Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Fighting with my Family

 

Fighting With My Family is a 2019 biographical drama/comedy written and directed by Stephen Merchant starring Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Jack Lowden, and Vince Vaughn. It is a semi-biographical movie about the WWE career of professional wrestler Paige (Saraya Bevis), played by Pugh. It is based upon a documentary by the same name about Paige and her family of professional wrestlers in England that Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), who was a producer of the movie, along with making a few cameos, saw and convinced director Stephen Merchant to take it on as a project. Paige is played wonderfully in the movie by Florence Pugh. Lena Headey plays Paige's mother, and Nick Frost plays Paige's father (and steals every scene he is in).  Jack Lowden plays Paige's brother, who is also a wrestler trying to make it in the WWE, and Vince Vaughn plays a WWE trainer.

The basic story is that Paige and her brother, who wrestle in their family's small promotion in Norwich, England, are trying to get a tryout with the WWE. They get a tryout, and she is picked to go to WWE's developmental unit in the United States, and he does not. So it becomes a fish out of water story as she tries to make her break while her brother deals with being left behind at home. It mostly skips her rise to popularity in NXT, just showing her training and getting adjusted to life as a pro wrestler for the WWE, then ends with a very fictionalized version of her first match on the main roster. For a film about pro wrestling, it is very well done. It is an excellent combination of funny and heartfelt and takes a story about a profession that is over-the-top in absurdity at times very seriously.

The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray is very good, especially for a movie that does not make use of CGI or special effects. The extras consist of about 8 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, an 8-minute (give or take) making-of featurette, a gag reel, and a feature commentary track with the director. There are also two versions of the movie, the theatrical version as well as a director's cut. There was not much bonus material, but what was included was good. It would have been nice if Paige and Florence Pugh had been included on the commentary track instead of just the director.

Overall, it is a good movie. It is enjoyable even if you are not a huge fan of professional wrestling, but I think the people who enjoy it the most will be pro-wrestling fans. For those who are more old-school WWE/WWF fans, some clips from "back in the day" get sprinkled throughout the movie, and some cameos with some of the main roster WWE stars aside from The Rock. It is definitely worth checking out.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: The Looming Tower

 

The Looming Tower is a 10-episode miniseries that was released on Hulu in 2018. It stars Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Wrenn Schmidt, Bill Camp, Louis Cancelmi, Ella Rae Peck, and Peter Sarsgaard. There are a couple of things to note when it comes to this series. First, while it is based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Wright, its focus is very different. In the book, the focus was mainly on the rise of Al-Qaeda from its beginnings during and after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to just after the 9-11 attacks. The focus of the series, which was a smaller part of the book, is the tension between the CIA and FBI, centered around the characters of John O'Neil and Ali Soufan. It really displayed how the CIA saw its mission as intelligence gathering, and because the FBI was interested in making arrests, the CIA would stonewall the FBI agents working on bringing Al-Qaeda down. It also dealt with some of the politics playing out in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Clinton's affair and impeachment, and the Bush Administration's obsession with taking out Sadaam Hussein in Iraq and indifference to the Al-Qaeda threat), which prevented any real action against Al-Qaeda being taken until it was too late.

Second, it is a fictionalized docu-drama. It is not a straight-up documentary retelling everything that happened exactly as it did. It does mix in a lot of real-life news footage of events that the series depicts and footage from the congressional hearings that were held a few years after the attacks. Some characters were a combination of real-life people or a fictionalized version of real people (like the Schmidt character (played by Peter Sarsgaard), who was based on a pretty crazy real-life CIA agent at Alec Station), and some events were changed a bit (such as the bombing of the USS Cole). So, if you are looking for something that gives a straight-up retelling, then this is not it. Nor does it put a ton of emphasis on 9-11 itself. The attacks and aftermath mainly play out on monitors playing real-life footage in the background in the final episode. There was very little that the show filmed depicting things that happened on the actual day itself. What was filmed were things like Richard Clarke in the White House as it was being evacuated, and later in the bunker, one of the FBI agents walking through the streets after the collapse of the towers, etc. A big chunk of the last episode involves Ali Soufan finally getting access to interrogate Bin-Laden's former bodyguard who was being detained in Yemen and distills what was an interrogation over several days into a 10-or-so-minute sequence.

The acting and writing of the show are very good. Jeff Daniels really shines as John O'Neil, and for all but one episode is pretty much the main character. Tahir Rahim also does a great job playing Ali Soufan, who was part of a group of FBI agents butting heads with the CIA to get information. Some of the real-life players were also consultants and/or producers of the show, which I think helped its authenticity. For extras, there are commentary tracks on the first and last episodes by the writer and director of the episodes, and then about 40 minutes worth of behind-the-scenes, making of, and source material featurettes. Very good for what was included. It also looks great on blu-ray.

