Tag Archives: MUBI

October’s Failures

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Welcome to my monthly “Failures” column, where I look back at some of the films I could, would, maybe even should have watched last month… but failed to.

At one point, I had Joker: Folie à Deux marked down as something I should make an effort to see at the cinema — a relatively rare marker, considering recently I don’t even make it to most of the films I mark. With hindsight, I’m not sure why — I wasn’t even a huge fan of the first film, although I didn’t hate it — but the poor reception put paid to that, anyway. I have a needling suspicion I might actually like it (I’ve seen reviews/comments that imply it was made to deliberately piss off fans of the first one, and as fans of the first one are often among The Worst People, I’m optimistic), but I’ll have to wait ’til disc or streaming to find out. Conversely, The Wild Robot was a film I’d paid no mind to whatsoever, until suddenly everyone was calling it one of the best films of the year. I was tempted, but I’m always hesitant to see kids’ films by myself for “having to endure suspicious glares from parents before, during, and after the screening” reasons. (Whether that’s an imaginary fear or something that would actually happen, I don’t know.)

Other blockbuster-expectant films this month included animation Transformers One (it’s great according to fans, but flopped. I guess that’s what you get coming off the back of almost two decades of Michael Bay and Bay-adjacent live-action films) and trilogy-former Venom: The Last Dance (I still haven’t seen the second one, but quite liked the ’90s-throwback charms of the first). Your typical October horror choices included a sequel in Smile 2, a threequel in Terrifier 3, and a remake in Salem’s Lot. Modern cinema, eh? (He says, as if horror hasn’t been a genre famed for long-running franchises since at least the ’80s.) There was some other stuff too, like Trump biopic The Apprentice. I feel like the only one really worth mentioning is Alice Lowe’s new film, Timestalker, which I heard was good and deserving of support (as a small British film up against the usual Hollywood big guns), but I don’t think it screened at my local even if I was the kind of person who got out to the cinema regularly. I’ll happily support it on physical media and/or streaming later.

If you think that’s an unedifying theatrical lineup, just wait ’til we get to the streaming originals! Netflix premiered The Platform 2 to absolutely no fanfare. Remember when everyone made a fuss about the first one? It wasn’t even that good, which is perhaps why no one paid attention to the second. Amazon Prime debuted Kate Beckinsale actioner Canary Black, which I hadn’t heard of before it popped up on my front page while I was looking for something else, and haven’t heard anyone else mention at any point anywhere ever. I’m assuming, therefore, that it’s shit. It’s a similar story for horror Hold Your Breath on Disney+, while at least Sky’s offering — Matt Haig adaptation The Radleys — managed some column inches (at least in the UK press) thanks to stars Damien Lewis and Kelly MacDonald. Review and viewer scores are still low, though. Netflix did also have the new one from Timo Tjahjanto, The Shadow Strays, but as I thought Headshot and The Night Comes for Us were a little overrated, and I’d completely forgotten that I hadn’t got round to his last one in the two years since it came out, I figure this can also go on the slop pile.

There was greater success in the list of theatrical releases making their subscription streaming debut. MUBI arguably scored biggest with much-discussed recent release The Substance, although Amazon had a sizeable one on their books with Challengers. NOW’s best offerings included Drive-Away Dolls and Lisa Frankenstein — more niche titles, perhaps, but ones I’ve been looking forward to. A bigger-name premiere was undoubtedly Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, but I’ve got that on disc (unwatched on a shelf, natch) — I tend to overlook things that appear on streamers when I’ve already got the disc because, y’know, I’ve got it on disc. The same goes for Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron popping up on Netflix already.

Other titles I own physically but haven’t watched yet that (re)materialised on streaming this month (across all the various services) included Babylon, the new (or “new-ish” at this point) Candyman, Enys Men, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the 2018 Halloween, Lips of Blood, The Long Good Friday, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, live-action Resident Evil #4–6, Time Bandits, the aforementioned Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and— oh dear God, so much else. I haven’t even started on stuff I want to rewatch (The Babadook, Byzantium, Drive, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, A Few Good Men… oh, stop, stop, stop! Heck, all 25 James Bond films are in 4K on Amazon, which is theoretically better quality than most are available in on disc. We’re living in the worst timeline.)

Because I’ve got so much unwatched on disc, this month I didn’t buy anything new.

Only kidding! I bought tonnes of stuff! Heck, it’s been box sets a-go-go for the past couple of weeks. Out of 14 new acquisitions in October, just five were single-film sets — and one of those included multiple different cuts. In total, my physical media to-watch pile swelled by 54 films this month. (Early suggestions are next month could get even crazier: yesterday I took delivery of an Indicator sale order that, across just four titles, included 37 feature films. With Arrow’s 14-film Shawscope: Volume Three due before the end of the month, that five-set tally almost tops this month already. I would joke that I have a problem, but maybe I actually do… Aaaanyway…)

Where to begin? As we’re talking size, let’s start with the largest and work our way down in that order. I’ve had my eye on Lars von Trier: A Curzon Collection for a while, and Amazon cut the price significantly as a Prime Day offer, justifying my wait for it. I ought to hold off like that more often, but so much stuff is “limited edition” nowadays, and it can be hard to predict which titles will sell out almost instantly and which will linger until they’re in deep-price-cut sales. It’s a 15-film set — although, as I already owned some of those, it means technically my to-watch pile didn’t actually grow by 54 films. Technically.

Next, Arrow’s Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe, which includes ten films starring Brazil’s cult horror icon, plus a feature-length documentary. Talking of sets selling out unpredictably: this seemed to sell out instantly on its release back in January, only to later pop back up on some retailers (Arrow’s own store; Amazon) but not others (HMV). I’m not sure what went on there, but I’m glad it didn’t come back too quickly because I probably would’ve got FOMO and bought it at near full price. Instead, I picked it up heavily discounted in Arrow’s latest Shocktober sale. (Incidentally, this is why I’ve got so many huge box sets this month and next: big sales discounts on things I was prepared to miss out on at full price.)

Two sets with a coincidentally similar theme tie for third place. The newer one, Indicator’s Columbia Horror, features two ways to watch one of those films (black & white or tinted), so maybe it has the edge. This six-film new release includes the second 1930s film called Behind the Mask in as many months (the other was in the BFI’s Michael Powell: Early Works collection), as well as Fay Wray in Black Moon (that’s the one watchable in two, er, colours), Air Hawks, Peter Lorre in Island of Doomed Men, Cry of the Werewolf, The Soul of a Monster. For the other, I finally picked up Eureka’s Karloff at Columbia, getting a mint-condition second-hand copy of the limited edition for about the same price as the non-limited version currently goes for. Yay. That set includes the “Mad Doctor” cycle, a parody of the “Mad Doctor” cycle, and one other random Karloff-Columbia flick, which I guess necessitated the super-generic set name. Still, an example of something I sat on and then missed out on… although the fact I ultimately got a perfect copy for a reasonable saving suggests that, yeah, I need some self restraint.

Another Arrow sale purchase next, with the third volume in their series of four-film sets of minor Spaghetti Westerns, this one titled Savage Guns. It’s easier to know when it’s safe to wait for a set to be discounted when you’ve seen it happen to previous sets in the range (he says, having ordered Shawscope 3 at new-release price when Arrow have had to discount both previous sets eventually. But I’m always worried that will lead them to cut the edition size for future volumes, so when it’s something I really want, you’ve just got to bite the bullet). Despite all this sales talk, bargain of the month is arguably The Agitator: Three Provocations from the Wild World of Jean-Pierre Mocky, a Radiance set that was only released in July but Amazon and HMV randomly slashed to just £15. Presumably a misprice, but one Amazon honoured even after it went out of stock. Again, a title I’d decided to sit out, but was interested enough at just £5 per film (a price I wouldn’t guarantee it ever hitting again). On the other hand, I went straight in for Radiance’s newest three-film set, Daiei Gothic, featuring a trio of Japanese ghost stories (The Ghost of Yotsuya, The Snow Woman, and The Bride from Hades). If you’re noticing a distinct horror theme to this month’s purchases, well, that’s October sales for you.

And it’s another horror title for this month’s final multi-film release, Criterion’s 4K double-bill of Val Lewton productions, I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim. I’ve been resisting a lot of Criterion’s recent 4K releases because they’re pretty pricey and there’ll be a sale eventually (indeed, a 40%-off one is currently running at several retailers, and I’ve picked up several titles I’d been looking forward to — expect those to have been failed to be watched next month!), but someone somewhere relatively recently recommended The Seventh Victim (I forget where), and the only other copy I’d found was old and a bit ropey, so I decided to just dive straight in for this one.

Another horror title heads up the single film pile, with Radiance’s release of Italy’s first horror movie, I vampiri — which also includes the UK cut, Lust of the Vampire, and the US cut, The Devil’s Commandment, hence placing it first among equals in this size-based countdown. For the others, I randomly picked up an old Network title (oh, Network…! RIP), ’60s true-story spy thriller Ring of Spies, plus two new martial arts releases from 88 Films, Kid from Kwangtung and The Kung Fu Instructor. Last but not least, the film that would probably have led this roundup under normal circumstances (seeing as it’s a new release in 4K, albeit not a brand-new film), Guy Hamilton’s An Inspector Calls.

