Author: Keith Stevenson

With live-action remakes of classic animated films all the rage, it shouldn’t be surprising that other studios would follow the House of Mouse (Disney) for some of that familiar IP exploitation box office gold. What is surprising is that a live-action remake could not only be good, but actually be almost as good as the original without hardly changing a thing. Original animated film co-director Dean DeBlois returns to the mythical land of Berk for a retelling of How to Train Your Dragon with real sets, real locations, a live human cast, and photorealistic CGI dragons (because, sadly, dragons aren’t real).

Did you see 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon? Then, in an interesting way, you’ve already seen this 2025 update. One of the key complaints about a number of the live-action remakes of animated classics that have come down the blockbuster pipeline has been the ill-advised changes. Whether completely changing a character or adding nonsensical plot beats, additional stupid songs to sell a new soundtrack, or just plain being flat, boring and uninspired. These films may have made huge bucks at the box office, but they just don’t hold a candle to their original animated counterparts.

Along comes 2025’s How to Train Your Dragon, which, weirdly enough, works because very little was changed. So little was changed that the film often comes across as a shot-for-shot remake of the 2010 film in a different medium.

Some of the casting obviously changed; our hero Hiccup is now played very well by Mason Thames, and Nico Parker steps in for Astrid, with Nick Frost turning in a funny run as Gobber. Gerard Butler gets another shot as the grizzled Stoick. Toothless is still CGI, but now comes in the photorealistic variety. There’s a little shakeup with the societal makings of Berk and its clan of warriors, but that’s it. Everything plays out almost exactly the same. So why does this work so well?

I honestly think it’s precisely because they didn’t make radical changes to the story, characters, or the plot beats that this live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon worked so well. The original film already hit so many wonderful emotional highs; the only thing they had to do was let a real live cast sell that experience. And it worked beautifully. There was something grand about a live Gerard Butler saying similar (if not exactly the same) lines as his animated counterpart. Hiccup’s first big flight with Toothless is just as arresting in live-action as it was animated. The big finale dragon battle is just as exhilarating and dramatic. The changes made are so slim that they don’t become irritating or distracting. I feel that so many of the issues with Disney’s changes for their live-action editions stem from those changes and updates that distract more than pull you into the story.

VIDEO

In 2160p Dolby Vision, How to Train Your Dragon makes a big splash with an often striking 2.39:1/1.90:1 shifting aspect ratio transfer. I got to see this in 4K on an OLED monitor and it was a true splendor when the world of Berk opened up for those big action sequences and glory shots in 1.90:1. Every intricate detail in the numerous beards, the armored fur-adorned costumes of the villagers, the homes, boats, and dragons is crystal clear. Even Toothless moves away from being the glossy dragon in the animated features with full details in the scales and lighting variations in textures, while still looking like a big black cat with leathery wings. Colors are generally vibrant, primaries see plenty of attention, but it’s the green rolling hills of Berk and the assorted appearances of the dragons that get the most color pop. Skin tones are natural and human. Black levels are deep and inky with excellent shadow separation, giving those bigger moments a true sense of depth and dimension. I still hope to see a 3D Blu-ray of this someday, but until then, this 4K Dolby Vision experience is excellent.

SOUND 

Matching the video point for point is the Dolby Atmos track. From swooping fire-breathing dragons to Toothless’ screech to the screams of the men and women of Berk. Similar to the 2010 original, it opens up to all the chaos of living on an island that is routinely ravaged by dragons, treating us to everything that’s to come. The Powell score is just as rich as ever, even though it’s a slight reorchestration of his original motifs. The distribution of the village offers strong, heavy impact on the LFE rumble. The dragons flying overhead and the fireballs raining down deliver a fully active height channel experience. Dialog via Hiccup’s narration and the ensuing chaos is clear without issue. Side, surround, and rear channels remain fully active for the big events. And the rest of the film carries on like that. Even in the quieter moments, the film finds smart uses to keep the various channels working for a fully immersive soundscape.

EXTRAS 

Completing the home video package is a rather healthy assortment of interesting bonus features. Director Dean DeBlois provides a terrific audio commentary, diving deep into how they brought the animated feature to life, casting, location scouting, building the real-life sets, and offering tidbits about how they adapted the story all over again. After that, the next meaty bit is a 45-minute making-of that is a nicely dedicated look at the making of the film. Following that are some nicely focused featurettes looking at the set design, costumes, and the making of a few key sequences. All around, a great set of extras we don’t often see for modern releases.

LASTLY 

In 2010, we were gifted with a rip-roaring dragon-riding adventure that spawned two sequels and TV series spin-offs. In 2025, we’re again gifted a rip-roaring dragon-riding adventure – and we’ve yet to see if there will be any sequels or TV series spin-offs. Granted, the world probably didn’t need a near shot-for-shot live-action take on How to Train Your Dragon, but we got one, and it’s, amazingly enough, actually good! It’s a sign that a good story told well can transcend medium. Animated or Live-Action, the story of a boy and his dragon hits those emotional notes. I may still prefer the 2010 original over this one, but unlike other recent remakes from a rival studio, I can actually see myself pulling this 2025 remake of How to Train Your Dragon off the shelf many more times. It’s well made and great fun! With an excellent A/V presentation and some genuinely interesting, well-produced extra features. Highly Recommended!

In 2012, a team of three saturation divers set to perform repairs on a manifold 300 feet below sea level, suffered an accident. One of them, Chris Lemons (Finn Cole), is separated from the rest of his team and must not only climb to the top of the manifold, using limited sources of light to find his way, but survive with limited oxygen reserves. The action cuts away between Chris’s struggle, running low on air, his two teammates Duncan and David (Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu) and their determination to get him back alive, and the support from the large vessel above sea level who coordinate the rescue effort.

Last Breath is a tense, fact-based thriller that harkens back to a kind of film we don’t see much anymore, embracing practical effects for the sake of realism. Before the incident, as the team of divers acclimate themselves to the depths through a pressurized chamber, we too ready ourselves with them in a series of sets that look real and inhabited. Last Breath wisely avoids flashy camerawork and overt stylistic choices in order to ground itself. We don’t need to suspend our disbelief, because what we’re seeing is a true-to-life reenactment.

For all technical aspects, Last Breath is an expertly made picture. The acting from everyone, particularly the three leads, is excellent. And the filmmaking itself needs to be shouted from the rooftops how incredible it is. Eschewing modern green-screening and CGI effects, the filmmakers instead opted for realism by filming the underwater sequences in large saltwater tanks, which makes a tremendous difference for the viewing audience to physically see the dangers of the depths of the ocean.

If I have a problem with Last Breath, however, and I do, it’s that the documentary-like dedication to capturing the facts of the incident and ensuing rescue comes across as cold and clinical. A documentary about this incident already exists (director Alex Parkinson co-directed the documentary), and a film like this can really only go so far as our involvement with the characters will allow us to go. While all three leads bring their A-game to the film, we never get to know any of them beyond superficial characterization. Last Breath isn’t quite the deep-sea equivalent of Apollo 13 but it is well-made, thrilling and has a few earned moments of pathos when the music swells to a triumphant crescendo.

Last Breath is far from a bad movie. It’s a very good movie. It just falls short of greatness, which is a shame, because it has so much working in its favor: A great story, excellent casting and a dedicated filmmaking technique that allows us, the viewer, to go underwater with them. At the end of the day, the movie is likely going to entertain the hell out of you, it’s just not the classic that it deserves to be.

VIDEO

Last Breath is presented in 1080p high-definition video for this release. While a 4K release with HDR grading would have been nice, I’m not sure the film needs it. It looks great without it. Last Breath has a rough-around-the-edges look to it that I think works well in its favor, which is not to say it looks bad, it simply has an unpolished look that helps enhance its documentary-like realism. There are two directors of photography listed, with Ian Seabrook appropriately responsible for underwater sequences and Nick Remy Matthews responsible for everything else. The underwater sequences are incredible, particularly a scene with Chris lighting his way to the top of a manifold using only an underwater flare to light his way, casting a monochromatic red like the depths of hell.

