DVD Tuesday – June 25th, 2013

Welcome to DVD Tuesday, a new column released every Tuesday that will list the DVD releases of the week.  We will feature one movie each week with a full review, and some others will include brief reviews or links to theatrical reviews we’ve posted previously.  DVD Tuesday will include everything from big releases, independent movies, and straight to video.

Anything else you would like to see in this column? Any other columns you’d be interested in reading? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured Release of the Week

No (Watch the Trailer)

Theatrical Release: February 15th, 2013 (Limited)

Director:  Pablo Larrain (Post Mortem)

Starring : Geal Garcia Bernal (Y tu Mama Tambien), Alfredo Castro (Post Mortem)

7/10 (Good)

Other Releases:

The Call (Watch the Trailer)

Theatrical Release: March 15th, 2013 (Wide)

Director: Brad Anderson (The Machinist)

Starring: Halle Berry (X-Men Trilogy), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)

Into the White (Watch the Trailer)

Theatrical Release: April 12^th, 2013 (Limited)

Director: Peter Naess (Elling)

Starring: Florian Lucas (Good Bye Lenin), David Kross (The Reader), Rupert Grint (Harry Potter Films)

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (Watch the Trailer)

Theatrical Release: March 15th, 2013 (Wide)

Director: Burt Scardino (TV Director, 30 Rock)

Starring: Steve Carell (The Office), Jim Carrey (Eternal Sunshine), Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy)

4/10 (Bad)

Funnymen Carell and Carrey star in this incredibly unfunny movie about two rival magicians from first time movie director Burt Scardino.  With all the talent involved, you think this movie would have at least some merit to it, but the best I can say is that it is better than Movie 43.   The film starts out with the titular character Burt as a friendless child tormented by bullies.  He decides to rectify both by becoming a …. magician.  Apparently that was a good idea, because he grows up to have a famous magical act, lots of women, and is quite rich as well.  When a new magician, Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) begins to take away his business, Wonderstone will do everything he can to maintain his lavish lifestyle.  Unoriginal, poorly acted, annoying soundtrack, and each joke is so blatant its like the film is shouting “This is funny! Laugh at this.” They try so hard that it eventually just becomes sad and pathetic as everyone in the room never laughs and eventually wanders off.  Not worth it.

Phantom (Watch the Trailer)

Theatrical Release: March 1^st, 2013 (Wide)

Director: Todd Robinson (Lonely Hearts)

Starring: Ed Harris (A History of Violence), David Duchovny (The X-Files), 

A Place at the Table (Documentary) (Watch the Trailer)

Theatrical Release: March 1st, 2013 (Limited)

Director: Kristi Jacobson, Lori Silverbush (Documentary Filmakers)

Starring: Jeff Bridges (The Dude)

5/10 (Ehh …)

From some of the people that brought you Food Inc. and Jeff Bridges who talks like he forgot he was in a documentary and not playing a character comes a documentary about hunger in the United States.  While Food Inc. brought up some terrifying facts about what is actually in the food that we eat, and the reasons the government supported it, this movie really has a hard time maintaining focus.  First it tackles hunger, and how many people don’t eat enough, to complaining about Food Stamps, and how they don’t provide enough money to buy anything of substance, to trying to get rid of food stamps all together.  Besides some interesting facts about food prices, the movie wanders so far off it starts to contradict itself, leaving the viewer more confused than they were before it started.  It plays out like an unfocused persuasive paper written by a high school activist that really hasn’t developed his/her thoughts enough to actually be writing it.  Plus, its boring to boot.

Upside Down (Watch the Trailer)

US Release: March 15th, 2013 (Limited)

Director: Juan Solanas (Argentinian Director)

Starring: Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), Kirsten Dunst (Spider-man Trilogy)

5/10 (Ehh …)

Another movie that proves that all the good things about a movie can be expressed in a 2 and a half minute trailer, Upside Down is one of the most gorgeous movies I have seen, and that’s pretty much the only positive thing I can say about it.  The film starts with a voiceover Jim Sturgess sounding like a pompous asshat explaining the laws of two worlds that have opposite gravities while spilling out lovelorn cliches.  These rules have to be taken with a grain of salt, since they make absolutely no sense except to convolute the plot.  One world contains all the well-to-do, and the other is left mostly in ruins.  Jim Sturgess plays Adam, a man in the non-wealthy side, who falls in love with Eden (Kirsten Dunst), who is part of the bourgeois.  Eden comes over to the poverty side from a rope thrown by Jim Sturgess, and in an accident falls back to her own world, cracks her head, and forgets all about him.  The film tells of Adam’s journey to find her and make her remember.  While there is some obvious allegorical nonsense about economic divide, its all lost among a terrible, poorly acted love plot that make Romeo and Juliet seem logical.  There is some laughably bad dialogue, if you’re into that sort of thing, and some truly amazing special effects and camera shots, but the movies plot seems to exist only to make these images, and leaves all semblance of storytelling, plot, and character development in the dust.