New Releases for the Week of May 15, 2015

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

(Warner Brothers) Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough. Directed by George Miller

George Miller’s iconic post-apocalyptic franchise returns after a nearly 30 year hiatus with a new Max (Tom Hardy) and an old villain (Keays-Byrne, who was Toecutter in the very first Mad Max). However, this one looks to be more visually stimulating with stunts that in the trailer looked completely insane and early reports is that this may be the best movie of the summer. In it, Max becomes reluctantly involved with a group of women fleeing across the desert from a cruel dictator who will stop at nothing to get his “property” back. Max, used to looking out only for himself and placing his own survival beyond everything else, finds a new reason to do more than just survive.

See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website .
Release Formats: Standard, 3D, IMAX 3D (opens Thursday)
Genre: Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images)

Echoes of War

(ARC Entertainment) James Badge Dale, Ethan Embry, William Forsythe, Maika Monroe. Two families, both marred by loss during the civil war, go nose-to-nose in post-War Texas when one accuses the other of stealing animals from their traps. Neither family is willing to back down, leading to further tragedy. Not every war is over a cause.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Western
Now Playing: AMC Downtown Disney
Rating: R (for violence, sexuality/nudity and language)

Far From the Madding Crowd

(Fox Searchlight) Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge. Thomas Hardy’s classic novel of rural Victorian England comes back to the big screen as Oscar-nominated director Thomas Vinterberg and Oscar nominated actress Mulligan bring one of literature’s most compelling heroines to life. Bathsheba Everdene inherits a farm in Dorset and determines to make it the finest in all of England. She’s on her way to doing it but finds herself confronted by three very different suitors; a solid and kind shepherd in her employ, a lonely middle-aged neighboring farmer and a dashing young soldier. Hearts will break, there can be no doubt about that. Cinema365 reviewed this earlier this month; you can read that review here.

See the trailer, clips and featurettes here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Romance
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village, AMC Downtown Disney
Rating: PG-13 (for some sexuality and violence)

Lambert and Stamp

(Sony Classics) Kit Lambert, Chris Stamp, Roger Daltrey, Terence Stamp. A pair of aspiring filmmakers in London in the early 60s decide to choose a local band called the High Numbers as the subjects for their film. That band would impress them sufficiently that they would give up their film careers to manage and mentor the band. That band would go on to revolutionize rock and roll and be better known as The Who.

See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for language, some drug content and brief nudity)

Pitch Perfect 2

(Universal) Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow. In this sequel to the blatant Glee rip-off the girls take on the world.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a promo, a featurette and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard (opens Thursday)
Genre: Musical
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for innuendo and language)

Where Hope Grows

(Roadside Attractions) Kerr Smith, Brooke Burns, William Zabka, Danica McKellar. A baseball player whose career was wiped out due to panic attacks at the plate finds work at a grocery store where a developmentally challenged young man inspires him to look beyond himself and find something greater.

See the trailer, clips and a featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Faith-Based Drama
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC West Oaks, Regal Waterford Lakes
Rating: PG-13 (for thematic issues involving drinking and teen sexuality, and for brief language and an accident scene)

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)

Candy is dandy.

(2009) Horror (Lionsgate) Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Betsey Rue, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Kevin Tighe, Megan Boone, Karen Baum, Joy de la Paz, Marc Macaulay, Todd Farmer, Jeff Hochendoner, Bingo O’Malley, Liam Rhodes, Michael Roberts McKee, Andrew Larson, Jarrod DiGiorgi, Richard John Walters, Selene Luna, Annie Kitral, Brandi Engel. Directed by Patrick Lussier

The thing about doing remakes of other movies is that the screenwriter has to walk a very fine line. The movie has to follow the story of the original enough so that it is recognizable, yet it has to have its own character and flavor, differing enough to offer viewers familiar with the original a surprise. Otherwise, why bother?

