Throughout his career, writer/director Lars von Trier has treasured every chance to upset his audience. He's an artful filmmaker, but one who enjoys being provocative, taking viewers to dark, strange places where human barbarity can thrive. Sometimes, this makes for unforgettable cinema. "The House That Jack Built" is not one of those golden occasions, with von Trier going inward to craft a tale about a serial killer struggling with his own vision for savagery. "The House That Jack Built" is repellant, but predictably so, taking a torturous 153 minutes to keep hitting the same beats of mutilation and commentary, while von Trier puts this thinly veiled examination of his own career into the hands of star Matt Dillon, who's not built for the uniquely suffocating screen spaces European cinema is capable of producing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Another Day of Life
Spending a whopping ten years in production, "Another Day of Life" endeavors to share the experiences of Ryszard Kapuscinski, a Polish journalist who strived to dissect and report on the Angolan Civil War in 1975. Aiming for a more artful (and less expensive) way to detail such a perilous journey, directors Raul de la Fuente and Damian Nenow turn to motion capture animation to bring the tale to life, giving them access to visual elasticity as the story winds through bitter realities and growing nightmares. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Scoob!
“Scoob!” marks the return of the “Scooby-Doo” franchise to the big screen (at least that was the original release plan), arriving after 2004’s “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed” failed to match the gross of its 2002 predecessor. However, there’s been no shortage of “Scooby-Doo” entertainment over the years, with Warner Brothers mining the brand name for everything it’s worth, churning out DTV animated movies (where the Mystery Machine gang has paired up with pro-wrestlers, Batman, and KISS) and television shows, making sure there’s a Scooby-themed offering for every star in the sky. And now there’s “Scoob!” Instead of ordering up a uniquely spooky adventure for the characters, the producers have decided to launch the Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe, blending known cartoon personalities to help give Scooby-Doo and Shaggy the big-budget formula to inspire future sequels and spin-offs. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Capone
After scoring a commercial success with 2012’s “Chronicle,” director Josh Trank lost almost all of his critical and industry goodwill with his follow-up endeavor, the disastrous “Fantastic Four” do-over. While such a public flameout would kill most careers, Trank has managed to hang on to his employability by his fingertips, returning five years later with “Capone,” a much smaller picture for the helmer. While there was a lot of speculation as to who was really behind the colossal failure of “Fantastic Four,” “Capone” basically underlines Trank’s shortcomings as a storyteller, getting lost in his own unpleasant whims with the feature, which gradually becomes a prison sentence for viewers as it tracks the steady decay of Al Capone — a tale nobody asked for, especially from Trank. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – The Wrong Missy
Adam Sandler has a major deal with Netflix to create films for himself and his friends, and nobody seems to be benefiting more from the arrangement than David Spade. After appearing in Sandler-starring endeavors such as “The Ridiculous 6” and “Sandy Wexler,” Spade graduated to co-star status in 2016’s “The Do-Over.” He was presented with his own starring opportunity in 2018’s “Father of the Year,” which paired the actor with director Tyler Spindel, and they made one horrible movie. Trying their luck again, Spade and Spindel return with “The Wrong Missy,” which is another collection of gross-out gags, tired references, and buddy-buddy connections to the Sandler Cinematic Universe. And guess what? They’ve made another horrible movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All-Time Volume 2: Horror & Sci-Fi
Cult movies aren’t born, they’re made by audiences willing to put in the time and money to celebrate features that either died while trying to be mainstream, or never stood a chance when offered for universal acceptance. Cult entertainment is a topic that’s been explored repeatedly in all forms of media (it’s bread-and-butter content for podcasts), but director Danny Wolf hopes to provide expanse and access with “Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All-Time,” which is a three-part examination of cinematic offerings that’ve become a secret language for some, creating legacies few could predict but millions adore. Next up is “Volume 2: Horror & Sci-Fi,” which visits a corner of fandom where the thrills are greater and nightmares are formed, exploring genre efforts that’ve managed to survive initial financial failure and critical dismissal to find popularity, with a few titles going on to be considered some of the greatest features ever made. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Blood and Money
There’s something about the idea of finding a bag of money in the middle of nowhere that excites filmmakers. The plot has been explored on multiple occasions, perhaps most effectively in Sam Raimi’s “A Simple Plan,” and it receives the low-budget treatment with “Blood and Money,” which takes the discovery of missing cash to the far reaches of Maine, giving suspense a wintry snap. Writer/director John Barr makes his debut with the feature, and he doesn’t bite off more than he can chew with the material, arranging a straightforward story of survival in a harsh environment, adding parental guilt and bad guys to the mix. “Blood and Money” isn’t a stunning endeavor, but the basics are appealing, finding Tom Berenger appropriately cast as a grizzled, pained man coming into contact with a discovery that changes his life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Castle in the Ground
