#Middlebury #DVDs
“Crawl” (R) – Haley (Kay Scodelario) is a small-town Florida girl sitting in the track of a monster hurricane. She goes to check in on her dad (Barry Pepper) under evacuation orders and finds him trapped in the crawlspace of his home. Injured and vulnerable, the rising waters threaten their lives – but that’s not even the worst thing. There, in the brackish maelstrom, lurk giant alligators. You’d think a movie about being trapped in a crawlspace with gruesome gators on the front lines of a Cat 5 hurricane would be camp, a la “Snakes on a Plane.” But no. This rousing creature horror has forever scarred this Southern lady, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
Dave Bautista, Kumail Nanjani in “Stuber” (20th Century Fox photo)
“Stuber” (R) – How far would you go for a five-star rating? Stu (Kumail Nanjani) – an Uber driver, hence the “Stuber” – will go pretty dang far. He’s a timid, keep-the-boat steady type who’s desperate to keep his rating in the clear. Stu picks up a fare in the form of physically intimidating but unfortunately visually impaired cop Vic (Dave Bautista). He’s furiously running down a killer, but can’t do the driving himself. So naturally, he blackmails Stu into being his wingman using that coveted driver rating – and if you ask me, the results were hilarious. Where Stu is apprehensive and uptight, Vic is brash and ballsy – and the foil works. Director Michael Dowse’s idea of humor is a two-by-four to the face, so expect limits to be pushed.
“The Art of Self-Defense” (R) – Another quirky comedy notch in Jesse Eisenberg’s belt, “The Art of Self-Defense” centers around an aggressively macho karate dojo to which extreme beta male Casey (Eisenberg) turns after being bullied and brutally beaten in the streets. At the dojo, Casey’s confidence increases, and he steps up to attend the rawer, more violent night classes. Here, he is enveloped in a downward spiral of belligerence and mayhem alongside other students, including Imogene Poots as the lone female fighter, Anna.
“Night Hunter” (R) – Henry Cavill stars as detective Walter Marshall, who is investigating the disappearance and death of some young women, suspected to be a part of a human trafficking scheme. Michael Cooper (Ben Kingsley) is a former judge turned vigilante who lures pedophiles to their own castration by working with a young partner. When their stories intersect with a psychopathic killer named Simon (Brendan Fletcher), whose depraved reach seems to extend beyond the interrogation room, it leads them all to a massive set of cliches that are both ludicrous and predictable.
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“The Haunting of Hill House” Season 1
“SpongeBob SquarePants” Season 10
“Twin Peaks” The Television Collection
“The Librarians” Complete Series
© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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