Troy covers everything he watched recently in 2500 words. Some will be old and some will be new. But, basically this is an effort to get quick features out of the gate.
Dexter: New Blood gets a sweet Steelbook from CBS and Paramount
Dexter has returned with a multi-episode revival on Showtime. It’s not quite what Lynch did with Twin Peaks, but I enjoyed the hell out of what I’m seeing. The ending feels trite with the killer curse spawning into a new generation. But, the sweet steelbook case and detailed special features make this release pop. Well worth checking out for fans.
Coming 2 America went from Paramount to Netflix and now it’s getting a Blu-ray out of Paramount. What’s crazy about all of this is that it might be director Craig Brewer’s worst movie, but that’s not meant as a slight. It’s more of a testament to how much the first movie needed John Landis overpowering the bigger Eddie Murphy reach.
Yeah, it’s Murphy’s story to tell, but Landis understood the style needed to make it pop. Given that structure over to a director that keeps getting overpowered by the talent results in a mixed affair. The Blu-ray comes with a commentary, featurette and a trailer gallery as the special features.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
Lovecut, Playground and Servants have arrived from Film Movement
Lovecut is a collection of six tales about teen sex in Vienna. If you are looking for anything super graphic, you’re not going to find it. However, it’s a touching look at real life changes as people try to find love in the Digital age. You don’t get any special features, but you get to watch a movie about adults being adults.
Playground is a French film about young siblings supporting each other in school. If director Laura Wandel was American, this would be melodramatic as hell. But out of everything he watched, this was the one DVD that Troy found himself recommending to others immediately. The DVD also comes with a bonus short film.
Servants is a very interesting film about clergy members being made to fight in the Communist army of 1980 Czechoslovakia. It’s a fascinating look at the Cold War and how things didn’t exactly hit as clear as they did at other times. The DVD comes with a sold short film out of Germany. It features Christopher Doyle cinematography, so I’m shocked I never heard of it before now.
A Life Among Whales arrives from Indiepix
A Life Among Whales is a look at how activist Roger Payne has spent a life among whales. Sometimes, the title says it all. Over the next 55 minutes, you get to see the importance of protecting humpbacks and all of that stuff that Star Trek IV taught us. The DVD comes with a trailer and Director’s Intro.
Megadeth: A Night in Buenos Aires arrives from MVD
Megadeth: A Night in Buenos Aires is an hour and a half long concert performance from 2005. There is a time when new home video formats launch where live performances and documentaries really blow up and then die off. Honestly, I dig seeing metal groups in this kind of setup and wish we had more discs like this.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
Presagio and Straight to VHS also arrived from Indiepix
Presagio is a smarter Spanish take on the fare that inspired Secret Window and similar ilk. However, the film falls apart a the midway point and you’ll find yourself checking your phone frequently. The DVD comes with deleted scenes, featurette and a trailer as the only special features.
Straight to VHS is the kind of documentary that speaks to what I love. A fun venture through cult cinema that lends itself to examining how Direct to Video cult thrillers grew in popularity around the world. You get the source feature as a bonus material. Plus, you also get the trailer. Great stuff all around.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
The Honeymooners Specials: The Complete Collection arrives from MPI
The Honeymooners Specials is a collection of four hour long specials that aired between 1976 and 1978. So much has changed in that time, that it might as well be 1876. These were the final performances of these characters, so that holds a special place in TV history. Plus, the special features showing rare Honeymooners skits and featurettes help frame a lot of what we’re seeing here.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
Drive-In Retro Classics and Why Is We Americans arrives from Corinth Films
The Drive-In Retro Classics release is a Science Fiction triple feature. You get Rocketship X-Men, Hideous Sun Demon and the Brain from Planet Arous all in one disc. I thought they were all public domain titles, but I can’t find anything to back it up. What matters here is checking out short Sci-Fi horror features led by John Agar and Lloyd Bridges. The DVD comes with no special features, but I guess it would be hard to land a commentary.
