Month: February 2023

Here we go again!  More physical media in the form of Blu-Rays.  17 volumes of this.  That’s a lot of physical media I’ve picked up since I started this shindig.  No regrets, though.  I never have regrets about buying stuff on physical media…except for that one movie that one time recently…what was it?  Oh, yeah, it was the 2019 version of Black Christmas.  Yeah, I rightly threw that one away, and I don’t do that.  But I was NOT going to donate it.  I don’t believe in cruel and unusual punishment.  Also, throwing that thing away made room for cooler stuff.  I picked up about 5 for this round, so let’s dive right in.

Nemesis – MVD Rewind

Nemesis is one of Albert Pyun’s better science fiction movies.  It’s got some interesting ideas that do set it apart from other movies of its kind, even if it does seem like a cross between Terminator, Blade Runner, and Robocop.  While I can’t say that Olivier Gruner is a great actor, he’s still fun to watch.  Tim Thomerson steals the show, though.  This movie is packed to the hilt with high-octane action.  It’s good action, and it’s shot incredibly well.  The visual effects are also pretty damned good for a low-budget indie film.  If you’re a fan of these kinds of movies, this one is worth checking out.  It’s got a director’s cut and a Japanese cut as well.  There’s a lot of special features, especially on the second disc, which is a DVD, sadly. Pretty decent, actually.  The sequels, though?

Nemesis 2,3 and 4 – MVD Rewind

Had these come on separate discs, I would’ve junked numbers 3 and 4.  Nemesis 2 is the only one of the bunch that’s half-way decent.  There’s SOME stuff in number 3 that I like, specifically Tim Thomerson.  Nemesis 4, though, is a complete waste of time.  The entire movie was filmed in 4-5 days during reshoots of Adrenaline, which I don’t have as of yet.  Narratively, number 4 has NOTHING to do with the previous 3, and the third film ended on a cliffhanger that went nowhere.  Unfortunately, all three movies came on one disc.  What are you going to do?  It was probably easier for MVD to save money by doing that.  Watch Nemesis 2 and pretend 3 and 4 don’t exist.  Special features-wise, there’s not much hear except for brief commentary on each film by Albert Pyun.

Black Adam – Warner Bros.

There’s a lot of issues that I’ve got with Black Adam.  The acting isn’t great(the kid’s annoying AF), the villain is incredibly mediocre, the story is half-baked, and the post-credit scene teases a confrontation between Black Adam and Henry Cavill’s Superman that will never happen.  What the movie does get right is the Justice Society, which is awesome.  Pierce Brosnan makes a great Doctor Fate(hey, I rhymed!), and Aldis Hodge is great as Hawkman.  The action is spectacular.  Seeing Dwayne Johnson go Darth Sidious on fools is great.  Johnson is always fun to watch.  If you can ignore the annoying kid, there’s a decent action movie here.  I might actually do a Second Look for Black Adam at some point. There’s some decent special features on this one.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Disney/Marvel

The passing of Chadwick Boseman was a shock to a lot of people.  He kept his illness out of the public eye until he died.  His death had a major impact on a lot of people.  But it also impacted the sequel to the first Black Panther.  Wakanda Forever had to be entirely re-written to account for Boseman’s untimely passing.  It was a hard thing for the film-makers to do and do it right.  I think they did the best job that they could under the circumstances.  It’s a solid sequel with real heart and emotional heft.  Not just for Boseman’s character, but also for Shuri, Queen Ramonda, and the film’s villain, Namor.  Strangely enough, this movie works better as a piece of drama than an action movie.  Good character-work is not easy to come by in comic book movies these days.  I really like this one.  It’s not the greatest entry into the MCU, but it’s pretty solid.  The special features on the disc are anemic, though.  Aside from a commentary by the film’s director, two EPK features, a short gag-reel and some deleted scenes, there’s not a whole lot here.  Disney and Marvel have been getting real stingy on special features for their physical media, and it sucks.  The production of this film could’ve easily warranted an hour and a half-long documentary.  But such as it is, you’ll just have to deal with what the disc comes with.  Movie’s fantastic, the disc is kind of disappointing.

