Kino Lorber has collected The Counsellor, Blazing Magnum, and Weapons of Death – all underseen 70s Italian Crime thrillers into the Italo-Crime Collection, a new 4K UHD box set filled with extras. The Films The Counsellor The Counsellor is what I love about Italian genre films (aka Italian knockoff films). They are both in conversation with and arguing with the films they very liberally take from.

David Carradine stars in Circle of Iron; Blue Underground has beautifully restored the film, releasing it in a limited-edition 4K UHD Steelbook filled with extras.   The Film “I’m the man”, David Carradine as Bill, Kill Bill Vol. 2. David Carradine was/is the man. For many of us, he was an entry point into the bigger world of martial arts cinema.

Mahershala Ali stars in the electrifying action drama Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. Provocative is a word that is too often bandied about.  Though the word so aptly describes Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, the newest film written and directed by Bassam Tariq starring Mahershala Ali.  Tariq subverts the form and conventions of an action thriller, specifically the hitman subgenre, to speak about so much more. 

A sheriff attempts to keep panic at bay in his town as a plague begins to infect it in the horror western A Prayer for the Dying, playing Fantastic Fest 2026. Even five years on from the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, one still can feel the dread of the unknown of what felt like the plague to end all plagues.

As the world crumbles around them, a couple goes on a time-traveling vacation in the sci-fi drama Future Tense, playing Fantastic Fest 2026. Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, even seventy years on is still echoes through storytelling no matter the medium or even country. Some filmmakers learn the wrong lessons, and others learn the right from the writer/producer’s genre-defining series.

An exterminator finds out he may be the world’s only hope in the martial arts comedy Kung Fu Deadly, playing at Fantastic Fest 2026. Kung Fu Deadly finds small-scale charms in the doomsday scenario at the center of this action comedy. Lifelong friends and slackers Danny (Steven He) and Frank (Michael Tient) go through life eking by with a second-rate extermination company that seems to cost them more than it makes them.

A night of partying takes a dark, violent turn in Kick On, playing at Fantastic Fest 2026.   The Australian action crime thriller Kick On is a nasty bit of business. That sentiment is meant in the most complimentary of ways. Dark, violent, gory, unrelentingly bleak, and electrifying in the way that the best contained piece of pot-boiling action cinema can be.

Jeff Sneider's threats against Inde Navarrette fit a decades-old pattern in entertainment media.

The sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet comes to 4K UHD from Arrow Video with an all-new restoration and loaded with special features. The Film I still remember Forbidden Planet’s oversized VHS box that my father showed me on a Saturday afternoon in the video store.  A robot holding a beautiful young woman on a foreign planet.  My five-year-old mind raced at the possibilities.  

Ethan Hawke stars in the Depression-era set adventure thriller The Weight. There is something wonderfully tactile about The Weight, the new adventure thriller starring Ethan Hawke. A film that feels like a true throwback to the hard-bitten films of Walter Hill, where men are forced into egregious circumstances with no choice but to comply. Set in 1933 Oregon, Samuel Murphy (Hawke) is imprisoned for protecting his young daughter.

Adam Sandler and Damon Wayans star in the action-buddy comedy Bulletproof, new to 4K UHD from Kino Lorber.   The Film Bulletproof is the kind of 90s action-comedy programmer that used to be released at least once a month in theaters to great fanfare. The Ernest Dickerson-directed film leans heavily on the chemistry between stars Adam Sandler and Damon Wayans but surprises in how much action there is for a Sandler Comedy.

New Boutique Label Toy Robot releases the cult classic Masters of the Universe, loaded with special features and a newly discovered cut of the film – all on 4K UHD!  The Film I HAVE THE POWER!!! Every person of a certain age knows that line of dialog. For better or worse. It evokes specific memories. Weekday Afternoons. Snacks.

GKIDS has released the anime masterpiece Tekkonkinkreet in a new 4K UHD special edition.  The Film Animation is a powerful tool to tell stories that you could not otherwise tell in live action. Tekkonkinkreet is a beautiful example. A story that’s both Bladerunner and City of God, where orphans run rampant in a city and fight each other as they do things children used to do but would never be able to do in real life, let alone in a live-action film.

