What was the last movie you watched?

[stethacantus]

Opium and the Kung-Fu Master ( 1984 )
And so we reach the end of Shaw Brothers Classics Volume 4. As of now I have not yet made up my mind as to what the next purchase will be. Shout! Factory has released Volumes 5 and 6. And a couple of volumes of Golden Harvest films, as well as a couple of volumes of Jackie Chan films. And there are a lot of other stand alone films that have been released. Basically,  so many sets have been released, I am falling behind. Very likely I will need to resort to watching two martial arts films on a Saturday to catch up. Opium and the Kung Fu Master was the third and final film directed by Tong Kai, and it was very unusual. Possibly inspired by Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign, it was an anti drug film. Only directly targeting Opium addiction. The hero of the film is the legendary Leung Kwan, one of the members of the Ten Tigers of Kwantung. Throughout the film Kwan gradually becomes an Opium addict. His rock bottom is when he is easily defeated by the film's villain, who has opened the local Opium den which has also decimated most of Kwan's students who all  frequent the den. One of these students has become such an addict that he has neglected his wife and children who are all  starving at home because all of his money has been going to his addiction. They wife ends up poisoning the children and hanging herself, causing the student to commit suicide himself in grief. A fellow student, furious over the deaths, decides to burn the Opium den down, and ends up mortally wounded by the villain. Nearly every character in is film ends up dead either from addiction, or at the hands of the villains operating the den. Each time pounding down the message that Opium is not good. Finally Kwan goes back  to his old teacher for rehab, and once he has finally cured his addiction, he returns to town for the obligatory duel to the death with the villain. This is definitely a message film where every time something bad happens, one of the characters points out that it is all the fault of Opium. But it is also a very decent martial arts film despite the ham-fisted messaging, with some of Tong Kai's best fight choreography.

The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock ( 1959 )
Abbott and Costello parted ways in 1957. Stil in his early 50s, Lou Costello began what could have been a promising solo film career with this parody of 1950s sci-fi. But that solo career was cut short two months later when Costello died of complications from a heart attack at age 52. This film was released posthumously. Sadly, it was a weak film to go out on. Reportedly Costello was sick during production, so had not lightened up the film with ad libs as he had done in the past with some of Universal's weaker films. The plot: Costello gets into a fight with his girlfriend and she runs off and into a patch of steam between a rock formation which, for some reason,  causes her to grow into a 30 foot giant. When he returns to town for help, her uncle misunderstands his explanation that her niece is big for him getting her pregnant, and orders him to marry her immediately. It isn't until after they are both married that the uncle realizes his niece is a giant. And as he is running for mayor, and thinks this can ruin his campaign,  makes multiple attempts to hide her, which only results in her marching into town to yell at him and all the townspeople. Meanwhile, the army is having war games nearby, and mistakes the giant woman for a Martian invasion, and decides to attack her. Besides being the town's garbage man, Costello is also an amateur inventor, and has invented a computer, which is somehow able to  send him through time, and also enables him to fly through the air. Oh, and also shrink his wife back down to her original size. Impressed by his computer, the army confiscates it and promises to pay him millions. So happy ending, except for the fade out gag where Costello's pet dog has  apparently walked into the same mysterious vapors and grown giant.

This is ne mess of a movie. There is no explanation as to what the steam is that causes the girl to grow into a giant, other than it is in a park where dinosaur bones are found. The pint sized computer Costello built, which is useless for most of the film, then suddenly has miraculous powers in the final ten minutes, has no explanation other than the writers could not figure out how to end the movie. Worst of all, the giant girl never actually fights the army, which they had spent thirty minutes setting up. Costello shrinks her just as the army reaches her location. If not for the novelty of having a giant woman, there would have been nothing worth seeing in this film. Gale Gordon, who is best remembered as banker Mr. Mooney from The Lucy Show,  plays the uncle, a role that would have gone to Bud Abbott had the duo not broken up. Dorothy Provine plays the giant bride. She would star in a lot of comedies in the 1960s, including It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a film no doubt Lou Costello would have been asked to  star in had he lived. In fact, this film has a pretty solid cast. Unfortunately, the script was lazy, and it is apparent there were budget limits, explaining why her attack on the town was limited, and there was no confrontation with the army. At no point does she ever pick any character up, including Costello, which you would expect to happen in a giant film. So definitely a missed opportunity at a much better film.

Batman: Assault on Arkham ( 2014 )
Actually, this is more like a Suicide Squad film with Batman as a guest character. The Suicide Squad is sent to Arkham to retrieve a flash drive hidden in The Riddler's possessions which  supposedly has a file he stole from A.R.G.U.S. Actually, the real mission that the team doesn't know about, is for Killer Frost to break away from the team once they are inside, and assassinate The Riddler, because he had figured out how to disarm the chip implanted in their skulls that explodes whenever a Squad member tries to run away. Harley Quinn is once again one of the squad members, and once again steals the movie. Her boyfriend Joker is one of the Arkham residents, and as usual in a Batman movie, becomes the film's main villain in the final ten minutes. A fun film which explains why Warner Bros insisted on having a Suicide Squad film in their DCEU even before there was a Wonder Woman film or the Justice League film, and why they made a second Suicide Squad film despite the first one failing spectacularly. ( not to mention a  Harley Quinn spin-off film and a Peacemaker spin off series )

[stethacantus]

Half A Loaf of Kung Fu ( 1978 )
Because it was available in a Barnes & Noble on sale for $50 and I was able to visually confirm that it was brand new and not a used copy with new shrink-wrap,  I settled as my next set of classic martial arts films Criterion Collection's oddly titled Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar which has an equally odd selection of movies.
Half Loaf of Kung Fu ( 1978 )
Spiritual Kung Fu ( 1978 )
The Fearless Hyena ( 1979 )
The Fearless Hyena II ( 1983 )
The Young Master ( 1980 )
My Lucky Stars ( 1985 )

Criterion is usually known for releasing films of importance. Which didn't exactly happen at Lo Wei studios. These are the best picks of the Jackie Chan films made there... well, not exactly Fearless Hyena II. ( More on that when I get around to  reviewing it. ) And then two of the Golden Harvest films tossed in. No Snake in the Eagles Shadow, no Drunken Master, which could have been the other two films. And I don't get why My Lucky Stars is in this set and not [/i]Winners & Sinners[/i] which was the first and best of the Lucky Stars films.  Also, Jackie was just a guest star in the Lucky Stars films. And it would have made more since if Dragon Lord ( a.k.a. Young Master In Love ) was the second film from Golden Harvest as it was literally Chan's second film for Golden Harvest, and his final Kung Fu movie ( until Drunken Master II in the 90s ) before he began doing action movies with kung fu fights.

A bit of background on bot Jackie Chan and Lo Wei. Chan belonged to an all kid Cantonese Opera troupe called The Seven Little Fortunes. Training for the troupe required Chan and his fellow students to learn acting, singing, acrobatics, and martial  arts. The Seven Little Fortunes would be disbanded in the late 60s due mostly to live shows like Cantonese Operas losing audiences to movies and television. Many of the Fortunes would go on to star in or choreograph martial arts movies.  Many of the Fortunes had already appeared in films due to the owner of the troupe, Yu Jim Yuen, lending his students out to the local film studios whenever they needed to cast children in their movies. One of the Fortunne members, Sammo Hung, was either thrown out or quit the troupe after a fight with Yu Jim Yuen. He would find work choreographing fights for director Lo Wei, who at the time was working at Shaw Brothers. The studio had just begun making Wuxia  movies, one of which was  The One Armed Swordsman which was the first Hong Kong movie to earn $1 million at the box office. Soon both directors Chang Cheh and Lo Wei were making Wuxia movies that were earning over $1 million. In 1970 Lo Wei defected from Shaw Brothers  to join the new Golden Harvest studio, and brought Sammo Hung with him. Sammo was instrumental in getting small roles  for Jackie Chan and other  Fortune members, first at Shaw Brothers, then at Golden Harvest. These were  all basically bit parts, and mostly of henchmen who get beaten up by the film's  star. Chan was an excellent screen fighter, and was willing to do dangerous stunts for the lead actors. Directors were impressed and thought he could be a star. But the studio heads though he didn't have the face to be a lead. One independent producer did hire Chan to be the lead in a low budget martial arts film called  Little Tiger of Canton, which depending on which source tells it, was shelved by the distributor, or got a very limited release, or was never completed. Other directors offered him supporting  roles, including John Woo who after hiring him for Hand of Death, tried to convince Golden Harvest to sign him. They didn't However, Lo Wei was aware of this.  At the time Lo Wei was about to leave Golden Harvest to  start his own production company Lo Wei Films, so immediately signed Jackie Chan to an 8 year deal for his studio.

