Author: BO

In 2025, Warner Brothers did something few Hollywood studios do, gambling on the success of a movie that wasn’t even out yet, putting a semi-sequel in production before the first picture was ready for the masses. The movie was “Superman,” with writer/director James Gunn using his power with DC Studios to make sure the new “DCU” universe was up and running by sending “Supergirl” into production right away, out to sustain whatever momentum he could build with his take on the Man of Steel. “Superman” did well enough (there’s a sequel due out next summer) and, a year later, there’s “Supergirl,” which attempts to match the first film’s quirky Gunn-ness and love of superhero activity, though the helmer has been replaced by Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Cruella”), and the tone of the material (scripted by Ana Nogueira) is considerably darker. Much like its predecessor, the new feature isn’t a consistent endeavor, but it’s boosted by fine acting from lead Milly Alcock, and Gillespie certainly gets momentum going early in the offering, finding ways to generate a thrilling first half before the whole thing comes to a stop. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jon and Andrew Erwin are Christian directors who’ve specialized in religious stories over the course of their career. They’ve experienced a few hits (“I Can Only Imagine,” “Jesus Revolution”) and a few misses (“I Can Only Imagine 2,” “American Underdog”), remaining with faith-based filmmaking to help attract a specific audience. Leaving Godly might behind, the Erwin Brothers turn to early American history for inspiration with “Young Washington,” attempting to cash in on sesquicentennial fever (or lack thereof) with a dramatization of George Washington’s early days of military service during the French and Indian War. The endeavor hopes to track the formation of the subject’s bravery and dedication to American persistence, but the Erwins don’t provide a cinematic atmosphere for the picture, lacking determination to turn the tale into a fiery understanding of character and purpose. I cannot tell a lie, dear reader: this is one incredibly mediocre movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Couture” is a film about the fashion industry that has very little interest in the ways of the fashion industry. It’s the latest endeavor from writer/director Alice Winocour (“Paris Memories,” “Proxima”), who looks to examine various women involved in a Fashion Week event, showing more interest in personal lives and troubling times than the emergence of style during pressurized days. It’s a drama with several perspectives, challenging Winocour to juggle the personalities as they all experience extraordinary pressure during this time period, while one is faced with the ultimate in life-changing news. “Couture” isn’t interested in generating defined lines of drama, and it doesn’t provide the most powerful ending, but the feature stays involving as it investigates bottled emotions and career realities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Six years ago, director Derrick Borte and actor Russell Crowe collaborated on the thriller, “Unhinged.” The B-movie was released during prime pandemic days, and it managed to find a small audience during a stretch of zero multiplex competition. It took a bit of time, but the pair are back with “The Get Out,” which is an adaptation of a 2010 novel by Thomas Perry. Borte and co-writer Daniel Forte attempt to find some balance to the story’s tonal highs and lows, with the crime saga taking occasional dips into comedy before it fully commits to violent events. “The Get Out” opens with noticeable confidence, but there are a lot of characters and motivations to manage, and Borte doesn’t have the stamina to pull off the labor. It’s uneven work, but the first half remains inviting with its collection of odd characters and their stressful connections to monetary theft. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Uwe Boll. Now there’s a name that hasn’t been publicized in a long time. The notoriously schlocky director caused a little chaos around two decades ago with a series of awful, video game-inspired pictures (“House of the Dead,” “Alone in the Dark,” “BloodRayne”) that turned Boll into an Ed Wood-style helmer, only without the B-movie charm. He hasn’t stopped working, still churning out no-budget endeavors, but Boll is back on the hunt for publicity, crafting “Citizen Vigilante,” which hopes to inspire some rage with its look at the migrant issue in Europe. Boll doesn’t up his filmmaking game in the process, but he does court controversy, hiring Armie Hammer for the lead role years after his own troubling behavior caught up with him, effectively ending his already fledgling Hollywood career. However, he’s back in action, attempting to look stern for Boll, who works to build an entire movie around hard stares and poor execution, serving up what appears to be a genuinely unfinished feature that’s solely out to antagonize with its intense idiocy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Rod Lurie found some attention with his pandemic release, 2020’s “The Outpost.” The picture brought audiences into the middle