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Ghost Rider: The Sequel No One Was Demanding

  • Title: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
  • IMDB: link

ghost-rider-spirit-of-vengeance-dvdAnd I thought the first movie was dumb. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and somehow still found myself disappointed. Somehow co-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the brains behind the Crank films… and Jonah Hex) manage to deliver a film that’s less engaging, and arguably makes less sense, than the first trainwreck.

One of the few things Ghost Rider had going for it was the look of the Rider which the sequel completely redesigns with a pitch-black skull and constantly burning and flaking clothes (that never come close to actually burning away) that’s more distracting that anything else. But hey, here’s a film that needs all the distractions it can get.

The Rider also appears to be mildly retarded this time around as he moves around as if he’s a marionette with half of his strings cut, jerking in this direction or the next before the film is sped-up (in Crank fashion) for Ghost Rider to, most unimpressively, take vengeance on the wicked.

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Fairly Legal – The Complete First Season

  • Title: Fairly Legal
  • tv.com: link

fairly-legal-complete-first-seasonIt’s odd that Universal waited this long to release the First Season of Fairly Legal on DVD just as the Second Season is winding down. The three-disc set includes all ten episodes of the first season including an extended version of the Pilot episode.

Sarah Shahi stars as Kate Reed, a former lawyer turned mediator, who will spend the entire season in a battle of wills with her stepmother (Virginia Williams), and in a constant dance with her ex-husband (Michael Trucco), while working at her recently deceased father’s law firm.

Over the course of the first season Kate will help a man (Paul Schulze) wrongly imprisoned for more than half of his life, solve disputes for a grumpy judge (Gerald McRaney), help an illegal immigrant (Christina Vidal) who served honorably in the U.S. Military stay in the country, save her friend’s (Brittany Ishibashi) wedding when her father’s (Clyde Kusatsu) insistence on an iron-clad prenup which threatens to ruin it, and solve a dispute between an adoptive father (Scott Holroyd) and grandmother (Kathleen Gati) involving a young girl (Olivia Steele-Falconer) after her mother’s death.

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John Carter

  • Title: John Carter
  • IMDB: link

john-carter-blu-rayJohn Carter may not have been the box office bonanza Disney was expecting, but the film (based on the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs) was one of my favorite films of the first-half of 2012.

The film stars Taylor Kitsch as a reluctant Civil War hero turned prospector who found himself miraculously transported to Mars and caught up in a war between the martian cities of Helium and Zodanga.

Over the course of the film John Carter will be captured and made a part of the the tribe of Martian Tharks, fall in love with a Martian princess (Lynn Collins), and uncover the secret that the mysterious group known as Therns want so desperately to be kept hidden. For more on the movie check out my original review.

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Man on a Ledge

  • Title: Man on a Ledge
  • IMDB: link

man-on-a-ledge-dvdThe premise of Man on a Ledge seems rather preposterous, but I was surprised at how well this story of an ex-cop pushed to the edge held together (at least until the final act).

While on a one-day pass to attend the funeral of his father, former cop and convicted thief Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) escapes custody. The next morning, with a new suit, false ID, and a wad of cash, Nick checks in to New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel and steps out onto a ledge.

As the police cordon off the the block, a police negotiator (Elizabeth Banks) on leave following the suicide of a cop she was unable to talk down finds herself pulled into the scene at Nick’s resquest. However, that’s only half the story as across the street Nick’s brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and Joey’s girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez) are breaking into the vault of the man (Ed Harris) who framed Nick as part of a complicated heist while all the eyes outside are focused on the jumper.

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Chronicle

  • Title: Chronicle
  • IMDB: link

chronicle-blu-rayI like super-hero movies but I’m far from fond of found footage films which present events from the perspective of characters documenting their own adventures. Chronicle stars out with a really good idea as it shows us what might happen if three high school misfits (Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan) found themselves with super-powers. However, the execution and thinly written characters produce mixed results for a movie that should have knocked my socks off as the shaky-cam pseudo-documentary style narrative is far from the film’s biggest problem.

The action sequences are impressive, especially the final battle between two of the super-powered teens, and the realistic way in which the kids used their powers (basically to screw with people and for their own enjoyment) worked well, but every time the film attempted to put the super-human powers on hold in favor of high school drama the film stalled.

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