Meet Monica Velour (Blu-ray) Criticize This! Pick of the Week – 17-year-old Tobe (Dustin Ingman) has an obsession with ‘70s adult film star Monica Velour (Kim Cattrall). When he finds out she’ll be coming out of retirement to perform on stage for a night, he sets out on a road trip across the country with hopes of meeting her. While the film is a fairly generic quirky indie comedy on the surface, Cattrall sheds her Samantha Jones image and gives one of her best performances to date, which is reason enough to see Meet Monica Velour. The Blu-ray release looks and sounds decent, but is not required viewing. Special features include audio commentary with writer-director Keith Bearden and Kim Cattrall and deleted scenes. Film *** Blu-ray ** (out of 5 stars).
The Bang Bang Club (Blu-ray) – Based on a true story, The Bang Bang Club focuses on a group of combat photographers based in South Africa during the last days of apartheid. Maybe it’s because director Steven Silver is better when it comes to documentaries (which I feel this should have been), or because the cast, which includes Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch, and Malin Akerman, all had terrible accents and I never believed they knew what they were doing in their roles, but I didn’t connect to the film once and was surprise I found nothing engaging about it. I really wanted to like this film, and I tried to like it, but in the end it was a weak Hollywood portrayal of something very serious. Special features on the Blu-ray release include a making-of featurette, audio commentary with director Steven Silver, deleted scenes, and more. Film ** Blu-ray ** (out of 5 stars).
Priest (Blu-ray) – Priest had a lot of potential and should have been a cool, futuristic vampire flick. It’s too bad that director Scott Stewart screwed it up worse than his last film, Legion (2009), and instead made a horrendously boring farce. It’s also too bad they didn’t stick with the style of the animated opening sequence because it kicked some major butt and could have helped the film be something better than what it is. The Blu-ray release does have a clean 1080p image and a nice 5.1 DTS-HD surround mix, but since the movie is such crap it’s not recommended. Special features include deleted and extended scenes, making-of featurettes, and more. Film * Blu-ray ** (out of 5 stars).
Something Borrowed (Blu-ray) – This is becoming the week of bad movie releases. Something Borrowed has absolutely nothing redeemable about it. It’s so terrible I immediately put it out of my memory as soon as the credits rolled. All you need to know is that it has Kate Hudson in it, which is reason enough to not see it. Ginnifer Goodwin, John Krasinski, and Colin Egglesfield also star. This is not a movie required on Blu-ray. Special features include a gag reel, additional scenes, and more. Film * Blu-ray * (out of 5 stars).
If one of our reviews got you interested in the movie, support Criticize This! by purchasing it from Amazon.ca:
