Rob Cohen – We Are Movie Geeks

THE HURRICANE HEIST Arrives on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and On Demand June 5th

A high-stakes heist goes down during the most unforgiving weather event imaginable in The Hurricane Heist, arriving on Digital May 29 and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), DVD, and On Demand June 5 from Lionsgate

high-stakes heist goes down during the most unforgiving weather event imaginable in The Hurricane Heist, arriving on Digital May 29 and on 4K Ultra HD™ Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray™ Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), DVD, and On Demand June 5 from Lionsgate. Directed by Rob Cohen, the director of high-adrenaline action blockbusters The Fast and the Furious, xXx, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, this edge-of-your-seat action-thriller showcases some of the craziest action sequences in recent cinematic history. Starring in the film are Toby Kebbell (War for the Planet of the Apes, Kong: Skull Island, Gold), Maggie Grace (Taken series, The Choice, TV’s “Lost”), and Ryan Kwanten (TV’s “True Blood,” “The Oath”).

A perfect storm of action is unleashed in this high-powered action-thriller. As a massive hurricane builds, criminals infiltrate a U.S. Mint facility. Their plan: to steal $600 million and escape using a Category 5 hurricane as cover. But a treasury agent and a storm chaser have a plan of their own, desperately racing against time—and the hurricane—to save the hostages and stop the thieves before their town is reduced to rubble.

The Hurricane Heist home entertainment release goes on a wild behind-the-scenes ride with special features that include deleted scenes, two never-before-seen featurettes, a VFX reel showing the impressive skill involved with creating a computer-generated Category 5 hurricane, and an audio commentary with legendary action director Rob Cohen. The 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray versions will also feature Dolby Atmos audio remixed specifically for the home-theater environment, to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead. The Hurricane Heist will be available on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack, and DVD for the suggested retail price of $29.99, $24.99, and $19.98, respectively.

4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY/DVD/DIGITAL SPECIAL FEATURES

Deleted Scenes
“The Eye of the Storm” Featurette
“Hollywood Heist: A Conversation with Rob Cohen” Featurette
VFX Reel
Audio Commentary with Director Rob Cohen

THE BOY NEXT DOOR – The Blu Review

“Oh my God, He’s threatened my life, my son, my job!”

The unusually stupid THE BOY NEXT DOOR was a ‘bunnyboiler’, a FATAL ATTRACTION-inspired thriller that taught a valuable lesson about the dangers of hooking up with nutjobs. Jennifer Lopez played Claire Peterson, a 40-ish teacher living with her 16-year old son Kevin (Ian Nelson) after kicking out her cheating husband (John Corbett). Her foray back to the dating scene is a disaster so she soon turns her attentions to Noah (Ryan Guzman) a hunky 19-year old who has moved in with his ailing Grandpa next door (and whose biceps are introduced before he his). At first Noah is a perfect gentleman. He repairs her garage door, replaces her alternator, and helps Kevin, who’s being bullied at school, gain the confidence to ask out the cutie that works at the local hardware store. After pie and flirting and cookies, Claire and Noah finally knock boots one night while Kevin is away with dad. Claire immediately regrets the encounter but Noah won’t take no for an answer so spends the rest of the film upending Claire’s life in increasingly violent ways.

THE BOY NEXT DOOR started out mediocre, spiraled downward, and thudded with an utterly incompetent conclusion. It was saddled with one of the more improbable and laughably absurd scripts to come down the pike in a long while, insulting the audience’s intelligence at every possible opportunity. Since she teaches English (“The Classics”), Noah charms her by quoting the Iliad and gifting her with a ‘first edition’ copy of the book (published in 700b.c – “found it for a buck at a garage sale”). Noah looks like a ripped Calvin Klein model with a nice house to himself (Grandpa’s in the hospital) so you’d think he’d have a revolving door of willing babes, but the script never presents a speck of motivation for his singular J-Lo booty fixation. A naked young blonde pops up in his room to administer a Lewinsky in one scene, but even that seems to be for the benefit of Claire, who continues to gaze out her window at him. My favorite is when Claire sneaks into Noah’s house to retrieve their sex tape that he stealthily filmed, knowing she has just five minutes before he returns. In that time she not only discovers his concealed camera, but a twisted shrine to her and his sinister computer files which expose his guilt in the killing of his parents and the attempted murder of her ex. Good work! Movies should be fun, and this one is in an unintended way, but the source of entertainment shouldn’t only come from identifying plot holes and other assorted implausibilities. This was an irredeemably bad movie.

