Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

After taking a box office dive with 2018's "Early Man," Aardman Animation is back to more reliable entertainment with "A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon." Shaun the Sheep has enjoyed a vast amount of exposure over the years, doing especially well on television, while his jump to the big screen in 2015's "Shaun the Sheep Movie" proved the character could do very well in the cinematic realm, supplying silent comedy-style slapstick over a longer runtime while still remaining fresh and exciting. Now comes the challenge of a sequel, and the production team looks to infuse some of Steven Spielberg's "E.T." for "Farmageddon," which returns to the mischief of Shaun, Farmer John, and Bitzer, but adds an alien visitation element to increase comedic potential and offer a more direct emotional range. The filmmaking labor produces a better picture, with the follow-up scoring big on laughs and heartwarming elements while remaining true to the brand's love of silliness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

International conflicts turned into B-movie spectacle was the Cannon Films way throughout the 1980s, with producers Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan trying to keep things exotic for the audience, and also score some cheap locations in the process. For 1988's "Mercenary Fighters," the production travels to South Africa to explore a story concerning tribal relations in the continent, detailing some political unrest that requires brute Americans to solve. There are no surprises in "Mercenary Fighters," which delivers the same old Cannon formula, this time involving star Peter Fonda, who tries to do something worth paying attention to in an otherwise generic actioner that's somehow under the impression it's offering a respectful understanding of war and all its cruelties. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1987's "Terror Squad" is an odd combination of "The Breakfast Club" and "Red Dawn," trying to play around with international issues of the day in a B- movie setting. The whole thing is very Troma-esque, and director Peter Maris isn't one to push through his limited budget and make something challenging out of exploitation elements. Instead, he's in charge of an actioner, and one that's wildly uneven, spending the opening half in an extended chase, while the closing half is mostly about people standing and talking. There are limitations to "Terror Squad," and it's not a good film, but there's something funky about the endeavor that keeps its compelling, especially when campiness creeps into view, revealing a needed sense of humor to a largely stern tale of terrorism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jonathan Demme enjoyed one of the most unpredictable careers in the industry, maintaining a position of defiance and creativity. He's perhaps best known for his disturbing way with 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs," a masterful film that showered Demme with awards and amplified his career with significant box office. Less is understood about his work in comedy during the 1980s, with efforts such as "Melvin and Howard" and "Something Wild" developing an unusual but snappy sense of humor. 1988's "Married to the Mob" is the most successful of the bunch, if only because it takes a tired subject in the mafia and does something original with working parts concerning violence and law enforcement. It's an oddball picture, playful and sharp, keeping Demme on task as he navigates stereotypes and romantic comedy urges, working toward an overall lightness to a tale that's pitch black at times. It's a tonal gymnastics display that doesn't come around very often, making "Married to the Mob" special, assisted in great part by Demme's askew vision for this type of story. Only this helmer would make a mob comedy and score it to New Order songs. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After building his confidence with a series of shorts, writer/director Calvin Lee Reeder mounts his first feature-length movie with 2011's "The Oregonian." A fan of underground cinema, Reeder hopes to brings some mind-scrambling stuff to the endeavor, which is kinda-sorta a take on "Carnival of Souls," following the freak-out experiences of a young woman marching through a mysterious area of potential madness after surviving a car accident. Reeder tries to make a distinct impression with the surreal viewing experience, investing in an aggressive sound design and inscrutable imagery, hoping to reach an audience that lives for this kind of thing. Or at least has the patience to sit through it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1972's "A White Dress for Mariale" offers an Agatha Christie-style set-up for danger, sending a collection of disparate characters to a secluded place to deal with one another and the presence of a murderer coming after them. We've been here before, but director Romano Scavolini tries to bend psychology with the endeavor, which doesn't even get to any point of suspense until the hour mark. It's a long drive to a crisis situation for "A White Dress for Mariale," which doesn't reward the patience required to get through the film, but Scavolini certainly tries to bring style and threatening elements to the effort, offering an interestingly shot feature that's appreciable on a technical level, but not always on a dramatic one. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1977's "Nine Guests for a Crime" is a traditional whodunit, taking inspiration from Agatha Christie books as it arranges deadly games of paranoia and exposure involving a large group of characters stuck on a remote island. The concept is nothing new, and the production doesn't try to jazz up the movie with psychedelic detours or excessive violence. Suspense is present, along with a typically convoluted mystery, but director Ferdinando Baldi looks to create a more sensual mood of sexual gamesmanship with the effort, and he has the natural appeal of the island location. "Nine Guests for a Crime" is a thunderous offering of screen tension, but it works in spurts of hostile relationships and malicious behavior, offering some welcome agitation to help with the murder investigation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For some, 1970's "Voyage Into Space" is pure nostalgia, as the feature repeatedly aired on television throughout the decade, becoming comfort food for kids fresh out of school. The picture is stitched together from a handful of episodes of "Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot," a Japanese series that aired for 26 episodes in 1967 and 1968. The show walked through the experiences of a young boy suddenly in command of a gigantic, atomic- powered robot, asked to join a special squad dedicated to fighting alien invaders. "Voyage Into Space" does away with any dramatic connective tissue, simply covering the basics of Johnny's discovery and Earth's fight against massive monsters. It's a kaiju highlight reel, and for select viewers, that's all it should be. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1987's "The Kid Brother" is a Japanese production from a French-Canadian director about an American boy. It's already an unusual picture, but the movie becomes even more interesting with its star, bringing young Kenny Easterday to the screen, showcasing his atypical life as a human without a lower half. Born with sacral agenesis, Kenny's legs and hips were amputated as a baby, forcing him to move around on his hands, which provides the central image and story for "The Kid Brother," which is a film about the making of a documentary, but also a drama about the wear and tear of family relationships. There's a lot to unpack in Claude Gagnon's endeavor, which is mostly interested in Kenny's experience, working with the amateur actor to detail a 13-year-old's processing of attention and independence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Brando Snider wanted a cult-ready movie to call his own, bringing "The Cornshukker" to life in 1997. It's an extremely bizarre effort that's heavily influenced by the work of David Lynch and other masters of surreal cinema. Intent is there to melt minds with a display of weird imagery and random encounters, and for those who demand their cinema to be inscrutable, Snider's film is certainly something. I'm not sure what, exactly, but something. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Jeff Kanew is perhaps best known as the helmer of 1984's "Revenge of the Nerds," creating a hit film about goofy underdogs trying to survive their college experience. Kanew was also responsible for 1986's "Tough Guys" and 1989's "Troop Beverly Hills," with the latter endeavor recently elevated to classic status by some viewers, becoming a beloved title. The helmer offered a light touch with vanilla entertainment, making pictures meant to reach a wide audience. However, during his formative years as a director, Kanew was much more interested in the bleakest material he could find. 1979's "Natural Enemies" is an adaptation of a Julius Horwitz novel, detailing the final day of a man preparing to murder his wife and three kids before committing suicide. Where's Booger when you need him? Instead, there's Hal Holbrook, who delivers a deeply committed lead performance in "Natural Enemies," willing to go to frightening levels of despair and confusion, supporting a somewhat dry but intriguing viewing experience that deals directly with the horrors of being alive. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1986, writer/director Jeff Hathcock endeavored to make a crime story with "Night Ripper," exploring the developing nightmare of a madman targeting female victims, with the serial killer causing panic in the big city, putting cops and average citizens on the hunt to prevent additional loss of life. To deal with a limited budget and interest in a traditional Hollywood approach, Hathcock elected to make the movie a shot-on-video production, which doesn't pair well with noir-ish touches and suspenseful intent. Registering the experience as a win, Hathcock returns with 1988's "Streets of Death," which is also about a serial killer (two of them this time) targeting female victims, causing panic in the big city, putting cops and average citizens on the hunt to prevent additional loss of life. The helmer isn't afraid to repeat himself with the effort, which is also an SOV offering of stiff acting and iffy creative achievements. Hathcock strives to construct a puzzle of characters and motivations, dealing openly with exploitation interests, but "Streets of Death" isn't a stunning tale of procedure and torture, as the amateurishness of it all tends to wear down potential audience involvement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After 2017's "The Wild Boys," there was some curiosity from cineastes to know what director Bertrand Mandico was going to come up with next. His first foray into dreamlike cinema made him a favorite for some, and, it turns out, he's not ready to move on, continuing with his avant-garde ways with "After Blue." A case could be made for shameless repetition, but Mandico's fan base probably doesn't see it that way, with the helmer once again arranging an odyssey into artful filmmaking, newly inspired to explore life on an alien planet while paying tribute to western tales of survival. "After Blue" doesn't have an entry point when it comes to storytelling, but that appears to be the idea here, with Mandico once again trying to stun with his intense visuals and love for the unknown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A documentary is meant to be an educational experience. It typically presents a topic, working to bring new ideas to viewers perhaps unaware of the subject, delivering information to help the audience best appreciate the analysis constructed by the filmmaker. 