Revisiting the OCEAN'S TRILOGY in 4K

OCEAN’S TRILOGY (4K UHD)

2001-2007 / 364 min (3 movies)

FROM WARNER BROS / #InPartnershipwithWB

Review My. Stinky the Destroyer😺

Though it doesn't happen very often, I appreciate the effort to remake a film that wasn't all that great in the first place. The original Ocean's 11 was more notable for its cast than the story…a Rat Pack party shot in their adopted hometown, the cast putting their cigarettes down just long enough to commit a heist.

Not that the new version isn’t a similarly high-concept product built around an all-star cast. But at least George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Julie Roberts, Elliot Gould et al aren’t simply playing extensions of themselves. These are pretty well conceived characters, while the motive, planning & execution of the elaborate casino heist is genuinely engaging (if a bit implausible). 

Slickly directed and aesthetically flashy, Ocean’s Eleven is one of those movies that was never destined rack-up a ton of awards or end up on anyone’s Top 10 list, but had enough universal appeal that box office success was all but guaranteed. Sure enough, two sequels and a spin-off followed in subsequent years, all driven by the fun the cast seems to be having (which is admittedly infectious).

Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen are now available in 4K UHD, either as individual SteelBooks or this three-disc set. While not as creatively packaged as the SteelBooks, it’s certainly a lot easier on the wallet if you’re seeking to add or upgrade all three in your collection. Not having seen them on Blu-ray, I can’t state whether or not the upgrade is significant, but the transfers are really good. The overall video image is sharp and clean, with excellent contrasts and vivid color (particularly noticeable in the first & third films, which make use of glitzy Vegas locations). Each film also features an excellent DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track.

"You heard me...go fish."

As for the movies themselves, Ocean’s Eleven remains the best of the trilogy. In addition to the fun of being introduced to the team, this one is more fluidly paced and boasts the most interesting plot, which has recently paroled Danny Ocean (George Clooney) immediately going to work planning the massive robbery of three casinos owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who not-only forced one of Ocean’s buddies out of the business, his girlfriend, Tess (Julia Roberts), is Danny’s ex-wife.

Ocean’s Twelve is the longest and most meandering of the series, taking its sweet time even getting to the primary conflict, that of an international master thief known as the Night Wolf challenging Ocean’s team to steal a priceless Faberge egg from a museum. And even then, the plot is overly complex, somewhat hampered by juggling too many new characters (and a few pointless cameos). Still, the congenial performances save this one. 

The most outlandish - and cartoonish - of the three is Ocean’s Thirteen, which returns the team to Vegas to bring down ruthless casino tycoon Willy Bank (Al Pacino). This one tests the limits of plausibility, with a few plot turns that are almost embarrassingly silly. But overall, it’s a lot of fun, certainly more enjoyable than the previous film and a nice send-off for these characters. 

None of the films are classics, but all three are an improvement over the original that inspired them. But other than technical upgrades, the Ocean’s Trilogy 4K set offers nothing else new (unless you count the digital copies). All the bonus features are carried over from previous Blu-ray/DVD releases. Still, this is a good collection for fans who want the best possible picture and sound.

EXTRA KIBBLES

DIGITAL COPIES

OCEAN’S ELEVEN:

FEATURETTES - Are You In or Out? The Making of Ocean’s Eleven; Pros & Cons - Inside Ocean’s Outfit; The Style of Steal; The Look of the Cons; Original Ocean’s, Original Cast.

2 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By director Steven Soderbergh & writer Ted Griffen; 2) By actors Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt & Matt Damon.

OCEAN’S TWELVE:

FEATURETTES - Ready, Jet Set, Go: The Making of Ocean’s Twelve; HBO First Look: Twelve is the New Eleven.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Steven Soderbergh & writer George Noifi.

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OCEAN’S THIRTEEN:

FEATURETTES - Third’s a Charm: The Making of Ocean’s Thirteen; Ahab with a Piggyback: The Means & Machines of Ocean’s; Jerry Weintraub Walk & Talk; Master of the Heist.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Steven Soderbergh & writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman.

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THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT: Some Things Never Get Old

THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT (Blu-ray)

2023 / 101 min

FROM MPI MEDIA GROUP

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😺

Some things never get old…date night at Starbucks with my wife, breakfast food for dinner, the Cowboys choking during the playoffs…

…and Don Lee pummeling bad guys into submission. 

