Fans of the golden age of martial arts action is about to get a new exciting release from The Criterion Collection. The special preservation and remastering label has released Bruce Lee’s famous films in an amazingly crisp 4K restoration, as well as Jackie Chan‘s biggest films, including Police Story and Police Story 2. Fans of this era of Golden Harvest also have Sammo Hung’s My Lucky Stars, which also features Jackie, and Michelle Yeoh‘s Heroic Trio to view in incredible transfers.

Now, Criterion has announced that on December 17, Eastern Condors — Sammo Hung’s ode to The Dirty Dozen, which co-stars fellow Peking Opera performer Yuen Biao, will be available in an all-new 2K restoration with a new Blu-ray release. Criterion has also revealed all the special features that will be included with the release. You can pre-order the item here.

The description reads,
“Legendary actor-director Sammo Hung delivers a bazooka blast of pure adrenaline in this exemplar of Hong Kong action cinema at its most entertaining. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood war films like The Dirty Dozen, Eastern Condors follows a ragtag band of Asian American prisoners dropped into Vietnam on a secret suicide mission to prevent a cache of weapons from falling into the hands of the Viet Cong, who are more than ready for a fight. Propelled by a dynamic ensemble cast that includes the ever-charismatic Yuen Biao as a black-market trader and a superhuman Yuen Wah as a giggling martial-arts monster, this rip-roaring spectacle offers a nonstop barrage of turbocharged set pieces that defy death, logic, and gravity itself.”

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• PLUS: An essay by film critic Sean Gilman
• 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New audio commentary featuring film critic Tony Rayns
• 2K digital restoration of the English-dubbed “export cut” of the film
• Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with director Sammo Hung
• Interviews from 2001 with Hung and actor Yuen Wah
• Eastern Condors Live!, an onstage performance from the 1987 Miss Hong Kong Pageant
• Teaser and trailers
• New English subtitle translation

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Call it…The Criterion Collection will add yet another Coen Bros. film to their catalog, as 2007’s No Country for Old Men is arriving on December 10th as spine #1243. This will be the fourth from the fellas after Inside Llewyn Davis, Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing. Now if we can just get Raising Arizona…

Here are the special features for Criterion’s forthcoming 4K release of No Country for Old Men:

New 4K digital master, supervised and approved by director of photography Roger Deakins, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

New conversation between filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen and author Megan Abbott

New conversation between Deakins and associate producer David Diliberto, also featuring Abbott

Archival interviews with actors Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kelly Macdonald

Behind-the-scenes documentary by Brolin

Three documentaries about the making of the film featuring on-set footage and interviews with members of the cast and crew

PLUS: An essay by author Francine Prose and a 2007 piece on the film by author Larry McMurtry 

Some of these special features on the No Country for Old Men disc may be recycled but we’re definitely excited for the new material, which looks to expand on previous releases and should give more insight into the evolution, making of and legacy of the film, widely regarded as one of the best films of the century so far. And how cool would it be if the disc itself was modeled after a coin? It also would have been neat to have excerpts from Cormac McCarthy’s book to get a better idea of how it was translated for the screen. Then again, maybe you should just pick up a copy, as it’s absolutely worth reading.

As per Criterion, here is the write-up on the back of the box art: “A deadly game of chance and destiny plays out against the stark backdrop of early-1980s West Texas in Joel and Ethan Coen’s powerful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. When he happens upon more than two million dollars from a drug deal turned desert massacre, a retired welder and Vietnam veteran (Josh Brolin) sets into motion a wave of senseless, inexorable violence as he’s stalked across the plains by a soul-weary sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) and a psychopathic hit man (Javier Bardem). Winner of four Academy Awards—including Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actor for the indelibly disturbing Bardem—this darkly deadpan borderlands noir keeps both the tension and the existential unease mounting through each cruelly ironic twist of fate.”

Will you be picking up The Criterion Collection’s release of No Country for Old Men?

