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 | | 2. Star Trek XI new! | | | Starring: Eric Bana Zachary Quinto Director: Jeffrey Abrams | | Format: DVD Release Date: 11/17/2009 |  | Star Trek (2009) - DVD Review By: Sean O'Connell - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 11/6/2009 9:42 PM | |
With one film, J.J. Abrams has made Star Trek younger, flashier, sexier, and funnier than it has been in decades. True, it may also be less intelligent, but Abrams’s reboot more than makes up for it with sheer exhilaration. By altering the franchise's storied past, he ignites a fevered barn-burner that's geared toward today's action junkies but also sets the stage for what could be a long and prosperous future. read the full review | |
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 | | 5. Up (4-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack) new! | | | Director: Peter Docter | | Format: Blu-Ray DVD Release Date: 11/10/2009 | | Up - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: Dusty Somers - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 11/10/2009 4:23 PM | | With the kind of winning streak that Pixar’s got going for it, it’s almost impossible to temper expectations before experiencing their latest film. As of yet, it’s also unnecessary; the studio’s combination of technical wizardry and masterful storytelling has produced a remarkable string of films that have achieved commercial success and critical acclaim with equal universality. Far be it from Pixar’s tenth feature, Up, to break the mold, and indeed, it’s one of the studio’s most touching and accomplished works to date. Not many could’ve spun gold from a story with a cranky octogenarian as its protagonist, but Pixar never panders with its storytelling, and that ends up creating a piece of art that effectively touches all ages on different emotional levels. read the full review | |
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 | | 9. Love Actually (Widescreen) | | | Starring: Hugh Grant Liam Neeson Director: Richard Curtis | | Format: DVD Release Date: 1/15/2008 | | Love Actually - DVD Review By: Christopher Null - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 10/23/2009 5:09 PM | |
I can only presume that the British calendar is so uniquely screwy that it allows for a Christmas movie to open a week after Halloween. Or maybe Love Actually is just in a universe of its own… one in which the prime minister is inaugurated in November and where an adverb can be used to modify a noun. But a little oddness is forgivable: Directing a movie is a strange place for Richard Curtis, who's written umpteen Brit-friendly movies and TV shows over the years but hasn't directed one, until now. Little surprise then that Love Actually plays like a Richard Curtis Greatest Hits compilation. The film comprises nine major and barely-connected stories (as near as I can count) revolving around love and the weeks before Christmas. read the full review | |
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 | | 15. Fast & Furious (Blu-ray) | | | Starring: Paul Walker Vin Diesel Director: Justin Lin | | Format: Blu-Ray DVD Release Date: 7/28/2009 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | Fast & Furious - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: Luigi Bastardo - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 7/27/2009 8:14 AM | | Back in 2001, people were going nuts over this new movie called The Fast And The Furious. At the time, I managed a video store. Customers and employees alike were ranting and raving about this flick. I wasn’t quite sure what was so significant about it, considering that the filmmakers couldn’t even come up with an original title (Roger Corman used the same title in a movie he producer/wrote in 1955). I figured I would hate it for sure, especially seeing as how I was a very cynical and jaded filmgoer (a condition that hasn’t improved) who hadn’t anything new and noteworthy in the world of cinema for several years. read the full review | |
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 | | 17. Curious Case Of Benjamin Button | | | Starring: Brad Pitt Cate Blanchett Director: David Fincher | | Format: DVD Release Date: 8/25/2009 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - DVD Review By: Sean O'Connell - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 4/24/2009 5:36 PM | | Every great filmmaker is allowed one bad film. For David Fincher, his first was his worst. An intelligent director, Fincher cut his teeth on television commercials and music videos before making his feature debut in 1992 with a forgettable and regrettable installment in the Alien franchise. It was all uphill from there. Fincher's next five films arguably are modern classics, each impressively different from its immediate predecessor. Gen X fanboys idolize him for the basement-dwelling aggressions of Fight Club. The director brought flash -- and a needed backbone -- to pulp thrillers like The Game and Panic Room. And cineastes found plenty to appreciate in the meticulous musings of Fincher's cold-case police procedural, Zodiac. read the full review | |
