1989's "Lady Reporter" (a.k.a. "The Blonde Fury," "Righting Wrongs II: Blonde Fury") is another step in the Hong Kong cinema exploits of star Cynthia Rothrock. She returns to action duty in a role similar to others she's played, but, once again, her level of martial arts fury supports an otherwise unsteady endeavor that's never precise when it comes to storytelling or tone. Director Hoi Mang (who also co-stars in the feature) aims to turn the crime story into a comedy, while the producers desire something harder than laughs, creating a strange, reshoot-laden effort that does exceptionally well when it concentrates on physical confrontations. Attempts at humor nearly ruin the entire viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Box office reports are a little hazy with 1988's "Killer Klowns from Outer Space," but one source lists a $352 gross for the feature. And yet, while offered no opportunity to prove itself during its limited theatrical release, the picture has managed to build an incredible fan base thanks to early video offerings and cable showings. The brand weirdly keeps getting bigger as the years pass, with plenty of merchandise for sale to maintain "Klowns" visibility, and there's even a video game due for release in 2024, allowing the faithful to return to the source, offered a chance to go head-to-head with the multicolored menace. And why does this endeavor remain so beloved? The Chiodo Brothers. The creators of "Killer Klowns from Outer Space," the siblings display their technical expertise with special effects and show their love of B-movies with the effort, which offers a sometimes wonderful level of genre invention. And now, after many Blu-ray releases, the circus aliens with a wild sense of dark humor return to disc with a UHD presentation that's meant to bring out the best of this colorful, playful dosage of nightmare fuel. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's an odd tonality to 1982's "Intimate Lessons." Director Phillip Marshak strives to make something of a comedy concerning a weekend sex education seminar, playing up the broadness of the instructor and his bizarre lessons. And there's a semi-darker side to the endeavor, which details games of manipulation and seduction among the guests and their hosts. It's certainly a bit different than the normal offering of adult entertainment, finding Marshak playing with the atmosphere of the movie, which results in an interesting collision of the psychological and the physical. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Megalopolis” has often been described as a dream project for writer/director Francis Ford Coppola, who hasn’t made a film since 2011’s “Twixt.” The iconic helmer puts everything on the line for his newest cinematic creation, taking a creative and financial gamble few would dare to match. What he ends up with is a bold idea buried under five miles of excess, looking to challenge viewers with a study of a utopian dream that’s gradually torn apart by an overstuffed screenplay and indecisive editing. There certainly isn’t anything like “Megalopolis” in the marketplace, and while Coppola often swings big, he doesn’t have critical coherency to really sell the head-rattling messages on life, love, and society the material contains. It plays like a 138-minute-long trailer for a 10-hour-long feature, and while ambition is certainly valued, the execution of this cross-eyed epic is troublesome and tiresome. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Killer Heat” is an adaptation of a 2021 short story by author Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian writer behind the popular Harry Hole crime novels. Screenwriters Matt Charman and Roberto Bentivegna have the creative challenge of turning a brief tale of suspicion and investigation into a story worth a feature-length exploration. It’s not an easy task with this material, as thrills and chills are limited in a tale that’s mostly interested in limp confrontations and uneventful dialogue. “Killer Heat” strives to summon a noir mood with its study of potential murder and simmering jealousy, but there’s not much to dig into with this flat endeavor. Director Philippe Lacote doesn’t push the urgency of the central mystery, and performances are limited, dealing with uninspired casting. But hey, everyone gets a paid vacation to Greece here, and that seems to be the primary goal of the offering, as locations are often more appealing than the story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If you’re a fan of horror and novelist Stephen King, you’ve probably made the trip to “Salem’s Lot” before. Adaptations of the 1975 novel have been plentiful, including a 1979 miniseries that managed to scar young viewers. In 1987, director Larry Cohen tried to concoct a sequel of sorts with “A Return to Salem’s Lot,” doing so without material written by King. And in 2004, another miniseries was released, this time putting Rob Lowe in the middle of a small town vampire mess. And now Hollywood tries again, with writer/director Gary Dauberman working to sustain his current hold on genre entertainment (having scripted the “It” series, also contributing to the “Annabelle” and “The Nun” franchises) with his take on “Salem’s Lot,” which plays to his interests in spooky events and empowered characters. The helmer goes for a more menacing vision of vampiric control in the endeavor, but doesn’t make too much time for personality, looking to grab viewers with direct shots of action and suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If there’s supposed to be something explosive happening in “Paradox Effect,” the production forgot to include it. Director Scott Weintrob is in charge of a thriller, and one that tracks the increasing desperation of a woman trying to reclaim custody of her daughter while trapped in a dangerous situation with an unhinged man. There’s parental protection, shoot outs, chases, and threatening characters. And yet, the film falls so utterly flat, seemingly incapable of raising a fine ruckus despite access to the usual in B-movie ingredients. “Paradox Effect” has the gift of simplicity, but Weintrob and his writers don’t run with an opportunity to raise some hell, getting stuck with an inert picture that can’t muster a single scene of intimidation. And that’s with Harvey Keitel in a supporting role, with the famous tough guy