There are entertaining documentaries, like Man on Wire. There are political documentaries, such as Nothing But the Truth. And then there are those utterly depressing documentaries that only come along once every couple of years. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father is one of those films.

Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne made this deeply personal film after one of his good friends died way before he was meant to. Dear Zachary is a video letter to the son of Kuenne’s friend Andrew, who was violently murdered by his much older and psychotic ex-girlfriend. After breaking up with her and flying her 1,400 miles away, the crazy bitch drove back and shot him five times. Subsequently, she flees to Canada and falls into what turns out to be a very slow and ineffective legal process. While the murder is disturbing, what’s worse is that Andrew’s parents move up to the same Canadian town to be actively involved in the court proceedings and to spend time with their new grandson, Zachary, who is the product of Andrew and their son’s murderer. Since the Canadian government fails to keep the woman in jail, the grandparents are forced to spend time with the person responsible for taking their son away from them. It only gets worse from there.

Read the rest of the Dear Zachary movie review.

I have a new actress-crush. Her name: Amanda Crew. She plays the hot goth BFF in Sex Drive, the latest R-rated teen comedy to hit DVD. She’s the best part about the movie.

Sex Drive, from upstart Summit Entertainment, came and went from theaters with little promotion or buzz, though one wonders – and by “one,” I mean “me” – how much more of a marketing push it would have received had it been released after Twilight filled the distributor’s coffers. Though long past the days of American Pie and Road Trip, where audiences actually demanded comedies like these, Sex Drive still holds its own surprisingly well. Though Amanda Crew is still the best part.

Read the rest of the Sex Drive movie review.

On Friday, Adventureland arrives in theaters, uniting Bella and Edward for another adventure in vampire love. Oops, wrong movie! Adventureland does star Kristin Stewart, but in place of Robert Pattison, we have the slightly less heartthrob-esque Jesse Eisenberg, and in place of vampire love, there’s… corn dog love.

Yes, even though the title is completely misleading (I was expecting a countryside sci-fi comedy), Adventureland takes place in an amusement park, where cotton candy, corn dogs, elephant ears and garlic fries run rampant, where crickety rides run by unsavory folk cost $10 a pop, and… OK, I don’t know if any of that is in the movie. But I do know that Adventureland is about a new college grad who, struggling to find a “real” job, ends up working at an amusement park with a lot of strange fellers and a helplessly attractive vixen. (more…)

From the director of the Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton comes Duplicity, a witty romantic-comedy-espionage-thriller starring Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. Smart and fun, Duplicity works in a breezy, harmless kind of way, though those expecting the crispness, fluidity and entertainment value of Ocean’s 11 may be disappointed.

Duplicity follows Ray Koval (Owen), an ex-MI6 agent who is now working counterintelligence for a private biotech company. This company has an unhealthy rivalry with its competitor and has infiltrated them with their own spy, former CIA agent Claire Stenwick (Roberts), who is trying to obtain the formula to a secret product that is about to be revealed. What neither company knows is that Ray and Claire actually know each other from several years earlier and are collaborating to steal the formula and sell it to a third party for a large sum of money.

Read the full Duplicity movie review.

Monsters vs. Aliens, the easy pick for the weekend, took in $17 million on Friday, setting itself up fora $50-55 million box office weekend. Not too bad for a less-than-stellar-looking DreamWorks Animation film.

The big surprise on Friday was The Haunting of Connecticut, the rather crappy horror rip-off starring Virginia Madsen. The haunted house movie scared up close to $10 million on Friday, making me thankful that I saw it for free on Wednesday. Look at $20-25 million for the weekend.

And then there’s John Cena. Poor little boy. Just when he thought his Hollywood career was starting to take off, it crashes and burns. Audiences apparently learned their lesson with The Marine, as Cena’s follow-up, the much-better-looking 12 Rounds, stole less than $2 million from theatergoers on its opening day, meaning it will be lucky to make $5 million over the weekend.

Will Smith is one of the most consistent box office forces there is. Even his intentionally misspelled 2007 drama The Pursuit of Happyness went on to make well over $100 million in the United States.

So, the odds were good that his 2008 follow-up Seven Pounds, which is directed by the same man, Gabriele Muccino, would continue Smith’s streak of consecutive $100-million earners.

Unfortunately for Smith – though we can hardly feel sorry for his rare flop – audiences read right through the obscure previews and opted to not see the flick – or at least wait until DVD. It was a good choice. (more…)

At some point in our lives, we all reach a split in the road. These are the decisions that shape us, that define our futures. I reached such a split tonight. On the one side of the gaping four-story mall promenade, a line for a free screening of Adventureland. On the other, The Haunting in Connecticut.

In life, we all make poor choices at times.

The Haunting in Connecticut stars Virginia Madsen as the mother of a dying teenager (Kyle Gallner), who is suffering from advanced cancer. Souped up on a variety of medicines, the long trips to the hospital are taking the toll on him. The decision is made to move to a house (guess in which state), which is closer to the hospital and still affordable. The only downside? It used to be a funeral parlor and is still inhabited by lots of angry ghosts. Since the son is closer to death, he becomes a channel for these spirits.

Read my full The Haunting of Connecticut movie review.

Owen Wilson + Jennifer Aniston + cute dog = blockbuster. Marley & Me comes to DVD on March 31, allowing people like me who passed on the film during its theatrical run to take a peek at the surprisingly heartwarming dog film.

Marley & Me is not at all what I expected. Based on the previews, I figured the movie would be a throw-away film with some funny dog antics and not much else; instead, the picture is a surprisingly mature and confident story that entertains and captivates for an hour and a half.

Read my full Marley & Me movie review.

The Best Picture of 2008, at least according to some unnamed Academy, arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 31, 2009 – and is sure to be as big of a hit as it was in theaters. While I would argue that Fox’s decision to release Slumdog Millionaire on DVD while it is still going strong in theaters is rather stupid, it is here nonetheless, and I am going to review it.

Slumdog Millionaire is a true rags-to-riches story, not just due to its plot but its against-the-odds path to the golden statue of excellence. The film was once owned by another studio and was almost given a direct-to-DVD release before being passed on to Fox Searchlight. The fact that a movie like this almost went straight to DVD makes one wonder what other great films have been left to waste away on the shelves of Blockbuster (though history dictates that most movies that go straight to DVD deserved to do so). (more…)

Battlestar Galactica may be over, but Caprica is just beginning. The Sci-Fi Channel, soon to be called SyFy (who the hell thought of that stupid idea?), is releasing the pilot on April 21, 2009 – the show will officially premiere in 2010.
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