It's New Release Tuesday! New Wes Anderson, tons of vintage martial arts, and more!
ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER (2023)
Vicaria is a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life. (DVD)
ASTEROID CITY (2023)
A fictional American desert town, circa 1955. Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets from across the country assemble for the annual Asteroid Day celebration -- but the scholarly competition is spectacularly upended by world-changing events. Equal parts comedy, drama, and romance (with a touch of science-fiction). (BLU-RAY and DVD)
AUGUST UNDERGROUND (2001) (LIMITED EDITION)
Imagine walking down the street and finding an unmarked VHS tape. Curiosity piqued, you take it home and pop it in. What starts off as a couple of men screwing around with a video camera quickly transforms into a shocking sequence where two unidentified psychopaths tape their exploits in graphic detail. The devastation of your morals continues throughout the entirety of the footage, while subtly revealing the killers' shattered pasts via the interaction with their victims and each other. (BLU-RAY and DVD)
BABYLON 5: THE ROAD HOME (2023)
Return to Babylon 5 as the epic interstellar saga continues with The Road Home. Travel across the galaxy with John Sheridan as he unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe. (BLU-RAY)
BACK IN THE DAY (2016)
A young boxer is taken under the wing of a mob boss after his mother dies and his father is run out of town for being an abusive alcoholic. (BLU-RAY)
BRIDE FROM HELL (1971)
Never marry a possessed woman ... especially one possessed by the spirit of a girl murdered by the uncle of the groom! That is the moral of this fascinating production, released a full two years before the international success of The Exorcist. Justice must be done and an exorcism, Hong Kong-style, must be performed before anyone can rest in peace. Talented Margaret Hsing Hui makes a fetching spirit in this mystery thriller that also incorporates a laugh or two amidst the chills. (BLU-RAY)
BROKEN MIRRORS (1984)
Situated in an Amsterdam brothel, two sex workers rebel against their lot in life. Meanwhile one of their customers, a serial killer, kidnaps a housewife. (DVD)
BROTHERS FIVE (1970)
Years before he was to become famous for directing Bruce Lee in Fist Of Fury and Jackie Chan in New Fist Of Fury, Lo Wei teamed with superstar swordswoman Cheng Pei-pei (Come Drink With Me) for this action thriller of brotherly love ... and death. She stars as Yen Lai, the one woman who can reunite the Kao brothers to rid the Teng Lung Manor of killers – as well as take revenge for their father's murder. (BLU-RAY)
CASE IS CLOSED: FORGET IT (1971)
Franco Nero portrays a simple man thrown in jail for a misdemeanor. Inside, he sees the grim reality of life behind bars, where the mafia controls everything. A powerful production with Nero on top form and supported by a strong cast including Riccardo Cucciolla (Rabid Dogs) and John Steiner (Tenebrae), the intensity of Damiano Damiani's film places it among the finest prison dramas. (BLU-RAY)
CRIMSON CHARM (1971)
Huang Feng both writes and directs this "Martial Arts World" thriller of a noble swordsman and a one-armed swordswoman up against the vicious Crimson Charm gang of thieves and cutthroats. The lovely and lethal Ivy Ling Po teams with the amazing Chang I for a classic tale of good versus evil in which the best man – and one-armed woman – wins. (BLU-RAY)
DEATH OF RICHIE (1977)
A sensitive but confused teenager feels pressure on him from all directions and turns to drugs, which causes problems for him in school and at home. (BLU-RAY)
DELIGHTFUL FOREST (1972)
Co-directed by Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh-li, and written by Ni Kuang, Chang Cheh and Chin Shu-Mei, The Delightful Forest revolves around the legendary hero Wu Sung (Ti Lung), who was sent to the prison in the Meng province after murdering his sister-in-law and a local ruffian. There he was acquainted with the prison officer "Golden Eye" Shih En (Tien Ching), who saved Wu from the baton punishment required for new prisoners. Wu found out that Shih's restaurant, "Delightful Forest," was taken by the local thug "Door God" Chiang Chung (Chu Mu). (BLU-RAY)
DEVIL'S MIRROR (1972)
This is Sun Chung's very first film for the Shaw Brothers, making it especially interesting and important. He hit the ground running with this action-filled tale of a "Devil Girl" who is setting one clan against another to get her hands on two amazing mirrors with supernatural powers. Only a noble swordsman (played by Lau Dan) and beautiful swordswoman (played by The Thundering Sword star Shu Pei-pei) can stop her. (BLU-RAY)
DIM SUM: A LITTLE HIT OF HEART (1985) (CRITERION)
Wayne Wang’s follow-up to his watershed indie Chan Is Missing is a family portrait that gracefully combines the director’s signature gentle humanism and eye for poignant detail. Offering another fresh perspective on San Francisco’s Chinese American community, Wang takes a bittersweet look at the generational pas de deux between an aging immigrant widow and her devoted daughter, torn between filial duty and her own desires. Soulfully performed by an ensemble including real-life mother and daughter Kim and Laureen Chew and Victor Wong, the Yasujiro Ozu–inspired Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart is as lovingly made as the home-cooked cuisine it celebrates. (BLU-RAY and DVD)
DRAGON MISSILE (1976)
The many fans of the internationally popular Flying Guillotine films and international star Lo Lieh (King Boxer) will love this movie, featuring some of the most exciting martial arts machinery ever conceived. Everybody's fighting for a special elixir and the title tool – an ultra-cool flying boomerang with blades. There are double crosses and ambushes galore before the culminating clash of sizzling steel that must be seen to be believed. (BLU-RAY)
DREAMS (1990) (CRITERION)
Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power-plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)
ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE (1973)
Robert Blake (Busting, TV's Baretta) creates a vivid character of almost mythic proportions as a small motorcycle cop in Arizona who's promoted for exposing a murder. Eventually his basic virility runs him afoul of the sheriff and he's busted back down to his bike, the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide. With classic irony, he finally comes into deadly conflict with a group of hippies…the very people who most nearly reflect his own values. (BLU-RAY)
EPSTEIN AND FRIEDMAN COLLECTION: COMMON THREADS / WHERE ARE WE / PARAGRAPH 175 (2002)
For more than 30 years, Oscar-winning directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have borne powerful witness to gay life, creativity, and activism — documenting lost aspects of LGBTQ+ history and chronicling unfolding events with humor, compassion, and fierce urgency. The Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman Collection includes three of their most essential works in new restorations: Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (1989, winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), Where Are We? Our Trip Through America (1992) and Paragraph 175 (2000). Common Threads uses the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt to explore the cross-section of identities affected by HIV/AIDS, as well as efforts to combat the stigma, misinformation, and political obstruction that deepened the crisis. Where Are We? Our Trip Through America follows Epstein and Friedman as they chronicle an 18-day road trip through the American south. They interview a large variety of people along the way, stopping to ask them questions about their hopes and regrets. Paragraph 175 fills a crucial gap in the historical record by revealing the lasting consequences of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. (BLU-RAY)
FLYING GUILLOTINE (1975)
Director Ho Meng-hua attained cult status among Western kung fu film fans with The Flying Guillotine. One of the Shaw Brothers' biggest martial arts stars, Chen Kuan-tai, plays the leader of a group of killers, commissioned by the Ching Emperor to use a deadly, beheading weapon to assassinate dissidents. Although based on a true story, the film's weapon was a complete fabrication because in real life, no one ever survived to tell what the actual weapon really looked like. (BLU-RAY)
FROM BLACK (2023)
A recovering drug addict, desperate for closure and saddled by crushing guilt after the disappearance of her young son, is presented with a bizarre offer to learn the truth about what happened and set things right - if she is willing to pay a terrifying cost. How dark is she willing to go for a chance at redemption? (DVD)
GANGS OF LONDON: SEASON 2 (2020)
For a generation, control of the London underworld was in the firm grasp of Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney). With his assassination, however, his ambitious youngest Sean (Joe Cole) sought to ride out the power vacuum between challenges from his own family, international gangs jockeying for new turf, and the efforts of undercover cop/rising foot soldier Elliot Finch (Sope Dirisu) (DVD)
HEROES TWO (1974)
Of the dozens of great martial arts movies made by this prolific and respected director, this tale of legendary Shaolin avengers Fang Shih-yu and Hung Hsi-kuan is often considered one of his best. His collaboration with equally renowned kung fu choreographer Lar Kar-leung was apparent in all the performances, but especially with that of charismatic, capable, then 19-year-old Alexander Fu Sheng. This powerful production is a true landmark in kung fu film history. (BLU-RAY)
HITCH HIKE (1977)
While on a cross-country drive, a bitter writer and his beautiful wife pick up a stranded motorist. But when this hitcher turns out to be a depraved psychopath, their road trip takes a vicious detour into sex and savagery where the miles are marked in mayhem and vengeance is the ultimate rule of thumb. (BLU-RAY)
HOLY SPIDER (2022)
Female journalist Arezoo Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, White Paradise) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer targeting sex workers. As she draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain when the murderer is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the true story of the 'Spider Killer' Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani, 'Whisper"), who saw himself as on a mission from God as he killed 16 women between 2000 and 2001. (BLU-RAY and DVD)
