Alto Knights (2025/Warner Blu-ray)/Lean On Me (1989*)/My Mother Land (2023 aka My Motherland/Icarus DVD)/Never On Sunday (1960/UA/MGM DVD)/Seed Of The Sacred Fig (2025/Neon Blu-ray)/Three Comrades (1938/MGM/*both Warner Archive Blu-rays)

Picture: B/B-/C/C+/B-/B Sound: B/B-/C/C+/B/C+ Extras: D/C-/C-/D/C-/C Films: C+/C+/B-/C+/B-/C+

PLEASE NOTE: The Lean On Me and Three Comrades Blu-rays are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.

Barry Levinson's Alto Knights (2025) has Robert De Niro in a dual role as two famous, real life gangsters: Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. He's good here, but even all the make-up and visual effects can only do so much to cover up the fact that it is one of the most iconic actors in cinema history. He still fares well enough here. With a screenplay penned by no less than Nicholas Pileggi with Irwin Winkler as a Co-Producer, it has its moments, but cannot help but repeat so much we have seen in the genre as it has become more worn out than ever. It skips the glamour of Levinson's Bugsy and feels more like his classic Diner or Scorsese and De Niro's gangster films to its advantage.

Unfortunately, though I liked Scorsese's The Irishman (see my Criterion Blu-ray review elsewhere on this site) despite some issues, this is more of a flipside to that film when death and aging from survival takes over the thrill and excitement of the lifestyle of no rules, robbery, terrorizing others and murder. Thus, it is worth a look for fans of the genre and talents involved, but only expect so much.

This is still Levinson's best theatrical film in a long time, though he has been delivering some exceptional TV and telefilms in recent decades, so he is far from out of things to show, say and do. Debra Messing, Michael Rispoli, Cosmo Jarvis, and Katharine Narducci also star.

There are sadly and oddly no extras.

John G. Avildsen's Lean On Me (1989) was part of the odd 'tough teacher' cycle of movies that included Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds that essentially said maybe if teachers got tough with their students and civil rights be damned, schools could do a better job of teaching. A Reagan-era idea that backfired in several scandals, these movies were usually 'based on a true story' with liberties taken.

Morgan Freeman plays Joe Clark, with a bullhorn and baseball bat, is brought in to 'save' a failing high school. Going in the opposite direction of his Electric Company work, it was not the feel good Rocky/Karate Kid film Director Avildsen had become known for and the hit song (remade here by Thelma Houston and The Wayans) land up not having the same meaning as the original 1972 #1 Bill Withers classic hit.

Now a curio, it is more obvious how the film does not work, but helping is a supporting cast that boasts Lynne Thigpen, Robert Guillaume, Beverly Todd, Alan North, Regina Taylor, Tony Todd, Michael Imperioli, Michael Beach and Ethan Phillips. Yes, the studio backed this as a big A-level film and it had some success. Now you can see how it is and has aged.

An Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.

Benoit Cohen's My Mother Land (2023 aka My Motherland) stars Fanny Ardant as a wealthy elderly woman who decides to participate in helping out an Afghan refugee (Nawid Elham) through a program she recently heard about. Friends around her are not so sure it is a good idea, but she sticks to her decision and the results are more layered than you might expect.

Inspired by a true story involving the director in real life, it can be a slice of life film, as well as a sort of character study, but I was surprised how naturalistic and convincing it was, not just something obvious, cliched or trivial. Of course, its timing could not be better considering current events.

Trailers for other Icarus releases are the only extras.

Jules Dassin's Never On Sunday (1960) is a comedy/drama about free spirited prostitute Ilya (Melina Mercouri, in a star-making role) meeting a writer/photographer (a very convincing Dassin) who becomes enamored with her. He is a stranger in Greece, clueless about their culture and ways that he tries to navigate to get to know her, so complication ensue.

