FILM FRENZY

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas, included in Peanuts Ultimate TV Specials Collection (Photos: Warner Bros.)

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.)

ÆON FLUX (2005). I recall this big-budget production being deemed so awful by its own studio (Paramount) that it wasn’t even screened in advance for us critics. Truthfully, it’s not that wretched, but it was nevertheless a film that pleased no one, resulting in the expected bad reviews but also emerging as a box office bomb. Based on the MTV animated series, this opens with a title card informing us that in the year 2011, approximately 99 percent of the world’s population was wiped out by a virus. Flash forward to 2415, where the descendants of the original survivors continue to live in Bregna, the only established city on the entire planet. Fed up with the fascistic methods of the ruling class, a band of revolutionaries known as the Monicans seeks to topple the government; they order their best agent, Æon Flux (Charlize Theron), to assassinate leader Trevor Goodchild (Martin Csokas), but as she attempts to carry out her assignment, she realizes that the situation isn’t as clearly defined as previously thought. An impersonal slab of sci-fi sameness, Æon Flux wears its lethargy like a badge of honor, with the draggy direction by Karyn Kusama (who just five years prior had made a smashing debut with the indie knockout Girlfight) and Theron’s monotonous performance up front and center in virtually every scene. Frances McDormand and Pete Postlethwaite are awkwardly out of place as, respectively,  The Handler and the Keeper.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital Code SteelBook edition include audio commentary by Theron and producer Gale Anne Hurd; audio commentary by co-screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi; a making-of featurette; and a piece on the stunt work.

Movie: ★½

THE BONE COLLECTOR (1999). Denzel Washington has always been such a magnetic actor that he could just stay in bed for the duration of a movie and still command the viewer’s attention. In this adaptation of Jeffery Deaver’s bestselling novel, he does just that. Cast as Lincoln Rhyme, an NYC detective whose on-the-job accident has left him almost completely paralyzed, he delivers a typically strong performance without ever having to get vertical. Indeed, it’s his presence — as well as the chemistry he shares with co-star Angelina Jolie — that enables this grisly film to rise above other equally contrived thrillers. Despite his bedridden status and his determination to end his life before he mentally becomes a vegetable, Lincoln is respected enough by his fellow officers that they turn to him to help nail a serial killer who’s been offing people in various ways and then leaving tantalizing clues. Since Lincoln can’t hit the streets himself, he picks rookie police officer Amelia Donaghy (Jolie) to do his legwork (no pun intended) for him; what they uncover is a plot so labyrinthine that even Sherlock Holmes might have given up and returned to his coke habit. The Bone Collector is so breathless and weighty with plot details that it’s fun to play along; it’s only after it’s over that it becomes readily apparent that the whole mystery is as flimsy as a house of cards built atop a buoy. The identity of the killer is easy to peg almost from the start, and while there’s a fair amount of tension along the way, it all culminates in a preposterous climax. Luis Guzmán is good as a wisecracking forensics expert; ditto Queen Latifah as Lincoln’s concerned nurse.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by director Phillip Noyce; film historian audio commentary; a making-of featurette; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

F1 (2025). Despite its homefield advantage, NASCAR hasn’t always been treated kindly by Hollywood. There are far more quality Formula One flicks than there have been worthy NASCAR movies — Grand Prix, Rush, and Ford v Ferrari versus Speedway, Stroker Ace, and Days of Thunder can hardly be deemed a fair fight — and Formula One lands the ultimate dis when a character in Ford v Ferrari states that driving the NASCAR circuit requires no skill since it’s just “four hours of turning left.” F1 — billed as F1: The Movie everywhere except on the screen — adds another one to the Formula One win column, with Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski again demonstrating that he knows a thing or two about overseeing films centered on the characters’ need for speed while mastering manly machinery. Brad Pitt is Sonny Hayes, a former Next Big Thing who instead has spent the past 30 years as a rudderless driver-for-hire. He reluctantly commits to being a racer for Rubén Cervantes (Javier Bardem), a friend, former rival, and owner of the APXGP team — this decision places him in the company of Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), the outfit’s technical director, and fellow driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), whose stubbornness matches Sonny’s own. The veteran and the rookie, the unexpected romance between the aging rebel and a level-headed woman, the personal demons needing to be conquered, cockiness and narcissism eventually being replaced by empathy and self-sacrifice — we’ve seen it all many times before, recently in, yes, Top Gun: Maverick. But F1 is confident enough in its own storytelling prowess that nothing feels painfully conventional or contrived, and the casting is impeccable.

