www.andyfilm.com
Message Board (open 24 hours!)
Twitter - @andredursin (for everything else!)
Freshly remastered from the vaults of CBS’ Cinema Center Films this month is the tough, exciting PRIME CUT (86 mins., 1972, R), a gritty rural gangster thriller that receives a welcome upgrade on 4K UHD from Kino Lorber – the first of four ‘70s remasters headlining late August’s big disc releases.
 This taut, efficient tale serves as an illustration of how much filmmaking has sadly changed over the decades since its release. Robert Dillon’s script and Michael Ritchie’s direction never overstate the film’s pulpy plot and resist the temptation to stretch the story beyond its 86-minute running time. Most of the picture’s emotion and excitement come not through dialogue but rather the terrific performances of Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman and a young Sissy Spacek (who never looked more attractive than she does here), exchanging glances and conveying emotions in a restrained manner far removed from the “hip,” pretentious tone we see all too prevalent in today’s cinema.
Dillon’s plot involves a Chicago enforcer (Marvin) who’s sent to Kansas City to collect from a mobster named Mary Ann (Gene Hackman), whose cattle empire is spiraling out of control. Hackman owes Marvin’s employer big-time, and the last Chicago thug sent to deal with Mary Ann was promptly turned into a ground-up hot dog by his big lug brother (Gregory Walcott).
What Marvin and his crew discover when they arrive in K.C. is shocking: not only are Hackman and his cronies thoroughly repellent white trash, but they’re also mining a group of orphaned young girls and turning them into doped-up love slaves for their own pleasure. Spacek is one of the latter, and her chemistry with Marvin — who rescues her out of her sedated state — is palpable in a film that’s both atmospherically shot on location (by Gene Polito) and superbly scored by Lalo Schifrin, who was able to incorporate a wide spectrum of thematic material in “Prime Cut” (including one great, propulsive action cue during the climax).
“Prime Cut” is a film that flew under the radar for years, finally netting some much-deserved attention when the CBS DVD rolled out in 2005, preserving its widescreen aspect ratio – an absolute must since Ritchie and Polito employ all sides of the frame to convey the setting (just check out the great sequence where Marvin and Spacek escape from Hackman’s thugs in a wheat field).
Kino Lorber’s UHD offers a fresh 4K scan of the OCN with Dolby Vision HDR (2.39) and it’s a superb transfer with added detail over their earlier, excellent Blu-Ray release. The HDR usage is solid as well, while both 2.0 and 5.1 stereo soundtracks offer clear dialogue with new extras including a pair of commentaries: one with Marvin biographer Dwayne Epstein, the other with Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson. Each detail the oddball charm of this film as well as the poor working relationship between Marvin and Ritchie. The trailer and the Blu-Ray are also included in a movie with a B-movie plot capped by A-grade filmmaking, hailing from a most interesting time in Hollywood.
 “Prime Cut” is one of four key ‘70s remasters premiering late this August for movie buffs, with Vinegar Syndrome’s Cinematographe debuting two major new restorations in their customary limited-edition hardback packaging.
Robert Altman’s THIEVES LIKE US (123 mins., 1974, R) followed “The Long Goodbye” among the many films that comprise the director’s prolific ‘70s output.
It’s a departure from his typical fare in that this adaptation of Edward Anderson’s novel is fairly straightforward in its story and even filmmaking delivery: during the midst of the Great Depression, a team of men (Keith Carradine, John Schuck and Bert Remsen) stage a jailbreak and set out on a spree of robberies in rural Mississippi. Carradine’s character is the most sensitive of the lot, Remsen the veteran and Schuck a more violent force of nature – but all three eventually take more than their fair share and find themselves hotly pursued by local police en route to a completely predictable end.
