Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
Lady in White is a movie with a mish-mash of ideas from social commentary to supernatural thriller to crime mystery and in none of those respects entirely works. However, the performances are pretty good headlined by Lukas Haas and despite sluggish pacing, the film managed to keep me entertaining until the end.
Shout’s Collector’s Edition of Child’s Play might not be a homerun compared with their other CE’s, but it’s still a nice release with an improved video transfer, solid lossless audio and a nice selection of bonus features including a new commentary with Tom Holland and a couple nice featurettes.
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Free State of Jones was an ambitious film for Co-Writer/Director Gary Ross who tends to be a filmmaker who makes nice, uplifting, films (see Seabiscuit) and this is no exception, though given the subject, it should’ve been better. That said, McConaughey and Mahershala Ali turn in excellent performances.
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I have little doubt the filmmakers put their all into Satanic and despite some respectable enough performances by the young cast, Sarah Hyland especially, the story just lacked anything new or creative. The final act is a mess though I did think there were elements that almost worked, but not nearly enough to save the rest.
The Neon Demon, for some, might be a unique experience but for me it told an age old story and when you strip away the bizarre scenes and over-stylezed sequences (which I generally liked in terms of the look), there’s nothing new here.
This “Collector’s Edition” of Carrie from Shout Factory is pretty darn good for a pretty darn good movie by suspense-maestro, Brian De Palma and features amazing performances by Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie.
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Shout Factory’s Bill & Ted’s Most Excellent Collection lives up to its name with a healthy collection of bonus material bringing a fair number of those involved back together to reminisce and also presenting good video and audio transfers.
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Although the last few seasons of Dexter were flawed (to say the least), the entire series still possesses some entertainment value and one can marvel at the performance by Michael C. Hall who was pretty consistent even in those weaker seasons.
The Exotic Dances of Bettie Page is more for completists, owners of previous docs and movies about the 1950s pin-up girl who has a large fan base that probably has only grown over the years.
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On a technical level, Warcraft isn’t terrible but in today’s and age and the advancement in the visual effects realm, it’s should be a given especially with a big budget tentpole. Outside of the VFX, and as someone unfamiliar with the source material, I found the film to be dull and filled with thinly written characters.
Like A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Snoopy Come Home is a Blu-ray release for big-time fans only. Both of these have been previously released on DVD already so what you’re buying here are upgraded picture and audio, but the lack of features makes me hesitate to give it a recommendation.
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Love Me or Leave Me is a fun music-romance-drama featuring two wonderful performances from the elegant Doris Day set against the rough-and-tumble James Cagney in one of his many gangster roles and for this one, received an Oscar nomination.
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Mankillers might be a fun romp for those longing for the crappy low budget flicks of the ‘80s and ‘90s, but for me I didn’t find it all that amusing though I did manage to enjoy some of the “performances”, otherwise this release is for die-hard fans only.
Writer/director Mark Pavia makes a valiant attempt with Fender Bender to create a throwback to the slashers of yesteryear and while there are a few touches to admire (scenes that remind you of Halloween in particular), the rest of the writing and plot points were utterly laughable and not in a good way.
Beauty and the Beast is still a phenomenal animated movie all these years later and still holds up as one of Disney’s best and an argument can be made, the best of the modern era.
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