New on Blu: THE WAILING, SWISS ARMY MAN, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
Do you even care to know how "gorgeous" the 1080P transfer looks? By now, you are well-versed in what transfers look like.
New on Blu is a new column from film pundit Chase Whale, exploring studio, arthouse, underground, exploitation and cult cinema released on Blu-ray and DVD from some of the most cutting-edge independent distributors around the U.S. He talks about the movie and whether it's worth a buy, rent, or avoid.
This is a solid week for Blu-ray, but I’m only going to tell you about three I was sent, starting with THE WAILING, one of the best films of 2016.
Writer/Director Na Hong-Jin is untouchable. So far he’s three for three. His debut THE CHASER, left me chilled for days. THE YELLOW SEA, his sophomore feature, did the same. And now Hong-jin-s third, terrifying THE WAILING goes well above that trend. It will haunt you for days, maybe even weeks.
THE WAILING doesn’t rely on many jump scares but what makes it so horrifying is the story itself. It challenges Heaven and Hell, good versus evil, God and the Devil. I’m certain this would be John Milton’s favorite film if he were alive today.
That’s all I should say about THE WAILING. It’s best if you go in cold and watch the story unfold. This is one of the best films of the year and a must-own. Watch with a group of friends, so at the end y’all can argue over about the underlying message of this movie. I’m still trying to figure it out myself.
Ps It's one of the only films in Rotten Tomatoes history that's at 100% Fresh with over 40 reviews.
BUY.
You can file SWISS ARMY MAN under “super fucking weird cinema.” Hank (THERE WILL BE BLOOD’s Paul Dano) is stuck on a small island and instead of discovering a volleyball, he finds a washed up corpse (played by Harry Potter himself). His name is Manny and he’s deader than Ja Rule’s career and farts a lot, and eventually starts…talking. Manny’s brain is like a child’s and Hank teaches him things, like what poop and masturbation are, and Manny still farts a lo. And they sing a catchy song together. Yeah, it gets weird.
It’s wildly entertaining if you can put up with the relentless farting — Paul Dano bangs out a really charming performance as a desperate, maybe delusional, man trying to get off the purgatory of an island he’s stuck on.
RENT.
I watched this for the first time on Blu-ray. All movies should be seen in a theater, but sometimes it’s just not possible.
When I watched Bryan Singer’s X-MEN: APOCALYPSE on Blu-ray for the first time, expecting to be blown away considering his X-MEN films keep getting better and better, but this film is empty and ugly. I would go as far as saying it’s the worst X-Men movie in the franchise (yes, Brat Ratner's movie is more entertaining this one).
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE is slow, then bloated, and explodes with boredom, and will probably lull you to sleep before you even get to the end. I don’t know where it went wrong since the director is the one who made the X-Men franchise super popular, but we all have our bad days.
Avoid. (Unless you are a die-hard X-Men fan, which means you’ve probably already seen it.)