Blu-ray Round-Up: Jonah Hex, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Last Airbender

"JONAH HEX" (2010) d: Jimmy Hayward
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What's to say? It's an unmitigated disaster in every possible way, starting and ending with Josh Brolin and that severe, grotesque grill. The script, based on the DC Comics character, is a threadbare revenge tale that can barely sustain itself for 80 minutes and even the design elements are badly misguided.  
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It's essentially Wild Wild West without the whimsy and The Punisher without the grit, what that leaves us with, I'm not really sure. [D-]
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"THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE" (2010) d: Jon Turteltaub
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Using a segment from Fantastia and turning it into a full-length feature hardly seems like a good idea and, truth be told, what's contrived here is hardly loftier than a second or third-rate young adult novel, yet miraculously, The Sorcerer's Apprentice actually manages to squeak out some goofy fun. 
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The colorful cast is generally the reason why, mostly because this is the most fun Nicolas Cage has been having on screen since the seldom mentioned Bad Lieutenant. Not to mention the amusingly gangly Jay Baruchel and Toby Kebbell who do all they can to make this wizarding hoopla go down a bit easier. [C+]
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"THE LAST AIRBENDER" (2010) d: M. Night Shyamalan
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Aside from a few distinctive visual flourishes and an overall luscious production design, The Last Airbender remains relentlessly silly and fatally self-serious. 
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And the young cast certainly can't carry this kooky material with its barefaced dialogue and cluttered storytelling. Shyamalan directs with flair, but this dopey fantasy didn't deserve its live-action jump. [C-]