Anyone But You (2023, Sony Pictures, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, R, 104 min.). There definitely is a sub-genre of film based on the wedding farce. In this one, director and co-writer Will Gluck (“Peter Rabbit,” “Easy A”) balances an ensemble cast of 12 in and around Sydney, Australia. The story, co-written with Ilana Wolpert (TV’s “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”), definitely is not the most solid, but the two leads are both highly entertaining and very easy on the eyes, and there are many familiar faces in the film.

Those leads are the often-shirtless, and even bare-assed in one scene, Glen Powell (“Hidden Figures,” “Top Gun: Maverick”) as Ben and Sydney Sweeney (TV’s “Euphoria,” “The White Lotus”) as Bea. They first meet cute when Ben helps out Bea by ordering for her in a coffee shop, as she needs to use the restroom and the ordering line is long. They go for a walk afterwards and end up at his apartment, sharing a great time and falling asleep on the couch.

Bea leaves before Ben wakes up, but returns to hear him dismiss her as a casual encounter to his co-worker Pete (Gata of TV’s “Dave”), as Ben does not want to admit he may have fallen in love. Later, at a gathering, Ben hears Bea disparage him to her friends. Over time, they continue with bickering as self-defense.

Things get complicated when Ben’s sister Halle (Hadley Robinson of “Little Women”) is set to marry Pete’s sister Claudia (Alexandra Shipp of the “X-Men” franchise) in Sydney and both Ben and Bea are invited to stay at the home of Pete and Claudia’s parents. The parents, Roger and Carol, are played by Bryan Brown (“Cocktail,” “Breaker Morant”) and Michelle Hurd (TV’s “Star Trek: Picard,” “The Glades”). Ben and Halle’s parents, Leo and Innie, are played by Dermot Mulroney (“My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “The Wedding Date”) and Rachel Griffiths (“Muriel’s Wedding,” TV’s “Six Feet Under”).

Further complications are that Pete and the two fathers believe Ben and Bea are perfect for each other and try to couple them. Meanwhile, their two exes – Margaret (Charlee Fraser of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”), Pete’s sister, and the just-dumped Jonathan (Darren Barnet of “Gran Turismo,” TV’s “Chicago Med”) – are present, with Jonathan invited by Bea’s mother, who hopes they will reconnect.

Ben and Bea decide – unwisely – to pretend to be a couple to entice Margaret from her current boyfriend Beau (Joe Davidson of TV’s “Troppo”) and to dissuade Jonathan from Bea. Of course, Ben and Bea only grow closer, despite some bumps along the way. Highlights are the amusing naked bit when Ben discovers a spider in his shorts while trying to put on a love show for the others on their hike – a wasted effort as the others are all watching a cute Koloa bear – and Ben and Bea’s “Titanic” ending recreation that results with both stranded in Sydney Harbour. There also is fun ending with stitched-together scenes of the cast singing a song.

The extras are rather paltry, other than an audio commentary by director Gluck. They include a discussion of working together (4 min.); filming in Australia and outtakes and bloopers (both 3 min.); three deleted scenes (2 with Beau and a group Nut Bush dance); and marketing materials (Powell and Sweeney trading pickup lines; Shipp and Robinson trying Aussie snacks). Grade: film 3 stars; extras 1.75 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Purchase link for some titles: https://moviezyng.com?bg_ref=ApLKdWV51k

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025, Universal, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray + Blu-ray, R, 134 min.). A weirdly-dressed stranger (Sam Rockwell of TV’s “F Is for Family,” “The White Lotus”) appears in a Los Angeles restaurant, claiming he is from the future and this is his 117th trip to the restaurant while trying to stop an artificial intelligence being created that will wreck the future. He selects five of the 47 people present to be his crew and another two volunteer.

The film then becomes episodic, filling in the recent back stories of several of his “crew,” and frankly some of these parts are better than the efforts to stop the AI’s creation, which tend toward the absurd. They include a pair of teachers, Janet and Mark (Zazie Beetz of “Deadpool 2,” TV’s “Atlanta” and Michael Peña of “End of Watch,” “Ant-Man”); a grieving mother, Susan (Juno Temple of “Killer Joe”); and Ingrid, a birthday party princess entertainer who is allergic to cell phones and Wi-Fi (Haley Lu Richardson of “The Edge of Seventeen,” TV’s “The White Lotus”).

