US Blu-ray and DVD Releases: A Quiet Place Part II, Luca, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Wraith, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Mommie Dearest and more

• Initiation – I love slasher movies, but unfortunately the horror genre seems to have largely moved away from them. Which, to be fair, isn’t the end of the world, because there are so many bad ones out there. Luckily, Initiation isn’t one of the bad ones, even if it’s not a masterpiece. The film sees a college athlete get murdered, which leads to a string of social media-related killings. What I like is that the film adopts a classic slasher formula but also updates it to give it a modern flair by making social media a major part of the plot, ensuring that it feels fresh at the same time. There are some flaws with the film, including a few plot threads that don’t really get resolved to a satisfactory conclusion. But by and large, Initiation is a fun slasher flick that will keep you guessing through most of its running time. Worth a look.
• No Man’s Land – Frank Grillo and And MacDowell bring star power to this new action/drama film, but it’s a family affair that drives it, with star and co-writer Jake Allyn and director Connor Allyn (Jake’s brother) the main thrust behind the film. The film follow’s Allyn’s Jackson Greer, a young man who lives on a ranch on the Texas-Mexico border who has a potential baseball career ahead of him. When he accidentally shoots an immigrant crossing the border, Jackson flees into Mexico. Now, this is where the film falters a bit. What could have been a tense suspense thriller veers too often into soul-searching territory, slowing things down. I appreciate the attempt to make the main character more than a one-note guy, but it takes away from the energy of the film. Overall, it’s a solid movie and I think some people will like it, but it could have been a much better film with a little more focus.
• The Night – This new horror film is noteworthy for being the first American-made film ever allowed to screen in Iran, largely due to the fact that it was made almost entirely by Iranian American filmmakers and actors. But what makes it more noteworthy is that it’s actually a good film. A dreamy, unnerving film, this isn’t one of those stories that lays everything out for you and gives you easy answers, and generally, I’m not a huge fan of that approach. But first-time director Kourosh Ahari has a sure hand and knows how to squeeze tension out of the most seemingly mundane of set-ups. It’s an impressive feat, and it makes the film feel different from others of its ilk. There are some flaws, and the inherent nebulousness of the events goes against what I personally tend to enjoy, but it’s hard to deny what a striking debut film this is.
• V.C. Andrews’ Landry Family – The late author V.C. Andrews will always be best known for her Flowers in the Attic series, and in fact, at this point more novels have been written under the V.C. Andrews name (by author Andrew Neiderman, hand-picked by Andrews’ estate to succeed her) than she ever wrote herself. One of those series follows the Landry family, and that family is the subject f this new release from Lionsgate. V.C. Andrews’ Landry Family is a new DVD set that includes four movies based on the novel series: Ruby, Pearl in the Mist, All That Glitters, and Hidden Jewel. These Lifetime channel movies feature mostly lesser known actors such as starring Raechelle Banno, Karina Banno, Lauralee Bell, and Ty Wood, although Naomi Judd and Gil Bellows add a little star power. The films focus on a family in the Louisiana bayou whose past is filled with secrets, and the young scion Ruby who starts to dig into them. It’s right up Andrews’ alley, and fans of her brand of southern gothic drama will enjoy these films. Plus, the fact that you get all four for the price of a single DVD is hard to argue with.
• Fire – This new forest fire disaster film comes from Russia, meaning you get a Russian cast and subtitles, but that doesn’t make it less worth watching. Now, to be fair, Fire (originally titled No Escapes in Russia), isn’t a great film. It’s too long by a good 20 minutes, it’s a little bit over the top, and there are some moments that seem to defy logic and/or physics. But, with all those issues, it’s also a pretty good time. The fire effects and action scenes are really intense, and you’ll definitely find your pulse racing more than a few times. It’s not good to overthink what you’re seeing on screen, but if you want a good adrenaline rush and don’t mind subtitles, Fire is worth a watch.
• Unforgotten: The Complete Fourth Season – The hit British mystery show from PBS returns. The central mystery this season is a particularly interesting one. When a decades-old corpse is uncovered that leads to four suspects who have ties to the police, Cassie and Sunny have to navigate tricky waters to find the killer. As usual, the show is quite intense but it’s also extremely effective. Starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar, the show is always good, even if it feels a bit like the type of mystery procedural that BBC TV can do in its sleep. Still, it makes for a good binge watch, and I found this season’s mystery particularly compelling.
• Professor T.: The Complete First Season – While I’m usually all-in on British crime dramas, their new effort Professor T (based on a German show of the same name) is a miss for me. Ben Miller plays Professor Tempest, a finicky, OCD-laden professor who gets called into help solve crimes, and while his performance is great (I’m sure he’s not like that in real life), I found his character way too unlikable to enjoy the show. Imagine Dr. House crossed with Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory but with all redeeming qualities stripped from him, and you get Professor T. Over the course of six episodes, you get a handful of interesting mysteries, but this just isn’t a show that I could get into.