Elvis is King Creole in this unique music-infused crime thriller, new to 4K UHD from Kino Lorber.   The Film The pairing of director Michael Curtiz and Elvis Presley seems at odds with one another, but after seeing the New Orleans set music-infused film noir King Creole, it’s a pairing as good as chocolate and peanut butter. Or as the King would have said… it’s about as good as a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Director Steven Spielberg returns with Disclosure Day, the alien sci-fi thriller, is new to 4K UHD from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.   The Film Disclosure Day is Steven Spielberg at his most Spielbergian. Opening in the most unexpected way to its closing reveal feels like the director returning to his more genre-inclined storytelling of the 1970s. From the Aliens cover-up of…

The Writer/director of Train to Busan, Yeon Sang-ho, is back with Colony, an all-new Zombie Horror film. Some will want to label Yeon Sang-ho’s newest film, Colony, another in his Train to Busan series. It is, after all, about a viral outbreak set in South Korea. This is where the similarities stop. Colony, beyond being a clever play on the zombie tropes and infected the film is always a few steps ahead of you, adroitly aware of the clichés of the genre.

Keegan-Michael Key is the newest horror icon a fuzzy unicorn on a kids’ show in Buddy. It's Buddy! Oh, Buddy! He's cuddly, snuggly, our best friend! Barney, watch out. Buddy is here. Actually, everyone, watch out… Buddy is here. The newest wild, mind-bending horror film from writer/director Casper Kelly, featuring an iconic new horror icon voiced by Keegan-Michael Key.

The new documentary Boorman and the Devil unravels the epic failure of Exorcist II: The Heretic. On paper, it looked like it was going to be another blockbuster… The sequel to the biggest film of all time. Its young Academy Award-nominated star returning along with her much-lauded co-star. Not one, but critically acclaimed actors added to the cast. A red-hot director is taking over for the original director.

The Fourth Annual Big Bad Film Fest closes out with screenings of Monde Match and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Big Bad Film Fest’s final day truly summarized what this film festival was about: short films, new films and revival screenings of not-often-screened masterpieces.  All curated by Patrick and Powell, the organizers of the Fest to the mission statement taken from their website: 

The Fourth Annual Big Bad Film Fest continues with the short film section. Festival Shorts are a look into the future. A way to see relationships with the festival being born and burgeon, and talents emerge. Short Films or short subjects (call them what you will) are a way for audiences and creators alike to venture into new territory and test themselves.

The Fourth Annual Big Bad Film Fest continues with Tokyo Burst: Crime City, Undisputed II, Ikatan Darah, and the Crime Hunter Trilogy.     A Festival is a marathon, not a race. Full Days of Programming. Ups and downs. Lots of theater food, soda, and popcorn. It can tear up your body. Come Prepared. Patrick and Powell, who have organized the fest for the last four years, have packed the days with films, shorts, trailers, and special guests.   

The Fourth Annual Big Bad Film Fest gets started with Wings of Dread and Drunken Blade.     Nothing like a good ol’ fire alarm to wake you up at 11:30 at night. It’s going to sound weird, but every…

The Fourth Annual Big Bad Film Fest gets started with Wings of Dread and Drunken Blade.     Nothing like a good ol’ fire alarm to wake you up at 11:30 at night. It’s going to sound weird, but every great film festival I’ve attended, in person, has had a minor or major mishap in a screening I’ve attended. So, call it a good omen that the second half of the opening night of Big Bad Film Festival had this inconvenience.

Director Oliver Stone’s cult classic dark drama Talk Radio, starring Eric Bogosian, comes to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.   The Film Oliver Stone’s dark, satirical look at a Shock Jock’s mental break as he gains a national audience has become society’s supertext in 2026. Talk Radio feels like it’s a look under the microscope at our society without any sort of filter.

Dennis Hopper-directed steamy neo-noir thriller The Hot Spot gets an all-new 4K Restoration and 4K UHD release from Radiance Films.    The Film Heat, sex, money, greed, deception, death… It’s all in The Hot Spot. Don Johnson, Jennifer Connelly, and Virginia Madsen generate some true heat in this updated noir. Drifter Harry Maddox (Johnson) comes to Landers, Texas, and quickly sets himself up as a car salesman.