Oh, but there was one other box set! Originally announced for the end of September, then delayed until November, but arriving early for those of us who preordered direct, was Eureka’s Louis Feuillade: The Complete Crime Serials (1913–1918) collection. It contains the five-part six-hour Fantômas, ten-part eight-and-a-half-hour Les Vampires, 13-part six-and-a-half-hour Judex, and 12-part six-and-a-half-hour Tih-Minh. That’s over 27 hours of silent serial sensation! But… how many films is it? Four? That seems to undersell it. 40? But a lot of the ‘episodes’ couldn’t be considered features, running under 40 minutes each. So should it be counted as a mix of features and shorts? Now maybe you see why I didn’t mention it sooner in a size-based summary… although there’s a strong chance it’ll actually be the set I watch first, especially as I’m considering making it the focus of 2025’s Blindspot. How does that work when it isn’t easily countable as films? Yes, that’s what I’m struggling with…

August’s Failures

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If you thought my three cinema trips in July meant a change in my habits, well, you were wrong — they were very much the exception rather than a new rule; three “special occasion”-type releases that just happened to come along on the back of each other. I mean, no one thinks the likes of shark sequel Meg 2: The Trench, racing video game adaptation Gran Turismo, Disney ride adaptation Haunted Mansion, or D-tier superhero Blue Beetle measure up to a new Indiana Jones, a new Mission: Impossible, or a new Christopher Nolan, do they? Not that I’m averse to watching any of those films, but I can wait for them on streaming.

There was actually quite the proliferation of theatrical releases this month, but the rest — The Blackening, The First Slam Dunk, Joy Ride, Strays, Theater Camp — fall broadly into the same camp (I haven’t been keeping up with reviews, so maybe some of them are terrible and I’ll never bother). One release we weren’t treated to here in the UK was new Dracula adaptation The Last Voyage of the Demeter, because apparently the local distributor went bust the other month. I believe it’s released by Universal Stateside, so why their UK operation didn’t pick it up, I don’t know (possibly some administration-related thing, I dunno). Not that I’d’ve gone to see that either, but it looks neat and I’ll watch it someday (of all the films listed in these first two paragraphs, it’s the one I feel I’m most likely to blind-buy on disc).

New offerings from the streamers weren’t up to much either (including the only one I did watch, Take That musical Greatest Day, which only missed out on being my least favourite at August’s Arbies due to something even worse). Indeed, I don’t think there was anything brand-new on either Amazon Prime or Disney+ (if there was, it didn’t even make my long list), while the best Netflix could muster was Gal Gadot action vehicle Heart of Stone (it’s on my watchlist, but so are a bunch of other high-profile Netflix actioners I haven’t got round to) and Chinese legend-inspired animation The Monkey King (I’m interested in the underlying story, but the trailer for this particular telling wasn’t appealing to me). Of more interest (though apparently it’s not a Netflix Original; though I don’t think it’s been released anywhere else) was T.I.M., about an AI robot. It seems to have low scores online, but it’s a timely-sounding British-made sci-fi, so that’s something.

The most noteworthy thing in the world of streaming this month, as far as I’m concerned, was that arthouse outfit MUBI have decided to drop one of their original USPs, that of adding a new curated film every day. They’d already moved away from that “ever-changing selection of 30 films” concept when they introduced their library a few years ago, but now they’ve abandoned it to be… just like every other streamer, only with artier titles. There are pros and cons, I guess; one of which is, I’m not sure how easy it will now be to keep track of new additions. From their final regular lineup, the standout to me was Medusa Deluxe, which they described as an “audacious and extravagant one-shot whodunnit”. Sounds up my street. Whether I’ll remember to get round to it is a whole other matter.

Even new-to-streaming and back catalogue picks were a bit slim this month. I jotted down a few things new to Amazon Prime, but ultimately don’t feel any are interesting enough to call out. The possible exception is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, but for the wrong reasons: it’s now left Prime (after a year of availability — time flies!) and, obviously, I didn’t get round to it. Dammit. The same thing happened with Ip Man 4 on Netflix, although in that case it had been on there for three years. Three years! That’s the problem with streamers: unless you watch something quickly, you tend to just forget it’s there, until it isn’t. At least The Power of the Dog only left Netflix because it was headed to the BBC; although, after having it available in 4K, I can’t imagine I’ll watch it in iPlayer’s impression of HD. And over on Channel 4, things are only around for a month at a time, so it’s more understandable that I didn’t get round to German “Dan Stevens as a robot” romcom I’m Your Man or Daniel Scheinert’s pre-Daniels effort The Death of Dick Long. That said, they’ve both been streamed by C4 before, so I’ve consistently failed them. Maybe next time…

Disney+ offered up Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but I’ll wait until it comes out on 3D Blu-ray in Japan and I can, uh, get hold of that version. Then I probably won’t watch it, because I’m way behind on Marvel, and feel like there’s a small pile of stuff (Thor 4, the Guardians Holiday Special, maybe other things) I need to watch first. (It really feels like they’re killing off casual audience interest in the MCU just as quickly as they can.) Meanwhile, Netflix’s catalogue additions were the kind of thing I pop on my watchlist and maybe get round to, maybe never do. I’m talking about the likes of Dear Evan Hansen (meant to be so bad that it piques my curiosity) and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (a franchise reboot that went nowhere, so presumably is also poor).

Personally, the most major thing I took from the streamers this month was reminders of stuff I really ought to rewatch, and that I own on disc for that very purpose. Sky Cinema led the way with Goodfellas, which I feel is massively overdue a second look. That’s been delayed somewhat by my own humming and harring: I would’ve bought it on 4K, but I’d only recently got the remastered BD when that came out. As both were now years ago, I kinda regret it, but here we are. Is it worth spending more money, or just “live with” the BD? Either way, I should make a decision and bloody watch it. A title in a similar position — except I did upgrade to 4K in spite of only relatively recently buying (and not watching) the remastered BD — is Heat. Thanks to both MUBi and BBC iPlayer for that reminder. In fact, the Beeb really dominate the market in this category, also reminding me I’ve long been meaning to go back to Point Break, The Third Man, This is Spinal Tap, and yet another film I’ve gone through multiple formats without actually watching, Highlander.

Five paragraphs ago I implied the streamers didn’t have much to offer, yet here we are. And I haven’t even listed all the other additions that have bulked out my various watchlists, or reminded me I ought to get round to playing the copy I actually bought. But then, as I say most months, if I got into that we’d be here forever. One thing I should mention, though, is the three titles I rented from Amazon back in July — because I didn’t actually get round to any of them during the rental window. Oops. I did manage to watch 65 in the end, by… other means; but that leaves Tár and Cocaine Bear outstanding. Naturally, the aforementioned “means” have also been used to keep those available to me — which might just be the worst fate of all, because making something perpetually available is just about the worst may to make me get round to watching it. Ho hum.

Talking of perpetual availability, let’s dig into all the stuff I bought on disc this month. I’d say it was a bumper month, but every month is a bumper month round here. No wonder I never seem to have any money. We’ll kick off where we kinda left off last month, with Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves — as you may remember, it came out here on July 31st, but my copy hadn’t arrived. It turned up soon after, of course, and I’ve spent the next four weeks not watching it, even though I really want to. It’s high on my list to make time for. My only other brand-new acquisition this month was even newer, because it was a direct-to-disc release: Babylon 5: The Road Home. I’ve never even seen all of the original Babylon 5 series and movies, but, y’know, one day. I also intended to watch this fairly quickly — maybe I still will (using my definition of “fairly quickly”, which roughly means “any time within the first year of release”), and maybe that’ll provoke me to get on with the series (perhaps when it too comes to Blu-ray later in the year, leaving my DVD box sets forever unplayed).

Of course, those weren’t the only new releases I bought this month — far from it — just that the others were new editions of catalogue titles (a distinction that perhaps doesn’t really matter nowadays, especially when the boutique labels are often releasing titles that have been otherwise unavailable for some time). My thorough-but-not-complete (I’m trying to show some restraint here!) collection of Radiance’s releases continued to expand with their three-film Commedia all’italiana box set, plus Hong Kong action-romance A Moment of Romance. Often there’s plenty of HK action to report here, with multiple labels releasing in that space nowadays, but the only other release this month was Eureka’s The Skyhawk. That arrived alongside their latest Buster Keaton Blu-ray, Three Ages; and they also released a three-film set of the work of Polish auteur Andrzej Żuławski under their Masters of Cinema label. Are Eureka one of the most diverse labels in the stuff they choose to put out? Probably. And yet nearly everything they do appeals to me, something I can’t completely say about any other label.

Perhaps the next closest in that regard are Indicator, who continue to release the erotic horrors of Jean Rollin in 4K with The Rape of the Vampire and The Night of the Hunted; plus, in a similar space, Italian horror Black Magic Rites; and, for something completely different, I also belatedly (it came out in July) grabbed their release of classic-Hollywood supernatural noir Night Has a Thousand Eyes. That’s still not everything they put out, but I’m trying to be a little more circumspect there (leaving some titles for potential sale purchases, or to tip just-short orders over the £50 free postage barrier; though I’ve missed a couple of their “bundle” offers in waiting for that, which is less than ideal when trying to save money).

Rounding out this month’s stack were a few titles on 4K that I’ve seen before and had been waiting to come down in price: Deep Impact, The Maltese Falcon, and Training Day. Also, I finally managed to import Criterion’s release of Thelma & Louise for a reasonable (enough) price. With the recent announcement that Criterion’s new UK distribution partner will be bringing some of their 4K titles to the UK, hopefully waiting for a US bargain will be a thing of the past… though their UK titles aren’t coming cheap, so the savings won’t be massive; not to mention the stuff they won’t have the UK rights for, of course. That said, as fêted as Criterion are by some, there are UK labels who do 4K better; so, as long as the rights are with someone, there’s a fair chance we’ll be well catered to.