Playing a little loose with virgin/whore complex while also trying to deal with Greek literature and philosophy, the film can be a mixed bag, but it looks good, the actors are good and the title song (which she sings in the film) is a classic and won the Best Song Oscar. At least a minor classic, Dassin is best known for heist, crime, mystery and noir films, some of which Mercouri would also appear in.

It is worth a look and a curio also thanks to its song, which was a hit for several people as an instrumental (Don Costa) vocal (The Chordettes) and many others that did not chart, including Connie Francis, Bing Crosby, Lena Horne, Doris Day, Andy Williams, Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons, Julie London, Eartha Kitt, Petula Clark, Ann-Margret, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and The Ventures. Yep, its that kind of record.

There are sadly no extras.

Mohammad Rasoulat's The Seed Of The Sacred Fig (2025) is an interesting thriller and drama where Iman is made an investigating judge in the current religious, theocratic dictatorship of Iran, with things slowly getting worse and worse as he tries to do his work. The screenplay does its best to make its political points, but the behind-the-scenes twist is that this film was made on location in total secret!

Still an interesting thriller, this ambitious project does run a bit long at 166 minutes (!!!) but works more often than not and is easily one of the hardest feature film productions of the last few years. That it works, is consistent and holds together if you put the viewing time in means all the hard work and high risk was worth it as it tells it like it is as well.

Of course, the current regime destroyed most of the cinema made under The Shaw who was overthrown in the late 1970s, with little having been saved since. This film is a tribute to that cinema lost too.

A Making Of featurette is the only extra.

Frank Borzage's Three Comrades (1938) is a strange Post-WWI drama with three German friends (Robert Taylor, Robert Young, Franchot Tone) intend to move on (despite their country losing and then having severe troubles than led to WWII!) living the best lives they can. I had problems believing the actors were german and that the WWI events could just be dismissed as over and they could move on.

Running a mere 98 minutes, F. Scott Fitzgerald of all people wrote the screenplay adaption from the Erich Maria Remarque novel and it is not a bad film on its own, but its just a little off and always was, despite MGM giving this one A-level treatment. Joseph L. Mankiewicz produced and the fine supporting cast includes Guy Kibbee, Lionel Atwill, Margaret Sullivan and Henry Hull.

Extras include an Original Theatrical Trailer and two short films: How To Raise A Baby and The Face Behind The Mask.

Now for playback performance. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Alto Knights looks good, albeit with all kinds of digital work and clashing editing, but we've seen these kinds of visuals before in many films, including by Levinson and Scorsese. Director of Photography Dante Spinotti, A.S.C., A.I.C., can still deliver. The lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) sounds good, but only so spectacular as this is a dialogue-based film despite its use of music and sound effects. The combination is fine, but I wonder if this would be more effective in 4K.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Lean On Me is from an older HD master, which has some good shots, but shows its relatively recent age. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix is a decent reproduction of the film original analog Dolby System A-type Dolby Stereo sound, which itself shows its age, maybe a little more because of the older videomaster, but it is fine for what we get. The combination is passable, but maybe it will get the 4K treatment later.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Sacred Fig is a little softer than I would have liked, though the circumstances in which it was shot, equipment used and genre itself might be part of the reason it has the look it has, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) Persian 5.1 lossless mix sounds as good as any film on this list, so it is some remarkable work considering.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Comrades can sometimes show the age of the materials used and is the oldest film on the list, but it looks as good any anything on this list at its best. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is limited and shows the sonics of its age, its original theatrical monophonic sound. However, this likely sounds as good as it ever will.

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Motherland is a little softer than I would have liked, though it cannot tell us how good this could look in even regular HD. The lossy French Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo fares better, but also likely would sound better lossless.

And the anamorphically enhanced black & white 1.66 X 1 image on Never On Sunday has some softness in places, but looks good often enough for the older format, while the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in multiple languages is fine for that older format. Guess we'll see this one in HD at some point.

To order either of the Warner Archive Blu-rays, Lean On Me and/or Three Comrades, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20

- Nicholas Sheffo