AUDIO

The 5.1 Dolby TrueHD surround mix on Last Breathdoes an incredible job simulating the claustrophobia of being 300 ft. underwater. Rear speaker activity is constant, yet subtle, with the muffled bubbling of water all around the listener. LFEs are at a near-constant level as the action shifts to the larger vessel above sea level, as waves crash against its hull or through the dull roar of its engine. In one of the film’s best sequences, the sound design shifts suddenly from active noise to total, deafened silence and cuts to black, simulating the isolation and fear that Chris must have felt when he was severed from the rest of his team.

Supplemental features are a little limited, but honestly for a movie that didn’t do great box office, and a brand-new release on disc, you can’t ask for much more. There’s an informative audio commentary from the filmmakers, a making-of featurette and even a gag reel, which is kind of funny considering how tense and serious the film is.

Even if Last Breath falls short of greatness, the skill and craft that went into its production, along with its dedication to realism and excellent performances from its cast, make it a must-see movie at least once. With awesome A/V stats and some fun supplements that dive into its production, even if it’s not something you need to own, I recommend this.

MOVIE ⭐️⭐️⭐️, PICTURE ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, SOUND ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, EXTRAS ⭐️⭐️⭐️

When best friends and roommates Dreux and Alyssa discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, the duo finds themselves going to extremes in a race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact. It’s a downright shame how few comedies get a theatrical release these days. We’re far from the days of the Hughes or even Apatow era in terms of frequency, and it seems that when we do get them, they’re straight to streaming. Rising marketing costs have made it so studios only seem to want to take a gamble on low-budget horror or big-budget tentpole films based on a popular IP. So it’s nice to see an original comedy release in theaters as there’s nothing quite like laughing in a crowded auditorium. And if there’s one thing you’ll definitely get out of One of Them Days: it’s plenty of laughs. One of Them Days follows roommates Dreux and Alyssa as they struggle to come up with rent money after getting screwed over. Not wanting to be put out on the streets, they look to get enough money, all while their day gets more and more out of control. Hijinx ensue. Keke Palmer is much more subdued here than I’m used to and it really works. She’s the more level-headed of the pairing, but still eccentric enough to get plenty of laughs. You’d never know that this was SZA‘s first lead role as she’s a natural. She’s able to nail the comedic beats while never feeling out of place. Keke and SZA are far from being an odd couple, as they’re two peas in a pod, but they’re just different enough to be an interesting dynamic. A common pitfall for these comedies is to add more and more ludicrous stakes as the film goes along, getting to the point of absurdity. One of Them Days rides that line nicely, that just when you think it’s going to jump the shark, they manage to keep things relatively grounded. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of broad humor and unrealistic situations but the film manages to never get out of control. They steadily ramp up the stakes, introduce fun new characters, and never get too convoluted. And I lost track of the number of satisfying payoffs to even smaller moments; a mark of a great film. Writer Syreeta Singleton sure did her homework. Like any good comedy, One of Them Days has a fantastic supporting cast. Katt Williams, Lil Rel Howery, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, and Janelle Jamesall have standout moments. James and Meija, in particular, feel destined to break out as nearly every line they say gets a massive laugh. Maude Apatow also feels properly utilized as the white girl moving into the primarily black apartment complex. Her cluelessness may be a caricature to some, but I found it fitting for the type of hipster she’s meant to portray. I tend to be a tough sell when it comes to comedy and One of Them Days managed to really tickle my funny bone (also my fiancé). The laughs per minute were high, with several subtle jokes that are easy to miss. I’m excited for this to be on digital (included with the Blu Ray) to be able to see some of the gags I may have missed. It does what any great comedy does: blend comedy with emotional stakes for a fun time. Comedies are hard to review, as humor is so subjective, but I feel this manages to be satisfying even if you’re not a laugher. Like any good onscreen partnership, Keke and SZA are a blast to watch and make the running time fly by.

Picture was very pleasing. Blacks were deep and the colors (which were abundant) seem to leap off the screen. And this ain’t even 4K! Sound was impressive as this movie’s got much music! Bass lows were exceptionally low! Making the room shake. Not a whole lot of extras but enough to have an extra good time. There’s a gag reel with outtakes and bloopers. And a short that explores the music.

“One of Them Days” was a great time had by me and my fiancé. We both laughed a lot, which is all you need to expect from a comedy.

MOVIE ⭐️⭐️⭐️

PICTURE ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SOUND ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

EXTRAS ⭐️⭐️

 I love classic horror monsters. Universal Studios set the benchmark for the Classic Monsters that haunt our dreams with their string of creatures like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man. My personal all-time favorite was Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf-Man. It was one of the few classic Universal Monster features that genuinely scared me as a child. The mood, the foggy atmosphere, and the idea that you could lose yourself mentally and physically to a curse always terrified me. Flash forward to today, it’s the perfect setup for the industry’s new-found love for Body Horror films.

After the thrilling exploits of The Invisible Man, Leigh Whannell seemed like the perfect choice for a new take on the classic. Our film opens with an overbearing survivalist father, Grady, taking his young boy Blake out hunting in the rural wilds of Oregon. There they’re attacked by an unseen creature that dismembers deer at will. After that tantalizing opener, we’re slingshot into the modern-day big city where we have grown-up Blake (Christopher Abbott) trying to imbue his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) with the same sense of self preservation only without the damaging abusive intensity of his father. But life isn’t great with his busy journalist wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) as they struggle to figure out how to best keep the family intact. But the opportunity to get away from it all arrives when Blake gets word Oregon is officially listing his long-missing father as “deceased.” Together they travel west to clean out the old man’s secluded farmhouse, but a deadly creature looms in the dark, shadowy forest.

I’ll give credit to Leigh Whannell and his co-screenwriter wife Corbett Tuck for digging up a number of interesting themes and ideas for their Wolf Man reinterpretation. You’ve got ideas of generational familial abuse and trauma. You’ve got ideas for marital and parental dynamics between fathers and mothers and breaking those societal norms. You’ve got ideas for true Cronenbergian body horror with an infectious disease taking over your bodily functions. There are a lot of good ideas here, sadly none of them really land within the confines of this ill-paced fur-less film. Also, where the heck are the actual wolves? The only setup we’re given is an odd tacked in “legend” text card thinly setting the stakes for this new take… but no wolves. But nonetheless I appreciate the effort because it was very atmospheric. At an hour and forty minutes, the film can feel excruciatingly sluggish, leaving you desperate for things to happen. With most of the action situated inside a secluded farmhouse, a lot of the plot feels aped from George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. “How do these people escape the inescapable location” and all that yada-yada. Instead of the suspense of a growing hoard of undead ghouls, our family trio is harassed by a virtually unseen lycanthrope as the father succumbs to his inevitable transformation. And when we do finally see our titular monster, it’s less of a wolf and more of an odd-looking hairless feral pig. Now feral pigs are f’ing terrifying if you’ve ever come across one in real life, but this isn’t Pig Man, it’s Wolf Man. This Wolf Man transformation is clearly going for Cronenberg’s Brundlefly vibe, but it’s far less harrowing and the brief timeframe for change loses that sense of tragedy. Christopher Abbott is no slouch when it comes to body horror and “losing oneself.” Having already delivered a terrific performance for Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, he perfectly conveys a man losing control of himself. Matilda Firth is a solid little performer as Ginger, terrorized by the creature but more scared of losing her father. Julia Garner sadly is just miscast. She’s often appearing like she’d rather be anywhere else than in this film and when she delivers a second act soliloquy being anxious about stepping into a traditional motherly role, it feels like she’s just reading the cards than exuding an emotionally-driven moment.

