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Need a laugh? Maybe more than a few? Volume 2 of the Buster Keaton Collection is out this week on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital platforms.

The newly restored 4K films include silent comedy classics Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator, with modern orchestral scores by Timothy Brock and Robert Israel, respectively. The films were originally released in 1924.

In Sherlock Jr., Keaton plays a movie projectionist who daydreams himself into the movies he is showing and merges with the figures and the backgrounds on the screen. Fans will get a glimpse of how special effects got started as Keaton enters the film within a film.

The Navigator follows Keaton and his sweetheart when they cast adrift on a deserted ocean liner, which runs aground on a desert island where they must employ all sorts of survival techniques, particularly when being chased by cannibals.

Featurettes Buster Keaton: The Great Stone Face and Buster Keaton: The Comedian, along with trailers for both feature films, are included on the Blu-ray and DVD releases.

Volume 1 of the Buster Keaton Collection, released in May, offers The General (1927) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928).

Little (PG-13, 1 hour, 49 minutes) A comedy with good intentions but not nearly enough laughs to sustain it through a too-long running time, Little revolves around abusive boss Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) who, having been bullied as a kid, takes it out on everybody else. One of those victims is a youngster (Marley Taylor) who has magical powers and uses them to transform the bossy bu

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Buster Keaton Collection

lly into her 13-year-old self while retaining her adult sensibilities. With Marsai Martin, Issa Rae, Mikey Day, Tone Bell, Caleb Emery; directed by Tina Gordon Chism.

After (PG-13, 1 hour, 45 minutes) Illogical, dimly plotted and clumsy with cliches, this Twilight wannabe involves a chance encounter by first-semester college student Tessa (Josephine Langford) with an out-of-the-ordinary fellow student, which leads her to wonder if everything she knows is wrong. With Jennifer Beals, Hero Fiennes Tiffin (nephew of Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes), Peter Gallagher, Selma Blair; directed by Jenny Gage. Based on a novel by Anna Todd.

High Life (R, 1 hour, 53 minutes) A stylish, unpredictable thriller -- business as usual for director and co-writer Claire Denis -- leaves a dad (Robert Pattinson) and his baby daughter lost in space when their space ship crew, made up of death-row inmates under the supervision of an evil physician (Juliette Binoche, who apparently can transform herself into any character she wishes), mysteriously disappear.

Pet Sematary (R, 1 hour, 41 minutes) With a pedigree that includes Stephen King's classic horror novel and the original 1989 movie (with enough decent moments to make it worth watching), this latest incarnation of Pet Sematary -- none too scary, and more about death and dying than about frightening audiences -- concerns an American Indian burial ground in Maine where interred creatures thought to be dead come back. No good can come of this. With Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow, Naomi Frenette; directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer.

The Professor (R, 1 hour, 30 minutes) Further proof that Johnny Depp sure isn't the actor, or the attraction, that he once was, this over-edited and senseless tale concerns a college lecturer who, upon learning he has six months to live, decides to party hearty to the very end. With Ron Livingston, Zoey Deutch, Rosemarie DeWitt, Danny Huston; directed by Wayne Roberts.

MovieStyle on 07/12/2019

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