Finally for this month, a large box from the sale Vinegar Syndrome held a while back, including 4Ks of the British answer to Godzilla, Gorgo (whoever thought we’d be seeing films like that in 4K? And before some titles from iconic, popular filmmakers like James Cameron and David Fincher have even had regular Blu-ray releases. The physical media market is crazy nowadays), German single location thriller Out of Order, indie sci-fi Prospect, and a cult flick I’d never heard of before but looks so fun I’m worried it won’t live up to the hype I’ve generated in myself for it, Six String Samurai. Filling out that box further were gialli Delirium (not the video nasty one) and Trauma (a minor work from arguably the subgenre’s most famous proponent, Dario Argento), plus Gothic stop-motion animation The Pied Piper.

All exciting stuff! Now I just need to actually watch some of it…

July’s Failures

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Typically this column begins with the month’s biggest cinema releases — and, this particular month, we’ve seen some of the biggest of the entire year. But, as any of my Twitter X followers may’ve seen — not to mention readers of yesterday’s monthly review — I actually went to the cinema this month, and so I’m going to begin with… some of the month’s biggest cinema releases, because I didn’t see all of them.

Indeed, I didn’t see the biggest of all, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. I considered doing the “Barbenheimer” double-bill — or even spreading it across a couple of days — but, honestly, the cinema ain’t cheap, and Barbie was pretty fully booked. I’m not forking out £12.50 for subpar seats. Also, going to see Barbie as a single mid-30s bloke… I dunno, thought it might look a bit weird… But of course I’ll catch it on streaming (or, if it lingers in cinemas, as it looks it might, maybe I’ll catch it at a quieter screening eventually).

Aside from that (and the films I did see), there’s been a surprisingly strong showing for Pixar’s latest, Elemental. A Pixar film being a box office hit wouldn’t have been a shocker not so long ago, but Disney have done such a good job of training audiences to just wait for the Disney+ debut, it has been a bit of a surprise; especially as the trailers made Elemental look a bit, well, rubbish. I’m afraid the training has worked on me, though, as this is one I’ll wait for. (In fairness, I think the only Pixar films I’ve ever seen on the big screen are three of the four Toy Storys and WALL-E.) I believe horror Insidious: The Red Door also did well, as horror movies are wont to do — they don’t cost much to make and always have a ready fanbase. I think that’s the fifth in the series, of which I’ve seen none, so I won’t be racing to catch the new one. Also debuting right at the end of the month was the seventh theatrical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Apparently it’s rather good. I’m sure I’ll watch it someday.

With so many big-name titles tempting people out of their homes, it seems like streamers decided not to really bother this month. I mean, the best Amazon Prime Video had to offer was Prisoner’s Daughter, a film that premiered at TIFF almost a whole year ago, and — despite the relative star power of actors Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale, and director Catherine Hardwicke — seems to have mostly poor reviews (43% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not that I like to rely on RT, but it’s an indicator, isn’t it?) I certainly didn’t bother adding it to my watchlist. Over on Netflix, there was the even-more-poorly-received crime comedy The Out-Laws (20% on RT), starring Pierce “I’ll agree to anything at this point” Brosnan and… some guy from Pitch Perfect, I think? Also They Cloned Tyrone, which has gone down considerably better (94% on RT, plus a 100% audience score), but has been overshadowed by debuting at the same time as so many headline-worthy theatrical bows. Oh, and Apple TV+ had The Beanie Bubble, which, for some reason, I just can’t muster any ounce of care about. I can’t even be bothered to look it up on Rotten Tomatoes. (Oh, alright, now I have — it’s got 51%.)

Noteworthy catalogue titles were thin on the ground, too. Netflix offered How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which looks interesting, and they tried to sell me on Hidden Strike, an actioner starring Jackie Chan and John Cena that I’d never heard of, despite it supposedly coming out back in 2021. Well, it’s certainly… something I might bung on some day if I’m feeling undemanding. Other than that, there was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, primarily of note to me because it reminded me I imported the 3D Blu-ray from Australia and never got round to watching it; and, relatedly, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which I also bought on disc (4K this time) and haven’t watched yet. Plus, Paycheck, the John Woo sci-fi-actioner starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman based on a Philip K Dick story, which I’ve ignored for 20 years because it was meant to be shit. But John Woo + Philip K Dick? Maybe the time has come to give it a chance…

The thing I found most noteworthy on Disney+ is that they’ve continued to remove titles, including kid-friendly sci-fi adventure Crater, something like only six weeks after it premiered. Naturally, I’ve now pirated it. Over on MUBI, there’s a rare chance to see one of the films that I’ve still not seen (because it’s rarely available) from my 2007 “50 Unseen” list, Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime added a bunch of stuff that has either filled out my watchlist or reminded me I own a disc I should’ve watched by now, but nothing that really merits particular comment… except perhaps The Condemned, the WWE-produced riff on Battle Royale, which I enjoyed so much when I first watched it (13 years ago) that I bought the Blu-ray; but I’ve never got round to revisiting it and, seeing it added to Prime, I realised I no longer feel any strong need to… other than that I paid for the disc so damn well ought to watch it. Well, maybe I really should — maybe it’ll surprise me as much on a rewatch as it did first time round.

More worthy of note from Amazon was their Prime Day sale, which saw a bunch of recent (and older) movies offered for rental at cut prices — and so, I actually rented a movie for the first time in ages. I used to do it all the time, partly because Amazon used to hand out a steady stream of £1 vouchers that I could use on them; but also because it was a relatively cost-effective way to watch a new film between its disc release and subscription-streaming debut. Now, all those windows are shortened and streaming subscriptions cost more than ever, so paying to rent seems less pressing. Not to mention that I’m failing to keep up with stuff I’m prepared to buy on disc, so of course I’m not paying extra to spend time on stuff I’m not prepared to buy outright. Anyway, the films that tempted me to part with my hard-earned £1.99-each were Tár, Cocaine Bear, and 65. They all expire in the next couple of weeks, so should (hopefully) definitely feature in August’s viewing. Films also in the offer that I considered but ultimately didn’t go for included Plane, The Quiet Girl, Michael Flatley’s Blackbird (it’s meant to be 100% awful, but the temptation to see how bad is strong), How to Blow Up a Pipeline (fortunately I spotted its (at the time, forthcoming) Netflix availability), Magic Mike’s Last Dance (but I’ve still not seen the first two), and, of course, a bunch of stuff I already own on disc but haven’t watched yet. Tsk.

Talking of “stuff I already own on disc but haven’t watched yet”, we reach that inevitable stage of this column. My “most unwatched” thing this month was Arrow’s 4K UHD release of Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest. I say “most unwatched” because this is a collection of films I’ve owned on DVD (in a box set from Hong Kong Legends), Blu-ray (in the Criterion set released a couple of years ago), and now on 4K, and I’ve not actually seen any of them. More fool me, really, both for not having seen such renowned action classics, and for forking out for them so many times over. (In fairness, when I bought the Criterion set I had no idea such a release from Arrow would be forthcoming, and it’s far from the only thing I’ve upgraded from DVD to HD sight-unseen. That said, I could’ve just not bought the Arrow set… but it’s so thorough (in terms of alternate cuts and special features), and so nicely presented, that I couldn’t resist.)

Those weren’t the only 4K upgrades from Arrow, though, as I finally caved and bought their 4K editions of Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Cat o’ Nine Tails. Both have lingered in sales almost since they were released — I think Arrow put out the 4K editions too soon after the regular BDs, and didn’t add anything new beyond the higher-res film transfer; and as the 2K discs had used the same restorations (I believe), there was even less reason to upgrade. Indeed, I’d been planning not to myself, but the combination of sale pricing and having a full set of Arrow’s Argento releases in 4K swayed me.

My only other 4K acquisition this month was also my only brand-new title, Scream VI. Having enjoyed Scream (i.e. the one they should’ve called 5cream), I’m quite looking forward to that. I’m even more looking forward to Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (the trailer was fun and reviews & audience reactions sounded positive), and it came to disc here on the 31st, but as my copy only turned up today, it’s not really a failure for July. (What are the odds I don’t get round to it before September and so it is a failure next month? Time will tell.)

Of course, there were plenty of new releases of older titles to fill my ever-decreasing shelf space. (That’s a joke — my shelf space is long gone; newer purchases go on piles of piles.) Those really split down to two labels: Radiance, who released their first box set, Cosa Nostra, featuring a trio of Italian crime films directed by Damiano Damiani and starring Franco Nero; plus François Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black and Kinji Fukasaku’s Yakuza Graveyard. (The latter two actually came out back in May, but I’d ordered them with the box set for postage reasons so had to wait ’til June — which was fine, because obviously I don’t actually get round to watching this stuff.) The other label were Eureka (of course it was), who released live-action manga adaptation Golgo 13 and crime two-parter Rich and Famous / Tragic Hero.

These are all titles that sound great and exciting to me, as with most of my purchases every month, but will that actually translate into viewings? I think we all know the answer to that.

February’s Failures

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What’s the big story at the box office this month, then? Normally a new MCU film would walk it, but Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is reportedly struggling. Well, it’s still making a tonne of money, but not as much as usual for these affairs, and not compared to its staggeringly over-large budget. Has the much-heralded end of the superhero boom arrived? Or is this just a blip? Probably Guardians of the Galaxy 3 in May will be a better indicator.

