• Blu-ray Review – The Strange Affair

    “The Strange Affair” is an adaptation of a novel by Bernard Toms, and it certainly plays out like paging through a book. The picture explores corruption in many forms, and it follows a large community of characters in the process, with the screenplay trying to braid multiple subplots into a single understanding of ruination. The 1968 feature is a little wobbly as it attempts to juggle motivations and mistakes, but director David Greene (“Godspell,” “I Start Counting”) maintains a steely view of bizarre developments in the tale, and he has an incredible cast to help bring such oddity to life, selling the emotional moods of the endeavor. “The Strange Affair” remains a compelling sit as it details crooked behavior and bad decisions, managing to maintain focus on the basics of desperation as it works its way to an ice cold conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • 4K UHD Review – The Life of Chuck

    “The Life of Chuck” is based on a Stephen King novella from 2020, and we’ve been here before. Works from the iconic author, especially shorter ones, have inspired a few of the finest King adaptations around, including 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption” and 1986’s “Stand by Me.” That same level of cinematic magic isn’t quite present in the new picture, but writer/director Mike Flanagan (a King Country vet with work on “Gerald’s Game” and “Doctor Sleep”) remains ambitious with the effort, out to scramble minds and soothe souls with the movie, which looks to fold time and space in an attempt to address the human condition. “The Life of Chuck” is all over the place, and Flanagan’s lyrical approach to the endeavor might feel like itching powder to some viewers. It’s a deeply flawed offering of mystery, but the helmer fully commits to the strangeness of it all, which is impressive, clearly out to deliver an inscrutable feature that’s meant to connect in a heartfelt manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Watch the Skies

    Co-writer/director Victor Danell is part of a filmmaking collective known as “Crazy Pictures.” “Watch the Skies” is their second feature (after 2018’s “The Unthinkable”), with Danell (and co-writer Jimmy Nivren Olsson) attempting to launch an alien conspiracy thriller for a family audience, going a bit softer with the material’s depiction of paranoia and pursuit. Released in Sweden three years ago, “Watch the Skies” attempts to crack the North American market with its presentation of emotional wounds and physical endangerment, using a special A.I. program to help match lips to the English dub, hoping to attract more than the usual specialty cinema crowd. It’s a lively endeavor, and one that benefits greatly from its engaged acting, which lifts an occasionally familiar screenplay that’s often trying to replicate the Spielberg Experience without a truly inspired story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Bride

    For her second feature-length directorial effort, Maggie Gyllenhaal goes from the smallness of the psychological thriller “The Lost Daughter” to the bigness of “The Bride.” Armed with a massive budget and her own screenplay, Gyllenhaal sets out to redefine 1935’s “Bride of Frankenstein” with help from the ghost of author Mary Shelley and the pumping heart of cinema, submitting a significant effort to transform the endeavor into a lawless, anarchic overview of monster love. “The Bride” goes for broke with its tone and character creations, putting Gyllenhaal to work transforming the idea into a meditation on feminism and askew empowerment. It’s hard to fault her intentions, but sitting through the picture is an exceptional endurance test at times, finding the helmer showing little interest in telling a viable story while the rest of the offering becomes an overacting convention from performers left alone to do anything they please. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – War Machine (2026)

    While co-writer/director Patrick Hughes came on the scene with the grittiness of 2010’s “Red Hill,” the helmer has largely abandoned reality for most of his career. Hughes favors the world of action/comedy, looking to charm and pummel audiences with endeavors such as “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” (along with its 2021 sequel) and “The Man from Toronto.” He’s not the most inspired architect of entertainment, but Hughes finally puts his funny bone to rest for “War Machine,” which hopes to become a more destructive sci-fi/thriller, pitting U.S. Army Ranger hopefuls against a heavily armed alien menace. It’s a straightforward tale of survival from Hughes and co-writer James Beaufort, and they mostly deliver an exciting ride with the picture, investing in heated scenes of confusion and defense, giving star Alan Ritchson plenty of panic to play as he carries the periodic intensity of the offering, which is always most confident in battle situations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Protector

