A BUCKET OF BLOOD -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 (Originally posted on 10/1/2019)

 

Fans of early Roger Corman films, especially those featuring the great Dick Miller, should welcome the arrival of Olive Signature Films' new Blu-ray release of Corman's seriocomic horror classic A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959). 

Corman regular Dick Miller plays Walter Paisley, an insecure milquetoast who buses tables in a beatnik coffee bar but dreams of being a creative artist like pretentious poet Maxwell (Julian Burton) in order to impress his heartthrob Carla (THE WASP WOMAN's Barboura Morris).

Another Corman fave, the great Antony Carbone of THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, and PIT AND THE PENDULUM, is Walter's overbearing boss Leonard.

 

When Walter accidentally kills his landlady's cat, he covers the evidence with modeling clay and then shows off the result as his own artistic creation, garnering instant fame as a brilliant new talent.

But a hunger for greater recognition leads to murder when he whacks a gun-waving narc (future game-show host Bert Convy) over the head, killing him, and then turns him into a highly-praised clay sculpture as well. 

With more money and fame rolling in, Walter's trail of victims grows longer, eventually leading to Carla herself.

Olive's new Blu-ray release features a fine print mastered from a new 4K scan, with pristine picture and sound quality. The bonus menu is loaded with goodies which include:

    “Creation Is. All Else is Not” – Roger Corman on A Bucket of Blood
    “Call Me Paisley” – Dick and Lainie Miller on A Bucket of Blood
    Audio commentary by Elijah Drenner, director of "That Guy Dick Miller"
    Archival audio interview with screenwriter Charles B. Griffith
    “Bits of Bucket” – Visual essay comparing the original script to the finished film
    Essay by Caelum Vatnsdal, author of "You Don't Know Me, But You Love Me: The Lives of Dick Miller"
    Rare prologue from German release
    Super 8 “digest” version
    Theatrical trailer
    German theatrical trailer
    Gallery of newly-discovered on-set photography

 
If you liked 1960's THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS you should really be interested in this amusingly morbid tale which amounts to pretty much a dry run for the later film.  Besides also being helmed by Corman,  both were penned by Charles B. Griffith (DEATH RACE 2000), whose sense of humor seemed to play into the then-current appetite for beatnik culture and "sick" humor (the film's tagline is "You'll be sick, sick, sick--from laughing!")

Both feature typical be-bop musical scores by Fred Katz and similar production values (moody black-and-white photography, modest stage-like sets, a "skid row" ambience).   Carbone's bullying boss Leonard, just like flower shop owner Gravis Mushnik, first sees dollar signs from his employee's creative efforts but grows increasingly squeamish when he discovers the truth behind them.

Walter could be a first cousin of Jonathan Haze's Seymour Krelboyne,  another mousey shlub stuck in a dead-end job with an oppressive boss, who yearns to break out of his rut by doing something creative which will lead to murder.  We almost expect him to have a clinging, overbearing mother when he shleps back to his cheap apartment, and indeed his nosey landlady is played by Myrtle Damerel, who was Seymour's hypochondriac mom in LITTLE SHOP.

Barboura Morris, however, grounds the film by playing her role straight, and Griffith's script for BUCKET isn't nearly as whimsically farcical as the later story.  Carbone maintains a delicious deadpan even when Leonard's dazed reactions to Walter's bloodthirsty activities threaten to incapacitate him.

Other familiar faces include Ed Nelson as Bert Convy's undercover vice-cop partner,  Lynn Storey of LITTLE SHOP (she played "Mrs. Hortense Fishtwanger") as a curious square, and, as an art patron interested in Walter's work, the ubiquitous Bruno Ve Soto.

In the lead role that would define his career as a cult actor, Dick Miller wrings every nuance of nebbishness out of his pitifully desperate character and manages to remain likable even as his murderous tendencies spin out of control.  Corman's camera explores Miller's manic expressions with his own artistic eye and the collaboration results in a truly memorable performance.

A BUCKET OF BLOOD itself stands as a minor classic and a model of efficient, creative low-budget filmmaking as well as simply being a real kick to watch.


Buy it from Olive Films

YEAR: 1959
GENRE: COMEDY, HORROR
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 66 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO
(This review contains excerpts from a previous review.)

A BUCKET OF BLOOD -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

JASON OF STAR COMMAND: THE COMPLETE SERIES -- DVD review by porfle

There's nothing like a show that's both stupid and cool at the same time to bring out the kid in me. That's the feeling I get watching this boxed set of the entire run of JASON OF STAR COMMAND, a live-action sci-fi series from Filmation that ran for two seasons on Saturday mornings starting in 1978. By that time, I had taken to sleeping in on Saturday mornings instead of jumping out of bed to watch TV. But now, through the magic of DVD, I can catch up on what I missed out on the first time around. 

