I’ve watched Branagh’s take on Cinderella (2015) a number of times now, and gosh darn if this just isn’t one of the year’s best motion pictures. Familiar story? Sure. Doesn’t do a great deal that’s not entirely expected? Of course. But that doesn’t mean the movie isn’t pretty darn close to perfect all the same.

I just wish it wasn’t so continually silly, so broadly played, so constantly intent on informing me just how full of crap all of this actually is to the point taking any single second of it seriously is a downright impossibility. The group of filmmakers behind The Editor (2014) love giallo and it shows, I just wish they made a better movie showcasing that affection, and as impressive as a lot of this might be my inability to connect to it on an emotional level is too gigantic and frustrating a hurdle for me to be able to comfortably overcome.

There is potential lurking in Gotham, I’m just not sure there is enough of it to get me excited about giving the series a second shot during Season 2. Warner’s Blu-ray presentation, however, is immaculate, fans of the show almost certain to be more than satisfied if they add this four-disc set to their personal libraries.

upernatural remains a fine show. Very well acted, filled with terrific moments and always overflowing in strong ideas, there’s definitely still a ton of imagination propelling the ongoing saga of Sam and Dean Winchester forward. But the seams in all of this have been starting to show for some time now, as is the over-familiarity, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit one of my absolute favorite television programs of all-time might have finally started down the path of wearing out its welcome. Still, I’m keeping the faith, and as far as series Blu-ray sets are concerned this is one of the best Warner has put together for the show yet, and as such comes more or less highly recommended.

As procedurals go, Black Mass is no Zodiac or All the President’s Men, failing to find the emotional decrepitude lingering at the heart of the tale. As depictions of organized crime, as a saga of one man’s ascent to becoming a ferocious mob boss, once again the movie is no The Godfather, no A Most Violent Year, the scope too condensed, too rushed, to ever resonate as deeply and as passionately as necessary for the story to have any sort of meaning.

considering the subject matter, it’s almost impossible not to walk out of Everest (2015) without being moderately impressed. Director Baltasar Kormákur (2 Guns, 101 Reykjavík) stages the majority of the key climbing sequences with dazzling eloquence, things achieving a devastatingly haunting quality at times that’s notable. But without a core connection to the characters involved in the chaos and heartbreak I find it difficult to embrace the film as fully as I’d honestly like to, and while the spectacle is impressive the dramatics at the heart of it all are sadly anything but.

The anchor is Tomlin. Delivering a performance that by all rights should garner an Academy Award nomination, the veteran actress encapsulates an entire career, maybe even an entire life, lived under the public microscope brilliantly. There are layers to Elle that are revealed bit-by-bit, Tomlin refusing to overplay her hand even when her character revels in her outspoken, larger-than-life personality.

But as a movie, as a centralized story where characters grow, evolve and learn things about themselves they potentially did not know, Ball’s second descent into author Dashner’s ravaged world is a good one, and considering my ambivalent reticence to the first The Maze Runner that isn’t a statement I make at all lightly.

Culminating with the 1972 chess championship, focusing particularly on the game six match many aficionados consider the best ever played, [Pawn Sacrifice] is a not-so-subtle reminder about how genius and madness oftentimes go hand-in-hand, and as such is an absorbing drama of psychological deterioration impossible to dismiss.