of combat pressures during the Iraq War, with Lurie looking to generate a look at the brutality of service and the sacrifice of soldiers. While he messed around with inspirational football drama in 2025’s “The Senior,” Lurie returns to global conflict with “Lucky Strike,” which is set during the “Battle of the Bulge” during World War II, but it isn’t a full-scale war movie. The co-writer/director goes smaller in scale, electing to follow one man’s quest to survive behind enemy lines, facing brutal conditions, a leg wound, and waves of Nazis as he strives to make it back to safety. “Lucky Strike” has the makings of a pulse-pounding thriller, offering a defined goal and plenty of setbacks, but Lurie remains oddly muted with the endeavor, trying to create a respectful understanding of sacrifice instead of a more feral one. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Julian Schnabel was last seen on screens in 2018’s “At Eternity’s Gate,” trying to make sense of personal and artistic struggles involving Vincent van Gogh in a feature that didn’t attract much of an audience. Schnabel is known for artful undertakings that strive to burrow into character experiences, and he returns with another study of stress in “In the Hand of Dante,” which is an adaptation of a 2002 book by Nick Tosches. The tale covers two time periods and lots of trouble coming for all characters, and there are moments when Schnabel actively pursues something of a crime story involving the theft and authentication of Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy.” There are blasts of aggression and research that give the helmer something to do, but there’s also a hunt for artistic meaning and inspiration that makes the viewing experience feel endless (the picture runs around 160 minutes), with Schnabel trying to generate an epic, and visibly straining to do so. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“40 Dates and 40 Nights” returns viewers to the routine of the romantic comedy. There are seemingly hundreds of these kind of movies being pumped out every year, and screenwriter Sarah Howard is trying to keep up with the competition, creating another tale of a young woman facing the brutal ways of the dating scene while on the hunt for one functional male. There’s a gimmick in play, as the main character is tasked with completing a series of dates to achieve a taste of financial security, but Howard doesn’t dig into the comedic possibilities of the premise. Instead, she generates the mildest picture imaginable, going slo-mo with relationship and personal challenges to happiness. “40 Dates and 40 Nights” is certainly soft enough, with functional performances to follow, but there’s no snap to the offering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Surprisingly, “Voicemails for Isabelle” isn’t based a book. It’s romantic novel material from writer/director Leah McKendrick (“Scrambled”), who’s working with subgenre formula to deliver an easily digestible viewing experience built on big feels and easily avoidable relationship issues. The helmer is serving pudding to the masses with the picture, but she has a fully committed performance from Zoey Deutch to keep things interesting, with the actress going nuclear to help bring some spirit to an otherwise mediocre collection of wild tonal shifts and strange dramatic detours. “Voicemails for Isabelle” tries extremely hard to be lovable, but McKendrick overdoses on cliches and can’t quite find the true heart of the material, pushing the whole endeavor into sitcom territory instead of generating a more meaningful understanding of grief and human connection. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Chapter 51” is a film about filmmaking, using all kinds of cinematic formats, and it’s structured like a television documentary. Confusion runs throughout the offering, as writer/director/actor/cinematographer Tyler Shields (2015’s “Final Girl”) is out to make a study of madness surrounding the creation of “Dissident,” which is meant to be the biggest film of all time. However, Shields doesn’t have a lot of money to realize the reality of his story, following an investigation into the vicious ways of a serial killer targeting actresses connected to the picture. “Chapter 51” is an odd collection of satire and sleuthing, and the material’s understanding of Hollywood egomania isn’t provocative. The endeavor is more of a technical exercise for Shields, who gets more excited about imagery than storytelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A lot of people were understandably trepidatious when Pixar Animation elected to make “Toy Story 4.” The original trilogy has come to mean a lot to fans, including many who’ve grown up on the movies, and any non-short extension of the franchise was viewed as a corruption of creativity. And then “Toy Story 4” was released, revealing itself to be a fully charming, hilarious, and meaningful addition to the saga. Now there’s “Toy Story 5,” with co-writer/director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo,” “WALL-E,” “Finding Dory”) attempting to keep the saga of the playthings and their eternal battle with anxiety alive for at least another feature. And, once again, Pixar has the right idea to keep returning to “Toy Story,” creating another gem of a picture that offers time with old friends and makes a few new ones. It also dares to take on the modern world of omnipresent tech and how physical pals manage to exist in the long shadow of digital distractions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

