{"id":19819,"date":"2023-03-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=19819"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:11:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:11:29","slug":"the-best-movies-to-buy-or-stream-this-week-women-talking-alice-darling-puss-in-boots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/the-best-movies-to-buy-or-stream-this-week-women-talking-alice-darling-puss-in-boots\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Movies to Buy or Stream This Week: \u2018Women Talking,\u2019 \u2018Alice, Darling,\u2019 \u2018Puss in Boots\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalogue titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This twice-monthly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you\u2019re watching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big-ticket items on disc this week include a trio of late-2022 awards hopefuls, but that\u2019s not all that\u2019s worth seeing: last year\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or winner is on Hulu; a film noir classic, and \u201880s cult fave, and a couple of \u201890s action hits land on 4K; and a pair of vintage genre movies appear under an unexpected label. But first up, we have a 4K upgrade for the biggest franchise of the 1980s: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PICK OF THE WEEK: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rocky: The Knockout Collection<\/a>: <\/em><\/strong>There\u2019s a new Creed<\/em> in theaters, and even though it\u2019s oddly Rocky-free, you can\u2019t blame Warner Brothers for taking the opportunity to give the first four films in the franchise the ol\u2019 4K upgrade. Taken together, they\u2019re a fascinating snapshot of a series (and its figurehead) in ongoing transition. The Rocky<\/em> movies were popular, which often translates to \u201cinfluential,\u201d but these films followed trends rather than setting them – its first two entries are in the moody, character-driven style of \u201870s cinema (even as their feel-good endings were subverting those norms), while Rocky III<\/em> and especially Rocky IV<\/em> lean into the bombast of \u201880s movies, the latter seeming to owe more to the previous summer\u2019s flag-waving Rambo: First Blood Part II<\/em> than anything in the Balboa canon. On one hand, it\u2019s a dispiriting experience; it\u2019s like you\u2019re watching Sylvester Stallone choose, in real time, to be a movie star rather than an actor (and the first Rocky<\/em> is an indisputably great piece of acting<\/em>, as evidenced by his deserved Oscar nomination for the job). But as a social and cultural document, you can\u2019t beat it. (Includes the new Rocky vs. Drago: The Ultimate Director\u2019s Cut<\/em> version of Rocky IV<\/em>, hour-long documentary on its<\/em> making, audio commentaries, featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage, and trailers.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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