DVD Releases July 7th ON REVIEW

Five Fingers - B (Gotta Rent)
Ryan Phillipe and Laurence Fishburn star in a thriller about terrorist cells and interrogation. Aside from the terrible accents, this film was actually a pretty intense direct-to-dvd movie. The movie plays out with Fishburn torturing Phillipe trying to find out some information about his intentions by cutting off his fingers. Both actors do a decent job, although they also have done better work. What really makes this movie is the ending. Too often do good movies crash because of a disappointing ending; however that’s where this one shines. This is one of the few direct-to-dvd releases that is definitely worth a watch.

Push - C- (Wait for It, if you're bored)
Push couldn’t have been more of a disappointment. It follows in the same footsteps as the movie Jumper; a promising storyline, potential for great special effects, and yet falls flat on its face. The story is almost as if a rookie director got control of the Heroes television show and tried to make it into a movie. Push is advertised as being a movie about telekinesis. Along with the telekinesis is also precognition (seeing the future), mind-control, and 2 characters whose power is an annoyance rivals that of Jar-Jar Binks. With a pretty decent cast this should have been at least an average movie, however this was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve seen in recent years.

Knowing - B (Gotta Rent)
If I hadn’t known any better going into this movie I would have thought it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan. For the first hour and a half it is a very unique, thrilling story. The CGI for the disaster scenes are also quite impressive. However, the last 20 minutes is such a disappointment that it almost ruins the movie. Their resolution to the story resembles all of Shyamalan’s movies, making little sense and so distant from the rest of the movie that it will just make you laugh at how ridiculous it is. Most of its other flaws (such as minor plot holes) can be easily overlooked, but the ending isn’t as easily forgettable. I’d recommend it to rent, which could have been worth a purchase if a better ending were to have been written.

The Unborn - B- (Wait for It)
As far as a horror movie goes this is better than most of the ones that have been released in recent years. I found it to be much creepier than The Grudge series and on par with The Ring when it was released. There is something about little kids in horror movies that makes them much scarier than the ones with psycho killers or monsters. The plot itself is pretty lame and doesn’t make hardly any sense, but that’s not usually something people care about in horror movies. I’d put this on par with the recently released The Uninvited and would say it’s worth a rent if you’re a horror fan.