Ok, ok, it is part-way through the month, but with plenty of solid direct-to-video releases in November we didn’t want to leave you couch potatoes hanging (that’s how potatoes grow, right?) so let’s commence our rundown of key home video releases that bypassed general cinema releases. Oh, and some sweetly nostalgic, yet entertainingly violent, Blu-ray reissues.
Hummingbird
In a Nutshell: Jason Statham is a broken shell of a man with terrible long stringy hair who cleans up his act, shaves that dome of his and steps into another man’s well-tailored suits to assume his identity. It’s an improvement for this ex-special forces soldier on the lam from a court martial, but inevitably he gets mixed up with some unpleasant dudes and will have to utilise some of that Statham bag of tricks.
The Buzz: 48% on Rotten Tomatoes from 48 critics. Variety seemed to dig it, saying the film “puts an intriguing, intermittently successful spin on the sort of loner Statham so often embodies” and Time Out’s call is that it “doesn’t always work but wins points for originality”. On the other hand, The Arizona Republic worryingly reckoned Hummingbird “doesn’t have the chutzpah to let loose and be as dumb as it needs to be”.
Reason to Watch: Promising to be a bit more of a proper drama than we’re used to seeing Statham in, Hummingbird is the directorial debut from Steven Knight, writer of Eastern Promises and Dirty Pretty Things.
Released: Out now
Disconnect
In a Nutshell: Drama made up of loosely interlinking stories showing people’s struggles to connect in our wired contemporary world as well as the consequences when online activities go wrong. Workaholic lawyer Jason Bateman can’t be separated from his smartphone; couple Alexander Skarsgård and Paula Patton find their shared and personal secrets exposed by a stranger – and to each other; journalist Andrea Riseborough struggles to balance her ambition with attraction to an online teen “performer”; and, yes, there’s some cyber-bullying.
The Buzz: 68% on Rotten Tomatoes from 71 critics. The cast earn plenty of plaudits, The Washington Post for example saying “the film benefits from a superlative cast”. Disconnect‘s tone may be an issue for some, The Boston Globe noting that while the film is far from bad, “it’s just better at melodrama than drama”. Worryingly for an ensemble piece, unflattering comparisons are made with Babel as well as this snide doozy from the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “I preferred Disconnect 10 years ago when it was called Crash“.
Reason to Watch: There’s talent to check out on both sides of the camera. As well as the actors, filmmaker Henry Alex Rubin was mentored by James Mangold, directing the Second Unit on Cop Land and Girl, Interrupted before co-directing awesome doco Murderball. Can he make the transition to features? Let’s find out.
Released: Out now
A Field in England
In a Nutshell: Psychedelic, psychological freak-out from Ben Wheatley (Kill List,Sightseers), set in 1648 England. The potent properties of mushrooms and mysticism get the better of a small group of soldiers when they flee a battle and are confronted by hallucinogenic episodes, each other and their own tormented psyches.
The Buzz: 85% on Rotten Tomatoes from 27 reviews. Most reviews warn of the film’s tendency to polarise Wheatley fans and newcomers alike, with comments like the following from Time Out: “This is a film built on sensation, misdirection and randomness. The result can be maddeningly obtuse, but it’s also breathtakingly lovely and genuinely unsettling.” The Guardian seem a little lost for words (“what a unique film-maker Wheatley is becoming”) while the Observer do not beat around the bush (“almost unbearable”).
Reason to Watch: Plenty of film fans have been on board with Wheatley’s genre-bending exercises to date – but can you handle this slow-burning trip-out?
Released: Out now
Read more on ‘A Field in England’
Tabu
In a Nutshell: Winner of the Critics and Alfred Bauer awards (the latter for “opening new perspectives in film art”) at Berlin Film Festival 2012, this romance is told in two parts shifting between contemporary Portugal and colonial Africa.
The Buzz: 87% on Rotten Tomatoes from 52 reviews. Positive as most may be, many note the investment required on the part of the viewer if Tabu is to be enjoyed. Salon reckoned “if you have the patience to watch this film develop and unfold, like some bizarre night-blooming orchid, what you’ll see is not just the last movie released in 2012, but possibly the most original of them all”. And The Boston Globe noted “It almost seems a parody of willfully obscure art-house fare. Yet it has an undertow that sucks you in as often as it strands you back on shore”.
Reason to Watch: Beautiful idiosyncrasy.
Released: Out now.
Thanatomorphose
In a Nutshell: Canadian horror about a young and beautiful girl who suddenly finds her body going through the process of rotting decay. Ew!
The Buzz: Not many reviews out there for this, but Scott Weinberg at Fear.net says “those who will appreciate Thanatomorphose are the film buffs who enjoy the odd, the experimental, the avant-garde, or the “artsy-fartsy,” if that’s the term you prefer. Those who will detest the film will dismiss it as a plotless, pointless exercise in misery and graphic ugliness.”
Reason to Watch: If you’re ready to make the step from a character falling apart metaphorically to seeing it happen literally.
Released: Nov 20th.
Read more on ‘Thanatomorphose’
Welcome to the Punch
In a Nutshell: London action-thriller starring James McAvoy as a detective given a last chance to catch up with the criminal (Mark Strong) who has always eluded him. But as they face off, the pair find themselves having to team up against a common enemy.
And shoot them. With guns.
The Buzz: 50% from 48 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, many of which make similar observations – “derivative, dumb fun” says the Los Angeles Times; “One straight-faced gunfight after another, signifying nothing” complains the New York Post; “Proficient but personality-free” observes Variety; “So redolent of adolescent fantasy, you can practically hear a 12-year-old shouting ‘Blam!'” sighs Time Out New York.
Reason to Watch: You’re in the mood for a perfectly statistically-average action movie.
Released: Nov 20th.
Read more on ‘Welcome to the Punch’
Re-Issues of the Month
It’s a walk down memory lane and the shelves of Mt Albert’s Hollywood Video for me this month. Shock continue their solid run of Blu-ray reissues under the Cinema Cult banner with a trio of horror titles – Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond, Dead & Buried (once upon a time on the UK’s infamous banned list of “video nasties”) and the original (un-banned) Maniac. Meanwhile John Carpenter’s classic Roddy Piper-starring They Live is available for your paranoid alien-butt-kicking mullet-appreciating enjoyment. I am off to watch all of these right now. Seeya!
