I didn’t grow up in a world in which there was the easy access to movies there is today. If you wanted to see a new movie you went to the movies. If you wanted to see an old movie you waited until it was shown on TV. With the advent of home video and its morphing into streaming and other avenues of access, if we want to watch just about any movie at any time, we can. Modern technology presents a myriad of choices, yet what do most people want to watch? If they are young parents with young children, they watch Disney movies.

I had an eclectic taste in film from an early age. I liked movies of all kinds. As a child, I only saw two Disney movies, the theatrical reissues of two of the best, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. I was an adult before I saw Dumbo and Bambi, the only other two movies from Disney’s golden age of full-length animated features that I like. That is not to say I didn’t appreciate fairy-tales or other fantasies. I did. I was an avid comic book reader as well as an early reader of classic novels.

I remember reading Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book fables, but I have a more vivid memory of the 1942 live-action film with Sabu as Mowgli, a mix of stories from both the original Jungle Book and Kipling’s Second Jungle Book, which I believe I first saw on TV rather than in a theatrical reissue. I did not care for Disney’s 1967 full-length animated feature, though I did find the song “The Bare Necessities” catchy.

In 1994 Disney did an excellent live-action reinterpretation of the work, incorporating the evils of colonialism into the mix. I really like this version starring Jason Scott Lee, Cary Elwes, Sam Neill, Lena Headey, and John Cleese. Another live-action interpretation is set for 2018, but not from Disney.

What, then, to make of the 2016 so-called live-action Disney remake? The answer is not much. This abomination is an even more dumbed down interpretation than the 1967 Disney animated version, and where is the live-action? It has one live character, child actor Neel Sethi who plays Mowgli, while the other characters are CGI beasts voiced by actors I’d rather see than simply hear. It’s a film for the easily pleased who will be happy to learn there’s a sequel on the way.

The 1942 version, directed by Zoltan Korda, and the 1994 version, directed by Stephen Sommers, are available on standard DVD. The 1967 version, directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, and the 2016 version, directed by Jon Favreau, are available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD. The 2016 version is also available on a 3D Blu-ray.

It’s always nice to see rising stars given the opportunity to play something other than the type of roles we’ve grown accustomed to seeing them in. Unfortunately for Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Sam Clalflin (Snow White and the Huntsman), the characters they’re given to play in Me Before You are too superficial to really care about.

Clarke plays an energetic young woman who is hired to care for Clalflin, a wealthy, successful, once full-of-life young man now confined to a wheelchair as the result of being hit by a motorcycle while crossing a London street two years earlier. We’re told that the young man attempted suicide and plans on having his wishes carried out at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, but has promised his parents (Janet McTeer, Charles Dance) six months. The spritely young woman makes it her mission to prove to him that life is worth living. Despite her best efforts, he is not convinced. We’re told that he suffers greatly, but for the most part we only see his chipper side as she brings joy and laughter into his life.

The screenplay is by Jojo Moyes, who wrote the equally shallow novel and its sequel, After You. It was directed by Thea Sharrock, a British stage and TV director making her big screen debut.

Me Before You is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

While the first 8 or 9 months of the movie year are filled with this kind of drivel, it’s comforting to know that there’s a treasure trove of old movies out there that we can indulge in to satisfy our dramatic needs. If we need something more current to satisfy that appetite, it’s becoming ever clearer that the place to find it is on TV, whether in cable TV series, miniseries, or movies made for TV. One fine example is Susanne Bier’s six-part BBC miniseries of John le Carré’s The Night Manager, a beautifully constructed suspense thriller currently nominated for eight Primetime Emmys including Outstanding Limited Series, Director, Screenplay (by David Farr), two Lead Actors (Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie), and Supporting Actress (Olivia Colman).

Le Carré’s 1993 novel was originally intended as a major film to be directed by Sydney Pollack with his Tootsie star Dustin Hoffman that never materialized. LeCarré himself considers this to be the best adaptation of his works since the 1979 miniseries, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy starring Alec Guinness. He isn’t wrong.

The miniseries updates the action, beginning with the 2011 Egyptian revolution in which a Cairo night hotel manager (Hiddleston) becomes involved with the mistress (Aure Atika) of an Egyptian criminal leading to murder and espionage. Laurie, in a total departure from his most familiar role in TV’s House, M.D., is a British millionaire who is also a master criminal. Hiddleston is recruited by intelligence officer Colman to bring him down through a series of ingenious plot twists. Elizabeth Debicki as Laurie’s mistress and Noah Jupe as his young son lead a strong supporting cast.

The Night Manager is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Try and Get Me!, a classic 1951 suspense film, is also now available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Taken from a novel by Jo Pagano, both this film and Fritz Lang’s first Hollywood film, Fury starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney, are based on a real-life 1933 kidnapping and murder that resulted in the lynching of the 22-year-old man’s alleged killers.

Better known by its TV title of The Sound of Fury, Try and Get Me! stars Frank Lovejoy as a man down on his luck who falls under the influence of maniacal killer Lloyd Bridges leading to an ever-escalating crime spree. Their capture and incarceration lead to one of the most harrowing endings in film history.

This week’s new releases include Money Monster and the Blu-ray debut of Daddy Long Legs.