Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest home video releases, along with a rundown of the included extras, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping.
Pick of the Week: “Masters of the Universe”
Director Travis Knight is responsible for arguably the best live-action Transformers movie to date, so it makes sense why Mattel would entrust him with the big-screen adaptation of its own popular toy line. But while Knight delivers what is probably the best version of a live-action He-Man movie (and certainly better than the 1987 cult classic), it’s still a pretty hit-and-miss affair. The problem with a property like “Masters of the Universe” is that it’s inherently goofy, and in trying to remain faithful to the source material, the movie ends up leaning too heavily into its campy roots, which grows tiresome over the course of the film’s unnecessarily long 140-minute runtime. When the movie works, it’s a lot of fun, especially whenever Jared Leto’s Skeletor is onscreen, but it’s too uneven to offer anything other than a quick nostalgia hit.
Extras include a behind-the-scenes photo gallery and footage from a promotional drone show above the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. FINAL VERDICT: RENT
Also Out This Week:
“One Night Only” — This high-concept romantic comedy from director Will Gluck has one of the strangest premises for a rom-com that I’ve ever seen, and it’s ultimately why the movie falls flat. Set in an alternate reality where the U.S. government has outlawed premarital sex save for a single 12-hour period once every year, “One Night Only” is basically “The Purge” but for sex instead of murder. It’s as silly and far-fetched as it sounds — an idea so disconnected from reality that it’s impossible to appreciate the otherwise good chemistry between stars Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro. “One Night Only” could have been a decent rom-com under different circumstances, but the movie is shackled so much by its completely insane premise that it’s destined to fail before it even begins. Extras include a behind-the-scenes look at making the film. FINAL VERDICT: SKIP
Disclosure: Bullz-Eye was provided a copy of the above titles for review purposes.
