FILM FRENZY

Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck in Xanadu (Photo: Kino)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

THE ACCOUNTANT 2 (2025). If this sequel to 2016’s The Accountant avoids that film’s low points, the trade-off is that it also steers clear of its highs. That makes it of comparable quality, even if the end result is overall more muted. That previous picture was a thriller that took a shaky storyline and rendered it intelligent before aping Charlie Gordon in Flowers for Algernon and growing dimmer as it shuffled along. It offered an intriguing setup, a unique central character, and some tantalizing plot pirouettes before jumping the tracks with an obvious (and imbecilic) narrative coincidence and an imploding third act. This follow-up again finds Ben Affleck as Christian Woolf, an autistic man who used the harsh lessons thrust upon him during childhood to become a kick-ass accountant and an ass-kicking fighter. In the first picture, he was pursued by Treasury agents Raymond King (J.K. Simmons) and Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), and it wasn’t until the end that he discovered the assassin operating from the shadows was his own brother Brax (Jon Bernthal). These characters all return in The Accountant 2, with the focus on the estranged siblings’ relationship as they attempt to aid a Latino immigrant family that’s been brutalized by a powerful American crime lord (Robert Morgan; I guess Donnie Trump wasn’t available?). Despite sharing the same writer (Bill Dubuque) and director (Gavin O’Connor) as the original, there’s a downsizing of sorts with the character of Christian Woolf — Affleck is again fine in the role, but except for a quirky opening sequence wherein Christian attends a speed dating event, not as much of his personality shines through as before, with the filmmakers more interested in turning him into a generic action hero and turning the picture into a buddy comedy featuring the bickering bros.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★½

CAPOTE (2005). Anyone checking out this Truman Capote drama expecting an exhaustive expose on the literary lion and social raconteur might be surprised to learn that the film focuses exclusively on the period when he researched and wrote his nonfiction masterpiece In Cold Blood. In a way, it’s an odd choice for a film: Almost everything you need to know about this incident can be found in the superb 1967 screen version of In Cold Blood (see From Screen To Stream below). But the selling point is Philip Seymour Hoffman in his Oscar-winning role. Constantly punctuating the air with his whispery wit and lavishly entertaining other people as if to the manor — and diva manner — born, Hoffman’s Capote is an odd figure against the barren backdrop of the Kansas flatlands, where he and his friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) have come to learn about the brutal murders of a family of four. Capote gets to know the two drifters responsible for the killings, and he forms a bond with one of them: Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), a pensive type with whom he feels he shares outsider status. But as time passes and Capote keeps needling Perry for specific details on the murders (required for the completion of his book), it becomes unclear — perhaps even to Capote himself — whether the author is merely using Perry for his own purposes or whether the doomed convict has unearthed Capote’s own humanity. At this point, Hoffman’s portrayal truly mesmerizes, as Capote’s fey façade slips long enough to reveal an ordinary man both shaken and stirred by the finality of a nonfiction world. In addition to Hoffman’s Best Actor victory, this also scored nominations for Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Keener), Director (Bennett Miller), and Adapted Screenplay (Dan Futterman).

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Hoffman and Miller and a making-of featurette.

Movie: ★★★

GUNG HO (1986). One of the forgotten films on Ron Howard’s resume — yet a far better bet than such later dogs as The Dilemma, Inferno, and Hillbilly Elegy — Gung Ho reunites the director with his Night Shift breakout star Michael Keaton. The actor is in good form as Hunt Stevenson, one of the residents of a blue-collar Pennsylvania town where the recent shuttering of the automobile factory has left it economically depressed. Thanks to Hunt, the Yanks manage to convince a Japanese auto company to take over and reopen the factory — that it does, but the culture clashes begin immediately, with the Americans amused at seemingly silly Japanese customs and the Japanese aghast at the American workers’ perceived laziness and lack of pride. Scripters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel do a commendable job of balancing the pros and cons of each culture’s approach to industry, and Gedde Watanabe (Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong) matches Keaton with an amusing and impassioned performance as the harried plant manager. This March 1986 theatrical release was followed in December by an ABC sitcom of the same name, with Watanabe reprising his role and Keaton replaced by Scott Bakula — it lasted all of nine episodes and was off the air by early February 1987.

