From Chris: Devastated by his daughter's brutal murder, a pastor is tempted to obtain his own brand of justice against the unrepentant killer. Slick indie thriller with shades of Saw, John Wick, Sons of Anarchy, The Hills Have Eyes and others nicely put together by the co-directors.
The film has you wondering how the opening set piece of two stranded motorists being attacked plays into the plot until it finally pays off in a wild and bloody final act. Lots ...
2023-07-21 16:45:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Arrow delivers on this one, presenting a gorgeous print, mastered recently, and at a high resolution. Stable grain helps the encode present this cleanly, without signs of digital weariness. Mastering and encoding keep Warriors Two transparent to the film stock.
The result is a detailed, precise video offering. Facial definition stands out in close and the various forest sets/locations display splendid sharpness.
Equally grand, color density doesn't miss, dis...
2023-07-21 16:30:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Robot Monster looks... rough, initially. At times, the lackluster clarity is akin to a Laserdisc, the analog-like noise, smearing, and halos never qualifying for HD material. Grain skips and jumps too. Even considering the cheap filming conditions and 3D process involved, this presentation lacks any genuine clarity at numerous points during the runtime. At its worst, it's hard on the eyes.
Robot Monster simply doesn't look like film in these spots, but th...
2023-07-20 17:27:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
From Chris: Beautiful transfer of this George Romero flick from the early 1980s. One of the best 4K jobs I've seen put out by Scream Factory (side note: Shout Factory has officially rebranded themselves Shout Studios but is keeping the Scream Factory label around). Crisp definition, a completely natural and often spectacular Dolby Vision grading, Dolby Atmos sound, pretty much everything a fan of this homage to horror comics could want.
I like this anthology movie &nbs...
2023-07-19 14:37:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
I won't bore you with various vacation pics, but I figured some of these models and dealer room shots from G-Fest would be of interest. It was a pretty wild experience and I've come to realize I basically blacked out because I have no memory of initially entering the dealer room. It was... a lot.
2023-07-17 15:52:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Australia's Indicator called first dibs on Bingo Long, but Mill Creek's US release likely uses the same master. It's a good one. While sharing a disc with Which Way Is Up?, there's enough space to handle both cleanly. Bingo Long isn't the sharpest and compression cuts down on the highest resolution potential, the loss is minor overall. Texture remains visible, crisp, and reasonably defined. Film grain looks like grain, albeit with a slight digital touc...
2023-07-13 16:30:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
From Chris: 1976 French road trip movie about male bonding from an unlikely group of friends. One of the first discs from a new label, Radiance. I believe Radiance was started by the guy who used to run Arrow Video's operations. Solid A/V quality, though I doubt this kind of French filmmaking is going to light up the sales charts.
2023-07-12 18:01:45 +0000 UTC
View Post
Context: For a while, I've wanted to do more interviews and features on physical media, restoration, etc. Well, I finally had a chance and ran with it. This is still a draft (hence the HTML tags and such) and I'm still waiting on some screenshots, but this is close to what will be live on the site tomorrow. Enjoy!
For around 20 years now, Phil Hopkins’ name circulated through the home media industry. Growing up obsessed with film, beginning with the advent of 16mm home movies, it was...
2023-07-12 17:34:53 +0000 UTC
View Post
Last set of exclusives before I leave for Chicago!
For the $5 tier:
Mosquito (https://amzn.to/3rnmQrU)
Nightmare at Noon (https://amzn.to/3JV3AbH)
2023-07-12 13:57:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
While certainly not a recent master, Which Way Is Up is close enough. There's plentiful detail and definition to take in, and whatever the scan's source resolution, it's enough. Plus, it's a natural scan, retaining the grain and encoding is better still. It's refreshing to say that about a Mill Creek two-for-one disc.
Color reproduction adds splendid pop and depth to the saturation. Flesh tones appear pleasing, while the farm environment drenches the screen in gre...
2023-07-11 19:48:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Pulled from a pure 4K source, Honor Among Thieves shows dazzling detail at times. A few spots appear slightly edgy, lacking the firmness seen elsewhere. That's generally minor. The rest looks precise, clear, and pristine, even with the slightest noise visible in spots. That's minor too.
