ÆON FLUX (4K): The Anniversary You Probably Forgot

ÆON FLUX 20th Anniversary Edition (4K UHD SteelBook)

2005 / 92 min

Paramount

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😾

A 20th Anniversary edition of Æon Flux? I could be wrong, but isn’t that like celebrating the anniversary of a single date you had with someone whose name and face you barely remember?

For the sake of clarity, Æon Flux was an animated sci-fi series that aired on MTV back in the 1990s. This live-action film starring Charlize Theron followed about a decade later, which was a critical and box office dud. Then it sort of became forgotten, never developing anything resembling a cult following (though it has been repeatedly released on Blu-ray and DVD over the years). Now it’s getting the 4K SteelBook treatment, so surely someone out there must fondly recall this one. Right?

This is the first time I’ve ever actually watched it. Having never seen the original show either, I have no idea how it measures up or if it’s faithful to the source material, but it does a fairly decent job establishing the dystopian setting, where a virus has wiped out most of the world’s population. The remaining five million people survive within the walls of a single city called Bregna. However, not everything is hunky dory. Bregna is under authoritarian rule by the Goodchilds, the family whose ancestors created the city in the first place.

The world's greatest lawn ornament.

Theron plays the title character, a kick-ass supersoldier who fights with a telepathic resistance group called the Monicans. After her sister is mistakenly identified as a Monican and murdered, Æon accepts a mission to kill Bregna’s leader, Trevor (Marton Csokas). But not only is it revealed the two have a past together, Trevor’s being undermined by his own counsel, led by hot-headed brother, Oren (Jonny Lee Miller). 

Æon Flux is competently made and features the expected quota of CGI-enhanced action and special effects. However, there’s absolutely nothing memorable about it, visually or narratively. Theron looks good and gives a dedicated physical performance, but her character is purely defined by action (hell, she barely reacts to her own sister’s death). Everyone else is even less defined. It all moves along at an urgent pace, but at no point are we instilled with the same urgency. We’re simply watching everything unfold with the enthusiasm of watching someone else play a video game.

Aside from Theron’s costume and its combat-functional boob window, I can’t think of a single noteworthy scene or moment that raises Æon Flux above anything but empty eye candy. Still, if that single date you had with someone left a lasting impression, the film has been given a pretty decent 4K facelift and comes with bonus features carried over from previous releases. I suppose the biggest selling point would be the new SteelBook packaging, which features a variation of the original promotional artwork, but is at least an improvement over the crappy looking Blu-ray SteelBook from a few years ago.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

FEATURETTES - Creating a World: Aeon Flux; The Locations of Aeon Flux; The Stunts of Aeon Flux; The Costume Design Workshop of Aeon Flux; The Craft of the Set Photographer on Aeon Flux.

2 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By Charlize Theron & producer Gale Anne Hurd; 2) By screenwriters Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi.

THE POOP SCOOP: Space, Spinal Tap & Stephen King

🙀Stephen King’s THE LONG WALK on Digital October 21 and 4K, Blu-ray & DVD November 25 from Lionsgate. The film is a hit with theatrical audiences, having taken in $57.6 million at the worldwide box office—and still walking. From Francis Lawrence, the visionary director of The Hunger Games franchise films (Catching Fire, Mockingjay – Parts 1 & 2, and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), comes the highly anticipated adaptation of master storyteller Stephen King’s first completed novel THE LONG WALK, an intense, chilling, and emotional thriller that challenges audiences to confront a haunting question: how far could you go?

🎸🎸SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES on 4K and Blu-ray November 11 from Decal/Bleecker Street. This Is Spinal Tap chronicles England's loudest and most punctual band on their disaster-filled U.S. tour. Experience the remastered, remixed, and definitive version of what can only be described as a mockumentary masterpiece. Includes deleted scenes.

