Archenemy (2020/RLJ Blu-ray)/Come Play (2020*)/Cut Throat City (2020/Well Go Blu-ray)/The Deeper You Dig (2019/Arrow**)/Freaky (2020/w DVD*)/Greenland (2021 w/DVD/*all Universal Blu-rays)/Sky Sharks (2020/Umbrella Region 4 Import PAL DVD)/Wild West Days (1937/John 'Mack' Brown/Universal/VCI/**both MVD Blu-rays)

Picture: B/B+/B+/B+/B+ & B-/B+ & B-/C/B- Sound: B/B+/B+/B/B* & B-/B+ & B-/C/C+ Extras: C/D/B/B+/B/C+/D/D Main Programs: D/C+/B/B/C+/C+/C+/C+

PLEASE NOTE: The Sky Sharks Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, can only play on DVD, 4K and Blu-ray players that can handle Region 4 locked PAL DVDs and can be ordered from the link below.

Up next are a wide variety of genre releases...

Joe Manganiello stars in Archenemy (2020), a confusing fusion of animation and live action that is trying to be in the same vein as Sin City or The Matrix films, but misses the mark. From the producers at Spectrevision (Color Out of Space, Mandy), I was expecting a more cohesive and interesting film than this judging from the semi-interesting log line. The result is a mess that will leave you bored and scratching your head more than once. If you have a friend or loved one that you would like to torture maybe sitting them in front of this horrid film would be suitable.

The film also stars Luis Kelly-Duarte, Skylan Brooks, Zolee Griggs, and Paul Scheer.

Manganiello stars as Max Fist whose a hero from another dimension (that's animated) that's thrown to Earth as a homeless guy and has no powers. A few kids start to believe his stories and they join forces to take down a crime boss spearheading a crime syndicate.

Archenemy is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec and a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and paired with a lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix. The film looks fine in HD, but could look better in 4K. However, I'm not sure many will be clamoring to see this trainwreck again.

While it looks semi-intriguing on the surface, Archenemy is a mess and an endurance challenge to see if you can finish it. Yeah, it's THAT bad.

Special Feature: The Making of Archenemy featurette.

In Come Play (2020), a demon named Larry lives inside a young autistic boy's smartphone and taunts and attacks him with a story about him until he finds a way through into the real world. No electronic devices are safe from this mad man in this (at times painfully) slow burn. Surprisingly Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment is behind this production, which gave me a bit more higher expectation I suppose.

The film stars Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., Rachel Wilson, Azhy Robertson, and Winslow Fegley. The film is directed by Jacob Chase and is based on a short film that he made.

The film has some interesting cinematography and camera movement, namely mainly scenes where there is tension and (an excess amount of ) jump scares. This feels similar to something that you would see in an Insidious style film and even lifts a little bit of inspiration from Guillermo Del Toro's production Mama. Still, Come Play is fine popcorn fare that might scare teens or the squeamish.

Come Play is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. The film as mentioned is very well shot and has an intense slasher-style soundtrack. The movie is mostly dark and takes place inside spaces where the monster lurks, but the production end is fine.

No extras.

Come Play has an interesting story angle and isn't without some creepy moments that are fun. But I wouldn't say that its necessarily memorable after one watch.

Four boyhood friends growing up in the slums of New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina are left with decimated neighborhoods, homes, no jobs and no aid. Desperate they turn to a local gangster who offers them a job to rob casinos. But when the job goes south things keep getting from bad to worse, when the local kingpin thinks they have stolen his heist. Now, not only the police are after them but they are caught in between a turf war between a gangster and a kingpin in The RZA's Cut Throat City (2020).

Blink, Miracle, Dre and Junior are four friends who have grown up together in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina the are left high and dry (or wet in this case) with no work, no homes, families to feed and denied aid from FEMA. FEMA instead is trying to buy their land for dirt cheap prices and sell high to casinos and they want to 'remake' the Lower Ninth Ward, but in order to do so they need to get the people out of the Lower Ninth. Desperate, the four friends take on a job from a local gangster not knowing they been set up to rob from the local Kingpin, the Saint (Terrence Howard). After a failed job, they discover they are only in more debt and somehow have to make peace with the Kingpin. Realizing they are trapped, they are unable to stop committing crimes, always thinking the next robbery will fix all their problems. But with no help or aid, they are dying one by one until Blink is the last man standing and only then he wonders what was it all for, his brothers are dead and blood is on his hands. However, there was a double ending, in which it shows another path in which if they didn't commit the robberies and instead worked, they would have lived.

