the pocket of a briefcase his new wife purchases. When everyone who reads the novel ? from Dora to his publisher boss ? raves about the magnificent piece, Rory accepts credit for the book (and the spoils that come with literary notoriety) while ignoring that nagging guilt of not actually writing the book in question.

The moral quandary is enough to sustain the drama in The Words, with Irons twisting the metaphorical knife deeper into Cooper?s conscience by showing up and claiming to be the actual author of the published words. And both men muster the proper reverence for the art of storytelling, and the power strung-together words can have over an audience. There?s a great scene in The Words where Irons is telling his life story to Cooper, who hangs on every word, even though this is a man who can ruin him, professionally and financially.

Yet, Klugman and Sternthal construct a bookending device that?s not only unnecessary, it strips the impact away from Cooper?s quandary. By introducing Hammond, and suggesting that Cooper and Irons are merely characters in a separate author?s story, we?re no longer as concerned about their fates, and therefore no longer as concerned about The Words as a whole. The drama is undone by the overly clever narrative structuring. The conceit is deflated by its convoluted nature. There?s a stellar story lurking in The Words, if only some of the superfluous words could have been left out.

The Disc:

Ignoring my argument that The Words needed to be pared down and more focused, CBS Films has put an extended special edition of the film on the DVD release. I chose the theatrical cut when sitting down to review The Words, and had absolutely no desire to revisit a longer take. Maybe there?s a fourth plotline with more characters whose contributions add nothing of significance to the overall story. If you manage to see the extended cut, do let me know if it somehow improves the overall experience.

I did, however, watch ?Unabridged,? which was a conventional behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film. This pairs nicely with ?A Gentleman?s Agreement,? an extended conversation with Cooper about his participation in The Words and his collaborations with the two directors. Neither feature is overly informative. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun working on The Words. It?s clear they felt the material would play better than it does on screen. Words on a page often do.

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, Jeremy IronsDirected by: Brian Klugman, Lee SternthalProduced by: Laura Rister, Cassian ElwesWritten by: Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal

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To Rome With Love [Blu-ray]

Coming off of a year that featured one of Allen?s biggest box office successes ever with Midnight in Paris, a charming and smartly written comedy about the romance of the City of Light, eyes were turned toward To Rome with Love to ascertain whether or not the prolific director was on a bit of a roll. Fans who are using Midnight in Paris as a benchmark might find themselves disappointed with To Rome with Love, but avid Woody Allen fans will likely find it worth a watch.

The Movie:

To Rome with Love is a movie filled with delicate setups often leading into wild hijinks. These include plotlines as over-the-top and varied as a hooker being mistaken for a wife, a man with a lovely opera voice who can only sing in a shower onstage, an Italian man who meets an American woman and gets engaged quickly, and an indecent love triangle. Love, marriage, sex, comical situations?these are all landmarks of Woody Allen films, so why doesn?t To Rome with Love entirely work?

First and foremost, it?s the rickety way the various stories and timeline are spliced together. I found myself over and over again wishing the stories had been set up as entire tales rather than interspersing plotlines. There are technically four vignettes. One is told over the course of a day, several over the course of weeks, and one over the lengthier course of an engagement and opera career. The plots mix Allen?s signature comedy with great characterization, and occasionally scenes and storylines are incredibly engaging. However, I was continually reminded of watching ensemble television programs where some of the plotlines are more intriguing than others in order to fill space over the course of a season. A movie shouldn?t have these difficulties, since it is telling a tale in a much shorter amount of time.

Like each of the plotlines, the performances vary in excitement. To Rome with Love sports an extensive cast including Allen himself, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Roberto Benigni, Flavio Parenti, Alison Pill, Ellen Paige, Greta Gerwig, Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandra Mastronardi, and many, many more. Mastronardi has the same coy charm her character in Titanic: Blood & Steel exuded. Roberto Benigni is energetic and pleasant to watch, as usual. But some of the heavy hitters, like Eisenberg, Cruz, and Paige, fail to really stand out. Perhaps To Rome with Love should have been left to the more Italian-heavy storylines.

In the film, a traffic officer is a sort of watchdog over the city, saying he knows Rome and that there will be many stories next time we come. As charming as this thought may have been at the beginning of the film, by the end of To Rome with Love, most viewers will be weary travelers ready to take some time off from the quick dialogue and interposing of multiple tales. To Rome with Love may be worth seeing, but despite its beautiful setting, it?s not the type of film you?ll need to revisit on multiple occasions.

The Disc:

The disc is set up rather nicely, although the obnoxious soundtrack that pops up over and over again is even more annoying on the menu page. Otherwise, the disc is easy to move through and features pictures fluttering onscreen in a postcard format, which is fitting for a film featuring half an American cast on vacation overseas.

