REAL MOVIE NEWS: 2021

Hell Hath No Fury Blu-ray Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Jesse V. Johnson
Actors ‏ : ‎ Nina Bergman, Daniel Bernhardt, Louis Mandylor, Timothy V. Murphy, Dominiquie Vandenberg
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 49 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ December 21, 2021
Studio ‏ : ‎ Well Go Usa
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

If your requirements for action entertainment go no further than the use of practical effects and stunt work, Hell Hath No Fury will satisfy that. If you demand interesting characters portrayed by capable actors delivering compelling dialogue, best look elsewhere. While there is a somewhat interesting set-up for this clear Quentin Tarantino rip-off, the execution is flawed. Beyond flawed, the narrative feels lazy, almost just as excuse for the mediocre action violence.

Copshop Blu-ray Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Joe Carnahan
Actors ‏ : ‎ Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, Alexis Louder
Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 48 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ December 7, 2021
Studio ‏ : ‎ Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2

For years director Joe Carnahan has been attached to a remake of Indonesian action film, The Raid. In press, he has been insistent that it is a loose remake, because he has no intention of making another film with a raid on a building, having already tackled that premise for Smokin’ Aces. What is confusing to me is why instead of remaking The Raid, Carnahan has made another film about a raid on a building, with a set-up similar to Assault on Precinct 13.

Motherly Review

Director: Craig David Wallace

Starring: Lora Burke, Tessa Kozma, Kristen MacCulloch

Genres: Suspense, Horror

Language: English

Home invasion narratives have been increasingly popular in the horror genre over the past two decades, especially with lower budget releases like Motherly. This is likely because of the affordability of a film with essentially a single location, and aside from a few flashback sequences, Motherly takes place entirely in an isolated farmhouse. While cost-effective, setting a film in one location places a lot of pressure on the screenplay and performances. Although far from the worst home invasion film (there are a lot of bad ones), Motherly has a script with a predictable twist and too much faith in the child acting central to the narrative.

Never Back Down: Revolt Blu-ray Review

Director: Kellie Madison
Actors ‏ : ‎ Olivia Popica, Michael Bisping, Brooke Johnston, James Faulkner
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray, Digital_copy, Subtitled
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 29 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 2021
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, English, Korean
Studio ‏ : ‎ Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

The Never Back Down franchise loosely connected its first two sequels by bringing back supporting characters from the original 2008 film, but Never Back Down: Revolt is a sequel in name only. Aside from the film involving an underground fight ring, there is no connection to the other installments in the franchise. Although the latest sequel feels as though it has been updated to consider the current cultural climate, having a female fight club at the center of the storyline is not enough to prevent the formula from feeling stale and predictable.

The Emperor’s Sword Blu-ray Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Yingli Zhang, Haonan Chen
Actors ‏ : ‎ Fengbin Mu, Yilin Hao, Qihang Zhao, Qin Chu Ming, Ruoyao Pan
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ China
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 33 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ November 9, 2021
Distributed by ‏ : ‎ Well Go USA
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Subtitled, Widescreen
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

The wuxia genre has devolved in recent years. While CGI has made it possible to bring more fantastical depictions of classic narratives to screen, this is a double-edged sword that often makes the film feel lifeless. Add to that the new tendency to include sophomoric humor and cute creatures for the younger audience members, and Chinese wuxia begins to look a lot like the Marvel franchise.

The Forever Purge Blu-ray Review

Actors ‏ : ‎ Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Cassidy Freeman, Leven Rambin, Josh Lucas
Director ‏ : ‎ Everardo Valerio Gout
Writers ‏ : ‎ James DeMonaco
Producers ‏ : ‎ Jason Blum, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller
Studio ‏ : ‎ Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Digital_copy
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 44 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ September 28, 2021

The subtlety of the Purge franchise ended with the decision to release an installment called The Purge: Election Year during an actual election year. Even set in an alternate/future America, there are clear parallels and commentary in each release of the horror film franchise, and The Forever Purge may be the most transparent of the series. With a conservative portion of the population deciding to refuse to follow the established rules of the system in a violent insurrection, it doesn’t take a genius to make the connection to the post-election Capital riots.

F9 4K Ultra HD Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Justin Lin
Media Format ‏ : ‎ 4K, NTSC
Run time ‏ : ‎ 2 hours and 30 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ September 21, 2021
Actors ‏ : ‎ Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, John Cena
Producers ‏ : ‎ Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel, Justin Lin, Jeffrey Kirschenbaum, Joe Roth
Studio ‏ : ‎ Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B097SFHT6W
Writers ‏ : ‎ Daniel Casey, Justin Lin
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2

What has made the Fast and Furious franchise thrive over the years is the ensemble cast of characters and the star power of the actors that played them. You could argue that it is also the over-the-top feats accomplished in cars, but I think F9 is evidence that the cast matters more. Even with the unlikely return of some forgotten characters from the past, it is glaringly apparent that several of the characters both original and added are missing from this installment. Obviously Paul Walker’s passing has left the presence of Brian off-camera, what really feels missing is Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Shaw (Jason Statham). The resulting film feels off-balance, like a recipe missing ingredients.

Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard Blu-ray Review

Actors ‏ : ‎ Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray, Digital_copy
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 39 minutes
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Release date ‏ : ‎ August 17, 2021
Audio Description: ‏ : ‎ English
Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ Spanish
Studio ‏ : ‎ Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2

I wasn’t a fan of The Hitman’s Bodyguard. The humor was crass, immature, and lazy, but at least there was some decent action. Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard has doubled down on all the things that didn’t work in the first film, including jokes best suited for an audience too immature to be admitted into the film without guardian, while simultaneously decreasing the amount and quality of the elements that did work. There is still a decent amount of action, but it often devolves to cartoonish unbelievability. The number of times Ryan Reynolds is run over by a vehicle alone in this movie warrants serious questions about the thought process of the filmmakers.

Little Q Blu-ray Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Law Wing Cheong
Actors ‏ : ‎ Simon Yam, Gigi Leung, Him Law, Charlie Yeung, Shanshan Yuan
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 47 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ August 17, 2021
Studio ‏ : ‎ Well Go Usa
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)

Being based on a true story often gives a film license to be a bit more melodramatic, and Little Q leans into this. On top of an untraditional structure that seems punctuated by dramatic life events, films involving dogs have endless potential for emotional moments. Following the life of a guide dog from beginning to end, there are more human characters and subplots than expected, not to mention all the anticipated canine moments. While there are some effective moments in the plot, they lack the same impact because of how often Little Q attempts to create an emotional response in the audience.

Midnight Diner Blu-ray Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Tony Leung Ka Fei
Actors ‏ : ‎ Tony Leung Ka Fei, Deng Chao, Eddie Peng, Vision Wei, Joyce Cheng
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎NR (Not Rated)
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 43 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ August 17, 2021
Studio ‏ : ‎ Well Go Usa

Midnight Diner opens with voiceover letting us know that there are midnight diners in many cities. Anyone familiar with the original manga series the film is based on should be aware of this fact, as there are versions of film and TV adaptations available in Japan, Korea, and China. This latest film adaptation takes place in Shanghai, though the premise remains much the same as it has in every adaptation of Yarō Abe’s internationally popular series. The narrative is highly adaptable because of the episodic structure. While the format allows includes a diner open from midnight to morning, the vignettes are made up in the variety of patrons.

Spiral 4K Ultra HD Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Darren Bousman
Actors ‏ : ‎ Chris Rock, Samuel Jackson, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, John Tokatlidis
Producers ‏ : ‎ Oren Koules, Mark Burg
Studio ‏ : ‎ Lionsgate Home Entertainment
MPAA rating ‏ R (Restricted)
Audio Description: ‏ : ‎ English
Media Format ‏ : ‎ 4K
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 33 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ July 20, 2021
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2

Spiral (or Spiral: From the Book of Saw, if you need the full title as indicator of what you are getting into) revives a franchise that distinctly belongs to a sub-genre of horror that has fallen out of favor in recent years. Torture porn had its heyday after 9/11, and the Saw franchise was at the forefront with a sequel nearly every year soon after the first film was a success. We were promised the end with Saw: The Final Chapter in 2010, but that turned out to be untrue when it was revived in 2017 with Jigsaw. Spiral takes the series in a new direction, indicated by a new title and higher caliber cast members than typically found. Unfortunately, beneath the fancy new marketing is just another Saw film, derivative and predictable even with a bit of social relevance added to the formula.

Hydra Blu-ray Review

Actors ‏ : ‎ Masanori Mimoto, Miu, Tasuku Nagase, Takaya Aoyagi, Takashi Nishina
Director ‏ : ‎ Kensuke Sonomura
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Dolby, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 17 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ July 20, 2021
MPAA rating ‏ : NR (Not Rated)
Studio ‏ : ‎ Well Go Usa
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with a genre film having a derivative plot. In some ways, we go to see genre movies because of their familiarity, and the ability to give us what we came for. Audiences don’t go to romantic comedies expecting to see the couple do anything other than fall in love by the end of the movie, and most watch martial arts movies with the understanding that there are storylines that get re-used time after time. This is because they work. Hydra leans heavily into a set-up which has been used countless times in action movies, especially ones with martial arts. But while there isn’t much new to the story, that simply makes the fighting elements of the film that much more important.

