MUTANT (1984) - Vinegar Syndrome

Mutant
Vinegar Syndrome

Original Release Date Aug. 24th, 1984
Written by Michael Jones & John C. Kruize (story), & Peter Z. Orton (screenplay)
Directed by John 'Bud' Cardos, Mark Rosman (original director)
Starring Wings Hauser, Lee Montgomery, Bo Hopkins, Jody Medford, Jennifer Warren
Language English (English subs available)

Get your copy HERE from Diabolik, or HERE from Orbit

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

Overview:

Mutant comes to Blu-ray and 4K from Vinegar Syndrome. Directed by industry veteran and jack-of-all-trades John 'Bud' Cardos, who was brought in to replace the original director, the film is an enjoyably creepy experience. Vinegar Syndrome's release of Mutant features a respectable video transfer and audio package with a solid assortment of bonus features.

The Movie Itself: 4 stars

Mutant (also known as Night Shadows, The Pestilence, Things in the Night, or Toxic Waste) (yes, really) most likely will not blow your socks off, but it's a very competent small town horror thriller. When brothers Josh (Wings Hauser) and Mike (Lee Montgomery) run afoul of some rednecks on the highway, their car ends up in a ditch and they end up stuck overnight in a fairly inhospitable small town. But the violent locals aren't their biggest problem.

Beset with production difficulties that led to original director Mark Rosman being replaced by John 'Bud' Cardos, Mutant plays the long game with the audience, teasing something unknown and horrible and a possible conspiracy to hide it from prying eyes before ultimately revealing a more familiar style of antagonist fiends. Allegedly, the "monsters" were originally intended to be something else, but budgetary concerns and limited time were the real conspiracy, I guess.

BUT. The final product is still enjoyable. With plot elements that feel straight out of a Resident Evil game--including characters listening to the final audio log of a doctor (Jennifer Warren) while examining the site where they were murdered by monsters--and a charismatic lead performance from the great Wings Hauser, as well as a colorful cast of supporting locals, Mutant is perfect late night, popcorn-and-a-beer movie.

The Packaging: 3.5

The film comes in a standard, handsome black 4K Blu-ray case with a reversible cover. One side features an appropriately drive-in style cover with a baseball bat wielding Josh protecting bartender / schoolteacher Holly (Jody Medford) from threatening outstretched hands, flanked by other characters from the film and above an image of a burning car on town's main street. The reverse side features a more vague (and honestly, misleading) image of many large, amorphous, vaguely biological shapes filling the sky above a small town on the horizon. This image, which would make more sense for a movie like Phantoms (1998), sits above the tagline "Mankind's deadliest threat will not come from the skies."

The Video: 4 stars

Something that happens fairly frequently with these restorations is that lower light sequences will end up having a bit more digital visual noise in them; a byproduct of balancing the contrast (is my understanding). Since the majority of Mutant is set at night and/or in various interiors, the light levels are somewhat inconsistent, meaning there's kind of a lot of this grain. So if you're someone who will not settle for anything but the most pristine, crystal clear presentations, you'll want to skip this one.

Now, I will say, at no point was any of this grain ever a distraction. For the most part, it just became akin to the usual film grain and added that certain something that modern digital clarity lacks. For me, some grain, some noise is a bonus. It's akin to production value, especially when it fits the vibe of the film. For a desperate, paranoid, trapped-in-a-small town monster movie thriller like Mutant, it fits like a glove.

The Audio: 4 stars

I had no issues with the sound mix here. My personal metrics are: whether or not I have to ride the volume buttons on my remote and whether or not, when things get their loudest, the mix makes my three-channel soundbar vibrate. Neither of these particular beasts reared their ugly heads on this one. There are one, maybe two scenes in locations that are slightly more echoey, but these sequences don't have a ton of important dialogue, so audio clarity and whether or not I could understand what was being said is kind of a moot point.

What I really loved was the score, by veteran composer Richard Band (brother of fellow genre legend Charles Band, and composer for many of their projects) which features a lot of simple motifs and some beautifully sustained strings. It was nothing mind-blowing, but as usual with Richard Band, it was surprisingly engaging and vivid.

The Supplements: 4 stars

What I want most out of supplemental materials is context, especially when I learn that the production on a film was somewhat troubled. Luckily this release offers a lot of it. Between the two commentary tracks, two archival interviews, and the new interviews, I feel like I have a very good idea of what the experience of making Mutant was like, and as a bonus, it seems largely very positive. Oftentimes, a change of director is indicative of some great strife, but here it seems like a mutual parting of ways.

• Archival commentary track with director John 'Bud' Cardos, producer Igo Kantor, and actor Lee Montgomery
• New commentary track with film historians Howard S. Berger, and Steve Mitchell
• A Real Country Boy - an interview with Cali Lili Hauser, widow of Wings Hauser  (17:10) (HD)
• Mutant Report - Anthony Everitt reflects on his father's coverage of the film (7:23) (SD)
• Archival Interview with Bo Hopkins (10:59) (SD)
• Archival Interview with Lee Montgomery (15:42) (SD)
• Trailer (1:30)

Final Thoughts: Highly Recommended

I don't think Mutant is a must watch, but for genre fans, it's a neat little treat. Wings Hauser, Lee Montgomery, and Jody Medford are all fun to watch, even though Montgomery is missing for much of the run time, and Medford doesn't arrive until nearly halfway through, I believe. But hands down, my favorite character and performance was Bo Hopkins as the Sheriff, who goes through an entire arc, largely in the background of his scenes. He begins as a surly obstacle with a drinking problem before the events of the film begin to set him straight and he ends up a hero.

All-in-all I recommend most people check this film out if you get the chance. It's probably worth a watch if only to see Wings Hauser leap across a pool table in the middle of a bar fight! But I imagine only true blue midnight movie fans will be making space for Mutant on their shelf.

THE KEY (1983) - Cult Epics

The Key (La Chaive)
Cult Epics

Original Release Date Oct. 19th, 1983 (Italy)
Written by Tinto Brass, based on the novel Kagi by Jun'ichirô Tanizaki
Directed by Tinto Brass
Starring Frank Finlay, Stefania Sandrelli, Franco Branciaroli, Barbara Cupisti
Language English

Get your copy HERE from Diabolik, or HERE from Orbit

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

The Movie: Good

Tinto Brass is perhaps most well-known for the film Caligula (1979), an erotic depiction of the late Roman emperor's reign starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole, and Helen Mirren which had a messy post production, was received generally negatively but has become something of a cult classic. The Key, while nowhere near as ambitious or expensive, is widely regarded as Brass' masterpiece and, whether you agree with that assessment or not, is certainly more cohesive a vision.

I can't really begin to talk about this film without first addressing the elephant in the room: this is an erotic film. It exists to titillate and arouse, and it does so directly. The sex and sexual situations depicted are the point; The Key is about the sex. Just as folks may not enjoy horror movies, or documentaries, erotica is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. I believe, whether or not the genre is your thing, you can still discuss the artistic merits of a piece.

To that end, The Key is actually very impressive. Well-shot, fairly well-acted, with gorgeous locales and mostly very beautiful people, The Key is also a shockingly solid character piece. Art professor Nino Rolfe (Frank Finlay) is frustrated in his wife Teresa (Stefania Sandrelli)'s lack of libido and sexual creativity. To that end, he manufactures a scenario to unleash her sexual id: he leaves a key somewhere she is certain to find it, knowing she'll be too curious to refuse finding what it unlocks, which is a drawer in his desk containing a journal in which he has been writing about his sexual frustrations and fantasies.

Things spiral from there. At a dinner with their daughter Lisa (Barbara Cupisti) and her fiancé Laszlo (Franco Branciaroli), Teresa initially seems to be playing along and flirting with Laszlo to excite and tease Nino, before she ends up fainting which requires an injection into her buttock, delivered by Laszlo. This begins a back-and-forth between Nino and Teresa where each tries to call the others' bluff before Teresa stops caring and just has a full-on affair with Laszlo.

Stefania Sandrelli had been a celebrity since she was a teenager and, at 37 years old, she viewed taking such a literally and emotionally naked role as the potential start of a new stage in her career. As Teresa, she's wonderful and exudes sensuality. Her sexual awakening is presented as the story's main focus, with Nino quickly sliding down a moral scale from playfully cheeky husband to jealous monster. He also, it should be noted, has nonconsensual sex with his wife after she passes out, which the film's score (by legendary composer Ennio Morricone!) depicts as oafish via oompah-oompah music as opposed to a reprehensible act.

Which brings me to a point I frequently reach in most viewings of erotic films: the prevalence of depictions of sexual assault. These films, no matter the level of "core", are about depicting fantasies for the audience, and noncon scenarios are plenty of people's jam. So basically, I don't have to like it, but I do have to accept its existence, and that acceptance doesn't stop me from thinking prof. Nino is a garbage human being. I was happy to watch as he slowly ruins his marriage and ultimately gets his just desserts.

The Packaging: Excellent

Cult Epics' physical releases, just in general, are very handsome and of good quality. The Key comes with a slipcover featuring Teresa lying in bed wearing black lingerie, with a mirror on the wall behind her reflecting an image from a different, more naked scene. The case inside is of the black 4K variety and has a double-sided cover.

One side features a vintage poster, with the Italian title La Chaive, of Teresa sitting on a dune wearing a mature blazer, shirt and skirt combination, but flashing her stocking garters. The reverse side is another image from the same sequence as the slipcover image, with Teresa this time sitting up in bed. There is also an included booklet with a wonderfully thorough essay about Tinto Brass and Stefania Sandrelli's careers, written by Eugenio Ercolani.

All in all this is the sort of release you could comfortably display on a shelf without worrying anyone would think The Key was pornography (if that's a concern of yours).

The Audio + Video: Excellent

This looks wonderful. The colors are lush throughout and the light balance is excellently handled. or example, there is a sequence where Nino takes nude photos of Teresa and then has Laszlo develop them as part of the whole psychosexual game, but I mention it because: when Nino is taking the photos, he pulls out a powerfully bright studio light and still, even in the dark bedroom, nothing is washed out OR swallowed by darkness. It's wonderfully well-managed. 

There is more visual noise in darker scenes, but not to a great or distracting degree. This phenomenon is a byproduct of balancing / restoring sequences initially shot in lower light, and typically presents as just a higher rate of film grain. I mention it here only to assure you that this is normal and to be expected.

I loved the look of The Key throughout, from the deep, jewel box colors of the clothing, the amber lighting on some scenes, and the inky black shadows. There's even a sequence with light streaming through the windows highlighted with some atmospheric smoke like a damn Steven Spielberg movie! When combined with the beauty of the locations and architecture, it's absolutely a gorgeous film.