Originally just one segment of a 90-minute show called "Tarzan and the Super 7", JASON began as a throwback to the old cliffhanger serials like "Flash Gordon" that used to get the kids flocking back to the theater week after week (with hefty doses of STAR WARS, "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica", and "Lost In Space" thrown into the mix as well). And like these old serialized adventures, each eleven-minute chapter has a sensational title such as "Attack of the Dragonship" or "Marooned in Time" and is open-ended, with Jason and his good-guy companions facing certain death at the hands of the evil Dragos (who has dubbed himself "Master of the Cosmos") to keep kids in the late 70s eagerly tuning in from one Saturday morning to the next. 

A spin-off of an earlier Filmation production called "Star Academy", and using many of the same sets, models, and costumes, this series centers around the adventures of a secret branch of the Star Academy, located on a city-sized spaceship built on an asteroid, whose job is to protect the galaxy from evildoers like Dragos. Their number-one guy is the brave, adventurous Jason (Craig Littler, who is currently the Gorton's fisherman), described as a "soldier of fortune" even though he isn't one (if he ever made any profit from any of these exploits, they must've been paying him under the table). He's really Han Solo Lite, right down to an almost identical set of threads and insoucient (though properly sanitized) attitude, and since Han is a soldier of fortune then, by golly, I guess Jason is, too. But he's also a true-blue, straight-arrow good guy type who feels right at home spouting lines like: "You overestimate yourself, Dragos. Never, on all the planets of the galaxy, has evil won out over decency and honesty--and freedom." Tell 'im, Jason! 

 The female lead in season one is the button-cute Susan O'Hanlon (PRIVATE PARTS, "All My Children") as Captain Nicole Davidoff, Star Command's leading computer expert. She was replaced in season two by Tamara Dobson (CLEOPATRA JONES) as a super-strong alien named Samantha. Charlie Dell (FIGHT CLUB) plays the brilliant but eccentric science officer, Professor E.J. Parsafoot, who shares comedy-relief duties with a couple of cute droids (of course) named Wiki and Peepo. Season one's "Commander Canarvin" is none other than the redoubtable James "Scotty" Doohan, who then left to do STAR TREK:THE MOTION PICTURE and was replaced in season two by well-known Western actor John Russell (PALE RIDER, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) as the stern, blue-skinned Commander Stone. And along the way we see such familiar faces as Julie Newmar, Angelo Rossito, Francine York, and Rosanne Katon in guest roles.  

Dragos, the most rotten guy in the universe and sworn enemy of all that is decent, is portrayed by Sid Haig, best known these days as "Captain Spaulding" from Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS. He wears a red and black outfit with black platform boots and a cape, and a silver headpiece that makes him look like he just placed dead last in a Borg costume contest. Haig is the Darth Vader of the series, revelling in his various dastardly schemes with eye-rolling delight and frequently letting loose with his trademark maniacal laugh ("MWAAAH- ha-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAAA!!!") 

Dragos has the ugliest spaceship in screen history, the dreaded Dragonship, which resembles a mechanical bulldog with a papier-mache' dragon head stuck on it, and his enslaved minions look like a bunch of diseased Wookies with really bad hair. Most of his schemes are along the lines of trying to disable Star Command's defense shields and sending it plunging into a sun or something. MWAAAH- ha-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAAA!!! 

The production values would be laughably bad by theatrical standards, but for a Saturday morning kids' series from the 70s they're impressive--cool, even. Much of it consists of STAR WARS-style visual effects done on the cheap, by some of the same technicians, with ingenuity compensating for lack of budget. The model work is good for the most part, and some of the planet sets rival those that Captain Kirk used to wander around in, as do the Star Command interiors. John Beuchler, who went on to make quite a name for himself as a creature-maker as well as a director, populated the series with a multitude of hastily-made but impressive monsters and aliens. 

My favorite aspect of the show, however, is the use of stop-motion animated monsters. I love this stuff, from the Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen classics right down to the jerky dinosaurs from BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN or TV's "Land of the Lost", and JASON features four or five stop-motion animated creatures with a lot of personality. Which, for me, raises the show's appeal to an even higher level. 

With the second season, the show was plucked from the "Tarzan and the Super 7" line-up and given its own half-hour time slot. While the episodes continue to form a loose overall story arc, individual plotlines are wrapped up in just two or three episodes. Dragos gets a brand new Dragonship, and, thank goodness, it's sorta cool and nowhere near as butt-ugly as the first one. He also gets a whole menagerie of beastly Beuchler-built cronies, and they all maniacally laugh their heads off just like Dragos--I think maybe it's catching. Tamara Dobson fits smoothly into the cast and seems to genuinely enjoy portraying the mysterious Samantha--she and Littler have a good chemistry together--while the fine actor John Russell's no-nonsense demeanor as Commander Stone, who strongly disapproves of Jason's cavalier attitude toward authority, gives the series a welcome and unexpected touch of gravitas. The only drawback is that as Jason and Stone gradually warm up to each other later on, Russell begins to smile more often, which is one of the scariest sights in television history. 

