Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Here comes another former official video nasty from the DPP hitlist looking better than it ever did at the time thanks to the wonders of modern remastering. Directed in 1978 by prolific Italian jack-of-all-trades Sergio Martino (who made the superior 1972 giallo All the Colours of the Dark), Mountain of the Cannibal God is probably the classiest of the entrail-ripping cannibal genre, thanks to a feisty lead turn from Ursula Andress and some decent production values.

When her husband Henry goes missing in darkest New Guinea, slinky adventuress Susan Stevenson (Andress) and her brother Arthur (Antonio Marsina, channelling Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hütter) enlist the services of her husband’s old friend Professor Edward Foster (a frazzled Stacy Keach). Foster reckons Henry’s at the mountain Ra Ra Me, forbidden to non-local explorers on account of it being cursed (by cannibals, as it turns out!). So, Susan and Edward head to the jungle like a proto Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone, the difference being that Romancing the Stone didn’t have scenes of gratuitous real-life animal slaughter, close-up disembowelment or everyone’s favourite cannibal flick moment where a bloke gets his John Thomas hacked off with bloody great knife. Be honest: you’d miss it if it wasn’t there (see what we did there?)

Sergio Martino stands with Umberto Lenzi (Cannibal Ferox) and Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust) as a director of substance who can’t help but elevate the material from the grindhouse mire. The action is visceral, the tension is well-wound and the ominous rhythmic incantations of the soundtrack by the ubiquitous Guido and Maurizio De Angelis has ‘180-gram vinyl limited edition’ stamped all over it. With Sri Lanka and Malaysia doubling for New Guinea, it also looks pretty terrific; the cave where Andress is kidnapped, stripped naked, and tortured is seriously epic in scale, especially in shots where it’s clear Martino has recruited massed-legions of local tribesman to the cannibal cause. Having said that, the savages here are all shortish fellas and have been made up with a bizarre blueberry tint to their hair which makes them look uncannily like the Umpa Lumpas from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So if you find yourself humming ‘Pure Imagination’ during the scene when one of them back-scuttles a large and completely disinterested wild boar, that’s the reason why. Keach phones it in but Andress really throws herself into the action; naked or clothed, she’s fearless – scenes in the accompanying documentary of her nearly getting swept away by raging torrents and the fulsome praise of her director will leave you in a similar state of admiration.

Shameless has done the decent thing and confronted the animal cruelty issue head-on, putting up a disclaimer that the material has been ‘softened’ on this newly-minted print, while previously-lost gore scenes that don’t involve cuddly lizards getting horribly eviscerated have been restored. Fine by us. The extras include a documentary looking at the filming of this very contentious material and a longer look back at the making of the film that sounds like it was a sweaty, leech-encrusted nightmare. Sergio Martino looms large and proves to be a sharp-minded, genial raconteur who, unlike some of his Italian peers, doesn’t look down on his home-grown genre from a great height. In other words, if you’re going to make this stuff, you may as well make it properly.

THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD (1978)  / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: SERGIO MARTINO / SCREENPLAY: CESARE FRUGONI, SERGIO MARTINO / STARRING: URSULA ANDRESS, STACY KEACH, CLAUDIO CASSINELLI, ANTONIO MARSINA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Spierig brothers (Michael and Peter) have consistently been two of the most exciting directors of genre cinema since their remarkably strong shoe-string budget debut, Undead, in 2003. Since then, they’ve brought us a world overrun with vampires in the criminally underrated Daybreakers, time-travel twists and turns in Predestination, and the long-awaited reboot of the Saw franchise with last year’s Jigsaw. Winchester is their latest project: a film based on the real-life story of Sarah Winchester, heiress of William Winchester who, at one point, held a 50% stake in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, making her one of the wealthiest women in the world at the time.

Sarah Winchester is best known for building the infamous Winchester Mystery House, a mansion and her personal residence in California that began construction in 1884 and continued, 24 hours a day and without interruption, until her death in 1922. It’s alleged that Sarah – benefactor of what could easily be deemed blood money due to the countless people killed by Winchester rifles – was wracked with guilt and became convinced that she was being haunted by the many victims of the firearms.