As the film played out, I questioned why Garner was even there? If the main theme is about not passing trauma and grief onto your children, I can’t help but wonder how much better the film would have been if it was just the father/daughter dynamic without the mother. What if it was Blake rushing to show his daughter the survival skills he learned as a child, but with the focus of actually keeping her safe from the real terrors of the forest before he lost complete control of himself? Charlotte and by extension Garner, were just weak elements in an already pretty contrived wolf-less reimaging of the classic creature feature. All this essentially states that I was very disappointed by Wolf Man. I loved what Whannell brought to the screen with 2020’s The Invisible Man. That was a fresh, exciting, and sometimes terrifying take on the old material. Hell, even Upgrade was a suitable action-infused take on Body Horror themes. But something wiffed with this Wolf Man. I’m sure if this needed more time to cook at the script level or not, but it’s another in a string of poorly performing Blumhouse horror features. As for the video performance, I guess the best way to say this is when you can actually see it, Wolf Man enjoys an excellent 2.39:1 HDR10 transfer. “Seeing” is the optimal word there as often the image is bathed in virtually no lighting source with extreme shadows and black as pitch dark spaces. I missed this film in theaters, but I heard from many friends who did see it that this was an issue on the big screen as well and it haunts the 2160p and 1080p discs. A scene in a barn without any direct light source is a key example. Now you’re not supposed to specifically see certain aspects of what’s going on, the “wolf-o-vision” effect is supposed to bridge that gap in human and lycan senses, but it’s a visual trick that’s often more frustrating in the moment than it is effective. When you can see the film, the transfer delivers strong details and decent colors. Again, most of the film takes place in that semi-dark farm house without a lot of lighting so there really isn’t a whole lot to “see” – especially when they’re trying to hide the titular beast until the very end. That said, while I might not love the design, I enjoyed the use of practical make-up and gore effects. I initially started watching this during daylight hours, I don’t often get to pick when I watch a disc, but I found a lighted room a tough experience. Later at night I came back to it and felt that in a deep dark room, the visuals picked up a little more life. In the end, I’m left believing a lot of this impenetrable darkness is by choice and not necessarily a disc-transfer specific issue. As for the audio, there’s good news! Where this film and this disc excel is the phenomenal Dolby Atmos audio mix. Holy hell is this a fun mix! Where Wolf Man often eschews visual terror for audio-induced tension, the sound dynamics thunder away beautifully. When you can’t see the beast, you can hear it coming with impressive pin-point specific object placement throughout the soundscape. Sometimes it’s coming from the side, sometimes above; the track lets these channels mark its movements giving you plenty of immersive jump scares. As Blake slowly loses himself to the infection and his senses become more accute, a scene of a spider walking up a wall is dynamite audio! The LFE is rattling the subs with every eight-legged impact. The snarling beastly effects and the squishy bits for the body horror elements all enjoy a prioritized presence. The film itself might not be amazing, but the sound design and by extension, this Atmos track is fantastic!

On the bonus features side, this set doesn’t come with a whole lot of big bites. The meatiest piece certainly is the audio commentary with Leigh Whannell. He offers a lot of production notes and materials about the making of the film, when things were practical, when they were CG, etc. Even solo it’s an informative, engaging commentary. The rest of the production featurettes glean some interesting bits, but a lot of it feels very anemic.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Wolf Man is one of those outings that I really wanted to like. I avoided trailers. I avoided the reviews. I even avoided a lot of opinions of friends whose opinions I normally trust. I wanted to see it for myself and go in as cold as possible. Sadly, I didn’t like it. I liked and appreciated a lot of the ideas and themes that Leigh Whannell and his co-writer wife Corbett Tuck went for, but something just missed the mark. You could get in the argument of too much of this, not enough of that, but at the end of the day, this new refresh of Wolf Man didn’t make me howl the way I’d hoped it would. On 4K UHD the film scores a solid HDR10 transfer that is held back only by the occasionally extremely dark cinematography. On the other hand, the Atmos mix is a real banger (literally) delivering an excellent wall-to-wall immersive sonic experience. The bonus features a tad thin, but the audio commentary is a good listen. At the end of the day, Wolf Man is another frustrating new take on a classic Universal Monster. I hoped I’d like it, I didn’t. It’s a curiosity and Worth A Look, but I wouldn’t recommend a blind buy unless you find it on a super sale.

MOVIE ⭐️⭐️⭐️

VIDEO ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SOUND ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

EXTRAS ⭐️⭐️

In the openng moments of Kraven the Hunter, the titular Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) comments on his character’s existence in light of the myths told about him throughout the years. “There’s an ounce of truth in every myth,” he says as he stabs a crime lord in the neck with a large tiger’s tooth. Here he’s talking about himself being a very real entity chasing down evil-doers, but the same can be said of the film itself. The inclusion of the famous Spider-Man villain has been in the works since the canceled fourth Sam Raimi film, and every iteration of the superhero franchise has tried to find a way to fit him in at some point. After nearly two decades of discussions and more than two years of delays on this particular film, many thought the film itself was just a myth and might never be released. The first footage was shown at CinemaCon in April 2022, and we are finally getting the full motion picture. Sony has announced that the Spider-Man Universe (SSU) will come to a close with Kraven the Hunter being the last installment. Save for the box office success of some of the Venom films these expanded stories from the world of Spider-Man have been critical and commercial failures at the Box Office. However this film may work better as a digital and disc release. This film boasts an amazing cast featuring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Academy Award winners Ariana DeBose and Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, and Fred Hechinger, who is having one hell of a year in front of the camera. This is his fifth film to be released in 2024. Unfortunately, it feels like these actors are in completely different movies. There’s no chemistry or even tone symmetry to suggest they read the same script or got the same direction from J.C. Chandor. To the film’s credit, it does deliver on some of its promises. Its gore and swearing content are much higher than your average superhero outing, and these aren’t used for laughs or self-aware gags like many other Marvel films (like Deadpool). This is simply a part of the film and enhances the action significantly. If your main character is going to have super speed and strength and have his DNA infused with a lion’s, you’d imagine he might inflict more devastation on his enemies from sheer brute force. Another bright spot of Kraven is its relatively insular story. The characters span the globe in a cat-and-mouse game but are only after each other. It’s refreshing for the stakes to be lowered from world-ending destruction, with no mystical MacGuffin to keep out of the wrong hands. It’s Kraven against his enemies, culminating in a climax proportional to the stakes. Kraven’s biggest issue is that it does nothing to make its main character interesting enough to care about. Is he materially that different from Jared Leto’s Morbius? They appear to come into similar powers, involving the fusion of their blood with that of an animal. A common failure exists in the characters of Kraven, Morbius, and even Madame Web: the absence of their comic book counterpart, Spider-Man. It’s very difficult for any of these characters to stand alone without him, yet Kraven the Hunter should be the most viable. He’s by far the more widely known of the three, yet he comes away from this film somehow being the least interesting. Yet as for the film itself, I was thoroughly entertained. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is upstaged by the always brilliant Christopher Abbott as “The Foreigner,” a man who has been chasing The Hunter for years after an altercation with his family. Every time he appears on screen the film finds some sense of footing that it lacks when he is absent, and forces audiences to ask the question if he would have been better off being the main villain instead of Alessandro Nivola’s Rhino. Abbott brings a level of mystery and enigmatic power that is intoxicating, and it’s a shame we won’t get more of this character going forward. The death of the SSU comes with a whimper, with minuscule successes that can’t overcome major technical and writing issues. It does feel like Kraven the Hunter was dumped at the latest date they could muster and is being hung out to dry by the studio as they look to return to the well with a mainline Spider-Man picture in the coming years. After years of planning, delays, and reshoots, it’s hard to find much positive to take away from this movie and it’s unfortunate to see Aaron Taylor-Johnson be let down by Marvel yet again after his short-lived time in the MCU a decade ago. 

