Action Of The Tiger (1957/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/After Midnight (2019*)/Beyond The Door (1974/Arrow**)/Dead Earth (2020/*both Umbrella Import PAL DVDs)/Famine (2011 aka Detention Night/Unearthed/**both MVD Blu-rays)/Gentlemen 4K (2020/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019/Well Go Blu-ray w/DVD)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B-/B+/B-/B+/B/B+ & B- Sound: B-/B-/B+/B-/B/B/B+ & B- Extras: C-/D/B/D/C-/C/B Films: C+/C/C+/C/B+/C/B

PLEASE NOTE: The After Midnight and Dead Earth Import DVDs are now only available from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia and can only play on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD players that can handle the PAL DVD format, while the Action Of The Tiger Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.

This wide variety of genre films includes a few that try something different...

We start with an interesting release, Terence Young's Action Of The Tiger (1957), a bold-for-the-time action thriller from the future James Bond director with Van Johnson as a for-hire captain with his own boat who will do anything and take you anywhere for a large chunk of money. In walks a beautiful blonde lady (Martine Carol, in a racy role that was an attempt to launch her career, including some shocking frontal nudity definitely in the face of the then-dying Hollywood Production Code) to take her to Communist Albania!

She has a brother trapped there and the free world has no easy way for her to get to him, so they go, only to encounter political guerrillas led by a hard, tough leader (Herbert Lom, not necessarily the ethnicity he is cast in, but taking on the role with his usual intensity) leaving them with a whole new problem. More are to follow.

Also more action and violent-rich than most films of its time, it is definitely the old MGM trying to have a hit with some then-cutting edge elements. Director Young knows how to keep things going and the other thing that makes this a curio is that a very young Sean Connery, just breaking into acting, plays a drunk who helps them out, but is a little sex-crazed for her. He does not have much dialogue, but is good here with what he has to work with and amusing to boot. Five years later, Young would direct Connery in the first James Bond film, Dr. No, then two of the next three in the series (From Russia With Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965)) establishing the most successful feature film franchise of all time. You can see a few hints of those films here, even when some of this comes across as dated.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer is restored, looks good in MetroColor (Eastman Color/Kodak 35mm negative) and was shot in the older CinemaScope format, so you get the usual distortions and flaws, but looks good save some aged parts and transitions (typical of the time) where the color and definition get faded and thinner for a few seconds.

The sound is listed as DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless, but the film was actually issued in Perspecta Sound, a format that actually tried to imitate true stereo without being true stereo and was also used on almost all VistaVision feature films (with those of Alfred Hitchcock being a highly notable exception) and that is actually the tracks here. By playing with the frequency range, the soundtrack tries to imitate stereo and is not bad, better than flat mono, so you will get more clarity and with a home theater system, can experiment with various modes until you get the presentation you think is the clearest. Purists will play it back like regular stereo.

The only extra is an Original Theatrical Trailer.

After Midnight (2019) is a horror/romance that's been getting some buzz and is now available on DVD from Umbrella. More of a romance than horror, After Midnight focuses on a couple Hank and Abby (Jeremy Gardner, Brea Grant) who are seemingly in love. One morning Hank wakes up and Abby has gone missing with only a letter left behind. Set against a wooded and isolated area, he finds himself being tormented by a monster during the night hours. It is not too long before Abby returns, but things aren't the same.

The film stars Henry Zebrowski, Justin Benson, and Nicola Masciotra. It is directed by Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella.

After Midnight is presented in standard definition on DVD with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital mix. The presentation is compressed, but the film is shot nice and the presentation is fine considering the aging format. The film was obviously shot digitally with some minor color tweaks that aren't too overly stylized.

No extras.

After Midnight has a strong beginning, but ultimately relies a bit too heavily on flashbacks and its tacky love story, which drag the film down. I was a bit disappointed by the monster too, frankly, which looks cool on the cover but looked to me more like a cosplay of the monster from M. Night Shymalan's The Village.

Next, a hot item for fellow Horror Blu-ray collectors, the original Beyond the Door (1974) has been unearthed from Arrow Films in this deluxe edition that's packed with extras and other cool goodies. Sporting a brand new 2K restoration and 2 versions of the film, this is infamously the biggest rip off of The Exorcist you'll ever see. So much so that Warner Bros. sued the producers for copyright infringement upon its initial release! Being that it came out a year after the William Friedkin masterpiece, it was likely trying to live off the hype of that film's success and cash in.

This is the first installment in a trilogy of films, with the third film (Beyond the Door III - 1989) also released recently on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome. (Beyond the Door II - 1977 - doesn't seem to be available on disc as of this writing.)

While the film only rips off The Exorcist heavily in its later acts, it centers around a woman named Jessica (Emmy award winning actress Juliet Mills) who ends up pregnant with the spawn of Satan. A part of a satanic ritual that she doesn't remember, Jessica soon goes full Regan, green eyes and pea soup colored vomit and all, on those that attempt to save her soul.