Calder Willingham, John Tewkesbury and Altman’s script, from a dramatic angle, isn’t the most compelling element in “Thieves Like Us” – instead it’s Altman’s depiction of time and place, the dusty back roads of the South in the midst of the 1930s, that’s striking. To punctuate the depiction of the era, his soundtrack weaves in and out of an audio tapestry of period music, preachers and news flashes, the movie managing – in spite of its straightforward story – to generate some sympathy in its lead characters by way of Carradine’s relationship with a local girl (one of Shelley Duvall’s many Altman performances). Duvall’s character becomes the audience’s surrogate, the film ending on an ambiguous but hopeful final shot – for her anyway – as America seemingly climbs its way out of the Depression.
Cinematographe’s 4K UHD/Blu-Ray set (limited to 6000) includes a new 4K restoration (1.85) from the 35mm OCN, with mostly subtle HDR10 enhancement. It’s a new master that makes for an appreciable upgrade on MGM’s older, comparatively hazy HD transfer (last seen in a decade-old Kino Blu), though the movie is fairly “soft” as shot by Altman and French cinematographer Jean Boffey to begin with. The mono sound is fine, and extras include a new interview with Joan Tewkesbury and Nathaniel Thompson commentary to go along with archival extras (Altman’s commentary, interview with Carradine).
 Cinematographe’s other new limited edition is a restoration of JOYRIDE (92 mins., 1977, R), an entertaining B-movie from director Joseph Ruben and producer Bruce Cohn Curtis – a combination that, just a few years later, would give us the fun genre exercise “Dreamscape” with Dennis Quaid and Kate Capshaw.
Ruben’s third film – but arguably first “serious” outing following a pair of light sex comedies – follows a trio of young people: couple Robert Carradine and girlfriend Melanie Griffith and their pal Desi Arnaz Jr., as they leave their dead-end jobs in California and decide to start anew in Alaska. Alas, things there aren’t much better, with the group running afoul of locals and resorting to carrying out some crimes in retaliation. This includes taking hostage a local girl (Anne Lockhart) in the hopes of taking off with a ransom from the local bank.
“Joyride” is a really interesting and fun piece of mid ‘70s filmmaking. Distributed by AIP, it falls somewhere between the “disaffected youth movies” you’d see in the late ‘60s and an episode of “The Donny & Marie Show” – as evidenced by a tone that seems like it’s going to veer into tragedy and away from its freewheeling earlier sections. Yet, to Ruben’s credit, he keeps the viewer effectively off-balance throughout, relying on the chemistry of his three leads to keep the audience invested in their assorted trials and tribulations “finding their place” in a nasty world.
Along the way, the movie serves up plenty of ‘70s flare, from car chases to just a bit of T&A. Arnaz was at the height of his popularity and he gets to bed not only Griffith (who possessed some genuine appeal even early on here, years before her actual ‘80s stardom) but Lockhart, who (gratuitously) disrobes to the strains of Jimmie Haskell’s uproariously dated score. I never much understood the appeal of Carradine as a lead (at least outside the “Revenge of the Nerds” movies), but Ruben meshes his lead trio’s personalities well, and the film’s reworked (upbeat) finale somehow feels much more satisfying than the traditional ‘70s downer ending Ruben and co-writer Peter Rainer were planning on using.
“Joyride” was issued on Vestron VHS and an MGM DVD which I never viewed, making this new 2K Blu-Ray restoration from the 35mm interpositive (1.85) my first look at the picture. The transfer is superlative with excellent detail and clear mono sound, the latter “edited from the original theatrical audio” but still containing credited songs from the likes of Barry Mann and ELO. Extras include new interviews with Ruben and cinematographer Steven M. Katz, a commentary by historians Alain Silver and Christopher Coppola, and assorted booklet notes in Cinematographe’s 4000-copy limited hardback box.
 Our fourth and final foray into the ‘70s, and by no means the least, is Robert Benton’s BAD COMPANY (93 mins., 1972, PG), a film that’s long carried something of a cult following in spite of its slow roll out onto most home video formats. Case in point is Fun City Editions’ long-overdue Blu-Ray edition, a sensational 4K remaster that enhances the cinematography of the great Gordon Willis, one of this Paramount release’s strongest assets.
