Digital Week – December 5

Ridley Scott’s latest historical epic marches through Napoleon Bonaparte’s life—well, the last quarter-century or so, from the French Revolution until his banishment to St. Helena after the battle of Waterloo in 1815—in 2 hours and 38 minutes, which gives this handsomely mounted, superbly shot and briskly paced biopic a “greatest hits” vibe. Much of his battlefield genius along with his relationship with wife Josephine are recounted at length but without, almost inevitably, much depth. Still, it’s solid filmmaking from an accomplished veteran, although it’s too bad that Stanley Kubrick never was able to make his own Napoleon back in the 1970s. Joaquin Phoenix gives a strangely inert portrayal of Napoleon, looking out of sorts and even out of period. Conversely, Vanessa Kirby is a superlative Josephine, catching all the nuances of character that Phoenix apparently decided to ignore.

Based on the novel by Ottessa Moshfegh (who also cowrote the script), William Oldroyd’s drama follows the eponymous character, working rather anonymously in a local prison while taking care of her alcoholic, violent widowed father—until she finds herself drawn to Rebecca, the new prison counselor, who soon brings her into a nefarious plot she wasn’t expecting. Rather than being a psychologically complex thriller, Eileen is a “meh” melodrama distinguished by fine acting by Tomasin McKenzie (Eileen), Anne Hathaway (Rebecca), Shea Whigham (Eileen’s dad) and, in a shattering scene, Marin Ireland as the trigger of Rebecca’s ruse.

Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker’s tough but sentimental novel also alternates between saccharine and vinegar: sequences as powerful as anything Spielberg ever directed butt heads with some of his most sugary scenes (usually accompanied by Quincy Jones’ syrupy score). Allen Daviau’s sublime color photography, however, has no such drawbacks, and on this 4K edition, the film’s remarkable visual achievements are brilliantly reinforced. The acting from then-unknowns as Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery is excellent, making this an overwhelming emotional experience despite Spielberg’s and Jones’ melodramatic tendencies. Extras, ported over from the Blu-ray and DVD releases, include interviews with Spielberg, Walker, cast and crew.

All four films in this agreeably slight adventure series about a group of mercenaries who go out on all sorts of dangerous missions are included in this steelbook edition—totaling 8 discs, comprising both 4K and Blu-ray versions—and it’s easy to sort out which are worth watching: the first pair are entertaining, while 3 and 4 bring up the rear. Sylvester Stallone (who also directed the first entry), Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, 50 Cent and Megan Fox are the fairly interchangeable stars who appear in one or more films. All four pictures are explosive-looking in UHD; extras include interviews and on-set featurettes.

Two classic silent comedies by Buster Keaton (both from 1923, the first two features Keaton directed) get a hi-def upgrade from Cohen, which helps underline Keaton’s incredible comic flair throughout these often breathtakingly original films. “Three Ages,” set during the Stone Age, ancient Rome and the Jazz Age, and “Our Hospitality,” about a Hatfields-McCoys kind of feud, show off Keaton’s timeless comic genius again and again. These restorations are for the most part first-rate—with a few glitches from subpar materials—but the lack of any extras is a definite minus.

At a fleet 78 minutes, director Bingjia Yang’s action-packed martial-arts flick takes its fizzy plot device—the title character, a bounty hunter, decides to avenge the massacre of an entire family—and runs with it, setting everything up quickly and adroitly. The second half is left to the devices of our sightless hero, exceedingly well acted by Xie Miao, and a series of ever more outlandish but enjoyable fight sequences that make scant sense but are viscerally satisfying. It all looks great on Blu-ray.

Only six episodes make up the latest season of one of the most subversive comedies to ever grace American television—and now streaming—networks but, as usual, Trey Parker and Matt Stone still come up aces…at least part of the time. Three episodes are definite keepers—the dangers of A.I., the wonders of Japanese toilets, and the desperate attempts of a certain royal couple that wants to be left alone—and if the others lack comic propulsion, there are enough assorted laughs (both cheap and well-earned) that make the latest journey worth it. The episodes look great in hi-def.

German composer Richard Wagner wasn’t known for his light touch, and his lone operatic comedy, premiered in 1868, is not a gleefully funny romp but rather a four-hour exploration of the magical power of music that aligns some of his most beautiful melodies alongside a tone-deaf, clunky “Germany uber alles” subtext that can’t be ignored however wondrous the opera sounds. It took three directors (Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito and Anna Viebrock, the latter also one of the set and costumer designers) to conspire to set it in a contemporary classroom, where there don’t seem to be any high stakes, despite lovely vocal performances by Johan Reuter (as hero Hans Sachs), Klaus Florian Vogt (his protégé Walther) and Heidi Stober (as his paramour Eva). John Fiore ably conducts the Berlin Opera orchestra and chorus. There’s first-rate video and audio.