What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – November 12th, 2024 – Trap, The Crow, It Ends With Us, Godzilla, Drag Me To Hell and more

Trap

We’ve got movies We’ve got music! We’ve got comics! This week’s column is jam packed with awesomeness! If you’re looking for thrillers, dramas, cult classics, or genre offerings, this week is filled with choices for you. Plus we review an awesome soundtrack and one of the best graphic novels of the year! What are you waiting for? Get reading!

In This Week’s Column:

– Trap (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
– The Crow (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
– It Ends With Us (Blu-ray)
– Godzilla: Criterion Collection (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
– Drag Me To Hell (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
– You Gotta Believe (Blu-ray)
– Twisters Soundtrack (2-LP Vinyl Record)
– Big Jim and the White Boy (Graphic Novel)
– Afraid (Blu-ray)

Trap (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)

The Movie: M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, Trap, stars Josh Hartnett as Cooper, a loving, doting father of 12-year-old Riley who scores her tickets to the Lady Raven concert, which is somewhat akin to Beyonce coming to town. The wrinkle? Cooper is a serial killer known as The Butcher, and once he’s in the concert, he discovers that there are hundreds of police officers in the facility who are there to trap him. He then has to find a way to escape while not revealing to his daughter the truth of who he is.

It’s an interesting concept for a film. On the one hand, I like the set-up and the “lone man against overwhelming forces” genre is a favorite of mine. On the other hand, it’s really hard not to question the reality of the police’s plan here. They’re just going to – what? – question several thousand men at a concert? They have such little information on the killer that they’re working almost blind, and I spent a lot of the first hour of the film just questioning what the plan was. I did find the final act of the movie more effective, and overall – like so many Shyamalan movies lately – I found it to be mildly entertaining but plagued with issues.

I should also note Josh Hartnett’s performance. In recent years, I’ve repeatedly written about how great of an actor Hartnett has become; he’s really been fantastic in movies like Wrath of Man and the like. Here, he plays a calculating killer with mental issues pushed to the edge, and I really can’t decide what I think about his performance. There are some scenes where he’s uber intense and scary yet outwardly friendly, which are great. But there are some scenes, especially ones where Shyamalan holds long close-ups on Hartnett in an attempt to show him unraveling, that feel a little uneven. He’s far from the main issue with the film, but there were a few parts where I wasn’t sure I loved him in the role.

The 4K Video/Audio: Trap comes to home video on 4K Ultra HD (as well as on Blu-ray and DVD), and the studio has done a bang-up job with the A/V quality, giving us excellent color saturation and crystal clear imagery as well as an outstanding surround soundtrack that doesn’t miss a beat of a single song. While Trap isn’t a musical, there are a lot of numbers performed by Lady Raven, so that concert atmosphere is paramount. A lot of times, in a musical movie, that can come at the expense of surround effects, but this is a nice, immersive soundfield that also gives us lush music and clear dialogue. A terrific effort overall.

The Bonus Features:

• Setting the Trap: A New M. Night Shayamalan Experience
• Saleka as Lady Raven
• Deleted Scenes
• Extended Concert Scene: Where Did She Go

Digital Copy Included: Yes

The Wrap-Up: Trap is an entertaining enough thriller that will leave you spending too much time analyzing the plot holes and not enough time caught up in the drama. It had a great trailer and the premise is intriguing – and ultimately it’s fun enough to make it worth watching – but it’s not a complete slam dunk.

The Crow (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)

The Movie: Some longtime readers may know that I’m a massive fan of The Crow, the 1994 action film and cult classic starring Brandon Lee. I’ve written about it many times and it ranks in my Top 25 movies of all time. Back in May of this year, I went to see a 30^th Anniversary screening of the original film in theaters, and before the movie, they played the trailer for the new version of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgard and FKA Twigs. And I hated it. I though it was a truly awful trailer. Not because I was comparing it to the original, I just well and truly thought it looked like a BAD film. And then when the film was finally released in theaters a few months ago, people on social media absolutely savaged it, decrying it as one of the worst movies of the decade.