Janet and Mark, he being a substitute, work at a high school where all the students are using their cell phones and when Mark touches one screen, all the students turn against him. It turns out the triangle symbol on their phones is part of the developing AI that future man is trying to alter by adding safety protocols to. Ingrid’s boyfriend Tim (Tom Taylor of “The Dark Tower,” “The Kid Who Would Be King”) has gotten sucked into a virtual reality society and leaves her.

Along the way to the house where a 9-year-old is creating the AI, the time traveler and crew have to evade the police, people trying to shoot them, a mass of angry teenagers and a giant kitty centaur. Yup, the film kind of goes off the rails.

The only extra is a making-of look (5:07). Grade: film 3 stars; extra 1 star

Difficult People: The Complete Series (2015-2017, Universal, 3 Blu-rays, NR, 11 hours 27 min.). In this snarkily-written series – primarily written by creator Julie Klausner -- Julie and Billy, two 30-something aspiring comics living and working in New York City grow increasingly bitter as their friends and acquaintances move on to find success and love, while they continue to struggle with their careers and relationships. They have tried podcasts, open mic events, writing for late-night television and auditioning for roles, including Billy for the cast of “Saturday Night Live.”

Julie Kessler (Klausner, producer of “Billy on the Street”) lives with her boyfriend Arthur Tack (James Urbaniak of “Oppenheimer”), who works for PBS and hates its membership drives, but she yearns for Brian Walsh (Nate Corddry) who spurned her in high school. This leads to an unusual three-way. Her mother is Marilyn (Andrea Martin of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” films), a semi-wacky shrink who likes to hypnotize people and run script readings as therapy for actors.

Billy Epstein (Billy Eichner of “Bros,” voice of Timon in “the Lion King”) is gay and Jewish. He works in a restaurant with boss Denise (Gabourey Sidibe of “Precious,” “Tower Heist”); Denise’s best bud, sarcastic short would-be actor Matthew (Cole Escola of TV’s “Hacks,” “At Home with Amy Sedaris”); and Nate (Derrick Baskin of “Annie”), who becomes a father figure when he gives Billy a driving lesson. Unfortunately, Billy runs over Talking Heads singer David Byrne (not shown, but is a subject of putdowns) and his bicycle during the lesson.

While Byrne is not actually in the show, a lot of other stars are. Blondie’s Debbie Harry delivers a laptop to Julie, Kathy Lee Griffith shows up to put down Julie’s online entertainment critiques, and Seth Meyers hilariously plays a man who invites Billy to some sexual activity outside, while Julie’s two dogs that Billy is dog-watching allegedly bite three men in the indoor dog park. It all is a scam though. There also are cameos/guest appearances, usually playing themselves, by Martin Short, Tina Fey, Julianne Moore, Method Man, Lucy Liu, Fred Armisen, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Micky Dolenz and Nathan Lane. Billy and Julie also more than once encounter sober magician Abra Cadouglas (Kate McKinnon of “Saturday Night Live”).

Billy’s dating life includes ex-Josh and too nice Fred, whom he comes to dislike because he is a participator.

The film shines in its reference-laden putdowns. Extras include Klausner and Eichner’s audio commentaries on three episodes; a 2015 Vulture Festival panel with Klausner, Eichner and Amy Poehler; and an essay by Matt Zoller Seitz on a beautiful friendship. Grade: series 3.5 stars; extras 3 stars

Cornered: The Series (2026, Burning Bulb Publishing, Blu-ray, NR, 125 min.). This three-part series has a deadly virus emerge in Brazil, then rapidly spread worldwide. It turns the infected into violent, vampiric creatures. Amid the chaos, Sebastian (Walter Shatley of TV’s “Stuck”), one of the rare individuals immune to the infection, struggles to survive as his world collapses near Rio De Janeiro.

Sebastian’s path changes when he meets Emily (Rio Hammett of TV’s “Stuck”), a 13-year-old girl who may be another uninfected human. Their relationship takes up all of chapter one and is set two years after the plague began. In the second chapter, Sebastian has to leave his home as the infected are searching for him.

