Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
Downton Abbey is one of more compelling television shows on and between the excellent performances and amazing production and costume designs, it’s easy to see why it has captured audience’s attention on both sides of the pond.
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The Devil’s Dolls is a standard but effective enough horror flick with some OK performances and nice atmosphere. It doesn’t break new ground in the genre, both in terms of story and direction, but fans of the genre might get something out of it.
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Dark Water is a creepy as all hell J-horror flick and probably my second favorite in the genre behind Ringu, though this one has some scary scenes no less than the final one. Director Hideo Nakata, along with the creepy factor, provides a thoughtful, character-centric, exercise.
The Unspoken could’ve been a fine, if not ho-hum, supernatural horror flick but all of that is undone by a heavy-handed score and far too many jump scares that were far more annoying than actually scary.
Elena of Avalor: Ready to Rule is a fun little show that younger viewers, or perhaps older ones who like these Disney cartoons, will enjoy and admittedly a few of the jokes made me chuckle. It is unfortunate that the channel continues to put out these volume-like sets instead of complete seasons.
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The Hollars is a well made family drama-comedy with several great performances but none better than Margo Martindale who is a true delight and should get an Oscar nomination out of this role. John Krasinski is a fine actor and is in his element with this material and as a director, isn’t flashy and lets the acting do the talking.
Pretty Poison is a surprisingly well done romantic-drama with crime thrown into the mixture and features great performances from Anthony Perkins, unsurprisingly, as well as what should’ve been a star-making role by Tuesday Weld.
Pete’s Dragon is a fun flick for the entire family with respectable visual effects work on the dragon and some fine performances from the human cast with the kids coming across well and avoiding the pratfalls of child actors in these types of movies.
Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story is hardly a great western, in fact it’s a movie filled with a bunch of western clichés and some so-so acting by lead Trace Adkins. Still, there’s a moderate amount of entertainment if only to see Judd Nelson as an outlaw.
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Return of the Living Dead 3 is of course a silly horror film with a romantic twist; the performance by a young Melinda Clarke (credited as Mindy Clarke) is fantastic playing a still sexy undead.
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Black Christmas didn’t quite grab me as it has others, but there is certain creepiness and combined with a fun cast and some genuine scary moments here and there, along with a twist that’s ingrained in most people’s minds, the film at least was entertaining.
Dreamscape is a sometimes cheesy 1980s sci-fi thriller but incredibly fun featuring a great cast from a young Dennis Quaid to veterans Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer. Not sure how much replay value it has but it was enjoyable enough.
Star Trek: The Animated Series is a fine release from Paramount and although the animation itself has all the hallmarks from the 1970s, the stories at least are well written and these serve nicely as unofficial fourth and fifth seasons of the original series, highlighted by its original cast.
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War Dogs could’ve been better but as it is, the performances by Jonah Hill and Miles Teller were solid, as was Bradley Cooper’s brief role, yet the story never quite hit its mark for me. At the very least, it is worth a rental.
Moby Dick is a classic adaptation of the, well, Herman Melville’s classic novel and features some fine performances by Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart, not to mention Orson Welles in a small role.