FATHER FIGURES (2017) (Movie Review)

FATHER FIGURES (2017) 

Label: Warner Bros.
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 113 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1) 
Director: Lawrence Sher 
Cast: Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, J.K. Simmons, Katt Williams, Terry Bradshaw, Ving Rhames, Harry Shearer, June Squibb, Christopher Walken, Glenn Close

Father Figures (2017) is a road comedy starring Owen Wilson (Bottle Rocket) and Ed Helms (Vacation) as twin brothers who find out everything they thought they knew about their late father was a lie - that the guy in the photos their mom told them was their dad who died when they were very young was just a college friend, that's she's not sure who their father was. She explains that it was the 70's and apparently mom got around the New York disco scene. This startling revelation about their mother's promiscuity births a road trip with the brothers taking to the road in hopes of identifying their father by tracking down mom's former lovers, beginning with former footballer Terry Bradshaw playing himself. 

The trip evolves into a brother-bonding experience punctuated by the usual sibling bickering and bathroom humor, throw in a could-be incestuous detour and you have all the makings of a standard issue r-rated comedy with cameos from J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man) as a financial banker turned car thief and Christopher Walken (The Dead Zone) as a veterinarian with a connectin to the family, plus comedian Katt Williams as a hitchhiker they pick up along the way.

Wilson and Helms are simply riffing on character types they've played many, many time before, there's nothing new under the sun here, but they have a decent chemistry and play off each other well enough for this middle of the road road trip. While there's ample opportunity to explore the characters with more depth this one comes off fairly shallow, though I did find myself laughing quite a bit so it's not bad. Not bad, but not original or particularly clever in it's humor either, but I'm the sort of guy who thinks an adolescent  kid and an grown man pissing on each other at the urinal is funny stuff, and then Glenn Close brings it all home at the end with a heartwarming twist that I'll be honest, brought some moisture to my tear ducts, I couldn't help myself, I'm a softie when it comes down to it. 

Father Figures is a pretty average comedy, but it's an average comedy with a fair amount of laughs and some good onscreen brotherly ribbing/bonding between Helms and Wilson. I don't expect much from a mainstream comedy these days, and this didn't offer much either, but it made me laugh and had some heart, so mission accomplished, that's all I require. 

Blu-ray Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes
- Hilarious Gag Reel

Father Figures (2017) arrives on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment with a gag reel and some deleted scenes as extras, it's also available streaming on various digital platforms. 

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) (4K UHD Review)

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) 

Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment 
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 120 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD 7.1, DTS-HD MA 5.1 MA with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 2160p HD Widescreen (2.40:1) 
Director: Zach Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Ezra Miller, Jeremy Irons, Ray Fisher, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Jason Momoa, Ciaran Hinds, Connie Nielsen, J.K. Simmons

Ever since I was a kid watching the Super Friends animated series on TV I had dreams of a live-action Justice League movie, and it holy cow it finally happened, so that's pretty awesome right?  It was DC properties Superman (1978) and Batman (1989) that arrived on the silver screen first, beating Marvel to the cinema by decades, but Marvel have been killing it in the modern age beginning with Iron Man, going on to create a Marvel movie universe that's largely been cohesive and varied. The Marvel movies have what feels like a grand design, the tone while not consistent always feels connected, which is not something I can really say of the DC films so far. The overall tone of the DC movies have been dire and overly serious, a tone set by Christopher Nolan with Batman Begins (2005), which I don't think is a bad thing on it's face, but you sort of want a superhero movie to be fun, right? Man of Steel (2013) and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) also were overly serious, as was Suicide Squad (2016), but that at least had some fun moments. Wonder Woman (2017) was firing on all cylinders, it had a sort of epic grandeur missing from the DC films up to that point, so it looked like maybe DC was on the right track, doing a bit of course correcting. Sure enough DC have really tried to bring some humor to Justice League, though the final film is a mixed bag. Director Zack Snyder left the film after his daughter passed away during production, it was then that Joss Whedon (who directed Marvel's Avengers) who was already on the project to provide a script polish was brought in to finish the film and you can feel it, the tonal differences between Snyder and Whedon is quite evident, and it doesn't make for the most cohesive film. Sure, a lot of us wanted more humor and superhero-banter, so maybe we have ourselves to blame, but sometimes you just want Batman to be an unflappable guy, not the guy who gets flustered in an embarrassing word fumble with Superman!

