Listen, guys. I'm not gonna try to spice this up this week. No movie trailers, no real introduction. Best of Tucson is due to the print in a few hours (it's stressful) and all I want to do is spend the weekend on the couch with my cat and some snacks. So, Here's your Casa Video Top 10. Go pick out a movie and join me for a weekend inside (or don't).

1. Spy
   
2. Avengers: Age of Ultron
   
3. Pitch Perfect 2
   
4. Poltergeist
   
5. Entourage
   
6. Furious 7
   
7. Love and Mercy
   
8. Cinderella
   
9. Cop Car
   
10. The Age of Adaline
    

Max (Taissa Farmiga) loses her mom (Malin Akerman) in a car accident. Her mom, Nancy, was a struggling horror film actress best known for a Friday the 13th-type, summer camp slasher movie made in the eighties. After agreeing to show up for a screening of her late mom’s film, Max and her friends journey inside the movie, where Max winds up hanging out with her mom, who isn’t really her mom and is actually Amanda, the character she played in the film. The movie is crazy enough to work on a few levels, although it suffers a bit because the movie is rated PG-13, strange for a movie spoofing films that have hard-R ratings. There are some good laughs due mainly to a strong supporting cast with comedy chops, including Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”), Adam Devine (“Workaholics”) and Alexander Ludwig (“Grown Ups 2”…okay, Alexander doesn’t provide a lot of laughs). Dan B. Morris provides a nice bit of authenticity playing Billy, a slasher villain modeled after Jason from the “Friday the 13th” movies. Norris has the moves down well, and deserves to be in the running for the sure-to-happen someday “Friday the 13th” reboot. Director Todd Strauss-Schulson has made a fun film, but it could’ve been batter had it added some more horror elements like over-the-top gore. It feels like the movie chickened out a bit.

Going to the movies is great, but renting movies is cheaper and you won't get kicked out for texting.

Each week, Casa Video sends us a list of their 10 most rented DVDs for the week. Here are the winners for the week:

1. Pitch Perfect 2


2. Mad Max: Fury Road


3. Furious 7

Twin brothers Lukas and Elias (played by Lukas and Elias Schwarz) have some major mommy issues in this taut, strange, and sometimes gut churning horror-thriller form writer-directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz. After moving into a new house, the brothers become confused with their mom (a terrific Susanne Wuest), who doesn’t seem to be herself. Her face is concealed in bandages after some sort of reconstructive surgery, and when those bandages come off, Lukas and Elias no longer recognize her. After pulling a series of stunts on their mother (or her imposter), Lukas and Elias take matters into their own hands, and things get kind of grisly. The kind of horror being portrayed here is reminiscent of the great “Audition” by Takashi Mike. That’s all I really want to say about that. The level at which you enjoy a movie like this involves the element of surprise, and I’m not going to be that asshole that gives everything away. The Schwarz brothers are mesmerizing as the possibly really sick kids, equally lovable and frightening. Fiala and Franz are making their narrative feature film debuts here, and it’s an auspicious debut for both of them, to say the least. Watch with caution because the last act is as disturbing as movies get.

Based on an excellent sci-fi book that is far more science than fiction, Ridley Scott’s The Martian wins a Close But No Cigar award. There isn’t anything about it that’s bad, from the performances to the stunning vistas of Mars, but it strikes the wrong tone. During a manned mission to the red planet, astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead by his crew during an evacuation. But he lived, and is forced to make a go of it by himself for several years until NASA can rescue him. The book, truly, is a terrific read, one that relies less on traditional American sci-fi heroism than hacking and trial and error. At one point, Watney refers to himself as a space pirate. That’s the mood and personality the film misses. It’s too pristine, with no hints of duct tape holding it together. 

