Borderlands
4K
(2024/Lionsgate 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Devi
Danger
(2022/ETR Media Blu-ray)/Shawscope:
Volume Three
(1967-1983/Box Set w/CD*)/Tomie
(1999/*both MVD/Arrow Blu-rays)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B+/B-/B-/B- Sound: A/B-/C+/B-
Extras: C/C/B/C+ Films: C/C/C+/C+
Now
for a new mix of old and new genre films, sometimes with action,
always with something odd and different to offer....
Based
on the popular video game, Borderlands
(2024) directed by Eli Roth has no shortage of star power, but took a
bit of a stumble both commercially and critically upon its theatrical
run. Now that the dust has settled a bit from its initial release,
the film is now on 4K UHD from Lionsgate for fans to judge for
themselves at home. Of course films based on video games have
typically received negative press until recent hits like Sonic
The Hedgehog
and the animated Super
Mario Bros.
films gave the sub-genre some positivity. Unfortunately for
Borderlands,
it falls more in the much maligned video game movie category with the
end result questioning how well the game translated to a movie to
begin with.
The
film stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar RamÃrez, Jamie Lee
Curtis, and Ariana Greenblatt, and the voice of Jack Black as the
robot Clap Trap.
In
Borderlands,
an infamous bounty hunter named Lilith (Blanchett) reluctantly
returns to her home world of Pandora to track down a kidnapped kid
(Greenblatt) whose father is a powerful warlord. Once she finds her,
she ends up joining a group of ragtag misfits who band together to
battle various psychos, monsters, and assorted aliens as they seek to
uncover a dark secret surrounding the corporate run planet.
While
this reviewer isn't too familiar with the video game that inspired
the film, the biggest takeaway is that it seems to really follow the
same plot structure as Marvel's Guardians
of the Galaxy.
Even the trailers for the film had a Guardians-type vibe. It was
almost as if they took James Gunn's script, dissected the story
beats, and plugged in Borderlands
characters.
Unfortunately,
the film is far from reaching the heights that the Guardians
reached and has less heart and characters that feel a bit stiff and
cardboard at times. Classic songs come across in the soundtrack, but
unlike Guardians,
there's no motivation for really using them other than lightening the
mood. Its almost as if Eli Roth, a man known for blood soaked films
like The
Green Inferno,
Hostel,
and Thanksgiving,
couldn't decide whether he wanted to make a movie for teens or for
adults. Roth previously directed Blanchett and Jack Black in 2018's
The
House With A Clock In Its Walls,
reviewed elsewhere on this site, which had more of a younger audience
reach with this effort landing somewhere in the middle.
Other
problems with the film lie in the lack of a truly scary and
threatening villain. There is no big name actor to go against all of
these other Hollywood heavyweights and it feels at many times like
the characters aren't really in much danger as they seem to blast
their way through every threatening obstacle thrown at them with
little recourse.
Hollywood
giants Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis do what they can with the
material, but the feeling that they are a bit out of place in this
doesn't really go unnoticed. Kevin Hart plays his usual tired
''short guy comic relief'' self with the best performance going to
Ariana Greenblatt, an up and coming teen actress with talent who was
also in Star
Wars Ahsoka,
Barbie,
and (ironically) the Guardians
of the Galaxy
universe playing a young Gamora in Avengers
Infinity War.
Also
included is a 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and audio mixes
identical to the also included 4K UHD.
Special
Features:
Borderlands
- From Game to Screen
Meet
the Team
All
Aboard the Death Choochoo
Bringing
Borderlands to the Screen
Badonkadonk
Time
Fashion
and Action on Pandora
and
High
Tech Hellscapes.
Borderlands
isn't the worst movie ever, but feels like the result of too many
cooks in the kitchen. It doesn't quite know what it wants to be and
failed to strike a cord with fans of the video game in the cinemas.
Perhaps it was a victim of too much editing, behind the scenes drama,
or studio meddling? There certainly seem to be a lot of big egos
attached to this project. All in all, Borderlands
is the cinematic translation of the phrase ''mixed bag''.
Devi
Danger
(2022) is
an indie cyberpunk thriller with a musical element. While it borrows
some ideas from other films in the genre, Devi
Danger
is an original story from filmmaker Robert McGinley that centers on a
struggling singer (Molly Sides) who gets auditions for a corporation
to do a musical performance in a dystopian future. Little does she
know, but the corporation plans to to force her into getting an
experimental and technical surgery on her vocal cords that enhances
her vocal abilities to sound levels that no human can reach.
However, this is also used for evil as the sinister CEO has been
doing experimentation on himself. He has also curiously been pulling
people off the streets and putting them in this experimental program
as well. We have seen this same type of ''sound waves being so loud
they are a superpower'' before in films like Venom:
Let There Be Carnage
and the X-Men
films. Her superpower here is pretty similar, with aquariums
shattering upon her opening her mouth, but pretty hard on the ears
naturally. The film also stars Tim Gouran, Ray Tagavilla, and Amy
Thone.
The
film has some good production value and special effects for having a
lower budget. The film has a cool concept, but the story gets a
little confused as to what the stakes are for the main character and
why her voice is particularly so useful. When the reveal happens
that it is using to control others to feed into an AI program, the
plot gets a bit muddy when a pregnancy is introduced. The film
starts out strong enough, but loses some steam as it goes on to a
pretty silly climax.