In the events following Batman V Superman we have Batman assembling a team of superheros in the absence of Superman, Batman sees the need to a team of superheros to combat a coming threat, and the new team consists of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash. The new baddie is one of the New Gods, Steppenwolf and his horde of para-demons, a war-mongering minion of Darkseid, the tyrannical ruler of the planet Apokolips, who sadly is absent from this film. 
Steppenwolf makes for a decent villain, though largely underdeveloped and he's only a placeholder for the big baddie that coming, Darkseid.  Not helping is that I didn't love the motion-capture presentation of the character, in general I didn't love a lot of the special effects of the film, as an example the final confrontation taking place in a Russian, I though the whole red-sky tinted thing looked rather awful honestly, the digital rendering looking cheesy through and through and the live-action and digital elements not mixing well, and don;t get me started on the scenes of Cavil as Superman with a hideous digital removal of a mustache, ugh. That's not to say there aren't decent action set-pieces, a few of my favorites are an early scene of Wonder Woman rescuing a bank full of innocents from terrorists and Steppenwolf visiting  Themyscira to retrieve one of three Mother Boxes he needs to destroy Earth, with him battling the warrior women, it's one of my favorite sequences.  

Looking at the heroes I'm a big fan of Ben Affleck's Batman, I think he's a great version of the caped crusader, and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is still near perfection to me. While I think Henry Cavil is still too cold of a character as Superman I think this is his best performance to date as the Man of Steel so far. Looking at the new recruits I enjoyed Jason Momoa's very bro-ish surfer dude take on Aquaman, it worked for this version of the character, I didn't even mind the goofy bit where he accidentally sits on the lasso of truth and has a tender confessional to the group. Ezra Miller as the Flash was a bit too Spider-Man-ish for me, I love Spider-Man but I never really thought of the Flash as that sort of  quip-y character, and I/m a huge fan o The Flash TV series, so anyone not Grant Gustin is going to be struggle foe me, and Miller has a very Justin Long-ish quality about him that sort of annoyed me. Ray Fisher as Cyborg is too down-played, I wasn't feeling him, not helping was that I didn't care for his character design either, though there's a later post-credits scene where it morphs into something a bit difference that I liked more. 

At the end of the day it's an entertaining but seriously flawed  superhero movie, it's definitely not one of the greats, it's not even the best modern DC superhero movie, that honor goes to Wonder Woman. This might have something to do with the way DC tends to make movies by committee, there always seems to be re-shoots based on what they feel the audience wants, and it seems like it always a knee-jerk reaction to what worked for Marvel. JL feels like "we need to make it more like the Avengers", to the point that Avengers director Joss Whedon was brought into polish the script and eventually helm the re-shoots.  The tonal shifts draw attention to themselves and don't make for the most satisfying watch, the stitched togetherness of it in fails to allow and moments of epic superhero grandeur that these characters deserve.     

Audio/Video: Justice League (2017) arrives on Blu-ray/4K UHD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment framed in 2.40:01. Having caught this in the cinema I can tell you that this things looks rather brilliant on the 4K screen at home, colors are dynamic and thoroughly saturated, there's a nice crispness to the image, the colors played wonderfully, it dips into that DC-ish monochromatic palette from time to time, but this thing is impressive looking. Likewise the Dolby Atmos audio is bombastic and deep, the Danny Elfman score comes through wonderfully, plenty of use of the surrounds to create an atmospheric sound design, my bass was rumbling throughout, nothing to complain about in the A/V department - this sucker is bad ass.  