Benton’s hit-and-miss filmography arguably hit its height with this memorable, character-drive piece starring Barry Brown as a young Ohio boy who’s sent away by his parents to avoid being drafted into the Civil War. On his travels west he encounters scrappy Jeff Bridges and his young “gang” (including Jerry Hauser and John Savage) who are more survivors than criminals – at one point, Bridges’ character is stunned to find out none of his traveling companions even know how to skin a rabbit.
The group engage in an assortment of adventures on the prairie as they head off in Benton and his co-writer David Newman’s “revisionist western” where the gang claims less victims than is victimized itself in sudden bursts of violence, including a run-in with Bridges’ future “Big Lebowski” star David Huddleston.
“Bad Company” has some strong writing and, again, conveys an effective sense of time and place; it’s also brilliantly shot by Willis at every turn. Its reputation may not be completely earned in terms of its story, which kicks around and then ends perfunctorily at 90 minutes – Benton and Newman may not have had anything else to say, but there’s no real grand dramatic moment as the film concludes, which may have something to do with the picture often being considered a minor classic, or a cult movie, than a fully realized cinematic endeavor.
Yet for its look and mood, “Bad Company” is absolutely recommended, and Fun City’s 4K restoration (1.85, mono) is superb. The clarity of the transfer is so good you can see the horizon not as a messy, unfocused line but rather in pinpoint detail, conveying the movie’s gritty grandeur more effectively than any previous transfer before it. It’s another awesome restoration from the label, the disc including the trailer and a Walter Chaw commentary as well.
 Also New on 4K UHD
SUDDEN DEATH 4K UHD/Blu-Ray (101 mins., 1995, R; Kino Lorber): After producing solid box-office with the Fall ‘94 hit “Timecop,” action star Jean-Claude Van Damme reunited with director Peter Hyams for “Sudden Death,” a “Die Hard” wannabe which Universal hoped would produce similarly solid returns at the Christmas ‘95 multiplex.
Alas, this flat exercise – clearly intended to offer “crossover” appeal to viewers not necessarily familiar with its leading man – just never gets it cranking on the suspense front, with the movie mechanically motoring through a by-the-numbers script from writer Gene Quintano.
Van Damme plays a former (disgraced) firefighter turned fire marshal for the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, home of the NHL Penguins. The team’s about to take the ice for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals when a crazed villain (Powers Boothe, serving up his usual “heavy” shtick) takes control of a luxury box occupied by the Vice President of the United States (Raymond J. Barry). Of course, only one man can save the day, and it’s Van Damme to the rescue, weaving his way in and out of the arena while trying to avoid corrupt secret agents and let the fans enjoy the game at the same time.
“Sudden Death” features some good practical effects work but it’s curious how this movie never ignites. Maybe it was the decision to set the whole movie at a hockey game, or the fact Van Damme has no chemistry with the child actors playing his kids – both of whom, predictably, get into trouble (I had also forgotten how abrupt the last scene is, the movie trying to get away from them and to the end credits as fast as possible!). Whatever the case may be, the film offers a weak imitation of “Die Hard” and far less of a vehicle suited to sell JCVD to the larger viewing public as was intended – he doesn’t have Bruce Willis’ charisma and there’s little else here to sell to audiences. Punctuating it all is an exhausting John Debney score which cribs from other sources and immediately lets you know you’re watching a film from the mid ‘90s (hello, “Conspirators” cue from John Williams’ “JFK” soundtrack!).
Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD premiere of “Sudden Death” should still offer some appeal to the Van Damme die-hards out there, and the Dolby Vision transfer (2.35) – via a new 4K scan of the 35mm OCN – really looks dynamic. Hyams’ movies, especially around this time, had a tendency to favor low or natural light conditions and the use of HDR aids the overall presentation – especially compared to previous releases where Hyams’ visuals were problematic to render at home. The 5.1 DTS MA sound is fine, and extras include a new commentary by Mike Leeder and Russ Boyask plus scattered EPK content (vintage interview clips, behind-the-scenes footage, trailers).
