This Week: Blake Lively doesn't look a day over 90 in The Age of Adaline, the town that dreads sundown again, and Homeland defies the haters.
► Blake Lively does her best stuff post ‘Gossip Girl’ in the intriguing fantasy romance THE AGE OF ADALINE, in which she plays a 107-year-old woman who stopped aging after a lightning strike brought her back from drowning. Of course, never aging means dating is a risky business, but she lets her guard down with a philanthropist (Michiel Huisman), whose dad (Harrison Ford) suspects her secret. Has some of that ‘Zelig’ and ‘Benjamin Button’ spirit. An important movie for Lively, who is long overdue for her break out.
► I wasn’t among the haters for Season 3 of HOMELAND, so Season 4 didn’t feel like a comeback so much as an intriguing detour. Carrie (Claire Danes) is now a CIA station chief in Kabul, and when she learns the location of a prominent terrorist, orders an air strike which kills several civilians. The ensuing shitstorm eventually drags Saul (Mandy Patinkin) out of the private sector, which doesn’t go so well for him. It’s a given the show will never repeat its greatness of Season 1, but it’s nowhere near the sorry state ‘24’ was at near the end. Blu-ray extras include character profiles, and a script-to-screen for some key scenes, including a gripping invasion of the U.S. Embassy.
► A wink-wink sequel to the original, THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN has the town of Texarcana, Texas – where the real murders took place which inspired the 1976 version – dealing with the apparent return of the film’s Phantom killer. Like ‘Scream’ minus the laughs, it’s a horror movie about what it’s like being in a horror movie. Fans of the original mostly loved it.
► Look, it sounds petty to gripe about a weekly TV show set in the Batman universe – how bloody spoiled have us fanboys gotten? – but I kept waiting for Fox’s GOTHAM to turn a corner which never came. To stop feeling like a watered down network show and become something worthy of the Dark Knight. Instead, well, you’ll wish another network had a crack at it (Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ hammered that point home a few months later). As it is, Fox’s series about the origins of Batman’s villains and the corrupt city which molded them looks sharp, gets a nice turn from Robin Lord as The Penguin, but it never transcends its source material and it constantly feels constrained. Batman fans are so burdened with origin stories at this point, an entire series of them – not to mention the superior comic-based shows and movies to choose from – made Season 1 underwhelming. It’s back Sept. 21.
► From the lurid opening scene of Angie Dickinson masturbating in the shower to an ending virtually identical to ‘Carrie,’ 1980’s DRESSED TO KILL was Brian DePalma at his trashy best. Dickinson plays a repressed housewife murdered in an elevator, which is witnessed by call girl Nancy Allen. Together with the victim’s son and her psychiatrist (Michael Caine), they attempt to snag the killer – a tall blonde woman using a razor. Made during DePalma’s peak, and all his trademarks are here. Criterion special edition includes a new chat with DePalma, interviews with Allen and the Penthouse model who was Dickinson’s body double for the shower scene, and a look at the cuts needed to avoid an X rating.
► Scheduled for release this week long before Wes Craven’s passing, Shout! Factory’s deluxe edition of SHOCKER arrives on a bittersweet note. Perhaps sensing the ‘Elm Street’ sequels were getting ridiculous, he tried creating another horror icon in serial killer Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), who is able to live on via electricity. It landed with a thud and was one of Craven’s weaker efforts of the ‘90s. Blu-ray features a new interview with Pileggi, commentary from Craven, and two making-of shorts.
► With network TV comedy as barren as its ever been, even something pedestrian like THE GOLDBERGS has become an important cog on the schedule for ABC. Ratings jumped sharply for Season 2, which sees Jeff Garlin and his underachieving family slog through more of the ‘80s. Hoverboards, Ferris Bueller, male models and the Dallas Cowboys all enter the equation. Season 3 starts Sept. 23 with the enticingly titled episode ‘A Kick-Ass Risky Business Party.’
► Everything just gets more biblical in SUPERNATURAL’s 10th season, as the now demon-ized Dean is forced to work alongside Crowley. It goes as awkward as you’d expect. Looking to rid himself of the Mark of Cain (it’s a long story), he’s eventually proposed a scenario in which he must kill his brother Sam. Which would mercifully spare us from an 11th season of this Sunday School marathon, but alas, it’ll be back for Round 11 Oct. 7.
Also out this week:
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