As I noted in my review of Pretty in Pink (go here), back in the 1980s, Paramount would send select college newspaper critics to LA and NYC (and Toronto on one occasion) on film junkets. Among those I attended was the one for Gung Ho, and the interviewees naturally included Howard and Keaton. Here are the photos I snapped of both of them following the interviews — and, yes, Howard was just as sweet as you would expect and Keaton was just as cocky as you might surmise.

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentary and an interview with Watanabe.

Movie: ★★★

HAPPY GILMORE (1996). Arguably the best of Adam Sandler’s dumdum comedies — and certainly an improvement over the previous year’s big-screen career starter Billy Madison (recently reviewed here) — Happy Gilmore generates some genuine laughs in its tale of a failed hockey player who brings his talents and his temper to the genteel game of golf. Sandler is cast as the title character, a foul-mouthed and foul-tempered guy who longs to become a professional hockey player. He possesses a killer slapshot, but because he’s a lousy skater, no one will touch him. By accident, he discovers that his slapshot transfers nicely to the game of golf — because the sweet grandmother (Frances Bay) who raised him owes the IRS approximately a quarter-million dollars, Happy decides to start playing the professional golf circuit. His rumpled look and surly attitude make him stand out on the course, but he becomes a fan favorite and an underdog — that doesn’t sit well with Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), an unctuous pro who’s expected to win the tournament. There’s a genuine sweetness to the relationship between Happy and his granny, and Carl Weathers is engaging as Chubbs Peterson, Happy’s mentor and a former player until he lost a hand to an alligator. The highlight, of course, is the scene in which Happy and The Price Is Right host Bob Barker (as himself) get into a verbal and then physical altercation (“The price is wrong, bitch!”). Only major gripe: No comeuppance for the nasty nursing home attendant played by an uncredited Ben Stiller (the character returns in Hubie Halloween and Happy Gilmore 2).

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include podcaster audio commentary; deleted scenes; and outtakes.

Movie: ★★★

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2025). Taking a cue from Disney and its live-action cannibalizing of its cartoon catalog, DreamWorks Animation has transformed the first film in its animated Dragon series into a flesh-and-blood flick. It feels like a carbon copy of the 2010 original (itself based on Cressida Cowell’s 2003 novel), and while some will state that it’s meant to introduce the story to a new generation, others will see it as merely a blatant cash grab. It isn’t as accomplished as Kenneth Branagh’s 2015 Cinderella or Bill Condon’s 2017 Beauty and the Beast — live-action adaptations that did enough differently to stand apart from their predecessors — but neither is it a soulless slog like Jon Favreau’s 2019 The Lion King. It’s perfectly pleasant if rarely inspired, and while the animated version is still preferred, there’s no downside in advocating for this one. As before, this centers on a village wherein the Viking population is at war with the neighboring dragons. Bumbling Hiccup (Mason Thames), the son of the Viking leader Stoick (Gerard Butler, reprising his role from the toon version), wants to become a dragon slayer, and he gets his chance when he wounds a Night Fury. But rather than go for the kill, he ends up releasing the creature, and before long, the two become inseparable — a real dilemma, since the lad is expected to soon complete his schooling and start slaughtering dragons. Dean DeBlois, who co-wrote and co-directed the original, again advances the themes of acceptance and understanding without any pushy shoving, and the effects team does a decent job in the designs of the various breeds of dragons. DreamWorks Animation has 50 other toon tales in its stable, so we should probably brace ourselves for live-action takes on Antz, Shrek, and Trolls World Tour.

Extras in the 4K edition include audio commentary by DeBlois; a making-of featurette; deleted scenes; and a gag reel.

