Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
Close Range isn’t good however, I will say at least the fight choreography wasn’t half bad but the acting has much to be desired and the screenplay doesn’t fare much better. But for fans of Adkins and kind of old school, 1990s-esque films, it might be worth a rental or cheap pick-up.
What started off as an interesting story about the Milgram Experiment turned into a bit of a bore of film in the second half, though Peter Sarsgaard does give a fine performance and director Michael Almereyda certainly didn’t go the conventional route in the story and filmmaking style, so Experimenter does at least stand out in that regard.
Mysterious Island is a fun, light-hearted, fantasy flick highlighted by Ray Haryhausen’s incredible effects work combined with Bernard Herrmann’s score. The Blu-ray released under the Twilight Time line offers some decent features headlined by an extensive audio commentary, and good video/audio transfers.
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Jenny’s Wedding had the ingredients to be a decent enough romantic drama but instead the talents are wasted with a sub-par script and little to no chemistry between Heigl and Bledel. With the likes of Tom Wilkinson co-starring and from the director of Beaches, this was a disappointing flick only worthy perhaps of a rental.
There’s really no reason for The Transporter Refueled to exist, let alone one without Jason Statham starring. The writing is bad, the action sequences weren’t well directed and came across more as a commercial for Audi, and the performance from Ed Skrein does not make for a fun or kick ass action hero.
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12 Rounds 3: Lockdown is just another bad direct-to-video flick but worse yet, it’s not even a fun bad, just plain bad. The acting is wooden especially on the part of Dean Ambrose who shows no charisma to play the lead and the fight scenes were poorly choreographed. The Blu-ray is rather basic with two thin featurettes, so-so video and adequate audio transfers.
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It’s not hard to see why Heist had a very limited theater run before being released to DTV obscurity in spite of a nice cast between Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Robert De Niro. But thanks to a bad script, with far too many contrivances to ignore, this is the type of movie easily forgotten within a day and thrown in with the rest of the subpar flicks.
1984 is a prolific adaptation based on an equally prolific novel that features some fine performances highlighted by John Hurt and amazing cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins.
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Pawn Sacrifice isn’t one of Zwick’s best movies, which for me is still The Last Samurai, but it’s still an adequate drama with strong performances by Tobey Maguire and Michael Stuhlbarg, the latter of whom deserves some award recognition. The Blu-ray release offers good video and audio transfers but falls far short in the bonus material department.
“Game of Thrones”: The Complete Second Season is another solid set. The show is still strong with powerful performances and impressive production design and this Steelbook re-release has some great bonus material to go along with incredible video and audio transfers, the latter getting upgraded to the new Atmos track.
“Marco Polo” isn’t quite my cup of tea but there’s enough entertainment value, not to mention nice work done with the costumes and sets that it’s probably worth a watch especially since it’s only 10 episodes thus one could get through them all in a weekend.
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Adulterers is a bit heavy-handed and the writing, dialogue specifically, wasn’t the best, but it has its moments with some respectable performances from Sean Faris and a decent, if not unsatisfying, enough twist. The DVD released by RLJ is basic with no bonus material while the audio and video were OK.
Mississippi Grind is a well meaning and generally finely acted drama but the screenplay probably could’ve used a little more work in fleshing out the friendship between its two main characters, though to be fair, the acting by both Mendelsohn and Reynolds does at least make this watchable.
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“Game of Thrones”: The Complete First Season starts off strong and continues to its brutal season finale with brilliant performances from its vast cast from beginning to end along with award-winning production and costume designs. This new Limited Edition Steelbook release is more or less the same as the previous releases but comes with an upgraded Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie is, putting it simply, a crap of a movie. Sure, the film might have its fans in a cultish kind of way and plenty of camp but not in the good kind of way. Beyond that, the costumes and prosthetics are creepier than anything else.
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