New streaming highlights for the week of April 24 - May 1, 2023
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — "Scream VI" was a massive hit at the box office where it finished with a fanchise record of $168 million world wide against a budget of around $35- 40 million. The film sees the franchise moving on from the original cast (for the second time) and shifts the action to New York City. I missed the wit and black comedy of the original films, but those looking for a more vicious narrative will be pleased with the results. Also of note are theJustice League x RWBY mashup and the newly adapted "The Magic Flute" with Jack Wolfe.
We've seen a lot of Asian cinema titles popping up in these roundups the past few months and I'm all for it. This week's digital releases include the recently in theaters "Return to Seoul" as well as catalog titles "Samurai Wolf" and "Violent Streets." Blu-ray and DVD releases include a second volume of Shout! Factory's Jackie Chan Collection with 8 films from 1983-1993, and 88 Films has a 4K release for the beloved "Police Story III: Super Cop" (which features Chan and Michelle Yeoh).
Scream VI
Studio Synopsis:Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter. In "Scream VI," Melissa Barrera (“Sam Carpenter”), Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Mindy Meeks-Martin”), Mason Gooding (“Chad Meeks-Martin”), Jenna Ortega (“Tara Carpenter”), Hayden Panettiere (“Kirby Reed”) and Courteney Cox (“Gale Weathers”) return to their roles in the franchise alongside Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving.
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen Part One
Studio Synopsis:The Justice League faces off against a new horror -- adolescence! Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg, Green Lantern, and Vixen are surprised to find that not only have they materialized on a strange world called Remnant, but they’ve also been transformed into teenagers! Meanwhile, the heroes of Remnant, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, find their world has been mysteriously altered. Can the combined forces of the Justice League and Team RWBY return Remnant, and the Earth’s Super Heroes, to normal before a superpowered Grimm destroys everything they know?
Return to Seoul
Studio Synopsis:"Return to Seoul" is the compelling and unpredictable film from director Davy Chou (Diamond Island). Freddie (explosive newcomer Park Ji-min) has returned South Korea for the first time since her adoption and move to France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country where she knows very little, including the language, to learn about where she was born.
Hungry Dog Blues
Studio Synopsis:A small-town crime thriller set in rural Missouri, about two estranged half-brothers who kidnap the lead witness testifying against their incarcerated father in order to prove his innocence.
Snag
Studio Synopsis:An Australian lone wolf's quiet existence is shattered when he learns that the woman he once loved and thought was dead is alive and held captive by ruthless gangsters. Now, to take on this dangerous criminal organization, he must seek out allies and storm into a world of violence to rescue the love of his life in this gritty, modern day violent fairytale.
The Magic Flute
Studio Synopsis:From Executive Producer Roland Emmerich ("Moonfall") comes a captivating film that follows a teen on two journeys: one into a prestigious boarding school to fulfill his aspirations as a singer, and another into a parallel world filled with fantasy and adventure. Tim (Jack Wolfe, "Shadow And Bone") has been dreaming his whole life about attending Mozart All Boys Music School, but already his first days there confront him with a hostile headmaster (F. Murray Abraham, "The White Lotus"), the stresses of a first love, and serious doubts about the authenticity of his singing voice. When he discovers a mystical gateway in the school’s library, he is pulled into the fantastic cosmos of Mozart’s opera, "The Magic Flute," where imagination has no limits and the Queen of the Night (Sabine Devieilhe) reigns.
The Artifice Girl
Studio Synopsis:A team of special agents discovers a revolutionary new computer program that uses AI to bait and trap online predators. After teaming up with the program’s troubled developer, they soon find that the program is advancing much faster than they could have imagined, resulting in unsettling consequences for the future of technology and mankind.
Going Nowhere
Studio Synopsis:Izzy’s making a movie. She casts her best friend, Diana, who enthusiastically prepares for the shoot. A struggling actress, she clings to the hope that this leading role will turn her career around. Izzy, Diana and a behind-the-scenes crew take a road trip from LA to Kentucky to shoot on a friend’s farm for free. They land in Kentucky and Matt, the shifty alpha-male producer, bullies people into signing release forms as they gather around a welcome campfire. "The Seed," a feminist slash environmentalist magnum opus about a plant that saves the world, starts shooting the next morning. Izzy’s contradictory and vague directions confuse the actors while her inept instructions irritate the DP, who is far too qualified for this gig. Felipe, who made his riches voicing a popular children’s show, is "The Seed’s" main investor. His whimsy and poor set etiquette starts to unravel Izzy's vision.Incompetence, paranoia and sexual frustration drive the crew to the brink of mutiny. Are they going to make it? Or are they all "Going Nowhere"?
Radiance
Studio Synopsis:Misako is a passionate writer of film versions for the visually impaired. At a screening, she meets Nakamori, an older photographer who is slowly losing his eyesight. Misako soon discovers Nakamori’s photographs, which will strangely bring her back to her past. Together, they will learn to see the radiant world that was invisible to her eyes.