I had slightly more of an issue with the audio, but truly only minor complaints. Firstly there is a scene in a barber's where the volume suddenly jumps exponentially, which is an unpleasant surprise, but only happens in that one brief scene. The more prevalent issue is that there are moments where the audio is slightly muffled, but never to a degree that you can't understand what's being said. It's almost bound to happen with a film with so much ADR. Automatic Dialogue Replacement is when something is recorded later, either to replace imperfect on-set recording, add lines of dialogue that were not initially recorded, or in this case to dub the various actors (many of whom were not native English speakers).

Special Features: Excellent

I would like to see this section grow in terms of your opinions. I do think it’s still important to list all of the special features that are available, but I would like you all to check them out and highlight one or two that really stood out to you. 

What I look for in a selection of bonus material is context. Unless I'm already familiar, I like to get an idea of the what and why of a movie's creation, and this release is a treasure trove of context. Aside from the booklet with the essay from Eugenio Ercolani mentioned above, there is a feature length commentary featuring Ercolani and Marcus Stiglegger, numerous interviews both new and archival, and trailers for other films from Tinto Brass.

Perhaps my favorite is the Score by Ennio Morricone bonus feature. Yes, legendary composed Morricone scores the film, which I barely mentioned above because I wanted to highlight that this bonus feature allows you to play the entire score over a still photo from the film! It played in the background as I was outlining this review, in fact!

The only bonus feature I didn't really enjoy is Outtakes Venice, which is just extra footage of the water which, while nice to look at and technically correct, is decidedly not what I think of when I see the word ' outtakes '.

• Feature commentary from Eugenio Ercolani & Marcus Stiglegger
• Tinto's Talisman - interview with actor Franco Branciaroli (38:55)
• Keyhole Venice (7:35)
• Sensuous Morricone (28:29)
• Score by Ennio Morricone (32:06)
• Archival Interview with Tinto Brass (16:52)
• Outtakes Venice (10:15)
• The Key poster gallery
• Tinto Brass poster gallery
• Tinto Brass trailers:
• The Key (1983) (3:08)
• Cheeky! (2000) (3:25)
• Frivolous Lola (1998) (2:18)
• All Ladies Do It (1992) (3:22)

In Summary: Buy It On Sale

I quite liked The Key overall. It's has more to it than its just erotic content, it's genuinely funny and strange at times (the dream / fantasy sequences!) and just has a lovely overall presentation. I know erotic films without much more to their plot--meaning not erotic thrillers or somesuch--aren't everybody's bag, but if you're in the market for something like that, and with the added morality tale ending tacked on, I can't recommend this release strongly enough.

There is, I should mention, in addition to the maybe distasteful assault stuff, an odd through-line of fascism to the film. Now, to be clear: neither the film itself nor any of the characters seem to support fascism. The film is set in 1939 and opens at a New Year's celebration held by the Italian Association of Fascist Hoteliers. It ends with a funeral shown underneath an address from Mussolini announcing Italy entering into WWII. In addition, Nino has a side hustle authenticating art forgeries to allow folks struggling under fascism to make some money. I just ...am not sure how this informs the film itself.

I suppose the societal repression and the personal repression is a parallel, but it seems like a relatively half-constructed one. Certainly, fascism represents a major epoch in Italy's history but beyond that I just feel like I'm missing something. This film is based on a novel, Kagi by Jun'ichirô Tanizaki, so perhaps it's some thematic holdover from that? I don't think its inclusion really dampened my enjoyment any, I just couldn't end this write-up without mention it.

BODY PUZZLE (1992) - Kino Lorber

Body Puzzle
Kino Lorber / Kino Raro

Original Release Date: March 20th, 1992 (Italy)
Written by Lamberto Bava, Teodoro Corrà, Bruce Martin, Domenico Paolella
Directed by Lamberto Bava
Starring Joanna Pacula, Tomas Arana, François Montagut
Language English (English and Italian subtitles available)

Get your copy HERE from Kino Lorber, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

The Movie: Average

I enjoy the Giallo genre quite a bit. I'm no expert, just a fan, but the emphasis on style always appealed to me. The clothes, the kills, the locations, the direction, and the motivations were all usually equally unique and stylish; at least in the best examples. But Giallo peaked around the late '60s / early '70s and though there are viable examples across the 1980s, perhaps by 1992, it would be unfair to look at Body Puzzle through that lens. But it feels right, so I'm gonna.

Body Puzzle is, super appropriately, a puzzle of a film. It begins with a scene of a man (François Montagut) playing the piano before flashing back to a motorcycle accident. Through the language of film, we believe we are being told who this person is and why they do what they do: murders. But are we? As the film rolls on and we see the man committing numerous murders, taking grisly trophies with which to taunt a beautiful young woman (Joanna Pacula), we believe we understand why. Even if we don't have all the details, we seem to understand the shape of events. The film is then playing catch-up to what we have seen, as Det. Mike (Tomas Arana) comes to Tracy Grant (Pacula)'s aid and begins trying to put together the pieces of this particular puzzle.

