Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

"Sputnik" is an unsettling picture. It's a Russian production that's out to challenge expectations for an alien invasion story, providing a more sinister ride of paranoia and panic without expanding to epic size. It also marks the return of actress Oksana Akinshina to American screens, having made her breakthrough in 2002's "Lilya 4-Ever," a shattering feature about human trafficking that promised great things from the young talent. While she made an appearance in "The Bourne Supremacy," Akinshina has largely remained in Russian films, returning to western view in "Sputnik," where she delivers a commanding performance as a medical mind put into contact with an extraterrestrial experience that overwhelms her before it begins to threaten her. Akinshina's part of a strong cast that gives director Egor Abramenko a firm dramatic foundation while the tale explores close encounters and government control with sharp cinematic highlights. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor Bruce Willis and director Matt Eskandari have a friendly relationship, as "Hard Kill" is their third collaboration in a short amount of time. And by collaboration, I mean Eskandari is in charge of creating low-budget mayhem while Willis sits comfortably somewhere away from the action, collecting what I assume to be a sizable paycheck. They teamed for "Trauma Center" and the reasonably engaging "Survive the Night," but they press their luck with "Hard Kill," which puts in next to no effort when it comes to creating even basic suspense or excitement. It's a siege picture in a way, with the helmer in charge of making pennies spent on the production look like dimes. The production doesn't have any fresh ideas or, at times, basic competency, staying weirdly small with a plot that welcomes a grander feel for B-movie escapism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1991's "Martial Law" turned out to be a hit in the VHS marketplace, immediately triggering plans for a sequel. However, for 1992's "Martial Law II: Undercover," star Chad McQueen is replaced by Jeff Wincott, with producers aiming to bring more power to the party, but, once again, they don't value contributions from co-star Cynthia Rothrock nearly as much. The actress returns to fight form for a new adventure into the L.A. underworld, and once again Rothrock emerges as the most exciting element of the movie, giving "Martial Law II: Undercover" entertainment value as her character takes out nasty men and bad guys. I'm not sure why the moneymen insist the series is about anyone else but her. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1990's "Martial Law" is meant to be a vehicle for Chad McQueen, showcasing his steely screen presence and martial arts capabilities. What director Steve Cohen actually finds is screen magic with co-star Cynthia Rothrock, who's meant to support McQueen, but ends up stealing the movie with her lightning-fast fight skills and icy supercop stare. "Martial Law" doesn't add up to much without Rothrock, finding the screenplay laboring to assemble a story of criminal activity that's just as compelling as simple scenes of McQueen and Rothrock taking on waves of bad guys. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While trying to participate in the growing trend of slasher entertainment in the 1980s, director Jeff Lieberman ("Squirm," "Blue Sunshine") aims to do something slightly different with 1981's "Just Before Dawn." It's a low-budget chiller concerning innocents trying to outwit evil in the deep woods, and while it features a killer with a large machete hunting young things, Lieberman is more interested in creating a survival thriller, dealing with hiking and climbing challenges instead of giving the whole thing over to genre expectations. The effort is appreciated, but such ambition doesn't magically make "Just Before Dawn" exciting. Pacing and limited incident are real problems for the picture, which often equates stillness with suspense, triggering tremendous impatience as Lieberman gets around to suspenseful encounters, which are few and far between here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2019, "The Current War" finally made its way into theaters after a lengthy release delay. It explored the story of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and their battle to control the future of electricity. It was a flashy feature that didn't generate much interest from the public, but now there's "Tesla," which also details power plays between two men devoted to the energy cause, but for entirely different reasons. While "The Current War" tried to get up and running with broad screen style, "Tesla" is more of a filmed play, with director Michael Almereyda inspecting the inner life of the titular character, using a theatrical presentation and anachronistic touches to provide creative fingerprints on a story that largely exists in legend. Almereyda remains true to his vision with the endeavor, which has its imaginative moments, but largely broods itself to a full stop on a few occasions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After scoring a commercial success with 2012's "Chronicle," director Josh Trank lost almost all of his critical and industry goodwill with his follow-up endeavor, the disastrous "Fantastic Four" do-over. While such a public flameout would kill most careers, Trank has managed to hang on to his employability by his fingertips, returning five years later with "Capone," a much smaller picture for the helmer. While there was a lot of speculation as to who was really behind the colossal failure of "Fantastic Four," "Capone" basically underlines Trank's shortcomings as a storyteller, getting lost in his own unpleasant whims with the feature, which gradually becomes a prison sentence for viewers as it tracks the steady decay of Al Capone — a tale nobody asked for, especially from Trank. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After achieving a career-changing breakthrough hit with 1979's "Phantasm," writer/director Don Coscarelli aimed to advance his standing in the industry with a bigger feature. Paying tribute to the sword-and-sandal movies of his youth, Coscarelli delivers "The Beastmaster," which merges old- fashioned screen heroism with fantasy interests of the 1980s, gifting the world a new type of warrior with the ability to communicate and partner with animals while facing the ugliness of pure evil. "The Beastmaster" and its this-is-rated-PG? highlights don't necessarily translate to riveting sit, but the imagination of the production is often impressive, especially when executed on an obviously lower budget. 1982 gave us the austerity of "Conan the Barbarian," but Coscarelli's endeavor is more of a romp with monsters and battles, and it's easy to track the helmer's intent with the picture, even if it doesn't always reach its full potential. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1989's "Necromancer," revenge is a dish best served in a backyard Satanic-tented garage located in suburban Los Angeles. The highs and lows of low-budget filmmaking are on full display in the picture, which uses slasher formula for a possession story to give audiences some limited thrills while director Dusty Nelson tries to put one foot in front of the other. Production achievements are limited and there's not much of a fun factor to the endeavor, but "Necromancer" does deliver mild levels of aggression and B-movie weirdness for viewers jonesing for something distinctly created for the VHS market in the 1980s. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director John Stewart strives to make his mark on B-movie mayhem with 1989's "Action U.S.A." A seasoned stuntman (with credits on "Phantasm II," "The Hidden," and "Night of the Demons"), Stewart makes his helming debt with the endeavor, commencing a plan to inject as much hellraising as possible into a single feature, creating a film that's more of a demo reel for his capabilities when it comes to planning and executing stunts of all kinds. "Action U.S.A." is no thriller, despite a screenplay that clumsily attempts to create characters and situations of intimidation. It doesn't have the polish for that type of escapism. Instead, Stewart goes smashmouth with the work, packing it with car chases, high falls, explosions, and fisticuffs, on a mission to create excitement with the limited resources he has. He succeeds for the most part, as long as dialogue and drama are ignored. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With "Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets," directors Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross present a look at the state of the dive bar nation in 2016, spending the day at the Roaring 20's, a Las Vegas establishment that's working through its final hours of operation. It's not cause for celebration, but observance, with the siblings enduring nearly 24 hours inside the joint, capturing the arrival and slow inebriation of customers who truly have nowhere else to be. It's a documentary (kind of) that doesn't have much more to give than simple experience, gifting viewers time in a small, worn space with a community of drunks as they banter, argue, flirt, sing, and dance, with the helmers creating a tone poem, examining human behavior as it's gradually drowned by gallons of booze. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After experiencing a little more creative freedom with 1987's "Prince of Darkness," writer/director John Carpenter trades horror for political and social commentary in 1988's "They Live." Endeavoring to inspect the illness of America during the 1980s, specifically the reality of Reaganomics, Carpenter transforms a short story (five pages long!) by Ray Nelson into an examination of class divide, using science fiction as a way into a study of a population unknowingly brought to its knees. With "They Live," Carpenter brings down action and suspense to explore the state of the union, doing so with exciting playfulness and directness as he takes on the strange power plays of the E.T. 1%. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Making his move into larger studio productions during the 1980s, director John Carpenter endured a few box office failures, effectively throttling his rise in industry ranks. Looking to get back to his low-budget roots and obtain more control over his projects, Carpenter turned the late 1980s into an experimental period, with 1987's "Prince of Darkness" the first of a one-two punch (the other being 1988's "They Live") where the helmer made a choice to explore his interests in the world around him. "Prince of Darkness" has the kind of grand title that promises supreme genre chaos, but the master moviemaker doesn't go furious with his tale of Satanic evil in a jar, electing to go cerebral with the work, which merges the slow-burn exploratory habits of a Hammer Films production with the scientific specifics of a college lecture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We all know that 1975's "Jaws" was a massive hit, changing the film industry in the process. It's also a masterful suspense effort, with extreme technical skill and intense performances giving it true cinematic power. However, in the wake of such a creative achievement and box office triumph came the rip-offs, with producers from all over the world jumping at the chance to participate in the white-hot trend of animal attack pictures. 1977's "Tintorera: Killer Shark" is a Mexican production endeavoring to be the next "Jaws," with writer/director Rene Cardona Jr. heading into the waters of Cancun to explore the dangers of the depths, with a particularly heavy breathing tiger shark on the loose, terrorizing tourists. "Tintorera: Tight Shark" has the general shape of B-movie cash-in, pitting humans against marine life, but Cardona Jr. largely skips any sort of terror, preferring to use time set aside for a shark attack feature to deal with the emotional aches and pains of a swinging bachelor and his quest to find warm, willing bodies in Mexico. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the wilds of the blaxploitation trend of the 1970s, 1975's "The Black Gestapo" elected to remove the style and the grittiness of these endeavors, going the no-budget route while detailing the rise of fascist power within the black community. The screenplay by Wes Bishop and Lee Frost (who also directs) certainly takes a big swing, but it barely connects with ideas on power plays and criminal activity. Also not helping is overall execution, which is often amateurish, with "The Black Gestapo" more of a Coleman Francis endeavor than a barbed understanding of the black community during a turbulent time. There's sex and violence, but Frost has no coin to do anything of note with the material, which remains in neutral as the cast and crew scramble to figure out what they're doing with a vague tale of insurrection somewhere in suburban Los Angeles. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2006's "Bartender" is an adaptation of a manga written by Araki Joh and illustrated by Kenji Nagatomo. Looking to give the material a different life through animation, the producers elect to set a gentle mood of storytelling and cocktail mixing for the show, which examines the inhabitants of the hidden nightlife oasis Eden Hall and its special bartender, Ryu. Over the course of 11 episodes, the program observes the lives of troubled and distressed characters searching for a special level of peace only a perfectly made drink can provide, retaining the page-turning feel of the source material. The stillness of "Bartender" is unexpected, securing a peaceful vibe of communication as Ryu reaches out to his customers, hoping to share lessons with others and delve into the history of certain drinks. It's an incredibly odd show, but always interesting in its somewhat surreal execution and love of spirits, with most of the episodes more focused on the art of drink preparation than the visitors to Eden Hall. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was a time in the mid-1980s when film producers actively courted Olympic gymnasts to become Hollywood actors. It's not unheard of to add sporting stars to any ensemble, but there was something in the water around this particular time, with Kurt Thomas transformed into an action hero for "Gymkata," and Mitch Gaylord went the dreamboat route for "American Anthem." It's not easy to coax a performance out of athletes who don't have experience being in front of a camera, and for Gaylord, creating a steady career proved to be impossible. However, in the midst of his short-lived starring days, the gold medalist claimed a leading role in 1989's "American Rickshaw," putting his good looks and ease of movement into the hands of Italian producers looking for ways to Americanize their genre product. The result is an ideal offering for any bad movie night event — "American Rickshaw" never slips out of control, but it remains determined to be absolutely insane. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

More entertaining than 1978's "The Greek Tycoon" is the making of the film. Movie trivia details efforts to coax Jacqueline Kennedy into starring in a picture based on her relationship with Aristotle Onassis, which she understandably refused. Unwilling to give up on the idea, the production elected to make slight changes to the screenplay (credited to Mort Fine) to avoid lawsuits, and key members of the crew set out to publicly reject any connection to real-world people and events. For example, Jackie Kennedy is now Lizzie Cassidy and Ari Onassis is now Theo Tomasis. See? Problem solved. Clearly embarking on completely different tale of a rich Greek shipping magnate and his lustful drive to woo the widow of an assassinated president, "The Greek Tycoon" doesn't achieve any of its sneaky intentions, and it's not an impressive drama either, putting steely journeyman director J. Lee Thompson in charge of a delicate story of romantic and social pursuit, and the helmer elects to sprint through a tale that demands a refined touch and greater attention to the passage of time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Joining other filmmakers interested in paying tribute to giallo entertainment, siblings Luciano and Nicolas Onetti try their luck with "Abrakadabra," which represents their attempt to deliver an Italian-flavored shocker with extreme screen details (there's even a J&B bottle present). It's an interesting offering of pure moviemaking labor, with the Onettis constructing an effort that's determined to replicate the cinematography and sounds of lesser giallo events and, I'll admit, it took me a few minutes to realize the whole shebang was created recently (2018), finding the artistic approach quite convincing, at least until actors begin to populate the frame. That's the trick of "Abrakadabra," and really the only reason to sit through the short (70 minutes with end credits) endeavor, finding its cinematic textures alluring, while the storytelling leaves much to be desired. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

By the time 1980 rolled around, things weren't looking good for Hammer Films. The theatrical side of the business dried up and public interest was fading. It was time to return to television, with producer Roy Skeggs dreaming up "Hammer House of Horror," the company's second pass at an anthology series. Over the course of 13 episodes, the production aims to bring strange tales of terror to living room audiences, offered a more R-rated push of the macabre, with plenty of sexploitation thrown in to keep viewers interested. "Hammer House of Horror" is nicely varied, touching on the supernatural, monster affairs, and pure madness, brought to life by a talented team of writers, directors (including company man Peter Sasdy), and especially actors, with interesting British performers of the day capably communicating levels of panic and confusion required to sell the small-scale nature of the program. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com