The Kid Blu-ray Review

      Actors: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Format: Full Screen, NTSC, Restored, Special Edition, Subtitled

Language: English

Subtitles: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: NR (Not Rated)

Studio: Criterion Collection (Direct)

Release Date: February 16, 2016

Run Time: 52 minutes

        If it were possibly to adequately convey emotion on page as they are within our living flesh, I would have pages upon pages to pour out for Charlie Chaplin’s crucial classic, The Kid. This was the vaudeville performer’s transition from short films to features, but it also conveyed his signature ability to combine pathos with humor, blending the melodrama of a ‘woman’s pictures’ with the silliness of ‘slapstick.’ But The Kid is much more than historically relevant; it also carries deep personal significance for me.

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The Beauty Inside Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Park Seo-Jun, Han Hyo-joo

Director: Jong-Yeol Baek

Format: Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, THX, Widescreen

Language: Korean

Subtitles: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Well Go USA

Release Date: February 2, 2016

Run Time: 127 minutes

 

 

        At some point, everyone who has been in love (and more importantly, loved) asks the question, “Why me?” What is it in me that deserves to be loved, or is it all surface attraction we use to convince ourselves of a deeper connection? These are the questions asked by The Beauty Inside, a fantasy romance in the tradition of Meet Joe Black, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and the final sequence of the Korean My Sassy Girl. Even though the narrative comes closest to the Brad Pitt vehicles, it is the blending of comedy, melodrama, and fantasy which make the tone align most with the Korean film. Other than revenge thrillers, romantic comedy with a tinge of the surreal is what South Korean cinema seems to do best, both in television and film. While The Beauty Inside doesn’t break any genre molds (adapted from a largely unseen American online series), it is a testament to the filmmaking that its unique ideas come off so unassuming.   

 

From Dusk till Dawn: Season Two Blu-ray Review

     Actors: D.J. Cotrona, Zane Holtz, Eiza Gonzalez

Format: Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen

Language: English

Number of discs: 3

Rated: NR (Not Rated)

Studio: Entertainment One

Release Date: February 2, 2016

Run Time: 448 minutes

 

 

        Season one of “From Dusk till Dawn” had the benefit of a pre-established narrative structure lifted from the screenplay Quentin Tarantino wrote for Robert Rodriguez’s 1996 film. Season two doesn’t have this luxury, and it sacrifices much of the simplicity in the first season by creating a new direction for the characters and the plot. Unfortunately, a lot of the fun is also lost along the process, even more than was shed in the transformation from two-hour film to 10-episode seasons. Gone are the clever quips from Tarantino’s dialogue and parallelisms between vampirism and the criminal underworld now have as much subtlety as the fanged characters in direct sunlight.

 

Comin’ At Ya Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Tony Anthony, Gene Quintano, Victoria Abril, Ricardo Palacios, Lewis Gordon

Format: NTSC, 3D

Language: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: Mvd Visual

Release Date: January 26, 2016

Run Time: 91 minutes

 

 

        Nearly every blockbuster spectacle is now theatrically distributed with the option of 3D, to the point that it has just become another tool in storytelling. When 3D films first arrived in theaters, they served a less fluid function within the narrative, mostly because it was more gimmick than artistic tool in the 1950s. They were a novelty, utilized as a unique experience to get audiences back into theaters in the aftermath of television’s arrival. Comin’ at Ya! embraced this philosophy and revived the 3D trend for a second wave in the 1980s, though it took a recent advance in home entertainment technology for this unique historical experience to become available for audiences today.

 

Learning to Drive DVD Review

     Actors: Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Grace Gummer

Director: Isabel Coixet

Format: Multiple Formats, Color, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Dubbed: Spanish

Region: Region 1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R

Studio: Broad Green Pictures

DVD Release Date: January 19, 2016

Run Time: 90 minutes

 

        Learning to Drive has a familiar set-up, and it doesn’t take long to figure out where the story is heading. It takes remarkably longer for the film to actually get there, stumbling down the well-worn narrative path, easily distracted by unnecessary and redundant sequences. Boiled down to its essence, Learning to Drive is little more than a short film which has been bloated by repeated sequences pounding the transparent metaphor of the title into audiences’ brains. It is a mild and innocuous; not so much bad as it is bland and forgettable, despite the best efforts from its stars.  

