Pee-wee is in the Criterion Collection! I love Pee-Wee Herman and his Big Adventure is one of my favorite things. I love that it is getting the royal treatment in UHD.
It is a good week for other releases including something from David Byrne, Hammer Horror, PT Anderson, Hong Kong cinema and more. You can read all about it here.
I totally forgot to write a Pick of the Week this week, and now it seems foolish to write about things that already came out. But I still want to let you all know what came out that I find interesting, so you get images instead of my endless prattle.
Apologies for the delay in posting this, and for the complete lack of posts this week. I got some kind of nasty stomach bug on Monday and was completely down and out. I’m feeling much better now, but that totally threw my week off.
I’ve also had some kind of pretty intense pain in my hip area for the last several weeks. I finally went to the doctor last week and now I’m in physical therapy and that stuff is no joke. I’m about as sore as a loser right now.
Anyway, John Woo films have been getting some pretty awesome home video treatment this year and his excellent film The Killer is this week’s pick.
After my disastrous semester attempting to get a master’s degree, I got a really great job working on an EPA-funded project in northeastern Oklahoma. Being young and single, I moved myself to Joplin, Missouri, which was the nearest place approximating a city, and thus had things for a young, single man to do after work.
I went to the movies nearly every weekend and often invited my various coworkers. I have very specific memories of inviting a friend to see Eyes Wide Shut and both of us walking out with that look in our eyes. Neither of us had any idea what to make of the film, but we were sure we’d seen something special.
I’ve only come to appreciate it more as the years have gone by. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman have hardly been better, and watching Cruise wander through an increasingly paranoid labyrinth of sexual obsession is a deep and enjoyable ride.
The Criterion Collection is releasing it in 4K UHD and I’m happy to make it this week’s pick.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
The Long Walk: Based on a Stephen King book (who was using the nom de plume Richard Bachman), this dystopian film pits a group of young men in a contest to the death, that will be televised. A game show offers a major prize to the man who can continue walking at a steady pace the longest. If anyone slows down, they are shot (by a gruff military man played by Mark Hamill). I’ve heard good things.
The Conjuring 4: Last Rites 4K UHD: I love The Conjuring. I think it is one of the best horror films of the last fifteen years. I love the story, I love the filmmaking, and it has ample amounts of jump scares and an unsettling atmosphere. The sequels have been a series of diminishing returns. I hear this fourth and probably last film (at least the last Conjuring film; I suspect the various spin-offs will continue churning out films for some time to come) is pretty lousy. Still, I love finishing a series so I’ll no doubt get to this soon.
Pride and Prejudice (2005) 20th Anniversary Edition 4K UHD: I’ve never been able to get into Jane Austen. I’ve tried to read several of her books several times and never managed more than a few chapters. I don’t know why, exactly. My wife absolutely adores her. For a long time I hated the cinematic adaptations of her stories. But one day I got offered to review the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. That is my wife’s very favorite thing, so I thought it would be a wonderful present for her. But as it was a review item, I had to watch it. So I did, and then I reviewed it. Turns out I rather loved it. I’ve since come around to several other Austen adaptations (but I still haven’t managed to read anything by her.)
This adaptation of Pride and Prejudice doesn’t get quite the love the BBC miniseries does, but my wife says it is still quite lovely. It stars Keira Knightley as Elizabeth and Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy. It has a new UHD print and lots of extras.
The Agatha Christie Collection 4K UHD: We are big fans of Christie in our house, and especially of the various cinematic adaptations that have been made of her work over the years. There is something so cozy about watching a murder mystery be solved amongst the beautiful English countryside. This set includes four films (Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), The Mirror Crack’d (1982), and Evil Under the Sun (1982) all of which I might argue are the definitive versions of each story.
Anemone 4K UHD: Daniel Day-Lewis stars in this drama directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis about a hermit living in the woods who is contacted by his estranged brother (played by Sean Bean) in an attempt to put their lives back together after a tragedy.
The Death Wish Collection: The original Death Wish stars Charles Bronson as a man who starts out as a pacifist, but once his daughter is sexually assaulted all bets are off. The first one attempts to have something to say beyond just Charles Bronson blowing people away, but it isn’t very good at it. The sequels get increasingly silly (but strangely better once they drop all pretense of depth). Kino Lorber has packaged them all up in a nice looking little set.
