Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on Facebook and Twitter with your friends.

WHAT: In a near-future Johannesburg overrun by crime, a mechanized police force has been introduced to clean up the streets. When the droids’ creator (Dev Patel) steals a decommissioned unit and reprograms the A.I. so it can think for itself, the newly named Chappie (Sharlto Copley) falls into the hands of a trio of criminals who want to exploit him for their own profit.

WHY: Neill Blomkamp’s “Elysium” was a disappointment on a number of levels, and there was a lot of pressure on the director to bounce back with “Chappie.” Unfortunately, while his third sci-fi outing has plenty to admire, much like “Elysium,” it’s a fantastic concept that’s hindered by a messy execution. It’s as if Blomkamp wanted to cram so many ideas into the film that he was unable to edit the material into a more cohesive story. Casting South African rap duo Die Antwoord as the gangsters who “raise” Chappie was certainly an interesting choice, but while the sweet-voiced Yo-Landi Visser fares well in her first acting role, her male counterpart, Ninja, is pretty awful. The movie also spends too much time with their characters, leaving Dev Patel and Hugh Jackman (playing against type as the villain and sporting a glorious mullet) little to do. Thankfully, Sharlto Copley’s mo-cap performance as the titular robot is too good to ignore. Not only is it a remarkable piece of acting that perfectly captures the innocence and impressionability of a child, but the visual effects are flawless, seamlessly inserting Chappie into the world as if there’s an actual robot interacting with the actors. It’s truly next-level stuff, and it’s ultimately what saves “Chappie” in spite of the film’s many flaws.

EXTRAS: The Blu-ray release includes nine featurettes – covering a range of topics like the cast, stunts, visual effects, production design, location shooting in Johannesburg and A.I – as well as an alternate ending, an extended scene and a concept art gallery.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

WHAT: After law-abiding limo driver Michael Conlon (Joel Kinnaman) witnesses the murder of some clients by the sleazebag son of local crime boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), Shawn sends childhood friend/mob enforcer Jimmy “The Gravedigger” Conlon (Liam Neeson) to prevent Michael from going to the police. But when Jimmy shoots Shawn’s son in order to protect his own, Shawn swears to kill them both as retribution, forcing the estranged father/son duo to go on the run until they can clear Michael’s name.

WHY: It’s a shame that director Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson already made a movie called “Non-Stop,” because while “Run All Night” is a fitting title, the former more appropriately describes the overall tone of the duo’s third collaboration. There’s quite a bit of setup in the opening act, but once Jimmy and Michael are marked for death, it barely takes a minute to stop and catch its breath, jam-packed with wall-to-wall action featuring a cornucopia of fist fights, gunfights and car chases. Collet-Serra does a great job of keeping the story moving along, and though it’s entertaining at first, the non-stop action becomes such a sensory overload that it all starts to blend together. Because of this action-first mentality, there isn’t much room for anything else, although Collet-Serra does try to shoehorn in some clichéd father-son drama. The only reason the relationship works at all is because it has two strong actors in the roles. Neeson does his thing as the tough-as-nails hitman, bringing gravitas to an otherwise stock character, while Kinnaman delivers some of his best work to date as the angry son who wants nothing to do with the family business. “Run All Night” will surely entertain those who walk into a Liam Neeson movie these days knowing exactly what to expect, but it’s so incredibly predictable and formulaic that it sucks out all trace of suspense.

EXTRAS: There’s a pair of featurettes and some deleted scenes.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

Read the rest of this entry »

Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo

Neill Blomkamp

There’s still reason to be hopeful about 20th Century Fox’s decision to hand the reigns of the next “Alien” movie to Neill Blomkamp, but the bloom is likely to be off the rose for a lot of sci-fi fans after they take a gander at “Chappie,” which continues Blomkamp’s series of declining returns after the disappointing “Elysium.”

It is in no way surprising that among the first words uttered by an audience member upon the conclusion of the advance screening of “Chappie” involved the phrase “if ‘Robocop’ and ‘Short Circuit’ had a baby.” After all, the film – co-written by Blomkamp and his wife, Terri Tachell – takes place in the not-too-distant future and revolves around the decision by the city of Johannesburg, South Africa to adopt a partially robotic police force. These aren’t cyborgs, a la the officer formerly known as Alex Murphy: they’re 100% robot, designed by programmer extraordinaire Deon Wilson (Dev Patel). Despite what he’s already achieved in his field, Wilson continues to strive for a greater breakthrough, focusing his sights on the goal of cracking the consciousness code, as it were, and creating the first sentient robot.

As you might expect, Wilson achieves this goal in short order, but his boss (played by Sigourney Weaver) isn’t wooed by his pitch to experiment with his consciousness program on a damaged robot marked for destruction and denies his request. Now, in fairness, his pitch is really, really terrible. Who goes to the head of a company that makes police robots and starts off by mentioning that one of the benefits of sentience is that a robot can judge the merits of art and write its own poetry? But as you might also expect, her denial in no way stops him from deciding to swipe the deactivated robot and do his experiment anyway.

Read the rest of this entry »

Now that awards season is well and truly over, it’s time to turn our attention to the new movies hitting theaters this month, although from the look of things, there’s not much to get excited about. With the exception of Neill Blomkamp’s latest sci-fi treat, there isn’t a single March release that I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing, and while there’s always the possibility that one or more of these films will surprise, I wouldn’t get my hopes up just yet.

Who: Sharlto Copley, Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel and Sigourney Weaver
What: When a police droid named Chappie is stolen and given new programming, he becomes he first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself.
When: March 6th
Why: Neill Blomkamp’s “Elysium” was a disappointment on a number of levels, so it’s nice to see the director hasn’t wasted any time erasing the memory of that movie with a new sci-fi project that appears to have more in common (both tonally and thematically) with “District 9,” the film that put him on the map. The decision to reteam with Sharlto Copley – who was hands-down the best thing about Blomkamp’s previous efforts – was a no-brainer, but if there’s anything that could possibly upstage him this time around, it’s Hugh Jackman (playing against type as the film’s villain) and his glorious mullet. That, or the killer visual effects.

Who: Vince Vaughn, Dave Franco, Tom Wilkinson, James Marsden and Sienna Miller
What: A hard-working small business owner and his two associates travel to Europe to close the most important deal of their lives.
When: March 6th
Why: It’s hard to believe that Hollywood is still betting on Vince Vaughn, because he’s not the comedy star he once was. He hasn’t had anything resembling a hit in years, and it’s been just as long since his last good film, which isn’t a coincidence. Though Vaughn’s upcoming stint on “True Detective” could prove to be the launch pad for his comeback, audiences will first have to suffer through this barrage of low-brow frat humor whose biggest crime isn’t how dreadfully unfunny it looks, but that it managed to convince a classy actor like Tom Wilkinson to submit himself to such stupidity. Does he owe back taxes or something?

Who: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman and Genesis Rodriguez
What: An aging hitman is forced to take on his brutal former boss in order to protect his estranged son and his family.
When: March 13th
Why: It’s great that Liam Neeson has been able to revitalize his career by playing a bunch of senior citizen badasses with a particular set of skills, but even he must realize that it’s beginning to veer towards parody. Not only does “Run All Night” reunite the actor with director Jaume Collete-Serra, whose previous collaborations include the generic action thrillers “Unknown” and “Non-Stop,” but with some basic rewrites, it could easily be the next installment in the “Taken” franchise. Neeson’s latest shoot-‘em-up does boast a better-than-usual cast with veterans like Ed Harris and Vincent D’Onofrio, but sadly, it looks like just more of the same.