Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
A terrific musical score, a multifaceted performance from Tom Hanks, and a cool-to-watch animation style help elevate a disappointingly conventional Christmas story to a potential holiday classic.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 2
In the world of magic, nothing is as it seems. It’s only fitting that the same would be true of The Prestige, a film about two rival Victorian-era magicians determined to learn each other’s secrets, regardless of the cost to those around them. Based on a novel by Christopher Priest, the film has been carefully crafted by screenwriters Jonathan and Christopher Nolan to be its own magic trick. Even if you believe (as I did) that you’ve figured out the trick halfway through the film, Chris Nolan’s artful direction—or, more appropriately, misdirection—cleverly toys with you, pulling your attention elsewhere without ever losing its grip on the story.
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 2
Midcentury small-town homemaker Evelyn Ryan keeps her family of 10 kids fed and cared for with prizes from advertising writing contests. Julianne Moore carries the show as the titular prize winner, and Woody Harrelson inhabits his role as a drunken train wreck of a husband to the hilt. But, ultimately, the movie loses steam and becomes repetitive. Harrelson drinks away another paycheck, Moore wins another contest, the kids get to live on the ragged edge of disaster for another week. This harrowing film’s marketing as a “witty and engaging” comedy should be considered seriously false advertising.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 2
In 1981, a struggling, self-employed medical-supply salesman (Will Smith) must cope with unemployment, his wife leaving him, and caring for his young son, Christopher, (played by Smith’s real-life son Jaden) in this movie inspired by a true story. As Chris Gardner, Smith excels in bringing to life the soul of a man hanging on by a thread yet continuing to have faith in his talents and that he’ll be able to earn enough to get by.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 1
Despite some unfortunate '70s style curses, Rocky is a simply timeless tale of the American spirit, and the start of something big: The second installment is a little heavier-handed but still wildly satisfying. The rest become more cartoonish—the Cold War–themed IV is almost laughable now—until the franchise flamed out with V.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
A sad but strangely triumphant story, The Sea Inside follows the life of a quadriplegic who spent nearly three decades fighting for his right to assisted suicide. Javier Bardem plays the resolute man, poet Ramon Sampedro, who was paralyzed in a diving accident in his late teens and struggled with the Spanish government until 1998. Although writer/ director Alejandro Amenabar never attempts to justify Sampedro's decision, he draws a multifaceted character whose reasons for choosing to end his life make sense, no matter which side of the debate you might fall on.
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
A friend’s mom had told him to see writer-director Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, which is about a family splitting apart with two boys that are years apart. I thought her recommendation very odd since this situation mirrored my friend’s family in high school. But now it makes perfect sense, as no other film encapsulates as well the black comedy that is divorce.
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
Beautiful production, costume design, and cinematography are the standouts in The Stepford Wives, a comedic remake of the 1970s version that's only sparingly comedic. Nicole Kidman stars as Joanna, a stressed-out former TV executive who, along with her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick), moves to the seemingly idyllic Stepford, Connecticut, to chill out and get away from it all. She soon observes that the women are a little too perky, perfect, obliging, and smiley for her comfort and is determined to find out why. The sets are striking, full of colonial, pillared homes that are all immaculately kept and color-coordinated, as are the ladies' outfits, designed by legend Ann Roth. The bright, flowing dresses that adorn the wives are visions of whites, pastels, and florals that perfectly match the ladies' porcelain-skinned complexions and sunny dispositions. The men are also a sight, all pink shirts and lime shorts. Together, they're like Garanimals, which works.
From the opening credits, to that crazy hitchhiker, to the ceremonial bones and feathers outside the old house, to the tooth (with filling) lying on the front porch, to the sudden, ugly killing of the first victim, we know that something ain’t quite right in Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. You can even feel a knot forming in your stomach during John Larroquette’s restrained narration that sets the stage for this road trip that’s about to take a tragic turn. I can’t even imagine how savagely this smart, brutal masterpiece of modern horror must have rocked moviegoers’ worlds back in a more innocent 1974. Dark Sky Films’ Ultimate Edition now transports us to those backwoods of the Lone Star State where it all began.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Kevin Bacon stars as a convicted pedophile who has served his time and is moving on with life in Philadelphia. To add the necessary dramatic twist, his apartment is located directly across the street from a school. The dark but equally fair-to-all-sides movie is Nicole Kassell's directorial debut, and she handles the responsibility well. Kyra Sedgwick, Benjamin Bratt, David Alan Grier, and the wonderful Mos Def round out the excellent cast.
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