It does have some flaws, but overall, they are, in my opinion, minor in the larger overall context. It is definitely worth checking out.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Chernobyl

 

Chernobyl is a five-part mini-series that aired on HBO in 2019. It is a docudrama telling the story of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine) in 1986. It is told mainly through the stories of two real-life people, Valery Legasov, a chemist tasked to lead a commission investigating the disaster (played by Jared Harris), Boris Shcherbina, a Soviet deputy minister (played by Stellan Skarsgård), and the fictional character Ulana Khomyuk (played by Emily Watson) who was a composite of all the scientists who worked with Legasov Shcherbina.

Each episode told a portion of the overall story, from the response to the disaster in episode one, focusing mainly on the firefighters and the scientists and engineers working at the plant who were the first to respond to the disaster and tried to contain it. Episodes 2-4 were all about trying to contain and mitigate the results of the disaster. The series does a great job of showing not only how bad it was but how bad it could have been had steps not been taken to prevent a second explosion, which would have killed millions and contaminated most of Europe with radiation fallout. The final episode focused on the trial of those who ran the plant and laid out in great layman's terms exactly why the reactor core exploded.

The acting and writing of the series were top-notch. It accurately told the story yet kept the details understandable. I actually researched the disaster for a class in my engineering program, and I was impressed that while some aspects were embellished and dramatized for TV, they got all the important stuff correct, including how the plant was not maintained correctly and how the cheap materials played a pivotal role in what happened.

The Blu-Ray set is a two-disc set. The A/V quality is excellent, as the show looks and sounds great in the format. The extras include short inside-the-episode segments for each episode, then a handful of behind-the-scenes and making-of clips that run anywhere from a minute and a half to about 10 minutes. It's not a ton, but it's good for what is there. It is a pricey set for a two-disc, five-episode series, but it is worth it for those who want to support the physical media and keep it around as long as possible.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Masters of Sex: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains minor spoilers from season one, but no major season two giveaways+++

The 12-episode second season of Masters of Sex aired during the summer and fall of 2014. It continues the fictionalized biographical drama of William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) and their famous sex study. This season is set (mostly) between the years 1958 and 1961. Masters, having been fired from Maternity Hospital, tries to find a place where he and Virginia can continue their work on the sex study. Of course, being in 1950s Missouri, that is not an easy feat, and they end up opening their own clinic. They continue to engage in their very ill-advised affair that was teased at the end of season one, under the guise of being participants in the study. That storyline actually opens up a much larger story arc for Libby (Caitlin FitzGerald), who is being ignored by Bill more and more. We also get insight into Bill's childhood when his mother, played by Ann Dowd, appears partway through the season.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. The A/V quality continues to be very good, as the series looks and sounds great in HD. There are some special effects to make the show a period piece, but they certainly do not dominate the show. For extras, three different featurettes range in length from 18 to 26 minutes, one focused on the women in the show, one focused on the men, and one focused on the time period in which the show is set and the social issues occurring at the time. Then, there are a handful of deleted scenes. Of course, this is the last season of the show that would be released individually on blu-ray. Seasons three and four were not released in the US at all until a complete series blu-ray set was released after the series ended. So, that is a better pickup than this one and if you did get this when it was originally released, you have to decide whether to double dip.

Overall, the season is very good. Maybe even better than he first. It is a show about sex, but it is not equivalent to the late-night soft-core movies on Showtime or Cinemax. It does not have sex for sex's sake, and it shows how sex can be dark and dysfunctional and not just titillating. The show also deals with issues that are still prevalent in our society today, including race relations, interracial relationships, homosexuality, and more, and how all of those things have been stigmatized, especially when sex is involved. The second season did have some cast turnover with Nicholas D'Agosto having a much-reduced role but Annaleigh Ashford being promoted to a series regular. The season also had a strong recurring and guest cast, including Beu Bridges, Allison Janney, Betsy Brandt, Keke Palmer, Sarah Silverman, René Auberjonois, Christian Borle, and Courtney B. Vance.

If you liked the first season, you will probably like this one. If you have not seen the show yet, it is based on true events but definitely fictionalized. So, you are not getting a historically accurate documentary. It is well written and very well acted and definitely worth the time to watch.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: American Hustle

 

American Hustle is a 2013 movie directed by David O Russell and starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner. It is loosely based on a sting operation that the FBI executed back in the late 1970s to early 1980s to take down a bunch of corrupt politicians. Bale and Adams play a pair of scam artists who get caught by an FBI agent (played by Bradley Cooper) in a loan scam. He offers to let them off the hook if they help him take down bigger targets. Jennifer Lawrence plays Bale's erratic wife, who threatens to report him to the police if he leaves her. The movie is mostly a blend of drama and dark comedy that is kind of a heist/takedown movie with some romance (basically a love rectangle) mixed in.

