New streaming highlights for the week of May 15-21, 2023
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Having exceeded $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office and temporarily saving the entire movie industry, “Super Mario Bros. The Movie” has made its way to digital and can now be watched repeatedly (and consecutively) by children of all ages. Also of note is the thriller "To Catch a Killer" and the family-friendly "The Magic Flute." I'll be trying to squeeze in "Young Ip Man," "Giving Birth to Butterflies," and "Millennium Mambo" somewhere into the mania that is my life.
On the physical front, "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania," a film that isn't as good as it could have been and not nearly as bad as some have suggested, leads the charge. As usual, I'm more drawn to the Asian cinema releases. Particularly, the Michelle Yeoh films in the "In the Line of Duty" set. You'll also want earmark The Criterion Collection's release of "Targets," a low-budget thriller written and directed byPeter Bogdanovich, starring Boris Karloff, and produced by Roger Corman.
Digital to Own & Rent
The Super Mario Movie
Studio Synopsis:Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (collaborators on Teen Titans Go!, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies) from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel (The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Illumination's Minions: The Rise of Gru), the film stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. (Available on Blu-ray and DVD June 6, 2023)
To Catch a Killer
Studio Synopsis:Baltimore. New Year’s Eve. A talented but troubled police officer (Shailene Woodley) is recruited by the FBI’s chief investigator (Ben Mendelsohn) to help profile and track down a disturbed individual terrorizing the city. StarringShailene Woodley, Ben Mendelsohn, and Jovan Adepo. (Available on Blu-ray and DVD July 11, 2023)
The Magic Flute
Studio Synopsis:When Tim Walker attends a legendary Mozart boarding school, he discovers a magical portal into the fantastic world of Mozart’s famed The Magic Flute. Starring Jack Wolfe and Niamh McCormack. (Also available on Blu-ray and DVD)
Assassin Club
Studio Synopsis: Henry Golding (G.I. JOE: SNAKE EYES) stars in this highly entertaining, globe-trotting action thriller. The hunter becomes the hunted when an elite assassin (Golding) is given his final contract: to kill seven people around the world - only to discover the targets are equally skilled assassins hired to kill him. His only shot to survive is to uncover the mysterious mastermind behind the deadly plot before it's too late. Also starring Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) with Noomi Rapace (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan) and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park). (Available on Blu-ray June 6, 2023)
Broadway
Studio Synopsis: The film tells of a group of four young street performers and pickpockets in modern Athens find an unexpected refuge in the "Broadway Stoa", an abandoned entertainment complex. The balancesof their makeshift family will be upset when a former team member is released from prison. Christos Massalas co-stars and directs. Elsa Lekakou, Foivos Papadopoulos, Stathis Apostolou, Rafael Papad, and Salim Talbi star.
Giving Birth to a Buttefly
Studio Synopsis: A suburban mom as she struggles to find the culprit behind an online identity theft she falls victim to, which brings her and her son's new girlfriend through the twisting back woods of Americana. The film, often praised for its 'Lynchian touch,' is driven by two sensitive performances by Parisse and Birney while the world comes to life with the vibrant flock of supporting, oddball characters that all seem to defy the expectations of their roles.
Millennium Mambo
Sutdio Synopsis:A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou’s much-misunderstood marvel stars Shu Qi (The Assassin) as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback to the then-present from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, drenched in club lights, ecstatic endorphin-rush exhilaration, and a nagging undercurrent of ennui. (Available on Blu-ray June 27, 2023)
Malum
Studio Synopsis:On a search to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding her father’s death, a newly appointed police officer, Jessica Loren (Jessica Sula) is assigned to the last shift in a decommissioned police station where a notoriously vicious cult saw their demise years prior. The lone officer at the station, she soon finds herself barraged by terrifying paranormal events, and in the process, is taken on a journey during which she learns the shocking truth behind her family’s entanglement with a demented cult leader.
Outpost
Studio Synopsis:After a violent assault, a woman asks her best friend for help escaping an abusive ex. She’s given a job as a fire lookout in the mountains of northern Idaho, hoping the peaceful solitude will heal her trauma. But the PTSD and isolation have other plans, and it’s suddenly a fight to save herself and the town.
R.M.N.
Studio Synopsis:Award-winning director Cristian Mungiu's (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) gripping portrait of ethnic and economic resentments tearing at the fabric of a small mountain town.