At this point the story gets a little muddled as the films he made at Lo  Wei  have been given different release dates over the years, mostly due to the studio  re-releasing all of his films after he became a superstar, while some of the movies he shot were shelved and released after he was a star. Every few years his filmography is updated with different release dates, even that on Jackie Chan's own website. What is known for sure is that his first film for the studio, New Fist of Fury, was released in 1976 to great fanfare. Not only had Lo Wei directed blockbusters for haw Brothers, but was the director of Bruce Lee's first two movies at Golden Harvest, one of them Fist of Fury. New Fist of Fury was the official sequel, as it reunited the cast members of the surviving characters from that film. Joining them was Jackie Chan  who  played a new character who takes up where Bruce Le's character left off, fighting the Japanese. Chan was promoted  as the New Bruce Lee, vouched for by Lo Wei who claimed to have discovered the original Bruce Lee. New Game of Death bombed at the box office. Other low budget Jackie Chan movies were produced for Lo Wei studios, but also bombed. Chan tried to convince Lo Wei that audiences were not accepting him as the new Bruce Lee, and the only way to find a fan base was to be different. Chan was a fan of slapstick comedy, and wanted to try putting slapstick in martial arts films. A the same time the first actor to beat Bruce Lee's box office records were the  Hui Brothers, who were comedians who moved into film after a popular television sketch comedy show. Lo Wei decided that maybe Chan was right, that comedy would sell better. So allowed Chan to make Half Loaf of Kung Fu. However, after screening it, Lo Wei decided it was absolute crap and shelved it. Jackie Chan was demoted to bit player while James Tien was promoted to the studio's star.

A new upstart studio, Seasonal Films, asked Lo Wei Studios to lend them Jackie Chan for  two movies and he agreed. Chan convinced Seasonal to allow him to make a comedy, and he made Snake in the Eagles Shadow with veteran actor Simon Yuen as an unorthodox martial arts teacher who teaches Jackie his style of Eagles Claw Kung Fu.   Both that film, and it's follow up Drunken Master broke box office records. Lo Wei immediately began re-releasing Jackie Chan films, along with releasing any film he had previously shelved. Some one took Little Tiger of Canton and shot new footage with Simon Yuen with a Jackie Chan imposter, and released it as Master With Cracked Fingers. Meanwhile, back  at Lo Wei Studios, Chan was promoted back to star, and allowed to make more martial arts comedies.

Tanks to Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu being shelved, A Fistful of Yen   ( the ending segment of Kentucky Fried Movie ) became the first martial arts movie parody. The difference is that A Fistful of Yen specifically parodied Enter The Dragon while Half A Loaf of Kung Fu parodied the entire martial arts genre, specifically the costumed films. I wish I could say it is a masterpiece of comedy, but just because Jackie Chan wanted to be funny, didn't mean he was. Just as when I first watched this film on VHS way back in the 80s, only one gag is laugh out funny.  The final boss shows up during the ending battle between the heroes and villain to complain that someone had killed his student and crippled his son. He strikes at one of the villains, who immediately turns around and kills his son. Which, believe me, somehow is funny on how abrupt this takes place. The plot: Jackie is a wanabe martial artist who steals the identity of an actual martial arts hero. In an almost funny gag, Chan had accidentally gotten he hero killed when he interrupted a fight between the hero and a criminal , allowing the criminal to fatally stab the startled hero. Both combatants end up dead, and realizing the criminal had a bounty, Chan impersonates the hero to retrieve the bounty. Meanwhile, a hobo who is actually a martial arts master realizes that Chan is an imposter, but for some reason decides to teach him his unorthodox style of Kung Fu. Chan ends up being invited to join a bunch of heroes who are escorting a magic herb capable of giving a person immortality. A herb all the villains in the martial arts world are conspiring to steal. This leads to a final battle between the heroes and every villain in the martial arts world, and eventually that pissed off teacher/father who decides to just kill everyone and take the longevity herb for himself. Chan decides to fight him, but is still in the middle of learning his Kung Fu from the manual the hobo teacher gave him, and ends up beating the villain because he read the manual upside down and did the moves backwards.

Chan would reuse many elements from this movie in Snake in the Eagles Shadow and other of his Kung Fu comedies. Especially the idea of a hobo teaching him an unorthodox Kung Fu style, and Chan improvising new moves for the end fight. There is a lot here that should be funny, and some gags that are almost funny. But ultimately this film is ruined with undercranked sped up footage, goofy sound effects, and fart jokes.


Rio Rita ( 1942 )
And speaking of comedy. This was one of the three Abbott & Costello films mad for M.G.M. And while both Lost in a Harum and Abbott & Costello in Hollywood got DVD releases, together on a double feature disc, this would not be released until a few years after the Universal set as part of the Warner Bros. Archives Collection. If you don't like how the Universal  Films have too many musical scenes, then you will hate this. Most of this film is one musical number after another. Both Abbott and Costello are reduced to what is their least screen time in one of their own starring vehicles. Also, this film ends with Costello deliberately killing five men, then waving to the camera and saying "Good Night Folks". I mean, the men are Nazi spies, but still, it was a bit cold for Lou to slip a bomb into the back pocket of one of the spies, then allow him to get away from the authorities so he would run into the car with the other five spies. The plot: Rita is the owner of a resort in Mexico.( or possibly in Texas neat the Mexico border. The film never makes it clear. ) The man she once had  a crush on, played by John Carroll, is returning from America. And despite having an almost unintelligible Spanish accent,  is  supposed to be a famous American radio star? He is returning to his old home town in Mexico  to make a radio broadcast, which unbeknownst to him is actually a coded script that will tell all the Nazi  spies across America.... well, the film never actually explains what. Trying to get back to New York City, Abbott and Costello sneak into John's back trunk because the car had New York license plates, and end up in Mexico with him where they are hired by the kind hearted Rita as house detectives for her resort. The plot is uncovered, and Abbott and Costello save the day by tricking the Nazi spies into thinking that the Rangers ( Texas Rangers? ) are attacking the resort, causing them to flee in a car that Costello blows up. Rita and Carroll end up kissing, The End. In between all of this is the endless musical numbers. There are a few scenes where A&C get to do their signature humor, although strangely not as funny as it was at Universal due to some really bad fast pacing. 

[stethacantus]

Spiritual Kung Fu ( 1978 )
It would not be until 1996 when, beginning with the U.S.  edit of Rumble in the Bronx,  you could get a good Jackie Chan film on home video in the United States. After this both New Line and Miramax would regularly release a lot of Chan's best films on  home video and in theaters in the states.  Prior to that, Police Story, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and My Lucky Stars were released, but by mail order companies that only sold mail order videos to rental shops. Warner released The Big Brawl, The Protector ( American edit ) and Cannonball Run, if you wanted the disappointing American films he made in the early 80s. Saturn Video had the horrible Master with Cracked Fingers . And if you wanted anything else, your only option was the bootleg market. And then there was All Seasons Entertainment, another mail order home video label that only sold to  rental shops who attempted to corner the market on Jackie Chan movies. They released all the Lo Wei studio films ( including Killer Meteor ) as well as In Eagles Shadow Fist, the misleading English dub release of Not Scared To Die, a film where Chan played the sidekick to the films hero, and the wacky Fantasy Mission Force. All Seasons Entertainment went out of business around 1987, but it's entire library was sold to another home video company called Simitar which re-released the Chan films as budget videos, selling for $5 each at Woolworths. Blockbuster, Record Explosion, Coconuts, and anywhere else budget videos were sold. This made them the only accessible Jackie Chan Hong Kong films in the late 80s through 1996. So basically, Jackie Chan's Lo Wei  films, which were among the worst of his movies made to that date, were the first ones I bought. Or any other American looking to collect Jackie Chan films could buy.

