Starring: Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon and Walton Goggins
Rated: TV-MA
Running Time: 514 minutes
HBO

TV Show Score: 3 out of 5 Stars
DVD Score: 4 out of 5 Stars

If you haven’t heard of “The White Lotus,” you might be missing out on HBO’s most bizarre, sexually charged, and darkly comical series. Each season drops us into the lives of the wildly privileged—wannabe elites, crumbling rich families, emotionally wrecked resort staff, and characters drowning in their own flaws and contradictions.
Season 3 trades Sicily for Thailand and introduces a trio of longtime girlfriends: one more successful than the rest, one trying to balance motherhood, and one a high-powered attorney who’s quietly falling apart. Along for the ride is a mysterious older man and his too-young trophy girlfriend, whose presence unspools much of this season’s mystery. Then there’s the Ratliff family, each member on a personal quest that has nothing to do with togetherness and everything to do with selfishness.

As someone who lives in the lower-to-average-middle-class tax bracket, part of “The White Lotus’” charm is watching these rich folks stew in their own dysfunction. It’s almost cathartic. You root for the underpaid hotel workers. You laugh at the cluelessness of the elite. And you brace for the inevitable disaster.

Season 3 spices things up by introducing Eastern religion and cultural taboos, especially in how Western characters bump up against a society with very different ideas about sex, spirituality, and self-control. It’s a bold thematic shift, and for the most part, it works.

What doesn’t work as well is the landing. While prior seasons stuck the finale, this one stumbles. Thematically, it’s all there—class struggle, spiritual unraveling, absurdist satire—but the final note just doesn’t ring as loudly or as cleverly. And that’s a shame, because the setup is stellar.

Still, there’s plenty to enjoy: the sharp performances (Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Sam Rockwell, and Natasha Rothwell all shine), the biting dialogue, and Mike White’s knack for satire. But White may want to rethink how he closes out Season 4 because Season 3 fizzles more than it should.

DVD Features

Unpacking the Episodes

Invitation to Set: Welcome to Thailand

Get to Know

Thai Tea

Closet Tour

Starring: Scarlett Johannson, Mahersha Ali and Jonathan Bailey
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 133 minutes
Universal Pictures

Film Score: 1 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

We had a 14-year break between “Jurassic Park III” and “Jurassic World.” Time away from the constantly calamitous dinosaur park made us appreciate it again when the doors swung back open. I’m not saying we need another 14-year dry spell, but after watching “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” I’m beginning to think the creative team and writers need one. 

17 years after a candy bar wrapper (not making this up) left a trail of devastation and chaos at a secret island lab, Earth’s environment is now too hostile for most of the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures once resurrected. In a hail mary pharma-fueled effort to save humanity, a shady biotech firm assembles a ragtag crew to return to the long-abandoned, off-limits island of Ile Saint-Hubert. Led by Scarlett Johannson (don’t remember the names, or else you’ll get attached when they become dino snacks) and extract genetic material from the world’s last prehistoric specimens.

I’m not saying the premise is dumb. It’s a dinosaur movie. The narrative and ideas it posits gets in the way of perfectly fine escapism. The opening sequence makes sure to hammer in two asinine facts: No one cares dinosaurs are escaping zoos and dying in downtown Manhattan and dinosaurs aren’t cool anymore. As someone who has worked in news, if any animal escapes from the zoo, even a capybara, it makes national news. And what the hell do you mean dinosaurs aren’t cool? They hammer the latter point more by recruiting a paleontologist, played by Jonathan Bailey, from a natural history museum that’s shuttering. He bemoans several times about how no one cares to see dinosaurs anymore. Have any of these writers visited a zoo lately?

The obnoxiousness doesn’t end there as characters spit out dialogue that sounds like it was written by ChatGPT after a few drinks. “A car bomb killed my dad. It came out of nowhere.” Car bombs don’t come out of nowhere. They’re planted. Also, for a film about dinosaurs wreaking havoc, we expect some fantastic kills, but they’re so quick and off-screen that they make death boring. Not even the T-Rex gets a kill. So, maybe give the people what they want next time, if you catch my drift.

