Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Noomi Rapace, Stephen Fry, Rachel McAdams, Kelly Reily
Release Date: December 16, 2011

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is back, and this time he is facing the greatest challenge of his life. His former partner, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) has moved on with his life as he prepares to wed Mary Watson (Kelly Reily). Holmes is left alone to let his mind wander between his latest inventions (which include “urban camouflage” and adrenalin shots) and ongoing investigation in crimes which nobody else even believes are even happening.

Though the story of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows continues roughly where the first film left off, an unknown amount of time has passed. In that time, Holmes has become increasingly erratic as he obsessively tracks what he believes is an international scheme by Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris) [...]

Boondock Saints: In Nomine Patris
Written by Troy Duffy and J.B. Love
Art by Guus Floor
Letters by Innfusion Studios
Covers by Chris Brunner
12 Gauge Comics
Release Date: November 9, 2011
Cover Price: $19.99

Long before two Irish brothers became prayer-reciting vigilantes in south Boston, their father went on a similar crusade against the mob. Before the legend of “Il Duce,” there was the life of Noah MacManus. Fans of the cult classic film The Boondock Saints know there were a lot of unanswered questions about the man whose name wasn’t even revealed until the sequel. Though the second film answered many of those questions, the series took to a new medium shortly thereafter, with 12 Gauge Comics publishing a trilogy of comic series exploring the character’s backstory. Now, the whole story is collected in a single graphic novel for the first time in Boondock Saints: In Nomine Patris [...]

Paranormal Activity 3
Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Written by Christopher B. Landon, Oren Peli
Starring Lauren Bittner, Chloe Csengery, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Jessica Tyler Brown, Dustin Ingram, Katie Featherston, Sprague Grayden
Release Date: October 21, 2011

It was not surprising that Paranormal Activity was turned into a franchise after the original, which was made on a budget of $15,000, made over $100 million at the box office. What is surprising is that Paranormal Activity 3, despite rehashing the same formula as the first two films, still manages to scare people half to death.

The evil is back. The incorporeal evil has been caught on tape again, and this time it has a name… Toby. That’s right, the malevolent entity haunting the family in the Paranormal Activity series is named Toby. At least, that is, according to Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown), who gives the name to what her sister Katie (Chloe Csengery) thinks is her imaginary friend. Katie and Kristie both learn the hard way that Toby is not imaginary in the first two films, but Paranormal Activity 3 is set in 1988, when the girls are still children living with their mother Julie (Lauren Bittner) and stepdad Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith) [...]

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Directed by Troy Nixey
Starring Bailee Madison, Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce
Release date: August 26, 2011

When it comes to remakes, horror movies seem like the most popular option. It’s far rarer, however, that the film was a made-for-TV special, but such is the case for the new Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.

The film opens in the late 19th century at Blackwood Manor, a large mansion set in a remote woodsy area. A housekeeper is called into the basement by Mr. Blackwood only to be trapped and have her teeth bashed out with a chisel. An apologetic Blackwood, who is missing teeth himself, collects her shattered teeth and places them in a bloody dish. He places the dish inside a nearby fireplace, all the while begging to have his son back. Whispers respond, and Blackwood is painfully pulled into the fireplace.

Jumping forward to the modern day, architect Alex Hirst (Guy Pearce) and his interior decorator girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) are in the middle of an extensive renovation of Blackwood Manor. Things become complicated when Alex’s daughter Sally (Bailee Madison) arrives, having been sent by her mother to live with Alex. Sally quickly discovers the now barricaded basement and fireplace, and soon the whispers start again. Revealing more of the plot might ruin the scares for some people, but needless to say something scary calls Blackwood Manor home [...]

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
Directed by Rodman Flender
Starring: Conan O’Brien, Andy Richter
Release Date: June 24, 2011 (limited)
On Demand

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year and half, you’ve at least heard of The Tonight Show debacle that happened last year. Conan O’Brien‘s short-lived reign as the show’s host only lasted 7 months, but the fallout from his departure lasted significantly longer. Though it was certain O’Brien would land another show with ease, as part of his exit deal with NBC, O’Brien was prohibited from appearing on TV and radio for six months. To fill the gap, O’Brien went on his “Legally Prohibited from being Funny on Television Tour.” But even during this time, O’Brien often found himself in front of a camera, as Rodman Flender filmed a documentary about the trip. Nearly a year later, the film is now showing in a very limited amount of theaters.

