From September 2nd, 1945, until April 28th, 1952, the U.S. American military, backed by the U.K., occupied Japan in order to supervise the surrender of their competition in World War II. It’s easy for U.S. history today to recall the… Read More ›
MVD Entertainment Group
Arrow Video’s “Swordfish” 4K UHD remaster is more of a blip than a bang.
Trigger Warning: The following review touches on topics directly related to the narrative involving death, terrorism, and sexual assault. The summer of 2001 was the perfect time for the release of Swordfish. Audiences had been primed for it thanks to… Read More ›
Vincent Pereira’s “A Better Place” gets a director’s cut release on Blu-ray thanks to Smodcastle Cinema.
A Better Place (1997) is an obscure and underappreciated film that quietly resides in the shadows of the more well-known titles in Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse. Produced by Smith (Dogma) but written and directed by his longtime friend Vincent Pereira… Read More ›
Twisted masterpiece “Steppenwolf” brings all of its blood and brutality home courtesy of Arrow Video
Blowing me away (as well as many audience members) at Fantasia International Film Festival in 2024, Steppenwolf is a Kazakh language thriller which follows two characters — a psychopathic, murderous former police investigator (Berik Aytzhanov) and a woman consumed by… Read More ›
“Wan Pipel” Blu-ray Giveaway
Marking the end of filmmaker Pim de la Parra’s time with Scorpio Films is the 1976 dramatic romance Wan Pipel (One People), which is having its worldwide Blu-ray debut via Cult Epics. Courtesy of Cult Epics and MVD Entertainment Group, EoM… Read More ›
Toei classic “The Rapacious Jailbreaker” escapes onto Blu-ray thanks to Radiance Films.
In the visual essay “Rule Breaker: An Introduction to Sado Najajima” (2025), film critic Tom Mes calls director Sadao Nakajima (The Great Okinawa Yakuza War; Jeans Blues: No Future) one of “the Three Aces of Toei,” and laments that this… Read More ›
Claude Faraldo’s controversial satire “Themroc” gets a 4K HD restoration through Radiance Films.
Content Warning: Themroc includes implied incest and cannibalism, which may be disturbing to some viewers. One of the best human experiences is discovery; that feeling of coming across something you’ve never heard of, seen, or discussed. Opportunities abound like this… Read More ›
Arrow’s 4K release of “Jason X” lets the carnage flow in UHD.
We could sit here and discuss space nonsense for decades and decades ad nauseum about how horror franchises love to jump the proverbial shark and take their franchise to new and incredibly dumb heights. Hellraiser did it with their fourth… Read More ›
Arrow Video brings all the blood and gore of “Jason Goes to Hell” to 4K UHD.
If you’re a completist then you most likely have seen Jason Goes to Hell, the ninth movie in the Friday the 13th franchise. It’s arguably not a *good* movie but is absolutely delightful, taking the series of films in a… Read More ›
Darkly comic thriller “Dead on the Vine” is ripe for the picking on physical and digital home viewing.
A good plan gone wrong — it’s the staple of plenty of heist, confidence, and rescue tales as the protagonists have to figure out what to do when the plan goes sideways. Will they make it out alive? Will their… Read More ›
Seijun Suzuki’s third film restored by Radiance Films is the tragicomic “A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness.”
In January of 2025, Radiance Films released Underworld Beauty, a 1958 yakuza drama from filmmaker Seijun Suzuki, the second restoration by the boutique distributor of the filmmaker’s work. Now, with A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness (1977), Radiance Films offers… Read More ›
Explore Shōhei Imamura’s “The Eel” via a strong HD release from Radiance Films.
What would you do to make amends with your past? For some, it means rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work to atone; while, for others, it means living a life of abstinence. Both can be viewed as… Read More ›
88 Films offers Lau Kar-Leung’s action comedy “The Lady is the Boss” for a first-time U.S. release.
Actor, writer, director Lau Kar-Leung is a staple of the Shaw Brothers Studio as evidenced by projects like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), The Shadow Boxing (1979), The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984), and Disciples of the 36th Chamber… Read More ›
“Deep Blue Sea” lunges home in stunning 4K from Arrow Video.
All the way up to the late 1990s, there had not yet been a satisfactory successor to Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1975 blockbuster hit about a marine biologist and shark hunter taking down a man-eating great white shark. In walks… Read More ›
Arrow Video delivers a worthy 4K release of the 1980 dark thriller “Cruising.”
Trigger Warning: The narrative centers violence upon the LGBTQIA+ community and this may be distressing for sensitive viewers. If you’re reading this and, like me, you’ve heard of William Friedkin’s Cruising with Al Pacino (Heat), but have never seen it… Read More ›
Largely-forgotten low-budget experimental martial arts actioner “Furious” receives a collectible SD edition via Visual Vengeance.
While action has been a staple element of cinema since its creation, not all films which use action are viewed the same. For some reason, the bigger the budget, the larger the presumption that the film is good or “of… Read More ›
Kinji Fukasaku’s fantasy actioner “Legend of the Eight Samurai” gets added to Eureka Entertainment’s “Masters of Cinema” series in a 4K HD restoration.
Trigger Warning: There are several sequences involving protracted strobing or flashing lights, so photosensitive viewers should take precautions before queuing up the film. According to Kenta Fukasaku, son of Kinji Fukasaku, the filmmaker’s 1983 action fantasy Legend of the Eight… Read More ›
Radiance Films welcomes their second Seijun Suzuki HD 4K restoration to their collection with crime thriller “Underworld Beauty.”
“There is no honor among thieves.” This idea is often at the center of confidence or crime tales within any genre or medium. The people who you trust to pull a job just might be the same people who will… Read More ›
Genre-hybrid “Running on Karma” gets a 2K restoration as it’s added to Eureka Entertainment’s “Masters of Cinema” series.
“You can’t take anything with you when you die, except your deeds.” – Lee Fun Yee (Cecilla Cheung) in Running on Karma Established in 1996 by director Johnnie To and frequent collaborator Wai Ka-Fai, production house Milkyway Image Ltd. would… Read More ›
Enter the mind of a killer in 4K UHD with Arrow Video’s limited edition restoration of “The Cell.”
2025 is feeling like *the year* for director Tarsem Singh and his fans. First, the announcement for his upcoming 4K UHD restoration of The Fall (2006) by Umbrella Entertainment (possible theatrical and home release vs. one or the other) and,… Read More ›