On Guard/Five Day Lover Blu-ray Review

• Actors: On Guard: Daniel Auteuil, Fabrice Luchini, Vincent Perez, Marie Gillain, Philippe Noiret
• Director: Philippe de Broca
• Format: Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated:
  R
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• Release Date: August 9, 2016
• Run Time: 216 minutes

        This two-film Blu-ray set includes a pair of films that might never be viewed together if it weren’t for the director they share in common. The two films come from French filmmaker Philippe De Broca, though they are movies from different genres and separated by over 35 years. Five Day Lover is a romance drama from 1961, while On Guard is a swashbuckling action comedy from the late 1990s. It makes for a strange double feature, but these two films offer a sampling from the beginning and end of De Broca’s expansive career.

The Huntsman: Winter’s War 4K Ultra HD Review

• Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, Nick Frost, Sam Claflin
• Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
• Writers: Evan Spiliotopoulos, Craig Mazin
• Producer: Joe Roth
• Format: 4K
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), French (DTS 5.1), Spanish (DTS 5.1)
• Subtitles: French, Spanish, English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
• Release Date: August 23, 2016
• Digital Copy Expiration Date: May 2, 2018

        This was a film that was doomed to fail long before anyone had even seen it. First of all, you are dealing with characters that many consider sacred, and critics were already unkind to the adaptation of Snow White. You might think that the prequel/sequel/spin-off film, The Huntsman: Winter’s War would have a better chance going in an original direction, but instead it pillages a more recent animated Disney film. Add in the controversy over Charlize Theron’s pay being less than Chris Hemsworth, which was revealed by the now-infamous Sony email hacks, Stewart and director Rupert Sanders’ absence following rumors of an affair onset of the last film, and it all adds up to a recipe for failure.

The Tiger Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Choi Min-sik, Jung Man-sik, Kim Sang-ho
• Director: Park Hoon-jung
• Format: Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, THX, Widescreen
• Language: Korean
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region A/1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated:
  Unrated
• Studio: Well Go USA
• Release Date: August 9, 2016
• Run Time: 139 minutes

        The screenplay for The Tiger is like a delicate balancing act, made possible by the tradition of effective melodrama in South Korean cinema and by the carefully patient screenplay from Hoon-jung Park (I Saw the Devil, New World). The film’s basic premise requires the audience to sympathize for the non-human title character, while also respecting the inevitable decision of the human protagonist to hunt him. This may seem contradictory, but it never feels forced within a simple but layered screenplay which is effectively executed thanks to nuanced human performances and an impressively realistic CGI tiger.