Mill Creek Entertainment Targets Aug. 17 For The Six-Disc Blu-ray Debut Of Gridman: The Hyper Agent

Mill Creek Entertainment has tabbed Aug. 17 for the release of the six-disc Blu-ray collection of the Tsuburaya Productions series titled, Gridman: The Hyper Agent.

Back in 2019, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the distribution rights to the entire Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd Ultraman library.   This represents something like 50-years worth of programming and over 1,100 series episodes and 20 feature films.  

Part of this acquisition included Gridman: The Hyper Agent, a 1993/94 series that moved into the world of tokusatsu, or giant heroes, where we meet computer whiz kid Naoto Sho (Masaya Obi) and his friends Yuka Inoue (Jun Hattori) and Ippei Baba (Takeshi Sudô), who have fashioned their own video game. 

While their accomplishment is pretty impressive, they are just getting started as they’ve apparently opened the door to an inter-dimensional universe and the struggle between Gridman (Hiroyuki Okano), a non-Ultraman super hero, and his pursuit of the evil Kahn Digifer (Masaharu Satô), who summons monsters to thwart Gridman’s efforts.  

And, just when it looks like Kahn Digifer might prevail, Naoto and his friends are able to “upgrade” Gridman and give him the size and strength to fight Kahn Digifer’s ever more dangerous super monsters.   But will these upgrades be enough for the ultimate battle against Kahn Digifer himself?

All 39 episodes are included here.   Presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

 

 

 

 

Icarus Films Prepares Writer/Director Gregory Magne's Perfumes For Domestic Release On DVD This Coming Aug. 10

Word arrived this past week from Icarus Films that they will be teaming up with France’s premiere film production and distribution company, Distrib Films, for the domestic DVD debut of writer/director Grégory Magne’s delightful “romantic” comedy (with a bit of an edge), Perfumes, on Aug. 10.

French film star Emmanuelle Devos, who has been nominated six-times for César Awards, France’s equivalent to our Oscars (winning Best Actress laurels in 2001 for Read My Lips and winning again in 2009 for Best Supporting Actress in Xavier Giannoli’s In the Beginning), plays Anne Walberg, a perfectionist.

Indeed, Anne Walberg is the Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep’s obsessive, abusive fashion-publishing queen) of the perfume world.   Now in her fifties, her beauty has begun to fade, she’s alone, bitter and combative, her “nose;” her sense of smell, made her one of the top perfume designers, but these days she serves the needs of “special” clients.

Into this self-contained world comes her latest chauffeur, Guillaume Favre (played by Montel — actor-turned-filmmaker in his directing debut), who needs to hang on to this job, even though he is ill-suited for the likes of Mademoiselle Walberg.   Through a bit of a backstory we learn that he is divorced and in the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife over their daughter, Léa (Zelie Rixhon) and the judge hearing the case has made it clear to Guillaume that being a good father means having a good job.

Perfumes plays out like an odd-couple story, with the likeable Guillaume just being himself and doing the unthinkable, questioning the seemingly crazy requests that his employer demands of him.  By all odds he shouldn’t last the day, but it is his “feedback” that she needs … simply put, she needs another human being to talk to. 

As the film unfolds, these two become miss-matched friends — the Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison of the world of perfume.   Fun and, at times, touching.

Perfumes is presented in French with English subtitles.

 

 

 

 

Blue Underground Readies 4K Ultra HD Editions Of Maniac Cop 2 And Marniac Cop 3: Badge Of Silence For Release On Oct. 19

The Halloween promotional season will be arriving early this year as Blue Underground, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a double-barrel 4K horror blast prepped for genre fans to savor on Oct. 19.  

Back from the dead is Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) — a framed former police officer and now crazed serial killer dubbed the “Maniac Cop” — in the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray presentation of director Bill Lustic’s 1988 film release of Maniac Cop 2.

Also reprising their roles from Maniac Cop are New York City police officer Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell), who was exonerated of the murder of his wife (and many others) and officer Theresa Mallory (Laurene Landon), Forrest’s love interest and partner.  But before you can say, “he’s back,” they too fall victim to the undead Cordell. 

