Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two (2021/DC Comics/Warner Blu-ray)/Snatch 4K (2000/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray*)/The Unholy (2021/Blu-ray/*both Sony)/Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns (1966 - 1970/MVD/Arrow Blu-ray Box Set)/The Walking Dead: The World Beyond (2020/AMC/RLJ Blu-ray Set)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B+/B/B+/B+/B+ Sound: B+/B+ & B/B+/B+/B+ Extras: B/B-/D/B/C+ Main Programs: B/B/C+/B C+ B C+/B

More genre action, including some favorites and their variants...

We start with Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two (2021), an animated adaptation of the classic graphic novel original graphic novel by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale of the same name. We covered Part One elsewhere on this site. In this finale, Batman goes up again Two Face, The Holiday Killer, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and others in a tale that takes classic Batman characters and brings them together in a very unique way. An inspiration on Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, The Long Halloween fuses the dangerous Gothic City Mob and the creation of Two Face in an interesting narrative that is very nicely told in this animated feature.

The Long Halloween, Part Two features the voice cast of Jensen Ackles as Batman, the late Naya Rivera as Catwoman, Josh Duhamel, Billy Buke, Titus Welliver, David Dastmalchian, and more.

The animated feature is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio and a lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix, both of which are of the norm for the format and of which comes across fine here. The animation is crisp and the sound mix is very cinematic and on point. I didn't notice anything that detracted from the image, although I'm surprised they didn't option a 4K UHD version as well.

Special Features:

DC Showcase - Blue Beetle (New Animated Short) - Sufferin' Scarabs!

A Sneak Peek at the next DC Animated Movie - An advanced look at Injustice.

DC Universe Movies Flashback

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2

Batman: Hush

From the DC Vault:

Batman: The Animated Series - "Two-Face, Part 1"

Batman: The Animated Series - "Two-Face, Part 2"

While I'm sure there will be an ultimate edition coming out later on with most parts, this is overall an enjoyable animated adaptation and mandatory viewing for all Bat Fans!

Guy Ritchie has had a very mixed filmmaking career, making either very bad films, adequate commercial films (those Sherlock Holmes film) and some good pictures, if not enough of them. One of them is now back in an impressive upgrade. Snatch 4K (2000) is a British crime drama with a great cast that is slick, has some comedy that fits the genre and moves along very well as a diamond heist, rigged boxing and other sleazy affairs collide into a wacky film that manages (unlike so many similar films, including its many imitators) hold together without falling apart, getting silly, over-the-top or sloppy.

The cast is one of the reasons with Brad Pitt transforming into a thickly accented boxer who mumbles a bit, Vinnie Jones as an enforcer, Benicio del Toro as the diamond thief, Dennis Farina as the man trying to manage the heist issues and other actors mostly unknown in the U.S. easily filling out the rest of the roles. Though it fits the Gangster and Crime/Heist genres well in the Hollywood sense, I like how the film is still uncompromisingly British, especially when it comes to those genre in British cinema and this is the most authentically realized of such films that started to appear in the later 1960s, including some with Michael Caine. However, this is no nostalgia exercise and also follows Peter Medak's The Krays (1990) and its realism well.

At 103 minutes, unlike its many imitators, it never wastes a moment to tell its story, thus making it more intense and involving, never thinking less of its audience and believing it can keep up as much as any Tarantino film made and all that made it a pleasure to revisit. Even Ritchie has tried to do this kind of thing again, but has come up short despite getting more actors of this caliber to work with him. With all that said and done, it is at least a minor classic and I liked it more than Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels made prior to this film.

The 2160p HECV/H.265, 1.85 X 1, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Snatch is interesting in its sharpness, clarity and depth, all shot on 35mm film (this was scanned from the original camera negative), but it has been mastered to drain much of the natural color from it, a little more than I remember from the 35mm theatrical screening of the film I saw on upon it first release and different a bit from even the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on the Blu-ray included here. I like the 4K version best, but the lack of color might be a little overdone. Otherwise, this is as well shot and edited as any film of its kind, save Scorsese's films.

The sound on the 4K version has been upgraded to a surprisingly impressive lossless Dolby Atmos 11.1 mix, though the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Blu-ray was/is not bad and just fine. In the new mix, the sound is suddenly even clearer, sharper, has better direction, better soundfield and articulation (including the accents people have commented and complained about) resolve much better here.

Extras include Digital Copy, while the 4K disc has an Original Theatrical Trailer, while the Blu-ray disc adds The Making Of Snatch featurette, Video Photo Gallery, Storyboard Comparison, Deleted Scenes with optional commentary and a feature length audio commentary track by the Director and Producer.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a pretty underrated actor and is known now to many as Negan from the original The Walking Dead TV series. In this supernatural thriller, The Unholy (2021), he plays a journalist who is struggling to piece back his life and career when he stumbles upon the story of a lifetime.

Set in a New England town near where the Salem trails happened centuries ago, a young woman ends up seemingly possessing the powers of the Holy Mary. Her deafness is suddenly cured overnight and she becomes a well spoken and intelligent mind who can even sing perfectly as well. She is soon able to heal others, she blesses a crippled boy and he starts to walk, heals another man of cancer, etc. The only person she really feels comfortable around, however, is Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character. Well, soon things end up taking a turn for the worse when the power she is feeding out, a tree that was once the place of a hanging, envelopes an evil unholy entity that is pure evil and out to unless hell on earth.

