Edward James Olmos is a respected actor who’s enjoyed a lengthy career in the industry, winning tremendous praise and a few awards for his efforts. As a director, he made a splash with 1992’s “American Me,” a controversial look at gang life in Los Angeles, which gifted him attention and mild box office, but follow-ups were sparse. Olmos turned in a few television productions over the years, but nothing quite recaptured the electricity of “American Me.” Back on the big screen, Olmos steers “The Devil Has a Name,” which examines the state of pollution and corporate intimidation in California, underlining the true power of greed. It’s a noble endeavor with something to share about corruption and environmental ruin, but Olmos doesn’t connect in full with the screenplay (credited to Robert McEveety), shooting for a quirky take on legal and planetary horror when the subject matter deserves a more sobering approach. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s a bit risky to debut a pandemic horror movie in the midst of an actual pandemic, but it appears the producers of “Alone” (not to be confused with the other “Alone,” released a few weeks ago) are probably counting on morbid curiosity to fuel VOD purchases. It’s not a feature rooted in reality, with screenwriter Matt Naylor taking the material into genre territory, inspired by films such as “28 Days Later” and Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” remake. It’s a zombie movie more than a viral outbreak thriller, and after a shaky introduction from director Johnny Martin (“Hangman,” “Delirium”) that highlights awkward acting and trendy editorial ideas, the feature actually finds an appealing balance of human concern and monster attacks, becoming the rare endeavor that actually improves as it goes. There’s very little real-world illness in “Alone,” and while its release timing is suspect, the finished product is more than happy to be junk food for the masses. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For “The War with Grandpa” to work as a movie, one has to have some comfort with the outrageous behavior exhibited by a troubled 12-year-old boy, who wants nothing more than to seek revenge on his ailing grandfather, who’s taken over his room after moving in due to mobility issues. There needs to be something friendly about the child to help enjoy his increasingly hostile pranks, giving viewers an understanding that the main character isn’t actually trying to murder his peepaw. Such insight into the juvenile mind isn’t presented by screenwriters Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember, who tend to focus on the allegedly lighthearted antics of the material, which originated in a 1984 Robert Kimmel Smith book. Unfortunately, “The War with Grandpa” isn’t amusing either, working through dismal high jinks with seemingly capable actors who push extra hard to make the film resemble the good time it desperately wants to be. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A veteran of comedy television and the digital shorts of “Saturday Night Live,” Oz Rodriguez jumped to film direction with 2016’s highly amusing “Brother Nature,” sharing credit with creative partner Matt Villines, who passed away that same year. Rodriguez returns to screens with “Vampires vs. the Bronx,” keeping up his interest in comedic mischief with the Halloween release, which pits the residents of a forgotten New York City block against the arrival of monsters who do their worst through the business of gentrification. There’s a body count and some bared fangs, but the screenplay by Blaise Hemingway (“Playmobil: The Movie”) tries to keep things light and East Coast with the endeavor, which offers a sharp sense of location while enjoying some big laughs and a fair amount of excitement. Rodriguez maintains his sense of humor, keeping matters quite playful, going for a genre ride instead of a bleak overview of horror happenings, with “Vampires vs. the Bronx” coming through as a wildly entertaining romp. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was a brief, beautiful moment late last year, when the release of “Uncut Gems” delivered the best Adam Sandler performance of his career. It was a risk for the Happy Madison honcho too, working with indie filmmakers asking him to play a morally corrupt character. Sandler was fantastic in a masterful picture, but such a career victory wasn’t meant to last for very long. Less than a year later, Sandler returns with “Hubie Halloween,” heading right back to the warmth and softness of his professional wooby of bodily function jokes, friends and family employment, and a near absence of screenwriting. It’s an awful feature from start to finish, made all the worse by the distant memory of “Uncut Gems” and its magnificent use of Sandler’s unique screen presence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Jim Cummings won critical raves and cult viewership with his last endeavor, 2018’s “Thunder Road,” and he’s back two years later with “The Wolf of Snow Hollow.” Continuing his interest in the wilds of mental illness, parenthood, and law enforcement, Cummings tries on a genre film for size, examining the pressures felt by a man on the edge who’s dealing with family failures, police