Puppetry appears the be a lost artform when it comes to film productions these days, but writer/director Isaiah Saxton is looking to reclaim a little magic in “The Legend of Ochi,” which features the work of puppeteers striving to bring a collection of creatures to life. It’s Jim Henson-esque in execution, but the picture isn’t anywhere close to the tone of such classics as “Labyrinth” and “The Dark Crystal.” Saxton’s endeavor mostly resembles a Wes Anderson-directed remake of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” remaining insanely artful but distant with the creature feature. “The Legend of Ochi” is eye candy, with a delightful appreciation of fantasy and adventure, but the helmer’s restraint when it comes to emotional content isn’t always welcome, as a tale of family ties and connection tries to break out, only to be shut down by Saxton’s insistence on remaining at arm’s length from anything potentially heartwarming. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“On Swift Horses” is an adaptation of a 2019 novel by author Shannon Pufahl, and it doesn’t seem like an easy book to bring to the big screen. There’s a tangle of characters to follow, with most in possession of dual lives, aching to achieve a bit of clarity in impossibly clouded living situations. There’s addiction and danger, along with plenty of forbidden attraction, putting screenwriter Bryce Kass to work managing a lot of complicated feelings and detours. Director Daniel Minahan (a television vet) attempts to make some cinematic poetry out of the tale, and while the feature is carefully crafted, it’s not particularly gripping, even with so much going on. “On Swift Horses” slowly goes about its business, picking up on feelings and desires, but it also remains frustratingly flat, as the helmer can’t tap into passions that drive these personalities, forgoing intensity to make something contemplative, but there’s just not all that much to consider. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Alto Knights” was released just last month, and attempted to offer viewers immersion into mob life. Instead of precise writing, rich characters, and fine performances, the feature provided a mess of events and dialogue exchanges, almost reaching a point of parody. And now here’s “Mob Cops,” which makes a similar attempt to generate a world of tough guys and their problems, once again throwing everything at the audience without any care for dramatic connection and scene tension. Screenwriter Kosta Kondilopoulos traces over the “Goodfellas” template for the picture, which follows the lives of crooked cops, good cops, and the mafia goons they interact with. There’s nothing in “Mob Cops” that hasn’t been done in other, better movies, and director/star Danny A. Abeckaser doesn’t offer any sense of style or much clarity to the cluster of names and faces presented here, which makes for a miserable viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A summer camp setting and horror. It’s a combination that’s created a lot of memorable genre entertainment over the last 45 years, inspiring filmmakers to keep returning to the blend of innocence and aggression to support their low-budget endeavors. Co-writers/co-directors Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk try their luck with slasher cinema in “Hell of a Summer,” bringing a new generation into the woods for a survival challenge, only this round is a bit more comedic than I’m sure many viewers will expect. In fact, cheekiness tends to dominate the offering, as Wolfhard and Bryk maintain a weird distance from frights in their scary movie, which is loosely scripted, not terribly interested in being anything more than a mild goof. “Hell of a Summer” (shot three years ago) has the ingredients for at least a passable slaughterama, but there’s no dominating nightmare to follow in the picture, which is inspired by serious horror features. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt makes her feature-length filmmaking debut with “The Ugly Stepsister,” and she proves to be a formidable talent. It’s one thing to utilize the tale of “Cinderella” to inspire a new take on a very old story, but Blichfeldt delivers an original vision for the effort, going the body horror route during this examination of mental illness and fairy tale fixation. The picture is incredibly graphic, but also beguiling as the helmer pieces together the beauty of moviemaking while inspecting a slow unraveling of the eponymous character. “The Ugly Stepsister” is an exceptional presentation of disturbing behavior, and it does something wild with the known tale of romantic rescue, offering exhilarating darkness and prime behavioral displays. It’s extremity done superbly by the production, playing with magic and horror as it endeavors to take “Cinderella” in many surprising directions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After making his directorial debut with the low-budget drama “Fruitvale Station,” Ryan Coogler went into franchise mode, taking on the Hollywood machine. He refreshed the relevancy of the “Rocky” franchise in 2015’s “Creed,” and brought deep cultural textures to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2018’s “Black Panther” and its 2022 sequel, “Wakanda Forever.” Coogler isn’t ready to give his big budgets up, but he keeps away from comic books and sequels in “Sinners,” also claiming a screenplay credit on a highly unusual genre picture that’s almost uninterested in delivering the trashy goods this kind of entertainment is known for. It’s a riff on “From Dusk Till Dawn,” but sold through the helmer’s attention to musical and character detail, saving vampire action for short moments in the endeavor’s final act. “Sinners” remains assured work, emerging with a vision and a rhythm that’s thrilling at times, while the cast is sensational for the most part, creating layered people coming to the realization they’re involved in a monstrous nightmare. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2022, writer/director David Cronenberg returned from a lengthy professional break with “Crimes of the Future.” The feature played to his strengths as a creepy, crawling study of bodily mysteries and intense psychological issues. It wasn’t a rousing sit, but it did the trick, putting Cronenberg back on display with another original vision. The helmer quickly rebounds with “The Shrouds,” remaining true to his cinematic fixations with a picture that’s about obsession, this time examining the reverberations of death and the quest of some to hold on to people and ideas for as long as possible, potentially to a point of madness. Cronenberg delivers something familiar for his fans, and there are a lot of intriguing ideas in the material, which oversees the complexity of relationships for a character receiving a clearer view of his own world. “The Shrouds” doesn’t win with pace, as the offering could use a sharper edit, but the strangeness of the material is mostly inviting, embarking on a bizarre mystery that keeps up with Cronenberg-ian moods. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Wedding Banquet” was originally a film from 1993. While the picture was a minor art-house hit, it’s mostly known today as a breakout release for director Ang Lee, who used such success to help build an unusual and occasionally successful helming career. A remake arrives from co-writer/director Andrew Ahn, who achieved some notice for 2022’s streaming comedy, “Fire Island,” and continues his interest in comedic situations and deeply personal feelings. Ahn teams up with original co-writer James Schamus for the reworking, aiming for a more updating take on challenges to life and love. However, heart remains a top priority for the production, and while touches of melodrama aren’t entirely avoided, Ahn handles character concerns with grace, and he’s overseeing an excellent cast who skillfully work with the material’s blend of bigness and intimacy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Chad Archibald has been chipping away in horror entertainment for quite some time, with credits such as “I’ll Take Your Dead,” “Ejecta,” and “The Drownsman.” He’s clearly a genre fan, remaining focused on fright films for most of his career, and he returns to dark storytelling in “It Feeds,” which is arguably his best offering. The story of a clairvoyant woman and her war against the spread of a mysterious entity in her community, “It Feeds” isn’t a stunningly original take on an exhausting battle with multiple forms of evil, but Archibald has a few clear ideas for tension in the effort, which lands moments of decent suspense. And the helmer has a surprisingly effective cast to support his vision, finding acting unusually accomplished, adding to the pressurized viewing experience as emotional bonds are tested alongside supernatural ones. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“G20” is tasked with turning Viola Davis into an action star. She’s already one of the best actresses working today, but she’s often cast in tough dramas that make the most of her special thespian skills, including the summoning of steely emotions. Now she’s in a “Die Hard” riff, portraying the President of the United States, who’s forced to battle terrorists in South Africa during an intergovernmental political and economic forum. It’s a fun concept credited to four screenwriters and handed to director Patricia Riggen, who doesn’t have much experience in the ways of creating screen mayhem (previous work includes “Miracles from Heaven” and “The 33”). However, the helmer has Davis, who brings a wonderful sense of authority to the endeavor, capably selling the physical and emotional elements of the writing to help elevate a bruiser that isn’t always inspired or knows when to quit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Drop” is a film that doesn’t want its audience to think about the details when watching the central crisis of the plot unfold. It’s not a picture that stands up to scrutiny, playing fast and loose with technological manipulation and basic human response to troubling situations. It’s the latest from director Christopher Landon, who’s made a career out of goofy horror movies (“Happy Death Day,” “Freaky,” “We Have a Ghost”), and he’s back with another heightened tale of torment, this time working within the small confines of a fine-dining restaurant as the main character does battle against a phone-based aggressor. Written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, “Drop” intends to offer some thrills and chills, but it takes a lot to buy into the whole endeavor, which is filled with questionable logic (before that’s fully eliminated in the finale) and bits of bad taste. It’s also not that effective in the suspense department, as the central idea runs out of gas in the first act. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After dealing with the divide of the United States in 2024’s “Civil War,” director Alex Garland returns to the battle zone in “Warfare.” Garland joins co-helmer Ray Mendoza for a full immersion into the ways of military service, but the duo make it a point to avoid the lure of jingoism, preferring a raw take on the horrors of combat as the tale concerns a platoon of Navy SEALs stuck in a dire situation of survival in Iraq nearly 20 years ago. Mendoza brings his experiences in service to the picture, sharing screenplay duties with Garland, who provides his filmmaking concentration on technical precision and blunt violence. “Warfare” isn’t for the faint of heart, as it explores the destruction of bodies and spirits in a real-time battle for life, giving viewers a you-are-there viewing experience that’s profoundly challenging at times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com