From the style of the main title sequence and the score from composers Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, “Windfall” is imagined as classic cinema thriller involving a small collection of people stuck in a hostage scenario involving a lot of money. Of course, director Charlie McDowell (“The Discovery,” “The One I Love”) doesn’t go full noir with the endeavor, sniffing around for a middle ground between gradual escalation and a sense of humor, bringing in comedic actor Jason Segel to portray a potentially violent individual. “Windfall” starts in one place and ends up somewhere entirely different, which is part of its charm and contributes to its unevenness, but it does offer sharp, engaged performances and some odd ideas for conflict, trying to surprise despite the spareness of the production. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2020, “Antebellum” attempted to address American history and the current state of race relations, conjuring a sinister tale of kidnapping and violence to help unsettle viewers. “Alice” has a similar tale of pained existence to share, with writer/director Krystin Ver Linden also tackling the ways of slavery, but taking more of a “Twilight Zone” approach to the subject, blended with M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village.” “Alice” is well-intentioned and features deeply felt performances from Keke Palmer and Common, and the idea Ver Linden tries to develop has tremendous potential, but the helmer can’t get the picture going in a way that creates excitement for character transformations or plans for vengeance. The film is surprisingly slack and unfortunately unsatisfying, despite a noble vision for the black experience that Ver Linden is trying to communicate. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Cheaper by the Dozen” began life as a 1948 book, where siblings Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey shared their experiences being part of a massive family, charting the strangeness of such a life. The memoir inspired a 1950 film adaptation (starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy), and a 1952 sequel. The material was revived for a 2003 reworking starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, which also inspired a follow-up in 2005. There’s been a lot of “Cheaper by the Dozen” over the years (including knock-offs and freak show pay cable programs worshipping the concept of large families), and now it’s back again, this time with Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union as the overwhelmed parents, who not only have to deal with the demands of too many children, but the challenges of guardianship in 2022, which involves social media, racism, and corporate pressure, with screenwriters Kenya Barris and Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry in charge of updating the formula for a new generation of household problems. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Adrian Lyne popularized cinematic eroticism in the 1980s, combining style and heat to generate hits such as “Flashdance,” “9 ½ Weeks,” and “Fatal Attraction.” Lyne would go on to challenge audiences with dark visions (“Jacob’s Ladder”), burning questions of trust (“Indecent Proposal”), and the power of jealousy (“Unfaithful”), creating quite an impressive oeuvre. And then he walked away for two decades, distancing himself from moviemaking, watching audience tastes and obsessions change during this extended break. Lyne is suddenly back with “Deep Water,” and he’s attempting to revive his aesthetic for a different era, returning to the ways of lustfulness and suspicion, taking inspiration from a 1957 novel by Patricia Highsmith (the adaptation is written by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson). While a little unsteady at times, “Deep Water” is a nice return for Lyne, who plays to his strengths with the endeavor, making a sinister and sexual picture, and one that does well with leads Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, who share terrific chemistry, giving the helmer something to work with. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If you’ve felt that war movies have suffered from tremendous sameness in recent years, here comes “Black Crab,” which focuses on a special mission during a Scandinavian conflict that requires the use of soldiers on ice skates to help transfer a mystery device behind enemy lines. Perhaps fearing he’s coming close to absurdity, co-writer/director Adam Berg focuses his attention on the harshness of conflict, reinforcing the human price of warfare and all the difficult moral choices contained within military service. “Black Crab” takes its inspiration from a novel by Jerker Virdborg, and Berg labors to keep the endeavor visually interesting and dramatically potent. He has some trouble with length, but Berg gives the picture memorable encounters and a few gut-punch moments, with star Noomi Rapace delivering another skin-tearing performance, occasionally broken up by lengthy periods of ice skating. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Outfit” isn’t a COVID-19 movie, but it represents one of the better uses of limitations imposed on film productions during this frustrating time. The screenplay by Johnathan McClain and Graham Moore (who also directs) arranges a small-scale thriller that involves only a single location and a handful of characters, creating tension through escalating acts of suspicion and low impulse control. It’s a picture about gangsters, with period style and presence, and Moore skillfully brings such limited expanse to life in truly inspired ways. We’ve been here before, dealing with questionable characters and their secret plans, but “The Outfit” is a pleasant refreshing of formula, doing surprisingly well with the basics in storytelling opportunities, and it’s hard to resist another chance to watch star Mark Rylance turn a potentially limited part into a marvelous display of acting precision. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Mariama Diallo has two very different films with “Master,” challenged to bring together a tale of a supernatural haunting and an inspection of diversity issues on a college campus, and all the complexity that situation entails. Diallo is incredibly ambitious with her screenplay, tackling big ideas on racial identity and relationships, and she also wants to creep out the audience, playing into trends concerning the distanced eeriness of “elevated horror.” “Master” has its strengths, primarily found in performances, which are uniformly excellent, giving the material a strong emotional push, also selling the creepiness of freak-out sequences. The feature is interesting, bringing up potent ideas on the state of higher education and tokenism, but Diallo has a difficult time deciding what kind of movie she wants to make, losing control of her vision as genre elements take time away from far more commanding human horrors. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2006, Mark Neveldine co-directed “Crank.” The supercharged, hyperactive thriller managed to tickle some viewers with its vision for total mayhem, using sheer adrenaline and dark humor to provide entertainment. Neveldine has been chasing that career high ever since, offering berserk visuals to a “Crank” sequel, “Gamer,” and “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” with audiences mostly rejecting opportunities to witness what’s basically been more of the same old skate video chaos. In 2015, there was “The Vatican Tapes,” a dreadful film ignored by all, but Neveldine remains committed to his career, and he’s back with “Panama,” which is barely a movie at times, offering ticket-buyers a chance to watch the production remain in hotel rooms and march around suburban Puerto Rico, trying to conjure the insanity of Central America in 1989 for roughly the budget of a Toyota commercial. Cameras swoop and spin, lingerie-clad extras are scanned in full, and the screenplay goes butch, but Neveldine just doesn’t have what it takes to make an interesting feature. In fact, this is his worst endeavor to date. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Measure of Revenge” is a B-movie that desperately doesn’t want to be classified as such. Director Peyfa strives to make a picture about vengeance that plays more emotionally, exploring a mother’s sorrow when her troubled son is murdered, leaving her to deal with the demands of justice when the police back away. It’s a classic set-up for a vigilante thriller, with the plot already explored in dozens of similar endeavors, but Peyfa doesn’t take the hint. He’s making his helming debut with the effort, and labors to mute the exploitation potential of the film, which turns out to be a big mistake, as there’s little else to “Measure of Revenge” that commands attention. There’s New York City theater scene love and some soggy dramatics, but those gearing up to watch star Melissa Leo slip into Liam Neeson mode are going to be disappointed with the feature, which doesn’t pack much of a punch. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com