Supposedly, among her beliefs was the idea that the ghosts needed a place of residence and more space was constantly needed for each new soul – but also, the idea that if construction should ever stop on the house, then she would die. She also took to increasingly elaborate and nonsensical plans for rooms and extensions to the building (such as literal corridor mazes or staircases to nowhere) that were allegedly designed to confuse any haunting spirits and allow her to slip away from them if ever necessary. It’s a fascinating tale that’s so ripe for the horror movie picking that it’s genuinely baffling that it’s taken over 100 years for a film based on the story to be made.

Although there’s an obvious need to turn the story into something of a more conventional haunted house horror movie, it’s curious that the film takes the approach of casting Sarah Winchester in a supporting role, opting to follow Dr. Eric Price, a man hired by the Winchester company to stay with her and assess her mental health to ascertain whether or not she’s capable of remaining in charge of the company. The approach feels very derivative of horror ranging from The Woman in Black to Dracula, and you can’t help but wonder if positioning Sarah as the lead character would have worked better. Imagine a prestige biopic full of demons and ghosts. It’d be unique, if nothing else.

Whilst the lavish set art and design combined with sequences shot at the actual Winchester mansion, gorgeous cinematography and strong performances from Helen Mirren (as Sarah Winchester) and Sarah Snook (as her live-in relative, Marrion) do wonders to keep the film afloat, by reducing the story to being just another haunted house film built around jump-scares, the story is robbed of everything that might have made it special. Had the film been genuinely frightening, it might have succeeded in spite of this, but as talented directors as the Spierigs tend to be, it seems like jumpy horror isn’t in their wheelhouse as the film is a surprisingly flaccid affair with scares simply not landing or sometimes coming across as unintentionally comedic.

WINCHESTER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MICHAEL SPIERIG, PETER SPIERIG / SCREEPLAY: MICHAEL SPIERIG, PETER SPIERIG, TOM VAUGHAN / STARRING: HELEN MIRREN, JASON CLARKE, SARAH SNOOK, FINN SCICLUNA-O’PREY / EMM WISEMAN / ANGUS SAMPSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In the adventure genre, Raiders of the Lost Ark remains king of the yarns, followed by Big Trouble in Little China and Romancing the Stone – and then everything else.

Jake Speed was one of the latter.

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it theatrical and minor VHS release back in the late 1980s, Jake Speed gets a June 2018 Blu-ray release through Arrow Video and yet another of those winning re-issues of cult classics that the label is renowned for. Alongside Big Trouble in Little China, it is one that will definitely be welcomed by fans of 1980s home video.

The story opens in Paris, when a young woman, Maureen Winston (Becca C. Ashley) is kidnapped by white slave traders Africa-bound. Her sister, Margaret (Karen Kopins) is determined to get her back and seeks the assistance of renowned adventurer Jake Speed (Wayne Crawford) to get into the lion’s den, after contact with his associate and sidekick, Desmond Floyd (Dennis Christopher). Before long, the trail leads them to Africa, but it transpires that Jake and Desmond might be as dubious as the very people she is trying to rescue her sister from….

Jake Speed certainly has its adventurous heart in the right place and, given the talent of Spielberg or Zemeckis, would have been a real treat if the script had been written a lot tighter than it is here. As such, it is a movie that takes a little too long to get going, before the real nitty-gritty of the action arrives in an admittedly pacey climax.

Part of the problem is that Crawford and Kopins lack the essential chemistry that Ford and Allen and Douglas and Turner oozed in Raiders and Stone. It is something that Crawford (who was also a co-writer and co-producer of the film) should have addressed at the script development stage.

The late John Hurt turns up in a thankless role as the villain, which is pretty much par-for-the-course; and probably one of those roles the late great actor took for the money in the decade, which yielded far better work from him.

On balance, Crawford’s Speed comes over like a cross between Jacks Burtons and Colton, but lacking the timing and quick-fire quip that heightened Kurt Russell’s and Michael Douglas’ performances.

The style of the performances is reminiscent of The African Queen and the context of the story reminds one of The Wild Geese, with an African revolution taking place as the backdrop to the adventure our heroes find themselves in.

