The horrors of life and death highlight recent Blu-ray home entertainment releases.
Maggie (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Rated R, $19.99) — Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt to give audiences a deeper acting performance rather than his usual action-hero shenanigans fizzled at theaters and garnered mixed reactions from critics earlier in the year.
This unusual zombie drama from first-time, major motion-picture director Henry Hobson now gets the Blu-ray treatment and offers home theater owners the chance to watch a parent’s ultimate horror.
So what does a father do when his infected daughter (played by Abigail Breslin) is slowly turning into a flesh-eating monster? The answer plays out in a brief 95-minute, overtly creepy film that has only occasional shocks and not enough emotional impact.
That lack of impact may sound odd when essentially dad and his daughter dominate the screen time as we watch her painful demise begin to accelerate, but I just could not feel much for their suffering.
Maybe I am becoming desensitized to too many post-apocalyptic dramas, yet I still often lose sleep after watching depressing events unfold in the AMC’s television tour de force “The Walking Dead.”
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For whatever reason, the tragic story of loss and acceptance never materialized for me.
Unfortunately, what should be an interesting and helpful optional commentary track with the director does only little to enlighten. Mr. Hobson nearly spends as much time quietly watching his movie as he does talking about it.
However, he does offer some insight into the look of the film, brilliantly revealed in the digital transfer. His addition of digital grain in the footage, and an oppressive and harsh color palette of many of an American landscapes, does create a very foreboding and smothering feel for the viewer.
Also, a group of one-on-one interviews with the crew and actors is definitely worth a look. The set features 8 minutes with Mr. Hobson, a welcomed 20 minutes of time with Mr. Schwarzenegger and 6 minutes from writer John Scott.
Last Knights (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Rated R, $19.99) — A medieval fantasy film from earlier this year gave movie audiences a well-worn adventure based on the Japanese Samurai legend of the 47 Ronin.
“Game of Thrones” fans with a Blu-ray player handy might appreciate director Kazuaki Kiriya multicultural effort about a band of knights led by a fearless commander who lose their master and plot revenge against a corrupt minister protected by the emperor.
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Performances from Morgan Freeman and Clive Owen keep the scene-munching action enjoyable while a villain will make audiences scream for his demise. The villain, played by Aksel Hennie, reminded me of a young Steve Buscemi.
A digital transfer mired in grays and blues will muddy the sepia-seeping proceedings but not enough to appreciate the director’s vision of the stone- and iron-laden, antiquated era.
Extras are limited to a 22-minute, making-of promotional piece (standard congratulatory pabulum); a 5-minute montage on some of the computer-generated effects (showing the sets before and after the enhancements); and a series of one-on-one interviews with too much overlap from the “making of” feature.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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