mostly regulated to sitting and monologuing in this snoozer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Wild Robot” is an adaptation of a beloved 2016 book from author Peter Brown, who has a few excellent literary creations to his name. It’s an adventure story with a huge heart, making it an easy fit for an animated interpretation, with the creative challenge handed to writer/director Chris Sanders, who’s done marvelous work on features such as “How to Train Your Dragon” and “The Croods.” “The Wild Robot” is a fine addition to his filmography, with the helmer offering a graceful, colorful understanding of the parental experience with the effort, blended with plenty of explorer-based action. The learning ways of a machine in the middle of alien terrain isn’t fresh storytelling territory, but Sanders preserves Brown’s tale of connection and survival, making an exciting and heartfelt offering that finds the right areas of character tenderness as it deals with a somewhat unwieldy plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Jon Watts was once a man of independent cinema, trying to make his mark with B-movies like “Clown” and 2015’s “Cop Car.” He was eventually sucked into the Marvel Studios machine, ending up as the helmer of two wonderful “Spider-Man” pictures and one decent one, getting used to working with enormous budgets, large casts, and slick visuals. After spending nearly ten years in the Marvel trenches, Watts is back on his own with “Wolfs,” only he’s not returning to the days of low-budget filmmaking, just smaller-scale storytelling. Glossiness remains with the feature, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt reteaming to play aging underworld fixers enduring a long night of mistakes after a seemingly simple job goes all kinds of wrong. Watts has star power and a tempting premise, and it’s interesting to watch him return to more intimate interactions between gruff characters. However, while entertaining, “Wolfs” only finds real creative inspiration during its first half, where the situation is fresh, hostilities are brewing, and confusion is nicely stoked. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Just last year, John Woo’s “Silent Night” attempted to pull off a revenge tale with little to no dialogue, relying on the performers to physically communicate all the feelings as a violent odyssey was explored. Now there’s “Azrael,” which goes without dialogue for 99% of the endeavor, also examining terror and determination as plans of vengeance and survival skills are tracked. It’s the newest film from director E.L. Katz, who made a strong impression with 2013’s “Cheap Thrills,” only to lose some career momentum with 2017’s greatly disappointing “Small Crimes.” He’s back in fighting form with “Azrael,” joined by screenwriter Simon Barrett (“You’re Next,” “The Guest”) for this blunt study of self-preservation, with the production putting its faith in star Samara Weaving to deliver all the panic involved in this tale of one mute woman’s mission to protect what little light remains in her bleak existence. It’s a hostile, suspenseful picture, and it pulls off its central gimmick quite well as matters intensify for a character who can’t scream. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Lee” represents a rare directorial outing for Ellen Kuras, a well-regarded cinematographer who previously worked extensively with Michel Gondry, including her lauded effort on 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Instead of remaining in the surreal, Kuras goes to real-world horrors with the picture, which examines the World War II experience for photographer Lee Miller, who went into the event with a sense of purpose and duty, coming out the other side fully battered by all that she witnessed, trying to share the depths of doom. It’s not a full bio-pic, but a chunk of Miller’s existence, with screenwriters Liz Hannah, John Collee, and Marion Hume working to adapt a book about the subject’s time, written by Antony Penrose. “Lee” isn’t a large-scale war film, but Kuras finds her way into the shocking elements of the conflict, doing a successful job detailing how such exposure managed to change Miller’s life and career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Kerry Bellessa has been here before. In 2012, the helmer pieced together “Amber Alert,” going the found-footage, no-budget route with a tale of hot pursuit and everyday horrors. The feature didn’t work, becoming one of the worst films of its release year. Strangely, Bellessa is out to try again, returning to the material with a new take on the same premise of strangers in a car suddenly caught up in a child abduction emergency. The production has ditched cinema verité this time out, going dramatic with a new “Amber Alert,” with stars Hayden Panettiere and Tyler James Williams tasked with keeping things tense as an average day suddenly turns into race against time for their characters. Bellessa and co-writer Joshua Oram do a little better with the basics of the idea, yet, once again, it all falls apart in the end, with the tale beginning as a decently suspenseful manhunt, only to become a dreadful horror movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Empire Waist” is an offering of empowerment cinema, aiming to reach young viewers with a display of empathy that’s not particularly easy to find these days. Writer/director Claire Ayoub makes her feature-length helming debut with the picture, and she’s not out to create a sophisticated overview of high school bullying and self-esteem challenges. She’s painting with primary colors here, with hopes to sweep viewers into a story of teens with self-worth issues trying to find some level of confidence as themselves while the outside world wants them to conform to their standards. The message is wonderful, and while “Empire Waist” is a little shaky when it comes to dramatic urgency, Ayoub has her heart in the right place with the endeavor, also doing well with a spirited cast that brings some flavor and authenticity to the film, handling the material’s ideas well. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1994's "The Getaway" is the second adaptation of a 1958 Jim Thompson novel, with the material previously covered in a 1972 Sam Peckinpah film starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. While both endeavors certainly lack the roughness of the source material, the 1994 effort definitely aims to turn up the heat with stars (and real-life married couple at the time) Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, who are tasked with amplifying the sex appeal of the crime story, while going deeper into the intimate issues facing the central characters. "The Getaway" is a pulpy ride of bad people doing horrible things, and director Roger Donaldson ("No Way Out," "Species") wisely keeps the action kinetic, with the remake at its most involving when following the central couple as they try to evade capture and deal with relationship concerns. The rest of the picture has more persistent pacing and performance issues, but nothing that derails an otherwise compelling study of trust and revenge. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Child endangerment is one of those manipulative moves from filmmakers who usually can't conjure screen tension any other way. They challenge innocence with violence, begging for a cheap reaction, as any sensible viewer will recoil from such ugliness. 2009's "Orphan" is a movie entirely built around the idea of kids in jeopardy, with screenwriter David Leslie Johnson (2018's "Aquaman" and its 2023 sequel) trying to craft a provocative story about a long game manipulation that turns an average household into a hellish pit of paranoia and hostility. It plays like a variation on "The Bad Seed" until the very moment it reveals it isn't "The Bad Seed," with Johnson looking to land a Big Twist that's ridiculous, stuck at the end of a feature that goes on for way too long, never scoring with points of suspense and mental illness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2019's "The Addams Family" wasn't a great financial risk for the producers, but it remained something of a creative gamble, working with source material that's been kicking around pop culture since 1938. Without a Pixar or DreamWorks Animation budget, "The Addams Family" invested in weirdness, trying to capture the dark tone of Charles Addams's original cartoon creation while amplifying broad antics for younger audiences of today. It did well with limited resources, brought to life with color, exaggerated character designs, and a committed voice cast who inhabited their creepy, kooky characters superbly. The picture found success at the box office, and the producers weren't going to sit on the possibility of a sequel, returning to screens just two years later with "The Addams Family 2," which tries to push the odd household dynamic into the everyday world, presenting a road trip premise that works well for these creations, combining interstate antics with weird science concerns. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's been plenty of attempts to do something with the works of Charles Addams, who originally created "The Addams Family" in 1938, offering single-panel cartoons of amusing antics featuring a macabre family. T.V. programs, movies, musicals, and animated shows have endeavored to interpret Addams's imagination, and now the creepy clan graduate to a CGI-animated film, with "The Addams Family" hoping to muscle in on "Hotel Transylvania" territory, giving all-ages entertainment a boost of the bizarre. While the production lacks the budget to pull off an absolutely gorgeous representation of the source material, directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan try to make the effort as amusing and spirited as possible, respecting the dark elements of the original concept while delivering modern cartoon elasticity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s hard to be precious about 1968’s “Rosemary’s Baby.” It’s a classic horror film, but certainly not an untouchable one, and Hollywood has done the work to cash in on the brand name, creating a made-for-T.V. sequel in 1976, and a miniseries with Zoe Saldana debuted in 2014. Heck, even original author Ira Levin wanted in on the action, concocting a literary follow-up in 1997’s “Son of Rosemary.” Producers try again with “Apartment 7A,” which directly connects to the original feature, acting as a prequel of sorts, though for most of the run time, it’s more of a remake. Thankfully, co-writer/director Natalie Erika James (who impressed with the slow-burn nightmare of 2020’s “Relic”) has some ideas to share with the picture, which carries its own unsettling atmosphere. It’s not as stunning as the ’68 effort, but “Apartment 7A” delivers on atmosphere and acting, capably sustaining the world of “Rosemary’s Baby.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Never Let Go” is a mystery, but it’s often trying to be a scary movie to help engage viewers with film elements they’re more comfortable with. Screenwriters Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby have a story to share about family issues and learned behavior, setting up a gothic study of survival focused on a mother struggling to protect her two young sons from an undefined evil in a potentially post-apocalyptic world. Director Alexandre Aja (“Piranha 3D,” “Crawl”) has the unfortunate task of pushing to make one kind of film while the writing is looking to develop another. The helmer gives the picture a nice boost of backwoods mood, and initial scenes of threat are capably handled, but “Never Let Go” starts to fall apart the longer it delays the inevitable, becoming a chore to sit through. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a little while since a filmmaker attempted to play with the particulars of the body horror subgenre. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat (2017’s “Revenge”) takes the challenge quite seriously with “The Substance,” which is an audacious endeavor that transforms the relationship between youth and aging as it pertains to the Female Experience and turns it into a battle of flesh-poking, fluid-draining escalation. The feature is a juicy one, handed a thorough Euro-cinema treatment by the helmer, who’s out to turn stomachs with this visceral understanding of self-loathing and fame. “The Substance” gets ugly, quite often, and it doesn’t really know when to quit, but it mostly stuns as a display of outstanding makeup effects and mysterious atmosphere. And star Demi Moore delivers complete submission to Fargeat’s vision, giving one of her all-time best performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com