A film as inept as THE BOY NEXT DOOR should at least have more camp value, but I couldn’t work up much enthusiasm for the scene in which Noah papers Claire’s classroom with (non-explicit) photos taken of the pair banging, which she frantically has to tear down before her students arrive. Nor was I moved by the barn-burning finale, in which the audience applauded when Claire jabs Noah in the eye with her son’s EpiPen (never seen that before!). Every plot twist, and device is seen coming from a mile away, and every character is paper thin, including the supporting ones which are there simply to pose as obstacles or victims, especially poor Kristin Chenoweth as Claire’s sassy but doomed BFF.

Director Rob Cohen (who made the equally retarded ALEX CROSS), from a script by Barbara Curry, seemed determined to force this material into the moldy mold of horror formulas. For the movie to be anything more than a mechanical stalkathon, we needed to experience Noah as an ambiguous figure —a kind of male equivalent of the Glenn Close character in FATAL ATTRACTION; a quasi-sympathetic monster whose dementia is really a twisted form of emotional pain. But we were never allowed to see Claire through his eyes as this movie wasn’t interested in much else besides paranoia and cheap thrills. With her perfect hair, designer clothes, and distracting lip gloss, Lopez is miscast as a suburban teacher/mom (though she does wear glasses while teaching “The Classics”, which helps). The 46-year old actress looks 30, while Guzman, a 27-year old actor playing the 19-year old title character, looks his age, therefore the single sex scene between them hardly looked like a cougar seducing a youngster but simply like two attractive people more or less the same age makin’ bacon.

The good news is that the pic’s running time of 92 minutes was mercifully brief, and a fine showcase for J-Lo’s glamour and Ryan Guzman’s washboard abs. THE BOY NEXT DOOR was slickly paced but forgettable, junky, retread crap, but it was still miles better than 50 SHADES OF GRAY.

THE BOY NEXT DOOR will be released on Blu-ray from Universal April 28^th and We Are Movie Geeks has had a peek:

THE BOY NEXT DOOR’s MPEG-4 AVC Coded, 1080p res at 2.40:1 high definition presentation offers a consistent, stable image. It’s not one that reveals brilliant colors and complex details, however. The film is fairly dark and heavily stylized throughout, and with that darkness comes a slight flatness, a light dreariness, and frequent pastiness. Nevertheless, the image enjoys a fine general crispness and definition on clothes and faces. Universal’s Blu-ray appears to replicate the intended look well enough; just don’t expect a dazzling and bright eye-popping transfer.

THE BOY NEXT DOOR arrives on Blu-ray with an energetic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. The track plays with a full, robust surround support and finely spaced front end elements. Clarity is always top-notch, whether musical or dialog.

Universal offers up a decent amount of extras for their THE BOY NEXT DOOR Blu-ray:

Audio Commentary: Director Rob Cohen defends his work for 90 minutes, talking at length about the budget limitations and working with Ms Lopez. A good, passionate commentary for a bad film.
The Making of The Boy Next Door – runs 9 minutes and is an undistinguished featurette that hastily covers the film’s themes and story, with an emphasis on the car chase and barn-burning finale.
Deleted Scenes Vicky Wants Claire to Help (2:01), Noah Runs Into Claire (3:02), Garrett Asks Claire Out on a Date (1:53), Claire Asks Vicky For a Favor (1:47), and Claire is Angry at Vicky (0:53).

GHOUL (2015) – The Review

The truth is that, no mater how great a concept is for a story, no matter how well the film is marketed, the ultimate proof is in the production pudding. How excellent is your execution? Not the capitol punishment type — even if some films make you wish for that instead — but, execution of idea from concept to completion. Unfortunately, despite all the best intentions, many films fail to find the appropriate approach.

GHOUL (2015) is one of these films. It should be quite apparent already that I am not overwhelmingly impressed with this one, but in an effort to change things up a bit and better explain my thoughts on this film, I’ll begin with the end.

[No worries, I never spoil films, even the ones I dislike.]

The final 15-20 minutes of GHOUL are, by far, the most engaging, most intense and most successful minutes of this entire film. With that said, it’s not enough to save it entirely, but merely wipes the crust from your eyes and the spittle from the side of your mouth, finishing with the subtle minty freshness of a stick of gum that lasts about as long as the flavor in a handful of Chiclets.

The story comes full circle, the twist is revealed and the special effects are admirably effective for a film of this style, genre and budget. With a running time of only 86 minutes, its not entirely inconceivable to endure to the end for the tasty bits that add flavor, but you’ll need to choke down the blandness of the meal before the dessert.