And what do you know, but I actually kind of liked it. Look, it’s not even close to the Brandon Lee/Alex Proyas film and it definitely has some problems, but I didn’t hate it at all and it’s certainly not as bad as people are making it out to be. The story is still very loosely based on James O’Barr’s concept of The Crow graphic novel, but the story details and characters have changed completely. In this film, Eric and Shelly meet in rehab, Shelly there because she’s on the run from vaguely defined evil forces (we learn more about them later in the movie.) They fall in love but eventually those evil forces catch up with them and kill Eric and Shelly. Eric returns to life to get vengeance on a businessman named Roeg (who is more than he seems) and his henchman.

It’s hard to describe what I liked and didn’t like about the film. There’s some weird supernatural stuff that feels a little out of place, which is a funny thing to say seeing as how there’s no denying that The Crow lives in the realm of the supernatural. The action scenes are pretty good, if occasionally a little goreier than they need to be, and while Bill Skarsgard’s haircut could become a form of birth control (it’s really bad), his performance in the lead role is solid. But what the film lacks is that magic and style and charisma that the original had. It’s just not… special. It’s an entertaining enough watch, but it seems that capturing lightning in a bottle twice really is impossible.

The 4K Video/Audio: The Crow looks and sounds quite good on 4K Ultra HD. The color saturation is quite vibrant when it needs to be (although large parts of the film focus largely on blacks and grays as the color palette). Image clarity is razor sharp, and shadow delineation is very strong, so there’s little to complain about. The surround soundtrack has constant activity to work with, and it does a great job of giving your speakers a full workout.

The Bonus Features:

• True Love Never Dies: Making The Crow (1 Hour, 5 Minutes)
• Dark Romance: The Score
• Reborn Through Revenge: Main Title Sequence
• Every Film is a Miracle: A Tribute to Edward R. Pressman
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailer

Digital Copy Included: Yes

The Wrap-Up: Look, I’m not saying The Crow is a masterpiece or that you will absolutely love it. What I am saying, though, is that you should make your own decision about it. It’s not nearly as bad as people made it out to be, and you might like it a lot more than others, or even more than you expect to. I certainly did.

It Ends With Us (Blu-ray)

The Movie: When It Ends With Us came out in theaters, some of my (male) movie critic friends predicted that it might have a $20 million opening or something in that neighborhood. I, on the other hand, as a guy who is married (and also works with a lot of women) and has seen how much Colleen Hoover has dominated the pop culture conversation for the past year or so, knew better, and I predicted it would hit at least $50 million on opening weekend. And look at that: it debuted to exactly $50 million on its opening weekend on its way to a $150 million domestic and $350 million worldwide gross. Not too shabby.

The film is the first adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel and in it, Blake Lively plays Lily Bloom, a young woman with a traumatic childhood who is trying to make her own way. She falls in with a man named Ryle, a brilliant neurosurgeon who’s also a walking red flag. When her first love, the improbably named Atlas Corrigan, re-enters her life, she must reevaluate her choices and find her true strength.

It Ends With Us is not unlike a typical Nicholas Sparks movie, with a mix of romance and drama as well as some suspense, and it works quite well for what it is. Blake Lively is outstanding – as usual – and supporting actors Justin Baldoni and Brandon Sklenar are well suited for their roles. It’s an easy watch that won’t kick you in the face with its unpredictability, but it also isn’t so predictable it’s boring or tired, either.

The Bonus Features: I’m a little confused here. Sony has a bona fide hit on their hands, and there are NO extra features? No making of, no book-to-film comparison, no interview with Colleen Hoover or Blake Lively? What a missed opportunity.

Digital Copy Included: Yes

The Wrap-Up: With It Ends With Us a bona fide hit, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of Colleen Hoover’s catalog comes to a big screen near you; in fact, I’m sure there are several adaptations of her books in the works right now. Frankly, I’m okay with it if they’re all at least as good as this.

