| 300 | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| After Hours (Criterion Collection) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Batman: The Killing Joke | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Beast from the Beginning of Time | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Beau is Afraid | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Before We Die | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Blackening | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Book Club: The Next Chapter | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Casablanca | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Catwoman: Hunted | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Cocaine Shark | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Blaine: You know people had expectations for Cocaine Bear when they rip it off. | ||||||||
| Conjuring | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Corsage | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| D.I. Ray | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Denver the Last Dinosaur | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Doctor Who | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Elf | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Endeavour | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XV (Kino-Lorber) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Includes The Tattered Dress, The Girl in the Kremlin, and Man Afraid. | ||||||||
| General’s Daughter | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Ghoul | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Goonies | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Green Lantern: Beware My Power | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Gungala: The Black Panther Girl | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Gungala: The Virgin of the Jungle | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Human Desire (Kino-Lorber) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Injustice | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Invaders From Mars (1953) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| It, Chapter Two | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Johanna Enlists | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Justice League Dark: Apokolips War | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Knights of the Zodiac | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Live action adaptation of the manga Saint Seiya (Los Caballeros del Zodiaco or Knights of the Zodiac in the Latin American market) which was in theaters for about a weekend, and is basically the latest attempt by Toei (who made the film) to try and get Saint Seiya to “happen” outside of Japan and Latin America. | ||||||||
| M (1931) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Blaine: Fritz Lang directs Peter Lorre’s first starring role in the first German talkie, which is often regarded as the first film noir. A child killer (because censors wouldn’t allow child molestor) is on the loose and the police have no leads, so they are cracking down on ALL crime. Organized crime doesn’t like the child killer either and he’s cramping their style, so they decide to find and eliminate him their way. It’s the only movie I’ve ever seen that drives suspense by making me ask not “will the police arrive in time?” but “do I want the police to arrive in time?” | ||||||||
| Mad Max: Fury Road | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Man Who Lived Again | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Matilda | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| McBain | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Meg | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Mission: Impossible – Fallout | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Mother Riley Meets the Vampire | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| NOVA: Facing the Climate Challenge Triple Feature | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| One Piece Film Red | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | The fifteenth animated One Piece film (in addition to the TV series), made for the 25th anniversary of the manga. | ||||||||
| Only In Theaters | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Operation Petticoat | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Pacific Rim | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Party Girl | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Rainmaker (1957) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Rampage (2018) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Ranma 1/2 OVA and Movie Collection | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Contains all 11 OVA episodes | ||||||||
| Ready Player One | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Richard Pryor Double Feature | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Includes Which Way Is Up? and Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings | ||||||||
| Ridley | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| San Andreas | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Scream 5 and 6 Movie Collection | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Scream 6 | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Scream 6-Movie Collection | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Shin Ultraman | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Live action film written by Hideaki Anno (Evangelion, Shin Godzilla) and directed by Shinji Higuchi (the live-action Attack On Titan movies and co-director on Shin Godzilla), based on the tokusatsu series from the ’60s. | ||||||||
| Shining | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Sisu | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Space Jam | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Star Is Born (2018) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Super Mario Bros. Movie | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Three Stooges – Stooge-O-Rama | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Timecop | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| To Catch a Killer | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Training Day | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Unforgiven | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Walker | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | The Jarek Padalecki series, not the Chuck Norris series | ||||||||
| Watermelon Woman (Criterion Collection) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| White Noise Double Feature | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Wizard of Oz | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| WWE: Night of Champions 2023 | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | WWE’s most recent pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia (and notably the first one with Sami Zayn, who had not taken part in previous Saudi pay-per-views in protest of the Saudi government’s actions in Syria). | ||||||||
Finally, the picks of the week. Alex says, “The only reason M isn’t my pick is because this is a DVD release and the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray release is still in print, and very affordable. Instead, I’m going with Shin Ultraman as my pick for the week.” Blaine says, “while I also advocate the superior Criterion Collection release, M is my pick of the week by a wide margin. It’s simply fantastic.”
M is definitely a masterpiece, so I second that.
If you haven’t seen Casablanca…. Wait, you haven’t seen Casablanca? It is the great film of Hollywood’s Golden Age, in many respects ahead of its time, and worth having in some form.
After Hours is a brilliant, utterly bizarre treasure from the 80s, a Scorsese comedy, with multiple excellent performances and a sense of humour as dark as any of Scorsese’s violent dramas.
Unforgiven and Watermelon Woman are both worth seeing. They’re not much alike, save for both being revisionist looks at past cinematic tropes.
Although the release dates for the forgotten Gungala series, late-blooming Jungle Girl exploitation nonsense from Italy, is recent, the original films hit theatres in the late 60s. Apparently, at least one of them appears in the Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trasherama series from the early 2000s. If you don’t want the exploitation angle, you might consider Mother Riley Meets the Vampire as the bad choice of the week. It pairs Lugosi with Arthur Lucan’s Good Old Mother Riley character, who was popular with British kids. The best that can be said of it is that it’s more watchable than Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, though that at least has one of the cinema’s great titles.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret: I still haven’t seen it, but it features some major stars– and a kid local to me plays “Moose.”
I should have said more about “Casablanca”. In “99 Years, 100 Films”, we pick the Best Picture from every set of 10, and then we’ll pick the best from the best 10. We just recorded the podcast for “Gandhi” this morning, and there is only one other film so far (“In the Heat of the Night”) which I think might challenge “Casablanca” for the best of all of them.
I really need to sit down and watch Unforgiven. I don’t know why I haven’t gotten around to it. I love a good Western and this should be up my alley.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts got decent reviews. Transformers movies are never going to be high art, but as long as they’re fun, I’m in. I’ve been into TF since I was a kid in the 80s and the Bay movies made absolutely no sense to me at all.
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War was 100x better than anything WB has put into their live action films. Grab it (and Justice League Dark) for an excellent pair of comic book movies.
I’m genuinely confused as to why they’re releasing Elf in July. But who am I to judge?