• Equal Standard – Ice T is the only name actor in this new drama, even though he’s hardly in it. The film deals with the racial divide between cops and African-American people in the US, but it does so with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. We basically get characters that include white cops and black cops as well as a bunch of gang members, and we see racism in all its glory. And while I’m always a fan of shining a light on issues that crop up in today’s society, there’s just nothing here that offers up any real insight or a new approach to the issue. Instead it just gives us one cliched character after another and expects us to learn a lesson while watching nothing deep or meaningful. A largely wasted effort, in my opinion.
• Tailgate – This new Dutch horror film (called Bumperkleef in its native language) treads familiar ground, drawing inspiration heavily from films like Duel, The Hitcher, and Joy Ride, but adding in a family element. In the film, Hans is driving with his wife and daughters when he encounters Ed, a steely driver who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. When Hans angers Ed, it becomes a game of hunter/prey on the road. Like I said, there’s nothing terribly original here, but the film works regardless, giving us a chase that grows more and more tense with every passing scene. What helps it work is that while the killer is clearly a bad guy, Hans the family man doesn’t get a pass for his abhorrent behavior. Maybe there’s a lesson there that people could learn from.
• The New Deal For Artists (Remastered) – It’s hard to believe that there was a time when the US government actually paid artists to create art that captured American life, but as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Work Progress Administration did exactly that. Of course, as some of that art was not entirely uncritical of society, there came along people who sought to dismantle the effort and the artists. This 1976 film tells the story of the WPA and the artists involved, with interviews with a number of luminaries, including John Houseman, Studs Turkel, Howard Da Silva and Norman Lloyd, among others. It’s now been remastered for a new DVD release, and it’s a pretty interesting documentary about a part of American history I had no idea ever even existed.
• Mill Creek Spotlight – Mill Creek specializes in catalogue rereleases made available at a budget price, and this week they have three new Blu-ray releases, all comedies. First up is Two if By Sea, a mid-90s comedy starring Denis Leary and Sandra Bullock, with the actors playing a pair of thieves trying to sell a stolen painting. Of course, they bicker and things go wrong, and the results are largely predictable but not unenjoyable. I love Denis Leary and Sandra Bullock both, and while this film isn’t a masterpiece, it’s a fun-enough comedy that’s worth watching, especially at a low price. Falling into the same category (fun-enough but not great), we have Saving Silverman, a 2001 comedy (clearly made in the aftermath of American Pie’s success) starring Jason Biggs, Amanda Peet, Jack Black and Steve Zahn. The film sees Biggs’ pals Black and Zahn trying to stop him from marrying the wrong woman, and it’s not a particularly deep film. It’s directed by Dennis Dugan, who has made a career out of low-brow comedies (many starring Adam Sandler) and this one is nothing special, but it is an easy way to kill 90 minutes. Finally, we have Skin Deep, the notorious ‘80s comedy directed by Blake Edwards (the Pink Panther films) and starring the late John Ritter. The film is more known for it’s infamous glow-in-the-dark condom/lightsaber duel than anything else, and honestly, it’s not that great of a movie beyond that scene. Ritter is missed as a screen presence, but this film never did all that much for me, and revisiting it now hasn’t changed that opinion much.
• PBS Spotlight – Wrapping up the week, we have several new PBS documentary releases out this week, all of which have a scene and/or nature theme to them. First up is an incredibly powerful work, The Virus That Shook the World. This 90-minute feature-length episode of Frontline obviously looks at COVID-19, and while I know a lot of people are tired of dealing with it by now, this film paints a picture of the disease’s path through the world, starting with its early days and going up through it being a full-blown pandemic that kept most of us home for a year or more. It mixes in real footage from people all over the world, giving it a personal angle that is extremely powerful. It’s intense, moving, fact-based, and ultimately, extremely important viewing. High school and college science teachers, take note. Next up is Picture a Scientist, a feature-length Nova episode about the fight for gender-equality in science, a traditionally male-dominated field. This is another important viewing experience, especially as more and more female scientists are making breakthroughs that are changing our world. It will anger you at times, but it should leave you with a sense of hope for the future, too. Next up is Fighting for Fertility, a Nova episode focusing on the barriers people face when trying to conceive, and the science that helps people have babies when nature puts obstacles in their way. This is a pretty science-heavy doc, but it does have some interesting information in it. Shifting gears a bit, our last two PBS releases this week are more nature-based. First up is the excellent Sharks of Hawaii, an hour-long Nature episode. You don’t usually think of Hawaii when you think of sharks, but there are a number of species there, and through the use of remote cameras, we get to see some fascinating footage of sharks acting in ways we’ve never seen before. It’s very cool stuff and I enjoyed it immensely. Finally, we have Reef Rescue, another hour-long Nature episode about scientists’ plight to preserve the ever-important coral reefs of the world using techniques such as cross-breeding of coral species and transplanting different kinds of coral. I had no idea people were doing so much to preserve our reefs and I found it quite interesting to see what they are doing and how it’s (hopefully) helping our world.