Kenna McHugh is an established freelance writer living in California. Her writing credits include the published book, BREAKING INTO FILM, Film Production book for inner-city kids, three screenplays, seven produced plays and hundreds of how-to videos on the Internet.
"I love the challenge of writing because the end does satisfy the means. The writer is a valuable being. If the words aren't there the message isn't received. It is as simple as that. Give me a circumstance, a theme and away I go at my keyboard."
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Variety calls Ma Seokdo, played by Don Lee, a bull in a tea shop whose brute force devastates a difficult situation.
Step into the world of The Roundup: No Way Out, the sequel to The Roundup. Seven years have passed since Seokdo’s team was sent to Vietnam on a mission to extradite a dangerous Korean fugitive. The twist in the story was the fugitive seemed oddly eager to return home, raising questions about the true nature of their mission.
In the sequel, we meet up with the likable hunk, who collaborates with a new squad to investigate a murder case at home. Seokdo learns the case involves busting dealers on a new synthetic drug, Hiper. He digs deeper.
All the while, a Japanese mafia boss orchestrating the new drug, Ichioz, played cleverly by Ju Kunimura, keeps looking for trouble, and the drug distributor named Ricky, played by Munetaka Aoki, and his gang arrive in Korea to add havoc to the mayhem. Here, the entertainment flourishes as things go out of control.
The film is excellent because, like the earlier films, it’s invariably entertaining and engaging. Watching Don Lee play Seokdo, who punches blockheads and more, is hilarious—he’s no Dirty Harry. Though a reviewer compared it to Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon, this spontaneous film stands on its own. It’s true to the South Korean culture: a vulnerable and assuming hero saves the day.
Lee Sang-Yong directed the third title skillfully and brilliantly, as he did The Roundup. The movie won the Blue Dragon Award as the top box office winner of the year in South Korea. The Roundup: No Way Out also nailed the Audience Award at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Another sequel is in the works and will arrive in 2024.
Kanpong Banjongpinit co-wrote and directed Night of the Killer Bears. The story follows five teenage friends who live in Bangkok—a long time has passed since they’d seen each other. They decide to vacation together at a quiet, low-end retreat isolated from the city.
Matters turn dark because each friend has a secret, which becomes revealed while someone outside the group watches them.
The brutal murder of one friend motivates the survivors to accuse each other of being the murderer. Yet they consider the possibility that the murderer is not one of them. Someone else in their midst, observing them. If that is the case, they all are in danger.
Killers in bear costumes swing sabers and bisect teenagers while slashing off heads with vicious slices. It’s a bloody mess.
Possibly Banjonginit movie is a play on the franchise horror slasher Scream.
It’s funny but too campy for my taste. With the English subtitles, you’ll get by with the simple and sparse dialogue.
The cast includes Sananthachat Thanapatpisal as Aim, Patchata Jan-Ngern as Win, Khemanit Jamikorn as Som, and Chanagun Apornsutinan as Tony.
Dark Sky Films releases the long-awaited UHD release of the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the groundbreaking thriller that has often been imitated but has yet to equal. The film arrives in the 4K restored version, complemented by a frightening array of bonus materials.
Directed by Tobe Hooper, Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a classic horror film released in 1974. The film follows a group of friends, played by Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail and Teri McMinn, on a road trip through rural Texas. They stumble upon a family of cannibalistic psychopaths.
The film has a low-budget, gritty style and extreme gore and violence, which boosted its popularity since we’ve had horror films like The Blair Witch Project, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Night of the Living Dead.
The group of friends intends to visit an old family homestead. On their journey, they pick up a hitchhiker who manifests strange behavior. The stranger eventually turns on them, attacking them, which leads to a harrowing chase through the Texas countryside.
They arrive at a farmhouse and meet cannibalistic killers, including the iconic Leatherface with a mask of human skin and a wielding chainsaw. Michael Myers copied the masking technique so beautifully on Halloween.
The horror film was controversial during its release because of its graphic violence, which doesn’t compare to Coen Bros. films or the SAW franchise. Subsequently, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre shines as a cult classic and the most influential horror movie of the genre.
It generated many sequels and remakes, influencing countless horror films that tried to deem worthy.
