You have the right to remain silent… forever! It should surprise no one that Larry Cohen came up with the tag line above before a single word of his script for Maniac Cop was written. It’s beyond perfect, and it sums up the attitude behind the film pretty damn well. Director William Lustig had been best known for his Joe Spinell slasher, Maniac, so Cohen worked his magic and scripted this film with a similar sounding title but a more blackly comic tone. The result is a genre “classic” that spawned two sequels of varying quality and remains an entertaining slice of horror cinema. Arrow Video in the UK released Maniac Cop to Blu-ray last month, and we gave it a test drive below.

Sitcom kids aren’t often very appealing. They’re usually either blandly realistic and serve solely as plot devices, or they’re ridiculously smart, self aware, and integral to the show’s comedy (for better or worse). Rarely does a child actor and his/her character come across as both realistic and entertainingly bright. One of the rare examples of just such a combination can be found in the series The Courtship of Eddie’s Father which stars Bill Bixby as the father and Brandon Cruz as little Eddie. In ran for three seasons in the late sixties/early seventies, and was based on the 1963 film starring Glenn Ford and Ron Howard (which in turn was based on a novel by Mark Toby). Warner Archive has begun releasing the series to MOD DVD (manufactured on demand) starting with the Complete First Season. I can’t speak for seasons two and three yet, but the show’s first 26 episodes are some of the most charming, witty, and warm television I’ve seen in some time. The father and son relationship is captured beautifully in both dialogue and visuals, but mostly in the stellar performances of the two stars. Bixby and Cruz seem at home with one another and play off each others expressions and tones perfectly. It’s sweet, funny, and smart, and has quickly become one of my favorite shows from decades past.

Legendary Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein is one of the most influential creative minds in the history of the medium. A philosopher of cinema, Eisenstein did not invent montage, but certainly explored the vast parameters of its possibilities without precedent. Thus, a high definition release of one of his central works is understandably something of an event, and the good people at Kino have packaged a pristine new reissue of Eisenstein’s debut feature film Strike (1925) from its restoration by Cinematheque de Toulouse. Strike is essential viewing for anybody who is seriously invested in the evolution, history and potential aesthetic and political power of cinema, and this new DVD and Blu-ray version is likely the best viewing experience available.

For a filmmaker who completed only seven feature films in his lifetime, Andrei Tarkovsky has made an enormous impact. In addition to his artistry, perhaps the enduring fascination with his work has to do with the story of a life cut short. After all, several European filmmakers who were born before Tarkovsky, like Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais, are still around and making new films. Each of Tarkovsky’s seven films are brilliant works that each possess an ambition towards perfection and cinematic transcendence, but when bringing the filmmaker’s abrupt death by lung cancer into the equation it’s difficult to avoid the saddened feeling that there’s a great deal more time-sculpting he had left to share. So it makes sense then that the number of documentaries about Tarkovsky (or prominently feature the filmmaker) far exceed the number of films the director himself completed, and this fact gives a clear indication of his broad cinematic influence. These films are made because people want more, and desire to understand the depth of Tarkovsky’s work better. Films like Voyage in Time (1983), Moscow Elegy (1987), Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1988), and Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky (2008) have examined the auteur’s method, life, philosophy, and impact. But easily the best documentary about Tarkovsky thus far is French visual essayist Chris Marker‘s One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich (1999), recently released on DVD by Icarus Films.

Tobe Hooper is not what one would call a gifted and/or talented film-maker. He’s a genre legend due more to the idea of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre than to the reality of his film work. Seriously people, it’s not a good movie… effective at times yes, but good? No. His best film remains the television mini-series of Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot (unless you believe he directed Poltergeist of course), but while he’s made some real stinkers the majority of his work falls into the generic middle ground between treasure and trash. Arrow Video in the UK has just released a new Blu-ray (the first) for one of Hooper’s better efforts, the 1981 horror thriller The Funhouse. The film is one of his most accessible horror efforts to date and a fun watch, and the disc is one of Arrow’s finest efforts as well.

Arrow Video has quickly made a name for themselves as one of the top labels for genre cinema in general and Dario Argento’s films in particular. Their Blu-ray releases of Argento’s work have seen their fair share of ups and downs though with some being near reference quality and others showing real issues in the video and/or audio departments. Now Arrow has released a new Blu-ray from another well known director, their first from the man many critics (inexplicably) appointed the heir to Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense-filled throne. Will their first foray into Brian DePalma’s films fare better than some of Argento’s? The Movie: Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) is a well to do businessman living in New Orleans with his beautiful wife Elizabeth (Geneviève Bujold) and daughter. A party winds down and the family settles in for the night, but Courtland soon discovers his wife and child missing and a ransom note demanding cash. He pays what’s asked of him, but a botched rescue attempt by police leads to the death of both his wife and daughter. Years later the still bereft widower finds himself in Italy on a business trip and wanders into the church where he had first met Elizabeth… and where he meets a young woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his dead wife.

