Tag Archives: 2010

Jun. 13.

Date Night [Blu-ray] (2010)

Date Night [Blu-ray]

Amazon.com

Tina Fey and Steve Carell are two of the most charming performers in entertainment today. Their goofy attractiveness makes them a perfect couple in Date Night: an unremarkable husband and wife from New Jersey, they get mistaken for crooks in Manhattan, sending them on a wild night replete with snooty wait staff, crooked cops, glitter-specked strippers, a shirtless superspy (Mark Wahlberg, as buff as ever), and a preposterous car chase. The movie makes no effort to be remotely plausible and the last third really goes off the rails, and it would probably be better served by less familiar faces in minor roles (bit parts are played by Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Common, James Franco, Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, and Ray Liotta). It’s disappointing that the dialogue doesn’t crackle the way it does on 30 Rock or The Office. But Fey and Carell carry the movie along through sheer nerdy pluck. Rarely does a couple in a movie seem genuinely devoted to each other, not (more…)

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Jun. 13.

Date Night (2010)

Date Night

Amazon.com

Tina Fey and Steve Carell are two of the most charming performers in entertainment today. Their goofy attractiveness makes them a perfect couple in Date Night: an unremarkable husband and wife from New Jersey, they get mistaken for crooks in Manhattan, sending them on a wild night replete with snooty wait staff, crooked cops, glitter-specked strippers, a shirtless superspy (Mark Wahlberg, as buff as ever), and a preposterous car chase. The movie makes no effort to be remotely plausible and the last third really goes off the rails, and it would probably be better served by less familiar faces in minor roles (bit parts are played by Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Common, James Franco, Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, and Ray Liotta). It’s disappointing that the dialogue doesn’t crackle the way it does on 30 Rock or The Office. But Fey and Carell carry the movie along through sheer nerdy pluck. Rarely does a couple in a movie seem genuinely devoted to each other, not (more…)

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Jun. 13.

Big Love: The Complete Fourth Season (2010)

Big Love: The Complete Fourth Season

Amazon.com

Stills from Big Love: The Complete Fourth Season (Click for larger image)

For years, Bill Henrickson wished for a world free from the corrupt “prophet” of Juniper Creek, Roman Grant. Now that Roman appears to be out of the picture, Bill and his family can breathe easy … or can they? Hold tight for the fourth season of the iconic, Emmy®- and Golden Globe®-nominated Big Love.

(more…)

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Jun. 13.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid [Blu-ray] (2010)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid [Blu-ray]

Amazon.com

The first volume in Jeff Kinney’s wildly popular Web and book series hits the screen in this live-action adaptation. The impish Zachary Gordon, who recalls Wonder Years-era Fred Savage, plays Greg Heffley, who enters middle school determined to become class favorite. It won’t be easy. His best friend, Rowley (the sweetly funny Robert Capron), is a big, redheaded lug who embarrasses him at every turn. Greg’s obnoxious teenage brother, Rodrick (Devon Bostick), advises him to keep his head down, but Greg believes he needs to excel at something to achieve his goal. Smart, but small for his age, he tries wrestling and safety patrolling, but nothing seems to fit. During gym class, he and Rowley meet wise-beyond-her-years newspaper reporter Angie (Chloë Moretz, (500) Days of Summer), who finds popularity overrated. Greg isn’t convinced, but the harder he tries, the more boorish he becomes, until even Rowley abandons him. After a humiliating encounter with some high (more…)

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Jun. 13.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Amazon.com

The first volume in Jeff Kinney’s wildly popular Web and book series hits the screen in this live-action adaptation. The impish Zachary Gordon, who recalls Wonder Years-era Fred Savage, plays Greg Heffley, who enters middle school determined to become class favorite. It won’t be easy. His best friend, Rowley (the sweetly funny Robert Capron), is a big, redheaded lug who embarrasses him at every turn. Greg’s obnoxious teenage brother, Rodrick (Devon Bostick), advises him to keep his head down, but Greg believes he needs to excel at something to achieve his goal. Smart, but small for his age, he tries wrestling and safety patrolling, but nothing seems to fit. During gym class, he and Rowley meet wise-beyond-her-years newspaper reporter Angie (Chloë Moretz, (500) Days of Summer), who finds popularity overrated. Greg isn’t convinced, but the harder he tries, the more boorish he becomes, until even Rowley abandons him. After a humiliating encounter with some high (more…)

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Jun. 13.