Let’s return to the start now, where the film is at it’s most uninspired. GHOUL follows a small clutch of friends turned indie filmmakers who travel to Ukraine to shoot footage and interviews for the pilot of a documentary series they call Cannibals of the 20th Century. We’ve seen it before in principle, young inexperienced aspiring filmmakers venturing into uncharted territory to make their names, danger be damned.

Roughly, the first 30 minutes is relatively boring and uneventful, failing to build much of any character development, nor suspense or even much plot. Roughly half the film is merely bickering and accusations between characters, not unlike what we see in the average “reality” TV series that litter our television sets.

What they hope will be a successful late-night basic cable cash cow, quickly reveals itself to be a bust. When their local elderly guide turns out to be unreliable. Not only do they not have anything from the survivor of the Soviet Union’s most violent serial killer and “star” of their project, but they find themselves stuck in the remote woods with their young and pretty interpreter, a crazy young Ukrainian witch, and an evil supernatural force that will not let them leave unless they do exactly as it asks of them.

GHOUL is unfocused, indecisive about what the central plot truly is about. The villain is clearly defined, but is not as central to the story as would be expected. Drama is developed primarily through the perspective of Jenny, played by Jennifer Armour, who also happens to provide the best performance of the film. Jenny has a secret she hides that ultimately plays a significant role, indirectly and metaphorically, in the film’s twist.

Overall, GHOUL is a late-night, cheap rental popcorn flick, mildly worth seeing to the end, even at the cost of submitting to the snooze-inducing first two acts, but only if you’ve already gone through all the cool films in your Netflix queue.

[For the more discerning genre fans, be especially observant of the pride taken in the humorously hokey but admirable attempt at the gory gutted cat prop used not once, but twice in the film.]

GHOUL hits select theaters on Friday, March 20th, 2015.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Watch The Trailer For The Horror Thriller GHOUL

Watch the new trailer for GHOUL, directed by Petr Jakl. The horror film stars Jennifer Armour, Jeremy Isabella, Paul S. Tracey, and Debra Garza.

GHOUL follows three Americans who travel to the Ukraine to investigate how cannibalism swept through the country during the notorious famine of 1932. After being lead deep into the vast Ukrainian forest for an interview with the last known survivor of the cannibalism epidemic, they are plagued with a series of unexplainable supernatural encounters and come face to face with the evil spirit of Andrei Chikatilo, who was born in the Soviet Union and was the most violent serial killer and cannibal of all time.

Beware – this one is pretty scary!

GHOUL recently opened in the Czech Republic and set box office records by having the highest opening weekend for horror films in the past 10 years.

Rob Cohen and Joe Lynch (EVERLY) are executive producers on the film.

GHOUL opens in LA and NYC on March 20, 2015.

The film is rated R

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THE BOY NEXT DOOR – The Review

The unusually stupid THE BOY NEXT DOOR is a ‘bunnyboiler’, a FATAL ATTRACTION-inspired thriller that teaches a valuable lesson about the dangers of hooking up with nutjobs. Jennifer Lopez plays Claire Peterson, a 40-ish teacher living with her 16-year old son Kevin (Ian Nelson) after kicking out her cheating husband (John Corbett). Her foray back to the dating scene is a disaster so she soon turns her attentions to Noah (Ryan Guzman) a hunky 19-year old who has moved in with his ailing Grandpa next door (and whose biceps are introduced before he his). At first Noah is a perfect gentleman. He repairs her garage door, replaces her alternator, and helps Kevin, who’s being bullied at school, gain the confidence to ask out the cutie that works at the local hardware store. After pie and flirting and cookies, Claire and Noah finally knock boots one night while Kevin is away with dad. Claire immediately regrets the encounter but Noah won’t take no for an answer so spends the rest of the film upending Claire’s life in increasingly violent ways.

THE BOY NEXT DOOR starts out mediocre, spirals downward, and thuds with an utterly incompetent conclusion. It’s saddled with one of the more improbable and laughably absurd scripts to come down the pike in a long while, insulting the audience’s intelligence at every possible opportunity. Since she teaches English (“The Classics”), Noah charms her by quoting the Iliad and gifting her with a ‘first edition’ of the book (published in 700b.c – “found it for a buck at a garage sale”). Noah looks like a ripped Calvin Klein model with a nice house to himself (Grandpa’s in the hospital) so you’d think he’d have a revolving door of willing babes, but the script never presents a speck of motivation for his singular J-Lo booty fixation. A naked young blonde pops up in his room to administer a Lewinsky in one scene, but even that seems to be for the benefit of Claire, who continues to gaze out her window at him. My favorite is when Claire sneaks into Noah’s house to retrieve their sex tape that he stealthily filmed, knowing she has just five minutes before he returns. In that time she not only discovers his concealed camera, but a twisted shrine to her and his sinister computer files which expose his guilt in the killing of his parents and the attempted murder of her ex. Good work! Movies should be fun, and this one is in an unintended way, but the source of entertainment shouldn’t only come from identifying plot holes and other assorted implausibilities. This is an irredeemably bad movie.

