Revisiting LETHAL WEAPON in 4K

LETHAL WEAPON (4K UHD)

1987 / 110 & 117 min (2 versions)

Warner Bros

#InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Mr. Paws😺

Lethal Weapon isn’t the first buddy-cop action film (1974’s Freebie and the Bean might hold that distinction), nor is it the best (I’ll still throw my hat in the ring for the original 48 Hrs). However, it is arguably the quintessential one.

For better or worse, its influence on the action genre was far-reaching and can still be felt today. The list of films obviously inspired by Lethal Weapon runs longer than the Magna Carta. including Tango & Cash, Red Heat, Renegades, Alien Nation, The Hard Way, Midnight Run, The Rookie, Double Team, Bad Boys, The Last Boy Scout, Loose Cannons, Money Train, Ride Along, Rush Hour, Cop Out, The Nice Guys, The Heat…you get the idea. There are literally hundreds more.

Mel Gibson plays Martin Riggs, a psychotic cop whose suicidal tendencies make him fearless during stand-offs; Danny Glover is Roger Murtaugh, his beleaguered new partner and a straight-arrow family man on the verge of retirement. Like every similar movie which followed in its wake, they hate each other at first, but during the course of the story, become best friends while taking down a nefarious crew of heroin dealers.

Of course, the movie is to police work what Star Wars is to space travel. If the movie truly reflected reality, we'd be sitting through Internal Affairs hearings and psychological examinations of Martin Riggs, both conducted to get this psycho-with-a-badge off the streets. But Lethal Weapon was never about plot and plausibility. I’d even be willing to wager many of you reading this probably forgot the plot.

Mel didn't ask how hot dogs were made, but Danny told him anyway.

However, Richard Donner’s humorous approach to the mayhem and the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry between Gibson & Glover is unforgettable, sustaining the franchise through three sequels (though only the second film really measured up to the first, and actually surpasses it in some aspects). The main protagonists’ personalities and banter are so well-conceived and cleverly written that the story itself almost never matters. It’s also an approach that screenwriter Shane Black would practically base his entire career on (with a surprising amount of continued success).

All this makes Lethal Weapon a landmark action film. Along with Die Hard, it has had a bigger impact on the genre than anything else released in the 1980s. A couple of years shy of its 40th anniversary, the movie is being given a 4K facelift with a disc that features a better overall picture than previous Blu-rays or DVDs, as well as two audio options, a new Dolby Atmos track and DTS-HD 2.0, which preserves the original theatrical mix. Speaking of which, the disc includes both the original and director’s cut, that latter of which is only offered in Dolby Atmos. There are couple of brief new retrospective bonus features, but none of the substantial extras available on previous editions are included. Of course, Lethal Weapon deserves to be in any action collection, but the primary appeal of this 4K edition are the technical upgrades.

EXTRA KIBBLES

THEATRICAL & DIRECTOR’S CUTS - The director’s cut runs about seven minutes longer, and while it’s not necessarily an improvement, one particular scene offers a little more insight on the mindset of the Martin Riggs character.

FEATURETTES - Both of these are new and look like they were put together at the same time, featuring the same cast & crew interviewees. A Legacy of Inspiration pays tribute to the late Richard Donner; “I’m Too Old for This…” takes a look at casting the film.

DIGITAL COPY

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR: Ross the Boss

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (Blu-ray)

1962 / 123 min

Sony

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😺

Blake Edwards’ legacy has him largely associated with comedies, probably for good reason since some of them rank among his best. But he directed plenty of films in other genres to varying degrees of success. One of them was 1962’s Experiment in Terror, a nifty piece of neo-noir starring Glenn Ford and Lee Remick.

Remick plays Kelly Sherwood, a bank teller who’s threatened at home with an ultimatum by a shadowy figure: Steal $100,000 from the bank where she works. If Kelly fails, refuses or calls the police, not only will he kill her, but kid sister Toby (a very young Stephanie Powers). Still, she does manage to alert FBI agent John Ripley (Glenn Ford), who immediately puts both sisters under constant surveillance while trying to ID and locate the man before Kelly’s forced to commit the robbery.

The suspect turns out to be a man named Garland “Red” Lynch, who has not-only committed previous robberies in the same manner, he’s a dangerous, sadistic killer who also appears to be sort of a pedophile. For me, the big surprise of the film is that Red is played by none other than Ross Martin. I’m used to seeing him in such lighter TV fare as The Wild, Wild West and The Twilight Zone. But not only is Martin wonderfully disturbing as Red, he manages to steal the film from his bigger co-stars (and was nominated for a Golden Globe).

Waiting for the next available agent.