Spiritual Kung Fu is a Lo Wei film. And although  one of Chan's comedies, was  actually a step down from the dramas Dragon Fist, To Kill With Intrigue, Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin, Shaolin Wooden Men and New Fist of Fury. Once again, the origin of this film changes from source to source as it was either made prior to Eagles Shadow and Drunken Master  and released after their success, or was rushed into production as soon as Chan returned to Lo Wei studios. However, watching it for the first time in decades, I have noticed things I did not the first time. For one, I now noticed that the script for this film began as yet another Shaolin drama. This one a mystery about who stole a manual from the Shaolin library containing the secret Five Deadly Fists style. It is given to  a young martial artist who learns the style and begins defeating masters across China. Meanwhile, those investigating the theft are murdered using the deadly Buddhist Palm, a technique known by one shaolin master who quickly becomes a suspect. This is all drama, and the only comedy comes from a secondary plot where  shaolin student Jackie Chan is taught another mysterious style of Kung Fu by ghosts who are haunting the library. Chan's character is mostly dramatic, and only a clown on a few occasions, and most of the humor comes from the ghosts. A few years earlier the actual first Kung Fu comedy was made. Lau Kar Leung's Spiritual Boxer ( 1975 ). Unlike the later Chan comedies, Spiritual Boxer was not a box office hit, and only made a respectable profit, which is why it hadn't triggered a craze in Kung Fu comedies the way Drunken Master had. But it was the only Kung Fu comedy predating the Jackie Chan comedies which Lo Wei could use as a guide. So I suspect they were ready to film a Shaolin murder mystery, but ended up adding elements of a supernatural comedy into the script. The comedy is just not funny as all. However, the final twenty minutes have some excellent choreographed fights. Unfortunately, the final fight between Chan and the villain is ruined by the clownish ghosts trying to help out.

Africa Screams ( 1949 )
Most of the Abbott  and Costello films were syndicated to television in the 70s. So it was a surprise in the 80s when a brand new A&C film suddenly popped up. Africa Screams was one of their independent films, filmed at the Poverty Row Nassour Studios and distributed by United Artists. In 1953 the rights to the film was purchased by distributor Robert Haggiag who had plans to rerelease it,  but never got around to it. He either forgot or couldn't be bothered to renew the copyright in 1977, and it lapsed into the public domain. In the mid 80s it was discovered the film was public domain, and a print turned up, which lead to the film being released by  most of the Home Video companies. For many A&C fans, it was a pleasant surprise for a film they never knew about  and hadn't been widely available in decades to suddenly surface, and be found everywhere. However, this was the weakest of their films, and it soon became apparent why it was allowed to lapse into public domain. I recall watching it with family back in the 80s when they bought a copy from Good Times Home Video, and after watching about , abandoning them and heading off to another room to play video games.

Now, years later, and this time with a restored print, I watched it again. The fact tat it isn't among their best films is very depressing, because it had a lot going for it. Nasour Studios actually gave this a very decent budget. Or at the least, it had a very impressive department store set, and  a few other sets that were better than standard. The jungle set had its own pool for whenever the characters needed to cross a river. And there were a few state of the art ( for 1949 ) visual effects for when Costello is chased by Lions, or the one scene where he runs into a giant Kong sized ape. There are even some convincing Crocodile puppets for when they pop out of the water and snap  at characters.  The director was Charles Barton, who previously directed A&C's best movie, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein just a month before directing this. It also boasted an impressive cast which included Shemp Howard and Joe Besser ( Five years later, after Shemp passed away, Besser would take over for him as the third of The Three Stooges, )  and Hillary Brooke who would go on to becoming a regular cast member of the television series The Abbott & Costello Show.. It even starts out with a strong premise. Hillary and her two goons are looking for a book about an African expedition that has a map tat will lead them to a fortune in diamonds.  Although why no one else has figured out this map exists, or why Hillary seems unable to find a copy of a published book ( she hadn't tried the public library system? ) is a major plot hole. She goes to the department store where A&C are working in the book department to find it, but they tell her it was sold out. However, Costello had read the book, and remembers the map. So she offers him a lot of money if he can draw a copy of the map for her. Abbott overhears her telling her goons they need the map to find treasure, and then renegotiates with her that he and Costello have to go with her on the safari where Costello will lead them by memory, that way he will get a bigger cut of the profits. That's as far as the plot goes. They end up camped in Africa, and it is just a bunch of random animal attack gags, and cannibal native attack gags.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 ( 2012 )
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 ( 2013 )
Based on the four part comic book miniseries about a middle aged Batman coming out of retirement to deal with some of his arch enemies who themselves have come out of retirement ( actually, escaped from Arham due to an incompetent psychiatrist. ) and also to deal with Gotham's latest threat, a criminal gang who call themselves the mutants. While the book takes place in the 80s ( when it was written ) it took place in an alternate universe where the golden age superheroes aged, and apparently were forced to retire by a government which doesn't tolerate vigilante superheroes. Except for Superman, who exclusively works for The President, and is eventually asked to put an end to Batman. The movies faithfully follow the source books despite being made twenty five years later where Regan still being president doesn't make much sense. My only problem is  the low key vocal performance for The Joker.

[LucasM]

I continue to enjoy your reviews, stethacantus. 

My problem with the Dark Knight Returns Parts 1+2 is the absence of the dark-toned narration ("dark" here meaning depressing and constricted).  The entirety of Batman's emotional state and viewpoint was lost by removing it.  So the films became just 'shit happening', rather than the largely claustrophobic character study the books were.  [It's been a while since I watched those.  It is possible, that, though I thought it was that one, I may be totally mis-remembering which comic-to-film it was where the excised narration produced an impotent film.]

At least it wasn't as bad as what they did with The Killing Joke.  That sucked so thoroughly with the added opener of about 21 minutes that made Barbara Gordon even LESS than the two-dimensional character that she was in the book, and then they cut the culmination of the CORE symbology Moore had so carefully written in at the very end of the book.  I'm referring to the "turning the light off when I'm half way across" joke parallel with the police car's headlights turning off when it seemed Batman might almost be emotionally reaching the Joker, preventing future devastation... a painful loss of 'things almost turned out OK for them both'.  I mean fuck, why show the ground and the rain in the film for so long if you are missing the reason that whole symbolic scene is there? - you know: the scene taking all nine panels on the last page of the book?  The person who wrote/directed/produced that adaptation should've been fired for being so incompetent as to miss the POINT of the ending!

[I guess I kinda' just reviewed The Killing Joke adaptation there.]

[stethacantus]

Just finished watching Jaws for it's 50th Anniversary
Probably should have found a theater screening it, but no longer can stomach the price of tickets, and the last time I was at a theater, there were two intermissions where regular television commercials were shown on the screen. It's being shown on NBC tonight, but I watched it on Blu-ray, on a projection screen and  a really good sound bar, which sounded and looked theater quality.  As a bonus, watched it with a lot of family members  and friends who had never seen it, so got to listen to them react to the jump scares I knew were coming, laugh at the "Shovel this shit" line and immediately scream when the shark popped up, and say "Oh shit" when you finally saw how big the shark was compared to the boat. Also fun watching them react to characters who seemed to be in danger but were not ( such as the two boys hoaxing the beach, or Hooper trying to hook the barrel and everyone thought the shark would pop up  at any second and eat him. )  So was almost like seeing it in a theater 50 years ago. Well, minus the sticky popcorn oil  and spilled soda caked on the floor, and not having to  stand on a mile long line for five hours.

ALSO, it is being shown on NBC, which I am taping just because I am curious as to what edit is shown.

[EDIT]
So.. I watched on DVR the NBC broadcast of Jaws, which they had on because A) It's summer, and all their regular Fall  season series are either cancelled or on hiatus, B) To cash in on the 50th  Anniversary hype, and C) NBC and Universal  are now one company, so basically they can air this for free. Hey, either this or another Dateline rerun. And the big question is, are they using an alternate edit?

