Author: BO

The potential audience for “Road House” probably has no idea the feature is a remake. The 1989 Rowdy Herrington original was a rough-and-ready drive-in picture for the 1980s, exploring bad attitudes and bare-knuckle enlightenment, becoming wonderfully trashy entertainment with A-film technical achievements and B-movie atmosphere. It also offered perfect casting, with the late Patrick Swayze fully understanding the acting assignment, bringing a duality of strength and wisdom to the character of Dalton. For 2024, Jake Gyllenhaal tries to create a different Dalton for a new “Road House,” which takes its lead from the world of MMA fighting. Director Doug Liman offers lovely locations and some bar fights, but he’s not really trying to recapture the flavor of the 1989 endeavor, making more of a video game-esque viewing experience instead, aiming to be sillier with the premise. It’s not that the first “Road House” is high art, but it had a defined vibe and fantastic execution. Liman is just making a technical exercise in search of real cinematic conflict. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A documentary on the life and times of William Shatner conjures plenty of expectations, with the actor in command of a colorful existence filled with career highlights and general eccentricity. However, “You Can Call Me Bill” is directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, and he’s not a helmer interested in making something flashy and superficial. The man behind “Memory: The Origins of Alien” and “Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist,” Philippe is more interested in getting under the skin of his subjects, playing with stillness and introspection to best extract a deeper understanding of the situation. Thankfully, Shatner is ready to play along, sitting down for this unexpectedly reflective conversation about acting, nature, and the ways of life and death. “You Can Call Me Bill” is a fascinating portrait of Shatner, who, at 92 years of age, remains as animated as ever, eager to walk through the memories of his active days, doing so with a hearty sense of humor and emotional intensity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Weston Razooli wants to restore the days of high adventure with “Riddle of Fire,” which is a mash-up of “Goonies” energy and role-playing gaming, featuring a very young cast working in the open world of Montana. The helmer looks at the challenges of life from a kid perspective, finding the magic of childhood as the story sends three friends on a perilous quest to bring a blueberry pie to an ailing mother for control of the television. “Riddle of Fire” is not a romp, with Razooli slowing down with the feature, stretching out a 75-minute idea to a 115-minute-long run time, and pacing isn’t always kind. The reward for patience is a chance to watch an adventurous filmmaker summon a unique look at amateur actor energy, playing with unrefined ways to capture a special spirit for the endeavor, which retains some wonderful moments of humor and mystery. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Late Night with the Devil” returns viewers to the ways of television talk shows in the 1970s, where looser standards for constant audience engagement meant that wild situations could develop. With horror fanatics typically favoring a younger demographic, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s an audience for the feature, which uses the conventions of network television programming from 50 years ago to serve as inspiration for a demonic possession film. Writer/directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes (“100 Bloody Acres,” “Scare Campaign”) have the right idea for what’s technically a found footage endeavor, creating a special evening of surprise for the host of the show, “Night Owls.” “Late Night with the Devil” visibly battles to come up with stuff to do to fill 90 minutes of screen time, but the helmers deliver effective atmosphere for the effort, which periodically scores with T.V. replication and visits to the dark side. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sleeping Dogs” is an adaptation of a 2017 novel by Eugen Chirovici, with Adam Cooper making his directorial debut with the picture. Cooper and his screenwriting partner, Bill College, have a very strange filmography, co-scripting such movies as “The Transporter Refueled,” “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” and the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen comedy, “New York Minute,” and they bring some of that creative oddity to “Sleeping Dogs.” It’s a slice of detective fiction, following an ex-cop’s investigation into a murder he was previously involved with, dealing with new evidence and the degenerative effects of Alzheimer’s disease as he searches for clues. The premise has some potential, but Cooper doesn’t oversee a motivated endeavor, going sluggish with this collection of suspects and entanglements. The feature has a capable lead performance from Russell Crowe, but little else feels remarkable about the effort, which doesn’t provide a hearty enough whodunit to really pull viewers in. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While John Ridley has a distinguished career as a screenwriter (winning an Academy Award for “12 Years a Slave”), he’s not the most consistent director. Previously helming features like “Needle in a Timestack” and “Jimi: All Is by My Side,” Ridley returns with a study of political and personal determination in “Shirley,” which shares the story of a planned path to the American presidency for congressperson Shirley Chisholm in 1972, who battled all sorts of dismissal and doubt to attempt something incredible as a black woman. There’s a noble effort here to provide inspirational cinema for viewers that need it, with Ridley reinforcing Chisholm’s personal quest to bring real change to the system, believing she could do good for the nation. A sharp lead performance from Regina King helps to keep “Shirley” moving with dignity and emotion, but such thespian commitment