The three-disc set includes both seasons of the show and some nice extras. The highlight is a half-hour documentary called "The Adventures of Jason of Star Command", which features interviews with producer Lou Scheimer (sadly, his partner, Norm Prescott, as well as Tamara Dobson, are no longer with us), stars Craig Littler and Sid Haig, John Beuchler, and others involved with the production. It's packed with interesting anecdotes and information about the show. There's also a six-minute special effects demo reel, a photo gallery, episode scripts in PDF format, an episode guide/trivia booklet, and several trailers for other Filmation DVD sets that bring back a lot of Saturday morning memories. 

I accidentally found an Easter egg. Put in disc 2 and wait for the menu to appear. Hit "stop", then "play." Some leftover interview footage of guest star John Berwick that wasn't used in the documentary, lasting two or three minutes, should then appear. I tried this with the other two discs but no luck. If you should happen to find any more, let me know. And last but not least, three of the episodes contain lively commentary tracks with Scheimer, Littler, and Beuchler, among others. But careful, Mom and Dad--at one point, one of them gets so excited about viewing the old series again that he drops the "F" bomb! OOPS! 

 Scriptwriters include original "Star Trek" vets Samuel A. Peeples ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") and Margaret Armen ("The Paradise Syndrome"). The stories are fast-moving, simple, and often pretty dumb--in a bad-Roddenberry moment, Captain Kidd even pops up in one episode--but they're also a lot of fun, and not nearly as obnoxious as "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (with the despicable "Twiki") or the original "Battlestar Galactica" tended to be. 

Basically a live-action version of the kind of cartoons Filmation is known for (but without the crummy limited animation), JASON OF STAR COMMAND is corny, cheesy pulp sci-fi for kids, pure and simple, but it's done with such a goofy, unabashed earnestness and childlike sense of adventure that I couldn't help enjoying just about every minute of it. Buy it at Amazon.com

 (Originally posted on 11/17/09)

JASON OF STAR COMMAND: THE COMPLETE SERIES -- DVD review by porfle

DONNIE DARKO -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

(Originally posted 3/27/17.)

 

DONNIE DARKO (2001) is kind of like an ultra "Twilight Zone" episode by way of "The X-Files" as filtered through the mind of David Lynch and decorated by Tim Burton.  With some Robert A. Heinlein, Clive Barker, and John Irving thrown into the mix as well.  (The director has called it “The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick.")

And yet it's also its own unique, one-of-a-kind sort of funhouse mirror with all the giddy fear and dark exhilaration of a malfunctioning spook house ride.

Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, ZODIAC) gains our sympathy right away because he's a nice teenaged kid with a nice family, and he'd like to be a normal guy, but he isn't--I mean, really, really isn't--and he can't help it.

His befuddled psychiatrist (Katherine Ross) tells his parents he's schizophrenic.  Sometimes he skips his meds.  He knows he's "crazy", and that his attempts not to be are probably doomed. 

So, occasionally, he just goes with the flow and sets the fires and vandalizes the things that the tall guy in the scary-looking bunny costume and mask tells him to do. 

Why?  Because the scary bunny, who goes by the name of Frank, is a time traveler, helping Donnie to fulfill his destiny and maintain the space-time continuum by influencing the lives of everyone around him in very fundamental ways before the world ends, which will occur at the end of the month on Halloween night.

The incredible event that sets all of this into motion occurs early in the film, after we've met Donnie and the other Darkos and things have settled down for the night, and suddenly, there's a tremendous crash that shakes the house like an earthquake. 

That's the detached jet airplane engine demolishing Donnie's bedroom from above, mere minutes after he's been awakened and summoned safely out of the house by Frank.

For me, this weird and wonderful event is the sort of thing that just makes me fall in love with a movie right off the bat and stay with it every step of the way if it continues to be that wonderful, which DONNIE DARKO does the way a mindbending page-turner of a novel or comic book does.
 

Mary McDonnell (DANCES WITH WOLVES, INDEPENDENCE DAY, SCREAM 4, "Battlestar Galactica") and Holmes Osborne (THAT THING THAT YOU DO!, BRING IT ON, AFFLICTION) are ideal as Donnie's long-suffering but loving parents Rose and Eddie, and Gyllenhaal's real-life sister Maggie (THE DARK KNIGHT) is his sister Elizabeth.  Their younger sister Samantha is played cutely by Daveigh Chase (AMERICAN ROMANCE, SPIRITED AWAY).

Executive producer Drew Barrymore makes a strong impression as Donnie's progressive, perceptive English teacher, Miss Pomeroy, whose methods will be called into question by stiff-assed fellow teacher Miss Farmer (Beth Grant, OPERATION: ENDGAME, SPEED), an emotionally backward harpy whose classes seem to consist solely of videotapes by New Age self-help guru Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze, ROADHOUSE, DIRTY DANCING, GHOST).