The scene then shifts back two years to a small-town in the United States, which begins to be affected by the plague. The story includes newlyweds Delilah and Spencer. Chapter three goes back and forth between the pursuit of Sebastian and the vampiric takeover of the American town. Faustus McGreeves directed the surprisingly effective series. Grade: series 3.25 stars

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953, Leomark, Blu-ray, NR, 102 min.). Oscar-nominated for its groundbreaking underwater cinematography, the adventure-drama follows a Greek-American sponge fishing family as they risk everything to harvest Florida's dangerous 12-Mile Reef in the Gulf of Mexico. Amid fierce rivalry with Anglo fishermen, the Conch, tragedy strikes when patriarch Mike Petrakis (Gilbert Roland of “The Sea Hawk,” “She Done Him Wrong”) dies, leaving his son, Tony (Robert Wagner of “The Towering Inferno,” TV’s “Hart to Hart”), to take up the fight.

The Conch control sponge fishing in the Glades, but needing funds so they do not lose their boat, diver Mike, Tony and crew try to get sponge there, only to be attacked by Anglo Arnold Dix (Peter Graves of “Airplane!” and TV’s “Mission: Impossible”), who threatens Mike’s life and steals all the sponge.

Complicating matters, a bit later Tony falls in love with Gwyneth Rhys (Terry Moore of “Peyton Place”), the daughter of Conch leader Thomas Rhys (Richard Boone of TV’s “Have Gun – Will Travel”). Arnold wants to marry Gwyneth, but she puts him off and then falls for Tony after one dance. Arnold and Mike have quite the fight. Later, Arnold is responsible for theft of the Petrakis sponge from 12-Mile Reef and accidentally sets their boat afire.

The film is in CinemaScope and has a score by the great Bernard Herrmann. Grade: film 3 stars

Nickelodeon (1976, Sony Pictures, 2 Blu-rays, PG/NR, 122 min./125 min.). The film, directed and co-written by Peter Bogdanovich (“The Last Picture Show,” “Paper Moon”) is presented in the color theatrical version on disc one and the slightly longer, black-and-white director’s cut on disc two. The director’s cut is reviewed.

The film, which starts off with a lot of slapstick, stars Ryan O’Neal (“Paper Moon,” “Love Story,” “What’s Up, Doc?”) as Leo Harrigan, a lawyer who loses a divorce case in 1913 and is chased by his client in the opening. He ends up outside the offices of Kineograph Pictures, whose head, H.H. Cobb (Brian Keith of “The Parent Trap,” “The Wind and the Lion”) comes to think of him as a script writer and hires him. Later, Cobb sends Leo to California with some stories, as filming there needs a script. It turns out the film also needs a director, so Cobb makes Leo the director, even though he has no experience. There, Leo is helped by cameraman Franklin Frank (John Ritter of TV’s “Three’s Company”).

Meanwhile, in New York City, Buck Greenway (Burt Reynolds of “The Cannonball Run,” “Smokey and the Bandit”) has been hired to deliver a saddle, but the owner has moved on. Because of the saddle, Buck accidentally becomes an actor (an amusing horse plus fire scene). Buck also accidentally switches suitcases with Kathleen Cooke (Jane Hitchcock), who already had switched suitcases with Leo in Chicago.

Both Buck and Kathlen eventually end up at Leo’s film site in the tiny desert village of Cucamonga. Buck has been hired by the Patents Company, which tries to stifle all independent filming as they claim to own all film cameras, to shoot at Kineograph’s camera. Buck misses, but gets into a lengthy chase and fight with Leo, before becoming the star of the film when the hot air balloon he is in takes off with Kathleen dangling below. He rescues her and the balloon lands on a train.

Helping figure out plots for the film footage is young Alice (Tatum O’Neal, Ryan’s daughter, of “Paper Moon,” for which she won an Oscar).

Late in the film is a sequence from D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation,” with characters noting it will change the future of film.