Disc 1 holds the 4K UHD feature film and four commentary tracks:
Writer-producer-director Tobe Hooper, actor Gunnar Hansen and cinematographer Daniel Pearl
Actors Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger and Paul A. Partain, with production designer Robert Burns
Tobe Hooper solo
Daniel Pearl, editor J. Larry Carroll and sound recordist Ted Nicolaou
Disc 2, a Blu-ray, contains the new, never-before-seen feature-length documentary The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and several featurettes. These include “The Cinefamily Presents FRIEDKIN/HOOPER,” a conversation about the film between Tobe Hooper and The Exorcist director William Friedkin; “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth”; “Flesh Wounds: Seven Stories of the Saw”; a tour of the TCSM house with Gunnar Hansen; “Off the Hook with Teri McMinn”; and “The Business of Chain Saw: An Interview with Production Manager Ron Bozman.”
The generous package I enjoy the most. It has deleted scenes and outtakes, a blooper reel, trailers, vintage TV and radio spots, and much more to thrill fans, old and new.
British actor Julian Sands stars in The Ghosts of Monday, directed by Francesco Cinquemani, known for Eye for an Eye.
Sands starred in the classic films, The Room With a View and The Killing Fields.
The movie trailer is a jumble of shots from the movie, but it hardly shows the unnerving quality of the horror film experience.
The profusion of suspense and scares is frightening.
The film begins with Mark Huberman, played by Vikings Valhalla, who stars as a television director. He becomes embroiled in a supernatural conspiracy after traveling to Cyprus to make a tv pilot about a haunted hotel.
The cast includes Marianna Rosset, Elva Trill and Anthony Skordi.
Enjoy this action-packed South Korean film by Lee Sang-yong. The Roundup stars Don Lee and CHOI Guy-hwa as two South Korean cops. Geumcheon Police’s Major Crimes Unit takes on missing to repatriate a fugitive who fled to Vietnam.
Lee plays a beast cop — detective Ma, pounding and slugging his way to solving the crime and situation with the fugitive. GHOI Guy-hwa plays the partner. Together, they intuitively realize that something is wrong. The suspect’s willingness to turn himself in to help uncover a series of crimes.
A terrifying killer name Dang Hae-sang, played by SON Sukku, is behind the suspect’s wavering and evasion. Detective Ma and his force of cops investigate, going across two countries. Witness bloody harsh crimes left behind by Kang Hae.
This film is for fans of action, South Korean and comedy. The humor gives this movie levity to the dire situation. Action sequences are mesmerizing and unbelievable in the delivery. It’s worth watching with a large bowl of popcorn and friends.
Enjoy two hours of genuine laughs when you pop this Munsters DVD in your player. You’ll watch some rare shows and featurettes about a silly family on a TV show.
The series aired in the 1960s and continued with a decade of reruns. Do you remember where the Munsters lived?
Mockingbird Lane is where the Munsters entertained audiences of all ages. Sure, the episodes were spooky in a fun way. Kids and parents could relate to the innocence of being a silly monster family — some family members are not too bright.
For the first time in a long time, long-lost television appearances of the cast—Fred Gwynne (Herman), Yvonne De Carlo (Lily), Al Lewis (Grandpa), Pat Priest (Marilyn) and Butch Patrick (Eddie) are available to be enjoyed again in this historical and hysterical collection.
Marineland Carnival & More Lost Treasures with the Munsters TV Show Cast Members have arrived. The DVD includes the hour-long Marineland Carnival 1965 special starring the Munsters. Next is a 1966 full-color Munsters-themed “episode” with Fred Gwynne as Herman on The Danny Kaye Show.
I found the other rare skits and vintage talk show interviews funny while learning a little about the actors.
An all-new featurette called Munster Memories with Butch Patrick is fascinating. Watch before you watch the episodes if you need to become more familiar with The Munsters.
Also included is the hit music from the New Christy Minstrels. And there are guest appearances by legends Edie Adams and Joey Bishop.
This short is not on the DVD but shows the human side of The Munsters.
Based on James Cullen Bressack’s story, Brandon Slagle directed Frost, and Robert Thompson penned the screenplay.
Vernon Wells and Devanny Pinn are solid in the story about a young pregnant woman and her father fighting for their lives.
After their car swerves off the road, they become stranded on a remote mountainside during a hellacious storm. The story sets up gore and shock here, where the movie takes place in one location. But the screenplay lacks character development, so the audience can care for the young woman trapped in a car about to have a baby.
More detail about the strained relationship between Abby, played by Wells, and her father, played by Pinn, would have given more substance to the story. I would have cared more about the outcome.
