Kickboxer: Vengeance is not exactly the great follow-up to the 1989 classic but at least Jean-Claude Van Damme is back and his appearance alone might make it a worthwhile watch, but otherwise the film is filled with bad acting, terrible dialogue and even the fight sequences are uninspiring.
Murder Weapon and Deadly Embrace are laughable erotic thrillers but I’d be lying if I was entertained by just how bad both were in just about every respect from the editing, acting and writing. If you’re a fan of the low budget 1980s flicks, both might hit the right spot.
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is a fun pulp action-adventure flick that may not always work but with Ron Ely’s tongue-in-cheek performance, and Superman spoof, it makes for an enjoyable experience.
Nightmare Sisters is a fun, if not silly, supernatural horror film with some, let’s say, questionable acting and shoddy script work, yet it’s the epitome of the 1980s B-movie and for that, I have at least some minor respect for it.
Overall, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is heads and shoulders above the first movie which in itself was entertaining. This is a strong and tighter film in terms of story. The UHD release by Lionsgate is more or less the same as its predecessor: a nice 4K video transfer but not quite amazing or worthy of an upgrade.
The Hunger Games is not a perfect beginning as a YA adaptation but it is certainly an entertaining flick and a star-making showcase for Jennifer Lawrence. This UHD/BD release from Lionsgate offers a nice video upgrade but not night and day while the features are all on the UHD disc.
The Jungle Book is a success in Disney’s obsession with adapting beloved animated movies into live action features and while the likes of Maleficent and to some extent Cinderella weren’t great, this one is entertaining for almost the entire family, though some scenes might be a tad too frightening for younger viewers.
Finding Dory may not have the emotional resonance of its predecessor, yet it’s still a highlight entertaining entry in the Pixar line, even if it’s on the lower half of their films, which have generally been high quality work with one exception (Cars 2). The voice talents are all top notch and the animation is absolutely beautiful.
Deathrow Gameshow is a silly (ok, really dumb) movie that doesn’t really work on much of any level, though I guess in some ways it’s a predictor of the state of reality television today. The acting isn’t any good and the writing isn’t much better either.
Lucio Fulci’s supernatural thriller, Manhattan Baby (aka Eye of the Evil Dead) has some decently creepy scenes but little else that captured my attention from beginning to end, though any fans of his might get more out of it.
For any fan of The Marx Brothers, this Silver Screen Collection of 5 of their great films (or at least ones Universal holds the rights to) is wonderful with good video/audio transfers and a nice selection of bonus features highlighted by a feature-length documentary not to mention commentaries available on each film.
Both Cape Fear and To Kill a Mockingbird are great dramas and each featuring great performances by Gregory Peck, obviously the latter being the best and nabbed him a Best Actor Academy Award.
The Waxwork movies aren’t great, though the first one was very entertaining, and although the sequel wasn’t quite as good, they do make for a nice Saturday night double-header especially for fans of horror.
Morris From America is an entertaining, often charming, coming-of-age romantic-drama-comedy featuring a fine performance from newcomer Markees Christmas as well as Craig Robinson showing his more dramatic side.
Imperium is a suspense-drama that is rather forgettable in its storytelling but is probably worth your time if only to see some a fine performance from Daniel Radcliffe who between this and The Woman in Black is turning into a solid actor in his attempts to get out of Harry Potter’s shadow.