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: Still reeling from her divorce from Tom (Justin Theroux), who left her for another woman (Rebecca Ferguson) and started a family, Rachel (Emily Blunt) has become a raging alcoholic prone to blackouts. Despite losing her job in the city, she still rides the train every morning, fantasizing about the relationship between Tom’s neighbors, Scott and Megan Hipwell (Luke Evans and Hayley Bennett), from the train window. But when Megan suddenly goes missing and Rachel fears that she may have been involved, she becomes entangled in the investigation to discover the truth.
WHY: It’s easy to see how the producers of “The Girl on the Train” thought they were making the next “Gone Girl”; in addition to being based on a bestselling crime thriller that features multiple narrators, it has a twist ending that you’re not supposed to see coming. The problem, however, is that you do see it coming in director Tate Taylor’s big screen adaptation, which deflates most of the tension in the story. Whereas “Gone Girl” had several layers to peel back and explore, “The Girl on the Train” is a fairly straightforward mystery made to seem more complicated by the disjointed timeline. It also has one of the worst opening acts in recent memory, boring you into submission with its one-dimensional characters and terrible pacing. Though the movie improves significantly in the second half as the storylines begin to converge, the damage has already been done. Emily Blunt delivers an extraordinary performance in the lead role (rather than simply acting drunk, she plays Rachel as an alcoholic desperately trying to look sober), but it feels like she’s in a different film – one that isn’t marred by soapy plot turns and Taylor’s messy direction.
EXTRAS: In addition to an audio commentary by director Tate Taylor, there’s a pair of behind-the-scenes featurettes and some deleted scenes.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT
WHAT: In 1967, widowed mother Alice (Elizabeth Reaser) and her two daughters, Lina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson), try to make ends meet by scamming people with their séance business. But when Alice decides to integrate a Ouija board into their act and young Doris is possessed by an evil spirit, they enlist the help of a local priest (Henry Thomas) to save her.
WHY: Why: The last thing anyone expected after the disaster of 2014’s “Ouija” was another installment, but this unexpected prequel from horror auteur Mike Flanagan shows just how much difference a good script and a talented director can make. A massive improvement over its bland predecessor in just about every way, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” focuses more on creating a creepy atmosphere rather than the usual gore or cheap jump scares, and it works pretty well for the most part. Unfortunately, while “Origin of Evil” is without question a much better movie that salvages the would-be franchise, its rushed ending falls back on some tired horror conventions (resulting in a few silly moments) that it would have been better off avoiding. Though Flanagan’s latest film isn’t quite as good as the likeminded “Conjuring” movies (even if the director shares a lot in common with James Wan’s slow-boil, character-driven approach to the genre), it’s definitely worth checking out for those that had previously given up on the series.
EXTRAS: There’s an audio commentary by director/co-writer Mike Flanagan, seven deleted scenes and a trio of featurettes on making the film, production design and actress Lulu Wilson.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT
WHAT: Married suburban couple Jeff and Karen Gaffney (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher) unwittingly become entangled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their mysterious new neighbors (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) are government spies.
WHY: Director Greg Mottola has made some great films over the past decade, including “Superbad,” “Adventureland” and “Paul,” which makes the release of “Keeping Up with the Joneses” all the more disappointing. The movie isn’t overtly terrible in any way, but it’s an incredibly safe and vanilla action comedy (and the term “action” is being used pretty loosely here) that’s as generic as it is forgettable. Very few of the jokes land, while the aforementioned action sequences are totally uninspired. Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot form a good team as the sexy and sophisticated undercover agents (enough to make you wonder how they would fare in a more traditional spy movie), but they’re mostly wasted in underwritten roles. Although the chance to work with such a fun group of actors – and if “Keeping Up with the Joneses” has one thing going for it, it’s that the film is really well cast – was no doubt a big attraction for Mottola despite the script’s many shortcomings, that enthusiasm doesn’t quite translate to the final product.
EXTRAS: There’s a behind-the-scenes look at production and location shooting in Atlanta, as well as a handful of deleted scenes.
FINAL VERDICT: SKIP
WHAT: When a mysterious virus sweeps across South Korea, turning the infected into rabid zombies, a group of passengers trapped on a high-speed train to Busan – including divorced fund manager Seok Woo (Yoo Gong) and his neglected daughter (Soo-an Kim) – must fight to stay alive until the train reaches its final destination.
WHY: 2016 was a great year for horror, and Korean director Yeon Sang-ho’s latest film “Train to Busan” is right up there among the best. Though the zombie genre has become oversaturated in recent years, “Train to Busan” succeeds where so many have failed thanks to a clever and unique premise that raises the stakes by confining most of the action to a moving train. It follows the same basic formula as most zombie movies, but the core group of characters are engaging and it builds some really good suspense in the latter half. The acting is also better than most entries in the genre; in addition to solid performances from its two leads, Ma Dong-Seok absolutely steals the show as the badass father-to-be. Although the film isn’t without its flaws (the ending is a bit of a mess and the main antagonist lacks subtlety), “Train to Busan” manages to hold your interest with some entertaining thrills and the kind of astute social commentary that the genre was originally built on.
EXTRAS: The Blu-ray release includes a behind-the-scenes featurette and footage from the last day of filming.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT