Bleeding
Steel (2017/Lionsgate
Blu-ray)/Bram Stoker's
Shadowbuilders (1998/MVD
Blu-ray)/Gotham: The
Complete Fourth Season
(2017 - 2018/DC Comics/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Tarantula
(1955/Universal/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD)/Young
Dillinger (1965/Allied
Artists/Warner Archive DVD)
Picture:
B+/B+/B+/C+/C Sound: B/B+/B/C+/C+ Extras: C-/B/C+/D/D
Main Programs: C/C/B/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Tarantula
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and
DVD players that can handle PAL DVD and can be ordered from the link
below, while Young
Dillinger
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Now
for more genre releases, including unexpected darkness and horror...
we guess.
Jackie
Chan proves that he still has the action acting chops in the mega
budget Bleeding
Steel
(2017), which makes a poor attempt at being a genre film as well.
Full of plenty of explosions and special effects to attract American
audiences, the over the top foreign flick starts out almost video
game-like in its action tone but slowly loses steam the further it
chugs along. It sadly even reminded me a bit of those god awful G.I.
Joe
movies from the early 2000s in more than one place.
Bleeding
Steel
also stars Nana Ou-Yang, Callan Mulvey, Tess Haubrich, and Show Lo to
name a few. Executive Produced by Jackie Chan as well, the film
centers around a Hong Kong Police Inspector Lin Dong (Chan) who is on
the search for his abducted daughter. Knowing she has a biochemical
implanted inside of her, the race is on to find her.
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and
a Mandarin language DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix (with
English subtitles), the film looks and sounds fine on Blu-ray. The
film is quite colorful and in more than one way mimics the American
Blockbuster style of filmmaking. Highly stylized, Bleeding
Steel
is pretty to look at and could benefit from a 2160p upgrade, if the
demand was there.
Special
Features only include a Trailer.
The
MVD Rewind Collection continues with a lesser known Bram Stoker
title, Shadowbuilder
(1998), which stars one of my favorite actors Michael Rooker
(Guardians
of the Galaxy,
The
Walking Dead),
and horror movie star Tony Todd (The
Candyman).
While it hasn't aged too well in terms of special effects,
Shadowbuilder
is closer to Wishmaster
or End
of Days
than it is Bram
Stoker's Dracula
in terms of style and substance.
The
film also stars Leslie Hope (Crimson
Peak)
and Kevin Zegers (Dawn
of the Dead).
A
demon is summoned from the depths to infest a boy destined to become
a priest. Assuming the demon aka Shadowbuilder succeeds in this
sinister plot, a doorway to Hell will open. Can a priest (Rooker)
battle this demonic force and save the day?
The
film is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect
ratio of 1.85:1 and an Original 2.0 Stereo Audio (Uncompressed PCM)
mix that make for a satisfying presentation. There's no doubt that
this is the best that this film has ever looked and its nice to see a
lesser known film such as this one get such a nice restoration!
Recommended!
Special
Features include...
"Making
of Shadowbuilder"
featurette (HD, 33:22) (featuring director Jamie Dixon, writer
Michael Stokes and stars Andrew Jackson (The Shadowbuilder) and Tony
Todd (Covey)
"Shadowbuilder:
Visual Effects"
featurette (HD, 13:26)
"Shadowbuilder:
Kevin Zegers"
featurette (HD, 5:00)
Audio
Commentary from Director Jamie Dixon
Original
Theatrical Trailer (SD)
Collectible
Poster
and
Reversible Artwork
Shadowbuilder
is a one time watch and nothing too special, despite Michael Rooker's
best efforts.
DC
Comics' Batman prequel series Gotham,
which takes more than few liberties with its source material, returns
to a twenty-two episode Fourth
Season
(2017 -
2018)
which aired on FOX and is now hitting disc. As the original network
broadcast was riddled (pun intended) with commercials and network
watermarks, its nice (as usual) to see the show in stunning 1080p the
way that it was meant to be seen.
While
Gotham will have some purists screaming at the television for
changing too much from the movies and comics we have come to love,
there really is a lot more to like about this series now that it has
matured a little bit. When it first started, it seemed a bit too
melodramatic, flamboyant and silly but now more characters that have
come into the fold not to mention Bruce Wayne has grown to the point
where he's becoming a bit more distinguished and easier to relate to.
The show's biggest weaknesses is that it goes way too out of its way
to be politically correct with some of the characters. Still, for
being a TV miniseries and trying something different with the
material, it's not all bad.
Gotham
stars Ben McKenzie (The
O.C.,
Southland),
Donal Logue (Grounded
for Life,
Vikings),
David Mazouz (Touch),
Morena Baccarin (Homeland,
V),
Sean Pertwee (Elementary),
Robin Lord Taylor (The
Walking Dead),
Erin Richards (The
Quiet Ones),
Camren Bicondova (Gotham
Stories),
Cory Michael
Smith (Carol),
Jessica Lucas (Cloverfield),
Chris Chalk (Rent), and Drew Powell (The
Mentalist),
Crystal Reed (Teen
Wolf)
and Alexander Siddig (Game
of Thrones)
join the cast this season as Sofia Falcone and Ra's al Ghul
respectively.
Following
Commissioner Gordon (McKenzie) and his partner Bullock (Logue), who
fight to keep the streets of Gotham clean... which is becoming a
harder and harder task by the day. More and more super villains are
rearing their ugly heads along with returning foes Penguin (Taylor)
and the Riddler (Smith), who have all but taken over the crime-ridden
city of Gotham. In the background, a young Bruce Wayne (Mazouz) is
slowly becoming the vigilante that he is destined to become...
Episode
span four discs and include Pax
Penguina, The Fear Reaper, They Who Hide Behind Masks, The Demon's
Head, The Blade's Path, Hog Day Afternoon, A Day in the Narrows, Stop
Hitting Yourself, Let Them Eat Pie, Things that go Boom, Queen Takes
Knight, Pieces of a Broken Mirror, A Beautiful Darkness, Reunion, The
Sinking Ship The Grand Applause, One of My Three Sons, Mandatory
Brunch Meeting, That's Entertainment, To Our Deaths and Beyond, That
Old Corpse, One Bad Day,
and No
Man's Land.
The
show is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect
ratio of 1.78:1 and a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix, both
of which are a vast improvement over the original network broadcast.
The show has some great production value (especially in its
impressive sets) and there's plenty of detail in the image here
whereas you're guaranteed to see more than you did on TV.
A
digital copy is also included.
Special
Features:
The
Best of DC TV's Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2017
Solomon
Grundy: Born on a Monday
The
Sirens Take Gotham
and
Deleted Scenes
Gotham
will return for a fifth and final season. Be sure to check out our
reviews of past seasons elsewhere on this site.
We
conclude with two genre films on DVD everyone should see at least
once, both of which also deserve Blu-ray release at some point. Jack
Arnold's Tarantula
(1955) is one of the better giant monster films the U.S. ever
produced, handled well by the soon-to-be major Universal Pictures,
Arnold shows how solid a B-movie director (and more) he is and the
film remains fun, even more so in the usually sloppy era of digital
CGI visual effects we live in.
Everything
is just fine with life in Arizona when a scientist (the great Leo G.
Carroll) develops a new growth formula, then you can imagine things
go wrong, very wrong and what lands up happening next. John Agar,
Mara Corday, Ross Elliott and Nestor Paiva are up to the task of
making this a convincing as the premise can be and the film has some
good energy for its 80 minutes running time. The studio knew when
enough was enough.
Issued
many years ago on DVD in the U.S. by Universal, Umbrella
entertainment in Australia has reissued it as a Region Free PAL
Import DVD that is a little richer in Video Black, but has some
aliasing errors. That puts in on par with the other DVD. Catch it
for the fun!
Finally
we have Terry O. Morse's Young
Dillinger
(1965) with B-movie perennial star Nick Adams as the title character,
becoming a famous murderous gangster trying to survive, thrive and
keep happy his gal (a very young Mary Ann Mobley, who looked good
even then!) and adding cohorts like 'Pretty Boy' Floyd (Robert Conrad
of Wild
Wild West
and Baa
Baa Black Sheep/Black
Sheep Squadron)
and 'Baby Face' Nelson (John Ashley). John Hoyt and even Ted Knight
also show up, but the odd twist is that Victor Buono turns up as some
kind of adviser professor in a way that is very funny, but throws any
chance of credibility for the film out the window.
Allied
Artists was serious about trying to make higher quality product with
the money they had and this one has its moments, but the Gangster
genre was falling into trouble (and into either satire or
self-satire) at the time, so it only works so well. Still, it is a
curio that genre fans will want to catch because it is simply very
raw, though no competition for Arthur Penn's Bonnie
& Clyde
a few
years later, though this film was on the right track as far as
naturalism is concerned if that counts. Warner Archive has issued
the film on DVD and the time is right for it to be rediscovered,
especially since the genre has been empty and pointless in the
aftermath of how effective and thorough The
Sopranos
was.
Both
films have been issued in anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image
framing that is HDTV friendly, but some purists might complain.
Tarantula
might have been 1.66 X 1 or soft matte for various widescreen
presentations as flat widescreen had not been settled in 1955, though
Dillinger
might also have been as cautious thinking TV safe, both possibly 1.33
X 1 to begin with. While I addressed flaws with Tarantula,
Dillinger
has a print that is at least as clean if not better, but the overall
transfer is a little too soft throughout beyond the filmmakers intent
and can make watching it trying at times.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on both sound fine for their age and the
sound has survived well considering how old each film is. I like the
way both were recorded and mixed.
In
both cases, both DVDs sadly have no extras, though each deserves
some.
To
order the
Tarantula
Umbrella import DVD, go to this link for it and other hard to get
releases:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
...and
to order the Young
Dillinger
Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Tarantula,
Dillinger)
and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
