The Mule (2018) Is the Pick of the Week

I turned 43 last week. Apparently, I not only got a year older but I completely lost my memory too. I woke up this morning thinking everything was fine. I thought about the stack of Blu-ray movies I received in the mail yesterday and about the dates they needed to be reviewed. For a moment, I thought one of them was coming out this week and I panicked. Then I thought about my weekly article on new Blu-ray releases. Then I tried to think about what came out this week. Then I remembered I didn’t know what came out this week because I didn’t write an article on it. Or did I? Quickly checked the site to see if I had somehow wrote the article and forgotten about it. Nope. Crap. So here I am writing it on a Wednesday morning.

Getting old stinks, my friends.

So quickly, the new release pick this week is The Mule. Not because I’m all that interested in this particular movie but because there isn’t a lot that’s particularly interesting to me this week and I like Clint Eastwood. He stars in and directed this drama about a 90-year-old horticulturist and Korean War veteran who becomes a drug mule out of desperation (his flower business dries up, the bank forecloses on his farm, his family is distant). It also stars Andy Garcia as the cartel boss, Bradley Cooper and Michael Pena as the cops trying to catch him, and Diane Wiest as his ex-wife. Reviews were pretty middle of the road, but I like Eastwood as a performer and a director (even if I’m still miffed at him for the atrocity known as The 15:17 to Paris) and so I’m interested in watching this. Read David Wangberg’s review.

Also out this week that looks interesting:

Bumblebee: I watched the original Transformers movie back in 2007 and hated it. I’ve not seen any of the sequels and have remained baffled that they are so popular. I paid little attention to the fact that another one was coming out, specifically about Bumblebee. At least until the reviews started coming in surprisingly positive. I kept hearing it was actually good for a Transformers movie, which for me is a bit like saying it’s good for a communicable disease, but it has made me slightly intrigued. I figure when my daughter gets a little older, she’ll probably start watching the franchise and maybe when she gets to Bumblebee, I’ll actually watch it with her.

A Silent Voice: Animated film from Japan about a boy who bullied a deaf girl and was then ostracized for being so mean. Can he find redemption? Kent Conrad has our review.

Terra Formars: Arrow Video brings this Takashi Miike film about humans terraforming Mars with mutant cockroaches. When a group of Japanese are sent to the red planet to kill the bugs and start inhabiting the planet, well, this is a Miike film so you can bet what happens next is gonna be freaky.

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then Bigfoot: Sam Elliott stars in film about a veteran who killed Hitler during WWII (but it was a secret mission so he can’t tell anybody) and now he’s been given an assignment to kill Bigfoot. Obviously, I don’t know anymore than the (incredibly wonderful) title already tells you, but even if it’s a bad movie, I might just have to own it for the conversations it will start. David Wangberg has our review.

Vice: Adam McKay’s comedic biopic about former Vice-President Dick Chaney has a lot of talent behind it (it stars Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, and Bill Pullman amongst others) but I have zero desire to see it. I tried to watch his other politically charged film The Big Short and turned it off after 15 minutes.