Also playing this month was the new M. Night Shyamalan, Knock at the Cabin, which seemed to be as divisive as Shyamalan movies always are nowadays. I’ll definitely catch it at some point, but I still haven’t got round to Old. Then there was Cocaine Bear which, based on the early reviews I saw, sounds to be as delightfully trashy as its premise promised. Again, though, not something that’s actually tempted me out to the cinema (we might have to wait until a certain Part Two in November for that; but we’ll see). There were belated UK bows for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Whale, and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (which I was going to watch and review, until it turned out I’d been sent a faulty disc. The replacement turned up too late to hit the release date). I should also mention Magic Mike’s Last Dance. I’ve never seen a Magic Mike film, though they remain on my list due to Steven Soderbergh’s involvement.

Originals of note were in even shorter supply from the streamers. All I have jotted down to mention are Amazon’s Somebody I Used to Know (which I’m not sure I saw any significant discussion of beyond its poster), Netflix’s We Have a Ghost, and Apple TV+’s Sharper (which I did hear some good things about, but not many, because who watches Apple TV+? Hardly anyone). In “fresh from the cinema” stakes, Disney+ offered Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, though personally I’ll wait until I can find a 3D copy (not to mention that I’m multiple MCU films behind, so it’s a few down the line for me anyway); and, on a more low-key note, Sky Cinema had British indie comedy Brian and Charles. (More noteworthy additions to the latter’s catalogue might be Top Gun: Maverick, but I’ve seen that, and Bullet Train, but I already bought that (cheaply), so they’re not really “failures”. Not for this month, anyway.)

In terms of older films popping up, as ever I added multiple titles to all my watchlists, but little seems particularly worthy of note. Maybe submarine flick Black Sea on Netflix, which I vaguely remember coming and going with little fanfare back in 2014, but I saw someone describe as an “underwater heist” movie, which tickled my interest. On MUBI, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul would merit a mention if I hadn’t already downloaded it for my Blindspot challenge; the same could be said for Wild Tales, which is one of the handful of films I haven’t seen from IMDb’s Top 250.

I did rent something for the first time in yonks, though: Confess, Fletch — partly because I’ve heard good things, partly because Amazon were having a sale for Prime members. If that isn’t part of my March viewing, I’ll have wasted £1.99.

Talking of spending money, of course I bought more discs this month — fewer than normal, based on the length of my list, but still a definite pile of stuff. My 4K collection was emboldened by two labels: A24, from whom I imported The Green Knight (I already own the regular 4K release, but this has a bunch of exclusive special features, not least a whole new short film) and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (which, as previously mentioned, it turned out was faulty and I had to wait for a replacement); and Arrow, who this month brought out The Last Emperor (one of those ’80s historical epics I’ve yet to see) and The Sisters Brothers (a film I’ve consistently not got round to watching while it was on Netflix and iPlayer and possibly other streaming services, and now I can not get round to watching it on disc).

Indeed, breaking this section down by label is probably the right way to go about it, because so many of my purchases these days are random films — sometimes things I’ve never even heard of — which I blind buy because I trust the label (though there’s no label I blindly buy everything from — there has to be something about each release that piques my interest). In that sense, Indicator dominated the month with five titles: Spaghetti Western The Big Gundown (which pairs nicely with Eureka’s Run, Man, Run from last month. Just need someone to bring Face to Face to Blu to complete the trilogy of Sergio Sollima’s work in the genre); Mexican wrestler action in a box set of the first two Santo films, Santo vs. Evil Brain and Santo vs. Infernal Men (this is a real “well, if Indicator are releasing it…” punt, combined with the enjoyment I got from Mystery Science Theater 3000’s recent Santo episode); and then, right at the end of the month, Death of a Gunfighter, The Night of the Following Day, and the only one of these six films I would’ve classed as a “want to see” before Indicator announced them, Sherlock Holmes riff They Might Be Giants. The latter comes with three cuts of the film, so I’m gonna have to choose one somehow…

The only other label to mention this month (I said it was a smaller one) is Eureka, who continued their recent output of classic “girls with guns” / Michelle Yeoh titles with Magnificent Warriors and expanded their Masters of Cinema line with yakuza thriller Violent Streets; plus I dove slightly into their back catalogue (all the way back to October) and bought the Maniacal Mayhem set of three Boris Karloff / Universal horrors (to go with the Universal Terror set I already had and in anticipation of the Creeping Horror set that’s coming in April, not to mention their other collections of classic Uni monster/horror flicks).

My final purchase of the month is an oddity: a DVD (the only format it’s available on) of a Christmas movie (seasonal!) — or, rather, a Christmas TV special. And its only DVD release (that I’m aware of) was a freebie with the Daily Mail years ago, and it was that that I picked up from an eBay seller (for a reasonable price, considering most copies of it are advertised for £16+. Seriously). I’m talking about The Greatest Store in the World, which I’ve always felt would be remembered as something of a Christmas classic if it had been released as a proper movie rather than a BBC special in 1999. Or maybe the memory cheats? It hasn’t been repeated often, so I haven’t seen it for years. Well, I’m not about to watch it anytime soon — it’s a Christmas movie, remember! It’ll have to wait ’til December.

November’s Failures

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So, what’s the big cinema release of the month? Is it the latest instalment in the MCU, and the first direct sequel to that franchise’s only Best Picture nominee, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? Or is it the limited theatrical release Netflix afforded to Knives Out sequel Glass Onion? Apparently it was such a roaring success during its one-week engagement, it left cinemas begging Netflix to extend its run and the box office commentariat noting Netflix’s obsession with avoiding/killing theatrical releases is seeing them leave millions (perhaps tens or even hundreds of millions) of dollars on the table. Funny days we live in.

There were a bunch of Netflix titles in cinemas this month, in fact, though none near enough to me to truly consider, so I’ll mention them when they actually arrive on the streamer. That said, if you’re outside the UK and Ireland, Matilda — or, to give it its full proper title, Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical — will be a Netflix Original when it premieres there at Christmas. Here, it’s a StudioCanal release with regular theatrical distribution (and a Netflix debut next summer). It’s an adaptation of the highly-acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company stage production, with songs by the wonderful Tim Minchin, which I’ve wanted to see since it opened (12 years ago) but have never found myself getting round to it. And now, frankly, I feel a bit weird going to see a children’s/family film in the cinema on my lonesome, so I guess I’ll be waiting for Netflix too. In the meantime, I’m just going to listen to Revolting Children on loop…

Also getting UK theatrical releases (of one scale or another) last month were Bill Nighy-starring Ikiru remake Living; fine dining thriller The Menu; festival favourite Aftersun; star-studded Armageddon Time; another attempt to reignite the “Jon Hamm is a leading man” spark in Confess, Fletch; real-life #MeToo retelling She Said; cannibal drama Bones and All; and under-promoted Disney animation Strange World. Plus a bunch of other titles I noted down but now can’t remember what they are, so I guess they’re not too significant.

Over on the streamers, Netflix tried to score blockbuster-style impact with the likes of Slumberland, an extravagant-looking (read: lots of CGI) family fantasy starring Jason Momoa and directed by Francis “Hunger Games” Lawrence. There was also the new work from Cartoon Saloon (last seen going Apple TV+ exclusive with WolfWalkers), the even-more-kid-focused My Father’s Dragon. And period drama The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh, provoked some chat for its “this is a film” opening shot/voiceover, if nothing else. And yet they were all topped by Falling for Christmas, a made-for-TV-level piece of festive churn starring Lindsay Lohan (yes, apparently she’s still working) and with no one else of note involved. Normally I wouldn’t mention shit like this, but it was Netflix’s #1 movie at one point (yes, really), plus I saw a review on Twitter that said it was so unremittingly terrible it made for a hilarious watch. I doubt I’ll actually test that assessment, though.

Apple TV+ went down a bigger-budgeted festive route, with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell starring in yet another remix of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, this time a musical one titled Spirited. I’ve not really heard any reactions to it, probably because it’s on Apple TV+. Sky Cinema’s HBO Max affiliation granted them A Christmas Story Christmas, but as the original Christmas Story never seemed to be as big a deal here as it apparently is in the US, I doubt anyone will care. No such jollity on Prime Video, whose main original offering was My Policeman, which I’d heard of primarily because it stars Harry Styles and Emma Corrin, and Amazon’s promotion did little to enlighten me further, going with just a photo of Styles in a policeman’s uniform as the poster and key art. It looks like a period drama. I doubt I’ll watch it. Of more interest is Good Night Oppy, a documentary about the Mars rover that was expected to last 90 days but went on exploring for 15 years. Feels like exactly the kind of thing I put on my watchlist and maybe get round to on a whim one day in four or five or six years’ time.

Meanwhile, MUBI’s biggest debut wasn’t really a film at all: following restored releases of Lars von Trier’s ’90s miniseries The Kingdom and The Kingdom II, they’re currently premiering weekly new episodes of the third and final season, The Kingdom Exodus. I’ve been interested in the series for a while (I own the original two runs in a Second Sight DVD box set that Amazon tells me came out in 2011), but finding time for 13 episodes of TV is always a challenge these days. In a similarly TV-ish position, the most noteworthy thing on Disney+ was The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. It falls into the same “one-off special” bracket as Werewolf by Night last month, although I think this one sounds more explicitly TV-like; but it apparently contains some Guardians continuity stuff that will likely feed into the third film. Lines, blurred, etc.

