Performance capture can be an amazing tool in the right hands. Thanks to this incredible technology, actors are no longer limited by physical restrictions. Anybody can play anyone or anything, and that must be incredibly liberating for an actor. However, for every Golllum, Davy Jones or Neytiri, there’s going to be a few Milos.

37-year old Seth Green stars as Milo, the 11-year old at the center of one of Disney’s biggest financial disappointments, Mars Needs Moms. Like most kids his age, all Milo wants is for his mom to stop telling him what to do. First he has to take out the trash, and then she has the nerve to make him eat all his vegetables! Of course, Milo only focuses on these negatives, and fails to appreciate all the wonderful things she does for him as well. That is until she’s kidnapped by Martians trying to harvest her motherly essence in order to power their Martian mom robots. Yes, that is the plot.

I understand that not every movie can be filled with depth and complexity, but this is just ridiculous. True, this is a kid’s film, but it has less subtlety than an episode of Leave it to Beaver. The lessons are telegraphed from the very beginning, and the characters are nothing but stock-types designed to push the story to it’s inevitable heart-felt conclusion. Green is a very funny and talented performer, but he just mugs his way through this role, bouncing around the virtual set doing an impersonation of a child rather than playing an actual character.

Like Milo, the Mom is played without any subtlety by another versatile actor, Joan Cusack. The fact that these two extremely capable performers turned in such phony performances really indicate that the fundamental flaws lie with the directing and writing. The only other human of note is Gribble, played by Dan Fogler. Fogler gets to play the closest to a real character that the film has, that of a child who was forced to grow into adulthood alone on Mars. This basic concept had a lot of potential, and while it never really played out as well as I would have liked, I appreciated the attempt.

As for the Martians, this is where the Motion Capture should have really led to something special. Unfortunately, all the Martian designs are just ugly and devoid of any nuance whatsoever. Like the name says, performance capture exists to capture performances, but these could just as easily have been Computer Animated characters, and nobody would have known the difference. As for the individual characters, they too are just types, including a “flower child” influenced by Earth sitcoms from the sixties. This just seems lazy, creating an excuse to not have to create a real character.

Even the world itself is garish. One of the great things about modern film is the opportunities we have to be taken to worlds we have never seen before. This is especially true in Science-Fictoin, and it’s truly disheartening to see a world so ugly in service of a story so poorly thought out with characters so bland. There is nothing imaginative about this film, and it just feels like such a wasted opportunity.

Despite my disappointment in the film itself, the newly released Blu-Ray is a pretty terrific package. Coming with four discs, the set includes a 3D Blu-Ray, a standard Blu-Ray, a DVD and a digital copy. They’ve pretty much covered all of the potential viewing methods (that aren’t online) in one box. The standard Blu-Ray and 3D Version have phenomenal picture quality. Modern animated films on Blu-Ray almost always tend to look fantastic, and this is no exception.

As for the extras, the best is a feature in which you can listen to an audio commentary while watching the Motion Capture being performed picture-in-picture. It’s particularly fascinating to see the way they create what looks like an obstacle course in order to replicate the landscapes that the characters are moving through. Other extras include almost 30 minutes of deleted scenes in various stages of production, a two minute vido of Seth Green goofing off on set, and a very short but interesting feature on the development of the Martian language. While nowhere near as complex as other languages created for film, the creating of a language is an interesting process and I wish they had devoted a little more time to this.

Even though I love science-fiction and Disney, I’m not sure I’m the target audience for this one. I can’t help but think that even an actual 11-year old would feel talked down to with this film. However, Disney did a great job putting this set together. There’s a lot of material here, and the picture-in-picture is fascinating. It just seems like a lot of work went into something with very little payoff.

A disgrace to the character of Chil Palmer, this uninspired follow-up to the far superior Get Shorty is a waste of time for everybody involved. I get why they made the film. Palmer was a terrific character in Get Shorty, and Travolta’s performance just oozed “cool.” It’s only natural to think that people would want more. Unfortunately, all the attempts at being cool feel forced this time around, and the entire movie becomes a tedious exercise in mediocrity.

The film opens with one of those self-referential conversations that films about Hollywood seem to think are so clever. Palmer, a successful film producer, is discussing his disappointment with sequels, hitting the audience over the head with the “subtlety” of the fact that this is a sequel. I love meta humor, but simply referencing yourself is not funny in and of itself. And it was all downhill from there.