?Con Amore: A Passion for Rome? is a sequence explaining the influences Fellini had on Allen throughout his life, and how he has wanted to explore Rome and its architectural beauty. The producers and many of the actors talk about the joy of working with Allen. As good portions of the film are shot in Italian and subtitled, this segment also takes a look at the fact that Allen doesn?t speak a word of Italian. Finally, interviews from the premiere are included in the segment.

Other than this, though, the disc is pretty barren. If you really want to watch the theatrical trailer after indulging in the film, then you may. Additionally, previews are included as extras, which are a big pet peeve of mine, and are kind of weird, since Midnight in Paris has been out for ages and is being advertised, here. If you are buying this set, it should be for the movie alone.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentStarring: Roberto Benigni, Jesse Eisenberg, Alec BaldwinProduced by: Faruk Alaton, Letty Aronson, Giampaolo Letta, Stephen Tenenbaum

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For A Good Time, Call... [Blu-ray]

For A Good Time, Call? first drew notice at Sundance last year as part of the wave of female-fronted R-rated comedies that Bridesmaids had spawned. But while there has been a bunch of forgettable wannabes in that batch, this phone sex-centered comedy is still memorable for being bubbly, wild and daringly original.

The Movie:

Watching For A Good Time, Call? for the first time since it's theatrical release, I was surprised and delighted to see the movie is even better than I remembered. This comedy is so fully realized, smart, and sprightly paced that it's incredible it was made on an indie budget by a first-time director with two untested leading ladies. And yet here it is, sparkling, dirty and downright hilarious.

The story begins with prim prude Lauren (Lauren Miller), who is looking to get into publishing and is heartbroken over being dumped for her boyfriend for being "boring." Kicked out of her ex-beau's apartment, Lauren relies on her best friend Jesse (Justin Long in one of his best comedic performances to date) to help. So, he re-introduces her to the loud-mouthed and always flirtatious Katie (Ari Graynor), who years ago accidentally spilled a cup of urine all over Lauren's new car in a ghastly but funny party foul. The girls seethe at the sight of each other, but Katie needs a roommate lest she lose her late grandmother's gorgeous Manhattan apartment, and Lauren needs a place ASAP. While they initially try to steer clear of each other's lives, the two become entangled once unemployed Lauren realizes her roommate's sideline as a phone sex operator could be big business.

The gimmick of this comedy is phone sex, which makes room for scads of sex jokes that range from saucy to downright shocking. But at its core, this comedy is really all about female friendship. And yet, this is no schmaltzy chick flick. The chemistry between Miller and Graynor is charged whether they are exchanging furious glares, jaunty barbs, or doing the Dirty Dancing samba topped with a girlish boob bump. And the script penned by Miller and Katie Anne Naylon?who has a cameo as the unfortunate passenger in a Kevin Smith-driven cab?is not only flush with raunchy and wild comedy bits, but also constructs the central pair's relationship from wrathful roommates to cautiously optimistic business partners to faux lovers (for the enjoyment of another cameo caller) to deeply bonded friends with a believable and bouncy build.

Through their shared business, these young women recognize that their differences are their strength as partners. And even while they find fulfillment outside this central relationship?Katie with a new romance, Lauren with a new career prospect?the film's focus is always on their friendship. Graynor and Miller pull off every nuance of this blossoming relationship just as masterfully as they do each double entendre and risqu? joke.

By my count the movies that devotedly focus on female friendship and do them justice can be counted on one hand. And For a Good Time, Call? is definitely among them. It's outrageously raunchy, undeniably funny, and has such vivid performances and compelling character arcs that I'm already eager to watch it again. And again. And again. I just can't get enough of these two dirty-talking comediennes.

The Disc:

The picture and audio quality are top-notch. The combo pack comes with the Blu-ray, a DVD copy, a digital copy, and an Ultraviolet copy. So, it basically offers the movie in any format you could possibly want. And in addition to the theatrical version, the disc contains an unrated version that has a smattering of bonus lines and dirty jokes.

As far as special features, there are a handful of deleted scenes (including one where the girls fight using gigantic dildos), a brief behind-the-scenes featurette, and one of the most entertaining commentaries I've ever listened to.

Recorded on the day of the movie's theatrical release, the commentary track features Jamie Travis (director), Ari Graynor (star/exec producer), Lauren Miller (co-writer/star/producer), Katie Anne Naylon (co-writer/producer). The four are giddy over the film's release and amid shout-outs to the cast and crew that got them here, reveal plenty of shocking facts, including that the script was inspired by a phone sex line Naylon ran out of her dorm in college and that the whole film shot in only 16 days! Discovering that the project was so low budget that they expected to get maybe two takes per setup made me appreciate the movie's spot-on execution even more, which is pretty much how I felt with each new detail about this quirky passion project's production. In short, the commentary is informative, quirky, and a total delight.

