Slow and steady doesn't always win the race. Take Ron Howard's adaptations of Dan Brown's riveting bestsellers. Both The Da Vinci Code and its sequel, Angels and Demons, are competently made, commendably acted historical thrillers set against picturesque international backdrops. Yet for some reason, neither comes close to duplicating the urgent pacing of Brown's crackling source material. It annoys me to report this because, pacing aside, Angels is a good film that finds a better balance between exposition and action than its predecessor. (Too much talk turned Howard's Da Vinci into a snoozer.)...more

In the highly competitive (and commerce-oriented) business called show, mimicry is the sincerest form of financial flattery. Once a genre hits, or film type clicks, you can be guaranteed of a hundred other wannabes straggling along your cash heavy coattails. After the one-two profitability punch of Halloween and Friday the 13th, everyone was anxious to get in the slasher business. Within months of their release, we got The Burning, Prom Night, Terror Train, and countless others. One of the best, My Bloody Valentine followed the holiday-based horror setup started by John Carpenter and Sean Cunningham, but it definitely distanced itself with its sadism and splatter....more

After almost two decades of making people laugh, writer/director Judd Apatow wants to be taken seriously. Well, somewhat seriously. He'll never fully give up the nonstop references to penises and other private parts, but ever since hitting it big with The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, the latest savior of cinematic funny business has yearned to explore the more dramatic underpinnings of the human condition -- and he's bringing old buddy and former roommate Adam Sandler along for the ride. It's just too bad then that 2009's Funny People is so unbalanced. There's two-thirds of a great film here. Sadly, the last act almost destroys everything that comes before....more

A decade before Hollywood got obsessed with urban volcanoes, asteroid impacts, and Steve Prefontaine -- offering us multiple movies about each topic -- the Big Bastardized Theme of the year was an inexplicable one: Voodoo. In 1987-88, three major voodoo-themed movies came out, including Angel Heart, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and The Believers. Each was tackled by a major director, and none of them made a huge splash critically or commercially. In fact, they all made pretty much the same amount at the box office -- slightly under $20 million....more

Before a single joke is told, Seth Gordon's Four Christmases earns a positive grade for its inspired casting. I'm not talking about Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, who are asked to do what they've done in previous comedies, and happily oblige. Vaughn, in particular, continues to ride that motor-mouthed ego shtick of his with very humorous results. His condescending personality should have worn out its welcome shortly after Wedding Crashers, yet somehow it still manages to entertain....more

The concept alone is enough to have every 10-year old boy within a 10 mile radius salivating: all the classic monsters -- Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and the Gillman -- converge on suburbia and it's up to a cadre of kids to defeat them. Thrilled by the antics of the Frog brothers in The Lost Boys? Then The Monster Squad will be 82 minutes of bliss. Horror fanatic Sean (Andre Gower) and his pals Patrick (Robby Kiger) and Horace (the late Brent Chalem) spend every waking hour obsessing over fright films and playing monster hunter games....more

It's been 24 years since 1983, and it's time to ask... is Cujo deserving of a "Special Edition" DVD? Inexplicably marketed as a 25th Anniversary Edition (close enough, I guess), Cujo tells the now-often-imitated story of a vicious animal/monster and couple of people trapped by it. In this case, the animal is a once-super-happy St. Bernard bitten by a rabid bat, and the people are mom Donna (Dee Wallace) and her son Tad (Danny Pintauro). There's plenty going on before that happens: Mom turns out to be having an affair despite her boyish looks, and Dad (Daniel Hugh Kelly) leaves on business for 10 days as part of an attempt to fix a marketing campaign for cereal that's making kids sick....more

When March of the Penguins was initially released in 2005, this National Geographic feature film took the world of nature documentaries by storm. Never before had a nature film so captured a narrative, epic story line within an educational exploration of a single species. Filled with love, triumph, grief, and struggle, it’s no surprise that March of Penguins captured the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Recently re-released on November 3, March of the Penguins is now available to own as part of a limited edition DVD giftset. The original award-winning documentary is now accompanied by a new full-length documentary on a second DVD which explores the world of African penguins entitled On the Wings of Penguins, a set of eight high-quality photographic penguin postcards, and a small, huggable African penguin plush toy....more

Much was made of the mythic pairing of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat. To the point where you wondered if people paid as much attention to the film itself as to fulfilling some fanboy wish for the ultimate action movie cast. But it's almost that too; it's both a good film and an acting tour de force. And it's also a key catalog release that is now finally available in high definition. Heat is the story of two career businessmen. One just happens to be a cop, while the other is an expert criminal. But they are both in a similar emotional state. Both are married to their jobs, both have difficulty sacrificing that to build meaningful relationships, and despite the fact that they would both like to change those aspects of their lives, they feel incapable of doing so....more

Eric Clapton returned to his roots in 1994 with the release of From The Cradle. It was the first total blues album of his career containing only cover material. He also made the decision to record the 16 tracks live in the studio, and except for two short dubs it was released as it was recorded. It proved to be a good idea that worked both artistically and commercially, as it returned him to his love of the blues and reached number one on The American album charts. Very few musicians would have the confidence or the chops to tackle classic blues pieces by such legends as Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Lowell Fulson, and the like. Clapton was more than up to the task as his gritty vocals and always superb guitar playing modernize many of these classic blues tunes while paying homage to their origins....more