I’ve been writing this column for several years now and I still have no idea how the people who make decisions on when Blu-rays are going to be released decide on when a Blu-ray is going to be released. Last week, we had loads of great stuff coming out. This week we’ve a bunch of junk. Well, that’s not quite true; there are several semi-interesting things coming out just nothing really big and exciting. I have no idea why that is. Do people buy a lot of movies for Easter? Are chocolate bunnies out and Blu-rays in?
Next week finds a bunch of other cool stuff coming out. If I were the guy who makes decisions, I think I’d drop a few big-ticket items this week and fill in the gap. But what do I know I just buy the things and write about them on the side.
I watched Insidious along with another James Wan-directed horror film, The Conjuring, last summer during the long week my wife took the kid to Kentucky to see the grandfolks. I really loved The Conjuring which is the “true” story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators whose previous exploits were made into The Amityville Horror. Wan previously made Saw, the pretty-good horror film about a psycho killer who uses demented puzzles to kill people in increasingly gruesome ways.
Insidious is a haunted-house, exorcist-style horror film about a young boy who goes into a coma and becomes a vessel for lots of ghosts and ghouls. It has some good scares, but the story was pretty silly. I might have like it better had I not watched The Conjuring first, which covers some of the same territory.
All of these films have become horror franchises. Insidious: The Last Key is the fourth and presumably final chapter of the franchise (though one never knows with horror films). It’s about…well, it’s about scary stuff, presumably somebody gets possessed, other people die and there’s probably some blood and guts. I haven’t really read anything about it. I haven’t seen the other two sequels in the franchise yet. There was a time when I watched all kinds of horror films, but with a wife and child who don’t like them, and an increasingly long list of films I want to see but have to wait until both of them are in bed or am otherwise distracted, horror sequels tend to not get their due.
I told you it was a slow week and so it is. The other film I’ll talk about in a moment is probably better than this one, but even though I tend to not watch horror films like I used to I still have a soft spot for them.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Sweet Virginia: Jon Berthhal, Christopher Abbott, and Imogen Poots star in this drama about a rodeo champ who befriends a man with a propensity for violence.
Permanent: Comedy about bad hair, adolescence, and socially awkward family members starring Rainn Wilson and Patricia Arquette.
Ballers: the Complete Third Season: This series about a group of football players and their handlers always seemed like HBOs attempt to regain the dumb male audience that misses Entourage.
Father Figures: Two fraternal twins go searching for their father whom they thought was dead. Stars Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, J.K. Simmons, and Glenn Close, whom you would think could make something interesting, but the reviews have been dreadful.
My Father the Hero: An underage Katherine Heigl pretends that her father, Gerard Depardieu, is her lover for reasons one cannot quite fathom. Luigi Bastardo has the review you should read to spare you from actually watching it.
