The Grudge (The Untold Chapter) isn’t a lazy sequel (or si-quel) and thanks to Nicolas Pesce does have an interesting and dark look, but the story isn’t up to par and does rely a bit much on the jump scares.
Battle of the Sexes isn’t as great as it could have been, but I did admire the performances from Emma Stone, Steve Carell and Andrea Riseborough, all deserving of award recognition.
Although some of these were released on Blu-ray (as well as DVD), if you didn’t already own these, The Best of Agatha Christie sets are well worth picking up especially if you like the author’s adaptations.
Nocturnal Animals might not have engaged me on an emotional level, the writing and storytelling from Tom Ford are still fantastic and the performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon were amazing and, at least in Shannon’s case, award-worthy.
Hidden is an effective, if not low key, independent drama thriller with some solid psychological underpinnings and solid performances by Alexander Skarsgård and Andrea Riseborough. It’s not an entirely memorable flick and probably will one day air on SyFy. Unfortunately there’s not much to this release with no features, OK video/audio transfers and not even a scene access menu…
Birdman might not quite be the home-run of a film some make it out to be, but no doubt Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s character-driven opus, with commentary on modern-day blockbusters, is anything if not original and features a fantastic performance by Michael Keaton who was deserving of the Best Actor award.