Other supporting players in this very interesting cast include Noah Wyle, Seth Rogan, James Duval (AMERICAN ROMANCE, THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND, INDEPENDENCE DAY), and Patience Cleveland (PSYCHO III) as Roberta Sparrow, aka "Grandma Death", a crazy old recluse who, it turns out, may know a thing or two about time travel herself.

High school life is a daily parade of the usual nerdy friends and scary bullies, as well as a pretty but troubled new student (Jena Malone as "Gretchen") who catches the eye of lonely but attractively enigmatic Donnie. 

I tried the lonely but attractively enigmatic thing in high school but it never worked for me.  It does, however, work for Donnie as he and Gretchen form a sympatico relationship that will become crucial in the scheme of things as time counts irrevocably down to Frank's mysterious end-of-world deadline.

As Donnie, Jake Gyllenhaal maintains just the right attitude throughout--bemused, puzzled, sad, resentful, fearful, and yet deeply intrigued by what's happening to him, because who knows?  It just might be real.

Visually, DONNIE DARKO is an eye-pleasing, idealized evocation of everyday life, sort of an updated Kodachrome version of Capra's small town in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE or the deceptive veneer of normalcy in Lynch's BLUE VELVET, all shot through with a warm nostalgia for the 80s. (Donnie takes Gretchen to see THE EVIL DEAD at the neighborhood bijou, while familiar 80s songs enhance the soundtrack.)

 

Richard Kelly directs the whole thing with the skill of a craftsman and the sensibility of an artist who likes to turn everyday things inside out and explore the beauty and mystery within, occasionally uncovering the ugly side of things as well. 

He also imbues the film with a sense of dark, magical fun that makes the serious aspects and underlying humanity of the story resonate even more.

This is exemplified by the loving but impishly humorous interactions between Donnie's parents, who sometimes act like a couple of kids, and between Donnie and his sisters.  It's nice to see a functioning family unit in a movie these days, even though this family does have one huge dysfunction, which is Donnie.

It's been a while since I was this totally caught up in a film and entranced by it until the very last frame.  DONNIE DARKO is like a big, juicy Tootsie Pop made of mystery and imagination, and you savor the act of seeing how many licks it takes to get to the chewy cult movie center.


Donnie Darko: English / USA / 113 min (theatrical) /
134 min (Director's Cut)


Here's our original coverage of the upcoming re-release:

Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko Returns to Theaters
Arrow Films Debuts 4K Restoration of Theatrical & Director's Cuts
 
Weeklong Runs in Los Angeles, New York and More

"Excitingly original indie vision" - Entertainment Weekly
"A mini-masterpiece" - Empire
   
Los Angeles, CA - Arrow Films has announced the March 31st domestic theatrical debut of the 4K restoration of Richard Kelly's cult hit Donnie Darko. Following a wildly successful re-release in the UK for its fifteenth anniversary, the film will return to theaters in cities across the United States. Fifteen years before "Stranger Things" combined science-fiction, Spielberg-ian touches and 80s nostalgia to much acclaim, Kelly set the template and the benchmark with his debut feature, Donnie Darko. Initially beset with distribution problems, it would slowly find its audience and emerge as arguably the first cult classic of the new millennium. The 4K restoration of Donnie Darko will premiere at the Vista in Los Angeles on March 30th, and officially open in Los Angeles at the Cinefamily and in New York at Metrograph on March 31st.

Described by director Richard Kelly as "The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick", Donnie Darko combines an eye-catching, eclectic cast: pre-stardom Jake (Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain, Nocturnal Animals) and Maggie Gyllenhaal ("The Honourable Woman", The Dark Knight), Jena Malone (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Neon Demon), the late heartthrob Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing, Ghost), Drew Barrymore (E.T., "Grey Gardens", "Santa Clarita Diet") Oscar nominees Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves, Passion Fish, "Battlestar Galactica") and Katharine Ross (The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford Wives), and television favorite Noah Wyle ("ER", "Falling Skies") and an evocative soundtrack of 80s classics by Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears and Duran Duran.

The brand-new 4K restoration was produced by Arrow Films from the original camera negatives and supervised and approved by Kelly and cinematographer Steven Poster. The 4K restoration premiered to a packed audience at the National Film Theatre in London on December 17th, 2016, with an introduction by Richard Kelly. A screening of the Director's Cut followed the next day. The re-release opened nationwide in the UK on December 23rd, eventually grossing £70,000.

Both the theatrical cut and the director's cut are being made available to venues via a partnership with Cartilage Films, and locations will vary. 

Donnie Darko will also return for weeklong runs in Denver, Columbus, Cleveland, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Tempe, Tulsa and San Francisco on March 31st, and in El Paso, Portland and Detroit on April 7.

