Recent theatrical films are coming to home video platforms this week, led by Despicable Me 3 and Logan Lucky.
Despicable Me 3 (Universal, 2017, PG, deleted scene, featurettes, mini movie: The Secret Life of Kyle, sing-along, music video). This third trip to the well is a frenzied, if undemanding animated farce that kids (and fans) will enjoy. When Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) fails to capture Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), he is fired from the Anti-Villain League. Then Gru learns he has a twin brother and pays him a visit only to be urged to get back in the business of being bad. Hey, the minions are on board with that. The voice cast includes Kristen Wiig and Julie Andrews.
Logan Lucky (Univesal, 2017, PG-13, deleted scenes). The down-on-their-luck Logan siblings, Jimmy (Channing Tatum), Clyde (Adam Driver) and Mellie (Riley Keough), plot to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during a NASCAR race. Among the partners they recruit is bomb maker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), despite his being incarcerated. Steven Soderbergh scores a hit with this deadpan comic heist, which he directed at a more leisurely pace than his Oceans Eleven pictures, and which owes something to the style of the Coen brothers (along with a major plot point purloined from the 1960 British comedy Two-Way Stretch). With Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank and over-the-top Seth MacFarlane as a British racecar driver.
My Journey Through French Cinema (Cohen, 2016, not rated/probable PG-13, in b/w and color, in French with English subtitles, featurette, trailer). The 76-year-old French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (A Sunday in the Country, Life and Nothing But, Death Watch) hosts this personal documentary, an incomplete but effusive love letter/tutorial on the history of the French cinema. Tavernier is the on-camera narrator, with occasional archival interruptions from other filmmakers he has admired but its the carefully selected clips that will win you over. Film buffs will love it, though at three hours-plus the length may seem overindulgent to non-cinefiles.
Birth of the Dragon (Universal, 2017, PG-13, featurettes). This umpteenth film about the late Bruce Lee (Philip Ng) is a disappointing re-creation of the martial arts experts legendary showdown with Shaolin monk and Tai Chi master Wong (Zia Yu) in San Francisco, circa 1965 (before Lees movie stardom). Apparently, Wong is insulted by Lees instruction of ancient kung fu techniques, which leads Lee egged on by his student Steve McKee (Billy Magnussen) to challenge Wong.
Rememory (Lionsgate, 2017, PG-13, audio commentary, featurette). Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent, Game of Thrones) is excellent in this nonetheless muddled, disappointing sci-fi thriller as an accident victim who becomes involved with a groundbreaking device that can record and display memories. Dinklage uses the machine to discover his own connection to the scientist that created it, as well as to solve the mystery behind the scientists recent death. With Julia Ormond and Anton Yelchin.
The Hitmans Bodyguard (Summit, 2017, R for violence and language, deleted/alternate/extended scenes, audio commentary, featurettes, bloopers). Ryan Reynolds as a disgraced bodyguard and Samuel L. Jackson as the manipulative hit man hes assigned to protect, have comic chemistry together in this buddy action picture, but their banter isnt enough to save this increasingly ridiculous, profane chase-and-explosion melee. With Salma Hayek and Gary Oldman.
Despicable Me 3 (Universal, 2017, PG, deleted scene, featurettes, mini movie: The Secret Life of Kyle, sing-along, music video). This third trip to the well is a frenzied, if undemanding animated farce that kids (and fans) will enjoy. When Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) fails to capture Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), he is fired from the Anti-Villain League. Then Gru learns he has a twin brother and pays him a visit only to be urged to get back in the business of being bad. Hey, the minions are on board with that. The voice cast includes Kristen Wiig and Julie Andrews.
Logan Lucky (Univesal, 2017, PG-13, deleted scenes). The down-on-their-luck Logan siblings, Jimmy (Channing Tatum), Clyde (Adam Driver) and Mellie (Riley Keough), plot to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during a NASCAR race. Among the partners they recruit is bomb maker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), despite his being incarcerated. Steven Soderbergh scores a hit with this deadpan comic heist, which he directed at a more leisurely pace than his Oceans Eleven pictures, and which owes something to the style of the Coen brothers (along with a major plot point purloined from the 1960 British comedy Two-Way Stretch). With Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank and over-the-top Seth MacFarlane as a British racecar driver.
My Journey Through French Cinema (Cohen, 2016, not rated/probable PG-13, in b/w and color, in French with English subtitles, featurette, trailer). The 76-year-old French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (A Sunday in the Country, Life and Nothing But, Death Watch) hosts this personal documentary, an incomplete but effusive love letter/tutorial on the history of the French cinema. Tavernier is the on-camera narrator, with occasional archival interruptions from other filmmakers he has admired but its the carefully selected clips that will win you over. Film buffs will love it, though at three hours-plus the length may seem overindulgent to non-cinefiles.
Birth of the Dragon (Universal, 2017, PG-13, featurettes). This umpteenth film about the late Bruce Lee (Philip Ng) is a disappointing re-creation of the martial arts experts legendary showdown with Shaolin monk and Tai Chi master Wong (Zia Yu) in San Francisco, circa 1965 (before Lees movie stardom). Apparently, Wong is insulted by Lees instruction of ancient kung fu techniques, which leads Lee egged on by his student Steve McKee (Billy Magnussen) to challenge Wong.
Rememory (Lionsgate, 2017, PG-13, audio commentary, featurette). Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent, Game of Thrones) is excellent in this nonetheless muddled, disappointing sci-fi thriller as an accident victim who becomes involved with a groundbreaking device that can record and display memories. Dinklage uses the machine to discover his own connection to the scientist that created it, as well as to solve the mystery behind the scientists recent death. With Julia Ormond and Anton Yelchin.
The Hitmans Bodyguard (Summit, 2017, R for violence and language, deleted/alternate/extended scenes, audio commentary, featurettes, bloopers). Ryan Reynolds as a disgraced bodyguard and Samuel L. Jackson as the manipulative hit man hes assigned to protect, have comic chemistry together in this buddy action picture, but their banter isnt enough to save this increasingly ridiculous, profane chase-and-explosion melee. With Salma Hayek and Gary Oldman.
