New on Home Video: “Black Hawk Down” and “The Guns of Navarone” Limited Edition 4K UHD Steelbooks

November 7, 2023 by Keith Garlington

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing two all-time classic war movies in stunning limited edition 4K Ultra HD steelbooks. Ridley Scott’s intense and gripping “Black Hawk Down” and J. Lee Thompson’s Best Picture nominated “The Guns of Navarone” will be individually available in their own must-have editions. Each are loaded with commentaries, featurettes, and much more and will make handsome additions to any collection.

These limited edition 4K Ultra HD steelbooks which includes both Blu-ray and Digital copies of “Black Hawk Down” and “The Guns of Navarone” release Today, November 7th. See below for a full synopsis and release information.

“Black Hawk Down”

Year: 2001

Runtime: 144 minutes / 152 minutes

Director: Ridley Scott

Screenwriter: Ken Nolan

Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, Jason Isaacs, Tom Hardy, Orlando Bloom, Gabriel Casseus, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jeremy Piven, Glenn Morshower, Ty Burrell, Kim Coates, Ron Eldard

Rating: R for Intense, Realistic, Graphic War Violence, and for Language

From acclaimed director Ridley Scott (The Martian) and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor) comes the gripping true story about bravery, camaraderie and the complex reality of war.
“Black Hawk Down” stars an exceptional cast including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Eric Bana. In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has led to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes quickly and terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.

Special Features:

“Black Hawk Down” 4K Ultra HD Disc

Both Theatrical and Extended Versions of the film presented in 4K resolution from the original camera negative, both with Dolby Vision
Dolby Atmos and 5.1 audio on both versions

“Black Hawk Down” Feature & Special Feature Blu-ray Discs

Theatrical Version of the film presented in high definition
Audio Commentary by Director / Producer Ridley Scott & Producer Jerry Bruckheimer
Audio Commentary by Author Mark Bowden & Screenwriter Ken Nolan
Audio Commentary by Task Force Ranger Veterans
“The Essence of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down” Documentary
The History Channel® Presents: “The True Story of Black Hawk Down”
PBS Presents: “Frontline: Ambush in Mogadishu”
8 Deleted & Alternate Scenes with Optional Commentary
“Designing Mogadishu” Featurette
Production Design Archive
Storyboards with Optional Commentary
Ridleygrams with Optional Commentary
Target Building Insertion: Multi-Angle Sequence with Optional Commentary
Q&A Forums: BAFTA. Motion Picture Editor’s Guild & American Cinematheque
Jerry Bruckheimer’s BHD Photo Album
Title Design Explorations with Optional Commentary
“Gortoz A Ran – J’Attends” Music Video performed by Denez Prigent & Lisa Gerrard
Photo Galleries
Theatrical Poster Concepts
Trailer & TV Spots
4K UHD Feature Picture: 2160p Ultra High Definition, 2.40:1
4K UHD Feature Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Compatible) | English 5.1 DTS-HD MA

“The Guns of Navarone”

Year: 1961

Runtime: 156 Minutes

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Screenwriter: Carl Foreman

Cast: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quale, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, James Darren, James Robinson Justice, Richard Harris, Albert Lieven, Bryan Forbes

Academy Award-winners Gregory Peck (1962, Best Actor, To Kill A Mockingbird), David Niven (1958, Best Actor, Separate Tables), and Anthony Quinn (1952, Best Supporting Actor, Viva Zapata!; 1956, Lust For Life) star as a team of Allied military specialists recruited for a dangerous but imperative mission: to infiltrate a Nazi-occupied fortress and disable two long-range field guns so that 2,000 trapped British soldiers may be rescued. Faced with an unforgiving sea voyage, hazardous terrain, and the possibility of a traitor among them, the team must overcome the impossible without losing their own lives. Adapted by screenwriter Carl Foreman from Alistair MacLean’s best-selling novel, “The Guns of Navarone” was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, and won for Best Special Effects (1961).