Godzilla: Criterion Collection (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray) 

The Movie: I love the Criterion Collection and how much they emphasize important films, but I would be lying if I said that occasionally their movie selections weren’t a little too artsy for me here and there. But sometimes they lean towards the mainstream, and those are the titles that get me the most excited. And I couldn’t be more excited about this week’s release of Godzilla, the 1954 original, making it’s Criterion 4K Ultra HD debut (it has been available on Blu-ray through Criterion for quite a while.)

This year marks the 70^th anniversary of Godzilla, and so it’s fitting for Criterion to debut the film on 4K Ultra HD. The story of the movie seems a little silly to convey here: who doesn’t know what Godzilla is about or who he is at this point? But the movie was a reaction to post-war life and fears in Japan in the 1950s, and the idea of radiation creating a monster that threatens Japan is what film is all about; capturing humanity’s fears and desires and translating them to a fictional setting.

One of the things that makes the film stand out is its score. I was lucky enough to see a screening of Godzilla on the big screen last year, and I was blown away by just how good the music in the film really is. It underscores and highlights the drama while at the same time creating a recurring thematic motif that rivals anything John Williams has created. The film itself might be mired in the 1950s in terms of special effects and performances (there is a LOT of yelling in the movie), but it remains a powerful movie experience, and the score has a lot to do with that.

The 4K Video/Audio: This is one of those movies that clearly benefits from the 4K upgrade; image clarity is sharp and contrasts are natural and lifelike, while the blacks are solid and the overall feel of the film is very clean. The print is nice and clean (which is huge for an older movie like this) and there’s a nice depth of field that makes the film feel very textured. The uncompressed monaural soundtrack is obviously somewhat limited, but the music and dialogue are well balanced in the mix and there’s nothing to complain about here. It’s a nice upgrade over previous home video versions.

The Bonus Features:

• High-definition digital restoration of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Terry Morse’s 1956 reworking of the original, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary for both movies by film historian David Kalat
• Interviews with actors Akira Takarada and Haruo Nakajima and special effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
• Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
• Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects, introduced by special effects director Koichi Kawakita and special effects photographer Motoyoshi Tomioka
• Interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato
• The Unluckiest Dragon, an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla
• Trailers
• PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman

Digital Copy Included: No

The Wrap-Up: Godzilla isn’t the best Godzilla movie ever made, but the world of pop culture and the art form of monster movies owes a huge debt to this original movie. This Criterion release is an outstanding home video edition and any Godzilla fan should add it to their collections without haste.

Drag Me To Hell (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)

The Movie: It’s been 15 years since Sam Raimi’s first post-Spider-Man movie came out, and this new Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD release from Scream Factory celebrates that anniversary in style. For fans of the movie, this is a top-notch addition to your collection.

Now, sadly, I am still not a fan of this movie. The first time I watched it, I really, truly did not enjoy it. I’ll give it credit for a great ending, but the last three minutes of the film can’t make up for the first 90 minutes. And it was a shame, because I felt like it could have been good, but Raimi was way too interested in making a Raimi-esque film, which mostly involves our heroine getting her mouth vomited in every five minutes. Seriously, I don’t think Raimi left a single bodily fluid on the cutting room floor, and every single one of them ended up all over poor Alison Lohman. Ugh.

Still, I thought I would revisit the film, since it’s been at least five years since I saw it last (there was a Blu-ray Collector’s Edition released in 2019.) While I wish I could say that my opinion has mellowed over time, I still don’t get the love this movie gets from fans. I guess if you like Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy (which I do, believe it or not) this movie fits into that aesthetic, but for some reason it just doesn’t work for me.

The 4K Video/Audio: Drag Me to Hell looks and sounds very good in the premium format. The color saturation is quite vibrant, image clarity is sharp, and shadow delineation is very strong, helpful in a film that features many dark moments. The surround soundtrack isn’t the most immersive ever, but it does a great job of maximizing what it has to work with and extending the sounds of mayhem into your living room.

