2017’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” wasn’t a towering achievement in fantasy filmmaking, but as a long overdue sequel to 1995’s “Jumanji,” it did the trick, finding a way to connect to the previous movie while establishing its own universe, transforming board game threats into video game mayhem. The picture delighted audiences in a major way, becoming a massive hit over the holiday season, and now the gang is back two years later with “Jumanji: The Next Level,” which is being sold as the next chapter in the franchise saga, but it’s more of a remake of “Welcome to the Jungle,” adding a few new characters to the mix to revive introductory confusion to the gaming realm, forgoing a thrilling new odyssey for the players from the last endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Jay Roach has a history with politically minded moviemaking, enjoying the sometimes stranger-than-fiction details of American power plays, studied in such pictures as “Recount” (exploring the 2000 presidential election), “Game Change” (detailing the 2008 presidential election), and now “Bombshell,” which samples national illness during the 2016 presidential election. Roach certainly has a fetish for exposing the inner lives of leaders, and while his latest isn’t a Donald Trump expose, it tackles his biggest supporters, exploring the reign of Fox News founder Roger Ailes and his extended history of sexual harassment. Screenwriter Charles Randolph has an incredible story to tell, endeavoring to present it from a female point of view, gathering all the Fox News stars and sycophants to populate an engrossing tale of abuse, paranoia, and battered professionalism, examining how a cable network was challenged from within during a critical moment in the country’s history. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

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

Run times are climbing steadily in today’s marketplace, with productions seemingly locked in battle to inflate theater sits just to be considered substantial, possibly justifying ticket prices while overloading storytelling requirements. And then there’s “Trauma Center,” which is 81-minutes long and isn’t about anything of note. Such a picture begs the question: would you rather sit through an extended movie that’s trying too hard or a slight endeavor that has nothing to share? “Trauma Center” has brevity, which is appealing, but writer Paul Da Silva and director Matt Eskandari don’t have much else for their contained thriller, which could easily transform into a taut cat-and-mouse game set inside of a hospital, but the filmmakers don’t share that ambition, taking things slowly to no particular destination, allowing cliché to support the whole feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Filmmakers have repeatedly returned to the “The Body Snatchers,” inspiring many adaptations and riffs on the 1955 novel by Jack Finney, which provides a central attack on identity and control that’s fertile ground for thrillers. “Little Joe” isn’t a direct adaptation of the book, but co-writer/director Jessica Hausner is clearly influenced by the work, downplaying the sci-fi concept to create something slightly more sinister concerning the perils of genetic modification. It doesn’t offer screaming highlights, but “Little Joe” has incredible mood and a real sense of mystery. Hausner steps carefully but confidently with the picture, delivering an unusual creeper that effectively works with the confusion of paranoia and squeeze of parental anxieties, with the helmer delivering a multifaceted chiller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Daniel Isn’t Real” is probably the film 1991’s “Drop Dead Fred” should’ve been. Instead of offering mind-numbing monkey business with the premise of an imaginary friend returning to the adult life of his inventor, “Daniel Isn’t Real” goes pitch-black with the concept, treating the invisible partner as a driving force of encroaching madness. Co-writers Adam Egypt Mortimer (who also directs) and Brian DeLeeuw (adapting his 2009 novel) don’t mess around with the story, transforming one young man’s fight for sanity into a violent journey that crosses through mental illness, cosmic dangers, and destructive behavior. It’s an unhinged endeavor at times, but a fascinating one, bravely avoiding cutesiness to remain in Hell, where Mortimer feels most comfortable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s impossible to escape the familiarity of “Playmobil: The Movie,” which tries to do for the German toy line what “The Lego Movie” did for Lego. The screenplay (credited to Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb, and Jason Oremland) doesn’t make the effort to become its own thing, adhering closely to the formula that made the brick-based picture such a colossal hit. Trouble is, Playmobil isn’t quite as popular as Lego in the toy marketplace, and the company’s first foray into feature-length animation is missing a sense of exploration, unwilling to do something with this toy universe that hasn’t already been done by other endeavors. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For his fifth release of 2019, Nicolas Cage takes a few ferocious bites out of noir-ish entertainment with “Grand Isle.” The picture, scripted by Iver William Jallah and Rich Ronat, is a little bit of everything, mixing bits of Zalman King, Tennessee Williams, and Eli Roth to come up with an exhausting B-movie that’s aiming to be crazy enough to pass. Sadly, director Stephen S. Campanelli (the wretched 2015 thriller, “Momentum”) doesn’t have the energy to pull off major feats of juggling with the material, and while the first half of the feature is passably diverting, the second half gives in to complete ridiculousness, painting over the few positives the effort has. Once again, at least there’s Cage, who strives to be the most interesting thing in the film, portraying mental illness in a way only he can, giving “Grand Isle” the character work it needs more of. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A few years ago, writer/director Daniel Schechter paid a visit to the land of Elmore Leonard with his adaptation of “Life of Crime” (based on the book “The Switch), crafting a surprisingly effective crime comedy with decent twists and fine performances. Avoiding the same sort of creative expectations, Schechter reaches for a Woody Allen/Noah Baumbach vibe with “After Class,” which eschews storytelling rigidity for a free-flowing helping of neuroses and family issues in the heart of New York City. The working parts of the movie are instantly recognizable, dealing with pain and fear in life and love, dusted with some darkly comedic material, but Schechter provides a lived-in vibe for the effort, collecting strong performances and enough relatable behavioral challenges to secure a compelling foray into the abyss of human fallibility. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“I See You” is a collection of twists and turns in search of a story to tell. While my hope here is to avoid spoilers, it’s difficult to discuss the picture without some discussion of content, as screenwriter Devon Graye doesn’t any exploration easy on the sensitive details. He’s trying to make a Chinese box, messing around with genres and characters to keep viewers on their toes, as the film’s mission is to utilize as much misdirection as possible before new perspectives on the central crisis are revealed. “I See You” is many things, and none of them really work, with the shifting nature of the storytelling throttling suspense, and actual reveals are either preposterous or disappointing, leaving the audience with hope that yet another trick is being planned to get a feature that often derails back on track. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While David Lynch recently organized a return trip to “Twin Peaks,” writer/director Jennifer Reeder wants to keep the celebration going with “Knives and Skin.” While not directly an ode to Lynch’s exploration of the damned, Reeder certainly pays tribute to the helmer’s ways with garmonbozia, manufacturing her own take on the twisted residents of a seemingly normal town, where the death of a young girl begins to unravel everything. Reeder likes to keep matters tangled and unreal at times, and her stab at a screen mystery is attempted with dull storytelling skills. She’s better with the weird stuff, but just barely, as “Knives and Skin” quickly loses itself to strained idiosyncrasy, often showing its work when it comes to conjuring screen oddity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com