New in Home Entertainment
January 20, 2015
Lucy
Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images and sexuality
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This unexpected box office hit from Fifth Element writer/director Luc Besson follows Scarlett Johansson as an unfortunate young woman who is accidentally given an overdose of a powerful drug which allows her to go from using 10% of her brain to 100%. As you’d expect from the visionary French director, the film is highly stylized and full of fun action. But also as expected, the film is full of scratch your head moments that could have been easily fixed had Besson just done some simple research or had a better advisory team. I don’t mind a filmmaker using a little creative license here and there, but there are way too many moments that have the ability to take you out of the film, which I personally find inexcusable. If you find yourself saying too many times, “that wouldn’t happen like that” or “why would she possibly do that?” then there is too much distraction to make this a solid piece of entertainment. C+
Annabelle
Rated R for intense sequences of disturbing violence and terror
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
One of the side stories of the wonderfully frightening 2013 horror film The Conjuring was that of a doll named Annabelle, which is based on a real doll, still located in the Warren’s home today. Here the story goes back to the early seventies where a young couple are haunted by a doll after a cultist bleeds her soul into her. While a bit hair raising at times, Annabelle remains largely unscary and unfortunately a bit dull. Unlike The Conjuring, the film lacks the authenticity it needs to make it a horrifying experience. Whereas a lot of these types of films just make poor decisions which lead to failure, the poor decision here is making the movie. I really don’t think there’s a story worth telling and that the whole project is a desperate attempt to capitalize on the success of its predecessor. D
The Boxtrolls
Rated PG for action, some peril and mild rude humor
Available on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D
This stop motion animated gem follows a group of trolls who wear boxes (thus the name) and the little boy they adopt when his life was in danger. It’s a nonsensical adventure set in a crazy universe, and it absolutely works. Sure it’s ugly to look at, but it’s a marvelous ugly that you can’t take your eyes off of. It might be a little much for the young kids, but for older children and adults it is terrific little fantasy. While it didn’t get much love at the box office, it did latch onto an Oscar nomination – something The Lego Movie could not accomplish. A-
Jimi: All is By My Side
Rated R for language including sexual references, sand some drug content
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
I’m not sure what exactly happened to the theatrical release of this biopic following the life of famed rocker Jimi Hendrix, but after watching this blu-ray, I was quite confused about the its lack of traction. So many biopics have been released throughout the last few years, and yet so many of them miss the boat. Not this one. Writer/Director John Ridley creates here a terrifically entertaining flick that really spells out what it must have been like to have been around Jimi in the early days of his career. It is thrilling, funny, touching and completely engaging. OutKast’s Andre Benjamin is amazing as the rock god and he should have gotten a lot more love for this role than he did. My only gripe is that the movie cuts off before Jimi heads to America to become the legend we know today. A
Rudderless
Rated R for language
Available on DVD
William H. Macy directs this Once-like musical about a man whose life is torn apart after a tragedy involving his son. Years after going off of the grid, he discovers a box of demo tapes his son made and attempts to get to know him better through his music. Overall, I really like the idea of the film. The music is really good, and the story is touching. The story could have been so much better though had it just been tweaked in a few areas. Also, while Billy Crudup and Anton Yelchin do a great job, Felicity Huffman phones it in and Selena Gomez’s character should have been cut entirely. B-