🪐OUTLAND and RED PLANET on 4K November 4 from Arrow Video. Two underrated sci-fi films are finally on 4K from Arrow with new restorations and loads of bonus features. In Outland, Writer-director Peter Hyams (Capricorn One, 2010, The Relic) takes classic Western tropes off-world and into the future, starring Sean Connery as a federal marshall assigned to keep the peace on a distant moon. In Red Planet, Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss headline the sci-fi adventure that offers, an exciting glimpse into a future, where humankind's last hope for survival rests on escaping the bounds of Earth and colonising the cosmos.

🙀HIM available 10/7 on Digital Now and Blu-ray & 4K November 11 from Lionsgate. Attacked by an unhinged fan, quarterback Cameron Cade receives a lifeline when his football idol Isaiah White offers to train him. But as Isaiah’s charisma curdles into something sinister, Cam descends a disorienting spiral that may cost him more than he bargained for. 

😺PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE on 4K & Blu-ray December 16 from Criterion Collection. One of the most eccentric comedies of the 1980s, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is a pop-culture touchstone that helped make a manic oddball named Pee-wee Herman—the creation and alter ego of actor-comedian Paul Reubens—into an icon for outsiders of all ages.

🏆OUT OF AFRICA 40th ANNIVERSARY Edition on 4K November from Universal. This exquisite, intelligent romantic drama based on the life Karen Blixen, was the most highly acclaimed film of its time. Directed by Academy Awards winner Sydney Pollack and starring the late, great Robert Redford.

🙀THE CONJURING: LAST RITES on Digital October 1 and Blu-ray, 4K and DVD November 25 from Warner Bros. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reunite for one last case as renowned, real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in a powerful and spine-chilling addition to the global box office-breaking franchise.

😺Steven Spielberg’s MINORITY REPORT and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN on 4K December 9 from Paramount. Both Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can were remastered this year in 4K and the sparkling new transfers were reviewed and approved by Spielberg.  

🏆ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST on 4K UHD November 11 from Warner Bros. Now that the movie is 50 years old, perhaps we can finally forgive it for winning the Best Picture Oscar over Jaws (buy probably not). Based on the 1962 novel of the same name by author Ken Kesey, the film is considered by critics and audiences to be one of the greatest films ever made.  

🎄Dr. Seuss’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION on 4K Ultra HD & Steelbook Coming November 11 from Universal.  This special release also includes over 30 minutes of brand-new bonus content exploring the making of the beloved holiday classic.

😺The Gialli Cult Classic, A HYENA IN THE SAFE, on Blu-ray November 25 from Celluloid Dreams. This Blu-ray release will feature the film in its original Italian language with English subtitles exclusively. 

🙀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.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING: A Fitting Coda

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (4K UHD)

2025 / 169 min

Paramount

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Entity😸

After time leaves it in the rearview mirror, the Mission: Impossible films might be looked back on as one of the greatest action franchises in history. Individually, none of them are cultural milestones. But collectively, you’d be hard pressed to name another series as remarkably consistent, with only one film (the lamentable MI:2) dropping the ball. 

And until the The Final Reckoning - supposedly the final chapter - each film has been better than the last, not only for finding new and inventive ways to put Tom Cruise in harm’s way for the sake of an action sequence, but developing stories and characters (including antagonists) engaging enough to hold our interest whenever Cruise isn’t risking his life.

The Final Reckoning doesn’t reach the heights of its predecessor, Dead Reckoning Part One, mostly because it struggles to work as a stand-alone film (a common problem for most two-parters). Sure, you can pick up the gist of the plot even if you haven’t seen the last one, but the enormity of what’s at stake is somewhat diminished. 

For the record, a rogue AI simply known as ‘The Entity’ has infiltrated all of cyberspace with an ability to manipulate every aspect of technology. No one knows its origins, or if there’s even a central location, but two halves of a key exist that can potentially control it. As the film opens, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) has that key and is bent on destroying the Entity before it assumes control of every nuclear arsenal in the world to obliterate humanity (it’s not quite made clear what it stands to gain by killing everyone, though one character does ask that question). 

Tom flies coach.

The key provides access to the Entity’s source code, which is located in a sunken Russian sub at the bottom of the ocean, so not only is Hunt tasked with retrieving it, he has to contend with Gabriel (Esai Morales), who did the Entity’s bidding in the first film, but now wants to control it himself. Meanwhile, the CIA, led by director Kittridge (Henry Czerny), and most of the U.S. military fear that destroying the Entity will also destroy the entire internet. They urge President Erika Stone (Angela Bassett) to launch a first strike against the other eight nuclear superpowers before they lose control of their own arsenal. So yeah, the fate of the world is once again at stake, with every option appearing to be a lose-lose scenario.

As a continuation of Dead Reckoning, the film works pretty well, as does the usual quota of jaw-dropping action sequences. The climactic biplane duel (with Tom himself hanging onto the wings for dear life) is a definite highlight, while Hunt’s decent into the bowels of the Russian submarine is suitably claustrophobic, even as it eventually stretches plausibility to the breaking point. On the other hand, the film frequently dips into MCU territory by including characters and subplots that, if you haven’t seen other Mission: Impossible films, won’t mean a whole lot. There’s a ton of fan service here, some of it nicely woven into the narrative, some superfluously inserted (such as a major character who's revealed to be the disgruntled son of Jim Phelps). 

But even with all that baggage, The Final Reckoning is pretty damned entertaining, not just as a conclusion to Dead Reckoning, but as a satisfying coda to the entire franchise. Perhaps a bit too long this time around, the film takes awhile to get rolling, but once it does, the expected visual thrills and moments of race-the-clock tension are here in abundance. At its center, of course, is Tom Cruise, who’s just now beginning to show his age a bit, though his commitment to the character and the movie remains as strong as ever.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

BEHIND THE SCENES - A five-chapter look at the making of the film, with an emphasis on the action sequences.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Christopher McQuarrie and actor Tom Cruise.

EDITORIAL CONTENT - There’s a montage of deleted scenes, as well as alternate takes of the biplane flying sequences. All of them included optional commentary.

4 PROMO SPOTS - Featuring behind-the-scenes footage.

4 PHOTO GALLERIES - Plenty of behind-the-scenes photos featuring Tom Cruise (includes a text biography), Christopher McQuarrie, supporting cast & crew.

THE CAT is a Crazy Concoction

THE CAT (Blu-ray)

1992 / 89 min

88 Films

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Doppleganger

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mr. Bonnie, one of several writers of the feline persuasion who tow the line around here while Dave gets all the credit (but at least he feeds us on time). Dave also hands out the review assignments, and in my paws he dropped The Cat, a Hong Kong science-fiction film from 1992. 

“Why me?” I asked. “Doesn’t Pepper usually review the sci-fi stuff?”

“I thought you’d get a kick out of it,” Dave said. “It’s about a cat from space. And Look at the cover. The cat looks just like you.”

“I guess that explains why you kept The Picture of Dorian Gray for yourself. The painting looks just like you.” He didn’t think I was funny.

Unlike the movie I reviewed earlier this year with the same title, at least this one features a cat, even if he isn’t the actual star. Named General, he’s just one of three aliens who’ve arrived to save Earth from a blobby, goopy monster that sometimes absorbs people, others times burns them alive, and occasionally assumes their identity (depending on the requirements of the plot at the time). So creature-wise, there are similarities to The Thing, The Blob and a bowl of marinara sauce.

Scene stealer.

The main protagonist is Wisely (Waise Lee), a writer who uncannily determines General and his friends are aliens who must be stopped. He and the police are determined to hunt the cat down, which proves impossible. This leads to my personal favorite scene in the entire movie…a lengthy junkyard brawl where General kicks a dog’s ass (landing it in the hospital). But when his companion, Pai So (Christine Ng), assures Wisely they’re here to stop the monster from getting-hold of an artifact called the Octagon (which is actually some kind of weapon), he teams up with them. 

