I’m American. I’m middle-class, male and white. I suppose I feel a certain sense of duty every once in a while. I work. I try to take care of my family. I pay my taxes. But I’ve never felt that innate sense of duty for anything that would make me forsake everything I hold dear in order to fulfill it.
I’m always fascinated with movies in which a character is willing to do completely insane (to my way of thinking) things due to a sense of duty.
In Tokijiro: The Lonely Yakuza the hero agrees to kill a man he doesn’t know, a good man, simply because someone gave him shelter for the night and asks him to commit murder. And that man he kills completely understands the situation. He fights for his life, but he doesn’t argue that murdering a stranger out of a sense of duty is completely nuts.
From there our hero has to take care of th dead man’s wife and child because the guy he killed asked him to. That concept is so foreign to me, and yet I love it just the same. The movie is pretty great all around. Filled with some great fight scenes, and rather moving emotional components.
I reviewed the Blu-ray here.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: While I have a very softspot for the original Planet of the Apes and its numerous sequels, I’ve never much cared for the more recent trilogy. I never even bothred with War For the Planet of the Apes. Can’s say I’m too excited about this one either.
Castle of Blood: Barbara Steele stars in this Italian haunted house thriller where a writer accepts a bet that he cannot spend the night alone in an old castle and finds himself visited by several people who were murdered there.
High Crime: Franco Nero stars in this pretty good little Italian crime thriller about a cop out to stop a crime syndicate. You can read my full review here.
Thieves Like Us: Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall star in this Robert Altman directed period drama about a couple of convicts who escape prison and go on a bank robbing spree. Vinegar Syndrom of all companies has this new 4K release.
Last Year at Merinbad: Kino Lorber gives this French classic the 4K treatment.
A Man Called Tiger: A very silly Hong Kong actioner (though it is set in Japan) which was originally suppossed to star Bruce Lee now stars Jimmy Wang Yu as a man who infiltrates the Yakuza in order to find out who killed his father. It ends with an amazing battle where Yu battles a bunch of dudes with hatchets and that’s all I need to say about that.
Tremors: 7 Movie Collection: The original Tremors (1990) is a wonderful blend of horror, comedy, and action packed thriller. It is about a small town beset by giant, under ground worm-like creatures. It is a bid-budget, b-movie that makes great use of everything (including a cast that includes Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Victor Wong, Michael Gross, and Reba McIntire. I’ve never seen any of the sequels, but this Wal-Mart exlusive Steelbook set might make me get there.
Door to Door Maniac: Johnny Cash stars as a crazed villain who holds a banker’s wife hostage while his partner robs the bank. You can read my full review here.
Succession: The Complete Series: I really need to watch this HBO series about a highly dysfunctional (yet ridiculously successful) family. All my online friends love it.
Nintendo Quest: Silly looking documentary about a couple of guys who try to collect all 678 officially licensed NES video games. As a guy who loved my NES (and SNES) back in the day this sounds fun.
The Mexico Trilogy: Robert Rodriguez made a name for himself with the ultra low budget El Mariachi. He became a star when he essentially remade that film with a bigger budget and called it Desperado. He finished the trilogy with Once Upon a Time In Mexico. I loved Desperado back in the day but I suspect it doesn’t really hold up. But if you dig these films then Arrow Video has a nice looking boxed set of all three.
Alphaville: Kino Lorber presents Jean Luc Godards masterful, wild, and weird science fiction classic with a new 4K transfer.
Real Life: Albert Brooks is one of those guys whom I feel I should really love, but I’ve never really bothered with. He wrote and directed this film about a documentary filmmaker who persuades a family to let him film their “real lives” and then constantly interjects himself in order to make it more interesting. Criterion is giving it their usual amazing looking release.
Mother: Another Albert Brooks comedy getting a Criterion release. This ones about a writer who moves back in with his mother to solve some personal issues.
The Watchers: Dakota Fanning stars in this thriller about a woman who gets lost in an Irish forest and is stalked each night by mysterious creatures.
Drive: I just rewatched this Nicolas Winding Refn drama about a stuntman who moonlights as a wheelman for a gang of thieves and it still holds up amazingly well. Sony Pictures is giving it a 4K release in a nice looking steelbook.
themidnightcafe.org 