Skip to main content

Posts

4K Blu-ray Review: Rampage (1992) — William Friedkin’s Forgotten Moral Nightmare

Recent posts

Blu-ray Review: Ultraman Arc and Ultraman Arc the Movie: The Clash of Light and Evil

Ultraman Arc marks another milestone in Tsuburaya Productions’ ever-expanding Ultra Series, debuting in 2024 as a story about hope, imagination, and responsibility. Rather than following the usual formula of an alien hero swooping in to save humanity, the series reframes Ultraman as a symbol of human creativity itself. It is a show that blends heartfelt character drama with the wonder and spectacle of classic tokusatsu. At the center is Yuma Hize, a rookie member of the Scientific Kaiju Investigation and Prevention team, or SKIP. Yuma is kind, idealistic, and often unsure of himself, but his compassion becomes the bridge between humanity and Ultraman Arc, a luminous being who takes shape from Yuma’s imagination. Unlike many previous hosts, Yuma is not chosen because of strength or bravery, but because of empathy and creativity. His partnership with Arc feels less like a contract and more like a dialogue between human emotion and cosmic potential. The supporting cast gives the series it...

Ahead of Its Time: Eddington’s Blu-ray Release Demands Re-evaluation

Ari Aster’s Eddington is a film that defies easy classification. It is a sprawling, strange, and hypnotic reflection of a nation unraveling under pressure, a psychological and political fever dream set against the fractured landscape of 2020 America. Part social satire, part descent into madness, it captures a moment in history with such raw intensity that it feels both uncomfortably familiar and impossible to look away from. The story takes place in a small desert town in New Mexico, a place that seems forgotten by the world until it becomes a battleground for the country’s cultural and ideological wars. The film opens with a haunting image of a lone figure staggering across the desert at dawn, a visual motif that recurs throughout the story, people lost in vast, empty spaces, searching for meaning in an age of noise. From the beginning, Aster establishes that this is not just a portrait of a town but a mirror held up to an entire nation. Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe Cross, the town’s we...

Following Films Podcast: Daniel Bernhardt on DEATHSTALKER

My guest today is a true legend in the world of action filmmaking. Daniel Bernhardt joins me to discuss his starring role in Steven Kostanski’s reimagining of the Roger Corman B-Movie classic Deathstalker. The Kingdom of Abraxeon is under siege by the Dreadites, heralds of the long-dead sorcerer Nekromemnon. When Deathstalker recovers a cursed amulet from a corpse-strewn battlefield, he's marked by dark magick and hunted by monstrous assassins. To survive, he must break the curse and face the rising evil. Death is just the beginning… of great adventure!" Deathstalker is now playing theatres everywhere.

Revisiting the Future: Aeon Flux Shines in 4K

When Æon Flux hit theaters in 2005, it was already burdened by expectation and misunderstanding. Fans of Peter Chung’s surreal MTV animated series expected a cerebral, avant-garde vision of dystopia. Mainstream audiences, lured by the marketing promise of a sleek sci-fi action film starring Charlize Theron, expected kinetic gunfights and a clear narrative. What arrived was something in between, a film simultaneously too strange and too conventional, too cerebral for popcorn audiences yet too compromised for the cult crowd. Still, two decades later, Æon Flux remains an oddly fascinating artifact of early-2000s science fiction cinema, a film whose stylized visual design, though very much of its time, continues to hold up because of its craft and conviction. Directed by Karyn Kusama, then fresh off her indie breakthrough Girlfight, and written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, Æon Flux is set in the 25th century, four centuries after a virus wiped out most of humanity. The survivors live in ...