Special Features:

“The Guns of Navarone” 4K Ultra HD Disc

Presented in 4K resolution from the original camera negative, with Dolby Vision
- Playback available with and without Original Roadshow Intermission Card
Dolby Atmos audio + 5.1 audio + 4.0 audio
Main Title Progression Reel
Theatrical Trailer

“The Guns of Navarone” Blu-ray Disc

Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master
Audio Commentary by Director J. Lee Thompson
Audio Commentary by Film Historian Stephen J. Rubin
The Resistance Dossier of Navarone: Interactive Feature
Forging The Guns of Navarone: Notes from the Set
An Ironic Epic of Heroism
Memories of Navarone
Epic Restoration
A Heroic Score
Great Guns
No Visitors
Honeymoon on Rhodes
Two Girls on the Town
Narration-Free Prologue
Message from Carl Foreman
4K UHD Feature Picture: 2160p Ultra High Definition, 2.35:1
4K UHD Feature Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Compatible) | English 5.1 DTS-HD MA | English 4.0 DTS-HD MA

New on Home Video: “Gran Turismo” on Blu-ray + Digital

November 6, 2023 by Keith Garlington

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is bringing “Gran Turismo” to home video in this feature-filled Blu-ray edition that also includes a digital copy of the film. Based on a popular PlayStation Studios video game and inspired by an incredible true story, “Gran Turismo” is the latest film from director Neill Blomkamp (“District 9”, “Elysium”). Fans of biographical sports dramas and feel-good crowdpleasers will want to add this one to their collections.

This Blu-ray plus Digital Copy edition of “Gran Turismo” releases November 7th. See below for a full synopsis and release information.

About the Film:

Year: 2023

Runtime: 134 Minutes

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Screenwriter: Jason Hall and Zach Baylin

Story By: Jason Hall and Alex Tse

Based on: The PlayStation Studios Video Game

Cast: David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Archie Madekwe, Darren Barnet, Geri Halliwell Horner, Djimon Hounsou

Rating: PG-13 for Intense Action and Some Strong Language

Synopsis:

Gran Turismo is based on the unbelievable true story of a team of unlikely underdogs – a struggling working-class gamer (Archie Madekwe), a failed former racecar driver (David Harbour), and an idealistic motorsport executive (Orlando Bloom). Together, they risk it all to take on the most elite sport in the world. Gran Turismo is an inspiring, thrilling, and action-packed story that proves that nothing is impossible when you’re fueled from within.

Special Features:

4K UHD, BLU-RAY™ AND DIGITAL EXTRAS

Special Features:
- Deleted & Extended Scenes
- The Engine: Driving the Visuals
- The Pit Crew: Action and Stunts
- The Garage: The Amazing Automobiles
- The Plan: The True Story of Jann Mardenborough
- The Wheels: The Fast-Acting Cast

Blu-ray: 1080p High Definition / 1.90:1 • Audio: English & French (Doublé au Québec) 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Spanish, English & French (Doublé au Québec) – Audio Description Tracks 5.1 Dolby Digital • Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish • Mastered in High Definition • Color

REVIEW: “Pain Hustlers” (2023)

November 6, 2023 by Keith Garlington

Taking on America’s devastating opioid crisis is a noble task for any filmmaker. The epidemic began in the late 1990s when the prescription of opioids for pain management began to spike. Since then opioid-involved addictions have been on the rise, leading to an astonishing number of deaths by overdose (it went from 47,600 deaths in 2017 to 80,411 in 2021). So any movie that seeks to bring attention to the crisis should be commended.

Such is the case with “Pain Hustlers”, a new film from Netflix based on a 2018 New York Times Magazine article of the same name by Evan Hughes and his subsequent book “The Hard Sell”. The film is directed by David Yates (the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films) who works from a script by Wells Tower. The movie takes its aim at the people who fueled the epidemic, namely those in the pharmaceutical world. That includes greedy drug companies, devious middlemen. and crooked doctors – all driven by the seemingly endless flow of wealth at the expense of the sick and suffering.

Unfortunately “Pain Hustlers” isn’t the movie to recommend to those interested in the subject. It opens a number of revealing boxes and shines a pretty candid light on the vile and appalling practices of unscrupulous drug companies and complicit doctors whose rackets made them rich while killing an enormous amount of people in the process. But some misguided choices and a desire to be both clever and funny hinders its ability to tell an otherwise meaningful story. Even its impressive star wattage can’t save it from itself.