Kraven The Hunter comes to Blu-Ray in its original 2.39:1 with a fetching transfer that is no slouch even knowing that there is a 4K version on the market. While certainly not as flawless as the 4K UHD likely is (it was not made available to me for review), there is a stellar amount of depth and clarity to the picture with discrete details coming through clearly. There is some inventive production design featured in the film along with loads of special effects which you can really take in with this transfer. There are numerous landscapes presented here with each location providing something exciting to explore. 

This Blu-Ray release boasts a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that kicks into gear when it needs to. This disc brings these thrilling moments to life with a depth and clarity of sound that is just perfect. As the action ramps up, the sounds of crashing through objects and other raw effects flow out of your side and rear speakers. Each sound is precisely placed with perfect spatial awareness. The track engages all of the active channels with panning effects and sounds of chaos that really makes you feel like you are in the thick of the action.

Kraven the Hunter largely suffers the same fate as most of the other Sony universe Spider-Man spinoffs. Kraven has such potential on film, yet there seems to be very little passion or vision behind the camera to make it all amount to something. The ridiculous amount of bad ADR is enough to know how little most cared to get this right for fans. Movies are made in the editing room, but you cannot completely manufacture a movie out of nothing but alternate dialogue. That being said, the level of hate for this one is slightly outsized. It is not good, but there are cool things we can appreciate amongst the mediocrity. Most of the ensemble is very talented and free from blame. Hopefully this character can get justice in the future. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray featuring an excellent A/V presentation and a fine selection of special features. If you are a fan of the film and are capable, you might want to spring for the 4K UHD Blu-Ray but this Blu-Ray is rock solid. 

MOVIE ⭐️⭐️⭐️

SOUND ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PICTURE ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

EXTRAS ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve always viewed director/writer Robert Eggers as an “anti-Wes Anderson.” Whereas Anderson’s movies are often light and playful, Eggers’ films are black-and-gray edifices that feel like they’re sitting on my chest as I watch them. That’s not a negative thing, of course. There are a wide variety of movies out there, and I appreciate all kinds of genres. I suppose a good way to look at Eggers and Anderson is salt versus sweet, and how sometimes those things can actually go together well. Anyone up for a double-feature of Nosferatu and The Royal Tenenbaums?

Okay, with that out of the way, yes, Eggers’ latest movie is another tour de force, a remake of the 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, which was, of course, loosely adapted from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. That book is now in the public domain, but I appreciate Eggers’ desire to craft a horror movie not beholden to most moviegoers’ idea of who Dracula is. Set in 1838, Nosferatu follows the trials and tribulations of Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and Thomas Hunter (Nicholas Hoult), who are recently married and live in Wisburg, Germany. Determined to curry favor with his employer, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), he accepts an assignment to travel to Transylvania and complete the sale of an old mansion in Wisburg to a man known as Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). Orlok is, of course, a creepy, shadowy presence who has a supernatural effect on Thomas. The young man manages to escape and Orlok sets out for Wisburg in his coffin, which is aboard a ship whose crew is also unknowingly bringing plague rats with them. Meanwhile, Ellen is suffering from seizures and somnambulism, thanks to a psychic pact she unwittingly made with Orlok when she was younger. Her doctor, unable to figure out a cure for what ails her, decides to ask for the advice of his old mentor, Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz (Willem Dafoe), who is well-versed in the mythology surrounding Nosferatu. As the plague infects Wisburg and Orlok infects the mind of Herr Knock, Thomas and his friend Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) work with von Franz to devise a plan for getting rid of the vampire once and for all.

Nosferatu is certainly worthy of all the accolades it has received, which include four Academy Award nominations, albeit of the technical variety. It’s a worthy update to F.W. Murnau’s Expressionist classic. This Blu-ray edition of the movie comes with a code for a digital copy and a nice batch of extras, including an extended cut of the film that adds four minutes to the runtime. That extra footage is also available in the form of three deleted scenes. The bonus features kick off with a commentary track with Eggers that does a good job of digging into the making of the film. I always appreciate highly skilled filmmakers who have a very specific sense of style and enjoy talking about their work, like Eggers. Universal has also provided a making-of split into six parts that run about 38 minutes total. The big takeaway from them is the fact that Eggers, unsurprisingly, tries to capture as much as he can in-camera, but, of course, digital effects were still required to fill out many scenes (Just as Francis Coppola did with his Bram Stoker’s Dracula). The Blu Ray picture and sound are quite outstanding! Which showcases the cinematography of Jaron Blaschke. I’d be very interested to see what Eggers comes up with next.

Movie ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Picture ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Reuniting the director, writer and stars of Forrest Gump, HERE is an original film about multiple families and a special place they inhabit. The story travels through generations, capturing the most relatable of human experiences. Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact, Back to the Future) directs from a screenplay by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Killers of the Flower Moon, Dune: Part One, A Star is Born) and him. Told much in the style of the acclaimed graphic novel by Richard McGuire on which it is based, TOM HANKS and ROBIN WRIGHT star in a tale of love, loss, laughter and life all of which happen right Here.

Here tells an incredibly simple tale.  The story is centered in literally one spot.  The camera does not move, but time does.  When the film opens, we are in prehistoric times. Dinosaurs are passing by and the big bang occurs.  As time evolves, we see Native Americans living off of their land.  Then colonial times come forth.  Further down the line, we see the gilded age, the past becoming the present as frames place themselves everywhere on-screen showing different things, sometimes from other times.

Here is not told in a linear style.  Something that will make the film a difficult watch for some viewers is that there’s a lot of jumping around. One moment, you’re spending time with Tom Hanks’s Richard Young, or even before that, his parents. They have purchased the house from another couple, an inventor and a housewife.  We see glimpses of the inventor making his invention.  We also see the other inhabitants of the home before and after the Young family.

Interestingly, Richard never does leave his parents.  His father (Paul Bettany) is surly and drinks, while his mother (Kelly Reilly) can at times be forgetful, but this is usually brushed off.  When Richard brings home Margaret (Robin Wright), his parents enthusiastically welcome her into the family.  For the story’s sake, Richard and Margaret get pregnant and then have to get married in the living room.  Before this occurs, we see Benjamin Franklin pass by in a carriage, as we see his New Jersey become more modernized.  Eventually, Richard and Margaret move on from the house, and a new family moves in, only to be devasted by the loss of someone close to them from Covid, and then in turn, moving out of the house, making it possible for Richard and Margaret to have one more moment in that living room, where even after they’ve left, we never have.

Here deals with a lot of things in one space.  Before the house is built, we see things developing and evolving and changing.  As the house comes together, we see the different types of people moving in and out.  The first people living in the house turn their noses up at it, feeling that is isn’t good enough, and hating that Ben Franklin is their neighbor, stating that he lives in a monstrosity.  The next family are more modern and modest, with the husband showing interest in being adventurous with the newly honed skill of flight, and his wife waiting at home for him all the time. The inventor and his wife are next, and they’re the most interesting to me, even more so than Richard and his brood.  They are bohemian, playing jazz music, dancing, having fun… they are lively! After Richard’s family moves out, the last family leading up to 2024 moves in.  This is the only family that seems to be wealthy moves in, and also the only family of color too.

Here is not lost on characters or decent acting.  The premise is interesting in a way also.  It can also be emotional depending on how you feel about tales of love, struggle, loss, and life paths crossing.  It also depends on your patience on films whose scenes take place in much the same space for their duration.  In the case of Here, the camera doesn’t even move.  For some, this could become tedious.  I think it’s safe to say you can put me in the group of the “some” in that respect.

Here comes to the screen with a clear idea of the story it wants to tell, but unfortunately, what was released feels muddled.  The pacing is snail-like, and unfortunately the reliance on CGI, including fully rendered CGI characters, makes the whole experience feel false and cold.  I would have loved to see the film further fleshed out.  I could see the film using the house more and following its characters from every era around the house, and not just sticking to the living room.  I have no doubt those reading this will say that this voids the purpose of the film, but if we stay in the house, it’s still utilizing the point of Here and fleshing it out a bit by moving you and the characters around the home to make it less static.