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The ten-episode series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (read our review HERE) was such a huge success for the Netflix streaming service back in 2022 that Netflix ordered two more seasons of the show from its creators, Ian Brennan and American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy. Last year, it was announced that the second season would be titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and we’re now just a couple of days away from the premiere date! Monsters is set to start streaming on September 19th… and in the build-up to the season’s premiere, Murphy has gone ahead and revealed that season 3 is going to star Sons of Anarchy‘s Charlie Hunnam as murderer and graverobber Ed Gein.

Variety reports that Murphy made this announcement onstage during a Monsters promotional event in Los Angeles.

Variety also reminds us that Ed Gein, who also hailed from Wisconsin like Dahmer, became infamous in the 1950s when authorities discovered that he not only had killed multiple people, but had dug up graves from a cemetery near his home and fashioned all manner of household items and clothing from human remains. Gein’s case served as an inspiration for several major pop culture characters later on, including Norman Bates in Psycho, Leatherface and his family in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

Details on Monster season 3 have not been revealed beyond the involvement of Hunnam and the Gein focus.

While we wait to hear more about the third season, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will chronicle the case of the real-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed – and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole – that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for audiences’ modern-day fascination with true crime, and in return asks those audiences: Who are the real monsters?

The cast includes Javier Bardem (José Menendez), Chloë Sevigny (Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez), Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Lyle Menendez), Cooper Koch (Erik Menendez), Nathan Lane (Dominick Dunne), Ari Graynor (Leslie Abramson), Leslie Grossman (Judalon Smyth), Dallas Roberts (Dr. Jerome Oziel), Paul Adelstein (David Conn), Jason Butler Harner (Det. Les Zoeller), Enrique Murciano (Carlos Baralt), Michael Gladis (Tim Rutten), Drew Powell (Det. Tom Linehan), Charlie Hall (Craig Cignarelli), Gil Ozeri (Dr. William Vicary), Jeff Perry (Peter Hoffman), Tessa Auberjonois (Dr. Laurel Oziel), Tanner Stine (Perry Berman), Larry Clarke (Brian Andersen), Jade Pettyjohn (Jamie Pisarcik), Marlene Forte (Marta Cano), and Vicki Lawrence (Leigh).

Ian Brennan, Max Winkler, Paris Barclay, Michael Uppendahl, and Carl Franklin directed the episodes, working from scripts by Ryan Murphy, David McMillan, Todd Kubrak, Ian Brennan, and Reilly Smith. Murphy and Brennan serve as executive producers on Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story alongside Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson, David McMillan, Louise Shore, Carl Franklin, and Javier Bardem.

Will you be watching Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story? What do you think of Charlie Hunnam signing on to play Ed Gein in Monster season 3? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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If you were a fan of Time Bandits on Apple TV+, you might be a little depressed to learn that the streaming service has cancelled the series after just one season.

Inspired by Terry Gilliam’s beloved cult classic of the same name, Time Bandits tells the story of “an unpredictable journey through time and space with a ragtag group of thieves and their newest recruit: an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin. Together, they set out on a thrilling quest to save the boy’s parents — and the world.” Although the series received decent reviews, it just couldn’t attract a large enough audience and didn’t break into Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings throughout its ten-episode run.

The series starred Lisa Kudrow, who led “the eccentric crew of bandits embark on epic adventures while evil forces threaten their conquests, and life as they know it. As the group transports through time and space, the gang stumbles upon fascinating worlds of the distant past while seeking out treasure, depending on Kevin to shed light on each situation. The ‘Time Bandits’ witness the creation of Stonehenge, see the Trojan Horse in action, escape dinosaurs in the prehistoric ages, wreak havoc during medieval times, experience the Ice Age, ancient civilizations and the Harlem Renaissance, and much more along the way.“

Series co-creators Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi revealed earlier this summer that they had actually been working on the scripts for the second season of the series. “We are actually writing a second season, but it depends on it people watch the first season,” Clement said. “If no one watches it, we throw it away in a bin. But I cannot tell you because I don’t want to spoil the second season.” That’s a shame.