The film also stars Richard Johnson, Gabriele Lavia, Nino Segurini, Elizabeth Turner, and Barbara Fiorini.

Beyond the Door is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and a nice sounding remastered audio mix in English LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit). The film looks and sounds fantastic considering its age and the fact that it's a lower budgeted production. Both versions of the film are comparable presentation-wise and are each on their own Blu-ray disc. I haven't seen the Code Red edition of the film, which was released on Blu-ray in 2017 and has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono mix as opposed to this mix, but I'm pretty confident that this Arrow version is superior.

Special Features (per the press release) include:

DISC ONE - UNCUT ENGLISH EXPORT VERSION

Brand new 2K restoration of the Uncut English Export Version, released as Devil Within Her (108 mins)

Original uncompressed mono audio

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

The Devil and I - a newly-filmed interview with director/producer Ovidio G. Assonitis

Barrett's Hell - a newly-filmed interview with cinematographer Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli

Beyond the Music - a newly-filmed interview with composer Franco Micalizzi

The Devil's Face - a newly-filmed interview with camera operator Maurizio Maggi

Motel and Devils - a newly-conducted audio interview with actor Gabriele Lavia

Alternate Italian Chi Sei? opening titles

Alternate Behind the Door VHS opening titles

Alternate Japanese Diabolica opening and ending sequence

Trailers, TV and Radio Spots

and Image Gallery

DISC TWO - US THEATRICAL VERSION (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE)

Brand new 2K restoration of the US Theatrical Version, released as Beyond the Door (99 mins)

Italy Possessed - a brand new feature-length documentary on the history of Italian Exorcist rip-offs, including interviews with key filmmakers such as Sergio Martino, Alberto De Martino, Pupi Avati, Marcello Avallone, Ovidio G. Assonitis and many more!

Fold out poster

Collectible Booklet with insert notes

Lobby Cards Reproductions

and a reversible sleeve and cool outer box.

Arrow has done another great job of restoring a cult classic in this soon to be very hard to find edition.

Dead Earth (2020) also known as Two Of Us, is a low budget zombie movie that has some decent ideas behind it, but ultimately falls into many of the problems that most low budget movies suffer from... big ideas executed poorly.

The film revolves around two cute 20-something girls (Milena Gorum and Alice Tantayanon) who live alone in an Asian style retreat in the middle of nowhere at the end of the world. While zombies coming to their camp is inevitable, they have been able to survive by using their wits and what weapons they have. However, they don't stay alone forever...

The film also stars Brian Migliore, Michael S. New, and Lee Mason with direction by Wych Kaosayananda.

The first twenty minutes or maybe longer of the film just has the two girls going about their various day to day routine albeit taking extra precautions. (Something I think we can all relate too in this the day of the the pandemic.) Despite the end of the world, they are still able to eat, swim, watch movies, and do most things normally. Once some people encounter the estate they are crashing at, we get a bit more backstory on how the two came together... and how they may even be romantically involved? Things start to fall apart (plot-wise and film-wise) when the zombies finally show up around the end of the second reel, and the girls narrowly escape zombie attack after zombie attack. Of course, there's a scene where they shoot the zombies and have infinite ammo because why not. The film ends in a kind of bland fashion, with the idea being there may be another one someday. (After reading up online, I can see they planned this to be a trilogy.)

The problems lie mainly between the two leads acting and lack of onscreen chemistry for the later scenes of the film where that emotion is undoubtedly needed. Some of the normal day to day acting seems fine, but the girls hardly display any emotion even when their lives are threatened. The romantic element in the script is only really brought up once with a decently staged love scene and then never revisited, which is also puzzling to the story. The zombies themselves are a bit patchy as well. Some look okay while others are a bit sloppy and amateur with performances a bit on the nose. These are fast moving zombies as opposed to the classic Romero slow moving zombies, which I personally prefer. There isn't much gore here either if that is what you are hoping for... an ingredient that could have made the film stand out a bit more.

Dead Earth is presented in standard definition on DVD with a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Both of which are standard for the format and a bit compressed, especially when watching on a 4K TV.

No extras on the disc.

Some interesting camerawork and locations aside, Dead Earth feels like it could have been a much more powerful film than what it ended up being and likely looked better on the page than it does on screen.

After the near death prank on high school teacher Mr. Balszack, 2 year later the same group of students that caused the prank are reunited at same exact event. But what they thought was another night of partying soon turns into a night of horror, when someone wearing the school mascot outfit starts killing them one by one in Ryan Nicholson's Famine (2011 aka Detention Night).

In that prank gone wrong, a school teacher is mutilated and nearly killed with acid. Two years later the same group of misfits are brought together again for the over night school famine event for extra credit (because they are all failing). What they thought night of drugs and under aged sex soon become a story of revenge and betrayal, but by the time they noticed they are trapped and locked in the school ...and one of them is a killer.