This gives the writing/directing team of Bill Lustig and Larry Cohen the opportunity to introduce a new heroine, officer Susan Riley (Claudia Christian), who teams up with detective Sean McKinney (Robert Davi) to stop the unstoppable Cordell, who has a recruited new partner of his own, serial killer Steven Turkell (Leo Rossi).

The body count goes through the roof until it is revealed that Cordell was set-up and he’s actually been on a revenge trip ever since.   The little detail of anyone and everyone who got in his way being obliterated is just collateral damage.

This new 4K restoration from the original camera negative (supervised by the director of photography, James Lemmo) comes with commentary teaming Bill Lustig with fellow filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, who is slated to direct the new Maniac Cop reboot.

If one good turn deserves another, then one round of slaughter deserves another sequel and that’s exactly what director Bill Lustig and writer Larry Cohen served up in 1993 with Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, which is also getting the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack treatment from Blue Underground on Oct. 19.

As Maniac Cop 2 ended, a follow-up was teased and sure enough Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) is resurrected one more time.   Also back is detective Sean McKinney (Robert Davi), who has a new “partner,” Dr. Susan Fowler (Caitlin Dulany), who gets involved when officer Katie Sullivan (Gretchen Becker) comes upon a robbery in progress, intervenes and things go south.  

She ends up comatose and accused of killing an innocent civilian, but we know different … and so too does the undead Cordell.   As McKinney and Fowler try to solve the strange case of Katie Sullivan, Cordell goes on a killing spree to “rescue” her and bring her back from the dead!!

Bonus features here include a newly-minted commentary from director “Alan Smithee.” 

 

 

 

 

Bayview Entertainment's Four-Film "Chinese Connection" DVD Release Promotion Arrives On Aug. 24

Bayview Entertainment announced this past week that four arthouse films from China will be making their domestic DVD debuts on Aug. 24.   All four films will be available for just $14.99 each and all had domestic arthouse theatrical runs and were also showcased in film festivals globally.

We begin with writer/director Er Cheng’s 2016 dramatic tale, The Wasted Times, which was released in numerous film festivals in China, picking up the Best Picture award at the Beijing Student Film Festival and the Best Director award at the China Film Director's Guild Awards.   The film then opened domestically in December of 2016 and pulled in an impressive $586,540 … the ARR, for the record, is 1,712 days.

The Wasted Times is a look back at the fall of Shanghai during World War II and the workings of crime lord “Mister Lu” (You Ge — If You are the One, Sacrifice) and his tangled web of dealing, both in business and his various sexual encounters.  Despite being on the inside with the Japanese — a very lucrative offer — he makes a fatal mistake that costs him everything.

Next up is writer/director Qing Yang’s 2016 crime thriller, Chongqing Hot Pot.  The film had its debut at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in March of 2016 and then was quickly released domestically the following month and pulled in a solid $779,818 at the box office.   The ARR is also a long-in-the-tooth 1,971 days.

The story here runs the gamut from comedy — a comedy-of-errors, if you will — to crime thriller.   It seems that close friends Liu Bao (Chen Kun), “Four Eyes” (Yu Entai) and Xu Dong (Qin Hao) have gone into the restaurant business with money borrowed from the mob.  The problem, as they see it, is that their grotto-like eatery is simply too small, so the solution is to dig out more space and in the process of pounding through a wall they strike gold!!

The trio, it seems, have accidently dug their way into the neighboring bank vault.   Should they cover up their accident … or rob the bank!!   And what happens if “Seven” (Chen Nuo), their mob benefactor, finds out?   He’s going to want more that “a cut” of the proceeds.

Rounding out this four-film promotion from Bayview Entertainment on Aug. 24 are writer/director Han Han’s 2017 award-winning time-travel tale, Duckweed (domestic box office receipts were a nice $469,706 … ARR works out to 1,656 days) and writer/director Jianbin Chen’s 2014 film adaptation of Xuewen Hu’s novel, Fool: Director's Cut.