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA (2022)
Drac and the pack are back, like you've never seen them before in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. Reunite with your favorite monsters for an all-new adventure that presents Drac with his most terrifying task yet. When Van Helsing's mysterious invention, the 'Monsterfication Ray," goes haywire, Drac and his monster pals are all transformed into humans, and Johnny becomes a monster! In their new mismatched bodies, Drac, stripped of his powers, and an exuberant Johnny, loving life as a monster, must team up and race across the globe to find a cure before it's too late, and before they drive each other crazy. With help from Mavis and the hilariously human Drac Pack, the heat is on to find a way to switch themselves back before their transformations become permanent. (BLU-RAY and DVD)
HOW TO KILL A JUDGE (1975)
Franco Nero plays filmmaker Giacomo Solaris, whose latest film features a judge corrupted by the mafia and who is later found murdered. The real judge the character is based on seizes the footage, but is later killed in the same way. Feeling a degree of responsibility, Solaris investigates, but as the assassinations increase around him, will he reach the source of the conspiracy? Full of twists and a fascinating meta-commentary on cinema. (BLU-RAY)
HUMAN DESIRE (1954)
When he's fired from his job at the railroad, Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford) asks his wife, Vicki (Gloria Grahame), to pay a visit to his boss, Owens (Grandon Rhodes), to try to earn his sympathies. It works, but Carl then assumes that Vicki and Owens are involved romantically, so he murders his boss in a jealous rage. Sick of her husband's violent ways, Vicki seduces Jeff (Glenn Ford), another worker at the railroad, hoping that she can convince him to murder her husband. (BLU-RAY)
INCIDENT AT CRESTRIDGE (1981)
A woman campaigns for and wins election as sheriff in a crusade against the ineptitude and outright corruption of the local law enforcement in a small town in the West. (BLU-RAY)
JANE EYRE (1961)
Jane Eyre is a coming of age story that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, a young woman fresh out of an orphanage, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall. The story is broken into five segments: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations and oppression; her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her mysterious employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester; her time in the Moor House, during which her earnest but cold clergyman cousin, St John Rivers, proposes to her; and ultimately her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. Throughout these sections, it provides perspectives on a number of important social issues and ideas, many of which are critical of the status quo. It's also unique for the time period in that by being the first to focus on its protagonist's moral and spiritual development through an intimate first-person narrative. (DVD)
JOY HOUSE (1964)
Alain Delon stars as Marc, a dashing young con man on the run from the mob. After seeking refuge in the Riviera villa of the widowed Barbara (Lola Albright) and her curvaceous cousin, Melinda (Jane Fonda), Marc becomes trapped in the passionate snares of both women, who are full of sinister surprises. (BLU-RAY)
LADY OF STEEL (1970)
Cheng Pei-pei was Hong Kong's first and most celebrated queen of kung fu because her performances set all the standards for future female martial arts stars like Michelle Yeoh. Lady Of Steel is a high-plains-drifter adventure where Cheng Pei-pei plays a swordswoman on a mission: to find the bandits that killed her parents and save the country from foreign invaders. (BLU-RAY)
MACHINE, THE (2023)
Bert Kreischer rose to fame as a stand-up comedian known as The Machine, and in his signature set he recounts his true experience with Russian mobsters while on a booze-soaked college trip. Now, 23 years later, that trip has come back to haunt him as he and his estranged father (Mark Hamill) are kidnapped back to Russia by the mob to atone for something they say he did. Together, Bert and his father must retrace the steps of his younger self (Jimmy Tatro) in the midst of a war within a sociopathic crime family, all while attempting to find common ground in their often fraught relationship. (DVD)
MAFIA (1968) (2 VERSIONS)
Franco Nero is a police chief who, while investigating the death of a construction worker, goes up against corrupt officials and a ruthless mafia boss (Lee J. Cobb). Adapted from the celebrated novel by Leonardo Sciascia (Illustrious Corpses, Todo Modo), The Day of the Owl was the first book to openly deal with organised crime in Sicily. (BLU-RAY)
MAIGRET: SEASONS 1-4 (1959)
Long-awaited and unseen anywhere for decades, Maigret (1960-1963) is the definitive adaptation of Georges Simenon’s world famous novels. This BBC television production stars Rupert Davies as Commissaire Jules Maigret, the dogged French detective. Though Simenon’s books have been adapted many times, Davies’s celebrated, BAFTA-winning portrayal won the approval of Simenon himself, who stated: "At last, I have found the perfect Maigret!" (BLU-RAY)
MAKING MR. RIGHT (1987) (SPECIAL EDITION)
