Confessions of a Shopaholic comes to DVD next Tuesday, June 23, 2009. The movie is a hate it or dislike it kind of movie, not particularly terrible as it is, ultimately, unoriginal and cliche. Those that did like the film will find little to enjoy on the DVD, as the picture contains an embarassingly small amount of special features – a couple of deleted scenes, bloopers and a music vivdeo. The second disc merely contains a digital copy, but I can’t imagine too many people are tripping over themselves to put this on their iPod.

As for the movie itself, read on to see not one, but two movie reviews for the romantic comedy.

When I think about guys who have comeback potential, I think Harrison Ford or Kevin Costner. I’d never even considered that Jean-Claude Van Damme was capable of such a designation, but here is JCVD, a self-satirical crime drama-thriller that defies genre and is actually pretty good. Yes, a pretty good Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. When was the last time you could say that?

Read the rest of my JCVD movie review.

A movie that received little fanfare when it was released earlier this year, Fired Up looked like a cliché teen comedy in almost every way. A rip-off of Bring It On most people assumed. And yet, Fired Up is a surprisingly funny comedy that is a lot like Bring It On, except that it is told from the perspective of two horny guys who show up at cheerleader camp to get girls.

Read the rest of my Fired Up movie review.

Sam Raimi returns to the genre that put him on the map thirty years ago: the horror genre. Though now best known as the director of the Spider-Man trilogy, he has a special place in horror aficionado’s hearts for the dark-but-funny Evil Dead trilogy. And now, we get Drag Me to Hell, a hilarious throwback to the horror films of yesteryear.

Drag Me to Hell stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan manager at a California bank, who, trying to cement a promotion to assistant manager, decides to make the tough call and deny an old gypsy woman another extension on her mortgage payment. In a fit of rage, the woman curses Christine, effectively damning her to Hell. Over the next three days, Christine begins to see and hear things and realizes she needs to do something in a hurry to avoid an unimaginable fate.

Read the rest of the Drag Me to Hell movie review.

The Hangover repeated its dominance at the box office this weekend, taking in another $33.4 million; the R-rated comedy is now on pace to rake in approximately $175 million, against a budget of $25-$35 million. The people behind Land of the Lost (biggest flop of the year?) and Terminator Salvation are shaking their heads in shame.

Up earned another $30 million, while The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 debuted in third with an okay $25 million. Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That fell flat with only $5.7 million. (more…)

Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy, Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pulman, Eliza Dushku and Danny DeVito star in the edgy crime thriller Nobel Son, a surprisingly effective and twisting movie.

In Nobel Son, Rickman plays an obnoxiously cocky professor who has just been selected to receive the Nobel Prize. On the eve of the award ceremony, however, his son (Greenberg) is kidnapped and held for ransom by a young man with a grudge (Hatosy). But even after the ransom is paid and the son released, the con continues to play out.

Read the rest of the Nobel Son movie review.

Moon, Duncan Jones’ directorial feature, is a rare sci-fi film in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Outland and Silent Running.  With an almost throwback, vintage set design and visuals, Moon chooses to focus almost entirely on the psychological aspects of living in space alone.  Sam Rockwell, perhaps one of only a few current actors who could play the lead role(s), excels as an employee on a three-year mission to man a power plant on the Moon.  At times on the verge of death and other times at the peak of physicality (often both in the same scene), Rockwell appears to be one of the few remaining method actors.  When he looks close to death, you believe it.

Read the rest of the Moon movie review.

The long-delayed and much anticipated Fanboys came to theaters earlier this year with little fanfare and promotion, confirming what was long suspected: it just isn’t that good. Now on DVD, more people have the chance to view mediocrity at its finest.

Fanboys stars Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler and Jay Baruchel as four friends and Star Wars fans who set out on a cross-country trip to break into Skywalker ranch and steal an early copy of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace from the cold grip of George Lucas himself. Along the way, though, they encounter dangerous Trekkies, pimps and Native Americans that look a lot like Mexicans.

Read the rest of the Fanboys movie review.

Many times, second chances are not an option, but in the case of Ron Howard and Tom Hanks, the two were granted an golden opportunity to make amends for the dismal thriller The Da Vinci Code, which was a box office hit but, understandably, a critical dud. A fan of the book, the movie was dull, slowly paced and cheesy, and left my interest in a sequel, based on the Dan Brown book Angels & Demons, immensely low.

But Hollywood doesn’t look at the demand posed by one Erik Samdahl. If they would, they would have made Ender’s Game by now. But that’s an argument for another day, another time.

Read the rest of the Angels & Demons movie review.

Dustin Hoffman hasn’t done much of note in recent years, but he storms his way back onto the scene in a big way with Last Chance Harvey, a touching, mesmerizing romantic drama that also stars Emma Thompson.

Hoffman stars as the title character, a struggling ad musician who has traveled to London for his daughter’s wedding. Having grown apart from his daughter in recent years, he finds that he has very little to talk about with her, his family and everyone else, and when he does, he typically embarrasses himself. But on the day of the wedding, he learns that his daughter prefers to have her stepdad give her away – and that he’s been fired. As most would do, he hits the bars and forms an unlikely friendship with a standoffish woman named Kate. They spend the rest of the day together and a relationship is formed, but is what they have together real?

Read the rest of the Last Chance Harvey movie review.