The Blu-Ray's A/V quality is good, but the extras are pretty sparse. Those include about 25 minutes of deleted scenes and a 16-minute making-of featurette. There are also some previews for other Sony movies. What was included was okay, but it definitely did not get a ton of extras, especially for a movie with as much Oscar buzz as it did. Overall, I would say that the movie is good, but not as good as some make it out to be. It does have a great cast and Cooper, Adams, Bale, and Lawrence all nail their roles. Bale, who can get into about any shape that is needed for a role, is nearly unrecognizable as an overweight and balding slimeball. Adams does probably her best work (at least that I have seen) in this movie, and both she and Lawrence are extremely funny. Cooper is great as a crazy FBI agent. Where the movie loses me a bit is the pacing and the plot lines that kind of jump around. It is definitely a movie that you have to pay attention to constantly to follow what is going on.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Masters of Sex: Season 1

 

The first season of Masters of Sex aired on Showtime and consisted of 12 episodes that aired during the fall and winter of 2103. The show is a fictionalized telling of the famous Masters and Johnson sex study. It stars Michael Sheen as William Masters, who is a physician and researcher at Washington University in Missouri. He proposes to launch a study on human sexuality. Of course, this being the 1950s in an extremely conservative state, his proposal is shot down, but he starts the study in secret, hiring Virginia Johnson (played wonderfully by Lizzy Caplan) as his assistant. They recruit a variety of people, including prostitutes, hospital staff, and intrigued couples. Despite the title, the show is definitely not tawdry. There is a lot of sex and nudity, of course, but much of the focus of the show is on the interrelationships between various characters and shows the toll that the research takes on the personal lives of both Masters and Johnson, especially Masters' relationship with his wife Libby (played by Caitlin Fitzgerald) who is unable to conceive a child, and Virginia's kids missing their mother. The show has a strong supporting cast that has a mix of recognizable but not necessarily well-known actors such as Teddy Sears, Nicholas D'Agosto, Annaleigh Ashford, and Rose McIver, and established actors such as Beau Bridges and Allison Janney.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set with the 12 episodes spread over the four discs. The A/V quality of the blu-ray is very good, and the set has a decent amount of bonus content. The extras include a commentary track on the pilot episode with Sheen, Caplan, Fitzgerald, Sears, series creator Michelle Ashford, and executive producer Sarah Timberman, about thirteen minutes of deleted scenes, and a series of making-of featurettes that total over twenty-five minutes between them all that include interviews with the cast and showrunners.

Overall, the show is very well-written and acted. The show not only tackles the subject of sex and the stigma that it had not only in the 1950s but really exists to this day, but it also touches on the topics of racism, homosexuality, misogyny, and more. There is a lot of nudity, sexual content, and swearing, but chances are people who would not want to see that kind of stuff are not likely to be considering purchasing this anyway. But, needless to say, it is not something that is a family-friendly show. While it does fall into the category of a docu-drama, the show does embellish some things about the actual events, so if you are looking for something that is more documentary than drama, this is not it. But if you are looking for a good, well-acted adult drama, this is definitely worth checking out.

Just as a note, the series had a total of four seasons. The first two were released on Blu-Ray individually in the US, the third and fourth were not. The entire series was released as a Blu-Ray box set that has the same extras and bonus material as the first and second season individual releases. So, if you get this and then want the entire series, you would have to double dip.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

 

Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization of the hunt for, and the subsequent raid to kill Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Quaeda, and the money behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The movie stars Jessica Chastain as Maya, a young CIA analyst working for the unit that was tasked with Hunting down Bin Laden. The character is based on a real person but is kind of an amalgamation of all of the women who worked in that unit. Maya is singularly focused on tracking down a lead regarding the courier whose name was given up by a tortured detainee, and after following many dead ends, ends up panning out. The movie is directed by Kathryn Bigelow who also directed The Hurt Locker. The movie gets an undeserved bad rap as glamorizing torture. I never got the impression that the movie was glamorizing it in any way. I looked at it as acknowledging that the government did torture detainees and not skirting around or whitewashing that fact. Whether the actual information that resulted in the courier's name being given up came about as a result or torture or was dramatized for the movie does not, in my opinion, take away from the quality.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. There are not a ton of extras, but what was included is good. These include a making-of documentary, a featurette on the building of a duplicate of bin Laden's stronghold, a piece about training the actors playing SEALs, and a featurette with Jessica Chastain discussing her character.

Overall, the movie is well-written and very well-acted. Chastain is a tour de force in this movie, bringing intensity and passion to every scene. She definitely earned and deserved her academy award nomination. The movie is not a straight-up documentary and does dramatize some events and material, but includes a lot of real events in the story (such as the bombing at the base that killed several military personnel and CIA officers) and gave a detailed account of how the actual raid went down. It is definitely worth checking out.