This movie has an all-star black cast including Terrence Howard and Wesley Snipes (god he got old) and is the story that is all too familiar to those of color. In a world of corruption and desperation people are forced into committing acts of violence to survive, sadly it seems like it always falls on black communities first. It shows not all black people are gangsters, but they have dreams, families and want to live. Guess we should only take these urban action films so seriously.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless sound mix are at least modern and competent technically, so no problem there, a digital shoot with some digital sound with punch (no pun intended) and works well enough in combination.

Extras include behind the scenes, deleted scenes and trailers.

The Deeper You Dig (2019) is a surprisingly well made and gripping horror feature that's got a fantastic screenplay and all around solid performances by the filmmaking family that star in and made the film - John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser.

A man named Kurt (John Adams) hits a young woman named Echo (Zelda Adams) with his truck one night on a backroad whilst drinking. Thinking she's dead, he takes her back to this old house that he is remodeling and (for some reason) actually does kill her.

Echo's Mother (played by her real life mother Toby Poser) is meanwhile up around the small town putting up missing posters and searching for her missing daughter - she is also something of a mystic / psychic / card-reader. Kurt buries the Echo in the woods, but is soon haunted by her ghost. Now, there's a few very fun and creepy moments between Kurt and Echo's ghost - namely one scene where she infects Kurt's mind and makes him hallucinate. Knowing too that offscreen this is a father and daughter makes the film that much more impressive. As the girl ghost infects his mind, he is also confronted by her vengeful spiritual mother who seeks answers through her own sources. The film is quite unique and never exactly goes where you think it will. It is stunningly well - an all around gripping 90 minute watch.

The Deeper You Dig is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and a lossless English LPCM 2.0 Stereo audio mix. The film is eloquently shot and appears to be a much bigger budgeted film than what it likely was. Arrow also does a top notch job on their presentations and this one is no exception.

Special Features (per the press release):

DISC ONE - THE DEEPER YOU DIG

Audio commentary by writers/directors/stars Toby Poser and John Adams

At Home with the Adams Family, an exclusive, in-depth interview with the trio of filmmakers responsible for The Deeper You Dig

It's in the Blood: The Family in the Horror Genre, an exclusive visual essay by critic Anton Bitel exploring the theme of family in The Deeper You Dig and the Adams Family's broader filmography

Special effects breakdown with commentary by Trey Lindsay

FrightFest TV interview with the Adams Family

Hellbender music videos

Theatrical trailer / Image gallery

DISC TWO - THE HATRED

Kid Kalifornia music videos

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

Reversible sleeve featuring two exclusive choices of artwork

Double-sided fold-out poster

and Limited Edition illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Neil Mitchell

The Deeper You Dig is a great movie and you should definitely check it out on this Arrow release for maximum effect!

I wasn't expecting too much going into Blumhouse's Freaky (2020), but it surprised me as a fun gory horror comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously and is actually pretty good. Inspired by Friday the 13th, Scream, and Freaky Friday - Freaky is a body switch film, where in this case a teenage girl (Kathryn Newton) switches bodies with an intense serial killer (Vince Vaughn) thanks to a mystical dagger. The gore is fun and over the top and the film does a great job of mixing humor with horror surprisingly well as both actors are pretty convincing in their roles. I'm sure slasher fans will get a kick out of the opening sequence as well as it feels very similar to a Friday the 13th flick. (Boy do I miss those.)

The film also stars Alan Ruck, Katie Finneran, and Uriah Shelton. The film is written and directed by Christopher Landon.

Freaky is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2:39:1 and a lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. The film looks fine on disc and would be a good candidate for 4K Ultra HD. The soundtrack is notably fun and lively and helps sell the slasher genre well. There is also a standard definition, anamorphically enhanced DVD version with a compressed version of the film with a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital audio mix.

Special Features:

Audio Commentary with Co-writer/Director Christopher Landon

Deleted Scenes:

The Butcher Lends a Hand

Charlene Hears a Rumor

Late for the Party

Split Personalities: Millie vs. The Butcher

Crafting the Kills featurette

Christopher Landon's Brand of Horror featurette

and Final Girl Reframed featurette

If you're into horror and black comedies then Freaky is worth checking out.

