Rating: ««« out of 4

Running Time: 137 min.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets opens with an absolutely phenomenal montage. It depicts human progress into space over the passing of centuries, eventually leading to the creation of an orbiting space station featured prominently in the film. This gorgeous, quirky and strangely affecting opening ends up emphasizing camaraderie between all beings. The bit is so strikingly good, in fact, that it’s pretty much impossible for the rest of the film to top it. Yes, nothing can quite match this sequence, but the feature itself still manages to offer a lot of fun, popcorn entertainment thrills.

Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and partner...

Welcome back to another look at new releases on Blu-ray and DVD. There is plenty to choose from, with some major studio films as well as a couple of interesting independent features. As always, click on any links you see to read more about them. So, if you can’t make it out to the movies this week, be sure to give one of these titles a try!

BIG NEW RELEASES!

Buster’s Mal Heart - This unique independent thriller involves a strange, bearded man in a small mountain community who survives by breaking in and moving from vacation home to vacation home. He’s also a regular caller on a talk radio station and ends up telling his life story about how his life fell apart...

Rating: ««« out of 4

Running Time: 140 min.

I’ll admit that I can be somewhat dismissive of remakes and reboots from time to time. More often than not, they don’t hold up nearly as well as the films they are attempting to emulate. There are, however, exceptions, like the redo of the Planet of the Apes series. Unlike most summer flicks, these films provide thrills as well as plenty of deeper themes and ideas to digest. War for the Planet of the Apes is no different and finishes this series on a strong note.

Set some time after the events of the previous film, Caesar (Andy Serkis) and the apes have found themselves battling human military forces and suffering great losses. None...

Welcome to the latest summary of new releases arriving on Blu-ray and DVD. One of the year’s biggest hits is premiering as well as a couple of critical darlings and some interesting indie fare. So, if you can’t make it out to the movies this week, be sure to give one of these titles a try!

BIG NEW RELEASES!

American Fable - This independent thriller is set in the 80s on a struggling Midwestern farm. While playing, a young girl discovers a businessman being held captive in one of the silos on their property. The child must decide whether to help the victim and face retribution from the party responsible as well as financial foreclosure, or leave things as they are...