French Film Noir Collection Vol. II: When I first learned about film noir, I thought it was a very small genre. In my mind I thought it was relegated to classics like The Third Man, and The Big Sleep. That was a silly thought, and I don’t know how it got into my head, but it wasn’t until years later that I realized how big the genre really is. The thing is, of course, that film noir is a very malleable genre without any hard rules as to what it really is. And it wasn’t just relegated to the United States; you can find noirs in just about every country that makes film. I’ve not actually heard of these four films, but I love a good film noir and I’m excited to see what the French have done with it. This set includes the following films: Rhine Virgin / The Beast is Loose / Trapped by Fear / The Passion of Slow Fire.
Alec Guinness Masterpiece Collection 4K UHD: My generation knows Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films, but the actor had a very long career making all sorts of films. This set collects four films (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, and The Ladykillers) from his early years making comedies for Ealing Studios. I’ll have a full review up soon.
Sleepless 4K UHD: Dario Argento’s giallo-esque thriller from 2001 is far from his best work, but it isn’t bad either. It feels a bit like a great artist reimagining his hits rather than a brand new work by a master firing on all cylinders. You can read my Friday Night Horror review of the film here. Vinegar Syndrome has this release.
It is time again for me to talk about all the cool new Blu-ray/UHD releases coming out this week. This week’s pick is a trilogy of films that essentially launched John Woo’s career and created en entire new genre (gun fu). There are lots of other things coming out this week including Howard’s End, a new Ken Burns documentary, a couple of Criterion releases and more.
You can read all about it over at Cinema Sentries.
I’m mildly obsessed with Alison Brie, and I don’t know why. I loved her on Community. I enjoyed her in that one season of Glow I watched (nothing wrong with the show; I just got distracted and never got around to watching the rest). I’ve seen her in various other things that were fine. But she’s been in a million other things that I’ve not watched. Honestly, I don’t think she’s that great of an actress – she’s fine, but not amazing. And she chooses a lot of projects that I have no interest in. But still, I like her. She feels like an actress from another era. She would have been huge in the 1980s.
What I do really love about her is that she seems to have shied away from really big projects. Like the Lego Movie was probably the most mainstream thing she’s ever done, and that was a relatively small part. For years now she’s worked in smaller, more independent films (and some ridiculous animated TV shows) rather than try to climb the ladder to super fame. I appreciate when an artist is happy doing what they want instead of always trying to be famous.
I know very little about Together. It stars Brie and her husband, Dave Franco. It is a horror movie about a married couple who move to the country and are attacked by some kind of supernatural presence. Apparently, this means their bodies start to meld together. The few images I’ve seen show their lips stuck together, stretching outwards. I love a good body horror picture, and I appreciate that Brie continues to make weird films that won’t appeal to everyone.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: 50th Anniversary 4K UHD: Milos Forman’s Oscar winning film is based on a Ken Kesey novel. Jack Nicholson stars as a brash rebel sent to a mental institution where he rallies the patients against the tyrannical Nurse Ratched. I’ve not seen this in years, but I’m looking forward to catching it in UHD.
Burden of Dreams 4K UHD: In 1979, Werner Herzog took a film crew deep into the Amazonian rain forest to make Fitzcarraldo, a film about a man determined to move a steamship over a mountain. Herzog being Herzog, he decided that rather than use special effects, his film crew would literally move a steamship over a mountain. The film was plagued by setbacks, including accidents, poor weather, Klaus Kinski acting horrible, and an actual native attack. All this was documented by Les Blank in his documentary Burden of Dreams. It is one of the greatest making-of movies ever made. Criterion has the release.
The Howling 4K UHD: One of the great werewolf movies gets a nice Steelbook from Shout Factory.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale/The Ultimate Legacy Collection: I stopped watching this historical drama somewhere in Season Four, I think. It is one of those shows that I loved for a while, and then it all became a bit too much. But it was a huge hit and it chugged a long for several more seasons and a few movies. They just released what they are promising to be the final movie, and as such, they’ve also produced a big boxed set of everything.