As a film, Body Puzzle feels caught between two genres. It loses many of the Giallo trademarks I listed above, but doesn't replace them with anything. The only truly interesting location is Tracy's apartment which has huge blue glass pyramids on the walls composed of smaller, triangular panels, and a swimming pool flanked by black and white pinstriped pillars. The one moment that feels like the kind of cheap, nasty thrills you'd expect from a Giallo film is one kill in a public bathroom stall where the camera is briefly looking up, out of the toilet as the killer descends upon his victim. For a film where a guy is going around collecting disparate body parts, there's hardly even much blood.

I didn't have a bad time with Body Puzzle necessarily, in fact the ending pretty much saves the whole experience with just how bonkers it is, but the journey to get there is at times tedious. It also has a lot of fun small moments like a mortician (Sebastiano Lo Monaco) eating sliced apples immediately after performing an autopsy, a w-i-l-d scene in a classroom for blind children, and the revelation that the killer has been eating an un-sliced personal pizza from the edges inward, the way a rat would. Whether these sound like enough to tip this into Must Watch territory is entirely up to you.

The Packaging: Average

This is a pretty barebones release, all things considered. You've got your standard Blu-ray case, nothing wrong with that, and a pretty cool cover featuring Joanna Pacula's face divided into several slices in the process of being either disassembled or reassembled, depending on your point of view (maybe it's a glass half full or glass empty thing?) So, overall, nothing fancy, but still a handsome addition to your collection that would look very nice lined up with some of Kino Lorber's other Raro releases.

The Audio + Video: Good

I'm not in love with the look of Body Puzzle as a whole, which surprised me since cinematographer Luigi Kuveiller has lensed films like Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971), Paul Morrisey's Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974), and Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975); all films with much stronger imagery. Overall, a lot of the film is a little desaturated and washed out. BUT, from a technical standpoint, the transfer is very clear and when things do occasionally pick up visually, they look very nice. There's a little light haloing in exterior shots, and a little extra visual noise in the darker interiors, but nothing unusual. 

What I did really enjoy was the sound in Body Puzzle. Composer Carlo Maria Cordio plays with a lot of tinkly synths and deep drum sounds that all slowly build at just the right moments. There's also repeated use of Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, which you may know from the scariest part of Disney's Fantasia (1940), which essentially functions as the killer's psych-up music and is actually a pretty fun bit. An interesting fact I learned from the commentary track is that director Lamberto Bava initially used Carl Orff's O Fortuna, which you may know from such films as John Boorman's Excalibur (1981), Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), or Steve Carr's Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009). Unfortunately, he wasn't able to actually use it for these sequences and chose the Mussorgsky piece as a fall-back.

Special Features: Average

There's not a lot of meat on the bone here, if I'm being honest. Aside from the commentary track (the release's saving grace for me), the only special features are trailers for The .44 Specialist (1976), and Body Puzzle itself. The commentary track, from film historians and hosts of Wild, Wild Podcast Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett, is very informative and the two have a fun, easygoing rapport that makes it actively fun to listen to.

• Commentary track from Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett
• Trailers
• Body Puzzle (1992) (1:12)
• The .44 Specialist (1976) (3:22)

In Summary: Borrow from the library

Obviously, if you're deep in the paint for Giallo films and looking to snatch up the last few stragglers to cap off your collection, absolutely scoop this one at your earliest convenience. But for the general public (like me) who are just interested in a fun trip to Giallo country, this doesn't fully satisfy. Without the expected stylish, memorable visuals, all you are left holding on to is a plot that's designed to make you believe you're well ahead of what's going on.

You aren't. Or at least not as much as you think you are, which is ultimately really pretty fun and crazy when all's said and done, but it's not a great time all the way through. So maybe check this one out first and decide if it's worth the space on your shelf.

THE SMASHING MACHINE (2025) - A24

The Smashing Machine
A24

Original Release Date Oct. 3rd, 2025
Written by Benny Safdie
Directed by Benny Safdie
Starring Rock "The Dwayne" Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader
Language English (Descriptive Audio available) (English and Spanish subtitles available)

Get your copy HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

The Smashing Machine comes to Blu-ray from A24. Benny Safdie's solo directorial debut, The Smashing Machine offers insight into the life of real world MMA legend Mark Kerr. A24's release of The Smashing Machine features excellent audio and visual fidelity with a respectable crop of bonus features.

The Movie Itself: Good

The Smashing Machine is an interesting beast. Benny Safdie adapts John Hyams' 2002 documentary of the same name into a biopic of mixed martial artist Mark Kerr starring Rock "The Dwayne" Johnson in  what I think is his first serious and dramatic role. If not, it is at least a dramatic (no pun intended) change of pace from his recent cinematic output. What's more is, he's quite good and the film itself is very winning and engaging overall.

If The Rock is looking for a career beyond being "Franchise Viagra", The Smashing Machine is perhaps the best venue for his first big steps in that direction, all due to the environment that the story is set in. If Rock were to try his hand in a role like Howard Ratner (played by Adam Sandler in the Safdie Bros.' 2019 film Uncut Gems), a jeweler in NYC, his physique would stand out and be a distraction. By placing The Rock in a world where he will be surrounded by also very large, muscular folks, it essentially erases his muscles, or rather it normalizes them (nothing could erase those Bad Larrys). This allows for his performance to really stand out.

Personally, I think he should have gotten a nomination from the Academy. Not because it was an especially great performance, and certainly not because I think it had a shot of winning but because, for The Rock, who makes his public persona as much about the business as the craft (he is, after all. the person who introduced me to the concept of "verticals" which I still only vaguely understand) I wonder if he'll ever take a risk like this again without that recognition to fuel him. As someone who loves when actors avoid being pigeonholed, and even more so when they can surprise me, I think the landscape of film would be much more interesting if everyone got to try new things.