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 | | 22. Angels & Demons new! | | | Starring: Tom Hanks Director: Ron Howard | | Format: DVD Release Date: 11/24/2009 | | Angels & Demons (Two-Disc Extended Edition) - DVD Review By: Blake Matthews - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 11/24/2009 12:26 PM | | Angels & Demons is an adaptation of the best selling Dan Brown novel of the same name and reunites director Ron Howard and actor Tom Hanks for their fourth collaboration. Even though Angels is theatrically a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, the novel was published years before Code, which meant Howard, Hanks, and Brown had to play the film as a sequel rather than a prequel, which created an interesting challenge for all involved. During the testing of the Large Hadron Collider, a small amount of anti-matter is created and separated in three canisters for testing. At the same time the Catholic Church is in the middle of both mourning the passing of the Pope and trying to choose his successor. The secret society known as The Illuminati is trying to disrupt the Vatican’s search for a new pope. read the full review | |
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 | | 23. Four Christmases new! | | | Starring: Reese Witherspoon Vince Vaughn Director: Seth Gordon | | Format: DVD Release Date: 11/24/2009 | | Four Christmases - DVD Review By: Sean O'Connell - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 11/13/2009 6:42 PM | |
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. read the full review | |
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 | | 24. Ice Age 3-Dawn of the Dinosaur | | | Director: Carlos Saldanha | | Format: DVD Release Date: 10/27/2009 | | Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - DVD Review By: Bill Gibron - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 10/16/2009 5:10 PM | |
The third installment of Fox’s startlingly successful Ice Age series suggests that this coldly calculated animated franchise may have finally run out of steam. Perhaps even the studio has realized this, since the new film moves away from the earlier ones’ drab frozen tundra setting and replaces their geniality with too much spectacle and slapstick. Feeling left out of the birth plans of his mammoth friends Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), Sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) stumbles upon a collection of giant eggs in an underground cave and decides to raise them as his own. Imagine Sid’s surprise when the eggs hatch to reveal a trio of baby T-Rexes -- and he discovers that their angry mother wants them back. read the full review | |
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 | | 25. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen | | | Starring: Shia LaBeouf Josh Duhamel Director: Michael Bay | | Format: DVD Release Date: 10/20/2009 | | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - DVD Review By: Chris Barsanti - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 10/9/2009 11:09 PM | |
Eventually Michael Bay will tire of shooting orgasmically erupting explosions foregrounded by actors running in very, very slow motion, the sheen of heroic sweat on their faces and toned arms highlighted by an always-setting sun. He will tire of stringing together images that are less a story than a chain of ideas for dorm-room posters. The day will come when jamming together toilet humor, shattering machinery, and near-pornographic worship of American techno-military might will hold no more interest. Hopefully that day will come before Transformers 3: You Remember When We Said This Wasn't Over, Optimus Prime? Well, We Were Telling the Truth. Anything's possible. Nobody thought that Woody Allen would ever make a movie outside of New York. read the full review | |
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 | | 26. Its a Wonderful Life 60th Anniversary Edition | | | Starring: James Stewart Donna Reed Director: Frank Capra | | Format: DVD Release Date: 10/31/2006 | | It's a Wonderful Life - DVD Review By: Christopher Null - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 10/23/2009 5:09 PM | |
