Blu-ray Movie Reviews

While the first act takes a little while to pick up steam this is a very entertaining movie. It reminds me of The Princess Bride because of the cute romance, adventure, and humor and in many ways is a superior film to the cult classic. The all star cast includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, and Peter O'Toole in important supporting roles. Surprisingly the film didn't receive a lot of press when it hit theaters in 2007 but holds up well on repeat viewings.

Writer/star Thompson does an admirable job in both jobs, although the film isn't in the same league as Mary Poppins. I liked the message but the story falls apart midway through the second act with its slapstick humor and I began to lose my patience.

With only a 29% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I had extremely low expectations. While I wouldn't consider the movie a classic, it's a hell of a lot of fun and features adequate acting, a compelling story (revenge is a dish best served cold), and tons of action, especially compared to the slow-paced original from 1981. There's an occasional line of cringe-inducing dialog, but the positives far outweigh any negatives.

Written by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook), The Last Song certainly caters to a female audience but I can't say I didn't enjoy certain aspects of the production. The screenplay is very melodramatic with pitfalls lurking behind every corner, although I felt the performances by Kinnear as the loving father was genuine and young Coleman steals the show with some great one-liners. Cyrus has improved as an actress, but still has quite a ways to go to graduate to more adult productions.

Five years before his untimely death in 1977, Elvis was followed by a film crew during a 15-city tour of the United States. The footage was pieced together into a documentary by Robert Abel and Pierra Adidge and includes over 25 musical numbers with montage sequences from Presley's early career.