Since I am a person who reviews films and does not make them, I can share my opinion, but I don’t dare believe I could write a capable film.  As a person in the audience, I do have to say that for me this continues a disappointing downturn in Robert Zemeckis’s career.  You can see his desire to innovate but things feel so stagnant, made worse by a camera that doesn’t move.  I can’t place the blame solely on Zemeckis though.  There Is also Eric Roth, who not only wrote Forrest Gump, but also Dune Pt. 1, Killers of the Flower Moon and a TON of other films.  This doesn’t even feel like something he’d write.  It’s so stalely written, moving in random ways from one bland moment to the next.  Save for the inventor and his wife (Spoiler: He invents the Lay-Z Boy), this movie is not one I can see gaining much of an audience despite the pull of having Tom Hanks starring and reuniting so many people who worked together on Forrest Gump.  It’s a shame too, because I know I’m not alone in my desire to see all of those involved here celebrating the success of their newest cinematic experiment.

SPECIAL FEATURES

How We Got Here (The Making of HERE) – A 20 Minute Documentary talking about the cast, crew and writer reuniting for the film, and the execution of the film.

Deleted Scenes – About 10 minutes in total, nothing essential, but interesting!

Final thoughts:

HERE is a film you’ll either love or despise. Although I enjoyed the 1080p picture and Dolby Surround Sound, I found myself getting a bit frustrated because the camera never moves (until the end). It’s admirable that Zemeckis continues to push the technical envelope each time he makes a film, but a film’s technical aspect is one thing. To move a film watcher with an engrossing story is most important. I would guess the ones who truly love this film are either Zemeckis fans or those who relish in seeing Hanks and Wright again in a film role.

Film ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Video ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Extras ⭐️⭐️

Directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), Saturday Night fictionalizes what happened behind the scenes during the 1975 series premiere of NBC’s long-running comedy series Saturday Night Live. It’s a well-made tribute that comes from the heart, but never really creates its own identity.  

Presented as a real time, ticking clock thriller, the film depicts the 90 or so minutes leading up to the famous moment when Chevy Chase bellowed the very first “Live from New York! It’s Saturday night!” With the camera constantly cruising the claustrophobic halls of Studio 8H, all the players who would become household names by 1976 are introduced. Lorne Michaels (played by The Fabelmans’ Gabriel LaBelle) is frantically trying to keep things together as he tries to revolutionize late night TV, while the NBC executives (Cooper Hoffman and Willem Dafoe) still aren’t convinced the show will work. The Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players — Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), and Jane Curtain (Kim Matula) — rehearse, goof around, and butt heads as they prepare to make TV history. Head writer Michael O’Donaghue (Tommy Dewey), and producer Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), who was also Michaels’ estranged wife at the time, both contribute to and attempt to shape the chaos around them. Musical director Paul Shaffer (Paul Rust), and host George Carlin(Matthew Rhys) both receive one dimensional screen time. Old guard comic Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) makes fun of it all, and Succession’s Nicholas Braun pulls double-duty as both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman.

Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan (who collaborated on the recent Ghostbusters films) did meticulous research, interviewing everyone who was in the building on the day of the show’s premiere. As the disc’s special features reveal, some of those stories conflicted, and others took place on different days but were folded into the movie anyway, making for a jam-packed 109 minutes. Not all of it works, but there is some undeniably great craftsmanship at hand, from the luminous 16mm cinematography to the overwhelmingly impressive two-story set replicating SNL‘s famous Studio 8H — built in Atlanta for the film. Another highlight is the free-wheeling, jazzy score that was recorded live on the set by Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer Jon Batiste, who also doubles as Billy Preston, the very first SNL musical guest ever. Likewise, the cast was carefully selected in order to inhabit famous faces of 1975, and even the extras were auditioned in order to realistically play crew members. The performances range from effective mimicry to genuinely funny, but too much screen time is given to re-enacting famous bits (albeit in rehearsal mode), like Chase’s Weekend Update segment, Kaufman’s lip sync rendition of the Mighty Mouse theme song, and Morris’ raucous “Get Me a Shotgun” song. The originals were all really funny on SNL in 1975, but the cover versions fall flat in the context of the film. Batiste doesn’t look much like Preston, but he looks like he’s having fun. Which pretty much goes for the whole movie. Ultimately, as entertaining as some moments are, Saturday Night’s main issue is that it’s a fairly conventional, even predictable look at what was a very unconventional and unpredictable time.

The special features include an audio commentary, and two worthwhile featurettes that go behind the scenes, explaining the film’s genesis, the casting process, the incredible production design, complicated choreography, and more. There’s also some fun Super 8 footage of the cast on set, and a handful of too-brief promotional clips called Creating Comedy Icons. Strangely, there’s a separate doc about Batiste’s score, but it’s just over a minute long. What’s the point of that?

The commentary is the disc’s highlight. Reitman takes us through all aspects of the film’s origins and production process, and is joined by cinematographer Eric Steelberg, production designer Jess Gonchor, and costumer designer Danny Glicker. With Reitman acting as a de facto moderator, each contributor speaks about their particular involvement when the film presents opportunities, instead of just all talking at once. The track is conversational, insightful, well paced and well organized.

Lastly, I would recommend this film to die hard fans of the beloved SNL show. New onlookers who are not familiar (and not too many would fall in this category) with SNL would probably still enjoy the film (as I personally did) because of its hilarity. Picture and sound are great as they should be since this is a new release. 

Picture ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Extras ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Out of 5 stars 

Those pesky cyclones of destruction return for Lee Isaac Chung’s sequel-in-spirit Twisters. An indirect followup to the ‘90s fan-favorite disaster flick, we find a new generation of tornado chasers with Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos on the hunt to tame the most destructive force on the planet. On 4K UHD Twisters wins with an excellent Dolby Vision / Atmos combo and plenty of extra features.

If Hollywood loves to do one thing it’s make the same movie again with twice the budget. If there’s a thing most sequels lack it is originality. It’s easier to play it safe, do a version of the same thing again, shell out a gargantuan amount of cash, and hope audiences go for it. They do that because most often it works… unless they turn it into a jukebox musical. Now with Jan de Bont’s Twister, the film was a modest albeit not HUGE hit at the box office. It made money, but the film also wrapped things up well enough that a sequel wasn’t altogether needed or necessary. Attempts were made, but indy-darling Lee Isaac Chung got Twisters to the big screen without any returning original characters. In our sort-of pseudo-sequel, we have intrepid would-be tornado-tamer Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) living in New York. Years earlier she was part of a team of chasers with the dream of being able to stop a tornado, but tragedy destroyed their group. Now fellow survivor Javi (Anthony Ramos) turns up with new tech and an opportunity for redemption if Kate comes back to Oklahoma. But the chasing game has changed. On the scene are any number of amateur storm chasers including the YouTube famous Tornado Wrangler Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) ready to chase down the biggest twisters.

It’s weird to think of Twister as a franchise now, but it is. A long time coming, there were several attempts over the last 28 years to get a new film up the funnel. As he effectively edged into writing and directing, Bill Paxton had his own idea based on the notorious 1925 tri-state tornado that killed nearly 700 people. The plot would have been similar to this sequel where Paxton would be back behind the wheel of the red Dodge Ram with a space-aged material designed to stop tornadoes. But that pitch sadly didn’t get far before his untimely death. Then as of a few years ago Helen Hunt had her own plan to write and direct a sequel – but I’m not entirely sure of the plot, but obviously that didn’t get picked up. And now we have this spiritual sequel from director Lee Isaac Chung and writers Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski (Maverick). I call this a spiritual sequel because it doesn’t pick up where the last one left off. It doesn’t feature any of the original characters, but this one doesn’t entirely ignore the first film either. During the very exciting opening sequence, we see a “field-tested” Dorthy 5 hooked up to Kate’s barrels of absorbent polymer to get important data. And that’s all the acknowledgment this film offers of the original. Unlike so damn many recent legacy sequels, this one isn’t saturated with constant callbacks or nostalgia bombs. It’s certainly not entirely original, but it wisely doesn’t try to do the exact same plot twice. I mean both films are about people trying to give tornados a scientific instrument suppository, but how they achieve that mission is very different.