The film certainly will find favour with cult fans and those who enjoyed watching this on VHS back in the day and there is added appeal with a post-Saturday Night Fever appearance from Donna Pescow (who played Annette in the disco film classic and seriously under-used here) Fans of Peter Yates’ Breaking Away (1979) and the cult horror film Fade To Black (1980) will seek this out for Christopher.

The location work, plus a score by Mark Snow (Hart to Hart, The X-Files), adds to the limited charm of Jake Speed. Not a bad film overall, but not in the league of those classic adventure hits mentioned at the start.

JAKE SPEED (1986) / DIRECTOR: ANDREW LANE / SCREENPLAY: WAYNE CRAWFORD, ANDREW LANE / STARRING: WAYNE CRAWFORD, DENNIS CHRISTOPHER, KAREN KOPINS, JOHN HURT / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 4TH

Die Hard, eh? What really is there left to say? After all, this is a movie that’s now celebrating its 30th anniversary. And what better way to celebrate this particular milestone than by getting a swanky 4K Ultra HD makeover?

Of course, we guess we should at least brush over the plot details in at least the vaguest of ways. If for some reason you’ve never seen John McTiernan’s Die Hard, Bruce Willis plays John McClane, a New York cop who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That wrong place is his distant wife’s lavish office party at the Nakatomi Plaza, Los Angeles. That wrong time is Christmas Eve. What could go wrong at a Christmas bash, right? Well, how about a gaggle of terrorists – led by Alan Rickman’s iconic Hans Gruber – choosing that night to attack the tower in order to nab $600 million of bonds? Yep, that’ll do it.

The focus of our attention here, and quite likely yours, is obviously the new 4K transfer. Let’s just put it out there front-and-centre, Die Hard has simply never looked better. This is an absolutely stunning remaster of an old favourite, and this is a transfer that ranks up there as one of the best 4K efforts in the game. While some 4K do-ups can lose a little of the original spirit or overdo the richness a little, this has none of those issues whatsoever. Instead, what we’re given is a crisp, sharp and vibrant lick of paint for a film that is on the regular Christmas must-watch list of many (and yes, Die Hard is totally a festive flick). From the clammy intensity of McClane’s time spent crawling through air vents, to the glitz of the LA skyline, to the explosive gun-toting action, the 4K transfer only adds further to each and every moment of this 1988 classic.

So to sum this up, is yet another release of Die Hard worth adding to your collection? In this case, most certainly if you’re after the very best viewing experience possible. The film itself is as great as it’s ever been, with this still standing loud and proud as one of the very best action pictures of all time. Bruce Willis made his mark in the action genre, firmly shaking off the shackles of Moonlighting and thrusting himself instantly in to the Hollywood A-list. Similarly, Alan Rickman delivered a performance that stands as a truly iconic villainous turn, with his Hans Gruber devouring scenery at every turn. And sticking with performances, genre fave Paul Gleason can’t help but steal the show as asshole Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson.

If there’s a slight downside to Die Hard: 30th Anniversary Edition, it’s that the special features included on this two-disc release are nothing new. That’s not to say that they’re not impressive, with the audio commentary from director John McTiernan and production designer Jackson DeGovia the main standout where the bonus material is concerned.

When all is said and done, if you’re one of those people who loves nothing more than seeing your old favourites in glorious 4K, this is a release that should be making its way to your collection ASAP. Yippe-ki-yay indeed.

Special Features: Audio commentary with John McTiernan and Jackson DeGovia / Scene specific audio commentary with Richard Edlund / Subtitle text commentary by cast and crew / Newscast footage / Trailers and TV spots / Interactive stills gallery

DIE HARD: 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JOHN MCTIERNAN / SCREENPLAY: STEVEN E. DE SOUZA, JEB STUART / BRUCE WILLIS, ALAN RICKMAN, DE’VOREAUX WHITE, REGINALD VELJOHNSON, BONNIE BEDELIA, PAUL GLEASON, WILLIAM ATHERTON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In the years since Chicken Run’s $200m+ success, Aardman’s subsequent features have been released to diminishing box office returns, this year’s Early Man the first to fail to recoup its budget during its theatrical release. The reason is perhaps because Aardman, and their creator-in-chief Nick Park – who here returns as director after four films under other auspices – have become the victims of their own success. Early Man might ostensibly be about a football match between a team of cavemen and their Bronze Age counterparts, but the backdrop and particulars are no more than the trimmings on yet another story about some wide-mouthed, gap-toothed Plasticine nobody who learns to rise above their lack of station in order to achieve something greater than they could ever have imagined. It’s not that it’s not a story worth telling, and re-telling as often as you can keep it fresh; rather the issue is that Aardman, and Park in particular, keep telling it in much the same way. Once you’ve seen the prehistoric panorama within which Early Man largely takes place – and it is worth seeing – there really isn’t much here you won’t recognise from any number of Park’s previous projects.