Denzel Washington plays a troubled pilot in director Robert Zemeckis’ dramatic thriller Flight, new to 4K UHD from Kino Lorber.   The Film At his core, director Robert Zemeckis has always been a director of human stories. Zemeckis’s best work is oftentimes framed by extraordinary circumstances or events within that human story. Back to the Future, Cast Away…

The Jean-Claude Van Damme cult classic Death Warrant gets a 4K UHD Upgrade Edition loaded with special features.   The Film Death Warrant is one of the forgotten Jean-Claude Van Damme movies in his early ascent towards B-Movie Superstardom. The kind of film that you may vaguely remember the VHS cover for but nothing else from. Though this prison action drama features a fairly sharp early script by David Goyer.

The Jean-Claude Van Damme cult classic Lionheart gets a 4K UHD Upgrade Edition loaded with special features.   The Film I still remember the first time I watched Lionheart. Opening weekend, packed house with my dad at a Sunday Matinee. By its end, the theater erupted into applause. So many mustaches, jean shorts, and mullets were on their feet cheering on Jean-Claude Van Damme as Leon.

Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker star in the dark sci-fi comedy Repo Men. New on 4K UHD from Kino Lorber. The Film There’s a cruel dark comedy to the dystopian thriller Repo Men that recalls the best of the American Studio work of Paul Verhoeven. Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker play lifelong buddies who repossess next-gen replacement organs and body parts when they become a part of the system they help.

Sidney Poitier stars in the heist thriller gone wrong, The Lost Man.  New to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.   The Film Some of screen legend Sidney Poitier’s most fascinating work is when he broke bad. The Lost Man is an example of Poitier’s excellence on display when playing a morally ambiguous military man turned criminal. The star is able to carry a history with a look or a gesture that most actors, even today, would need pages of dialogue to convey.

Willem Dafoe stars as an NYC Postal Worker whose writing brings him notoriety in art circles in the character study by director Kent Jones, Late Fame. Late Fame is a low-key character study from director Kent Jones. A showcase for the ever-brilliant Willem Dafoe. Ed Saxberger (Dafoe) spends his days content as a mailman in New York City. That is until isn’t until a group of young writers (led by Edmund Donovan) tell him of their finding of his work and its esteem.

John Cusack leads an all-star cast stuck in a motel in the middle of nowhere as a serial killer begins to murder each one of them in Identity.  New on 4K UHD from Arrow Video.   The Film Identity manages to do something rare in studio filmmaking.  The serial killer mystery is a work of ingeniousness and completely and utterly stupid.  

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage closes out with the Thai Cyberpunk Martial Arts film God Skin. The Fight Tournament film dark, twisted cyberpunk overhaul in director Paween Purijitpanya’s spectacular God Skin.  Clichés and tropes get a new spin under the guise of AI tech enhancements and nanobots assisting fighters as they compete in brutal bloodsport that’s inspired by Wrestling, MMA, and Anime.

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the French-Canadian adventure film Romin. You’ve got to hand it to directors Anthony Dionne and Jassen Charron; their ambitions are huge. Their Romin proposes to be an Indiana Jones/National Treasure-style adventure film. It succeeds for the most part in being a low-budget, crafty piece of entertainment that shows the promise and audacity of these multi-hyphenates.

Writer/Director/Star Jean-Pierre Mocky stars in the French crime thriller Solo.  New to Blu-ray from Radiance Films.   The Film Though they are very different movies, Jean-Pierre Mocky’s Solo and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another share a spiritual kinship of ideas. Both have reluctant heroes beyond their youth, watching as younger family members are forming their own revolutionary ideals.

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the French-Canadian thriller La Place (The Parking Spot). Writer/Director Louis Godbout’s La Place (The Parking Spot) is more of a cinematic conundrum of sorts.  A situation posed that causes a chain of events to unfold and ripple out like a stone thrown into a pond.   A Saturday night.  A parking spot.  