Best of all, it’s just as cornball, it’s just as silly, and just as much fun as the first. What I really enjoyed about Twisters was how it ramped up the amount of death and property destruction. Each tornado gets bigger and more deadly with people caught in the path and sucked up to meet their makers. With the big budget and advancements in visual effects, they could afford to do more destructive chaos right through to a thrilling climax at a small-town movie theater. That said, what holds this one back is we’ve seen CGI tornadoes before. There’s already a sense of familiarity going into this film and even with bigger more deadly and more flammable tornadoes, Twisters just can’t quite muster up the same sense of dread and primal terror of the 1996 original. To be fair, this film has its share of great and memorable sequences, the best hits a rodeo (with a cameo from Bill Paxton’s son). Also working in this film’s favor is it avoids trying to ape the romance/drama of the Paxton/Hunt dynamic. There’s an obvious chemistry between Powell and Edgar-Jones, but this film wisely avoids going down that road again. However I personally found it more interesting regarding the plot.

So sure, not an incredible film, not as great as the first, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was great seeing this on IMAX with my fiancée, who actually was more excited to see it than me. And while I enjoyed the hell out of Twisters in the theater, it’s just as much fun at home with my 4K screen and Atmos rig. The action is big and loud. The characters are colorful and fun. The titular cyclones are plenty windy and destructive. About all you need for a tornado flick.

 PICTURE

 Smashing onto 4K disc, Twisters devours 2160p with an excellent Dolby Vision transfer. From frame one all the way through to the end, this is a crisp, clean, detailed image. Shot on 35mm and finished with a 4K Digital Intermediate, the image maintains a film-like appearance with a naturally cinematic grain structure. Fine lines, facial features, and production design details are razor-sharp. I was really impressed with how well the CGI effects appear here. Time and technology have worked in this sequel’s favor for creating some big-scale tornado destruction. A lot of effort was used to combine practical effects with digital counterparts so a lot of the time the big wow moments have true weight to them. A few pieces here and there can look a tad cartoonish – Powell running from the disabled tram car always looked janky and still does on disc. The rest of the time the film looks great. Colors are right where they need to be, big bold with great saturation. Thanks to Dolby Vision those reds, blues, and yellows really pop nicely. Whites are well-balanced against the dark ominous shadows. Again that rodeo sequence is a highlight moment that hits all those marks. All around a damn near-perfect transfer.

SOUND

On the audio front, Universal delivers a rousing wall-to-wall Atmos mix to match their impressive Dolby Vision transfer. I mean, it’s a disaster movie with massive tornados, it’d be a huge failing on Universal’s part to crap the bed here. I really enjoyed the mix for this one because it really played with the creepy silence that happens during a big storm where you think everything is going to be fine before all hell breaks loose. And when hell comes it hits on all channels. Shipping wind effects beautifully circulate throughout the soundscape rising upwards into the heights. Heights are thankfully not only reserved for wind or rain, any time a hapless NPC gets sucked up their screams fly into the heights. Likewise, the bursts of fireworks are a fun highlight. Dialog isn’t lost, but like any disaster movie, we’re not here for the quality of the flowery speeches, we want to enjoy the chaos on screen rattling our walls, ceilings, and floorboards! The big El Reno finale delivers all of that. As each tornado escalates in intensity, so does the mix. By the end, the LFE is rattling away while the front/center, side, rear, and height channels do their work. Crank the volume and let ‘er rip!

SPECIAL FEATURES

What’s particularly nice to see is Universal didn’t skimp on the extra features. You get a great director’s commentary track, some fun gag reels, some deleted scenes, and plenty of featurettes to gnaw through once the main feature is done. The commentary is probably the most informative piece you can enjoy if you’re really into “how it was done, what it took to do this, yadda yadda” but the featurettes are still enjoyable even if they lean a little more EPK fodder. The Deleted Scenes aren’t all that extensive and feel likewise pacing cuts rather than missing subplots or character development. Bonus features are on both discs.

FINAL WORD

I went to the theater for big tornado destruction fun and got exactly what I wanted. It helps that Lee Isaac Chung, the writers, and the solid cast actually made a solid pseudo-sequel to the 1996 original. It might not be better (but it’s more interesting), but it thankfully doesn’t repeat itself or saturate it with numbing nostalgia callbacks. Twisters has its own wildly entertaining fun to have on the big screen letting it stand alongside the original without feeling like a complete repeat. On 4K UHD, Twisters storms (pun intended) onto disc with an excellent Dolby Vision transfer with a fantastic Atmos mix to match. Tag in about an hour of genuinely interesting extra features on top of a commentary track and you’ve got a damn good home release. Highly Recommended!

Film ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Picture ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Extras ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(out of five stars)

The Despicable Me franchise has kind of had a rough ride. After the success of a pair of movies, Illumination decided to spin-off the series with a movie centered entirely around those lovable, mischievous yellow, blue-coveralled minions. While the movie performed well at the box office, it wasn’t received quite as well, and ended up being kind of a mixed bag in the end. A third Despicable Me followed, which ended up being pretty fun (although unnecessary), and then 2022 saw the return of the minions in the COVID-delayed sequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru — which actually ended up being pretty good. This takes us to 2024 where we have Despicable Me 4… and while I love these characters, I’m starting to get that Shrek Forever After vibe that the franchise may be running out of steam. I can’t even quite put my finger on what it is about Despicable Me 4 that lacks so much. Is it just more of the same? Too different? All the best parts shown in the trailer? Maybe it’s a little of all the above. In the previous movies, it was largely Gru’s show, and maybe part of the problem is there are so many characters to follow now, the focus is divided too much. Probably the best sequence of the movie is when Gru is part of a heist, and he ends up having to use the contents of a diaper bag in a clever way to get the job done. The minions are still funny, fun and lovable, but so much of their hijinks were spoiled in the trailers, that it often feels like “This? We saw this already, give us something new!” I didn’t revisit the previous movies before watching this one, so doing that may have given me more insight, but with Gru having a family now – and one that is growing, it’s starting to feel a lot like The Incredibles, and you can definitely sit down and draw more than a couple comparisons between the two movies.

This time around, we have another villain who wants revenge on Gru, and this one is voiced by comedy legend Will Ferrell. However, it really could have been anyone providing the voice of Maxime, because it sounds absolutely nothing like Ferrell. 

Clearly, he had fun with the character, but it was so hard to recognize it was him that after seeing his name in the opening credits, I was never able to pick out which character he was playing. (For example, picking out Stephen Colbert and Sofia 

Vergara was pretty easy to do.) For a kids movie, too, Maxime is a pretty intense villain. For one, it’s kind of silly to have a French villain who wants to turn people into cockroaches – including himself – and when he reveals his own physique has been mutated into a cockroach form, it’s kind of intense (and maybe a little disturbing for kids?). Another scene shows him turning a gas station attendant 

into a cockroach-human mutant, and we see his face twisted and twitching. Later, another character is transformed and threatens to kill a main character, and it’s also pretty intense for young viewers (then again, I suppose a lot of The Incredibles was too?). Not too much of the content is crude necessarily, but there’s a gag where Agnes commands her pet baby goat to sit. It then expels 

little poops, to which Agnes says, “No, I said sit!” Ha, I was a little surprised they went there.  Also, can we address the elephant in the room here? 

While it’s commonplace for shows like The Simpsons to never let the children characters age, it’s especially weird to see Gru’s adopted children not age when clearly he and Lucy have a baby now which would mean at least 2 or so years have gone 

Little Agnes should be considerably older – especially after the other movies are also taken into consideration in the timeline. Sure, it might be tough to see these cute characters grow, but it worked for How to Train Your Dragon, and it could possibly work here. I guess it wouldn’t be such an obvious issue if the family hadn’t added a baby to the mix, which clearly shows time has passed and their newborn is aging.

