New Releases on DVD/Blu-Ray/Streaming This Week including Fifty Shades!!

There are three releases of note for home viewing:

SELMA
Directed by Ava DuVernay
Screenplay by Paul Webb
Starring David Oyelowo



A chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights with help of marches in the USA, including this historical march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965, in hope of bringing more attention to their rights as Americans.

Based on a true story. This phrase is used often during the opening of films. The key word is BASED. So I am not on the bandwagon with people who criticized this film that it played around with facts.  However, I will criticize Ava DuVernay for not using her editor enough, the film really seems to drag in the middle, knowing full well we are there to see the march but the film takes forever to get there including some info that, for a film, could have been left on the floor. I guess that is where a book comes in lol!!
3 out of 5 stars for this well acted film by Oyelowo. Well worth a look at home, where you can watch it in two nights.


BLACK OR WHITE

Direction and screenplay by Mike Binder
Starring Octavia Spencer; Kevin Costner; and Jillian Estell



A widower (Costner) is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter (Estell), whom he helped raise her entire life.

This film was a hard watch. I wanted to scream cant we all get along!! The film is filled with racism on both ends, Black vs White and White vs Black, and the film tries to make jokes about it, and I think those jokes miss. Costner looks like he wanted out from the start. Then they throw in a kumbaya ending. This film is not enjoyable to watch.

Ugh 1 1/2 stars out of 5.


FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
Directed by Sam Taylor Johnson
Screenplay by Kelly Marcel
Based on the book by E.L.James
Starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan



No film description needed. Unless you have been living under a rock the last few years, you know what the film is about.
Well where do I start:
Miscasting of Jamie Dornan. I don't think he can act and he seems to be over acting the whole time. And his Mr Grey has a much bigger creep factor then the book and that may be because of the bad acting.
There are big fans of this book. Passionate (no pun attended) fans. And they left out many parts of the film that those fans loved. Afraid of an NC17? Maybe? Well...who made that decision? People over 17 are the only ones who should see this and will pay. Are you marketing to 16 year olds...that would be creepy. Well the Blu/ray is coming out with an Unrated Version....why not show this in the theatre??!! People know what to expect by reading the book. It makes no sense.
And the worst decision....no ending. There is no ending. An elevator door shuts. What?!! Even the split of the last Hunger Games movie/book (which I was not a fan of) at least tried to have an ending..a spot to finish.
Now the good:
I thought Dakota Johnson was fantastic. She came across even smarter and less naïve then the Anastasia in  the book. To be honest with the readers, I am a big fan of Dakota, I think she is a wonderful actress. Do yourself a favor and watch her in the short lived series Ben And Kate, she is very good..
I also thought the look of the film was beautiful from the offices, to the living areas. Credit goes to set decorator Sandy Reynolds Wasco, who usually does sets for Tarintino.


Well 2 out of 5 stars for Grey. Just too many bad decisions.


From the shadows, as always thanks for your time.