Samurai Wolf
Studio Synopsis:Isao Natsuyagi stars as Kiba, a charismatic ronin who wanders into a small town and ends up ensnared in a local conflict that's more than meets the eye. After dispatching a pair of highway criminals seen robbing a courier wagon, Kiba agrees to assist a beautiful blind woman who runs the local shipping company. Double- and triple-crosses ensue, illustrated with savage but economical violence courtesy of famed director Hideo Gosha's ("Three Outlaw Samurai," "Violent Streets") striking black and white filmmaking. The result is a lean and mean triumph of samurai cinema, cementing Gosha's status as a master of the genre.
The Tank
Studio Synopsis:After mysteriously inheriting an abandoned coastal property, Ben and his family accidentally unleashed an ancient, long-dormant creature that terrorized the entire region—including his ancestors—for generations.
Violent Streets
Studio Synopsis:Sometimes regarded as not only among Gosha’s finest films, but among the finest yakuza films ever made, "Violent Streets" is a brutal, gripping, kinetic action yarn in which legendary gangster-turned-actor Noboru Ando plays Egawa, a retired yakuza underboss, now nightclub owner, who gets pulled back into the life when his old comrades demand control of his club. Meanwhile, a gang war quietly roiling behind the scenes erupts into open violence in response to a high-profile kidnapping, lending unimaginably high stakes to Egawa's reemergence onto the yakuza scene. The result is a kinetic and stylish explosion of deception, mayhem, and death that leaves no one safe - and a masterpiece of 1970's yakuza cinema, a pulpy, pungent thriller.
Blu-ray & DVD
Jesus Revolution
Studio Synopsis:In the 1970s, young Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) is searching for all the right things in all the wrong places: until he meets Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a charismatic hippie-street-preacher. Together with Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), they open the doors of Smith's languishing church to an unexpected revival of radical and newfound love, leading to a "Jesus Revolution" that changed the world.
His Dark Materials: The Complete Third Season
Studio Synopsis: Based on "The Amber Spyglass," the third novel in Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy, the final chapter of this epic fantasy series finds Lyra (Dafne Keen) and Will (Amir Wilson) on a journey to a dark place from which no one has ever returned. As Lyra's father’s great war against the Authority edges closer, they will learn that saving the worlds comes at a terrible price.
Kompromat
Studio Synopsis:Based on incredible true events, Jérôme Salle's gripping new espionage thriller depicts the remarkable story of Mathieu (Gilles Lellouche), a gregarious and dedicated French diplomat who unwittingly finds himself in conflict with one of the modern era's most powerful and dangerous forces: Russia's FSB. After Mathieu accepts a posting to Irkutsk as the head of Siberia's Alliance Francaise, he hopes the change will be good for his family and struggling marriage. But before long, Mathieu's staging of cultural events and support of artistic expression sees him fall afoul of local authorities. Accused of a terrible crime in a plot orchestrated by the Russian FSB, he is soon arrested, imprisoned, and isolated, with nowhere to turn. It seems he has no choice – to try and escape.
Cheers: The Complete Series
Studio Synopsis: Wander inpull up a stool and make yourself at home "where everybody knows your name" with "Cheers": The Complete Series, featuring all 270 episodes from 11 seasons plus entertaining featurettes on 33 discs—with vivid picture and sound quality.
Ted Danson stars as Sam Malone, former relief-pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. From snooty, erudite Diane (Shelley Long) to ruthless corporate careerist Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley)—Sam remains a (somewhat) calming presence in his beloved establishment.
Primal: The Complete Second Season
Studio Synopsis:Named "Best Animated TV Show of 2022" by Vulture, Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal follows the tale of a caveman at the dawn of evolution as he forms an unlikely friendship with an almost extinct dinosaur. In season two, Spear and Fang journey to a new world to rescue Mira from her captors only to find it is a place filled with savage brutality.
Star Trek: Lower Decks - Season 3
Studio Synopsis:Created by Emmy Award winner Mike McMahan ("Rick and Morty," "Solar Opposites"), season three challenges the U.S.S. Cerritos ensigns in ways they could never imagine, starting with a shocking resolution for season two's epic cliffhanger finale. The Starfleet crew residing in the "lower decks" of the U.S.S. Cerritos includes Ensign Beckett Mariner, voiced by Tawny Newsome; Ensign Brad Boimler, voiced by Jack Quaid; Ensign Tendi, voiced by Noel Wells; and Ensign Rutherford, voiced by Eugene Cordero.
Small Axe: Five Films by Steve McQueen
Studio Synopsis:With the five films that make up his Small Axe anthology ("Mangrove," "Lovers Rock," "Red, White and Blue," "Alex Wheatle," and "Education"), director Steve McQueen offers a richly evocative panorama of West Indian life in London from the late 1960s through the early ’80s—a time defined for the community by the terror of police violence, the empowering awakening of political consciousness, and the ecstatic escape of a vibrant reggae scene. Ranging in tone from tenderly impressionistic to devastatingly clear-eyed, these powerfully performed portraits of Black resistance, joy, creativity, and collective action—all sumptuously shot by Shabier Kirchner—form a revolutionary counterhistory of mid-twentieth-century Britain at a transformational moment.
