Hardboiled (Alain Corneau/Choice Of Arms (1981,) Police Python 357 (1976,) Serie noire (1979)/Radiance Blu-ray Set)/Lady Is The Boss (1983/88 Films Blu-ray)/Long Kiss Goodnight 4K (1996/New Line/Warner/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Mabuse Lives! Dr. Mabuse At CCC: 1960-1964 (Fritz Lang/Arrow Blu-ray Set)/V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal (1989 - 1994/Arrow Blu-ray Set/all MVD)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B-/X/B/B- Sound: B-/C+/B/C+/B- Extras: B-/B-/C+/B/B- Films: B- C+ C+/C+/C/B B- B B- C+ C+ C+/C+

Here's a wide-ranging set of releases that often want to emulate Noir films and sometimes succeed, unless they just get too silly, intentionally or not...

We start with Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers By Alain Corneau that includes three of his films: Choice Of Arms (1981,) Police Python 357 (1976) and Serie noire (1979,) the last of which we already reviewed as a Blu-ray single from a competing company a few years ago at this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15713/Blood+On+The+Moon+(1948/RKO/Warner+Archive+Bl

Police Python 357 (1976) has a title that appeals to the idea of the Dirty Harry cop with the big gun, here with Yves Montand as a detective who has an affair with another woman he knows he should not have, only for her to turn up dead and put him in a complicated position. It has some fine moments and is well made, but some of this we have still seen before and I had seen this eons ago, with only so much staying with me. Still, worth a look, the makers take the material as seriously as the audience and the solid supporting cast includes Francois Perier, Stefania Sandrelli, Mathieu Carriere and Simone Signoret.

Choice Of Arms (1981) is the most effective of the three, with Montand as a former criminal in a happy marriage to Catherine Deneuve, trying to buy a horse farm when a pair of criminals led by Gerard Depardieu successfully break out of prison as one gets ambushed. The men know each other and crazed Mickey (Depardieu) knows him and wants some money from him. That will not be enough, leading to more problems for all ahead.

Depardieu actually gives a good performance here and is not drifting like he tends to too often, but he was in rare form in his career at this time, while the rest of the actors are fine and this moves well. Corneau is not a bad director overall and that is why this set is worth a look, especially if you like the actors, genre and subject material.

Extras include feature length audio commentary track by Mike White on Police Python 357

• Maxim Jakubowski on Police Python 357's source novel and adaptation (2024)

• Archival interview with Alain Corneau and Francois Perier about Police Python 357 from Belgian Television (1976)

• Serie noire set interviews with Alain Corneau, Patrick Dewaere and Miriam Boyer from Belgian Television (1981)

• Serie noire: The Darkness of the Soul - An archival documentary featuring cast and crew on the making of the film (2013, 53 mins)

• Archival interview with Alain Corneau and Marie Trintignant about Serie noire (2002, 30 mins)

• A visual essay about Jim Thompson adaptations for the screen (2024)

• Introduction by documentary filmmaker Jerome Wybon (2024)

• Shooting Choice of Arms: interviews with the cast and crew including behind-the-scenes footage (1981)

• Interviews with Deneuve, Montand and Depardieu from the set (1981)

• Interview with Manuela Lazic on Yves Montand in the 1970s (2024)

• Original Theatrical Trailers

• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters

• Limited edition 80-page booklet featuring new writing by Charlie Brigden, Andrew Male, Nick Pinkerton, Travis Woods, and newly translated archival interviews with Alain Corneau

• and Limited edition of 2,500 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings.

Chia-liang Liu (aka Lau Kar-Leung's) The Lady Is The Boss (1983) is another overly comical martial arts romp also part of a cycle with women moving into more powerful leadership roles. This one recycles My Young Auntie a bit as Chen Mei Ling (aka Kara Hui) comes home to Hong Kong to run a martial arts school, but she is too 'Americanized' and chaos ensues as the lessons are changed too much, bad people enroll, a gang war develops and everything is supposed to be funny. Though colorful, I did not laugh at all and this is for fans and completists only, including those who love Shaw Brothers films. With this restored version with extras by 88 Films, now you can judge for yourself, if interested. I'd skip it.

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by expert Frank Djeng

Stills Gallery
Limited Edition O-ring

Reversible Sleeve
Original Theatrical Trailer

Sam Ho on Lau Kar-Leung by Fred Ambroisine
and a Limited Edition Set of 4 collectors art cards.

Rennie Harlin's The Long Kiss Goodnight 4K (1996) is the ever-disappointing pairing of Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson as she starts to snap out of the spell that she is a 'mere' housewife and was some kind of spy or assassin in a (recent?) past life. Both are undone by a combination of Harlin, whose directing big films started off with a horrid note on the unbelievably bad Die Hard 2 (1990) continuing with The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane the same year (!!!!!,) bomb Cutthroat Island (1995, also with Davis,) Deep Blue Sea (1999, now also on 4K from Arrow,) Driven (2001, another HUGE bomb) and the much lesser of the two Exorcist prequels (2004.)