As always, dozens (maybe hundreds) of back catalogue (re)releases on all the streamers further bulked out my watchlists, or made me annoyed that I hadn’t yet watched the disc I bought (I’m looking at you, Another Round, which after a period on Sky has now shifted to Netflix, to doubly rub in that the Blu-ray still sits unseen on my shelf). Despite the prominence of other outfits, Sky Cinema do still seem to get the big-name titles first, this month adding the likes of Morbius, The Northman, The Outfit, and The Phantom of the Open. Your mileage may vary on how much those are “big-name titles”, but I didn’t note anything of comparable scale making its streaming debut anywhere else. However, making noteworthy comebacks were both How the Grinch Stole Christmas — the live-action one with Jim Carrey — on Netflix, and The Grinch — the CG animation with the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch — on Prime Video. Choices, choices. I could keep going with all the stuff that’s popped up on streamers — not just those already mentioned, but also the free TV-based ones like iPlayer, All 4, and now ITVX too (apparently ITV’s new streaming service is finally in HD. Or some of it, anyway. Hopefully that applies to the films, because they have an interesting selection), but, seriously, we’d be here forever.

So it’s on to my purchases, then, with a list that looks surprisingly short this month. Well, I’m waiting on a lot of stuff to be delivered — both preorders and stuff delayed by the postal issues we’re currently experiencing in the UK — so December might be a bumper month. That said, if I were listing individual titles we might be here a while, because surely the month’s headline release is Arrow’s Shawscope Volume Two, featuring 14 more movies (plus a couple of alternate cuts) from the Hong Kong studio best known (at least in the West) for its prolific martial arts output. Plus, Indicator started a new range of box sets — this time collecting Universal Noir — so that’s another six films on the watchlist. Other brand-new releases included Bullet Train (the trailer looked fun, even if reviews were weak, and the disc was heavily discounted shortly after release, so I took the punt), and a 4K double-bill of Top Gun (now the third copy in my collection, after a special edition DVD (kept for its extras) and the 3D Blu-ray) and Top Gun: Maverick). New editions of archive titles included Arrow’s 4K restoration of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the BFI’s 4K-but-on-regular-Blu-ray release of The Draughtsman’s Contract.

Despite Black Friday and general end-of-year offers, my sale purchases were limited to a couple of BFI titles (noir comedy Beat the Devil, and Jean-Pierre Melville / Jean Cocteau collaboration Les enfants terribles), a couple from HMV’s Premium Collection range (vampires a la Tony Scott in The Hunger, and the 1944 American remake of Gaslight), and Masters of Cinema’s release of silent drama The Love of Jeanne Ney.

But after all that, likely to grace my player first is a niche documentary: Doctor Who Am I, coming to disc shortly after a brief theatrical run that also saw it mentioned in last month’s failures. But, unlike when I knew I’d never catch it on the big screen, I fully intend to actually watch it this time.

June’s Failures

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The ‘big news’ this month that’s relevant here is I’ve finally decided to cancel most of my streaming subscriptions — namely: Sky Cinema, MUBI, Apple TV+, and Disney+. Yes, it’s crazy but it’s true: I’ve had all of them on the go at once, along with Netflix (though I share someone else’s account, so at least that’s free to me) and Amazon Prime (which has its own extra benefits, of course). My existing payments don’t run out on most of them until various dates in July, so they’ll still be a part of failures both this month and next. And that’s part of why the streamlining was necessary: there’s stuff I want to watch on all of these services, but I’m not getting around to enough of it to justify the cost. I might start bringing them back in, one at a time; but when there’s all of Netflix, Amazon, and my ever-growing Blu-ray collection to choose from, I hardly need them. And, frankly, for some of those services, I’ve paid for month after month without watching anything at all. Morally, I feel I’ve more than earnt the right to acquire anything already on my watchlist from (*ahem*) somewhere else, if or when I really want to see it.

Anyway, on to actual titles. The big film at the cinema this month was… Top Gun: Maverick again, really, as its phenomenal popularity led it to become the first billion-dollar-grossing film released in 2022. When it comes to Cinema, Tom Cruise doesn’t mess around. Trying to face up to it, the likes of Jurassic World: Dominion and Lightyear seemed to find it something of a struggle, apparently hampered by poor reviews. Maybe critics do still matter after all. Also filling out the multiplexes have been Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, horror The Black Phone, and whatever exactly Alex Garland’s Men is. Also worth a mention, I hear, is Good Luck to You, Leo Grande for a first-rate performance from Emma Thompson, which isn’t likely to get much awards season buzz because the film is going direct to streaming in the US, rendering it ineligible for the Oscars. That said, with BAFTA increasingly going its own way, she’ll still stand a reasonable (perhaps even higher, now it’ll be the only opportunity to reward here) chance this side of the pond.

Talking of Alex Garland, I heard someone describe Spiderhead (Netflix’s biggest original of the month) as “Ex Machina but you can go make tea and not miss anything”, which is amusing but also means it’s still on my watchlist (I would never go make tea during a film without pausing, personally, but nonetheless, I get the point that’s being made). They also had a new Adam Sandler thing, Hustle, which I shouldn’t really mention because it’s going nowhere near my watchlist. I think I heard some people say it’s not too bad, but I’m not a Sandler fan and the plot is something to do with one of those sports only America really plays seriously, which makes it triply uninteresting (because sport would make it doubly so, and American-only sport even more so again). Meanwhile, their surprise hit of the month was apparently Interceptor, an action thing which received poor notices (19% on Rotten Tomatoes) but nonetheless hit #1 in many territories, sparking sequel discussion. It’s on my watchlist, but it’s hardly a priority.

The other streamers’s offerings were even less impressive, believe it or not. I mean, Amazon’s main original offering this month seemed to be Force of Nature, a Mel Gibson-starring (already a bad sign) cop drama (hardly popular right now) that was released elsewhere back in 2020. Oh dear. It doesn’t look good. Alternatively, there’s time-travel rom-com Press Play, which mixes things up by making it the woman who’s time-travelling for a change. Innovative. Doesn’t mean it’s any good though, with 56% on Rotten Tomatoes and low viewer ratings on the likes of IMDb. As for Sky Cinema, they had Gerard Butler vehicle Last Seen Alive, which my boss — who’s the kind of guy who likes Gerard Butler films — watched and said was awful. (I should probably stop bothering to mention all these films I’m never intending to actually watch…) The only thing that looked halfway decent was also a ‘Sky Original’, Dual, which I gather is some sort of clone-on-clone action thing starring Karen Gillan… but my Sky Cinema subscription has already expired, so I won’t be watching that anytime soon.

Also new to Sky this month (and therefore not actually getting watched) were reboot Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which I heard nothing good about, and Clifford the Big Red Dog, which I also heard nothing good about. Poor old Sky, they do seem to be struggling nowadays. Though they did have The Matrix Resurrections — which I’ve seen, and should have reviewed; and bought on disc, so should watch again — and Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, which seemed to get divisive reviews, but is Edgar Wright, so I’ve blind bought it anyways. Noteworthy catalogue additions to the other streamers included, on Netflix, The Man with the Iron Fists 2 (I say “noteworthy” — I liked the first one enough that this sequel earns a spot on my watchlist, but it’s hardly a major title) and The Devil’s Men (a film made before the ’90s on Netflix? Why, wonders will never cease! Stops me forking out for the Indicator Blu-ray, too); and, on Amazon, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (a Best Picture nominee that I know isn’t meant to be very good, but, as well as being on my ‘to see’ list because of the Oscar nom, it was also on my 50 Unseen list for 2012, and I think this might be the first chance I’ve had to watch it for free in almost a decade).

And, if you’ve not seen Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, you can now stream it on Netflix… or Disney+… all All 4. For all the flack that film gets on Twitter, plus the facts that it’s been shown on TV and is currently on multiple services, I noticed that it had rocketed to #1 on Netflix the day after it was added. For all that certain cinephile hate it, I get the impression normies love it, or at least like it. So did I, so I ought to watch it again (I do own it on 4K disc, though).

Disney+’s biggest add this month was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, racing there so quickly from the cinema that it’s gained a rare two-months-in-a-row mention in my failures. Technically there are several Marvel things I should watch before I get to it, but as I’ve already jumbled up my viewing order, I might skip to it sooner rather than later. I’d quite like to see it in 3D, but as Marvel’s home-3D releases only happen in Japan nowadays, I think that would mean waiting until something like September. Maybe I should just hang back — it’s not as if people are still quiet about spoilers from it.

As ever, all of the streamers added tonnes of other stuff that I’ve bulked out my watchlists with, but if I started listing it all we’d really be here forever. I haven’t even discussed anything from iPlayer, MUBI, or Apple TV+, but little of it seems worthy of mention. MUBI’s sole brand-new addition, straight from a limited theatrical release, was Pleasure, which has been discussed in some circles for its unflinchingly graphic portrayal of the porn industry. Frankly, I’m not sure I care. And Apple TV+ had a different kind of festival darling, Cha Cha Real Smooth. I have no idea what it’s even about. I saw people logging it on Letterboxd when it played festivals, but I’ve heard it’s one of those kinds of films that people who go to film festivals enjoy while they’re there, but doesn’t merit much consideration outside of that context. Hardly praise to rush it up my list, that.

Last — but most certainly not least — all the discs I’ve been spending too much of my money on in the last month. The headliner this month has to be The Batman, one of those films I would say I’m really keen to see but have consistently failed to watch both at the cinema and on disc since it arrived a few weeks ago. It comes with two problems: it’s three hours long, so I’ve got to find the time (at the moment, I seem to be able to just about squeeze in a 70-minute noir of an evening, if I make a concerted effort); and my anticipation for it is so high, I can’t simply bung it on and hope for the best — I’ve got to be Prepared. So, goodness knows when I’ll get to it, but it’s right at the top of my “soon” list.