 CAN’T HARDLY WAIT 4K UHD (100 mins., 1998, PG-13; Sony): Good-natured teen comedy was just a minor hit back in 1998, but like many other staples of the genre, boasts so many familiar faces in all kinds of assorted roles (from Jennifer Love Hewitt and Seth Green to Lauren Ambrose and others) that it’s become something of a viewer favorite. That said, “Can’t Hardly Wait” isn’t in the league of, say, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” or “Dazed and Confused,” as it serves up a typical tale of a kid (the overly enthusiastic, and somewhat grating, Ethan Embry) trying to woo his dream girl (Hewitt) during a raucous Graduation Night party. Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont wrote and directed “Can’t Hardly Wait,” which arrives on 4K UHD in one of Sony’s typically strong Dolby Vision HDR (1.85, Dolby Atmos/5.1 DTS MA) packages with two commentary tracks (one from the 1998 DVD plus a 2008 track mostly offering the same participants), a couple of deleted scenes and the standard Making Of featurette recounting the production — though oddly without the participation of Hewitt or Ambrose. A Digital HD copy is also included.
 Also New From Kino Lorber
THE WHITE DAWN Blu-Ray (109 mins., 1974, PG; Kino Lorber): Director Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of James Houston’s novel centers on three New England sailors in the early 1900s who become stranded in the Arctic during a whaling expedition. The trio (Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, Lou Gossett) are saved by native Eskimos, but tragic cultural differences ultimately follow.
Working with a small crew, Kaufman filmed “The White Dawn” on location in the Canadian Arctic, and the result is a magnificently shot picture that compensates for its sometimes heavy-handed script with authentic atmosphere and locales. Henry Mancini’s brilliant score and Michael Chapman’s cinematography combine with Kaufman’s filmmaking to create a pseudo-documentary approach that’s impossible to forget in spite of its flaws, and is enriched on Blu-Ray with a 4K remaster of the original 35mm OCN by Kino Lorber.
This new 1080p (1.85) transfer is superbly detailed and encoded, an enhancement over the movie’s previous 2005 DVD edition, and comes with that release’s outstanding special features. The latter are led by Kaufman’s fascinating audio commentary, which ranks among the best. The director discusses the challenges of working with an intimate crew in physically demanding locations and within the confines of a limited studio budget. Meanwhile, Kaufman’s video introduction and supporting featurettes likewise touch upon the creation of the film and its lasting impact (film music aficionados will also appreciate his comments about Mancini’s score, including the use of an Eskimo tune in his 1983 classic “The Right Stuff”).
All told, “The White Dawn” is an interesting film that represents ’70s maverick filmmaking at its most audacious, and is superbly remastered here by Kino Lorber.
 A film I wasn’t familiar with, ACES HIGH (114 mins., 1976, PG), likewise debuts on Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber this month. This is a WWI drama starring a restrained Malcolm McDowell as a veteran, understanding British commander of an air squadron where, seemingly, each batch of his new recruits is trained and then sent off to die. Peter Firth (“Lifeforce”) plays one of his newest pilots – one that reminds him of himself – in a well-acted picture, scripted by Howard Barker and directed by Jack Gold with a great supporting cast on-hand: Christopher Plummer, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, Ray Milland and Simon Ward among them. I’m surprised I hadn’t encountered “Aces High” previously but Kino Lorber’s Blu sports a good looking Studio Canal restoration (1.66, mono) with ample extras: interviews with Gold and McDowell, a commentary from Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell, a look at the movie’s premiere and a restoration comparison.
A quartet of American-International ‘70s horrors return to Blu-Ray this month from Kino Lorber as part of their “Kino Cult” branded line with collectible slipcovers. All will be familiar titles to those who grew up with them circulating on TV throughout the ‘80s or as part of MGM’s beloved “Midnite Movies” line during the heyday of the DVD format.
