Blu-ray Review: Winnie the Pooh (2011)

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As our new Pooh series narrator John Cleese informs us, Christopher Robin not only possesses a very active imagination but he also has an uncanny ability to collect things, including the charming and eccentric cast of stuffed animal characters that audiences treasure right along with Christopher Robin as well.

But when pieces of his favorite collection go missing, Christopher and Pooh know that there’s no better person to turn to than their friend Owl given his talent for telling the rest of Hundred Acre Wood’s lovable residents what to do.

Offering a pot of delicious honey as a reward to the individual that’s first to succeed in locating Eeyrore’s missing tail or finding a promising replacement, Owl inspires the group to begin dividing into search parties with the ultimate goal of tracking down an appendage worthy of being used to pin the tail on the donkey.

And when the first adventure spirals off into a second one, imaginations go into overdrive after Christopher Robin’s hastily written note sends Rabbit into a paranoid frenzy, enlisting others – on the strength of what may be a simple spelling error and misunderstanding -- to set a trap to catch a mysterious creature suspected of kidnapping their poor human pal.

A refreshingly wholesome – not to mention thoroughly un-cynical animated work free of trendy pop culture references and enough sneaked-in double entendres to keep the parents awake – Winnie the Pooh serves as a high-quality, palette cleansing antidote to 3D overload children’s fare.

Yes, some of the new character voices may take some getting used to, particularly in the case of Tigger, who is not only saddled with a different rhythm but an uncharacteristic lack of charm as well, coming across as a hyper child with a millisecond-long attention span instead of the jumping, laughing Tigger we all remember.

Nonetheless, the new Disney film remains impressive and fortunately, it’s fairly easy to overlook a few out-of-place annoyances due to the swift pace and emphasis on ensemble storytelling.

And although Zooey Deschanel’s soothing Judy Garland-esque sunny vocals shine sublimely well in the high definition Blu-ray’s 5.1 surround sound audio field, overall the traditional artistic framing of scenes with hand drawn sketches make the DVD version roughly on par with the HD disc available in the money saving combo pack.

But while it’s hard to justify the extra expense for the Blu-ray format only with the realization that Pooh clocks in with an extremely succinct running time of just 62 minutes, the thoroughly enjoyable picture is ideally suited for the small screen, offering enthusiastic parents and caregivers a terrific opportunity to introduce the silly and sensitive bear to young audience members of a new generation.

Text ©2011, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 
FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

DVD Review: Faces in the Crowd (2011)

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Oscar nominated French filmmaker Julien Magnat (student short: The All-New Adventures of Chastity Blade) makes his ambitious if ultimately awkward English language feature debut with this clunky thriller that destroys the promise of its clever premise with logic that’s so laughable that it leaves holes big enough to drive the strained script through.

Bolstered by a solidly constructed foundation and anchored by the commitment and conviction shown by actress Milla Jovovich’s strong performance, writer/director Magnat’s easily predictable yet uneasy serial killer mystery is unfortunately bogged down by a crowd of unlikable characters – most of whom behave in the most mind-bogglingly bizarre ways throughout.

Although she manages to survive her wrong place/wrong time encounter with multiple murderer Tearjerk Jack – becoming the case’s first official living witness who’s seen the blade wielding psychopath – Jovovich’s sweet schoolteacher discovers that instead of mere Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, she’s developed Prosopagnosia or Face Blindness, making the faces of friends, lovers and strangers all swirl together in an unrecognizable blur.

Facing an uncertain fate with the realization that the killer could be right in front of her at any given moment with the cool confidence that the heroine wouldn’t know him from Adam (or actually anyone), although Magnat’s movie offers a smart twist on the blind terror subgenre best epitomized by the classic chiller Wait Until Dark, Faces in the Crowd never fully pays off on the plotline he’s attempted to set-up.

From failing to make us believe that the only viable lead to catching a serial killer wouldn’t qualify for police protection because of paperwork to sending our heroine out to meet an estranged lover late at night after she’d been purposely placed in hiding, Magnat distracts us from his ingenious premise with illogical behavior and an alarming lack of common sense.

Moving beyond out-of-character behavior to flat out idiocy, although it’s ripe for rotation on Lifetime as a woman-in-peril thriller, Faces in the Crowd may also have a future as RiffTrax fodder in the future as we endure all types of head-scratching moments from start-to-finish.

While Faces is several steps above a run-of-the-mill made-for-TV mystery, mostly due to a strong emotive turn by Jovovich who keeps getting better with each and every role, sadly when you place Magnat’s picture alongside other English language feature debuts – much like a room of faces in the onscreen crowd – our memory of it will be little more than a blur.

