US Blu-ray and DVD Releases: Mortal Kombat, Spiral, Wrath of Man, The Dead Zone, Snatch, Deep Cover, Shameless, Pennyworth and more

Copyright: © 2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Photo Credit: Courtesy New Line Cinema & Warner Bros. Pictures
Caption: (L-r) LUDI LIN as Liu Kang and MAX HUANG as Kung Lao in New Line Cinema’s action adventure “Mortal Kombat,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

It’s a pretty big week, with a number of high-profile titles hitting shelves this week. I think there’s a little something for everyone this week, including a magical kangaroo movie!

Note for regular readers: I’m going on vacation and so I’m reviewing all the titles I have in hand before I go, so any that aren’t actually out this week are denoted as such by their release date after their name. There will be no columns for the weeks of July 27th or August 3rd, but I will be back the following week with any releases that have come out in that time along with the current week’s releases.

Mortal Kombat – I’ve always been a pretty big fan of the Mortal Kombat video games, although never the kind of person who delved really deeply into their characters and storylines. I liked the original cheesy ‘90s movies for what they were, and I definitely spent some hours as a younger man than I am today playing MK in arcades (if you remember those) and on my home console. So I was looking forward to Warner Brothers’ relaunch of the franchise when it debuted a few months ago, although my expectations were reasonably mild. And yet, somehow, I was still utterly disappointed. While certainly better than the previous films, the new Mortal Kombat is just missing something. It has a few good action and special effects sequences, but I never felt invested in any of them. The characters are completely bland and one note (except for Josh Lawson’s Kano, who’s a standout), the story seems more like a prequel than an actual main story, and it all just feels completely soulless. I know I shouldn’t necessarily look for those things in a movie based on a video game, but if I had cared even a little about what happened to any of these characters, the film would have been much better. Mortal Kombat comes to home video in the 4K Ultra HD format (as well as Blu-ray and DVD) and I will say that it looks and sounds excellent. Image clarity is razor sharp, shadow delineation is terrific, and the surround soundtrack is robust and active. I wish the film lived up to the excellent A/V presentation.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw – Don’t be fooled by the “From the book of Saw” subtitle to this movie. It’s pretty much exactly another Saw movie. Which is a shame. See, personally I was never a fan of what the Saw franchise became. After a terrific first movie, the series became just a downward spiral of movies about bigger and gorier deathtraps, with nothing interesting to them. I thought Spiral, as a spin-off with cast-against-type Chris Rock in the lead role and Samuel L. Jackson alongside him, was a chance to reboot the franchise. Instead, while the story takes place 12 years after the Saw killings, it basically picks up thematically as if Jigsaw never left. Only this time we get a maybe-copycat killer targeting police with his or her deathtraps, which gives the filmmakers carte blanche to return to the world of over-the-top gore and sadistic killing machines. I was hoping they would tone down the blood and guts and give us more of a mystery-thriller horror flick. But instead, it’s simply a gorefest. Chris Rock is good in the lead role as a police detective under fire and Max Minghella shines as his new partner, and the film is solid when people aren’t having their fingers ripped off or being mutilated by hot wax. I just don’t know why filmmakers keep thinking the general public wants movies this gory, when most people don’t really. Sigh. Spiral comes to home video on 4K Ultra HD (as well as Blu-ray and DVD), and while it doesn’t add much to the proceedings in the way of color saturation (it’s not a particularly colorful film), it does an excellent job with letting us see into the dark shadows and make out the onscreen action in even the darkest of scenes. The surround soundtrack doesn’t have a ton to work with, but it does a nice job of creating a surround soundfield. It’s a solid audiovisual presentation of a film that could easily have been much better.

Wrath of Man – Guy Ritchie’s movies can be hit or miss for me. I’m not a huge fan of some of his “geezer gangster” crime movies, but I do enjoy his occasional big-budget outing, like the Sherlock Holmes films. Of course, you add Jason Statham to the mix and I’m in, because I NEVER miss a Stath film. Their latest collaboration is Wrath of Man, a violent new heist/revenge thriller. Statham plays a rookie armored truck security man in a company that’s been hit by armed robbers, leading to a couple of guards being killed. But we soon figure out that he’s not just a regular guy, and he has reasons for being there. What those reasons are slowly unfold as the film jumps back and forth in time, and that’s part of what makes it so intriguing. Let me say this plainly: I absolutely loved Wrath of Man. The action sequences are visceral and exciting, the story is interesting, the editing and cinematography are terrific, and the whole thing feels like the kind of action movie you don’t see nearly enough of these days. Statham is in ultimate bad-ass mode (although he’s gun-toting Stath, not karate-action Stath), and the supporting cast (including an electrifying Josh Hartnett, of all people) is fantastic. This film didn’t make a huge splash at the box office, but it is absolutely worth giving a watch ASAP. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Star Trek Discovery: Season Three – I wasn’t a fan of Star Trek: Discovery in the beginning, but I have since become a huge fan of the show. Season Two was terrific and Season Three just continues that trend. After the events of Season 2 (minor spoiler ahead) the show jumps 900+ years into the future, which gives the show a whole new vibe. We get a new character, Book, who’s absolutely terrific, all-new technology, and we see a bigger spotlight on the top-notch supporting cast members like Lieutenant Detmer, Lieutenant Owosekun, and Commander Nhan, which is terrific. The season focuses on a central mystery, much like it did in the previous seasons, while also exploring this new century the crew finds themselves in, and I found the entire thing exciting and captivating, just like I want my Star Trek to be. This new collection features all 13 episodes of Season Three plus a nice collection of extra features, so whether you’ve been watching the show on Paramount+ (or Netflix in Europe) or not, it’s worth picking up. RECOMMENDED!