Addiction dramas are plentiful, but more and more recent productions have taken a closer look at the opioid crisis, presenting a current examination of broken lives as more powerful drugs take hold of seemingly innocent lives. “Castle in the Ground” is a Canadian production that isn’t interested in preaching to the audience, with writer/director Joey Klein offering a dire immersion into the world of pharmaceutical submission, plunging to the depths of grief and confusion to track one character’s struggle for clarity as he’s clouded by hopelessness. “Castle in the Ground” isn’t an easy sit, and it’s not a complete one either, as Klein prefers to offer a wandering sense of dramatic direction for his characters, electing to examine moment-by-moment choices instead of sticking to a grand arc of deterioration. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Body Parts
Adapting a French novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, co-writer/director Eric Red aims to create a classier style of horror movie with 1991's "Body Parts." One could argue the picture isn't very scary at all, showing more effectiveness as a Hitchcockian thriller concerning a good man's interactions with a bad arm. Red isn't a refined filmmaker, and he wrestles with his B-movie instincts here, endeavoring to make a considered character piece that also doubles as cinematic excitement. Nail-biting material doesn't dominate "Body Parts," as Red has better luck with mystery elements, generating more interest in the central puzzle of transplant surgery and donor shock than the visceral detours of the feature, which play into snoozy slasher routine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Zombie Island Massacre
I'm sure somewhere there's a story about the making of 1984's "Zombie Island Massacre." It's doubtful this was the picture's original title, with Troma Films getting their grubby hands on the movie for distribution, putting their specialized spin on marketing efforts that emphasized undead happenings that aren't actually in the feature. Of course, this is nothing new for Troma, as the company always makes a mad dash to the easiest sellable elements with hopes to turn acquisition pennies into box office nickels. However, with "Zombie Island Massacre," there's a little more on the menu than a genre stomp, finding the screenplay offering a hazy game of misdirection to best secure some level of surprise as a horror endeavor gradually becomes an episode of "Miami Vice." It's strange work that doesn't do well with expectations, but more relaxed minds willing to accept a move away from straight- up frights might finds something different here. Not outstanding, just different. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Flesh-Eating Mothers
1988's "Flesh-Eating Mothers" isn't a scary movie, even though it deals with a somewhat serious topic of infidelity and the plague of sexually transmitted diseases. Co-writer/director James Aviles isn't comfortable treating such issues with any sort of dramatic concentration, instead trying to make a genre ride with the endeavor, which is always hunting for laughs to best support the rather gruesome plot. "Flesh-Eating Mothers" has a great title, as eye-catching as can be, and Aviles has a vision for ridiculousness for the feature, which is most fun when it has something to do, dealing with cannibalistic moms and the kids they devour. It's only a shame there isn't more effort from Aviles to fill the film with incident, as it takes one too many breathers during the run time, more concerned about making it to 90 minutes than providing a propulsive sense of twisted entertainment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – The Wave
"The Wave" approaches ideas on conscience and karmic balance through the cinematic reverberations of psychedelic drugs. Director Gille Klabin is prepared to take the audience on a special mind-bending ride, armed with distinct visuals and doses of CGI, while instructing star Justin Long to capture the finer points of mental and physical alarm as his character is sent through time and space to deal with his issues as a human being in a dangerous position of power. "The Wave" has a simple message of personal inventory to study, and Klabin tries to capture audience attention through bursts of chaos, hoping to wind up the feature as a manic sprint through different realities. It's not an especially ambitious production, and not entirely compelling either, but it does have a certain energy at times to keep it going, with Long working hard to communicate the inner melt of a troubled man. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Valley Girl (2020)
When is a remake not exactly a remake? I give you “Valley Girl,” which is a reworking of the 1983 cult hit. What was once a gentle but textured look at a developing romance between opposites in L.A. (a riff on “Romeo and Juliet”) has now been turned into a jukebox musical that’s all about soundtrack hits, candied cinematography, and broad performances. To bring “Valley Girl” back to the screen, the producers have made several changes to the tone and approach of the original film, aiming to reach a much younger audience with a simplified tale of love as it works through cultural and social challenges, and is frequently expressed through song. Director Rachel Lee Goldenberg (a veteran of The Asylum) isn’t trying to find dramatic grit with her vision, she’s striving to generate a party atmosphere for sleepover audiences, delivering a pleasingly fluffy, high-energy offering of teen exuberance. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – How to Build a Girl
