Author: BO

A common complaint from movie fans is how theatrical trailers often give away too much of the films they’re promoting. It’s a common Hollywood marketing tactic, showing off the good stuff to help bring paying customers to theaters. In the case of “The Invitation,” Sony Entertainment elected to literally give the entire feature away with their preview, walking viewers through the whole plot and even the resolution of the endeavor, exposing all of its twists and macabre touches. Of course, one can’t blame the production for such a suspense-killing decision, and “The Invitation” is a tricky picture to explore without touching on some potentially spoilery material (if you haven’t seen the trailer, don’t read reviews). However, even with the effort’s tricks carefully hidden from view, such surprises don’t magically make it a better film, with writer Blair Butler and director Jessica M. Thompson (“The Light of the Moon”) stumbling through the chiller, which plays a fairly rickety game of misdirection before it becomes ridiculous. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Where do superheroes go when they decide to retire from the pursuit of justice? That’s the premise of “Samaritan,” which offers Sylvester Stallone as an aging man of steel, working to live a quiet life on his own before an excitable teenager starts putting the clues to his true identity together. Writer Bragi F. Schut (“Season of the Witch,” “Escape Room”) doesn’t have a particularly unique take on the masked avenger genre, but he does bring a certain grit to the endeavor, generating a tale of redemption and guardianship that works well with Stallone’s older screen presence. “Samaritan” is boosted by crunchy action scenes and broad villainy, with director Julius Avery (“Overlord”) handling formula to the best of his ability, investing in harder edges and a sense of discovery with the feature, which connects as a short story-esque take on comic book relationships and acts of stained honor. And it knows when to end, which is a rare event with superhero cinema, hitting its dramatic beats and concluding. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

George Miller is an accomplished director with a strange filmography. He doesn’t work very often, taking time to craft his endeavors, and he always tries to generate something special when he finally gets around to making a movie. His last release, 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” was one of the most electrified offerings in his career. He went deep to create an often astonishing vision of environmental doom and dystopian war, triumphantly reviving the franchise that helped to introduce his creative interests to audiences. After dealing with the epic scale of “Fury Road,” Miller tries to make something slightly more intimate with “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” which examines the waves of myth and storytelling while striving to generate a powerful romance along the way. Miller provides arresting visuals and attention to editorial detail, but he can’t shake the coldness of the material (co-written by Miller and Augusta Gore), which doesn’t reach the level of profundity the production is aiming to achieve. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Shark movies are still being produced. The market certainly feels saturated, but perhaps audience interest in the killer instinct of deep water creatures remains high, with “Maneater” the latest offering in aquatic horror, pitting a collection of partygoers against the hungry might of a great white hunting warm waters for sport. There’s nothing new in the feature, which offers basic characterization to help define future victims, while shark activity is created with woeful CGI, putting writer/director Justin Lee (“Final Kill,” “Hunters,” “A Tale of Two Guns”) in a position to come up with some inventive ways to subvert expectations and deliver at least moderate suspense. He fails to do anything with the screenplay, which doesn’t supply a growing sense of danger, and he has trouble disguising the vacation vibe of the production, as Maui is basically the star of the endeavor, offering sun and fun for cast and crew as a tale of terror about a shark with a grudge is gradually forgotten. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Adopting Audrey” is based on a true story, and such a claim seems plausible during the viewing experience. Writer/director M. Cahill (who hasn’t been credited with anything since 2007’s “King of California”) aims to create a modest overview of people trying to work through their issues, keeping the feature as low to the ground as possible, reflecting the reserved nature of the characters. It’s a story about a woman searching for connection during a period of isolation, and while the title hints at something a bit more playful, “Adopting Audrey” is more of a meditative exploration of relationships, especially between children and parents. Cahill extracts nuanced performances out of his talented cast, and the ensemble remains the primary reason to stay with the endeavor, which isn’t quite as wise or touching as the helmer believes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s interesting to see how the blockbuster success of 1975’s “Jaws” remains in play to this day, with producers occasionally returning to the people vs. nature formula to give audiences a wild ride of killer creature formula. In recent years, sharks have been used as the demons of the deep, offering aquatic adventures with ferocious