My only complaint about the disc and its special features is that I wanted more. Just more. When this funny foursome talk about alternative takes, I desperately wish these were included, especially the so-called "Oprah take" of Graynor shouting, "I'm ready to survive date rape!" At least you get an idea of it since she re-enacts it on the commentary.

Distributor: Universal StudiosStarring: Ari Graynor, Lauren Miller, Justin Long, Nia Vardalos, Mark WebberProduced by: Lauren Miller, Katie Anne Naylon, Josh Kesselman, Jen Weinbaum, Jenny HinkeyWritten by: Lauren Miller, Katie Anne Naylon

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House At The End Of The Street [Blu-ray]

As a horror-craving adolescent, I regularly watched midnight movies filled with sex and violence on USA's Up All Night with Gilbert Gottfried. The cult classics, B-movies and exploitation films I sneaked there were edited for TV with an eye toward including as much sex and violence as censors would allow, which often meant less salacious things--like plot points--were chopped out. This made the movies senseless, but that was part of the fun. Watching even the unrated version of the PG-13 rated horror thriller House at the End of the Street made me wistful for the low-budget garbage of my youth, because at least those offered me scintillating sex and violence with their nonsensical stories.

The Movie:

With a cast that includes two Oscar-nominated actresses (Elisabeth Shue and Jennifer Lawrence), you might expect House at the End of the Street to be smarter than your average horror movie. But even these rightly celebrated performers cannot save this movie from its total lack of tension, shockingly bad dialogue and tangle of incomprehensible plot points.

Lawrence stars as Elissa, a high school girl who has a strained relationship with her recently divorced mother (Shue) who has just transplanted the family into a seemingly nice and normal small town. Of course, all illusions of a peaceful suburban life are shattered when mother and daughter discover they live next to the home of a young man whose parents were brutally murdered by his mentally unstable sister four years ago. Since then, the killer teen, Carrie Anne, hasn't been spotted, but some assume she drowned after running off into the nearby woods. As Elissa grows closer to Carrie Anne's surviving brother, Ryan (Max Theirot), she begins to uncover the horrible?and absolutely confusing?truth.

Director Mark Tonderai goes for a slow burn style of scares and tension building, but fails miserably. For one thing, the roles are terribly miscast as both Shue and Lawrence seem too smart for the lies their characters readily fall for, and the movie's monsters are too gawky to be scary. Instead of slow burn, House at the End of the Street is just slow and boring, piling up awkward exposition lines that are about as subtle as the hammer Carrie Anne uses to pummel her parents to death in the film's opening.

Worse yet, characters' actions frequently lack motivation beyond the fact that the story needs them to behave the way they do. Plus, the dialogue is so on the nose that you might wonder if Elissa?who blurts out upon meeting Ryan the statement, "Your parents are dead"?has some sort of social interaction disorder. Aside from being an amusing way to link this movie to Lawrence's far more interesting outing in Silver Linings Playbook this behavior has no real payoff. It's just badly written dialogue courtesy of David Loucka, who also penned the deadly boring haunted house flick Dream House.

The script is also littered with plot holes that make the movie incoherent throughout and lead to a finale that steals from more menacing movies (which I won't identify lest I give away spoilers) and is wildly unsatisfying. If there were at least something titillating?be it gruesome gore or thrilling sex appeal?the formerly mentioned faults might be less egregious and maybe even overlooked. Similarly, I might forgive the distractingly bad sound design and wincingly amateurish lighting, but House at the End of the Street so lacks in thrills and entertainment that clocking it's faults became the most fun I had with it. The movie is flat, and lacking in scares, coherence, fun and engaging imagery. In the end, the scariest thing about this horror movie is that it was made at all.

The Disc:

The audio and visual on the Blu-ray is sharp. Plus, this version also comes with a DVD, and a digital copy easily accessible through iTunes. But the bonus feature that might seem most enticing is the Unrated cut of the movie that's proudly pronounced on the box art's cover. Unfortunately, where most unrated versions mean more nudity, gore, raunchy jokes or foul language, this unrated cut offers none of the above. There's a bit of blood but that's about it for carnage.

The Blu-ray also boasts a behind-the-scenes featurette called "Journey Into Terror: Inside House at the End of the Street." This has interviews with the cast and crew, and is most interesting in that it reveals that Tonderai set out to make a Hitchcock-style thriller that would be appropriate for younger audiences. If any younger audience members are reading this, let me assure you: the worst of Hitchcock is still 100 times better than House at the End of the Street.

Besides a theatrical trailer for the film, there's also a set of so-called "Sneak Peeks." These are trailers for other movies. It's fine that they are included, but calling them a special feature is ridiculous.

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue, Max ThieriotProduced by: Hal Lieberman, Peter Block, Aaron Ryder

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