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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

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  • Title: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
  • IMDB: link

extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close-dvdBased on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close follows the search of nine year-old with Asberger’s Syndrome who finds a key in his father’s (Tom Hanks) possessions and embarks on the kind of adventure his father used to create for him before his death on 9/11.

Oskar Schell’s (Thomas Horn) adventure takes him all over New York in an attempt to find a man or woman with the last name of Black who may be the only person who knows what lock the key fits. Over the course of his search Oskar meets several people including the mysterious mute renter (Max von Sydow) of his grandmother’s (Zoe Caldwell), who Oskar begins taking with him on his search.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is too cute for its own good. Although similar in the type of story told in Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated (one of my favorite films of 2005) director Stephen Daldry struggles with framing the tale.

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The Darkest Hour

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  • Title: The Darkest Hour
  • IMDb: link

the-darkest-hour-blu-ray

After traveling to Moscow only to get screwed out of a lucrative business opportunity Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) run into an attractive American twenty-something (Olivia Thirlby) and her Australian friend (Rachael Taylor) at a swanky Russian bar just hours before the Earth finds itself invaded by aliens seeking to drain all electric conducting minerals from the planet.

The aliens appear as near invisible glowing clouds of light which can instantly burn through and disintegrate matter on contact. The foursome find themselves stuck in the storeroom of the club for days with the Swedish businessman (Joel Kinnaman) who screwed them over. With their rations exhausted finally the five journey out into a world vastly changed from the one they left only a few days before. Can they make it to safety? Will they find a way to fight back? Which ones will die? If only we cared.

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Justice League: Doom

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  • Title: Justice League: Doom
  • IMDB: link

justice-league-doom-blu-rayDC Comics latest animated feature adapts Mark Waid‘s “Tower of Babel” and pieces of Alex Ross and Jim Krueger‘s Justice as a new straight-to-DVD feature. The plot of the film features Vandal Savage (Phil Morris) putting together a Legion of Doom to take apart the Justice League using contingency plans stolen from Batman (Kevin Conroy).

As Batman finds himself blindsided by Bane (Carlos Alazraqui), Wonder Woman (Susan Eisenberg), Superman (Tim Daly), the Martian Manhunter (Carl Lumbly), the Flash (Michael Rosenbaum), and Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) all find themselves taken completely out of action by Cheetah (Claudia Black), Metallo (Paul Blackthorne), Ma’alefa’ak (Lumbly), Mirror Master (Alexis Denisof), and Star Sapphire (Olivia d’Abo). It’s the unplanned for appearance of Cyborg (Bumper Robinson) who helps throw a wrench into the plan and save the day.

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Carnage

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  • Title: Carnage
  • IMDB: link

carnage-blu-rayAdapted by director Roman Polanski and writer Yasmina Reza from Reza’s play God of Carnage, Carnage gives us two couples (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) discussing a recent altercation between their sons when one strikes the other with a stick in the park.

What starts as civil discussion of the events soon leads the couples turn on each other and then their own spouses as all pretense is washed away. Think of it as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Lite.

The story would probably have worked better for me on stage where the characters are forced to remain on stage in the apartment where the audience can continue to watch the action unfold. The attempts at civility used to keep both couples together don’t work as well on film where we know the camera can follow them out, and there are more than a couple of moments that should bring events to a close.

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The Muppets

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  • Title: The Muppets
  • IMDB: link

the-muppets-blu-rayThis past summer the Muppets returned to the big screen in a big way thanks to co-writer and star Jason Segel, along with some great (and Oscar-winning) songs from the Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret McKenzie, and all of our favorite Muppet characters including Kermit the Frog (Steve Whitmire), Fozzie (Eric Jacobson), Gonzo (Dave Goelz), Rowlf (Bill Barretta), Scooter (David Rudman), Animal (Jacobson), Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mahem, Beaker (Whitmire), Dr. Bunsen Honeydew (Goelz), and Miss Piggy (Jacobson).

When the Muppet Studios are threatened by a greedy oil baron (Chris Cooper) who plans to tear the studio down to drill for oil, Walter (Peter Linz), the Muppets biggest fan, along with his brother Gary (Segel) and Gary’s fiance Mary (Amy Adams) pull the Muppets back together to put on one more show. For more on the movie read my original review.

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