What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – February 4th, 2025 – Juror #2, A Real Pain, The Invisible Raptor and more

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg appear in A Real Pain by Jesse Eisenberg, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
It’s another small week, but we have two recent highly acclaimed movies, including Clint Eastwood’s latest and an Oscar nominee, so that’s exciting. Oh yeah, and there’s a film about an invisible dinosaur. So there’s that. Read on for more!
In This Week’s Column:
- Juror #2 (Blu-ray + Digital)
- A Real Pain (Blu-ray + Digital)
- The Invisible Raptor (Blu-ray)
- The Wayans Brothers: The Complete Series (DVD)
Juror #2 (Blu-ray + Digital)
The Movie:
Clint Eastwood might be 93 years old, but he still knows how to make a damn good movie. Juror #2 stars Nicholas Hoult as a man on a criminal murder trial who comes to realize that he might be connected to the crime in some way. I don’t want to say more than that because it would spoil the story for you, but suffice it to say the movie is a taut thriller that will keep you engaged from start to finish.
While it premiered on Netflix, I think Juror #2 would have been a fine theatrical release. It feels a lot like a John Grisham adaptation (in all the best ways) and would probably have been a big hit if it came out in the 1990s when Grisham movies were de rigeur. The film’s cast is excellent; Hoult carries the burden of proof with Toni Collette (who plays a prosecutor), while Zoey Deutsch, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Cedric Yarbrough, and Kiefer Sutherland all shine in supporting roles.
This week, the film debuts on Blu-ray and DVD, and I can say that it is absolutely worth tracking down if you like a good legal thriller.
The Bonus Features: As is typical with Netflix releases on home video, there are no extras included on the disc.
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
Juror #2 is a quieter film; it’s not filled with car chases and explosions. But the legal stuff is gripping, and Hoult’s dilemma at the center of it all will have you on the edge of your seat throughout. Clint Eastwood seems like he’s just going to keep on making movies forever, so who knows if this is his last one or not, but it’s easily his best effort in several years.
A Real Pain (Blu-ray + Digital)
The Movie:
Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin star in this dramedy about an Odd-Couple-esque pair of Jewish cousins who go on a tour of Poland to see where their late grandmother came from. It was written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay, while Culkin picked up a nod for Best Supporting Actor.
Ultimately, I greatly enjoyed A Real Pain, even if it has a few flaws. At first, it’s hard not to see Eisenberg and Culkin’s characters as a little too familiar. Eisenberg plays a Woody Allen stand in, all nerves and anxiety, while Culkin is the disruptor; moody and loud yet charming. And at times, they do feel right out of Central Casting for Quirky Dramedy Characters. But about halfway through the film, Eisenberg gives a really moving dialogue about what it’s like to be both of them and you realize these characters do feel like real people, they represent people that we know and exist as in the real world. It’s a truly powerful moment.
My biggest complaint about the film is that the ending – while not unsatisfying – does leave things feeling a bit more unresolved than I would like. Is it true to real life? Absolutely. Would I have liked just a bit more of a wrap up for it all? Yes. That said, it’s still a pretty great film for the most part.
The Bonus Features:
- Beautiful Fate: Making A Real Pain – A Nice 20-minute making-of featurette with all the key players.
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
On the surface, A Real Pain doesn’t sound like the best movie. When I initially read the plot synopsis, I was… shall we say, less than enthusiastic. But the film is a well-crafted slice of drama with some comedic moments, and it’s a rewarding watch. Check it out.
The Invisible Raptor (Blu-ray)
The Movie:
Let’s say you want to make a movie about a velociraptor loose in the modern-day world, but you only have a budget equivalent to a Hallmark Christmas movie. What do you do? Well, you just do what this movie did: you make your dinosaur invisible.
It’s actually a pretty brilliant conceit; there was no way The Invisible Raptor was going to pull off a large number of CGI dinosaur shots on its meager budget. So by making the cloned raptor at the heart of the mayhem invisible, you eliminate one of the biggest costs. The result is a movie that is every bit as ridiculous as it sounds… but is also a decent amount of fun. (It does also have some special effects in it.)
The plot is… well, it’s pretty simple. A cloned, invisible velociraptor gets loose from the lab it was created in and starts wreaking havoc. Only a theme park paleontologist and his bumbling sidekick can stop it. The film is a comedy/horror, and people do get dispatched in bloody ways, but there are some decent laughs to be found. It’s not cinematic genius, but I’ve definitely had worse times watching a film in the past year.
One quick note: Sean Astin is in all about five minutes of this movie, despite him appearing on the cover art and getting an “…and Sean Astin” credit. Just be forewarned.
The Bonus Features: Sadly, there are no extras on this release.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up:
The Invisible Raptor is pretty much 100% what you’d expect from a movie called The Invisible Raptor. If you go in expecting anything other than that, you’re going to be disappointed.
The Wayans Brothers: The Complete Series (DVD)
The Show:
Helping to launch the erstwhile television network known as The WB (which eventually would become part of The CW), The Wayans Brothers was a sitcom that starred real-life brothers Shawn and Marlon Wayans as Shawn and Marlon Williams, fictional brothers who went through life’s trials and tribulations with very different personalities and outlooks.
The show ran for five seasons until 1999, with just over 100 episodes produced, all of which are collected in the new box set, The Wayans Brothers: The Complete Series. All five seasons have been previously released as individual box sets, but this marks the first time you can get the entire show in one compact set, made up of 14 discs.
The show is pretty familiar sitcom territory: hardworking Shawn and freewheeling Marlon are brothers and buds, but their opposite personalities result in them navigating the world very differently. That often revolves around their dating life, but the show does offer up other everyday obstacles as well. I’ll admit that I never watched it much during its initial run; as such, I found it relatively amusing. I mean, there’s no denying that it shows its age a bit, but overall I found it pretty funny. (The fact that there’s a character named “White Mike” also resonated with me, for some unknown reason.)
The Bonus Features: Unfortunately, there are no bonus features.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up: The Wayans Brothers: The Complete Series is a nice compendium box set for fans of the show or their movies like White Chicks and Scary Movie. It’s silly and a bit dated, but it’s a solid show that I’m sure still has its fans that remember it fondly.