The appropriately titled Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop opens with a brief summary of the events that led O’Brien to leave his post and follows the tour from conception to its aftermath. Starting with the idea of a road show, O’Brien and his team of writers and producers hastily lay out plans for a 90-minute program that is little more than an idea even after tickets have gone on sale. Pressure begins to mount quickly as, to the visible surprise of everyone, the first two shows sell out in less than 20 minutes [...]

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Directed by Michael Bay
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, John Turturro, Patrick Dempsey, Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving, Leonard Nimoy
Release Date: June 29, 2011

Say what you will about Michael Bay, the man is not a fan of subtlety. It’s pretty well established that, if he could make money doing it, he would release a movie that is just pyrotechnics followed by credits. The third movie in Bay’s Transformers film trilogy actually comes pretty close to that, but surprisingly, it’s still better than the movie that proceeded it. While that doesn’t make Transformers: Dark of the Moon a great movie, it certainly hits the mark it is aiming for.

Perhaps learning from the mistakes he made with Revenge of the Fallen, Bay severely cut down the exposition, leaving an overwhelming majority of the two and half hour film to be filled with mindless action sequences. When the first Transformers film came out, some people were disappointed that there wasn’t more fighting between the giant CGI robots. This time around, it’s unlikely anyone will say the same, as the entire last hour of the film is dedicated to one long battle [...]

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Directed by Rob Marshall
Starring Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, and Ian McShane
Release Date: May 20, 2011

It’s hard to believe that On Stranger Tides is the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie to come out in less than a decade. But Disney has found a cash-cow and it’s obvious the two big stars are still having fun with their roles, so the series marches on. But by the fourth film, most ongoing series have run out of material and the second and third Pirate films were showing big signs of burnout. On Stranger Tides needed to be a new beginning as much as it needed to be a sequel, and in many ways it succeeds.

Picking up an unknown amount of time after the end of the third film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides finds the few returning characters in very different situations than we left them. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) has long been without a ship, having lost the Black Pearl to Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) at the end of the last film. Barbossa, it turns out, is working for the British Navy, having also lost the Pearl, along with his right leg, in a battle with the most feared pirate in the world: Blackbeard (Ian McShane). Their paths cross once again after Spanish explorers find evidence of the Fountain of Youth. Joined by Angelica (Penélope Cruz), a mysterious woman with a history with both Jack and Blackbeard, everyone sets off in search of the fountain [...]

Paranormal Activity 2
Directed by Tod Williams
Starring Sprague Grayden, Katie Featherston, Brian Boland, Molly Ephram, Micah Sloat
Paramount Pictures
Release date: October 22, 2010

It should be noted that a majority of this review was typed on a smartphone while sitting in the theater waiting for something to happen. Okay not really, but it could have been done that way given the amount of down time viewers have between scary parts of Paranormal Activity 2.

It came as no surprise that after the original ultra-low budget original film made millions worldwide that Hollywood would try to capture lightning in a bottle a second time with a sequel. While others have done the same before with weak results (Blair Witch anyone?), it’s likely Paranormal Activity 2 will get the same reaction as the first… because it IS the same as the first.

The first important detail the previews left out is that this sequel is, for 97% of the film, a prequel to the original film. Set roughly two months prior to the events of the first film, Paranormal Activity 2 follows the Rey family, a married couple with two children, including newborn Hunter. After finding their home in disarray from what they believe to be a break-in, they have several security cameras installed. The film combines the footage from these cameras and a single hand-held camera that switches hands at several points [...]

Descent: Part 2
Blu-ray | DVD
Directed by Jon Harris
Starring Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Douglas Hodge, Krysten Cummings
Lionsgate Entertainment
Release date: April 27, 2010

A lot of sequels make the same mistakes: they go too far, they add too much, and they assume bigger is always better. Add to that the familiar idea of “direct-to-dvd” usually is a sign of poor quality. Fortunately for fans of the original The Descent film, the sequel has avoided some of the usual pitfalls and manages to be a relatively satisfying sequel.