Grant, her father, leaves Abby in the car so that he can find help. They make exchanges over walkie-talkies, which is the only father-daughter bonding in the movie.
However, they never discuss Grant’s drinking or her mother’s passing, and they haven’t seen each other in five years. Had these obvious flaws developed more into the screenplay, it might have kept the interest higher.
Because the relationship between Abby and Grant never bonds, there is no emotional tie to build up from the shock at the end.
Thank you, Film Threat, for the additional information.
Watch the television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet: Season 1 and 2 as four-DVD sets fromMPI Media Group. The collections contain 39 episodes, representing the complete first two seasons, 78 episodes.
The TV series was a long-running sitcom ranked high on some of the top lists of television. MPI Media Group has restored the entire library of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet from the original 35mm picture and sound elements in association with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, which preserves the aspects on behalf of the Nelson family.
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet lasted 14 record-breaking seasons, totaling 435 episodes. It aired on ABC-TV from 1952 through 1966 as a positive, wholesome series epitomizing an idyllic American 1950s lifestyle.
Its gentle humor came to the screen through the real-life Nelson family, which included Ozzie and his wife Harriet with their sons, David and Rick. They portrayed themselves in a trendsetting blend of fact-meets-fiction comedy decades before semi-reality-based shows like Seinfeld.
The series humorously chronicled the daily lives of the Nelsons as David and Ricky grew up before millions of weekly viewers. Besides Ozzie Nelson being a real-life bandleader and Harriet Nelson, a singer, the series would help launch the musical career of their younger son, Ricky, who would become a teen idol with such enduring hits as “Travelin’ Man” and “Hello Mary Lou.”
The longest-running live-action sitcom in U.S. television history until It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia surpassed it on December 1, 2021, when the FXX series debuted its 15th season.
Still, Ozzie and Harriet hold the record for most episodes produced, totaling 435. Among its Emmy nominations and many other accolades, TV Guide placed Ozzie Nelson at number 21 on its list of “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time.” Others on the list include Andy Taylor, Ben Cartwright and Steve Douglas.
And now, for the very first time, in association with the Nelson family, the entire series arrives digitally restored for its 70th Anniversary with complete episodes from the original film negatives for superior picture quality.
Viewing these restored episodes, I am amazed by the picture and sound quality.
I watched season one, which contains all 39 complete, fun-filled episodes on four DVDs, starting with the premiere show and other rare adventures not seen on television in decades. The humor seems dated, but it’s clean and trouble-free.
I saw Don DeFore (Hazel) as Ozzie’s neighbor, pal Thorny. Others included guest stars from classic television and films, including Hal Smith (The Andy Griffith Show), Ellen Corby (The Waltons), Janet Waldo (The Jetsons), Joseph Kearns (Dennis the Menace), Frank Nelson (I Love Lucy) and other familiar faces.
Season two also contains 39 episodes — with more lost moments appearing for the first time since broadcast initially — on four discs and features such guest stars as Frank Cady (Petticoat Junction), John Carradine (The Munsters) and Lurene Tuttle (Psycho).
It’s hard to believe Ozzie and Harriet started visiting us on television in 1952, making this vintage series binge-worthy
“Ilya Muromets (The Sword & The Dragon)” (1956) on 4K restoration Blu-ray uncut for the first time in the United States.
Aleksandr Ptushko’s visually stunning FX-filled epic has hit the streets and is now available for your theater library.
Deaf Crocodile Films, in association with distribution partner Seagull Films, released the 4K restoration on Blu-ray of famed fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko.
Produced in 1956, this Russian film with English subtitles is visually stunning. The medieval epic was initially released and heavily edited with the title The Sword & the Dragon.
Now, Ilya Muromets (The Sword & The Dragon) through partner label OCN-Vinegar Syndrome. The Blu-ray edition of Ilya Muromets is fully restored to its original Russian release. The package also contains a new commentary track by comics artist (Swamp Thing), film historian and author Stephen R. Bissette and a reprint of film scholar Alan Upchurch’s pioneering essay on Aleksandr Ptushko from Video Watchdog magazine, plus Ptushko’s own essay on the making of Ilya Muromets.
Mosfilm studio recently restored Ilya Muromets in 4K using the original 35mm camera negative. Ptushko’s movie became available for digital streaming after its Blu-ray release through Deaf Crocodile’s partner label, Grasshopper Films.
