THE EPITAPH VOL. 11
EDITION
ASTRO BOY: THE COMPLETE SERIES (2003) - METROPOLIS (2001) & MEMORIES (1995)
DOUBLE FEATURE DVD - THE BENJI MOVIE COLLECTION (1974-2004) - A BEAUTIFUL PLANET 4K/BD COMBO (2018) - JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH PACIFIC (2018) 4K/BD COMBO - HOSTEL (2005) & HOSTEL PART II (2007) DOUBLE FEATURE BD/DVD COMBO
Time to get caught up on some current and upcoming releases from the budget-minded label Mill Creek Entertainment. If you're looking to stretch that digital entertainment buck these guys have you covered, with releases spanning the spectrum from exploitation and horror to anime and science fiction, documentaries and kiddie-friendly classics - so let's have a look at a few of their current offerings...
ASTRO BOY - THE COMPLETE SERIES (2003)
I'm not a huge anime fan but this 2003 reboot of the Astro Boy series was pretty entertaining stuff, the story of a A.I,. robot child named Astro who's inventor disappeared, but with the help of a new science-guy mentor sets about protecting lives of robots and humans alike. Fun kiddie stuff, lots of good vs. evil with a little bit of gray area in there. The fifty-episode series spans four DVD discs with no extras, housed in a standard DVD keepcase with the discs stacked on the center spindle, there are no extras, but this set does come with a spiffy looking slipcover that has different artwork than the DVD sleeve. This looks to be the same content as Mill Creek previous release of the series with new artwork.
METROPOLIS (2001)
& MEMORIES (1995)
DOUBLE FEATURE DVD
As stated before I am not a rabid connoisseur of Anime, so I walked into METROPOLIS (2001) with zero expectations and my eyes wide open, and I was stunned. A vibrant and luminous slice of Japanese animation about a world where humans and robots co-exist in a dystopian future. The relationship is frayed and anti-robot groups fan the flames of hatred, causing unrest among the population. Enter into the fray Det. Shunsaku Ban and his nephew Kenichi, tasked with arresting a mad scientist named Dr. Laughton, they find themselves caught up in a dense plot to overthrow the ruler of Metropolis, and a secret weapon that could destroy the world. The dazzling animation borrows from Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1937) which inspired the manga that this is adapted from, and many scenes that look like they could have been pulled directly from Blade Runner, it has loads of sci-fi influences that it wears on it's sleeve. The animation is hallucinatory and overwhelming, blooming with luminous color and dense storytelling, I cannot praise it highly enough. Metropolis was previously issued on Blu-ray/DVD combo from Mill Creek Entertainment in Steelbook packaging, here it gets a DVD re-release on a double-bill with anime-anthology Memories (1995). This film gets both Japanese and English audio with same set of extras as the previous release. Memories (1995) is an anime-anthology film, we get three science fiction shorts, the hand drawn animation is a bit more old school than Metropolis, and I dig it. The shorts are not really connected by a theme or through line but are all quite good, there's a bio-terrorism short, a Kubrick-ian slice of the surreal and an Orwellian vision of dystopia. The animation here is very well-done, but know going in that the sole audio option is Japanese with optional English subtitles, so if you're looking for an English dub you're out of luck. No extras on this one, just the film, but at least the pair of films get their own DVDs and are not both crammed onto a single disc.
THE BENJI MOVIE COLLECTION (1974-2004)
Mill Creek Entertainment have collected three of their Benji restorations on a 2-disc DVD/Blu-ray + Digital release combo, all three films are presented on single-disc Blu-ray or DVD. The films on it are the original BENJI (1974), FOR THE LOVE OF BENJI (1977) and BENJI: OFF THE LEASH (2004). When I was a kid I adored the first two Benji films, kid-friendly movies about a kind-hearted pooch, that still manage to have their charms all these years later. The simplicity of the storytelling is kind of ridiculous, but the heart-warming tales still shine. The 2004 film is the dud of the bunch for me, not having any nostalgic value for me was probably a key factor in that opinion. The three-film set looks solid on Blu-ray, but it lacks most of the extras of the single-film Blu-ray releases, though they do carry-over the trailers and audio commentaries with director Joe Camp and his son Brandon for each film. Also included is a digital copy of the film for Mill Creek Entertainment's proprietary streaming service.
A BEAUTIFUL PLANET (2018)
&
JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH PACIFIC (2018)
HOSTEL (2005) & HOSTEL PART II (2007)- HORROR DOUBLE FEATURE BD/DVD COMBO
Eli Roth's HOSTEL (2005) and HOSTEL PART II (2007) get a Blu-ray/DVD reissue from Mill Creek, both film's are painful excursions into travel abroad, with the first film follow a group of college kids as they travel through Europe in search of European pussy, which they find in abundance in Slovakia, but afterwards find themselves strapped into chairs and subjected to horrific tortures at the hands of the ultra-wealthy who pay big money for the opportunity to murder young people. The first Hostel film is fun, I sort of hated everyone in it, so you just sort of have to root for the gore of it all,and the film delivers some memorable and gruesome deaths for sure, but the lack of character development or even simple likability of anyone really puts a hurt on this one, just the glee of gore will only go so far. The sequel is more of the same with a gender swap, this time we have a trio of ladies, including Heather Matarazzo of Welcome to the Doll House, on vacation in Slovakia, winding up at the same hostel from the first film, and more of the same ensues. The characters here are more likable at least, and I like the warmer look of the film, it's more stylish, and the kills are better as well. We also see more of the behind-the-scenes of how the ultra-wealthy bid on potential victims. The highlight here for me is the blood-drenched death of Matarazzo's character, hung upside down over a tub, a nude woman lays beneath her with a scythe and slices her open, literally bathing in her blood in the process, it's a thing of macabre beauty. There's also a pretty sweet penis-severing, and be on the lookout for Italian director Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust) in a cameo as - what else? - a cannibal! A few notes about this release, it's advertised as the director's cut with 5.1 audio, but the first film is the theatrical version, with the DVD offering a alternate ending, but the Blu-ray does not. Also, the audio on the Blu-ray is 2.0 stereo and not surround, but there is 5.1 on the DVD, so that's a bit of a disappointment, but if you're just looking for an affordable no-frills double-feature this is an option, but if you want the films with all the extras you might want to seek out the standalone Blu-rays for each film that were released by Sony and dripping with cool extras.