On DVD & Blu-Ray Today: August 30, 2016

Initial Reaction: Video Review - DON'T BREATHE & MECHANIC: RESURRECTION

And so, the time has come. The final weekend of the summer movie season has come and gone and actually, turned out better than anyone was expecting I believe. With two wide releases and a couple of expansions there was plenty to see this weekend, but as expected the big winner was the new thriller from director Fede Alvarez in Don't Breathe. Going into the weekend it was clear the horror flick, which premiered to strong reviews earlier this year at Austin's SXSW festival, would likely take the no.1 spot, but pundits expected the film to finish anywhere between $10 and $20 million with distributor Screen Gems tempering their expectations to $11 or $12 million, but with Sunday estimates it looks as if the R-rated horror film will end the weekend with $26.1 million. This is certainly good news considering it was the better of the two new wide releases this week, but Hell or High Water also continued its platform release adding another 437 theaters this weekend and is one of the best films I've seen this year and so, if it's playing near you, definitely consider checking it out. Other smaller releases included Southside With You and Hands of Stone. I plan on catching up with Southside With You at some point this week and though The Weinstein Co. originally planned for Hands of Stone to be a wide release opening in over 2,000 theaters this weekend, they cut that back to just over 800 at the beginning of the week with the plan moving forward to open on Wednesday of this week, ahead of Labor Day weekend. I'll likely end up catching that one this Thursday when we watch and review Morgan for Initial Reaction. One of the bigger stories in Arkansas this weekend was the release of Greater, the story of college walk-on Brandon Burlsworth, which garnered $449,000 from a total of 340 theaters. I certainly plan on seeing what the local buzz is about with this one later this week as well. Finally, the other new wide release was the new Jason Statham actioner, Mechanic: Resurrection, which was also the first wide release for Lionsgate's specialty arm Lionsgate Premiere, which typically deals in limited and On Demand releases which is exactly what this Mechanic sequel should have been. The film finished fifth with an estimated $7.5 million, which was on the higher end of expectations. Regardless, don't see this movie-it's terrible. As always, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel as we have a new review (or reviews) up each week!

MECHANIC: RESURRECTION Review

I saw the 2011 Simon West re-make of the seventies era Charles Bronson film, The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham as an elite assassin with a unique talent for eliminating targets and making it look like it was an accident. I'm pretty sure I saw that one. I did. I know I did because I generally enjoy these no-brainer action flicks Statham pops out randomly once or twice a year, but why this admittedly forgettable re-make from five years ago needed a sequel is unclear. Unclear really isn't the right word though, as this thing is totally unnecessary and that's obvious from the get-go. There is no ambition behind the product, there is no flair to the fight sequences, and the bigger action "spectacle" looks so cheap this may as well have run after Sharknado 7 on the Syfy network. Still, we have Mechanic: Resurrection because why not at this point? If one is interested in this sequel it will undoubtedly be due to the fact they either love seeing Jason Statham beat people up or they have a general affinity for bad movies. The thing with Mechanic: Resurrection though is that it's not even a good bad movie. Guilty pleasures, if you will, give audiences something to enjoy despite the obvious shortcomings of the overall product whereas with Mechanic: Resurrection there is very little to enjoy at all. So sure, I like to think of myself as a Statham fan especially when he's given the opportunity to take these archetypal action heroes and turn them into brooding bad asses that actually are action heroes with none of the nonsense that differentiates him from say, the James Bond franchise. Statham doesn't normally mess with the fancy gadgets or the outlandish cars, but more he goes in, takes care of business, and escapes before the cops show up. In short, he's no nonsense, but that's all Mechanic: Resurrection is. Still, I can feel that for people who only venture out to the movies once or twice a year and will for some reason pick this as one of those two movies to see will inevitably find it to hit all the right spots and send them home happy due to the fact it met their expectations for an action movie with an evil European villain, but to them I say, "please spend your money on anything else-Hell or High Water if it's playing near you or Star Trek Beyond if it hasn't disappeared from theaters yet." Both are prime examples of B-movies done right; utilizing their genre restrictions in fun and refreshing ways whereas the only B-word to describe this latest Statham movie is bad. Just plain bad.

