Encapsulated Movie Reviews – Four New Indie Titles
November 10th, 2016 by Jason Coleman
A fewer array of indies dissected as end of year mandatory viewing duties begin to take hold of my precious movie watching schedule (so many films, so little time!), but there are some surprises here nevertheless. Tales involving deadly relationship intrigue, a hot widow who gets her dates via the occult, an examination of the true meaning of what constitutes a monster and courage in the face of shark attack on the high seas make up the movies examined this week. Check out the Encapsulated Movie Reviews of Come And Find Me, The Love Witch, The Monster and USS Indianapolis: Men Of Courage below!
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Arrival is one of those films that when you first see the theatrical trailer for it just cries out to you. It screams that you must see me. Who knows. Maybe it’s the aliens in the film calling out to me. I don’t know but whatever it was I was smitten by the first trailer I saw. I knew that as soon as I saw 
A couple of slice and dice international martial arts imports make their way into eager DVD hands this week – viva la wire work! A dangerous gal who goes into hiding and the iconic real-life story of a general slaying warrior make up the two tales touched upon this time out. Check out the review skinny via DVD Roundup for both The Lost Bladesman and Reign Of Assassins below! (As always tech specs provided at the end for the DVD purist!)
Director Antoine Fuqua, alongside an all-star ensemble cast, delivers a modern take on the classic Western genre in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, debuting on Digital December 6 and on 4K Ultra HD™/Blu-ray™ Combo Pack; Blu-ray and DVD December 20 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Studios. The “perfectly assembled” (Brian Tallerico, ROGER EBERT) cast includes two-time Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington as Sam Chisolm, Chris Pratt as Josh Farraday, two-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke as Goodnight Robicheaux, Vincent D’Onofrio as Jack Horne, Byung-Hun Lee as Billy Rocks , Martin Sensmeier as Red Harvest, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Vasquez and Peter Sarsgaard as Bartholomew Bogue.
All good things must come to an end and all Mockingjays must have their part 2. And it all felt like it came and went so quickly. Just a mere 3 and a half years following the first film, here we were with a fourth (extra film to be honest) and final chapter. It was quite an enlightening and engaging journey through some terrific science fiction, action and thrilling politics. The series also gave us a iconic actor/character in Katniss Everdeen that will forever remain one of cinema’s best. The Hunger Games series raised the bar and went beyond the level of just simply something for the young adult enthusiasts. While Twilight never went beyond the Twi-hards (And there are a TON of them) and Harry Potter really didn’t pick up the all-ages crowds til around the fourth one, The Hunger Games had it from the start. And here’s its climactic finish. You can own it and the rest of the films on 4K UHD Blu-ray when Lionsgate drops them November 8th. 
Following in the footsteps of its contemporaries, Harry Potter and Edward Cullen, Katniss Everdeen had the final book in her series split into to. For the fans of the novel, it brought some head scratching, that of the three books, Mockingjay would get split and not one that could have been more detailed in Catching Fire. When it comes to the splits of these novels, you get the impression the studio is trying to milk the cow dry, but in Harry Potter’s case, it actually worked out very well. Either way with Hunger Games: Mockingjay, you can just look through a purely financial standpoint and see that Lionsgate made the correct choice from that angle. This penultimate film in the Hunger Games series isn’t splitting any differences when it makes its debut on the 4K UHD Blu-ray format on November 8th. 
Following on the heels of Harry Potter and the Twilight films, The Hunger Games was the next in line to carry the torch of big time young adult novel adaptations turned blockbuster films. This first film was expected to do well, but wound up taking in a massive box office haul, which not only was a record for when it was released, but also for something that wasn’t a sequel or based off of anything prior. This first film catapulted Jennifer Lawrence into superstardom and made her the total “it girl” that still seems to be running. Starting in 2012 and ending in 2015, the series came and went in a flash. But fear not, the complete series is now hitting 4K UHD, the first to have its entire run on the format (Unless you count the nu-Trek as its own series, but technically, its part of the longer 13 film ouvre in the lore). 
Witness the dramatic and heroic story behind the Miracle on the Hudson—and the previously untold events that followed—when “Sully
With October filled with scare cinema and December an awards heavy film time, November is a fine time shed some good old-fashioned movie guilt – welcome to Forgotten Friday Flick! Are there films you love that you tell no one about? Movies with cheesy acting, deplorable dialogue and plot twists you can drive a Mack truck through, but that you secretly adore anyway? That’s the genre film focus for this month – guilt pleasures. Up first is a film so gamey that it received no less than five top Razzie nominations. A youth revenge fantasy that shamelessly cashes in on a previous picture coupling and has some of the worst lines ever uttered on screen. Some call it s@it – I lovingly call it…Blue City.
Doctor Strange is actually one Marvel comics movie I was not looking forward to. Truth be told I’ve never been a fan of the comic book character. He always reminded me too much of Tony Stark in the looks department. Coupled with the fact that I’m not a huge Benedict Cumberbatch fan and I’m already batting 0 and 2 going into this one. However, I’m a huge fan of superhero films and I love what Marvel has done with this Cinematic Universe (MCU) thus far. Therefore I wont let my prejudices supersede my judgment here. Despite initial early reviews and some warnings calling this Marvel’s Green Lantern I was still stoked to see what was in store for me here. If nothing else, the visuals look pretty trippy and Inception-like in the trailers. It should at least be a spectacle. That much I was counting on! 
This December, Scream Factory™ proudly presents two genre favorites as part of a month full of holiday horror and sci-fi season’s greetings. 
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is one of the most popular works of theatre of all time. People may not know what the play or script is about completely, but many get the gyst or recognize the title when its dropped (A lot throughout film and television history). Previously made into a feature film in 1951, 1985 brought a televised version of the play featuring Dustin Hoffman brining his gravitas to television. This iteration proved a pretty big success, garnering a whopping ten Emmy nominations that year. It took home three of them, including statues for both actors Dustin Hoffman (Leading in a movie or mini series) and John Malcovich (Supporting). The film is being released under the Shout Select banner and isn’t the first television movie under the label. If you’ll remember, their first was John Carpenter’s Elvis, starring Kurt Russell. This Blu-ray rendition of the 1985 movie will be available on November 15th. 