The Bonus Features:

• Unrated and Theatrical Versions of the film
• NEW “Pardon My Curse: Making Drag Me To Hell” — Two-Hour Behind-The-Scenes Documentary Featuring New And Archival Interviews With Co-Writer/Producer Ivan Raimi, Actors Alison Lohman, and many more!
• “To Hell And Back” – Interview With Actress Alison Lohman
• “Curses” – Interview With Actress Lorna Raver
• “Hitting All The Right Notes” – Interview With Composer Christopher Young

Digital Copy Included: No

The Wrap-Up: I know that nothing I say here is going to influence you if you’re a fan, and frankly. I’m glad for that. Just because I don’t like this movie doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. And I’m glad that it’s such a high-quality release: if you love this movie, there’s a lot here for you to love. I just wish I understood it better.

You Gotta Believe (Blu-ray)

The Movie: Hey, it’s time for another inspiring sports story! Okay, okay, I say that in jest. I mean, yes, You Gotta Believe IS an inspiring sports story, but I actually love inspiring sports movies, so I’m not complaining.

Well… I’m not NOT complaining, either. You Gotta Believe is enjoyable enough, but it’s also got its fair share of flaws. The film sees Luke Wilson and Greg Kinnear as coaches of a terrible little league baseball team. When Bobby (Wilson) is diagnosed with brain cancer, Coach Jon (Kinnear) agrees to take a ragtag team to a qualifying game for the Little League World Series, something that means a lot to Bobby. The odds are stacked against them, but… well, let’s just say this movie is base don a true story, and they don’t make movies out of true stories where teams just lose in the first round.

You Gotta Believe stars Luke Wilson, Greg Kinnear and Molly parker, all very talented actors who are underserved by a script that doesn’t know what kind of movie it wants to be. Sometimes its silly and over the top, other times its mopey and sad, other times it’s cliché-ridden rah-rah-rah material. The tone is uneven, and the script isn’t good enough to overcome that, despite a likable and talented cast.

The Bonus Features:

• Little League Special Featurette – A 5-minute featurette
• Trailer

Digital Copy Included: Yes

The Wrap-Up: Families will enjoy You Gotta Believe, but there may be too much maudlin sadness for the people who just want to see a scrappy team overcome the odds. That said, there is a sweet core to the movie, so it’s not like it’s not worth watching.

Twisters Soundtrack (2-LP Vinyl Record)

The Album: Right up front, let me say that I am typically NOT a country music kind of guy. I like almost every kind of music, but I just don’t dig country music. So why am I about to give this album – which is largely country music – a rave review?

I don’t actually know the answer to that, other than to say that the music is good. Like, really good. Even as I was watching Twisters (I’ve seen it twice now), I remember thinking, “Man, this is a rocking song,” multiple times throughout the film. With a mix of big name country stars and some country-adjacent musicians, there’s no denying the album has its roots firmly in the country world. But I would also argue that many of the songs lean more to the country-rock or southern rock side of things, and I think that’s the difference for me, as I’m definitely a rock and roll guy.

Whatever the reason, I love this album. It’s been released as a 2LP Vinyl soundtrack in a gorgeous double gatefold sleeve, and it’s also available on CD. You get 29 tracks with big names like Jelly Roll, Benson Boone, Miranda Lambert, Luke Combs, and two different guys named Tanner. And while I definitely like some songs more than others, by and large this a great collection of music and one of the better soundtracks I’ve heard in a while.

The Track List:

