When I first posted a trailer for Colombiana a while back, I had high hopes for it. It looked like a well-crafted revenge flick and involved Zoe Saldana in a skin tight body suit. My enthusiasm cooled, however, when I read Dan Souto’s review, where he summarizes “Colombiana” as having a “weak story, boring action, non-captivating characters, and a weak finale...the movie is bound to make a fortune from the younger audience that craves action but is restricted from seeing a quality film.” Yikes! Skip It.

Sappy, sentimental films either work for you or they don’t. Dolphin Tale, the inspirational story of a dolphin who lost her tail due to an infection and received a prosthetic one, didn’t work for Dan, who pointed out in his review that “Every 15 minutes something happens that’s designed to specifically pull at the heartstrings. Family members get in accidents. We learn parents are lost or dead. Winter’s life is threatened. The Marine Hospital is out of money. A one-legged girl visits Winter and says ‘she’s just like me,’ and so on. If you allow it, this movie will leave you bawling your eyes out.” But maybe that’s what some people want, or even hope for in a film like “Dolphin Tale.” Plus, Dan himself does admit in the first paragraph of the review to being a “Cold-hearted ass#@!*.” This sounds like a warm hearted film—contrived though it may be—for the whole family, so Rent It.

When I first saw the poster at my local cineplex for Straw Dogs, with a close up of the face of a man wearing broken glasses, I thought they were re-releasing the original 1971 film starring Dustin Hoffman. Upon closer examination, I noticed that the face was not Hoffman’s, but James Marsden’s, and the poster I was seeing was a recreation of the 1971 original to advertise the 2011 remake.

“Straw Dogs” didn’t do well at the box office, and that is a shame. Much like last week’s release on Blu-Ray of the remake of Fright Night, this modern day retelling is worth seeing. As I noted in my review, “The plot elements of the story come together very nicely at the story’s brutal conclusion. As ugly as the violence is at the end of the film, it’s not without merit. The entire film and all of the underlying hostility naturally build to that conclusion, and given the state of mind of all of the characters at that time, it’s plain to see how what was happening came to all of the horrible violence. And after all, that is the point of the movie.” Buy It.

Warrior is the story of two brothers who fight in a Mixed Martial Arts competition for a $5 million prize that each of them needs. The film was largely overlooked when it was released back in early September. Now is your chance to watch what Dan called “one of the best films of the year” in his review. Even if you’re not into mixed martial arts, the film has a strong emotional core that makes us care about the brothers and their struggles in this story. Plus those of you with siblings should ask yourself: “Would you beat your brother/sister into a bloody pulp for $5 million?” I know I would! Buy It.

I’m a Woody Allen fan, but even as such I recognize that his films tend to be hit or miss, so I’m careful about which ones I take the trouble to see in the theatre. Midnight in Paris was one of the ones that I skipped. As Dan noted in his review, “‘Midnight in Paris’ is an idea, it’s not a movie. It’s a Woody Allen fantasy in which he imagines what it would be like to converse with artistic geniuses of the 20th century. The problem is Allen doesn’t pay enough attention to his protagonist in the process, leaving us with the cinematic equivalent of name-dropping.” Sorry Woody, get ‘em next time. Skip It.

For all of you Occupy protest fans out there who are looking for your own personal feel-good film of the year so you can say, “Ah-ha!” to all of your detractors, “Margin Call” is for you. The film has a stellar cast that includes Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, and Kevin Spacey. It takes place in 2008 just before the big financial meltdown at a large investment firm (based on Lehman Brothers) and tracks the events during one day that begins with mass layoffs and ends with the discovery that the entire market is going to collapse. Strongly written with clear and urgent dialogue, “Margin Call” chronicles the decisions that the firm makes in order to survive the impending crisis. And whether or not you agree with their decisions or see their point of view, the acting is top notch all around, as is the directing and editing, which is fast and reminds us that the clock is ticking, only letting up when necessary. It’s very well done, and if you missed it on demand or in theatres, now is your chance. Buy It.

Also out this week: “A Farewell to Arms,” with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes falling in love during World War I, based on the Ernest Hemingway story; “Catch .44,” with Bruce Willis and Malin Akerman in the story of a double-cross at a diner gone really, really wrong; “Blackthorn,” with Sam Shepard as an older Butch Cassidy (the premise is he survived the standoff with the Bolivian Army in 1908) looking to return to the United States to see his family again before he dies; “Nothing Sacred,” a classic screwball comedy with Carole Lombard as a woman who mistakenly believes she’s dying and Frederic March as the big city journalist who exploits her to sell papers; and “Underworld Trilogy: The Essential Collection,” a good way to prep for the new upcoming “Underworld” installment, as well as strong antidote to that other vampire and werewolf saga—you know the one I mean.

Andrew Hudak is a lifelong film lover. His column on blu-ray new releases appears every Tuesday; he also regularly reviews new theatrical releases for Hudak On Hollywood. He lives in Connecticut.

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