Picking up immediately where the original film ends, The Descent 2 clarifies the ambiguous ending of the original, which saw traumatized spelunker Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) escaping from an previously unknown cave system inhabited by inbred, mutated humans called “crawlers.” However, the original film also included an additional scene that implied Sarah had only imagined escape as she descended into madness and was still stuck inside the caves. This ends up being discarded in the new film, with Sarah’s escape being real […]

Grown Ups
Directed by Dennis Dugan
Starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, Rob Schneider
Rated PG-13
Release date: June 25, 2010

If you only see one movie this summer, it would be a smart idea to make it anything other than Grown Ups, the latest film to star Adam Sandler and the usual group of people who seem to rely entirely on Sandler for work.

What rough passes for the plot of the movie is this: A group of friends were all on their grade school basketball team together and won a championship game. Thirty years later, their former coach passes away, and the friends decide to spend a weekend at a cottage on the lake after his funeral. They bring their families, straight from the funeral, and hilarity ensues… right? Not really.

Every single character is a one-trick pony that runs the same joke into the ground repeatedly. Eric (Kevin James) is a family man who tries hard to be a big shot but cannot have a honest conversation about most things. Kurt (Chris Rock) is an emasculated househusband who likes to cook, but only so much that it’s mentioned once early in the film. Marcus (David Spade) is a sex-hungry womanizer. Rob (Rob Schneider) is a new-age dimwit who likes much older women. Then there’s Lenny (Adam Sandler) who’s rich, successful, and great at sports all while being surprisingly humble and down-to-Earth about it all [...]

Heavy Rain
Developer: Quantic Dream
Platforms: Playstation 3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
ESRB: M
Release Date: February 23, 2010

Because the mystery is what makes a large portion of the story enjoyable, I will try and keep spoilers from the main portion of the game to a minimum.

The highly anticipated Heavy Rain has finally arrived. After being touted as a revolutionary step forward in video gaming and spending years in development, the finished product does not disappoint.

The story revolves around four main characters and the investigation into a series of murders in a unspecified neighborhood (though contextual clues imply the setting is near Philadelphia). Over the span of three years, 8 boys disappeared, only to be found several days later, drowned in rain water, with an orchid and an origami figure near their bodies. With no real leads to go on, the police are nowhere near catching the “Origami Killer.”

A majority of the time, especially early on, the player controls Ethan Mars (Pascal Langdale), an average man whose happy married life falls apart after the accidental death of one of his two sons (taking place two years prior to the events of main game). Divorced and having a hard time connecting to his living son, Shaun, Mars suffers from blackouts and depression, made worse when Shaun disappears and is feared to be the next victim of the Origami Killer [...]

Date Night
Directed by Shawn Levy
Starring Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Mark Wahlberg, Jimmi Simpson, Common
Rated PG-13
Release date: April 8, 2010

It seems like good comedies are increasingly hard to come by these days. Why bother with decent writing and actors with skilled comedic timing when you can just make pop culture references and poop jokes? Yes, I’m looking at you Friedberg and Seltzer.

Date Night, on the other hand, will probably be remembered as the best comedy of 2010. While the film is already be called this year’s The Hangover, I’m going to just say something that will probably bring me ridicule and debate. Date Night is better than The Hangover. Obviously comedic values are very subjective, but I personally find awkward, fish-out-of-water comedy much more entertaining than drunken wackiness. Each has their place, but I think in the long run Date Night will appeal to more people as The Hangover is more of the definitive “guy movie.”

Date Night stars a powerhouse of comedic talent in Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Carell has proven himself to be a strong comedic lead with The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Fey may just be the most talented comedic writer in television today. While they don’t have much romantic chemistry between them on screen, the plot only requires that they have comedic chemistry, of which they have plenty [...]

Bioshock 2
Developer: 2K/Digital Extremes/Arkane Studios
Platforms: Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | PC
Publisher: 2K
ESRB: M
Release Date: February 9, 2010

Welcome back to Rapture, the Objectivist dystopia where one of the best stories in video game history takes place. Every since Bioshock changed the way people viewed FPS games, fans have anxiously awaited the sequel. The wait is over, and patience has paid off for those who wanted more.

