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 ›
restoration
“The Grifters” slip into the Criterion Collection with a 4K UHD Blu-ray release.
The Criterion Collection always tries to curate releases that get the cinephile community excited and talking about their addition to Criterion’s Closet and film lovers’ shelves. The quality of release is always top-notch as it’s filled with a plethora of… Read More ›
Richard Pryor’s soul-baring, uneven biopic “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling” gets a digital 4K Blu-ray upgrade with The Criterion Collection.
For better or worse, beloved comedian Richard Pryor’s semi-autobiographical film Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling is an ‘80s film, through and through. From the start, we have the classic neon glow of the film’s title backed up by… Read More ›
The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray release of 1973’s “The Mother and the Whore” exceeds the 4K release in quality and value.
Last week I got an admittedly excessive 4K UHD Blu-ray in the mail. Normally $75.99, I caught it at 48% off at $39.20. It was the 40th Anniversary Edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and it came… Read More ›
Is what’s in the box worth it for the 30th anniversary 4K UHD edition of David Fincher’s “Se7en”?
Filmmaker David Fincher has released some of the most beloved thrillers in modern cinema. If “beloved” feels like too strong a term, certainly “dissected” and “explored” would be appropriate. Making the leap from music video to cinema with the contentious… Read More ›
Sammo Hung’s wartime actioner “Eastern Condors” receives an impressive 2K restoration from The Criterion Collection.
It’s very common for members of Hong Kong (HK) cinema to take on multiple career paths through their lifetime. Many start as stunt people, working their way up to actor and then, often, to the position of writing and/or directing,… Read More ›
Patrick Tam’s wuxia tale, “The Sword (名劍),” reaches new audiences with its 2K restoration from Eureka Entertainment.
In 2024, it’s quite easy for cinema-going audiences to identify the Chinese genre of fantastical martial arts tales known as wuxia thanks to films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002), and, more recently, Śakra (2023). Though a popular… Read More ›
“Funny Girl” arrives in her best look yet in 4K thanks to The Criterion Collection.
Near the tail end of his illustrious career, William Wyler (Roman Holiday) directed the debut of a true force of nature in a young and brilliant Barbra Streisand (What’s Up, Doc?) which launched her into the stratosphere and made her… Read More ›
WB’s U.S. 4K release of “The Hitcher” goes hard on visuals but lacks much else.
After some turmoil about who was releasing it, where it was being released, and what editions there would be, we finally have the 1986 movie The Hitcher on a magnificent looking 4K UHD restoration in the United States and the… Read More ›
“Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment” is summoned to North America in 4K via Arrow Video.
That time has come yet again; its October and Arrow wants to scare you silly with their re-release of Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment — the first four Hellraiser films on 4K for the first time in North America. Now, this… Read More ›
“Addams Family Values” dons the brightness of the Camp Chippewa veneers and sharpness of Debbie’s blades in 4K.
As though itself inhuman, cartoonist Charles Addams’s creation, The Addams Family, rises into popularity, disappears, and then rises again. It’s never far from fans’ memories, but the wider general populace occasionally needs a reminder that being macabre doesn’t mean being… Read More ›
After the beep, girl, Nancy’s bringing “A Nightmare on Elm Street” home on 4K Blu-ray.
Rapid fire. When I say the word “horror icon,” what’s the first thing that springs to mind? Jason Voorhees? Leatherface? Chucky? The Xenomorph? Maybe a new school pick like Art the Clown? Or as it is for so many other… Read More ›
The not rated (very NC-17) 1998 film “Happiness” gets a Criterion restoration on 4K.
Trigger warning: Themes that will be discussed in this review include pedophilia, rape, and incest. Masturbation and sex are also largely discussed and analyzed, so maybe just get the bath ready for when you’re done with this review and you… Read More ›
Angie Dickinson shines on Blu-ray with Imprint Films’s “Jessica.”
Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo; Dressed to Kill) was famously beautiful, and a defining example of the “sexpot” archetype of Hollywood movie star in mid-century cinema. She was beautiful, and men loved looking at her butt and bust. That’s basically what… Read More ›
Game on! Yuen Biao’s sports comedy “The Champions” gets an HD release from Eureka Entertainment.
Martial arts fans know Yuen Biao from turns in Bruce Lee vehicles like Enter the Dragon (1973) and Game of Death (1978), as well as various appearances in Jackie Chan projects like Project A (1983) or My Lucky Stars (1985),… Read More ›
Radiance Films releases a lovely high-definition restoration of Seijun Suzuki’s surprising yakuza dramedy “Tattooed Life.”
Art is chaos and chaos is life, therefore, art is a manifestation of the chaos of life. Our experiences, our views, everything that is “us” is transported into what we create. In some instances, what is absent from it is… Read More ›
Sonny Chiba films “Karate Bullfighter” and “Karate Bear Fighter” get a two-disc restoration release by Eureka Entertainment.
Born Sadaho Maeda, Japanese actor and martial artist Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba would be one of the more prolific action stars of his era. From early work on tokusatsu programs to English-language performances in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Fast… Read More ›
“A League of Their Own” reaffirms that a woman’s place is at home … and first, second, and third in 4K UHD.
For the last 32 years, there’s been one thing that athletes and non-athletes alike understand: there’s no crying in baseball. These five words are uttered by Tom Hanks’s Rockford Peaches manager Jimmy Dugan to Bitty Schram’s Evelyn Gardner, the right… Read More ›
The fists and comedy fly fast and hit hard in Yuen Woo-ping’s “The Miracle Fighters,” newly restored in 2K from Eureka Entertainment.
There are few names in action that command respect in the way that Yuen Woo-ping does. A stuntman turned actor, writer, and director, Yuen Woo-ping is responsible for films like Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master (1979) and Donnie Yen’s Tiger Cage… Read More ›
Eureka Entertainment brings home the messy but entertaining “The Miracle Fighters,” an ‘80s mashup of kung fu, fantasy, and comedy.
Those not used to extreme tonal shifts, a mixture of martial arts, comedy, and fantasy in one may be in for a shock watching Yuen Woo-ping’s cult hit The Miracle Fighters (1982). Within the first 10 minutes, we witness a… Read More ›