The Roundup: No Way Out is the third film of a franchise (with a fourth on the way) featuring Lee as Ma Seok-do, a tough, burly detective whose most formidable skill is beating the shit out of people. I still haven’t seen the first film, The Outlaws, which isn’t available on physical media in the U.S., but 2022’s The Roundup was among the best action films of that year, a deft combination of action and comedy anchored by Lee’s terrific performance (and he’s a lot more agile than his heftiness would suggest). Best of all, watching the first film wasn’t required to enjoy this one.

If you haven’t seen The Roundup, it’s widely available and definitely worth seeking out. But if you have, No Way Out is just as entertaining, with Lee returning to take on a bevy of bad guys while his subordinates try to keep up. This time, a crew of corrupt cops led by Joo Sung-cheol (Lee Joon-hyuk) is trying to sell 20 kilos of a new drug called Hiper to a Chinese triad, which he stole from a vicious Yakuza organization. Following an arrest by Lee and his team, the package is stolen yet again. Now everyone is looking for it…the good cops, the bad cops and the Yakuza boss’ most ruthless assassin, Ricky (Munetaka Aoki). 

Some fashion choices are punchworthy.

The particulars of the plot are more intricate than that, perhaps overly so. But while the story is interesting, it ultimately takes a backseat to the action and characters. Lee continues to make Ma an engaging, atypical action hero. There’s no finesse in his methods, mainly just bluster and brute force, both of which are served up in sequences that are both rousing and funny. But he’s not the whole show here. Like The Roundup, he’s pitted against formidable antagonists, while his allies - willingly assisting him or not - are engaging as either beleaguered straight-men or comic relief.  

Other than a final scene which apparently sets-up the next film, The Roundup: No Way Out presents a self-contained story. Like The Roundup, the only connecting thread is the protagonist’s punishing approach to police procedure, which never gets old. As long as Don Lee is willing and able to keep dispensing justice with his fists (and no guns!), this is one franchise that probably won’t wear out its welcome.

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM: Surprise-Free Spectacle

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM (Blu-ray)

2023 / 124 min

FROM WARNER BROS / #InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😾

Throughout much of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, I felt like I was watching a cartoon. Granted, a very nicely animated cartoon, but even more so than the first film, the overall aesthetic reeks of artifice. Rarely did I feel like the performers were ever interacting with their environment.

CGI runs rampant in nearly every scene, with action sequences so busy that they cease to be logistically convincing. Elaborate new worlds, machines and creatures are obviously intended to instill awe, but we’re mostly impressed with the technology that created them. Special effects shouldn’t call this much attention to themselves, especially if they don’t depict anything we haven’t seen before (and are used more sparingly). Visually, there ain’t a lot of difference between Atlantis and the Land of the Dead from Coco.

Storywise, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom offers no real surprises. Having defeated his tyrannical brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) in the first film, Arthur curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) is now the ruler of Atlantis. He doesn’t particularly enjoy being king, preferring to spend time on land with Mera (Amber Heard) and their new son, Arthur Jr. 

"Yeah, it was me...I stole your shirt."

Meanwhile, David Kane/Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is still obsessed with avenging his father’s death by killing Aquaman, only now he has a new crew of henchmen and a supersub equipped with ancient Atlantean technology. After finding a trident that once belonged to Kordax, the ruler of the lost kingdom of Necrus, he becomes possessed and empowered with strength that equals Aquaman’s. Adding apocalyptic implications to the narrative is the fuel required for Manta to hatch his plan, which is environmentally devastating. In true supervillain fashion, he isn’t concerned with such trifles…

…which is part of the problem. Mantas is so single-minded and hateful that there’s little Abdul-Mateen can do with the character but glower and rage. He’s more of a video game villain than a dynamic antagonist. Elsewhere, many returning characters are given little to do that significantly impacts the narrative, especially Mera, who’s almost persona non grata until the climax. Fortunately, Arthur is forced to tap his incarcerated brother for help defeating Manta because the scenes they share nearly save the movie. Not only is their antagonistic brotherly banter pretty amusing, Momoa and Wilson’s performances manage to stand out amid all the spectacle.

For the most part, however, Aquaman and Lost Lost Kingdom is emblematic of many recent superhero movies…watchable without ever being engaging, with no attempts to bring anything new to an increasingly rote formula. The film is pretty, but also pretty redundant.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Finding the Lost Kingdom (the most substantive of the bonus material, featuring Jason Momoa, director James Wan and other cast & crew); Aquaman: Worlds Above and Below; Atlantean Blood is Thicker Than Water (the history of Arthur & Orm); It’s a Manta World (about the primary villain, featuring interviews with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II & others); Necrus: The Lost City; Escape from the Deserter World; Brawling at the Kingfish’s Lair; Oh, Topo! (brief segment about the scene stealing octopus.