Our own Alex Maidy was a fan of the series and felt that it set the stage for another season. “Each episode builds into the next and leaves you wanting more leading into the next episode without relying on artificial cliffhangers or red herrings. This cast is incredibly likable, and the story is silly enough to appease the youngest viewers without alienating more discerning audiences,” Maidy wrote. “I had a smile on my face watching this series. Even though it was made without the blessing of Terry Gilliam, I would like to think the iconic filmmaker would be pleased with where Waititi and Clement have taken this tale for a new generation. It is hard to find the same caliber of family fare that existed in the 1980s that is not animated, but Time Bandits is the type of show that anyone will watch and have a lot of fun with, whether they have kids with them or not.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.

How do you feel about Time Bandits getting cancelled? Were you a fan?

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Adam Wingard is done with the MonsterVerse (for now), but he has found a leading lady for his next project. THR reports that Adria Arjona is in final negotiations to star in and executive produce Onslaught for A24, a project described as a “gonzo action horror thriller.“

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it’s said that Arjona will play “a mother who falls back on a particular set of skills in order to protect her loved ones after she runs afoul of a threat that has escaped a secret military base.” In addition to directing Onslaught, Wingard is also co-writing the script with Simon Barrett, who he worked with on You’re Next and The Guest. Production is expected to kick off in New Mexico later this year.

Arjona has been having quite the year. She won praise for her performance alongside Glen Powell in Hit Man, appeared in Zoe Kravitz’s Blink Twice, and will be returning for the second season of Andor, which will debut on Disney+ next year.

Onslaught will be something of a return to his roots for Wingard, as the director has spent the last few years playing with his pals Godzilla and King Kong. He helmed Godzilla v Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and although the studio had been keen on getting him back for another sequel, there was no deal in place for him to do so. He had been open to returning, previously saying, “There’s always the seduction of making a trilogy out of it, and I think that there’s some untapped areas to go into. There’s also ways to continue to innovate the stylized approach to the MonsterVerse, and what’s great about the MonsterVerse is that it’s allowed so many different directors to approach it with their unique style and color palette.”

Wingard officially stepped down to focus on Onslaught, and the studio tapped Grant Sputore, the director of Hilary Swank’s sci-fi thriller I Am Mother, to helm the new installment. Dave Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) is writing the script. The MonsterVerse film is slated for a March 26, 2027 release.

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In the first season of Peacemaker, Christoper Smith (John Cena) took a shot at Green Arrow, saying, “That dude goes to brony conventions dressed as the back half of Twilight Sparkle with a four-inch wide butthole drilled into the costume.” While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Green Arrow star Stephen Amell made it clear that he didn’t appreciate the cheap shot at a character he played for a decade.

“That was a little unnecessary. I didn’t f***ing appreciate that at all,” Amell said. “Between the movies and Peacemaker a little bit… our show was kind of treated like shit. I get it, we’re on the CW, I get it, it’s TV. But I also get the face that when people think about the most recent iteration of DC, they don’t think about the Snyder Cut, they think about the Arrowverse. We got crapped on for years, and years, and years, and this just seemed excessive. I’m not actually mad, but I just remember hearing that and just being, ‘F*** those guys,’ like seriously.” It should be noted that Amell has gone to My Little Pony conventions with his young daughter, so you can understand why he might have some feelings about that particular dig.

Amell continued, “I’m up here. I’m working just as hard as anyone else. Do you know how hard it is to play a superhero with no superpowers for 23 episodes a year? it’s really, really, really hard, and I’m not looking for a prize but, like, maybe don’t shit on our show.” The actor added that while he’s not mad at John Cena, he might have an issue with James Gunn. “If I should be mad at anyone, it should be James Gunn for writing that in the first place,” he said. “But [Cena] could not be a nicer guy. It’s not a personal vendetta against [Cena].“

Arrow ran for eight seasons on the CW and starred Amell as Oliver Queen, a billionaire playboy who fights crime and corruption in Star City as a secret vigilante. The series gave birth to the Arrowverse, which included The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and Batwoman. As for Peacemaker, the series will return for a second season, but with a twist. The new season will take place in the new DC Universe and follow the events of Superman. Gunn later clarified that the first season of is no longer canon to the DC Universe. The new season will feature John Cena returning as Peacemaker alongside Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Freddie Stroma as Vigilante, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, and Steve Agee as John Economos. Frank Grillo will appear as Rick Flag Sr., who will also be seen in Creature Commandos and Superman.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has been blowing up the box office, having already grossed over $264 million less than two weeks after its release. It’s a much-needed win for Warner Bros., which makes it all the more surprising that the studio had originally planned to give the Beetlejuice sequel a streaming release on Max.

