Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week we return to Planet of the Apes! Yes, today hits the shelves Planet of the Apes: KingdomThere are also two separate Albert Brooks Films that will be included in the Criterion Collection. What other films will be released or re-released? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Picks
Planet of the Apes: Kingdom
This franchise never blew me away, but it’s hard to deny that Planet of the Apes: Kingdom doesn’t put the series in a strong new position. If it’s the start of a new trilogy or whatever they end up doing, I’m more than happy to give it a real chance. My review here on the site started like this:
Here’s the thing. I guess what all modern installments of the Planet of the Apes franchise has done. I think this reboot series, which previously consisted of the trilogy, is Planet of the Apes: Prevolution, Planet of the Apes: RevolutionAnd Planet of the Apes: Survival is absolutely solid. At the same time, I never loved the movies as much as everyone else. There is just some kind of discrepancy when it comes to this series. So when I say that Planet of the Apes: Kingdom is pretty good and I enjoyed it for the most part. You can take that as an average recommendation or as a sign that I’m liking the book more and more. The decision is yours.
Planet of the Apes: Kingdom runs about thirty minutes too long, but has an impressively consistent tone, full of intensity and strong visual effects. Whether you consider it the fourth film in this timeline, the first of a new one, or whatever, it largely manages to convince. The technology on display continues to evolve, and with it the storytelling possibilities it contains.
Also available this week
Beetlejuice (4K)
Drive (4K)
The Garfield Movie
Mammals (TV)
Resident Alien: Season Three (TV)
Drive
Star Trek: Discovery – The Final Season (TV)
Succession: The complete series (TV)
Sudden death (4K)
Guardians: Chapter 1
The Guardians
What you want
Criteria Corner
Mother
From the Criterion Collection: “Science fiction writer John Henderson (Albert Brooks), shattered by his second divorce and battling writer’s block, decides to figure out what’s gone wrong in his life and stumbles upon an unorthodox solution: moving back in with his relentlessly disapproving, cheerfully passive-aggressive mother (Debbie Reynolds), whose favorite son has always been John’s younger brother Jeff (Rob Morrow). It’s an experiment that, as harebrained as it may be, yields surprising results. Brooks’ film perfectly blends the writer-director-star’s caustic wit with insight and inviting warmth, and gives him a formidable counterpart in the delightful Reynolds, who triumphs in a comeback role that’s equal parts caustic and charming.”
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Real Life
From the Criterion Collection: “Decades before reality TV took over, there was Albert Brooks’ debut film, Real life, a brilliantly dry, stylistically innovative satire about the dangers and pitfalls of trying to capture the truth on film. The writer-director plays “Albert Brooks,” a narcissistic Hollywood filmmaker who plans to spend the year in Phoenix with Warren and Jeanette Yeager (Charles Grodin and Frances Lee McCain) and their two children, using an arsenal of state-of-the-art equipment (including the Ettinauer 226XL overhead camera) to capture the ordinary day-to-day life of an American family. Tracing the disastrous consequences of the project as the pushy Albert can’t help but get too close to his subjects, this groundbreaking mockumentary is more relevant than ever in today’s media landscape.”
Stay tuned for more information next week…
