THE POOP SCOOP: Classics & New Classics

🙀WEAPONS on Digital Now and Blu-ray, 4K & DVD October 14 from Warner Bros. When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance. The supernatural horror thriller, which has earned more than $136 million at the U.S. box office and over $239 million worldwide, stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, with Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan. The acclaimed original horror film has a Certified Fresh score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Cregger directs from his own screenplay, and also produces alongside Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, with Michelle Morrissey and Josh Brolin executive producing. The filmmaker’s creative team behind the camera includes director of photography Larkin Seiple, production designer Tom Hammock, editor Joe Murphy and costume designer Trish Sommerville. The music is by Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay and Zach Cregger.

😺TRON and TRON: LEGACY Now on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Disney. TRON was digitally scanned and carefully restored by The Walt Disney Film Restoration team, who corrected dirt, warping, and other imperfections to ensure pristine image quality. The work was supervised by director Steven Lisberger. TRON: Legacy has been remastered in High Dynamic Range from the original digital sources under the supervision of director Joseph Kosinski. Meticulously remastered, both films transport audiences back to the digital frontier with an experience more immersive, dynamic, and visually spectacular than ever before. It is also available on digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home, the releases showcase breathtaking Dolby Vision picture quality and pulse-pounding Dolby Atmos audio for the ultimate home-viewing experience. Re-watch the two films before the new film TRON: Ares is released in theaters October 10.

🙀The Gialli Cult Classic, A HYENA IN THE SAFE, on Blu-ray November 25 from Celluloid Dreams. One safe. Six keys. Six robbers, each expecting their cut of a diamond heist when they finally meet to divide their spoils after months in hiding. But before they can open the safe that guards their glittering hoard, they are mysteriously killed, one by one. With fear and suspicion growing among the shrinking group of survivors, it becomes clear that one of them is trying to take all the diamonds for themselves! Directed and co-written by Cesare Canevari (MATALO!), A Hyena in the Safe is a remarkable caper/giallo crossover filled with dark humor and moments of psychedelic glory. The fallout from this heist will make your head spin with its inventive, over-the-top deaths and a free-spirited attitude that only the flamboyant '60s could produce. A Hyena in the Safe has never been officially released in the US. In fact, no English dub exists, and this Blu-ray release will feature the film in its original Italian language with English subtitles exclusively. 

😺NOBODY 2 on Digital Now and 4K, Blu-ray and DVD October 7 from Universal. Bob Odenkirk returns as Hutch, an overworked assassin who just needs a break, in this bareknuckle action-thriller. 

🙀SHUDDER: A DECADE OF FEARLESS HORROR and CREEPSHOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES on Blu-ray November 11 from Shudder. 10 of the streaming service’s best movies in one boxed set. On the same day, Shudder releases all four seasons of their acclaimed anthology series, Creepshow, based on the original film by George A. Romero and Stephen King. 

😹THE NAKED GUN (2025) on 4K, Blu-ray & DVD November 11 from Paramount. Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) follows in his father's footsteps in THE NAKED GUN, directed by Akiva Schaffer. Joining the case are Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes, Liza Koshy, Eddie Yu, with Danny Huston. 

😺David Cronenberg’s THE SHROUDS on Blu-ray & DVD October 21 from Criterion Collection. David Cronenberg returns with one of his most personal films, an audacious, elegiac exploration of grief, mortality, and love wrapped in the guise of a corporate-espionage thriller. 

😺THE LIFE OF CHUCK on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD September 30 from Decal/Neon. This unforgettable tale celebrates the life of Chuck Krantz as he experiences love, loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us. 

😺A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 7-FILM COLLECTION on 4K September 30 from Warner Bros. From his first terrifying appearance on Elm Street to his resurrection through nightmares, the collection includes the original seven films. 

😺James Gunn’s SUPERMAN on Digital NOW, Coming to 4K, Blu-ray & DVD September 23 from Warner Bros. In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original Super Hero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind. 

🙀CREEPSHOW 2 on 4K UHD September 30 from Arrow Video. The Limited Edition 4K UHD features a brand new 4K restoration from the original negative, packed with hours of special features and an illustrated collector’s booklet.

