PULP FICTION 30th Anniversary Edition: See What Pops Up

PULP FICTION 30th Anniversary Limited Edition

(4K UHD/Blu-ray)

1994 / 154 min

FROM PARAMOUNT

Review by Mr. Paws😻

Over the past 30 years, Pulp Fiction has been endlessly praised, discussed and analyzed by countless writers far more articulate than yours truly. All I can really add to the conversation is what the movie means to me personally.

My wife, Francie, and I saw this in theaters when it was first released. Having recently watched (and loving) Quentin Tarantino’s first film, Reservoir Dogs, it was with no-small-amount of elevated expectations that I looked forward to his second, especially with all the pre-release buzz. Francie, of course, came along simply because her husband was so jazzed to see it.

Pulp Fiction not-only lived up to the hype, it exceeded my expectations in every way possible. In terms of my own experience as a lifelong film fan, this was something new, something different, something special. Along with such other favorites as Jaws, The Godfather and the one that made me fall in love with moviegoing as a kid, The Towering Inferno, the exhilaration I felt watching it expanded my idea of what movies could be. And I’ll go to my death bed convinced it was totally robbed at Oscar time by Forrest Gump.

For me, Pulp Fiction remains the best American movie of the past 30 years. As a singular theater-going experience, no director since has topped it, not even Tarantino himself (though Christopher Nolan came close with Interstellar). And even though I still revisit it more-or-less annually, I’d be hard pressed to choose a favorite scene, shot, performance or character because the entire film is 154 minutes of pure cinematic exuberance. 

One for the nerds. You know who you are.

I suppose all this gushing makes it obvious I’ve owned Pulp Fiction in every home video format over the years. Speaking of which… 

Of course, I'm totally on-board for a 30th Anniversary edition of my second favorite film of all time (first is Jaws…always Jaws), even one that doesn’t actually provide any technical upgrades or new bonus features. This set includes the same excellent 4K and Blu-ray editions from previous releases, as well as a digital copy. 

However, the Pulp Fiction 30th Anniversary Limited Edition offers a few physical goodies that might be irresistible to anyone who loves the film as much as this guy. There’s a sheet of six stickers, as well as several lobby card replicas. But the best thing is the slipcover that opens to display a pop-up diorama of the Jack Rabbit Slim’s dance scene. If one doesn’t actually care about preserving the slipcover itself, it’ll look pretty cool on a collector’s shelf. 

Some will quip that these accouterments are superfluous, and they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. But this nicely packaged boxed set is intended more for those who love everything about Pulp Fiction and can’t pass up anything related to it. As such, it’s a great souvenir commemorating one of modern cinema’s best, most influential films.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

POP-UP DIORAMA 

STICKER SHEET - Six stickers related to the film.

8 LOBBY CARD REPLICAS

PHOTOGRAPHY SELECT SHEET REPLICA 

ENHANCED TRIVIA TRACK

NOT THE USUAL MINDLESS BORING GETTING TO KNOW YOU CHIT-CHAT - Retrospective interviews with the cast & crew.

HERE ARE SOME FACTS ON THE FICTION - Critics roundtable.

PULP FICTION: THE FACTS - Archival documentary.

FEATURETTES - 2 Behind-the-scenes montages; production design featurette

THE TARANTINO GENERATION - Segment from Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, where the two critics discuss Tarantino's impact on cinema.

CHARLIE ROSE SHOW EPISODE - Interview with Quentin Tarantino.

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS - Guillermo del Toro interviews Quentin Tarantino.

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL FOOTAGE

MARKETING GALLERY - A huge collection of trailers from around the world, TV spots, posters & trade ads.

DELETED SCENES

SOUNDTRACK CHAPTERS

STILL GALLERY

ANCHOR BAY is Back

CRUST, CURSED IN BAJA and ABRUPTIO

(Blu-ray)

FROM ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Beastie🙀

For those who don’t pay attention to this sort of thing, Anchor Bay Entertainment was a prolific home video label that made a name for itself back in the early days of DVD. They were renowned for releasing classic cult and horror films, sometimes putting together superlative boxed sets. To this date, nobody has put out a better physical media release of the original Dawn of the Dead. 