Extras include a full-length audio interview with co-writer W.D. Richter on the theatrical version disc, while the director’s cut has audio commentary by Bogdanovich and a video essay by Bogdanovich biographer Peter Tonguette (16:31). Grade: film 3 stars; extras 2.5 stars

Exit Protocol (2025, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, R, 84 min.). In director Shane Dax Taylor’s film, an assassin whose specialty is killing other assassins who are trying to get out of the business decides to try to get out himself – a big no-no – so he must team up with his last mark to escape the hired killers gunning for them both.

The top assassin killer is Sam Hayden (Scott Martin of “Big Kill,” TV’s “Romance at Hope Ranch,” who also is a producer here). Sam also has been protecting his girlfriend Nona Messenger (Lina Maya of TV’s “Pasión prohibida”). Nona does not have the sense not to call her mother from their safe house. The killer/target Sam teams up with is Charles Managold (an aging Dolph Lundgren of “Rocky IV,” “The Punisher,” “Masters of the Universe”). Charles’ woman is Danique Kellar (Charlotte Kirk of “The Lair”).

The movie’s action is highly unbelievable. Sam manages to kill a target, with whom he is sitting at a table, from a triggered rifle that is a ridiculous distance away. The target is hit in the head, but how would Sam know where that head was going to be in advance? What if they met indoors?

Sam and Charles have a shootout in a church, without too much damage – at least to each other.

Hired to kill Sam, and then also Charles, are Isaac Florentine (Michael Jai White of “Black Dynamite,” “Spawn”) and Wicked (Stephanie Beran of “Big Kill,” TV’s “Planet of the Sharks”). Pulling the assassination strings is Augustus Shadrin (J.B. Yowell of “The Leader”).

There is a lot of killing in the film, but only an average plot. Grade: 2 stars

Dracula: Rise of the Vampire (U.K., 2025, BayView Entertainment, Blu-ray, NR, 108 min.). This would-be chiller comes across more like a comedy. It is only brightened by Peter Jakeson, who has the look to play Dracula. Of course, he makes a late entry as first there is a church massacre and three homeless bodies drained of blood for the local police to worry about.

The poor new minister is Father James (Nathan Head, who played a guy in a bathtub in “Bill & Ted Face the Music”). Assigned to the cases is DCI Jessica Murray (Emma Fletcher of “Black Mail”), who decides she needs the aid of her former partner, retired detective Gabriel Lee (Dean Meadows, who also wrote and directed the film). Gabriel is very protective of young female thief Zoe (Cerys Piper), whose last name just happens to be Van Helsing. (Dracula tangled with Van Helsing back in Bram Stoker’s original story.)

The head of the cult trying to resurrect Dracula is Elizabeth (Eileen Daly of “Razor Blade Smile”), but it also has a High Priestess (Pauline Peart of “Carry on Girls”). One of Elizabeth’s cultists is the too-eager Shaw (Kurt Dirt, composer for “Return to Nuke ‘Em High”), who raises Dracula before Elizabeth wanted. One comedic scene, during yet another massacre, this time at a diner/pub, is when a man lying on a pool table is bitten in the leg by a vampire.

The film comes with audio commentary by Meadows and a making-of feature (65 min.). Grade: film 2.25 stars; extras 2.75 stars

Traumatika (2024, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, NR, 82 min.). Mikey's (Ranen Navat of “Into the Box”) night terrors become reality when his mother (Naomi Petit) begins showing signs of demonic possession. What he experiences will haunt him for the rest of his life and claim countless lives across generations.

The film, directed by Pierre Tsigaridis (“Two Witches”), who also co-wrote with Maxime Marcel Rene Rancon (also “Two Witches”), begins a bit like “The Omen,” with a crazed man burying an artifact in the Sinai Peninsula in 1910. The man prays to Volpaazu, a taker of children.

The film then jumps to Pasadena, California in 2008, with Mikey calling the police and saying, “Mommy is a monster.” The responding sheriff is killed, after he finds the bodies of three children in the basement. A year later, a man who now has the Volpaazu artifact for sale, instead opens it and becomes possessed.

The film is disjointed and sometime disgusting, particularly when the possessed man throws up a bloody mess on his wife’s mouth. It does another forward jump, this time of 20 years, when new related deaths are surfacing. The film does have a cool-looking demon. Grade: film 2 stars