It is a fairly tame week for new releases. I only found a few films that I was interested in. The main one is the pick and that is Alex Cox’s hilarious punk rock flick Repo Man. The late, great Harry Dean Stanton teams up wit a young Emilio Estevez in a movie that just has to be seen to be believed.
The Criterion Collection is giving it a new 4K Transfer.
You can read about it and the other movies coming out this week here.
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.
It is hot here in Oklahoma. Darn hot. Too hot to do almost anything. What I want to do is go to the movies and sit in the dark with a big bag of popcorn, and a giant soda, and watch something big and dumb while the industrial-strength air conditioning keeps me cool.
Instead, I sat inside my overcooked house (with an underdeveloped AC unit) and chose a very not big or dumb-looking film for this week’s New Blu-ray Pick. You can read all about it here.
I’m trying to figure out ways to make this site more interesting now that the music has gone away. Right now I’m mostly thinking about getting back to some basic things I used to do. Like the Pick of the Week. I’ve continued writing about it for Cinema Sentries, but only every other week (another guy does the off weeks for me) but I’ve gotten remiss about posting those here. I want to get better at that and I want to keep writing my picks here on those off weeks.
And here we go.
I remember watching Mad Max: Fury Road in the theater. I know I’d previously watched Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome when I was a kid. I might have seen the other two back then but I had no memory of it. Point being the Mad Max series wasn’t something I was particularly interested in. But I took my wife to see Fury Road because it was getting mad reviews and it looked fun.
Somewhere in the middle of it, probably about the time that dude strapped to the front of a truck playing a guitar that breathed fire, I turned to my wife and said something like “You have to embrace the ridiculousness.”
And you do. These films aren’t something you intellectually dissect. They are utterly ridiculous films, but they are so much fun, they are so brilliantly, and technically filmed, the silly bits don’t matter.
Fury Road has become one of my favorite films.
I meant to see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in the theater, but as these things happen, I never made it. It is a film designed to be seen on the biggest screen. But I guess a 4K UHD disk on my large television will have to suffice.
Like all major releases these days Furiosa comes in a variety of packages with a variety of special features. So choose wisely.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Bob Le Flambeur: Jean Pierre-Melville’s classic film involves an aging gangster going after one last score.
Demons & Demons 2: Lamberto Bava’s nuts-o horror films are getting a nice 4K release. You can read my full review here.
Dick Tracy RKO Collection: The classic comic strip character was adapted in the 1940s by RKO. Four of those films fill out this nice-looking boxed set.
Top Line (AKA Alien Terminator): Franco Nero stars in this goofy-sounding film about a man who discovers a UFO in the Columbian jungle and when he tells people about it, he gets hunted by the FBI, the KGB, the Mob, Nazis, and everybody else.
The Last Emperor: Criterion is giving Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic drama the 4K treatment. It follows the life of Emperor Pu Yi, the last emperor of China whose life followed the country during some dramatic changes.
The Bikeriders: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, and Michael Shannon star in this film about a biker gang and its changing loyalties.
If: Animated film about a young girl who can see everybody’s imaginary friends after they grow up and get real friends.
When Titans Ruled the Earth: Arrow Video has boxed up Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans into a nice-looking package.
I’m back on the new Blu-ray release beat. I mean I never really left it as I’ve continued to write these posts for Cinema Sentries but I’m gonna do better at posting them here. Since I only write them for CS every other week I’m also gonna try to do the odd weeks just for here.
This week was strangely a lousy week for new releases. There are only a handful of films coming out and most of them are either so obscure I’ve never heard of them or not all that interesting to me.
But I love Bill & Ted so I picked them.
I haven’t remembered to post one of these in a while. I do write them every week for Cinema Sentries, but just forget to post them here. I have been linking to CS for all my old picks on my My Writings page if you get a hankering for me yammering about Blu-ray releases.
Anyways, this week there are a bunch of cool Blu-rays coming out, my favorite of which is this awesome-looking set of Bruce Lee-inspired flicks. Apparently, just after Lee died a bunch of low-budget films were made with dudes that kind of looked like Bruce Lee and called themselves names like Bruce Li and Dragon Lee. They were cashing in on his famous name, but the films got increasingly bizarre and amazing.
Anyway you can read all about it and more here.
I’m still writing these every other week for Cinema Sentries but I keep forgetting to post them here. I also keep forgetting to write them here when I’m not writing them for CS.
But this week I remembered. I quite enjoyed the first Dune and am really looking forward to seeing the sequel. You can read all about it and about the other interesting releases this week here.
Also, I’m not going to do a full post for all the ones I’ve written for Cinema Sentries in the past, but I will update the My Writings Page with links to them.
I assume it is obvious that I like lots of weirdo cult films. When I was younger I really enjoyed finding obscure films to watch as it gave me certain bragging rights. I could ask my movie nerd friends if they’d seen some completely unknown film and then feel a bloated sense of superiority when they hadn’t seen it yet. As I’ve gotten older and pretty much every film imaginable has become available at the click of the button the bragging rights have gone, but I still love obscure, weird movies.