DIGITAL COPY

WONKA Is Better Than It Had A Right To Be

WONKA (Blu-ray)

2023 / 116 min

FROM WARNER BROS. / #InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😺

I’ll say this much…Wonka was a hell of a lot better than I thought it would be.

One might take that as great praise, being that I’m one of those old curmudgeons who not only grew up on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but felt Gene Wilder embodied the title character so brilliantly that anyone else stepping into the role would be an exercise in futility. Even today, I’m convinced Wilder is almost the sole reason the film is a classic. 

Timothy Chalamet is not gonna make anyone forget Wilder, but to his and director Paul King’s credit, he isn’t trying to. At the same time, there’s no misguided attempt to re-invent the character as a creepy manchild (as in Tim Burton’s godawful remake). While the new film is a prequel, there’s a definite connecting thread between this young, confident, optimistic Willy Wonka and the wise, cynical, condescending one that’s now the subject of countless memes.

That being said, Wonka is a whimsical, aesthetically gorgeous musical depicting its titular character as a young man, filled with hope and ambition in his attempts to introduce his unique brand of chocolate to the world. He’s met with opposition, of course, in the form of Arthur Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), the leader of the Chocolate Cartel, which essentially runs the city like the mafia. Wonka gets help from a variety of others who, like him, are indebted by-contract to crooked launderette owner Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman). The smartest of them is Noodle (Calah Lane), a young orphan who was dumped at the launderette as a baby and becomes Wonka’s most trusted friend.

Willy's killing jar.

As with most musicals, the actual plot takes a backseat to the characters, performances and musical numbers. The songs themselves are generally forgettable (save for a few nostalgic callbacks to the original film), but presented pretty spectacularly, bursting with exuberance and color. Several character-driven moments are charming (particularly those shared by Wonka and Noodle) and funny (such as Hugh Grant, who was born to be an Oompa Loompa).

As Wonka, Chalamet wears the hat quite nicely, displaying confidence and earnestness while avoiding turning him into a caricature. However, he’s sometimes upstaged by his co-stars, including Colman, Lane, Keegan-Michael Key (as the corrupt chief of police) and Tom Davis (as Bleacher, Mrs. Scrubitt’s nasty partner). Perhaps that’s because their characters were newly created for this film, so we have no basis for comparison, whereas Chalamet was never going to completely escape Wilder’s shadow. He’s good, but he’s no Heath Ledger.

Still, as prequels go, Wonka is a lot better than it had a right to be. While there are obvious ties to the original, it works just fine as a stand-alone story. In fact, it was only during certain musical cues, the arrival of Lofty (the Oompa Loompa) and the inevitable denouement that I was reminded this was a prequel.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Unwrapping Paul King’s Vision (interviews with director King and most of the cast); The Whimsical Music of Wonka (the film’s songs, mostly written by Neil Hannon); Welcome to Wonka Land (mostly focuses on production design); Hats Off to Wonka (costume design); Wonka’s Chocolatier (featuring Gabriella Gugna, who created the candies).

MUSICAL MOMENTS - 13 isolated music segments.

DIGITAL COPY

THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES Depicts the Inevitable

THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES (Blu-ray)

2023 / 157 min

FROM LIONSGATE

Review by Pepper the Poopy😽

On one hand, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a story that didn’t need to be told. Like most prequels, especially those featuring an established character’s early days, it has the insurmountable task of providing an engaging, suspenseful story even though the ultimate outcome is a foregone conclusion. 

In this case, it’s President Snow, the primary antagonist played by Donald Sutherland in the original Hunger Games trilogy. Songbirds and Snakes takes place 64 years earlier, when Snow (Tom Blyth) is an ambitious-but-impoverished student living in Panem’s capitol trying to win the school’s cash prize as the mentor to one of the “tributes” selected for this year’s Hunger Games. Snow is assigned to represent Lucy Grey (Rachel Zegler), a feisty songbird from District 12 who doesn’t appear to be much of a fighter, but ends up being popular with TV viewers.

For those unaware (who never saw the other films or read the books), Panem is a futuristic dystopia consisting of 12 districts and the Hunger Games is an annual event where young people are chosen (against their will) from each district to enter an arena and fight to the death until one remains. It is televised like a sports event/game show to placate the masses. I mention this because Songbirds & Snakes occasionally operates on the conceit that the audience is already familiar with the world created by Suzanne Collins.