Triangle of Sadness 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis:Master of social discomfort Ruben Östlund trains his unsparing lens on the world of wealth, beauty, and privilege in this audacious, Palme d’Or–winning satire of our status-obsessed culture. A model-influencer couple (Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean) get a ticket to the luxe life when they’re invited aboard an all-expenses-paid cruise alongside a coterie of the rich and ghoulish—but an act of fate turns their Insta-perfect world upside down. Pushing each provocative set piece to its outré extreme, Östlund maps the shifting social hierarchies with the irreverence of a modern-day Luis Buñuel and the incisiveness of a cinematic anthropologist.
The Big Bus
Studio Synopsis:A wonderful spoof of disaster films, "The Big Bus" is about the world’s first nuclear-powered bus—a 75-ton monster on 32 enormous wheels—and its maiden journey from New York to Denver. Jockeying the world’s greatest bus, of course, is the world’s greatest bus driver (Joseph Bologna, "Cops and Robbers"). His co-pilot (John Beck, "Sleeper") is given to sudden blackouts and has a penchant for driving on the shoulders of the road. A pair of evil-doers (including José Ferrer, "Cyrano de Bergerac") vow to destroy the bus at the outset, thus providing hilarious suspense. Guess who will die (laughing) among the all-star cast also featuring Stockard Channing, René Auberjonois, Ned Beatty, Ruth Gordon, Harold Gould, Larry Hagman, Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan, Lynn Redgrave, Bob Dishy, Stuart Margolin and Howard Hesseman. Wonderfully directed by James Frawley (Kid Blue, "The Muppet Movie").
Police Story III: Super Cop 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis:To infiltrate a drug cartel, police Inspector Chan Ka Kui (Jackie Chan) goes undercover in a Chinese prison. There, he earns the trust of Panther (Yuen Wah), a cartel member, by breaking him out of prison. With the help of another undercover agent (Michelle Yeaoh), they travel to Hong Kong and join up with Panther's gang. Ka Kui is accepted by the gang's leader (Ken Tsang), but his operation is jeopardized when Ka Kui's girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) accidentally reveals his true identity.
Accion Mutante (Mutant Action)
Studio Synopsis:In a dystopian future ruled by the wealthy and attractive, a deformed and disabled terrorist organization known as 'Mutant Action' will kidnap an heiress, flee to a desolate mining planet and trigger an intergalactic bloodbath of berserk vengeance. Antonio Resines (Cell 211), Álex Angulo (Dying of Laughter), Ramón Barea (800 Bullets) and Santiago Segura (The Last Circus) co-star in this "worldwide cult classic" (Dread Central) co-produced by Agustín & Pedro Almodóvar and winner of three 1993 Goya Awards, now scanned in 4K from the original negative.
The Jackie Chan Collection Vol. 2 (1983-1993)
Unbeatable. Unstoppable. Undeniable. Jackie Chan stands alone among action heroes thanks to his death-defying stunts, unparalleled fight scenes, and his signature sense of humor. An international superstar, Chan has thrilled fans around the globe for decades. As the standard bearer for martial arts action, Chan has forged a legacy that never has nor will be matched.
- "Winners and Sinners"
Studio Synopsis: Just released from prison, five steadfast friends do their very best to stay out of trouble, but quickly find themselves involved in an all-out war! - "Meals on Wheels"
Studio Synopsis: As they operate a food truck in Spain, two friends are called upon to use their martial arts expertise to help protect a pickpocket from a ruthless gang. - The Protector
Studio Synopsis:When the daughter of a wealthy businessman is kidnapped, two New York City cops travel to Hong Kong to make trouble for the nefarious drug lord they suspect is behind the crime. - Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star
Studio Synopsis:The Five Lucky Stars are tasked with protecting the friend of an assassinated police informant while the Police Chief and her team try to root out an illegal drug operation. - Armor of God
Studio Synopsis:Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan), an adventurer dealing in antiquities, is sent on a quest through Europe after he discovers a mysterious sword and Satanic monks kidnap his ex-girlfriend. - Armor of God II
Studio Synopsis:Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) is on a mission in the Sahara to lay claim to hidden WWII Nazi gold. But three female sidekicks and a team of ruthless mercenaries may have different ideas for the treasure. - Crime Story
Studio Synopsis: Fighting his own personal demons, Inspector Eddie Chan must find a kidnapped businessman, a task which will put him in the line of fire from mobsters and a double-crossing agent. - City Hunter
Studio Synopsis:A special agent assigned to protect a well-to-do businessman gets more than he bargains for when his charge is kidnapped during an ambush. Teaming up with a detective, he soon finds that not all is as it seems...