Some actors are revered for their skills, others for their box office. Robert DeNiro is one of the few who has gone from being an actor you had to see to one you’re better off missing simply because his goals changed. What was the last honest-to-goodness “DeNiro movie,” not counting the blip on the radar of Silver Linings Playbook? You probably have to go back to the 1990s. In The Intern, he’s paired with Anne Hathaway, who is his boss at a blossoming New York start-up. The Nancy Myers-written-and-directed generational tale is banking on you banking on its stars. There’s nothing particularly special about any of it, outside of the notion that with all the new business models you read about, sometimes experience is still the best teacher. OK, fine. The Intern is designed to be safe and harmless, which used to be the antithesis of Robert DeNiro.

Johnny Depp breaks his shit slump with a riveting performance as James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the notorious Boston crime lord who also acted as informant to the FBI while killing people and destroying lives. Depp goes under some heavy makeup, including some gross teeth, to play the infamous brother of William “Billy” Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and pal of FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). The movie examines the strange dynamic that occurs between one of the worst criminals in Boston history, his high-ranking brother, and his meat-headed FBI friend. All three are very good in a film that, alas, feels like it was supposed to be a lot longer (I suspect there’s a four hour cut of this movie somewhere in director Scott Cooper’s basement). Depp is scary-good, yet his work feels strangely abbreviated, making him feel like more of a supporting player. Edgerton’s Connolly feels a little more well rounded, and continues a fine year for the actor after The Gift. Peter Sarsgaard, Kevin Bacon and Dakota Johnson are all good in supporting roles. As mobster movies go, this is a good one, but it should’ve been a great one. If anything, it’s good to see Depp truly digging into something rather than acting like a goofball for a paycheck.

Every week, Casa Video is kind enough to send us a list of their top 10 most-rented DVDs. We print the list in the paper's Cinema section, hopefully reminding someone about a film they've been meaning to see.

Here's the thing about newspapers: they run low on space. The internet doesn't. So, while we'll still shoot to get the list in print each week, you'll definitely be able to find it here on our blog.

Basically, here's what you (and everyone else in Tucson) want to watch this weekend:


1.  Furious 7

2.  Mad Max: Fury Road

3.  Cinderella

Admittedly, I was a huge Arcade Fire fan after hearing their breakthrough album, Funeral, and seeing their exuberant, festival-stealing performance at first Coachella in 2005. Since then, my enthusiasm waned a bit after seeing them too many times and listening to their subsequent mediocre albums, Neon Bible and The Suburbs. Their very good 2013 album, Reflektor, actually got me a little fired up about them again, so I went into this movie hoping for a reaffirming glimpse of the band as it stands today. This pseudo documentary, which mashes together concert footage snippets with impressionistic shots of the band and overdubs of bandleader Win Butler waxing philosophic, is a total mess. It makes me kind of want to hate the band. The performances (we never see an entire song) sound god awful for the most part, and nobody in the band, especially Butler, has anything interesting to say during the non-musical bits. Director Kahlil Joseph basically shot a ton of footage during the band’s big tour, filmed them in the studio and other various locales, and slapped all of this crap together with no semblance of order or purpose. The result is tedious, and makes the band look like a bunch of pretentious fucks that like themselves a little too much. Mind you, I’ve seen these guys live many times, and while Butler can come off a bit pompous at times, he’s a fun and even gracious live presence, as is the band. This film betrays them in every way possible. (The version of the film I saw contained a postscript with a couple of the band members, including Butler, doing a more traditional interview about the album and film. The bonus footage is MUCH better than the movie itself). 

There’s some sharp dialogue in “Cooties,” the sort of grisly fun that most zombie movies these days aim for, but it’s not quite enough. The idea is made pretty obvious by the title: It’s kid zombies. The film’s clever opening sequence gives us the backstory about tainted chicken nuggets on the school lunch menu. From there, the school’s staff has to figure out how to combat the virus that only targets pre-pubescent blood. The cast is familiar, even if you wish they were together for something a little more high-minded—Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Jack MacBrayer, Allison Pill—but ultimately, the sizzle the first 20 or 30 minutes gives us is too hard to sustain. If the word “zomedy” did not previously exist … you read it here first. Unfortunately, the silliness at play outweighs the knowing wink that this is all silliness.