Of course, Rock aside, the film is very well made. The look (shot on 16mm by cinematographer Maceo Bishop), the jazzy score (Nala Sinephro), the dramatic arc of Mark Kerr's career and personal struggles, and many of the performances surrounding Kerr (notably Emily Blunt as Kerr's volatile girlfriend Dawn, Ryan Bader as one of Kerr's best friends and fellow fighter Mark Coleman, and MMA veteran / all-around lunatic Bas Rutten as himself, acting as a trainer for Kerr) all contribute to a wonderfully unique sports drama. As Emily Blunt points out in one of the bonus features, while many sports stories are about chasing victory, The Smashing Machine is more focused on picking up the pieces of the life around that chase.

The Packaging: Good

This is the first A24 physical release I've encountered and the presentation is very unique, as you might expect from A24. A card stock sleeve, which for some reason opens on the left whereas most similar packaging opens on the right, reveals an also card stock folding sleeve inside with the disc (in a plastic tray) and some photo cards. The photo cards are a mix of behind-the-scenes photos and photographs taken within the movie, as Mark Kerr (and etc.) are frequently being photographed by fans and reporters. It's a clever addition to the package, beyond just including reproductions of stills which is a lot more common.

The packaging itself is quite handsome with a lot of those film stills reproduced in really lovely color and with an overall very colorful, cleanly laid out look to all the titles and text. But seriously, I am always thrown by the inner sleeve sliding out to the left.

The Video: Excellent

I love the look of this film. I love the look of film, period, and cinematographer Maceo Bishop said a really interesting thing that instantly put him on my Filmmakers To Watch list: "Digital is a conversation with perfection, 16mm is a conversation with failure". I find that outlook absolutely fascinating and, without knowing his entire deal, I think I understand where he's coming from. When so much can be recreated "perfectly", there are no happy accidents, but by shooting on film, you have all sorts of things that are manageable rather than omnipotently controllable.

The Smashing Machine has light leak, and moments of the stadium lights shining directly into the lens which creates some of, hands down, my favorite images of the entire film. Even in its visually darkest moments, the look of the film feels like a jewel box, with deep colors and a real tactile feeling to all the textures of the movie: worn out gym mats, sweat-soaked clothing, a bowl that has been replaced using Kintsugi, the Japanese repair art where gold is used to mend cracks in pottery; it's all so sensual.

The Audio: Good

Much of this film is kind of quiet, in general. There are crowd sporting event scenes, there are arguments, but the balance was impeccably maintained. The only issues I had where some minor buzzing in my 3-channel soundbar as a result of some of the tones of the score. Also, my roommate's cats, who watched the film with me (read: slept nearby) did NOT like some of the sustained notes, but that's a them problem, I will not be docking the film at all for that.

The score, though, is tremendous. Nala Sinephro, who composed the film's music with the improvisational nature of MMA in mind, and also appears in the film playing the harp, delivers piece after piece of emotionally resonant and engrossing music. It all seems to be harp and drums, or at least I believe that was what I noticed most, and it's really fantastic.

Beyond that, environmental details in the mix were also extremely well utilized. Mark Kerr's story is a very public one, involving a lot of travel, so things like songs on a car radio, passengers on a train, street sounds, other folks sharing the gym; it all adds to the documentary-like immersion of the film.

The Supplements: Average

The bonus features here are solid. My one caveat is that a lot of the most interesting stuff presented in the supplements is repeated in the commentary from Benny Safdie, so whichever one you partake in first will likely take some of the punch out of the other. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of things to chew on, however. The one thing I was fascinated by was the realization that the prosthetics The Rock wore to better resemble Mark Kerr had to withstand a LOT of wear and tear: sweat, impact, etc. Prosthetic designer Kazu Hiro also had to sculpt different appliances depending on how swollen Mark is supposed to be at any given time.

• Commentary with writer/director Benny Safdie
• "What it Means to be a Fighter: Making The Smashing Machine" Featurette (25:09) (HD)
• 16mm Camera Test (9:09) (HD)
• Deleted Scenes:
• Bob's Burgers (2:39) (HD)
• Buddhist Temple (4:01) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Buy it on sale

The Smashing Machine isn't my favorite sports drama, it's not my favorite film from either Safdie brother, and it's not my favorite Rock "The Dwayne" Johnson film, but it is almost impeccably well made and I genuinely think The Rock should have gotten some real recognition for the effort he put forth here. Beyond just sitting for hours for prosthetics applications, or the changes in his speech and physicality that he is absolutely demonstrating here, he also put himself through a ton of physical abuse, agreeing to not only get into that kind of shape, but to perform as much of the sport fighting as was possible in the sake of realness.

I also haven't given enough flowers to Emily Blunt but she's doing exactly what I think The Rock (and so many others) wants to: stretch. Dawn is a BIG character and to describe her as "volatile" (which I did above) is a massive understatement. But underneath that, Blunt finds Dawn's vulnerability, the brokenness in the character (who is based on a real person, remember) that makes not only Dawn, but Mark as well, that much more human. 

