Django Collection (1966 - 1971/DVD*)/Hell Hath No Fury (2021/Well Go Blu-ray)/Kung Fu: The Complete First Season (2021 revival/Warner Blu-ray)/My Life Is Murder: Series 2 (2021/Acorn Blu-ray Set)/Sailor Suit & Machine Gun (1981/Arrow Blu-ray/*both MVD)

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

More drama and action for your consideration...

If you are a fan of spaghetti westerns or maybe the Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained, then you may want to travel back to the past and dig up these forgotten Django films in The Django Collection (1966 - 1971) among the many unofficial sequels to the original 1966 classic (the makers did not copyright the character) and all of which are together in this two disc DVD set from MVD. Films in the set, with the title loaner finding himself in situations battling bad people who cannot take no for an answer and might need to be smashed or killed, include:

A Man Called Django aka Viva! Django (1971) - Starring Anthony Steffen and Glauco Onorato; directed by Edoardo Mulargia

Django The Runner (1966) - Starring Franco Nero and George Hilton; directed by Lucio Fulci and another name for it is Massacre Time. This film has been restored in HD and is available from Arrow films and reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Hanging For Django aka A Noose For Django (1969) - Starring William Berger and Riccardo Garrone; directed by Sergio Garrone

Django: A Bullet For You aka A Few Dollars for Django (1966) - Starring Anthony Steffen and Frank Wolff; directed by Leon Klimovsky and Enzo G. Castellari

Return of Django (1967) - Starring Giovanni Ivan and Luciano Rossi; Directed by Osvaldo Civirani

Pistol for Django (1971) - Starring Jeff Cameron and Esmeralda Barros; directed by Luigi Batzella

All of the films sadly don't look the best in these anamorphically enhanced, standard definition edition on DVD. The transfers aren't restored and they look a little rough around the edges. A standard, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes accompany the lackluster image, but this sort of bad quality almost adds an unintentional grind house movie feel. So enjoy them for what they are and be glad that they are at least in print.

No extras.

Jesse Johnson's Hell Hath No Fury (2021) also has some shades of Tarantino with yet another story about murder and Nazi gold, based (loosely?) on a true story about a woman named Marie DuJardin (Nina Bergman) who is saved by U.S. soldiers, but they want her to get them missing Nazi gold before the Nazis can claim it. Is she a traitor, double agent, secret killer, triple agent or what?

The script is more interested in gun and verbal fights than character study despite what the actors try to do to their credit, but the nearly 100 minutes could have been spent better. Maybe they thought they could make this some kind of Guns Of Navarone-type film, but it never adds up to that either. Can't say they did not try to make this work, though. Louis Mandylor leads the supporting cast.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is styled somewhat dimly to try to be serious and a period piece, but the shaky camerawork and some motion blur undermine that. Still, it has some good shots, but it is not always consistent, which I can also say about its French/English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix with some audio issues and an inconsistent soundfield.

A trailer is the only extra.

The acclaimed martial arts series that twice (including a later revival) starred the late David Carradine, Kung Fu: The Complete First Season (2021 revival) has been updated to modern times and re-invented with a female lead in actress Kheng Hua Tan as Nicky Shen, a young woman who drops out of college for a journey of self discovery and ends up in a monastery in China. When she returns to America she is reborn into a badass kung-fu expert and basically becomes Batman without the cool cosplay.

The show also stars Eddie Liu (Never Have I Ever) as Henry Yan, Shannon Dang (Sorry for Your Loss) as Althea Shen, Jon Prasida (Hiding) as Ryan Shen, Gavin Stenhouse (9-1-1) as Evan Hartley, Vanessa Kai (New Amsterdam) as Pei-Ling Zhang, Tony Chung as Dennis Soong and Tzi Ma (Veep) as Jin Shen. Yvonne Chapman (Street Legal) recurs as Zhilan Zhang.

13 Episodes comprise season one of the series and include Pilot, Silence, Patience, Hand, Sanctuary, Rage, Guidance, Destiny, Isolation, Choice, Attachment, Sacrifice, and the season finale - Transformation.

Kung Fu is presented in 1080p high definition across three Blu-ray discs with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix, all of which are of the norm for the format. Commercial and watermark-free, this is clearly the best avenue to binge watch this show.

Special Features:

Kung Fu: Bond of Honor Unaired Scenes

Deleted Scenes

This new Kung Fu isn't a bad series, but isn't necessarily too memorable or recommendable either. Feels a lot of things that we have seen before with a kind of CW Network TV feel that it never fully shakes.

My Life Is Murder: Series 2 (2021) is a hit for former Xena star Lucy Lawless, the debut season of which I enjoyed more than expected, as this link will verify:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15658/Doctor+Sleep+4K+(2019/Warner+4K+Ultra+HD+B

Unfortunately, this follow-up may have a few laughs, but plays it too safe and quickly turns into formula. At first, I was hoping it was just the first episode, then the second, but it soon became apparent that the show hit a wall and was not going to try anything different, new or grow much. You can see for yourself.

At least the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on each show are not bad, but they can be a little soft and image have a little more motion blur than I would have liked.

There are no extras.

Lastly, Sailor Suit & Machine Gun (1981) is a movie you probably have never heard of... I know that I never have. From the title, I was expecting an anime of some sorts. However, Arrow Video breaks new ground and is making available films from one of influential filmmaker Shinji Somai (Typhoon Club,) who is a director that's work has rarely been seen in the world. Arrow mentions that this is the 'first' and so I would expect to see more titles from this filmmaker in the future, which I personally think is pretty cool of the label to do.

The film was a breakout role for actress Hiroko Yakushimaru (Legend of the Eight Samurai, Detective Story) and also stars Tsunehiko Watase, Rentaro Mikuni, Yuki Kazamatsuri, Kazuo Kitamura, and Akira Emoto. The film centers around a young woman (Yakushimaru) who ends up inheriting her father's Yakuza clan and thus gains a lot of deadly responsibilities. In a sense, the film is about losing one's innocence.

Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, an MPEG-4 AVC codec, and Japanese audio mixes in lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) Mono and 5.1 with English subtitles. The film has been restored very nicely here and overall I didn't notice anything negative about the presentation.

Special Features (per the press release):

High Definition presentations of the Original Theatrical Version and the 1982 Complete Version (kanpeki-ban) re-issue of the film, restored by Kadokawa Pictures from a 4K scan of the original negative

Girls, Guns and Gangsters: Shinji Somai & Sailor Suit & Machine Gun, an exclusive new 50-minute documentary featuring actor Akira Emoto, film scholar Chika Kinoshita, Somai biographer Tatsuya Kimura and Sailor Suit assistant director Koji Enomoto discussing the making of the film, its director and its legacy

Original Trailers and TV spots for both versions

Image Gallery

and a Reversible Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Michael Lomon.

- Nicholas Sheffo (Hell, Murder) and James Lockhart

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