Now Anchor Bay is being resurrected, perhaps in name only, starting with three brand new B-movies that might appeal to the cult horror crowd...

This particular hotel will be getting a one-star review.

CRUST (2024/102 min) - Though his name may not ring a bell, Sean Whalen is one of those character actors you’ll undoubtedly recognize. He’s probably best known for supporting roles in Twister and a number of comedies, as well as commercials and TV guest spots.

Whalen directs, co-writes and stars in Crust, a black-and-white horror comedy about Vegas Winters, a depressed former child star who’s now a reclusive laundromat owner. He’s regularly abused by bullies and his ex-girlfriend, at least until a pile of stray socks he’s been collecting comes to life to exact revenge on his behalf.

Crust has obvious cult aspirations, beginning with the title creature, which is amusingly presented through puppetry. There’s also an emphasis on absurd humor and situations, as well as characters who run the gamut from charming and sympathetic to exaggerated and obnoxious. Though the film is fun for awhile and Whalen is wonderful as Vegas, a little of this goes a long way and it eventually runs out of gas. But at least Whalen avoids beating viewers to death with a one-joke premise.

EXTRA KIBBLES

LOS ANGELES PREMIERE Q&A - Featuring most of the main cast.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director/co-writer/star Sean Whalen.

2 SHORTS - Dorothy: 50 Years Later and Dorothy 2: The Bump and Run feature Sean Whalen in drag as an older, chainsmoking Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

Hopelessly lost.

CURSED IN BAJA (2024/80 min) - Like Whalen, Jeff Daniel Phillips is another recognizable character actor turned B-movie auteur. His frequent appearances in Rob Zombie films has apparently rubbed off on him, since Cursed in Baja has an aesthetic similar to the Firefly Trilogy, albeit on a much smaller budget.

Phillips plays Pirella, a former cop, con and junkie who’s hired by a dying millionnaire to find his missing son, Quinn. His search leads him to Baja, Mexico, where Quinn has apparently fallen in with drug dealers and a weird cult that worships Chupacabra. This cult regularly sacrifices victims to the beast, including the guy who was first-hired to find Quinn.

Despite Phillips’ earnest efforts on both sides of the camera, this thriller/horror hybrid struggles to successfully combine the two genres. While the film maintains a slightly surreal atmosphere and Pirella is kind of an interesting character, the horror elements feel shoehorned into the narrative, and pretty late in the game, too. The monster is nicely rendered and the death scenes are pretty cool, but they’re not enough to overcome a meandering story and drab supporting performances. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

MAKING-OF FEATURETTE - Featuring writer/director/star Jeff Daniel Phillips.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By writer/director/star Jeff Daniel Phillips.

Horror for Dummies.

ABRUPTIO (2023/94 min) - Insanity time, kids…in Abruptio, Les Hackel is a miserable thirtysomething. Struggling with alcoholism, he still lives with his mother, is stuck in a dead-end job and his girlfriend just left him. Life is drab, daily routine…at least until he learns that a bomb has been implanted in his head by some mysterious organization. It’ll explode if he doesn’t comply with each demand they make, so Les is forced to commit some unspeakable acts, including gassing his co-workers to death and executing an innocent family.

But Abruptio is just getting started. The plot also involves mass waves of violence, body disposal, slavery and malevolent aliens trying to crossbreed with humans. The film is relentlessly gory and has a pitch black sense of humor. But here’s the kicker…the characters are all life-sized puppets, which not only renders everything more surreal, it elevates the film above just another slaughterfest. At the same time, this element somehow makes the extreme violence and cruelty little easier to endure. Had it been done with human actors, Abruptio might have been unwatchable…maybe unfilmable.

