Category: Home Video Releases

Unboxing GKIDS’s Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon A Time

The Rebuild of Evangelion is finally complete! Now whether one should wait for a megaset to bring them all together or buy each film individually, well…

Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon A TimeAvailable to purchase on Amazon USA

As I’ve said in the unboxing video made to look at the packaging of this latest release that wraps up the Rebuild of Evangelion series, the keepsake edition created by GKIDS and distributed by Shout! Studio is far more attractive looking than Funimation’s. And as for why love this over the other?

That’s up to fans to figure out since the number of years it took to make this series was big, and during that time, negotiating the rights for North American distribution most likely had some troubling bureaucracy (like in the anime) as the final release is on the hands of another company to handle. While I don’t know the full story, I am hopeful a set will be offered, so I can see the cinematic presentation in full.

In this series, we have:

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone — In this intro, we meet the mysterious Kaworu and Lilith in a film edit of what is essentially the anime series, episodes one to seven.

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance — With this film, the series is sped through fast (8-23), and Mari Makinami is a new character. Asuka is reimagined and sports an eye patch.

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo — The rather ironic title says it all, and instead of concluding the way the series did, it jumps ahead to deal with a “new” situation. NERV has a rival, and WILLE is not as what they seem. There’s more going on here, and it’s almost okay to start from here. However, a lot of character development points will get missed.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time – This chapter neatly wraps everything up, and goes to places that I didn’t expect, as the universe implodes, and…. (no spoilers are offered here, as this film is considered reviewed to death)

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Take Me Down to Asteroid City, Where the Grass is Gone, But the….

Wes Anderson’s latest film, Asteroid City, is a film that’s best to enjoy like fine wine.

Asteroid City Bluray CoverIn order to truly appreciate one of Wes Anderson‘s films, I feel that I have to mentally prepare myself f. In Asteroid City, this whimsical journey to a town with folks living their life from Leave it to Beaver won’t be for everyone. When there’s some added conspiracy elements added on top, I had to make sure I was truly following along instead of watching it while doing a few other things.

There’s a lot of story going on, and I wasn’t sure where to focus my attention.

Although the concept of a theatre presentation of a story within a story is nothing new, the way this film flips back and forth between subplots was jarring. The story would’ve been better without the added framing devices. And as for when the UFOs will appear and how this township deals with alien visitation, that depends on when it’ll happen. Not even by this film’s midway point is this goal made clear, and by the climax, I’m wondering what this director was going for since the quest for a close encounter of the 5th kind wasn’t made all that clear.

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Unboxing the Huge Star Trek: Picard Legacy Collection, The Video and Expanded Review

We expand on what’s said in our unboxing video on YouTube and offer some more thoughts after giving Star Trek: The Picard Legacy Collection a proper view.

Star Trek- Picard Legacy CollectionAvailable to purchase on Amazon USA

The Star Trek: Picard Legacy Collection is huge, and for anyone new to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and wants to follow everything this captain (wonderfully played by Sir Patrick Stewart) has done, it’s the perfect jumping in point! Not everyone will have grown up watching this franchise’s best comeback. Without it, the subsequent series would not have been created. We have Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy and so on. Although not every series was made avaiilable on Blu-ray, that’s the hope most long time fans crave.

In this release, all the episodes are identified on the sleeve that makes up each case. Each plastic enclosure is sturdy, and although I’d be tempted to put the series into a binder, I don’t need to rush to do that. The discs aren’t that hard to remove, and instead of forcing, I gently tugged.

And as my unboxing video shows (featured below), there’s lots of design and packaging aesthetics to like. After sitting down to view the remasters, the details are far better than what I recall from my television viewing days. Although Blu-ray isn’t as forgiving with the bits of blue screening used, some suspension of belief is required.

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Wanting to Roar, Even Though Much of Lion-Girl is Simply a Mew

Westernized live-action takes on the sentai genre can be a mixed bag, and Lion-Girl needs to distinguish herself if she’s to be wild and be that avenger if she’s to succeed!

Lion-Girl Movie PosterCleopatra Entertainment
VOD/Home Release Date: Nov 7, 2023

Kurando Mitsutake is no stranger to budget cinema. He’s carved himself a niche that’s more or less has the look of films made in the past century. While a lot of marketing says Lion-Girl is inspired by Go Nagai’s manga styling, I’m seeing more than just one creator’s influence and they forgot to say it’s inspired by many a sentai series.

Also, what this filmmaker made isn’t 100% Japanese. This talent set up shop in Los Angeles and I found the setting of Neo Japan very tough to believe–especially when I recognise the Sierra Nevada in the background. The use of American actors isn’t too much of distraction when considering the information prefaced in the movie trailer. However, what’s presented feels more like a cowboy sentai style western than anything else.

Also, I wondered which heroine led manga from this artist was the primary influence. The protagonist here isn’t like Cutie Honey or Kekko Kamen. The closest parallel might be with Cinderella Kishi, but I’d have to read this series to say for certain. While this film honours Nagai’s works, like Devilman with its nudity and Violence Jack for the off the wall blood, at least the full-frontal bits of genitalia does not differ from what’s depicted on paper. They tend to appear as though they are victims after being kidnapped by aliens rather than put into sexual situations.

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On Breathing New Life to Vampires and Other Stereotypes, An Interview

Visual Vengeance release of the cult film Vampires and Other Stereotypes shouldn’t be missed for fans of indie budget horror! And we got to talk to the filmmaker!

Kevin Lindenmuth Closeup PictureKevin J. Lindenmuth is the type of filmmaker who loves his horror. One look at his filmography shows he’s covered the gamut, and instead of relying on producers from Hollywood, he’s all independent! The fact he published many books (Amazon link) about his process says it all. And along with the Special Edition release of Vampires and Other Stereotypes (Amazon link), he’s a talent worth following.

His career started much like a few other well-known names, like Sam Raimi, and as for who else he may have crossed paths with, I’m sure the list is long! Although I’m curious if he’d work with Troma Pictures since he’s based in the same State as this studio, it’s still possible for that to happen. He’s continuing to make movies and teach too! And yes, I got to correspond with him in this interview:

What made you decide to become a filmmaker, and why go indie instead of heading to Los Angeles?

I watched horror movies from a very young age, from the original Dark Shadows to whatever horror movie was on Saturday afternoons, so that was always an interest. They were these worlds that were totally separate from my current reality. So they were subjectively much better! And then I started making Super 8 mm film shorts when I was in elementary school through high school, then went to University of Michigan and went through their fledgling Film/Video program. And during all this time I was a writer, submitting short stories to small press zines.

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