DVD Reviews

It’s foolish to expect a movie about fossil hunting to be an exciting action banger. But Lord Have Mercy, is Ammonite about as slow as one would expect a movie about fossil hunting to be! To be fair, Ammonite isn’t about fossil hunting, nor does being slow necessarily make it a bad film. It isn’t. But like  ...

In annuls of home media, there are few titles regarded as legendary as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not only because of Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation, but in the sheer depth of content and effort made in exploring every facet of the creation of these films. From ...

In the Christian dramedy Small Group (2018), an agnostic filmmaker named Roman Scott Cooper (Sterling Hurst) goes undercover to explore evangelical religion. His producer Ballard (Robert Riechel Jr.) wants him to blow the lid off the church by creating a muckraking expose. But Scott’s  ...

There’s very little that Tom Hanks hasn’t done. From enduring the discomfort of support brassieres in TV’s Bosom Buddies, to foiling pirates on the high seas in Captain Phillips, America’s favorite actor has just about done it all. The guy even battled his way through Covid-19 with the grace of  ...

The new comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson called The Hustle is an almost identical remake of the 1988 classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin - itself a remake of Marlon Brando’s Bedtime Story. I say “almost” because  ...

It often takes an earth-shattering moment to remind us that sometimes, it is friendship – not biological family – that gets us through some of life’s most challenging times. That’s the big take-away in Our Friend, which tells the devastating true story of the Teague family and how their lives were suddenly ...

From the producer of Get Out and Us, Antebellum (2020) is hard to watch as it depicts the realities of slavery. Everything from branding a human being to committing rape and murder is vividly portrayed. Thankfully, some scenes take place in the present day which give the viewer a much  ...

The low-budget Christian drama Dispatched is like a movie version of a street preacher. You may have been just going about your daily business, but it grabs you by the shirt collar. It gets right up in your face and declares God’s love for you. This blunt approach to evangelism is not for everybody ...

The new comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson called The Hustle is an almost identical remake of the 1988 classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin - itself a remake of Marlon Brando’s Bedtime Story. I say “almost” because  ...

With nothing more than the well-being of our fellow man at stake, can humans be trusted to do the right thing to ensure the proliferation of the species? Or are we genetically programmed to revert to primitive nature? ...

Oof! The struggle is real!  Wonder Woman 1984, directed by Patty Jenkins, should have been a lot of things as it embraces the technicolor, cocaine-fueled era of BIG HAIR and even BIGGER SHOULDER PADS, but it’s not and its nearly ...

Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu teams up with Tony-Award winning playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda to bring this year’s most electrifying film to theaters and HBO Max. In the Heights is a beautifully orchestrated celebration of diversity, heritage, and the Latin culture that just might be  ...

Climb in and enjoy the ride, suckas!  There’s no need for roads where this franchise is headed!  Space awaits!  Yes, this is where F9 heads and you will love the sheer ridiculousness of it all as the 9th film in the series gets both the FAST and the FURIOUS back on track, avoiding the Moonraker-sized  ...

What I wouldn’t give to have been a fly on the wall during what was certainly the most bizarre elevator pitch in the history of elevator pitches for Luca, the latest churn from Pixar’s ever-productive mill of animated greats. It probably didn’t, but I like to imagine it went something like this ...

In case you missed the now (in)famous twitter thread from back in 2015 written by then mostly unknown waitress/stripper A’Ziah-Monae “Zola” King – who now acts as the film’s producer, you can get yourself caught up on one of the most bizarre weekend road trip stories since the Hoover family ...

Remember that episode of The Big Bang Theory? You know, the one where Sheldon shares his love of Raiders of the Lost Ark with Amy, and after watching it, she blows his mind by attesting that the plot would have been exactly the same without it’s protagonist. I, like Sheldon, was ...

Some 27 years after it’s release, one might be forgiven for forgetting what a game changer Jan de Bont’s Speed was. No scratch that, you should remember! Back in the early 90s, the big muscles, full testosterone action picks from Sly, Arnie, Segal, Van Damme and the like were started  ...

Marvel does Bourne!  With plenty of globe-hopping and mouth-dropping action sequences, Black Widow finally arrives in theaters after an over yearlong delay due to Covid-19 and reminds us of why we absolutely love the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its many characters.  With heart ...

These are STILL not the ninjas you are looking for.  Sure, they might go by the same names as those in the outstanding G.I. Joe universe, as developed by Marvel Comics from 1982 to 1994 in the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic series, but the film adaptations have yet to do Hasbro  ...

If your maitre d’s offer of free private access to a secluded beach that you will share with only a few select fellow guests seems too good to be true, it’s probably because it is. ...

“You want your supply? I need my pig.” In his feature film debut, Pig, writer/director Michael Sarnoski does not give us a revenge-seeking, blood-soaked, over-acting Nicholas Cage that mows down an array of adversaries who stand in the way between him ...

What are you willing to sacrifice to protect your family? Would you give up your freedom? Are you prepared to unequivocally accept the consequences of your singular actions? Does your answer change if you are in a foreign country? ...

Not much has changed since 1955 when the Jungle River Cruise ride was introduced. The romance of the swashbuckling adventure yarn returns courtesy of the chemistry between Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Jungle Cruise.  Is it perfect?  Nope.  But watching them come together in ...

“Is it wrong to want greatness for you?” David Lowrey’s new visual marvel, The Green Knight, challenges the very notion of greatness and honor in this 21st-century retelling of the 14th-century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. What exactly does achieving greatness and honor ...

What if all the non-playable characters (NPCs) in video games – the background characters controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI) rather than by a gamer – suddenly broke out and began taking control of their own destinies? Would anyone play a video game that awards points for  ...

What makes for great horror? Some prefer in-your-face blood and graphic violence, while others are spooked by the unsettling things that can’t be seen – the things that happen just off screen or in the corners of the frame. Fans of the latter, do we have a film for you! ...

Candyman. Do you dare say it? We’re coming up on 30 years since the hook-handed killer – known affectionately as the Candyman – haunted the honeycombed halls of the Cabrini-Green housing project in 1992’s Candyman. And now he’s back to paint those same corridors red in a ...

The intense stage lighting. The stylized production design. The black gloved-hand killer. The dramatic and often weirdly over-stylized music with electronic throbbing Goblin-like rhythm and pulses.  And, yes, the buckets of blood splashed everywhere.  If this were the 1970s, the best decade for  ...

Testicles. Who needs ‘em? While watching Prisoners of the Ghostland, it's best to - like the logic it usually requires to follow a normal film from beginning to its everlovin’ end - throw them both out the window.  Got your attention?  Good.  Love it or leave it, Prisoners of the Ghostland is ...

Despite the film’s strong foundation and rather rich themes, Paul Schrader’s newest project, The Card Counter, is unsuccessful in attempts to achieve a tense and mysterious tone, and ultimately ends up as a dull, messy drama full of awkward dialogue and performances ...