It’s been a long road for the Beetlejuice sequel, and according to a New York Times report, Warner Bros. didn’t have a lot of faith that the project would be a success. They still wanted the film but were pushing for it to be released exclusively on the Max streaming service. Director Tim Burton wasn’t a big fan of that idea. “That was never going to work for Tim,” said studio co-chair Pamela Abdy. “You’re talking about visionary artist whose films demand to be seen on a big screen.“

When Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca took over the studio, they wanted to repair the relationship with Burton, but the proposed budget (around $147 million) was still too much of a risk. In exchange for getting the budget under $100 million, they would guarantee a major theatrical release. This meant that Burton and the main stars (including Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, and Catherine O’Hara) would have to agree to work for less money upfront in exchange for a bigger piece of the back end. Now that the film has become such a big success, you would imagine those stars will be reaping the rewards. Of course, there’s always that famous Hollywood accounting to consider.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has been praised as a return to form for Burton, with our own Chris Bumbray calling it the director’s “most energetic, playful, and creative film in years.” He continued, “Truth be told, I was wary of a Beetlejuice sequel, as I figured they should leave well enough alone after thirty-six years. But, once Danny Elfman’s score kicked in, and I got a look at returning production designer Bo Welch’s sets, I was all in on a sequel I had a total blast with. This one is a very pleasant surprise. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last time Burton says Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here.

Here’s the official synopsis for Beetlejuice Beetljuice: “Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.” The sequel is now playing in theaters, so be sure to let us know what you think of the film!

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Earlier this year, Full Moon founder Charles Band announced that his company was launching a new production label called Pulp Noir, which will focus on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films.” They also set up a Patreon account where fans can subscribe and show their support for the company while getting a behind-the-scenes look at the making of these films. The first movie in the Pulp Noir line, a female serial killer story called Quadrant, was given a Blu-ray, DVD, limited edition VHS, and streaming release (on Amazon Prime Video, Full Moon Features, and Tubi, among others) on August 23rd… and now, on September 20th, a black & white “noir version” of Quadrant is set to start streaming on Full Moon Features and Prime Video.

As Band says in the latest episode of his Full Moon Universe show, “I shot (the Pulp Noir movies) with the black & white in mind, so may be interesting, if you like Quadrant, to check it out in the black & white.” He has already made the second Pulp Noir movie, the vampire tale Death Streamer, and says it will have the same release strategy as Quadrant: a color version, followed by a black & white version. That movie, which Band thinks is one of the best movies he has made “in a lot of years,” is scheduled to be released on October 11th.

Quadrant was written by C. Courtney Joyner and is described as being an unholy blend of steampunk terror and sci-fi slasher, with a female serial killer using the titular VR device to stalk her prey and channel the legacy of Jack the Ripper, and another heroic woman entering the ether-verse to bring her down!

Promotional art features a more in-depth synopsis: Developed by scientists Harry and Meg, the Quadrant helmet allows your mind to transport you into a world where all your phobias and nightmares are real, while also granting you the strength to defeat them, liberating you from their control forever. But the Quadrant experiment is about to go terribly wrong. When Erin, a young girl who’s obsessed with Jack the Ripper, uses the device to actually become the Ripper, she unleashes a reign of terror, first in her mind in an AI version of old London created by the Quadrant, and then in reality, where she now stalks the contemporary city streets, seeking out victims for her blade. The only way to stop this savage new Ripper is for an even more vicious killer to enter the artificial Quadrant-verse and bring her down. What ensues is a brutal, bloody battle, murderer against murderer, both in this world and the surreal, dangerous, synthetic world of Quadrant!

Quadrant stars Shannon Helene Barnes, Emma Reinagel, and Christian Carrigan.

Have you seen Quadrant? Will you be checking out the black & white version this weekend? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Steven Spielberg has been putting together quite the cast for his next major project, and Deadline reports that Colman Domingo (Euphoria) is in early talks to join up.