    It hasn’t been easy to sell a Milla Jovovich action picture that doesn’t have “Resident Evil” in the title. The actress has been struggling to maintain an audience in recent years, with features such as “In the Lost Lands,” “Breathe,” and “Monster Hunter” mostly ignored by paying audiences. Her latest, “Protector,” is probably going to join the box office bomb club, but to the film’s credit, it goes down swinging. Screenwriter Bong-Seob Mun has an idea to do something slightly sneakier with the one-person-army concept, and director Adrian Grunberg (“Get the Gringo,” “Rambo: Last Blood”) has a fondness for viciousness, trying to deliver a hard-hitting tale of revenge that celebrates Jovovich’s commitment to physical acting. “Protector” is harsh at times, but also exceedingly ridiculous overall, and while dumbness isn’t always a problem when it comes to the highlights of B-movie entertainment, it definitely doesn’t help this loony offering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Hoppers

    “Hoppers” is the first Pixar Animation production for director Daniel Chong, who’s been with the company on a story development level for the last 15 years. Chong is perhaps best known as the creator of the delightful animated series, “We Bare Bears,” even helming 2020’s “We Bare Bears: The Movie.” He returns to this special sense of humor and love of animal shenanigans in “Hoppers,” which is Pixar’s first endeavor since 2025’s criminally underrated “Elio.” Screenwriter Jesse Andrews is tasked with bringing a sci-fi edge to a mostly wacky comedy about a teenager’s incredible effort to save nature, also working in Pixar’s usual fondness for tenderness and dramatic impact. They score a major success with the wonderful feature, with Chong overseeing rich animation and flavorful voice work, while Andrews manages to find a plot and a message worth following. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Dolly

    “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” was the famous tagline for 1974’s horror classic, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” and such a question of survival also applies to “Dolly.” Co-writers Brandon Weavil and Rod Blackhurst (who also directs) are obviously huffing “Chain Saw” fumes with the endeavor, which follows a collection of characters spending time in the middle of nowhere coming into contact with a special, brutal kind of evil. Blackhurst isn’t messing around with the picture, which is incredibly violent and often gross, hoping to bring viewers back to the wilder days of exploitation cinema from the 1970s with its displays of bodily harm and functions, coming pretty close to fetish film territory. “Dolly” is often caught trying to fill a short run time (77 minutes before end credits), but it’s vividly sold with all kinds of gruesomeness, putting on a big display of nastiness for those who really enjoy such extremity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Heel

    The director of “Corpus Christi,” Jan Komasa returned to screens last year with “Anniversary,” taking a timely look at American troubles and the stranglehold of family ties. He’s right back in the thick of distress with “Heel,” which provides an unnerving view of a specialized rehabilitation situation involving a young man chained to a wall and the guardians looking to bring out the potential for good from within him. “Heel” has moments where it plays exactly like an early Yorgos Lanthimos production, hunting for disturbing situations within a seemingly functional setting, but Komasa and screenwriters Bartek Bartosik and Naqqash Khalid endeavor to find a more askew emotionality to the offering, looking for some heart to go with all the darkness. It’s an unsettling movie at times, but also one that enjoys playing with perspective and performance, creating a memorable understanding of imprisonment that’s meant to benefit both the captive and the captor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Youngblood (2026)

    “Youngblood” was originally released in 1986. Do you remember it? Probably not, but the feature did some business at the box office before becoming a pay cable staple for viewers of a certain age. The picture starred Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze (Keanu Reeves appeared as well), and provided a capable take on the “Rocky” formula, bringing sporting action to the world of hockey, tracking all the team interactions and game conflicts involved in the underdog story. “Youngblood” has now returned, with director Hubert Davis overseeing a remake that recycles some of the characters and behavioral issues from the earlier film, but peels off most of the 1980s from the production. Davis supplies a cooler, more internalized “Youngblood” for younger audiences, and he hits a few spots of dramatic authority along the way, also delivering plenty of rough hockey action as the endeavor tries to get steelier with basically the same plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – The Woman Chaser