Come now, what on earth am I going to say about one of the most beloved films ever made? Something about how it was originally coined on a Christmas Card? About how a clerical error resulted in it not being copyrighted and contributing to its ubiquity on television -- since it was royalty-free? Or should I just go ahead and tell the few people on earth who haven't seen it what it's all about. Okay kids, if you don't have a TV, It's a Wonderful Life tells us about George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), who lives and loves his small town of Bedford Falls so much he'd die for it. read the full review | |
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 | | 27. Role Models (Unrated) | | | Starring: Christopher Mintz-Plasse Director: David Wain | | Format: DVD Release Date: 8/11/2009 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | Role Models (Unrated) - DVD Review By: Jarad I. Wilk - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 3/17/2009 7:14 PM | | Role Models, to me, is kind of like the life of Britney Spears in the public eye. It starts off as something very special, filled with high expectations and tons of potential. As time goes on, she explores new opportunities as new doors open up to her, some are more successful than others. Then comes Kevin Federline, and the shit hits the fan. read the full review | |
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 | | 32. Proposal | | | Starring: Ryan Reynolds Sandra Bullock Director: Anne Fletcher | | Format: DVD Release Date: 10/13/2009 | | The Proposal - DVD Review By: Jon Erbar - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 10/14/2009 4:23 AM | | Facing deportation, a scathing, hard-nosed publicist (Sandra Bullock) and her passive-aggressive assistant (Ryan Reynolds) soon find themselves thrust toward the sacred bonds of matrimony. One needs a groom to stay in the country, the other needs a bride to keep his job. Their plan is simple enough: a quick marriage followed by a quicker divorce. While visiting the to-be in-laws in Alaska, however, these faux-betrotheds soon find themselves questioning their true feelings and the sincerity of this proposal. read the full review | |
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 | | 39. The Notebook (Platinum Series) new! | | | Starring: Ryan Gosling Rachel McAdams Director: Nick Cassavetes | | Format: DVD Release Date: 11/10/2009 | User Rating: 5 | | The Notebook - DVD Review By: Norm Schrager - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 1/9/2009 4:44 PM | |
With just four films under Nick Cassavetes's belt, it's almost unfair to compare the director to his trailblazing father. In the case of The Notebook, however, it's unavoidable. Thanks to papa John (Husbands, Gloria), the name Cassavetes has come to symbolize intrepid, no-apologies filmmaking and the unconventional human interaction within Now, 15 years after the maverick's death, his heir has traveled to the opposite pole, adapting a Nicholas Sparks novel into a standard tearjerker, filling the screen with handfuls of manipulative Hollywood clichs. read the full review | |
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 | | 42. Planes Trains and Automobiles | | | Starring: John Candy Steve Martin Director: John Hughes | | Format: DVD Release Date: 3/22/2005 | | User Rating: 5 | | Planes, Trains and Automobiles - DVD Review By: Pete Croatto - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 10/9/2009 11:09 PM | |
In 1987 John Hughes took a huge risk. The man who had spent three years profiling the lives of teenagers did the unthinkable: He wrote and directed two movies featuring adults: She’s Having a Baby and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. She’s Having a Baby is a pleasant comedy, but PTA is an absolute gem and one of the 1980s' most overlooked movies, a mixture of human drama and dizzying goofiness that qualifies it for timeless status. I should know. A co-worker and I continually quote lines from this 17-year-old movie. At this point we could audition for a remake. read the full review | |
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 | | 46. Coraline | | | Starring: Dakota Fanning Teri Hatcher Director: Henry Selick | | Format: DVD Release Date: 1/3/2010 | | Coraline - DVD Review By: Chris Cabin - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 7/10/2009 4:48 PM | |
Remember The Nightmare Before Christmas? The holiday classic is invariably credited to its producer and story writer Tim Burton, but the film was actually directed by New Jersey native Henry Selick, an animator on Pete's Dragon and The Fox and the Hound who met Burton when they both worked at Disney in the '80s. Selick finally returns to the world of stop-motion animation once again, which he used solely in both Nightmare and the 1996 Roald Dahl adaptation James and the Giant Peach, with Coraline, another adaptation of a cryptic children's fable, this one written by literary goth overlord Neil Gaiman. read the full review | |
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