Rick's Flicks Picks on AWN

From Fox comes a beautiful transfer of Francis Lawrence's romantic ode to the circus. The AVC encoded 1080p transfer is a nearly perfect. The color palette is rich and nuanced. The bookend sequences, which have a heavier film grain, have a more natural tone. When the film moves to the Depression era, the saturated colors pop. The lavish red of August's ringmaster jacket. The rustic circus banners. The detail provides that virtual 3-D appeal. Look at the detail of the face of elephant and the vintage costumes. The only blaring problem is pixilation during the scene where Jacob catches the train at night. This is probably due to the scene being shot day for night and digitally rendered dark.

Stephen King named this disease outbreak horror film one of his favorites of 2009. This makes a great deal of sense considering it feels like a King story. King creates tension through personality conflicts and so do directors/writers David and Alex Pastor. It's a mix of THE STAND and ZOMBIELAND, but without the laughs.

An airborne virus has killed most of humanity. A foursome scavenges what they can and avoid the infected at all costs. Danny Green (Lou Taylor Pucci, FAST FOOD NATION) is the sensible one, who conservatively sticks to the rules, even ones that do not apply in a world without a society. His brother Brian (Chris Pine, STAR TREK) is a tough guy smartass, whose maturity is limited so he likes to pick on his smart, awkward younger brother. Bobby (Piper Perabo, THE PRESTIGE) is Brian's girlfriend who seems too caring to be with him. Kate (Emily VanCamp, THE RING TWO) is Danny's girlfriend, who hasn't been with him long, but she has no other place to go.

You know that feeling of new love that is somewhere between joy and pain? That is the rare feeling that this film captures. Like the whiskey its characters drink, it is drunk on love. Like an alcoholic after a bender, the young couple takes breaks, but the smell of their intoxicating lover makes them uncork the bottle and guzzle the burning liquid again. Is it good for them? Are they in too deep? Can they ever recover? Can a drunk ever live on the occasional sip? Does it taste the same when they sober up and reality comes into play?

Jacob (Anton Yelchin, STAR TREK) and Anna (Felicity Jones, THE TEMPEST) are our young lovers. She, a British citizen, is in the States studying and meets him in class. Too shy to approach him directly, she puts a long letter on his car. He calls and tells her that she isn’t a nutcase as she feared she might come off. They click from the start. After graduation, she must go home because her visa is about to run out. But during a romantic trip to Catalina Island, she decides to just stay the summer. When she tries to come back later, she can’t.

Read my review of WINNIE THE POOH

Disney proves once again why Blu-ray is so great for animation. This 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer of the new WINNIE THE POOH feature shows off the richness of the hand drawn animation. Line quality is detailed throughout. The watercolor backgrounds are painterly. Colors range from the subtle to the striking primaries used for Pooh's shirt for instance. Blacks are inky and consistent. Digital compression issues are nonexistent. The picture is about as flawless as it can get.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack isn't as dynamic as the picture, but that's the nature of the film rather than the quality of the mix. Dialogue, music and sound effects are mixed clearly. The rear speakers are chiefly utilized for the music. The LFE track is used minimally, but effectively when needed such as the Backson sequence. Directionality is subtle as bees buzz or Tigger bounces across the soundscape. Ambience brings in the sounds of the Hundred Acre Wood across all the speakers.

Sometimes you find a film that is a comedic treasure. Each line is hilarious. Scenes build one on top of each other increasing the level of entertainment. Right when you think it can't outdo itself it does just that. That is this film. However, it's supposed to be scary so it does so with sheer awfulness.

Seth (Robert Ormsby) tells his grandson Joshua (Michael Stephenson) a horrifying fairy tale of a young man who dresses a lot like Peter Pan that is seduced by a beautiful freckled girl. He should have known something was wrong when he saw that those freckles are clearly painted on. The girl is in cahoots with goblins who make green ooze flow out of the young man's pores. The tale is a warning to the young boy who is going on vacation in the country with his family. Of yeah, grandpa is also dead.

Read my review of A SERBIAN FILM

Invincible Pictures isn't a top distributor, but one wouldn't know that from the picture quality of this release. As ugly as the subject matter of the film is, the AVC encoded 1080p transfer is not ugly at all. The flawless RED camera cinematography is captured with striking clarity. Details pop to the point of giving the picture increased depth. Desaturation of color is intentional to go along with the grim subject matter. So when it gets bloody the crimson reds are striking.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack is less impressive because it's not 5.1. However, for 2.0, it does the job. It's hard to say exactly how clear the dialogue is because it's Serbian. The metal score and brutal sound effects are aggressive. The soundscape does a good job shaking the viewer just as much as the disturbing imagery.

Wayward souls are often the prey of sociopaths. They either turn into victims or accomplices or something in the middle. Cult leaders from Charles Manson to Jim Jones have used the veneer of family and community to twist people's minds into believing terrible things. They make it too scary to leave. The outside world becomes foreign. So how can one cope if they do get away?

Martha (Elizabeth Olsen, PEACE, LOVE, & MISUNDERSTANDING) is such a young woman. She flees from Patrick (John Hawkes, WINTER'S BONE) a much older man who leads a family of young men and women on a rural farm. She doesn't really know where she is. The other members follow her. Watts (Brady Corbet, 2007's FUNNY GAMES), one of the members, finds her at a diner and tells her to come home. He doesn't force her, but the impression that if she doesn't something bad will happen to her is strongly implied.

I've seen bits and pieces of this over the years since it came to cable. Some of the pieces I caught impressed me, because it seemed the whole thing was a spoof of the FRIDAY THE 13TH series, as well as space horror films like ALIEN. Now that I have seen the film from start to finish, I have come to the conclusion that it is trying to make fun of the series, but the problem is that it was written like one of those late-night softcore spoofs.

In the prologue, Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder, HATCHET) has been captured and is set to be cryogenically frozen, because he can't be killed. He gets loose in the facility and Rowan (Lexa Doig, TV's ANDROMEDA) lures the killer into the freezing chamber and accidentally gets frozen along with him. Apparently Earth was doomed with or without Jason on ice because in the future humans live on Earth II. An education mission is sent back to Earth to check it out, discovering Rowan and Jason and taking them back on the ship to thaw them out.