mishaps, and the possible existence of a wolfman on the loose. The helmer brings a darkly comic edge to the effort, which introduces a wonderfully strong sense of danger with monstrous happenings, only to gradually drift away from such a compelling source of danger and grisly mystery. Cummings is after something a bit more nuanced and dramatically probing with “The Wolf of Snow Hollow,” which might disappoint horror hounds, but the reward is a feature that’s unexpected and unpredictable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been many documentary deconstructions and dramatic interpretations of the Chicago Seven, with all sorts of filmmakers digging into the madness of the judicial and political system experienced by seven (originally eight) men on trial for their part in the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots in Illinois. It seems 2020 is an ideal time to revisit elements of the trial and its idiosyncratic defendants, with the case examining abuses of power at a law enforcement and Presidential level, capturing the restlessness of a country inching toward chaos. The event is also catnip to writer/director Aaron Sorkin, with the collection of personalities and confrontations gifting him a chance to present a loquacious reexamination of the facts through fiction, generating a high-energy overview of courtroom maneuvering and injustice, also dissecting the behind-the-scenes legal chess game. “The Trial of the Chicago 7” may be a bit too familiar and user friendly at times, but if there was ever a moment to take it all in again, it would be now. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have be a great number of films that’ve chased the cinematic high 1988’s “Die Hard” provided viewers. The knockoffs have been varied in premise and tone, and it’s wild they’re still being churned out to this day. “The Doorman” is the next offering of one-person-army action in a single setting, only instead of paying tribute to the John McTiernan masterpiece, screenwriters Lior Chefetz and Joe Swanson basically remake the feature with their vision of multi-floor antagonism inside an apartment building. The similarities are alarming (let’s hope the lawyers aren’t watching), but try as they might, the writers can’t capture that singular viewing experience with this low-budget effort, which pits diminutive Ruby Rose against an army of thieves, using every John McClane trick the production can repurpose to provide some cheap thrills to viewers who, hopefully, haven’t seen “Die Hard.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Welcome to the Blumhouse” makes another attempt to turn Blumhouse Productions into a household name for horror. Partnering with Amazon Studios, Blumhouse delivers four films for streaming distribution, looking to clear out a few older titles from the company closet. The second offering of the series is “The Lie,” which is a remake of a 2015 German production, with writer/director Veena Sub transferring austere European storytelling to snowbound Canada, hoping to get a little more atmospheric mileage out of the premise. “The Lie” asks some compelling questions about the evil nature of children and the reverberating destruction caused by a parental breakup, but Sub only has ridiculous answers to offer viewers with her remake. Instead of challenging her audience, the helmer manages to trigger major eye-rolls with the writing, destroying a picture with a provocative introduction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Welcome to the Blumhouse” makes another attempt to turn Blumhouse Productions into a household name for horror. Partnering with Amazon Studios, Blumhouse delivers four films for streaming distribution, looking to clear out a few older titles from the company closet. First up is “Black Box,” a television movie that takes viewers into the depths of an unsettled mind as it attempts to understand the trauma it suffered and the memory loss that sustains. There are no particulars scares to be found in the endeavor, with co-writer/director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. looking to make a more psychological impact with the picture, which tries to get something going with a talented cast and an initially intriguing exploration of a broken brain that perhaps shouldn’t be repaired. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The story behind the making of “The Planters” is perhaps more interesting than the film itself. In 2016, friends Hannah Leder and Alexandra Kotcheff decided they wanted to make a movie, only they weren’t interested in outside interference. Gathering equipment and a few additional actors, the partners became the crew, taking on camera and sound duties while providing lead performances. It’s a sort of DIY production, a rare one that isn’t a documentary, and “The Planters” emerges with a level of creative freedom that’s only born out of complete independence. The feature isn’t quite as bold as expected, with Leder and Kotcheff clearly enamored with Wes Anderson and his cinematic world of deadpan humor and decorated frames, working extremely hard to replicate the vibe for their own offering of strange things happening to stranger people. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com