Alan Rapp

The Boxtrolls

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Boxtrolls
  • IMDb: link

The BoxtrollsBased on the novel Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, The Boxtrolls is the latest offbeat stop-motion adventure film from the same production company which gave us both ParaNorman and Coraline. The film centers on an orphaned boy named Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) raised by an underground group of Boxtrolls hunted by an evil exterminator (Ben Kingsley) vastly exaggerating the creatures monstrous tendencies for his own ends.

As with the studio’s previous two films the animation is impressive while offering a rather straightforward message for children. But it’s nowhere near as entertaining as The LEGO Movie which Boxtrolls beat out for an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film. Although technically impressive the film itself is little more than a mild diversion.

Available on both DVD and Blu-ray, extras include commentary by directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, and ten short featurettes on various aspects of the movie. The Blu-ray also includes early storyboard animatic sequences and a digital copy of the film.

[Universal Studios, DVD $29.98 / Blu-ray $34.98 / 3D Blu-ray $49.98]

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Stalker – My Hero

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Stalker – My Hero
  • wiki: link

Stalker - My Hero

The Threat Assessment Unit is called in to examine stalking of a newly-engaged couple that leads to one of the happy couple being burned alive on the beach. Loosing one-half of the couple to their latest stalker, the team turns their attention to protecting the dead man’s fiance (Phoebe Tonkin) who the attacker continues to threaten even after forcing her watch her soul mate be burned alive.

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Caper

/ / Found on the Net
  • Title: Caper
  • IMDb: link

Caper

Created by Amy Berg and Mike Sizemore, Caper was a nine-part web series set in the fictitious now of Los Angles where a group of broke super-heroes struggled with life in the big city. For a Leverage fan, the show is most notable for Beth Riesgraf playing one of a trio of super-powered and near-invulnerable gods (along with Hartley Sawyer and Harry Shum Jr.) who share a crappy apartment with a genius human inventor (Abby Miller) responsible for an Iron Man style suit which she uses to fight crime alongside her friends.

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A Most Violent Year

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: A Most Violent Year
  • IMDb: link

A Most Violent YearI’ve never been a big fan of gangster movies. Writer/director J.C. Chandor A Most Violent Year, however, is more a character study than a focus on the questionable business practices of a successful immigrant businessman (Oscar Isaac) during one the most violent winter’s of New York City’s history.

All things considered, Abel Morales (Isaac) is actually a good guy whose ambitions to enlarge the business leave him vulnerable to attacks from his competitors and investigations by the police. He also must deal with the ruthlessness of his wife (Jessica Chastain) and the mistakes of one of his drivers (Elyes Gabel).

A Most Violent Year is a well-made film that, even if it isn’t as satisfying as I’d like, has plenty to recommend. The entire film is built around Isaac’s performance which doesn’t disappoint. Chastain is scary at times in the role of Isaac’s wife and the daughter of a gangster (whose name gets dropped often but never makes an appearance leaving a large piece of the couple’s lives unexplored). Scorpion‘s Elyes Gabel is put to good use as the eager but distrustful immigrant who wants nothing more than to become Abel.

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