The only other brand-spanking-new release I picked up this month was Michael Bay’s Ambulance, which I feel like I’m more likely to get round to because, well, it’s Michael Bay — no need to engage brain there, right? But I’ve heard it’s one of his best films, hence why I’ve blind bought it immediately. For all the criticism he’s received down the years, when he’s on his game, Bay is one of the best pure action directors ever.

So, everything else I bought was either a new release of a catalogue title, or a slightly older release on offer. To stick with 4K, in the “new release” camp were The Untouchables and Wild Things, both blind buys but films that seem possibly up my alley. More of a known quantity was Drive, in a very lavish edition from Second Sight. I’m looking forward to revisiting it, because I put too much pressure on it to be an instant favourite first time I saw it. I didn’t dislike it, but I’m hoping I’ll like it even more on a rewatch. And, thanks to box set sales, I finally got round to picking up both the first Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection (the one with The Birds, Psycho, Rear Window, and Vertigo, the latter being the one I most need to revisit) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I shall refrain from ranting about the shitshow Warner Bros made of that release. Suffice to say, I’m not actually happy to have ‘had’ to buy the barebones films-only edition, but here we are.

Everything else cuts even deeper into moviedom’s back catalogue. Indeed, it’s mostly films I’ve never even heard of, frankly, but which are part of series or from labels that I trust. We’re talking stuff like Columbia Noir #5 and The Pemini Organisation from Indicator; Execution in Autumn and Outside the Law from Masters of Cinema; ’70s martial arts titles like The Killer Meteors (starring Jackie Chan and Jimmy Wang Yu), Monkey Kung Fu, Shaolin Mantis, and The Shaolin Plot; and both volumes of the BFI’s British horror short film anthology, Short Sharp Shocks. Finally, from a new StudioCanal line of cult movies, two Italian films directed by Enzo G. Castellari: High Crime (the original title translates as The Police Prosecute, The Law Acquits, which, as long Italian genre titles go, is a bit nothingy) and Spaghetti Western Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is a superb title).

I’ll tell you something: for all being a physical media addict costs my bank account, you certainly don’t stumble across any of this kind of stuff on the streamers.

May’s Failures

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Ever since the pandemic, the cinema has been “back” multiple times. The latest film driving that claim is Top Gun: Maverick, the belated-in-every-sense sequel (it’s both 36 years since the original film and something like three years since this one wrapped shooting, its release delayed until well after Covid was ‘over’) that’s been garnering rave reviews from almost everyone. Obviously, I didn’t see it (it self evidently wouldn’t be topping my ‘failures’ column if I had), but maybe next month. I’m sure it rewards the big screen experience as much as everyone says.

That wasn’t the only biggie in cinemas this month though, with multiverses causing buzz aplenty between Marvel’s latest, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the UK bow of Everything Everywhere All at Once — another film we’re urged to see ASAP, and therefore on the big screen. Again, I didn’t have a chance this month, but maybe next. Other cinema releases look like small fry by comparison, even if they include a Stephen King adaptation (Firestarter) and Mark Wahlberg vehicle (Father Stu). Coming highly recommended, but limited (so far) to a single simultaneous global screening, was Andrew Dominik’s new Nick Cave documentary, This Much I Know to Be True. Hopefully it’s not one of those “you had to see it at the time” jobs and it’ll be on disc and/or streaming eventually.

Talking of streaming, the true headline-grabbers this month were new TV series, primarily Stranger Things 4 on Netflix and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. By comparison, original debuting films were thin on the ground. The only one I’ve got noted for Netflix is a new Ghost in the Shell animation, but it’s not a true new film because it’s one of those “cut down a season of TV into a feature” ones — full title Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War — which popped up a couple of weeks before a new season of the show itself. I’ve never got round to watching the original incarnation of SAC, never mind the less well regarded (as far as I’m aware) 2045-set revival. Amazon Prime, meanwhile, offered up a Chris Pine vehicle, The Contractor, and a Zac Efron one too, Gold. Neither seem particularly noteworthy.

As far as new-to-subscribers additions go, Netflix arguably had the biggest hitter with Bollywood crossover hit RRR — even if it wasn’t in the original language (exclusivity for that has been nabbed by another streamer) and, I read, not in the original aspect ratio. It’s enough to put you off watching it… were it not for the piles of praise I’ve seen it attract. Naturally, being a product of the Indian film industry, it’s really long, so I just need to find the time for it. The next most noteworthy title on my list is another international hit, two-time Oscar and two-time BAFTA nominee The Worst Person in the World, which is on MUBI. Once upon a time Sky Cinema were king of this category — the whole reason it exists, even — but this month the best they could do was Dear Evan Hansen. Oh dear. Meanwhile, Amazon added C’mon C’mon, which seemed to garner a lot of praise on Letterboxd at one point last year, but that didn’t materialise into much during award season. It didn’t even make my 50 Unseen list for last year in the end. Still, it goes on the watchlist now.

Indeed, my watchlists on all these services were padded out with piles of catalogue additions; so many it would be far too dull to list them all, especially as sometimes it’s just a film jumping from one service to another (looking at you, Ammonite and Chaos Walking). There also seemed to be a particularly large number of things I’ve been meaning to watch on disc but haven’t, which always elicits mixed feelings — a blend of “well why did I bother buying it then” and “I really should’ve watched that by now”. It was, in fact, All 4 that were worst for the latter this month, airing several titles I’ve owned on disc for ages, including The Handmaiden, The Kid Who Would Be King, and Zhang Yimou’s Shadow.

Talking of stuff I own on disc, let’s just move onto that, because I certainly bought more than enough stuff this month. No new-new releases (i.e. recent films new to disc) this month. I’m not sure if that’s because there’s been a dearth of them or because none have interested me. There have been plenty of new editions of catalogue titles, though, mainly foreign genre titles thanks to the boutique labels: martial arts movies like Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, Hero, and Human Lanterns from 88 Films; a pair of poliziotteschi from director Sergio Sollima, Violent City and Revolver (coincidentally released in the UK on the same date by two different labels. Maybe the rights just became available or something, because there certainly wasn’t any apparent cross-promotion effort); and a whole box set of neo-noir titles from Australia’s Imprint label, titled After Dark: Neo-Noir Cinema Collection One. “Collection One”? Promises, promises.

The latter I ordered as part of a bundle of all of Imprint’s releases this month, which also included Paul Greengrass’s superb drama about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Bloody Sunday (it featured on my 100 Favourites list back in 2016); political thriller The Contender (never seen it, but it was more-or-less free by ordering the discounted bundle rather than just the other three titles, and I do like a political thriller); and Walter Hill’s The Warriors, a two-disc edition featuring the original theatrical cut on disc for, I believe, the first time. It’s the kind of release I’ve wanted for that film ever since I first saw it in 2018, so I was thrilled to get my hands on it. Just hope we don’t get someone like Arrow doing an even-more-bells-and-whistles version for the northern hemisphere anytime soon…

Talking of imports and genres, I picked up Arrow’s US-only releases of The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter and Come Drink with Me, which cost more than their UK counterparts but also boast considerably more special features. While I was getting those, I bulked up my order with a punt on the new 4K release of Heavy Metal, which comes bundled with its less-remembered sequel, Heavy Metal 2000; plus the latest classic 3D title to make it to disc, Treasure of the Four Crowns, a film I’d never heard of, but I’m always keen to support the continued release of genuine 3D content; and also a couple of films I had seen that don’t have Blu-ray releases on this side of the pond, steampunk animation April and the Extraordinary World and Clint Eastwood’s true-crime Southern Gothic Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

And that’s not even all! There were more poliziotteschi in Free Hand for a Tough Cop (great title) and Silent Action (aka The Police Accuse: The Secret Service Kill, which sounds much cooler); a couple of things I heard recommended so picked up half on a whim, like single-take sci-fi Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and Woman at War; and a bunch of stuff that’s been lurking on my “consider buying” list for months/years and finally was on offer, like Irezumi, Over the Edge, A Silent Voice, The Spy in Black, and The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (talking of cool titles…)

Finally for this month, the greatest frustration of all disc collecting: two re-releases of titles I already owned and hadn’t intended to re-buy but ended up caving on. First, Arrow’s 4K edition of Dario Argento’s Deep Red. I’ve largely been ignoring their 4K Argento reissues because I already bought them all on Blu-ray and, frankly, haven’t watched any of them, and the ‘only’ thing the new editions add is the 4K transfer (which isn’t always that much of an upgrade — I haven’t bothered with their 4K of Donnie Darko for that very reason). But I discovered this month that Deep Red actually added a host of bonus features, plus packaging more in line with their other Argento titles; and the screen caps do make the quality of the transfer look noticeably better, so I caved. Secondly, Eureka’s Blu-ray edition of Vampyr. I seem to remember when they released it on DVD (back in 2008) they decided the print quality wasn’t up to HD standard (although they released their first Blu-rays in 2009, so maybe I’m misremembering), but it’s since been restored; plus they’ve added new special features and a big ol’ booklet. It’s a film I had mixed/muted feelings about when I finally watched it last year, which was part of my reluctance to upgrade, but then I guess I got FOMO about a limited-edition pretty Masters of Cinema release. But hey, the film merits a revisit, and this will encourage me to do so… some day…

April’s Failures

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I guess I could begin this months’ failures with the same film as last time: The Batman. It was still in cinemas for most of the month, but I still didn’t work out my schedule to see it. It’s now on “home premiere”, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay £16 to watch it once when I’ve already preordered the 4K Blu-ray for £30-odd. So, that’s one that’ll be getting watched in June, then.