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the sci-fi parody The Galactic Ghoul. The Galactic Ghoul is a genuinely silly film that lampoons the Z-Grade space opera oftentimes so deeply that it feels like some sort of inside joke that you’ll never get. Director Simon Harrisson makes a charming low-budget ode to not just the galaxy far, far away but those that would attempt to imitate.

Jamie Lee Curtis rides the first-class car in the 80’s slasher Terror Train. New on 4K UHD from Kino Lorber. The Film The 80s were a wild time. It’s the only decade that both David Copperfield (the magician) and Academy Award winner Ben Johnson would share the screen in a low-budget slasher starring Jamie Lee Curtis post-

A has-been boxer and never-will-be boxer get a chance at glory in the wonderful Japanese sports drama The Boxer.  New to Blu-ray from Radiance Films.   The Film The Boxer may have been an attempt to cash in on the mega success of Rocky, but both films could not be farther from each other. Yes, they both deal with boxing and “underdog” stories, but that’s where the similarities stop.

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the vampire horror mockumentary I Love You Paris. Think of I Love You Paris as What We Do in the Shadows’ Parisian cousin. One that feels wholly its own with a lot of inspiration taken from the darkly comedic Man Bites Dog. Director and co-writer Nicky Murphy creates an elegy for Paris nights, musicians, and just how hard it is to find success no matter if you’re an all-consuming creature of the night.

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the return of Ju-on: Grudge director Takashi Shimizu with an all-new brilliant horror film, The Mouths. Director Takashi Shimizu has created some of the most unforgettable and haunting supernatural horror films of the last thirty years. Ju-on: The Grudge and it’s English language remake/counterpart The Grudge still stand next to Ringu…

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the Holiday horror film Unholy Night. Ever have one of those terrible, degrading Holiday dinners with family you may love (in some instances don’t even love), but can’t stand? Unholy Night adds the wrinkle of having to fight with the undead family members who have their own grudges against you and your fellow loved ones.

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the unique Japanese Werewolf film When You Open the Door. Director Eriko Katagiri’s debut When You Open the Door is more of a meditation on loneliness and the distance between humans in modern life than an outright Werewolf movie. A horror film for those who love the films of Sofia Coppola and the more methodical will find a wellspring of meaning in a film that refuses to give easy answers.

Michael Douglas takes on Los Angeles in the 90s cult film Falling Down.  New on 4K UHD from Arrow Video.   The Film What was a dark comedy in 1993 has now become super text in 2026. The angry middle-aged white man has been a trope since as far back as one can remember. It became an art form and critique in Sydney Lumet’s…

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the sci-fi horror mystery Home Bodies. Oftentimes indie low-budget genre pictures are a test of how creative a production can get with the limitations of their budget and schedule. Home Bodies, if nothing else, shows the sort of brilliant craftiness a production can pull off when spearheaded properly. No doubt writer/director Casey Walker’s time as a producer (on films like…

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage continues with the sci-fi horror mystery Home Bodies. Oftentimes indie low-budget genre pictures are a test of how creative a production can get with the limitations of their budget and schedule. Home Bodies, if nothing else, shows the sort of brilliant craftiness a production can pull off when spearheaded properly. No doubt writer/director Casey Walker’s time as a producer (on films like…

Robert Duvall and Joe Don Baker take on The Outfit.  The John Flynn crime thriller is new to Blu-ray from Arrow Video.   The Film Let us not play games. The Outfit, much like director John Flynn’s other lean and mean crime thriller Rolling Thunder, is a low-key masterpiece. Starring Robert Duvall, Joe Don Baker, and Robert Ryan, this 70s-era crime thriller is as brutal as an ice pick to the face.

Michael Fassbender plays troubled detective Harry Hole in Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the Nordic detective mystery The Snowman. New to 4K UHD, loaded with special features from Kino Lorber. The Film Hello, Mr. Police Man. The long-running series of Nordic Crime Mysteries starring the fictional troubled police detective Harry Hole finally made it to the big screen in 2017.

Clint Eastwood finds that revenge isn’t a straight line even when you're on the right side of the law in Hang ‘Em High. New to 4K UHD, loaded with special features from Kino Lorber. The Film Eastwood has always been an actor and director at odds with himself. Hang ‘Em High is both a revenge film and a treatise against revenge itself.