Text ©2011, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 
FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

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The first film of the franchise that I’ve seen since taking in the official first film of the multibillion dollar Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, On Stranger Tides is another efficiently made supernatural, seafaring swashbuckler.

As opposed to being swept away by a sea of convoluted chaotic subplots, Stranger sets its sails early on in the first act to ensure we don’t get shipwrecked by too many competing storylines.

Inspired by the titular novel by Tides scribe Tim Powers, screenwriters Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott put the lessons learned by the Caribbean trilogy to good use, boldly dropping old faces to go-fish for new cast-mates that aid in a standalone James Bond like sequel feel which isn’t overly dependent on Pirates pictures of the past.

Yet the supporting cast is called supportive for a reason as – even when it takes the form of two-time Oscar winner Penelope Cruz and Deadwood scene-stealer Ian McShane – there’s no denying that the treasure viewers prize the most is the mischievous wit and rebellion embodied by Johnny Depp’s now-iconic “if Keith Richards had a love child with Jim Morrison” cool rock ‘n roll mojo fueled performance as laidback pirate Jack Sparrow.

After Sparrow finds himself face-to-face, tale-to-tale, and sword-to-sword with an old-flame turned crafty con-woman Angelica (Cruz), he’s enlisted to undertake a dangerous adventure that tests his alliances between love and greed as well as life and death when Angelica and her deceitful Blackbeard father (McShane) force Sparrow to track down Ponce de Leon’s legendary Fountain of Youth.

Venturing to uncover the booty before the expeditions of other countries and old rivals such as Geoffrey Rush’s Barbosa beat the pirate to the punch, Sparrow must survive mermaids of the Jaws rather than Splash variety, Butch Cassidy worthy cliff-terrain, and a few Princess Bride-esque double crosses and shape-shifting twists of plot and character alike in a bloated yet entertainingly busy 136 minute running time.

Although the relative emphasis on less-is-more simplicity is more blessing than curse in stark contrast to other Jerry Bruckheimer everything-and-the-kitchen sink nonsensical hundred million dollar plus CG-heavy live action video games including Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Stranger Tides still feels slightly formulaic for all of the talent involved.

A spirited old fashioned romp, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is nonetheless sure to earn the “That’s Swashbuckling Entertainment” Errol Flynn seal of approval, which – after the release of former Disney owned Miramax execs Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s Scream 4 – easily makes it the most enjoyable fourth installment of 2011.

Appealing to those who particularly partial to the first picture, Stranger Tides additionally benefits from the fiery interplay of Depp and Cruz which is spotlighted nicely by new franchise helmer Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) along with the gorgeously rich imagery of Disney’s superlatively transferred Blu-ray Combo Pack edition.

   
Text ©2011, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 
FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

DVD Review: Phase 7 (2011)

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Intended as a comedic horror allegory of the state of irrational paranoia as well as genuine fear surrounding the Swine Flu epidemic that terrified the globe a few years back – writer/director Nicolas Goldbart’s Argentine import Phase 7 is proof that anything can inspire filmmakers to serve up a new twist on an old genre.

A revisionist western, a dark comedy, an exploitative work of psychological exploration, a gory medical satire or a Sergio Leone meets John Carpenter play on Shaun of the Dead divided by [Rec] times 28 Days Later – whichever way you choose to dissect Goldbart’s motion picture oddity, it’s safe to say you’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

Overly ambitious and admittedly flawed, because Phase 7 is fueled by the novelty of its inventive premise that finds its leads involuntarily quarantined in their apartment following a disease outbreak, it starts to run out of gas relatively quickly after we pass the no-return point of the first act.

Unable to compel us for the length of its succinct running time as something other than a thin helping of popcorn entertainment that refreshingly does inspire its audience to think more than average gory action fare. Namely, before Phase 7 settles in fully as a Swine Flu allegory, the word-of-mouth crossover film festival hit from a Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 executive producer also fascinates as a work of political daring.

Given some subtle editing tricks that intercut key news footage at certain times and various supporting players in the UN like apartment building, it’s easy to view 7 as a possible consumerist parable or a Big Brother foreign policy fable in the post Bush I (and Bush II) world, making Goldbart’s film that much more appealing to a non-horror enthusiast market.

Although it never fully pays off on the satirical level it initially foreshadowed as it grows a bit one-dimensional as it continues, overall it’s a very impressive and wholly original entry into the sociologically relevant paranoid horror subgenre that quarantines writer/director Nicolas Goldbart as a talented helmer that we ought to watch even closer in the future for symptoms of filmmaking fever.   

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Text ©2011, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 
FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.