The Luc Besson Collection: Luc Besson is a director who has made some great films (Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita) and some utter garbage (The Messenger The Story of Joan of Arc). The garbage turned me off enough that I stopped paying him much attention. This boxed set includes Le Dernier Combat, Atlantis, Angel-A, Subway, The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.
Caught Stealing 4K UHD: This Darren Aronofsky film about a regular guy trying to survive amidst the criminal underbelly of 1990s New York kind of came and went without much fan fare. I’m looking forward to catching up with it.
The Naked Gun: This remake of the popular 1980s-1990s film series got surprisingly good reviews and did pretty well at the box office. I loved the original films, but I tend to no longer like super silly comedies in my old age. But I’ll probably give it a shot for old times sake.
Creepshow: The Complete Series: I don’t think I ever watched this series, but I did enjoy the two films as a kid. It is an anthology horror series hosted by a creepy ghoul.
The Mask 4K UHD: Arrow Video gives this comedy that finds Jim Carrey at the height of his powers the UHD treatment.
Freakier Friday: Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan return in this legacy sequel to a remake of the 1976 Disney classic. This time it’s a quadruple swap with Lohan’s character’s daughter and soon-to-be stepdaughter swapping alongside the Curtis and Lohan characters. Hilarity, no doubt, will ensue.
October was an incredible month for new releases. We will most likely get even more great stuff in a few weeks as Christmas gets a little closer, but this week is a little slim. My pick is a nice looking set of John Woo’s seminal action flick Hard Boiled, but there are also 4K releases of a Sean Connery sci-fi adventure, a classic 1980s teen comedy, and a not so amazing John Carpenter vampire movie. Click here to read all about it.
As I mentioned the other day, I got mixed up on which week I was supposed to do a Pick of the Week for Cinema Sentries and which week I was to do my Five Cool Things. I wound up writing this pick for Cinema Sentries before being alerted that it wasn’t my turn. There was some discussion of what to do about it and he decided to go ahead and post the other guy’s pick on Monday, and then he did mine yesterday.
My Internet was down most of yesterday (stupid Cox), so I’m just now posting this. There is a lot of great stuff coming out this week, but I landed on the remake of The Toxic Avenger as my #1 choice. But be sure to read the entire thing if you are a collector; like I say, there is a lot to choose from. Click here to read my article.
When I was a teenager, my favorite video store was a place called Mega Movies. They had converted an old Burger King into their store, and as such they had a huge floor space full of all kinds of movies. They had all the new releases, of course, and plenty of popular movies from a variety of genres. But they also had lots of obscure movies – art-house movies and exploitation flicks.
It was there I first discovered Barton Fink and Faces of Death. But the thing is, at that age and in the early 1990s, I had no idea what I was looking for. There were no internet guides to point me in the right direction, no message boards full of potential friends helping me to the kind of films I might enjoy. I just had to look at the box and hope for the best.
Even if I’d had those things, I’d still be reliant on that store stocking those particular films and some film company actually releasing them on videotape. That last part is interesting. I have no idea what obscure, independent, and art-house movies made it to VHS and which films remained on super nerd wish lists. I’m guessing at least some of Jean Rollin’s films had home video releases, but I bet they weren’t great quality, and I bet they didn’t stock them in my town.
Sexy vampire films were definitely my jam back then, and I feel certain if Mega Movies stocked them, I would have found them. That’s the amazing thing about the world we are living in. Not only are there a myriad of places in which to discuss and discover movies, but more and more those weird little arthouse/grindhouse movies are getting 4K restorations and being released in fancy boxes with loads of extras.
French director Jean Rolling made all sorts of films in all sorts of genres, but he’s best known for a series of erotic vampire movies he made in the 1970s. These were shot in gothic castles with lurid lighting and featured a bevy of beautiful women wearing flowing, sheer nightgowns.
And now Indicator/Powerhouse Films is releasing four of Rollin’s films (Fascination, Shiver of the Vampires, Night of the Hunted, and Two Orphan Vampires) on 4K UHD with loads of extras included. I’ve only seen one of these films, Fascination, but all four are generally considered his best films, and I’m excited to get to see them in this manner.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
A History of Violence 4K UHD: David Cronenberg eschews his normal penchant for visceral body horror for this fairly straightforward adaptation of a graphic novel. Viggo Mortensen portrays a simple man living a simple life until some bad guys try to rob his store. His ability to thwart them pretty easily draws headlines, which in turn draws notice from some violent men from his past. Criterion has the release.