I suppose if you’re a diehard fan of the franchise thus far, Despicable Me 4 should scratch the itch for a new story (and a return of lovable characters), however, it just feels like its lost its spark. Steve 

Carell’s performance as Gru is on-point, and everyone else seems to be all-in here, but there wasn’t much to really draw the viewer in. Around the climax of the movie, it begins to show some heart, but it just might be too little too late, as it just isn’t enough to elevate everything that came before it. I suppose, when all is said and done,

Despicable Me 4 is a fairly forgettable sequel that isn’t nearly as fun as the previous films, and lacks enough heart to make up for it. If you’re a fan who’s a bit easier to please with these movies, by all means, don’t miss this one. But if you’re a bit pickier, and was maybe a little on the fence about the other Despicable movies, you should probably just pass it by.

VIDEO

Despicable Me 4 is a gorgeous looking animated film. When they show clips from the previous three (especially the first one) during the featurettes, it’s amazing to see just how far the quality of animation has evolved. With that said, the color really pops with this movie in 4K, so it’s pretty much a no-brainer when deciding whether or not to spring for the 4K release or not.

SOUND

The Dolby Atmos track is quite amazing. Even the Dolby Digital track on the Blu Ray is reference quality. Also included are tons of extras including 2 hilarious four minute mini movies. 

MOVIE ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

PICTURE ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SOUND ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(out of five stars)

Every once in a while, a movie comes out that redefines “cool.” It seems to have a ripple effect on every piece of pop culture in its wake–from other movies paying tribute to it, to music, to TV, and everything else under the sun. Think of the waves of parodies to follow movies like The Matrix or Pulp Fiction. They had their own unique look down pat. In 2011, that movie was Drive. The silent antihero. The 80s synth-wave. The slow-mo. Drive was iconic and we’re still feeling its effects to this day – Stranger Things, The Guest and every type of vaporwave nostalgia owe Drive a huge debt of gratitude.

Drive is totally self-aware and knows how clever it is, but never devolves into a parody of movies that it lovingly homages. If anything, its self-awareness is part of its overall earnestness. Drive is a movie with heart. The reason the movie is thrilling isn’t because of car chases, action or mayhem. It’s thrilling because we care about what happens to its characters.  When the nameless Driver (played by Ryan Gosling) stomps a man’s head in, it’s not a “Whoa, cool!” moment. It’s layered with tragedy, knowing that his quickness to employ gruesome violence is part of his nature and represents a point of no return for him.

Driver is a stunt driver for the movies by the day, and at night he’s a getaway driver for robberies. His rules are simple: “You give me a time and a place, I give you a five-minute window. Anything happens in those five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything happens a minute on either side of that and you’re on your own.” In the opening chase sequence (in a movie called Drive, I think it’s awesome that there are only two car chases), Driver, instead of punching the car like Bullitt and swerving through crowded streets, plays a game of cat and mouse with the police. He accelerates to punch out his car to an advantage, waits in the shadows, listens to the police scanner, and keeps ahead of his pursuers by a couple of steps psychologically. And in a moment of too-coolness, he pulls the car into a crowded area, puts on a hat, takes off his jacket, and blends in with the crowd. Job done. Cue the main title sequence.

Irene is his neighbor in an apartment complex you don’t normally see in the movies.  In the movies, if a character doesn’t have a lot of money, they still always live somewhere with a nice view and modern appliances. The apartment complex in Drive is something realistically and quintessentially LA.  It looks lived in. It looks real. Drive is to LA as Star Wars is to its own fantastical sci-fi universe.

When Driver meets Irene, they have an instant attraction. He falls for her, but she has one problem: A husband named Standard (Oscar Isaac, who continues to be one of the best living actors today) is due to be released from prison. Driver agrees to help Standard with some problems he’s having, with gangsters who say he owes them money. Driver arranges a means of pulling off a heist, a one last heist, to get the gangsters the money that they say is owed to them, and then after that, the agreement is that they leave Standard, and his family, alone for good. There’s internal strife between organized crime soldiers Bernie (Ron Perlman) and Nino (Albert Brooks) and the “family” back home. Driver unwittingly gets in the middle of it and becomes a complication that would be better off erased.

Drive remains Winding Refn’s most accessible movie, while still rife with the directorial trademarks and flourishes he’s known for. There are long, hallucinatory stretches of silence. Apparently, huge swaths of dialogue were done away with when he signed on as director, taking a red pen to the script.  Refn loves to tell a story visually, to the point of obsession. There’s an expression sometimes in writing that he seems to have taken to heart: Why tell it when you can show it?

As focused on visuals as it may be, Drive actually seems to be having fun with the actors and performances, watching someone like Bryan Cranston as Driver’s good friend and mentor, Shannon, limp around, chain smoke and espouse life lessons in a gravelly voice.  The ensemble cast is amazing.  Christina Hendricks shows up in a bit role to help with the heist to get Standard out of trouble.  Albert Brooks plays against type as a sympathetic villain.  Ron Perlman plays Ron Perlman, beautifully so.

Drive is one of those “love it or hate it” movies. If you’re expecting it to be a movie in the tradition of the Fast and the Furious series, only more serious, and with Ryan Gosling as the lead, you’re probably going to be incredibly disappointed. If you go in to the movie knowing that it’s going to be an offbeat, show-offy work from a European director and is less concerned with cars and more of a contemplation on violence, you’ll have a better idea of what to expect.

VIDEO

Drive is gorgeous, bathed-in-neon picture from start to finish. And while it’s always been an attractive movie, from its theatrical release to previous Blu-ray editions, this 4K master, courtesy of Second Sight, takes it to another level. The dark/light levels are incredibly adept, Drive will have scenes take place during the darkest of nights and during the brightest of days in sunny Los Angeles. No matter what extreme, it always looks natural and balanced.

AUDIO

Second Sight’s release on 4K features a Dolby Atmos mix that helps elevate and widen the soundstage a bit. It’s not leaps and bounds above its predecessor Blu Ray release, but in certain scenes, the enhancement is noticeable and welcome. In the beginning cat-and-mouse chase scene, the front, height speakers and rear speakers work in a wonderful unison to simulate a circling police helicopter. When the main title sequence blasts to life, “Nightcall” by Kavinsky fires across the entire soundstage, (front, back, and from above) enveloping the listener in a bubble.

EXTRAS

Like its previous Blu-ray release, while there aren’t hours and hours of features to keep you entertained, or a booklet with essays like you’d find in a Criterion release, the features that are there will help deepen your understanding of the film and familiarize you with the process of making this modern-day masterpiece.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Drive is an oddity, in that it’s a hypnotic contemplation on violence in reality, and violence in film, with action sequences few and far between, but boasting demo-worthy visuals and audio during those tense, white-knuckle moments. It’s both a thinker and a shower, allowing quiet moments to simmer with seriousness and louder moments to be more impactful and consequential. Second Sight’s work here is, as usual, incredible and their release of Drive on 4K Blu-ray is Highly Recommended!

FILM ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

VIDEO ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SOUND ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

EXTRAS ⭐️⭐️

(Out of five stars)

Is there a group of creative filmmakers in Hollywood that barely get recognized for making some of the most memorable and coolest sequences in movies and television? Yes, there is a group of brave individuals called stunt performers (or Tom Cruise) who are responsible for those long falls off buildings, impossible jumps over mountains, and wild car chases in movies. There’s not a major award show that recognizes the genius of these people, but there should be one in the sea of dull acceptance speeches for sound editing or documentary shorts. There should be a segment that honors the coolest parts of cinema. That’s where the new film The Fall Guy blazes its way into the arena, covered in sweat and high wires that will hopefully change every award show in the future with an award for Best Stunt in a movie. Not to mention, The Fall Guy is a blast from start to finish with Gosling once again oozing charm, comedy, and general badassery. 