Blu-ray extras include behind-the-scenes pieces focusing on vehicular challenges, location shooting, sound designs, and more.

Movie: ★★★

HOTEL RWANDA (2004). Set in 1994 Rwanda, this powerful film takes place during the 100-day period when nearly one million of that country’s Tutsis were slaughtered by the Hutu extremists. Clearly, Hotel Rwanda is about international indifference and liberal ineffectualness, and the movie shows how all the humanitarian gestures committed by well-meaning individuals (including ones played by Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jean Reno) ultimately count for little when the global policymakers can’t be bothered to cast a caring glance. Unfairly (and patronizingly) described by some reviewers as Schindler’s List Lite, Hotel Rwanda is its own creation, a movie that continues to reverberate with such tropical — and topical — force that the ink is forever drying on its condemnation of a planet that operates with blinders firmly attached. Yet for all its indignant ire, this is above all a humanist saga, and it’s in this area where it draws its greatest power. At the center of this maelstrom of moral outrage rests the stabilizing performance of Don Cheadle: He exudes quiet authority as Paul Rusesabagina, the Hutu hotel manager who risked everything to save over a thousand Tutsi civilians from falling under the machete. Wyclef Jean’s lovely tune “Million Voices” deserved the Best Original Song Oscar, but, as expected, the tone-deaf octogenarians who made up the music branch didn’t even nominate it (but treacly songs from The Phantom of the Opera, The Polar Express, and Shrek 2 made the cut). Hotel Rwanda did nab three other nominations: Best Actor, Supporting Actress (Sophie Okonedo as Rusesabagina’s wife), and Original Screenplay (Terry George, who also directed, and Keir Pearson).

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by George and Rusesabagina; select-scene commentary by Cheadle; and a making-of featurette.

Movie: ★★★½

ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1974). The 1969 release Love Camp 7 was probably the first Nazisploitation film, and later ones included 1976’s SS Experiment Love Camp, 1977’s Gestapo’s Last Orgy (aka Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler), and 1980’s Holocaust 2: The Revenge, the latter an Italian cheapie that offensively piggybacked on the success of the superb 1978 miniseries Holocaust. But the most famous is Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, a sizable hit on the grindhouse circuit. The copy on the new 4K edition offers the quote, “the most degenerate picture I have seen … a textbook for rapists and mutilation freaks,” which sounds like the usual Rex Reed hysteria but actually came from Gene Siskel. The film is indeed worthless, despite producer David F. Friedman’s disingenuous opening statement that reads in part, “We dedicate this film with the hope that these heinous crimes will never occur again.” Dyanne Thorne plays the title sadist, the commandant at a German concentration camp. Ilsa uses the female captives in her scientific experiments, which means scenes of women being tortured via whippings, flesh-peeling, and misshapen dildoes. The male prisoners are required to service Ilsa sexually, after which point they’re castrated — the exception is an American (Gregory Knoph) who so satisfies Ilsa that she keeps him around. There’s also a German officer (Richard Kennedy) who orders Ilsa to give him a golden shower. The fact that this was shot on the same sets as Hogan’s Heroes is the most interesting/amusing aspect of this wretched endeavor. Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS was followed by three sequels, all of which starred Thorne but none of which involved Nazis: 1976’s Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, 1977’s Roger Corman-produced Ilsa: The Tigress of Siberia, and 1977’s Jess Franco-directed Ilsa: The Wicked Warden.

Extras include audio commentary by Thorne, Friedman, and director Don Edmonds, and an interview with Edmonds.

Movie: ★

JUDY GARLAND: 6-FILM COLLECTION (1940-1954). The Warner Archive Collection graciously continues its cost-conscious line of Blu-ray compilation kits, with a Judy six-pack now joining recent sets for (among others) Elizabeth Taylor and Errol Flynn and soon to be joined by Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (to be reviewed in upcoming weeks).