MARTY SUPREME (2025) - A24

Marty Supreme
A24

Original Release Date Dec. 25th, 2025
Written by Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
Directed by Josh Safdie
Starring Timothée Chalamet, Odessa A'zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler the Creator, Kevin O'Leary
Language English (Descriptive Audio available) (English and Spanish subtitles available)

Buy your HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

Marty Supreme comes to Blu-ray from A24. Directed and co-written by Josh Safdie who, in his directorial debut, delivers a film that is similarly tense and of-a-kind with previous Safdie Bros. offerings. A24's release of Marty Supreme looks and sounds wonderful with an informative audio commentary track to beef up the slim bonus features.

The Movie Itself: Good

I can acknowledge that Marty Supreme is an incredibly well-made and detail-oriented film while also admitting that it's not really for me. In the other films from Josh Safdie (then working with brother Benny) which I've seen, Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019), there is a "there but for the grace of God" element to the main characters' unlikeability. Watching Robert Pattinson or Adam Sandler dig themselves even deeper graves in those films feels like we are sympathizing with men in difficult circumstances, while Marty Supreme (the film) seems to worship Marty (the character) and his awful, narcissistic behavior.

Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a table tennis pro living in New York in the 1950s, and he's very good. If you ask him, and even if you don't, he'll tell you he's the best. Now he just needs to prove it. The focus of the film ultimately becomes Marty's desire to win at an international table tennis championship being held in Japan, which would be difficult enough without Marty constantly shooting himself in the foot. He burns bridges, double crosses and manipulates anyone who wanders into his orbit, and isn't afraid to drag others into the messes he makes.

If you've enjoyed watching previous Safdie films, there's a lot of similar tonal stuff to enjoy here, whether or not you feel like I do regarding Marty. But as a film, Marty Supreme is impeccably made. Apparently, Josh Safdie is a stickler for historical details which leads to an incredibly immersive world being constructed. The making of featurette and the commentary track each highlight numerous historical details that, while you might not notice them, especially on a first viewing, with everything going on, absolutely add to your immersion into this world.

However you feel about Marty Mauser, or table tennis, or hustle culture in general, Marty Supreme is just a fantastically made film. Chalamet disappears into this character to a degree you don't often see from such marquee stars. He's supported by a fantastic cast of characters and actors including fellow table tennis players (Tyler the Creator and Géza Röhrig are standouts), family (Fran Drescher as his mother), a love interest (Odessa A'zion as childhood friend Rachel) or two (Gwyneth Paltrow as faded actress Kay Stone), and some very dangerous and powerful antagonists (Abel Ferrara and Kevin O'Leary), one of whom might be an actual, actual, actual vampire.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate this film by any stretch. I just feel an odd tone coming from the film itself that seems to almost revere Marty, no matter how awful and toxic a person he is, just because he has a dream and the drive to pursue it. While those are important qualities to have, I believe the way in which you live your life should matter as much if not more than what you accomplish in it. Regardless, I find Marty Supreme to be almost hypnotically watchable.

The Packaging: Good

This and The Smashing Machine are my first exposures to A24's physical media packaging, and overall, I like it. It's mostly card stock, with an exterior sleeve (that for some reason opens on the left side, as opposed to the right, which is more common) containing a card stock folded sleeve with the discs (in a plastic double tray) and a half dozen photo cards. These cards are presented almost like the photo spread in a high fashion magazine, with two images from the production on each card. It's all very stylish.

The cover to the exterior sleeve reproduces one of the posters for the film, that is primarily black with the title in huge silver letters and Marty standing, hands on hips, in front of the 'A'. It's a very handsome, eye-catching package, with some bright orange accents on the sleeve's spine and back. But my favorite detail is that the discs (one is the standard Blu-ray, one is the Ultra HD) look like Marty Supreme branded ping pong balls.

The Video: Excellent

This film looks incredible. There is a lot of darkness in Marty Supreme; a lot of sequences at night, or in darkened buildings. Even the table tennis competitions are in cavernous spaces with deep, dark shadows lurking behind everything. As you probably know, if you're perusing this section, low light levels can occasionally lead to visual noise. Obviously, this is less of a concern with modern films, as there is less overall degradation to the source materials, but it's still something to watch out for. Every one of the darker scenes in Marty Supreme looks like a jewel box, with what- or whoever is at the center shining and on display.

There is some film grain, but it's intentional and not in any way a distraction. If anything, it adds to the of-its-time immersion as much as the clothing and set details I mentioned. Grain adds a touch of gravitas and the weight of history to a film, and even subtextually or subconsciously, those things work with the film and its themes.

The Audio: Good

As with the visual section, I have no real complaints. I loved the score (from frequent Safdie collaborator Daniel Lopatin) and the 1980s pop songs that fill the soundtrack. Marty Supreme isn't an especially loud film overall, though there are noted exceptions and as such, I did have to turn the volume down at one point, which I'm not the biggest fan of. But it was just the once, which is infinitely preferable to having to ride the volume button, constantly seesawing from scene to scene.

Marty Supreme is a film that's full of life, with plenty of background noise, voices, and chaos that could lead to muddy sound quality. I've got a three-channel sound bar, primarily to give the built-in TV speakers a break and keep the thing from vibrating itself apart. I had no real issues with the mix, no problems with dialogue clarity, none of the pitfalls that actually effect the performance of the film.

The Supplements: Average

The supplements here are fine, if a little bit slight. The making of featurette is decent, and gave me a lot of finer points to pay attention to on subsequent rewatches. The camera test is interesting from an acting perspective, as Safdie decided to have Chalamet essentially crash Gwyneth Paltrow's camera test in character to feel the chemistry between them, and to watch her wordlessly determine what was happening and respond in kind was fascinating.

