“Detective Knight: Rogue” was released seven weeks ago. It’s okay if you don’t remember it, few people actually saw it, but it marked the beginning of a trilogy from writers Corey Large and Edward John Drake (who also directs), who don’t have an overall arc to follow over three features, but they have titles, with “Detective Knight: Redemption” hoping to continue the story of the eponymous cop and his hazily defined reason for rage. It seems the three movies were all shot at the same time, trying to take advantage of star Bruce Willis’s limited working capabilities due to his medical condition, and he’s back, kind of, for “Redemption,” with his role basically amounting to an extended cameo. “Rogue” was a rough sit, with Drake struggling to tell a coherent story and manage dismal action sequences, and the same vibe is present in the sequel, which offers a slightly smaller pool of crooks and cops, but shows no creative spark, turning to pure cliché to get by. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With box office grosses trending downward for the “Night at the Museum” live-action series, the franchise was put to bed after 2014’s “Secret of the Tomb,” with producers giving the brand name a much needed rest. Rethinking the core appeal of the material, “Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again” tries to restart the premise with an animated take, reimagining a building populated with living statues with more visual and comedic flexibility. Keeping the budget down is certainly a concern for the endeavor, but “Kahmunrah Rises Again” is a breezy adventure with these characters and their addiction to overnight chaos, with director Matt Danner (“Muppet Babies,” “Legend of the Three Caballeros”) aiming to make a fun ride for younger viewers. The helmer gives the target demographic what they want, and while the feature is no epic, often too cartoonish, it loses the obvious fatigue that made “Secret of the Tomb” a chore to sit through. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2020’s “The Binge” had potential. It was a comedic take on “The Purge,” only instead of unimaginable violence allowed across the country for a short period of time, the feature focused on drugs made legal for citizens looking to go crazy for one night. Screenwriter Jordan VanDina had a chance to create a rollicking movie about the wildness of such freedom, and “The Binge” got halfway there, helped along by co-star Vince Vaughn, who worked to make his moments count in a picture that tried to get by on poorly imagined raunchiness. VanDina returns to his creation for a Vaughn-less “It’s a Wonderful Binge,” a sequel nobody asked for but the writer is happy to deliver, and he's newly promoted to the director’s chair, overseeing the next round of binge-tastic shenanigans. The first endeavor felt like a missed opportunity, while the follow-up is a torturous viewing experience, lacking even basic cinematic functions as VanDina lurches from one unfunny, borderline unfinished scene to the next. “The Purge,” with all of its death, destruction, and excruciating acting is actually funnier than “It’s a Wonderful Binge.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Three years ago, director Sam Mendes attempted to recreate the madness of war with “1917,” using filmmaking tricks and a large budget to immerse the audience in violence and panic. It was an epic picture that attempted to overwhelm viewers with sound and visuals, capturing a specific sense of confusion. Mendes goes much smaller for his follow-up but largely remains interested in human psychology, offering a more internalized tale of instability in “Empire of Light,” which examines the pains of mental illness and the power of connection. Mendes goes solo in the screenwriting department, and while his focus is on characters and their issues, he’s also inspecting the power of cinema in other ways, setting the story at a movie palace reaching the end of its lifespan. “Empire of Light” is unwieldy and a bit melodramatic at times, but it does retain sharp technical achievements and performances that capture what the helmer is looking for, creating sensitive moments as life carries people in different directions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Something from Tiffany’s” isn’t explicitly a Christmas movie, but it does take place during the holiday season, with the production determined to set a cozy mood of romance and connections in New York City. It’s not a Hallmark Channel endeavor either, with the picture an adaptation of a 2011 Melissa Hill book, giving screenwriter Tamara Chestna (“Moxie”) a chance to approach a tale of mistakes and misunderstandings without being solely focused on vanilla experiences. “Something from Tiffany’s” has a premise straight out of a sitcom, but it doesn’t play exactly like one, and while director Daryl Wein (“Lola Versus”) is tasked with creating a soft film, he fights to preserve as much character and feeling as possible with this type of entertainment. It’s not something that raises the bar when it comes to cinematic achievements, but it hopes to be a bit more honest about relationship complications and a tad less robotic than basic cable offerings. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Copyright laws are a funny thing, and they’re about to get funnier in a hurry. Beloved characters from books and movies are being repurposed for horror entertainment, and as the world waits for whatever “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” has to offer, there’s “The Mean One” to tide them over. It’s a take on Dr. Suess’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” but instead of pulling ideas from the beloved book, screenwriters Finn and Flip Kobler take most of their inspiration from Ron Howard’s 2000 screen adaptation, which starred Jim Carrey as the Grinch. “The Mean One” can’t afford to hire Carrey and it can’t deal with lawsuits, playing a careful game of mimicry with its tale of a monster in a mountain who hates everything about Christmas. However, instead of planning a heist, this green ghoul is ready to kill. “The Mean One” is a low-budget offering from director Steven LaMorte, who doesn’t have a lot to work with here beyond initial outrageousness. It’s a seasonal slaughterama, but also painfully restricted by monetary limitations, feeling like a cheap quickie when it had the potential to be supremely weird. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been repeatedly said that author Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, “White Noise,” is “unfilmable.” There have been a few attempts to bring it to the screen over time, but nothing has managed to make it in front of cameras until now. Writer/director Noah Baumbach attempts to solve a literary adaptation puzzle with the endeavor, which follows a collection of characters as they face death, worry about death, and think about death. It’s an adventure of diverse tones and rhythms, and Baumbach seems to be the person for the job, coming off his career-best work in “Marriage Story,” where he managed to make the excruciating details of divorce into the best film of 2019. The helmer gets somewhere with “White Noise,” locating paths of anxiety and confusion to follow for the first half of the picture. It’s the rest of the feature that loses concentration, with Baumbach unable to translate some stranger ideas, losing consistency along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Emancipation” explores the story of “Whipped Peter,” an enslaved man who, in 1863, managed to escape his captors, crossing 40 miles of Louisiana swampland with hopes to reach some form of safety with Union officers during the Civil War. A photo was taken of his heavily scarred back, creating a horrifying image of suffering that helped to open some eyes to the barbarity of slavery. Screenwriter William N. College and director Antoine Fuqua endeavor to explore and embellish the man’s tale of survival, trying to add something to the ongoing cinematic study of slavery, but “Emancipation” isn’t a nuanced understanding of suffering and faith in the face of despair. It’s more of a Michael Bay-esque effort, with Fuqua trying to stylize horrors and highlight the adventurous aspects of the chase, losing essential elements of character and stakes along the way. The picture is straining to be an important look at physical and spiritual might, but the fine details of fear are lost in the flashiness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While writer/director Alejandro G. Inarritu made his mark with smaller pictures such as “Amores perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel,” he achieved major success with larger, Hollywood-driven productions, enjoying big box office and back-to-back Academy Award wins with “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” and “The Revenant,” making him one of the biggest names in the industry. Cashing in on such creative triumphs and profitability, Inarritu returns to his filmmaking roots with “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” going the passion project route with a permissive budget. The helmer hopes to offer a poetic, wily, and possibly autobiographical understanding of an aging man facing his faults and fears while trying to decode his own existence, and Inarritu certainly delivers a visual experience that captures a swirling sense of reality, taking viewers on an extended ride through pleasure and pain. However, such indulgence doesn’t translate to a powerful sit, as “Bardo” doesn’t exactly invite audience investment, largely remaining cold to the touch as the endeavor pursues any and all moviemaking impulses without supplying dramatic support. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Joe Begos has been kicking around low-budget cinema for just under a decade now, and he enjoyed some success with 2020’s “VFW,” a crazy take on zombie cinema featuring a cast of grizzled acting veterans. “VFW” was terrific entertainment, hitting genre highs with a decent imagination for violence and character interactions. “Christmas Bloody Christmas” is the latest offering from Begos, who doesn’t keep much from his previous achievement outside of extreme lighting to help cover monetary limitations. He goes the punishing route this time, aiming for a Rob Zombie-esque slasher event that details the efforts of a malfunctioning robotic Santa and its killing spree. A promising premise is wasted on rough performances and worse dialogue, with Begos asking fans to sit through tedious conversations for the first half of the picture before switching things over to grisly survival sequences. “Christmas Bloody Christmas” takes a long time to get going, and it’s debatable if it actually arrives anywhere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last year, Disney attempted to do something with the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” brand name, looking to reboot the world of author Jeff Kinney with an animated adaptation of the first book, which was previously explored in a live-action production from 2010. The cartoon wasn’t devoted to a complete translation of Kinney’s work, but it brought new comedic elasticity to the franchise, finding a way to bring the writing to life in a way flesh-and-blood actors couldn’t. Apparently, the movie was something of a success, with “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules” serving as a sequel, once again exploring the self-made misery of Greg Heffley and his eternal quest to be popular. There’s no leap in technology or increased budget for the follow-up, but Kinney (who scripts) tries to soften the harshness of his original writing, aiming to generate a more sincere understanding of brotherhood, bringing some heart to the endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Tommy Wirkola has done the whole irreverence thing before. Many times in fact, with his career largely boosted by the unexpected success of his 2013 fairy tale actioner, “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.” “Violent Night” is looking to conjure a similar energy of violence, comedy, and fantasy, this time putting Santa Claus in a “Die Hard” scenario, with the jolly fat man taking on a team of killers trying to work their way into a high-tech safe. Screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller have the gimmick, sending Santa into a bloodbath, and they have an endless appetite for shock value, creating entire sequences dedicated to the obliteration of villains. And that’s all “Violent Night” really has to share, burning through its single joke in a matter of minutes, with the rest of the picture devoted to underwhelming performances, crude visual effects, and a lack of creative humor, which is something to be expected from the duo that previously scripted “Dorm Daze” and “Dorm Daze 2.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With a title like “Darby and the Dead,” expectations are put into place for a horror extravaganza. It comes with some surprise to learn that the screenplay (by Becca Greene) isn’t interested at all in summoning fears, instead going the “Mean Girl” route with this tale of a high schooler and her battle with popularity, also dealing with the deceased as a medium. It’s a bizarre mashing of subgenres, but teen cinema wins out in the picture, which is mostly interested in rehashing adolescent woes concerning relationships and self-esteem challenges, occasionally getting into issues with the other side. Two very bright performances from Riele Downs and Auli’i Cravalho offer plenty of charm and energy to the feature, but the sameness of “Darby and the Dead” prevents it from doing something interesting with life and death, with the story gradually sinking back into predictability after a lively opening act. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Ravi Kapoor hopes to bring some fun to the screen with “Four Samosas,” offering a celebration of comedy, music, and South Asian culture with the little picture, which tries very hard to please. It’s a heist movie in a way, but mostly interested in silliness with broad characters, and the endeavor is clearly influenced by the works of Wes Anderson and Jared Hess, offering a dry, stylized approach to goofballery. “Four Samosas” doesn’t have enough creative gas to get to the finish line, but Kapoor is dedicated to delivering a charming story of friends going to extremes to solve their problems, including wounded hearts. And there’s a fresh, engaging cast here that’s ready to play with the material, offering bright performances and decent timing in this somewhat strange but likable study of mistakes and community peculiarities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com