Public Enemy’s Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 — The Revolution Keeps Spinning

When Public Enemy dropped Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 in late June, it landed like a thunderclap, a reminder that Chuck D and Flavor Flav still make music that demands to be heard, felt, and confronted. The October 10th arrival of the CD and vinyl editions doesn’t just mark a reissue date; it feels like a full-circle moment, a chance to hold something solid from a group that’s always treated hip-hop as more than disposable noise. Even this deep into their career, Public Enemy still sounds urgent. The record kicks off with “SIICK,” a loud, muscular fusion of hip-hop and rap-rock grit that opens the album like a siren. The guitars slice through the mix while Chuck D’s voice booms like a town crier on the edge of chaos. The song feels like an announcement, not of nostalgia, but of persistence. “Confusion (Here Come the Drums)” is one of the album’s most dynamic tracks. Layers of percussion, noise, and distortion form a wall of rhythm that keeps threatening to topple over b...

Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert Finds Global Homes at NEON and Universal Pictures

Photo credit EPiC- Elvis Presley in Concert Following a rousing world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert has found its global distributors. NEON has acquired U.S. rights to the film, while Universal Pictures Content Group will handle international distribution, with a worldwide theatrical rollout planned for 2026. Described as a “one-of-a-kind cinematic experience,” EPiC brings Elvis Presley back to the stage in a way audiences have never seen before. The film combines newly unearthed archival materials—including unseen footage from Presley’s legendary Las Vegas performances in the 1970s, 16mm reels from Elvis on Tour, and intimate 8mm film from the Graceland archives—with rare audio of Elvis reflecting on his own life and legacy. Produced by Sony Music Vision, Bazmark, and Authentic Studios, EPiC transforms decades-old footage into what Luhrmann calls an “electrifying cinematic odyssey.” The result, critics at TIFF noted,...

Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning 4K Review: A Spectacular Farewell in Ultra HD

Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning feels like both an ending and a reflection, a farewell built on adrenaline, guilt, loyalty, and legacy. It’s a film that constantly looks back while trying to propel itself forward at full speed, as if Ethan Hunt and the movie itself are racing against time, history, and perhaps exhaustion. Christopher McQuarrie returns to direct what is being framed as the culmination of Tom Cruise’s nearly thirty-year journey as Hunt. While it delivers the spectacle fans expect, it also stumbles under the weight of its own finality. The story picks up where Dead Reckoning Part One left off. The rogue artificial intelligence known as “the Entity” is still at large, manipulating global systems and sowing chaos through information warfare. Hunt and his IMF team, Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and Grace (Hayley Atwell), must locate the device that can control or destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands. Standing in their way is Gabriel (Esai Moral...

Following Films Podcast: Bill Morrison From the Tucson Comic Book Convention

My guest today is a true legend in the world of comic art — Bill Morrison. You might know Bill as the co-founder of Bongo Comics, the longtime home of The Simpsons and Futurama in print. He’s also worked as an illustrator for Disney classics, served as Executive Editor for MAD Magazine, and created his own acclaimed series like Roswell: Little Green Man and Dead Vengeance. In our conversation, Bill shares stories from his journey through animation, comics, and publishing — from working alongside Matt Groening to reimagining The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine as a graphic novel. We also discuss the evolution of humor, satire, and storytelling in an era when pop culture is more self-aware than ever.

Spawn: The Director’s Cut 4K Blu-ray Review– A Flawed but Fascinating Relic of 90s Comic Cinema

When Spawn hit theaters in August 1997, it was billed as something different from the comic book adaptations of its day. Hollywood was dabbling in pulp heroes (The Phantom, The Shadow) and neon-soaked camp (Batman Forever, Batman & Robin), but few films had attempted to translate the darker, more extreme energy of the 1990s comics boom. Todd McFarlane’s Spawn seemed like the perfect candidate: a grim, gothic antihero with a cult following, steeped in hellfire, betrayal, and supernatural spectacle. The theatrical cut of Spawn that audiences saw was a strange beast. At just over 90 minutes, it told the story of Al Simmons (Michael Jai White), a government assassin betrayed by his employer Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen), murdered, and resurrected as Spawn, a reluctant soldier in Hell’s army. The premise is brimming with tragic weight: a man torn between vengeance and redemption, cursed with grotesque powers, and manipulated by the demonic clown Violator (John Leguizamo). Unfortunately, the...