What do you do when you've fallen hard…for a man who's hard-wired? John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire) and Ann Magnuson (Love at Large) star in this fresh, fast and funny film from acclaimed director Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan). Savvy and beautiful PR executive Frankie Stone (Magnuson) has her work cut out for her. Hired by a giant technology company to "humanize" their latest invention—an android-astronaut named Ulysses (Malkovich)—she is shocked to discover that her new client embodies all the qualities she's ever wanted in a man! When they begin to fall for one another, will their robotic romance blast into the stratosphere…or blow a circuit and crash? (BLU-RAY)
MAN OF IRON (1972)
Chen Kuan-tai exuded incredible power on screen, which his directors used to great advantage in this fight-filled follow-up to the smash hit The Boxer From Shantung. The only thing Chou Lien Huan does wrong is win some money gambling with a Shanghai gang leader's playboy son ... but that's enough for the father and child to want obsessive revenge. It all culminates in an incredible climatic fight, choreographed by the legendary Lau Kar-leung and Chan Chuen, co-star of Bruce Lee's Fist Of Fury. (BLU-RAY)
MAVKA: THE FOREST SONG (2023)
Mavka—the soul of the forest—has been chosen by the supreme spirits to become the forest's new guardian. But when she meets a talented human musician named Lucas—a man on the hunt for a mysterious tree with the power to give life, she is faced with an impossible choice between her newfound love and her duty to the spirits. Can humans and the forest live in harmony, or will greed and vice destroy them both? (DVD)
ROBOTS (2023)
Charles is a womanizer while Elaine is a gold digger. The duo learn humanity when forced to team up and pursue robot doubles of themselves. (DVD)
SANCTUARY (2022)
In the wake of inheriting his father’s hotel chain, Hal attempts to end his long and secret relationship with Dominatrix Rebecca. A battle of wills ensue to keep the upper hand as the power dynamics swing wildly back and forth. (DVD)
SEDUCTION OF GINA (1984)
Gina is young, recently married and bored. On a trip to Lake Tahoe she discovers the game of blackjack. Increasingly obsessed with gambling, she keeps hoping her lucky streak will last. (BLU-RAY)
SHADOW WHIP (1971)
This top-ten box office hit reunites the star duo from Come Drink With Me in another classic action adventure. Cheng Pei-pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) radiates her trademark charm while wielding the deadly title weapon, which is implicated in multiple murders and a major heist. Whether single-handedly fighting sixteen bandits or avenging her father's brutal death, she demonstrates why she was Hong Kong's number one swordswoman – and no slouch with the whip either! (BLU-RAY)
TERMINAL INVASION (2002)
Inside an isolated airport, seven anxious passengers learn that their charter flight has been grounded by a blizzard. The unhappy passengers are soon stunned into silence by the arrival of Jack Edwards (Campbell), a convicted murderer escorted by two guards. But these soon prove to be the least of the passengers' problems, as they realize that some members of the group are not who, or what, they seem. Fasten your seatbelts for a pulse-pounding sci-fi thrill ride, co-starring Chase Masterson (TV's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). (BLU-RAY)
VIOLENT LIFE (1962)
Based on the novel by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Theorem). A young thug develops a social conscience during a spell in hospital, but after it motivates him to rescue a prostitute from drowning, he contracts tuberculosis which kills him. (BLU-RAY)
VIRTUAL REALITY (2021)
A film director agrees to a dark pact to help his career take off. When he summons the cast and crew to his house for a first-cut screening, they will have to survive a reality they never saw coming. (BLU-RAY)
WATER MARGIN (1972)
The Chang Cheh-directed The Water Margin is the martial arts epic of epics ... of epics. Based on the true legend of how 108 rebel heroes living in the mountains were able to repeatedly defeat invading Sung armies, the film starred just about anyone who was a name at Shaw Brothers at the time, like David Chiang, Chen Kuan-tai and Ti Lung. The primitive battles ultimately end in sharp, visually effective images of death and defeat. This is a must-see for any movie fan. (BLU-RAY)
WILL PENNY (1968)
Aging cowboy Will Penny (Charlton Heston) takes a new job on an Oregon ranch and finds himself lodging for the winter in an old mountain cabin that has been temporarily occupied by Catherine, a married woman who is traveling to rejoin her husband. The pair soon find themselves attracted to each other, but propriety prevents them from following their feelings. However, the situation changes when they are interrupted by the lunatic Preacher Quint (Donald Pleasence) and his gang of dangerous bandits. (BLU-RAY)
WRONG REASONS (2022)
When an ambiguously intentioned masked man (James Parks, The Hateful Eight) kidnaps a drug addicted punk singer (Liv Roush, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot), it triggers a police investigation headed by Detective Charles Dobson (Ralph Garman, Ted) as well as a media circus. (DVD)