can’t always prevent Ridley from delivering bio-pic staleness and needless speechifying, which gradually diminishes the viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Irish Wish” isn’t a grand return to the screen for Lindsay Lohan (a Lohanaissance?), but a picture that easily plays to her strengths as an actress. Once a Disney trooper and ex-“Mean Girl,” Lohan hasn’t been seen in major endeavors for quite some time, recently making a play for a career resurrection in 2022’s “Falling for Christmas.” Apparently, the job was a success, as Lohan reunites with director Janeen Damien for a fresh feature, which details another magical time with love, only here the setting has been moved to Ireland and warm feelings aren’t exactly enticing. Screenwriter Kirsten Hansen (“Cross Country Christmas,” “Return to Christmas Creek,” and “Christmas on My Mind”) isn’t out to challenge formula with “Irish Wish,” but certainly a more secure command of tone would’ve been welcome. Going from slapstick comedy to crying fits, the movie doesn’t really know what it wants to be, which weakens whatever level of enchantment was intended here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor Kobi Libii (“Alpha House,” “Madame Secretary”) makes his directorial debut with “The American Society of Magical Negroes.” It’s a playful, barbed title in search of a better movie, with Libii (who also scripts) taking a look at American racism with material that’s sometimes mischievous and mostly heavy-handed. It’s a “Harry Potter”-esque portal into an unseen world of black subservience, with Libii looking to have some fun with the fantasy elements of the endeavor, but he’s primarily hunting for a more human story about a black man who’s been too timid during his days, finally understanding, with the help of sorcery, his individuality. The idea is a solid one, open for an uproarious and thought-provoking ride through the state of race relations in 2024. However, the helmer doesn’t have a plan for it all, creating a juicy Spike Lee-esque tale, only to offer Malcolm D. Lee-style direction for it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Arthur the King” was shot three years ago and was awaiting release for such a long time, actor Mark Wahlberg and director Simon Cellan Jones actually made another feature together, “The Family Plan,” which came out last year. The wrong movie was left on the shelf. Instead of making an expensive action mess for streaming consumption, “Arthur the King” offers a mostly simple tale of physical and mental endurance, bringing viewers into the world of Adventure Racing, which is not a sport that’s been exhaustively examined in film, possibly ever. The challenge is the stuff of cinema, highlighting teams of four pushing through difficult conditions for long stretches of time, learning to work with one another to reach a common goal. There’s also a dog story woven into the picture, with the real-life tale of an athlete and his canine support making for compelling cinema when the production elects to stay away from mawkishness, which it doesn’t always do. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Rose Glass made her debut with 2020’s “Saint Maud,” a psychological horror picture that was basically smothered by the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ruined its release and slowed potential exposure for the helmer. Glass aims for a more direct shot of filmmaking brutality with “Love Lies Bleeding,” going the pulp fiction route with an American tale of obsession, overkill, and violent reaction, co-writing the work with Weronika Tofilska. The material has a few wild ideas when it comes to creating the visual representation of physical power, and most of the cast submits to the extremity, with co-star Katy O’Brian quite effective as a bodybuilder searching for some form of stability, only to end up right in the middle of a criminal mess. “Love Lies Bleeding” is most definitely a style over substance viewing experience, but Glass provides moments of imagination and fury that are worth sticking around for. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been 16 years since Michael Keaton last directed a film (“The Merry Gentlemen”), returning to duty for “Knox Goes Away.” The screenplay by Gregory Poirier (“Tomcats,” “A Sound of Thunder”) examines the experience of an older man succumbing to dementia, dealing with the demands of his job as a hitman and his relationships with the few people he’s remained intimate with. It’s a complex situation of introspection, with Poirier aiming to bend and twist the tale along the way, as elements of police work and family ties complicate the eponymous character’s always confusing life. Keaton also takes on the main role, offering understated but cooly involving work to help the picture achieve some sense of suspense and silent horror. “Knox Goes Away” isn’t a riveting study of decline, often quite deliberately slow, but the acting is capable, carrying the weirder elements of Poirier’s writing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Longtime actors, James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright (who both appeared in “Independence Day: Resurgence”) make their debut as writer/directors with “French Girl.” It’s a Canadian production, almost acting as a commercial for Quebec tourism, and it hopes to delight audiences looking for a lighter film about relationships and slapstick comedy, following an American’s bumbling ways when it comes to the reality of his girlfriend’s past and present. It’s not refined work from the helmers, and they can’t resist the lure of formula, sticking with the rom-com playbook from beginning to end. “French Girl” has some charm in its cast and a few ideas worth pursuing, but the predictability of it all becomes too much in the final act, and Zach Braff’s star turn is hard on the senses, watching the actor teeter on the edge of obnoxiousness as he makes it his personal mission to be the most hilarious performer in the frame at all times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com