Silat Warrior: Deed of Death Blu-ray Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Areel Abu Bakar
Actors ‏ : ‎ Namron, Khoharullah Majid, Feiyna Tajudin, Fad Anuar, Taiyuddin Bakar
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, Surround Sound
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 41 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ July 6, 2021
Studio ‏ : ‎ Well Go Usa (Hi-Yah!)
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ Malaysia
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

In terms of seeing another international film industry find an audience outside of the country of origin, Silat Warrior is a minor success. Within the martial arts genre, we have seen this happen quite often in the past decade, most likely thanks to the success and international attention The Raid franchise brought to the Indonesian film industry. After Indonesia, we saw the first Vietnamese film distributed to the United States in Furie, so it should come as little surprise to find many familiar elements in the Malaysian martial arts movie Silat Warror: Deed of Death. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t quite have the same impact as those that came before, and we may have to wait to see Malaysian cinema truly take off in international markets.

The Paper Tigers Blu-ray Review

Director ‏ : ‎ Tran Quoc Bao
Actors ‏ : ‎ Ron Yuan, Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Alain Uy
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Dolby, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 48 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ June 22, 2021
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
Studio ‏ : ‎ Well Go Usa

Apparently there were offers to make this film with a studio budget, as long as the roles were worked for major stars (Bruce Willis and Nicholas Cage among those wanted), but the filmmakers chose to seek funding on Kickstarter rather than whitewash their script. While I respect this decision, it shows that there is no studio influence, in both good and bad ways. As noble as the decision was to keep minorities in the main roles, it doesn’t help with their amateurish acting and the script problems a studio likely would have worked out. The Paper Tigers is a highly watchable film, but also one that constantly asks you to look past flaws in filmmaking.

Undercover Punch and Gun Blu-ray Review

MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
Media Format : Subtitled
Release date : June 8, 2021
Actors : Andy On, Vanness Wu, Philip Ng
Studio : Well Go Usa

If the plot was taken seriously, Undercover Punch and Gun could easily be accused of derivative content. The sheer amount of undercover cop narratives in the history of Asian action has made this the case, and Undercover Punch and Gun throws us directly into this exact scenario. It is with variation in tone, and where the film goes with the predictable premise that promises some originality. First of all, despite an emphasis on martial arts action in the storyline, the tone is comedic enough to consider the parodic elements of the narrative. At least to some degree, the derivative elements feed into the humor in this regard.

Long Weekend DVD Review

MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
Director : Stephen Basilone
Media Format : Subtitled, NTSC
Run time : 1 hour and 31 minutes
Release date : May 25, 2021
Actors : Finn Wittrock, Zoë Chao, Casey Wilson, Jim Rash, Damon Wayans Jr.
Subtitles: : English, French, Spanish
Producers : Audrey Rosenberg, Sam Bisbee, Deanna Barillari, Laura Lewis, Theodora Dunlap
Studio : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

I had a really hard time with this film. It sets up a premise that is grounded in realism, and the painful twists and turns in the road of life. We are following a protagonist so painfully down-on-his luck, that it isn’t difficult to get pulled into the relatability of the situation. In some ways, it was too realistic for where I am in life right now, but I appreciated this dedication. That is, until the movie decides to throw away the realism in favor of a fantasy twist. The movie even makes a game out of keeping the reveal of whether the fantasy elements are real or simply mental illness until the very end. This is problematic, because regardless of which you are hoping for, the reveal makes entire elements/aspects of the narrative irrelevant.

Shit House Blu-ray Review

MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
Director : Cooper Raiff
Media Format : Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time : 1 hour and 41 minutes
Release date : May 18, 2021
Actors : Dylan Gelula, Cooper Raiff, Amy Landecker, Logan Miller
Studio : IFC Independent Film

For an accurate depiction of the irresponsibility of college life, in particular the propensity to bulldoze through handling of romantic relationships, you could do a lot worse than Shit House. If you are in the middle of your own romantic entanglements, this may not be the best choice for your mental/emotional state. While it is excusable as a realistic depiction of youth, the way in which some of the characters treat poorly is sometimes difficult to watch.

The Father Blu-ray Review

Director : Florian Zeller
Actors : Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell
Producers : Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt, Simon Friend, Philippe Carcassonne
Studio : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
Media Format : Subtitled
Run time : 1 hour and 37 minutes
Release date : May 18, 2021
Subtitles: : English

Most of the time I don’t enjoy being disoriented by the films that I watch. The Father was a unique experience, in that my disorientation felt crucial to the viewing experience. If the movie is simplistic in terms of story, that only allows for the focus to be on the presentation of the plot involving an aging man named Anthony (Anthony Hopkins). Even the choice to have the character named the same as the actor playing him simplifies things. We understand that the experience of aging is one that even a famous actor must face, and this film puts in the perspective of a person who is going through this.

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