Another month, another Dario Argento Blu-ray release from Arrow Video in the UK. This time it’s a film considered by many to be among his best works in general as well as one of his finest giallos. Tenebrae features all the hallmarks of Argento finest films including a twisted killer in gloves, spectacular set pieces, a pulsating electronic score, and people meeting some very violent endings. It also happens to be the bloodiest of his films from that period. Like, ‘paint the wall red with the crimson arterial spray spurting from a severed arm’ bloody…

Despite having only made seven feature films, Andrei Tarkovsky is largely considered one of the most important Russian filmmakers of the twentieth century, perhaps second only to Sergei Eisenstein (who was, aesthetically-speaking, his polar opposite). However, after enduring enormous troubles with Soviet censors, Tarkovsky expatriated to Italy, where he made his sixth film Nostalghia (1983) and later to Sweden where he made The Sacrifice (1986), which became his final film as he succumbed to lung cancer shortly after its production. Earlier this summer, one of Tarkovsky’s most beloved titles, Solaris (1972), was updated to Blu-ray by Criterion, and now Kino has updated their DVD of The Sacrifice to Blu as well, making this summer something of an embarrassment of riches for American Tarkovsky fans who have longed to see the filmmaker’s intricately beautiful work in high-definition.

We’ve been through all of this before, have we not? Dear Blu-ray obsessed friends, I hate to have to say it, but when I’m right, I’m right. And in the case of The Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray, I was right all along. In April of 2010, Warner Bros. released their Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-ray. At the time, reviewers like myself made the not-so-bold prediction that it wouldn’t be the last time we’d see this epic trilogy on the highest of definition formats. Chief among our reasons, the multiple dipping DVD releases Warners has put out over the years, from “limited edition” box sets to extended edition collector’s sets to extended editions in boxes that looked like those big talking trees. Lord of the Rings is perhaps the most re-released home video franchise in history, and the reason they can do it is because they know we’ll buy it — every time. It’s sad, but oh so true. Look around your own DVD and Blu-ray collection. How many copies of Fellowship of the Ring do you own? I have 3, and as you’re about to see, I’m not even that big a fan of this trilogy. With that in mind, what are we to do about this new, Extended Edition Blu-ray set? Should we pick this one up and add it to the Middle Earth-sized pile in the center of our home video collections? Or should we pass and continue to play the waiting game, with

Thirty Helens agree…there are four very unattractive women in the photo above. The Kids In the Hall is one of the funnier sketch comedy series to ever make it past a single season, and the fact that it’s a Canadian export makes that all the more impressive. (Yes yes, SCTV was Canadian too and my father recalls it making him chortle on more than one occasion.) The HBO series ran for five seasons from 1989 to 1993 and was powered by the comedic talents of five young men. There’s the wide-eyed, gap-toothed straight man Dave Foley, the small, manic, energy-filled Bruce McCulloch, the curly-haired, high-pitched Kevin McDonald, the multi-faceted Mark McKinney, and the dramatically outrageous Scott Thompson. Five funny guys, five funny seasons. All collected in one box set along with highly entertaining extras and the IFC miniseries Death Comes To Town.

No matter what else Brian Yuzna has done or will do in his career, he’ll forever hold a spot in the horror hall of fame thanks to his involvement on Stuart Gordon’s classic Re-Animator. The film is gory, funny, perverted, and over the top and remains one of the best horror-comedies ever made. Yuzna went on to write and direct several of his own films as well as form a production company in Spain called Fantastic Factory. Nine films were produced under the label from 2000 through 2006, and Arrow Video has packaged four of them together in a box set for your viewing pleasure. The included movies are Arachnid, Beyond Re-Animator, Faust: Love of the Damned, and Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt. And yes, the unfortunate lady reduced to T&A above can be found in one of them.

The Dario Argento Blu-ray train keeps right on rolling over in the UK thanks to the fine folks at ArrowVideo, and their latest release just so happens to be my favorite feature from the Italian director. Common perception would argue that Suspiria is Argento’s finest hour while purists might point to his earlier giallo work with Deep Red or The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (and those of you with a predilection for wild women may claim that Asia Argento is the man’s greatest creation), but none of these are correct. No, Argento’s most entertaining movie is Phenomena, aka Creepers, aka the one where Jennifer Connelly fends off a maniacal killer thanks in large part to her ability to communicate telepathically with insects.

