Here's our weekly round up of all three of this weeks big blu ray releases: Getaway, Red 2, and Jobs
Some movies can be accepted as big dumb fun. Others can just be called dumb. In the case of Getaway, the choice would be to simply state the latter. The film is an end of summer abomination starring two great actors and an overly annoying Selena Gomez doing her best to keep up with Ethan Hawke's ever present and over dramatized look of desperation. Getaway is an overlong 96 minute car chase that is never entertaining and is nothing Jon Voight should have touched with a ten foot pole.
It's more mindless than the Transporter movies while a much needed Jason Statham is absolutely nowhere to be found. At least his sense of humor and irony, could have made Getaway slightly enjoyable. Nothing, I repeat, nothing about this movie is entertaining in the slightest. It's absolute typical garbage that got pushed to the end of summer in the hopes that idiots like me would take a chance on one final summer action movie.
Once I realized that Getaway was directed by Courtney Solomon, the guy who made An American Haunting and Dungeons & Dragons, the picture became much clearer. This guy couldn't direct himself out of a cardboard box much less choreograph a modern action film. Getaway is one of the rare times that the exit sign was becoming an extremely viable option. I squirmed. I laughed. I moaned out loud. Luckily, I was the only person in the theater so I didn't have much to worry about. And this is opening night?
Jon Voight plays the man with the villainous plan under the disguise of a heavy German accent. Even this was laughable. Voight's voice is very distinguishable. The god awful accent only raised the cheese factor. There was no rhyme or reason to his accent or his motives. He was just another carboard cutout villain hiding behind a cell phone while manipulating the main characters in to carrying out his evil plan. Seriously? Come on. Haven't audiences grown tired of the same old plot by now?
When I say skip Getaway, I mean it. Don't give it a minute of your hard earned money or time. It's truly low level entertainment that makes The Expendables look like high art. That's rough. I'm confused as to Hawke and Voight's decisions in starring in the picture. But after this, I've officially lost a little respect for both of them. Solomon should be ashamed of this garbage and Selena Gomez should take a couple acting classes. If you're gonna try to be one of the big boys (even when they're bad), you need keep up with the big boys.
- Review by Chris George
It's more mindless than the Transporter movies while a much needed Jason Statham is absolutely nowhere to be found. At least his sense of humor and irony, could have made Getaway slightly enjoyable. Nothing, I repeat, nothing about this movie is entertaining in the slightest. It's absolute typical garbage that got pushed to the end of summer in the hopes that idiots like me would take a chance on one final summer action movie.
Once I realized that Getaway was directed by Courtney Solomon, the guy who made An American Haunting and Dungeons & Dragons, the picture became much clearer. This guy couldn't direct himself out of a cardboard box much less choreograph a modern action film. Getaway is one of the rare times that the exit sign was becoming an extremely viable option. I squirmed. I laughed. I moaned out loud. Luckily, I was the only person in the theater so I didn't have much to worry about. And this is opening night?
Jon Voight plays the man with the villainous plan under the disguise of a heavy German accent. Even this was laughable. Voight's voice is very distinguishable. The god awful accent only raised the cheese factor. There was no rhyme or reason to his accent or his motives. He was just another carboard cutout villain hiding behind a cell phone while manipulating the main characters in to carrying out his evil plan. Seriously? Come on. Haven't audiences grown tired of the same old plot by now?
When I say skip Getaway, I mean it. Don't give it a minute of your hard earned money or time. It's truly low level entertainment that makes The Expendables look like high art. That's rough. I'm confused as to Hawke and Voight's decisions in starring in the picture. But after this, I've officially lost a little respect for both of them. Solomon should be ashamed of this garbage and Selena Gomez should take a couple acting classes. If you're gonna try to be one of the big boys (even when they're bad), you need keep up with the big boys.
- Review by Chris George
Bruce Willis. John Malkovich. Helen Mirren. Anthony Hopkins. Catherine Zeta-Jones.
That’s a lot of A-List firepower for any film to assemble. You would think any film with such a cast would have to be good. You would think that but you would be wrong. Such is the case for Red 2. Not much time is wasted putting the retired, yet extremely dangerous band back together in order to save themselves and the world from certain destruction.
The story begins with Frank (Bruce Willis) and Sarah, played again by the charming Mary-Louise Parker, trying to adjust to everyday life after the events of the first film. Obviously, that is not going to last long and before we know it we are being systematically lead from one excuse for an action scene to the next with little attempt to engage the audience with anything that resembles a clever plot. The few interesting things that could have been explored are instead ignored as we are ushered to the next vanilla action sequence. Nothing to think about here. Please move along.
There was potential for a fun movie here, Helen Mirren is a bright spot as she steals nearly every scene she's in. Anthony Hopkins does a nice job as well, considering what material he's given to work with. Also, of worthy mention is Byung-Hun Lee who delivers some pretty kick ass martial arts fight scenes.
-guest post by Brian Rohe
Creator. Innovator. Sociopath. Steve Jobs was by all accounts all three of these.
This week's release of Jobs paints the creator of Apple as a purposeful manipulator that had every intention of leading the technological revolution while destroying every relationship around him. It's easy to imagine that every bit is probably true. While the movie, Jobs, does a fair share of truncating details and leaves out many aspects of his life story, this is the role that Ashton Kutcher has been waiting for.
Kutcher melds perfectly in to the character of Steve Jobs. Every minute detail is paid close attention to as Ashton replicates his voice, facial expressions, and nearly every other physical trait of the man behind Apple products. Many people bash Kutcher's skills but may finally realize he's actually a talented actor that's needed a chance to take on a weighty role like this. Unlike most of his other film roles, he finally conveys a depth and resonance that's been lacking his entire career. Despite his performances in Spread and Butterfly Effect, this is Kutcher's chance to shine and he finally proves himself as a dramatic actor.
Jobs is not as good as many other biographical pictures (The Social Network). But, it's still a relevant piece of cinema that will entertain most audiences while causing techie orgasms all over geekdom with its constant flashing of vintage computer hardware. Jobs is a virtual time capsule of every product Apple put out, and it's a fun time for those of us that grew up with those long lost products from another era in computing. That alone is worth the price of admission.
Jobs is nowhere near perfect. In fact, some of the time jumps get a bit annoying. But there's a lot of ground to cover in just over two hours and they do a damn good job of it. We get a solid portrayal of Steve Jobs and his over bearing tendency to be a control freak while creating and running one of the biggest companies in the world. The man was a modern genius that changed the world of computing forever. Despite all his personal flaws, I came out of the movie with a deeper understanding of maintaining personal vision while every one else is playing against you.
- Review by Chris George