Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week, we have one of the summer’s more enjoyable genre works hitting shelves in The End of Oak Street. Today also features the underrated and sadly under-seen The Rivals of Amziah King, though there’s other options, including Super Troopers 3 and The Uprising. Plus, the two Criterion Collection releases are heavy hitters in Harold and Maude and KPop Demon Hunters. What else is being released? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Pick
The End of Oak Street
I had a blast with The End of Oak Street, which mixed a bit of Amblin into it’s surprisingly visceral tale of dinosaurs running amok. Filmmaker David Robert Mitchell understands what few do about dinos, which are that they should be scary! That makes this so much fun, even more so than some of the Jurassic Park / Jurassic World installments we’ve seen. My rave review here on the site began like so:
Dinosaurs are scary again! Now, I have a very soft spot in my heart for the Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise, but with the exception of the original film, none of them have been fully successful, or really struck any fear into your heart. The End of Oak Street is very different than those movies, owing as much to Land of the Lost as the Jurassic flicks, but this is as indebted to Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin Entertainment as anything I’ve seen in years. In terms of pure summer science fiction entertainment? This is aces.
The End of Oak Street absolutely rips, mixing an Amblin sense of fun and family dynamics with dinosaurs that aren’t just scary, but actually feel dangerous. Pushing the PG-13 rating to the absolute limit, every moment in this film feels designed to give summer audiences what they want. That it’s able to do so in consistently surprising ways is just a bonus. Few movies can manage to deliver on expectations while also upending them. A summer blockbuster? That’s even rarer, and part of what sets this one apart from the pack.
Also Available This Week
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (TV)
Doctor Who: The Complete Matt Smith Years (TV)
Doctor Who: The Complete Peter Capaldi Years (TV)
Doctor Who: The Complete Jodie Whittaker Years (TV)
Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert
The Family Man (4K)
Game of Thrones: The Complete Collection (4K TV)
Gone with the Wind (4K)
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Complete Series (TV)
The Hill (Blu-ray)
The Last Airbender (4K)
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season 1 (4K TV)
Mutiny
Rick and Morty: Season 9 (TV)
Rookie Blue: The Complete Series (TV)
Scrooged (4K SteelBook)
Shrek (4K 25th Anniversary Edition)
The Strangers: Chapter 3
Superstore: The Complete Series (TV)
Super Troopers 3 (Interview with Broken Lizard here)
The Vampire Lestat (TV)
White Christmas (4K SteelBook)
Criterion Corner
Harold and Maude
From The Criterion Collection: “With the idiosyncratic American fable Harold and Maude, countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become one of cinema’s most beloved comedies. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man from a wealthy family (Bud Cort) and a devil-may-care bohemian sixty years his senior (Ruth Gordon). Equal parts gallows humor and beguiling sincerity, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light—along with those that separate people by class, gender, and age—and features indelible performances and a remarkable soundtrack by Cat Stevens.”
–
KPop Demon Hunters
From The Criterion Collection: “Few films have taken the world by storm quite like KPop Demon Hunters, an Academy Award–winning sensation overflowing with dazzling animation, unforgettable characters, and tenaciously catchy songs. At the film’s center is the chart-topping girl group HUNTR/X, whose three members—Rumi, Mira, and Zoey—have been busy juggling the pressures of stardom with their secret duty to shield their fans from supernatural forces. When their demon enemies suddenly take the form of a rival boy band, the trio must overcome their deepest self-doubts and use their music to protect humanity. Richly layered with references to Korean culture both ancient and modern, this generation-bridging phenomenon has inspired millions of fans with its message of friendship and self-acceptance.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
Comments
Loading…