Elsewhere, Ford is his reliable solid self, giving his no-nonsense character quiet intensity. I’ll be upfront and confess I’ve never been a huge fan of Remick, and here, she’s required to do little outside of her wheelhouse, which is to look terrified. It doesn’t help that her character isn’t particularly interesting to begin with. But hey, somebody has to be put in peril…otherwise we wouldn’t get the tension filled climax set at a crowded ballpark.

Experiment in Terror is a little overlong, and I can’t help but feel that a director who specializes in crime thrillers could have tidied up the story to a brisk 90 minutes. Still, the film is stylishly directed by Edwards, who deftly incorporates a film noir aesthetic to the largely police procedural story. The result is one his better films outside of the comedy genre.

NOVOCAINE is Painless Fun

NOVOCAINE (4K UHD)

2025 / 109 min

Paramount

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😺

At the movies, Jack Quaid has had a pretty damn good year. First was Companion, a terrific sci-fi thriller where he’s deliciously hateful. Then in Novocaine, he’s an unlikely action hero with an unusual condition that ultimately gives him an advantage over numerous antagonists. 

Introverted, socially awkward assistant bank manager Nathan Caine suffers from a disorder that prevents him from feeling any physical pain, so he goes to great measures to assure he doesn’t unknowingly injure himself. However, when he falls for bank teller Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), she sort-of brings him out of his shell, encouraging him to try new things. The first act does a fine job getting the viewer invested in both of them.

The next day, their bank is robbed by a crew led by violent, psychotic Simon Greenly (Ray Nicholson). They shoot their way out and take Sherry hostage. With all the surrounding cops dead or injured, Nathan jumps into one of the police cars to go after them and try to save Sherry. That’s the basic set-up for the premise, where Nathan’s inability to feel pain becomes kind of a superpower, even though he’s unskilled at physical conflict and can still be wounded...maybe fatally. 

"YAHTZEE!"

Though Novocaine unfolds like a standard action thriller with relatively few narrative surprises (save for a revelation about one major character that I didn’t see coming), what makes it so damn entertaining is Nathan’s condition. While hunting these guys down one by one (and being pursued by police, who think he’s an accomplice), he’s repeatedly subjected to a variety of gruesome injuries, some of which are wince-inducing. What makes much of the graphic violence genuinely funny is Quaid’s likable performance and his character's reaction to it (as well as the violence he inflicts on others). 

But Novocaine isn’t a one-joke movie, nor is all the violence played for laughs. It’s not-so-much a comedy as an action film that happens to be funny, clever and features engaging characters. In fact, the story itself is the least interesting aspect, more or less playing out exactly how you’d expect. The best part is Jack Quaid, who’s really on a roll lately.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

FEATURETTES - Prepare for Pain: Pre-Production; A World of Hurt: Production; Maximum Physical Damage: Makeup Effects. The titles tell all for these entertaining behind-the-scenes segments.

A MINECRAFT MOVIE: A Die Hard's Perspective

A MINECRAFT MOVIE (Blu-ray)

2025 / 101 min

Warner Bros

#InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Lucy A. (who grew up on the game)

Like a lot of kids of my generation, I grew up obsessed with Minecraft. For a long time, I didn’t have a way to play it myself, so I’d watch YouTube videos of other people playing. Until one day, I finally convinced my dad to download the mobile version on his iPad. From that point on. I was obsessed with the game for years. I would spend hours building and creating my own stories. Minecraft was sort of the gateway into my gaming hobby. Now that I’m an adult, I play it a lot less than I used to, but the game still holds a special place in my heart. Which is why when I saw trailers for A Minecraft Movie, I knew I needed to see it. 

If you’ve seen any of the trailers or other clips from the movie, whatever your first impressions are, they’re probably right. The movie seemed a bit cringey and was ‘lip/meme farming’ (meaning that the movie is actively trying to get popular going viral with funny clips, rather than being an entertaining movie as a whole). Surprise! The trailers didn’t lie. 

While watching the movie, it felt like the film was really leaning into random/unexpected humor. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, since that sort of humor is popular among kids and that’s ultimately the target audience. However, a lot of the jokes or bits seemed to be kinda forced. Still, the movie was funny. Was it funny in how the directors intended? That’s debatable. To me and the group of friends I saw the film with, it was funny because we were all constantly thinking, “I can’t believe they thought this was a good idea.” 

The plot is also lacking. Some might argue that a movie targeted towards children can’t be expected to have a good or meaningful plot that’s entertaining to both kids and adults. But there are tons of kids movies that I’ve enjoyed as an adult that genuinely have good plots and messages that are appreciated by all audiences. Unfortunately, A Minecraft Movie is not one of them. 

