Criss Cross (1949)

"Excellent Siodmak Noir"

The film director Robert Siodmak made just after CRY OF THE CITY (1948) gets a Blu-ray release of a new 4K scan courtesy of Eureka.

Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) returns to Los Angeles having finally got over his now ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo). He gets a job as an armoured car driver but just can't help going back to the bar where Anna hangs out. She's now married to mob boss Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea) but that doesn't stop Steve and Anna from rekindling old passions. 

In an attempt to convince Dundee there's nothing going on Steve claims he only contacted Anna to meet Dundee, whose help he needs to rob an armoured car Steve will be driving that's filled with payroll money. Does the heist work? Do people double cross each other? Do Anna and Steve end up together? 

Robert Siodmak is known to horror fans for directing Universal's SON OF DRACULA (1943) but he came into his own directing thrillers and film noirs like PHANTOM LADY (1944), THE KILLERS (1946)  and THE DARK MIRROR (1946). The director himself claimed that only about five minutes of any one film of his was any good. You'll probably be able to tell which bits he was referring to in CRISS CROSS but that's doing the rest of this film a disservice. Burt Lancaster is excellent as the lovesick Thompson while Yvonne De Carlo doesn't always get to grips with the lines but certainly looks the part. Oh, and there's a cracking score from the marvellous Miklos Rozsa.

Eureka's 4K scan sparkles - CRISS CROSS has never looked this good. Extras on the disc include a commentary track by Lee Gambin and Rutanya Alda and a new video piece on the film by Adrian Martin. There's also a booklet featuring new writing on the film by Kat Ellinger and Adam Batty as well as reprint articles and stills.

Robert Siodmak's CRISS CROSS is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 22nd June 2020

Bloodshot (2020)

"UPGRADE Upgraded?"

Vin Diesel continues his bid to be the biggest action star of the 21st century with this science-fiction actioner from first time feature director David S F Wilson, getting a 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD release from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

After a gruelling day rescuing hostages in a third world country, soldier Ray Garrison (Diesel) is relaxing with his wife in the kind of Italian hotel where Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan are probably downstairs doing Roger Moore impersonations. But before either can raise an eyebrow Ray and his wife have been abducted, tortured and shot. They Ray wakes up.

Or rather, he's brought back to life by one-armed (he's got a cybernetic limb instead) Dr Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) who tells Ray he's been reanimated by being infused with nano technology. He's also now virtually indestructible, as every time he's injured the nanobots flowing through his veins can  rebuild him. Ray escapes the high tech institution and hunts down his wife's killers. But that's just the beginning of the story.

Based on the series of Valiant comic books, and very much in the spirit of Leigh Whannell's (superior) UPGRADE, BLOODSHOT has more money, more stars and more stunts (the climax is especially over the top) but it's missing the emotional core that made Whannell's film so effective. That said, if you fancy a couple of hours of explosions, stunts and Vin growling you could do a lot worse than this. Extras on Sony's Blu-ray include two minutes of out-takes, a ten minute featurette on directing the film and another of similar length on the cast. You also get twelve minutes of deleted scenes and an alternate ending, which has the option to be played with a director's commentary. There is no commentary track for the main feature. 

BLOODSHOT is out from Sony on 4KUHD, Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 8th June 2020. It's already available on digital download. 

I See You (2019)

"Excellent"

One of those films that's very difficult to review as it's best watched pretty much cold, Adam Randall's very fine thriller indeed gets a UK Blu-ray release courtesy of Arrow Films.

In a small town children are disappearing, and the method of abduction seems to be the same as that of a paedophile convicted for the crimes fifteen years ago and who is still in prison. That's not the only problem Detective Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) is currently having to deal with. His wife (Helen Hunt) has recently had an affair, their teenaged son Connor (Judah Lewis) is acting out as a result, and on top of all that, strange inexplicable things are happening in the family house.

I SEE YOU works very well indeed, and the credit for that can be given to its director. In lesser hands the complex interweaving and piling up of incident upon incident might have the viewer questioning some of the less believable aspects, but it's all so skilfully put together that such questions only occur after the film has finished. It's a clever piece of work and definitely worth catching up with and as I've said above, you really shouldn't read any more about it before watching. It's also likely you'll learn a new word (I certainly did).