 Kicking things off is Jeff Lieberman’s electrically-charged worm thriller SQUIRM (93 mins., 1976, PG), last seen in a Shout release nearly a decade ago. This low-budget affair is set in rural Georgia where a storm sends an electrical current into the ground, resulting in a frenzy of killer worms who surface and cause trouble for the locals. This is a nostalgic drive-in affair presented on Blu-Ray in what looks like the same MGM master (1.85, mono) with extras reprieved from the Shout release (commentary with Lieberman; interviews with Lieberman, star Don Scardino and effects artist Bill Milling; a location tour with Lieberman) as well as another commentary included with Lee Gambin and John Harrison.
Two hilarious Burt I. Gordon concoctions also grace Kino Cult’s quartet of terrors: the B-auteur’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ THE FOOD OF THE GODS (88 mins., 1976, PG), as well as its 1977 follow-up EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (89 mins., 1977, PG). “Food” is Gordon’s magnum opus (or, at least, it’s pretty close) and fits comfortably into the post-”Jaws” series of ecological “nature kills!” genre exercises, with Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, and Belinda Balaski as three of the poor souls who hole up in a Northwestern cabin while giant rats and roosters (you heard right!) wreak havoc. “Ants” isn’t quite as amusing, but we still get Joan Collins and Robert Lansing as part of the sacrificial lambs for radioactive-enhanced ants, the size of which we hadn’t seen since “Them!”
 Both movies include perfectly serviceable MGM masters (1.85, mono) with “Food of the Gods”’ extras including commentaries by Gordon and a separate track featuring Lee Gambin and John Harrison; the trailer; and an interview with co-star (and Joe Dante regular) Belinda Balaski. “Empire of the Ants” offers another Gordon commentary plus a second track featuring David Del Valle and Michael Varranti, while both discs include trailers.
The set is capped with the memorable AIP effort FROGS (91 mins., 1972, PG), a campy thriller with Ray Milland in one of his typical late-career performances as a stuffy, anti-animal millionaire who receives his comeuppance from some seriously annoyed frogs. Sam Elliott and Joan Van Ark are also on the frogs’ menu of vengeance in this very silly effort which nostalgic viewers might still get a kick out of revisiting in Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray. The disc includes another sturdy, if older, MGM master (1.85, mono) with a commentary between David Del Valle and movie historian Dan Marino (yes, legendary NFL Hall of Famer Dan’s son), the trailer, and interview with Van Ark.
 More on 4K UHD
HIGH CRIME 4K UHD/Blu-Ray/CD Limited Edition (103 mins., 1973; Not Rated; Blue Underground): Aficionados of the Poliziotteschi, the Italian police crime drama, should be doubly excited this month as Blue Underground rolls out their Limited Edition of “High Crime.” This 1973 thriller features Franco Nero as a determined cop leading a murder investigation associated with a drug ring when his family become targets – his attempts to truly, almost single-handedly, take down dope smuggling coming in from France is the thrust of this Enzo G. Castellari film, one which laid the groundwork for many, similarly themed Italian productions that followed.
Produced in the wake of “The French Connection,” “High Crime” is potent and well-produced given its obviously modest budget, and here makes its US Blu-Ray and UHD debuts in Blue Underground’s release. The UHD sports a superlative Dolby Vision HDR (1.85) master with mono English or Italian sound (and optional subtitles), with the film presented in its longer uncensored cut. Commentaries include Franco Nero and Mike Malloy on one track with Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani on the other. The Blu-Ray, meanwhile, houses loads of extras including interviews with Castellari and cast/crew members like composers Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (whose music is also included, with an exclusive bonus track, on an adjoining CD), and a featurette from Mike Molloy. An alternate ending, arguably superior to the one in the film, rounds out the limited-edition 3-disc package.