On the other hand, it’s newcomers who might get the most out of this film. With no familiarity or basis for comparison, the narrative is engaging enough on its own terms…once it gets going, that is. Things are pretty pokey during the first act, but the action ramps-up considerably once the Games begin, sequences which are both violent and suspenseful and accompanied by amusing play-by-play commentary from obnoxious host Lucky Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman). 

Caught shoplifting...again.

Snow's quandary - torn between his loyalty to Panem and growing affection for Lucy Grey - gives him enough emotional complexity that we're somewhat invested in him. Additionally, Lucy’s songs throughout the film reveal much about her character and are genuinely affecting. Elsewhere, the primary antagonist, Dr. Gaul (Viola Davis), the brilliant-but-demented creator of the Games, is one of the best characters in the entire franchise.

The final act suffers from convoluted plot turns centered around District 12 rebels and a pace that feels kinda sleepy compared to all the tournament mayhem. And for those who are familiar with the books and films, there aren’t any surprises related to the main character. Since we already know Snow’s destiny, we’re just watching how it begins to unfold, much like Annakin’s descent to the dark side in the Star Wars prequels…interesting, perhaps, but not particularly revelatory. 

But despite running much longer than necessary, Songbirds & Snakes is probably the best Hunger Games film since the first one. It boasts earnest performances and a suitably bleak tone (save for a great running gag with malfunctioning drones). At the very least, the film tells a complete story that doesn’t require seeing or reading anything else first. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

PREDATOR OR PREY: MAKING THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES - A comprehensive 8-part, 2 ½ hour documentary covering nearly every aspect of the film.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Francis Lawrense & producer Nina Jacobson.

SONG - “The Hanging Tree,” by Rachel Zegler.

A LETTER TO THE FANS - By Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins.

BLU-RAY, DVD & DIGITAL COPIES

THE MARVELS Expects A Lot From Its Audience

THE MARVELS (Digital)

2023 / 105 min

FROM MARVEL/DISNEY

Review by Pepper the Poopy😼

The Marvels is on digital NOW; on 4K, Blu-ray & DVD February 13.

While watching The Marvels at home with my wife, I ended up pausing the movie twice in the first half-hour, feeling like I must have missed something. Since Francie is far better versed in Marvel lore, I asked, “Who is this kid?” (referring to the character of Kamala Khan, played by Iman Vellani).

“She’s Ms. Marvel on Disney+,” Francie replied matter-of-factly. She had seen the show, but I hadn’t.

The second time was when Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), the daughter of Carol Danvers’ best friend in Captain Marvel, shows up with unique abilities of her own. “When the hell did she get super powers?”

“Remember…on WandaVision? She got her powers from the static field.” 

Now, I did watch WandaVision on Disney+, but that was three years ago and I barely remember anything about it. Not wanting to disrupt the movie any longer, I simply said, “Oh,” and hit play.

More than any other movie in the MCU, The Marvels has unreasonably high expectations of its audience. The entire film operates on the conceit that everyone has not-only seen Captain Marvel, but several other MCU movies. It also assumes Disney+ is a common fixture in most homes and we've already watched WandaVision, Ms. Marvel and - for one key scene - Hawkeye. Two of The Marvels' three main protagonists are from television shows that require a premium subscription and the narrative does little to bring newcomers up to speed. 

On set, Goose was known to be verbally abusive.

Huge chunks of The Marvels will be lost on much of the audience, which is unfortunate because at its core is a decent story, good performances and what’s probably the funniest scene I’ve ever seen in a Marvel movie. That scene - involving Goose the cat and her newborn “kittens” - will undoubtedly stick in the craws of fanboys who regularly complain about how needlessly jokey the MCU has become, but it works within the context of the story.

Elsewhere, we’re introduced to a unique civilization from planet Aladna, where singing is the official language, a nice touch that Francie truly appreciated because it features one of her favorite Korean actors - Park Seo-joon - as a prince who turns out to be married to Danvers. I mention this because the smaller moments are when The Marvels works best, such as Zenobia Shroff stealing every scene she’s in as Kamala’s protective mom.

Because of its frustrating over-reliance on story and character elements we’re already expected to know, perhaps The Marvels should have premiered on Disney+ in the first place. It barely functions as a stand-alone film, but as a supplementary chapter to other shows & movies just a remote click away, there’s some fun to be had here.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Entangled; The Production Diaries.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director-co-writer Nia DaCosta and special effects supervisor Tara DeMarco.

4 DELETED SCENES

GAG REEL