Garland and Mickey Rooney appeared in 10 films together, four of which were musical hits directed by Busby Berkeley. Strike Up the Band (1940) was the second of the series, with Mickey cast as a teenager who transforms his high school’s dull band into a swinging set in order to win a national contest; Judy plays the best friend who’s constantly hoping he’ll notice her in a more romantic fashion. It’s always a pleasure to hear Garland sing, and the fevered and frenzied manner in which Rooney often tackled a role (such as the one here) is something to behold. But the story is awfully thin, with many of the more dramatic elements (Rooney’s relationship with his mom, a friend in need of an operation) falling flat. An Oscar winner for Best Sound, this also earned nominations for Best Score and Best Original Song (“Our Love Affair”).

The fourth and final musical to team Rooney and Garland with Berkeley — well, sort of; he was fired during production and replaced by Norman Taurog — Girl Crazy (1943) finds Mickey playing Danny Churchill Jr., a collegiate playboy whose bad publicity on the East Coast convinces his father (Henry O’Neill) to ship him off to a rural, all-male university somewhere out west. To Danny’s delight, it turns out that the dean (Guy Kibbee) has a granddaughter, Ginger Gray (Judy), who likes to hang out at the college. As with Strike Up the Band, here’s another Rooney-Garland confection where not much of interest happens when everyone isn’t singing or dancing. The Gershwin score is tops, though, with the “I Got Rhythm” finale a highlight.

It’s 1903, the World Fair is just around the corner, and the Smith family learns that Dad’s job will force them to move from their beloved St. Louis home and relocate to New York City — and at Christmastime, to boot. That’s all the plot needed for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), not only one of Hollywood’s all-time great musicals but also the second best Christmas movie ever made (under It’s a Wonderful Life, of course) and the first and best of several collaborations between Garland and her future husband, director Vincente Minnelli. Certainly, Judy has rarely been more lovely than she is here — she stars as Esther, the second-oldest of the four Smith daughters (Margaret O’Brien, Lucille Bremer, and Joan Carroll play the others) and the one who’s in love with next-door neighbor John Truett (Tom Drake). Judy’s in wonderful form here, whether warbling about “The Boy Next Door,” leading the chorus in a buoyant rendition of “The Trolley Song” or soothing little sister Tootie (O’Brien) with her peerless take on “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (merely one of the most gorgeous movie musical moments ever). A gargantuan box office hit — only the Best Picture Academy Award winner Going My Way earned more in ’44 — this nabbed four Oscar nominations, including Best Screenplay and Best Original Song (“The Trolley Song”); O’Brien’s performance also brought her the Academy Juvenile Award as the outstanding child actress of the year.

The 1998 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail might be the most famous remake of the 1940 classic The Shop Around the Corner, but it’s not the only one. In the Good Old Summertime (1949), a so-so musical version set in Chicago rather than the original’s Budapest, finds Garland and Van Johnson in the Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart roles of two bickering co-workers who don’t realize they’re lovestruck pen pals. Garland is fine even if this isn’t the best movie to showcase her remarkable talents, but Johnson proves to be an uninspiring and uncharismatic leading man opposite the singing dynamo. Buster Keaton is amusing as the bumbling nephew of the shop owner (S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall), and it’s a shame he isn’t in more scenes.

After making millions for MGM over the course of a decade-plus, Garland was finally released from the studio after her personal problems and drug dependency (largely caused, infuriatingly, by the studio working her to the point of exhaustion) resulted in Summer Stock (1950) emerging as a troubled production plagued by a prolonged shooting schedule. Fortunately, friend and co-star Gene Kelly had Judy’s back, and their mutual admiration shines through in this engaging musical. Garland’s a hard-working farm owner who’s so busy trying to bring in the crops that she doesn’t even have time for her nerdy fiancé (Eddie Bracken). Then her flighty sister (Gloria De Haven) unexpectedly arrives with a theatrical troupe in tow, stating that their barn will be the perfect place to stage a musical. Amid all the ensuing madness, the show’s director (Kelly) does his best to keep matters civil. Phil Silvers (as an eccentric actor) lays on the shtick pretty thick, and his bumpkin routine with Kelly is hardly a (pardon the expression) barn-raiser. The other musical sequences are better — that includes “You Wonderful You,” with Gene incorporating a squeaky floorboard and a newspaper into his dance routine. Still, the classic number belongs squarely to Judy, as she’s nothing less than sensational as she belts out “Get Happy.” Interestingly, this climactic set-piece was filmed two months after the rest of the picture, which explains why the actress looks healthier in this sequence — she had lost approximately 20 pounds in the interim. It would be four years before she appeared on screen again, returning in 1954 for the final movie in this set.