The stand out feature however, is the feature length commentary track from Josh Safdie. It's full of insight into his filmmaking process, his casting process, and a ton of history.

• Commentary track with Josh Safdie
• "Dream Big: The Making of Marty Supreme" Featurette (19:59) (HD)
• Camera Test with commentary by Josh Safdie (4:07) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Buy it on sale

In addition to reviewing this release of Marty Supreme, I also recently rewatched Josh's brother Benny Safdie's 2025 offering The Smashing Machine, and while I enjoy the filmmaking in both of the films, I feel like they're each finding their footing and experiencing the same, or similar hurdles. Marty Supreme is the stronger film, even though I think Smashing Machine has the more interesting lead performance.

Speaking of: Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O'Leary, and especially Odessa A'zion give incredible performances that really give Timothée Chalamet something to bounce off of, and when Tyler the Creator shows up, you almost want the film to become about these two guys somehow making ends meet hustling games of table tennis at local sports bars, like The Hustler or The Color of Money. Surrounding someone as myopically driven as Marty can be with such interesting and textured characters is an incredibly smart decision and makes the film very watchable, while the behind the scenes work and attention to detail make it incredibly engrossing.

M3GAN 2.0 (2025) - Universal Pictures

M3GAN 2.0
Universal Pictures

Original Release Date: June 27th, 2025
Written by Gerard Johnstone (screenplay & story), Akela Cooper (story & characters), James Wan (characters)
Directed by Gerard Johnstone
Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, 
Language English (with subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French)

Buy it HERE from Orbit

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

M3GAN 2.0 comes to 4K HD & Blu-ray from Universal Pictures. Franchise director Gerard Johnstone, who also contributed to the story here, helps to upgrade M3GAN from villain to anti-hero in this ambitious sequel. The Universal Pictures release looks and sounds great, but the bonus features, while enjoyable, left me wanting more.

The Movie Itself: 4 stars

When the first M3GAN (2022) came out, I heard a LOT of buzz about it. People were hyped. When I saw it a while after release, I was somewhat surprised: it was solid and very enjoyable, but not the kind of thing that I would get into such a tizzy about. Conversely, when the sequel dropped last year, I heard a much more modest response, even though I thought M3GAN 2.0 took some real chances and actually deserved more buzz. I love a Big Swing, and turning your killer robot doll horror franchise into a Terminator 2: Judgement Day homage is a pretty big one. Not to mention that it's done well.

But I'll back up. In the first film, we're introduced to Gemma (Allison Williams) and her recently-orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw). Gemma works in tech, designing robotics operating systems and artificial intelligence, and she is woefully unprepared to care for a child, let alone a grieving one. To that end, she introduces Cady to M3GAN (Amie Donald & Jenna Davis), her Model 3 Generative Android prototype, and things follow the Child's Play type of villain progression over the course of the film, with M3GAN becoming murderously obsessive about her friendship with Cady before eventually barely being defeated by Gemma and some of her other robotics projects.

In M3GAN 2.0, the franchise transitions M3GAN from Chucky to Terminator-style anithero. A government kill-bot (based on Gemma's works) goes rogue and eventually M3GAN is resurrected to help prevent it from achieving its ultimate goals which, without spoilers, will be bad for everybody. This rogue kill-bot, AMELIA (Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android) (Ivanna Sakhno), is just as powerful, crafty, dangerous, and insane as M3GAN but has the additional feature of: knowledge gleaned from hacking military databases. The plot ties in a pair of tech gurus (Jemaine Clement and Aristotle Athari, both approaching tech-bro douchebag performances from different angles and both doing a great job) and a shocking checklist of robotics & A.I. archetypes.

That aspect is one of my favorite things about the film: it functions almost like those multiverse / team-up films that are oh, so popular these days, but does so in a much more smooth and, ironically, organic fashion. Across the film's run-time, these battling A.I. robots cross swords (only occasionally metaphorically) with exo suits, futuristic eye-phones, neural chips, smart homes and home assistants, smart cars, BattleBots-style animatronics, and even a cameo appearance from Microsoft Office Assistant mascot Clippy! In addition to the robotics role call I've just mentioned, the choreography is pretty fantastic. It approaches the brutality of something "serious" like Timo Tjahtjanto's The Night Comes for Us, (2018) but keeps things poppy and accessible, like Timo Tjahtjanto's Nobody 2 (2025).

M3GAN, as a franchise, is focused on fun, and seems to approach that vague concept from a ''what's good for the goose is good for the gander'' perspective, changing things to take on grander ambitions, and keeping the cast and crew on their toes in the hopes that if they're all enjoying making the film, we will enjoy watching it. While M3GAN 2.0 didn't make as big a splash as the original, it's an infinitely more unexpected turn that deserves to be experienced. I hope they still make more of these films, and I hope I never know what genre they're going to explore next.

The Packaging: 3 stars

There's nothing to rave about in regards to the packaging here, but we shouldn't become so desensitized to reliable quality that we don't appreciate it. The Universal release comes in a black HD Blu-ray snapcase with a sleeve depicting M3GAN in bisexual lighting. The sleeve has a slight foil, reflective quality to it, which adds to the presentation. 