Should Domingo sign on the dotted line, he would join a cast that includes Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer), Colin Firth (Kingsman: The Secret Service), and Eve Hewson (Hedda). As for the project itself, we don’t know much about it, only that it’s said to be a UFO movie based on Spielberg’s own original idea, with David Koepp (Jurassic Park) writing the screenplay. A UFO movie from the man who gave us Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and War of the Worlds is pretty much all I need to know. Bring it on. Universal Pictures has already slated the project for a May 15, 2026 release.

Domingo has been enjoying a hell of a run over the last year. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in Rustin and has won praise for his work on Sing Sing and The Color Purple. He’s also playing Joe Jackson in the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic directed by Antoine Fuqua which will be released on April 18, 2025.

Spielberg has also been working on a new movie based on Bullitt, the classic action thriller starring Steve McQueen. The project received an update late last year from Kristie Macosko Krieger, one of Spielberg’s producing partners. “I’m producing it. Steven [Spielberg] and Josh Singer, who is writing the script, they are working on the story,” Krieger said. “I hope we have a script soon as the writers’ strike put us behind a bit. But they are working on it – I couldn’t tell you if it’s the next movie we are making as I don’t know at this point. I think that it will be a wildly entertaining film.“

Based on Mute Witness by Robert L. Fish, the original film starred Steve McQueen as a no-nonsense San Francisco cop who becomes determined to track down the underworld kingpin who killed the witness in his protection. Spielberg will direct the new Bullitt movie as well as produce it, with Josh Singer writing the script. Bradley Cooper is set to star in the project as Frank Bullitt. However, it won’t necessarily be a remake of the original 1968 film, but will instead tell an original story with the Frank Bullitt character at its center. Steve McQueen’s children, Chad and Molly McQueen, will executive produce the Bullitt project, as will Bradley Cooper.

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What happens when you’re a CIA hitman who can no longer trust the nature of his work? Aaron Eckhart finds out in Saban Films‘ Classified trailer, featuring The Dark Knight and Thank You For Smoking actor in a hard-boiled action role with enemies approaching from all sides.

Roel Reiné (The Admiral, Halo, Black Sails) directs Classified from a script by Bob DeRosa (White Collar, The Air I Breathe, 20 Seconds to Live). Here’s the official synopsis for Classified courtesy of Saban Films:

“Operating alone in the field for more than 20 years, a CIA hitman (Aaron Eckhart) uses the “Help Wanted” section of the newspapers to get his orders from the Agency. His long-lost daughter (Abigail Breslin), now a UK MI6 analyst, tracks him down to deliver shocking news: his CIA boss (Tim Roth) has been dead for years and the division long since shut down. Together, they set out to discover whose orders he’s been executing.”

Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Zombieland, Signs) and Tim Roth (Rob Roy, Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight) star alongside Aaron Eckhart in Classified, with Matt Hookings, Myles Clohessy, Kim DeLonghi, Joe Azzopardi, Baylee Toney, and Marysia S. Peres.

In Saban’s Classified trailer, Evan Shaw (Aaron Eckhart) discovers the division he’s been executing missions for has been defunct for years. Knowing this, who has he been working for? Where do the names of his targets come from? Who’s pulling his strings? When a woman named Kacey Walker (Abigail Breslin) enters Evan’s crosshairs, his world turns upside-down as the line between friend and foe becomes blurred. As Evan tries to distinguish fact from fiction, he and Kacey launch a mission to uncover the identity of his mystery handler and end the cycle of falsehoods.

In addition to Classified, Aaron Eckhart’s Deep Water is in post-production. The Renny Harlin-directed thriller focuses on international passengers en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai who are forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Now, they must work together to overcome the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage. Ben Kingsley, Angus Sampson, and Kelly Gale join Eckhart as primary cast members.

Are you excited to watch Aaron Eckhart huck bad guys off balconies and uncover a web of lies in Classified? Who is Kacey Walker? How does she know so much about Evan’s situation? We’ll find out when Classified comes to digital platforms on October 22.

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