Author: BO

"Butt Boy" began life as a short film for Tiny Cinema, an online offering of very brief creative achievements, most made without care for structure or storytelling. Just oddity for the masses. The run time was sixty seconds, introducing viewers to a man who found his pleasures in anal play, drastically upping his game as desires and curiosity grew. And that was that. Co-writer/director/star Tyler Cornack had the idea to take a one-minute-long movie and develop it into a 99-minute-long movie, retaining the central idea while expanding it in wild ways that bring audiences into areas of the human body they probably never thought they would visit. The bigger, badder "Butt Boy" is certainly some type of low-budget triumph, with Cornack wisely avoiding a Tim & Eric-style take on the mysteries and unstoppable power of one man's rear end. He doesn't go Troma either, preferring to find his own way through this intentionally weird endeavor. And that way is padding. Lots and lots of padding. Something has to fill 98 minutes of screen time once the gimmick is revealed. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Steven C. Miller hasn't enjoyed the most creatively fertile career, recently managing a string of VOD projects with basically the same title ("Submerged," "Marauders," "Arsenal," "First Kill"), while his last endeavor, 2018's "Escape Plan 2: Hades," was recently disowned by its star, Sylvester Stallone. Excitement isn't really Miller's specialty, but he does have an interest in violent encounters, finally connecting to a story in "Line of Duty" that demands a little more emphasis when it comes to bodily harm. Miller (not to be confused with colleague Brian A. Miller, who gifted the world "Vice," "Backtrace," and "Reprisal") seems alert with "Line of Duty" (which, amazingly, doesn't star Bruce Willis or Nicolas Cage), assembling a slightly energizing bruiser that's heavy on the stunt work and blessedly limited in scope. It's not a career rejuvenator, but it has a pulse, and that's good enough to pass. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

22 years ago, director Francois Girard made "The Red Violin," which examined the extended history of a special musical instrument, following the creation as it touched many lives. The picture did surprising business during its art-house run, inspiring the helmer to return to a music world mystery with "The Song of Names," another tale of the unknown featuring heavy violin references. Considerably tamer than "The Red Violin," "The Son of Names" offers a more reflective mood, with the lead characters facing the passage of time as they deal with unresolved trauma. Girard strives for screen poetry here, attempting to find dramatic support while giving the feature over to extended scenes of musicianship. It's a handsome production, and the music, by Howard Shore, aims to please. It's the overall tautness of the endeavor that's in doubt, with Girard losing interest in pace as he tries to put together something sincere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Run times are climbing steadily in today's marketplace, with productions seemingly locked in battle to inflate theater sits just to be considered substantial, possibly justifying ticket prices while overloading storytelling requirements. And then there's "Trauma Center," which is 81-minutes long and isn't about anything of note. Such a picture begs the question: would you rather sit through an extended movie that's trying too hard or a slight endeavor that has nothing to share? "Trauma Center" has brevity, which is appealing, but writer Paul Da Silva and director Matt Eskandari don't have much else for their contained thriller, which could easily transform into a taut cat-and-mouse game set inside of a hospital, but the filmmakers don't share that ambition, taking things slowly to no particular destination, allowing cliché to support the whole feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Olga Kurylenko has participated in a number of action films ("Quantum of Solace," "Centurion"), but she's never been offered the opportunity to be the main attraction in bruiser entertainment. Kurylenko's wish is granted with "The Courier," which tracks a game of survival for a woman caught in a dangerous international incident. The actress is clearly the best thing in the production, displaying admirable commitment to all sorts of physical entanglements and bloody makeup. The rest of "The Courier" can't live up to her energy level, with co-writer/director Zackary Adler stumbling with a poorly plotted endeavor that plays into most VOD cliches, including the hiring of a major actor (in this case, Gary Oldman) to stand around, bark a few lines, and collect a fat paycheck. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It all started with an idea from writer John-Michael Tebelak, who wanted something more than the usual when it came to a celebration of faith. He dreamed of a way to reinvent such love, to give the story of Jesus and his teachings a different spin, helping to reach a new audience understandably bored with the rigid ways of Christian storytelling. Tebelak eventually teamed with composer Stephen Schwartz, coming up with "Godspell," a musical that proved its worth during its 1971 off-Broadway debut, even inspiring a 1972 production with a cast that included Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, and Andrea Martin (Paul Shaffer was the musical director). While enjoying popularity and profit, it didn't take long for the show to hit the big screen, with 1973's "Godspell" hoping to share its unique take on faith and love with a larger audience. It's a film that's eager to please, with director David Greene working to retain the theatrical presence of the material while unleashing it on New York City, setting his cast free to romp around hop spots as they emphatically deliver a hippie gospel for a new generation of believers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before his career began to take flight, there was a moment in the late 1970s when Mickey Rourke was just beginning to show interest in acting, but he wasn't sure Hollywood had interest in him. Playing bit roles in big movies such as "1941" and "Heaven's Gate," Rourke elected to pour his frustrations into a screenplay loosely based on his own experiences as a boxer, taking years to shape what would become the 1988 feature, "Homeboy." There's definitely a lived-in quality to the picture, which deals with desperate people and bruised minds, but Rourke works to achieve something profound through the art of aimlessness, coming up with static drama that fails to do little more than showcase the star's acting, also saving room for co-star Christopher Walken to do what Christopher Walken usually does. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We currently live in a "RuPaul's Drag Race" world, where the pageant and attitude of drag cultural is zapped into living rooms everywhere, giving fans a weekly sampling of unparalleled glamour and often wickedly funny humor. In 1987, such showmanship was regulated to the underground, with "Paris Is Burning" presenting a peek into the ways of the Ball circuit in New York City, where those who dream of fame and fortune are gifted an all- day competition to "live the fantasy" and show off their inner wonderfulness. Director Jennie Livingston has the challenge to collect and assemble an understanding of what appears to be a widespread community of aspiring "realness," compacting such a dense world into 77 minutes of entertainment and information. There's immediacy to "Paris Is Burning," which doesn't offer documentary hospital corners, with Livingston presenting more of an in- the-moment picture with distinct LGBTQ personalities who live, love, hope, and dare to present themselves in the showiest manner possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Doing well with their horror releases, Hammer Films stepped away from the scary stuff for 1959's "The Ugly Duckling." Taking inspiration (or "ideas stolen") from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," the movie offers a comedic take on shifting identities, putting actor Bernard Bresslaw in charge of portraying a two personalities emerging from one man. While the source material is meant to deliver chills, "The Ugly Duckling" aims for laughs, ending up as more of a precursor to "The Nutty Professor," with a gentle slide into a British gangster picture. It's not exactly a distinctive creative detour for Hammer, but Bresslaw makes it all worthwhile, doing his part to act up a storm while the screenplay fumbles with funny business. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With a title like "Murder in Greenwich Village," there's a certain expectation for elements of violence, deception, and general evil. The 1937 Albert S. Rogell picture actually offers very little suspense, moving forward as something of a screwball comedy, with the near-misses of love the star of the show, not sinister business with shady characters. Thankfully, there's a cast here putting in their all to make the screenplay by Michael L. Simmons stand up and shout, delivering ideal finger-snap dialogue and thespian emphasis to generate a different sort of screen energy than what the title implies. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While David Lynch recently organized a return trip to "Twin Peaks," writer/director Jennifer Reeder wants to keep the celebration going with "Knives and Skin." While not directly an ode to Lynch's exploration of the damned, Reeder certainly pays tribute to the helmer's ways with garmonbozia, manufacturing her own take on the twisted residents of a seemingly normal town, where the death of a young girl begins to unravel everything. Reeder likes to keep matters tangled and unreal at times, and her stab at a screen mystery is attempted with dull storytelling skills. She's better with the weird stuff, but just barely, as "Knives and Skin" quickly loses itself to strained idiosyncrasy, often showing its work when it comes to conjuring screen oddity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com