Special screenings include Jacksonville, Austin, Dallas, Honolulu, Lubbock, Baton Rouge, Sioux Falls, Oklahoma City, Tucson, Durham and Stamford throughout March and April.  A full list of screenings is available at Cartilage Films.
http://www.cartilagefilms.com/donnie-darko.html?utm_source=Copy+of+Donnie+Darko+Theaters&utm_campaign=Outfest&utm_medium=email

March 31st Theatrical Release:
The Cinefamily
611 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Metrograph
7 Ludlow St
New York, NY 10002

Donnie is a troubled high school student: in therapy, prone to sleepwalking and in possession of an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. During that time he will navigate teenage life, narrowly avoid death in the form of a falling jet engine, follow Frank's maladjusted instructions and try to maintain the space-time continuum.

DONNIE DARKO -- Movie Review by Porfle

GOODFELLAS (25TH ANNIVERSARY) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

  (Originally posted May 2, 2015)

 

25 years later, I'm still ambivalent about Martin Scorsese's celebrated mob classic GOODFELLAS (1990). It's a masterpiece of cinema that's almost fiercely watchable even after many viewings--I've seen it at least thirty or forty times--and yet it's populated by an assortment of sordid characters that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

The true story of low-level mobster Henry Hill as told to author Nicholas Pileggi in his book "Wiseguy", this adaptation is the pinnacle of what seems to have been Scorsese's ongoing exorcism of his own ambivalent feelings toward such characters around whom he himself grew up. His fascination with the crime-ridden (but colorful) hellhole that is the underbelly of New York begins with MEAN STREETS and continues onward through TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL until finally reaching its ultimate expression in this study of the typical gangster's everyday life in all its mundane horror.

As played by Ray Liotta (HANNIBAL, COMEBACK SEASON), the young Henry works his way into the ranks of boss Big Paulie Cicero's (Paul Sorvino) gang after admiring their way of life from afar. The first half of the film is Henry's "come-up" as he enjoys the glamour and freedom from traditional authority, constantly awash in easy cash and given the V.I.P. treatment wherever he goes. A night out at the Copacabana with his new girlfriend Karen (Lorraine Bracco), who, for better or worse, will become his wife, is brilliantly staged by the director to emphasize the elevated state of luxury and privilege through which Henry moves due to his mob connections.

That we don't find Henry utterly repulsive is due mainly to the fact that his closest cohorts are much worse than he is. Robert De Niro (RIGHTEOUS KILL) is at his best as Irish hood Jimmy "The Gent" Conway, a cunning, ruthless criminal who will do anything or kill anyone to get ahead, and Joe Pesci has his most career-defining role as the crazy, loose-cannon killer Tommy DeVito. Henry, with his comparatively mild dealings in drugs, racketeering, and mere physical violence, seems almost like a nice guy as his partners in crime murder their way through the rest of the cast.

Pesci has a field day as Tommy and gives the film its most memorable moments. Henry makes the mistake of describing Tommy as "funny" after a particularly humorous anecdote, to which Tommy appears to take offense in a big way. "Funny how?" he spits, suddenly becoming deadly serious. "I amuse you? I'm a clown?" Tommy's history as a psycho makes the situation unbearably tense until he finally breaks character and starts giggling at Henry's distress. When he guns down a gangly kid named Spider (Michael Imperioli of "The Sopranos") for back-talking him during a poker game, and then later brutally assassinates a made man over a verbal insult, we're shocked into seeing just how ugly and horrific is this life into which Henry has so inextricably entrenched himself.

After that, GOODFELLAS becomes a harrowing "express elevator to Hell" (as Hudson so eloquently puts it in ALIENS) for our seedy protagonist and his increasingly disillusioned mob wife Karen as things begin to fall apart around them. Following the wildly successful robbery of an airport for millions of dollars in cash, Jimmy decides he can't bear to part with any of it and starts killing off everyone else involved rather than have to divvy up the loot. 

Things really go to pot when Henry and the rest of the gang start getting pinched for their crimes and spending serious prison time, after which Big Paulie turns his back on Henry for dealing in drugs. Finally, even Henry begins to fear for his life under Jimmy's wary glare.

It all comes to a peak with Scorsese's most beautifully executed sequence in the film, Henry's day of coke-fueled paranoia as he juggles gun-running, coke-smuggling, and cooking a huge spaghetti dinner for his family under the watchful eye of a government helicopter. Rarely has this sort of raw, nerve-wracking anxiety ever been so accurately and so cinematically portrayed as it is here. Liotta really sells it as well, with Henry self-destructing before our eyes.

Scorsese's use of various camera and editing techniques is masterful, and much more smoothly integrated into the look and feel of the film than the more overtly experimental style used by Oliver Stone in NATURAL BORN KILLERS. Classical direction alternates with handheld camera, whip-pans, and abrupt editing as Scorsese sees fit, all skillfully integrated into the stylistic whole. If anything, this movie is a joy to watch simply for how exquisitely put together it is and how much pure craftsmanship Scorsese shows in its execution.