The always great Emily Blunt stars in a role that she makes more compelling than it has any right to be. She plays Liza Drake, a down on her luck single mother working as an exotic dancer just to take care of her teenage daughter Phoebe (Chloe Coleman). Things only get worse after Liza loses her job, her car, and her place to stay. In desperation she calls Pete Brenner (a wildly uneven Chris Evans), a shady pharmaceutical executive she met in her club who once offered her a job making $100,000 per year.

It turns out that Pete works for a nearly bankrupt drug company called Zanna Therapeutics. It’s headed by Doctor Jack Neel (Andy Garcia), the creator of a cancer pain drug called Lonafen. Zanna needs Lonafen on the market but they don’t have the capital to compete with bigger companies who have a stranglehold on their region. So they hire Liza, fully expecting her to fail. But with the company about to go under, who cares?

Liza is given one week to convince one doctor to prescribe Lonafen. And wouldn’t you know it, not only does she succeed, she kickstarts the dying company. With Pete by her side, the two work the corrupt system and after one quarter they go from 0 to 86% market share in the southeast. But you know how stories like this go. It’s only a matter of time before their greed gets the better of them and they push things too far.

To the film’s credit it does uncover quite a bit about how the scandalous system works. It shows drug company reps frequenting hospitals and pain management clinics, enticing physicians to get onboard with their product. It shows how grifts such as speaker programs whisk doctors away for lavish weekends in exchange for prescribing their drug. And it shows how quickly some doctors will toss aside their ethics once the checks start coming in.

Unfortunately all of that is undermined by the film’s numerous flaws starting with its seismic tonal shifts. It’s clunky desire to be both a slick edgy comedy and a smart eye-opening drama is best encapsulated in Chris Evans’ character and performance. One minute he tries to be serious-minded only to act like he’s doing an amped up scene from “The Wolf of Wall Street” shortly after. The movie sobers up in the last act but by then it’s a little too late.

Adding to its problems, “Pain Hustlers” is overlong and at times frustratingly dull. But perhaps its biggest offense lies in its focus. The movie is so honed in on its disgustingly wealthy profiteers that the true victims (the people who actually died) barely have a voice. In fairness, the movie takes a swing at acknowledging them. But they mostly feel like an afterthought. Altogether those are issues too big to overcome. Blunt deserves credit for carrying the load and making it watchable. But she can only do so much in a film that at times informs, but is too messy to truly spread awareness. “Pain Hustlers” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

REVIEW: “Priscilla” (2023)

November 3, 2023 by Keith Garlington

It was a little over one year ago that director Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” hit theaters. The vibrant and stylish biography of music icon Elvis Presley won over both audiences and critics before eventually earning eight Academy Award nominations. How interesting that in such a short time we’re getting another movie set around the life of the “King of Rock and Roll”. But this one comes with a distinctly different focus and is told from a uniquely fresh perspective.

“Priscilla” is based on the 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley, the wife of the legendary Elvis Presley who also serves as the movie’s executive producer. It’s written and directed by the ever compelling Sofia Coppola and is her first feature since her underappreciated 2020 dramedy “On the Rocks”. Much like the book, Coppola’s film looks entirely through Priscilla’s eyes, showing how she first met Elvis in 1959, their soon after marriage in 1967, and the rollercoaster ride that eventually led to their divorce in 1973.

While at times Luhrmann’s film leaned heavily on its style and energy, Coppola takes a much more subdued approach to “Priscilla”. For most of its running time it’s patient and methodical, almost languid as it roots us in Priscilla’s experience. But that’s very much intentional and it does a tremendous job conveying her feelings while caught in the web of their high-profile relationship. Often lonely and isolated; other times smothered and domineered – it’s all sublimely realized through the quietly captivating performance from 25-year-old Cailee Spaeny.

Even more intentional is Coppola’s depiction of Elvis and her aim to stay away from anything that might be considered a reason why Elvis talks, thinks, and acts the way he does. In her movie he just is how he is. As a result Elvis (ably played by Jacob Elordi) is portrayed as an irredeemable monster, occasionally caring when it suits him, but mostly controlling, neglectful, and abusive. The majority of what Coppola shows us has been well-documented as true and snaps at the fabled image of Elvis Presley. But the lack of nuance in the portrayal, though still intensely effective, feels ever so slightly suspicious.

