Hot on Home Video: 'Juror #2,' 'Wicked'

JUROR #2

At age 94, Clint Eastwood keeps grinding away behind the camera, proving that he is still up to the task of cranking out taut courtroom dramas. Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland make up the strong cast in the film, which focuses on Hoult's titular character, who finds himself in a moral quandary that could sway justice in a murder case. 

While slow at times, the film manages to pack the typical Eastwood punch with some heavy-hitting suspense and drama.

WICKED

Nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, the film adaptation of the famed novel and Broadway musical is, for my money, the best adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" revisionist  prequel material yet. Clockwork-like choreography, dazzling visuals and inspired singing, dancing and acting performances make the film a thoroughly entertaining crowd-pleaser worth watching again and again. Director Jon M. Chu ("Crazy Rich Asians"_ gets the most out of his powerhouse cast, which includes Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage and Michelle Yeoh.

Loaded with extras, the film includes 10 deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, a sing along version and two commentary tracks, one involving filmmakers and the other featuring Erivo and Grande.

Phil on Film: 'I'm Still Here'

A passion project with political implications that span far past its borders and setting, the Best Picture Oscar-nominated "I'm Not Here" spins a quiet tale of oppression that spawns desperation.

Based on the Marcelo Rubens Pavia memoir, Director Walter Salles tells the true story of Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), a political dissident who was allegedly captured and murdered by the authoritarian Brazilian government in 1970. 

In powerhouse turns, Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro play Eunice Pavia, Rubens' wife, who is left scrambling to hold her family together while searching for answers.

Told with urgency and pragmatism, Salles' film revels in small slice-of-life moments that establish the flavor of what it was like to live in Brazil amid such turmoil. Salles' ear and eye for establishing tone flourish, helping lift many scenes to more than the sum of their parts.

The film is gorgeously shot and emotionally moving, but also somewhat draining and labored. Some sharper edits might have solidified the message and tightened the meandering narrative.

"I'm Not Here" is well worth seeing not only for Oscars completionists, but those who appreciate full-figured historical tone pieces. The film hits closer than ever to home, given the current political climate. "I'm Not Here" hits with brute force, just as intended.

Book Report: 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck'

 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mark Manson's self-help book has one of the greatest beginnings and endings I have ever encountered. He starts off with a brilliant essay on a counterintuitive method to attain success in life. While the bulk of his book can't fully support the initial thesis, falling back on the type of disingenuous, run-of-the-mill recommendations that he rails against, the initial message holds largely true.

Manson is an excellent teller of jokes and stories, and he crams plenty of gems into his prose. The most resounding point he comes to is that neither he, nor anyone else, truly knows what they are talking about, and those who bear those facts in mind will waste less time than others. Those are words to live by, and I will forever benefit from the advice. I'll also read every word of advice this man has to deliver.

The profound, somewhat frightening, ending describes a near encounter with death at the Cape of Good Hope. This is a truly terrifying passage, and told with vivacity and luster. I had chills.

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Hot on Home Video: 'Here,' 'Moana 2'

HERE

The writer, director and stars of "Forrest Gump" reunite for an inevitably less-satisfying yet oddly alluring drama. In something akin to a movie version of Walt Disney World's Carousel of Progress, director Robert Zemeckis tells a story that bounces along various generations. Tom Hanks and Robin Wright lead the cast as a married couple who struggle to weather the tragedy and heartbreak that life deals out.

Based on the Richard McGuire novel, the film leans hard into heavy-handed melodrama, often teetering over the edge into what feels like emotional manipulation. The generative AI that de-ages Hanks and Wright is at the same time amazing and off-putting, venturing deep into Uncanny Valley. "Here" is generally harmless, if uninspiring. For die-hard fans of "Forrest Gump," though, it's a must-see.

MOANA 2

Jumping back into the seas sailed in the 2016 film, the sequel manages to hit some of the same high points, but falls victim to the law of diminishing returns. 

The most glaring liability is the lack of Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose musical contributions to the first film yielded a nonstop succession of bangers. In the hands of less inspired and experienced composers, the musical numbers feel forced, mawkish and awkward. Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson manage to conjure similar chemistry to what they generated in the original movie, and the film is enough of a crowd-pleaser to merit entry into the rotation of lullaby or calm-down movies for families with small children. Those looking for the magic of the original, though, should stick with the 2016 film and hope for the best with the upcoming live-action remake.

Studios provided screeners for review.