Chloe [Blu-ray] (2010)

Chloe [Blu-ray]

Amazon.com

In the erotic thriller Chloe, Dr. Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore, A Single Man) suspects that her husband David (Liam Neeson, Taken) is cheating on her. So she hires an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia!) to offer herself to him, to see how he responds–but Catherine has a surprising response to what unfolds, and Chloe becomes drawn deeply into the doctor’s life. Chloe is an atypical “Hollywood” film from Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), as it features big stars, a script Egoyan didn’t write himself (it’s by Erin Cressida Wilson, the screenwriter of Secretary), an editing rhythm notably less idiosyncratic than Egoyan films of old, and an ending that feels forced and unsatisfying. But Chloe explores classic Egoyan obsessions: voyeurism, jealousy, and betrayal. As the movie unfolds, the performances are full of rich details, capturing jagged emotional edges that make the somewhat-implausible plot compelling. Chloe does (more…)

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Jun. 13.

Chloe (2010)

Chloe

Amazon.com

In the erotic thriller Chloe, Dr. Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore, A Single Man) suspects that her husband David (Liam Neeson, Taken) is cheating on her. So she hires an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia!) to offer herself to him, to see how he responds–but Catherine has a surprising response to what unfolds, and Chloe becomes drawn deeply into the doctor’s life. Chloe is an atypical “Hollywood” film from Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), as it features big stars, a script Egoyan didn’t write himself (it’s by Erin Cressida Wilson, the screenwriter of Secretary), an editing rhythm notably less idiosyncratic than Egoyan films of old, and an ending that feels forced and unsatisfying. But Chloe explores classic Egoyan obsessions: voyeurism, jealousy, and betrayal. As the movie unfolds, the performances are full of rich details, capturing jagged emotional edges that make the somewhat-implausible plot compelling. Chloe does (more…)

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Jun. 13.

The Losers (2010)

The Losers

Amazon.com

The Losers provides nonstop and pretty thrilling action, with a stellar cast, doing the comic book series from which it was adapted proud in the process. The movie may not have an airtight plot line, but its enthusiastic, talented actors–Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, and the underappreciated Jason Patric–and the crisp, punch-packing direction by Sylvain White more than make up for it. The Losers follows the gambits of a team of U.S. Special Forces, with appropriately comic-bookish names like Clay (Morgan), Roque (Idris Elba), Jensen (Evans), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada). They’re sent to Bolivia, where they are double-crossed and presumed dead–with a big bad evil guy, Max (Patric), hot on their trail. In the jungle, they join up with a mystery woman (Saldana, a confident, believable action hero) with her own agenda–and perhaps not the most trustworthy of intentions. The action is nonstop, with plenty of great special (more…)

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Jun. 13.

The Losers (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2010)

The Losers (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)

Amazon.com

The Losers provides nonstop and pretty thrilling action, with a stellar cast, doing the comic book series from which it was adapted proud in the process. The movie may not have an airtight plot line, but its enthusiastic, talented actors–Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, and the underappreciated Jason Patric–and the crisp, punch-packing direction by Sylvain White more than make up for it. The Losers follows the gambits of a team of U.S. Special Forces, with appropriately comic-bookish names like Clay (Morgan), Roque (Idris Elba), Jensen (Evans), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada). They’re sent to Bolivia, where they are double-crossed and presumed dead–with a big bad evil guy, Max (Patric), hot on their trail. In the jungle, they join up with a mystery woman (Saldana, a confident, believable action hero) with her own agenda–and perhaps not the most trustworthy of intentions. The action is nonstop, with plenty of great special (more…)

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Jun. 13.

Cop Out (Rock Out with Your Glock Out Edition) [Blu-ray] (2010)

Cop Out (Rock Out with Your Glock Out Edition) [Blu-ray]

Amazon.com

Fan-favorite filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) directs the first movie he didn’t write himself: Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock) as mismatched cops. When a bust goes wrong, they get suspended, forcing Willis to sell a treasured baseball card in order to pay for his daughter’s wedding. But while selling the card, it gets stolen, sending the pair on a wild chase featuring a parkour-loving housebreaker, a hot Latina trapped in the trunk of a Mercedes-Benz, a 10-year-old car thief, and a lot of other goofiness. It’s hard to believe that Smith didn’t have a hand in the writing, as the comedy has all of his loose, ramshackle habits (and his reliance on jokes about poop and male genitalia)–though much of it also has the feel of being improvised by Willis and Morgan. Cop Out wants to mock buddy-cop movies, but it also wants to be a buddy-cop movie; these conflicting impulses are never harmonized, so the whole movie feels out of tun (more…)

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