Spinning Gold
Studio Synopsis:What do Donna Summer, Parliament, Gladys Knight, The Isley Brothers, The Village People, and Bill Withers all have in common with the rock band KISS? They all rose to their musical heights under the watchful ear of the music industry's most colorful and brilliant music producer, Neil Bogart, founder of Casablanca Records, the most successful independent record company of all time Along with a rag tag team of young music lovers, Casablanca Records would rewrite history and change the music industry forever. Their mix of creative insanity, a total belief in each other and the music they were creating, shaped our culture and ultimately defined a generation. (Available on Blu-ray and DVD May 30, 2023)
Young Ip Man
Studio Synopsis:After an escaped convict holds all his classmates for ransom, a young Ip Man confronts the kidnappers head-on but soon finds himself in a conspiracy involving local authorities. And some of the last people he ever expected. (Also available on Blu-ray and DVD)
Blu-ray & DVD
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
Studio Synopsis:Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and The Wasp. Together with Hope's parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), as well as Scott's daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), the duo finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought possible.
Moving On
Studio Synopsis:In this revenge comedy from Academy Award-nominated* writer Paul Weitz, Claire (Academy Award winner* Jane Fonda) and Evelyn (Academy Award nominee* Lily Tomlin) are estranged friends who reunite to get even with Howard (Malcolm McDowell), the petulant widower of their recently deceased best friend. Along the way, Claire reunites with Ralph (Richard Roundtree), her great love from her younger years, as each woman must make peace with her past and learn to treasure the value of a good friend.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre
Studio Synopsis:Super spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) must track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology wielded by billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant). Reluctantly teamed with some of the world's best operatives (Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone), Fortune and his crew recruit Hollywood's biggest movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to help them on their globe-trotting undercover mission to save the world.
In the Line of Duty I-IV
The box set includes brand new artwork by Sean Longmore, reversible sleeves featuring original artwork; a double-sided foldout poster; and a 100-page book by Matthew Edwards featuring interviews with Shan Tam, Michael Parker, Stephan Berwick & Michael Woods, plus archive stills, production imagery, posters & more.
Royal Warriors
Studio Synopsis: Academy Award Winner Michelle Yeoh as Inspector Yip. While returning from a holiday in Japan, she stops the mid-air rescue of a mobster headed to Hong Kong for trial. This seeming heroic act comes to haunt Yip as the mobster’s family sets out for revenge.
Yes, Madam!
Studio Synopsis: Michelle Yeoh stars as Inspector Ng, who teams up with Cynthia Rothrock's tough-as-nails Scottish Investigator Carrie Morris to retrieve microfilm that has unknowingly been stolen by two low-level thieves.
In the Line of Duty III
Studio Synopsis: Cynthia Khan stars as Detective Rachel Yeung, who’s tracking down a pair of terrorists who, after a bloody Tokyo heist, have fled to Hong Kong.
In the Line of Duty IV
Studio Synopsis: Cynthia Kahn returns as Detective Yeung, who's hot on the trail on a drug dealer, with the help of Inspectors Yan (Donnie Yen) and Inspector Wong (Michael Wong).
Samurai Wolf 1 & 2
Studio Synopsis:One of the best-kept secrets of Japanese genre filmmaking in the 1960s and ’70s, Hideo Gosha began his studio career in 1964 and quickly emerged as a peerless specialist in chambara (samurai) films. A few years later, a contemporary twist on the chambara formula appeared in the form of the yakuza film, and Gosha proved equally adept with modern dress action. Whether the weapons of choice were swords or snub-nose revolvers, few could match Gosha at his best for economic storytelling and sheer velocity—and these are three of his very best, arriving on two Blu-rays for the very first time in North America, featuring 2K digitally restored films from original broadcast elements.
Shanghai Joe
Studio Synopsis:Chin Hao (Chen Lee/Myoshin Hayakawa), arrives in America looking for a better life, only to be faced with locals that don’t take kindly to outsiders. Much to their surprise, Chin is not your average drifter as he rips his way through racist bad guys with his unstoppable fighting techniques. After word of his skills spreads, he gets a job at a ranch only to find that the owner, Stanley Spencer, is a cattle smuggling slave trader who brutalizes Mexican farmers and anyone else who dares get in his way. Chin ramps up the violence as he stops at nothing to free the slaves and enact revenge on the sadistic Spencer.
Violent Streets
Studio Synopsis:Sometimes regarded as not only among Gosha’s finest films but among the finest yakuza films ever made, VIOLENT STREETS (1974, 96 mins, 2.35:1 Widescreen, Mono) 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.
Yakuza Graveyard
Studio Synopsis:When he falls for the beautiful wife of the jailed boss of the Nishida gang, things start to spiral out of control for detective Kuroiwa (Tetsuya Watari, Graveyard of Honour). In a world where the line between police and organised crime is vague, he finds himself on the wrong side of a yakuza war when his superiors favour Nishida’s rivals, the Yamashiro gang. Co-starring the iconic Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) and featuring Nagisa Oshima as chief of police, Yakuza Graveyard sees director Kinji Fukasaku (Battles without Honour and Humanity) at the peak of his powers.
