Welcome to another weekly preview of upcoming Blu-Ray releases! In this week’s edition, Flight makes a good case for taking the train to your next vacation destination, Here Comes the Boom hits store shelves with a – well with a boom I guess, and a beloved family classic finally gets a Blu-Ray release.
Ready for this week’s Blu-Ray releases? Then read on.
Flight
Starring: Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, Bruce Greenwood, and Melissa Leo.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
An American drama film from Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis. It was well received by critics and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Actor (for the film’s star Denzel Washington) and Best Original Screenplay.
Plot: An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunction reveals something troubling.
My Thoughts: I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
Ready for this week’s Blu-Ray releases? Then read on.
Flight
Starring: Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, Bruce Greenwood, and Melissa Leo.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
An American drama film from Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis. It was well received by critics and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Actor (for the film’s star Denzel Washington) and Best Original Screenplay.
Plot: An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunction reveals something troubling.
My Thoughts: I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
- 2/2/2013
- by C.P. Howells
- We Got This Covered
This film was originally reviewed on Sept. 18 at the Toronto Festival of Festivals. It opens Christmas Day.
In Hollywood-ese, it might be dismissed as ''The Return of the Oxford Six'' or ''The Big Fog, '' but ''Peter's Friends'' is a bubbly rebottling of a new-vintage story form -- the reunion of old college mates. Stylish, witty and smartly framed by Kenneth Branagh, this Samuel Goldwyn Co. film is likely to shine on the select-site circuit.
This time the get-together is at an English country estate, the recent inheritance of Peter Stephen Fry), a 30-ish bachelor who lives alone, looked after only by his longtime cook and servant (Phyllida Law). An unsold playwright, Peter gamely calls six college chums, all fellow artsy types, to gather to bring in the New Year 1992.
It's been 10 long years since they've all been together and all have gone in different but predictable directions: Recovering-alcoholic writer Andrew (Branagh) brings along his hideous, Hollywood-star wife (Rita Rudner); sexually insatiable costume designer Sarah (Alphonsia Emmanuel) tosses in with her latest conquest (Tony Slattery); songsters Roger (Hugh Laurie) and Mary (Imelda Staunton), now married, tote along the grief of a child loss; while lonely book editor Maggie (Emma Thompson) arrives light, with her smidgen of self-esteem.
While spoilsports may niggle that some of the main characters' personal and emotional baggage seem lifted from a trendy trunk of pop psychology books, screenwriters Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman have brilliantly and thoughtfully presented a full house of credible and sympathetic human beings. Befitting the brainy and talented characters, the dialogue is terrifically balmy and clever but the wit and verbal alacrity are not merely cosmetic sheens for a surface entertainment -- ''Peter's Friends, '' at its story core, is a kind but piercing look at some very troubled hearts.
Branagh's direction is diffidently dazzling: in this case, a stiff upper lip properly braced by an impish wit. Throughout, ''Peter's Friends'' is devilishly alive and kicking, expertly goosed by the top-notch technical team. Tim Harvey's production design is hilariously resonant in its individual particulars, while Susan Coates and Stephanie Collie's smart and silly costuming makes true and lasting character impressions. Under Branagh's deft and playful hand, the musical selections, from Cyndi Lauper to Tina Turner, kick in some playfully telling contrapuntal punch.
The superbly selected ensemble is a uniform delight, everyone wondrously capturing their characters' being, warts and all. Special plaudits to Fry as the gracious but burdened host and to Emmanuel as the desperately promiscuous costumer. In the grand old tradition of wise and dry English servantry, Law is a droll delight.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
In Hollywood-ese, it might be dismissed as ''The Return of the Oxford Six'' or ''The Big Fog, '' but ''Peter's Friends'' is a bubbly rebottling of a new-vintage story form -- the reunion of old college mates. Stylish, witty and smartly framed by Kenneth Branagh, this Samuel Goldwyn Co. film is likely to shine on the select-site circuit.
This time the get-together is at an English country estate, the recent inheritance of Peter Stephen Fry), a 30-ish bachelor who lives alone, looked after only by his longtime cook and servant (Phyllida Law). An unsold playwright, Peter gamely calls six college chums, all fellow artsy types, to gather to bring in the New Year 1992.
It's been 10 long years since they've all been together and all have gone in different but predictable directions: Recovering-alcoholic writer Andrew (Branagh) brings along his hideous, Hollywood-star wife (Rita Rudner); sexually insatiable costume designer Sarah (Alphonsia Emmanuel) tosses in with her latest conquest (Tony Slattery); songsters Roger (Hugh Laurie) and Mary (Imelda Staunton), now married, tote along the grief of a child loss; while lonely book editor Maggie (Emma Thompson) arrives light, with her smidgen of self-esteem.
While spoilsports may niggle that some of the main characters' personal and emotional baggage seem lifted from a trendy trunk of pop psychology books, screenwriters Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman have brilliantly and thoughtfully presented a full house of credible and sympathetic human beings. Befitting the brainy and talented characters, the dialogue is terrifically balmy and clever but the wit and verbal alacrity are not merely cosmetic sheens for a surface entertainment -- ''Peter's Friends, '' at its story core, is a kind but piercing look at some very troubled hearts.
Branagh's direction is diffidently dazzling: in this case, a stiff upper lip properly braced by an impish wit. Throughout, ''Peter's Friends'' is devilishly alive and kicking, expertly goosed by the top-notch technical team. Tim Harvey's production design is hilariously resonant in its individual particulars, while Susan Coates and Stephanie Collie's smart and silly costuming makes true and lasting character impressions. Under Branagh's deft and playful hand, the musical selections, from Cyndi Lauper to Tina Turner, kick in some playfully telling contrapuntal punch.
The superbly selected ensemble is a uniform delight, everyone wondrously capturing their characters' being, warts and all. Special plaudits to Fry as the gracious but burdened host and to Emmanuel as the desperately promiscuous costumer. In the grand old tradition of wise and dry English servantry, Law is a droll delight.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 12/23/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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