“To Kill a Mockingbird”
To mark the 50th anniversary of this amazing movie, a commemorative limited edition collector’s series Blu-ray combo pack is being released.
The digitally remastered and fully restored version offers clearer images, but this film, based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is already powerful because of the writing and performances. This is one of the finest works by Gregory Peck in a career filled with memorable performances.
Grade: A
“Drive”
The first half of this film from director Nicolas Winding Refn should be called “Coast.”
Gosling is a Hollywood stuntman by day and getaway driver by night. When the loner connects with his neighbor (Carey Mulligan), he gets a clue to a past that’s turned him into a sociopathic driver. The tedium of the film might have worked if Gosling’s character had any life, but Refn’s direction is methodical to the point of being pretentious.
“Drive” is one of those movies that wraps itself in the art of cinema by cherry-picking the best from genres such as film noir, Sam Peckinpah violence and ’70s social rejection. It might have worked in the hands of a better movie mechanic, but Refn’s vehicle stalls out.
Grade: C-
Also new
“The Big Year”: Three avid bird-watchers (Owen Wilson, Jack Black and Steve Martin) compete to spot the rarest birds in North America.
“Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Series 1”: Ten full-length mysteries starring David Suchet as the Belgian detective.
“Monsignor”: An American priest (Christopher Reeve) makes illegal deals to fill the Vatican coffers.
Rick Bentley, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)
“Dream House”: A man (Daniel Craig) and his family relocate to a quaint New England town; they soon learn that a mother and her two children were murdered in the same residence.
“Thunder Soul”: Jamie Foxx narrates this documentary about a high school band that becomes a funk phenomenon.
“The Thing”: At an Antarctica research site, an alien craft is discovered.
Rick Bentley, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)
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