2021's "You Can't Kill Meme" doesn't offer such development, with director Hayley Garrigus (making her helming debut) looking to explore the world of "memetic magic," only doing so without much concern for those new to a universe of manipulation and mental illness. It's the rare documentary where one has to fully understand the details of the subject to understand the documentary. "You Can't Kill Meme" is niche work from Garrigus, who doesn't have a master plan for the endeavor, bouncing around random topics and meeting various personalities, attempting to be eloquent about the ways of chaos without really putting in the effort to craft a cohesive and welcoming picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Rene Cardona Jr. wants to make a western with 1974's "Guns and Guts," and he spends most the run time trying to reinforce just how much of a western he's making. There are shoot-outs and card games, town tensions and prostitutes, and the first act of the feature is almost exclusively devoted to watching the actors engage in repeated scenes of fisticuffs. The opening of "Guns and Guts" is often remarkable to behold, as it really feels like the helmer is going to stretch his genre fetishes over the entire production, making for a delightfully simple and amusingly violent viewing experience. Sadly, the picture loses its lust for knuckle sandwiches as something of a story kicks in, though Cardona Jr.'s sheer passion for the cowboy way is worth a sit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1976's "Hot Snake" certainly has a way of making an immediate impression. The opening scene has the villain of the picture stopping the transport of a coffin containing a military official. The bad guy shoots the escorts and rips off the widow's top, soon shooting her and raping the corpse. Director Fernando Duran Rojas gets cold-blooded in a hurry with the endeavor, which maintains a certain level of merciless while detailing a bizarre story of revenge and desert survival. Of course, as with most low-budget offerings, padding is king, but "Hot Snake" contains a decent amount of atmosphere and weirdness to sustain the viewing experience, giving spaghetti western fans an adequate dose of the hard stuff as leathery men set out to kill one another. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The Two Lips Detective Agency is back in 1969's "Kiss Me Monster," with the production picking up right where "Two Undercover Angels" left off. Director Jess Franco goes the back-to-back route to building a franchise, returning to Diane and Regina and their special way of conducting superspy activities, leading with their feminine charms. Once again, Franco isn't here to make something cohesive, he just wants it done, basically throwing whatever he can at the screen, with the final act reserved for exposition concerning a plot that isn't all that clear in the end. "Kiss Me Monster" has the obvious appeal of stars Janine Reynaud and Rosanna Yanni, who bring some bubbly fun and cheeky fierceness to their roles, but Franco is quick to disrupt any entertainment value, stumbling through a very Bond-ian tale of world domination and duplicitous characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The 1960s belonged to James Bond. The literary character became a box office behemoth, capturing audience attention with spy game adventures featuring a roguish character and his never-ending quest to save the world. Bond dominated pop culture (and continues to do so to this day), and the success of the franchise inspired countless "Euro spy" imitators, with producers scrambling to make their own cheeky tales of danger and sex, hoping to make an easy profit. Joining the list of productions is 1969's "Two Undercover Angels," allowing prolific filmmaker Jess Franco to participate in a waning trend, forcing him to consider style and tone, giving him a brief break from his usual run-and-gun directorial habits. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1997's "Ravage" attempts to replicate the experience of watching a gritty Hollywood thriller with shot-on-video technology. It's an ambitious movie from co-writer/director Ronnie Sortor ("Sinistre"), who hopes to bring a little Michael Mann energy to what's basically a backyard bloodbath, arranging a loose revenge story to help inspire a steady display of shootouts and stunts, hoping to win viewers over with sheer violence. Sortor has the vision but not the execution with "Ravage," which can't outrun its amateur elements and limited resources. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Specialists in fetish videos for a secretive mail-order audience, W.A.V.E. Productions doesn't necessarily want to be known as cheaply made entertainment for viewers with specific arousal needs. They hope to achieve some level of storytelling competency with their efforts, and director Gary Whitson (who founded the company) attempts to offer something approaching a chiller with 1991's "Dead North." There's a killer on the loose and a collection of couples and friends trying to enjoy themselves in the woods, but the slasher-y set-up doesn't actually represent the viewing experience. Whitson is more interested in constructing a soap opera featuring the ways of cheaters and seducers, doing so in the most painfully drawn-out manner possible with limiting shot-on-video production achievements. It's sold as something menacing, but "Dead North" quickly becomes a grand test of patience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com