Black Samson (1974/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/The Island (1985/MVD/Eureka! Blu-ray)/Relay (2024/Bleecker Street Blu-ray)/Superman 4K (2025/DC Comics/Warner 4K Blu-ray)/Watch The Skies (2022/Decal Blu-ray)

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

PLEASE NOTE: The Black Samson Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.

A new group of genre films are not always as effective as they think they are...

Charles Bail's Black Samson (1974) is an unusual entry in the cycle with lesser-know actor Rockne Tarkington taking on the title role, a good man in a tough neighborhood protecting and keeping things from descending into drug dens, crime and murder, dressed in traditional male African clothing of the past and carrying a staff. No Moses references get implied, but the staff makes for a interesting weapon in the fight sequences and he has a pet lion who rarely sees any action.

When 'white' (aka Italian for the most part) try to muscle in his neighborhood, he has to take action and when they beat up his girlfriend and try to kill him, payback is not far away. The usual tropes we see in this cycle are all over the place and the ending is amusing, a time capsule of a more hopeful time, but the cast is into it and the music is by no less than the legendary Allen Toussaint in a nice twist. That makes it another key soundtrack to go with those by Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Curtis Mayfield.

Besides some solid location work, the supporting cast includes William Smith in one of his most thankless turns as a real so and so, Connie Strictland, Carol Speed, Michael Payne, Titos Vandis, Joe Tornatore, John Alderman, Ernest Robinson, Nick Dimitri and Napoleon Whiting. All in all, a little uneven but worth a look.

The only extra is a somewhat rough Original Theatrical Trailer.

Po-Chih Leong's The Island (1985) is a Sammo Hung-produced horror film with too much comedy that thinks it is offering an answer to 1970s indie classics like Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Motel Hell (without the darkness and irony) and the like, yet its initial premise of a teacher taking six gals on a trip to an island is more like the overrated Australian drama/mystery Picnic At Hanging Rock.

The press material even compares it to John Boorman's Deliverance, but some moments are so odd, that I was thinking more like Boorman's Zardoz, so that should give you an idea of what you get if you try this film out. This is not to say the film is highly derivative and is just a compilation rip-off movie, but it really adds nothing new to any genre it tackles and is only for the most curious. Also, why do movies with its title always seem to have issues?

Extras include a Limited Edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Ilan Sheady

• Limited Edition collector's booklet featuring an interview with Po-Chih Leong and revised introduction notes on The Island by film writer, producer and film festival executive Roger Garcia

• New audio commentary with East Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)

• New audio commentary with genre cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema

• Surviving the Shoot: interview with Director Po-Chih Leong from 2023 courtesy of Frederic Ambroisine

• and an Original Theatrical Trailer

David Mackenzie's Relay (2024) is what The Equalizer revivals could have been if they took more risks and tried to be more intense. The great Riz Ahmed stars as a quiet man who helps people in trouble, in this case, whistleblowers who have been bullied by the corporations they wanted to expose and what to be free of the whole thing. They're willing to be silent, but how can they get this to happen? He comes in and has ways to make this happen.

Among his latest cases involve two clients who have various goods on a multi-national corporation making genetically engineered food that they know will kill people, but keep making it anyhow because of greed. Lily James plays his next client, but as is the situation in these cases, a team (led by Sam Worthington) has other plans before he shows up.

Running 112 minutes, it is really good and sometimes remarkable, until the final sequences, where it quickly derails and the script is not on the up and up with the audience, which I thought was a real sad shame. It was not broke, so they did not need to fix anything, killing what could have been a classic thriller. Too bad, because it was great while it lasted.

The only extra is are trailers before the film starts.

James Gunn's Superman 4K (2025) offers the latest big screen incarnation of one of the most popular characters in not on superhero history, but pop culture history. After Kirk Alan, Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill, David Corenswet takes over the role with ease, Rachel Brosnahan is my favorite Lois Lane since Margot Kidder and the great Nicholas Hoult is a perfectly, dangerously new Lex Luthor. I like the rest of the cast, the film has the money on the screen and the makers have a grasp of the Superman and DC Comics' worlds. So why did this still have more than a few issues?

For starters, it may be based on some more current Superman comics, the world we mostly see here actually goes back to the period from 1971 to 1975 when Wonder Woman got her original costume back (though she is not in the film) and after the Adam West Batman series was over, the DC publishers decided to start a new more serious take on all the characters with more (relatively) serious art and more modern situations and along with the rise of Marvel, built and saved the genre in the process. This film is that world with some current embellishments, good and some not so good. That also means some predictability.

Meant to be more family friendly and fun than the Snyder take, et al, it achieves what it sets out to do and was a hit as a result, if not an all-time blockbuster, but that's better than the run of recent bombs in the genre from both studios/comic book publishers. I will not go into anything else much I did not like in the script, but will say I was not happy with this version of Supergirl, Superman's earth parents, the film's tendency to be Guardians Of The Galaxy-like and thought the villain The Engineer (as Maria Gabriela de Faria) was a knock off of Kristanna Loken's T-X liquid robot villain from Terminator 3 by way of H.R. Giger, but not nearly as threatening.