1. Luke Combs – Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma

2. Miranda Lambert – Ain’t In Kansas Anymore

3. Conner Smith – Steal My Thunder (feat. Tucker Wetmore)

4. Thomas Rhett – Feelin’ Country

5. Warren Zeiders – The Cards I’ve Been Dealt

6. Megan Moroney – Never Left Me

7. Lainey Wilson – Out of Oklahoma

8. Bailey Zimmerman – Hell Or High Water

9. Jelly Roll – Dead End Road

10. Kane Brown – Country Classic

11. Sam Barber – Tear Us Apart

12. Tyler Childers – Song While You’re Away

13. Tucker Wetmore – Already Had It

14. Leon Bridges – Chrome Cowgirl

15. Benson Boone – Death Wish Love

16. Shania Twain & BRELAND – Boots Don’t

17. Dylan Gossett – Stronger Than A Storm

18. Lanie Gardner – Chasing The Wind

19. Jelly Roll – Leave The Light On (feat. Alexandra Kay)

20. Wyatt Flores & Jake Kohn – Before I Do

21. The Red Clay Strays – Caddo County

22. Tanner Usrey – Blackberry Wine

23. Tanner Adell – Too Easy

24. Mason Ramsey – Shake Shake (All Night Long)

25. Tyler Halverson – New Loop

26. Flatland Cavalry – Touchdown

27. Nolan Taylor – Driving You Home

28. Wilderado, Ken Pomeroy, & James McAlister – Wall of Death

29. Charley Crockett – (Ghost) Riders In The Sky

The Wrap-Up: Twisters was a fun movie and this collection of music is outstanding. Even if you’re not a fan of country music per se, there’s a lot to like here, and having it on a super cool 2LP vinyl release is a bonus.

Big Jim and the White Boy (Graphic Novel)

The Book: Once in a while, a graphic novel comes along that completely and utterly blows you away, and that book this year is Big Jim and the White Boy. Written by Eisner Award winner David F. Walker with art by Eisner winner Marcus Kwame Anderson, this hefty tome retells the story of Huckleberry Finn from Big Jim’s perspective; that is, the perspective of a slave. But rather than a straight up reworking of Huck Finn, Walker wisely crafts his story over three different time periods: the 1850s and 60s, the time of the original novel and thereafter; the 1930s, where we see Big Jim and Huckleberry Finn as old men telling their story to their grandchildren; and the 2000s, where Big Jim’s great-granddaughter is now an adult and lecturing on the realities of slavery and the world of Huckleberry Finn.

It works amazingly well. The story is at times action-packed, at times dramatic, often times funny, and never not interesting. It lays slavery bare and doesn’t sugarcoat it, and while the book is technically a work of fiction, there’s a lot of historical fact to be found in here as well. Marcus Kwame Anderson’s artwork is amazing as always; his style evokes a slightly more cartoonish feel, yet it conveys all the emotion and power that Walker’s story needs it to tell. Walker and Anderson teamed up for The Black Panther Party historical graphic novel as well, and it’s clear they are an impeccable team.

The Specs:

Pages: 288

Publisher: Ten Speed Graphic

MSRP: $35.00 (Hardcover) and $25.00 (paperback)

The Wrap-Up: Big Jim and the White Boy is a thick, chunky tome, and honestly, the closer I got to the end, the sadder I got, because I didn’t want it to end. I’ve gotten my hands on the book in both hardcover and paperback, and I can say that while both are worthy, the hardcover is just a gorgeous book that feels… right when it’s in the palm of your hand. This one comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Afraid (Blu-ray)

The Movie: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, and David Dastmalchian star in this Blumhouse thriller that sadly doesn’t tread any new ground. In the film, Cho plays Curtis, a marketing exec who is required to bring a new AI assistant device called AIA home to try out with his family. Predictably, AIA starts not only learning about the family, but soon taking over their lives in more and more insidious ways. It’s familiar ground that we’ve seen in movies from the dawn of computers up through more recent fare such as M3GAN.

Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; plenty of derivative movies have still been enjoyable. But Afraid has been sitting on the shelf at Blumhouse for a couple of years, apparently, and that’s never a good sign. I wish I could say that Afraid breaks the trend and is actually a really terrific film, but instead it’s a bit too familiar and predictable. It’s not all bad, and Cho, Waterston, and Dastmalchian give it their all in terms of a performances. I just wish the film had found ways to be more interesting than some of the stuff it tries to shoehorn in towards the end, which, frankly, makes things a little confusing in places.

The Bonus Features:

• Five Deleted & Extended Scenes (including an alternate ending)
• The Dark Side of AI Featurette

Digital Copy Included: Yes

The Wrap-Up: To be fair, Afraid is a pretty brisk moving film that’s at least mildly entertaining to watch. It’s biggest sin is that it’s not memorable, and frankly, there are much worse movies out there than this. I wouldn’t rush out to track it down, but it might be worth a watch when you’re bored and just looking for something relatively mindless o throw on.