Bioshock 2 takes place 8 years after the events of the first game. Industrialist Andrew Ryan, the founder of Rapture, is dead, as is his arch-nemesis Frank Fontaine, whose scheming brings about a civil war that caused the city’s infrastructure to collapse. In the time since the war ended, the remaining citizens have continued their decent into complete madness, made worse by the complete isolation and continued abuse of the gene-altering drug known as ADAM. ADAM grants users special abilities, but can easily be abused, resulting in a loss of sanity.

The story begins two years prior to the events of the first game, with the player as a “Big Daddy” one of the super-strong brainwashed warriors decked out in a scuba suit/battle armor. As a mindless soldier, the player only watches as they slowly lurch through Rapture guarding a “Little Sister,” a genetically modified and brainwashed child tasked with extracting ADAM from dead bodies throughout the city. While defending the girl from “splicers,” ADAM addicts whose minds have been ravaged by prolonged abuse, you are interrupted by Dr. Sophia Lamb, a psychiatrist causing a stir within Rapture. It turns out your “little sister” is Eleanor Lamb, Sophia’s daughter. Wanting her daughter back, Dr. Lamb uses mind control to force you to kill you yourself [...]

Blood Creek
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Starring Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender, Emma Booth
Lionsgate and Gold Circle Films
Release Date: January 19, 2010

Those Nazis were into some weird stuff, and despite being defeated 65 years ago, filmmakers are still finding ways to make them the villains. In the case of Blood Creek, the villain is a single Nazi, Professor Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender), who travels to America prior to WWII in search of mysterious runestones. His search brings him to the farm of a German family in Town Creek, West Viriginia. Wirth, a student of the occult, finds what he’s looking for — an ancient runestone he believes holds the secret to immortality — but not before war breaks out.

Seventy years later, Victor Marshall (Dominic Purcell) disappears for nearly two years in the same town. When he reemerges in the middle of the night looking like a tortured caveman, he refuses to explain his absence to his brother Evan (Henry Cavill) and demands his help. Evan does as he is asked without getting the details. Personally, if my feared-dead brother suddenly reappeared after two years looking like he had been through hell and demanded I grab as much ammo as possible and follow him, I would probably ask a question or two [...]

Gamer
Directed by Neveldine/Taylor
Starring Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Amber Valletta, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Kyra Sedgwick
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: January, 19, 2010

You know things are bad when the best part of a film based on ultra-violent video games is the dance sequence. However, such is the case with Gamer, which really only gives the viewer what they should expect from a Grand Theft Auto game: an unbelievable plot, half-naked women, and lots of people getting shot. It’s all very generic and blurs together, which is probably why villain Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) lip-syncing and dancing with soldiers he has under mind control is the only scene that stands out in any significant way.

What passes for the plot of Gamer is simple: In the near future, computer genius Castle creates a type of nanomachine that allows someone to remotely control another human being. Why not just use it to take over world? Well, he’s working on it, but first he decides to use his invention to create a real life version of Second Life, when people can pay to control other real humans, who ar in turn paid to be “actors” in the game environment. After amassing the largest fortune in the world, Castle creates a second game, “Slayers,” where the players control death row inmates in a Call of Duty-like shooter. The inmates sign up with the promise of freedom… if they win 30 games [...]

LOST
The Complete Second Season, Blu-ray Edition
Starring: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release date: June 16, 2009

I didn’t start watching Lost until the second season was underway. All I knew about it before then was that everyone who watched the show was on the edge of their seats talking about numbers and hatches and “others.” All I saw was some people staring down a metal shaft with confused looks on their faces. Oh how little I knew back then.

Things really change in the second season. The survivors learn a lot more about the history of the island, the Dharma Initiative, and “The Others.” The writers also found a plausible way to introduce several new characters into the series as we see what happened to the people in the tail end of the plane (though off camera issues would result in many of the having short lived stints on the show.) We also get to meet Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), the man whose fate is intricately tied to the island and who knows what caused the crash of Oceanic 815 in the first place. Then there’s ‘Henry Gale’ (Michael Emerson), possibly the best addition to a TV show’s cast… ever.