All four films are in Mandarin with English subtitles.

 

 

 

 

Cleopatra Entertainment Sets Aug. 27 For The Release Of Both DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of Engelbert Humperdinck: Totally Amazing Live Concert

Cleopatra Entertainment, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that both DVD and Blu-ray editions of Engelbert Humperdinck’s 2006 live concert, Engelbert Humperdinck: Totally Amazing, will be available for fans to enjoy once again on Friday, Aug. 27.

This 20 song set features the mellow romantic tones of Humperdinck and blends his classic renditions of “Spanish Eyes” and “Release Me,” plus such favorites as “There's No Good In Goodbye,” “After the Lovin'” and “My Way.”  And, just to mix things up a new entry for him, “Totally Amazing.”

As a bonus, both the DVD and the Blu-ray release of Engelbert Humperdinck: Totally Amazing includes a CD soundtrack of the concert.

 

 

 

 

 

AGFA Targets July 27 For The Blu-ray Debut Of Treasure Of The Ninja ... And The FIlms Of William Lee

The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) will be teaming up Bleeding Skull on July 27 for the Blu-ray release of director William Lee’s Treasure of the Ninja … and the Films of William Lee.

The force of independent filmmaking lives strong in Buckeye alumni William Lee, who had a Super 8 camera in his hand at a very young age, learned the skills of “moviemaking” and then set about to produce, write, direct and star in a truly independent film, an homage, if you will to the chop-socky films of the 70s; of Bruce Lee and more.  The result, Treasure of the Ninja.

As Bleeding Skull reports, back in 1987, Lee’s finished film didn’t have a distributor, so he learned that business as well and packaged his own VHS copies — for the rental market — and hustled his way from one video “rentailer” to the next selling copies of Treasure of the Ninja.

As the years past, Lee continued in the business, making films, acting in films and honing his skills.   He has piled up an impressive list of film credits, including Code Black, Dark Target, A Cold Day in Hell and his recently completed Cinema Lexzikon Productions film, Black Wolf.

Despite the success, Treasure of the Ninja, his first film, was lost.  Gone.  But as legend has it, Lee found one of his original rental VHS copies floating around on eBay and bought it back (at a premium) and now with the help of AGFA and Bleeding Skull this chop-socky treasure will be available for genre fans to savor on Blu-ray!!!

Bleeding Skull’s Annie Choi and Joseph A. Ziemba have teamed up with William Lee for commentary on Treasure of the Ninja.   The secrets of indie filmmaking will be revealed!!

But wait, there’s more!   Digging deep into Lee’s formative years, a treasure trove of his Super 8 experimental films have been unearthed and given fresh 2K film transfers and are included with this release.   As bonuses, fans get the following previously unreleased films — The New Chinese Connection (circa 1980), Dragon vs. Ninja (circa 1984) and the complete Willie Jack short collection!!

 

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Looks To Aug. 03 For Blu-ray And DVD Editions Of Taylor Sheridan's Those Who Wish Me Dead

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that Taylor Sheridan’s latest against-all-odds thriller, Those Who Wish Me Dead, will be available during the first week of August (the third to be exact) as both DVD and Blu-ray editions.

The ARR comes in at 81 days and domestic tickets were a little on the light side at just $7.3 million.

After the two Sicario movies, Hell or High Water, Wind River and Yellowstone, it seemed like a good idea to have an A-list actress in the next Sheridan film, and Angelina Jolie certainly fits the bill.   But Warner’s weird day/date HBO Max and theatrical run, probably drew more of an online crowd as places like California were sending mixed messages about how safe it was to leave the safety of the living room.

We are not going to knock Warner’s distribution choices, maybe it is working out for them, it didn’t register here in the box office tally, but maybe it paid off in the digital marketplace.   And there is nothing wrong with Angelina Jolie in Those Who Wish Me Dead, but for Sheridan fans, we would have loved to have seen Kelly Reilly in the lead here and not the “higher profile” Jolie.

As for bonus goodies, there is only the featurette titled “Making Those Who Wish Me Dead,” which is common to both SKUs.