But most of all, GOODFELLAS somehow transcends its penny-dreadful setting and characters by being a fascinating freak show of extremes, one for which we can buy our ticket and observe from a safe vantage point while thinking, "There but for the grace of God go I." I wouldn't go near these vile monsters in real life, but like any other monster movie, watching them in action is the kind of perverse, voyeuristic thrill that only a showman like Scorsese can dish out.

--------------

The 2-disc Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment features a remastered version of the film in 1080p high definition 16 x 9 1:85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 English audio and French and Spanish 2.0 audio. Subtitles are in English, French, and Spanish. Disc one includes two invaluable commentary tracks, one consisting of cast and crew interviews and the other provided by Henry Hill himself.

Hill's comments are especially interesting when he compares what we're seeing on the screen with how it happened in real life. Henry is joined by Ed McDonald, head of the organized crime strike force in New York who was intimately involved in the film's events and plays himself in one scene.

Disc two contains the half-hour documentary "Scorsese's Goodfellas", the feature-length documentary "Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film", and featurettes "Getting Made", "Made Men", "The Workaday Gangster", and "Paper is Cheaper Than Fiction." Also contained are four vintage Warner Brothers cartoons and the film's trailer. 

Finally, the set contains a 36-page hardbound photo book, a personal letter from Martin Scorsese, and instructions on how to download a digital HD ultraviolet copy of the film.

Buy it at WBShop.com

Street date: May 5, 2015

(Note: stills used are not taken from the Blu-ray discs.)

GOODFELLAS (25TH ANNIVERSARY) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

 (Originally posted May 17, 2017)

Whatever you may think about Vin Diesel's brand new chapter in the "XXX" series, XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE (2016), it does serve a vital purpose. 

Namely, to give my DVDs of all those cool hardcore action flicks from the 80s and 90s a breather.  You know, back when they knew how to make kickass, uncomplicated, manly action epics that delivered the goods without taking themselves too seriously.

That's exactly what this--what's that word--"high octane" blast of damn-near nonstop action does from the very first minutes when Vin's Xander Cage character, whom we thought was dead but merely faked his death, starts out doing something wildly unbelievable which we know the movie's going to have to top.  And which it most definitely will, repeatedly.

 

With Xander's former boss Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) currently indisposed, it falls to icily efficient intelligence exec Jane Marke (Toni Collette, THE DEAD GIRL, THE SIXTH SENSE) to recruit the reluctant ex-agent to help stop a plot in which a stolen remote control device called "Pandora's Box" is sending satellites crashing into cities with devastating effect. 

Eschewing the brawny military types assigned to him in the most exquisitely dismissive manner imaginable, Xander gathers his own team of badasses, each with his or her own special skills.  They'll need them, too, because they're going up against an equally insane group of adversaries which includes the likes of both Tony Jaa (the ONG BOK series) and team leader Donnie Yen (KILL ZONE, IP MAN). 

Needless to say, this paves the way for some of the most intense, mind-blowing action sequences in years, with excellent fight and stunt choreography, and direction  (by D.J. Caruso, THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM, DISTURBIA) and editing that make things snap without using too much Shaky-cam or incomprehensibly quick cuts. 

 

The plot, which manages a few interesting surprises here and there, moves briskly along with few slow spots and a pleasant balance between "serious" and "comedy."  Vin, of course, is an old hand at this sort of thing and, knowing a good thing when he's in it, makes the most of this chance to be the ultimate Mr. Cool once again.

This means we might as well go into it knowing that (a) Xander is going to be unbelievably, superhumanly cool and able to do anything, including jumping out of a doomed airplane without a parachute, and (b) the situations and dialogue are going to be totally over-the-top and, at times, a little bit dumb.  But you know what?  Sometimes dumb is fun, and vice versa.

So okay, XXX is the toughest, the most badass, the most virile (he plows his way through a whole group of sex-starved babes and leaves them all slumbering contentedly in the morning), the most insanely resourceful S.O.B. when the chips are down--basically, the most everything. 

 

What makes this acceptable is the fact that the film knows it's over-the-top and even kind of silly, which it totally works like crazy because, in addition to being a straight action movie, it's also basically a giddy-fun, spoofy exaggeration of straight action movies. 

I'm sure some less enthusiastic viewers will be glad to point out all the ways in which this movie is unforgivably dumb.  As for me, I love the gritty, highly improbable action, the rogue's gallery of fascinating characters (played by a terrific international cast), the dazzling fight choreography, the amazing stunts, the Bond-level gadgets, and the cool special effects (including, fittingly enough, some "iffy" wirework). 

Mostly, I like XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE because it's just plain fun, and will make a worthy addition to my roster of "go-to" old-school action flicks.