As for new releases at the cinema, there have been plenty worth a mention, but none that have actually dragged me out. Well, the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and The Bad Guys were never going to tempt me to spend cinema-level time and money, but I’m sure they’ll go on my watchlist once they hit a streamer I already pay for. Similar story with what looks like it’ll be the last of the Fantastic Beasts films (due to low box office), The Secrets of Dumbledore, although I’ll likely buy that one on disc to complete my collection. The nearest I’ve come to actually venturing out is Robert Eggers’ new one, The Northman, but obviously that didn’t happen either. There have also been strong notices for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which I was surprised to see screening at my local Odeon (I assumed it was an indie release that’d never make it near me). Other major releases that will go on the ‘some day’ watchlist included The Lost City (looks fun), Operation Mincemeat (should I watch The Man Who Never Was first?), and Downton Abbey: A New Era, I guess (I did watch the first movie, but haven’t seen the vast majority of the TV series, so how much do I care?)

Original movies premiering on Netflix included Judd Apatow’s COVID/making of Jurassic World 3 spoof The Bubble, which looked fun but didn’t review well so I’d forgotten about until now, and Richard Linklater’s autobiographical animation Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood. But it’s Amazon who have the one that’s most likely to actually find its way to the top of my viewing pile: All the Old Knives, a weirdly meaningless title that hides a grownup spy thriller starring Thandiwe Newton and Chris Pine, amongst others. On Disney+, kid-friendly musical Better Nate Than Ever caught my eye with some solid reviews, but the trailer looks like, well, a live-action Disney movie for kids. I think it might be a Bit Much for my taste.

MUBI again have the most noteworthy post-cinema streaming premiere, with Japanese Oscar winner Drive My Car. They had quite a bit to add to my watchlist this month, in fact, including The Souvenir: Part II (I’ve not seen Part I, but it’s coming back to MUBI tomorrow), Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, The Second Mother (a film that, frankly, I know nothing about, but is a staple of the middle of Letterboxd’s Top 250), The Turin Horse, and Showgirls. Yes, that Showgirls; though, based on its listed running time, I have concerns it might be cut. They’ve also got the documentary that delves into the film’s critical rehabilitation, You Don’t Nomi.

Comfortably in second for such things was Sky Cinema, whose headliners included Dune (which I’ve seen, of course, but still not reviewed) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (which I already own on disc). More pertinently for me, then, was Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark. I’ve not seen all of The Sopranos — not even close — so do I leave the movie until the theoretical future date when I’ve finally watched the TV series, or, as it’s a prequel, do I just go ahead and watch it anyway? (I don’t have an answer. Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to either, dear reader.) Also, The Boss Baby 2. I enjoyed the first more than I expected, so maybe I’ll watch the second.

I don’t think there was anything so new on iPlayer or All 4— I guess they’re hampered in such things by still essentially being TV catchup services — but that does make them more reliable for older stuff worth watching, some of which I’ve never otherwise heard of, like When Eight Bells Toll, a 1970s spy-fi action-thriller with Anthony Hopkins, which obviously sounds up my street. Also the documentary The Truffle Hunters, although reportedly the BBC version is cut for time. Shame.

I don’t think Netflix or Amazon had any catalogue titles in the same league as any of those. I noted down a bunch of stuff for each, but it’s mostly watchlist filler I won’t get round to, or stuff I already own on disc and really should’ve watched. The one exception is Snake Eyes — not the Brian De Palma / Nic Cage thriller, but the G.I. Joe prequel starring possible-next-Bond Henry Golding. It’s the kind of weightless action movie I’ll bung on of a lazy evening someday. Speaking of which, Amazon also (re)added White House Down, which I’d like to rewatch sometime purely because it was quite fun. Whenever I see it pop up on streaming, I add it to my list for a rewatch; yet I’ve never felt any compulsion whatsoever to buy it on disc, despite my huge disc collection being full of total blind buys. Weird.

And talking of blind buys, that’s what makes up the majority of my disc acquisitions this month. Well, I think it always does. Just one thing I bought this month is something I’ve watched before: the BFI’s 4K edition of The Proposition, a film I haven’t seen since the cinema but liked very much back then. That said, I did pick up Network’s bundle marking 50 years of The Persuaders, which included all eight of the films in HD — except the films were edited together from TV episodes, all of which I’ve seen, so… Also in the TV/film grey area (in that it was definitely a TV programme, but it was a one-off feature-length production, so do we count it as a TV movie nowadays or something?) is the BBC’s 1950s production of Nineteen Eighty-Four, which finally made it to disc from the BFI, years after they first tried to release it (I can’t remember when that was, but it was only scheduled for DVD back then).

In the realm of things that are 100% definitely movies, the new Scream (that’d be the fifth Scream movie, sadly missing the opportunity to be called 5cream) is the only brand-new film entering my collection this month. Other new releases were catalogue titles, like Kino’s 4K release of In the Heat of the Night, which comes bundled with its two sequels on regular Blu-ray (did you know it had two sequels? I didn’t); or classic martial arts action from Eureka in the form of Yuen Woo-ping’s Dreadnaught and Sammo Hung’s Knockabout; or the grab-bag release Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror, featuring a trio of lesser-known entries from Universal’s cycle of horror movies in the ’40s and ’50s. And speaking of horror, that may be what Arrow is best known for releasing, but the only titles I bought from them this month were Rogue Cops and Racketeers, a small box set featuring a duo of poliziotteschi (crime/action films made in Italy in the ’70s), and 1990 neo-noir crime thriller King of New York, on sale in 4K.

Finally for this month, Indicator had one of their rare sales, which I used to pick up a mixed bag of titles that were on offer and also recent releases I hadn’t yet bought. In the latter camp were early Mexican horror The Phantom of the Monastery and P.D. James adaptation An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, while the former included The Gorgon (originally from the first volume of their Hammer box set series), neo-noir erotic thriller Jagged Edge, and their lavish edition of a Peter Cushing flick I’d never heard of, Corruption. Based on the fact the limited edition hasn’t sold out, even after being subjected to massive price cuts (I paid just £10.99), I guess a lot of other people hadn’t heard of it either. What inspired Indicator to give it the box set treatment, I don’t know.

March’s Failures

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A quieter month in theory means more failures… but, who am I kidding, there are always tonnes of these. I’d probably have to watch ten times as many films to leave this column blank.

The most noteworthy oversight this month is undoubtedly The Batman. I’m a fan of the character anyway, and now they’ve made a version that sounds even more up my street — it’s regularly been compared to films like Se7en, my favourite movie ever. But life has conspired against me, and so I’ve not yet found a time to see it on the big screen. I still might, though I’ve already got the 4K Blu-ray on preorder anyway. That wasn’t the only new film at the cinema this month, although the likes of The Nan Movie and Morbius haven’t received the strongest notices. The new Michael Bay effort, Ambulance, sounds somewhat promising, though definitely something I’ll leave ’til streaming.

Even before that, the list of movies I’ve left to streaming that have now turned up on streaming is beginning to grow. It was a relatively strong month for Sky Cinema (which has ailed a bit over the last couple of years, between a dearth of new theatrical releases and distributors wanting to snaffle exclusivity for their own streamers), adding the likes of Fast & Furious 9, Reminiscence, Malignant, and Don’t Breathe 2; plus M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, Old, although I already own that on an (unwatched, natch) 4K disc. Sky are also the UK-exclusive home for Liam Neeson’s latest action trash, Blacklight, upending my previously-expressed notion that he had some kind of Amazon Prime exclusivity deal going on.

Talking of streaming premieres and Amazon Prime, the best they could offer this month was Deep Water, the Ben Affleck / Ana de Armas erotic thriller that’s had some kind of behind-the-scenes woes I haven’t bothered to follow. On the other hand, they’re also the streaming home for acclaimed Princess Diana biopic Spencer. You win some, you lose some. Netflix’s brand-new offerings were somewhat short on widely-discussed titles (no Oscar noms or headline-grabbing production issues here), but looked like a stronger slate overall. I’ve heard good things about Ryan Reynolds-starring sci-fi The Adam Project; post-apocalyptic Swedish thriller Black Crab seemed to shoot up their viewing chart; Nightride is billed as a “real-time crime thriller”, which sounds up my street; and I also spotted The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, which looks like a Korean Pirates of the Caribbean. If it lives up to that vibe, which I got from its trailer, then it could be fun. Also not to be overlooked is Boiling Point, another real-time thriller — set in, er, a restaurant kitchen at Christmas — that I’ve heard is very good.

