Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

The writer of “Stakeout” (and, well, “Another Stakeout”), Jim Kouf, tries his luck with a twisty tale of crime and paranoia in 1997’s “Gang Related.” Primarily known as the last film rapper Tupac Shakur worked on before his death, the picture tries to fit in as many tributes to the co-star as possible, even using his music on the soundtrack. However, Shakur is arguably the least compelling element in this examination of police corruption, with James Belushi enjoying the meatier part as things go from bad to worse for his character. “Gang Related” has a little trouble with its resolution, but overall escalation is terrific in this darkly comedic thriller, with Kouf clearly having fun arranging difficulties and inventing mistakes for his characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Strange Affair” is an adaptation of a novel by Bernard Toms, and it certainly plays out like paging through a book. The picture explores corruption in many forms, and it follows a large community of characters in the process, with the screenplay trying to braid multiple subplots into a single understanding of ruination. The 1968 feature is a little wobbly as it attempts to juggle motivations and mistakes, but director David Greene (“Godspell,” “I Start Counting”) maintains a steely view of bizarre developments in the tale, and he has an incredible cast to help bring such oddity to life, selling the emotional moods of the endeavor. “The Strange Affair” remains a compelling sit as it details crooked behavior and bad decisions, managing to maintain focus on the basics of desperation as it works its way to an ice cold conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Life of Chuck” is based on a Stephen King novella from 2020, and we’ve been here before. Works from the iconic author, especially shorter ones, have inspired a few of the finest King adaptations around, including 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption” and 1986’s “Stand by Me.” That same level of cinematic magic isn’t quite present in the new picture, but writer/director Mike Flanagan (a King Country vet with work on “Gerald’s Game” and “Doctor Sleep”) remains ambitious with the effort, out to scramble minds and soothe souls with the movie, which looks to fold time and space in an attempt to address the human condition. “The Life of Chuck” is all over the place, and Flanagan’s lyrical approach to the endeavor might feel like itching powder to some viewers. It’s a deeply flawed offering of mystery, but the helmer fully commits to the strangeness of it all, which is impressive, clearly out to deliver an inscrutable feature that’s meant to connect in a heartfelt manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Victor Danell is part of a filmmaking collective known as “Crazy Pictures.” “Watch the Skies” is their second feature (after 2018’s “The Unthinkable”), with Danell (and co-writer Jimmy Nivren Olsson) attempting to launch an alien conspiracy thriller for a family audience, going a bit softer with the material’s depiction of paranoia and pursuit. Released in Sweden three years ago, “Watch the Skies” attempts to crack the North American market with its presentation of emotional wounds and physical endangerment, using a special A.I. program to help match lips to the English dub, hoping to attract more than the usual specialty cinema crowd. It’s a lively endeavor, and one that benefits greatly from its engaged acting, which lifts an occasionally familiar screenplay that’s often trying to replicate the Spielberg Experience without a truly inspired story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Darkness isn’t immediately apparent in 1999’s “The Woman Chaser,” but it arrives eventually in the feature, which is an adaptation of a Charles Willeford novel. It’s a slice of noir-ish cinema from co-writer/director Robinson Devor, who’s tasked with creating an odyssey into filmmaking and madness, managing a darkly comedic tone that’s accentuated by the casting of Patrick Warburton in the lead role, then fresh off his career-defining turn as David Puddy in “Seinfeld.” “The Woman Chaser” offers a strange look into the mind of a driven man, playing with masculine fantasies and Hollywood dreams, and the picture connects for the most part, finding Devor achieving a sense of style with a very limited budget. The last act isn’t quite as confident, but there’s interesting psychology on display in the offering, and odd behaviors to study. