New in Home Entertainment
January 17, 2016
The Girl on the Train
Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and nudity
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 43%
Based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins, this thriller hit theaters full-steam with great anticipation only to be met with a head-on collision by a disappointing box office. The story follows Emily Blunt as a young woman whose commute has her fixated on the life of a beautiful girl in a neighborhood she passes every day. Of course there is a lot of darkness in her own past that intertwines when she blacks out one night. The film has potential to be a fairly decent mystery but with the script written for the sake of the twist, the story feels mundane rather than innovative. It tries so hard to be Gone Girl but when the fuse burns up, we end up with a dud rather than fireworks. Sorry – I didn’t want to rack my brain for another more fitting train metaphor. C-
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, action/violence and brief strong language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 19%
Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher are your average boring couple who are thrust into international espionage when spies Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot move into the house next door. I’m not sure if there is potential for success anywhere near this project, but its execution failed miserably as the movie lacks the comedy and adventure it promises. I love the casting of the four leads, but the missing elements (including script, directing and chemistry) bring the film to Razzie depths. D
Zero Days
Rated PG-13 for some strong language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%
If you want an in-depth, and I mean really in-depth, look at cyber warfare, check out this newest doc from Alex Gibney, the Academy Award winning filmmaker behind Taxi to the Dark Side and Going Clear. In this rather frightening film, Gibney shows his prediction of how the next World War will be fought with the real-life examples of the US and Israel meddling with the Iranian nuclear program as well as a whistle-blower describing the devastating effects cyber attacks can (and very well could) possess in the future. If you think this type of warfare ends with hacking an election, this film will give you a sobering look at the reality we don’t really understand yet. A-