Jaws first debuted in ABC in 1979. With commercials the movie would have a 2 hour 40 minute run time, which ABC wanted to pad out too 3 hours.  As was the practice back then, the studio sent over all the deleted  scenes  with a theatrical print and ABC used the deleted scenes to lengthen the run time. Back then the FCC strictly regulated no more than ten minutes of advertisement per hour on networks, fifteen minutes per hour for local television. So even with the addition of the deleted scenes, Jaws ended around 10:48, with the additional time to promo other network shows ( which I skipped and put on the second half of  an episode of Monty Python's  Flying Circus . It was the episode with Olympic Hide & Seek.  ) Thus was a cheat as the Neilsen ratings were recorded for the last  15 minutes of the hour based on 10:15 through 10:16. ABC also censored things. Some of the opening where the first victim, Chrissy, strips her clothing off to skinny dip, had edits. The second victim, ( or third if the shark ate the dog ) Alex Kitner ( a.k.a. the kid on the raft ) was cut just before the fountain of blood that sprays out of the ocean as the Shark pulls him under. The closeup of the head of Ben Gardner was cut so that you didn't see the missing eye. The victim in the pond who is eaten in front of Mickael Brody had  two ( actually one ) edit. Cut were the second time the victim is pulled under, this time clearly showing him in the shark's mouth, and the bloody leg sinking below the water. And finally, a lot of edits made to Quint being eaten, mostly him spitting up blood, but also every time the shark chomped on him.  And a audio edit. Brody says "Slop" instead of "Shit" when he is shoveling the chum. The ABC edit seemed to be unique to ABC as the home video release and subsequent  airings on local and cable did not include the deleted scenes. ( as far as I can tell. I have not watched every single broadcast, but the ones I have seen didn't have Quint listening to a kid playing the clarinet, or any of the other deleted or extended scenes. When Jaws was being released on Laserdisc, Spielberg needed to get the deleted scenes back from ABC as apparently they were no longer in the Universal vault.

I did not expect NBC to be using the ABC edit, as it is also a pan and scan and could not be shown on a widescreen broadcast. But the broadcast is once again listed as 3 hours. So I watched it ( well, actually fast forward it, as I am familiar enough with the movie to recognize any differances. )

The broadcast began with a one minute introduction from Steven Spielberg specifically for the 50th anniversary where he got to once again complain about the mechanical shark Universal supplied him.
None of the deleted or extended scenes were edited in
There were no edits!  Chrissy was nude ( or at least, the suggestion of nudity as it was always in the dark. ) You see all the blood, the sinking foot, and Quint being eaten.
The audio edit where "Shit" is replaced with "Slop" is still there. This edit was also in the syndicated and basic cable versions of Jaws
I suspect that there was some sort of digital monkeying with the speed of the movie to expand it to three hours. The scene where Brody said "Shit"  and then the shark emerges from the water for the first time happens exactly  at the two hour mark.
Also, the FCC now allows a lot more commercial breaks.
Film ended exactly at 11:00

[stethacantus]

The Fearless Hyena ( 1089 )
Jackie Chan was ready to leave the Lo Wei Motion Picture Company, and Lo  Wei knew it. So when Chan asked to direct his own movies, Lo agreed. This ended up being the only full movie that Chan directed for Lo Wei, and considering he had just made Eagles  Shadow and Drunken Master for Seasonal Films and would shortly make Young Master for Golden Harvest, you would think the only film for Lo Wei where Chan had full creative control would be another masterpiece. It isn't. It is the best film he made at that studio, but is just not  as good as his Golden Harvest and Seasonal films. It seems more like Chan treated this as a training film. It had a plot that recycled the plot from Eagle's Sadow, and seems  a lot like the inspiration for making it was that Chan wanted to use a gag that wasn't used in Eagle's Shadow.. It is actually the funniest gag in the film. His grandfather is Ching Pang Pei, the master of the Ying Yee Clan, which has been decimated by the evil  Yam Tin Fa and his henchmen who seek to wipe Ying Yee kung fu. Now in hiding from Yam Tin Fe, Ching lives with his grandson as a poor merchant. Meanwhile, Yam and his henchmen have been tracking down the remaining Ying Yee students and killing them when they refuse to divulge the location of their master. And here is the gag. Chan has drawn attention by using Ying Yee kung fu in fights. He is accosted by Yam on the  road who demands to know where master Ching is, and without even looking to see who asked him that question, Chan points in the direction of his grandfather's house.  On the action side, this is the best fights Chan did for Lo Wei  studios, and there was a training sequence where Chan had to leave a room by only standing on pots and furniture.  So it comes close to being a classic. And  a decent directorial debut by Jackie Chan.


Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd ( 1952 )
And with this I complete my Abbott and Costello collection. Or at the least, replace the bootlegs that completed the collection. before that. And no, this  isn't a good comedy. It should be pointed out tat A&C were overextended by 1952. They had their films for Universal, a weekly half hour radio show, one of the rotating hosts  of  the hour television series Colgate Comedy Hour which they contributed sketches to, Also for television, a half hour weekly sitcom, and were still touring a burlesque. And on top of that, did this movie for Warner Bros. So is it any wonder  why the material was thin by this time. But what  really ruined this movie, was Charles Laughton. He previously  played Kidd in a 1945 film, and it was his idea to reprise the role because he wanted to be in a comedy with Abbott & Costello. There was at least one story that the original plan was for him to reprise his role of Quasimodo in a film to be called Abbott & Costello Meet The Hunchback of Notre Dame  which Universal was planning to make as another one of their films where A&C meet a classic Universal monster. The film was cancelled, and Laughton suggested they meet the villainous Captain Kidd instead in one of their independent films. The problem s that Laughton goes out of his way to play a funny Captain Kidd. Bad enough the material for A&C is thin and repeated from other films, the humor  crafted for Kidd is terrible.  Also,  too many musical numbers again.


Batman: The Killing Joke ( 2016 )
Well, what do you know. The next film in the Batman animated film collection, was this. My attitude towards any adaption is that if they included most of the story from the source material,  then its a win. I don't know how many adaptions make some major change, or even just keep the title and protagonist but swap in an original story.  My guess is the 20 minute mini movie at the beginning was the result of them realizing that the source book only had, at best, 50 minutes of material. Not enough for a movie. But hey, there  probably had a script for another possible Batman anthology film that was perfect for padding it out ( along with a song and dance number from Joker. ) And I guess they thought it served a purpose. For the casual viewer who wasn't familiar with Batman lore, Barbara Gordon was just the commissioner's daughter. Which you would not expect as the character was clearly in the Adam West television series, and had been in quite a few comics up until Batman went solo in the 70s, and hen was a recurring character. I think the irony was how Barbra Gordon became more of an important character in DC comics a few years after The Killing Joke comic book when she became Oracle. Prior to that she was thought of more as a disposable character that only existed so that the TV series could have a spin-off ( which backfired when ABC decided they wanted Batgirl as a regular character in the Batman series instead of her own seies. )  Is it any wonder they tease her being Oracle at the end of the film? Adding the Batgirl story at the beginning gave the casual viewer some context to the character, Stories like The Killing Joke and The  Dark Knight Returns comics appealed to  the die hard Batman fan who knew decades of lore. The comic version of The Killing Joke is definitely better. But I usually feel that way about most comic book movies. The question is, does this work as a movie. And it does.