Beanie Feldstein made a sharp impression in last year’s “Booksmart,” handed a juicy role that provided opportunities for the actress to showcase her range as a dramatic and comedic talent. She did well with good material. Feldstein flies solo in “How to Build a Girl,” which is an adaptation of a 2014 Caitlin Moran novel (she handles screenplay duties), playing an English teenager who, in the early 1990s, receives a thorough education in the ways of maturation and selfishness. Feldstein is an odd choice for the part, but she throws herself into the role, taking on accent duties and cranking up her charms to help director Coky Giedroyc alleviate the often sludgy formula of the endeavor. “How to Build a Girl” doesn’t fall apart, but it threatens to repeatedly, held together by Feldstein’s energy and a colorful supporting cast. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Spaceship Earth
I think most people, if they recall the saga of the Biosphere 2 experiment, remember it as a media-driven curiosity, finding the science of it all pushed away in favor of emphasizing the weirdness of the endeavor. In 1991, a group of trained “Biospherians” elected to seal themselves off from the rest of the world, living inside an Earth system research facility located in Oracle, Arizona for two years, put in charge of various biomes as a way of experimenting with early plans to transfer people to other worlds to live. It was years of build-up and promotion, and the result was a messy collection of mistakes, putting the pure science of the mission in jeopardy as money men and analysts feasted on the shortcomings of the project. Nearly three decades after its debut, director Matt Wolf makes a return to Biosphere 2 for “Spaceship Earth,” a documentary that searches for the true story behind the mystery of the event, with special attention paid to those who put the project together, spending decades of their lives devoted to a vision of environmental exploration. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Trying to compete with the big titles of American slasher entertainment in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Canada delivers "My Bloody Valentine," which was partially funded by taxpayer money. In return for government coin, viewers receive an idiosyncratic horror endeavor, where a pack of twentysomething miners and the women who love them are forced to survive the dangers of Valentine's Day, dodging pickaxe swings from a forgotten killer who's returned to make sure nobody celebrates the holiday. Director George Mihalka has a distinct setting for the tale, which takes place in a remote mining town, with most of the action heading into the depths to take advantage of dark passageways and claustrophobic spaces. While it lacks production polish, "My Bloody Valentine" has a different sort of appreciation for character and masked menace, while Mihalka serves up the gore with a few inventive kills, trying to remain as intense as possible within subgenre expectations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Rabid (2019)
While director David Cronenberg mastered his own remake with 1986's "The Fly," it's difficult to imagine anyone having the bravery to rework one of his pictures. Jen and Sylvia Soska step up to the challenge of reinterpretation with "Rabid," which is an update of a 1977 Cronenberg hit, and a particularly gruesome one at that. The Soska Sisters are no strangers to the gore zone, and while they can't possibly outgun Cronenberg, they remain respectful of his strangeness, doing very well with the ghoulish oddity of the material, finding some fresh ideas with old ideas. "Rabid" delivers the violent goods with enthusiasm, with the Soskas once again commanding an engaging, grotesque genre offering, continuing their impressive run of B- movie delights. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Film Review – Arkansas
About a decade ago, actor Clark Duke started making the rounds as a supporting player in comedies. He was quick with a quip, approachably nerdly, and confident in his one and only hairstyle, making an impression in pictures such as “Kick-Ass,” “Hot Tub Time Machine,” and, well, “Kick-Ass 2” and “Hot Tub Time Machine 2.” Duke couldn’t sustain his demand or find work that really tested him as a performer, but now he’s returned with “Arkansas,” a movie he’s co-written and directed, also taking a supporting part that has him looking a bit different than before. With a newfound drive to tell stories instead of simply participate in them, Duke goes to a familiar place with “Arkansas,” which is a tale of backwoods crime, with a community of toxic types populating the narrative. Outside of Duke’s professional graduation, there’s nothing memorable about the feature, which has a to-do list of cliches it slowly checks off, ending up a bland offering of lowlife survival. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – Summer Days with Coo
The cover art for the Blu-ray release of 2007's depicts a loveable moment between a young boy and the Kappa, or water monster, he's befriended. The actual movie is a bit more sobering than the sunny image suggests, with the picture an adaptation of novels by Masao Kogure, offering a deeper understanding of the central relationship as it's challenged by cruelty and chaos over one distinctly adventurous season. Yes, there's cute stuff in here too, but director Keiichi Hara isn't trying to make another "E.T." with the story, willing to maintain its heavier violence to deliver a more nuanced exploration of a unique visitation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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Blu-ray Review – You’ll Never Be Alone
"You'll Never Be Alone" is a story about parenthood, and it takes its time exploring the urgency of the job as it's suddenly called into duty after an act of violence. The 2016 Chilean production has a lot more on its mind than simple fatherly protection, but this simple crisis of doubt gets the picture surprisingly far, creating distinct waves of fear and doubt. Writer/director Alex Anwandter strives to understand the somewhat strained ties that bind with "You'll Never Be Alone," which focuses on character, not necessarily incident to best conjure drama, emerging with a heartfelt understanding of protection and all the messiness it brings. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com




















