BLIND PICK: The Magus (1968)

People love to shop online, but for me, nothing beats rummaging through the bins at my local movie store. It's a voyage of discovery every time, and not something I'm likely to give up for the convenience of a mouse click. BLIND PICK is a new feature where I'll grab an interesting title that I've never seen, one that I didn't intend to buy until coming across it on the rack, and do a quick review.

The Magus (1968)
Released by: 20th Century Fox
Dir: Guy Green
Starring: Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, Candice Bergen, Anna Karina

Why did I buy it? Well, between that great title ("Magus" means magician, or sorcerer), the retro cover art, and the talent involved, picking this one up was an easy decision. I didn't even bother to read the back cover before adding it to my pile.

What's the story? Nicholas Urfe (Caine) is an Englishman who skips town on a relationship that's getting too serious for a teaching position on a small Greek island. He is befriended by the charismatic Maurice (Quinn) and falls under the spell of the beautiful Lily (Bergen), a mysterious woman who resides in Maurice's home. But, who is Lily really? Is she Maurice's lover, or his prisoner? Is she a damsel in distress, or a bored temptress? Nothing is what it seems, and Maurice's mind games pull Nicholas deeper into a web of deception that may have dire consequences. He's given one last shot at returning to normal life when ex-lover Anne (Karina) visits Greece, but his curiosity and attraction to Lily is too strong, compelling him to continue in the magus' game.

Non-spoilery thoughts? Directed by Guy Green -- best known as the cinematographer on David Lean's Great Expectations and Oliver Twist -- the film bounces between romantic comedy, melodrama, and surrealism. It's wildly uneven, as are the performances of its three leads, and the camerawork and editing is often spotty. Plus, it features, perhaps, the worst music score imaginable. (Seriously, some of the music cues are laughable.) Without spoiling the secrets of the film's final act, it's difficult to reveal my complex feelings about the story. But, I'd say the last 20-30 minutes is easily the best that the film has to offer, including a surprisingly great flashback for Quinn's character, an elaborate dream sequence, and the revelation of the magus' endgame.

Final verdict? Disappointing, given the talent involved, but it's mysterious and bizarre, and has some cool ideas, making it an interesting footnote in some great careers. Watching this movie with a large midnight crowd could be fun, if Fox were to make it available for revival.

Review: "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters"

When 20th Century Fox made Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief in 2010, it was just another in a long line of youth fantasy films for the studio -- including franchise non-starters Eragon, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, and City of Ember -- that was designed to cash in on Potter-mania. As you can imagine, it was quite a coup for them to get Chris Columbus in the director's chair; Columbus had helmed the first two Harry Potter films, and was instrumental in bringing J.K. Rowling's beloved books to life on screen for Warner Brothers. His involvement with Percy Jackson lent a legitimacy and creative weight that none of Fox's other Young Adult projects had. The end result was a well-produced, well-cast movie, with a tone that was a bit more lighthearted and campy than the Potter movies -- perfectly suiting a series that is meant to hark back to classic Ray Harryhausen monster movies like Sinbad or Clash of the Titans.

Review: "2 Guns"

Hollywood has certainly gone crazy with the comic book adaptations in recent years, and I'm not just talking superheroes like The Avengers and Man of Steel. Most people don't realize that Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks, RED with Bruce Willis, and AMC's hit television show, The Walking Dead, are adaptations of popular comic book stories, too. This week's I-didn't-know-it-was-a-comic-book release is 2 Guns, based on the Boom! Studios series by Steven Grant.

In the film, Bobby (Denzel Washington) and Stig (Mark Wahlberg) are swindlers working both sides of the Texas/Mexico border to move drugs and money and anything else they can, in order to make some dough. After getting stiffed on a deal for some cocaine by cartel boss Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos), the two decide to rob a bank where Papi keeps $3 million in drug money, but somehow end up with $43 million that doesn't belong to Papi at all. It quickly becomes clear that the two men are not who they're pretending to be, and as the heat comes down from every direction -- with Papi, the CIA, and rogue military officers all wanting the money for themselves -- Bobby and Stig will need to trust each other and stick together in order to survive.

Review: "RED 2"

Staying retired and leaving his old life behind hasn't exactly been easy for ex-CIA operative Frank Moses (Bruce Willis). Of course, it doesn't help that the government keeps trying to kill him for things that he did -- in the service of his country -- decades ago. This time, it's a Cold War era mystery-project called "Nightshade" that has him marked for death once again.

Picking up a few months after the events of the first film, RED 2 reunites Frank and his girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) with their paranoid brother-in-arms Marvin (John Malkovich). The three of them are on the run from a trio of dangerous agents: Jack Horton (Neal McDonough), a government spook assigned to tie up loose ends from "Nightshade;" wetwork specialist Victoria (Helen Mirren), an ally from the first film, has been given a contract by MI-6 to eliminate them this time around; and Han Jo-Bae (Lee Byung-Hun), a world-class assassin who's also hot on Frank's trail for both personal and professional reasons. Along the way, the gang will need help from some over-the-top characters: an information-dealing Brit nicknamed The Frog (David Thewlis); Edward Baily (Anthony Hopkins), a formerly-brilliant scientist locked in a London nut house; and Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a Russian ex-KGB agent who shares a past with Frank.