Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy
(not rated, three movies)
The highly regarded Criterion Collection is dedicated to rounding up some of the best films from around the world and releases them in top-quality editions. This offering contains 1974's Alice in the Cities (110 minutes), 1975's Wrong Move (103 minutes) and 1976's Kings of the Road (175 minutes), films that concern the emotional transformation of characters as they roam along the open roads of Germany as well as the lengthy highways of the United States.
They're the products of lauded German cinema movement director Wim Wenders, who was influenced by the likes of American road movies such as 1970's Easy Rider and 1971's Two-Lane Blacktop. With Rudiger Vogler, Lisa Kreuzer, Hanns Zischler, Yella Rottlander. Subtitled.
Race (PG-13, 134 minutes) Race is a straightforward bio-pic, loaded with determination, perseverance and inspiration, about the legendary Jesse Owens, an athletic superstar and civil rights supporter (who attended Rhodes High School in Cleveland and Ohio State University in Columbus) who takes on Adolf Hitler's assumption of Aryan supremacy in the 1936 Olympics. With Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt; directed by Stephen Hopkins.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (PG-13, 100 minutes) Not as weird or wonderful as the name suggests, this ineffective horror comedy attempts to match up its heroine Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) with handsome zombie killer Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley) as they battle an invasion of the undead. With Lena Headey, Charles Dance, Jack Huston; directed by Burr Steers.
Gods of Egypt (PG-13, 100 minutes) An expensive, stunningly unsuccessful imitator of Thor that uses Egyptian mythology as a framework, the film concerns a mortal named Bek (Brenton Thwaites), who seeks help from a god named Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in taking on cranky and screechy god of darkness Set (Gerard Butler), who's making a mess of things in the once-peaceful Egyptian empire. With Geoffrey Rush, Chadwick Boseman; directed by Alex Proyas.
Janis: Little Girl Blue (unrated, 106 minutes) A thoughtful, respectful and valuable documentary loaded with insights and celebrations of the life of revered rockin' blues singer Janis Joplin, who died in 1970 at the age of 27, that relies heavily on a series of letters she wrote to her parents over the years. With Dick Cavett, Cat Power; directed by Amy Berg.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (R, 90 minutes) This is a new Blu-ray release of the 1982 comedy that made Sean Penn famous in the role of Spicoli, a goofy, teenage surfer who, along with others, presents an uncommonly realistic and detailed portrait of growing up in Southern California in the 1980s. With Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Robert Romanus, Forest Whitaker, Anthony Edwards, Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz, Ray Walston; directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Cameron Crowe.
MovieStyle on 06/03/2016