😺MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING on Digital August 19 and 4K & Blu-ray October 14 from Paramount. Both the digital and physical releases come with hours of bonus content, including behind-the-scenes interviews, exclusive commentary, and deleted footage not seen in theatres.

😺AIRPORT: THE COMPLETE 4-FILM COLLECTION on 4K and Blu-ray September 30 from Kino Lorber. This 4-Film collection includes all four newly-restored Airport movies, accompanied by new audio commentaries.

THUNDERBOLTS*: A Breath of Fresh Air

THUNDERBOLTS* (Digital)

2025 / 127 min

Marvel Studios

Review by Princess Pepper😺

Thunderbolts* is now available on Digital, and will be released on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD July 29.

At the very least, Thunderbolts* doesn’t hinge its entire narrative on events which occurred in previous Marvel films or TV shows. Its main protagonists are lesser known, previously introduced MCU characters, but the film does a decent job re-establishing them for newbies. So unlike Marvel’s recent attempts to extend its increasingly rote universe, this one actually works quite well as a stand-alone story.

It’s also pretty damn funny. I know that probably sticks in the craw of militant fanboys who take their superheroes way too seriously, but there’s a good reason Deadpool & Wolverine and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 have been among Marvel’s few recent financial bright spots. And like Guardians, the ample amount of humor throughout Thunderbolts* feels organic, mostly stemming from the characters’ distinctive personalities rather than an abundance of jokey one-liners. Ultimately, it’s the kind of Marvel movie one might recommended to those who profess to hate them (save for the DC emos still worshiping at the alter of Zack Snyder).

The story itself is perfunctory. Yelena (Florence Pugh) is a Black Widow assassin who regularly does dirty work for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), as does John Walker (Wyatt Russell), who was once slated to be the next Captain America. Facing impeachment for her questionable experiments trying to create a super-human hero (called the Sentry project), Valentina instructs Yelena to go to Malaysia and destroy the lab containing all the evidence, while ordering Walker to kill Yelena, and ordering Ava Starr (aka Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen) to kill Walker. Instead, they discover an amnesiac young man named Bob, the result of Valentina’s experiment. Now she wants everyone but Bob dead.

"I told you if we parked here we'd get towed."

Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), now a rookie congressman, is trying to expose Valentina’s illegal activies, while Yelena’s estranged father, Alexei (aka Red Guardian, played by David Harbour) saves her, Walker and Ghost. All of them reluctantly (since they have no love for each other) team up to save Bob, though his emerging God-like powers, hastened by Valentina, prove too formidable. But really, the story is of secondary importance. What really matters here are the characters. Though most were introduced in other films, Thunderbolts* makes them engaging and likable…even Parker with all his cockiness. Their antagonistic relationships and bickering banter are often very funny, occasionally kind of touching.

Additionally, this is a surprisingly low-key affair for a Marvel movie. There’s still plenty of action, but comparatively speaking, it’s fairly grounded and never threatens to take over the entire film, not even during the climax. And even though these characters all have dark pasts (especially Bob, it turns out), the overall tone is breezy and fun, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. I especially liked the origins of the Thunderbolts name, as well as the story's amusing denouement.

Does Thunderbolts* rank among the best MCU films? No, but it’s certainly the most purely entertaining one in quite awhile. In a way, it’s not unlike a triumph-of-the-underdog sports movie: These guys are initially branded losers, but over the coarse of the story, they overcome personal individual shortcomings to find strength as a team, part of what makes it kind of a breath of fresh air.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Around the World and Back Again; Assembling a Team to Remember; All About Bob, Sentry and the Void.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Jake Schreier.

BLOOPERS - As usual, it’s mostly the cast clowning in up for the camera.

3 DELETED SCENES

THE POOP SCOOP: Upcoming Kibbles!

🧟1990’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - UNCENSORED CUT on 4K SteelBook September 23 from Sony. It’s about damn time. Legendary make-up artist Tom Savini’s directorial debut is the underappreciated remake of George A. Romero’s seminal zombie film, Night of the Living Dead. Now available in 4K, with two versions, as well as gobs of new bonus features.