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2018’s “Commando Ninja” was an amusing riff on action cinema of the 1980s. The French production was looking to have some fun with the cartoon nature of the genre, with director Benjamin Combes inhaling Schwarzenegger and Stallone fumes to launch his own butt-kicking adventure featuring crazy characters and their quest for heroism. It was 68 minutes of passable fun, with Combes seemingly understanding the expiration date for this type of goofiness. “Commando Ninja II: Invasion America” runs 148 minutes (that’s not a typo), finding Combes intentionally ignoring the power of editing to offer a horrifically overlong sequel that’s basically out to make the same jokes, same references, and offer the same low-budget insanity as before, only it now takes what feels like a calendar year to finish the film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Paul Morrissey, the director of “Flesh for Frankenstein” and “Blood for Dracula” looks to understand the strange community of Alphabet City in “Mixed Blood,” taking viewers back to a much different time in New York City. The 1984 release follows rising violence between two gangs, tracking the concerns of their leaders and personal relationships as turf conflicts and all kinds of trouble come for the characters during a particularly heated season. “Mixed Blood” is all about locations, with Morrissey trying to remain as authentic to the situation as possible, delivering a sobering examination of urban decay and destruction. The movie has atmosphere. What it doesn’t have is a sense of thespian polish, as the helmer hopes to get raw with a mostly amateur cast, ending up with an ensemble where most of the performers can’t act, while the rest struggle to make sense of Morrissey’s semi-ridiculous screenplay. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1966’s “Castle of Evil” is written by Charles A. Wallace, who looks to pair the suspense of a spooky castle movie with a whodunit of sorts. The tale explores a group gathering inside a remote dwelling, with the visitors confronted by evil events, giving Wallace enough room to develop specific personalities and build a sense of the unknown as danger begins to take shape. Horror seems to be on the menu for the picture, but the material doesn’t make a defined pursuit of terror. Instead, “Castle of Evil” is more conversational, almost registering as a play when handling the private lives and desires of the characters. Director Francis D. Lyon has the oddness of the premise to work with, and there’s effort made to liven up the offering through lighting and performance choices. Highlights remain in the endeavor, but it’s not something that speeds along, determined to sell macabre touches. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the future of 2036, global control will be decided by giant robot combat. That’s the general idea of 1998’s “Robo Warriors,” though screenwriter Michael Berlin doesn’t exactly develop the central concept, preferring to ignore the details of this new world order to simply use the selling point of big brawling bots, spending most of the feature on more personal matters involving troubled characters. It’s actually surprisingly to find how little robo- warrior-ing is involved in “Robo Warriors,” giving viewers only a few conflicts to enjoy. The rest of the endeavor is tasked with building up to these fights, finding Berlin attempting to create a dire world of tomorrow while director Ian Barry only has a Duran Duran music video budget to bring an entire alien conflict to life. The result is a somewhat impressive display of filmmaking hustle, watching Barry work like crazy to sell the sense of scale Berlin imagines. However, this isn’t a particularly exciting offering of sci-fi conflict, and those coming to the title for red-hot robot action might walk away incredibly disappointed in the lack of mayhem. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It worked once for Troma Entertainment, why not try again? After the success of 1984’s “The Toxic Avenger,” another superhero saga was created for the company to help with mainstream appeal, with “Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.” taking a more cartoon approach to askew heroism. Japanese culture is the inspiration for the offering, but co-directors Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz spin the material in their own Troma-like manner, creating another scattergun-style comedy that emphasizes cartoon extremes and strange violence. Working with their largest budget to date, the helmers certainly attempt to pull off some highly unusual visuals in the movie, and while production polish isn’t welcome here, there are moments of imagination that make for an intermittently engaging sit. Overall, “Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.” isn’t as strong as it could be, with all this crazy energy and attention to special effects trapped in a poorly edited endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The world of tomorrow is often used to power the imagination of cinema. But what happens when such futurism actually becomes part of daily life? “So Unreal” is a visual essay that explores the pursuit of technological advancement in moviemaking, with co-writer/director Amanda Kramer endeavoring to track the history of media prediction as she examines two decades of productions that set out to understand the changing world of technology. Computers are the key to it all in “So Unreal,” and Kramer is joined by music legend Debbie Harry, who provides narration for the odyssey into examples and moods, focusing on cinematic adventures that tried to make sense of the previously unthinkable, and optimism was certainly not a priority. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Ritual” is a little late to the party. Over the last few years, there’s been an abundance of films released concerning the powers of Satan and his insistence that the only way to disrupt faith and humanity is to emerge through possession. There was “The Pope’s Exorcist,” “The Exorcist: Believer,” “The First Omen,” “The Exorcism,” and “Immaculate.” Hollywood loves their demon tales, but “The Ritual” hopes to distance itself from the pack, labeled as “based on true events,” examining the case of Emma Schmidt (a.k.a. Anna Ecklund), an alleged victim of possession who battled evil with help from Father Theophilus Riesinger nearly 100 years ago. Co-writer/director David Midell seems to think there’s dramatic potential in an extremely well-worn topic, and he tries to find the urgency of the story. However, there’s no suspense to be found in this offering, which looks cheaply made and isn’t concerned with creating a fear factor as it slowly reheats scenes from subgenre classics. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While Blu-ray packaging lists “Samurai Priest: Vampire Hunter” as a 2025 release, there’s a bit more to this film’s history. The endeavor began life as “Live Evil,” a 2009 release written and directed by Jay Woelfel, who wanted to explore the well-tread terrain of exploitation cinema, looking to make his own drive-in offering in a tale of a “warrior priest” questing to destroy vampire colonies in the American southwest. The feature didn’t attract much attention, fading into obscurity after being pulled from distribution, but it didn’t fully go away. Years later, producer Mark Terry wanted a crack at reworking “Live Evil,” recruiting editor Michael Hoffman Jr. to return to the original footage to create a new tale from an old story, emerging with “Samurai Priest: Vampire Hunter.” Fans of the original offering are treated to a fresh take on the central premise, and those new to the endeavor are probably going to be left scratching their heads. As hard as Terry (who takes over as the credited director, eliminating Woelfel) and Hoffman Jr. try to manufacture something fresh out of the work, they come up short when it comes to excitement and narrative clarity in “Samurai Priest: Vampire Hunter,” which plays too messy at times, fighting for its own identity without having enough footage to work with. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s difficult to make a movie about the end of the world when there’s very little budget to power the production. “Revealer” is the latest attempt to highlight an apocalyptic event without actually showing much of anything, with director Luke Boyce basically sticking to two sets while the screenplay (by Michael Moreci and Tim Seely) suggests a major event is happening around the globe, forcing viewers to use their imagination as a much smaller dramatic event unfolds indoors. The chance to go big with the endeavor isn’t possible, but Boyce looks to do something with a very little he has to work with, investing in cinematographic ideas and terrific casting to bring this strange take on the chaos of the Rapture to life. “Revealer” doesn’t add up to much, but it retains effective moments of conflict and mystery to get the feature through some slower patches of limp exposition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a little while since we’ve heard from co-writer/director Eli Craig. His last release was 2017’s “Little Evil,” an entertaining follow-up to his raucous debut, 2011’s “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.” Craig is a talented helmer and someone who clearly loves genre moviemaking, heading right back into the darkness with “Clown in a Cornfield,” which is an adaptation of a novel by author Adam Cesare. It’s a YA title handed the R-rated treatment, as Craig transforms a potentially self-aware concept into a bloody but amusing ride of slasher cinema, paying tribute to the traditions of the subgenre while also exploring a little more characterization than what’s usually pursued. “Clown in the Cornfield” has substance, which is impressive, and strong performances, which is rare, and while the writing fights a feeble climax, the build to a payoff is exciting and intentionally funny. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Rodney Ascher is a filmmaker. He’s created several documentaries over the last 13 years, but he’s primarily known as the director of 2012’s “Room 237,” which explored various forms of analysis and conspiracy theories surrounding the making of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” Ascher went deep into the 1980 release, working with interviewees to generate an odyssey into insanity, offering access to the far reaches of the human brain as these “experts” and admirers were offered a chance to share their fixations, trying to solve a cinematic puzzle that’s intentionally missing many pieces. The world of obsession is key to Ascher’s work, also examined in 2015’s “The Nightmare” and 2021’s “A Glitch in the Matrix,” and that grip of compulsion carries into “An Evening with Rodney Ascher.” It’s a mixtape of sorts, presenting various short films, videos, and visual essays, investigating the labor of passion and its all-consuming ways. Ascher doesn’t get too serious with the offering, but for those who enjoyed his previous adventures into fascination, there’s more of the same here, presented in bite-sized helpings of lunacy and artistry. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I wouldn’t call 1983’s “Deathstalker” serious, but it was mostly humorless. The sword and sorcery offering tried to deliver a stone-faced sense of fantasy heroism during an era that demanded such entertainment, putting director James Sbardellati to work conjuring monsters, muscle-bound men, and battles for its intended audience, also remaining mindful of Roger Corman’s low-budget demands and fondness for nudity. The endeavor was something of a hit (at least by Corman standards), finding a receptive audience on home video, where viewers drawn to the picture (thanks to gloriously deceptive poster artwork) were exposed to a cheaper barbarian way during the post-“Conan the Barbarian” industry gold rush. New World Pictures didn’t exactly jump into a sequel, waiting four years to deliver “Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans,” hiring director Jim Wynorski (in one of his earliest gigs) to continue the journey for the warrior and his addiction to adventure. There’s a lot that’s different this time around, including a complete change of tone, as the helmer elects to turn this mythical movie into a full-blooded comedy, even bringing a spit-take into the offering. “Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans” goes goofy, and it’s not a welcome change of pace, losing the modest appeal of the original feature to stick with silliness from actors who aren’t particularly skilled at delivering such nonsense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1982’s “Conan the Barbarian” was deemed a risky project during production. It was based on material that developed more of a cult than a fanbase, and it starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wasn’t typical leading man material. Once the feature began screening for the public, perception of its success changed, and it went on to become a hit during a highly competitive summer. And as with any unexpected score at the box office, copycats soon followed, helping to launch an industry fascination with sword and sorcerer endeavors, with all of them lacking the epic swing and budgetary might of “Conan the Barbarian.” Roger Corman wanted in on the action, with his New World Pictures launching “Deathstalker” in 1983, striving to provide moviegoers with a Conan-like character and his experiences in a fantasy realm. Directed by James Sbardellati, “Deathstalker” doesn’t have much of a budget to do anything, but the production certainly tries to stretch a dollar, submitting a mildly diverting presentation of burly men, monstrous evil, and enough topless women to make Motley Crue blush. Corman knows what he wants, and Sbardellati works to give it to him, though he can’t conquer all of the effort’s creative challenges, making for an uneven sit while watching these days of high (and more affordable) adventure. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Larry Cohen may be used to low-budget production challenges, but I can’t imagine he was fully prepared for the craziness that went on during the shooting of 1989’s “Wicked Stepmother.” The feature was intended to star Hollywood legend Bette Davis, who recently returned to action in 1987’s “The Whales of August,” looking to keep some career momentum going. Davis spent a few days on the set of Cohen’s picture before leaving for reasons that differ among those telling the story of her exit, putting the helmer in a position to save the movie, scrambling to rework the script while hiring Barbara Carrera to replace Davis. It’s the kind of professional chaos that’s interesting to study, but “Wicked Stepmother” certainly doesn’t benefit from such turmoil. Cohen is holding on for dear life in the offering, which is often confused and careless, trying desperately to be wildly amusing with some truly awful ideas for comedy. There’s a curiosity factor in play, but the viewing experience is rough as Cohen attempts to piece together a sellable endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sharksploitation” is a documentary from director Stephen Scarlata, who endeavors to explore a subgenre that kicked off 50 years ago with the release of the 1975 classic, “Jaws.” Sure, sharks have been featured in movies for a lot longer than that, but the Universal Pictures blockbuster inspired a ravenous need to replicate such jaw-dropping box office success, putting producers to work coming up with ways to make their own horror offerings highlighting the dangers of the deep. It’s a topic of cinematic history that’s potentially fascinating, especially when comparing the fantasy of horror and the reality of marine life, and Scarlata provides some appreciation for the history of exploitation and conservation. “Sharksploitation” isn’t a critical creation, going the back rub route as it tries to celebrate all forms of shark-based cinema, which has its limitations. However, for those in the mood for something light and undemanding, Scarlata tries to throw a party here, finding a few pockets of moviemaking history to explore. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com