John Early is known for his comedic roles, developing a reputation for his commitment to wacky business through a variety of projects. He makes his directorial debut with “Maddie’s Secret,” also taking care of scripting duties and starring in the feature, portraying a character experiencing a professional high while reaching a mental health low. The endeavor has the outward appearance of something campy, with Early taking on the central role as a troubled woman in the middle of a major crisis. “Maddie’s Secret” is certainly an unusual movie, with Early teasing broadness while remaining impressively compassionate with the material, which leads into light and dark moments. The helmer has quite a challenge of tonality to master with the offering, and Early does a commendable job balancing ideas and emotions in the effort, which is always surprising with its plot turns and directorial confidence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The tale of Robin Hood has been told time and again, routinely bewitching storytellers with its clash of good vs. evil, romantic ways, and elements of class warfare. Think swashbuckling with a 1938 adaptation, or animated with a Disney picture from 1973. There was a blockbuster take in 1991, and, most recently, an attempt at modernization in 2018 with a film few will admit to seeing. Robin Hood has been done to death, and that’s precisely the entry writer/director Michael Sarnoski needs to give his take on the legend a unique dramatic fingerprint. “The Death of Robin Hood” isn’t about men in tights or a study of injustice. It’s a mostly hyperviolent understanding of barbarity and a calcification of a man’s soul. Sarnoski (who did well with 2021’s “Pig” and 2024’s “A Quiet Place: Day One”) aims for cinematic textures with the undertaking, and while his instinct for pacing is way off, his aim is true when it comes to creating a gritty, vicious understanding of the famous outlaw’s moral ruination. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Demonic possession movies are common, but that’s not stopping writer/director Mark O’Brien from trying his luck in the subgenre. He offers “The Voices of Our Mother,” which isn’t strictly an exorcism picture, and that’s a good thing, as the screenplay spends a lot more time with a collection of siblings coming together to deal with their troubled, possible evil-infused mother during a grim time of mental health decline. There are secrets to be revealed and an entire personal history to inspect, and O’Brien’s focus on more human matters is what keeps the film as upright as possible. “The Voices of Our Mother” isn’t fully committed to the whole idea of familial confrontation, eventually giving in to genre demands, but parts of the production are executed with some style and dramatic potency, helping to deliver a sufficiently involving examination of distressed people trying to deal with the intensity of their past. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last year, writer/director/actor Edward Burns went the sequel route with “The Family McMullen,” looking to revive career momentum with a return to his big debut, 1995’s “The Brothers McMullen.” The feature managed to give Burns renewed career focus, bringing him back to the comfort of family stories and Irish heritage. This work continues in “Finnegan’s Foursome,” which adds the game of golf to the usual stew of character concerns, difficult relationships, and lengthy conversations. Burns goes the paid vacation route with the endeavor, bringing his cinematic interests to Ireland for an examination of a competitive clan working through personal and professional issues while touring various golf courses. “Finnegan’s Foursome” maintains enthusiastic performances and some mild charm, but Burns is out to create a very casual offering with his latest, and one really starts to feel the excessive run time in the second half of the picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror from Australia is having a moment. The success of 2023’s “Talk to Me” certainly attracted attention, with the directing duo Danny and Michael Philippou following it up with 2025’s “Bring Her Back,” delving into the creepiness of the unknown. Writer/director Adrian Chiarella hopes to sustain this momentum with “Leviticus,” which strives to take the concept of a haunting into different, more personal directions. The picture takes its title from a charged biblical passage condemning homosexuality, and Chiarella follows this hatred into small town life, observing a crisis of desire coming for two teens facing punishment for their attraction. “Leviticus” is something in the realm of a supernatural tale, but the screenplay is primarily out to study human magnetism and ostracization, which is where the feature finds its greatest dramatic successes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com