The color palette stretches wide, from striking earth tones, chilly dungeons, and super heated flames. Flesh tones impress. A touch of generic orange/teal aside, Honor Among Th...
2023-07-11 17:03:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Somewhat normal week here, but this weekend/next week, not so much. For my birthday, I'm heading to Chicago for G-Fest, the largest Godzilla convention in the Americas. It's my first time going, not to mention my first out of state mini-vacation... ever.
Today (Tues) and Thursday I'll have reviews going up. I'll have exclusive screens on Wednesday too. After that, I likely won't have anything new until late next week. Thursday the 20th, if I had a guess. After that, everything should ...
2023-07-11 15:04:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
From Chris: Somewhat of a cross between Hostel and a slasher as muddled themes of rich vs poor are the narrative's focus. Feels like a movie which could have been made in the West, follows the standard 2000s horror beats for R movies.
A high school dropout is offered the chance to attend a secret party in place of his wealthy boss, Mr. Yang. Long story short, it's all a trap for the amusement of the rich to watch their underlings get tortured and killed. Plot hol...
2023-07-10 17:39:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Mercifully remastered after a truly terrible Blu-ray presentation, Paramount's 4K debut for The Truman Show looks splendid. Retaining the natural film grain and devoid of edge enhancement, the sharpness doesn't let up. This natural, organic imagery finally brings this classic home in the appropriate way. The only suspect scene happens around 47-minutes. With Laura Linney in the car, both appear weirdly processed and smear with motion.
Graded for Dolby Vision, Para...
2023-07-10 15:59:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Sloppy, soft, and filtered, Armour of God deserves a far better master than what's offered. While hardly a catastrophe, Armour of God struggles to produce fidelity in any notable quality. Grain reduction doesn't eliminate texture but does reduce it. What's left appears chunky, littered with artifacts, but it's not the encode.
Black crush impedes the shadows, further reducing detail and robbing Armour of God of depth. Passable contrast helps life ...
2023-07-06 17:29:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
4K exclusives are always good, yeah? Oh, and happy belated 4th to US subscribers!
For the $5 tier:
Voodoo MacBeth (https://amzn.to/3rhYMqk)
Incredible But True (https://amzn.to/449Fpy1)
2023-07-05 15:31:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
From Chris: Basically one director's student film he made at Ohio State University. Most of the cast are students earning college credit for the movie and it was filmed all over Ohio.
The only reason someone became interested in releasing it after all these years is scream queen Linnea Quigley, the only recognizable person anyone will know in the cast. It's actually not a bad VHS-era horror flick, about a satanic cult being exposed in a small town by the jo...
2023-07-03 19:37:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Appearing similar to the Blu-ray, Avatar hasn't aged well in terms of pure visuals. The early digital effects and their artificial, smeary aesthetics weaken the UHD's prowess. Ringing and edge enhancement further mar the end result. Avatar's sharpness is unnaturally harsh, lacking the purest definition and limiting those otherwise gorgeous wide shots on Pandora.
Stephen Lang's intro around seven-minutes is generally a complete mess. Facial detail in close...
2023-07-03 19:16:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Scream Factory debuts Motel Hell on 4K with a fresh 4K scan, and the benefits appear immediately. The grain structure isn't an easy one, but the encode has enough space and a delicate touch to keep it intact (slight aside for the smokiest/haziest scenes aside). It's generally a spotless print too. While much of Motel Hell takes place in darkened, confined areas, daylight exteriors reveal splendid definition of the landscapes. In darker light, texture still carr...
2023-06-30 17:56:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Beautifully restored, Warner's encode handles the grain structure cleanly, allowing the detail, sharpness, and resolution to shine. In close, the texture flourishes. Facial definition bests the Blu-ray. Precision is natural and crisp. Vacation isn't the greatest looker on the format, but it's organic.
Gains made to color enhance flesh tones, especially warm, but never egregiously so. The best material happens during the wide angle establishing shots, where the bri...