But for all that, the biggest streaming premiere of the month was surely the new Pixar on Disney+, Turning Red. If we ignore the empty-headed ‘controversy’ it generated (essentially, some middle-aged white men struggling with a story that wasn’t about a middle-aged white man), it’s meant to be very good — but I’m way behind on my Disney / Pixar viewing, so it just has to go on the list with Luca, Raya, Encanto, and probably a few others. In a very different mode, they were also the UK home for Fresh, a film which everyone has been talking about while trying to avoid the ‘surprise reveal’. If it’s not about cannibalism, the marketing has done a good job misdirecting my expectations. If it is about cannibalism, I’m not sure why everyone’s pretending it’s such a big secret. Maybe they’re just overly optimistic about what can be kept a surprise these days (the poster’s a dismembered hand packaged like a supermarket steak, c’mon!) Sticking with the big D, they also belatedly (it came out in the US back in January) debuted a belated (the last one was six years ago) continuation for the Ice Age franchise with The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild; plus, streaming debuts for Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley; Jessica Chastain’s Oscar winner, The Eyes of Tammy Faye; and the second pandemic-delayed Kenneth Branagh Poirot mystery, Death on the Nile — it slipped in there on the 30th, just in time to make this the second month in a row I’ve mentioned it (after its theatrical debut just last month). I’m inclined to jump straight to buying it on disc, to go with its predecessor (which I enjoyed), and that’s out in April — so it may end up mentioned in my failures three months on the trot. Or maybe I’ll actually watch it — stranger things have happened.

Once the home to deep cuts from the arthouse archive, MUBI increasingly have dibs on new arthouse (read: foreign) hits, at least in the UK. This month that boiled down to the streaming premiere of Cannes winner Titane, but they’ve got a big couple of months ahead, with Oscar nominees Drive My Car and The Worst Person in the World likely to feature in future editions of this column. All 4 do the same kind of thing later and freer, albeit with ads, recently including Bacurau, Rita, Sue and Bob Too (both their viewing windows now expired, unfortunately), Her Smell, and Ninjababy. There wasn’t so much noteworthy on the BBC iPlayer this month, although they’ve got back a couple of films I’ve been meaning to get round to for years, like If Beale Street Could Talk and Molly’s Game. I’m also going to mention La Belle Époque, which appeared on there just days after I posted my 5-star review, and is still available.

As always, we end with the place my disposable income goes to die: Blu-ray purchases… although the list doesn’t look so long this month. Indeed, day-one purchases were relatively thin on the ground: I picked up The Matrix Resurrections, because I loved it (and, er, didn’t pay for it first time round…), plus I imported Nightmare Alley on 4K (no UK release seems forthcoming, not even a retailer-exclusive Steelbook), and at the same time nabbed the new 4K release of The Sword and the Sorcerer — never seen it, no idea if I’ll like it, but I do sometimes enjoy a bit of ’80s-style Fantasy, so it’s the kind of thing that’s worth a punt to me. Rounding out my US order was a film I didn’t even know existed until Warner Archive put it out recently, the 1948 adaptation of The Three Musketeers, with a starry cast that includes Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, Angela Lansbury, and Vincent Price. Other new releases of older titles that I’ve never included Hong Kong take on Nikita, Black Cat, and Eureka’s latest classic martial arts title, Odd Couple. And then, of course, there were sales and offers: my 4K collection continues to bulge out with Halloween Kills and Venom: Let There Be Carnage from a chart 2-for-whatever; and a bunny-themed double (sort of) in a Disney 2-for-whatever, with Jojo Rabbit and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. A UK Criterion 2-for-whatever brought me Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and Topsy-Turvy (I used to love Gilbert and Sullivan’s work as a kid, but I haven’t listened to or seen any of it for ages). Finally-finally, a couple of limited editions I bought belatedly at near-as-damn-it full price before they disappeared forever: the HMV-exclusive edition of Almost Famous (it has both cuts in 4K, which the cheaper regular UK release does not) and Arrow’s Yokai Monsters set — the standard edition of which is already out, at a higher price point than the limited edition. What is the world coming to…

February’s Failures

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Once upon a time, I never thought I’d be mentioning a Jackass film on this blog, but the release of revival movie Jackass Forever caused me to seek out the first two in the series, and I do intend to watch the rest eventually. Not going to the cinema for it, though. Or, indeed, anything else this month. Fare like Moonfall and Uncharted is very much in the “wait for streaming” camp for me — I’ll surely watch them both eventually, and it may even turn out I enjoy them, but they’ll wait. I did enjoy Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express, so I was tempted by Death on the Nile, but, honestly, I’m still not sold on the whole “living with Covid” thing, so it’s going to take more than that to persuade me out to the cinema. Other things — like animations Belle and Flee — had more limited releases and I don’t even know if they came near me.

The return of the big screen doesn’t mean the streamers have let up on originals, although their quality continues to be variable. I’ve heard good things about Steven Soderbergh’s latest, Kimi, which went straight to Sky Cinema here in the UK, emulating it’s “direct to HBO Max” release Stateside. But their other originals — school shooting thriller The Desperate Hours and language-barrier romcom Book of Love — have received lesser notices. Netflix, on the other hand, could boast Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s first film in almost a decade, Bigbug, and yet I’ve seen precisely one tweet mentioning it. Their latest reincarnation of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, on the other hand, did seem to generate chatter, but little of it positive. And the less said about Madea and Mrs Brown teaming up for A Madea Homecoming, the better.

In that middle ground of “cinema releases coming quickly to streaming”, MUBI continue to rule with the likes of Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman and Icelandic folk horror Lamb, although Disney+ come close with Kingsman prequel The King’s Man and Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch. On a slightly slower track, Sky Cinema also had a pretty strong showing of stuff this month, mainly in the horror realm. We’re talking Freaky, The Forever Purge (I’ve got a couple of others left before I get to that, personally), Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth, and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (I quite enjoyed the first, so I’ll give it a chance). Also, not a horror but it looks horrific: Space Jam: A New Legacy. And quirky British true story comedy Dream Horse, which looks worth it just for the international cast’s attempts at the Welsh accent.

As usual, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, and All 4 produced plenty of stuff from deeper in the archive that I’m happy to fill out my watchlist with while clearly being in no rush to get round to. Normally I’d include Netflix in that list, but I’ve not jotted down much on my shortlist this month; though MUBI had an uncommonly good showing, the standout being Jiro Dreams of Sushi right at the end of the month. Others of particular interest included The Passion of the Christ (I feel I really should’ve seen that by now), the 1950s version of Around the World in 80 Days, Ripley adaptation The American Friend, and Memento, which I haven’t revisited in many a year. I own it on DVD, but, naturally, it’s in HD on iPlayer.

Finally, the inexorable growth of my Blu-ray collection continued unabated, with a mix of new releases and sale pickups. Although I watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife in February, I picked it up in the series’ Ultimate Collection box set, meaning I now have 4K copies of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II on my watchlist. And that’s not all from the rewatch back catalogue, because HMV’s rolling offer of half-price UHD discs also allowed me to nab La La Land, Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express, the original Scream, and The Shawshank Redemption — a rare film that I love (or like a lot, at least) but never upgraded to Blu-ray, so jumping from DVD straight to 4K feels like some kind of victory.

There were new releases in 4K too, of course, most prominently Dune: Part One (how I wish it said that on the spine — it inevitably won’t match the sequel), which I imported from France so I also have it in 3D, and The King’s Man. Could’ve just watched that on Disney+, or at least given it a go there first, but as I own the first two it was inevitable I’d buy it, so I just got on with it. And, as we all know, discs are better than streaming anyway. I also took a punt on adult fantasy animation The Spine of Night in 4K, imported from the US alongside a new edition of Candyman III: Day of the Dead — it’s meant to be a rubbish film, but it completes my Candyman collection. Unfortunately, it’s also a somewhat rubbish disc, with noticeably weaker picture quality compared to a German release from a while back. Still, lots of special features. If I actually like it when I watch it, maybe I’ll treat myself to the German disc too. Based on everyone else’s opinion, that seems unlikely.

UK labels continue to rollout martial arts classics — I feel like something must have changed in the licensing of these, because we got hardly any a few years ago, while now there’s at least a couple every month from 8 Films or Eureka, and now Arrow getting in on the game too. Anyway, this month’s releases included The Flag of Iron and Legendary Weapons of China from 88 Films, and Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon from Eureka, who also released silent epic The Indian Tomb on their Masters of Cinema line. They’d previously released Fritz Lang’s 1950s remake on DVD, which went OOP just before their release of the silent one came out. I presume that’s just a funny coincidence. And last but very much not least on the new release pile, Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film: A New Generation. Long-time readers will surely remember how much I loved his series The Story of Film: An Odyssey, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting this sequel. Now I’ve just got to make room for its near-three-hour running time.

I’ve ummed and ahhed for years about upgrading my Charlie Chaplin box set to the Blu-ray version, especially as there have been a couple now, and the extra features vary, and the picture quality isn’t always the best. But Amazon cut it to such a low price this month, I decided just to give in — so that’s 11 features, a mix of ones I’ve seen and ones I haven’t. They may not be the very best available, but they’re a lot better than my DVD copies (which I can hang onto for the missing extras, because I’ll never make much reselling them anyway), and a lot cheaper than buying the films individually — which I can always do if I particularly love any of them. Criterion have put most of them out in the US, and are about to start bringing them to the UK, so we’ll see as they go along. Talking of box sets I’d overlooked but was tempted into by sales (it might not sound like a common problem, but it is for me), Indicator tempted me to grab their four-film John Ford at Columbia set this month; and because that wasn’t expensive enough to qualify for free postage, I also delved into their 5-for-whatever offer, picking up Eyes of Laura Mars, Modern Romance, Night Tide, See No Evil, and Time Without Pity. Their releases are so well-done, and their picks often so obscure but intriguing, that it’s easy to just keep buying them. Now, I just need to make the effort to actually watch more of them, too.

Looking at that (not-so-)little lot, it’s easy to see why my bank account felt severely depleted by the end of the month. Maybe in March I’ll finally resist the lure of sales… but there’s always all those exciting new releases… Oh, I’m damned.