“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

“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

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

“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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

Co-writer/director Morgan Evans goes the mockumentary route with “Micro Budget,” which examines the troubled production of a low-budget disaster movie inside a Los Angeles rental home. Humor is the star here, with Evans overseeing a troupe of actors trying to find the funny with filmmaking setbacks and personality conflicts. There’s not a lot to the endeavor beyond riffing and increasing woes for the characters, but Evans tries to maintain a sense of humor throughout the feature, which really isn’t hilarious, but consistently amusing, following small issues of incompetence that snowball into larger displays of stupidity, providing a chance for the talent to find their way around awkwardness and the messiness of production mishaps. “Micro Budget” certainly has its moments, though the endeavor could definitely cut a little deeper with its comedy and interest in the difficulty of moviemaking, especially when a complete idiot is calling the shots. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Anderson .Paak is a musician who’s been working on his craft since he was a teenager, achieving some degree of success in the music industry. He uses such history to help inform “K-Pops,” which marks his directorial debut (also scripting with Khaila Amazan), using elements of his life to inspire a dramedy about a man with a recording dream finding a different kind of education when he encounters his son during a career-making stay in South Korea. It’s not an original tale of understanding and bonding, but .Paak tries to give the endeavor a defined sense of culture and character, helping to move the material away from straight formula. “K-Pops” isn’t going to stun, but .Paak goes easy on the senses with the movie, searching for some laughs and tenderness, while music also plays a significant part in the effort, keeping the feature moving along when a stale sense of drama threatens to slow it to a full stop. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Amy Landecker has been an actress of note for the last two decades, making memorable appearances here and there in television and movies, consistently working, which is no easy task. She assumes a little more control over her creative output with “For Worse,” making her feature-length debut as a screenwriter and director, and the endeavor certainly resembles a first film, remaining small in scale and completely attentive to characterization. “For Worse” is a comedy about post-divorce experiences, with Landecker taking the main role as a woman in her fifties trying to keep up with new experiences while surrounded by twentysomethings. It’s the stuff of sitcoms, and there’s certainly a touch of network T.V. in the writing, but Landecker wins on charm here, delivering a lively performance in a likeable picture that’s often funny and occasionally real, having a little fun with life’s challenges and humiliations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Scout Taylor-Compton is a veteran actress, maintaining steady employment in B-movies for a long time now. She’s ready for more control, making her directorial debut with “Bring the Law,” selecting material (scripted by Daniel Figueiredo and Josh Ridgway) that’s as generic as most of the films she’s been involved with over the last decade. It’s a crime picture examining corruption and acts of intimidation, and it’s a low-budget endeavor, leaving the helmer with little time and money to really illuminate the details of the story. “Bring the Law” doesn’t hold attention for long enough, but there’s some basic steeliness in the first half that holds potential, and Taylor-Compton has a largely committed cast to handle the workload of tough guy lines and hard reactions. Hopes for a more dramatically involving and active effort aren’t met, but it’s not a complete wipeout, putting Taylor-Compton to work trying to shape something out of a mess of cliches and formula. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com