Movie: ★★½

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995). The 1995 Oscar race was clearly setting up to be a match between Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (see From Screen To Stream below) and Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, but when the Academy incredibly, absurdly failed to nominate either man for Best Director, that paved the way for Mel Gibson’s comparatively lacking Braveheart to emerge out of left field and snag the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. Howard’s omission wasn’t too shocking — this was during the period when the Academy regularly turned its back on TV-stars-turned-movie-directors like Howard, Rob Reiner, and Penny Marshall, honoring their films but not the helmers themselves — but how to explain the snub of Lee? An acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker tackling his first English-language project, Lee, along with scripter-star Emma Thompson, managed to make what arguably remains the finest Jane Austen adaptation to date. In this exquisite endeavor about two sisters looking for love in Victorian England, the sensible Elinor Dashwood (Thompson) cautiously falls for a timid gentleman (Hugh Grant) while her spontaneous sibling Marianne (Kate Winslet) desperately pursues a handsome stranger (Greg Wise) even as a more refined suitor (a superb Alan Rickman) stands in the shadows. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actress (Thompson), and Supporting Actress (Winslet), this earned Thompson the Oscar for her adapted screenplay. (Incidentally, the Academy later made it up to both Lee and Howard, awarding the former two statues for directing Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi and the latter two awards for directing and producing A Beautiful Mind.)

Extras in the 4K + Digital edition include audio commentary by Thompson and producer Lindsay Doran; audio commentary by Lee and co-producer James Schamus; deleted scenes; and a piece on the costumes.

Movie: ★★★★

STOP! LOOK! AND LAUGH! (1960). As a Three Stooges fan who proudly owns the 20-disc DVD set The Ultimate Collection — “190 Shorts, 2 Feature Films, 28 Never-Before-Released Shorts, 3 Columbia Cartoons” — I can’t quite give this compilation feature a passing grade. It borrows select scenes from 11 Stooge shorts made between 1937 and 1947 — that’s the good news, since this is classic comedy that can be repeatedly watched and appreciated by devotees of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard. But the newly filmed material centers around ventriloquist Paul Winchell and his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, and it’s only mildly amusing since its primary purpose is to serve as lead-ins to the Stooges footage. As one example, Winchell calls a plumbing service on his phone — cut to footage of the Stooges as plumbers (from the 1940 classic short A Plumbing We Will Go). Another sequence finds Jerry wanting to watch his favorite show on TV; Winchell turns on the tube and we’re treated to a scene of Moe, Larry, and Curly as cowboys (from 1937’s Goofs and Saddles). And yet another bit finds Winchell complaining about a loud party next door — cue a party sequence that ends with the Stooges initiating a massive pie fight (from 1947’s Half-Wits Holiday; incidentally, Curly’s final short, as he suffered a career-ending stroke while filming it). The affability of Winchell (who later was the original voice of Tigger as well as — get this — one of the first inventors of a mechanical heart!) and the uniqueness of his dummies at least keep these segments watchable, but the same can’t be said for the deadly stretch when the Marquis Chimps take over and present an all-simian version of Cinderella.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★½

XANADU (1980). For roughly 50 years, the musical was one of Hollywood’s most reliable genres, from Busby Berkeley and Astaire-Rogers in the 1930s through Saturday Night Fever and Grease in the 1970s. But it took only a handful of megabombs to kill off the genre, including this ghastly achievement that has nevertheless spawned a smash Broadway adaptation as well as legions of devoted groupies. The fans are welcome to this one: Managing to trumpet the worst excesses of both the fading ’70s disco craze and the burgeoning ’80s New Wave scene, this calamity stars Olivia Newton-John as Kira, a heavenly muse sent to inspire struggling artist Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) to realize his dream of becoming a success. It’s strictly a hands-off assignment, meaning complications ensue when Kira falls in love with the guy. Pop star Newton-John received a unanimous drubbing for her one-note performance (thereby killing any chance of a sustained post-Grease film career), but truthfully, co-star Beck is even worse. The tragedy is that this curdled kitsch marked the final big-screen outing for the legendary Gene Kelly: The man who delighted us with Singin’ In the Rain and On the Town (among many others) deserved better. Thankfully, director Robert Greenwald’s career survived this, as he became one of the preeminent helmers of informative movies railing against the anti-American right-wing agenda (e.g. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties).

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Greenwald; three additional audio commentaries featuring various film historians; a vintage 1980 sizzle reel; a 2009 retrospective featurette; and TV and radio spots.

