Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping.
Pick of the Week: “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”
The last Godzilla/King Kong team-up movie was such a lifeless mess that it wouldn’t take much to improve upon it, and in that regard, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a success. But while the kaiju action is definitely more exciting this time around, it still suffers from some painfully boring human characters (save for Dan Stevens’ eccentric scientist), whose main purpose is to spout exposition and keep the story moving along. Though the film spends a little too much time with these characters in the first act, once the focus shifts to Kong (the movie’s true protagonist), “Godzilla x Kong” turns into a fun, if entirely silly and illogical, monster movie that delivers exactly what it sets out to do, even if it does so without an ounce of subtlety or soul.
Extras include an audio commentary by director Adam Wingard, VFX supervisor Alessandro Ongaro, production designer Tom Hammock and editor Josh Schaeffer, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at making the movie and more. FINAL VERDICT: RENT
Also Out This Week:
“La Femme Nikita” (4K) — Luc Besson made a name for himself in the mid-‘90s with films like “Léon: The Professional” and “The Fifth Element,” but it was 1990’s “La Femme Nikita” that first put him on the map, spawning a Hollywood remake starring Bridget Fonda (“Point of No Return”) and a mildly successful TV series. Unfortunately, the original film doesn’t hold up very well, as it’s a pretty dull action-thriller with only a few decent bits of action scattered throughout an otherwise lackluster story. It certainly doesn’t help that the title character is completely unlikable, although that has less to do with Anne Parillaud’s performance than the subpar writing. While “La Femme Nikita” offers a glimpse at the potential that Besson would showcase in future projects, it’s simply too unrefined to make much of a lasting impact. FINAL VERDICT: SKIP
Disclosure: Bullz-Eye was provided a copy of the above titles for review purposes.