Triumph of the Will – Synapse

Some of you are going to wonder why I have a Nazi propaganda film in my collection.  It’s very simple: Historical preservation.  One of the reasons why I collect physical media is that a lot of the older movies out there aren’t being put onto streaming services.  If they are, it’s not easy to find them.  Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will is an important piece of not just film history, but history itself.  This film was commissioned by Adolf Hitler in 1933, and followed the Nazi Party rally in Nuremburg in 1934.  THIS is the mother of all propaganda films and is the blue-print for making them.  If you look at it from a purely technical level, it’s incredibly well-made.  The cinematography is spectacular.  In a number of ways, this film is terrifying.  I think I’m going to have a discussion on this film and why it’s so important for it to not be censored or thrown out.  I might do that this weekend.  The disc comes with a commentary by Dr. Anthony Santoro, an expert on National Socialist German history, and a short film called Day of Freedom, also by Riefenstahl.  Do I recommend it?  If you’re a history and film buff, sure, but this is NOT for the average consumer.

Well, that’s going to do it for this volume of Recent Blu-Ray Hauls, so hopefully, you found something of interest.  I certainly did.  Like always, I’ll see you in 4 or 5 Blu-Rays.

For those of us who dwell in the world of the cult film, the name Albert Pyun is regarded with some notoriety, with some people claiming him to be the modern Ed Wood during the 80s.  The reason why a lot of people either derided him or flat-out ignored his movies is because he focused more on low-budget indie films during the 80s.  That was his bread and butter.  His “break-out” hit was 1982’s The Sword and The Sorcerer, a sword-and-sandals fantasy film in the vein of Conan: The Barbarian.  His focus was on the science fiction and fantasy genres.  Most people would recognize Mr. Pyun’s name because it was attached to Cyborg, a post-apocalyptic action flick starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.  He also did the first Captain America movie in 1990.  Sadly, his experience in the industry with the big distributors and producers led him to forge his own path in the indie film scene.  He often had control of his movies taken away from him for one reason or another, especially when the Weinstein’s were involved.  That brings me to Nemesis, his first real franchise.  Now, this is not going to be a straight-forward review of the Nemesis films, but rather an overview of the first four films.  Yes, there’s a fifth, but it wasn’t directed by Mr. Pyun.  Albert Pyun passed away last November, so he isn’t here to defend himself, but I will be offering honest thoughts about these films.

The first film in the series, simply titled Nemesis follows a cybernetically augmented police officer, Alex Rain(Olivier Gruner in his second lead role)as he uncovers a cyborg conspiracy that threatens the existence of the entire human race.  There are some very obvious science fiction influences on display here.  Nemesis is The Terminator mixed with Robocop by way of Blade Runner.  It’s set in the far-distant future of…2027.  Yeah.  Very dystopic.  I’m going to get the obvious out of the way: The acting is not good.  Honestly, the only actor here that puts forward anything resembling a performance is B-movie legend Tim Thomerson, the star of such classics like Trancers and Dollman(also directed by Mr. Pyun).  Olivier Gruner is not a particularly great actor, BUT, he handles the physical parts of the film very well.  It’s the least a former French special forces commando and kickboxer can do.  Say what you will about Mr. Pyun’s ability to deliver an emotionally competent film, he delivers on the action.  This movie is packed with it.  The action and stunt-work are outstanding.  The visual effects are pretty good too.  There are some interesting ideas at work in this movie that surprised even me.  The use of cybernetic implants and prosthetics is actually not far off from what we’re able to do now.  Granted what we can do now is not as advanced, but the possibilities are there.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Overall, I really enjoyed Nemesis.  Narratively and performance-wise, the film left a bit to be desired, but it delivered on every other aspect.  The following movies, though?  Better get this over with

