Movieline Online

FRED CLAUS: Holiday movies are a nice racket for a comedian. Just ask Tim Allen, whose time spent in a fat suit has almost certainly paid for a comfortable retirement. But Vince Vaughn would seem an unlikely choice for kid-friendly entertainment. His fast-talking, obscenity-laced schtick would be more suitable for an anti­-Christmas movie like Bad Santa rather than a pull-the-heartstrings family classic. So Fred Claus tries to have it both ways. There’s no questionable material here; Vaughn reigns in his cynical streak just enough to ensure everything is kept under the PG limbo stick. But the actor only comes alive when he’s able to vent with his trademark enthusiasm, whether he’s on the run from an army of Salvation Army Santas or stuck in a sibling therapy session with other brothers from famous families (Roger Clinton delivers one hell on an inspiring monologue!). Unfortunately, the magical moments in Fred Claus are few and far between, bolstered by cartoon sound effects and some ex...

HELLBOY 2 – THE GOLDEN ARMY: Iron Man brought in the big bucks and The Dark Knight became a bonafide sensation, but for my money Hellboy 2 was the superhero movie that really delivered the goods last summer. You think making a guy in a cape look believable is tough? Try bringing a 10-foot tall cigar chomping demon to life...and making him your hero! But director Guillermo del Toro is at the top of his game, reuniting the cast from the first film and adding interesting new characters like Johann Krauss (voiced by Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane) which ensures the sequel isn’t just more of the same. In fact, the plot is filled to bursting with fantastical monsters of myth and legend – enough for an entire Hellboy trilogy – which have declared war on mankind after years of subjugation. The only thing standing in their way is Red (Ron Perlman) and his team of supernatural superheroes. Universal’s Blu-ray sets a new gold standard for current releases on hi-def, sporting a huge documentary (we’...

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: Produced under the Carolco banner, a testosterone-heavy independent who owed their existence to Stallone and Schwarzennegar, Universal Soldier should have been the perfect opportunity to stuff both action icons in the same picture. Instead, we get second-tier studs Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren facing off as resurrected super-soldiers who wage their own personal war 20 years after killing each other in Vietnam. This was actually JCVD’s most memorable role to date, stealing a bit of Arnold’s Terminator mojo to play a bioengineered zombie with butt cheeks you could bounce a quarter off of. Director Roland Emmerich (who moved on bigger, better and more ridiculous things like 10,000 B.C.) gives everything a tremendous sense of scale. Of course, when your leading man is a full two-feet shorter than the bad guy, that might not be such a feat. Newcomer Ally Walker, who never quite managed a film career, actually makes all the baloney somewhat believable as the mo...