Joey’s Home Movies For the Week of June 30th – ‘Warfare’ is Hell

Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have Warfare coming home as the main new release hitting shelves. This week also features some 4K options, a new Criterion Collection debut, and more. So, the cupboards are far from bare. Read on for more…

Joey’s Top Pick

Warfare

Warfare is an intense experience. I’m actually not sure how it will play at home, given the immersive nature with which Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza drop you into the middle of a modern combat experience. You’re meant to be disorientated and overwhelmed. On your couch? I’m not certain that can happen. Still, it’s a quality film that’s worth checking out. My review at the time (here) began like so:

War is hell. That statement has been a staple of cinema since its inception. Film after film has opted to look at wars of all sorts, sometimes glorifying the national pride of battle, but more often focusing on the toll that conflict takes. Now, we have Warfare, which seeks to be the most immersive movie about war possible. When it comes to technical accomplishments, this flick is without peer. As for being a satisfying film on its own? Well, your mileage may vary there.

Warfare has unmatched intensity in depicting modern war. The tension in every scene is without peer. One of the loudest films ever, at least anecdotally, the technical aspects are incredible. Especially in IMAX, as my press screening was, the scope is amazingly immersive. To some degree, the lack of characterization and narrative allows you to feel a part of the action, so it’s completely by design. The thing is, it still keeps you from getting as much out of it as you otherwise would have.

Also Available This Week

Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut (4K)

Death of a Unicorn

Primary Colors (4K)

Ultraman: The Adventure Begins (TV)

Criterion Corner

The Big Heat

From The Criterion Collection: “Noir doesn’t get any more hard-boiled than this scorching tale of vice and retribution, a film that finds director Fritz Lang working at the peak of his Hollywood style—stripped to the bone, simmering with outrage, and fatalistic to the core. A tightly wound Glenn Ford stars as a homicide detective whose investigation into a sprawling crime syndicate becomes a shockingly personal, hate-fueled quest for revenge. Costarring an iconic Gloria Grahame as the mink-coated gangster’s moll with her own axe to grind, and featuring a supporting cast led by a sensationally sleazy Lee Marvin, The Big Heat hits with raw, unstoppable force.”

Stay tuned for more next week…