Brief Remembrances of the Recently Released
SUPERGIRL: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON (2019) - FOREVER KNIGHT: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1991-1996)- TRUE BELIEVER (1989) - THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE (2017) - GOODBYE PARADISE (1983) - THE SHADOW (1994) - UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (2017)
Warner Bros.
While I could never get into Arrow I've been with CW's Supergirl from the beginning, which is not to say I love it always but I dig it enough to keep tuning in week to week. This season's best storyline involved the introduction of arch villain Lex Luthor as portrayed by John Crier (Sixteen Candles)! He's clearly having a lot of fun chewing it up here, and in my opinion is the best Lex we've seen yet, not too grandiose but driven by more than shady real estate dealings at least! On the downside I am not a fan of all the alien politics happening on the show, while I am left-leaning myself I don't need the left-leaning real-world shadings they've pepper this show with from the begining. Something I loved but I wanted more of was the continuing story of Red Daughter, the evil Supergirl whom we got a peek of in the final episode of season three. She gets a decent multi-faceted story-line this season, though I was a bit disappointed with the wrap-up of that arc of the season. We also get a bit too much of Agent Liberty and Manchester Black, both of whom I had my fill of by the end of the season. Meanwhile, Lena Luthor continues to be an exciting element of the series for me, a smart, powerful but flawed woman caught between doing good and being bad, I hope she gets more meat in the season five story line, eventually they're gonna have to deal with Lena and the subject of Supergirl's secret identity. And lastly, if i am being honest, if they could just write-off James Olson I would be alright with that, his storyline just bores me to tears, his superhero alter-ego is lame and his on again off again romance with Luthor fizzled long ago, be done with it! Quibbles aside, overall this was a decent season with some cool elements that kept me tuning in all season long, and it finished strong, which is more than I could say about the previous season. The 4-disc Blu-ray set from WB features the same shared extras that we saw on the recent releases of The Flash and Arrow, including all three of the Elsewhere cross-over episodes, some deleted scenes and a gag reel, plus a digital copy of the season in HD.
FOREVER KNIGHT: THE COMPLETE SERIES Mill Creek Entertainment
When I was in highschool I watched a lot of Forever Knight on late-night TV, the story of Toronto-based Detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies, Trilogy of Terror II), who is secretly an 800-year-old vampire who after centuries of draining humans of their blood is trying to reconcile his past by doing good in the world, like working the night beat to solve crimes. With the help of a local medical examiner Natalie Lambert (Catherine Disher, The Border), whom he has revealed himself to, he is trying to bring back his humanity through experimentation and weaning him off blood, while the ancient vampire who turned him originally, Lucien LaCroix (Niegl Bennett, The Shape of Water) tries to pull him back to the dark side of vampire life. I watched the first two seasons back in the day and was pretty into it, but I sort of drifted away from the show when Knight's original cop partner Detective Donald Schanke (John Kepelos, The Breakfast Club) who was killed off in the third season. He was the comedic relief of the show and I missed his chemistry with Davies. Finishing up the third season now with this set I was rather disappointed with how it wrapped up open ended, very weak and not fulfilling in the least. I was also struck some thirty years later how cheap the show looks in hindsight, appearing to have been shot on video, which always made shows look cheap. Limitations and waning interest in the final season do hurt it a bit, but I'll tell you what, I still got a wave of 90's nostalgia watching it, Geraint Wyn Davies was a fine leading man for the series, and Niegl Bennett made for a solid villain, so if you're curious don't be afraid to sink your fangs into this set. One of my favorite parts of the show were the flashbacks to various points in Knight's 800-year-long life, which really gave the show some soul. The 12-disc DVD set arrives from Mill Creek Entertainment in the original 1.33:1 broadcast aspect ratio with Dolby Digital audio, no extras and no subtitles for this one though. Not a huge fan of how the discs are packaged dual-sided cardboard slips but I dig the thick slip-box they're housed in, with the exception of the flimsy flip top, but for the price I cannot really complain all that much, you can currently pick this series up in it's entirety for about forty-bucks.
TRUE BELIEVER (1989)
Mill Creek Entertainment
Late-80's courtroom drama True Beleiever starring stars James Woods (Videodrome) as a former hippie turned activist lawyer fighting the war on drugs. he takes on a younger lawyer, by way of a very young Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) who encourages his boss to re-open a gang related murder conviction, reigniting the activist fire within Woods hippie-lawyer character. I really found this one to be a by-the-numbers yawner, I couldn't get into it, making this the bad apple in the bunch of this week's capsule reviews. The film arrives on Blu-ray as part of MCE's Retro-VHS series of Blu-ray with a slipcover and a wrap with different artwork. The 1080p HD image is a bit rough looking with compression issues and some dirt n' grit throughout, but at least it includes a solid enough DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio track.
If you're a fan of Woods and/or Downey, and have a predilection for courtroom dramas this might be worth a watch but for me it was a one and done.
THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE (2017) Umbrella Entertainment
The 2002 documentary 'Lost in La Mancha' documented director Terry Gilliam (Brazil) and his seemingly cursed production of the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, then starring Johnny Depp. it was a film that fell apart due to production and natural disasters, plus some human drama, it was a film that many thought would never see the light of day. Somewhat beyond belief Gilliam regrouped years later and finished his passion project with a new cast, this time starring Adam Driver (The Dead Don't Die) as Toby, a director on location is Spain filming a commercial. While there he experiences some trouble of his own after slipping it to his bosses wife and setting a village on fire, finding himself on the run through the Spanish countryside where he is reunited with the cast of a student film he made in the area a decade earlier, a film called 'The Man who Killed Don Quixote', starring a local shoe cobbler named Javier (Jonathan Pryce, Something Wicked This Way Comes). He discovers that in the years since he shot his student film that the old man has lived with the delusion that he is the actual Don Quixote. Meanwhile Toby also reconnects with the local teen girl Angelica (Joana Riberio) who also appeared in the student film, and she has since followed her dreams of Hollywood stardom, but instead finds herself the possession of wealthy Russian who treats her cruelly. The film follows Toby's journey with Angelica and Javier, finding himself falling into the old man's delusions, becoming the Sancho to his deranged Quixote, on a mission of chivalry and danger. It's a gorgeous and sprawling tale, mixing attractive visuals and fantastical dreamscapes to form an epic, poignant and ultimately strange film. The 2.35:1 widescreen framed DVD from Australian distributor Umbrella is region-free (NTSC format) but is bare-bones with no extras or subtitle options, but the anamorphic image looks solid throughout. If you're a fan of Gilliam fantastical tales, or just an adventurous movie-goer, this comes highly recommended.
Umbrella Entertainment
Also coming from Umbrella is this Aussie-centric neo-noir starring Ray Barrett as a cop turned tell-all author, but his book detailing local political corruption book is cancelled by the publisher following an outcry from wary local politicians. To pay the bills he takes on a private investigator job tracking down the missing daughter of a wealthy politician. Along the way he gets mixed up in a political coup, a cult leader, and an attempt on his life, all wrapped up in a uniquely Australian veneer that has plenty of noir-charm. I love Ray Barrett's colorfully comedic, narration over this one, with colorful dialogue like "I had a mouth like an Ayotollah's armpit and a pressing need for a drink...". Prior to this release from Umbrella I'd never even heard of this 80's Oz-noir, so hats of to the Aussie distributor for giving this gem of a film a new lease on life. Umbrella have released this as part of their 'Ozpoitation Classics' line-up, the film arrive on DVD in cropped fullframe, I am assuming this was shot in widescreen and that this are the only available elements for the film, and it looks alright for what it is. There's no start-up menu on the disc but after the main feature there's a half-hour interview with the director speaking about his career.
THE SHADOW (1994) Umbrella Entertainment
Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Razorback) the 90's pulp superhero film The Shadow (1994) is set in '20's era New York City, and stars Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice) whom by day is a smug playboy in New York City, but by night dons the cape and hat and fights crime (sounds familiar) with the supernatural ability to cloud the minds of his enemies, which allows him to seemingly disappear and influence the thoughts of his enemies. The Shadow's also comes armed with a pair of twin nickle-plated .45's, and worse yet, a creepy maniacal laugh that unnerves criminals. I think Baldwin is pretty great here, he suits the role just fine, and his character finally meets a villain more his caliber by way of an ancient descendant of Genghis Khan, who is also versed in the mystical arts, leading to a city wide conflict with the fate of the city hanging in the balance. Some of the early '90s digital effects have dated poorly but the film is still a ton of fun and doesn't rely too heavily on the digital stuff, with some great make-up effects, set pieces and art deco aesthetic. The film has a strong supporting cast including the lovely Penelope Ann Miller (Big Top Pee-wee) as a mind-reading love interest, and Sir Ian Mckellan (Apt Pupil) as a scientist who has invented a deadly
who finds himself caught up n the battle of good vs. evil. Umbrella give the film a solid-looking 1080p HD presentation with an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio mix that highlights the tasty Jerry Goldsmith (Gremlins) score. Sadly no extras on this region-free release, but still a solid no-frills presentation.
Umbrella Entertainment
Director David Robert Mitchell's follow-up to cult-hit It Follows (2014) is the L.A. neo-noir head trip Under The Silver Lake (2017), which follows the dizzying descent into conspiracy and corruption by a seemingly aimless L.A. slacker named Sam (Andrew Garfield, The Amazing Spider-Man). Following the (sort of) disappearance of a young woman in his apartment building the young man is compelled to follow a breadcrumb trail of conspiracy and hidden messages that take him on a wild ride through East L.A. where he will encounter the conspiracy obsessed editor of an underground comic zine, dog killers, an owl-faced urban legend, the homeless king of L.A., a prostitution ring of out of work indie actresses, a Illuminati songwriter responsible for every hit song for the past fifty years, from Elvis to Smells Like Teen Spirit! It's a wild wide dripping with paranoia, at times feeling like Roman Polanski's Chinatown on a bad acid trip, but slathered in Hitchockian vibes. It's sort of a hot mess of a film but I've watched this thing three times this week and I cannot get enough of it, I'm obsessed with it - this is my new Donnie Darko! The enigmatic film lands on region-free DVD from Umbrella Entertainment with an attractive looking 2.35:1 widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1, with no extras and no subtitles.