"Punisher War Zone", which is one of the more forgotten Marvel films, and one of their earlier R-Rated efforts. I appreciated it as a stripped-down, very efficient one-off, not concerned with a lot of universe-building or comic relief. It was delightfully, unapologetically gruesome. I really appreciated the color scheme, -rather than evoking a grim story by desaturating colors, they enhanced the colors (director Lexi Alexander describes the specifics of the scheme in her commentary) and it really looks terrific on BD.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine (from the Wolverine 2-Movie Collection)

Ford's original version is sharper, while this one is a lot sloppier in comparison. And yet, I think I enjoyed this one a lot more. For one thing, the Colorado scenery is a refreshing change of pace from Fords oft scene Monument Valley. Adding to that was a fondness for the cast. With the exception of Cord who has the thankless job of essaying Wayne's Ringo Kid and is OK, Everyone else was admirable in their roles, with standouts for me being top billed Ann-Margret as the sullied dance hall girl; Bing Crosby as the perpetually drunk doc, and little appreciated Van Heflin as the sheriff riding shotgun.
The audio track sounds acceptable most of the time, save for when Goldsmith's score kicks in. The musical highs come across as sibilant quite often. On the video side there is some minor compression related instability visible at times in the densely detailed backgrounds, but the pic generally looks sharp and colorful overall.

Safe to say that if Criterion had never released it, I would have continued to ignore this movie. I was well aware of it's release at the time, and thru the years have shrugged it off as a now dated topical movie about yuppie values.
But I've been reassessing a lot of stuff I originally dismissed and with the Criterion release I figured now was as good a time as any to give it another shot. Glad I did, because I really enjoyed it- and the running time just flew by. Probably won't ever be my go-to Brooks movie, but it will definitely get another viewing before too long.

The CC version of Ghost World was fantastic. I totally forgot what a cool ass film it is.

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Mildly amusing early AIP sci-fi cheese. Loved that the rockets food pantry consisted almost entirely of steel cans of food. The Mars scenes, which seem to be a cross between a solarizing filter and red filter, are sort of effective in a lo-fi way, and the effect really makes your eyes pop when they switch back to regular technicolor scenes onboard the ship.



Loved it! While Bridges is an all time favorite (damn near a national treasure at this point) I'm starting to become a big fan of Pine's and Foster has been an interesting actor to watch for a while. A simply story very well told.

Maybe not a great film, but very fun in 3D!

Way too long.



Travolta was in his prime but there is not one hot chick in this movie lol.

It kind of slowed down near the end. John C. Reilly was hilarious.

Don 't stop until the end of the closing credits

Kong: Skull Island (3D)...not bad in 3D. Wasn't a great fan of the yellowish 70's tone in color, but CGI was pretty good. Just monster scenes strung together. It was ok, but nothing too original. Why can't Kong ever be a kick-ass bad guy?

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
I never get tired of this movie. Female ninjas/assassins, assassins with iron claws, fists and mace plus blood splattering everywhere. Criterion did an extremely great job with the image and sound.

Terrence Malik is overrated.

Nice to see Natalie Portman with blonde hair and short shorts.

A few weeks back I stumbled upon my steelbook edition of the first "Appleseed" film. I gave it a watch and then opened my BD of "Appleseed: Ex Machina". While it looks nice and is technically sound, it felt really dated to me. Also, the storyline seemed pretty thin and repetitive right after watching the previous film.
I actually have the most recent movie as well, which I got when I found it at a low price. I may take my time getting to that one.

Loved the movie, although the image on the BD was quite soft and detracted slightly. Although from the reviews I read, this was all from the source and filming choices.

Watched The Wolverine from this set this evening, for some reason I didn't like it quite as well as the 1st one. What's weird is

Some people probably saw this multiple times but the first time for me since 2012 after finally opening the blu-ray.