[stethacantus]

Fearless Hyena II ( 1983 )
There was almost a Drunken Master II. No, not the Drunken Master II from 1994 and released in the United States as The Legend of Drunken Master in America. Or Dance of the Drunken Mantis from 1979 which was released in the United States as Drunken Master II. But a Drunken Master sequel with both Jackie Chan and Simon Yuen reprising their roles, and to be directed by Yuen Woo Ping.  In 1979 Golden Harvest signed Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master director Yuen Woo Ping, and at the same time signed Jackie Chan. Finally, they signed Simon Yuen.   With all three under contract to the studio, Golden Harvest was counting on a Drunken Master franchise, But as the movie was about to shoot, the Triad gang that had bankrolled Lo Wei studios told Jackie Chan he still worked for Lo Wei..... or else! Even Goolden Harvest would not dare cross the gang. So in mid 1979, Chan returned to Lo Wei studios to begin shooting a film. That's when Jimmy Wang Yu stepped in. Yu had either joined or founded his own Triad gang, and negotiated for Chan's release from whatever contract he was supposed to have with Lo Wei, in trade of two  movies that Chan was to make for Wang Yu at a later date. ( which were Fantasy Mission Force and Island On Fire ) At Golden Harvest, work on Drunken Master II stopped, as it was assumed Chan could not work for the studio for another five years. A new script had to be written where   Simon Yuen's character teaches a different character from the Wong Fe Hung universe, Lam Sai Wing aka. Butcher Lam.  They were half way through shooting the movie when Simon Yuen died of a heart attack. The movie, Magnificent Butcher, was reshot with Simon Yuen's role recast.

So, what about the film that Jackie Chan made for Lo Wei instead of Drunken Master II? The one he shot for a week before Jimmy Wang Yu stepped in? The footage sat in Lo Wei's vault for another four years and was eventually used to make Fearless Hyena II. So, here was the footage Chan shot for Lo Wei. Chan and a friend are gambling with three tough guys. Each time betting that one can do something the other cant. Chan and the tough guys end up in a fight, where Chan beats them. The fight is observed by a villain who recognizes the martial arts as a style only taught by a master he has been searching for. So he sends a henchman to follow Chan to see where he lives..... And that is as much of this new movie was shot.  For Fearless Hyena II, it opens with two brother villains once again wiping out a rival clan. The only survivors of the good clan are two brothers who both have two infant sons. For survival purposes, both brothers split up, and the two cousins are raised apart. One of the brothers is played by James Tien, which allowed Lo Wei to use deleted scenes from Fearless Hyena. One of those deleted scenes was with comedian  Dean Shek who was originally supposed to play five character who were identical brothers. ( Only two scenes were shot, and only the one where Dean Shek plays a corrupt mortician was used. )  Also used in this film was a scene already used in Spiritual Kung Fu. The reason for the two villain brothers was that one of the actors was the villain in the footage Chan shot for Lo Wei, and the other actor was the villain in Fearless Hyena. We will get to why later. At this point a double takes over for Chan. Basically, Chan's character and James Tien put on disguises to evade the villains looking for them, which allows the double to do scenes that Chan was not around to do. Another scene Chan had filmed for the movie he never completed had him fighting beggars, which was used. Another scene had Chan talking with another character, which was the double from the back, and close up footage of Chan from a different film for whenever you saw the character from the front. Finally there is the final fight with the evil brothers where  both cousins fight them. The cousin not being played by Chan fights one brother, and Chan fights the brother being played by the actor from Fearless Hyena, which is basically the final fight from Fearless Hyena being reused for the final fight in Fearless Hyena II. There are two ways of looking at this film. Eather garbage with a few deleted scenes of Chan edited in, or a fascinating solution to using deleted scenes and other unused Jackie Chan footage in a new film. But that final fight is a rip off.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes  ( 2024 )
A first for the Planet of the Apes franchise. A sequel that does not use any characters from a previous Ape film. which means you are going into this movie with nothing but brand new characters. And it ends up being a great film anyway.

Batman and Harley Quinn ( 2017 )
Mant to be a comedy, yet barely funny, and the weakest film I have seen so far featuring Harly Quinn. It doesn't feel like a movie, but rather a filler episode from the Batman animated series expanded to an hour and twenty minutes. There is some particularly bad animation in the mid point of the movie. Harley Quinn takes Batman to a club frequented by henchmen. The characters in this club are supposed to be dancing, but for each it is an awkward twist like dance which is repeated over and over again. So basically the same eight cells reused over and over and over again for each character dancing. And it looks awkward as hell.

[stethacantus]

JULY 4th
A few years back I made up my mind that every year on the 4th of July I would watch two movies. Jaws ( 1975 ) ( which takes place over the July 4th Weekend ) and Babes in Toyland ( 1934 ) ( which despite being a Christmas movie, takes place around July 4th ). I would start Jaws after the broadcast of that year's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest had aired. and usually not have the time to watch Babes in Toyland due to having to go to a barbecue. This year we went South to Florida to visit family for their 4th. Basically NYC had been a sauna for a week culminating in a heat wave, which finally broke hours after we left. It was nice in NYC with highs in the mid 80s. overnight lows in the 60s and low humidity. The last pleasant weather stretch until possibly mid September, and we headed down to where it was hotter and more humid. Tol the land of Disneyworld, malaria and Alligator Alcatraz  where the locals hate Trump and Rubio, but are voting them into office because they hate liberals even more because of all the imaginary things FOX news says they do. So we had to go down there, suffer through the weather, and keep our mouths shut, even as everyone was yelling about the BBB ( Big Beautiful Bill ) being signed into law, and how the Republicans were betraying them again, but would then thank God the Democrats were not in power. And then on July 4th, it rained. Non stop where we were. Everything was cancelled. Yet somehow remained hot as hell outside, and almost as hot indoors as the AC could only knock the temperature down to 88. Fortunately they had Peacock, which meant after watching the Hot Dog contest, we could watch Jaws.  And then after that, convinced them to watch Babes in Toyland on Youtube. And I was ready to give up on watching Jaws on the 4th this year. I was supposed to be attending a parade, then massive barbecue, then firework extravaganza ( for Florida ) all which were cancelled. I was so sure this year my entire 4th was to be spent outside, that I took solace in the fact that I already  watched Jaws on June 20th for it's 50th anniversary. Jaws is one of my favorite movies. But I only watch the film once a year. Would I enjoy it as much watching it two weeks later. Well, no. But it was still more entertaining to watch than most movies I watch for the first time. So, still enjoyed it, but not as much as if I had not seen it in a year.

SATURDAY JULY 5th
So summer usually means I have caught up with last years releases I wanted to add to my movie library, and also want to give my entertainment/home video budget \time to replenish. And the whole point of buying movies on DVD and Blu-ray was so I could rewatch them whenever I wanted, right? So, summer is the one time I have a chance to rewatch my favorite films and guilty pleasures in my library. At least the ones I can find. Since I am falling way behind on the Shout Factory Shaw Brothers box set releases, along with a bunch of Jackie Chan and Golden Harvest box sets, and Shawscope 4 is supposed to be released next fall, I will still be watching the box sets for the time being. Including this odd assortment of Jackie Chan films released by Criterion.

Young Master  ( 1980 )
The only Jackie Chan film on Criterion's Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar set that can be called a classic. So basically, by the time Chan made this, he was tired of the Kung Fu Comedy genre which he had created. He had already  done everything he wanted with the genre on Eagle's Shadow, Drunken Master and Fearless Hyena. And with Jackie Chan imitators like Billy Chong flooding the market with their own Kung Fu Comedies, Chan felt there were no ideas left in the genre.  He wanted top move on to modern day action films. So basically this, the first film he did for Golden Harvest, was to be his farewell to the Kung Fu genre. His next movie, Dragon Lord would feature him as a Kung Fu student, but just like Project A would take place in the Republic Era and have more action scenes than fights. Police Story would fully take place in then 80s ( modern times ) and that was it for the past, with a few exceptions. Inspired by his own relationship with Sammo Hung, Young Master tells the story of two orphans raised by a Kung Fu teacher, one who leaves the school after a fight with the teacher. The brother ends up joining a gang and helping them free their crime lord boss. Jackie pleads with the authorities not to arrest his brother, and then works out a deal that if he captures the gang, along with their leader called The Tiger.  It is here that the movie earns it's classic status. Not that there were not some inventive fights throughout the film. But the end battle has Jackie getting the living crap beaten out of him by a villain who is a far better fighter. The only reason Jackie wins is because he accidentally drinks Opium water and becomes high towards the end of the fight, no longer able to feel pain, and having a burst of energy.  In fact, the fight goes on another minute after the villain is killed because Chan is too high to realize it is over and he is just beating the crap out of a dead body. At the time it was the most brutal  screen fight ever filmed.