DON'T BREATHE Review

Don't Breathe, the new horror/thriller from director Fede Alvarez (the Evil Dead re-make), opens with a distant shot of what looks to be a deserted street. Only later do we find out this is one of the more run down sections of Detroit where time and humanity have left everything behind that might have once thrived there. As the camera gets closer to the street we can see there is someone walking down the middle of it. The camera continues to zoom in slowly-we can tell that someone is dragging something down the road behind them. A little closer. They are dragging another person. A little closer. It's a girl who is either dead or unconscious-it's difficult to tell and we will remain unsure as the screen then cuts to black. It's a killer opening shot that clearly points to a moment that is to come later in the film, but with its placement at the beginning Alvarez has already enticed his audience to how we might get to this point and whether that shot indicates the end of the line or not. It's a trick that has been used before and will certainly be used again, but every now and then it feels especially inherent to the story being told and Don't Breathe feels like an instance where this isn't only a tool to lure the unsuspecting (or suspecting if you bought a ticket, I mean c'mon) audience member into the intrigue of what exactly is going on, but instead this is a choice that lets those audience members (suspecting or not) know up front that Alvarez means to make you question things, to make you pull your knees up to your chin and grit your teeth because you feel so tense. This isn't simply a hook, but an indication of the type of terror the characters we'll come to know are capable of and this is all accomplished in the first thirty or so seconds so one can only imagine what sitting through ninety minutes of such adept perception of what makes people uncomfortable and afraid might be like. In only his second feature film the Uruguay-born director delivers a horror film that, much like his previous movie, contains itself to an isolated location, but only continues to raise the stakes and use that space in inventive and chilling ways. Save for something of a lackluster middle section where, for a moment, the film feels as if it runs out of both steam and ideas for where exactly to take the story and its characters, the film is a tightly scripted and well-performed fright night that finds its footing well enough to redeem itself and pull the cautious viewers back to the side of rooting for whoever gains the most of their sympathy.

First Trailer for LION Starring Dev Patel

The first trailer for The Weinstein Company's big Oscar hopeful this year, Lion, has premiered and only reinforces the pain of the fact that I'll be missing out on the Toronto International Film Festival this year. As with many an Oscar hopefuls, the film will premiere at the festival and hope for glowing reviews from critics to garner momentum and a strong push come awards season. Of course, this isn't always necessary, but critical reception at TIFF largely influences the buzz your film has, especially smaller releases such as this, going into the holiday movie season. As for the film itself, like I said-this only makes the fact I won't be going to TIFF this year all the more heartbreaking because this trailer hits all the right notes for the true story it's telling, looks well-acted, and is gorgeous to look at. This will be director Garth Davis' feature film debut though he's working with cinematographer Greig Fraser who has crafted some unforgettable imagery for Foxcatcher, Zero Dark Thirty and the upcoming Rogue One. While Patel has been somewhat hit or miss since his breakout in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire eight years ago (yes, Slumdog Millionaire was eight years ago) he looks to return to that arena this year as a man who was separated from his family as a child and goes looking for them with the help of Google Earth. The trailer doesn't harp on this aspect of the plot too much, but it's certainly there and beyond this somewhat kitshy aspect of the story it seems screenwriter Luke Davies (last years underrated Life) who adapted the 2014 novel A Long Way Home from the real-life Saroo Brierley and Australian author Larry Buttrose has honed in on the more human aspects of the story as the trailer specifically focuses on the relationship between Patel's Brierley and Rooney Mara's Lucy. This Oscar season feels especially crowded so it will be interesting to see if this final product can stand out. Lion also stars Nicole Kidman, David Wenham, Sunny Pawar and opens November 25th, 2016.