2023-06-29 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
There's not a grandiose improvement over the Blu-ray in terms of raw fidelity/detail. Waterworld appears somewhat fuzzy much of the time, but it's not a master lacking in definition when at its best. Facial definition shows off in places, with wide shots generally dull. Arrow's encode handles the grain structure decently with a handful of gaffes, mostly within smoke and haze. Side-by-side though, it's a minor jump, and likely a 2K scan.
Moderately warm color benef...
2023-06-28 15:49:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
Masterfully shot digitally at full 4K, the resolution on display is quite luxurious. Detectable ringing does show through (look at the distant mountains against the skyline during the first horse chase action scene). That's the lone holdup keeping this from perfection, leaving the sense the sharpness was bumped to middle setting on the TV. Look at the ceiling lights at 55:21 for visible aliasing as well. This roughens otherwise gorgeous shots, mostly wide angle material. Mostly,...
2023-06-28 15:42:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
We've got the Canadian forest fire smoke overhead here today and the air sucks, so seems like a better idea to stay in to get these screenshots for you.
For the $5 tier:
The Civil Dead (https://amzn.to/3Ny304i)
The Glass Bottom Boat (https://amzn.to/3NrJu9P)
2023-06-28 15:35:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
While dim (very) and dark by design, Evil Dead Rise spares nothing in terms of definition. A true 4K source certainly helps, resolving the tiniest facial details, gore, and rotting set design. Sharpness performs admirably, brilliantly even.
In terms of black levels, Evil Dead Rise stands among the greats on this format. Their purity and thickness is like few others. Cinematography rarely allows for the HDR pass to show off the brightness. Even the peaks r...
2023-06-27 15:17:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
What a wonderfully colorful, deeply saturated piece of animation this is. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, beyond the red/blue and green/blue outfits of the Mario team, the Mushroom Kingdom is flushed with primaries, dazzling pinks, intense fiery oranges, and more. The Rainbow Road chase is as visually reference as anything else on the market, both in color and contrast intensity.
Beautifully rendered, possibly at full 4K, the UHD shows dazzling definition. A slight g...
2023-06-27 15:06:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
From Chris: Italian crime thriller from Lucio Fulci put out last year (?) by Cauldron Films, not the Marky Mark movie. Decent action and a mostly solid screenplay from the director better known for his gory horror films. An Italian smuggler with a wife and kid gets in over his head against a ruthless Frenchman.
Transfer is somewhat suspect, an older job likely done by the Italians with soft definition and patchy grain reproduction. The film badly need...
2023-06-27 14:20:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Way of Water is a visual spectacle. It's glowing, bright, intense, colorful, and detail-rich enough to set a new standard for visual effect spectacles. The HDR grading shines, giving Pandora a magic-like presence from bio-luminescent plants, or sunlight gleaming off watery surfaces. A slight noise remains throughout, more noticeable in darker scenes, but always there. Encoding handles this without issue.
Masterfully detailed, ...
2023-06-23 18:38:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
A splendid, new restoration was clearly done at high resolution, bringing judicious color saturation to McBain. From soldier uniforms, flags, and jungle vibrancy, the vividness is a powerful asset.
That, in conjunction with the visible detail, makes for a lavish Blu-ray presentation. Texture is a constant, even at mid-range. Sharpness only wavers due to the original cinematography. Synapse's encoding handles a mild grain structure with ease.
At its peak, con...
2023-06-22 17:58:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Video
An immediately noticeable jump in color happens as the credits roll, the comic book covers sensationally vivid. Spectacular views of the mall, their signage, and everything else explode in vibrancy. Dolby Vision makes a dramatic difference in this case.
Equally rich in image dimension and contrast, brightness doesn't make a substantial leap, but it's enough to notice when played back-to-back. Black levels match the previous disc, and that's fine; they're full and thick.
2023-06-21 17:59:30 +0000 UTC
View Post
Update! My parent's house has power. All is now well. Onward with the exclusives!
For the $5 tier:
His Dark Materials S3 (https://amzn.to/444px01)
Inbetween Girl (https://amzn.to/3NCp5z5)
2023-06-21 14:01:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