Not every movie needs to have a message. It could be purely just for shits and giggles. However, it’s clear that the film wanted to send some sort of message, but just couldn’t decide what. There are loose themes of “being different is okay” and “creativity is good,” but they aren’t touched upon throughout the entire movie until the end. Any messages they were trying to convey seemed very (for lack of a better term) half-assed. 

Square Pigs

I’ll give it this…making a story based on a game with no story is very hard. If you didn’t know, Minecraft is a sandbox game, meaning that it’s open-world, and there isn’t a path or a set of goals for the player to follow. There isn’t any story in the base game, which is why it’s seen more as a starting point for people to create their own. Whether people make their own worlds, create their own narratives, or simply just survive, Minecraft is seen as a creative base for its players. Maybe that’s what the film itself may have been trying to do. 

This might come as a surprise given what was previously written, but I did enjoy the movie. The movie was objectively bad - not just as a video game movie either - but I found myself enjoying every second of it. Sure, a lot of it was eye-rolling and a little painful to watch at times, but I still had a lot of fun. Maybe it’s because I’m biased and I love Minecraft. Maybe it’s because I saw it with close friends with a similar attachment to the game. Or maybe it’s because I know, deep down, 10-year-old Lucy would have been thrilled that a game she loved so much was on the big screen. 

If you grew up with the game, you might get a kick out of it. If you have kids who did, they will definitely like it. If you have no attachment to the game whatsoever, don't bother. 

EXTRA KIBBLES:

FEATURETTES -  Building the World of Minecraft: Block Party; Creepers, Zombies and Endermen Oh My!;  A Minecraft Movie: Pixel Pals; A Minecraft Movie: Block Beats; Marlene + Nitwit.

THE AMATEUR (2025): A Shiny Penny

THE AMATEUR (Digital) 

2025 / 123 min

From 20th Century Studios

Review by Princess Pepper😽

On Digital NOW and 4K, Blu-ray & DVD July 8.

If you must remake an older film, why not choose one that wasn’t all that great or memorable to begin with?

1981’s The Amateur certainly qualifies. I think I watched this one on cable a year or two after it came and went in theaters. While certainly watchable, it was nothing particularly remarkable. 40+ years later, I recall almost nothing about the film beyond its title and star (John Savage).

This new version is sort of a shiny new penny, with sequences and special effects typical of most modern action films. But a shiny penny is still just a penny. While 2025’s The Amateur is an enjoyable thriller featuring a solid performance by an actor who isn’t the first name that comes-to-mind for this sort of thing, this one isn’t particularly memorable either.

Rami Malek plays Charlie Heller, a nebbish CIA cryptologist who spends most days behind a desk. When his wife is murdered by terrorists while travelling abroad, he understandably wants revenge. Though Charlie’s boss, CIA director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany) assures him that they’ll find those responsible and bring them to justice, Charlie wants to kill them personally and insists they train him for that very thing.

Since Charlie has discovered Moore has the CIA involved in shady activities related to these same terrorists, he blackmails his boss into agreeing. Despite some training by Hendo Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), Charlie doesn’t have what it takes to actually shoot someone. However, targeting the terrorists with his tech skills is another matter altogether. This leads to some creative kills once Charlie begins hunting them down (easily the highlight of the movie). Meanwhile, Heller orders Hendo to find and kill Charlie.

Remi gets carded.

Though Malek gives an earnest, sympathetic and mostly believable performance, the movie’s a little poky at first. Things liven up once he discovers methods of killing that he is good at. Those scenes are creatively depicted and a lot of fun, especially one involving explosives and a glass swimming pool bridging two hotel towers. 

However, the story itself is a standard issue revenge thriller that holds few surprises. The only real difference between Charlie and any other grieving husband avenging his wife is that he doesn’t use a gun. For the most part, none of the other characters really stand-out either, including the antagonists, a majority of whom are introduced just before they’re about to die.

Ultimately, The Amateur is an enjoyable time killer with decent action sequences, but offers little we haven’t seen before. While it ain’t two hours of your life you’ll never get back, most viewers probably won’t give it another thought afterwards. Kinda like the original.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - The Team; The World; The Pool (making of the film’s best scene); The Score.

5 DELETED SCENES

CATNIP REVIEWS: Sorcerer 4K, The Tale of Oiwa's Ghost & More

Snack-sized opinions from the frisky folks at Free Kittens...

SORCERER (4K/Blu-ray) - William Friedkin’s Sorcerer has been one of my favorite films since I was 13 and first caught it at the Southgate Quad as the bottom half of a double feature. Though initially a critical and box office failure, it’s now widely considered one of Friedkin’s best. Today, the film remains as darkly compelling as ever, and looks & sounds stunning in 4K. If that weren’t enough, this release includes the wonderful 2018 feature-length documentary, Friedkin Uncut. One of the best 4K discs of the year. (Criterion Collection).

