Not a lot for us this week, but most are pretty big named films. First we have Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet. I love Wreck-It Ralph. I think it’s Disney’s best film in years (if not decades). I liked Ralph Breaks the Internet, but don’t love it like I do its predecessor. The first film was nostalgic and about all the stuff I loved about video games. The video games I grew up on in the 1980’s and 1990’s. This film is about Ralph going onto the internet to get a part for Vanellope’s game. It’s about memes and videos and internet stuff I simply don’t like. I know people who liked this more than the original film because they are into today’s internet world where I’m not. It’s still a good movie and I enjoyed it, but I had nowhere near the emotional attachment I had with Wreck-It Ralph. The voice cast is still great. The film is still very colorful (although dark at times when in other game worlds). It has Disney Princesses which I could do without as well. It does have laughs and is something I’d watch again, but it’s not the classic the first film is. It’s too much about making viral videos and all the stuff I don’t like about today’s world. But the Blu-ray is jam-packed with bonus features and looks and sounds great.
Sticking with Disney, The Little Mermaid joins the Walt Disney Signature Collection this week. It’s been 30 years since the film was released and it’s probably been 25 years since I’ve seen it. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale about a beautiful mermaid princess who dreams of becoming human, the film helped spark a return to greatness for Disney animated films. It brought back the fun and colors and music that once was a staple of Disney animation. The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast followed after the success of this film. It made bank at the box office, but also won multiple Academy Awards. This new release is pretty fantastic. I haven’t seen previous versions of this on home video, but I have seen other Signature Collection films and this is up there with the best. It looks stunning and sounds even better. It has a ton of bonus features and will surely delight the family. I know many people of a certain age who want to show this to their family now.
Third we have Mary Queen of Scots. This film has Oscar-bait written all over it and sure it was nominated for some random ones, but it isn’t that good to get the big awards for picture and acting. It’s shocking this didn’t turn out better because it stars two of the biggest named young actresses going, Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie. Both are highly respected and have had success at the box office, but this film is a pretty big swing and a miss. First of all, it’s historically inaccurate. Sure a lot of period and historical films take liberties, but this tried to play up the woman on woman angle and women against men in a time where men ruled, but not a whole lot of that is true. I don’t believe they ever met in real life. But if you can get beyond the inaccuracies, the film is your standard costume drama/period piece. It was nominated for costume and make-up awards which makes sense because it is over the top in style and wardrobe. Set design is great as well and both actresses are good, but something about the film is lacking. It’s not a total snoozefest, but it’s also not the powerhouse Oscar film they expected it to be.
Last we have Rampant, another period piece, but yeah this one also has zombies. It reminds me of the show Kingdom on Netflix and it’s also a ton of fun. It’s a Korean period piece, but a plague type situation hits creating a zombie type creature. It’s cool because it’s different. Everyone has a zombie flick nowadays, but this brings some originality to it. They fight zombies with swords and martial arts and it’s set hundreds of years in the past. It has what you expect in an Asian martial arts period piece, wire work, costumes, over the top action, but also has zombies and sword play killing those zombies. I liked it a lot and can see myself watching it again. It’s from the studio that made Train to Busan which was also fantastic.
The Nerds Templar 