There’s a level of professionalism, invention and craftsmanship at Aardman that prevents this from even beginning to approach the level of massive disappointment, however (it is, in truth, just a minor one). The aforementioned sets are sumptuous, the seam of very British comedy that runs through Aardman’s work is very much present, and the story, while predictable, is nevertheless engaging – if especially slight (the film’s content runs to just 75 minutes, the following twelve comprising the credits scroll). Eddie Redmayne and a slightly underused Maisie Williams hit every necessary beat as the principal characters, although it’s the likes of Timothy Spall in the supporting cast who you’ll really care about. And yes, there’s a non-speaking, substitute Gromit spot for Park to voice himself too. But it’s Tom Hiddleston as Lord Nooth, the evil (and French) bronze-obsessed king who wants to set up a mine in the cavemen’s valley, who absolutely steals the film, with a deliciously ripe performance that was patently a joy for the actor to play.

The choice of football as a theme (this is the claymation equivalent of One Million Years B.C. meets Escape to Victory) was obviously designed to appeal to children and general audiences alike, although its European flavour perhaps explains the film’s underperformance in North America, and does give Early Man a very odd balance of elements. There’s not a great deal of actual football, understandably, but the climactic match is handled well.

There’s no doubt whatsoever that if you’ve enjoyed previous Aardman productions you’ll like this one too. But perhaps just slightly less than Shaun the Sheep Movie or Chicken Run. With sequels to both of those films on the horizon, it seems the company are consolidating their successes rather than looking to expand their horizons, which might be a wise move – but is nevertheless a shame.

 

Extras: audio commentary / seven making-of featurettes

 

EARLY MAN / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: NICK PARK / SCREENPLAY: MARK BURTON, JAMES HIGGINSON / STARRING: EDDIE REDMAYNE, TOM HIDDLESTON, MAISIE WILLIAMS, TIMOTHY SPALL, MIRIAM MARGOLYES, ROB BRYDON, RICHARD AYOADE, JOHNNY VEGAS, MARK WILLIAMS / RELEASE DATE: MAY 28TH

“Nobody really knows when the world became this way… the contagion suddenly started… and humans were seen as illegal residents and exterminated.”

Sometimes anime can be lushly beautiful and tell a deeply resonating story, and sometimes it can look fantastic but just pile on the same tired old tropes we’ve seen too many times before. Unfortunately, Blame! does the latter and, unless you’re already a hardcore fan of the manga it’s based on or you really need to sit through a severely reworked and distilled adaptation of the original seven-part animation, I’d recommend giving this one a miss.

Blame! takes place in a decaying future universe where, thanks to a virus, humans have lost control of their technology and their formerly robotic slaves have now become their hunters. Into this mix comes a young scavenger called Zuru who braves the city’s numerous threats – the watchtowers and the builders – to find food for her village. But when Zuru meets Killy the Wanderer and learns there may be a chance for her people to fight back, the city’s ruthless defensive system goes into overdrive to eliminate the human threat.

Blame! is kinetic, dark and dirty with a cast of likeable protagonists who obviously have their work cut out for them on a daily basis. As you’d expect, certain death is constantly looming on the dystopian horizon and jeopardies come so thick and fast they’re practically leapfrogging over one another to find out which of our plucky heroines and heroes they can menace first. This is a story that’s all about the city it’s located in, and the immense gorgeous vastness of the backdrops convincingly makes our characters look like tiny armoured mice in a death-trap maze, ready to be crushed at a moment’s notice. From that point of view, director Hiroyuki Seshita and his team of animators and CG keyboard jockeys have done their jobs very well. And the portentous chanty musical score acquits itself nicely too. From the opening moments, we’ve got no doubt that high stakes are in play.

