Home Video

Arcane – The Complete First Season

  • Title: Arcane: League of Legends – Season One
  • IMDb: link

Adapted from Riot Games’ League of Legends universe, the First Season of Arcane: League of Legends focuses on origin stories for sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell) while exploring the class struggles between the utopian city of Piltover and the oppressed underworld city of Zaun. The first thee episodes of the series provide examples of the girls’ childhood and how that life ended badly for all involved while the rest of the season picks up years later bringing the two sisters, each believing the other died years ago, together again. Also explored is the rise of scientist Jayce Talis (Kevin Alejandro) and his Hextech technology which will change the world. 

Arcane – The Complete First Season Read More »

Topkapi

  • Title: Topkapi
  • IMDb: link

Topkapi

1964’s Topkapi is an odd film. Starting with a psychedelic opening in which a character breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience, a device which is never seen again, the film then vacillates between a heist film and a farce before finally settling in as a serious heist film (with an admittedly farcical epilogue). The story involves a thief (Melina Mercouri) who recruits an old partner and lover (Maximilian Schell) and a collection of amateurs for a risky heist in Istanbul. Their plan relies, in part, on smuggling the tools needed into the country through the use of unaware small-time hustler Arthur Simpson (Peter Ustinov).

Topkapi Read More »

Seven Samurai

  • Title: Seven Samurai
  • IMDb: link

Seven Samurai

Widely regarded as on of the finest, and most influential, films in the history of cinema, the Criterion Collection releases this new 4K/Blu-ray combo featuring the extras of previous releases and the film available in 4K for the first time. Akira Kurosawa‘s classic about a group of ronin hired to protect a village provided a template that would be reused, repurposed, and remade countless times over the years from The Magnificent Seven to Three Amigos to “The Magnificent Ferengi” while specific scenes from the film have inspired sequences in everything from Blade Runner to Mad Max: Fury Road.

Seven Samurai Read More »

The Jackal

  • Title: The Jackal
  • IMDb: link

The Jackal

Sometimes movies just don’t quite work. Wayback Wednesday takes us back to a film that fits that category. 1997’s adaptation of The Day of the Jackal has a talented cast in Bruce Willis as the infamous assassin, Richard Gere as an IRA terrorist let out of prison to help hunt him down alongside Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora, and smaller roles from the likes of Mathilda May, J.K. Simmons, Jack Black all of which helped propel the film to box office success. But despite that talent on-screen, the story of hunting down the world’s greatest assassin just can’t hit the bullseye.

The Jackal Read More »