antagonists. For “Beast,” a lion returns to power as the focus of horror, with screenwriter Ryan Engle (“Rampage,” “Breaking In”) cooking up a struggle for survival in the heat of South Africa, pitting a father of two against a predator who’s not in the mood for mercy. “Beast” is simple in many ways, and Engle hopes to secure some level of emotional engagement to help power up audience involvement. However, as these movies tend to go, the sheer force of a lion tearing after prey is what carries the viewing experience, and director Baltasar Kormakur (“2 Guns,” “Everest”) respects the hunt, delivering a fast-paced thriller with occasional bursts of violence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The math on “Orphan: First Kill” is a little odd. The original feature was released in 2009, with star Isabelle Fuhrman a child actress hired to play a nine-year-old girl with a taste for murder who was actually a 33-year-old proportional dwarf. Now there’s a prequel, with Fuhrman a 25-year-old woman tasked with playing a vicious nine-year-old again 13 years later. Other productions would’ve recast the role, but the producers are determined to work with the star again, cooking up a prequel which tests the limits of digital de-aging, returning tiny threat Esther to power in a picture that weirdly took an eternity to become a reality. Patience is rewarded, to a certain degree, by “First Kill,” which has a better handle on the absolutely ridiculous premise of “Orphan,” striving to come up with its own level of absurdity to top what’s come before, wisely dialing down some of the distasteful aspects of the 2009 endeavor to nail a more enjoyable B-movie ride. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writers Alison Brie and Jeff Baena previously collaborated on 2020’s “Horse Girl.” They share a fondness for bizarre material and deep character work, playing with tonality and comedy as they visit some shadowy psychological spaces. The duo returns with “Spin Me Round,” which has the initial vibe of an upbeat workplace farce, but Baena (who directs) and Brie (who stars) aren’t committed to a straightforward tale of everyday pressures and absurdities, committed to strangeness that’s slowly massaged into the material. Much like “Horse Girl,” “Spin Me Round” has moments of greatness, but the work eventually runs out of inspiration, getting grabby with silliness and sinister business in the second half, which doesn’t line up with the breezy peculiarities of the first half. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The fate of the universe is decided inside a rest stop men’s room in “Glorious,” which is the latest offering in COVID-19 production limitations, pitting man versus an unseen entity positioned on the other end of a glory hole. Writers Joshua Hull, David Ian McKendry, and Todd Rigney have the difficult task of making something mysterious and threatening while stuck inside of a bathroom for most of the run time, and they manage to get somewhere with the strange premise. “Glorious” favors lead performances from Ryan Kwanten and J.K. Simmons, who deliver intensity that helps to build suspense primarily through conversations, but director Rebekah McKendry has the challenge of making a single location feel like the middle of a cosmic battleground, shaping a successful sense of mystery to the picture. There’s not a lot to the feature, which occasionally struggles to dream up challenges for the characters, but grotesqueness remains, along with an intriguing puzzle of motivation, keeping this small production engrossing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Immaculate Room” presents the experience of two characters who’ve chosen to remain in isolation for 50 days, without access to the world outside, simply stuck with each other in a bare space, left with only themselves to deal with. It’s a take on a social experiment, offered some cinematic extremity by writer/director Mukunda Michael Dewil, who sets out to make a mess of the arrangement, toying with psychological breaks and challenges, working to transform the endeavor into a thriller of sorts. The human condition isn’t thoroughly analyzed in the feature, but Dewil has some compelling ideas to share on the strain of such stressful cohabitation, offering a study of slow mental breakdowns, wild mood swings, and bitter relationship inspection that comes to haunt the players during this lengthy, punishing game of endurance. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Spy Kids” was released 21 years ago, and it remains a powerful influence over family entertainment to this day. The Robert Rodriguez film was a delight, mixing decent acts of slapstick and silliness with a plot concerning the empowerment of children, turning them into superheroes. It found an audience and was promptly transformed into a brand name, and now “Secret Headquarters” is basically trying to tell the same story, only with a more Marvel-y approach and the use of a single set to house most of its property damage. Co-writers/directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost are tasked with making a lively adventure with junior high Avengers, and the first half of “Secret Headquarters” has the right tone and sense of exploration to keep it at least mildly interesting. The back nine of the production doesn’t sustain any fun factor, with the endeavor becoming too heavy with conflict and dreadful acts of comedy, bringing the feature to a halt long before it concludes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com