But from the opening moments we’ve got no doubt of something else too – we’re in no doubt that we’re in territory where all the imagination has gone into the visuals and the script has been left to fend for itself on a diet of clichés, mechanical diatribes, and characters with backstories that are supposed to pull on our heartstrings but just leave us wanting to thumb the off button. It’s a shame because as moving wallpaper to put on during a party Blame! would be great, but as a story that’s going to keep you engaged and awake, it fails on every narrative level.

BLAME! / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: HIROYUKI SESHITA / SCREENPLAY: SADAYUKI MURAI / STARRING: TAKAHIRO SAKURAI, KANA HANAZAWA, SORA AMAMIYA, MAMORU MIYANO / RELEASE DATE: MAY 28TH

As critic Kim Newman points out in his interview that accompanies this new Blu-ray release of 1975’s Breakheart Pass, the decade produced all kinds of films, not just revolutionary classics by Scorsese, Coppola et al, the birth of the modern blockbuster or the various genre pictures that came out. This action-western-mystery sits within the broadly populist set of films that also featured many other westerns, cop thrillers, disaster pictures and romantic comedies designed to achieve nothing grander than entertaining their audiences for a couple of hours in theatres.

That’s not meant as a slight against it either, after all a full film appreciation is made up of at least a little of everything and simply being entertaining is an entirely noble aim for a movie. And so it proves with director Tom Gries’ lean and thrilling flick, which follows the mystery that unfolds when alleged cowardly killer Charles Bronson is picked up by Marshall Pearce (Ben Johnson) in a small outpost town and loaded onto a train headed for an army camp. Also along for this ride is Governor Fairchild (Richard Crenna), the daughter of the army camp’s colonel and the Governor’s fiancé Marcia (Jill Ireland) and army Major Claremont (Ed Lauter) amongst a number of other solid character actors.

The mystery side of the film kicks in when, Murder on the Orient Express-style, the train’s inhabitants start getting picked off one by one. Someone on board doesn’t want their secret to come out and will kill to protect it. Perhaps Bronson, who is more than he first seems, will be the one to solve it. It’s a convoluted journey to the truth which is reached through plenty of (often literally) punchy action sequences as that great cast and the train hurtles across dangerous high bridges and through the snowy wilderness. It’s a fun film that whips by and, a few moments of brief but bloody violence aside, is one for the whole family.

This new release has a solid transfer which is for the most part sharp and clear. It’s good enough to display the wonderful scenery throughout and the plentiful action scenes with detail. That Newman interview is the only extra but it’s a good one, 25 minutes in which he enthusiastically sings the praises of such films, talks about author and screenwriter Alistair MacLean and provides context for what makes Breakheart Pass and films like it such a good time. Fans of the film won’t find a better release of it out there and, with the movie itself a great example of crowd-pleaser done right, it’s easy to recommend.

BREAKHEART PASS (1975) / CERTIFICATE:  / DIRECTOR: TOM GRIES / SCREENPLAY: ALISTAIR MACLEAN / STARRING: CHARLES BRONSON, BEN JOHNSON, RICHARD CRENNA, JILL IRELAND, CHARLES DURNING, ED LAUTER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Frank Valera (Banderas) is a fast-talking, slick and slimy defence lawyer spouting over 80,000 words per day – his figures – for his job when, as he states, only three are really what he needs: ‘I love you’. Missing his daughter’s talent show performance through work, he admits in a voiceover he doesn’t use those words enough, but as his wife and daughter are murdered on their way home that night he can never use them again. And so, Frank takes a vow of silence until he has avenged them.

Acts Of Vengeance is a film entirely reliant on expectations. Maintain relatively low ones and there is a good chance you will enjoy Isaac Florentine’s film for what it is: a reasonable action-thriller in a sub-genre created by the standard-setter Taken. The issue is that we suspect the filmmakers’ expectations were a little higher, as the plot is split into parts beginning with title cards featuring quotes from Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius’ writings Meditations. Clearly designed to elevate the film above the usual middle-aged-man-seeks-vengeance fare that features regularly on the straight to VOD lists in recent years – see Pierce Brosnan (The November Man) or Mel Gibson (Blood Father) – this only serves to draw attention to the flimsy, unoriginal plot.

