James (Dan Stevens), who has been blind for most of his life, wakes up one morning to find that his tumor has shrunk and his eyesight is restored. Unfortunately, with his sight restored, he soon realizes that he’s hot but self-centered, his wife is a lying, manipulative co-dependent, and his fellow sight-impaired co-workers hate him for getting ahead at work. If you take a moment you can probably list the handful of ways this could end.
Dan Stevens, Malin Akerman, and Oliver Platt all give solid performances that kept my attention to the very end. The shortcoming in the film, as I see it, is the material they’re given to work with. The screenplay does everything in its power to force conflicts that aren’t there naturally. The characters have to suddenly manifest flaws that don’t quite make sense or someone has to blow up with irrational anger to keep things moving towards the cliche conclusion.
The Blu-ray disc includes scant extras, including just the trailer and an audio commentary with the writer and director.
It’s not a politically correct film in 2017, but Car Wash is a brilliant and fun time capsule of a film that is an important part of cinema history (and has one hell of a soundtrack). The film bounces amongst the lives of people in and around the car wash in a format that is weirdly similar to what Kevin Smith would later do with Clerks. For what is essentially a cult film, there is a mind boggling array of star cameos, everyone from Richard Pryor, The Pointer Sisters, and Lorraine Gary to George Carlin, Bill Duke, and Danny Devito.
I didn’t receive any information on the transfer of the film but the image is clear. There is some dinginess to the picture and a bit of dirt but it is sharp and clearly the best the movie has looked since its original release. Extras include interviews with Otis Day and Gary Stromberg, Director’s Commentary, radio spots, and trailer. Also check out the cool original poster art on the reverse of the sleeve.
Bill Paxton and William Sadler play firemen who are given a map to hidden treasure in an abandoned building (by an elderly thief who then immolates himself, it’s pretty awesome). While searching, they witness a gangland murder and end up hunted themselves by Ice-T and Ice Cube. Once the gang figures out why they were there it becomes a fight for gold and their own survival.
These types of shoot’em up films don’t do much for me but fans of the film or the genre should be happy with the generally good transfer of the film. The disc is also loaded with extras including interviews with Sadler and the producer, featurettes on the film’s stunts and weapons, behind the scenes featurette, music video, deleted scenes, and theatrical trailer. There is also an interview with Bob Gale, producer of Back to the Future fame, because interestingly, this film is from a very early script by him and Robert Zemeckis with both of them receiving writing credits.
Cheech and Chong are at it again after their blockbuster ‘Up in Smoke’ (Hence the title Next Movie). Nevermind the plot, it’s something vague about Cheech having a date with his girlfriend and Chong going on a drug fueled adventure with Cheech’s cousin ‘Red’ (also Cheech Marin) and getting abducted by aliens. Sit back and enjoy Cheech & Chong’s pot and coke antics and look for a cameo by Michael Winslow and Paul Reubens doing an early version of Pee Wee in a drug comedy.
The image is nice and sharp but if your vision is sharp during a Cheech & Chong movie I would argue you’re not getting the full effect. The film is the original theatrical cut with none of the TV version material included. Extras are limited with just an interview with Cheech, a trailer, and some radio spots. Reverse of the cover includes the original artwork.
Austin (Emile Hirsch) is an assistant coroner to his father Tommy (Brian Cox) at a family-run morgue. A deceased female Jane Doe is brought in by the police late one night with the instructions that cause of death needs to be determined by the morning. As they begin to examine her they find all kinds of strange wounds, such as her tongue being cut off and her organs appear to have been stabbed without piercing the skin. As they dig into her, a storm descends on the morgue and they soon find themselves trapped in a terrifying haunting that seems to be emanating from Jane Doe.
This is a spectacular horror film from Director André Øvredal (Trollhunter) and his first film in America. For having the word ‘autopsy’ right in the title, the graphic gore is surprisingly low key. This film is much closer to a haunting story like Amityville or 1408, full of very effective creeping dread and atmosphere. Watch this film in the dark and alone if possible; the chills are plentiful and the dread both subtle and acute. There is, in my opinion, only one major misstep that keeps the film from perfect. It would be too much of a spoiler to say but it is a single monologue in a single scene that is hokey as hell and nearly spoils the soup (but thankfully not quite). I’m willing to bet when you watch it you’ll catch what I’m talking about but it’s a forgivable mistake when the rest of the film is such a blast.
As with many of the IFC Midnight titles there are sparse special features. Autopsy has just TV spots, Teasers, and the Theatrical Trailer. Fortunately, the film itself is worth owning on Blu-ray but there’s really no excuse for not having a commentary or at least some interviews.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.