 THE MEXICO TRILOGY: El Mariachi/Desperado/Once Upon a Time in Mexico Blu-Ray/Desperado 4K UHD (81/104/102 mins., 1993/1995/2003, R; Arrow): Deluxe limited edition Arrow box-set takes viewers back to the indie days of the early ‘90s when upstart filmmaker Robert Rodriguez – armed with a dream and a batch of credit cards – was able to self-finance his hit “El Mariachi.”
The reportedly $7000-budgeted film became a worldwide art house hit, leading to Columbia Pictures bankrolling a (vastly) bigger budgeted sequel, “Desperado,” in 1995, as well as a trilogy capper, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” in 2003. By that point the charm had run out, but Rodriguez’s earlier efforts still bustle with energy and filmmaking prowess on lesser budget, at least before stars like Antonio Banderas were recruited for “Desperado,” bringing a more professional (though not necessarily more fun) touch to the action.
All three films have been collected in a great new Arrow box-set that includes a 4K UHD of “Desperado,” a fresh restoration in fact, with Blu-Rays of “El Mariachi” and “Once Upon a Time…” included for good measure. All three films include a litany of audio options, including the original Latin-American Spanish audio on “El Mariachi” plus its English dub; PCM and 5.1 DTS MA sound on “Desperado”; and 5.1/2.0 DTS MA on “Once Upon a Time.” Extras in the deluxe-sized box-set include an illustrated collector’s booklet, Rodriguez’s commentaries; new interviews with “El Mariachi”’s cast and composers; conversations on “Desperado” with Rodriguez himself, producer Bill Borden and others; and deleted/scenes, “Ten Minute…” vignettes featuring the director, trailers and more.
 THE WOMAN/OFFSPRING 4K UHD (103/79 mins., 2009/11; Arrow): Lucky McKee’s 2009 horror outing “The Woman,” about a feral female (Pollyanna McIntosh) who ends up worming her way into (and promptly destroying) a family presided over by corrupt lawyer Sean Bridgers, debuts in a new 4K UHD restoration from Arrow this month. The two-disc set includes both “The Woman” and its prequel “Offspring” in brand new UHD transfers with Dolby Vision HDR (1.78,5 .1 DTS MA) and tons of extras: commentaries, interviews, archival commentaries with McKee and others, deleted scenes, short movies, music videos, image galleries, a collector’s booklet and plenty more in the slipcase-adorned double-disc set.
BLACK MASS 4K UHD (122 mins., 2015, R; Warner): Immensely disappointing look at the life and times of infamous Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, whose brother became president of the Massachusetts Senate at the same time he became one of the most wanted gangsters in the nation.
Bulger is embodied here by Johnny Depp in a performance that drew some acclaim but to me, with its vampiric make-up, comes off as thoroughly unconvincing – along with most of this film, which despite being based on Dick Lehr and Geard O’Neill’s book, fabricates entire scenes and leaves out crucial details in Bulger’s story. Where, for instance, is Bulger’s female compatriot Catherine Greig? She’s nowhere to be found in director Scott Cooper’s film, which seems to have made some crucially misguided decisions on how to dramatize Bulger’s story right from the get-go. The final film is chock full of familiar faces – from Joel Edgerton as the corrupt FBI agent who dangles too far with Bulger and a hugely miscast Benedict Cumberbatch as brother Billy – but it’s fragmented and haphazardly edited, making it not only hard to follow, but also care about.
 Cooper did shoot “Black Mass” on location and the movie looks great in Warner’s 4K UHD (2.39) with Dolby Vision HDR, but it’s all surface with little going on underneath. Extras include three featurettes – but none of the reportedly extensive deleted scenes that were left on the cutting room floor, along with what might be a far more interesting film.
