For the week of July 16th, Warner Bros. is bringing 42 to Blu-ray. This sports biopic was a sleeper hit for Warner and Legendary Pictures in April, and it isn't hard to see why; it's a confident, well-made look at the struggles of iconic baseball player Jackie Robinson. Director Brian Helgeland (Payback, A Knight's Tale) has a real eye for 1940s Americana - Forrest Gump cinematographer Don Burgess contributes some particularly lovely camerawork - and he gets good work from a cast that includes Chadwick Boseman, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, Lucas Black, and Harrison Ford, who gives his most engaged performance in years as Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. If 42 has a flaw, it's that Helgeland seems to have softened many of the rougher edges from Robinson's life; barring an uncomfortable, racially unpleasant moment between Robinson and Alan Tudyk's Ben Chapman, much of 42 borders on hagiography. That said, it's well-done hagiography all the same, and an absorbing look at pre-Civil Rights race relations that the whole family can watch.
Martin Liebman's Blu-ray review praises "Chadwick Boseman [who] plays Robinson with an effortlessness that captures all of the emotions, from the greatest joys to the deepest sorrows, from the biggest successes on the field to the most emotionally wrecking lows born of the bigotry and hatred pushed his way. Boseman understands it's not so much about becoming Jackie Robinson as it is allowing the audience to understand Jackie Robinson. Again, that's 42 not being about anything but the core importance of the story. Harrison Ford plays a gruff but determined Branch Rickey very well, completely disappearing into the part and balancing the historical significance of what he's doing against several backdrops, not only defeating bigotry but making money and winning ballgames. 42 makes it known that dollars and box office returns and fans in the stands and Brooklyn's place in the standings all factor in to bringing Robinson on board. The film might feel a bit thin in places and rather fast-moving through a critical time in history, but it also doesn't sensationalize the tale - not too much, anyway - nor does it make it into an unbelievable fairy tale. "
Also from Warner Bros is the Blu-ray release of Bullet to the Head. On the surface, one might not expect much from this hyperviolent actioner about a hitman (Sylvester Stallone) who teams up with a D.C. cop (Fast & Furious 6's Sung Kang) in order to investigate a criminal conspiracy; in many ways, Bullet to the Head is cut from the same preposterously enjoyable cloth as Stallone's The Expendables. Yet the film merits a bit more attention, considering it's the first big-screen venture from 48 Hours director Walter Hill since 2002's underrated boxing drama Undisputed. In pictures like those (or his great 1970s thrillers Hard Times and The Driver), Hill brought a satisfying terseness to otherwise pulpy proceedings, and his stripped-down aesthetic redeems many of Bullet to the Head's plot convolutions - the action scenes, in particular, are straightforward and brutal, with a clear sense of geographic choreography.
Kenneth Brown remarked that "if there's any consolation to be had it's the shootouts and fights, of which there are plenty. Seeing Stallone and [Jason] Momoa go toe to toe with a pair of fire axes is as ridiculous as it sounds, but it's a violent, hilariously over-the-top blast, even with Stallone still in the process of dusting off his assassin-with-a-heart-of-gold shtick. Fortunately...[there are]an endless supply of gunmen, nameless thugs and dirty cops on the payroll to give Jimmy...a veritable sea of bodies to wade through, and it's in the ocean of blood that's crossed that Bullet to the Head earns its namesake and cool-cat swagger. Yes, the realization that almost every action scene is a carbon copy of a better dust-up in a better actioner is an annoying one, but there's just enough here to help catapult Hill's latest teamup from start to finish...As is, though, Bullet to the Head is watchable but likely to be quickly forgotten, if not disowned altogether."
One of the biggest surprises of the Spring 2013 TV lineup was Orphan Black. This twisty, sci-fi-infused drama premiered on BBC America to little fanfare, but it quickly caught the attention of audiences and critics. It's a character study, of sorts, that focuses on Sarah (Tatiana Maslany), a mysterious outsider who gets in way over her head when she assumes the life of a suicide victim that looks exactly like her. Suffice to say, things get very weird - and the less you know about the narrative endgame going in, the better - yet Orphan Black never becomes too alienating or strange, thanks to the series' endlessly inventive plotting and Maslany's brilliant work as the title character. She's a marvel, demonstrating phenomenal range in only a few episodes: this is virtuoso acting, and the great unsung performance of 2013.
Finally, we end the week with an HD upgrade of the 1974 thriller Kidnapped. The film is a major deviation in the oeuvre of gothic horror master Mario Bava. Gone are the witches, vampires, and ghouls of such classics as Black Sunday and Black Sabbath (which also makes its Blu-ray debut this week); Kidnapped is a fairly realistic caper about three criminals who take hostages after a heist goes south. The scope is lean, with the majority of the action unfolding in the antagonists' getaway car, and the dynamic between the sadistic criminals recalls the crime stories of Elmore Leonard. However, even though Bava is working in a far more restrained genre, his facility for chills and shock is on full display in Kidnapped. The picture's second half contains no small amount of grisly reversals, proving that a restrained Bava is just as adept at working his audience as his more florid works are.
In his Blu-ray review, Casey Broadwater notes that "there's a little bit of The Last House on the Left here, not just in the lifting of the infamous forced urination scene, but also in Kidnapped's overwhelmingly nihilistic tone. The cruel sadism of Thirty-Two and Blade. The lack of respect for human life. The bleakness of Maria and Ricardo's prospects for survival. It may take place completely during the day, but this is a dark film, unrelentingly confronting us with the worst of humanity. While it is a good film, Kidnapped isn't quite the long-lost masterpiece that some have made it out to be. Tension slackens on more than a few occasions—Bava just isn't as good as, say, Hitchcock at sustaining suspense in a single location—and the acting veers a little too wildly into unintentional camp, especially in regard to the two amped-up goons in the back seat. Still, for Italo-crime/giallo fans, Kidnapped's pros far outweigh its cons; not only does it have a fascinating history - it's unexpected reappearance 15 years ago was a gift from the exploitation movie gods - but it's also holds up rather well today as a pedal-to-the-metal joyride into the heart of darkness."