The special effects are as goofy as the plot, a kooky combination of rubber monsters, puppetry, wild gore, bluescreen and good ol’ stop motion. Speaking of which…I’ll concede that Dave is right about one thing: General really does resemble yours truly, save for numerous bits where he looks like a stuffed animal being thrown across the room.

The whole thing culminates with a climax that must have been sponsored in-part by Fanta, because the soda company’s logo is prominently featured among scenes of death and destruction. The Cat is as crazy and campy as it sounds, but at least it’s never boring, even when that handsome devil of a title character isn’t onscreen. It’s one of those fun what-the-hell-did-I-just-watch flicks.

EXTRA KIBBLES

JAPANESE CUT - With English subtitles, and waaay different than the original (less fun, too).

INTERVIEW - An extensive interview with the film’s screenwriter, Gordon Chan.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By Frank Djeng.

SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKLET - Includes two essay, color photos, cast & crew credits.

IMAGE GALLERY

TRAILER

REVERSIBLE COVER - With new and original artwork.

5” x 7” POSTER ART REPLICA - Two sided, with new and original artwork.

WATCH THE SKIES and a Bit of Boomer Rage

WATCH THE SKIES (Blu-ray)

2022 / 116 min

Decal Releasing

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😿

It’s with a profound sense of rage that I review Watch the Skies.

Not that it’s terrible or anything. For a low budget science-fiction film clearly inspired by the likes of Stranger Things and early Spielberg with a little Interstellar tossed in, it’s a fairly entertaining way to kill a couple of hours. Inez Dahl Torhaug plays Denise, a snotty teenager whose UFO-obsessed father went missing years earlier. Convinced he was abducted, she uses her considerable tech smarts to pinpoint the location of the alleged UFO that whisked him away. 

Denise recruits - more like demands - the help of Dad’s old group of likeminded looneys, UFO Sweden, now led by disgraced scientist Lennart Svahn (Jesper Barkselius), who suspects the people who once employed him are covering-up alien influenced weather anomalies. So they steal a hard drive containing all their files related to the night Denise’s Dad disappeared. 

The story is kind of meandering at times, but there are some interesting ideas here and there (some of them borrowed). I do like the whole time-altering wormhole aspect of the narrative, though it tends to negate the purpose of the title. However, it would have helped if the main protagonist was more likable and sympathetic. She is generally awful to everybody, including the one character, police officer Tomi (Sara Shirpey), who appears to care about her. Still, it’s an enjoyable film overall, if not particularly original.

Spotted shoplifting.

But here’s the big problem (for me, anyway). Watch the Skies is a Swedish film, shot in Sweden with Swedish actors. However, it has been dubbed using AI to alter the facial and mouth movements of the characters to make them appear to be speaking English. Worse yet, director Victor Danell boasts about it (in a bonus feature) as if he’s breaking new cinematic ground.

No, Victor, you are not. What you are doing is dumbing down your movie for mouthbreathers to lazy to read subtitles. I’ve never seen a foreign film made better with dubbing, to say nothing of AI dubbing. You should have enough faith in your own work to offer it abroad as is. You are also setting a bad precedent. This is more than just lazily entrusting AI to create imagery…you’re using it to alter the performances of your actors. What’s next…having a computer spit out your next screenplay? 

Maybe I sound like a crusty old Boomer watching the skies to yell at clouds, but the idea of foreign films being digitally manipulated to look and sound more American leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And where does it stop? At the rate AI use (and abuse) is growing, we could be getting Adam Sandler movies for centuries. But I digress…most people probably don’t actually care who (or what) creates the stuff they enjoy. While Watch the Skies is entertaining enough, is this really the direction we want movies to go?

EXTRA KIBBLES

SWEDISH LANGUAGE VERSION - The way it should be seen.

FEATURETTES - Filmmaker Testimonial features everyone boasting how great and groundbreaking their use of AI is; Flawless Sizzle Reel (Flawless is the company that did the AI dubbing); The Real UFO Sweden is a brief feature on the real life UFO hunters.

TRAILER