Ready Player One ( 2018 )
see previous reviews

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight ( 2018 )
Another of the Batman animated films. This one taking place in the late 1800s. What if Batman and a lot of other characters who debuted in the late 1930s early 40s had debuted fifty years earlier, and Batman had to fight Jack the Ripper ( who was in Gotham instead of London. ) Nice film, but mostly predictable and formula.

[stethacantus]

My Lucky Stars ( 1985 )
With this I come to the end of Criterion's   Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar set. And all I can say is What The F&%k?" The films selected for this set make no sense. The first four are from Lo Wei Studios. A true sampling that would show Jackie Chan's evolution would have included at least one of the films he made for Seasonal Films, either Eagle's Shadow or Drunken Master. Maybe something he did pre-Lo Wei, like Hand of Death or Not Scared to Die which had him in supporting roles as the hero's friend.  Even if they were sticking with Lo Wei studios as the starting point of his career, they could not include some of his earlier dramatic films like Shaolin Wooden Men? The set moves on to his first film at Golden Harvest, Young Master. The next logical film would be Dragon Lord.  But no. We skip past Project A and Police Story, the two films where he graduated from comedy Kung Fu to modern day action hero, and cemented a worldwide following. We even skip past Wheels on Meals ( a.k.a. Spartin X ) and his first four American films. The last film in this set is My Lucky Stars, made when Jackie Chan had been an established worldwide action star for at least three years. And, this is a film where Chan has a very small role. His character is in the first ten minutes, after which the story shifts to Sammo Hung and his misfit friends. Jackie shows up near the end of the film to help Sammo fight the villains.  The Lucky Star series featured an ensemble cast of comedians, who played misfit friends of Sammo Hung ( who usually directed the films and would play the lead character. ) The first three films in the series had Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao in guest star roles ( Both totaling twenty minutes of screen time ) in order to boost the film's box office. In later Lucky Star films, they only had cameo roles, if any.  The best one in the series was the first, Winners and Sinners. It was fun, had a lot of gags that worked, and some amazing action scenes. This, the second film in the series, has less memorable action, and only one gag that is actually funny. One where the gang plays rock paper scissors in order to decide who gets to sleep in the extra bed in the hotel bedroom of Lt. Barbara Woo, the girl the entire gang has a crush on. Somebody wins the competition and gets the bed, which turns out to be a visual gag which is the only comedy in this film I ever laughed at. ( Similarly, the third film in the series, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars has only one single gag that is laugh out loud funny. ) These films were popular with Hong Kong audiences who found the style of humor funny. Most American audiences fin the Lucky Star films annoying, with great action scenes which are too short and too few. Seems odd that this set would end with a film that Jackie Chan was barely in.

Blue Crush ( 2002 )
see earlier review. Once again, one of the films I am rewatching this summer which fall into my favorite/guilty pleasure category.

Batman Ninja ( 2018 )
An animated film that asks the question: "What if someone thought the premise to 'Teenage Ninja Turtles III would make a great Batman animated film?" Basically Gorilla Grodd invents a time machine which transports him, Catwoman, Batman and every sidekick he ever had, Alfred, the Batmobile and a bunch of Gotham villains back to fifteenth century Japan. Despite this film having a lot of Batman's arch enemies, most of them are barely used, and predictably Batman spends a majority of the film fighting Joker. Also, since this is Japan, everyone builds themselves giant robots, despite this taking place in the distant past, all which combine to be one even bigger robot. Okay ,sort of a fun film, but I was bumed  out that Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two Face and Deathstroke were in this move, and they barely had a few seconds of screen time each.

[stethacantus]

The Silent Swordsman ( 1967 )
This week I begin Shout! Factory's Shaw Brother's Classics Vol 5.
So basically Shout! had acquired the rights to several Shaw Brothers films which they released in box sets. Four volumes of Shaw Brothers Classics, one box set of Iron Triangle films ( Chang Cheh, David Chiang and Ti Lung ), and a box set of the Brave Archer films. I assume they made a lot of money for Shout! because there is a Volume Five, Six and Seven. The previous sets of Shaw Brothers Classics were in mostly chronological order, with the first set having films in the 1960s and the final set being in the 1980s during the final years Shaw brothers Studios was in business. Volume Seven doubles back to the 1960s. So basically Shout! Factory acquired the rights to another 45-50m films . However, considering Arrow and a couple of other companies have already acquired the rights to some of the best Shaw Brothers films, this leaves Shout! to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the studio's martial arts films. Once again, Come Drink With Me is not among the films in this set, nor are any of the Journey to the West films. Which suggests that someone else has the rights for future releases ( unless Shout! has the rights and is planning a separate release like they did with the Iron Triangle and Brave Archer films ). The good news about Shout! scraping the bottom of the barrel is that this set is almost entirely films I do not own yet, so very little in the way of double dipping in order to get films I do not have. The bad news, very little of Shaw Brothers best are here. None of their biggest stars are in these films, nor are any of their best directors in this set. The films here are:

The Silent Swordsman ( 1967 )

Rape of the Sword ( 1967 )

The Fastest Sword ( 1968 )

Twin Blades of Doom ( 1969 )

Twelve Deadly Coins ( 1969 )

Vengeance Is a Golden Blade ( 1969 ) ( The only one previously released in North America by IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT )

A Taste of Cold Steel ( 1970 )

The Iron Buddha ( 1970 )

The Jade Faced Assassin ( 1971 )

Mission Impossible (1970)

Six Assassins ( 1971 )

The silent swordsman is your typical wuxia potboiler. A martial arts clan discovers that a General is colluding with the enemy, and when the clan leader confronts the General, he is murdered. The rest of the film is your standard revenge thriller. Not much in the way of fights, but a lot of musical numbers. Prior to wuxia films taking off at the box office, the popular genre in Hong Kong was musicals, so a lot of the wuxia films made at this time were half musical. The film is basically just okay. But the films being made by Chang Cheh and Lo Wei at the same time  were far better.

Streets Of Fire ( 1984 )
Watched this again, mostly due to the Shout! Factory commercial for it popping up on YouTube a lot lately. Not much of an action film, but some great atmosphere, and some of the best musical numbers of the 80s. My only complaint is that the Shout! Factory release seems to have a warped and poorly mixed soundtrack. The print is also grainy and has the Universals Studio Tour promo at the end, telling me this is not mastered from the original negative, but the soundtrack and picture transferred off of a theatrical print.  The new 4k release is supposedly sourced from the original negatives and sound track, but you need a 4k Player. The film still works, but it is depressing when recognizable songs like I Can Dream About You sound warped and not as good as the original VHS release. 


Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders ( 2016 )
Next film on my Batman Animated Film collection set is this. Basically an animated film based on the 1966 television series, and starring what was then the only surviving cast members. Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar. I wasn't too thrilled with the plot, the humor merely mocked elements of the 1966 series and were just okay without being laugh out loud funny. ( Meanwhile, a lot of gags in the 1966 series are still laugh out funny, and the live action movie based on the series has some of the funnies gags in cinema. ) A couple of things they cheaped out on, they didn't bother to license the original music. So you get a knock off version of the Bat-man theme witch is just different enough that they can use it without having to pay. Same thing with the themes of the villains. And the animation is modeled after the Animated Series from the 1990s. A lot of familiar sets and locations from the 1966 series are not faithfully copied. Commissioner Gordon has a mustache, which he did not in the 66 series. In fact, most of the characters are modeled after the later animated series. Not a terrible film, but falls far short of it's potential, and is the worst film so far in this set.

[stethacantus]

Rape of the Sword ( 1967 )
This film is only notable for being an unauthorized adaption of the novel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and was the inspiration for the Ang Lee movie.  It is basically an old fashioned wuxia film that centers around a stolen sword, and the efforts by the heroes to both get it back, and avenge the death of the master the sword was stolen from. And by old fashioned, I mean it has a pre Come Drink With Me style story. It is also a musical....sort of. There is only one musical number at the beginning of the third act where the heroine and hero sing about how they will get the sword back. The only other song plays over the opening scene and basically introduces one of the main characters, explaining how she is looking to avenge her husband and is roaming the countryside disguised as a peasant. Which, for some reason, Shout! Factory didn't bother to subtitle. Everything else in this movie had been subtitled. A character walks past a sign, even one for a hotel or restaurant the characters don't go into, and Shout! subtitles it. A song with important Exposition isn't translated. Fortunately the commentary track mentions what the lyrics of the song are.