 

The New Girlfriend Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Romain Duris, Anais Demoustier, Raphael Personnaz

Director: Francois Ozon

Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC, Widescreen

Language: French

Subtitles: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: Cohen Media Group

Release Date: January 26, 2016

Run Time: 108 minutes

 

        The way that The New Girlfriend speeds through the film’s exposition with a cleverly stylistic and dialogue-free opening sequence, I was certain that filmmaker François Ozon (The Swimming Pool, 8 Women) was rushing in a specific direction. Instead, The New Girlfriend wanders aimlessly throughout a number of different tones and ideas, never committing to any one direction enough to fully deliver. Moments of the narrative seem to have the social sensitivity and relevance of a movie like The Danish Girl, though the peculiarities of sexuality are nearly turned into tools of ominous suspense and mystery, all wrapped up in a series of scenes that awkwardly shift tones between comedy and melodrama.

 

Inside Llewyn Davis Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, T Bone Burnett

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, DTS Surround Sound, Restored, Special Edition, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Subtitles: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R

Studio: Criterion Collection (Direct)

Release Date: January 19, 2016

Run Time: 104 minutes

 

 

        Every frame of Inside Llewyn Davis is a near miracle in visual storytelling, matched by the Coen Brothers’ signature subtext-filled witty narrative. It is implanted with a whimsical style of humor that only Joel and Ethan could accomplish in a film about the bleak cyclical existence of a struggling artist. Harsh realities about the music industry and real-world references are miraculously blended with touches of surrealism and clever parallels to classic literature. Inside Llewyn Davis has a deceptively simplistic storyline, but the actual filmmaking is richly layered with meaning and subtext, providing hours of introspection and analysis beyond the 104-minute running-time.  

 

Everest Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, Jason Clarke

Director: Baltasar Kormakur

Format: Color, Widescreen, 3D, Blu-ray, Digital_copy

Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby TrueHD), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Subtitles: French, Spanish, English

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Number of discs: 3

Rated: PG-13 

Studio: Universal

DVD Release Date: January 19, 2016

Digital Copy Expiration Date: May 2, 2016

        As I watched Everest, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had previously watched a documentary about the tragic events depicted in the film. The particular elements and difficulties leading to fatalities all felt familiar, but I think that has more to do with the similarity between separate events, like the ones also depicted in The Summit. This was the film I was thinking of, and though it took place in a different decade and on a different mountain, there are a remarkable number of things that remain the same. This seems to show that no amount of time diminishes the height of some peaks, but it also provides some narrative difficulty.

 

Sinister 2 Blu-ray Review

     Directors: Ciaran Foy

Format: Digital_copy

Language: English (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)

Subtitles: Spanish

Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R

Studio: Universal Studios

Release Date: January 12, 2016

Digital Copy Expiration Date: May 2, 2016

Run Time: 98 minutes

 

        The beginning of Sinister 2 felt like a Hollywood remake of Goodnight Mommy, before quickly devolving into a typical sequel to the generic 2012 supernatural horror film. The villain in this series is an evil spirit called Baghuul, which is essentially just a mix between the boogeyman and whatever the angry spirits in The Ring franchise are. When viewers of old family videos, which turn into found-footage snuff films (Saw meets Paranormal Activity), Baghuul appears and possesses one of the family children to kill the rest of the family. They also record the murders for their own film to continue the cycle. The sequel continues this storyline while also attempting to pay homage to Stephen King’s Children of the Corn. And perhaps this is the problem; in my first paragraph attempting to describe Sinister 2, I have already mentioned five other horror franchises.

 

Deathgasm Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, Kimberley Crossman, Sam Berkley

Director: Jason Lei Howden

Format: Blu-ray, Widescreen

Language: English

Region: Region A/1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Dark Sky Films

Release Date: January 5, 2016

Run Time: 86 minutes

 

 

        If you had no knowledge of heavy metal music prior to watching Deathgasm, you might assume that it is all demon-obsession and the raging of sophomoric teenage hormones from this blood-soaked horror comedy. The concept is far from original, with only a small shift in the music choices of the main characters. In fact, the outcasts fighting demons caused by their interest/hobby is a narrative which has been used before, including Knights of Badassdom taking a similar approach with the use of live action role playing or boy scouts in Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Appreciation of metal music is not necessarily required for enjoyment of Deathgasm, because it is secondary to the use of generic horror elements.