Movie: ★

FILM CLIPS

THE GOLDEN CHILD (1986). With The Golden Child, Eddie Murphy unfortunately (if unsurprisingly) morphed from Explosive Comic Talent to Narcissistic Action Star. No one else could have played Axel Foley, Billy Ray Valentine or Reggie Hammond quite like Murphy, whereas a dozen other actors could have tackled The Golden Child’s Chandler Jarrell in exactly the same preening, paycheck-cashing manner. After a Tibetan boy (J.L. Reate) with mystical powers is kidnapped by a demonic emissary (Charles Dance), those responsible for the child’s safety determine that Chandler, a Los Angeles social worker who specializes in finding missing children, is “The Chosen One” and thus the only person who can rescue the tyke. The Golden Child offers lots of special effects but little else that can be deemed special.

4K extras include a pair of archival making-of pieces and an image gallery.

Movie: ★★

REPOSSESSED (1990). Initially, it appears as if this spoof of 1973’s The Exorcist might be up to the task: There’s a hilarious bit about the origins of family surnames, and a visual gag involving Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick is particularly clever. But these two direct hits are followed by a handful of jokes that mildly amuse and about a hundred that don’t merit even a raised lip corner. Linda Blair plays a variation of her Exorcist character, here a housewife who again becomes possessed by the devil. Leslie Nielsen plays Father Mayii, Ned Beatty and Lana Schwab portray thinly disguised versions of disgraced PTL televangelist Jim Bakker and his ditzy wife Tammy, and the cameos include Jesse Ventura, Army Archerd, and that Body by Jake guy.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by writer-director Bob Logan; the theatrical trailer; and trailers for other movies on the Kino label.

Movie: ★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

APOLLO 13 (1995). At a time when these United States continue to remain hopelessly divided along political, social, and moral lines, Apollo 13 still serves as a refreshing splash of water on the face in that it shows people working together tirelessly for a larger good — in this case, the lives of three American heroes who courageously sought to expand our boundaries and our imaginations. Armed with a dream cast, director Ron Howard takes the story of the ill-fated 1970 Apollo mission and turns it into an inspiring drama that illustrates in painstaking detail how teamwork and tenacity can overcome even the most demanding of situations. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton respectively portray Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, the three astronauts whose trip to the moon morphs into a high-risk race to return to Earth before their damaged capsule betrays them completely. Gary Sinise and Kathleen Quinlan also appear in key roles (he as pilot Ken Mattingly, she as Jim’s wife Marilyn), yet it’s Ed Harris who takes top acting honors: He’s sensational as Gene Kranz, the laser-focused flight director who plans to bring these guys home by any means necessary. Nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Harris), Supporting Actress (Quinlan), and Adapted Screenplay (William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert, working from the book Lost Moon by Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger), this won for Best Film Editing and Best Sound.

Movie: ★★★½

BACK TO SCHOOL (1986). One of the brightest (and least pretentious) comedies of the past half-century, this box office hit is the sort of film that’s easy to watch repeatedly over the years, since it’s populated with endearing characters and packed with terrific one-liners. Rodney Dangerfield (never better) stars as Thornton Melon, a self-made millionaire who returns to college to help out his struggling son Jason (Keith Gordon). There, he spends more time partying than studying, although he does find a private tutor — and romantic interest — in English professor Diane Turner (an excellent Sally Kellerman, delivering a passionate performance that makes you want to go pick up a literary classic right away). Rodney’s quips never grow stale (“The football team at my high school, they were tough. After they sacked the quarterback, they went after his family”), but while he could easily qualify as the whole show, he’s backed by reliable actors in colorful roles, including Robert Downey Jr. as Jason’s anarchist roommate and Ned Beatty as the college dean called — wait for it — Dean Martin. Look for Batman / Men in Black composer Danny Elfman back in his days fronting the band Oingo Boingo; they play their hit “Dead Man’s Party” in the party sequence. And don’t miss that priceless cameo by Kurt Vonnegut!

Movie: ★★★½

CAPE FEAR (1962) / CAPE FEAR (1991). Which Robert, Mitchum or De Niro? De Niro may have walked away with an Oscar nomination for his take on Max Cady, but nobody in his right mind would think he was superior to Mitchum’s time spent in the role.

