Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
Terminator Genisys will (and has) no doubt pissed off plenty of fans but taking emotion out of it, I actually didn’t think it was awful. The action scenes, albeit generic at times, were at least well shot, and the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Guardian was welcome and helped overshadow some of the shortcomings. In spite of those, it’s at least a passable and entertaining flick, though don’t go in expecting much.
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Black Widow is uneven but still a fun little thriller that probably was influenced by any number of Brian De Palma’s films. The performances by the two leads really make this entertaining and well worth a watch. The Blu-ray released through Screen Archives offers good video/audio transfers but is lackluster in the features department.
Strange Invaders is by no means great but co-writer/director Michael Laughlin does achieve its attempt at nostalgia alien science-fiction and the performances from the adequate cast isn’t bad either. The Blu-ray released through Screen Archives looks and sounds good though the features have much to be desired.
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Jurassic World could’ve been special but instead we get thinly developed characters, a plot that’s a rehash of the original and a subplot that even Dr. Evil would think was ridiculous. But all of that could be overlooked if it were fun and entertaining; instead I found it to be on the dull side with little suspense to help mask the film’s imperfections.
Escape from Alcatraz is one of my personal favorites from Clint Eastwood and although it’s hardly perfect, it is efficient in both its story telling as well as character development giving us just enough to care about the outcomes.
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The Vatican Tapes is the latest of the poorly made exorcism/possession films. Is it the worst of the bunch? Not quite but considering at least a respectable enough cast, and a lead actress who could have a future, it was still in some sense disappointing.
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The Gallows was easily one of the worst, not to mention inane, films I’ve seen all year and it’s still perplexing how it even managed a major theatrical distribution when it was destined to DTV and/or VOD. Shame really as the technical details, though the video is hard to judge considering the found footage style, isn’t half bad while the bonus material is merely so-so.
Disney has hit another home run with their “Diamond” series and finally another classic, Aladdin, has found its way into the high-definition world. This release offers excellent video and audio transfers and includes a fair amount of bonus material, some made for this release including Genie outtakes with Robin Williams, as well as porting over the previous releases features.
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The final season of “Nurse Jackie” culminates a solid series for Showtime and allows for Edie Falco to carry the show and remind just how strong of an actress she is dating back to “The Sopranos”. The show itself has never been a favorite of mine or anything but it’s entertaining enough. The Blu-ray released by Lionsgate is fine and includes excellent video and audio transfers and a adequate selection of bonus material.
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Dope is one of the sleeper hits of the summer with its throwback music to the 1990s, a compelling and interesting story, well written characters and fine performances all around but especially from a young and mostly unknown cast.
This Horror Classics: Volume One set of four Hammer Studios films is a solid selection of some decent flicks from the late 50s to early 70s that any classic horror hound will love. For me, I found these four fun enough especially for the cast including Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
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Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knights is a fun horror-comedy with some good performances, though none better than Billy Zane who chews the scenery like no other and has a good old time playing the outlandish villain. The movie itself is quite entertaining and features some impressive make-up effects and even the VFX, for its time, isn’t all that bad.
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Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is an interesting if not disturbing expose on the well known yet unknown religion focusing on former members, their experiences as well as a detail history of its origins, belief systems and ideas and why, in spite of certain abuses, has a foothold on some members.
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“Forensic Files”: The Best of Volumes 1-3 are a fine selection of episodes and for fans, like I am, it is nice to have these finally to watch at home although it seems at any given moment there is a marathon on Headline News. That said, the SRP on this is a tad much but if you can nab it for under $10, it might be worth it.
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On some level, even though I didn’t much expectations for Aloft going in, I was somewhat disappointed especially with Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy starring and while both actors were perfectly fine in their respective roles, the screenplay falters and doesn’t quite deliver with an unfocused message, partially about faith I guess, culminating with what could’ve been a powerful climax.