What began with Ted Healy and Moe Howard as an American vaudeville troupe transformed over the years, with members changing in and out, into The Three Stooges. As a collective, they performed from the 1920s into the 1970s, releasing a… Read More ›
restoration
Criterion resurrects “The Rules of the Game” in a beautiful 4K UHD presentation.
There is something to be noted about Criterion and Janus films; while some of their slate of films and releases can be defined as questionable, they certainly release undeniably important films and always have. Especially as someone who went to… Read More ›
The Criterion Collection’s new release of “Time Bandits” on 4K is former released materials with a new format.
In part of what writer/director Terry Gilliam calls his “Trilogy of Imagination,” Time Bandits represents the adolescent perspective: a period of wonder, amazement, magic, and disappointment. It’s an adventure tale in which a child journeys through holes in the universe… Read More ›
Radiance Films adds Rudolf Thome’s “Red Sun” to their collection in a first-time U.S. edition.
In its quest for cinema preservation, boutique distributor Radiance Films has released onto Blu-ray such films as Kōsaku Yamashita’s Big Time Gambling Boss (1968), Luigi Comencini’s The Sunday Woman (1975), Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Doll House (1995), and Amy… Read More ›
Sammo Hung’s action dramedy “Warriors Two” is the latest Hong Kong martial arts release from Arrow Video.
In the world of martial arts cinema, one of the greats is Hung Kam-bo, known more commonly as Sammo Hung. His resume includes acting, stunt choreography, writing, producing, and directing in films released by Cathay Asia, Bo Bo Films, Shaw… Read More ›
Cult Epics restores writer/director Martin Koolhoven’s psychological thriller/dark comedy “AmnesiA” beautifully with a limited edition package to match.
First there was the reduction of available discs to rent via services like Netflix, then streaming rights for entertainment jumped from one streamer to another. To make matters even harder for consumers, some services straight up started deleting their films… Read More ›
88 Films gathers the first four films in the “In the Line of Duty” series in one collector’s set.
In the world of martial arts action, names like Jimmy Wang Yu (One-Armed Boxer), Gordon Liu (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin), Bruce Lee (Fist of Fury), Sammo Hung (Enter the Fat Dragon), Jackie Chan (Drunken Master), and Donnie Yen (Tiger… Read More ›
The Criterion Collection re-releases Seijun Suzuki’s “Branded to Kill” in a newly remastered 4K UHD edition.
Since November 2021, physical media boutique distributor The Criterion Collection has included at least one in 4K UHD in their monthly new releases. These might be first-time additions to their collection (Terry Gilliam’s The Adventure of Baron Munchausen) or remasters… Read More ›
Shout! Factory’s “Jackie Chan Collection: Volume 2 (1983-1993)” covers the gauntlet of Chan’s transitional period.
My first true introduction to Jackie Chan was in the summer of 1995. 15-year-old me witnessed Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) give an enthusiastic speech about the infectious manner Jackie’s films had in the theater. Before presenting him with his lifetime… Read More ›
“The King of Wuxia:” Fall in love with the Twilight Samurai. [Old School Kung Fu Fest]
“He was a pure artist. The kind you meet once or twice in a lifetime.” King Hu, the subject of documentary The King of Wuxia, was once named among the five greatest filmmakers on Earth. Kicking off Metrograph’s 10th Old… Read More ›
Radiance Films adds director Luigi Comencini’s murder mystery comedy “The Sunday Woman (La donna della domenica)” to their burgeoning collection of restorations.
Comedy is tragedy plus time. – Author Mark Twain Though Edgar Allen Poe’s 1841 story The Murders in the Rue Morgue is widely considered the first detective story, there’s a long standing relationship between murder and storytelling. Whether in dramatics… Read More ›
Nicholas Ray’s “Rebel Without a Cause” misses the mark on its first 4K UHD restoration.
Though some suggest that elder Millennials are breaking the trauma cycles of past generations, there’s always going to be a bit of a struggle between generations as each individual struggles to figure out who they are in the world separate… Read More ›
Terry Gilliam’s fantastical dramedy “The Fisher King” joins The Criterion Collection in multiple formats, including 4K UHD.
Over the course of writer/director Terry Gilliam’s career, whether it’s been Monty Python-related or not, each of his films have shared a fairly standard commonality: he’s written or adapted them. In the beginning of his career, his intention was to… Read More ›
Don’t worry, smile: 88 Films’s 2K restoration is “Gorgeous.”
Martial artist. Stuntman. Action director. Comedic Actor. Romantic lead? The first four absolutely describe world-renowned physical performer Jackie Chan, but the last? Certainly during his time making films with studio/distributor Golden Harvest, that’s not something the actor dared pursue as… Read More ›
Warner Bros. Pictures’s presents a first-time 4K UHD restoration of John Huston’s classic noir “The Maltese Falcon.”
Beginning as a character in a serial, Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled detective Sam Spade has appeared in the original 1930 tale The Maltese Falcon, two films of the same name, several short stories, and several short films. Of the characterizations, the… Read More ›
Writer/director Joan Micklin Silver joins the Criterion Collection with a 4K restoration of her dark rom-com satire “Chilly Scenes of Winter.”
Personal feelings have a way of clouding one’s more practical or pragmatic judgement. If we’re excited or enamored with something, we’re more likely to excuse or soften something’s harder edges. If we’re not interested or already turned off by something,… Read More ›
Restoration of extreme film “Calvaire” offers little more than access to the film.
Fabrice du Welz’s Calvaire (titled The Ordeal in some English-speaking regions, but not here), premiering at Cannes in 2004, is a strange, but valid entry into the canon of “New French Extremity” that gripped French-language horror/thrillers from the mid-‘90s to… Read More ›
Michelle Yeoh’s 1986 historical actioner “Magnificent Warriors” gets a 2K restoration from 88 Films.
Before Oscar-nominee Michelle Yeoh (about damn time) traveled everywhere all at once, before she was a rich Asian, before she played a Chinese agent alongside 007, Yeoh was part of a heroic trio, a royal warrior, and, for the Hot… Read More ›
See Gaspar Noé’s “Irreversible (Irréversible)” restored in 2K and recut in chronological order in the brand-new “Straight Cut (Inversion Intégrale).”
Content warning: Irreversible contains extreme depictions of violence, rape, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, strobe effects, disorienting cinematography and soundtrack, and whatever else you can think of. If you could be negatively affected by something, it’s most likely on full display… Read More ›
Lost for 40 years, Jean-Denis Bonan’s thriller “La Femme Bourreau (A Woman Kills)” receives both a restoration and wide release, courtesy of Radiance Films.
Art imitates life when it comes to timing. One can never predict how something will be received and, even things prognosticators think is a shoe-in, could fall flat. Sometimes the politics of the day get in the way, other times… Read More ›