Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Hustlers

 

Hustlers is a 2019 film starring Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Lilli Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Lizzo, and Cardi B. It is about a group of strippers who drug their clients (mostly wealthy Wall Street types) and run up their credit cards. Lopez stars as Romona, the ringleader of the crew, and Constance Wu plays Destiny, a stripper that Romona takes under her wing. It is basically a story about greed, friendship, and family, blending a mix of drama and comedy. Despite being a movie about strippers, all the main characters keep everything covered. Cardi B and Lizzo have a couple of shots where they are in pasties, and Jennifer Lopez has sported some major cleavage throughout the movie and has a couple of shots of her in a thong, but that is really the extent of the nudity.

The 4k set is a two-disc set with a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The UHD disc has just the movie and the commentary track with the director, Lorene Scafaria. The only other bonus material is two trailers for the movie, which are included on the regular Blu-ray disc. It is really quite weak in extras, so if you only get the physical discs when there are a lot of bonus features, then you will probably want to just stream this. Overall, it is a good movie with a decent story. Despite being almost two hours long, the movie flows well and never seems to drag on. It is quite funny in parts, and the outfits they put Jennifer Lopez in (who still looks phenomenal at 50) are not bad either. It is definitely worth checking out.

DVD/Movie Review: Jersey Girl

 

Jersey Girl is a romantic comedy from 2004. It was written and directed by Kevin Smith and stars Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Raquel Castro, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Stephen Root, and Jason Biggs. Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Jason Lee have small cameo roles in the movie. It is probably one of the best and most underrated of Kevin Smith's movies. Affleck plays a widower who has to raise a daughter with the help of his dad (played by George Carlin) after his wife (played by Jennifer Lopez) dies in childbirth. He strikes up a romance with a clerk at the local video store (played by Liv Tyler) while trying to get back to his old life as a rich publicist in NY. Ultimately, the movie is about the importance of family in the grand scheme of things.

Like the vast majority of Smith's movies, there are cameos from actors in his other movies (like Matt Damon and Jason Lee). While Smith is known for making pretty vulgar comedies, this is about 95% drama and 5% comedy, and there is no Jay and Silent Bob to be seen. While there is swearing in it (as one of the Amazon reviewers is apparently shocked by), it is much more toned down from all his other movies.

The DVD just has the movie. No extras of any kind. The video transfer is okay but not great, which is fine, given that it is not packed with special effects. It would have been nice to get some deleted scenes, cast interviews, or a commentary track. While I cannot say this movie is going to appeal to everyone, even die-hard fans of Kevin Smith, it tells a very good story and is well-written and acted. The little girl who plays Gertie (Raquel Castro) pretty much steals every scene she is in. If you accept that you are not getting comedy in the same vein as Clerks, Mallrats, or even Chasing Amy and accept that it is going to be different than what you might expect, it is definitely worth checking out.

DVD/Movie Review: Out of Sight

 

Out of Sight was a 1998 crime-drama/dark comedy directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, and Albert Brooks. The movie is, at its core, a love story (albeit a twisted one) about a bank robber/prison escapee (Clooney) and a federal marshal (Lopez) who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is also very much a drama with some very funny moments. In that way, it really does not fit any label perfectly. It is part love story, part chase movie, part criminal looking for one last score. The story is told part in the present and part through flashbacks (in an almost pulp fiction-like manner). That part of it really works well, and I think it ultimately makes the movie better than it would have been had it run in chronological order.

As far as extras on the DVD version go, there is a 25-minute making-of documentary, a commentary track by Steven Soderbergh, 22 minutes worth of deleted scenes, and select scenes that highlight certain songs from the movie. All in all, enough to keep those who like going through the bonus material happy.

The strength of the movie is the stellar ensemble cast. Clooney (who was probably at the height of his ER fame when the movie was made) and Lopez were the stars and the focus of the movie, but everyone from Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Albert Brooks to Steve Zahn (who steals nearly every scene he is in) works perfectly. There are also cameos by Michael Keaton and Samuel L Jackson, which, although brief, are very good. Clooney and Lopez either had very good chemistry or faked it well because you can buy the sexual tension between the two that the movie was going for. It is a very good movie that is absolutely worth the time to watch.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: The Boy Next Door

 

The Boy Next Door is a psychological thriller from 2015 starring Jennifer Lopez as Claire Peterson, a high school teacher separated from her husband after she catches him cheating. At the same time, the nephew of her next-door neighbor, Noah, played by Ryan Guzman, moves in to help his wheelchair-bound uncle. Of course, the two end up flirting and eventually having sex (before the school year starts), and then things go bad, as Claire regrets their night together and tries to break it off. Noah becomes jealous and starts to make Claire's life miserable, which is much easier as he is still in high school even though he is 19 years old (which the movie makes clear), and now goes to the same school Claire teaches at and at which her own teenage son, Kevin, played by Ian Nicholson, attends. The movie definitely has a similar vibe to movies like Fatal Attraction and Unfaithful, but it is not exactly an erotic thriller as there was only one sex scene, and even then nothing much was shown (aside from a butt shot from Lopez). 

For those who get the blu-ray, the A/V quality is very good, with some great cinematographic visuals and a good lossless audio track. There are only a handful of extras which include a commentary track on the movie by the director Rob Cohen, a short (under 10 minutes) making-of featurette, and a few deleted scenes that total around 10 minutes.

The movie is okay, but not great. It is a smaller-budget movie and definitely does not have an original plot. You can pretty much guess how it is going to play out from the beginning, even though all of the actors did a good job in their roles. The movie does have a good supporting cast including Kristen Chenowith, Hill Harper, and John Corbett. I think it is best described as the kind of movie that you can have on in the background and not miss much of anything if you divert your attention from time-to-time. 

Movie/DVD Review: The Cell (2000 version)

The Cell is a thriller and at times horror movie from back in 2000 starring Jennifer Lopez as a psychotherapist who has developed a way to enter the mind of patients. Vincent D'Onofrio plays a serial killer who is caught by an FBI agent played by Vince Vaughn. The FBI knows he has abducted a woman who will be dead soon if they do not locate her, and hire Lopez's character to enter the killer's mind in order to try and find where the victim is being held. What follows is a very trippy movie, with a lot of stunning visuals. Because most of the movie is set in the mind of the killer, the rules of the real world don't really apply, and the film makes good use of that fact. There is not a lot of gore in the movie (it is mostly a psychological thriller), but when there is, it is not for the squeamish. 

The movie has been re-released on disc several times on disc, including on blu-ray. I have the original DVD release, and for those who are looking at that, the extras include deleted scenes, cast and crew biographies, trailers, a couple of different commentary tracks on the movie, storyboard sequences, and a feature on the music. And, there are some DVD-ROM features if you play it on a computer.

Overall, the film is very well-written and acted.  D'Onofrio steals the show and definitely shows off his acting range. This is one of Lopez's best performances (I know that people tend to love her or hate her as an actress) in any of her movies, and Vaughn does a very good job in a role that is very different from the wise-cracking comedies he is known for. There is sexual content and nudity (mostly in the form of torture scenes as opposed to erotic scenes) and the movie just skirted getting an NC-17 rating. So, it is definitely not for everyone. But, if you are looking for an original thriller that is not at all cookie cutter, this is definitely a good movie to check out.