The use of puppetry for a horror film initially feels like a superfluous gimmick, but it does make this one immediately more interesting. The story itself grows increasingly bizarre and hallucinatory before coming to a conclusion that, depending on the viewer, is either ingenious or a cheat. Either way, Abruptio isn’t for everyone, but chances are good that adventurous horror fans will love every minute of it. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE - A New Kind of Horror features interviews with writer/director Evan Marlowe and most of the main cast.

2 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By writer/director Evan Marlowe % producer Kerry Marlowe; 2) By puppeteer Danny Montooth.

It remains to be seen whether or not any of these low budget oddities achieve any kind of cult status. Of the three, Abruptio probably has the best chance, since it’s easily the most bizarrely original. At any rate, welcome back Anchor Bay.

INTERSTELLAR 10th Anniversary Edition: "No, Daddy! Don’t Go Into Space!”

INTERSTELLAR 10th Anniversary Limited Edition

(4K UHD/Blu-ray)

2014 / 169 min

FROM PARAMOUNT

Review by Princess Pepper😻

I remember my oldest daughter, Natalie, and I first seeing Interstellar in a theater when it was released ten years ago. On the big screen, it was not-only a jaw-dropping visual experience, but a surprisingly affecting one. Though already a pretty big Christopher Nolan fan at the time, this was his first one that actually grabbed me by the feels. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw a sci-fi movie that managed to be this visually, narratively and emotionally compelling. 

Natalie was floored, exiting the theater in tears. My younger daughter, Lucy, reacted the same when she finally watched it at home on Blu-ray. Even with the film’s inevitably-diminished visual impact on TV (no matter how big one's screen is), its ideas, themes and emotional impact are undiminished, which is why it remains Nolan’s most compulsively rewatchable film (in our house anyway). Ever since, whenever I revisit Interstellar - at least once a year - the girls have a running gag where they cry, “No, Daddy! Don’t go into space!”

Stunning special effects and science-based story notwithstanding, it’s the thematic aspects of the film that resonate the most…which have also raised the ire of self-impressed trolls over the years. Like Quentin Tarantino, Nolan has reached that point in his career where pretentious contrarians enjoy discussing how overrated he is, which includes making unfavorable (and stupid) comparisons between Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey, especially regarding the former’s final act. But while Interstellar may have drawn some inspiration from 2001, it was never intended to be another 2001. 

Spring Break in Iceland.

So this 10th Anniversary Limited Edition is obviously not for those whose lives are so devoid of joy that they’d rather nitpick than be swept along. For everyone else, especially the superfans, it’s a must own. The set contains 4K, Blu-ray and digital versions. All boast excellent picture and sound quality, but we’ve been getting those for years. What makes this set worth the upgrade are the all the extras. In addition to a bevy of archival bonus features, there’s a new retrospective documentary, which is mostly an appreciation of the film’s impact and scientific accuracy. 

Best of all, however, are the physical goodies, which includes five miniature replicas of the original promotional one-sheets. Additionally, there’s a sheet of patches representing the missions depicted in the film (which Lucy has already called “dibs” on). Rounding things out is a large multi-page booklet featuring the storyboards from the Miller’s Planet sequence. Everything is packaged in a sturdy, attractive box that’ll look great on any collector’s shelf.

In this writer’s opinion, Interstellar is one of the best films of the 21st Century and among the greatest sci-fi films ever made. For those who feel the same way, the 10th Anniversary Limited Edition is a perfect souvenir. No one else need apply.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

THE FUTURE IS NOW: A LOOK BACK AT INTERSTELLAR - This is an all new 25-minute retrospective documentary, featuring interviews with director/co-writer Christopher Nolan, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, executive producer Kip Thorne, other notable directors (including Denis Villenueve), among others.

THE SCIENCE OF INTERSTELLAR - This is a 50 minute documentary about the science behind the film, narrated by Matthew McConaughey.

