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G.I. Samurai

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Time travel movies usually ask big philosophical questions. G.I. Samurai (1979) asks a much more important one: if a modern military platoon got sent back to the feudal era, how long would it take before someone fired a bazooka at a horse? The answer is: not long at all. Directed by Kosei Saito, this wonderfully violent Japanese cult film crashes a convoy of Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers into the Warring States era after a fog-covered supernatural event. Suddenly, tanks, helicopters and machine guns are sharing the battlefield with samurai swords, flaming arrows and warlords who react to modern technology with the same excitement and terror most people have trying to pair their new Bluetooth headphones. GI Samurai treats its high-concept setup with just enough seriousness to drop a few moral and philosophical nuggets on historical and modern Japanese aggression. One minute, soldiers are debating the ethics of interfering with history. The next, someone’s mowing down cavalry with ...
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Blue Thunder 4K UHD

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Every decade or so Hollywood declares an arms race. “Gentlemen, we simply MUST make our devastating volcano/killer asteroid/underwater monster movie before they do!” And it’s great fun to watch studios take a crack and the same material from sometimes radically different angles. In the early ‘80s it was the super vehicle trend. Clint Eastwood’s Firefox (1982) revolved around the theft of a hypersonic Russian jet armed with advanced thought controls. But 1983’s Blue Thunder stuck closer to home – Los Angeles, to be precise - with a rogue cop uncovering a domestic conspiracy after hijacking a military super chopper. Murphy (Roy Scheider) is a stoic police pilot who still struggles with his ‘Nam flashbacks and hints of paranoia. But just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you! In this case it’s Colonel Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell) who's knee-deep in a plot to deploy military-grade weaponry to suppress potential insurrection…personal privacy and civi...
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Fungicide / The Screaming / Born a Ninja & Commando the Ninja

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Visual Vengeance is back with, well, with a vengeance. Their latest trio of discoveries feels less like a curated collection (they’re each sold separately, by the way) than a transmission from an alternate universe where regional horror, backyard martial arts movies and late-night cable access television evolved into the dominant media species. Fungicide (2002) is the sort of movie that could only emerge from the 2000s DIY horror boom, where digital cameras, fake blood and a few free weekends resulted in a full-blown creature-feature spoof about carnivorous mushrooms. At least director Dave Wascavage has a sense of humor about the whole thing, bringing his monsters to life with sock puppets and spirit glue, interrupted by some early CGI work. It’s too long by a good half hour, but still earned itself a slot on RiffTrax , which is included as a special feature. The Screaming (2002) gets bonus points for skewering Scientology before it was trendy. Indoctrinated into Crystalnetics b...
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The Angry River / The Invincible Eight

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Beginnings are tricky. Is it better to peak early or set yourself up for the long haul? When it comes to Golden Harvest, formed by three veterans of the well-established Shaw Brothers studio, the trick wasn’t topping their rival studio right out of the gate, but establishing a more talent-friendly home base to build upon. And their first two productions – 1970’s The Angry River and The Invincible Eight – might have lost the battle…but won the war. The Angry River leans into wuxia fantasy territory, overstuffed with myths, monsters and all the trappings of a Nordic fairy tale. It even does the unthinkable: sidelining star Angela Mao as a damsel in distress after trading her skills to save her sick father. It’s a rush of ideas and genres that never quite clicks but always entertains, even when switching protagonists at the halfway point. Meanwhile, The Invincible Eight pivots to straightforward swordplay, gathering a team of fighters for a “Men on a Mission” adventure to settle an ...
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Romancing in Thin Air

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Celebrity romances are basically modern fairy tales, swapping out castles for press junkets, princes for movie stars and happily ever after for an obligatory producer’s credit. Romancing in Thin Air (2012) plays in the same space at Notting Hill , where fame is a roadblock to true love onscreen and off. It’s all very meta. And director Johnnie To takes things a step further with a movie within a movie third act that nudges his characters toward a make or break reunion. After being dumped at the altar, mononymous superstar Michael (Louis Koo) flees to a secluded mountain resort hoping to escape inside a bottle. But Sue (Sammi Cheng) puts him to work as a replacement for her missing husband who disappeared in the nearby woods seven years earlier. Their meet-cute relationship continues along predictable lines, even after Michael discovers she’s a founding member of his fan club. But the ghost of her husband – and his celebrity obligations - keep their love affair from truly blossomi...
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The Ugly

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Even in 1997, cinematic serial killers were a dime a dozen. And while the influence of S ilence of the Lambs looms large over director Scott Reynold’s The Ugly - introducing another caged psychotic whose methods and motivation are put under the microscope by an ambitious psychiatrist - the film makes a concerted effort to put a new twist on the story using clever camera tricks and a dislocated narrative that bends reality…and expectations. Staging her interview in a stylized asylum, Dr. Karen Schumaker (Rebecca Hobbs) hopes to get something out of killer Simon Cartwright (Paolo Rotondo) that his own doctor hasn’t managed to do in six years. Simon’s abusive childhood and learning disability seem like obvious red flags, but his scarred self-image and mysterious voices pile one causality atop another. And after Karen starts seeing her patient popping up in her weakened subconscious, there doesn’t seem to be anyeasy explanation for his madness. Full of consciously inventive camerawor...
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Saurians / Colony Mutation / The Paranormal

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Blessed be the tastemakers! All due respect to those leaning on Letterboxd, but it’s boutique physical media companies like Visual Vengeance that are really introducing fans to films they might have otherwise overlooked. And in the case of their latest trio of titles, films even their creators never expected to debut in such extravagant special editions. Tapping into that specific strain of low-budget ambition, Saurians (1994) has the kind of earnestness that’s too hard to fake. Filmmaker Mark Polonia shoots for Jurassic Park -level action using a blend of stop motion, hand puppets and oversize models...all on Super 8. But it’s the awkward dubbing, sleepy acting and hammy dialogue that will be most appealing to fans of homemade cinema. Saurians is cringey in the best possible way, but Polonia stays fully committed to the idea he’s making something special. And, in that respect, he succeeds. Colony Mutation (1988) lifts its inspiration from the work of David Cronenberg, whos...
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