After a record producer played by James Woods is killed in front of Palmer, he decides that he’s done with movies, and that he’s going to take over his dead friend’s business. I guess the thinking was that this would give the filmmakers plenty of opportunity to leave the film industry behind, satirizing the music industry this time around. This could have been a good idea if they actually had anything to say about the music industry. Instead we’re treated to two excrutiating hours of noise about white people acting black, Russian mobsters, slimy record producers and on and on.

Somehow, director F. Gary Gray got a lot of big names to appear in this film. However, the only truly inspired casting was The Rock as a gay bodyguard with aspirations of acting. His monologue from Bring It On was one of the only genuinely funny moments in the film. However, there are so many big names in the film, almost nobody stands out. It takes a particular lack of talent to make a film with performers as diverse as John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keital, Danny DeVito, Vince Vaughn, etc. and make them either forgettable, or worse, annoying.

Particular credit has to be given to Vaughn for creating one of the most grating characters I’ve seen on film in a long time. The joke of his character is that he’s white, but he acts black. I’ve never found that premise for a character to be funny, but this is just a pathetic performance. With a high pitched voice and nasally laugh not that far from the Weasels in Roger Rabbit, every moment on screen with this character is a disaster. And he gets a lot of screentime.

I really don’t know who the supposed audience is for this film. It’s not funny, the story isn’t compelling, and the characters aren’t interesting. There’s some novelty in seeing Thurman and Travolta dancing together for the first time since Pulp Fiction, and I got a small amount of enjoyment seeing the real Hollywood locations where the film was shot. But these small pleasures were derived from recognition of moments outside of the film. Being reminded of Pulp Fiction doesn’t make the moment as good as Pulp Fiction, and recognizing locations that I have visited isn’t as fun as actually being there.

At least the picture quality is good. MGM has been releasing some of their older titles lately, and this is the best looking one I’ve seen so far. There are a lot of sequences at night, as well as in darkly lit clubs, arenas, etc. The picture looks really sharp, with vibrant colors and detailed lighting. I’ll give the filmmakers credit for making the world these characters inhabit at least look glamorous.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many extras on the disc. There’s a “documentary” running just over 20 minutes that is comprised of almost nothing but clips from the film, intercut with the cast and crew giving vague anecdotes and compliments to themselves. There are some deleted scenes, a trailer, the full music video from the film featuring The Rock’s character, and some short vignettes about the characters. Nothing too spectacular, and from what I can tell, none of it is new for this release.

In watching the film, it really feels as if the filmmakers thought they were making something special. The groundwork was there, but it just didn’t come together. Get Shorty was a great film, and if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. I wish I could say the same for this one, but unfortunately, there is nothing cool about this disasterous sequel.

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for Nicolas Cage films, no matter how inconsequential they might be. No matter how bad the movie, he usually seems like he’s having fun, which usually elevates the material on screen. Honeymoon In Vegas is far from a perfect comedy, but Cage definitely seems like he’s having a ball, and so did I. Cage plays Jack Singer, a man with a dilemma. He promised his mother, just before she died, that he would never get married. Unfortunately, he’s in love with Betsy, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. When he decided that his promise isn’t worth jeopardizing the relationship, he proposes that they fly to Vegas and get married right away. While there, a gambling kingpin named Tommy Korman (played with great comic timing by James Caan) sees Betsy and realizes she is identical to his dead ex-wife. And this is where the fun begins.

You see, Korman is desperate to be with this woman who looks like his ex, and will utilize all the resources at his exposure to make this happen. He ends up tricking Singer into owing him thousands of dollars, and agrees to remove this debt if Singer allows him one weekend with Betsy. Singer reluctantly agrees, and ends up spending the rest of the film trying to undo the consequences of that decision.

Travelling from Vegas to Hawaii and back, the film is like a love letter to these two completely different locations. The fast-paced glamorous Vegas life directly contradicts the natural beauty and simplicity of Hawaii, and Singer’s frantic struggles in both locations allow for some really divergent setpieces. I’m always a fan of comedies where the characters find themselves in over their heads, trying to rectify a situation of which they have no control. This frantic struggle can be hilarious in the right hands, and Cage plays the part perfectly.

