A couple of years ago, I was chatting with someone on the internet who didn’t understand the appeal of Steven Spielberg. He admitted that Spielberg had made a few good movies, but he didn’t understand why he was considered to be a genius, why he was so beloved. I quickly realized this person was young. They didn’t live through the 1980s and early 1990s when Spielberg was at his apex.
Buy Disclosure DayFor those of us who grew up during that time frame, we remember Spielberg as the director of E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark (and its two sequels), and Jurassic Park. But also the producer of films like The Goonies, Gremlins, and Poltergeist. His name was everywhere back then, and nearly everything that had his name on it was wonderful.
I admit that I’ve not watched everything the man has put out over the last decade or more. For a long time, a new Spielberg movie was cause for great excitement, but these days I usually shrug and figure I’ll get around to it sometime. But Disclosure Day looked good. Spielberg doing an alien-invasion movie sounded awesome. The trailers were interesting. And then I didn’t go see it. I hoped to. I planned to, but every time we thought we’d make it to the theater, something always came up, and we were delayed. And then it was gone. So I’m thrilled it is finally coming out on home video.
I can’t wait to finally watch it, and I’m happy to make it my pick of the week.
Also coming out this week that looks interesting.
The Sheep Detectives: A surprisingly good mystery about a group of sheep who are read mysteries every night by their shepherd (Hugh Jackman). When he dies mysteriously, it is up to the sheep to solve the murder.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu: After a long break, Star Wars finally came back to the big screen with this movie, which is basically the fourth season of the Disney+ series. I get that they were a little gunshy after the backlash from The Last Jedi, and the utterly disastrous The Rise of Skywalker, but I really wish they’d taken the cue from the brilliance of Andor and gone with something new and interesting for their return to theaters. Still, I’ll watch it now that it’s on home video and probably enjoy it.
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXVII: Kino Lorber continues to put out these wonderful collections of fairly obscure noirs. This one contains The Great Train Robbery, Unmasked, and The Man is Armed. You can read my full review.
The Black Cat: Severin Films has upgraded Lucio Fulci’s ridiculous adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story (a psychic controls a cat to do his murderous bidding) to UHD with lots of special features. I reviewed the Arrow Video Blu-ray of it a while back, which you can read.
What Have You Done to Solange?: Another giallo gets a UHD upgrade by Severin. This one is from director Massimo Dallamano and involves a priest murdering several young women. I reviewed the Arrow Video Blu-ray of it a while back, which you can read.
Whistle: Pretty silly horror flick about a magic whistle that, when blown, summons death after you. The thing is, when you are born, you are already slated to die in a specific way at a specific time. The whistle brings death faster, but you still die in the same way. So if you are supposed to drown in 30 years, you still drown today, even if you are nowhere near water. Dafne Keen stars. Shudder has the release.
Identity: Pretty silly horror flick about a group of people who take shelter in a hotel during a storm. When they start dying off one by one, they discover they have something in common. Arrow Video has the 4K UHD release.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Complete Original Series + The Secret of the Sword & A Christmas Special: Almost in time for the failed cinematic release of the Masters of the Universe movie comes the original series and some other stuff. I remember watching it as a kid and thinking it was pretty dumb even back then. The toys were cool, though.