Times Square ( 1980 )
Reviewed here before.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm ( 1993 )
The only film in the Batman 80th Anniversary 18 Movie set that I already owned. The only question is what print of the film was used. I brought this up years ago. The original Batman: Mask of the Phantasm release was a double sided DVD that had both the widescreen and foll screen versions. I decided to compare both back then to see which was the cropped version. Was the movie made for a standard direct to video release for 1:33:1 television screens as the rest of the Batman Animated Series episodes then cropped for widescreen for the theatrical release? Or was it animated widescreen and cropped for the original home video release?

This was side one with the full screen:

And this was the widescreen release on side two:

When comparing both, I realized there was a completely different dimension which both versions were cropped from.

So, did this release use the yet to be released uncropped master?  Nope. It used the full screen crop.

[LucasM]

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm ( 1993 )
The only film in the Batman 80th Anniversary 18 Movie set that I already owned. The only question is what print of the film was used. I brought this up years ago. The original Batman: Mask of the Phantasm release was a double sided DVD that had both the widescreen and foll screen versions. I decided to compare both back then to see which was the cropped version. Was the movie made for a standard direct to video release for 1:33:1 television screens as the rest of the Batman Animated Series episodes then cropped for widescreen for the theatrical release? Or was it animated widescreen and cropped for the original home video release?

Spoiler

This was side one with the full screen:

And this was the widescreen release on side two:

When comparing both, I realized there was a completely different dimension which both versions were cropped from.

So, did this release use the yet to be released uncropped master?  Nope. It used the full screen crop.

Sadly, the same thing as what happened with 'Mask of the Phantasm' was done with 'The Abyss', but they went with the widescreen cut, which eliminated one of the POINTS of the film - what gave it its claustrophobia - which was "verticality" and "depth", pointing out how far removed from help they were.  [So, in its case, it would've been oddly preferable to have the 1.33:1 version if only one were available.  On DVD I bought both.  Option not available with the Blu-ray.]

One of the more powerful scenes in 'The Abyss' - the revival of Lindsey after she drowned - has her cropped out of the bottom of the fucking scenes when Bud is doing CPR because of using the widescreen cut!

Hell, even if the special effects weren't complete for the corners of 'The Abyss' and they had to use a friggin' chevron-shaped image, it would've been better than the hack-n-slash widescreen version.

Sorry they did the same crap with the Batman film, when they could've EASILY used the full/source film for that.

[stethacantus]

Sadly, the same thing as what happened with 'Mask of the Phantasm' was done with 'The Abyss', but they went with the widescreen cut, which eliminated one of the POINTS of the film - what gave it its claustrophobia - which was "verticality" and "depth", pointing out how far removed from help they were.  [So, in its case, it would've been oddly preferable to have the 1.33:1 version if only one were available.  On DVD I bought both.  Option not available with the Blu-ray.]

One of the more powerful scenes in 'The Abyss' - the revival of Lindsey after she drowned - has her cropped out of the bottom of the fucking scenes when Bud is doing CPR because of using the widescreen cut!

Hell, even if the special effects weren't complete for the corners of 'The Abyss' and they had to use a friggin' chevron-shaped image, it would've been better than the hack-n-slash widescreen version.

Sorry they did the same crap with the Batman film, when they could've EASILY used the full/source film for that.

So basically, the movie was to be a direct to video release and later cut into three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. It was just before animation on the movie began that Warner Bros. decided to give it a theatrical release, and the producers insisted that they be given time to redo the artwork so that the widescreen release would not crop out any vital visuals. ( I'm guessing like building signs, and having to re-stage the action scenes so that kicks and punches didn't happen outside a crop. ) That most likely meant creating a master that both the full screen direct to video release and the widescreen theatrical release could be used for without having to crop anything important out of either.  Most likely this print was what was distributed to theaters which the projectionist cropped through a shutter. ( That is what they did with Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which is why on the 1:33:1 VHS home video release, the bike chain gag is ruined by revealing the chain was being fed into a bottomless basket. That part was cropped out in theaters, but left in on the original VHS release because they wanted the entire screen filled. I could also name a bunch of other home video releases and televised airings of theatrical films where the boom mike and fog machines are visible for the same reason. ) My guess for the DVD release, Warner Bros used the VHS master for the full screen side of the disc, and a remastered crop for the anamorphic side of the disc. And probably just upscaled these two for the Blu-Ray release without bothering to remaster. As for this release, it would have been nice for them to remaster with the yet to be released uncropped print, but all they were doing is cashing in on their already released direct to video movies with yet another bargain set, and had no reason to spend the extra money on remastering from the original negative.


The Fastest Sword ( 1968 )
What's driving me crazy about this film, is that the plot is so goddamn familiar. I swear I have just seen this plot in a different Shaw Brothers film this past year. A swordsman with the reputation of being the fastest sword is constantly challenged by other swordsmen who insist on duels to the death to determine who is the world's best swordsman. After growing despondent for killing so many men in duels, he decides to change his name and go to another town, vowing to never use his swords again. However, he is once again tracked down by those insisting that he have a duel with them, including the other swordsman with the reputation of having the worlds fastest sword. At the time this was made, the concluding sword fight was considered the best choreographed fight ever filmed. Of course, it had been surpassed in hundreds of films since then, and quickly drifted into being another of Shaw Brothers obscure films. It is basically a drama with very little fighting. But is a really good drama, which makes up for everything else.

Spring Breakers ( 2012 )
It was easy when I made my favorite film list. There was a time when a movie you liked aired on television, you never knew when it would ever air again. So I remembered how wonderful it was when some movies re-aired. Thern VCRs came, and I could tape my favorite films, or if I wanted to spend a little more, buy the home video release. Still, you had something like A Fish Called Wanda which I liked so much that I waited impatiently for it's home video release a year later. The best way to know how much you like a film is how much you miss it when you cant see it. That's what makes it hard to judge if any of my guilty pleasure films that I first saw on a home video I owned, or had bought immediately after seeing it on streaming, is as well loved as any of my favorites. A co-worker bought Spring Breakers because it had a bunch of former Disney actresses, who he had a crush on a decade earlier when he was still a tween and watching the Disney channel,  in their first adult R rated adult film, and thought it would be sexy. It turned out to be too artsy for him, and apparently he was upset that Selena Gomez did not take her top off. That's how I got the DVD. A lot of co-workers would buy movies, realize they didn't like them, then bring them to work and say "I'm about to throw this out. Who wants this?" I got Blue Crush for the same reason. A co-worker thought it would be a sexy Kate Bosworth movie, and it wasn't.  There was a good ten year period, before my co-workers settled on streaming and stopped buying physical media, that I would occasionally go home with a movie they didn't like and didn't want to keep. A lot of them sucked, and I got rid of them myself by dumping in the library donation slot. But I liked Blue Crush and Spring Breakers a lot. Yet, I have never had an occasion where I could not rewatch either if I wanted to. So I can not tell if I love them or not because I never knew what it was like to miss seeing them. I bought Ready Player One as part of my Spielberg collection. But once again, I never had an occasion where I could not rewatch it whenever I wanted. Unlike Jaws where I thought it was awesome but had to wait years between television broadcasts and it's eventual home video release. I knew what it was like to want to see Jaws and have no way of doing that. I guess you could call those films among my favorites. But they just may be films I enjoy a lot, but don't rise up to the level of my favorites. I should point out that I do own a bunch of my absolute favorite films which are currently lost somewhere in a bunch of boxes in my storage area. So once again, no way to see them when I want to. However, in the past few years I have been segregating my favorite films and guilty pleasures into a separate shelf in the living room. So If I ever come across my lost box set of Jaque Tati films, it will go on that shelf. Same with A Fish Called Wanda when I come across that one. About 50 years ago, my favorite film and the only one that was even on the list, was the Wizard of Oz. Not just because I was still a kid and had not seen that many films, but because you had to wait an entire year before it was shown on television again. Today it airs on TBS every three weeks, and usually twice a night. And if you cant wait the three weeks, it is on In Demand. The magic on that film died when we videotaped it and could watch it again the next day. Because we didn't. We didn't have to watch it at a specific night on a specific date or miss seeing it for another year. We could watch it any time we wanted, with the commercials taken out. Only, we didn't. Not only didn't we watch the VHS  recording again, we didn't find it urgent enough to watch it's broadcast a year later because we already had it on video. So we skipped it. And would not watch it again until we bought it on various home video formats. Only to watch those once before shelving them. So maybe there was something about being denied watching a film on a demand basis that made you fonder for them. Then again, I watched Jaws twice  this summer, and it was just as good two weeks later. Anyway, this week concludes watching favorite films and guilty pleasures, as next week I begin rewatching the Harley Quinn DCEU trilogy. ( which actually includes a guilty pleasure/possibly favorite film, Suicide Squad. )

