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: “They Will Kill You”
Kirill Sokolov’s English-language debut is admittedly a bit of a mixed bag, but when it’s not getting dragged down by its paper-thin plot and one-dimensional villains, “They Will Kill You” is a really fun action thriller that plays like the kind of grindhouse-inspired midnight movie that Quentin Tarantino would love. A blood-soaked genre mashup that delivers gory kill after gory kill without ever taking itself too seriously, “They Will Kill You” navigates its tonal shifts with considerable ease, all while providing star Zazie Beetz with a vehicle to showcase her action heroine credentials. Though the movie struggles to balance its high-energy set pieces with tedious backstory that it could honestly do without, “They Will Kill You” is such a blast when it’s in full-on action mode that its shortcomings aren’t as detrimental as they could have been.
Extras include a behind-the-scenes look at making the film. FINAL VERDICT: RENT
Also Out This Week:
“Crime 101” — Writer/director Bart Layton’s narrative feature debut, “American Animals,” was one of the most underrated films of 2018, so it’s disappointing that it took this long for the filmmaker to get another crack behind the camera. Unfortunately, his latest feature falls well short of its predecessor. While “American Animals” is a clever, genre-bending heist film that uses a creative narrative device to tell its true-life story, “Crime 101” is a largely by-the-numbers crime thriller that doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Worse yet, it completely wastes its all-star cast, which includes Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo and Barry Keoghan. “Crime 101” isn’t without its merits, but compared to Layton’s previous film, it lacks enough originality or edge to stand on its own. FINAL VERDICT: RENT
“Magnificent Bodyguards” — Director Wei Lo has been credited for helping launch the careers of both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, but this 1978 kung fu adventure film is a pretty dull affair that’s biggest claim to fame is being the first Hong Kong movie shot in 3D. As expected, the 3D gimmick is utilized to its fullest, with no shortage of weapons, fists and (yes) snakes thrust at the audience, but it doesn’t really add anything to the fight scenes. In fact, the action isn’t all that impressive; it feels slow and overly choreographed, save for the climactic showdown. It’s certainly not to the level that fans have come to expect from Chan, and the actor himself feels terribly miscast here, lacking the charisma and playfulness that would later make him a star. While 88 Films has done an excellent job with this three-disc release, offering three different ways to watch the movie (Real-D 3D, anaglyph 3D and standard 2D) thanks to a brand-new 2K restoration created in partnership with the 3-D Film Archive, “Magnificent Bodyguards” is an incredibly niche martial arts film that will only appeal to hardcore fans. Extras include an audio commentary by Hong Kong cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, as well as a pair of featurettes. FINAL VERDICT: SKIP
Disclosure: Bullz-Eye was provided a copy of the above titles for review purposes.
