Here we are, yet again, with another installment of Recent Blu-Ray Hauls. I’m not going to be including the Horror Pack this month. Why? Well, let’s just say that bills need to be paid. When all was said and done, what I had left I needed for other things. Such is life. I might do a post on my experience with Horror Pack, but I still managed a pretty decent haul with it this month. So, let’s get right into the nitty gritty of it, shall we? Starting off:
Top Gun: Maverick
This one was always going to happen. I really enjoyed the original film from 1986, but Maverick is in a whole different league. It’s one of those rare sequels that outdoes the original in every way. The story is very simple as it has Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell train a group of Top Gun grads. Their mission is to hit a nuclear stockpile in enemy territory. Again, simple. But it’s the characters that really drive this movie forward. Well, that and the jet sequences, which are second-to-none. Movies really aren’t made this way anymore. It all feels real, because it is. The actors are up in those F-18s doing the cinematography themselves. It’s brilliant film-making in the way that only Tom Cruise could do.
The Virgin Spring
A lot of movies that we see today are often inspired by older movies. Star Wars was heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai, for example. Even one of the most notorious movies ever made, Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left was inspired by an older movie. In this case, Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring. The story follows a young woman as she heads towards a church bringing some offerings. One the way, she’s raped and murdered by a group of goatherders who seek refuge in her father’s house. When he discovers what they’ve done, he enacts his revenge. The difference between this and Craven’s movie, is that Craven focused more on the cruelty of the crime and revenge rather than the characters. This is not an easy movie to sit through, even though it’s much less graphic than House. The theme is different as well, as there is a lot of religious elements. The Criterion set has a lot of really interesting special features. It’s worth taking a look at. Also, Max Von Sydow is amazing.
The Seventh Seal
The second Ingrid Bergman film on this list, The Seventh Seal follows Max Von Sydow’s character as he plays a game of chess with Death himself. This is one of the more grim movies to come out of the 50s, but it’s remarkable for an outstanding story and great acting. There’s a lot of allegorical elements in the film, which is appropriate considering Mr. Bergman’s strict religious upbringing. But the idea that we are all playing a game of chess with Death is a really compelling one. We all lose eventually, but it’s just a matter of keeping the pieces on the board. Absolutely fantastic movie, and brilliantly filmed. It’s a must-own movie. If you consider a real film buff, this should already be in your collection. For me, it’s better late than never.
Silent Hill
In the pantheon of video games, Silent Hill is regarded as one of the best horror games ever made. That said, I’ve never actually played it. Never got around to it. I’m more of a Resident Evil guy myself. But the movie of Silent Hill is a pretty decent movie based on the game. It came out back in 2006, but a lot of the visuals and CGI still hold up. It’s incredibly atmospheric, and has a really solid cast that includes Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, and Alice Krige. Alice Krige can play a villain like it’s nobody’s business, and she’s fantastic here. I would rank Silent Hill as one of the best video game-to-movie adaptations out there, even though the bar really isn’t that high. It’s just a shame that the sequel was god-awful. It does run a little too long. They could’ve shave about 20 minutes and it probably would’ve been a lot better.
Fall
I’m a huge fan of survival thrillers. You know the ones. Somebody gets stranded out in the middle of nowhere and they have to find someway to survive. I guess I really like them because I like to think I’m smart enough to not put myself in those situations. Fall is about a woman who loses her husband in a tragic climbing accident, and she spends the next year getting drunk. Her best friend manages to convince her to climb a 2,000 foot tall radio tower. Look, this movie’s not going to win awards for realism, but it might win awards for making people’s palms sweat. It’s intense. It’s very simple, but the idea of climbing an old, rusty radio tower works. While I think the film could do less with the interpersonal melodrama, the actual climbing and survival aspects of the film are really good. The two actresses do all their own stunts and it’s just a wild ride.
The Enforcer
Movies about human trafficking have been going on for decades. Action movies involving this particular topic didn’t really become popular until 2008 when Liam Neeson starred in Taken. That movie shined a light on one of the most insidious crimes being perpetrated. Problem is, is that a lot of these movies tend to follow the same pattern: A retired or retiring special ops agent has a daughter/friend who gets kidnapped by traffickers and he has to hunt them down to save her. Everybody got on the train, including Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: Last Blood. Well, here’s one starring Antonio Banderas: The Enforcer. Mr. Banderas plays Cuda, a mob enforcer who befriends a young runaway, Billie. She gets kidnapped by crooks specializing in cyber sex trafficking, so he has to turn on his employers to save her. This isn’t actually a bad movie, and there’s some real heart here. But it only works because Antonio Banderas is so damn good. If he wasn’t a part of this movie, it would’ve been just another forgettable generic action movie.
All in all, not a bad haul this month. About Horror Pack, though: I don’t know if I’m going to sign up again, the last two boxes I got, I ended up with movies that I already had, and their exclusive titles haven’t really been working for me. Woman in the Chair was an exception. I would say about the half the time, I’d be getting some decent stuff, but the other half? Yikes. As I said in my intro, I might do a post on the Horror Packs that I got. Until next time, friends!