By Harley Lond - 12/25/18 at 04:08 AM CT
Happy Holidays
Because it's Christmas, there's only two releases of note this Tuesday:
"White Boy Rick" (2017), starring Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rory Cochrane, Eddie Marsan, Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie. Set in 1980s Detroit at the height of the crack epidemic and the War on Drugs, the film is based on the moving true story of a blue-collar father and his teenage son, 15-year-old Rick Wershe Jr. -- the youngest FBI informant in history -- who became an undercover police informant and later a drug dealer, before he was abandoned by his handlers and sentenced to life in prison. White Boy Rick
is on DVD, Blu-ray, from Sony ... and "Holy Hell
" (2018), starring Ryan LaPlante, Alysa King and Michael Rawley. After a spate of violence wipes out half of his congregation, Father Augustus Bane has had enough. This man of the cloth turns not the other cheek, but to the Holy Hell - his revolver. Life will never be the same for criminals as this preacher hunts down the gang who killed his parishioners. On DVD from Indican Pictures.To tide you over until next week's column, here's a Christmas gift from us: Our Favorite Christmas-time Movies.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan and Joseph Schildkraut. Two employees at a gift shop in Budapest, Hungary, can barely stand each other, not knowing that they're falling in love through their letters as anonymous pen pals.Black Christmas (1974), directed by Bob Clark and starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder and John Saxon. During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and starring Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick andToni Nero. After his parents are murdered, a tormented teenager goes on a murderous rampage dressed as Santa.
Die Hard (1988), directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman and Bonnie Bedelia. NYPD cop John McClane redeems his marriage by foiling a "terrorist attack" during an office party at the Nakatomi Plaza (actually the Fox Tower in Century City) in Los Angeles. "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker."
Home Alone (1990), directed by Chris Columbus and written by John Hughes and starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Catherine O'Hara, and John Candy (as the
great Gus Polinski, leader of the Kenosha Kickers polka band). More laughs and sight gags than any movie has a right to have. The title says it all.Edward Scissorhands (1990), directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Dianne Wiest. This "Frankenstein" for the late-20th Century has an inventor's incomplete creation, Edward (Depp), a young man with scissors for hands, lured from his castle by the love of a young woman (Ryder) only to eventually be shunned by the suburban townspeople. Burton, Depp and Ryder at their peak.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), directed by Henry Selick and starring the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey and Paul Reubens. Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.Bad Santa (2003), directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, Tony Cox and Brett Kelly. A miserable, drunken conman (Thornton in a perfect role) and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010 -- Finland), directed by Jalmari Helander, and starring Jorma Tommila, Onni Tommila and Peeter Jakobi. A wildly offbeat and dark Christmas tale about a group of Lapland villagers who come face-to-face with
Joulupukki, the earliest form of Santa, notorious for being a horned being who whips misbehaving children and boils them in a cauldron. The Joulupukki has been buried for centuries but is unearthed by the excavations of the Subzero company; his return is causing death and destruction. And wait until you see this Santa's elves. Not to be missed.Carol (2015), directed by Todd Haynes and starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Christmas in New York in the 1950s is the setting for this gorgeous, lilting love story between a young woman, clerking in a department store, and an older, married woman. An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's seminal novel "The Price of Salt."
Check out other new DVD/Blu-ray releases, streaming films, and information and reviews at OnVideo.