Why is We Americans is a contemplative look at race relations in America. Out of everything he watched recently, Troy found himself coming back to this one recently. It’s not enough to highlight a societal issue, but providing the framework of a prominent family allows you to examine how these issues work. The Barakas are quite fascinating and the DVD comes loaded with special features and heavy insight.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
Breaking Bread is now available on DVD from the Cohen Collection
Breaking Bread is a documentary about the first Muslim Arab to win MasterChef in Israel. I’m not sure how it works over there, but I’d love to see a few episodes. What the team does under Beth-Elise Hawk’s direction takes the familiar and mines new material.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
The Great: Season 2 arrives on DVD from Paramount
The Great returns with a new year of trying to convince a nation that they want a coup. What Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult manages to do here is not getting enough recognition from TV press. But, that’s where we are now. It’s an age of casual indifference where people have everything at their fingertips and can’t appreciate a damn thing. Even if you missed it on Hulu, correct it now. The DVD comes with deleted scenes and a blooper reel.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
The Diary of Anne Frank (1967) arrives on DVD from Liberation Hall
The Diary of Anne Frank (1967) comes to DVD with its original commercials intact. While people are familiar with other versions, I think most haven’t seen this one. You get Von Sydow, Pleasance and Bikel working their asses off to make every of that 4:3 frame play.
Diana Davila is a great Anne Frank, but it’s always such a hard role to play. I’d recommend checking it out. Also, what’s crazy is the film was the main TV event for Thanksgiving 1967. What was up with that? Seriously, ABC. Troy continues with everything he watched.
Troy talks about the amazing onslaught of Arrow movies that hit Blu-ray over the first few months of 2022.
Out of everything he watched, Troy kept finding himself coming back to the Arrow titles.
Come Drink with Me is a film I’ve been watching since my import DVD roughly 15 years ago to now. Is it the best King Hu movie? Not really, but it hits those points you want from a Cheng Pei-Pei led film. It’s a rather basic film that lacks the complexity of its later sequel Golden Swallow. Chinese pop culture will remember its impact on later TV, while American fans will enjoy a Wuxia film for Wuxia’s sake.
The Blu-ray comes with a rather nice slipcover. Troy continues with everything he watched.
Deadly Games is why Scott Mansfield should be a better known director
Deadly Games is making its first debut in the disc era of Home Video. That’s right, kids. This one bypassed the DVD era and went straight from VHS to Blu-ray. But, I thought there were more Steve Railsback fans out there.
The film suffered through a short theatrical run with an alternate title and many efforts to save it. Lord, I miss a time before the Internet made everyone a damn expert on anything entertainment related. Studios used to be able to pull a fast one on customers with a slight trim and name change. Just like a deadbeat dad skipping town so that he doesn’t have to pay for somebody’s braces.
The Blu-ray comes with a new commentary, interviews, featurettes and a bit of BD-ROM content. The A/V Quality is robust for its era. Dig it a ton.
Troy continues with everything he watched.
What is Lies and Deceit?
Lies and Deceit is a five films collection of Claude Chabrol movies. While I enjoyed seeing people getting excited for a Chabrol collection, I wondered how many American film fans were actual fans of Chabrol. The first disc is in the package is Cop Au Vin.
You get a commentary and interview, plus some historical context. The further discs have some more relevant films such as Inspector Lavardin, Madame Bovary, Betty and Torment. You get tons of new commentaries, a visual essay and more featurettes. But, what does this mean for you?
Well, Arrow is trying to expand upon the legacy of Arrow Academy by giving you more in-depths look at World Cinema. Much like the Classics, it’s great to have on hand, but it’s not the kind of thing you’re going to watch as much as Robocop. Learn more about everything he watched.
Rogue Cops and Racketeers continues the Arrow love
Rogue Cops and Racketeers is a two film feature of Enzo Castellari’s best genre work. However, Italian cinema of this kind remains a blind spot for me. I enjoy the hell out of it, but I watch the stuff and I can think of 18 other movies I’d rather be watching. Some of that is personal preference and a lot treads on cultural bias.