Eddington: This A24 release is set right in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak. It pits a well-meaning mayor (Pedro Pascal) against a redneck sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) in a small midwestern town.
The X-Trilogy: I really loved X (2022), the 1970s throwback horror film from Ti West. It was a great homage to films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) while still remaining modern. I was less thrilled with Pearl (2022) the sort of prequel to X, which acts more like a 1940s melodrama (until it doesn’t). I actively disliked Maxxxine (2024), the sequel that finds the Final Girl of X (played by Mia Goth), who is finally transitioning from porno films to something mainstream. But while I didn’t love all of these films, I admire their ambition. They are now getting combined into a nice looking boxed set.
The Shrouds: David Cronenberg’s latest is about a new business venture where grieving family members are able to see a 3D image of their deceased loved ones as their bodies slowly turn into compost. He apparently wrote it while grieving for the loss of his own wife. Which is such a Cronenbergian thing to do.
Nosferatu (1979) 4K UHD: Werner Herzog’s take on the Dracula story is a moody, strange film with a mesmerizing performance from Klaus Kinski. Shout Factory has the release.
Clue 4K UHD (40th Anniversary Steelbook): Probably the best cinematic board game adaptation ever made, Clue has a great cast (Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Eileen Brennan, amongst others) and is loaded with gags. It is slightly famous for having multiple different endings (and you never knew which one you were going to get in the theater). I don’t love it as much as others do, but it is still a lot of fun.
Tulsa Terrors: Apparently Tulsa, Oklahoma, was ground zero for the direct-to-home video boom of the 1980s. Or so says this documentary. Being that Tulsa is very near where I grew up I’m all in on this.
Altered States 4K UHD: Ken Russell directs William Hurt in this film about a guy using psychedelic drugs and an isolation chamber to alter his reality. Criterion has the release.
Radioland Murders: This very silly callback to the zany old radio shows worked for me when it was doing just that, but when it kept leaving that conceit to solve a dumb murder, it lost me. You can read my full review here.
I used to go to the movie theater every weekend. Marriage, kids, work, and other obligations slowly chiseled into my ability to make it to the movies over the years. Then Covid happened, and I stopped going completely. I’ve slowly been increasing my theatrical visits, but I still don’t go nearly as much as I used to.
I was fortunate enough to get to see Weapons in the theater, and I loved it. In the middle of the night, at exactly the same time, seventeen kids from the same third grade class get out of bed, leave their homes, and disappear. That’s the mystery. The film does some fascinating things trying to explore what happened to the kids and why. It will follow several different characters whose lives ultimately intersect and then take a wild right turn into…well, I won’t spoil that.
Again, I loved it and I’m excited to own it on home video.
Also out this week that looks interesting.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps: I am so done with the MCU at this point. I’ll probably get around to this film one of these days, but I’m in no hurry.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning: This supposed final installment of this action franchise got lousy reviews. I meant to catch it in the theater, but something kept me from it. I look forward to catching it at home.
Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection: I love boxed sets like this that give you a bunch of slightly lesser known movies in a decent package for a reasonable price. This one includes:
Doctor X / The Return of Doctor X / Mark of the Vampire / The Mask of Fu Manchu / Mad Love / The Devil-Doll.
Eyes Without a Face 4K UHD: Criterion upgrades their Blu-ray of this classic French horror film about a scientist who attempts to rebuild his daughter’s disfigured face with horrifying results.
Last Known Address: Terrific French procedural. You can read my review here.
Death Packs a Suitcase: Jess Franco makes a giallo about a killer who packs his victim’s suitcases before slashing them.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series: This is a show I always enjoy when I watch it, but I never remember to put it on.
Body Puzzle: Pretty good horror flick from Lamberto Bava about a serial killer who steals various body parts from his victims. You can read my review here.
The Curse of Frankenstein 4K UHD: Hammer Horror’s take on the Frankenstein story is terrific.
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