April 18, 2017

New in Home Entertainment

April 18, 2017

Split
Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and behavior, violence and some language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) has been slowly building back up from a disastrous string of monumental misfires including The Happening, The Last Airbender and After Earth (I actually liked After Earth, but I seem to be quite alone there). But with 2015’s The Visit and now Split, he’s back, ready to throw you another huge twist. In this latest thriller, James McAvoy is a psycho with 23 distinct personalities, who are all ready to unleash the 24th on the world after kidnapping three teenage girls. While I wasn’t quite taken with the plot, I absolutely loved the performance of McAvoy and think that the film is worth watching just for that reason alone. One of the things I found annoying is that usually the twist is clued and it is fun to try to figure it out. In this case though the big finale comes out of almost nowhere, making the film that much less enjoyable since it was virtually impossible to figure it out beforehand. B-

The Handmaid’s Tale
Rated R for adult situations/language, nudity, violence
Rotten Tomatoes Score 29%
When this film, based on the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, came out in 1990, it was a very controversial project. In the story, women throughout the world have become sterile. Those blessed with fertility are sent to pseudo-pseudo convents to be indoctrinated and farmed out for rich male leaders to have babies in spite of their sterile wives. In this case, Robert Duvall brings on Natasha Richardson to give he and his wife, Faye Dunaway, a child. The story and the subject are both relevant and quite frightening. Unfortunately for this project, the script is a mess and not even close to being ambitious enough for the subject. So why is the film coming out now? My guess is that with the current political climate and the new Hulu series based on the same book, they thought it was time to put on blu-ray. Unfortunately, the film still needs to be cleaned up and polished, and it doesn’t appear as if it got a scrub here. And while this version of the work is mediocre at best, I’ve heard amazing things about the new Hulu show, which pops on April 26. C

A League of Their Own
Rated PG for adult situations/language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%
Celebrating its 25th Anniversary is this classic comedy about a group of women who join an all-female baseball league while the men of the country are off fighting during WWII. Based on a true story, the film sports Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell as the dysfunctional team who must get their act together to succeed. When it first hit theaters, it felt like a fresh comedy. Now it feels like a period piece, although a good one. And while it has been overplayed, Hanks’s diatribe on crying in baseball is still one of the most iconic lines in movie history, giving the film, or at least the moment, a great relevance even today. B-