Borrowing from all manner of similar films and television shows, Acts Of Vengeance fails to blend these elements into a cohesive narrative. The moody aesthetic is reminiscent of John Wick – and there’s even a dog – while the sympathetic nurse with a past echoes Marvel’s Daredevil and Luke Cage. There is a rather clunky training montage as Frank goes from weak lawyer to a kick-ass, highly trained fighter in just one year, and as his vow of silence continues Frank’s hearing apparently becomes more acute, again in just a few months. Too many borrowed plot points that render Florentine’s film confused and cliché-ridden.

All that said there is some enjoyment to be found. Banderas is always an engaging screen presence and almost, almost carries off the brooding father character despite the faint preposterousness inherent in several moments. Paz Vega tries her intriguing best as the under-written nurse Alma and Karl Urban is always worth watching, albeit as little more than a cameo and his character might have well entered shot carrying a huge sign.

As we said, it’s about expectations. Expect little and Acts Of Vengeance is a reasonably enjoyable if instantly forgettable genre thriller. Expect more and, well, you have been warned.

ACT OF VENGEANCE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ISAAC FLORENTINE / SCREENPLAY: ALEXANDER PAYNE, JIM TAYLOR / STARRING: ANTONIO BANDERAS, KARL URBAN, PAZ VEGA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Alexander Payne has made quite the name for himself over the years thanks to quirky, charming efforts such as Sideways and About Schmidt. Having been in some form of development since 2004, his latest effort – Downsizing – is now available on home release, but is this another homerun for the talented Nebraska native, or is this pint-sized picture a rare misstep?

When a scientific breakthrough sees “downsizing” become a way of dealing with overpopulation, global warming, and financial difficulties, many people decide to be shrunk down to a teeny-tiny five inches. For Paul (Matt Damon) and Audrey Safranek (Kristen Wiig), a college reunion starts to get the cogs turning that this could well be a very real option for them as they look to shake themselves out of their midlife funk, financial issues, and what-could-have-beens. Deciding to undergo the procedure and move to Leisureland, the Safraneks are lined up for a life that not only decreases their carbon footprint and is far more environmentally friendly, but they can live like millionaires due to the far, far cheaper cost involved in being so small. Unfortunately, a major curveball is just around the corner and all is not quite as smooth sailing as this married couple were expecting.

Downsizing is quite the peculiar picture, with it being equally as stunning as it is flawed. The first half of the film is charming, captivating, efficient, and rather clinical in establishing just why somebody would want to be “downsized” and what the reality of that process entails. Sadly though, once said shrinking occurs, Downsizing loses its way and stumbles through an anticlimactic conclusion and a final act that you unfortunately find yourself with very little investment in. While the establishing elements brilliantly highlight the shared existence of tiny people in the greater, larger world, once the action begins to play out within the pint-sized world then a sense of scale and intrigue is lost. To its credit, there is still a large dollop of heart present in the movie throughout, and the shrunken-down Damon strikes up a life-questioning friendship with Hong Chau’s Ngoc; a Vietnamese activist who was forcefully shrunk by her own government. Similarly, Christoph Waltz turns up to devour scenery as an eccentric playboy who just so happens to have his fingers in plentiful black-market pies.

While you may go in to Downsizing expecting to see Matt Damon or Kristen Wiig claim the picture as their own, it’s Hong Chau who absolutely steals the show with a performance that is brutally honest, splendidly comedic when needed, and overflowing with a sense of moral compass.

Downsizing isn’t quite the outright classic that many of us were hoping for, but similarly it’s far from being any sort of a bad picture. Instead, we have a movie that establishes its premise impressively well before ultimately losing its intrigue and sheen as things play out; which in itself almost mirrors the journey experienced by Damon’s Paul Safranek.

All in all, this is a case of good-not-great, which is no bad thing. It’s more that this feels like such a missed opportunity to be something truly exceptional after such a strong opening hour.

Special Features: Six featurettes

DOWNSIZING / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER PAYNE / SCREENPLAY: ALEXANDER PAYNE, JIM TAYLOR / STARRING: MATT DAMON, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, KRISTEN WIIG, HONG CHAU, JASON SUDEIKIS, UDO KIER / RELEASE DATE: MAY 28TH