Then add sometime actor Shane Black, who after creating Lethal Weapon and Monster Squad (1987) penned his own set of mega-disasters like The Last Boy Scout (1991,) The Last Action Hero (1993,) Iron Man 3 (2013, helping to kill the Superhero genre,) the obnoxious Nice Guys (2016,) a poor Predator revival in 2018 and the somehow more respected Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2015) that few talk about now. His screenplays kept getting greenlit because they were apparently fun reads, yet the 'fun' never translated on the big screen or for most viewers. Combine these two and you get a mess of wasted time, wasted talent and endless missed opportunities with too much bad comedy to calculate.

Brian Cox, David Morse and Craig Bierko also show up and also get their time wasted, but we can only hope all got good paychecks. Most viewers should have asked for a refund. If you want to know the kind of filmmaking that killed Hollywood, here's a crash course. Its too loud to fall asleep to, too flat and dumb to care about. Don't say you were not warned.

Extras include Limited Edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley

• Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Clem Bastow, Richard Kadrey, Maura McHugh, and Priscilla Page

• Seasonal postcard

• Thin Ice sticker

• DISC 1 (4K ULTRA HD) FEATURE & EXTRAS

• Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films from the original 35mm negative approved by director Renny Harlin

• 4K Ultra HD (2160p) presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)

• Original DTS-HD MA 5.1, stereo 2.0. and new Dolby Atmos audio options

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Brand new audio commentary by film critic Walter Chaw

• Brand new audio commentary by film critics Drusilla Adeline and Joshua Conkel, co-hosts of the Bloodhaus podcast

• Theatrical trailer

• Image gallery

• DISC 2 (BLU-RAY) BONUS FEATURES

• Symphony of Destruction, a new interview with stunt co-ordinator Steve Davidson

• Long Live the New Flesh, a new interview with make-up artist Gordon J. Smith

• Girl Interrupted, a new interview with actress Yvonne Zima

• Amnesia Chick, a new visual essay by film scholar Josh Nelson

• The Mirror Crack'd, a new visual essay by critic and filmmaker Howard S. Berger

• A Woman's World, a new visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

• Deleted Scenes

• Archive promotional interviews with with director Renny Harlin and stars Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson and Craig Bierko

• Making Of, an archive promotional featurette

• and Behind the Scenes, archive EPK footage from the filming of The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Mabuse Lives! Dr. Mabuse At CCC: 1960-1964 is a collection of all the original sound films about the criminal mastermind, as first seen in the 1922 silent Fritz Lang classic Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler, a movie serial whose short feature film version had Sergei Eisenstein as one of its editors. Lang was back with The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse in 1933, then decades later helming The 1,000 Eyes Of Dr. Mabuse and that was his next to last film as director.

The latter two films and four more sequels, all feature films, are included in this set with a ton of extras and further restorations that look good throughout. A legendary, super-cleaver villain in pre-war Germany, Lang (of course) eventually left he country, so the newer 1960 film was a return, update and restoration of the legend with the benefits of the latest technology, style and more. I really liked the early films (the serial is out on Blu-ray from another company) and the series holds up nicely enough, albeit repetitive in later films.

That gives us the titles as The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse, The 1,000 Eyes Of Dr. Mabuse, The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961,) The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (1962,) Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse (1963) and The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (1964).

Its great that they are all now restored and being issued in this set and they are all worth a look for all serious film fans, action fans, spy fans and the Lang films (of course) really stand out. Definitely recommended!

Extras for this Limited edition of 2,000 copies include:

• Limited Edition hardbound slipcase featuring new artwork by Tony Stella

• Archival audio commentary on The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse by film historian and author David Kalat

• New audio commentaries on the other five films by film historian and author David Kalat

• Mabuse Lives at CCC: New interview with producer and managing director of CCC Film Alice Brauner, daughter of CCC founder Artur Brauner

• New introductions to each film by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas

• Kriminology: new video essay by David Cairns & Fiona Watson

• 2002 interview with actor Wolfgang Preiss

• Alternate endings for The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse and The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse

• PLUS: A limited edition 60-page collector's book featuring new notes on each film by journalist Holger Haase, a new essay by German film scholar Tim Bergfelder, an archival essay by David Cairns, archival writing by Fritz Lang and notes by Lotte Eisner.

And finally, some graphic films made for the Japanese home video market of the time that pushed sex, gore, language, crime, violence and other situations, V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal (1989 - 1994) offers seven such films: Crime Hunter: Bullets Of Rage, Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet, Stranger, Carlos, Burning Dog, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat, The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses, Danger Point: The Road To Hell and XX: Beautiful Hunter.

