Blind War (2022/Well Go Blu-ray)/Crimson Peak 4K (2015/Universal/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Doom Patrol: The Complete Fourth and Final Season (2023/Warner Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B-/X/B+ Sound: B/A-/B+ Extras: C-/B+/C+ Main Programs: C/B+/C-

Here's some releases with darker themes...

Suiqiang Huo's Blind War (2022) has a SWAT captain (Pingqing Chen) permanently blinded after a situation becomes a disaster and he has to leave the force, but an old enemy still has a grudge against him and will use his handicap against him as he also threatens both him and he is daughter. What can he do? Fight back?

The premise is not bad, with plenty of built-in challenges, but this film just goes bonkers with its script and does not care about realism, coherency or anything else going for broke in a film that makes a Marvel daredevil project seem ultra-realistic. At first, I thought it would just get a little excessive here and there, but it goes off course early and to say it never returns to a place where you can suspend disbelief is an understatement. Too bad, because the actors are really trying, but it is for genre fans only.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer has a softness throughout that undermines the action and further holds back a project that already has issues. The Mandarin DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is better, but the mix is professional at best. The combination is fair, but I wonder if a 4K version would play better.

Extras only include an Original Theatrical Trailer for this and three other Well Go USA releases.

Director Guillermo Del Toro is a rare breed in Hollywood today. A Director with a unique visual style and an equally strong writer as well. One of his lesser celebrated films, Crimson Peak (2015), sees its second (and best) release on home video courtesy of Arrow Video in this single disc edition.

Crimson Peak stars Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, and Jessica Chastain.

A unique ghost story set in the 1800s, Crimson Peak is a gothic romance centering around Edith (Wasikowska) who falls for the handsome Sir Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) after the mysterious death of her father. She moves to be with him in his bizarre family estate known as Crimson Peak with his odd but alluring sister Lady Lucille (Chastain). Despite being warned by the ghost of her mother at an early age to 'beware of Crimson Peak', she ends up discovering that the house has many horrors and sinister secrets hiding within it... some that involve her new family.

I feel that this film will get a cult following in the years to come and will be remembered as a unique landmark in Del Toro's career. While it's not as strong as The Shape of Water or Pan's Labyrinth, the film is closer to the tone of some of his Spanish film productions like The Devil's Backbone, but has more of a horror element akin to a Hammer horror film than other works he has created. Speaking of, there's several shout outs to Hammer throughout, including the main character's last name 'Cushing' (of course, referring to Hammer horror actor Peter Cushing), which fans will snicker at. It's too bad Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee aren't still alive to have made an appearance.

Crimson Peak 4K is presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with Dolby Vision / HDR10, an HEVC / H.265 codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and audio tracks in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit). The cinematography in this film is breathtaking and captured in heighten detail in this much improved upon transfer over the previously released 1080p Blu-ray version. This is a beautiful looking transfer that is a profound improvement a is definitely the definitive way to enjoy the film and all of its lush gothic cinematography and sound design.

Special Features include:

Audio commentary by co-writer and director Guillermo del Toro

The House is Alive: Constructing Crimson Peak, a feature-length documentary with cast and crew interviews and extensive behind the scenes footage

Spanish language interview with Guillermo del Toro

The Gothic Corridor, The Scullery, The Red Clay Mines, The Limbo Fog Set; four featurettes exploring different aspects of Allerdale Hall

A Primer on Gothic Romance, the director and stars talk about the key traits of Gothic romance

The Light and Dark of Crimson Peak, the cast and crew talk about the film's use of color

Hand Tailored Gothic, a featurette on the film's striking costumes

A Living Thing, a look at the design, modeling and construction of the Allerdale Hall sets

Beware of Crimson Peak, a walking tour around Allerdale Hall with Tom Hiddleston

Crimson Phantoms, a featurette on the film's amazing ghosts

Kim Newman on Crimson Peak and the Tradition of Gothic Romance, an interview with the author and critic

Violence and Beauty in Guillermo del Toro's Gothic Fairy Tale Films, a video essay by the writer Kat Ellinger

Deleted scenes

Image gallery

Original trailers and TV spots

and a Reversible Sleeve featuring original and exclusive artwork by Artist Guy Davis.

Crimson Peak on 4K UHD is a welcome and noteworthy upgrade to the previously released 1080p Blu-ray edition, which also looks strong for the format.

Previous seasons of this DC limited series are also available for reference elsewhere on this site.

DC's adult spin-off series for Max streaming service, Doom Patrol (2023), lands on Blu-ray in its final season, Season Four. While the series started off with more creative focus and production design in its earlier seasons, this last season pretty much moves along with a feeling like you can tell everyone involved just wanted it to end already. This is definitely a DC series that will divide the audience to either those who love it or those who hate it, but this reviewer feels it drug on a bit too long for its own good.

Doom Patrol stars Matt Bomer, April Bowlby, Diane Guerrero, Joivan Wade, Brendan Fraser, and Alan Tudyk.

Taking place after the Titans series, the Doom Patrol, consisting of Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman, and Crazy Jane, and led by Dr. Niles Caulder / Chief, receive a mission from Cyborg (who looks like a cosplayer by the way) that they cannot ignore and will change their lives and end their missions once and for all. While the season isn't a total loss and does have some good moments here and there, it's attempt to mix melodrama with characters shaped like human butts and language on a fourth grade level really dumbs it down. James Gunn is a great example of a writer who can pull this kind of thing off as proven with Peacemaker and Suicide Squad, but this feels like an imitation of that and might not work for everyone.

Doom Patrol is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.20:1 and a lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) soundmix. The film has been translated to 1080p Blu-ray looking fine with no real issues and matches the about the same level of presentation as the original broadcast version on streaming. The digital VFX are really low for a series of this budget. At times this season felt like I was watching a series on the SyFy channel as some of the effects were laughably bad. This would be highlighted more prominently in a 2160p presentation so luckily we don't have to endure that yet.

Special Features only include three featurettes: Unsung Heroes, Transformation Patrol, and Off-Off-Broadway.

Doom Patrol is finally over and thanks to his Blu-ray set we can finally put the nail in the coffin so to speak and put this mixed effort to rest. The pitch meeting for this had to have showcases a more R-rated approach to a Guardians of the Galaxy-style underdog superhuman team-up. A bunch of sarcastic superhero losers bantering first and fighting later. But I have a feeling James Gunn (who wrote and directed the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy) would have handled this material differently, making this feel like a distant rip-off of that style of film.

For example, it seems like this series didn't really know where it was going from the get-go as is proven in its hideous series finale. When monsters shaped like human butts (with teeth) attack an operatic Sorceress who sings to them whilst opening up other dimensions, I started to mentally check out. This writing is a new DC low, but with adult curse words thrown into the mix. It attempts to be touching at times, but do we really care? None of these characters have been particularly like-able in the same way that Rocket Raccoon or Groot were. I think it became apparent to studio heads at the point this and other series on Max that DC needed saving, and lucky Peter Safran and James Gunn have come in to stop lackluster product like this going forward.

- Nicholas Sheffo (Blind) and James Lockhart

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