Targets
Studio Synopsis:Old Hollywood collides with New Hollywood, and screen horror with real-life horror, in the startling debut feature from Peter Bogdanovich. Produced by Roger Corman, this chillingly prescient vision of American-made carnage casts Boris Karloff as a version of himself: an aging horror-movie icon whose fate intersects with that of a seemingly ordinary young man (Tim O’Kelly) on a psychotic shooting spree around Los Angeles. Charged with provocative ideas about the relationship between mass media and mass violence, Targets is a model of maximally effective filmmaking on a minimal budget and a potent first statement from one of the defining voices of the American New Wave.
The Longest Yard 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis: Hollywood great Burt Reynolds (White Lightning, Semi-Tough) leads the downfield charge in this raucous, rough-and-tumble comedy-drama coached by legendary director Robert Aldrich (Vera Cruz, The Dirty Dozen). Reynolds plays one-time pro quarterback Paul Crewe, now behind bars for leading the state police on a wild chase in a “borrowed” car. Eddie Albert (Hustle) is the sadistic, scheming warden who recruits Crewe to form a team of convicts to go up against the warden’s polished, semi-pro team of prison guards in a championship game. Crewe has agreed that his crew—dubbed the “Mean Machine”—will provide only passive resistance to the squad of brutal guards. But the gridiron showdown turns into a gritty game of cunning strategy as the Mean Machine defies the warden’s iron-fisted control and attempts to go the distance in The Longest Yard.
Hustle 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis:Jaded, cynical, edgy. The iconic Burt Reynolds (Shamus, Heat) is Lt. Phil Gaines, a case-hardened Los Angeles detective who finds himself drawn into a dark, complex puzzle that involves the death of a teenaged girl. Complicating his investigation is his sizzling relationship with an icy hooker, played by cinema goddess Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour, Mississippi Mermaid), who has a dangerous connection to the case—one of her high-powered clients is a main suspect. Moreover, the victim’s unstable father blurs the focus of Gaines’ investigation even further by embarking on his own erratic, inept sleuthing.
The italian Job 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis:The plan was flawless. The execution was perfect. Charlie Croker pulled off the crime of a lifetime. The one thing that he didn't plan on was being double-crossed. Now he wants more than the job's payoff...he wants payback. Mark Wahlberg is electrifying as Croker in this fast and furious action-adventure. Along with a drop-dead gorgeous safecracker (Charlize Theron), Croker and his team take off to re-steal the loot and end up in a pulse-pounding, pedal-to-the-metal chase that careens up, down, above and below the streets of Los Angeles.
Everything Went Fine
Studio Synopsis:From François Ozon (8 Women, Swimming Pool) comes a powerful family drama in which a daughter is forced to reconcile with her father and their shared past after he contacts her with a devastating final wish. When André (André Dussollier) suffers a debilitating stroke and calls on his daughter Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) to help him die with dignity, she finds herself faced with a painful decision. Based on Emmanuèle Bernheim’s memoir and an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Everything Went Fine’s matter-of-factness elicits moments of humor that renders an otherwise weighty topic accessible. Steering clear of the moral arguments such issues often raise, the film instead focuses on the reckoning Emmanuéle has with her stubborn and unrelenting father and how to help him, with Ozon tackling a difficult subject with exceptional intelligence and sensitivity.
Max Fleischer's Superman 1931-1943
Studio Synopsis: Superman made his comic book debut in 1938, appearing in Action Comics #1 (dated June 1938, but officially published on April 18, 1938), and the Man of Steel’s popularity grew with his subsequent radio program. Max Fleischer gave the world’s first Super Hero his initial animated spotlight, producing 17 theatrical animated shorts from September 1941 to July 1943 that further elevated the character’s profile, and added many significant aspects to his canon – including coining many of Superman’s patented catchphrases and attributes.
Endangered Species
Studio Synopsis: The Colorado prairie has become a graveyard. Mutilated cattle, their organs surgically removed, litter the high country. Is this the gruesome work of a Satanic cult? Of extraterrestrials? Of conspirators who arrive and leave in mysterious black helicopters? The locals are terrified – and it falls to their new sheriff (JoBeth Williams, Poltergeist) and a troubled cop (Robert Urich, Spenser: For Hire) to unravel an eerie skein of deception and danger to discover the stunning truth. This paranoia-fueled thriller from writer/director Alan Rudolph (Welcome To L.A., Afterglow) boasts a stellar supporting cast and spectacular, spooky cinematography that pulls viewers deep inside the mystery. And here's the scariest thing of all: Endangered Species took its inspiration from real-life events.