In the suspenseful 1962 adaptation of John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners, Mitchum delivers one of his best performances as Max Cady, an ex-con who swears vengeance on Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), the lawyer he blames for his incarceration. Cady sets about terrorizing Bowden’s wife (Polly Bergen) and teenage daughter (Lori Martin), but since he’s always careful to stay just within the boundaries of the law, Bowden eventually realizes that he might have to take matters into his own hands to keep this psycho away from his family. The score by Bernard Herrmann (Psycho) is superb, and Martin Balsam (as a sympathetic sheriff) and Telly Savalas (as an overconfident private eye) offer strong support. This was a triumph for both helmer J. Lee Thompson, who had earned a Best Director Oscar nomination the previous year when he teamed with Peck for The Guns of Navarone, and scripter James R. Webb, who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his other 1962 effort, How the West Was Won (also with Peck).

Peck, Mitchum, and Balsam all appear in cameos in Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake, with De Niro and Nick Nolte respectively tackling the roles of Cady and Bowden. This Cady is a leering, sneering menace with Biblical quotes and striking imagery tattooed all over his body (“I don’t know whether to look at him or read him,” comments a detective), and he unnerves both Bowden and his wife (Jessica Lange) while attempting to form a bond with their gullible teenage daughter (Juliette Lewis). Technically, the film is a dazzling achievement, but De Niro’s performance wavers uneasily between brutish commitment and shallow parody — it’s a typical example of Academy shortsightedness that this Oscar darling received a Best Actor nomination while the far superior (and truly scary) Mitchum probably wasn’t even considered by most voters. More sensible than the De Niro nod was the Best Supporting Actress nomination for Lewis, who steals the film as the Bowdens’ lonely daughter. For the most part, Wesley Strick’s screenplay is nicely fleshed out, but the climax is not only interminable but also risible, with Cady’s last stand bringing to mind that of the Wicked Witch (or Judge Doom).

Cape Fear (1962): ★★★½

Cape Fear (1991): ★★★

IN COLD BLOOD (1967). The 2005 drama Capote (reviewed above), featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance as author Truman Capote, was a solid film, but its flaw was that it didn’t provide enough of an overview of the social raconteur’s life and instead largely focused on his efforts to research and write In Cold Blood. In that respect, the movie pales when placed next to comparable scenes in this superb adaptation of the bestselling novel, which takes almost a documentary approach in its staging of a real-life tragedy. Robert Blake (eight years before achieving TV stardom on Baretta) and Scott Wilson play Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two ex-cons who in 1959 brutally murder a Kansas family (mom, dad, and two children) and are then rightly made to pay for their heinous crime. Writer-director Richard Brooks’ detached style allows for a non-exploitative presentation, and the contributions by cinematographer Conrad Hall and composer Quincy Jones are first-rate. While In Cold Blood failed to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award — its slot likely went to the critical and commercial disaster Doctor Dolittle, for which Fox notoriously held lavish banquets in a successful effort to sway voters — it did nab four other nominations: Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Original Music Score.

Movie: ★★★★

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986). Director Tobe Hooper’s 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remains a genuine classic of the horror genre, a punishing, unrelenting nightmare that never allows viewers a moment of sanity or security (read the full review here). That notorious schlockmeisters Mehahem Golan and Yoram Globus managed to secure the rights and produce The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is annoying; that Hooper returned to helm this bastardization of his mesmerizing original is downright depressing. The opening quarter-hour is just fine, featuring a wild vehicular chase between Leatherface (Bill Johnson, replacing Gunnar Hansen) and a pair of obnoxious frat boys (for once, we’re rooting for Leatherface) as well as the introduction of a memorable character in DJ “Stretch” Brock (Caroline Williams). But the rest of the picture is merely ham-fisted satire, bringing in a loony Texas Ranger (Dennis Hopper) and making the members of the cannibalistic clan about as menacing as Pee-wee Herman. This is especially unfortunate in the case of Leatherface: An entity of evil in the first film, he’s transformed into a buffoon in this outing, to the point that Jerry Lewis should have been cast in the role. The set design by Cary White and Michael Peal is impressive, as are the makeup schemes by Tom Savini. Everything else holds the appeal of rotted meat, although, to be fair, those who love this movie LOVE this movie. The promotional material spoofing The Breakfast Club poster is pretty great, though.

Movie: ★½