Churchill Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery, James Purefoy, Julian Wadham
• Director: Jonathan Teplitzky
• Disc Format: AC-3, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region A/1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• Release Date: October 3, 2017
• Run Time: 105 minutes

        Churchill is clearly a performance piece, to the point that we get little in the narrative to focus on other than the emotional bellowing of the title character played by Brian Cox. And Cox is certainly up for the task, gaining weight to take on Winston Churchill’s silhouette along with the adoption of his mannerisms and speech patterns. As dedicated as Cox and the other cast members are to their roles, it is a shame that the film ends up feeling like little more than a showcase for acting, especially considering how easily the second Churchill biopic of the year (The Darkest Hour) is likely to overshadow this one.

Kick-Ass 4K Ultra HD Review

• Actors: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicolas Cage
• Director: Matthew Vaughn
• Disc Format: 4K, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R
• Studio: LIONSGATE
• Release Date: October 3, 2017
• Run Time: 117 minutes

         Before Matthew Vaughn began to parody the spy films with the Kingsman franchise, he took aim at the superheroes fairly early on with Kick-Ass, a film that proved a hard R-rating could be lucrative in the genre long before Deadpool or Logan. Based on the comic book by Mark Miller and John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass is a superhero film for all of the geeks who have spent their youth reading comic books and wishing that they could change their nerdy ways to become a hero and win the girl. It is the ultimate wish-fulfillment film, directed at the very audience that made the genre a success in the first place. At the same time, it is a tongue-in-cheek loving parody of the genre itself, constantly referencing classic comic book superheroes and their film adaptations.

It Stains the Sands Red Blu-ray Review

• Film Format: Subtitled
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Not Rated
• Studio: Mpi Home Video
• Release Date: September 26, 2017
• Run Time: 92 minutes

         The most impressive thing about It Stains the Sands Red is the cleverness of a screenplay that has a premise involving a zombie apocalypse without needing the budget to depict it. With a majority of the film taking place in the secluded deserts of Nevada and only involving a single zombie, the production values have been pared down. Unfortunately, this cost-effective production decision is the only thing intelligent about It Stains the Sands Red, a film with a protagonist who repeatedly makes frustratingly dumb decisions.

This is Us: The Complete First Season DVD Review

• Disc Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: Spanish
• Region: Region 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: September 12, 2017

         The pilot for “This is Us” is something of a miracle, because it isn’t until the very end of it that the premise for the show is revealed. In all early marketing for the series, it was unclear how all of the characters are connected, and the pilot doesn’t reveal that they are all family members until the final moments. The impact of this is even greater when it is revealed that some of the story takes place in a different time period, while remaining tied to the same family. This brilliant revelation makes the pilot for “This is Us” one of the most impressive hours I have seen on television, but it also sets up the rest of the season for failure, as it can’t be matched in the same way.

L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties DVD Review

• Actors: Bingbing Fan, Kris Wu, Yun Lin, Mi Yang, Amber Kuo
• Director: Gui Jingming
• Disc Format: Animated, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Dubbed: English
• Region: Region 1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Not Rated
• Studio: LIONSGATE
• DVD Release Date: September 26, 2017
• Run Time: 93 minutes

         It is difficult to review a film when you have trouble understanding what it is about, and even the title of L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties has me scratching my head. Part of the difficulty comes from the fact that the film is based on a book series, which the filmmaker seems to assume his audience is already familiar with. For this fanbase, the convoluted animated fantasy world of the film may be easier to grasp, but everyone else is likely to get lost in the various storylines and ensemble cast of generic CGI characters. By the end of the film, I was no clearer on the point of the narrative, but simply embracing the mild spectacle of endless fight scenes.

A Ghost Story Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, McColm Cephas Jr., Kenneisha Thompson
• Director: David Lowery
• Format: AC-3, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region A/1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R
• Studio: LIONSGATE
• Release Date: October 3, 2017
• Run Time: 92 minutes

         There are moments within A Ghost Story of such raw emotional clarity, it is a shame so much of the film is detached from sincerity by the pretentiousness of its filmmaker. As was also the case with Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, David Lowery is a filmmaker of immense talent that often gets in the way of his own stories. As a result, A Ghost Story is a beautiful film that works so hard at proving its artistic worth that it ends up undermining the emotions that are begging to take focus, especially with the dedicated performances by the cast. Although never nearly as clever as it seems to think it is, Lowery’s film still has enough moments of relatable introspection about one of life’s deepest questions to forgive the ostentatious approach.