So the film pays a price for all that and some plot holes and ideas that are nto as thought out as they should be. Whether the new Green Lantern (Nathan Fillon, another good choice) or Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) will grown among the other heroes in the next films is hard to say, but any connected films or sequels will need to do much more or these films will continue to be too predictable and they will continue to look like they're going to party like it 1975.

Krypto The Dog is better here than just about anywhere, one of the film's best successes, but I was more disappointed overall, but that's what happens when you've read all the books and did nto know you needed to wait for the movie. Now you can see for yourself, but expect more predictability, flaws and safe moments than I did.

Extras include a Digital Movie Code, while the disc adds:

• Krypto Saves the Day!: School Bus Scuffle (5:32, animated)

• Adventures in Making Superman featurette(60:00)

• Icons Forever: Superman's Enduring Legacy featurette (6:05)

• Lex Luthor: The Mind of a Master Villain featurette (5:18)

• Kryptunes: The Music of Superman featurette (6:31)

• Paws to Pixels: Krypto is Born featurette (5:54)

• Breaking News: The Daily Planet Returns featurette (5:23)

• The Ultimate Villain featurette (5:30)

• The Justice Gang featurette (10:37)

• and A New Era: DC Takes Off featurette (4:53)

Watch The Skies (also known as UFO Sweden, 2022) gets a Blu-ray release from Decal and XYZ Films. The sci-fi film, inspired by real people, follows a young teen desperate to be reunited with her father after he goes missing in the mountains of Sweden looking for a UFO. Joining her are a clan of UFO researchers who are part of a group that her missing Dad founded. The quirky group are a mix of devotees and skeptics, which bring a range of perspectives to the piece that's interesting. The film has a vibe that is a mix of Stranger Things and Super 8, although not as horror-centric, but I would suggest it if you are fan of those types of films. It has a bit of a slow pace at times and tends to focus more on the human perspective than that of the aliens, but the characters are well rounded and the filmmaking / performances are strong.

The strong Swedish cast includes Eva Melander, Oscar Toringe, Sara Shirpey, Joakim Sallquist, and Inez Dahl Torhaug. The film is directed by Victor Danell.

A side note for the disc that's kind of interesting, this film is the first to use AI for immersive audio dubbing. This makes the characters appear to speak English while preserving the integrity of their original Swedish performances. I have to admit that while watching I didn't realize the language barrier as the English was impressively dubbed. Whilst this reviewer prefers original language tracks with subtitles this technology is pretty interesting in creating a flawless dub that the novice wouldn't notice.

Special Features:

Original Swedish language version: the original Swedish language version of the film is available to watch as a Blu-ray bonus feature, highlighting the groundbreaking dubbing transformation made possible by Flawless.

English language version

The Real UFO Sweden: a look at the group who inspired the film

Filmmaker Testimonial

Flawless Sizzle Reel

and an Original Trailer.

Watch The Skies is a fun character piece that explores similar traits of other alien movies, but isn't so much focused on the fantastical side but more-so on the human element.

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.90 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Superman 4K is the best performer here with better CGI than the last set of DC Comics movies, which at least had good color, though not all the CGI is top rate. Detail, depth and color quality is a plus, but some shots just are not as top rate as others. Still, it is consistent for what they go for and the lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) is one of the year's better sound mixes. The combination is just fine.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Black Samson has some good color range, which makes sense as it was one of the last of the original dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor film releases when the company made the year of the film the last year of releasing such film prints. Too bad detail and depth are not always there for whatever reason, though this deluxe color format was rare for a blaxploitation film. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is also not as good as it could be, which can undercut the music in particular, but this is restored and we gather it is the best they could do to save this one. The combination is still very watchable, but a little disappointing.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on The Island can show the age of the materials used, but color is consistent despite some waxy shots, so the original camera materials only survived so well. The Cantonese PCM 2.0 Mono is as good as the film will ever sound and helps make the film more watchable.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Relay is very consistent, but a bit spot in more than a few spots, which might not be the case in a given 4K edition, still watchable enough and its DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is usually very effective. However, it has some off moments. Otherwise, a decent presentation.

And Watch The Skies is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. The presentation is nicely shot and colored and looks highly cinematic on 1080p Blu-ray with no flaws that detract from the presentation however some of the darker scenes could be more detailed in HDR with a 4K UHD presentation. I did notice a kind of fish eye lens on certain shots that take up the four corners of the anamorphic frame, I found it odd that they didn't crop that some, but that's a filmmaking preference and has nothing to do with the quality of the disc.

To order the Black Samson Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for it 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 and James Lockhart (Skies)

https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/