The Blu-ray comes with new video interviews, featurettes, trailers and a collectible booklet. While it’s a sweet Collector’s Edition, make sure it doesn’t slip past you. Troy continues with everything he watched.
Troy finishes up with some Arrow Round Robin Reviews
Claude Chabrol returns with a second volume entitled Twisting the Knife. Four more films of Chabrol come from Arrow in packages that would put Criterion to shame. You get new commentaries, interviews, screen tests and featurettes.
However, these are also the lesser films of Chabrol. That’s going to piss off a lot of French cinema fans, but it’s not that big of a stretch. The Flower of Evil, Swindle, Nightcap and Color of Lies are movies designed for their era while also playing the most cerebral film set. Not a bad thing, just not super entertaining.
One-Armed Boxer continues the list of everything he watched. What’s weird is that it’s not the first time I watched this movie this year. I’m a huge fan of Shaw Brothers and Wuxia movies, but I’m a bigger fan of the late, great Jimmy Wang Yu.
Yu would later reprise the role in the all-time classic Master of the Flying Guillotine, but that’s not what was important. What mattered is that Wang Yu was bringing the best of the Shaw Brothers over to rival studio Golden Harvest. The special features range from a commentary, trailer gallery, image gallery and a career retrospective.
Sleep comes with several visual essays, festival introductions and plenty of special features. But, what is the movie really about? Out of everything he watched, Troy found himself stuck on this movie a lot. There is a ton of German folk story influence about the film. But, it feels like something else.
The special features range from deleted scenes to the aforementioned essays. Honestly, I recommend watching them as soon as you finish the film. The additional context helps out a ton. Everything he watched continues.
The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter is one of the great Gordon Liu star vehicles out of the Shaw Brothers. You get the alternate credits for the film on here, which is fun because that’s how I first watched it. But, I dig that it’s getting a breakaway disc from the larger Shaw Brothers Collection.
You get a trailer, image gallery, featurettes, career retrospective and more in the package. Honestly, I love these Shaw Brothers movies so much that I’m saving up a super detailed expansion on them. For now, this is all about how amazing the Blu-ray plays. Everything he watched continues.
Finally, everything he watched Shaw Brothers related on Blu-ray
Everything he watched Shaw Brothers related is extensive and carries over most of 2022. Why? Well, because Arrow Video has been killing it on that front.
King Boxer and Five Shaolin Masters kicked off everything he watched Shaw Brothers related. King Boxer was released in America as Five Fingers of Death in March of 73. From that point, the American fascination with martial arts took root.
The Boxer from Shangtung is a Cagney style gangster flick given the Shaw Brothers treatment. You’ll find that a lot in these early Shaw Brothers movies. They were talking formulas and structures that worked in the West and bringing them to Hong Kong. From there, the bigger fan favorites that start emerging.
Mighty Peking Man had a built-in fanbase among cult movie nerds due to Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder Pictures from the late 90s and into the early 00s. The Five Venoms and The Crippled Avengers got big in the US due to interest on the TV circuit and from 90s rap groups promoting them via various means.
The rest of the set is rounded out by similar scaled films that pad out the first volume of the Shaw Brothers sets. We’ve been told told to expect up to 3-4 mores volumes to arrive. Out of everything he watched, Troy wants you to know that these discs have been spun the most. But, what about those special features, though?
While everyone seemed to think these Shaw Brothers sets were going to sell out in pre order mode back in December, they’re still lingering on in late Spring. So, if you want to hear commentaries, see trailers, experience the best featurettes about the Shaw Brothers movies, then check this out.
It’s not for everyone, but in this peculiar and incurious age…you can say that about a lot of movies. But, use something as fun as a martial arts movie as a gateway into bigger films and study movements. How did the Shaw Brothers influence the Hong Kong scene? What did Chan mean to the 90s revival of what made these films pop? There is a rich film history out there.
This has been everything he watched…in 2500 words or less or maybe more.