Gerald Butler stars in Greenland (2020), which is a flying comet disaster movie that echoes others in the genre (and follows a lot of the same story beats), but is a pretty enjoyable film at the end of the day.

The film paints a dramatic and semi-accurate picture of what it would likely be like if asteroids fell from the sky and follows one family's journey through it all as Florida is mostly wiped out from falling debris. It shows the desperation of mankind from the asteroids and the hard choices that have to be made along the way in order to survive.

Gerald Butler seems like a natural choice for the role given his past action flicks and is fine here. At the end of the day, any Hollywood leading man would have fit in the bill too even Tom Cruise who played a similar role in Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Watching Greenland might make you a little happy that despite all the craziness going on in the world that at least THIS hasn't happened (yet.)

The film also stars Scott Glenn, Morena Baccarin, and David Denman with direction by Ric Roman Waugh.

Greenland is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix. Also included is an anamorphically enhanced standard definition DVD with a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital mix. The film has impressive special effects and is quite well put together with fast paced editing and a nice score.

Special Features:

Audio Commentary with Director Ric Roman Waugh and Producer Basil Iwanyk

Deleted Scenes with Introductions by Director Ric Roman Waugh

and Humanity - Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Director Ric Roman Waugh and VFX Supervisor Mark Massicotte take audiences behind the scenes of the exhilarating story

Greenland is a dramatic and intense film at times that will definitely make you feel things that fall from the sky. Much better than I expected.

In the Arctic, a frozen Nazi battleship is discovered, but what they thought was dead, was the undead, zombified Nazi soldiers on flying mutated super sharks. After being thawed from the arctic these Nazi zombie soldier now reigns terror in the skies. Only a scientist, a team of highly train soldiers and two sisters are able to stop this undead army and save humanity in Marc Fehse's Sky Sharks (2020)

Dr. Klaus Richter was a former Nazi scientist who was recruited after the war by operation 'Paperclip' to help advance American science. He helped created a super serum that turns men into super soldiers, raise dead into zombies and women into zombie hoes. Now he and his two sultry daughters Angelique and Diabla must lead a team of soldiers into the heart of an invisible flying Nazi battle/ghost ship and destroy an army Nazi zombified soldiers and their killer mutant sharks before they spread around the world.

Be warned as noted above, you need a multi-region player in order to watch this movie. This movie doesn't have much plot, but it is filled with violence, sex, nudity, gore and zombies. Any character in a nude or sex scene is attacked by zombies and dies a gruesome death. All the special effects were stylized and low quality, and every scene has punk metal rock music in the background. Tony Todd and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa lead the cast.

The resultant anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is not what it could be and makes this harder to watch and enjoy than expected, which extends to the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix that is a little inconsistent in its soundfield. There are no extras.

Finally, a old Saturday Movie Serial Western, one with Universal and star John 'Mack' Brown entitled Wild West Days (1937) that runs 13 chapters / 250 minutes with the usual overlap) and is the first of his titles we have seen on Blu-ray. VCI has issued many of the films on DVD, so he still has an audience, but is usually for more diehard fans of the genre and as one who is not as big a fan of he or the genre, it is more of the same.

However, despite the battle between good guys and outlaws harassing an innocent couple, et al, they sure go out of their way to set up all kinds of situations for the stuntmen to hash it all out. Unfortunately, this is not much more memorable than his B-movies and the use of 'Indians' as side villains who always pop out of nowhere to start trouble, this is a formula work indeed and one that only fans might like. I do like most serials, but this one is not up to the energy level of the better ones either. Now, you can see for yourself.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer (they claim it is a 4K scan) can show the age of the materials used, but this is par for the course of all serials we have seen on Blu-ray to date, lucky they have survived as well as they have and still has some detail and better Video Black than you would get if this were a DVD version. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is a little rougher and does not help the age of the audio. In a lossless version, this might have been a little warmer and clearer, but this is what we get. There are no extras.

To order the Sky Sharks Umbrella import DVD, go to this link for it and other hard to find releases at:

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

- Nicholas Sheffo (West), Ricky Chiang (Cut, Sky) and James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/