2019’s “Downton Abbey” wasn’t a financial risk, but it provided a clear creative challenge for writer Julian Fellowes, who was tasked with bringing his hit television show to the big screen without losing the small-screen essentials of the show. Melodrama remained, but Fellowes attempted to upgrade character tensions and aristocratic stakes, coming up with a very comfortable and appealing victory lap for his creation, gathering the cast for another go-around with wealth, class, and British matters of heart and manners. The film turned out to be a huge hit, forcing Fellowes to rethink finality, returning to the franchise with “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” which offers another reunion of familiar faces and places, with the new picture out to give the fanbase what they’ve come for, but also move the story forward in a way that could inspire additional sequels now that the Crawley gang have proved their theatrical appeal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While many attempts to put a sequel together were made over the years, a true follow-up to 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” never found its way into production, robbing audiences of a chance to return to a world where pieces of animation history and detective fiction fit together with a comedic tilt. Writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand seem to have this feisty spirit in mind for “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers,” which offers an update of the 1989 animated series for ardent fans who’ve missed the crime-solving chipmunks, but also gives the whole thing a self-referential makeover that weaves the beloved characters into a world of cartoon heroes, villains, and monstrosities. Director Akvia Schaffer (“Hot Rod,” “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping”) isn’t interested in reviving the show’s sense of playfulness, going hipper and louder with this mosaic of animated styles, brands, and history, hoping to huff some “Roger Rabbit” fumes while reintroducing the “Rescue Rangers” concept to a younger audience…in a film that’s not really for kids. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2018, writer Paul Myers decided to put his fandom to the test, assembling interviews and undertaking research for the book, “The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy.” It was his valentine to the Canadian comedy troupe, looking to provide some insight into complicated relationships and creative efforts, exploring the formation and rise to fame for The Kids in the Hall, filling pages with anecdotes, information, and tributes. It remains a vital biography of the group, reaching into the strange magic shared among members Mark McKinney, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, and Scott Thompson. “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks” isn’t the film version of Myers’s book, but it tries to cover the same ground, examining how these strange stage performers found one another in the 1980s, combining forces to generate a wave of idiosyncratic comedy that was cult-ready and fabulously bizarre. “Comedy Punks” doesn’t have the deep grooves of “One Dumb Guy,” but as a visual summary of career highs and lows, it’s a compelling sit, offering fans some necessary intimacy with the performers as they walk down memory lane. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If it’s low budget, shot in Georgia, and co-stars Bruce Willis, it must be a revenge story. The subgenre is all VOD cinema is usually about, and “Vendetta” is no different, with writer/director Jared Cohn (2021’s “Die Hard” rip-off, “Deadlock,” which also co-starred Willis) trying to pretend he’s the first filmmaker to touch on the physical and psychological violence of vengeance, attempting to conjure a mighty sense of fury with dramatic working parts seen in hundreds of other movies. “Vendetta” is predictable until it comes to explaining what’s going on, with Cohn committing a few unpardonable errors with his storytelling choices, offering true surprise with all the confusion the production generates. He also doesn’t have a big enough imagination to bring something passably novel to the endeavor, which is in desperate need of something more than tough guy posturing to remain even the slightest bit interesting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Two years ago, Brea Grant directed “12 Hour Shift,” a nifty thriller about a corrupt nurse trying to make it through a long night where everything goes wrong. Grant proved herself skilled with dark comedy and strange material, and she’s back in the same creative situation with “Torn Hearts,” which examines a bizarre encounter between a country duo and one of their inspirations. Writer Rachel Koller Craft cooks up a pleasingly unusual plot for Grant to detail, examining the stresses of partnership and the demands of the music industry. There’s also some horror worked into the flow of the feature, giving it a handful of charged moments that go beyond emotional violence. “Torn Hearts” isn’t an overwhelming study of pent-up feelings and malevolent therapy, but it contains some interesting hostility and a unique idea for confrontations, highlighting the dark side of music business ambition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Eugenio Derbez is a comedic actor who recently found success with a slightly different role in the Oscar-winning film, “CODA,” making a rare appearance in an emotionally charged endeavor that asked him to tone down his natural pull toward slapstick behavior. Derbez isn’t staying still for very long, quickly returning to sillier material with “The Valet,” which is a remake of a 2006 French comedy, directed by Frances Verber. The premise of a modest man caught up in a messy Hollywood situation seems to play to Derbez’s thespian strengths, but there’s something strangely off about the work, which has the star laboring to play a nice guy. It’s a vanilla approach in a feature that’s aiming to be as benign as possible, despite