DVD – Page 8 – StuffWeLike

Blood Father – Blu-ray Review

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Blood Father is a suspenseful, action-packed film that shows what lengths a father will go to to help his estranged daughter get out of a pretty complex situation. Mel Gibson delivers a powerful and intense performance as John Link, an ex-con and recovering alcoholic whose daughter, Lydia (Erin Moriarty), has been missing for years. When the two reunite, she’s got the weight of the world on her back and a price on her head. It’s a good thing her dad’s got a few tricks up his sleeve and few friends to enlist for help along the way.

From that point forward, John and Lydia are on the run, dodging bullets, hotwiring cars, and hitching rides to stay off the beaten path to keep Lydia out of harm’s way. Will the cartel catch up to her and make her pay for her transgressions? Will John keep her safe?

Blood Father is an exciting and tense ride that also includes the talents of William H. Macy (Shameless), Michael Parks (Django Unchained), Miguel Sandoval (Jurassic Park), and Dale Dickey (Hell or High Water). Director Jean-François Richet delivers an excellent balance between the father-daughter dynamic and the action sequences that gives both depth and nuance as the film progresses. No shot or scene is wasted in this well-crafted film.

The lone special feature is a very intriguing and insightful documentary, Lost Souls: On the Road With Blood Father, which gives us a closer look at the production and the process of adapting a novel into a feature film. Very enjoyable!

I highly recommend Blood Father. It’s a solid piece of filmmaking with excellent performances from Gibson and the entire cast.

Blood Father is available now on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Download.

What’s your favorite Mel Gibson movie? Leave a comment and let us know!

Mike & Molly: The Sixth and Final Season – DVD Review

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”

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I have loved Mike & Molly since the pilot, and thoroughly enjoyed every episode all the way through the series finale. There was a special magic that the series had. A genuine mix of hardcore laughs and real heart that made the show’s characters multi-dimensional and downright entertaining. They were characters you wanted to watch, wanted to see in their greatest moments and darkest defeats. Mike & Molly delivered so many memorable moments over its much too short six season run. It’s a series that I will definitely miss.

I have been to four tapings of Mike & Molly at Warner Bros. Studios (yes, it is a live audience), and you could tell that this cast loved what they were doing. Two of the four times I had the opportunity to meet the cast and get their autographs. Very nice people. A cast that truly was grateful for fans that enjoyed their work and their love of delivering laughs on a weekly basis.

When I heard the series was being cancelled and that the final season would be cut down to only 13 episodes, I was a bit surprised. It’s a solid Chuck Lorre series, the man who brought us Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Mom, had yet another feather in his cap with Mike & Molly. It had even earned star Melissa McCarthy an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Then, of course the rumors as to why it was cancelled began to circulate, but all of them seemed like merely rumors and not the real reason why the show had ended so soon. Even so, I am glad that the series did get a legitimate finale and wasn’t just cancelled out of the blue with no closure for the storyline and its characters.

Mike & Molly mixed edgy, broad comedy with heartwarming moments from flawed, outspoken characters. It was unapologetic in its approach to getting laughs, much like Two and a Half Men. But while Two and a Half Men was joke-joke-joke, Mike & Molly had the ability to balance the joke-joke-joke formula with many touching and even tear-inducing moments over the course of its run. I think it’s what made it easier to connect with them: they weren’t just joke machines; they came across as real people in a lot of ways.

Watching such a talented cast bring 110% to each episode was always a treat. Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell brought us Molly Flynn and Mike Biggs, two strangers who met at an Overeaters’ Anonymous Meeting. Their story grew from first date, to moving in together, to engagement, to marriage, to trying to have a baby, to changing careers, to deciding to adopt all in six short seasons.

Along for the ride were Mike’s best friend Carl (Reno Wilson); Molly’s mom and sister, Joyce and Victoria, (Swoosie Kurtz and Katy Mixon); Carl’s eventual roommate, Samuel (Nyambi Nyambi); Joyce’s husband, Vince (Louis Mustillo); Mike’s mom, Peggy (Rondi Reed); and Carl’s Grandma (Cleo King). And, of course, we can’t forget Peggy’s dog, Jim (Suzie Q).

When you have a supporting cast like these performers, it’s no wonder the series had as many laughs as it did. All of them were spot-on with their characters, never missing a beat, always on their game and ready to play comedy hardball. I feel the sign of a great cast is when you can mix random characters together and the comedy still plays. The Mike & Molly cast is one of these ensembles. You can have any character paired with any other character and there will be guaranteed laughs.