The second film, Nemesis 2: Nebula is pretty much a Terminator knock-off.  There’s no getting around it.  The story sees humanity being enslaved by cyborgs in the year 2077, so a woman with a genetically modified child goes back in time a hundred years to protect said child.  20 years later, the child has grown up to be Alex Sinclair, a young woman raised by an African tribe.  But she ends up being hunted by a cybernetic bounty hunter from the future called Nebula.  Yep, Terminator knock-off.  It also has a bit of Predator thrown into the mix with the villain played by stuntman and future action director Chad Stahelski.  Honestly, it’s actually a decent DTV sequel, which was extremely rare for the 90s.  Alex is played by body-builder and former Ms. Olympia contestant Sue Price.  She’s not half-bad.  Obviously, she can handle the physical stuff, but she definitely has more charisma than Olivier Gruner did.  Again, the action and stunt-work are pretty decent here.  The explosions are nice and big, and most of the effects are done practically.  The CGI, though, is bad.  The pacing of the film is inconsistent, considering it’s only 80 minutes long.  Still, it’s not a complete waste of time.

Nemesis 3 is where my issues with Mr Pyun’s consistency start coming into play.  I’m not saying that the previous films were narrative classics by any stretch of the imagination, but they were positively Shakespearean compared to third and fourth films.  2 and 3 were filmed in tandem with each other, but the writing is substantially worse with number 3.  It starts off with an unconcious Alex having flashbacks to events in the second film.  She wakes up and finds a man named Farnsworth 2(played once again by Tim Thomerson).  She doesn’t realize that he’s from the future as well, trying to determine if her DNA is stronger than other humans from his time.  It’s murky.  Apparently she has at least 20 half-sisters that are waiting for her in 2077, but the film never follows through with particular plot.  In fact, by the end of the film, it’s pretty much forgotten.  Alex ends up meeting a bizarre mercenary and a brain-damaged soldier along the way, while being tailed by twin cyborg assassin.  It’s a convoluted story-line that goes NOWHERE.  I don’t know if it’s because Mr. Pyun ran out of time or got distracted.  The action in this film is also a step backwards with some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen in a movie like this.  The ending is infuriating, because it’s never followed up on.  So, what happens with Alex’s sisters?  You never find out.  I’ve seen movies with unsatisfying endings, but Nemesis 3 is the worst offender.  It’s a non-ending.  Oh, it gets worse from here.

Nemesis 4 is about as far removed from the original film as you can get.  In fact, it’s not even about the war between cyborgs and humans.  That all gets pushed to the side.  If you were expecting this film to answer questions left by Nemesis 3, forget it.  Alex somehow ends up in the future as an assassin, who ends up taking out the wrong target. This movie is PLAGUED with issues.  From what I understand, Albert Pyun was shooting this film between reshoots of another movie he was working on, Adrenaline.  So, he shot Nemesis 4 in 4-5 days.  Right there is where the issue is.  Did Mr. Pyun forget about how the third film ended?  I seriously doubt there were enough people clamoring for another Nemesis film, but Nemesis 4 is about as unwanted as a red-headed step-child.  Nothing about this movie makes any sense.  It’s slow, plodding, and totally batshit crazy in the wrong way.  The best parts about this film are the performances from Sue Price(who looks a hell of a lot different from the previous films)and the one-and-only Andrew Divoff from Wishmaster.  I get that Mr. Pyun was trying for a truly cyberpunk kind of film, but he failed.  Royally.  This movie is awful and not even a “so bad, it’s good” kind of way.

The Nemesis sequels have strayed so far from what the original film was, it’s not even funny.  I’m not going to lie, I have a lot of respect for Albert Pyun.  I don’t think he got the break that I think he deserved from most studios.  But he clearly enjoyed making movies and he certainly had an eye for certain details, even if he couldn’t get the performances he should have out of his actors.  He did deliver stuff that I absolutely loved like Cyborg, the first two Nemesis films, and Road To Hell.  There was definitely talent there, but I think he overreached on a lot of projects.  There is a fifth Nemesis film, but I’m not going anywhere NEAR that one.  The trailer looks terrible.  Overall, I would say, if you’re in the mood for low-budget action flicks from the 90s, Nemesis is a decent bet with the 2nd film.  Just don’t bother with the last two/three.

