Department Q Trilogy DVD Review

• Actors: Nikolaj Lie Kaas,
  Fares Fares
• Directors:  Mikkel Nørgaard, Hans Petter Moland
• Disc Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Danish
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1
• Number of discs:3
• Rated:
  Unrated
• Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO
• DVD Release Date: December 20, 2016

        Are you a fan of the HBO series “True Detective,” the serial killer films of David Fincher (Seven, Zodiac, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), or the Swedish trilogy that the latter was based on? Stop whatever you are currently binging and seek out the Department Q films, immediately. It shouldn’t be that difficult, as each of the individual films have been available on Netflix for some time, and now the entire trilogy is available in a single affordable package.

Disorder DVD Review

• Actors: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger
• Director: Alice Winocour
• Disc Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1
• Rated:
  Unrated
• Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO
• Release Date: December 13, 2016
• Run Time: 98 minutes

        It could be seen as a flaw that Disorder bounces back and forth between a realism and typical action spectacle, but the innovation of the film is its ability to inspire doubt about which will dominate the narrative from one moment to the next. The protagonist is clearly suffering from PTSD, though it is a mistake to immediately dismiss all of his paranoia as completely unfounded. At the same time, despite the existence of very real dangers, this does not make the reaction to them normal by any means. Director Alice Winocour is very clearly addressing the idea that traumatic experiences have a dramatic effect on how the world is viewed, though it is unclear what message she is attempting to make about this phenomenon once the action takes over the narrative.

Sudden Fear Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett
• Director: David Miller
• Disc Format: Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Portuguese, English
• Region: Region A/1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
• Rated:
  Not Rated
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• Release Date: December 13, 2016
• Run Time: 110 minutes

        Film noir narratives rarely relied on sympathetic female protagonists, typically resigning them to either an innocent supporting character or a devious femme fatale. While there is a femme fatale in the 1952 noir, Sudden Fear, the main character is unusual enough just being a woman, but also has the added distinction of ending in a place of moral superiority. Star Joan Crawford had previously bent this male-driven movement of post-war cinema by blending the woman’s picture (now referred to as melodrama) and the film noir with the 1945 classic, Mildred Pierce.

Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Trace Adkins, Judd Nelson, Kim Coates
• Director: Terry Miles
• Disc Format: Anamorphic, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Rated:
  Unrated 
• Studio: Cinedigm
• Release Date: December 13, 2016
• Run Time: 90 minutes

        I’ve seen worse films than Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story, but that’s not saying much. Even the aspects of this film that aren’t terrible are still no better than a generic TV movie. And that is insulting to some TV movies, especially the western ones like “Lonesome Dove.” It is also fitting that I mention that highly acclaimed TV miniseries, because the Stagecoach director’s last western was Lonesome Dove Church, which I can only assume was attempting to cash in on the success of the previous success. Stagecoach makes similar references to better westerns of the past with its derivative title, distinguished only by the sub-title.

Southside with You Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Tika Sumpter, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Parker Sawyers
• Director: Richard Tanne
• Disc Format: NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1
• Rated:
  PG-13
• Studio: Lionsgate
• Release Date: December 13, 2016
• Run Time: 84 minutes

        In many ways, Southside with You is the opposite of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, despite sharing many similarities in narrative structure. And the differences have very little to do with race, nor is this the first of these single-date films to address the issues of black Americans. The first film of Moonlight director Barry Jenkins was Medicine for Melancholy, which follows a pair navigating San Francisco together the day after having a one-night-stand. But whereas Before Sunrise and Medicine for Melancholy are films about two characters crossing paths as they head in different directions, Southside with You follows two characters that often resist a future together despite our knowledge of their inevitable union.

Harley and the Davidsons Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Michiel Huisman, Bug Hall, Robert Aramayo, Annie Read, Essa O'Shea
• Directors: Ciarán Donnelly, Stephen Kay
• Disc Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1
• Number of discs: 4
• Studio: Lionsgate
• Release Date: December 13, 2016
• Run Time: 246 minutes

        Discovery Channel’s “Harley and the Davidsons” seems setup to be another one of those hybrid documentaries, which use recreation footage on top of narration to provide accurate history of events. And the filmed sequences certainly do resemble recreation footage, but the documentary elements are completely absent, leaving the audience with all of the stiff acting and contrived dialogue, but none of the historical background. Fans of Harley Davidson motorcycles may enjoy the material, simply because they enjoy the subject matter, but there is far too little of interest for the average viewer.

Morgan Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Kate Mara, Toby Jones, Michael Yare
• Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Surround)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1
• Rated:
  R 
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• Release Date: December 13, 2016
• Run Time: 92 minutes

        If you remove the ideas of misogyny from the narrative of Ex Machina and replace it with hard-hitting action sequences, you would have Morgan. Little about the screenplay is original, but something about allowing two women to head up a majority of battles (both verbal and hand-to-hand) still feels innovative. Even if the screenplay itself is not nearly as intelligent as the initial setup seems to imply, and despite being able to predict the final twist less than halfway through the movie, I remained engaged with the performers and the world that they created until the last frame.

End of a Gun Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Steven Seagal, Florin Piersic Jr., Jacob Grodnik, Jonathan Rosenthal, Radu Andrei Micu
• Director: Keoni Waxman
• Disc Format: NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated:
  R
• Studio: Lionsgate
• Release Date: December 13, 2016
• Run Time: 93 minutes

        Do I really need to review End of a Gun? Can’t I just say that it is a Steven Seagal movie and leave it at that? Isn’t it enough to tell you that the film was shot on a shoestring budget in Romania, standing in for a narrative that takes place in Paris? Do audiences really need any information beyond the fact that this is directed by Keoni Waxman, whose last eight movies have all starred a barely conscious Seagal? Someone must wake him up at the end of these productions to remind him to cash his checks.

The Unspoken DVD Review

• Actors: Jodelle Ferland, Neal McDonough, Sunny Suljic
• Director: Sheldon Wilson
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Not Rated
• Studio: ANCHOR BAY
• DVD Release Date: December 6, 2016
• Run Time: 96 minutes

        It always makes me laugh when a film tries to promote itself by what other films the executive producer has worked on, as if the man overseeing the money has an artistic control over the end product. This is what The Unspoken has done with its marketing, as well as changing the film’s original title (from The Haunting of Briar House), plastering the names of films like Insidious and Paranormal Activity over the cover of the DVD because of their vaguest connection with this one. There may be some similar scares within this flavor of haunted house tale, but the script is an absolute disaster which cannot be recovered from.