Blu-Ray & DVD Review Round-Up: THE POST, THE COMMUTER, BATMAN NINJA & More
This time around: Tom Hanks And Meryl Streep try to take down Nixon in The Post; Liam Neeson should have taken the bus in The Commuter; the Dark Knight goes to Japan in Batman Ninja; Michael Caine takes you through My Generation; venture back to The Nineties; Gabriel Byrne can’t save Lies We Tell and ready yourself for ’80s horror anthology Nightmares.
Blu-ray Review: The Post
With Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep amongst its talent, you have to as yourself the question – how come The Post is good, but not great? The ’70s set Richard Nixon/Washington Post true story has some solid moments but it’s a little light weight and too superficial. Hanks is good, Streep not so much and an impressive sporting cast is wasted in tiny roles. It’s a shame because this could have been great. The ending sets-up the Watergate scandal and it’ll leaving you wishing that you watched All The President’s Men instead.
You could say that The Post fails to deliver.
Special Features
You get over an hour of top tier extras which puts The Post‘s true-life historical drama into context. Better than the film.
Blu-ray Review: The Commuter
The Commuter is Liam Neeson and Jaume Collet-Serra’s fourth teaming (after Unknown, Non-Stop and Run All Night) – and this train-set flick manages to be their best.
This old-school thriller has shades of Hitchcock and while it may be silly, it’s also a lot of fun. Neeson sells the material and he’s surrounded by a good supporting cast (Sam Neill, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks). The Commuter‘s last act brings some poor CGI, but if you overlook that little mistake, then this is a fun night in.
Blu-ray Review: Batman Ninja
Batman Ninja is the craziest Batman story ever told. Batman and his rogues gallery are blasted back to feudal Japan, where all sorts of strangeness happens. It’s good to see Warner Bros animation trying something different and this features some impressive visuals. Director Junpei Mizusaki takes Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s Dark Knight to places you’d never expect in this one-of-a-kind anime adventure. It might be a little over the top, but there’s fun to be had here.
Special Features
You get some good special features with Batman Ninja, the best is New York Comic Con Presents Batman Ninja – which is also a crazy as the film.
DVD Review: My Generation
Michael Caine narrates My Generation, a documentary dealing the rise (and fall) of ‘The Swinging Sixties’ as well as his own career. He brings along a lot of top tier talent to help tell some tales (Paul McCartney), but for as good as it is, My Generation comes across as a fluff piece. It fails to truly look at the darker side of what went down. Having said that, spending 90 minutes with Michael Caine is always a pleasure.
DVD Review: The Nineties
An excellent look at the decade that we all seem to have have overlooked in recent years. The Nineties is a superb 8-part documentary series produced by Tom Hanks. It looks at terrorism, the internet, politics and entertainment in each of its 40 minute episodes. The Nineties is an excellent series which offers an incredibly in-depth look at the last decade of the 20th Century. Highly recommend.
DVD Review: Lies We tell
Lies We Tell is possibly one of the worst things I’ve ever had the misfortune to watch. Gabriel Byrne tries, but he’s failed by a woeful script and terrible direction. Harvey Keitel literally has less than 5 minutes of screen time. Avoid.
DVD Review: Nightmares
Joesph Sargent’s Nightmares has a good cast (Emilio Estevez, Lance Henriksen and Veronica Cartwright) but this 1983 horror anthology lacks true terror or even the flimsiest of scares. The four tales (inspired by urban myths) offer-up some light entertainment but they just don’t hit the right mark. It’s probably worth catching late at night after you’ve gorged on pizza and beer, but you’ll struggle to remember much of what happens by the time its over.