🤠THE UNHOLY TRINITY on Digital NOW, and Blu-ray DVD August 26. A tale of revenge, dark secrets, and buried treasures, the film is set against the turbulent backdrop of 1870s Montana. It picks up in the moments before the execution of Isaac Broadway, as he gives his estranged son, Henry, an impossible task: Murder the man who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Intent on fulfilling his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, where an unexpected turn of events traps him in town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove, the town’s upstanding new sheriff, and a mysterious figure named St Christopher. Starring Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.

🦸THUNDERBOLTS* on Digital NOW and 4K, Blu-ray & DVD July 29. Thunderbolts* turns up the heat this summer as it blasts onto digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home on July 1, before making its explosive entry on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 29. The Thunderbolts are The New Avengers, the ultimate surprise to both audiences and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine as this misfit team of burned assets rallies their powers and unites against all odds. Their namesake movie Thunderbolts* is an action-packed, international adventure, with audiences embracing the film’s super-powered humor and adrenaline. 

😺Oscar Winning FLOW on 4K, Blu-ray & DVD September 23 from Criterion Collection. A thrilling tale of friendship and survival that took indie animation to ecstatic new heights of ambition and imagination, this Academy Award–winning international sensation follows a courageous cat after its home is devastated by a great flood. 

🎸THIS IS SPINAL TAP Goes to 11 on 4K & Blu-ray September 16 from Criterion Collection. This Is Spinal Tap, now beautifully restored, Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) embark on their final American tour, with filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) capturing all the mishaps, creative tensions, dwindling crowds, and ill-fated drummers. 

🐶Wes Anderson’s ISLE OF DOGS on 4K September 30 from Criterion Collection. Wes Anderson conjures a dystopian future Japan in magical stop-motion. Innovatively blending English and Japanese dialogue through a cross-cultural voice cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Yoko Ono, and Koyu Rankin, this fable of loyalty and disobedience combines Anderson’s signature themes.

🙀FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES on Digital June 17, 4K, Blu-ray and DVD July 22 from Warner Bros. “Final Destination Bloodlines” is the newest chapter (and the great Tony Todd’s final role) in New Line Cinema’s bloody successful franchise which takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice.

🐍COBRA Limited Edition 4K Coming July/22 from Arrow Video. The Limited Edition release features a brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original 35mm negative, and is packed with bonus content. 

😺THE WES ANDERSON ARCHIVE: 10 FILMS, 25 YEARS Coming to 4K & Blu-ray September 30 from Criterion Collection. This momentous twenty-disc collector’s set includes new 4K masters of the films, over twenty-five hours of special features, and ten illustrated books, presented in a deluxe clothbound edition.

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

SCREAMBOAT: Exactly What You Think It Is

SCREAMBOAT (Blu-ray)

2025 / 102 min

From Deskpop Entertainment

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

We horror fans are a hopeful bunch. 

Of course, we always hope a movie will be scary, but also know not every director is John Carpenter, not every movie is The Exorcist. Sometimes all we can hope is that whoever’s behind the camera is competent enough to keep it in focus. That's how I approached Screamboat, the latest in the recent spate of low-budget, public domain raiding slasher flicks.

I haven’t seen the likes of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and its ilk, but based on damn near every review, Walt Disney must be rolling in his grave. Still, I try to review every movie with an open mind, even if it reeks of an opportunistic, budget-conscious cash grab.  

At the very least, Screamboat is competently made. A blood-drenched parody of Disney’s first Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Willie, this one is set onboard the Staten Island ferry, where Willie (David Howard Thornton) is a monstrous, oversized rodent gleefully slaughtering his way through most of the cast. The film is mostly played for laughs, and actually earns a few here and there. There are also plenty of references to other Disney movies, some clever, some eye-rolling.

Willie reads his reviews.

For the most part though, Screamboat is exactly the movie you think it’s gonna be. Depending on the viewer, that’s either a glowing recommendation or a warning to stay away. The movie exists solely because the original cartoon recently became public domain. With broad caricatures and perfunctory performances by a batch of no-name actors (save for Day of the Dead’s Jarlath Conroy), it’s largely driven by its concept and gory death scenes…some of which are kind of amusing.

At 102 minutes, Screamboat is way too long for what’s basically a one-joke movie. It ain’t great, but as cheap & sleazy cash-grabs go, I can't honestly say it's disappointing. And while Walt definitely wouldn't approve, at least director Steven LaMorte manages a bit more than simply keeping the camera in focus.