Director David Leitch is the perfect person for the job here, where he was a former stuntman turned director who gave the world John Wick, Deadpool 2, Bullet Train, and Hobbs and Shaw. He and writer Drew Pearce have perfectly conjured up a wonderful story that takes its cues from the ’80s show of the same name and brings that energy and action to life in the present day with an all-star cast that subtly breaks the fourth wall to showcase the ins and outs of stunt work on movies. But Leitch adds a wonderful love story to the mix along with some hilarious comedy that serves as some insider stunt jokes that also appeal to the masses. And the jabs at the Hollywood industry in the form of wacky producers, and egocentric actors are spot on with how over-the-top they are. But The Fall Guy manages to have it all in one movie, the comedy, the action, the romance, the one-liners, and the thrills all led by Ryan Gosling.

Leitch’s career has driven him to this place where Gosling plays a stuntman for a Tom Cruise-like actor (Aaron Taylor Johnson of Kick-Ass fame), where after an accident on set, puts Colt Seavers (Gosling) out of commission for a year, ghosting his romantic interest and camera-girl Jody (Emily Blunt) without any word of his well-being. A year later, Colt gets called back into action, and he reluctantly accepts to board a brand new big-budget movie when he finds out that Jody is directing her first big gig. Little does anyone know that the producer (Hannah Waddingham) and the ego-centric actor (Johnson) have nefarious plans for Seavers that will put his stunt game to the test in real life. With cheesy ’80s and ’90s romantic quips and stellar action sequences – The Fall Guy never disappoints. 

Each action scene is meticulously planned and real, as the end credits show all of the real stunts that were performed in the movie by either Gosling or a stunt team. From falling down stairs, jumping onto a moving car, being smashed by a truck, or hanging off of a helicopter, this movie shows it all. It executes its narrative of the movie industry, making a movie, and two people falling in love all over again in such a sweet and comical way that Leitch can probably add romantic comedy to his resume. The chemistry between Blunt and Gosling is very infectious, but is there a situation where anyone does NOT have chemistry with Gosling? The man is a gentle comedic god with a penchant for beating people up. The Fall Guy has a ton of surprises and is some of the most fun you can have in a theater with laugh-out-loud moments, inside jokes, top-notch action scenes, and a great romantic tale with Ken. 

The Fall Guy delivers an impressive UHD 4K image with Dolby Vision. The streaming version looks amazing, however, this physical copy allows more room to breathe with its wide gamut of colors and detail. The soundtrack comes with an exquisite Dolby Atmos track that could be the new demo in any media room. Sound effects are loud and boisterous with tons of nuanced noises from the surrounding speakers as well as plenty of subwoofer LFE activity. As for extras, there are about 91 minutes of supplements included in this release which includes the 20 minutes of the extended cut. All of these bonus features are highly entertaining and worth watching. There is also an audio commentary included. 

Lastly The Fall Guy has risen to be one of the biggest and best action flicks in years. The amount of fun, heart, soul, and the ability to finally pay homage to the impressive stunt people throughout the years is fantastic. This 4K image with Dolby Vision looks excellent and is a definitive upgrade from the 1080p version and even the 4K streaming option. The Dolby Atmos track is demo-worthy. The bonus features are a ton of fun to watch as well. Highly recommended!

Movie ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Picture ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Extras ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Out of five stars 

‘Tarot’ tells the haunting tale of a group of friends who rent out an ancient mansion in order to celebrate a friend’s birthday and in the course of the evening’s festivities uncover a secret room packed with ancient artifacts. After finding an eerily hand-painted deck of tarot cards and convincing their friend to do readings for each of them which violate the sacred tarot rules, the friends start mysteriously dying in gruesome fashion. As the surviving friends attempt to uncover the truth behind the deaths they soon realize that they are being killed off in the manner described in their readings. But stopping the curse will be significantly harder than triggering it, especially if they hope to end it before any more of them perish.

Written and directed by Spenser Cohen & Anna Halberg who each make their feature length directorial debut and do a solid job at the helm of ‘Tarot’ capably guiding along the creepy and violent fun. The film’s cast includes Harriet Slater (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Adain Bradley (Wrong Turn 2021), Avantika (Mean Girls 2024), Wolfgang Novogratz (The Half of It), Humberly González (Slumberland), Larsen Thompson (Bloodline) and Jacob Batalon (Spider-Man: No Way Home) with the majority offering capable or at the very least fitting performances in each of their respective roles.

‘Tarot’ is a fun, over the top and surprisingly bloody teen-centric horror offering that may not be an Oscar contender or a remarkable film by any means, and is often lacking in cleverness and originality but ends up delivering a significantly more enjoyable PG-13 horror film than you might expect. It’s a fairly goofy and silly concept to begin with and it takes the story and twists further than expected, while also delivering some surprisingly violent and bloody deaths that even while they never reach the level of outright gory seem to repeatedly push the boundaries of the rating. Somehow the goofy concept itself helps to make this one as fun as it is by the filmmakers repeatedly going so far with the material while playing it off in a serious manner at the same time; allowing it to almost maintain a tongue-in-cheek style without actually portraying it as such.

The key characters of ‘Tarot’ are fairly basic and it’s difficult to become too attached to most of them, although that only helps to make it even more entertaining when they are killed in one gruesome manner after another, while many of the other characters within seem unable to accept the reality of the situation as others couldn’t be more done with it. It’s a curious approach and I honestly can’t say whether it was intended or not, but it certainly makes for a fairly solid and engaging ride into darkness that genre fans who don’t mind a little bit of cheese (albeit possibly unintentional) should enjoy this one a fair amount, especially if you can go in expecting as much.

Overall, ‘Tarot’ is an entertaining and somewhat over the top supernatural horror film that plays things fairly straight but ends up becoming almost silly at times due to the out there story and reasoning behind the chaos, as well as the bloody and violent ways the characters are eliminated throughout which almost feels reminiscent of a tamed down version of ‘Final Destination’ at times. Even while it may not be intentionally silly and never portrays the events in that way, its serious approach and the almost surprisingly brutal moments end up forming into a slightly above average ride that’s somehow way more enjoyable than it should be. If you’re a fan of similar horror films and are at all interested in ‘Tarot’ then it’s definitely worth giving a chance, although I would encourage first time viewers to rent it before purchasing a copy just to be safe.

The Blu-ray release of ‘Tarot’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks tremendous and offers a clean, sharp and richly detailed presentation from start to finish that never suffers from any notable faults or glitches to be uncovered along the way. Detail is sharp and impressive on everything from character faces and clothing to the sprawling mansion and almost everything else appearing onscreen at one point or another, which is all complemented by rewarding black levels that benefit this often very dark film and keep any artifacts or anything else from negatively affecting the darker moments which never disappoint. Overall, this is a great high definition video presentation that holds up wonderfully at all times and shouldn’t disappoint fans or newcomers.

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack makes a splendid complement to the onscreen fun and provides a clean, crisp and frequently aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly utilizes all five available channels in order to send music, creepy and violent sound effects along with nature elements and plenty more whipping throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate, while never resulting in any dialogue or other audio elements becoming negatively affected or rendered problematic in the process. Overall, this is a fantastic 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that repeatedly benefits the film and should easily excite viewers.

Conclusion 

The Blu-ray release of ‘Tarot’ features a few brief extras. Included on the release are the Behind the Scenes Featurettes ‘A Twist of Fate: Making the Film’ (running approximately 6 minutes in length) and ‘Circle of Friends’ (running approximately 7 minutes) which feature interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. Also included are ‘Killer Outtakes’ from the film (approximately 2 minutes). I had fun with ‘Tarot’ but as aforementioned, it’s not cleverly executed. But sound and picture are absolutely amazing. Incidentally, ‘Tarot’ is presently a major hit on Netflix! Not surprising since it is a good watch with friends.

Film: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Picture: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sound: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (out of five stars)