Ilya Muromets runs 87 minutes, which keeps the drama moving without unnecessarily long pans and dramatic moments. The legendary fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko’s sweeping, visual FX-filled epic is impressive as a 1956 production.
“On one level, Ilya Muromets is a pure fantasy, one of Ptushko’s greatest — but even a fantasy can have political implications,” says Dennis Bartok, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Distribution & Acquisitions. “Although Ilya Muromets was made in 1956 at the height of the Cold War and was set in a mythical landscape nearly a thousand years earlier, it has unmistakable parallels to today’s world and the war in Ukraine. Ilya was a legendary Kyivan Rus hero, encompassing modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus in the 9th to 13th centuries. That idea of somehow returning to a mythical “united Rus'” has been used as a tragic justification for the war today — and of course, when Ilya Muromets was made in 1956, it would have been seen as a call for a united Soviet Union at the time.”
“Imagine being given an unlimited budget and no time constraints to make the ultimate fantasy epic in 1956… that’s Ilya Muromets”, added Deaf Crocodile Co-Founder and Head of Post-Production & Restoration Craig Rogers. “With over 100,000 extras, over 10,000 horses, and a three-headed dragon that breathes real fire!”
Though I have seen none of Ptushko’s production before, some film fans believe this is one of his most enchanting achievements. The movie has stunning Cinemascope as a ballad of heroic medieval knights with ruthless Tugar invaders.
The special effects include wind demons and three-headed fire-breathing dragons, which are remarkable for 1956. The film stars Boris Andreyev as the bogatyr, Russian for a warrior, Ilya, a mythic figure in the Kyivan Rus’ culture that pre-dated modern Ukraine and Russia. Kyivan Rus’ was a shapeless federation in Eastern Europe and Northern Europe from 880 to the beginning of the 13th century. Much of the film’s action is set in Kyiv, and Ilya’s relics are held today in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery.
Based on a series of famous byliny, Russian for oral epics, the film follows Ilya as he wages a decades-long battle against the Tugars. The Tugars threaten his homeland, kidnap his wife and raise his son to fight against him. The movie is worth watching because of its dynamic acting, brilliant costumes, cinematography and vast panorama shots.
Ptushko began his career in the 1930s and became a combination of Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen, who pioneered stop-motion animated effects, and Mario Bava, an Italian filmmaker known for his horror movies. Ptushko stands among the best for his dazzling, bejeweled fantasies, including The Stone Flower, Sadko, Sampo and Ruslan & Ludmila.
They released the first Cinemascope film produced in the Soviet Union, Ilya Muromets, in a truncated, dubbed version in the U.S. at the height of the Cold War as The Sword & The Dragon, downplaying the epic poetry and lyricism of the original.
Thanks to the progression of technology, Deaf Crocodile and Seagull Films, this epic movie arrives fully restored in 4K for its first-ever official U.S. release on Blu-ray in its original Russian with English subtitles.
Kim Chang-Ju co-wrote, directed and edited this South Korean action thriller, Hard Hit.
The film follows VIP Bank Manager Sung-Gyu, played by Jo Woo-jin. He tends to the demands of a bank’s essential customers. And somehow, it leads him to the worse day of his life.
The movie, directed by Dani de la Torre, provides a familiar suspenseful plot based on the Spanish-French action thriller Retribution (2015).
Sung-Gru drives his daughter and son to school one morning. Along the way, a phone rings from the glove box. An anonymous caller claims there’s a bomb under Sung-gyu’s seat, and if anyone exits the car, it will explode unless Sung-gyu can pay a hefty ransom.
What initially feels like a prank call quickly turns into an edge-of-your-seat thriller. The action-packed sequences hold the movie together. Sure, we feel for the family and their dangerous situation, but the car chases through a maze of alternate roles of attack and defense.
The original music composed by Kim Tae-Seong adds suspenseful undertones and overtones, perfect for developing a calm, typical weekday to a vibrant, hellbent high-speed chase at the mercy of a sinister bomber.
Sung-gyu must simultaneously ensure the safety of his children, find enough money to pay the ransom and evade the police, all while trying to figure out what he did in his past to deserve this.
Woo-jin does a dynamic job of acting primarily behind the wheel of a car. He holds his emotions by expressing tension and remorseful angst. Ji Chang-Wook also stars and is believable in this new gem of a role, another side we’ve yet to see.
The movie received three nominations in 2021 at the Buil Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.
IMDB and Wikipedia helped with background information, reviews and character roles.