KITTEN COLLECTIBLES #12: Re-Entering THE BLACK HOLE

A Treasure Hunt by D.M. ANDERSON💀

In addition to watching and writing about films, I’m something of a memorabilia collector. Cursed with a teacher’s salary, I ain’t out there bidding on Dorothy’s ruby slippers or anything, but certainly enjoy haunting local shops for a variety of movie-related stuff. Or when feeling particularly bold, I’ll occasionally overpay for some retro relic on eBay. More often than not, I leave stores empty-handed. But every now and then, I’ll find a small treasure that doesn’t completely empty my wallet and give it a new home in the Dave Cave.

In Kitten Collectibles #3, I wrote of my antique finds related to Walt Disney’s space opera suppository, The Black Hole. Released in 1979 and touted as the studio’s first PG-rated movie, this was Disney’s attempt to capitalize on the success of Star Wars. They failed, of course, but not for a lack of trying, which included pumping out gobs of tie-in merchandise…including books, lunchboxes, school supplies, records, games and action figures, the last of which is ironic since the movie hardly has any real action. Unless he had faulty wiring upstairs, I doubt there was a single kid who ever put an Earnest Borgnine figure on their Christmas list. Most of this stuff ended up on clearance shelves faster than the E.T. Atari game.

The Black Hole is not, nor has ever been, a good movie (you can read my personal assessment HERE), though it’s since earned something of a cult following among middle-age sci-fi fans whose judgment might be clouded by nostalgia. That’s not to say I don’t like the movie. There have been numerous occasions when I’ve revisited The Black Hole and enjoyed its kitschiness. 

And as a collector who regularly haunts local Portland antique stores, I have found myself grabbing anything related to The Black Hole over the years, not because I’m some sort of superfan, but because this shit doesn’t show up that often. Most shops are glutted with Star Wars toys unloaded by guys who probably held onto them since childhood thinking it was a path to early retirement. But The Black Hole? That’s fucking rare, and I still keep a vigilant eye out for that elusive Ernest Borgnine action figure. 

In the interim, I recently added to my unintentional Black Hole shrine with a few more treasures…

The wife and I visited Portland’s Memory Den for the first time. Located in an old warehouse, it’s a two-story antique mall loaded with interesting booths, though some of them are the obvious result of someone cleaning out their garage, or trying to push old clothes as “vintage” before giving up and unloading them at Goodwill. There was also a section with old arcade games, which the proprietors encourage patrons to try out. Hence, there were two middle aged guys so intensely engaged in a tabletop hockey game that you’d think they were competing for the Stanley Cup.

When I wasn’t startled like being tased by these two fuckers every time one scored a goal, I managed to find some cool stuff, the real treasure being The Black Hole Space Alert Game. Being 46 years old, the box wasn’t in great shape, but all the pieces were intact! I’d never seen it before, but after reading the instructions, it’s basically a variation of Candyland, where players have to escape the Cygnus by making their way to the probe ship. As movie tie-in games go, this one is kinda lame (like the movie), but the board, which unfolds like a Twister mat, is pretty cool. 

I briefly considered asking my oldest daughter, Natalie, if she’d be interested in playing a round. She’s 30 now, but the original Candyland was one of her favorites when she was little. However, I also remember it was her first hard lesson that life isn’t always fair, and she'd often rage-quit by throwing the pieces and flipping the board when things didn’t go her way. While I’m sure she’s gotten over that by now, I decided not to risk the same thing happening to my latest treasure. 

So I’ve added the game to other recent finds related to The Black Hole, such as the novelization by Alan Dean Foster (which is actually pretty good). More amusingly, I found the children’s book, a family-friendly version of the original story. Part of Disney’s Wonderful World of Reading series, the story is told from the POV of V.I.N.C.E.N.T., the movie’s obligatory “cute” robot. To avoid traumatizing the kiddos, it mercifully leaves out the parts where every character dies and main antagonist Hans Reinhardt ends up in hell with evil robot Maximillian. 

Without really trying, I’ve acquired nearly as much Black Hole memorabilia as I have for genuinely great sci-fi films like Alien. And I'll keep doing so until I snag that Harry Booth action figure. What the hell is wrong with me?