INSIDE INTERSTELLAR - 14 individual featurettes, mostly covering the technical aspects, special effects, locations, production design and music. Plotting an Interstellar Journey; Life on Cooper’s Farm; The Dust; Tars and Case (the robots); The Cosmic Sounds of Interstellar (Hans Zimmer’s amazing score); The Space Suits; The Endurance; Shooting in Iceland: Miller’s Planet/Mann’s Planet; The Ranger and the Lander; Miniatures in Space; The Simulation of Zero-G; Celestial Landmarks (more of the science and theories behind the movie); Across All Dimensions and Time (theories behind the tesseract and its construction); Final Thoughts.

ROUNDTABLE - Creating Interstellar, featuring director Christopher Nolan and the primary cast; Experiencing Interstellar, featuring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain.

STORYBOARD BOOK - Of the Miller’s Planet sequence.

5 MOVIE POSTER REPLICAS

5 MISSION PATCHES

TRAILERS

Revisiting GALAXY QUEST in 4K

GALAXY QUEST 25th Anniversary Edition

(4K UHD)

1999 / 102 min

FROM PARAMOUNT

Review by Mr. Paws

Back when I taught middle school, I used to show students a variety of films for a unit where they practiced persuasive writing in the form of reviews. I tried to select titles most weren’t likely to have seen or were aware of, which generally meant a lot of older movies, particularly ones that I thought would illicit the biggest variety of responses…not counting eye-rolling groans over being forced to endure something their parents might have watched.

There was always the usual percentage of kids who poo-pooed anything that existed before they were born, as well as those whose personal tastes precluded reviewing anything without Adam Sandler with an open mind (which admittedly, might have been too much to ask from a room of slack-jawed seventh graders). And of course, some of them couldn’t put down their cellphones long enough to give a damn either way.

But many who were able to tear themselves away from Snapchat really liked Galaxy Quest, which I found interesting. The foundations of this film were built on satirizing a cultural phenomenon from their parents’ (or grandparents’) generation. Few of my students were aware of the old Star Trek TV shows or the fandom they inspired, so most of Galaxy Quest’s spot-on satiric elements were lost on them. Yet they loved it anyway.

Tim Allen reveals where he keeps his fan letters...both of them.

I think that personal anecdote is a fitting testament to Galaxy Quest’s enduring appeal 25 years later. Had the film been strictly satire, its expiration date would’ve come-and-gone faster than you can say Scary Movie, the gags lost on anyone without a common frame of reference. But Galaxy Quest was more than satire. It was also a very clever and funny film in its own right, with engaging characters (as opposed to caricatures) and surprisingly affecting moments. One didn’t actually need to be familiar with sci-fi tropes or fan culture to find the whole thing amusing. 

That, more than anything, is why my students enjoyed it, and why Galaxy Quest remains an enduring cult classic. Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’s seen the film and didn’t like it, which is also the main reason I stopped showing it in class shortly after. Reading 20 seventh-grade papers sharing more-or-less the same glowing opinion makes for a really dull grading session.

For its 25th Anniversary, Paramount is releasing Galaxy Quest in 4K Ultra HD (a SteelBook option is also available). The overall image is pretty good, better than the previous Blu-ray, but the most significant upgrade is the Dolby Atmos audio track, which is suitably atmospheric and nicely balanced. In addition to a large selection of archival bonus material, this one includes a new 20 minute featurette with director Dean Parisot.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FILMMAKER FOCUS - This is a new featurette in which director Dean Parisot takes an affectionate look back at the making of the film.

FEATURETTES - Historical Documents: The Story of Galaxy Quest; Never Give Up, Never Surrender: The Intrepid Crew of the NSEA Protector; By Grabthar’s Hammer, What Amazing Effects; Alien School: Creating the Thermian Race; Actors in Space; Sigourney Weaver Raps (why, dear, why?).

DELETED SCENES

THERMIAN AUDIO TRACK (!)

DIGITAL COPY