A few features have included dominoes in a peripheral fashion, but “Domino: Battle of the Bones” attempts to transform the game into sporting cinema. Directors Baron Davis, Steven V. Vasquez, and Carl Reid come together to turn a static game with sitting players into a heated battle of attitudes and family, endeavoring to make a comedy with broad characters and crazy situations. It’s so incredibly odd to encounter a movie about the world of dominoes, but that initial strangeness represents the only interesting thing about the picture. “Domino: Battle of the Bones” doesn’t push hard enough to understand the game and its passionate participants. Instead, the endeavor wants to be a dopey comedy, and an unfunny one at that, spending a painfully long run time on bad jokes and shrill performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Netflix hit the jackpot with 2018’s “Bird Box,” collecting huge viewership numbers with the grim chiller, which also managed to become something of a phenomenon during the early weeks of its release. It only makes sense to return to such a tale of motherly concern during an apocalyptic event, with “Awake” using the slow-dip demise of sleeplessness as the primary source of terror. Elements shared between the films are noted, but “Awake” is a much more violent picture and, unexpectedly, has sharper spiritual interests, slipping some Christian concepts into a harsh movie. Writers Joseph and Mark Raso (who also directs) get a charge out of dangerous situations in the feature, creating a sort of suburban mom passion play that has a decent pace and compellingly bizarre touches to keep the endeavor alert. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2013’s “The Conjuring” was yet another James Wan horror movie when it was released. However, it was arguably his best horror movie, and the picture’s success was immediate and expansive, quickly inspiring the formation of “The Conjuring Universe,” which has delivered several spin-offs and a direct sequel, though 2016’s “The Conjuring 2” was a tremendous disappointment, with Wan getting lost in a bloated run time, killing suspense. For the eighth installment of “The Conjuring Universe,” Wan steps away from directorial duties, handing “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” to “The Curse of La Llorona” helmer Michael Chaves, who’s tasked with protecting the golden goose for another chapter of supernatural entanglements. Wan isn’t entirely missed, but Chaves has the benefit of moderately better material for “The Devil Made Me Do It,” which returns to the Ed and Lorraine Warren saga, offering a slight legal angle to the sequel’s hellraising, which brings a bit of freshness to an increasingly stale franchise. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For almost exactly an hour, writer/director Scott Windhauser (“Dead Trigger”) finds a fresh way to deal with old genre business in “Death in Texas.” He commits to character and performance, working to get the audience invested in these damaged people and their emotional history, making clear connections between the players while gradually increasing tension that normally accompanies crime movie interests. Windhauser eventually surrenders the softer interactions, giving the feature over to genre formula, but he has something special for 60 minutes, giving “Death in Texas” a John Sayles feel as storytelling winds around multiple players and their anguished hearts, keeping things confessional before the guns and coincidences come out to offer the usual payoff for this type of violent endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Almost two decades ago, DreamWorks Animation released “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” It was slightly artier fare from the “Shrek” studio, presenting family audiences with an animated adventure about a special horse that didn’t involve cartoon touches, with the production trying to offer an epic instead of a babysitter. It was an interesting picture (with an incredible score by Hans Zimmer), but it, almost predictably, didn’t find many takers at the box office, with its Disney-ish ways unable to compete in the marketplace. There was never a sequel for “Stallion of the Cimarron,” but DreamWorks didn’t let Spirit die, bringing the fiery horse back for a 2017 television series, “Spirit Riding Free,” aiming the material at younger viewers eager to devour tales of horse riding and friendship. The show was a hit, keeping Spirit alive over the course of 78 episodes, but the company isn’t ready to give up on the moneymaker, making an unusual creative choice to produce “Spirit Untamed,” which is basically a remake of the “Spirit Riding Free” origin story with a slightly bigger budget, slicker animation, and a marquee-friendly voice cast. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been numerous films based on video games, but “Hero Mode” is the rare endeavor to explore the business behind the creation of video games. Screenwriter Jeff Carpenter doesn’t dig too deeply into industry ways, presenting more of an understanding of competition and labor while still making something approachable for a pre-teen audience. “Hero Mode” is old-fashioned entertainment in many ways, offering a gentle tale about self-esteem, teamwork, and relationships, mixed in with an amusing underdog tale from an adolescent perspective. The production isn’t swinging for the fences with this material, remaining mild with dramatics and emotions, but they find ways to reach viewers of all ages while still playing into current pop culture trends concerning kids and big-time gaming biz dreams. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Flashback” is the first feature from writer/director Christopher MacBride in eight years, having last helmed the faux documentary, “The Conspiracy.” The new picture plays like an idea that’s been brewing inside the filmmaker for a long time, finally presented with a chance to realize his dream movie after years of consideration and development. These pure intentions are somewhat lost in the overall execution, as “Flashback” is a brain-bleeder, but not an especially gripping one. There are layers for the layers in this endeavor, which follows a young man’s odyssey into his own mind, which is on the verge of shutting down, looking to regain control of his past, present, and future by renewing focus on a troubled classmate. MacBride oversees style and performance, but there’s limited appeal to the story, which is always most comfortable in puzzle mode, but the solution isn’t worth the time invested. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally” hopes to refresh viewers on a largely forgotten area of World War II, exploring certain life choices made by Mildred Gillars, an American-born resident of Germany who eventually became one of the leading voices of Nazi propaganda efforts. The screenplay by Vance Owen, Darryl Hicks, and Michael Polish (who also directs) does the expected, working to understand the ways of a hated woman who pledged her allegiance to evil, endeavoring to understand what kind of survival instinct was required during a confusing time of global crisis. “American Traitor” is about Mildred’s experiences in Berlin, but it’s also a courtroom drama, and a particularly boring one at that. Polish tries to generate some level of psychological exploration when dealing with such a controversial person, but the feature is flat-out motionless at times, forcing co-star Al Pacino to summon his hammiest thespian ways to help provide some energy to an otherwise deathly dull film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2018’s “A Quiet Place” was the little genre feature that could, besting all expectations to become one of the biggest hits of the year, dazzling audiences with its tight suspense sequences and hurting popcorn sales with its extensive use of silence. It turned actor John Krasinski into a major directorial force, celebrated for his inventiveness while mounting an unusual alien invasion picture. Of course there was going to be a sequel, and “A Quiet Place Part II” picks up exactly where the first movie left off, returning audiences to the war zone of the Midwest, following Evelyn and her family as they carry on without the leadership of her husband. While a little offering of backstory is presented to viewers, Krasinski isn’t straying too far from the original formula, keeping “A Quiet Place Part II” similar in style and tension, only shifting around character position for the continuation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com