This Week’s Big Releases
THE GREY
Synopsis: Liam Neeson helps a group of plane crash survivors negotiate the icy wilderness of Alaska while on the run from an hungry group of very large wolves.
Tomatometer Rating: 78%
Special Features: There’s a commentary with Co-writer – Director Joe Carnahan and Editors Roger Barton and Jason Hellmann, and deleted scenes.
Deals: Amazon and Best Buy have the blu-ray combo pack fro $19.99.
Buy/Queue/Skip: While this movie wasn’t the wolf slugfest that the trailers promised, THEY GREY is perhaps Director Joe Carnahan’s best film, certainly his most introspective, to date and is well worth your time. Neeson gives a fantastic performance and the film leaves you with more to think about than you might have expected. BUY IT. Read Courtney’s review or JC’s review of the blu-ray for more.
THE DEVIL INSIDE
Synopsis: A woman gets caught up/posessed while investigating her mother’s exorcism, which lead to murders and such. The Vatican didn’t want audiences to see this latest entry in the “found footage” sub-genre of horror, and with good reason.
Tomatometer Rating: 7%
Special Features: There are no special features at all.
Deals: Best Buy has the blu-ray exclusively for $22.99.
Buy/Queue/Skip: If you really need a posession movie in your life, revisit THE EXORCIST. You don’t mess with the classics. SKIP this other mess.
Also Available This Week
This week the gender bending period drama ALBERT NOBBS, starring Glenn Close, is available along with the mind bending BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, which joins the Criterion Collection this week.
This week, I’ll be tackling two Steve Martin comedies new to blu-ray: FATHER OF THE BRIDE 1 and 2, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, as well as the second season of AAAHH!!! REAL MONSTERS SEASON TWO (here’s my review of the first season).
There’s also RAMPART, the second Woody Harrelson/Ben Foster/Oren Moverman collaboration about the 1999 LA Rampart police scandal. You can read Courtney’s AFI Fest Review for more.
Both JC and Courtney had to suffer through ONE THROUGH THE MONEY. Read their blu-ray and theatrical reviews respectively so you don’t have to do the same.
In TV, The AMC train/murder period drama HELL ON WHEELS is available.
Manny’s Pick
My pick this week is one of my favorite films of this year, CHRONICLE, from first time Director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis (son of legendary director John Landis). CHRONICLE tells the story of a group of high schoolers who discover a mysterious…something and who are forever changed when they start to develop telekinetic abilities. CHRONICLE operates within the found footage genre, but, for the most part, doesn’t use it for novelty’s sake. It functions as an extension of who each of the characters are but still puts its story and characters first; it doesn’t use the style as an excuse to forgo essential elements of storytelling.
It’s great to see young talent being acknowledged enough by Hollywood to tell original stories. CHRONICLE is a take on the superhero genre that does what great comic books do well – finds the humanity in superhuman situations. I hope that both Landis and Trank continue to create original work that helps push Hollywood forward. In the meantime, check out the blu-ray this week, which includes both the theatrical and a Director’s Cut of the film. Check out Mel’s review for more.
See you next week!