A film as inept as THE BOY NEXT DOOR should at least have more camp value, but I couldn’t work up much enthusiasm for the scene in which Noah papers Claire’s classroom with (non-explicit) photos taken of the pair banging, which she frantically has to tear down before her students arrive. Nor was I moved by the barn-burning finale, in which the audience applauded when Claire jabs Noah in the eye with her son’s EpiPen (never seen that before!). Every plot twist and device is seen coming from a mile away, and every character is paper thin, including the supporting ones which are there simply to pose as obstacles or victims, especially poor Kristin Chenoweth as Claire’s sassy but doomed pal.

Director Rob Cohen (who made the equally terrible ALEX CROSS), from a script by Barbara Curry, seems determined to force this material into the moldy mold of horror formulas. For the movie to be anything more than a mechanical stalkathon, we need to experience Noah as an ambiguous figure —a kind of male equivalent of the Glenn Close character in FATAL ATTRACTION; a quasi-sympathetic monster whose dementia is really a twisted form of emotional pain. But we’re never allowed to see Claire through his eyes as this movie isn’t interested in much else besides paranoia and cheap thrills. With her perfect hair, designer clothes, and distracting lip gloss, Lopez is miscast as a suburban teacher/mom (though she does wear glasses while teaching “The Classics”, which helps). The 46-year old actress looks 30, while Guzman, a 27-year old actor playing the 19-year old title character, looks his age, therefore the single sex scene between them hardly looks like a cougar seducing a youngster but simply like two attractive people more or less the same age makin’ bacon.

The good news is that the pic’s running time of 92 minutes is mercifully brief, and it’s a fine showcase for J-Lo’s glamour and Ryan Guzman’s washboard abs. THE BOY NEXT DOOR is slickly paced but forgettable, junky, retread crap. Not recommended at all.

1 of 5 Stars

Jennifer Lopez Stars In THE BOY NEXT DOOR Trailer

Here’s a first look at Universal Pictures’ THE BOY NEXT DOOR from director Rob Cohen.

Starring Jennifer Lopez, the movie hits theaters January 23rd.

Jennifer Lopez (PARKER, ENOUGH) leads the cast in the psychological thriller that explores a forbidden attraction that goes much too far. Directed by Rob Cohen (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, ALEX CROSS) and written by Barbara Curry, the film also stars Ryan Guzman, John Corbett and Kristin Chenoweth.

http://theboynextdoorfilm.com

Facebook.com/TheBoyNextDoorMovie

Twitter.com/TheBoyNextDoor

Third ‘XXX’ Film Scores a Director

xxx

I know you were all holding your breath in anticipation for the next installment in the ‘XXX’ franchise, and, lucky you, it looks like things are moving along just fine. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting ‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ has picked up a director. Ericson Core is stepping in to helm the film that sees the return of Vin Diesel as a former X-Games star turned secret government agent.

Don’t worry if you aren’t entirely sure who Core is. His only previous endeavor into feature filmmaking was 2006’s Invincible starring Mark Wahlberg. He previously served as cinematographer on such films as ‘Payback,’ ‘The Fast and the Furious,’ and ‘Daredevil.’ He will be working from a screenplay by ‘Terminator 3’ and ‘Terminator Salvation’ scripters John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris.

‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ was initially set to be directed by Rob Cohen, who directed Diesel in the first ‘The Fast and the Furious’ and the first ‘XXX.’ However, Cohen moved on to direct ‘Medieval’ in June. Columbia, dead-set on getting the third ‘XXX’ feature made with Diesel attached is banking on Core to deliver.

The plan is to begin filming on ‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ early next year.

‘Monster Squad’ remake in the works …

Prep your 80’s nostalgia because they are going to start working on a remake of ‘Monster Squad’! From Bloody Disgusting:

“This afternoon SpookyDan conducted an exclusive one-on-one interview with Rob Cohen, director of Universal’s upcoming The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, who revealed some interesting news about Fred Dekker’s classic ’87 movie. Cohen tells Bloody-Disgusting that Paramount Pictures has acquired the remake rights to Monster Squad, which followed a group of kids hunting down Dracula and his minions who are attempting to take over the world. Cohen also reveals that he is planning to produce the remake, but does not intend on directing.”

My next question is when are they going to remake ‘Little Monsters’?!

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Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

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