Worst of all, it’s boring. The action sequences are flat and lifeless. Once it’s clear who lives (almost everyone) and who dies (mostly nobodies), the chase scenes lose all tension. At the very least, you gotta kill one secondary character that’s had more than two lines of dialogue. Then, there’s too much downtime with characters you’d rather see eaten, and even the callbacks to prior films feel forced and hollow. There’s no awe, no wonder, no…anything. Just another joyless cash grab from a franchise that forgot why people showed up in the first place.

I didn’t walk in expecting to hate it. Quite the opposite. The trailer gave me hope that it might tap into that silly joy of watching dumb humans try to outwit dumber, bigger, toothier animals. I was wrong. The audience at my screening seemed to enjoy it, but it was the end of June with nothing going. Also, maybe I’m just bitter. But if you’re picking “Jurassic World: Rebirth” over fireworks this weekend, prepare to be disappointed.

4K Features

Alternate Opening: Interesting to see the slight difference from the theatrical.

Deleted Scenes: Only a handful of deleted scenes, which I’m kind of surprised they removed because it does add a bit of tension and action to a movie that could have used a lot more.

Jurassic World Rebirth: Hatching a New Era: This is a multi-part behind-the-scenes feature that looks at the case and crew, the special effects, a few of the action sequences, and some more peeks behind the proverbial curtain. It’s actually a pretty decent behind-the-scenes feature that dives deep into the film.

Gag Reel: Self-explanatory.

Meet Dolores: I personally didn’t find this feature interesting, mainly because I find the addition of a “cute” tiny dinosaur for clear merchandising reasons wasn’t cute.

Munched: Becoming Dino Food: It takes a look at what it’s like to be eaten by a dinosaur. The title of the feature is probably more interesting than the feature itself.

A Day at Skywalker Sound: A moderately interesting feature about the sound in the film.

Hunting for Easter Eggs: This feature attempts to encourage multiple rewatches to look for little winks and nods to the franchise. No thanks.

Feature Commentary with Director Gareth Edwards, Production Designer James Clyne and First Assistant Director Jack Ravenscroft

Feature Commentary with Director Gareth Edwards, Editor Jabez Olssen and Visual Effects Supervisor David Vickery

Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Mia, Michael Cera
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 105 minutes
Focus Features

Film Score: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 1.5 out of 5 Stars

Since The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, Wes Anderson fans have been chasing that perfectly symmetrical high—the kind of quirky, charming brilliance that only Anderson seems capable of. But we may have to admit: that was the peak. It’s been a decade, and while he’s delivered solid work since, nothing has quite reached the heights of Budapest. That said, The Phoenician Scheme is still a strong entry in his catalog. It hits all the Anderson notes, even if it doesn’t sing quite as sweetly.

Imagine if The Royal Tenenbaums had a baby with Beirut, and you’d get something close to The Phoenician Scheme. It plays like a living political cartoon—satirizing war-driven infrastructure plans, economic collapse, and family dysfunction with pastel flair. Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) is an aging industrialist trying to glue together the financing for his overreaching global project, while grooming his daughter, Sister Liesl (Mia Threapleton), to inherit the chaos. Along for the ride are assassination attempts, underworld syndicates, failed rail lines, a basketball game with geopolitical stakes, and Bjørn (Michael Cera), a bewildered Norwegian entomologist turned assistant.

For die-hard Anderson fans, this might sound like a dream. But it’s worth tempering expectations. While I enjoyed The Phoenician Scheme quite a bit, it never quite rises to the level of Anderson’s best. It flirts with emotional depth but can’t seem to commit. Zsa-Zsa feels more like a mustachioed “Three Stooges” character than the kind of tragic antihero Anderson has pulled off in the past.

As a pure comedy, though, the film is a delight. It’s a whirlwind of dry wit, elaborate sets, and eccentric characters firing on all cylinders. Just don’t expect the emotional gut punch of Budapest or Tenenbaums. The Phoenician Scheme is Anderson comfort food—odd, satisfying, and occasionally unforgettable. Maybe that’s enough.