This was your stereotyped high school horror movie with big boobed anorexic mean girls with horny jocks that all deserved gruesome deaths. The movie your classic psycho murderer killing all the characters as they are trying to have sex. The cast of unknowns include Beth Cantor, Karyn Halpin and director Ryan Nicholson.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image looks really good for a low budget production down to some good color, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix may show its low budget limits, but has some Pro Logic-like surrounds and is not bad.

Extras include gallery and other trailers.

Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen 4K (2020) brings the director yet again back to the British Crime Gangster films that put him on the map (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) but it is not back to form as all he can do is deconstruct these films, even to over-referencing his own work and despite the talented cast, the film is all over the place and never works. It is one of those films where just as something starts to work, it is interrupted by stupidity and cliches.

Matthew McConaughey is a gangster from the U.S. (or 'the states') who now lives and is happily married in the U.K. (no Brexit issues here) who has built a fortune on pot (before the legalization wave, apparently) who is shot to death in the opening sequence, so not only is the rest of the film in flashback, but it is narrated by a man (Hugh Grant) who speaks of the story as if it is fiction (no comment) form a movie screenplay he has written that he wants to sell, so he narrates THE ENTIRE film as if he is relaying the script. At least Grant has the talent to do that, for what its worth.

Then the film spends its 114 minutes drifting between formula, near-smugness and being coy, but never figuring out what it is or wants to be, so it just drifts on and on and on and on and on. The supporting cast is not bad, with Colin Farrell stealing the movie at first by outacting the rest of the restrained cast, until the mechanics of the script undermine him too. Charlie Hunnam, Michele Dockery, Henry Golding, Jeremy Strong and the always-welcome Eddie Marsan are all welcome additions, but even all combined cannot save this project form itself. That's a shame, because this had potential, but the underlying problem is the cash crop should have been something more illegal and dangerous than 'weed' and that makes this just seem very dated.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image is not bad, just edges out everything else on this list as the best presentation on the list and has some good, consistent definition and color, which is not as wide-ranging on the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition regular Blu-ray also included. It still looks decent, but is no match for the 4K overall.

Both disc versions offer Dolby Atmos 11.1 lossless sound (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdowns for older systems) and the sound mix is very dialogue-based, so the full number of tracks are not as engaged as much as one might like or even expect for some of the action we get, but Ritchie gets to have his hard-to-hear accents come across clearer if nothing else.

Extras include Digital Copy and (per the press release) Behind-the-Scenes of THE GENTLEMEN - Get up close with the talented cast of THE GENTLEMEN as they give an inside look at the making of the film and share their experiences working with legendary director Guy Ritchie, Best Gentlemanly Quips - A selection of some of the funniest lines from THE GENTLEMEN that spotlights the witty writing behind the film, Glossary of Cannabis - Viewers are given a fun educational montage highlighting the numerous nicknames of Marijuana shown throughout the film and a Photo Gallery.

Finally, Superstar Donnie Yen stars in the explosive final chapter of the epic saga, Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019) which has landed on disc courtesy of Well Go USA. If you're a fan of martial arts action then the Ip Man series is definitely worth checking out as Donnie Yen is a master of the craft and incredible to watch. The film is from the director of all three previous entries in the series, Wilson Yip.

The film also stars Yue Wu, Scott Adkins, Chris Collins (LV), Vanness Wu, and Kent Cheng.

The Ip Man (Chen) travels to the U.S. in order to seek a better life for his son. Once he gets there, he is constantly challenged by racial attacks and clashes with one of his past students who has opened a Wing Chun school. He also makes a fine example out of a talented young girl who is learning self defense.

Please note that there is a 4K UHD version of the film also on disc from Well Go USA. We are just covering the Blu-ray/DVD edition for now, but hope to see the 4K at a later date.

Ip Man 4 is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and several different audio mixes in Cantonese Dolby Atmos (a Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems, both with optional English subtitle options). There's also a dubbed version in English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix if you prefer to hear it dubbed. The cinematography and production value here is quite impressive and captured well on disc. There's also a standard definition, anamorphically enhanced DVD version included that's of a more compressed quality, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, but with similar specs.

Special Features include:

Making of Featurettes - The 10 Year Legend and The Story

Three different Trailers

Similar to the John Wick series in terms of being a successful pop culture force, the Ip Man series is full of impressive action sequences and fight choreography along with the charisma of Donnie Yen as icing on the cake.

To order either of the Umbrella import DVDs After Midnight and Dead Earth, go to this link for them and other hard to get releases:

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

and to order the Action Of The Tiger Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

http://www.wbshop.com/

- Nicholas Sheffo (4K, Action), Ricky Chiang (Famine) and James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/