Posted

in

by

Tags:


The Mountain Between Us was the last of the major 2017 films released to the home video market in 2017. The film from Hany Abu-Assad, the acclaimed Dutch/Arabian director of Paradise Now, features excellent cinematography from Mandy Walker (Hidden Figures) and the expected fine performances from stars Idris Elba as a doctor and Kate Winslet as photographer forced to fend for themselves when their private plane crashes in the snowy mountains of Utah. Beau Bridges co-stars as their pilot who has a stroke and dies, causing the crash, without having filed a flight plan.

The problem with the film is that it’s a by-the-numbers survival drama that never leaves any doubt as to where it’s going. The ending is a foregone conclusion from the moment Elba tells Winslet his beautiful wife has died.

Like most home video releases of new films, it is available in both standard DVD and Blu-ray.

As we say goodbye to 2017, it should be noted that the five best new film releases of the year on home video in my estimation are:

Baby Driver – an excellent action-drama with comic undertones and a terrific soundtrack from director Edgar Wright featuring the best performance of Ansel Elgort’s career so far.

Beauty and the Beast – a beautifully done live-action reenactment of the 1991 animated musical with additional songs charmingly performed by Emma Watson and Dan Stevens under the assured direction of Bill Condon

The Big Sick – a bittersweet comedy co-written by star Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, about their real-life courtship, stolen by old pros Holly Hunter and Ray Romano as Gordon’s (Zoe Kazan) parents.

Dunkirk – a spectacularly filmed exploration of the evacuation of Dunkirk in the early days of World War II, a bit lacking in dramatic intensity, but so expertly directed by Christopher Nolan that you can’t help being in awe of it.

Get Out – a well-done modern horror film with comic undertones gently pushing it along to its half-comic, half-horrific conclusion. The feature-film directorial debut of comedian Jordan Peele is a winner indeed.

The new releases I am looking most forward to in the beginning of the new year are:

Breathe – Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy refuse to give up hope in the wake of a terrible disease under the direction of Andy Serkis.

Goodbye Christopher Robin – the lives of author A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his wife (Margot Robbie) under the direction of Simon Curtis.

It – the second filmed version of Stephen King’s classic novel, and the first for theatrical release, a box-office bonanza starring Jaeden Lieberher and Bill Skasgard.

Last Flag Flying – a quasi-sequel to 1973’s The Last Detail with Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, and Steve Carell under Richard Linklater’s direction.

Thank You for Your Service – Miles Teller heads the cast of this film about Iraq veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Tomorrow Is Forever was the last classic film given a Blu-ray upgrade in 2017. The ClassicFlix release does full justice to the 1946 film directed by Irving Pichel (the narrator of How Green Was My Valley) starring Claudette Colbert as a World War I widow now married to George Brent, but whose husband (Orson Welles) returns with another identity twenty years later. The compelling family drama features fine performances from all three stars as well as Lucile Watson, Richard Long, and Natalie Wood in support.

The five best Blu-ray upgrades of 2017 in my estimation were:

Auntie Mame (1958) – looking a bit piqued in previous home video releases, everyone’s favorite relative has been given a fabulous makeover in this sparkling adaptation of the Broadway smash hit starring the incomparable Rosalind Russell at her best.

The Marseille Trilogy (1931-36) – Pagnol’s beloved trilogy of Marius, Fanny, and Cรฉsar has never looked as good as it does in this long overdue Criterion release of the three 1930s films given their first complete U.S. showings in 1948.

Prizzi’s Honor (1985) – John Huston found renewed recognition as one of the screen’s great directors with this black comedy about a hit man (Jack Nicholson) and hit woman (Kathleen Turner) married to each other while mafia princess Angelica Huston plots and plots.

Seven Days in May (1964) – the U.S. presidency under siege in this Cold War thriller featured Burt Lancaster as the villain, Kirk Douglas as the hero, and the great Fredric March as the president in trouble under John Frankenheimer’s astute direction.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) – Horace McCoy’s searing 1930s novel filmed under Sydney Pollack’s direction with a cast that included Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Gig Young, and Red Buttons in this exposรฉ of the marathon dance phenomenon.

The five Blu-ray upgrades of classic films that I am looking forward to the most in the early part of the New Year are:

The Garden of Allah (1936) – Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer find love and lust in the dessert under Richard Boleslawski’s direction.

The Hanging Tree (1959) – Gary Cooper in his last great western with great support from Maria Schell and Ben Piazza, directed by Delmer Daves.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) – the definitive film about the trial of the Fifteenth Century saint, with Falconetti directed by Carl Theodora Dryer.

Tom Jones (1963) – Tony Richardson’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Henry Fielding’s classic novel with Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, and Edith Evans.

Westfront 1918 (1930) – G.W. Pabst’s German pacifist classic is as compelling as its contemporary U.S. classic All Quiet on the Western Front.

This week’s new releases include American Made and Battle of the Sexes.

Verified by MonsterInsights