4K Features

Behind THE PHOENECIAN SCHEME: This is the only feature on the 4K and it’s broken into four small parts, making you wonder if there was even an attempt at special features for this movie. While the 4K video and audio is pristine, that’s really the only reason to buy it because you won’t get a real feel for the making of the film in this feature.

Starring: Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten and Walton Goggins
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 475 minutes
Amazon

TV Show Score: 4 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Imagine an alternate reality where humanity doubled down on nuclear, where the Atomic Age never left us. Cars, appliances, helper robots and everything in life was powered by nuclear energy. Now imagine that the bombs did fall. Not only is that the world of “Fallout,” but “Fallout” takes place hundreds of years after thermonuclear war. The remnants of society live in an absolute wasteland, permeated with grotesque creatures, factions of humanity, and a chance of death at every twist and turn. But underneath all that are the Vaults.

The TV show “Fallout” not only takes the skeleton of the game’s lore, but takes us on a journey with Lucy Maclean (Ella Purnell), a vault dweller. These vault dwellers believe that one day they will go to the surface to help repopulate and make society in their Democratic, utopian vision. Only problem, the stink, corruption and evil of the wasteland above can’t stay outside those vault doors forever. The first episode of the Amazon TV show has a group of Raiders not only come in and nearly commit genocide on the tiny Vault enclave, but they take Lucy’s dad alive, leaving a mystery for her to solve in the world above as she seeks to rescue.

Parallel along this journey is Norm Maclean (Moises Arias), Lucy’s brother. He’s left to pick up the pieces of a devastated vault, but must uncover an even worse secret that the attack has exposed. Then there’s Maximus (Aaron Moten), a grunt in the Brotherhood of Steel, a paramilitary organization that is trying to rule and control the wasteland through violence. There’s also the Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins. This irradiated creature used to be human, but now roams the wasteland as a bounty hunter.

Each episode reveals another layer and set piece to this world gone mad. Every character is interesting in their own right, which makes their time apart just as interesting as when their storylines collide. If there is one complaint I have about the first season of this Amazon show, is that it spends a bit too much time setting everything up and teasing its end of the season reveal. In a lot of ways, it plays more like a prologue than an opening shot in a war torn world.

It has the issue that the first season of “Twisted Metal” had; it’s a fine adaptation, but it makes you yearn for more and finally flirts with you about that yearning in it’s waning moments. With the second season just months away at the time of this writing (December 2025), now is a good time to catch up on this dense, yet fun, wild, darkly comedic world.

4K Features

Commentary: For those looking to get some in-depth analysis of the show, or simply some fun banter, the commentary is up your alley.

Animated Content: Vault-Tec executive Bud Askins, a character in the show, gives you a step-by-step walkthrough on what really matters to the corporate overlords at Vault-Tec.

Becoming the Ghoul: Easily my favorite feature because we get hear from Goggins himself. He breaks down his performance.

Console to Camera: If you were curious about what went behind adapting the highly popular video game, this feature is for you.

Creating the Wasteland: The VFX team shows the digital and practical ways they brought the Fallout world to life.

Inside Season One: This is a bit of a generic behind-the-scenes making of the tV show’s first season.

Meet the Filmmaker (and fanatic) Jonathan Nolan: I wish this feature was a little bit longer, but I enjoyed what little I got from Nolan.

Prosthetics & Makeup Gone Nuclear: This is easily a feature that could have gone hand-in-hand with Goggins, but we get a look at more than just the Ghoul when it comes to the creatures, blood and guts in this show.

Safe and Proud: The music of the show didn’t necessarily stick out to me as much as the video game soundtrack, so I wasn’t as interested in this feature.

Set Your Sets on 2296: This is another feature that could have gone with another feature, such as the VFX or Nolan’s, but I suppose Amazon needed to pad things out a bit.

The Costumes of Fallout: Costumes aren’t necessarily interesting to me, but for those who are curious, this is an adequate feature.

Welcome to the World of Fallout: The third (but who’s counting) feature on this 4K release that could have been lumped in with another or even absorbed another.