Season two also showed the first signs of weakness in the show’s writing. While entertaining, some episodes seem to drag on, rehashing the same plot over and over in an attempt to fill in the gaps between the first and last episodes [...]

LOST
The Complete First Season, Blu-ray Edition
Starring: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release date: June 16, 2009

Remember when the average Lost episode had a plot about finding drinkable water, shelter, and learning which survivors could hunt and which could help build shelter? Those were the days, the days before the average plot revolved around time traveling, ageless strangers, ancient Egyptian statues, and electromagnetic anomalies.

There’s nothing wrong with the new seasons of Lost, but even the most dedicated fans must admit the show’s plot has become increasingly complex over the years. The first season is possibly the only season Lost writers could refer to as “simple.” After all, this is a season where an entire episode is dedicated to looking for Sun’s (Yunjin Kim) missing wedding ring. Lost was the first TV series to be released on Blu-Ray, but they started with Season 3. So now they’ve gone back and released the first two seasons.

You would be hard pressed to find a better TV show to have in high definition than Lost, too. The beautiful Hawaiian backgrounds stand out more in the earlier seasons when the island’s natural scenery was still important. The picture quality is, not surprisingly, incredible at 1080p [...]

Dexter
The Complete Second Season, Blu-ray Edition
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, Lauren Velez
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release date: May 9, 2009

One of the most original and entertaining shows on TV returned for a second season with vigilante serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C Hall). After following Dexter’s journey of self-discovery in the first season, this time around viewers watch Dexter struggle with new, complicated emotions as he tries to evolve as a person and a killer.

The second season of the hit Showtime series has some serious strengths and weaknesses. First and foremost, the plot goes to the obvious logical step in exploring Dexter’s world by seeing what would happen if Dexter’s crimes were discovered. When a group of scuba divers discover the bodies of Dexter’s victims, he must struggle with keeping up appearances while trying to cover tracks he never thought would be uncovered.

All the while, Sgt. Doakes (Erik King), who was simply suspicious of Dexter in the first season, is now convinced Dexter is hiding something, and stalks him everywhere. This makes Dexter’s usual nighttime activities impossible. The stress of controlling his impulses, avoiding suspicion, and coming to terms with having killed his own brother, Dexter’s internal turmoil is increased ten-fold [...]

Grease
Rockin’ Rydell Blu-ray Edition
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway
Release Date: May 5, 2009

It’s hard to imagine there’s anybody out there who has not seen this landmark piece of American cinema. Forget Troy and Gabriella, they’ve got nothing on Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and Grease will always be the original high school musical. Even 31 years after its original release, Grease is still regarded as the definitive American musical and a masterpiece of a film.

The Blu-ray release, however, is not as ground-breaking as the film itself. Though long-time fans of the film may jump at the chance for a high-def version, if they already own the DVD “Rockin’ Rydell” edition, there is little reason to repurchase.

Even as Blu-ray technology becomes more widespread, it seems a vast majority of people who use it are videophiles who want the absolute best. Unfortunately, the picture quality on the Grease Blu-ray leaves a bit to be desired. The disc contains a 1080p high-def transfer of the film, but seems spotty at points. Though the film’s vibrant colors really pop in high definition, many scenes lack the crispness one has come to expect from Blu-ray. This is especially noticeable when skipping chapters, as one scene may look great but the next looks practically blurry by comparison [...]

Quantum of Solace [Blu-ray]
Directed by Marc Forester
Starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: March 24, 2009

The James Bond series could very well go on forever. Even after 20 films, it is possible to reinvigorate the series, as the films starring Daniel Craig have proven. Honestly, I have never been a big fan of Bond and hearing that the series was going to be rebooted with Craig didn’t seem to be anything worth getting excited over. Well, I was wrong, and happy to admit it.

Though it may be sacrilegious to say so, doing away with the cheesy gadgets, the overly suggestive character names, and even the one-liners have saved this series, and it’s obvious the new Bond will not be anything like the old ones. A scene in Casino Royale really established the mentality of the new series in relation to the old, as a bartender asks Bond if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, he snaps back “Do I look like I give a damn!?” The new bond is darker, more realistic (not that that is a stretch), and much more intense [...]