Obviously, I watch a lot of movies and the more you watch the more you come to understand the formulas and cliches of cinema. So to find something that truly does something different is pretty cool.
I have no idea if Black Tight Killers is any good, but I love the summation of it. A war photographer tries to rescue a waitress from the clutches of an all-girl band of stylishly dressed ninjas who use records as weapons. Tell me that isn’t something you want to see!
Radiance Films is a fairly new label but they seem to be doing good work. This one comes with a new transfer and lots of extras.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Wonka (2023): There was a bit of hilarious chatter when this new adaptation of the beloved Roald Dahl book came out because some people went to see it without knowing it was a musical. The Gene Wilder version had a lot of songs, but I guess this one is a full-on singing and dancing musical and a lot of folks don’t like that. Personally, I like musicals, but I see no reason to see yet another adaptation.
The Roaring Twenties: The Criterion Collection presents this Roal Walsh-directed film about some soldiers getting mixed up in the mob. James Cagney stars.
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVII: Kino Lorber continues to put out these nice boxed sets of three relatively obscure film noirs. I asked Cinema Sentries to get me a copy to review, but I haven’t received it yet. This set contains the following films: Vice Squad, Black Tuesday, and Nightmare.
Hollow Man: Wal-Mart is doing an exclusive Steelbook release of this Kevin Bacon vehicle that is yet another take on the whole Invisible Man scenario. I remember not liking it when I watched it in theaters.
I Know What You Did Last Summer: Another Wal-Mart exclusive type deal. Both this and Hollow Man are coming from Mill-Creek who are notorious for their cheap releases.
As always I’m late with posting this. Sam Raimi’s completely original superhero movie was a bit of a bomb when it first came out in 1990. Watching it now it feels a little like a dry run for his Spider-Man films, but it still has its charms. They are releasing a really nice 4K version of it this week along with several other cool-looking movies. Read my article about it over at Cinema Sentries.
It is both an amazing time to be a physical media collector and a frustrating one. Amazing because there is so much incredible stuff being put out nearly every week. Frustrating because it is sometimes difficult to know which release is worth your money. I don’t really understand all the intricacies of how it all works, but sometimes a film will be released on Blu-ray by multiple companies within a relatively short period of time.
This is especially true of older movies (and we won’t even talk about movies that have gone into the public domain). It is difficult to figure out which release is the best one.
Take this week’s Pick. Columbia Pictures is releasing six films (and one television series) in this nice-looking boxed set, all in 4K. They are mostly very good movies (His Girl Friday, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Kramer Vs Kramer, Starman – and a Starman series – Sleepless in Seattle, and Punch Drunk Love.) But they’ve all previously been released, some of them by Criterion. But I don’t believe any of them have come to 4K.
So, do you double dip? Do we need to buy this boxed set? The price isn’t bad, all things considered. It comes down to about $30 per movie, not counting the TV series. But what if you already own one or two movies. Is it still worth it?
I don’t have answers to any of that. I wish there was a better website that would really break down what releases each movie has received and what the specs were.
Maybe that’s a weird way to make a set my Pick of the Week, I dunno. But it is a nice-looking set and that’s enough. I guess.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
The Marvels: I’ve really given up on the MCU. A couple of years ago this is a film I would have seen in the theater pretty close to opening weekend. Now I can’t even be bothered to watch it at home. At this point, it just feels like you have to do homework before watching anything. I shouldn’t have to watch a movie and a television series just to understand what is happening in this film. Still, I’ll probably watch it sooner or later.
Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons: Over the course of the 1990s the celebrated French director made four films about the four seasons where love was in the air. Criterion has bundled them together with their usual care.
The Shaolin Plot: Arrow Video once again brings a Shaw Brothers “classic” to home video. This one involves a sinister master being confronted by his student.
Hypnotic: Ben Affleck stars in this mystery about a man looking for his missing daughter and finding a secret government plot.
Priscilla: Sofia Coppola directed this interesting biopic of Elvis Pressley’s wife.
The Hunger Games: Ballas of Songbirds and Snakes: I’ve not read any of the Hunger Games books and the only movie I’ve seen is the second one (my dad wanted to go). I have absolutely no interest in this franchise, but obviously some people do.
Footloose (40th Anniversary Edition): I finally watched this 1980s classic last year. As you can read in my review, I didn’t love it, but I did have a lot of fun watching it. This edition comes in a cool-looking Steelbook and is loaded with extras.
Willy’s Wonderland: Nicolas Cage has been in a lot of terrible movies. Sometimes it seems like he will take any old role offered to him. Sometimes that’s actually true as according to him, he did get into some financial trouble over some bad real estate deals and had to work in order to pay them off. I don’t know if that is the case with this movie, but the reviews have been bad. He plays a drifter who gets trapped inside an arcade with murderous animatronics. Apparently, he doesn’t have a single line of dialogue which seems crazy all things considered.
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