Even if you’re not one of those people who sits around watching Discovery HD (mostly because it’s still the best way to use your HD cable subscription), there’s no denying that there’s something wondrous about seeing the wild splendor of our home planet. And no one seems to capture it with the grace and intimacy of the BBC. Their work on Planet Earth and The Blue Planet (among others) has changed forever the scope by which we view our own world, and in turn brought us closer to the world around us. But what happens when they turn that lens inward, focusing on humanity’s journey through this wild world? We get Human Planet, their most ambitious series to date. Feature Presentation Narrated by the soothing, sage-like voice of John Hurt, Human Planet is an 8-episode series centered upon man’s interaction with nature; all the beauty and all the danger. It’s a high definition portrait of the human condition. It’s not an all-encompassing, encyclopedic series by any means, but a string of vignette-style stories that work as literal and metaphoric examples of humanity’s great struggles with nature. In eight hour-long episodes, the BBC crew traverses seemingly every inch of the Earth, creating a beautiful time capsule of life as it is today. A truly educational experience, Human Planet is one of those great tales of human survival told through the eyes of its people, one of those great documentary projects that feels part high drama, part engrossing curriculum. Each of its

Dario Argento is a legend in the horror genre, but he’s also an incredibly hit or miss director. (Unless you’re someone who needs cohesive plots in movies, then all of his films are probably misses.) The label is probably befitting of many film-makers, but Argento stands apart in a singular way. The quality of most directors’ work ranges film to film with their best and worst mingling side by side throughout the years. Argento on the other hand created a string of brilliant films up through the mid eighties… and has been releasing garbage ever since. UK label extraordinaire Arrow Video has been collecting, gussying up, and releasing editions of Argento’s work for a short while now. Their catalog includes DVD releases of his later (and therefore lesser) works, but they’ve also started producing sharp and beautifully packaged Blu-rays of his older classics. Inferno hit shelves last year (my review here), and Arrow has now followed it up with Argento’s 1975 serial killer thriller, Deep Red (aka Profondo Rosso).

Japan has seen a virtual tsunami of quality films leave their shores over the years to touch down in foreign lands and convert innocent and unaware film lovers into lifelong fans. Most of these movies accomplish this after being picked up for domestic distribution in theaters or on DVD, but sometimes it’s not that straight forward. Battle Royale is a critically acclaimed, stylistically violent, and visually exciting satire that is more than a decade old… and it has yet to see an official release in the US. Until n– well no, it’s still not available domestically. But thanks to the wonderful Brits over at Arrow Video fans of the film can finally see Kinji Fukasaku’s final film in all its remastered glory. The film may not pack the some visceral punch it did ten years ago, but there’s no denying its entertaining mix of the satirical and the exploitative. Both the Blu-ray and DVD versions look better than it ever has before, and it’s packed with special features across three discs. Three beautifully region free discs…

“We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better…stronger…faster.” And hell, while we’re here let’s build a kick-ass DVD box set too that’s as cool as it is practical. Sturdy… awesome… and featuring an audio chip that intones the show’s opening voice-over when the lid is opened. But we’ll just ignore the terrible mustache shot on the case for season four…

I believe it was Robinson Crusoe who once said “Fess up, Friday” after discovering a urine puddle on his straw shack’s linoleum floor. As revolutionary as that statement was almost three hundred years ago, it took a young man by the name of William B. Goss to bring it into the digital age. Thanks to his initiative, #fessupfriday is the most-used hashtag in Twitter’s four decades of existence. There are certain movies that every cinephile should have seen, but only the brave foolhardy movie lovers immune to ridicule actually admit to the acknowledged classics that have so far eluded them. Which brings me to Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Vietnam adventure, Apocalypse Now. #fessupfriday

Sitcoms by definition are interested almost exclusively in making the audience laugh. Comedy is the core of their existence, but the best ones are capable of adding something more to the mix. Something a bit more serious, a bit more emotional, and a bit more concerned with their characters’ hearts. Scrubs is one of the best examples of a show that earned an audience for being both incredibly humorous and capable of working the tear ducts with storylines and characters that connect with our own hopes, fears, and emotions. And yes, I am talking about seasons one through seven only… we can all agree the final two seasons (8/9) need never be mentioned again.

Arrow Video recently released Dario Argento’s Inferno onto Blu-ray for the first time. They’ve brought their trademarked kick-ass presentation, in both packaging and content, to Dario Argento’s film about murderous and mystical happenings in New York City. The Movie: Inferno is the middle film in Argento’s well known Three Mothers trilogy. Thankfully it sits closer in both style and quality to the first of the trilogy, Suspiria, and far from the ugly disaster that is part three, Mother Of Tears. Set in New York City, the story finds a young poet named Rose (Irene Miracle) researching the history of her building because she’s grown bored trying to find a word to rhyme with orange. She discovers a mystery surrounding the building’s origin and owners and traces it to a trio of evil wenches. Or maybe they’re witches. Regardless, the second of the three mothers has made her home in the Big Apple and people are going to die in some grotesque and overly elaborate ways.

Shout! Factory began an impressive endeavor earlier this year with the announcement that they would be releasing monthly titles under the Roger Corman’s Cult Classics banner. The titles have so far ranged from Rock n Roll High School and Death Race 2000 to Piranha and Humanoids From the Deep. Not only are they rescuing several of these flicks from VHS obscurity, but they’re also adding tons of brand new special features. And the wonderfully odd and eclectic hits keep on coming with their latest addition, the 1978 Star Wars ripoff homage ripoff… Starcrash.