DVD Reviews: 'Sleepwalking,' 'Superhero Movie'
Rick Bentley - Fresno Bee
Jul 07, 2008
Sleepwalking -- Grade A-: One of the best examples in years of great movies that never opened here.
Charlize Theron and Nick Stahl play siblings carrying the wounds of an abusive childhood. They prove to be both an important support and a complete drain on each other.
Stahl and Theron turn in performances worthy of Academy Award nods, not to mention the standout supporting work by AnnaSophia Robb and Dennis Hopper.
William Maher effectively uses a barren landscape to intensify the pain and emotional suffering of the characters. This all goes to make this a must-see now that it is available here on DVD.
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The Ruins -- Grade F: The movie follows a rather mundane horror plot -- a group of young, impossibly good-looking people are dropped into a situation that leads to their systematic destruction. In this case, the group ends up in the jungles of Mexico at a Mayan temple. There, they face the terror of killer vines.
A film starts at a bad spot when a can or two of weed killer can end the story. It gets no better.
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Superhero Movie -- Grade D+: The least creative part of this spoof movie about comic book super- heroes is the effort to blend a lot of separate ideas. It might have helped to make each weak idea its own little chapter in the film.
If you saw "Epic Movie" or "Meet the Spartans," you already have seen most of the humor.
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