The Last Dragon Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Faith Prince, Taimak, Vanity

Director: Michael Schultz

Producer: Rupert Hitzig

Format: Blu-ray, Subtitled

Language: English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, English, Spanish

Dubbed: French, Portuguese, Spanish

Region: All Regions

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: PG-13 

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Release Date: August 25, 2015

Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2018

Run Time: 108 minutes

 

         The martial arts movie meets blaxploitation films in this campy cult classic from the mid-1980s, brought to life in this 30^th Anniversary high definition Blu-ray release. I’m still unclear on whether Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon is meant to be parody or homage to classic kung-fu films, but it lives comfortably in the pop culture of the ‘80s, complete with absurdly colorful and over-the-top wardrobe and a soundtrack which often takes over the narrative like an extended music video. Whether you love it or laugh at it, fans of all types can appreciate this forgotten cult action-comedy in all its remastered glory, not to mention the new special features.

 

Citizenfour Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Edward Snowden

Director: Laura Poitras

Format: Blu-ray, Widescreen

Language: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay

Release Date: August 25, 2015

Run Time: 114 minutes

 

 

         I am not at all surprised by the fact that Citizenfour was the winner of Best Documentary Feature at the 2014 Academy Awards, mostly because of how much the film and filmmaker became a part of the story. This is not a documentary which tells us what happened, but instead was in the room being created as it happened. With that being said, I would be lying if I said that I found endless scenes of intelligent people talking in hotel rooms and clicking away on computers half as exciting as the hype for this film claimed. This feels like a film that was praised for the filmmaker’s involvement in the story and what it stood for far more than the actual construction or presentation of the material itself. Others may disagree (including the Academy, apparently), but I found the actual filmmaking to be frustrating and dull compared to the tenseness of the subject.

 

Welcome to New York Blu-ray Review

      Actors: Gerard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset, Paul Hipp

Director: Abel Ferrara

Format: Blu-ray, Widescreen

Language: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO

Release Date: August 25, 2015

Run Time: 108 minutes

 

 

         Though there have been name changes and we are told several times that the characters within Abel Ferrara’s Welcome to New York are entirely fictional, the very emphasis on this clarification makes it clear that the filmmaker wants you to know where the narrative inspiration was derived from. Much of the film’s power comes from the reality that the events are based on a widely covered international story about former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose escape from charges of sexual assault against a hotel maid became a clear allegory for the entitlement mentality of the rich and powerful. Ferrara achieves this without glorifying or condemning the actions of its protagonist, making for a film without bias, but which also feels void of any relevant commentary.

 

The Riot Club DVD Review

     Actors: Sam Claflin, Max Irons

Director: Lone Scherfig

Format: Multiple Formats, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Region: Region 1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO

DVD Release Date: August 18, 2015

Run Time: 107 minutes

 

 

         The Riot Club is about an elite group of wealthy and privileged students in a secret society at Cambridge University, providing for audiences the perfect subjects to loathe as symbols of the entitled upper class. The division of class is not a new subject for British cinema, but The Riot Club lacks the dark humor and satire from the days of classic Ealing comedies such as Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets. Even much of the humor from the play by Laura Wade, “Posh,” which she adapted into the film’s screenplay, is missing in favor of tension and drama, leaving anger as the audience’s default emotion to the events.