The film is produced by Sam Raimi's production company, Ghost House alongside many of the Evil Dead creators, and stars Cary Elwes, William Sadler, Katie Aselton, Diogo Morgado, and Bates Wilder with direction by Evan Spiliotopoulos. The film is based upon James Herbert's best-selling book Shrine.

The Unholy is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and an MPEG-4 AVC codec with a strong, lossless audio mix in English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 16bit). The transfer is top notch for Blu-ray and has vivid and clear colors that look consistent throughout and a fine sound mix. The later part of the film is pretty loud and has lots of jump scare moments and loud creature noises and shrieks that will likely cause you to turn down the tube a bit.

The film is pretty interesting to watch and a little more enjoyable if you are familiar with the New England area and some of the Salem legends. There's no arguing that the first half of the film is a bit stronger than the later half, which reveals the ghost as a mainly CG creation and many scenes with fake CG fire. The ending isn't too terrible, and overall I enjoyed seeing Cary Elwes as a kind of evil character later in the film.

No extras.

I didn't have too many expectations for it, but The Unholy turned out to be pretty entertaining and not as cliche as I expected it to be. Jeffrey Dean Morgan has the talent to carry a film that isn't an action piece, as proven here.

Four heavy hitting European westerns are brought together in an exciting new box set from Arrow entitled Vengeance Trails. These Euro cult favorites were released after the huge success of Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars Trilogy, and feature all star directors Lucio Fulci, Maurizio Lucidi, Massimo Dallamano, and Antonio Margheriti. All of them feature the theme of revenge and are from the latter part of the Revenge Western cycle.

Films in the set include: Massacre Time (1966), My Name is Pecos (1966), Bandidos (1967), and God Said To Cain (1970).

The strongest is likely Lucio Fulci's Massacre Time (1966), which stars Franco Nero and George Clinton and is a perfectly told revenge tale full of whip lashings and flying bullets. This is definitely a must see for Fulci fans, even though it's obviously unlike his previous horror works. In the film, Nero returns to his abandoned home town where he sees its been overrun by a vicious man and his son. Nero plays the perfect badass vigilante in this film with his sparkling blue eyes and quick draw. This film is absolute bonkers and a lot of fun!

In Maurizio (The Sicilian Cross) Lucidi's My Name is Pecos (1966), Robert Woods (Johnny Colt) stars as a Gunslinging Mexican who returns to Houston to settle a score of revenge himself on the man who took out his family. (I'm finding the death of a family or loved one a common theme.)

In Massimo (What Have You Done to Solange?) Dallamano's Bandidos (1967), Enrico Maria Salerno (Savage Three) plays a former top marksman who, years after being screwed over by a former protege (Venantino Venantini, City of the Living Dead), teams up with a fresh apprentice (Terry Jenkins, Paint Your Wagon) to get his revenge against the man who betrayed him.

Finally, in Antonio (Cannibal Apocalypse) Margheriti's And God Said to Cain (1970), Klaus Kinski (many Herzog films) stars as a man who has spent the last decade in a prison work camp for a crime he was framed for. When he finally gets out, he obviously seeks revenge on the man who put him there. Sounds like many a Stallone movie!

All four films in the set are presented in 1080p high definition with an MPEG-4 AVC codec and widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 with tracks in dubbed English LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) and Italian LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) mix as well with optional English subs. All of the films have been restored nicely with no glaring issues.

Special Features:

DISC 1 - MASSACRE TIME

Alternate US dub

New audio commentary track by authors and critics C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke

New documentary featuring a new video interview with actor Franco Nero and an archival video interview with actor George Hilton

New video interview with film historian Fabio Melelli

Italian trailer

DISC 2 - MY NAME IS PECOS

New audio commentary track by actor Robert Woods and scholar C. Courtney Joyner

New interview with actor George Eastman

New interview with actress Lucia Modugno

New documentary featuring a new interview with Fabio Melelli and an archival interview with cinematographer Franco Villa

Italian trailer

DISC 3 - BANDIDOS

New audio commentary track by author and critic Kat Ellinger

New interview with assistant director Luigi Perelli

New interview with actor Gino Barbacane

New interview with Fabio Melelli

Alternate end title sequence

DISC 4 - AND GOD SAID TO CAIN

New commentary by author and critic Howard Hughes

New documentary featuring a new interview with Fabio Melelli and a new audio interview with actress Marcella Michelangeli

and a New interview with actor Antonio Cantafora

Finally, The Walking Dead saga continues with the new spin-off series, World Beyond (2020). I think it's an interesting approach for the network to start following other characters and stories in the world aside from that of just Rick, Daryll, and the cast from the original series. While this show can be a little dramatic at times, the set pieces and most importantly the zombies are still pretty rad. The series is a coming of age story set against the backup of year two of the zombie apocalypse and takes place in Nebraska.

The series stars Aliyah Royale, Alexa Mansour, Hal Cumpston, Nicolas Cantu, Nico Tortorella, and others.

10 Episodes make up this first season and include Brave, The Blaze of Glory, The Tiger and the Lamb, The Wrong End of a Telescope, Madman Across the Water, Shadow Puppets, Truth or Dare, The Sky is a Graveyard, The Deepest Cut, and In This Life.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec and an original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with a lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. This three disc set is commercial and network logo watermark free, which makes for a more cinematic and enjoyable experience than watching it on TV.

Special Features include:

A Look at the Series

Meet the Characters

and The Making of Season 1.

If nothing else, this series proves that The Walking Dead is still a universe that is ripe to explore and is likely going to be a mainstay on network television for a little while longer at least.

- Nicholas Sheffo (4K) and James Lockhart

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