At the time, it was business as usual; today, it’s largely considered one of the biggest gyps in Academy Award history. In 1955, Grace Kelly won the Best Actress Oscar for her work in The Country Girl (it didn’t hurt that the wildly popular star appeared in four other films in ’54, including Hitchcock’s twofer Rear Window and Dial M for Murder). Kelly gave an excellent performance, but no one deserved the Oscar more than Garland for her spellbinding, career-topping turn in A Star Is Born (1954). In his book Alternate Oscars, Danny Peary writes that “It was somewhat tragic that Garland didn’t win her deserved Oscar,” while TIME noted that the picture represents “just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history.” None of this is mere hyperbole: Garland is terrific as Esther Blodgett, a struggling singer who’s spotted by established Hollywood actor Norman Maine (James Mason) and given a chance to make a name for herself. But first, she has to change her real name into something more marquee-friendly – thus, Vicki Lester is born. Yet while her career takes off like a rocket, the alcoholic Norman finds his own standing slipping rapidly. Judy gets to perform several numbers throughout this three-hour extravaganza, yet she’s equally compelling in the dramatic sequences. For his part, Mason is also superb, as effective at portraying the deleterious effects of alcoholism as Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend and Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. This earned six Oscar nominations, including Judy’s Best Actress bid as well as Best Actor for Mason and Best Original Song for “The Man That Got Away.”

Extras on Strike Up the Band include a 2007 introduction to the film by Rooney; the 1940 comedy short Wedding Bills; and the 1940 cartoon Romeo in Rhythm. Extras on Girl Crazy include audio commentary by Garland biographer John Fricke; a 2007 introduction to the film by Rooney; and the 1943 comedy short Hollywood Daredevils. Extras on Meet Me in St. Louis include a making-of documentary; the pilot episode from a proposed 1966 TV spin-off starring Shelley Fabares and Celeste Holm; and the deleted song “Boys and Girls Like You and Me.” Extras on In the Good Old Summertime include an introduction by Fricke and the 1948 Traveltalks shorts Chicago the Beautiful and Night Life in Chicago. Extras on Summer Stock include a retrospective behind-the-scenes featurette; the audio-only outtake song “Fall in Love”; and the 1950 cartoon The Cuckoo Clock. Extras on A Star Is Born include deleted scenes; three vintage pieces on the film’s Hollywood premiere; an audio interview with Garland; and the 1956 Bugs Bunny-Daffy Duck cartoon A Star Is Bored.

Strike Up the Band: ★★½

Girl Crazy: ★★½

Meet Me in St. Louis: ★★★★

In the Good Old Summertime: ★★½

Summer Stock: ★★★

A Star Is Born: ★★★½

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (2025). The filmic M:I franchise has been a remarkably consistent series, with only that daft Mission: Impossible II proving to be a DOA dud. So if The Final Reckoning is indeed the final flick, it’s a shame the whole shebang has to end on a downward spiral. To be clear, there’s plenty to like in this installment, but when the last chapter plays less like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and more like The Matrix Revolutions or Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, then it’s clear that a little more spit and shine was required. Picking up where 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning left off, this finds maverick IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) trying to locate the source code of the rogue AI known as the Entity. As always, assisting Ethan are his brothers-in-arms Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), with the franchise’s newest leading lady remaining pickpocket extraordinaire Grace (Hayley Atwell), introduced in the last film around the time the scripters were killing off the series’ best leading lady (Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust). It was ingenious on the parts of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and co-scripter Erik Jendresen to bring back a character none of us ever expected to see again (no fair revealing who). Yet at 170 minutes, this turns out to be the longest of them all, and because not all of those minutes are used wisely, this is one of the very few M:I films where the length is felt. Much of it is because we have to see every single step Ethan (meaning producer-star-demigod Cruise) takes to get from any given Point A to Point B, but it’s also because of the necessity of building up a plot that ends up strangling itself with so much techno-talk.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital Code edition include audio commentary by Cruise and McQuarrie; a handful of making-of featurettes; and a montage of deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★½