On the one hand, they are now comparatively bolder than most of what we are getting today in the bad world of safe streaming and shallow telefilms, but they are still B-movie exploitation works and the cheapness becomes quickly repetitive. However, the actors are trying, the locales are interesting and just coming from Japan versus the glut of Hollywood and U.S.-based such releases at least initially interesting. The plots and storylines can be somewhat interchangeable too, but plenty of theatrical films were made in the same mode in both markets, et al, so it is a rare look at a cinema rare seen in the U.S. market and Arrow goes all out as usual with extras that cover every angle.

Extras are many and include nine postcard-sized artcards

• Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon

• Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Earl Jackson, Daisuke Miyao, and Hayley Scanlon

• DISC 1: CRIME HUNTER: BULLETS OF RAGE / NEO CHINPIRA: ZOOM GOES THE BULLET

• Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka

• Loose Cannon, a newly filmed interview with Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage director Shundo Okawa

• Zooming Out, a newly filmed interview with Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet writer-director Banmei Takahashi

• Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema, a brand new video essay on Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes

• Original trailers for both films

• DISC 2: STRANGER / CARLOS

• Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka

• Stranger than Fiction, a newly filmed interview with Stranger writer-director Shunichi Nagasaki

• From Manga to Movies, a newly filmed interview with Carlos writer-director Kazuhiro Kiuchi

• An Extra Round in the Chamber, a brand new video essay on Carlos by critic and Japanese cinema expert Jonathan Clements

• DISC 3: BURNING DOG / FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: DEATH THREAT

• Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka

• Fire and Ice, a brand new video essay on Burning Dog by critic and Japanese cinema expert Mark Schilling

• Toshiharu Ikeda's Beautiful Monster of Vengeance, a brand new video essay on Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat by film historian Samm Deighan

• Original trailers for both films

• DISC 4: THE HITMAN: BLOOD SMELLS LIKE ROSES / DANGER POINT: THE ROAD TO HELL

• Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka

• The Versatility of Teruo Ishii, a brand new video essay on The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses and its director Teruo Ishii by Japanese cinema expert Frankie Balboa

• The Road to V-Cinema, a brand new video essay on Danger Point: The Road to Hell by critic and Japanese cinema expert James Balmont

• Original trailer for The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses

• DISC 5: XX: BEAUTIFUL HUNTER

• Newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka

• The Sacred and the Profane, a newly filmed interview with screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi

• They Brought Back the Sleaze, a brand new video essay on XX: Beautiful Hunter by critic and Japanese cinema expert Patrick Macias

• and an Original Theatrical Trailer.

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Kiss Goodnight 4K is really nice at times, but some shots, not so much. Of the three lossless sound mixes, Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1, DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo, the Atmos is stretching things a bit, while the Stereo is limited, so the 5.1 has the most impact of the three throughout. The film was also issued in the Sony Dynamic Digital Sound format, but not in 8-track sound. Too bad, because that would have been a better basis for the Atmos upgrade.

The 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the Hardboiled films look good and have some fine color to go with their atmosphere, save Arms in 1080p 2.35 X 1 with a great use of widescreen Panavision, making it more exciting. The French PCM 2.0 Mono sound mixes on all three films are and sound as good as they ever will.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Lady Is The Boss can show the age of the materials used and the older anamorphic lenses used, but color is often really good despite detail limits and the Cantonese PCM 2.0 Mono is as good as the film will ever sound, while also showing its age and the limits of the film's budget.

The 1080p 1.66 X 1 (and later 1.33 X 1 on Testament and both Death Ray transfers) black & white digital High Definition image transfers on the Mabuse films look really good, sometimes great, which does nto surprise me since the DVD versions from All Day Entertainment of the two Lang films a few decades ago were impressive for their time. Most likely shot on Agfa monochrome film stock (give or take possibly Kodak, Ansco, or Fuji, but likely not DuPont?) look good and have some nice detail and depth in all cases. Some footage had to be SD, but that is rare. The German PCM 2.0 Mono in all cases is restored, but until the last film (and even then with some issues) the sound has some brittle distortion at the high end they could not get rid of for some reason. The English dubs are weak, flat and dull, but the longer Italian version of Death Ray with Italian PCM 2.0 Mono entitled I Raggi Mortali Del Dr. Mabuse has different music, new footage and different editing.

Lastly, the 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the V movies can show the age and limits of the film used to shoot them, but they all tend to have fine color often, some style to match and are off of 2K scans. All have Japanese PCM 2.0 Stereo, save Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage in Japanese PCM 2.0 Mono and all sound as good as they ever will. Under the circumstances, it is likely they often will look as good as they can to.

- Nicholas Sheffo