Writing for the Wasteland: I really wish this feature was longer, but I do enjoy hearing about the creative process behind “Fallout.”

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 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Extras ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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 ⭐️⭐️

Starring: Bill Skarsard, Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult
Directed by: Robert Eggers
Rated: R
Running Time: 132 minutes
Focus Features

Our Score: 4 out of 5 Stars
Blu-Ray Score: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

One of the biggest questions for me heading into Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” was how he would handle the undead title character. Would we see a harkening to the quiet evil of the 1922 version or something akin to Werner Herzog’s nuanced version in 1979? Having recently watched both in the past year, I realized as soon as Nosferatu was spotted that Eggers had done his homework, adding a dash and splash from each into Bill Skarsard’s version of Count Orlok. Thankfully, that isn’t the only storytelling blend that Eggers attempts, along with some fresh takes in the story of the undead.

Unlike prior imaginings, the 2024 version opens on Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) who already senses Count Orlok’s impending arrival deep in her soul, and probably her pants. This sense of dread could also be because her darling Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) is to actually meet the cryptic Count Orlok for a real estate deal. Thomas’ story is retread as we watch him travel to Orlok’s castle and experience horrors beyond his imagination. But the film does something curious, it constantly cuts back to Ellen, as she slowly loses sense of reality and has nightmare after nightmare of Orlok. Although at a certain point, as I hinted at earlier, you could make that argument that the nightmares become wet dreams.

If you haven’t sensed by now, the biggest change in Eggers’ vision is just how horny this film is. The sexual tension has always been there, but it’s never been this overt. The film notes that Nosferatu not only has a thirst for blood, but innocent virginal nude blood, although I doubt he’s too picky when he’s hankering for a midnight snack. The film also serves us a reminder that women weren’t generally believed, on anything, for centuries. Ellen’s treated with whichever weird medicinal practices of the time and when Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe) shows up he, he actually believes Ellen, but tends to view her as a pawn in his chess battle with Count Orlok.

The film follows the originally closely enough that if you aren’t paying attention, you wouldn’t notice the subtle, yet profound differences in how the story unfolds. Fans of the originals will surely spot and mark the changes. Obviously, based on the trailer and Eggers’ other films, we weren’t about to see a more colorful and visually vibrant vampire film like the 1979 film. However, he really takes a few pages out of the Herzog vision of plague arriving in Europe. While “Nosferatu” doubles down on the darkness and the haunting shadows of Germany and Transylvania, Eggers vision is filled with evil in every nook and cranny.

It’s hard not to heap copious amounts of praise on Eggers, who has solidified himself as a modern voice in horror. While being quite longer than its predecessors, Eggers makes use of every frame, finding ways to crawl under our skin, suffocating us in Gothic horror imagery. The biggest weakness, which isn’t necessarily a flaw in the film, but is just enough for me to mention it as a reason this isn’t rated higher, is that the acting doesn’t leap off the screen as much as Count Orlok’s claw-like fingers. That’s not a huge knock against the film because so much of the film is told through visuals.

“Nosferatu” is surely going to be talked about for years, but in a year with lots of fantastic horror, it simply has to take a spot on the 2024 Mount Rushmore of horror films instead of standing tall like a monument to scary cinema. However, “Nosferatu” is Eggers best film, so far, as he takes the best components of his prior films, like “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse,” to craft a menacing film that Bram Stoker himself would surely be inspired by.

Special Features:

• EXTENDED AND THEATRICAL CUTS OF THE FILM
• NOSFERATU: A MODERN MASTERPIECE – A look behind-the-scenes
• BREATHING LIFE INTO A DREAM – A talk with Robert Eggers about bringing his vision to the screen
• BECOMING COUNT ORLOK – A look at nailing Count Orlok’s look in the film
• CAPTURING THE MOOD – A look at the Oscar-nominated cinematography of the film
• RECREATING 1838 – A look at how the film captures the look of 1838.
• DRESSING THE PART – A look at the film’s wardrobe
• THE END IS JUST THE BEGINNING – A look at the film’s visual effects
• DELETED SCENES
• FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH WRITER/DIRECTOR ROBERT EGGERS

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)