Arrow's Blu-ray comes with a commentary track from Adam Randall and producer Matt Waldeck. There's also a making of and separate interviews with Helen Hunt and Randall. You also get a featurette on the filming of the opening scene, trailers and an image gallery. The first pressing of the disc comes with a booklet featuring new writing on the film from Anton Bitel. There's a warning at the start which I'll reiterate - don't read it before watching the film!  

Adam Randall's I SEE YOU is out on Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 25th May 2020

The Final Wish (2018)

"Wish it Away!!"

Lin Shaye stars in The Final Wish, a movie co-written by Jeffrey Reddick (who gave us FINAL DESTINATION) and also featuring Tony Todd. It's getting a UK Digital HD release from Signature Entertainment.

Down on his luck lawyer Aaron (Michael Welch) returns to the small town of his birth for his father's funeral. His father collected curious objects and one of them, an ornate bowl found in Iraq, houses a demon capable of granting wishes. Of course, each wish comes at a price, with the biggest horrible surprise reserved for when you've made enough of them.

THE FINAL WISH should be a lot better than it is. Lin Shaye is fine as Aaron's mother, as is Tony Todd who turns up as the expository librarian. The rest of the acting is passable with the exception of Melissa Bolona who really should ask for her money back from any acting classes she paid for. 

Shots are framed well and there's some interesting use of coloured lighting. The reason I'm saying something nice about those things is because the direction on the whole is quite terrible, exhibiting little sense of how to tell a story like this. Scenes of possible suspense are presented more like an advert for washing up liquid, the camera lingers on pointless things for far too long, and the movie quickly veers into 'shout at the screen' territory. 

And that's a great shame because a horror film about wishes going wrong, with those headlining actors and some great design and set dressing (Aaron's father's house looks like something out of Night Gallery or an Amicus film and it's all wasted wasted wasted) should be fantastic and it's just awful. It's taken a while for THE FINAL WISH to get a release and it's not surprising. However, if you're looking for a night of so bad it's good entertainment, this is probably the one to go for this week.

THE FINAL WISH is out on Digital HD from Signature Entertainment on Monday 25th May 2020

Blood Tide (1982)

There are virgin sacrifices and an ancient sea monster in Arrow's latest Blu-ray release in its Nico Mastorakis collection. He didn't direct BLOOD TIDE (Richard Jefferies gets the honours) but he did co-write and co-produce.

Neil (Martin Kove from THE KARATE KID) and his wife Sherry (Mary Louise Weller) are searching for Neil's sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton, who gets an 'Introducing' credit here despite having already appeared in 1977 Greek sleazefest DANGEROUS CARGO before appearing in a lot of US TV including 63 episodes of Dallas).

They arrive on a remote Greek island that was Madeline's last known whereabouts. Jose Ferrer tries to make them leave. James Earl Jones is grumpy too, but that's because he wants all the underwater treasure he's busy looting for himself. He blows up the entrance to a cave, releasing an ancient demon that demands virgin sacrifices but seems to be happy to make do with anyone female.

There's the kernel of a good idea in BLOOD TIDE, plus some decent shots, great locations and a good cast, but sadly overall the film never really gets going.  What it really needed was taking to pieces back in the editing room, followed by complete reassembly and a new score and it might have been halfway decent. In fact in these times of coronavirus with so many doing jigsaw puzzles to pass the isolation time here's one film that really could have done with a 'do your own edit' feature. Maybe competitions could have been run for who could come up with the best version. All this and more will no doubt be going through your mind as the film runs through its regular cycle of something slightly interesting happening on screen, followed by nothing at all for several minutes. 

Arrow's Blu-ray comes with a commentary track from director Jefferies and a thirty minute interview with Mastorakis who is his usual ebullient self. You also get a couple of trailers, a reversible sleeve and the first pressing contains notes by Michael Gingold.

BLOOD TIDE is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 25th May 2020

The Grudge (2020)

Writer-Director Nicolas Pesce's entry into the increasingly massive GRUDGE movie universe gets a Digital, Blu-ray and DVD release from Sony.

Detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough), new in town with her young son and still recovering from the death of her husband, finds herself investigating a body found in a burned out car in the woods. The trail leads back to a nearby house that has a tragic history, one that has led to multiple deaths and mutilations, including one of the detectives (William Sadler) who worked on a previous case. As she digs deeper into the mystery, it turns out the deaths began when Fiona Landers (Tara Westwood) returned from a trip to Japan.

THE GRUDGE is a strange beast. There are some beautifully composed shots, some good acting (and some not so good - step forward mumbly grunting policeman Demian Bechir - thank goodness for subtitles) and some decent shock bits (a few quite gory for the film's 15 certificate. 

But.... it just doesn't all hang together. In fact if I was being uncharitable I'd say it doesn't work at all. So bad is it at points you'd swear Akiva Goldsman (RINGS, THE DARK TOWER et al ad very much nauseam) was involved. And that's a shame because once you get to the extras you realise how much thought has been put into this.

There are twelve GRUDGE films prior to this one, and anyone can be forgiven for not knowing their exact chronology, so here we go. First of all there are four Japanese films:

JU-ON: THE CURSE (2000)

JU-ON: THE CURSE 2 (2000)

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (2002)

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE 2 (2003)

Then come the American ones:

THE GRUDGE (2004)

THE GRUDGE 2 (2006)

THE GRUDGE 3 (2009)

Then some more from Japan:

JU-ON: BLACK GHOST (2009)

JU-ON: WHITE GHOST (2009)

JU-ON: THE BEGINNING OF THE END (2014)

JU-ON: THE FINAL CURSE (2014)

SADAKO VS KAYAKO (2016)

I've gone through all that because Nicolas Pesce obviously has, and the graphic novels as well. His new THE GRUDGE is packed with references to all the above, and if you're not 100% up on JU-ON don't worry, because one of the extras on here is a handy Easter Egg Haunt where Mr Pesce goes through some of them for you. This is one of three featurettes, the other two being 'Cast of the Cursed' and 'Designing Death'. There's no commentary track but you do get over thirty minutes of deleted scenes.

Nicolas Pesce's THE GRUDGE is out from Sony on Digital on Monday 18th May 2020 and on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 1st June 2020

The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse (1960)

"At Last!"

Eureka finally concludes its programme of releasing Fritz Lang's Mabuse trilogy on Blu-ray, with both DR MABUSE THE GAMBLER (1922) and THE TESTAMENT OF DR MABUSE (1933) having already been released in standard and attractive steelbook editions.

Dr Mabuse is dead...or is he? We get a brief summary of criminal mastermind Dr Mabuse's career and eventual fate, culminating in a shot of his gravestone, near the start of this film, one which actually begins with the killing of a journalist by hitman Howard Vernon using a specialised needle gun.

Inspector Kras (Gert Fröbe -GOLDFINGER himself) is assigned to the case and finds himself in a strange world of insurance salesmen who rely on astrology, a blind man who claims he can predict the future, suicidal Marion Menil (Dawn Addams) and rich industrialist Henry Travers (Peter van Eyck). 

Everything seems to centre around the luxurious Luxor Hotel, built by the Nazis to house dignitaries and loaded to the gills with surveillance equipment. As more bodies turn up it becomes clear (eventually) that either Mabuse is carrying out one of his dastardly plans to cause chaos throughout the world, or somebody has inherited his mantle.

A film that feels like a James Bond film before such a thing ever existed, THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR MABUSE anticipates the spy thrillers of the forthcoming decade with its weird gadgets, surveillance cameras, and master villain intent on ruling the world. Fritz Lang always admired Gordon Hessler's film of SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN and watching this it's not difficult to see why. The excellent car chase at the end of this is similar to the one in Hessler's film. and Fröbe's police officer is the likely inspiration for Alfred Marks' Inspector Bellaver.

Eureka's Blu-ray boasts a lovely-looking 1080p transfer, with both German and Fritz Lang-approved English dialogue tracks. There's a commentary track from Lang expert David Kalat, an alternate ending, and an interview with star Wolfgang Preiss from 2002. The sleeve is reversible, there's a collector's booklet with new writing on the film, and the first 2000 copies come with a slipcase.

Fritz Lang's THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR MABUSE is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 11th May 2020