As 2021 rolls into July, we’re offering up some of our recent DVD reviews from Paramount, Film Movement and MVD. Don’t worry, we’ll be returning to High Def offerings soon enough.
Rose Plays Julie streets on July 13th, 2021 from Film Movement
Rose Plays Julie is an Irish drama about the terrfying impact trauma has on our identities. Watching as Ann Skelly tries to find her birth mother is so uncomfortable. While the terrible secret the film builds to wasn’t that big of a shock to most, it plays true to the nature of the drama.
Aidan Gillen shows up for Game of Thrones fans. That’s not normally something I bring up, but I want to win casuals over to the Film Movement releases. The DVD comes with cast interviews and a bonus short film as the special features.
Incarnation arrives on from MVD
Incarnation is a fascinating indie film about a man who keeps waking up to assassins killing him. Playing with ideas that have been dominating cinema for the last 20 years, it’s rare to find a way to keep stories like this playing fresh. But, I enjoyed what I saw. There are no special features on disc.
Georgetown arrives from Paramount on June 22nd
Georgetown is a film that I first discovered after reading Armond White’s review. After taking a break from the last batch of Film Movement DVDs, I sought to check this one out. Loosely stepping a toe into the story of Albrecht Muth, Georgetown is still a work of fiction. However, there is a degree of truth into how Georgetown breaks down the mechanics of political manipulation into six levels of examination.
Christoph Waltz is a fascinating actor who I like seeing work outside of the safety of Tarantino. However, his first major American directing effort suffers from the issues that plague many creatives that dip into political drama on their first try. When it’s serious, it’s too serious. Then, when it’s supposed to be funny, it’s never funny enough.
While there is a lot of good at play, nothing ever gels into a satisfying manner.
John Wayne 14-Movie Collection is available on DVD from Paramount
While we have been rolling out individual movie reviews for the John Wayne 14-Movie Collection set, it’s time to talk about the set. Released a few weeks ago in May, it triggered all of those Grandpas to rush out to the stores and buy their new favorite Paramount DVD. It doesn’t matter that they still have 8 copies of Angel and the Badman at home to watch. They want to see the Duke in the home video format closest to what technology they feel comfortable with watching.
They’re going to be damn near senile and gone before they even entertain 4K UHD. That sucks for film fans, as I feel the vast majority of the titles included should have already been getting 4K bows by now. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, True Grit (1969) and The Shootist all could benefit from 4K masters. But, I don’t commit to understanding the plans of Paramount and any other studio. I just report on the happenings as they start to form.
The 14 disc set from Paramount contains all of the movies in their correct aspect ratio and the majority are sans special features. That’s because a lot of the bigger titles are just Disc 1 repackages from their older 2-Disc Collector Edition releases.
The Lovebirds is available on DVD this Summer 2021 from Paramount
The Lovebirds was supposed to be this Spring release that got dumped on Netflix by Paramount. At least, that’s the image that the average film fan was given. After watching the movie twice, I kinda get why Paramount handed off the initial exhibition. While I’m a fan of director Michael Showalter, the script is all over the place.
There’s a secret society framing the worst couple that ends up making them get back together? But, people are part of the society and not part of the society depending on convenience. The movie is rather short, but it feels like an extended pilot for a much bigger show.
You get both cuts of The Lovebirds, deleted scenes, gag reel and more as the special features. It’s just a shame that the movie has about two jokes that barely connect and then a whole lot of nothing.
Percy vs. Goliath arrives on June 29th from Paramount
Percy vs. Goliath is one of those compelling indie movies directed by the underrated Clark Johnson. But, the cast is amazing and everything is amazing about the film. Yet, it never blew up or got bigger in the last year or so. Some of that is to blame on COVID and the rest is that studios don’t really want to release adult movies on a mainstream level.
Paramount tries to rectify this with a DVD release, but after watching the movie…it stinks that this didn’t get a bigger release. Christopher Walken plays a Canadian farmer named Percy who fights against Monsanto in the late 90s. As Monsanto ruins his name, plays the law against him and generally attacks him…he holds his ground.
It’s an exciting look at under-reported history with Walken delivering his best performance in years. While Canada got it last year, I commend that everyone in America give it at least a watch. It’s pretty solid.
Defending Jacob moves from Apple TV to Paramount DVD on July 6th
Defending Jacob was one of the first truly great shows on Apple TV plus or whatever they call it. It’s pretty cool, but it was a limited series event. Now, all of the world is facing pending charges for their accounts when there’s not much else to watch on the service. That is unless you like to see Snoopy cartoons and things that weren’t good enough for Amazon Prime Video.
Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery and Jaeden Martell are all amazing in the leads. Their performances keep this novel adaptation from turning into something quite lesser. Honestly, this is the kind of fare that I can see Chris Evans killing in a post Captain America life. Playing those Harrison Ford style roles, but with a degree of warmth.
The DVD comes with featurettes and deleted scenes. There is supposed to be a Blu-ray option available on release date. But, it seems to be more of an on-demand sort of deal.
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