Onto the extras, we get over an hour's worth of HD extras from the history of the JLA in comics and TV, to the technology of the heroes, the design of the costumes and featurettes about a few of th notable action sequences. While we sadly don't get a Zack Snyder workprint or loads of deleted scenes we do get two very brief bonus scenes featuring Superman after his resurrection, but they don't add up to a lot, I wish they had packed this sucker with loads of deleted scenes which we know are out there somewhere! My favorite of the extras is the history of the JLA with the artists and creators spanning fifty years, they even reference the Super Friends TV show which was my introduction the the DC heroes. This 2-disc set includes a Blu-ray, a 4K UHD and a Movies Anywhere digital code, plus a slipcover (o-card). 

Special Features: 
- Road to Justice: Journey alongside DC comic creators as they explore over fifty years of the Justice League, from comic books to animated adventures to their cinematic debut. (14 min) HD
- Heart of Justice: Discover the heart, soul and mind of the Justice League, as the cast and filmmakers share their admiration for DC’s iconic Trinity: Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman (12 min) HD 
- Technology of the Justice League: From Batman’s arsenal to Cyborg’s alien tech, interface with the Justice League database to learn their most advanced secrets. (8 min) HD 
- Justice League: The New Heroes: Join Ray Fisher on a personal tour to meet the newest members of the Justice League: Aquaman, the Flash and Cyborg. (12 min) 
- The Return of Superman: Bonus scenes not seen in theaters(2 min) HD 
- Steppenwolf the Conqueror: Join actor Ciarán Hinds and the filmmakers as they reveal the story behind mankind’s ancient enemy and the Justice League’s greatest challenge. (3 min) HD 
- Scene Studies: Revisiting the Amazons: Take a closer look at the filmmaking process behind Justice League’s most visually exciting and action-packed sequences (3 min) HD 
- Scene Studies: Wonder Woman’s Rescue: Take a closer look at the filmmaking process behind Justice League’s most visually exciting and action-packed sequences (3 min) HD 
- Scene Studies: Heroes Park: Take a closer look at the filmmaking process behind Justice League’s most visually exciting and action-packed sequences (5 min) HD
- Scene Studies: The Tunnel Battle: Take a closer look at the filmmaking process behind Justice League’s most visually exciting and action-packed sequences (4 min) HD
- Suit Up: The Look of the League - Costume Designer Michael 
Wilkinson explores the innovation and artistry that goes into creating the costumes of DC’s iconic heroes. (10 min) HD 

Obviously I didn't love Justice League, and I really wanted to LOVE it with all my super-hero loving heart, but like most of the DC movies it is a mixed bag. On one hand it's a big, fun superhero movie, it's loud and loaded with big action, but on the other hand it's tonally all over the place and doesn't live up to the promise of what a Justice League movie should be. While I am not a huge Zack Snyder fan I would be keen to see his cut of the film if it exists, just to see his singular vision, because what we have here is a movie with multiple conflicting visions thrown together in a soup pot, and the results are over-spiced to the point of blandness. My feelings for the movie itself aside I can pretty much guarantee that the phenomenal 4K UHD presentation will knock your underoos right off!  

Blu-ray Review: DARK SKIES (2013)

DARK SKIES (2013) 

2-Disc DVD + Blu-ray + Ultraviolet 

Label: Starz/Anchor Bay Entertainment

Release Date: May 28th 2013 

Region Code: 1/A NTSC

Rating: PG-13

Duration: 97 Minutes 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.40:1) 

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio with Optional English Subtitles

Cast: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett, J.K. Simmons 
Director: Scott Stewart


The Barret family is your typical suburban family, a caring father Daniel (Josh Hamilton), attentive Mom Lacy (Kerri Russell), teenage son Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and his adolescent sibling Sammy (Kadan Rockett). Daniel is unemployed and his wife is a struggling real estate agent, things at home are tense and worsening as overdue  mortgage notices pour in. Teenager Jesse's hormones are emerging as he dabbles with weed, porn and sexuality, he's a pretty typical teen struggling with issues of young love and self identity. The youngest son Sammy begins having strange late night encounters with his imaginary friend the Sandman who tells him to do things, he walks in his sleep, too. 