While the film doesn’t really have a lot of substance, it’s just entertaining. If you’ve ever seen a single commercial for this film, then you already know that there’s a sequence where Cage skydives with a group of Elvis impersonators. I still remember watching the previews back in 1992, and finding that a unusually hilarious visual. I never actually saw the film until now, but that moment has stuck with me over the years, and the buildup to this moment is as ridiculously silly as the moment itself.

Of course, skydiving Elvises fits right in with the motif of this film, which is Elvis himself. The King has a presence throughout the entire film, with a soundtrack comprised almost entirely of Elvis material. Coincidentally, Singer and Betsy are in Vegas at the same time as a convention for Elvis impersonators. Because of this, there is almost a constant Elvis presence in the movie. Most sequences in the film are accompanied with an Elvis song that lyrically relates to what is happening on screen. It’s a very clever soundtrack, and I enjoyed picking out the creative ways they selected which songs accompanied which moments.

Again, this isn’t a great movie, but it’s an entertaining one. It’s very silly, and doesn’t have any substance to it at all. Despite this, everybody involved seems to be having a great time, and the film is just fun to watch. Unfortunately, there aren’t any extras on the recently released Blu-Ray other than a short preview that gives the entire film away. The transfer is also lacking, looking about as good as an old VHS copy would have looked. I recently reviewed another film from the MGM catalog that recently got a re-release, and that film had the same problem. It seems as if MGM is just releasing their catelog on Blu-Ray without taking the time and effort to clean them up, or provide any good bonus material.

I can’t really recommend this film as a purchase, but it’s definitely a fun rental. It would be nice if MGM would have put a little more care into these releases, but at least they’re getting released at all. If you’re a fan of Nicolas Cage like I am, then this is definitely worth checking out.

While definitely flawed, there is nothing inherently good or bad about Overboard, Garry Marshall’s 1987 romantic comedy starring real-life couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russel. It’s a perfectly acceptable, middle-of-the-road, time-waster of a film. And that’s not an insult. This self-described “riches-to-rags romance” tells the slightly convoluted story of wealthy socialite Joanna Stayton, who gets amnesia from falling off of her yacht. This is after she refuses to pay Dean Proffitt, a carpenter who didn’t fix her closet to her liking. Of course, in typical Hollywood fashion, he decides to enact revenge by convincing her that she is his wife and mother to four obnoxious children. Needless to say, wackiness ensues and lessons are learned.

I suppose it’s easy enough to suspend disbelief and just go with this. The problem is that there is no rooting interest. Before her amnesia, Stayton was a horrible shrew of a character; a cliched Real Housewife before the Real Housewives existed. And while Proffitt is supposed to be the everyman we identify with, I found it very difficult to sympathize with a man who would A) pull such a horrible trick, and B) raise four children with such disregard for their well-being.

However, the movie is moderately amusing, and I suppose that’s all that should really count in a film like this. Russell and Hawn seem to have a lot of fun playing these characters, and that translates into an entertaining enough diversion. There is something satisfying about seeing this woman put in her place, and as the sitcom hijinks give way to attempted pathos, I found myself going along for the ride. This is a film that follows the exact trajectory you’d expect, and while there are absolutely no surprises, I still enjoyed the journey. When I say the film is predictable, I’m not even talking just about the story outline, but rather specific plot points. This is the type of film where the screenplay randomly sets up little clues that are going to have an obvious payoff, and if you aren’t able to piece together the entire film based on these clues, then you just aren’t paying attention.

MGM has recently issued a Blu-Ray release for this film, although I’m not entirely sure there was a high demand for it. Honestly, it’s not going to take me long to completely forget this film exists. Considering it’s been about 24 years since the film’s release, I can’t imagine that there are people overly excited to be able to add this film to their collection. However, if you are one of those people, I hate to tell you, but this is a pretty bare-bones release.

The only extra is the trailer, and the picture quality/sound are about on par with VHS. I was really surprised at the lack of care the film was given for this release. There is a certain expectation when it comes to Blu-Ray, and while they don’t have to all be filled with extras, the picture and sound should at least be worthy of the release. Having said that, maybe the film holds some sort of nostalgic appeal for some of you, and if that’s the case, then enjoy. Otherwise, there’s not much too recommend here.