    Darkness isn’t immediately apparent in 1999’s “The Woman Chaser,” but it arrives eventually in the feature, which is an adaptation of a Charles Willeford novel. It’s a slice of noir-ish cinema from co-writer/director Robinson Devor, who’s tasked with creating an odyssey into filmmaking and madness, managing a darkly comedic tone that’s accentuated by the casting of Patrick Warburton in the lead role, then fresh off his career-defining turn as David Puddy in “Seinfeld.” “The Woman Chaser” offers a strange look into the mind of a driven man, playing with masculine fantasies and Hollywood dreams, and the picture connects for the most part, finding Devor achieving a sense of style with a very limited budget. The last act isn’t quite as confident, but there’s interesting psychology on display in the offering, and odd behaviors to study. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Commando Ninja II: Invasion America

    2018’s “Commando Ninja” was an amusing riff on action cinema of the 1980s. The French production was looking to have some fun with the cartoon nature of the genre, with director Benjamin Combes inhaling Schwarzenegger and Stallone fumes to launch his own butt-kicking adventure featuring crazy characters and their quest for heroism. It was 68 minutes of passable fun, with Combes seemingly understanding the expiration date for this type of goofiness. “Commando Ninja II: Invasion America” runs 148 minutes (that’s not a typo), finding Combes intentionally ignoring the power of editing to offer a horrifically overlong sequel that’s basically out to make the same jokes, same references, and offer the same low-budget insanity as before, only it now takes what feels like a calendar year to finish the film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • 4K UHD Review – Mixed Blood

    Paul Morrissey, the director of “Flesh for Frankenstein” and “Blood for Dracula” looks to understand the strange community of Alphabet City in “Mixed Blood,” taking viewers back to a much different time in New York City. The 1984 release follows rising violence between two gangs, tracking the concerns of their leaders and personal relationships as turf conflicts and all kinds of trouble come for the characters during a particularly heated season. “Mixed Blood” is all about locations, with Morrissey trying to remain as authentic to the situation as possible, delivering a sobering examination of urban decay and destruction. The movie has atmosphere. What it doesn’t have is a sense of thespian polish, as the helmer hopes to get raw with a mostly amateur cast, ending up with an ensemble where most of the performers can’t act, while the rest struggle to make sense of Morrissey’s semi-ridiculous screenplay. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Castle of Evil

    1966’s “Castle of Evil” is written by Charles A. Wallace, who looks to pair the suspense of a spooky castle movie with a whodunit of sorts. The tale explores a group gathering inside a remote dwelling, with the visitors confronted by evil events, giving Wallace enough room to develop specific personalities and build a sense of the unknown as danger begins to take shape. Horror seems to be on the menu for the picture, but the material doesn’t make a defined pursuit of terror. Instead, “Castle of Evil” is more conversational, almost registering as a play when handling the private lives and desires of the characters. Director Francis D. Lyon has the oddness of the premise to work with, and there’s effort made to liven up the offering through lighting and performance choices. Highlights remain in the endeavor, but it’s not something that speeds along, determined to sell macabre touches. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – In the Blink of an Eye

    Andrew Stanton is primarily known as the director of animated features. He’s had tremendous success with titles such as “Finding Nemo” and “Wall-E,” but he’s also attempted to launch a live-action helming career. 2012’s “John Carter” was intended to be an epic study of adventure, but it didn’t connect with audiences (it remains a wildly underrated film), forcing Stanton to return to the ways of animated fish (“Finding Dory”) and toys (the upcoming “Toy Story 5”). He gives flesh and blood filmmaking another shot with “In the Blink of an Eye,” which has endured a long road to release. Shot in 2023 and copyrighted in 2024, the picture finally emerges to reveal Stanton’s (joined by screenwriter Colby Day) vision for another epic study of adventure, this time taking on the very nature of life itself. It’s a big swing of a movie, and it remains an unwieldy sit, but for patient viewers, there’s a good amount of sensitivity to experience here as the endeavor seeks to inspect the power of emotional connections and the movement of time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Scream 7