Game Review: 'Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles' Remaster

The current "Star Wars" galaxy is far, far away from what existed back in 2000 when "Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles"  light saber-sawed its way into homes a year after the divisive "The Phantom Menace" blew up the box office.

The remastered version, released by the dev and publishing team at Aspyr, acts as something of a time machine to the era before the sequels and scattershot Disney TV series sullied the franchise's good name. 

A raucous, action-heavy shoot-and-'splode-em up, the game's story carries only a tenuous tie with with film in order to maximize creative and dramatic licenses with as much death and destruction as possible.

Improvements are myriad. The game plays faster and looser than it originally did, and offers more than 10 new playable characters, couch-co-up, improved graphics and uncountable quality-of-life adjustments to ease clunky interfaces that were all the rage at the dawn of the George W. Bush regime.

The untainted innocence on display is disarming. If love for the prequel-era franchise still flickers in your heart, you'll find plenty to adore here. Outrageous action, simplistic, yet oddly effective, writing and an emphasis of a bizarre, incongruous story are the headliners here/

This remastered version of "Jedi Power Battles" put a smile on my face, and it allowed me to show my kids a taste of what "Star Wars" games were like before they were born without having to dig up and dust off an old PlayStation or Dreamcast. The game is as warm and comfortable as the sands of Tatoine.

Publisher provided review code.

Game Review: 'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth' (PC)

Undoubtedly one of the best games of 2024, as well as one of the most impactful games in the sprawling "Final Fantasy" series, "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth" is a towering achievement that has had PC-exclusive gamers salivating for months. 

Rather than rush out a quick and dirty port to please the masses, with the cover that they could patch up any issues after launch, Square Enix took its time to make "Rebirth" feel, look and play like a work of art conceived and developed from the ground up for the PC platform.

Returning to the game after a lengthy break, this PC edition feels like just that. I refuse to call this a port. There are so many fine-tuned improvements, in nearly every conceivable area, that it feels something akin to a remastered Ultra HD Blur-ray director's cut to a classic film previously only available on standard Blu-ray.

Abounding with minigames and sidequests, "Rebirth" is a sensational continuation of the storyline of "Final Fantasy VII Remake" and "Final Fantasy VII Intergrade." Even though it's part of a multi-game tribute/remake of a classic, "Rebirth" still feels likes its own animal. From the opening titles, you feel thrust into a cinematic realm. 

"Rebirth" is also shamelessly goofy and a ton of fun. An absurd, off-kilter sense of humor abounds, helping ground the escapades whenever the tone gets too lofty. But the game also delivers decisive impact, both emotionally and viscerally. There are multiple battles that make you shake your head and utter "Did I just do that?" and then crave to re-experience. Even in it slower moments, "Rebirth" revels in its effortless grandiosity, gently moving along larger story moments with incremental revelations.

I adore "Rebirth," probably even more on PC than I originally did on the PS5, just because the distance in between my time with each version of the game drove home the reality that experiences like this in gamedom, or any media, are all too rare. "Rebirth" is reborn on PC, with a new lease on life and a new chance to capture, break and heal gamers' hearts worldwide.

Publisher provided review code.

Book Report: 'The Many Lives of Mama Love'

 

The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I didn't expect much from this memoir, but was bowled over by how wonderful and inspiring the storytelling was. Lara Love Hardin's tale of riches-to-jail-to-more-massive-riches is a modern-day fable.

Told in a self-deprecating incisively self-critical style, Hardin has you aghast at what at her spiral of self-destruction, in which she was as she flushed away her life of upper middle-class privilege in the name of drug addiction and imprisonment.

Her struggles with the contradictions of parole and rehabilitation are just as devastating, and her rise to fame and fortune as she scrapped together a literary agent career, which she parlayed into even greater success as a writer, is the fascinating payoff.

This is a wonderful book, exquisitely written and delivered with an understated dramatic flair that had me captivated. I hope there are more lives of Mama Love for Hardin to live and write about in the coming decades.

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Hot on Home Video: 'Venom: The Last Dance'

Tom Hardy shores up his dual-role trilogy in this splashy, if thin, finale, which brings the invigorating saga to a largely satisfying conclusion. Director Kelly Marcel deploys ample CGI for action scenes, and the film manages to thrive when it slows things down and revels in quite moments of incisive humor. Although not for all tastes, fans of the first two films will find plenty to savor here.

Extras include deleted and extended scenes, outtakes and bloopers, a featurette on Hardy's performances, character splotlights and a Tom Morello x Grandson music video. There's also a fitting tribute doc to the venom legacy and an interview with Mr. Chen.

Studio provided screener for review.