NOBODY 2 (2025). Released in 2021, Nobody wasn’t much of a movie, merely one in a recent spate of titles involving seemingly ordinary guys turning out to be professional killers (e.g. Guns Up, Love Hurts, several recent Jason Statham vehicles). Bob Odenkirk was just fine as Hutch Mansell, the unassuming family guy who used to be an assassin for the U.S. government, but there was little in this threadbare action film that hadn’t been done before and done better. The surprise regarding Nobody 2 is that it’s an improvement over its predecessor — by leaning into the family angle more than obsessing over the mob elements, it finds an edge that makes it a sliver more interesting. Imagine the National Lampoon’s Vacation series if Clark Griswold packed plenty of heat, and that’s pretty much what’s offered here. Hutch wants nothing more than to enjoy a vacation with his wife (Connie Nielsen), elderly pop (Christopher Lloyd), and kids (Gage Munroe and Paisley Cadorath), but that scenario gets waylaid once he finds himself running afoul of a local crime ring headed by the cackling and crazed Lendina (an unrecognizable and annoying Sharon Stone). The fleshing out of the family members provides this with a greater rooting interest, and the action set-pieces are more exciting than the ones mounted in the first picture. Ultimately, Nobody 2 can’t overcome its overly familiar trappings, but the effort is appreciated.

Blu-ray extras consist of behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted sequences.

Movie: ★★½

PEANUTS ULTIMATE TV SPECIALS COLLECTION (1965-2011). The star ratings accompanying each individual review in this column almost always refer to quality, not quantity. Yet an exception is being made for this Peanuts set that contains 40 of the TV specials featuring Charlie Brown and the gang — sure, not all of them are classics or even top-tier (particularly some of the later ones), but, wow, how great is it to have all these brought together in one collection? All told, there have been 45 TV specials featuring Charles Schulz’s beloved characters (this number doesn’t include the handful of Apple TV+ specials from the past four years), and this set is missing only five: 1988’s Snoopy: The Musical, 1988’s live action-animated hybrid It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown, 1994’s You’re in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown, 1997’s It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown, and 2000’s It’s the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown (their MIA status is due to rights issues, such as the notoriously protective NFL owning the Super Bowl episode). Naturally, the Holy Trinity of Peanuts specials is included: 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas (the very first special), 1966’s It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and 1973’s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Other choice episodes include 1975’s You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, which is one of only three Peanuts specials to win an Emmy Award (the others being A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving); 1975’s touching Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown; 1984’s offbeat It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, which is irresistible to fans of Flashdance, fans of the whole dance craze of the period, and fans of ‘80s nostalgic sops; and 1990’s Why, Charlie Brown, Why?, a startling and serious entry in which Linus’ crush Janice fights leukemia.

This collection is available in both Blu-ray and DVD editions. There are no extras, but a 28-page booklet is included.

Collection: ★★★½

WHEN FALL IS COMING (2024). Forget the sins of the father — in the latest from French writer-director François Ozon, the sins of the mother are what propels the plot. Appropriately beginning with a church sermon about Mary Magdalene, When Fall Is Coming focuses on octogenarian Michelle Girard (Hélène Vincent), whose bitter daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) has always resented the fact that her mother had made a living as a Parisian prostitute. Michelle loves to spend time with Valérie’s young son Lucas (Garlan Erlos), so when a near-tragedy results in Valérie prohibiting any more contact between her parent and her child, the elderly woman is devastated. Meanwhile, Vincent (Pierre Lottin), the grown son of her best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balaski), has just been released from prison, and while his own mother views him as nothing but a disappointment, Michelle finds herself bonding with him. Then suddenly, a fatal accident occurs — or was it actually a murder? That’s up to a pregnant police inspector (Sophie Guillemin) to determine, but unlike Frances McDormand’s equally expectant law officer in Fargo, this one doesn’t have the luxury of investigating clear-cut villains and victims. The ending, at least as it relates to the fate of one of the characters, is too abrupt and feels like a cheat — is God being positioned as the ultimate deus ex machina? But the ambiguity that’s still hanging around when the end credits come calling will be welcomed by all save those who need answers now. By refusing to make definitive declarations as to the true natures of these characters, Ozon satisfyingly blurs the lines between sinners and saints, and in the process challenges views on family honor, expectations, and accountability.