-----------



Tech Specs 
 
This Paramount feature comes in a combo pack with Blu-ray and DVD discs along with a code to download a digital HD copy.  The Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. 

The DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

Bonuses on the Blu-ray consist of the featurettes "Third Time’s the Charm: Xander Returns", "Rebels, Tyrants & Ghosts: The Cast", "Opening Pandora’s Box: On Location", "I Live for This Sh#t!: Stunts", and a gag reel. The DVD contains the feature film in standard definition.

Street Date:            May 2, 2017 (Digital HD)
May 16, 2017 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD)   
U.S. Rating:       PG-13 for extended sequences of gunplay and violent action, and for sexual material and language
Canadian Rating:    14A violence, language may offend

http://www.ReturnOfXanderCage.com/
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XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

Classic Creature-Feature "MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL" on Special-Edition Blu-ray & DVD March 8th

 

 

Classic Creature-Feature Monster From Green Hell

On Special-Edition Blu-ray & DVD March 8th

Featuring New 4K Transfer, Exclusive Bonus Features &

Rare, Colorized Version of the Film’s Climax

Too Awesome to Describe! Too Terrifying to Escape!

 

LOS ANGELES — Feb. 9, 2022 — For Immediate Release: Cinedigm announced today that The Film Detective (TFD), the classic film restoration and streaming company, will release Kenneth G. Crane’s classic B-movie creature feature Monster From Green Hell (1957) on special-edition Blu-ray and DVD, March 8.

 

From the era of giant bugs and atomic testing comes this low-budget howler about mutant wasps. When scientists try to understand the effects of radiation on earth creatures, the result brings them to an area of Africa known as “Green Hell,” where wasps have mutated into monsters!

 

Jim Davis, who later starred in the TV series Dallas, plays Dr. Quent Brady, the scientist who starts the whole mess. The film also stars Vladimir Sokoloff (The Life of Emile Zola, Mission to Moscow) as the skeptical Dr. Lorentz and Joel Fluellen (Raisin in the Sun) as Arobi, who warns Brady to beware of the African location. The locals don't call it “Green Hell” for nothing! Monster From Green Hell was co-written by Louis Vittes, famed writer of the classic I Married a Monster From Outer Space.

 

The special-edition release features a stunning 4K transfer, including both widescreen (1.85:1) and full frame (1.33:1) versions of the film. Monster From Green Hell comes as the latest in a series of collaborations between TFD and The Wade Williams Collection.

 

BONUS FEATURES: Missouri Born: The Films of Jim Davis, an all-new career retrospective with author/film historian C. Courtney Joyner; The Men Behind the Monsters, an essay by author Don Stradley featured in a full-color booklet; and commentary with artist/author Stephen R. Bissette.

 

Monster From Green Hell will be available on Blu-ray ($24.95) and DVD ($19.95) March 8 or fans can secure a copy by pre-ordering now at: https://www.thefilmdetective.com/monster-from-green-hell

 

About The Film Detective:

The Film Detective (TFD) is a leading distributor of restored classic programming, including feature films, television, foreign imports and documentaries and is a division of Cinedigm. Launched in 2014, TFD has distributed its extensive library of 3,000+ hours of film on DVD and Blu-ray and through leading broadcast and streaming platforms such as Turner Classic Movies, NBC, EPIX, Pluto TV, Amazon, MeTV, PBS and more. With a strong focus on increasing the digital reach of its content, TFD has released its classic movie app on web, Android, iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. TFD is also available live with a 24/7 linear channel available on Sling TV, STIRR, Plex, Local Now, Rakuten TV and DistroTV. For more information, visit www.thefilmdetective.com.

 

About Cinedigm:

For more than 20 years, Cinedigm has led the digital transformation of the entertainment industry. Today, Cinedigm entertains hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe by providing premium content, streaming channels and technology services to the world's largest media, technology and retail companies.

 

Monster From Green Hell

The Film Detective

Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi

Original Release: 1957 (B&W)

Not Rated

Running Time: 61 Minutes

Language: English

Subtitles: English/Spanish

SRP: $24.95 (Blu-ray) / $19.95 (DVD)

Discs: 1

Release Date: March 8, 2022 (Pre-order Now)

UPC Code: 760137830887 (Blu-ray) / 760137831099 (DVD)

Catalog #: FB1019 (Blu-ray) / FD1019 (DVD)

Classic Creature-Feature "MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL" on Special-Edition Blu-ray & DVD March 8th

A Bunch Of Old-School Celebrities Introducing Themselves (Bob Hope Special: "Joys", 1976) (video)

 

Here's a big, goofy grab bag of names that were famous in the 70s...

...with the people who owned them introducing themselves.

Some you may not remember, others you just can't forget.

How many do you remember?


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

A Bunch Of Old-School Celebrities Introducing Themselves (Bob Hope Special: "Joys", 1976) (video)

Great 3 Stooges Running Gag: "The Tongue Wars" (video)

 

It's not safe to stick your tongue out at Moe.

