Hitting movie theaters this weekend:
Bridesmaids - Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne Priest - Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q
Movie of the Week
Priest
The Stars: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q The Plot: A priest (Bettany) disobeys church law in order to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece. The Buzz: I've got to be honest, I think this film looks horrible. It's 'Movie of the Week' strictly as a path of least resistance. If I happen to have any regular readers out there, they're certain to know that I'm not going anywhere near Bridesmaids, not even with a blindfold, and so Priest suddenly shines with promise -- relatively speaking of course.
Priest continues director Scott Charles Stewart's working affair with Paul Bettany (whom last teamed together on the unimpressive Legion). Bettany bugs me a bunch, anyone else? I've just never taken him well, even in small roles -- I certainly doubt that I'll be able to tolerate him as a leading man. Though, on the leading lady front, Maggie Q dose look very cool with her face tattooed and half-hidden beneath the standard badass priestess hood. Apart from such though, this film looks almost like a straight-to-video enterprise.
Is it just me, or has this film been in Hollywood's holding tank for ages? I could have sworn I saw the trailer for this film like a year ago. Yes, Priest looks lousy, and Bridesmaids will beat it out at the box office, but I just can't bring myself to give Bridesmaids 'Movie of the Week.'
Please remember, I'm the guy who defended Sucker Punch.
Every Friday we'll have new reviews of the latest films. TSR's complete Film Review Database
New Blu-ray and DVDs released this week:
Alien (BD) - Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt Aliens (BD) - Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn Another Stakeout (BD) - Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Rosie O'Donnell Big Business (BD) - Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, Fred Ward Black Death (BD/DVD) - Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, Carice van Houten Blue Valentine (BD/DVD) - Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, John Doman Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (BD) - Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross Cougars, Inc. (BD/DVD) - Sarah Hyland, Denise Richards, Kyle Gallner Equilibrium (BD) - Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Emily Watson Halloween 6 (BD) - Donald Pleasence, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan The Hit List (BD/DVD) - Cuba Gooding Jr., Cole Hauser, Jonathan LaPaglia I Saw the Devil (BD/DVD) - Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi, Gook-hwan Jeon The Illusionist (BD/DVD) - Jean-Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin, Duncan MacNeil An Innocent Man (BD) - Tom Selleck, F. Murray Abraham, Laila Robins My Father the Hero (BD) - Gérard Depardieu, Katherine Heigl, Dalton James No Strings Attached (BD/DVD) - Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline Some Like it Hot (BD) - Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon Straight Talk (BD) - Dolly Parton, James Woods, Griffin Dunne The Terminator (BD) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn V.I. Warshawski (BD) - Kathleen Turner, Jay O. Sanders, Charles Durning
Blu-ray/DVD of the Week
Aliens
The Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn The Plot: Planet LV-426 has been successfully colonized, but contact has been lost. Space marines are hired to check into the situation, and all hell breaks loose. The Buzz: Thanks to dozens and dozens of viewings, the letters-then-numbers combo "LV-426" has been forever etched into my mind, just as "TK-421" has -- it's funny how that works -- and upon the initial release of Aliens, I was as big-time into it as I was into Star Wars. But with time, perhaps due to a few too many viewings, Aliens has plummeted a bit on my all time list, where Star Wars remains solidly at the top. It may not be quite as re-watchable as the Star Wars films, but for me, it's the only film in the Alien franchise with a real hefty re-watch value.
Cinematic purists would likely argue that the franchise took a step down with each film, but for me, James Cameron’s Aliens is the best of the bunch. Where the first (also released this week on BD) is certainly a classic in claustrophobic survival horror, the second goes to eleven on all fronts. Aliens is an extremely enjoyable watch, it’s the perfect adrenaline-infused survival film, rife with badass space marines (quite likable ones) and parasitic killing machines (beautifully designed, see H.R.Giger). Michael Biehn (Cpl. Hicks) AKA Kyle Reese from Terminator fame plays the perfect space marine hero, Bill Paxton (Pvt. Hudson) brings a hilariously great tough-guy gone limp meltdown (“Game over, man, game over!”) and Carrie Henn (Newt) brings to the film a certain and necessary soft-spot.
All in all, I’d say Aliens is the perfect sci-fi/action film — the first time through, it totally blew me away, and I can speak from experience when I say it has very high re-watchability. It's definitely worthy of checking out on Blu-ray.
Check out our reviews of these movies and more ... TSR's complete Film Review Database