With murder mysteries becoming somewhat popular with moviegoers again, director Chris Nelson (“Ass Backwards,” “Date and Switch”) tries his luck with “Reunion,” which offers a slack comedic approach to a detective story. Scripted by Jake Emanuel and Willie Block, the feature arranges the usual in this kind of entertainment, placing a handful of characters in a remote location, and the murder of one of them sets up a scramble for accusations, commencing the hunt for clues concerning the true assailant. “Reunion” (which was shot nearly three years ago) has the idea to manufacture a funny whodunit, but Nelson falls short of his goal. Instead of a tightly directed tale of suspicion, the picture is more improvisational in nature, setting the actors loose to play with the weirdness and rising concerns of these personalities. The laughs just don’t arrive. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a long time since Jordan Scott directed a film. In 2009, she made her debut with “Cracks,” doing a commendable job with the feature’s examination of desire, crafting a passable psychological drama. She finally returns with “A Sacrifice” (co-produced by her father, Ridley Scott), which also delves into the dark recesses of the human mind, only here the focus is on the power of persuasion and the lure of cults when dealing with hopelessly lost people. Scott takes a writing credit on the picture as well, adapting a 2015 novel by Nicholas Hogg, aiming to manufacture her own take on “The Wicker Man” with this study of deception and evil. She’s also hoping to maintain a more emotional core to the endeavor, finding capable actors to realize deeper feelings while the writing tends to follow a traditional path of conflict and resolution after teasing some disturbing directions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Simplicity is rare to find in cinema these days, as producers are generally eager to overwhelm viewers as a way to impress them. “Daddio” doesn’t have much to offer in a visual sense, mostly remaining inside a New York City taxi cab for the run time, studying a developing relationship between a forward driver and his customer as they discuss their lives over the course of a very long ride. It’s the kind of idea that’s usually reserved for the stage, but writer/director Christy Hall (making her helming debut) strives to make a movie out of “Daddio,” hiring two actors who share decent chemistry and providing a script that enjoys the mischief of surface exploration before it takes time to get achingly real with the characters. The endeavor isn’t profound, but Hall locates pockets of pain to explore, delivering a compelling examination of guarded people developing a powerful sense of trust during a ride home from the airport. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Chuck Norris hasn’t appeared in a film since 2012, where he dropped in for a cameo in “The Expendables 2.” A once mighty force in screen action, Norris has aged out of the game, making his casting in “Agent Recon” a curiosity, with his image the primary focus of marketing efforts, promising a starring role. Alas, that’s not the case here, with Norris participating in two scenes for writer/director/actor Derek Ting, who tries to make the most of what appears to be a few hours of Norris’s time on-set. “Agent Recon” could use more of the B-movie hero, but this is Ting’s thing, and the picture is actually the second sequel to 2017’s “Agent,” with the helmer creating a sci-fi-action franchise to celebrate his own screen presence, only lacking any sort of budget to craft an epic. Perhaps there are fans of “Agent” and its follow-up, 2021’s “Agent Revelation,” but that’s up for debate. The reality here is how Norris-less the feature is, and admirers of the actor should take that into consideration before enduring this painfully clumsy endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Lisa Downs has created a cottage industry with her trips into nostalgia. She’s the force behind the “Life After” series, examining the days of fantasy moviemaking and personal drama in efforts such as “Life After Flash” and “Life After the Navigator,” and she returns with “Life After The NeverEnding Story.” There’s a mighty subject in the making of the 1984 Wolfgang Petersen picture, which was Germany’s most expensive endeavor at the time, eventually finding a global audience that kept fandom warm and toasty for the next 40 years. “The NeverEnding Story” is a special film, and Downs tries her best to understand its creation and how such an experience shaped members of the cast and crew. Much like the other two chapters in this series, Downs can’t quite connect all the dots, but there are many fascinating interviews and images to savor, allowing access to the creation of the beloved epic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The general cooling of Jessica Alba’s acting career is perhaps best exemplified in “Trigger Warning” (which was shot nearly three years ago). The actress is fitted for a one-woman-army role, tasked with portraying a believable, military-trained killing machine in the endeavor, giving her the “John Wick” treatment for viewers who’ve had their fill of these movies in recent years. The writing sets up a simple examination of good vs. evil in the American southwest, and it hands indie director Mouly Surya her first big studio picture. All that really needs to happen here is competent hellraising from a questionable source of fury, but “Trigger Warning” often stumbles, especially with poor writing and lackluster performances. Alba commits to the physical needs of the part, but she’s somewhat lost in a film that hopes to summon the spirit of Chuck Norris, but only gets as far as Joe Don Baker. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Exorcism” has quite a production history, with the project originally filmed in 2019 under the guidance of co-writer/director Joshua John Miller, a former child actor (“Teen Witch,” “River’s Edge,” and “Near Dark”) making his first movie since his helming debut, which was released in 1999. The project hit plenty of roadblocks, including difficulties with the COVID-19 pandemic, and reshoots occurred four years later, hinting at major changes to the material long after its original interpretation. And now “The Exorcism” is in theaters, finally offered to the public, and audiences are treated to a story that definitely doesn’t unfold with confidence. Something happened to the feature over the years, and the final cut reflects such indecision, with Miller and co-writer M.A. Fortin heading in an interesting direction with their screenplay, while the picture itself feels like a crude reworking of a deeper idea, slathered with horror formula to make it palatable to the mass audience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Erica Tremblay is a documentarian turning to a more dramatic endeavor with “Fancy Dance.” She explores the experience of Native American concerns and reservation life, with specific interest in a missing persons case and its connection to a cultural event and family issues. A minor mystery brews in the screenplay (co-written by Miciana Alise), which delivers a compelling examination of growing despair as characters hunt for answers. However, the big draw of “Fancy Dance” is its human side, with Tremblay striving to maintain focus on all the fragile feelings in play. There’s not a major sweep of suspense in the film, but the picture does have its moments of investigation and confession, and a talented cast is more than capable of bringing the material to life, even during its clumsiest scenes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a 94-year-old actress, June Squibb has been working for decades, but she’s only really enjoyed a breakthrough in her career over the last ten years, caught stealing scenes in Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.” Typically the bright spot of any movie she appears in, Squibb finally receives her own starring vehicle in “Thelma,” which is similar in story to last winter’s “The Beekeeper,” finding a fresher way to detail a revenge tale, getting there through outstanding writing and directing from Josh Margolin, who makes his debut with the endeavor. The helmer doesn’t go the action way with the picture, preferring to sink into character and some levels of comedic chaos, and Squibb doesn’t miss a step in the lead role, clearly having a ball portraying a driven grandmother looking to reclaim money stolen from her by scammers. “Thelma” is fresh, heartening, and hilarious, with Margolin skillfully making a feature that’s wildly entertaining but also softer when necessary, offering a touch of reality to go with all the craziness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jeff Nichols hasn’t made a feature since 2016’s “Loving,” and he returns to screens with an unusual study of family in “The Bikeriders,” which continues his career mission to explore various kinds of relationships and cultures. It’s an adaptation of a photo book by Danny Lyon, who collected pictures and interviews from those involved with a motorcycle club, seeking to understand what life was like inside such a volatile organization. Nichols (who also scripts) follows this lead, creating a film of moments, memories, and connections, eschewing plot to explore camaraderie and forms of respect. “The Bikeriders” is loaded with atmosphere and stacked with a cast of brooding male talent, and the helmer works hard to keep viewers in this haze of brotherhood as it evolves from something almost pure to a more organized display of criminal activity. It’s not always a hypnotic movie, but there are moments where the endeavor feels lived-in, capturing a time in American life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The director of “How to Be Single” and “Love, Rosie,” Christian Ditter has explored the ways of dating and romance, and now he turns his attention to the challenges of family life with “The Present.” It’s a “Groundhog Day”-style effort from screenwriter Jay Martel (“Get Hard”), who creates a time-travel tale about the prevention of divorce and all the strange roadblocks encountered during this race to preserve normalcy. Martel’s story supplies a germ of an idea involving the anxiety of kids who don’t want to see their parents break up, but Ditter isn’t ready to go deep with the endeavor. He makes a Disney Channel-type of viewing experience instead, going broad and borderline obnoxious with this feature, which establishes adult concerns but offers childish antics. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Imaginary” comes from Studio Ponoc, a company established by Yoshiaki Nishimura, who was a producer at Studio Ghibli. It’s their first feature-length endeavor since 2017’s “Mary and the Witch’s Flower,” and they remain in a fantasy realm with the picture, which investigates a community of imaginary friends and their battles to understand their purpose, facing an evil presence determined to feast on them. Similarities to the recent “IF” are impossible to miss, but director Yoshiyuki Momose makes a more fanciful experience with “The Imaginary,” which aims for screen immersion with its offering of wild characters, fantasy environments, and exceptional animation. It’s not always a riveting study of heroes and villains, but the production aims for details with the effort, holding attention with a significant creative achievement that makes full use of the art form. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com