GAME NIGHT 4K UHD (100 mins., 2018, R; Warner): After failing to resurrect the “Vacation” franchise and relaunching “Spider-Man” to mediocre results, writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein turned their hands to directorial work with “Game Night,” a limp comedy that wastes a talented cast in a film that ultimately goes nowhere. Jason Bateman plays an overly aggressive board game/trivia enthusiast whose “Game Night” events with wife Rachel McAdams are beloved by their friends – at least until wayward brother Kyle Chandler shows up with the promise of holding his own party…one that includes an eventual kidnapping that’s not part of the game. “Game Night” starts reasonably well but eventually settles straight into a formula, repetitive pattern. This wouldn’t be a major problem if the picture delivered consistent laughs – but it doesn’t, as writer Mark Perez’s script leaves Bateman, McAdams and a strong supporting cast (Jesse Plemons, Michael C. Hall and an unbilled Geoffrey Wright among them) floundering with weak material. Warner’s 4K UHD (2.41) ups its previous Blu-Ray release with the addition of HDR10 while reprieving the Blu-Ray’s 5.1 DTS MA sound, a Making Of featurette and gag reel.
FOCUS 4K UHD (105 mins., 2015, R; Warner): Will Smith stars as a con man who opts – and why not – to tutor fledgling thief Margo Robbie in “Focus,” a mostly pedestrian (and largely forgotten) character drama from “Bad Santa” writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa that gets by due to the star power of its leads. The appealing Robbie works well opposite Smith in a film that mostly offers few surprises and veers uneasily between the type of “edgier” fare the writers usually dabble in and the confines of a standard studio vehicle – but it’s not bad for a night’s rental, and the ending is satisfying enough. Warner’s 4K UHD debuts an HDR10 transfer (1.85, 5.1 DTS MA) with “Masters of Misdirection,” “Will Smith: Gentleman Thief,” and “Margot Robbie: Stealing Hearts” featurettes plus deleted scenes and an alternate opening.
 Also New & Noteworthy
DEATH TO SMOOCHY Blu-Ray (109 mins., 2002, R; Shout! Factory): Danny DeVito’s fall from the A-list of Hollywood directors was pretty much sealed by the early 2000s when he turned out this $50 million disappointment. Adam Resnick’s script favors black comic laughs when Edward Norton plays an aspiring (and good-hearted) kids performer who gets to take over a hit kids TV series after its disgraced star (Robin Williams) is fired; Williams eventually seeks revenge in a labored farce that strikes one note, repeatedly, throughout its running time. DeVito co-stars and directed with Jon Stewart, saddled with a Jerry Lewis haircut, co-starring. Shout Select’s Blu-Ray includes a new 2K scan (1.85, 5.1/2.0 DTS MA) with fresh interviews featuring composer David Newman, costume designer Jane Ruhm, and actor Danny Wooburn to go alongside archival extras (DeVito’s commentary; deleted/extended scenes; featurete; still galleries).
SCOOBY-DOO AND THE WITCH’S GHOST/SCOOBY-DOO AND THE ALIEN INVADERS Blu-Ray Double Feature (66/74 mins., 1999; Warner Archive): Scooby-Doo fans have a seemingly endless supply of direct-to-video features at their disposal that have been produced in the home video era. This Warner Archive Blu-Ray double-feature houses two of the better efforts fans generally cite among the best of that lot: “Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost,” which finds Scooby and the gang meeting up with horror writer Ben Ravencroft in a Halloween-themed show, and “Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders,” which provides a similarly genre-themed experience. Both transfers are in true HD (1.33) with 5.1 DTS MA sound and come with a few light extras. Worth a bone or two for buffs!
 On Blu-Ray from Warner and HBO is a Complete Series box-set of SUCCESSION (2019-23; HBO/Warner), the acclaimed, satiric dramatic series set amongst the Roy family: aging tycoon Logan (Brian Cox) and his four children (Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin and Alan Ruck). Each has plenty to deal with in this tasty series with superb performances and sharp writing, one that concluded in 2023 with a highly regarded final season. This Warner box-set includes the entire four-season run of “Succession” in an oversized clamshell case, identical to most “economically packaged” TV series DVD releases. All the extras are included from previous releases, including “Inside the Episode” segments and an “Invitation to the Set” featurette. The 1080p transfers and 5.1 DTS MA soundtracks are all top notch.
