The Hunt For Red October (1990) — PICK
Knives Out (2019) — PICK
It’s an all-star week of home video picks.
Fans of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, rejoice! One of last year’s best films, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (now on Blu-ray and DVD) is both an old-fashioned whodunit and a morality tale with a distinctly contemporary vibe.
All the traditional elements are here: an elegant old manor home; a corpse; a large, colorful supporting cast who each have a motive; a pair of not-so-brilliant police investigators; and an idiosyncratic private detective.
It’s also a morally complex parable rewarding decency, siding with the marginal over the privileged, and knocking the complacent on both sides of contemporary political discourse. The stellar cast includes Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson and Toni Collette.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, John McTiernan’s Cold-War suspense classic The Hunt for Red October arrives in a Collector’s Edition Steelbook with 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray. Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill and James Earl Jones star.
CAVEAT SPECTATOR: The Hunt for Red October: Intense nuclear threat; some deadly violence and gunplay; swearing and crude language. Teens and up. Knives Out: Brief bloody violence; frequent profanity, cursing and crude language; implied drug use; sexual references. Mature viewing.