    The “Scream” franchise was rebooted in a way in 2022’s “Scream,” which provided a new, but not exactly fresh direction for the series, eventually rewarded with major box office returns. Another sequel followed the very next year, making it abundantly clear that fans weren’t all that interested in the highly pretzeled logic of the ongoing story, they merely wanted young characters to follow as Ghostface went about his business killing them off. It’s a mystery series without much mystery, but even a highly publicized behind-the-scenes disruption in casting after “Scream 6” can’t stop the big screen massacre from continuing, with “Scream 7” once again rewiring the saga to bring the pain, with original star Neve Campbell and screenwriter Kevin Williamson returning to action, with the latter taking on directorial duties as well. “Scream 7” hopes to get by with the usual in character revival and whodunit activity, but the batteries are noticeably run down in the latest chapter as strange ideas compete with bad ones for screen time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Operation Taco Gary’s

    Writer/director Mikey Kvamme is after a specific speed of comedy in “Operation Taco Gary’s.” He’s in cartoon mode, hitting viewers with a rush of jokes, character interactions, and crazy situations of survival, barely stopping for a breath as the madcap nature of the material is prioritized more than anything else. The hits keep on coming in the feature, and there’s something admirable about Kvamme’s dedication to the lightning speed of complications and dangerous situations facing the main characters. However, is any of this actually funny? That will be a source of debate for most viewers of “Operation Taco Gary’s,” with its furious way with silliness never producing any real laughs. Kvamme keeps his picture brief and mostly contained to goofiness, but he’s short on wit, or even enjoyable nuttiness, out to win over his audience with velocity instead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Undercard

    “Undercard” is a boxing movie, playing into the formula of sporting films, but it’s probably going to attract more attention as a vehicle for star Wanda Sykes, who offers a rare dramatic turn in the endeavor. The longtime comedian is usually set with supporting parts, often playing wisecracking characters with her distinctive voice and delivery, but she opts for a challenge this time around, taking center stage portraying an ex-fighter battling to hold things together as financial issues, substance abuse challenges, and boxing pressures conspire to dismantle her life. Sykes is capable in the part, trying to work with a screenplay (by Anita M. Cal and Tamika Miller, who also directs) that offers plenty of emotional issues for the performer to communicate. “Undercard” eventually slips into “Rocky” mode, but before the expected occurs, Miller generates some involving life struggles and personal relationships to follow, helping the effort get past complete predictability. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Bluff

    While Disney continues to figure out how to keep the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise afloat, “The Bluff” arrives to fill the gap with its tale of pirates in the Caribbean. Co-writer/director Frank E. Flowers elects to get a little more violent with this study of revenge and survival, striving to add some intensity to a fairly routine story. It’s a small-scale offering concerning a woman’s quest to defend her family from a bloodthirsty captain on the hunt for his missing gold, largely sticking to island-based conflicts, and Flowers endeavors to jazz up the usual in domestic defense with harder hits of brutality, keeping with the true pirate way. “The Bluff” is supported by periodic aggression, as dramatic interests aren’t exactly thrilling, making the viewing experience more enjoyably visceral than engrossing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Napa Boys

    The actual title of “The Napa Boys” is “The Napa Boys 4: The Sommelier’s Amulet.” Don’t worry, you don’t have to see the previous installments of this series to keep up with the ongoing story, simply because there are probably no other “Napa Boys” adventures. Co-writer/director Nick Coriossi has been creating meta comedy for quite some time, scoring a few viral hits over the years, and he brings his special love for madness to the screen again with “The Napa Boys,” following the misadventures of middle-aged men trying to enjoy life, love, and competition at a Napa Valley wine festival. This is extraordinarily niche silliness, but for those who’ve enjoyed Funny or Die, Tim and Eric, and Andy Kauffman in the past, Coriossi tries to tap into the same vibe of anything goes humor. The helmer has no idea when to quit, but he lands many laughs in the “sequel,” periodically finding inspired goofiness to help support the viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com