In fact, it's not safe to do anything around Moe...

...even if you ARE Moe!

(threestooges.net)

THREE SAPPY PEOPLE (1939)
CASH AND CARRY (1937)
CACTUS MAKES PERFECT (1942)
BACK FROM THE FRONT (1943)
DIZZY DETECTIVES (1943)
BUSY BUDDIES (1944)
BEER BARREL POLECATS (1946)
HALF-WITS HOLIDAY (1947)
HOKUS POKUS (1949)
STONE AGE ROMEOS (1955)
SCHEMING SCHEMERS (1956)
RUSTY ROMEOS (1957)
PIES AND GUYS (1958)


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Great 3 Stooges Running Gag: "The Tongue Wars" (video)

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #69: He Won't Feel It, "EL DORADO" (1966) (video)

 

Ace gunman Cole Thornton returns to town to find...

...his friend the marshall (Robert Mitchum) has become the town drunk.

Their reunion is not a pleasant one!


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

 

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #69: He Won't Feel It, "EL DORADO" (1966) (video)

Shemp's Stuntman Flips His Wig! (Three Stooges: "Blunder Boys", 1955) (video)

 

The Stooges are amateur detectives...

...going undercover in a health spa.

But when Shemp's exercise horse goes haywire...

...his stuntman has a very bad hair day!


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Shemp's Stuntman Flips His Wig! (Three Stooges: "Blunder Boys", 1955) (video)

Great 3 Stooges Running Gag: "Anesthetic!" (video)

 

Who needs all those newfangled anesthetics?

Not the Three Stooges! For them, nothing puts a patient under...

...like a good old-fashioned mallet to the head!

MEN IN BLACK (1934)
DIZZY DOCTORS (1937)
CALLING ALL CURS (1939)
ALL THE WORLD'S A STOOGE (1941)
A GEM OF A JAM (1943)
HOT ICE (1955)
HAVE ROCKET -- WILL TRAVEL (1959)


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Great 3 Stooges Running Gag: "Anesthetic!" (video)

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #68: You Know A Girl, "EL DORADO" (1966) (video)

 

John Wayne plays aging gunfighter Cole Thornton...

...who, to the surprise of his skeptical young friend Mississippi (James Caan)...

...does, indeed, know a girl (Charlene Holt).


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #68: You Know A Girl, "EL DORADO" (1966) (video)

Small Town Monsters Explores the Dark Side of UFOs in Latest Doc "On the Trail of UFOs: Night Visitors" -- See Trailer HERE!

 

Small Town Monsters Explores the Dark Side of UFOs

First Trailer for On the Trail of UFOs: Night Visitors

Takes Viewers into the Most Disturbing Aspect of UFOlogy

 
Wadsworth, OH--Do cattle mutilations still plague the American West? According to the latest documentary from Small Town Monsters, the phenomenon, which was popularized through references in shows like "The X-Files" and "Unsolved Mysteries", continues to this day. 

On the Trail of UFOs: Night Visitors unveils a detailed look at the ongoing UFO activity occurring across the country through interviews with investigators and eyewitnesses. The feature-length documentary promises to take viewers on a journey into a side of the subject that they’ve never explored.

 

 

Small Town Monsters has released the first-look trailer for the new film which begins to hint at some of the incredible eyewitness accounts and mind-boggling nuggets of information contained therein.
Night Visitors is the follow-up to the wildly successful 2020 miniseries, On the Trail of UFOs, and 2021’s On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky. 

The film is directed by Small Town Monsters founder Seth Breedlove and follows investigator Shannon LeGro (host of Into the Fray podcast) as she searches for answers across the stunning mountains and prairie lands of Colorado. Her search takes her deep into often-overlooked and deeply disturbing sides of the UAP topic; cattle mutilations and human abductions. 

 

WATCH THE TRAILER:

Along with the teaser, Breedlove and company have announced their film production lineup for the year which includes three additional titles: On the Trail of Bigfoot: Last Frontier, American Werewolves and Bloodlines: The Jersey Devil Curse. 

Bigfoot is a followup to last year's On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Discovery which spent over 8 weeks on Amazon Vdeo's best-selling overall titles list. American Werewolves explores the topic of upright canids in North America, while Jersey Devil seeks to blend narrative, fictional story elements with Small Town Monsters' tried and true documentary format.

 

 

All four titles are headed to Kickstarter on February 3rd where they will be seeking funding throughout the month. A slew of rewards sure to please the UFO, paranormal or cryptid enthusiast in your life are up for grabs for backers of the campaign.

On the Trail of UFOs: Night Visitors will debut on VOD this spring.

Small Town Monsters Explores the Dark Side of UFOs in Latest Doc "On the Trail of UFOs: Night Visitors" -- See Trailer HERE!