Coppola begins her story in West Germany where a somewhat shy 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu is introduced to 24-year-old rock star Elvis Presley. It’s immediately queasy and uncomfortable with words like predatory, grooming, and coercion coming to mind as they play out on the screen. There’s a striking delicacy in the way Coppola presents it, but also a unflinching honesty that forces the audience to reckon with what they’re seeing. And one of Coppola’s greatest tools is Spaeny who conveys youthful innocence with an alarming clarity.

From inexplicably winning her parents’ blessing to being whisked away to Elvis’ Graceland estate in Memphis, the movie follows the troubling pseudo storybook “romance”, with all of its red lights and warning signs, as it slowly erodes into something increasingly constrictive and toxic. Over time Graceland becomes a lavish prison for Priscilla. Her starry-eyed illusion turns to loneliness and melancholy as Elvis runs around with his meatheaded Memphis Mafia or is out West shooting movies and making tabloid headlines with his sexy co-stars. They eventually marry once she turns 21 and only months later they have a daughter, Lisa Marie. But things only get worse.

For most of the film Coppola keenly visualizes Priscilla’s crushing circumstances through her deliberate pacing and careful attention to emotional details. It all flows seamlessly until the erratic final third where the film begins jumping from point to point, hitting interesting marks in Elvis and Priscilla’s crumbling relationship but doing little to connect them together in a satisfying way. It’s so strangely at odds with the first two acts and goes by in a blur. But maybe that’s what Coppola is going for. Perhaps that’s the way Priscilla recalls those final months with Elvis – as a blur.

Aside from the strategic depiction of Elvis and the skittish storytelling near the end, “Priscilla” is a captivating experience that provides an inside look at one of the most well known celebrity couples of our time. It features bravura filmmaking and is driven by a bold vision that doesn’t follow the normal biopic model we’ve grown accustomed to. Coppola has more on her mind and watching her bring it to life is riveting, even if she doesn’t hit every mark. (Just a note: in my screening the dialogue, specifically from Elordi, was often mumbled and hard to understand. I’m not sure whether it was Elordi’s performance, the sound mixing, or my theater. Let me know about your experience with the sound). “Priscilla” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

First Glance: “The Fall Guy”

November 3, 2023 by Keith Garlington

Universal Pictures has dropped the poster and first trailer for their 2024 action comedy “The Fall Guy” (see both below). Loosely based on the 1980’s television series starring Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, this remake (of sorts) is helmed by stuntman turned director David Leitch. The film was definitely on my radar due to its fun 80s connection and its stellar cast. But the first trailer may make me temper my expectations just a bit.

Ryan Gosling plays a past-his-prime stuntman named Colt Seavers while Emily Blunt plays his ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno. She’s all set to direct her first film. But when her hunky star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) disappears, she tasks her old flame Colt with finding him (or something like that). The trailer shows us an unapologetically goofy film full of over-the-top set pieces. It shows Gosling continuing his move away from somber to silly and Blunt doing what she can with what looks like a pretty flimsy role. The cheap and incessant use on Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” doesn’t exactly help. We’ll see.

“The Fall Guy” hits theaters March 1, 2024. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

20th Century Studios Releases New Poster, Trailer, and Stills for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

November 2, 2023 by Keith Garlington

20th Century Studios and Disney have released new details for their upcoming action-adventure film “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”. Today we got our first in-depth look at the feature via a new trailer, new poster, and several new images from this long-awaited next chapter in the epic “Planet of the Apes” saga. The film is set to premiere exclusively in theaters on May 24, 2024. Here’s all the information from today’s announcement.

From the Studio:

Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is directed by Wes Ball (the “Maze Runner” trilogy) and stars Owen Teague (“IT”), Freya Allan (“The Witcher”), Kevin Durand (“Locke & Key”), Peter Macon (“Shameless”), and William H. Macy (“Fargo”). The screenplay is by Josh Friedman (“War of the Worlds”) and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (“Avatar: The Way of Water”) and Patrick Aison (“Prey”), based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, and the producers are Wes Ball, Joe Hartwick, Jr. (“The Maze Runner”), Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Jason Reed (“Mulan”), with Peter Chernin (the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy) and Jenno Topping (“Ford v. Ferrari”) serving as executive producers.