Special
Features:
Behind
the Scenes & Production Stills for photo galleries
Interview
with the Director
Original
trailers
Devi
Danger
has some cool ideas and set pieces, and a decent enough performance
from its lead Molly Sides. However, the plot is a bit confusing and
some of the dialogue pretty stiff. All in all, an interesting effort
that wears its inspirations on its sleeves.
Shawscope:
Volume Three
(1967-1983) follows the very successful previous volumes in the
series, plus since then, other Shaw films (usually in the same
martial arts genre) have turned up with other companies, yet that has
not taken away from how much people like these sets. The
films in the set this time are:
The
One-Armed Swordsman
(1967)
Return
of the One-Armed Swordsman
(1969)
The
New One-Armed Swordsman
(1971)
Lady
Hermit
(1971)
Intimate
Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan
(1972)
The
14 Amazons
(1972)
The
Magic Blade
(1976)
Clans
of Intrigue
(1977)
Jade
Tiger
(1977)
The
Sentimental Swordsman
(1977)
The
Avenging Eagle
(1978)
Killer
Constable
(1980)
Buddha's
Palm
(1982)
and
The
Bastard Swordsman
(1983)
Courtesan
is unusual in its erotic content, while Bastard
Swordsman
has more of a female presence, but comedy starts to creep into some
of the later films in spots, with most of them being revenge films no
matter how epic they get. None stood out for me outside of the
content of Courtesan
and the more color-rich look of two of the films (see in the tech
review below) but otherwise, this is more of the same as fans loved
it, they made money and this set is definitely for fans only.
Extras
in this great box set packaging like the previous sets include:
New
artwork by Tony Stella, Ilan Sheady, Tom Ralston, Jolyon Yates, Kung
Fu Bob and Chris Malbon
Hours
of illuminating bonus features, including feature commentaries on
each film, several cast-and-crew interviews from the Frederic
Ambroisine Video Archive, and the rare alternate Korean cut of
Killer
Constable
For
more on the previous Shawscope
Blu-ray Box Sets, go to our coverage of those previous volumes at
these links:
Volume
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16055/Shawscope:+Volume+One+(1972+-+1979/MVD/Ar
Volume
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16211/Alienoid+(2022/Well+Go+Blu-ray)/Honk+For+Jesu
Ataru
Oikawa's Tomie
(1999) is a later Japanese supernatural horror film, but this one is
one of the first in a cycle of Japanese ghost gals with long black
hair and long white t-shirts to match. Better than the many (and
sometimes more commercially successful) imitators, I was still only
so convinced, but it is a little more original, at least has some
good moments I actually liked and it is at least worth a look for all
serious film fans who would be interested. The title refers to an
evil spirit in a high school who is a seductress, but not necessarily
a succubus. I'll leave the rest of it for you to discover so I do
not give any more ideas or suspense (for the limited amount I felt it
offered) and its nice you can finally see it restored and reissued.
Extras
(per the press release) include
a brand new feature length audio commentary track by critic and
Japanese cinema expert Amber T.
Now
for playback performance. Borderlands
4K is
presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image, HEVC / H.265 codec, a
widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and audio tracks in English Dolby
Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) 48kHz,
24-bit lossless and English lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps) Stereo
tracks. The presentation on disc is crystal clear with no glaring
issues. There are plenty of details on the characters and the
digital world of the film, with some moments clearly evident where
digital stand-ins were utilized for the actors as opposed to stunt
people. The often times cartoony look of the film and its details
all come across fine on disc.
Devi
Danger
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and an English DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio)
5.1 lossless surround mix. The transfer is from a digital source and
looks and sounds as good as it can here. The presentation was done
in part with Vinegar Syndrome, a boutique label that has does great
technical work on its discs and this one is no different. Some of
the scenes on stage with neon lights lose a bit of detail in some of
the opening scenes, but the filmmakers tried to make something
interesting on a budget even if all of the sets aren't particularly
interesting.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on all the Shawscope
films can look good, but have some softness inherent from the older,
unidentified anamorphic lenses, with color usually at least looking
decent. However, they show their age because of the way they were
developed, stored and/or used to make prints. 14
Amazons
and Killer
Constable
have the best color and hold up the best, but still cannot escape the
flaws of the dated lenses used.
The
PCM 1.0 Mono on all the films (Mandarin and sometimes Cantonese) are
passable, but some are rougher than others and the latter ones sound
like they cold or should have been in at least simple stereo. Either
way, the sound is sufficient and maybe some fix up work could happen
in the future for 2.0 Mono presentation.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Tomie
can show the age of the materials used and has softness and flaws
more than expected for the third-newest film on the list and the fact
that it did not use any scope lenses. That has nothing to do with
the style used, though it has a sometimes dark style, which helped
establish its many imitators. Color is not bad, but not always great
or meant to. The
Japanese DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix tries to upgrade
the original sound, but with only so much success, more noticeable
when compared to the Japanese PCM 2.0 Stereo (with some Pro
Logic-type surrounds) also included. The combination is not bad, but
will we ever see this in 4K?
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (4K, Devi)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