THE BIKINI CARWASH COMPANY I & II (Blu-ray) - Before the days of the internet, mom & pop video stores usually had a back room where the porn was kept. Amorous young men still not old enough to venture through those curtains had to settle for stuff like this. The Bikini Carwash Company and its sequel are emblematic of the type of straight-to-video titillation available back then. With a title like that, the emphasis is obviously on boobs over brains. An archaic & cringeworthy product of its time. (MVD Rewind Collection)

THE TALE OF OIWA’S GHOST (Blu-ray) - This 1961 horror film is one of many adaptations of a legendary Japanese ghost story. It involves a sadistic, self-absorbed samurai who decides to off his ailing wife so he can marry into a wealthy family. Sort of confusing at first, a majority of the film is dedicated to establishing its main character as a conniving, hateful bastard. As such, the onscreen cruelty on display is morbidly compelling. The real horror, however, kicks in during the unnerving final act, which can be seen as the precursor to the J-horror phenomenon three decades later. (Radiance Films)

THE DREW CAREY SHOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES (DVD) - Well, it’s almost complete. Four episodes are actually missing, presumably due to rights to the music used in them. Other than that, all nine seasons are here, though I’d argue that the show lost most of its luster after six. Still, those early episodes remain extraordinarily funny, with Carey more than willing to share the spotlight with his equally funny co-stars. There ain’t much in the way of bells & whistles (just a 20 minute featurette), but it’s a must for fans. (Warner Bros)

TERMINUS: Campy Chaos

TERMINUS (Blu-ray)

1987 / 115 & 85 min (2 versions)

MVD Rewind Collection

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😼

Though I practically lived at my local video store back in the ‘80s, I don’t recall ever coming across this title on the shelves. Maybe it was there and I never noticed, or maybe it just happened to be rented out whenever I popped in. But based on the cover art, suggesting yet another Road Warrior rip-off, Terminus is something I probably would have rented.

Not that I would’ve expected a good movie (in the traditional sense, anyway). Countless low budget Road Warrior ripoffs were cranked out back then (a lot of ‘em hailing from Europe…mostly Italy) and none of them were ever mistaken for good. However, “good” is not always synonymous with entertaining. Some of these films were great fun, often at their own expense.

True to form, Terminus isn’t a good movie either, but does boast a WTF quality that's kind of a kick (again, at its own expense). This one's a French-German co-production that, unlike the stuff oozing from Italy, looks like there’s actually a sizeable budget behind it. However, the kitchen sink story is so all-over-the-place that it's often baffling, sometimes amusingly so. 

Terminus has its own Mad Max in Stump, played by hunky French rock star Johnny Hallyday. He drives an AI-powered truck called Monster in a game developed by a child genius who turns out to be a clone of another genius known as “Doctor” (Jürgen Prochnow, playing three different roles, including one where he’s costumed like a drag queen). The object of the game is to reach a place called Terminus while dodging violent attacks by “The Greys,” who pursue him in tanks but mostly end up crashing & burning (sort of making them the vehicular version of Imperial Stormtroopers).

Nothing gets in the way of Amazon Prime delivery.

Karen Allen shows up for awhile as Monster’s initial driver and Stump’s hilariously brief love interest, but her role is superfluous. Things get complicated when the AI (depicted as a disembodied mouth on the truck’s dashboard) malfunctions and begins to feel bad about itself. Oh…and did I mention the dreaded Ghost Truck, lurking in the periphery and driven by another character played by Prochnow? 

There’s goofy action here and there, some of it looking rather expensive, though most of the movie’s camp appeal lies in the batshit story and an overall aesthetic that practically screams 1980s (including your standard issue synth score and a central control room that resembles a nightclub). Terminus is junk, but can be entertaining junk if one is in the right frame of mind (or tripping on shrooms).

Of all the Road Warrior ripoffs glutting shelves in the ‘80s, Terminus is definitely one of the weirder ones. A fitting addition to the MVD Rewind Collection, this disc includes two versions of the movie, the U.S. version and the European director’s cut, which runs a half-hour longer. There are significant story and tonal differences between them, though the latter is arguably the best cut since it tends to be a little more comprehensible. It also comes with a decent selection of bonus features (outlined below). 

EXTRA KIBBLES

EUROPEAN & U.S. VERSIONS

WE ALL DESCEND: THE MAKING OF TERMINUS is a 50-minute retrospective doc featuring interviews with director Pierre-William Glenn, as well as his son and daughter, the latter of whom had a major role in Terminus as a child. This is a surprisingly revealing feature.

INTERVIEW WITH JÜRGEN PROCHNOW - The actor discusses his career, particularly following Das Boot and leading up to this film.

PHOTO GALLERY

REVERSIBLE COVER

MINI POSTER

TRAILER