       

Flesh and Bone Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Sarah Hay, Sascha Radetsky, Ethan Stiefel, Emily Tyra

Format: Anamorphic, NTSC, Widescreen

Language: English

Region: Region A/1

Number of discs: 2

Rated: NR

Studio: ANCHOR BAY

Release Date: January 5, 2016

Run Time: 482 minutes

 

 

        First, let me start by saying that I became easily addicted to “Flesh and Bone,” despite my initial reservations and various complaints with the overall product. Even when I found myself irritated by story decisions made, it had little to no effect on my desire to continue watching, suggesting that they were doing something right. I will even say that “Flesh and Bone” has increased by appreciation of ballet, though not as much as my desire to see this world of professional dancing portrayed on film or television without the inclusion of sexual deviance. First it was mental instability and masturbation-laden Black Swan and now we are given the strip clubs and incest of “Flesh and Bone.” And if this is your only knowledge of ballet, you would have to assume all of the directors use their power to sexually harass their ambitious company members.

 

Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Mark McGrath, Dennis Miller, Patrick Warburton, David Spade, Brittany Daniel

Director: Fred Wolf

Producers: David Spade, Fred Wolf, Doug Robinson, Amy Kim, Adam Sandler

Format: AC-3, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Spanish, English

Dubbed: French, Portuguese, Thai, Spanish

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: NR

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Release Date: January 5, 2016

Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2019

Run Time: 109 minutes

 

        For all of the grief that Adam Sandler receives for the films he stars in, 2015 was a fairly decent year for the actor. The sequel to the 2012 animated film, Hotel Transylvania 2, broke records at the box office for Sony and Sandler, becoming the highest opening weekend of the actor’s career. And while both Pixels and Ridiculous 6 were overwhelmingly deemed failures by critics, even these have bombs have silver linings. While Pixels did not make what was anticipated, it isn’t nearly as large of a financial upset as every other Sandler live action released in recent years. And regardless of how terrible the experts may agree that Ridiculous 6 is, it has still managed to become the most streamed film within the first 30 days of being released on Netflix.

 

Memories of the Sword Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Lee Byung-hun, Jeon Do-yeon, Kim Go-eun

Director: Park Heung-sik

Format: Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, THX, Widescreen

Language: Korean

Subtitles: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Well Go USA

Release Date: January 5, 2016

Run Time: 121 minutes

 

        Martial arts films tend to contain many of the same narratives, simply retold with different characters and choreography, not unlike the genre’s gun-slinging Western counterpart. This can work as a double-edged sword for these films, providing familiarity and common themes for audiences to latch onto while also running the risk of blending in with countless others of the same nature. Memories of the Sword certainly has all of the familiar elements of a martial arts classic; a betrayal that must be avenged, a corrupt leader, and a young protégé trained to defeat injustice. Unfortunately, little amidst this familiarity is original enough to stand out, and the viewing experience itself is a bit too disjointed to provide the escapism of entertainment.

 

The Walk 3D Blu-ray Review

Actors: Benedict Samuel, Ben Schwartz, Ben Kingsley, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Clément Sibony

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Producers: Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey, Jack Rapke

Format: NTSC, Subtitled, 3D, Ultraviolet

Language: English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian, Cantonese, Thai, Spanish, English

Dubbed: French, Portuguese, Thai, Spanish

Audio Description: English

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Number of discs: 2

Rated: PG

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Release Date: January 5, 2016

Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2019

 

        The Walk is among the few films released in 3D where the format has been utilized in a way that is essential to the viewing experience. The final high-wire walk in the most obvious example of this, bringing audiences to the precipice between the Twin Towers in the same manner that Gravity transported viewers into space, but The Walk has much more than this climactic sequence to offer in both 2D and 3D. Despite being about 15-minutes too long in the middle section, Robert Zemeckis has created an energetic and spectacle-filled film, from the fast-paced beginning on the streets of Paris to the thrilling finale over the landscape of Manhattan.       

