
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/