Rating: «« out of 4 stars

Running Time: 115 min.

It has been a decent month at the movies, with several solid titles being released over the past week. Atomic Blonde isn’t the best of the bunch and suffers from a lack of emotional investment in the character, but it does provide a few excellent moments of popcorn thrills and a charismatic lead, which help elevate it over a fairly humdrum plotline.

Set in 1989, Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is a British agent with MI6 sent to Berlin to investigate the murder of another agent. She’s met by station chief Percival (James McAvoy) and informed that the killing may have had something to do with a list of spies and double agents...

It’s time for another look at Blu-rays and DVDs coming your way. There are some big movies to choose from this week as well as some interesting independent 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!

Black Butterfly - Based on a hit French thriller called (appropriately enough) Papillon Noir, this remake involves a struggling screenwriter who heads out to a mountain cabin to work on a new project. He offers a drifter a place to stay for the night, but tension soon arises between the pair and events spiral out of control. It doesn’t help that several murders have been reported in the area...

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...