Welcome, one and all, to another exciting post of Recent Blu-Ray Hauls.  Strap yourselves in, grab yourselves a Monster(the energy drink, not an actual monster), and prepare yourselves, we’ve got a doozy for this one.  As always, when I buy four or more Blu-Rays/DVDs, I do one of these posts.  There are a couple of things that are going to be a little different, though.  First of all, I started back on Horror Pack, so I will be bring that up towards the end.  Secondly, when it comes to boxed sets of multiple movies, I will only count it as one purchase, because that’s what it is.  I picked up quite a bit, so let’s get right into it.

Missing In Action Trilogy – Kino Lorber Classics

The 80s was an amazing decade for action movies, both the big-budget blockbusters and lower-budget knock-offs.  One of the biggest stars of the 80s was Chuck Norris, who at the time of Missing In Action, already had a decent stable of action movies, including A Force of One, The Octagon, and Lone Wolf McQuade.  Mr. Norris took on Cannon Film’s Missing In Action because his oldest brother was killed in Vietnam, so this was kind of a personal project for Chuck.  The problem was, was that the second film in the series, The Beginning, was actually the first movie shot, but Cannon made them release the first movie as the second.  It’s…complicated.  The movie also had an issue with being remarkably similar to another Vietnam-set action movie, Rambo First Blood: Part II.  So, in many ways, Missing In Action is a bit of a Rambo knock-off.  That said, these movies are a ton of fun.  Chuck Norris is in his element as a one-man army.  The trilogy comes in a boxed set.  The special features aren’t much, but they do include audio commentaries and trailers for more of Chuck Norris’ movies.

Baskin – Scream Factory

As a huge fan of the horror genre, I like to look to other countries to see what they have to offer.  For the longest time, the West has not really pushed the genre as far as it has in the last two years.  But one of the most bizarre horror movies that I’ve ever seen came from Turkey.  Yeah, Turkey.  Baskin is about 5 cops who are alerted to a situation in a out-of-the-way village, when they stumble on a mansion of sorts that holds some very nightmarish situations right out of Hell itself.  One could call Baskin the Turkish Hellraiser.  It’s not as gory as I remember it when I first saw it 2016, but it’s still one of the most twisted movies I’ve seen in a long time.  It’s not for the faint-hearted, but if you find yourself brave enough, what you have here is a horrifically beautiful movie that takes no prisoners.

Dragons Forever – 88 Films

What can I say about Jackie Chan that hasn’t been said a million times before?  The man is one of the greatest martial arts actors alive, a living legend.  The movies that he made during the 80s are what made him as great as he is.  But there were some movies that he did, where he teamed up with folks like Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao.  These three went to the Peking Opera School together, so there was definite chemistry among the three in this movie, but it’s the last one they did together.  Still, it’s a goofy movie in the way only Sammo Hung could direct.  The action sequences are second-to-none, and the final 14 minutes of the film are just flat-out insane, including a fight between Jackie Chan and former kickboxing champion Benny “The Jet” Urquidez.  The set from 88 films is incredible.  It includes three different cuts of the film, multiple audio commentaries, and a host of new and old interviews with the cast and crew.  It also comes with a poster and lobby cards.  This could be my favorite Blu-Ray purchase of the year so far.  It’s one of the most extensive sets I’ve seen.  But 88 films has got other movies coming, so I can’t wait to see what THEY have to offer.

Sworn To Justice – Vinegar Syndrome

I discovered Cynthia Rothrock in the mid-90s when I was on a martial arts movie kick(see what I did there).  The first movie I saw her in was Rage and Honor, which she did with Australian martial arts actor Richard Norton.  She was gorgeous, but she was also bad-ass.  Cynthia Rothrock was 5-time world champion in forms and weapons as a martial artist.  She’s got black belts in 7 different styles of martial arts.  While a lot of the movies that she’s been in portrayed her as a total bad-ass, Sworn to Justice allows the actress to show a different side.  There’s definitely plenty of action to be had in this movie, but she’s allowed to show her more romantic side, as cheesy as it appears to be, but it’s fine.  Still, Sworn to Justice is still a decent action flick and the disc from Vinegar Syndrome has some pretty good stuff on it, including commentaries, new and old interviews with Cynthia Rothrock and the film’s director.  Not bad.