DRAGONKEEPER DVD (98 mins., 2024, PG; Shout): Chinese-animated feature, based on Carole Wilkinson’s book of the same name, follows a young girl named Ping who heads out on an adventure to save an endangered dragon while avoiding a cunning dragonslayer that’s on their trail. Bill Nighy is among the voice cast for “Dragonkeeper,” a new family-friendly picture on DVD from Shout Factory (5.1/2.0 Dolby Digital, 16:9).
 In Theaters
ALIEN: ROMULUS (***, 119 mins., R): “Alien: Romulus” might present the same basic formula viewers have seen now in a half-dozen previous movies (to say nothing of two crossovers with the Predator), but director Fede Alvarez has at least produced the most appealing concoction of franchise elements this series has served up since 1986.
Making amends for Ridley Scott’s utterly dreadful “Alien: Covenant,” a sequel so dismal it rendered his hopeful “Prometheus” completely irrelevant, “Romulus” is a very entertaining homage movie that some viewers seem to have misinterpreted. When you have a line about the “Colonial Marines” and someone asks how they know about that — and the character’s response is “games and magazines” — you should know you’re in for a fan-service experience. This is completely a film that’s winking at buffs while providing set-pieces both casual viewers and the hardcore can enjoy, and I found it very entertaining on that level — and, overall, more fun than any other entry in this series since “Aliens.”
This is intentionally, by design, a film whose main design is to entertain — not, refreshingly, to set up another franchise, or provide answers to things that didn’t need to be explained a la Scott’s last two movies. It’s absolutely an intentional hodgepodge of set-pieces that riff on nearly everything this franchise has given us: a trip down Ridley Scott’s 1979 original, a dash of “Aliens” firepower, even the black goo from “Prometheus” makes an appearance. Then Alvarez has some fun and serves up a suitably festive finale with something we haven’t seen before.
It’s all wrapped up in a story I found reasonably appealing and a cute heroine in Cailee Spaeny, who does a good job playing a sympathetic “mining girl” just trying to get off a Wayland-Yutani dump and to a better place along with her synthetic android “brother” (an equally good performance by David Jonsson). The opening act actually looks more like Scott’s trademark visions of the future than “Blade Runner 2049” and provides a fresh start to what is, admittedly, another trip covering familiar “Alien” terrain. Along with a bland assortment of supporting characters (there only as lambs for the slaughter), Spaeny finds an outlet in a broken down company spaceship orbiting their planet and housing a group of lifepods they need to secure for the journey — alas, the ship is chock full of you-know-whats, stationed there with a familiar looking android with an agenda that doesn’t place a priority on human survival.
 “Romulus” feels like a theme park “movie ride” or a video game premise where you’re weaving in and out of familiar thematic elements from an established property — a “Greatest Hits” package that finds Alvarez executing all the set-pieces well, and doing so with a refreshing lack of pretension. Going back over the many dud sequels in this franchise, served up from Fincher to Jeunet and Scott himself, he succeeds where others failed by celebrating the best elements fans have gravitated towards in a movie that has mixes in a few fresh elements while providing an ending that thankfully just ends. For all of those reasons, I also found this movie likeable, in a way most of the other pictures in this long-running series haven’t been.
They’d be wise to leave it here, too (not unless Sir Ridley is going to finally let Neill Blomkamp make his long-coveted “Aliens” sequel), but after the nightmare finale of “Covenant,” where a misguided Scott threw his focus towards a homicidal android in a godawful cliffhanger that will never be resolved, “Romulus” finally provides this series with its own happy ending — a self-contained tribute movie that hits most of the right notes.
NEXT TIME: Back for the 28th (!) Season Premiere column! Until then, don’t forget to drop in on the official Aisle Seat Message Boards and direct any emails to our email address. Cheers!
| 
