This 2-Movie Collection of Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life are the same two discs from the individual 4K releases, sans the Blu-rays which contained most of the bonus features.
Frozen II is a slight step up from the first film, though notable that I am in the minority as I wasn’t a big fan of that movie, and with this film at least the music was better.
First Man might not be the best movie about space exploration around but it is still a well made drama from Damien Chazelle in a solid follow-up to his Academy Award winning music-drama, La La Land. Ryan Gosling gives a nice, if not quiet, performance.
The Jack Ryan Collection is a solid release from Paramount for what I consider a nice franchise, however there never was one that stoodout, each being fine filmmaking and storytelling and nice performances from the respective actors.
Even though I did find Justice League entertaining enough, there’s no denying there was a certain amount of disappointment leading to the build-up and not being able to see what was originally intended, not to mention the deleted footage seen in the various trailers. If you go in just expecting a insubstantial popcorn flick, it’s fine, but it certainly did not live up to the title.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life is a half-baked and poorly made sequel that lacked the fun and thrills of the first film though Angelina Jolie appeared to give it her all, or at least her stunt double did, but the action itself was lackluster outside of the opening action sequence.
Last Days in the Desert seems to be a passion project from all involved and anyone not interested in movies with a personal journey, as a fair portion McGregor treks through the desert, this might bore you. Still, Ewan McGregor does turn in a nice performance but otherwise it’s a throwaway movie that I have no interest in seeing again.
The Driftless Area isn’t a great movie but it’s still watchable thanks to a few strong performances, specifically Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel and John Hawkes. The DVD released through Sony is pretty basic with only one extra while the video/audio transfers are OK.
Hitman: Agent 47 might not be a horrible movie experience but it certainly much to be desired with a poor casting choice of Rupert Friend who seems too refined for the role while relative newcomer Hannah Ware came off fairly well. This is the type of film, despite an R-rating, destined to air on FX or FXX with some not-so-creative editing and certainly is not worth a purchase let along a rental.
Stop-Loss is a well made war-drama featuring several fine performances from Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum. I wasn’t floored by the film and it doesn’t even compete with the best war movies and it doesn’t possess much replay value, but it might be worth a watch.
Call it strike two for Sony trying to launch a Ghost Rider franchise. The PG-13 might be constraining for the directors but even with an R-rating, I can’t see it being that much better. Nicolas Cage continues his downward slide with his Rock and Leaving Las Vegas days looking like a distant memory, albeit once in a while he can surprise. Even so, I can’t really muster the energy to hate Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. To me, indifference is worse than hating a movie