Western Triple Feature: The Searchers, The Wild Bunch, How The West Was Won – Warner Bros.

Of the genres that defined movies was the Western.  When you pop in a Western, you’re transported to a period in American history that a lot of films have romanticized.  Can you blame them?  The idea of exploring a new frontier, even though it’s fraught with danger, is irresistible.  The movies that came in this Triple Pack are classics in every way.  The Searchers sees John Wayne on the hunt for two young women who have been kidnapped by Comanche raiders.  The Wild Bunch follows a group of aging outlaws out for one last heist before their kind is lost to history.  How The West Was Won is an epic Western that sees the exploration and subsequent taming of the Wild West by a westward expansion.  The film also deals with the American Civil War and the advancement of the rail-road.  Each film is excellent in their own way, but I found The Wild Bunch to be the best of the three.  Each disc comes with a helping of special features including commentaries and various documentaries.  For 13 bucks, this is an excellent triple-header.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – Arrow Video

Mary Shelley’s infamous novel about Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his creation is one of the greatest stories about man’s hubris in trying to control things that he was not meant to control.  The original black and white film from the 30s is one of the greatest monster movies ever made, but like Mary’s story, the monster isn’t the creature:  It’s Dr. Frankenstein.  It’s not the creature’s fault that he was put together from pieces of different people, nor was it his fault in not being able to deal with being brought to life the way he was.  Kenneth Branagh’s version of the story is spectacular.  Branagh not only directs, but stars as Dr. Frankenstein, with Robert De Niro playing the creature.  This is definitely De Niro’s movie and he was fantastic.  This is more of a character study of someone brought back to life and not knowing how to deal with it.  Would you?  There is a sequence in the film in which De Niro’s character hangs around a farm, and learns how to read and speak, but also helps the family to survive by pulling vegetables from the frozen ground, until he’s seen.  It’s a fantastic movie and the special features are plentiful, although I would’ve loved to have seen interviews with Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, and Helena Bonham Carter.  Still, it’s worth taking a look it.

Nemesis – MVD Rewind

I had the opportunity to interview the late Albert Pyun a couple of years ago, you can read it here.  This was a guy that never got a proper shake in the industry.  He always played it safe when it came to budgets, which usually meant that visual effects were not all that great.  One could also argue that his writing wasn’t that great, either.  But what he did have was a passion for movie-making and you can see that in every movie that he made, from The Sword and the Sorceress to Nemesis.  He also had a pretty good eye for action.  Nemesis was one of his best action movies.  While you could say that the acting in the film was…not great, it was balanced out by outstanding action and stunt-work, with some really interesting science fiction ideas, even if the film ended up being a sort of cross between Robocop and Terminator.  While the film had issues during production, the final product was not that bad.  The final battle was absolutely bonkers, though.  This disc comes with different cuts of the movie, which Mr. Pyun provided commentary on, but also archived interviews with Olivier Gruner and various behind-the-scenes featurettes.  It’s a pretty solid effort from MVD Rewind.

I mentioned in my introduction that I got back on the Horror Pack bandwagon, but I’m going to do a separate post for this last pack that I got, because I haven’t watch them all yet.  What I should’ve done when I started doing this series is say that I only do them when I buy at least 4 discs and WATCH them.  So, in a way, these act as mini-reviews.  When I did the one with the 2019 version of Black Christmas, I stated that I probably wouldn’t keep that one because it was so bad.  Still, if you like what you’ve seen, and want to check out some of these movies, you can find some of them on Amazon, but you would probably be better served by going directly to some of these boutique companies like MVD, Arrow Video, Synapse, and Shout! Factory.  It’s pricier when you get them straight from the source, but it’s usually worth it.  Anyway, that’s going to do it for this installment of Recent Blu-Ray Hauls, so until next time!