The Video: 4 stars

The film looks fantastic. Colorful, well-balanced, and appropriately saturated, the look of M3GAN 2.0 is dark the way a carnival at night is. Lots of neon lighting (the tech convention sequence especially), sleek, and shining design porn (the cars, the various buildings, etc.) abounds, but never at the expense of warmth or clarity.

The visual clarity works for and against the film at times. The production of M3GAN 2.0 utilized a mixture of animatronics and CGI face-replacement (in correlation to body doubles) to bring the characters of M3GAN and AMELIA to life and at times, you can tell. The super-clean visuals leave little room for even the briefest trip to the Uncanny Valley. On the other end of things: M3GAN and AMELIA are both supposed to feel uncanny, so those moments never broke my immersion, but some of the visuals are just smoother than others. In a film working with the constraints that this is (it's not ''low-budget'' by any means, but for its budget it's extremely ambitious), I think some rough edges are more than fair.

The Audio: 4 stars

The sound mix on this Universal release is pretty tops by my reckoning. This will sound like a very silly sentence, but there are a lot of sounds in this film, by which I mean: a lot is done with sound here. Setting aside your garden variety horror / action sonic choices--gunshots, yelling, combat, car engines, explosions, etc.--the M3GAN operating system hops between host systems a few different times, and sometimes these are audibly depicted via changes to her voice (notably, one feels like a direct homage to GLaDOS from the Portal games!) She also sings a version of Kate Bush's This Woman's Work in one hilariously bizarre moment, and there is a noted change in the sonorous quality of M3GAN's voice, which I think is a choice, made in world by M3GAN herself and not a mistake in the mixing.

My three-channel soundbar handled all of this very well, thanks to the Dolby Atmos mix. All dialogue was clear, and even the most sonically complicated sequences always felt balanced in a way that highlighted the appropriate aspects and allowed the story to continue on smoothly.

The Supplements: 3.5 stars

With supplemental material, I'm always looking for things that add context to my filmgoing experience: stories about the making-of process, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and/or footage, explanations of the effects work and the other crafts that went into bringing this film (whatever it may be) to life. There's definitely some of that here, but in my opinion, not enough. For instance, I would have loved a lot more info on the BattleBots-style animatronic (mentioned above) that was constructed by prop master Nick Komornicki!

According to the Droid DNA featurette, that thing needed, at time, seven puppeteers to operate it! I would happily have watched an hour on that process. I love practical effects, especially when they are to be utilized in conjunction with (and not as a rough draft to be replaced by) computer generated effects! I think that process is intellectually fascinating.

My blue-skying aside, I did enjoy the bonus features that are actually included. The action breakdown featurette (The Art of Slaying) was a lot of fun and I'd happily have watched an hour of that as well.

• Total Upgrade: Making M3GAN 2.0 (11:19) (HD)
• Droid DNA (7:39) (HD)
• The Art of Slaying (8:06) (HD)
• Scene breakdown: The Embrace A.I. Convention (5:05) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Highly Recommended

As someone who saw Terminator 2 approximately 50 times before I finally saw the original, I will forgo my usual "...but make sure to watch the first film beforehand" caveat. I think M3GAN 2.0, as a movie, whips ass while still holding its own. In a cinematic field increasingly overcrowded with tired concepts and threadbare franchise installments, it's genuinely refreshing to see one that embraces a fluidity and freedom to change. I could wax on about how that is representative of some of the themes, but that's not why you're here.

If M3GAN 2.0 is your introduction to the franchise, you'll have a great time. But you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't eventually go back and watch the first one, if only to appreciate how brave a stylistic change this film is. But either way, I strongly recommend M3GAN 2.0 and hope for future installments.

Universal Confluence Jones

I was watching Super Mario Bros. (1993) for the first time in a l-o-n-g time and I noticed something that is, in reality certainly just a production oversight, but if has fascinating implications if you think WAY too much about it, as it is occasionally fun to do:

That is a random extra in a location on a parallel world, wearing a denim vest with an image of Taz, the Tasmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes, on the back. In the '90s, the Looney Tunes were EVERYwhere and, if you know anything about the chaotic production of this movie, I'm sure somebody just figured "Nobody will ever notice this dude". Little did they anticipate that the future would bring us a Blu-ray release of this film, from Umbrella Entertainment, that looks incredible and actually made it possible to catch a truly inconsequential background detail.

That's the obvious answer, but if you think too much about things (which is sometimes quite fun to do, unless you start believing all your made-up b.s. and then you're Alex Jones and his ilk) you can extrapolate that maybe the denizens of the former Mushroom Kingdom are traveling to-and-fro between our world and theirs often enough that they're just buying Looney Tunes denim from the local K-Mart and wearing it around home as a flex.

There could also just be a few brave souls crossing the universal border to smuggle goods back in and sell them to certain customers of a more discerning taste.

OR. Maybe Taz is a universal construct. Maybe Taz exists across all realities, much like how various cultures and religions in the real world share stories that echo the Christ myth (and in multiple cases, pre-date it). Maybe the idea of Taz, a whirling dervish of appetite and chaos, is an avatar of something that exists in the collective unconscious of all beings across all worlds. Maybe "he" is out there in the primordial ether, waiting; hungry, salivating and spinning.

I apologize for the quality of the image, I just paused and snagged a photo with my phone. But I will not apologize for my crazy over-thinking and over-analyzing of totally meaningless background details in movies; it's too fun.

Also, the title of this post is a wrestling joke, iykyk.