Josie and the Pussycats isn’t great but certainly a fun and entertaining timewaster thanks to a good cast led by Rachel Leigh Cook and some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments.
It’s that time of year again, a time to spend with family after more than a year of hardship and while there might be issues with a supply chain and more and more are going back to work, there’s still time to spend indoors especially with the weather getting colder and I’ve got a list here of some great titles from a variety of genres, there’s something for everybody.
Splitting Heirs is a slapstick comedy starring Rick Moranis, Eric Idle, Barbara Hershey and John Cleese and arrived on Blu-ray with a retro-style VHS slip cover on October 19th.
The Hills Have Eyes is by no means a favorite horror movie of mine despite being directed by the great Wes Craven, but it is certainly watchable with some respectable production value for the low budget along with decent enough performances.
The Last of Sheila was a surprisingly well done murder-mystery that was co-written by Anthony Perkins and features a nice ensemble cast headlined by James Coburn with an early role for Ian McShane.
The Middle-Earth: Ultimate Collector’s Edition set is a nice looking collection and a unique packaging that looks good on a bookshelf. The new features are fine and all and glad all of the commentaries are there, but disappointing that none of the extensive supplements were ported over.
Vanilla Sky is probably my favorite movie from Cameron Crowe, or at least one that hit more of an emotional core, although I also loved Almost Famous. The performance by Tom Cruise might not be his best but he’s in his element as is Penelope Cruz.
L.A. Story is a comfort movie, nothing overly complicated and the conflict pretty light, to go along with some of the quirky scenes. It’s just an all around fun flick that still holds up thanks to Steve Martin with both his performance and writing.
Reminiscence is a film that I’ve felt like I’ve seen before (not a pun), but beyond the familiarity, despite a respectable cast, all of whom seemed to give it their all, the core relationship between Jackman and Ferguson never gelled.
Bird on a Wire seemed to have the ingredients for a fun action-comedy with the starpowers, especially for 1990, of both Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, however despite their individual charms they really didn’t share great chemistry.
Elvira’s Haunted Hills was the long-anticipated sequel to Elvira: Mistress of the Dark that saw the return of Cassandra Peterson returning to the role she has played, and still does, for so many years. The Blu-ray is released by Shout Factory and came out October 6th.
The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper is an exaggerated telling of the infamous skyjacking true story and stars Treat Williams in the titular role and Robert Duvall as the man in, well, pursuit.
Kung Fu: The Complete First Season arrives on Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on November 2nd and stars Olivia Liang.
The Colony arrives on Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate. This science-fiction drama-thriller stars Nora Arnezeder, Iain Glen and Sarah-Sofie Boussnina.
Mad Love, starring Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive and Ted Healy, arrived on Blu-ray on October 19th from Warner Bros.’s Archive Collection and includes a new HD transfer and comes with an audio commentary and trailer.