I would like to add a note about Melissa McCarthy. She is amazing as a sitcom actor. It’s definitely a medium she is comfortable in and I would love to see her back doing it again. Her ability to not only deliver great comedic lines but also her penchant for physical comedy and her no-fear attitude put her in the same category of Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Veep) in my book of great sitcom comediennes.

So, what did I think of the final season? I loved it. It was WAY too short, but I loved every minute of it. I guess it’s better for the series to end on a high note than to end and people ask “Was that still on?” I have to admit I did shed a tear during the final moments of the finale.

Yeah, it’s silly, but I did meet the cast and could tell how much they loved working together. Just like any job, it can be hard to find a group that you have a real chemistry with. I feel like this cast had that. No drama. No tabloid lunacy. Just a true passion and love for their work.

The only special feature is the Gag Reel, which is hilarious as always.

I highly, highly, highly recommend Mike & Molly: The Sixth & Final Season on DVD. Oh, and if you really love the show and don’t have any seasons, Mike & Molly: The Complete Series comes out the same day.

I love it, I’ll miss it, but it’s on DVD forever so at least it’s not gone forever!

Thank you, Mike & Molly cast and crew for six great seasons of laughs!

Mike & Molly: The Sixth & Final Season and Mike & Molly: The Complete Series are available Tuesday, October 11, 2016 on DVD!

What was your favorite season, scene, moment, character of the series? Leave a comment and let us know!

6 Plots – DVD Review

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Horror is an interesting genre. Done correctly, it has the power to terrify and linger with an audience long after the film has ended. Done poorly, it can frustrate an audience and leave the bored with either the predictability of the story or the complete lack of suspense. It’s a fine line between doing horror right and doing it wrong with horror films coming out of the woodwork every week either in theaters or on video.

Enter 6 Plots, a 2012 teen horror film from Australia, that has an intriguing concept that unfortunately fails to pay off in any way. It’s a clever twist on the Saw genre of torture porn films, but there are a lot of elements missing throughout the film’s narrative that cause it to become less entertaining as the movie plods along.

Horror films tend to deliver a strong female protagonist whom the audience can empathize with at the start of the film. Whether it’s Laurie Strode in Halloween of Sydney Prescott in Scream, it’s important that we as an audience have a lead character that we are ready to take a journey with through the horror that is about to commence. In 6 Plots we are given Brie (Alice Darling) who is part of the “It” crowd at her school and is also into partying, drinking, and drugs. She has no tragic backstory that causes us to empathize with her, she’s just one of the popular kids like the other six of her friends whom she joins for a weekend party at a beach house.

Upon waking in the aforementioned – but now darkened – beach house, Brie quickly discovers that all of her friends have been taken and buried in wooden boxes by a mysterious person who contacts her with a demented talking smiley on her phone with two rules: no parents, no authorities. If either of those get introduced into the mix, her friends will start to die. The killer uses technology to live-stream the fates of each of Brie’s friends to her as she struggles to find them before it’s too late. Oh, and they all have their phones so they can communicate with each other. And the killer is live-streaming their fates to the world as well.

The issue here is that it’s a clever concept that lacks any real suspense. I think it’s mainly because we have no vested interest in any of the characters. We know them as a group of popular kids who party, but we have no other real information about them. I know, I know, it’s a horror movie and they’re just bodies to be counted as the death toll increases. I get it. The problem here is that they aren’t really presented as good people so their deaths are not as shocking or traumatic for the audience as they probably should be.

Now, as a fan of the Saw franchise, I enjoy seeing the contraptions made by Jigsaw actually brought to life as time runs out for his victims. It’s what makes those films work. Here, each victim is trapped in a box and meets a similar fate through confinement. While the method of death may change, there’s no real change in how they die. They just do since they can’t really do much else. As Brie rushes to save the day and gather clues as to where they are and who remains, I found myself losing interest since the deaths became more repetitive than clever.

So, let’s talk about the finale, which also lacked any cathartic moment, no true revelation as to who the killer was and what their motive in doing all of this truly was, either. Granted, we do get a general idea as to who and possibly why, but it would have been nice to be given an idea how the killer pulled off such an amazing feat as drugging seven people, dragging six out of the beach house, sealing all six in wooden boxes, burying them throughout the city in a specific pattern, then making sure each box had a unique death attached to it via remote. Whew! Hope the killer had some help!

There’s also no vindication for those that remain alive. Even the final moments of the film where we do get a hint as to who the real killer was lack any real heft that would make us think a huge twist had just been revealed. I wanted more, and got much less.

