Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on social media with your friends.
WHAT: In 2003, cable news producer Kim Baker (Tina Fey) leaves behind her banal, dead-end life in New York to accept a daring assignment covering the war in Afghanistan. Dropped into a chaotic war zone without the comforts of home, Kim befriends a fellow female reporter (Margot Robbie) and a charming photojournalist (Martin Freeman) to help navigate her strange new surroundings.
WHY: Based on journalist Kim Barker’s 2011 memoir, “The Taliban Shuffle,” about her experiences reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2004-2009, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” is a tonally confused war satire that struggles to find the right balance between drama and comedy. This isn’t the first movie of its kind to run into that problem, but it handles the juggling of the two genres better than most thanks to a solid script by Tina Fey’s longtime writing partner, Robert Carlock (“30 Rock,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), and some deft direction by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“Crazy Stupid Love”). Though the decision to cast non-Afghan actors in prominent roles is disappointing, Christopher Abbott’s local fixer, and the relationship he forms with Kim, is one of the best things about the film. (Alfred Molina’s government official is more problematic, although that has more to do with the character itself than who’s playing him.) “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” is equally as hit-and-miss on the whole, but it’s nonetheless a fun if slight tragicomedy that benefits greatly from its talented cast.
EXTRAS: The Blu-ray release includes a behind-the-scenes look at making the movie, four additional featurettes and some deleted scenes.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT
WHAT: After tracking a terrorist cell across East Africa for the past six years, British Colonel Katharine Powell (Helen Mirren) is presented the chance to take down two key targets when they resurface in Kenya. But when she finally gets authorization to proceed with the mission using a drone-led missile strike, American drone pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) has a crisis of conscience when he spots an innocent child within the kill zone.
WHY: Director Gavin Hood was left licking his wounds in the wake of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Ender’s Game,” so it makes sense that he would return to the type of small-scale filmmaking that earned him attention in the first place. Unfortunately, while “Eye in the Sky” features an interesting premise and a top-notch cast (including Alan Rickman’s final screen performance), the movie is undermined by a cheap plot device involving the young girl that preys on the audience’s emotions. Though it’s fascinating to watch just how many different governments, departments and personnel it takes to execute a single drone strike, the constant back-and-forth starts to become pretty repetitive by the hour mark. There’s still a good bit of suspense wrung from the setup, and it thankfully never feels like propaganda, but while “Eye in the Sky” generates a necessary debate about drone warfare, collateral damage and the cost of human life, it’s not quite as black and white as the film would like you to believe.
EXTRAS: There’s a pair of featurettes on the ethics of drone warfare and other moral questions raised in the film.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT
WHAT: After a reunion with his long-lost father (Bryan Cranston) is interrupted by the arrival of a supernatural villain named Kai (J.K. Simmons), who has returned to the mortal world to steal the chi of all the kung fu masters across China, Po (Jack Black) must travel to the secret panda village to learn the ancient skill required to defeat him.
WHY: The “Kung Fu Panda” movies have never been huge successes domestically, but they do big business overseas, which is probably why DreamWorks decided to move ahead with another sequel even though there wasn’t much demand for one here. The problem, however, is that “Kung Fu Panda 3” follows the same basic formula as the first two films, and it feels a bit stale as a result. Though the biological father subplot is handled fairly well, by moving Po to the panda village and away from the main action, it strips the character of his best asset: his supporting cast. The Furious Five isn’t completely wasted, but their roles are so small (for example, Lucy Liu has two lines of dialogue) that they could have just hired sound-alikes instead. What the movie lacks in a compelling story it makes up for with some gorgeous animation, especially the scenes in the spirit world, but while the visuals have always been this series’ biggest strength, they’re not able to rescue “Kung Fu Panda 3” from mediocrity.
EXTRAS: There are two animated short films, a how-to featurette on origami, deleted scenes and more.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT
WHAT: When paranoid U.S. Air Force general Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) delivers an executive order to bomb Russia, U.S. President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) meets with his team of advisors – including General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) and quirky ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove (Sellers) – to discuss their options after they learn that the Soviet Union has created a doomsday device that will automatically trigger its own nuclear retaliation upon impact.
WHY: “Dr. Strangelove” may not be Stanley Kubrick’s most popular film, but it’s arguably his best – a pitch black political satire that’s as hilarious as it is frightening. The movie remains one of the funniest comedies in history thanks to some masterful performances, chief among them Peter Sellers, whose comic brilliance is on full display in three very distinct roles. The madcap title character is the showiest of the bunch, but Sellers generates bigger laughs as the more reserved Mandrake and Muffley, including a classic sequence (famously improvised by the actor) where the latter informs the Russian Premier about the unauthorized attack. George C. Scott is also great as the commie-hating General Turgidson, who serves as the perfect foil to Seller’s straight-laced politico, literally chewing up scenery with his ever-growing wad of gum. The duo’s war room scenes are some of the most entertaining moments in the movie, and while that’s partially due to the actors themselves, it’s Kubrick’s ingenious satirizing of the deadly serious source material (Peter Gregory’s 1958 novel “Red Alert”) that makes “Dr. Strangelove” such a revered comic masterpiece.
EXTRAS: In addition to new interviews with scholars Mick Broderick and Rodney Hill, archivist Richard Daniels and camera operator Kevin Pike (among others), there are four featurettes (including the previously released “Art of Stanley Kubrick” and “Inside Dr. Strangelove”), audio excerpts from a 1966 interview with Kubrick, promotional interviews with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, an essay by scholar David Bromwich and more.
FINAL VERDICT: BUY
WHAT: Veteran actress Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) retreats to the Swiss Alps with her personal assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart) to prepare for her latest gig: a London revival of the play that launched her career, this time as the older woman opposite rising star Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz).
WHY: French films have never been my cup of tea, so it’s hardly surprising that Olivier Assayas’ “Clouds of Sils Maria” – which is essentially a French film in both style and execution – failed to connect with me in the same way that it did for audiences at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. It’s a pretentious, overly long psychosexual drama with characters that aren’t particularly likable, each for very different reasons. The movie also has a really poor understanding of Hollywood (the sci-fi movie within the movie starring Chloe Grace Moretz’s comically shallow ingénue is especially guilty of this), which only dilutes its commentary on celebrity culture and the meaning of art. Juliette Binoche’s aging actress is one of the most obnoxious and unsympathetic female protagonists in recent memory, while her beleaguered assistant looks stupid for sticking around for as long as she does. A few good moments are generated from Binoche and Stewart’s scenes together, but for the most part, “Clouds of Sils Maria” is a bunch of self-important nonsense.
EXTRAS: There’s a pair of interviews (one with stars Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart, and the other with director Olivier Assayas), the 1924 short film “Cloud Phenomena of Maloja” and an essay by critic Molly Haskell.
FINAL VERDICT: SKIP