Home Video Picks & Passes 08.06.17
Kong is king on DVD.
Holes (2003) — PICK
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) — PASS
Kong: Skull Island (2017) — PICK
Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larsen are fine, and Samuel L. Jackson is always good — but Kong’s MVP is clearly John C. Reilly, who’s having more fun than everyone else combined.
I could probably find a movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is an improvement on, but it would be a lot of work.
Less a reimagining than an act of cultural vandalism, it reduces a literary tradition celebrating heroism and chivalry to an ugly revenge story. Skip it.
Better than both of the above: Andrew Davis’ winning and well-cast Holes, newly streaming on Netflix.
A young Shia LaBeouf stars as the hero of Louis Sachar’s Newbery Award-winning kids’ adventure, a Chinese puzzle-box adventure blending fantasy, coming-of-age realism and tongue-in-cheek grotesquerie.
CAVEAT SPECTATOR: Holes: Menace and sometimes deadly violence; a subplot involving a fortuneteller and a curse; some crass language and limited profanity. Tweens and up. Kong: Skull Island: Heavy, sometimes gruesome violence and menace; brief profanity, an obscenity, some cursing and crude language; mildly suggestive images. Older teens and up.
- Keywords:
- movies
- sdg reviews
- steven d. greydanus
