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Despicable Me 3

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  • Title: Despicable Me 3
  • IMDb: link

Despicable Me 3 Blu-ray review

The fourth movie of the Despicable Me franchise is the weakest and most disappointing (and that’s from someone who enjoyed Minions!). Screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio go through the motions putting Gru (Steve Carell) back in the life of crime (but not really) with the twin brother he never knew (and who is even a worse villain than Dru).

Other than Minions, this is the first of the franchise that doesn’t put Gru’s relationship with his three adopted daughters front-and-center. Instead, the girls are thrown into a subplot involving Lucy (Kristen Wiig) struggling with her new role as a mother. As to the franchise lovable henchmen, the Minions meander around for much of the script in their own subplot which never goes anywhere all that interesting.

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War for the Planet of the Apes

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  • Title: War for the Planet of the Apes
  • IMDb: link

War for the Planet of the Apes movie reviewThe third (and likely final) entry to the modern retelling of The Planet of the Apes saga focuses on the war between remaining human military (this time led by Woody Harrelson) and Caesar’s (Andy Serkis) race of intelligent apes. After an attack on the ape’s base that left his family dead, Caesar sets out on a quest for vengeance against The Colonel (Harrelson) which will become complicated by the discovery of a young human girl (Amiah Miller) and learning his followers have been captured by the enemy.

While the real conflict in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was between the apes themselves, War for the Planet of the Apes focuses instead on painting the humans, particularly Harrelson, as the villains in a more straightforward storyline of revenge leading to a definite conclusion to Caesar’s story. This works in the film’s favor, allowing the series to end on a high note (even if director Matt Reeves misses on several key moments, such as hamfistedly spelling out far too much in the final scene).

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The Librarians – The Complete Third Season

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  • Title: – Season Three
  • wiki: link

The Librarians - The Complete Third Season DVD reviewThe Third Season brought new challenges for the Librarians in the form of D.O.S.A. (the Department of Statistical Anomalies, a secret Unites States Government organization tasked with dealing with similar phenomena and who view the Librarians as potential threats) and Apep, the Egyptian God of Chaos, attempting to release Pure Evil on the world.

Highlights from the season include Stone (Christian Kane) and Cassandra (Lindy Booth) stumbling on a lodge full of Norse Frost Giants, Eve (Rebecca Romijn) targeted for death by the unstoppable Reaper, a mystical carnival run by Sean Astin, the search for the Eye of Ra inside the Bermuda Triangle, the discovery of a vampire retreat, and the return of Jane Curtin as the Librarians head to Shangri-La in the penultimate episode of the season.

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A Ghost Story

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  • Title: A Ghost Story
  • IMDb: link

A Ghost Story movie reviewWriter/director David Lowery offers up an unusual ghost story focused on loss and longing. We open with Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as a loving couple never referred to by name. After tragedy strikes, he returns from the grave in the form of a traditional ghost (complete with a white sheet from the morgue and two black eye-holes). Silent and unseen, our ghost watches life move on without him as he can only occasionally have minimal effect on his environment.

The film is mostly silent, other than for a few flashback scenes where the actors attempt to out-mumble each other and later dialogue by other occupants of the house. We never get a sense of just how much the ghost knows or understands. He is searching for something, but how much of his life does he remember? Is it a feeling? A distinct memory? Or more? Presented from the ghost’s point-of-view, A Ghost Story is far more than a traditional haunted house tale. That alone makes it worth a look, although I can see it annoying some viewers.

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Get Out

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  • Title: Get Out
  • IMDb: link

Get Out Blu-ray reviewThe suburbs aren’t really this bad. Honest. As much satire as horror, Jordan Peele‘s delightful film delivers a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) into the mostly-white suburbia of his girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) parents (Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford). From the start, it’s obvious to Chris that something is off with the household, the family’s strange black servants (Marcus Henderson and Betty Gabriel), and the glut of odd-acting neighbors and friends Chris meets the following day.

Clever and wryly entertaining, the first-half of the movie would work terrifically as an episode of The Twilight Zone as Chris’ paranoia increases to a fever-pitch. The discovery of what is really going on in the sleepy suburb is more than a little odd, as Chris’ loud-mouth-conspiracy-obsessed pal (LilRel Howery) suspects, but leads the character into a final act where he’s forced to confront childhood issues and make a stand if he has any hope to make it out of the suburbs alive.

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