Blu-ray extras include interviews with Ozon, Vincent, Balasko, and Sagnier; deleted scenes; and bloopers.

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

BORN YESTERDAY (1950). The movie year of 1950 gave birth to two of the greatest performances ever seen in the annals of film history: Gloria Swanson as faded movie star Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s magnificent Sunset Boulevard and Bette Davis as fading theater star Margo Channing in my all-time favorite film, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve. Stunningly, neither veteran won the Best Actress Oscar (though both were nominated); instead, the winner was Judy Holliday for her comic turn in Born Yesterday. Yet lest anyone think this is a scandal of Benigni-esque proportions, the truth is that Holliday delivers a wonderful performance and perhaps might have deserved that Oscar in a less competitive year. Reprising her stage role, she stars as Billie Dawn, the ditzy girlfriend of Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford), an uncouth yet wealthy brute who travels to Washington, D.C. with the goal of bribing a Congressman to do his bidding. Unaware of his own vulgarity but worried that Billie will embarrass him, he hires sharp reporter Paul Verrall (William Holden) to smarten her up. It works beyond Harry’s wishes, as the heretofore shallow Billie learns a thing or two about American history, her own self-worth, and Harry’s crooked dealings. Crawford is basically playing a variation of his Oscar-winning turn from the previous year’s All the King’s Men, though he’s effective; so, too, is Holden as the first person to probably ever treat Billie with respect. Yet this is Holliday’s show all the way, as she adds interesting tics and asides that allow her dumb-blonde routine to stand apart from the stereotypical norm. In addition to Holliday’s win, the film was nominated for four additional Oscars, including Best Picture. It was remade — badly — in 1993, with Melanie Griffith, John Goodman, and Don Johnson in the Holliday-Crawford-Holden roles.

Movie: ★★★

DEADLY BLESSING (1981). This horror yarn from Wes Craven finds Martha Schmidt (Maren Jensen) living in wedded bliss with her husband Jim (Douglas Barr, who three months later would begin his long-running stint on the hit TV series The Fall Guy) on their farm. Their neighbors on one side consist of a community of crazy Hittites while the other adjacent property houses a mom (Lois Nettleton) and her grown daughter (Lisa Hartman). After Jim is mysteriously killed by his own tractor, Martha’s best friends Lana and Vicky (Sharon Stone and Susan Buckner) pay her a visit; while there, Lana is tortured by nightmares involving spiders, Vicky flirts with a shy Hittite lad (Jeff East), and the head of that religious cult (Ernest Borgnine) rants about the presence of an incubus among them. The red herrings do little to distract from the obviousness of the mystery, but never mind: What’s important to note is that Craven (working as director and co-scripter) manages to drum up a fair amount of ambiance and suspense during the first half. Unfortunately, the movie utterly collapses toward the end, and the daft conclusion is then followed by one of the most idiotic gotcha moments I’ve had the displeasure to endure. Craven’s misogyny, which established itself right from the start in his debut picture The Last House on the Left, is largely kept in check here but does peek through toward the end. As for the actors, it’s interesting to see Stone this early in her career, while Borgnine delivers a typically hammy, Razzie Award-nominated performance as a fire-and-brimstone sort prone to making declarations like “You are a stench in the nostrils of God!”