The Dead Zone: Collector’s Edition (July 27) – One of the earlier Stephen King adaptations to hit the big screen, The Dead Zone is a terrific thriller about a man who falls into a coma, only to wake years later with the power of precognition. When he touches people he can see things about them, often their future. When he meets a presidential candidate… well, let’s just say that’s when things get interesting. I know this movie is 40 years old, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you if you haven’t seen it yet. For years, Stephen King adaptations were considered second-rate films (and fairly so, because so many of them were bad), but The Dead Zone always seemed to be unfairly lumped in with that summation. Christopher Walken is terrific in the lead role, and Martin Sheen shines as presidential hopeful Stillson. The film is taut and fascinating, and Scream Factory’s new Collector’s Edition does it justice, with a collection of new extra features, a new transfer, and shiny new cover artwork. A terrific release that comes RECOMMENDED!

Snatch (4K Ultra HD) – Guy Ritchie shows up again on this week’s list with the 4K Ultra HD debut of his well-loved 2000 crime-caper-comedy Snatch. With an all-star cast including Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Benicio del Toro, Dennis Farina, and Lennie James, the film is a hyper-stylized ensemble piece about a bunch of various criminal-types all getting caught up in the chance to snatch a massive diamond away from other people who have it. It starts out with multiple disparate stories (such as a boxing promoter trying to buy a new caravan/camper) and eventually all the various characters cross paths thanks to this 86-carat diamond. The film is fast-paced, edited to within an inch of it’s life, and occasionally over-the-top, but it’s also a lot of fun. I’m not as reverential of the film as some people I know are, but it’s an awfully enjoyable romp. The film debuts on 4K Ultra HD this week, and while it does offer up some nice upgrades, it’s still two decades old. The biggest improvement is the color saturation; the film always looked like a gray, rainy London day to me, and now it has a little more life and pop to it. The surround soundtrack isn’t vastly different, but it does the best it can with what is largely a dialogue driven movie. The release does include a digital copy and some extra features, so if you’re a fan and want to add it to your collection, now is the time.

https://youtu.be/EEsIBYt6tpU

Shameless: The Eleventh and Final Season – Eleven seasons?!? I mean, I know Shameless has a very devoted following, but it floored me when I realized the show lasted eleven seasons. William H. Macy’s hit Showtime series has finally come to an end, though, and this week it’s on DVD in the form of Shameless: The Eleventh and Final Season. I never became a die-hard fan of this show like some people are, but maybe that’s because I missed the first few seasons and had to jump in halfway. For me personally, the show just never quite hit the level of something like, say, Schitt’s Creek. Again, I might be missing something because I came into the show so late, so I’m sure fans of the show will be happy to have this final season in their collections.

Deep Cover – It’s fairly rare for the Criterion Collection to delve into what I consider mainstream movies, as their focus is — rightly so — usually on more arthouse or foreign fare. Which makes sense, because that’s sort of their raison d’être. But I do like when they give us more mainstream films, such as with this week’s release of Deep Cover. This 1992 crime thriller stars Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum, and is directed by actor Bill Duke, and Criterion has touted it as a pioneering film of black cinema from a decade that didn’t see a lot of gains in that area. The film follows a cop who goes undercover in a drug smuggling ring, and it’s a taut, tense film that benefits from a terrific performance by Fishburne, who largely carries the film on his shoulders. The film has been restored and remastered and includes a number of extra features, and I really enjoyed this trip into the mainstream.

Pennyworth: The Complete Second Season – With Gotham off the air, how do you make another Batman TV show without Batman in it? Well, you go back in time. Luckliy, the comic books have well established that Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred, was a British special forces soldier in his past, and that story is brought to the small screen with this premium channel show. Now in its second season, Pennyworth mines that and gives us the adventures of young Alfred Pennyworth, now out of the army and working as a “security consultant” who comes across Thomas Wayne (as yet unmarried and without children.) The show is set in the 1960s, and it has sort of a James-Bond-set-in-the-Batman-Universe feel to it. While it eschews costumes and gadgets for the most part, the villains are colorful and the solitary-soldier vibe are reminiscent of Batman in just the right way. This new set includes all 10 episodes of Season 2 and it’s a good watch. Fans of Batman and people who just want something James Bond-esque will probably both enjoy this rousing action show.