 

The Green Inferno Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Daryl Sabara, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Sky Ferreira

Format: Widescreen

Language: English (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)

Subtitles: French, Spanish, English

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R

Studio: Universal

Release Date: January 5, 2016

Digital Copy Expiration Date: May 2, 2016

Run Time: 101 minutes

 

        Eli Roth as a filmmaker is like Quentin Tarantino without the intelligence or finesse. All that remains are references to grindhouse films of the 1970s and ‘80s, which are often too similar to the original to be enjoyed as little more than homage. With The Green Inferno, Roth tackled the disturbing sub-genre of horror involving native cannibals in the rainforests. The original films he has clearly been influenced by include Ruggero Deodato’s “Cannibal Trilogy,” the second of which was originally titled ‘The Green Inferno’ before switching to Cannibal Holocaust.

 

The Visit Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Ed Oxenbould, Deanna dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn, Olivia DeJonge

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Format: Color, Widescreen, Digital_copy

Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Subtitles: French, Spanish, English

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Number of discs: 2

Rated: PG-13

Studio: Universal Studios

Release Date: January 5, 2016

Digital Copy Expiration Date: May 2, 2016

 

        M. Night Shyamalan self produced The Visit so that he would have complete creative control, implying that his long string of failures had been due to studio meddling. So here is The Visit, presented as the filmmaker intended and allowing the audience to see his true artistic vision, and I’m still not impressed. Although Shyamalan proves that he is able to shed the self-seriousness for a bit of playful genre filmmaking, his abilities as a director are still vastly overwhelmed by his inability to write a deserving screenplay in over a decade.

 

War Room Blu-ray Review

Actors: T.C. Stallings, Priscilla Shirer, Alex Kendrick, Beth Moore, Karen Abercrombie

Director: Alex Kendrick

Producer: Stephen Kendrick

Format: AC-3, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Tagalog, Spanish, English

Dubbed: French, Portuguese, Thai, Spanish

Audio Description: English

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: PG

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Release Date: December 22, 2015

Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2018

Run Time: 120 minutes

 

        Alex and Stephen Kendrick are brothers who started their filmmaking career with a church ministry/production company called Sherwood Productions in Georgia. Hollywood took notice when their minimal budget (thanks, in part, to members of the congregation who donated time and resources), and Sony Pictures struck up a deal with the brothers to collaborate on their faith-based films. War Room is the first of these releases, and despite some improvement in the production values, it appears to be business as usual for the Kendrick Brothers. Their paycheck may have increased significantly, but War Room is essentially just a gender-swap version of Fireproof, one of their first successes with Sherwood Productions.

 

The Perfect Guy Blu-ray Review

Actors: Michael Ealy, Charles Dutton, Sanaa Lathan, Kathryn Morris, Rutina Wesley

Director: David Rosenthal

Producers: Wendy Rhoads, Darryl Taja, Tommy Oliver, Nicole Rocklin

Format: Blu-ray, Subtitled

Language: English

Subtitles: French, Spanish, English

Dubbed: French, Spanish

Audio Description: English

Region: Region A/1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: PG-13

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Release Date: December 29, 2015

Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2018

Run Time: 100 minutes

 

        The Perfect Guy is competently made, and as I watched it I began to think that critics had given the mildly amusing genre film a bad rap. Then days later I sat down to write my thoughts on the film and found that the bland safety of the narrative had left little impression on my mind. Forced to think about it, of course I was able to remember what had happened, but this is definitely the type of movie you are more likely to have memories of your experience watching the film than anything in the narrative itself. My experience was moderately enjoyable, despite being aware I was watching a film both predictable and generic to a fault.  

 

Queen of Earth DVD Review

    Actors: Elisabeth Moss, Patrick Fugit, Katherine Waterston

Director: Alex Ross Perry

Format: Multiple Formats, Color, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Region: Region 1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: MPI Home Video

DVD Release Date: December 22, 2015

Run Time: 90 minutes

 

 

        There are things about Queen of Earth that I appreciated, such as the narrative resemblance to psychological thrillers such as Ingmar Bergman’s Persona or Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and (to a lesser degree) Rosemary’s Baby. The trailer even has a stylistic resemblance to films in this sub-genre from the 1970s, despite the style being much more subdued in the actual film. Then there are aspects of the relationships in Queen of Earth that I was unable to appreciate, if only for the simple fact that I belong to the wrong gender.