Movie: ★★

HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN (1991). Although released in 1991, this late-summer flop is set in 1996, and there’s no discernible reason for the ever-so-slight futuristic setting aside from the filmmakers being able to show off a billboard advertising Die Hard V. At the time, scripter Don Michael Paul and director Simon Wincer doubtless thought they were being clever, but since there is a fifth Die Hard flick (2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard), the joke’s on them (actually, on us, given the wretchedness of Bruce Willis’ fifth jog around the franchise). Then again, jokes that fail to snap, crackle or pop are the order of the day in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, which often has the shambling nature of something like Every Which Way But Loose except with Mickey Rourke instead of an orangutan. Rourke, topped by a buzz cut and decked out in clothes apparently rejected by Tom Cruise for Days of Thunder, plays Harley; Don Johnson, sporting a mangy beard and cowboy hat, co-stars as Marlboro. There are also characters named Virginia Slim and Jack Daniels, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Buddies from way back, Harley and Marlboro cross paths again when they reunite with some other pals to save a beloved bar from going under. They plot a heist with the intention of stealing money from the very bank that’s threatening the bar; things go awry, though, when their snatch turns out to be deadly drugs instead of the expected cash. It’s difficult to endure the forced humor, and it’s hard to ascertain whether lines like “Talk is cheap, and I ain’t buying anything” and “Money talks, bullshit walks” are meant to be send-ups of standard macho posturing or if Paul is really that unimaginative a writer.

Movie: ★

RACING DREAMS (2009). A Spellbound or Mad Hot Ballroom for the NASCAR set, Racing Dreams ends up speeding past its niche market and working its magic on anyone with a rooting interest in the dreams and ambitions of this country’s youth. Like the aforementioned pair of documentaries, this one also corrals a group of kids and tracks their endeavors to become the best in their field of interest. In this case, it’s the world of racing, with all three subjects top contenders in the World Karting Association’s championship series. Twelve-year-old Josh Hobson of Birch Run, Michigan, is a brainy boy whose methodical, sensible approach to the sport repeatedly wins races. Eleven-year-old Annabeth Barnes of Hiddenite, N.C., is a spunky, charismatic girl who dreams of becoming the first female to win a major NASCAR race. Both kids are interesting to follow, yet the movie belongs to the third focal point. Thirteen-year-old Brandon Warren of Creedmoor, N.C., initially seems the least complicated, a good-ole-boy-in-training whose reckless nature (on and off the track) might prove to be his undoing. Yet as we get to learn more about Brandon and his family — specifically, the grandparents who lovingly raise him and the deadbeat dad who turns up like an unwelcome wart whenever he’s not behind bars — we come to realize that this story is the most involving, and most poignant, one in the movie. The racing footage shot and edited by Marshall Curry and his team is exemplary (the first competition takes place at Charlotte Motor Speedway) and should thrill even those who aren’t fans of the sport. Yet even these sequences take a back seat to the sagas of the children, all of whom retain pole position throughout this engaging picture.

Movie: ★★★

SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE (2003). It was sad to learn about the death of Diane Keaton, who passed away last week at the age of 79. She was at her best in her Oscar-winning performance in 1977’s Annie Hall and her Oscar-nominated turn in 1981’s Reds, but landing in the show position was her Oscar-nominated work in this romantic comedy from writer-director Nancy Meyers. Jack Nicholson is 63-year-old Harry Sanborn, a wealthy bachelor whose rule is to never date anybody over the age of 30. His current girlfriend Marin (Amanda Peet) certainly fits his guidelines, but his weekend of whoopee is doubly interrupted, first by the unexpected arrival of Marin’s mother Erica (Keaton) and then by a heart attack that lands him in the hospital. Harry’s boyish doctor (Keanu Reeves, never more charming) orders his patient to take it easy, thus leading to a set-up that finds Harry forced to recuperate while shacked up in Erica’s beachfront home. Initially antagonistic, they begin to warm up to each other, yet the road to an unlikely romance is strewn with obstacles, with Erica having to deal with the fact that Harry is a serial dater and Harry having to compete for Erica’s affections with his own doctor, who has instantly developed a crush on this older woman. For most of its length, Something’s Gotta Give is a delight, and Keaton is spectacular in a role that allows her intelligence, wit, and soulfulness to shine through. But after nearly two hours of bliss, the movie tacks on a disastrous ending that’s a complete betrayal of what has preceded it. It’s unclear whether this finish was tacked on because the Formula Filmmaking Doctrine decreed it or because Meyers herself believed that an older woman’s fantasy life can only be allowed to extend so far. It’s a toss-up as to which reason is more depressing to contemplate, although I lean toward the latter.

Movie: ★★★