a story that welcomes an edgier approach to the ways of adultery and nervous breakdowns. “The Valet” finds Derbez basically taking a nap in the part, contributing little to an absurdly overlong effort that lacks charm and especially pace, going about its business often in the least memorable way possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Emergency” began life as a 2018 short, which attracted attention to writer K.D. Davila and director Carey Williams, who decided to expand the premise of a dangerous discovery made by three vulnerable college students into a feature film. The strain of such a move is evident while watching the movie, as Davila has her central idea about possible exposure to lethal force when young black men deal with the police, struggling to come up with an extra 90 minutes of material to support the expansion. “Emergency” isn’t a potent comedy, often fumbling through scenes of playful engagement before a crisis kicks in, and Williams struggles to find a level of interplay with his characters, as most of the endeavor involves people arguing, which isn’t all that interesting to watch. There’s periodic thematic clarity worth waiting for, but Davila and Williams show little command of comedic and dramatic escalation, keeping the effort at arm’s length from enlightenment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2019 was a busy year for comedian Rebel Wilson, who appeared in four movies intended to send her career soaring. It didn’t quite work out that way (one of the offerings was “Cats,” which didn’t make magic for anyone involved in the production), and Wilson soon disappeared, taking the next three years off from filmmaking. She’s back with “Senior Year,” which is built to play to her sellable strengths of improvisation, dancing, and goofball antics, remaining in line with pretty much every picture she’s made during her career. Unsurprisingly, “Senior Year” is sincerely lacking a developed sense of humor, with the screenplay trafficking in millennium nostalgia and R-rated raunchiness, occasionally stopping the effort to deal with tender feelings. It all feels very programmed and unimaginative, and it keeps Wilson front and center, with producers once again asking her to carry a feature without thinking things through, and she barely puts in an effort to do anything different here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Eskil Vogt (who previously collaborated on efforts such as “The Worst Person in the World” and “Thelma”) looks to update the “Bad Seed” formula with “The Innocents.” It’s a story about four children who each deal with certain mental powers, giving them the thrill of discovery and the challenge of self-control. There’s a certain graphic novel atmosphere to the endeavor, which largely remains a silent study of behavior and choices, occasionally dipping into some pitch-black events involving sudden violence. Vogt remains in observational mode with “The Innocents,” which gives it tremendous cinematic power, forcing viewers to process the strange magic and antagonism that emerges from these young characters, which provides some of the finest suspense sequences of the film year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Operation Mincemeat” is based on a book by Ben Macintyre, who explored the story of a secret World War II mission to provide a “deception plan” used to help the Allies invade Sicily in 1943. It’s an extraordinary tale of teamwork and talent, and there’s a special addition to this slice of wartime history, with author Ian Fleming part of the planning, using his military knowledge to help inform the eventual creation of his most famous character, James Bond. The saga of Operation Mincemeat has been explored in previous productions (including 1956’s “The Man Who Never Was”), but screenwriter Michelle Ashford (“The Pacific”) brings a more immediate sense of suspense to the endeavor, working with the strange details of the mission and the inner lives of the players in the game, while director John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) brings a tight pace to most of the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Ninja Thyberg originally shot “Pleasure” as a short film in 2013, helping to attract attention to her burgeoning career with a look at the technical ways and psychological damage of the adult film industry. Returning to the material, Thyberg looks to expand the experience for the lead character, depicted here as a young Swedish woman hoping to break into the business doing whatever she can to score gigs. Thyberg increases the run time and ups the graphic content, but there’s little dramatic expansion for “Pleasure,” which plays with a certain bluntness, but any emotionality is difficult to find. The troubling details of life in X-rated entertainment is what holds attention here, as Thyberg doesn’t have much in the way of characterization, presenting a simplistic take on the deadening arc of a pornography participant. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Chris Sivertson is best known as the helmer of 2007’s “I Know Who Killed Me.” It was a financial and critical disaster, but established Sivertson’s love of genre entertainment that deals with the violence of psychological pain and unresolved personal issues. He returns to the realm of brain-bleeders with “Monstrous,” which is being sold as a creature feature detailing one woman’s struggle against a mysterious monster from a nearby pond. The screenplay by Carol Chrest uses horror as a way to grab audience interest, but the film explores different areas of mental health and domestic unrest, helping to create an unsteady tonality where the first half of the picture wants to frighten viewers, while the rest of the endeavor hopes to make them cry. “Monstrous” isn’t a mess, just ill-conceived, and Sivertson (joined by a whopping 38 producers) isn’t a strong enough storyteller to generate a compelling understanding of a prolonged emotional breakdown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com