This remake of a 1981 cult favorite during the golden age of slasher movies begins with a cave-in caused by Tom Hanniger (Ackles), the young son of the mine owner. Not on purpose mind you – just inexperience. Five miners are buried beneath the rubble but by the time they dig them out, only one has survived – Harry Warden (Walters) who owes his survival to killing off the other four so that they don’t take up his air. Even so, it takes so long to dig down that Harry is in a coma for a year. When he wakes up, he walks out of the hospital, dons his mining clothes and proceeds to kill 22 people with his pickaxe before being shot dead by then-Sheriff Burke (Atkins).

Flash forward a couple of decades. The town of Harmony is preparing for a Valentine’s Day dance, the first one since Harry Warden had his little tantrum. Tom Hanniger, who had left down not long after the murders, has returned to sell off the family mine. He isn’t greeted particularly warmly except by his high school sweetheart Sarah (King) who is now married to his friend Axel Palmer (Smith) who happens to be the current sheriff. Axel is probably the least happy guy to see Tom particularly since there’s some evidence that Sarah is still sweet on him. Of course, the fact that he’s been cheating with Megan (Boone), Sarah’s employee, for years doesn’t seem to bother him any.

What does bother him is that the murders have started up again by a guy in an old fashioned miners suit complete with gas mask, a fact that doesn’t seem to dissuade the horny teenagers in town to head over to the closed mine post-dance for a little nookie. Some things never change.

There are plenty of red herrings here as to who the identity of the killer is although the filmmakers are certainly pushing a supernatural angle. What’s worrisome is that the filmmakers cheat a little bit – major bits of business take place offscreen and things that are shown onscreen turn out to be lies. I get it that the filmmakers want to make the identity of the killer a surprise when the reveal comes but for one thing any halfway experienced horror film fan will be able to figure it out pretty quickly and for another thing when you do find out who it is you’re going to feel a little cheated, something you don’t want your audience to feel.

Another thing you don’t want your audience to feel is bored. During the first 15 minutes, the carnage moves at a breakneck pace but afterwards slows into a hodgepodge of flashback and exposition with the terror scenes spaced out in ten to fifteen minute intervals. Once you establish a pace, it’s a bad idea to slow it down. Better to build towards it gradually than gradually come down from a peak. You don’t want your audience feeling that they’ve seen the best of the movie less than half an hour in.

There are some great 3D effects here (the for-purchase DVD comes with glasses, although of course you need a 3D television set to play them), some of the best in fact of the modern 3D era. Eyeballs and jawbones fly at the audience and pickaxes come through the screen so jarringly that you will jump out of your seat.

There is a great sequence at the local no-tell motel in which town skank Irene (Rue) fresh from a rendezvous with her trucker boyfriend is chased out of her motel room stark naked after said boyfriend is skewered. She tries to get help which only succeeds in getting another trucker punctured but let’s just say that the sequence moves into overdrive from that point.

Lussier, who has a long history as both an editor (for the Scream series) as well as a director (for such films as Dracula 2000 and Drive Angry), has some punch in terms of technique but he is betrayed by clunk dialogue and some incongruous situations, not to mention the aforementioned cheats. It definitely is a throwback to the slasher films of yore given the amount of gore and nudity, so there is that bit of nostalgia involved. Unfortunately, too many flaws sabotage what could have been a truly excellent remake that might well have exceeded the original otherwise.

WHY RENT THIS: The first portion of the movie is a great roller coaster ride. Great use of 3D.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Bogs down in flashback and exposition during the second half.  Cheats when it comes to keeping the identity of the killer a surprise.
FAMILY VALUES: Brutal violence and gore, graphic nudity and explicit sexuality, foul language, gruesome images…this is horror movies the way they used to make ’em.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The first two characters to die in the movie are named Jason and Michael in direct reference to the Halloween and Friday the 13th characters. Like the characters, they don’t have any lines and both men die in ways that recall the trademarks of the characters they are referencing.
NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: There’s a gag reel and a featurette on the practical make-up effects.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $100.7M on a $15M production budget.
SITES TO SEE: Netflix (DVD only), Amazon (purchase only), Vudu (rent/buy),  iTunes (rent/buy), Flixster (purchase only), Target Ticket (not available)
COMPARISON SHOPPING: I Know What You Did Last Summer
FINAL RATING: 5.5/10
NEXT: Six Days of Darkness continues!