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman ( 2003 )
Getting towards the end of the Batman animated movie collection. I am down to the final disc. Which begins with this movie. Basically a padded out episode of The New Batman Adventures , the series that came after they stopped making Batman: The Animated Series and began making this very slightly rebooted series with the same cast, writers and producer, for no apparent reason. A mysterious vigilante has shown up in Gotham to foil The Penguin's plans to manufacture and sell weapons. And because she wears a bat costume, Batman must put a stop to her reckless behavior. Meanwhile, three women suddenly show up in Bruce Waynes life, and he in turn suspects each of being the mysterious Batwoman. It's an okay movie, but could have been done in a single episode of The New Batman Adventures, so yeah, some padding required. Including a romance between Bruce and one of the suspected women. Agan. Which makes no sense on why they keep insisting to have Bruce fall in love as a subplot for these movies when you know he is never going to settle down with them. Well, at least this time around the girl does not learn Bruce is batman.

[stethacantus]

Twin Blades of Doom ( 1969 )
I am now four films into this lates volume of Shaw Brothers Classics. Wuxia films from the late 60s, mostly the potboilers. This was Shout Factory scraping the bottom of the barrel for martial arts films, the rights to the rest most likely being held by Arrow Video for future Shaw Scope releases, or by other boutique companies. So yeah, I did go into this collection with low expectations. But so far, so good. This film had a lot of negative reviews for being a disjointed mess. Even the film historian commentary track described it as a mess. It didn't seem like that to me. I was entertained. Apparently, even the pot boilers rushed out by Shaw Brothers are far better quality entertainment than the martial arts films made by other studios. The plot: a swordsman retires after killing another master swordsman in a duel, but soon discovers he cant quit the martial arts world when he kills a group of bandits and ends up targeted by the Ghost Gang. A lot of the plot points in this film have been used in multiple other Shaw movies, but is never boring.

Suicide Squad ( 2016 )
For some unexplained reason, while the rest of my DCEU movies are scattered in different boxes, the Harley Quinn trilogy and Peacemaker Season 1 have been together and easy to find at the top of one of the boxes. If you don't know what the Harley Quinn trilogy is, it is this movie, a spin off movie that was supposed to be a Birds of Prey movie but somehow ended up being a Harley Quinn movie, and a second Suicide squad movie where basically Quinn and Flag are the only returning squad members. It is the only trilogy I can think of where each movie is doubly better that the previous one. ( including Guardians of the Galaxy where the middle film is the low point. ) If I had the films together, then at one point I must have been thinking of watching them together, right?  So, why not? I know i am still waiting for the eventual release of the David Ayer edit ( Yep. That and Batwoman will get a release some day when whatever streaming service DC is attached to is in desperate need of new content. ) This one is the extended cut, which I suppose is better than the theatrical cut, because the people who saw the theatrical cut said it was the worst of the DCEU movies, and I still think ( at least this cut, ) is entertaining and occasionally funny. Still, makes no sense why Harley Quinn was sent to Argus or recruited for Suicide Squad when she has no powers. And the whole point of creating a Suicide Squad was so they government would have a team of metahumans just in case the next Superman to land on our planet turns out to be a villain.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies ( 2009  )
Last couple of films on this Batman animated movie collection are actually Superman films with Batman as his sidekick. And to think, there were a bunch of other  Batman solo films that could have been added here. The plot: Lex Luthor becomes president of the United States, which the premise of Americans electing a convicted criminal who was known to have ambitions of taking over the world as President, is not so ludicrous today. Lex orders Superman arrested, and every hero and villain in the world is out to capture him. At least in this movie, Lex is immediately arrested and impeached the second his schemes are exposed. Wish that happened in real life.

[stethacantus]

Twelve Deadly Coins ( 1969 )
This is... a mess. The story of a young swordsman suspected of betraying his master, because he sort of did. The master runs an escort service and sends his son to move a fortune in government silver. The young swordsman tags along, because he knows the son isn't actually that skilled a fighter. His father has taught him the skill of the deadly coins, their clan's martial arts specialty,  where coins are tossed at an into enemies. But while the son thought his skill had advanced enough that he was hitting targets during practice, it was actually the young swordsman who was hitting the targets for him. Meanwhile, an evil master with a ugly bulging eye scar has been hunting down and killing other swordsmen he has a grudge with by throwing small iron balls at them. We never learn what his grudge was, but his final target is the deadly coin master. So he and his gang of bandits attack the escort to steal the silver shipment. The young swordsman comes to their rescue, but hesitates to do anything when he instantly falls in love with a female bandit, who is the adopted daughter of the eye scared gang leader. So he leaves the fray to try to talk the gang leader into calling off his attack, but gets knocked into a tree instead. The son and a couple of other survivor of the attack  suspect the young swordsman of betraying them ( as he left the battle and his deadly coins were imbedded in one of the escort guard's body.  So they return to the master and tell him of the betrayal. Since it was government silver stolen, the master is given a couple of days to recover it, or spend the rest of his life in jail. Meanwhile, the young swordsman has followed the bandits, snuck into their secret hideout, and is captured. The step daughter interferes when the bandits try to torture him to death, so the scar eye leader has them both put in a flooding room death trap. They escape, but aha!, scar eye wanted them to escape all along so they would lead the deadly coin master back to his base. The young swordsman finds his master, and to prove that he isn't a traitor, cuts off his own left hand. So they all return to the base, where we find out deadly coins and scar eyes were once fellow students, and the grudge has something to do with their master picking one of them to learn his deadly coin skill over the other. And the plot gets even more messier, with characters killing each other off, the villain and the deadly coin master suddenly reconciling with each other for () reason, and only a couple of characters still alive at the end of the film to cry about how grudges are the worst. Not a terrible film, but you can see how the plot is just a hodge podge of plot points from previous wuxia films all mashed together.


Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn ( 2020 )
Previously reviewed by me. Much better than The Suicide Squad, but comes off as a poor man's Deadpool rip-off. Also, I kept asking myself through this entire film, where is Batman? I mean, this does take place in Gotham. Harley Quinn blows up the entire Ace chemical factory, and Batman doesn't show up. Black Mask puts together an army of armed thugs to take out the Birds of Prey, and despite all the gunfire and car wrecks, Batman doesn't show up. The GCPD is attacked by thugs with machine guns, and Batman doesn't show up. There are about a dozen things in this movie that should have caught Batman's attention, and he is nowhere to be found.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse ( 2010 )
Speaking of Batman, this is the final movie in the Batman 80th Anniversary 18 Film Collection. And I think it is sexist that Wonder Woman was left out of the title. In fact, most of the heroes and villains in this movie were female, yet we only get Batman and Superman in the title. The movie is basically the Super Girl origin story, with Darkside thrown in. Kara arrives on earth, but has no idea how to control her powers, so she goes to live with Wonder Woman for training. Also in this movie are the heroines Artemis, Big Barda and Lyla, along with the villains the Female Furies. Darkside abducts Kara to turn her into his warrior, and Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Big Barda travel to Apokolips to get her back. It is mostly the female heroes who save the day, but you would never know from the title, which makes it sound like another Batma/Superman bro adventure.