Things start to get a bit strange when mom wakes up from her slumber one night and ventures downstairs after hearing noises, she finds the fridge wide open with it's contents strewn across the floor, a trail of food leads out the backdoor. Daniel chalks it up to a stray animal entering the house through an open door but Lacy is not so convinced, the experience leaves her a bit frazzled and paranoid with worry for her family's safety  The following night she again wakes up with the feeling that something is off,  this time discovering canned food items stacked in a weird geometric pattern which projects a peculiar light pattern onto the ceiling. The suburban setting, weird encounters and stacked items, hmm, this sort of sounds familiar, definitely starting to detect the Spielbergian influence of Poltergeist and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and I'm rather enjoying it.

The strange events continue to grow in frequency and severity, the authorities are called in but attribute the occurrences to pranks that are being perpetrated by the family's children, perhaps spurred on by the growing uneasiness in the household. Thing worsen as the home security system repeatedly malfunction, Sammy sleepwalking continues and various family members experience episodes of missing time they cannot account for and fits of catatonia, nosebleeds, and epileptic seizures. One night Lacey walks into Sammy's room after hearing him speaking to someone, opening the door she is unnerved by a weird shadowy figure, Sammy's Sandman, hovering over his bed she understandably freaks out, a parent can only take so much strain, it's an effective little startle when both the figure and Sammy disappear from the room.   

At their wit's end the father sets-up video surveillance throughout the home in an attempt to sleuth just what is happening to his family before they all completely unravel. At this point I feared the worst sort of turn, anticipating a detour straight into found footage purgatory but thankfully it doesn't quite go there, just dipping it's toe in t test the waters.  

The film excels at creating tension steadily from the first few scene, it's creepy stuff and the filmmaker does a decent job blurring the lines between fiction and reality, there's a lot of psychological weirdness going punctuated by surreal nightmare visions. The performances are quite strong, particularly mom and dad who do a great job of falling apart onscreen, unable to cope with the fantastical and unexplainable events happening to their family they unravel. There's a nice cameo from J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man) as a alien visitation specialist, it's underplayed and effective, you can feel his character's weariness and resignation, a picture of things to come for the family. 

There are moments when the film starts to drag, the character actions are questionable and the amped-up and weird ending doesn't quite live up to the promise of the film's set-up, but it's not awful either, there's nothing egregious here. Dark Skies is an effective suburban alien abduction nightmare, nicely executed with some decent atmosphere and surreal moments of unreality, a recommend for fans of Super 8, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Poltergeist and Insidious.

Blu-ray: Somehow I missed this one in theaters, the shitty ad campaign which made the film out to be Paranormal Activity with aliens didn't help, so it was a treat to catch up to it on Blu-ray from Anchor Bay. The 1080p widescreen (2.40:1) image looks quite nice on Blu-ray, it's a new film and the image is finely detailed and crisp in high definition. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio supports the film well with some effective use of the surrounds and the nerve-tingling score is creepy, very nice sound design, the film gets a nice AV presentation from Anchor Bay.

Special features on the set include an audio commentary with Writer/Director Scott Stewart, Producer Jason Blum, Executive Producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Editor Peter Gvozdas plus a selection of Alternate and Deleted Scenes (14:22), none of which are particular notable aside from an inferior alternate ending we can be thankful they didn't go with. The 2-disc set includes a Blu-ray and standard def DVD with the same features plus an Ultraviolet digital copy to stream or download on your PC or mobile device. 

Special Features: 

- Alternate and Deleted Scenes (14:22) 

- Commentary With Writer/Director Scott Stewart, Producer Jason Blum, Executive Producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Editor Peter Gvozdas

Verdict: I think your level of enjoyment here will be largely based on your expectations, just know going in that there's not a lot of actual scares here, it's genuinely creepy and atmospheric but there's no gore; for a PG-13 thriller Dark Skies is an effective sci-fi chiller, a bit shy of essential viewing but definitely worth a watch. 3.5 Outta 5