To their credit, the filmmakers did create a visually dynamic world in which their film takes place, and the concept is solid. Also the use of the most advances tech by the killer was pretty impressive. It is in the overall execution of the film’s story that things falter and derail.

I wanted to like 6 Plots. I was excited when I saw the DVD cover that touted it as “Buried Meets Saw.” However, the end result was more anti-climactic TV movie, or mundane episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager or even BBC’s Skins than gritty and gory horror.

Special Features include The Making of 6 Plots.

6 Plots is available now on DVD and Digital Download.

What’s your favorite scary movie? Leave a comment and let us know!

Disney’s Beauty and The Beast: 25th Anniversary Edition – Blu-ray Review

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A masterpiece in every sense of the word, Disney’s Beauty and The Beast marked a new age for animated films. Part of Disney’s Golden Age of Animation that included The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King, Beauty and The Beast delivered memorable songs, dimensional characters, and a strong narrative that attracted audiences of all ages.

No longer were cartoonish antics at the forefront; instead audiences were treated to a strong story with adult themes that was truly a moving and emotionally involving experience. It’s no wonder that the film went on to be the first animated film to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this and go and get it now! Everything about the film is pure perfection, and the combination of traditional 2D animation and computer effects is a glorious sight to behold as the world of Beauty and The Beast comes to life before your eyes. Each character is fantastic, each song unforgettable, and each scene builds on the next until the final frame fades to black.

And, of course, let’s not forget the top-notch voice cast that includes Paige O’Hara (Belle), Robby Benson (Beast), Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts), Jerry Orbach (Lumiere), David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth), and Richard White (Gaston). It’s no wonder that this was one of the top three highest grossing films of 1991!

So, what are the Bonus Extras that accompany this 25th Anniversary Edition?

You get THREE versions of the film: Original Theatrical; the Special Edition (this includes new songs and scenes); and a Sing-Along Version if you want to do some Beauty and The Beast Karaoke.

Menken & Friends: 25 Years of Musical Inspiration

A look at the geniuses who have brought the music and songs of Disney animated films to life.

The Recording Sessions

Watch as the voice actors from the film bring their characters to life.

Always Belle

A look back at the film and its impact with actress Paige O’Hara who does the voice of Belle in the film.

#1074: Walt, Fairy Tales & Beauty and The Beast

A look at Walt Disney’s original plans for Beauty and The Beast and its eventual influence on the 1991 film.

25 Fun Facts About Beauty and The Beast

A fast-paced look at some fun trivia with Disney Channel Stars Gus Kamp (Best Friends Whenever) and Kayla Maisonet (Stuck in the Middle).

And a quick sneak peek at the upcoming live-action version of Beauty and The Beast starring Emma Watson! Just from what I saw, it looks amazing!

I can’t express enough how amazing, wonderful, magical, and superb Disney’s Beauty and The Beast is. It is a timeless classic that will forever be a testament to the power of beautiful animation and great storytelling. I highly, highly, highly recommend it!

Disney’s Beauty and The Beast: 25th Anniversary Edition is available NOW on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.

What is your favorite song, character, or moment in the film? Leave a comment and let us know!

2 Broke Girls: The Complete Fifth Season – DVD Review

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.

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Get ready for more solid laughs and zaniness with the fifth season of 2 Broke Girls! Max and Caroline are back in action and ready to serve up a healthy dose of hilarity as the two snarky waitresses and cupcake entrepreneurs we’ve been following for half a decade. As the duo continue their never-ending quest for cupcake domination, new challenges, surprises, and lunacy get sucked into their wake. Will these two broke girls ever catch a break?

2 Broke Girls continues the tradition of edgy, sex joke-filled comedy that made other recent comedies like Two and a Half Men and Mike & Molly so much fun to watch. You never know what the characters are going to day or do, but you do know that it will be unpredictable and very, very funny!

Starring the extremely talented Kat Dennings (Thor, Thor: The Dark World) and Beth Behrs (Monsters University; Hello, My Name is Doris) along with a great supporting cast, 2 Broke Girlsdelivers the comedy episode after episode. It’s great fun!

Season Five’s Special Features include Unaired Scenes and a great Gag Reel. For a binge-worthy season of laughs, I recommend 2 Broke Girls: The Complete Fifth Season!

2 Broke Girls: The Complete Fifth Season is available September 20, 2016 on DVD!

What’s your favorite moment, episode, or line from the series? Leave a comment and let us know!