It’s New Release Tuesday! Featuring Burt Reynolds, new Criterion titles, and a metric ton of vintage Jackie Chan!

ARAB ISRAELI DIALOGUE/IMAGINE PEACE (2022)

Arab Israeli Dialogue (1974) is the passionate final documentary from Lionel Rogosin (On the Bowery, Come Back Africa), in which Palestinian poet Rashed Hussein and Israeli writer Amos Kenan seek dialogue toward a possible solution to the never-ending conflict. Never before have both sides discussed a mutual problem so frankly, and so willingly. Rogosin provides an open forum for two formidable intellects to discuss the fates of their nations, and the ever-receding possibility of peace.

Imagine Peace (2022) is Michael A. Rogosin’s moving and thought-provoking film about his father’s Arab Israeli Dialogue. He screened the original film on the wall of the Palestine-Israel Journal offices in East Jerusalem, the only joint Israeli-Palestinian publication, and heard the editors, some of whom knew both Kenan and Hussein, make observations about the 1974 documentary and about where we are today. (DVD)

ARMOUR OF GOD (1987)

Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan), an adventurer dealing in antiquities, is sent on a quest through Europe after he discovers a mysterious sword and Satanic monks kidnap his ex-girlfriend. (BLU-RAY)

ARMOUR OF GOD II: OPERATION CONDOR (1991)

Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) is on a mission in the Sahara to lay claim to hidden WWII Nazi gold. But three female sidekicks and a team of ruthless mercenaries may have different ideas for the treasure. (BLU-RAY)

ASSASSINATION BUREAU (1969)

London, 1908. When feisty journalist and women’s rights campaigner Sonia Winter (Diana Rigg) uncovers the headquarters of the Assassination Bureau Limited, a clandestine enterprise that has existed for decades by bumping off the rich and powerful – but only if there’s a good moral reason for it – she sets on a path of putting an end to its activities. Bankrolled by her press baron boss, Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas), she commissions the organisation to undertake the assassination of its very own chairman, Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed). Being the gentleman that he is, Dragomiloff responds to the assignment with glee, challenging his fellow board members to complete the contract. Only they’ll have to catch him first… (BLU-RAY)

BACKTRACK (1990)

While fixing a flat tire, artist Anne Benton (Jodie Foster) sees a mob killing. She reports the murder to the local police, but they are unable to protect her from Mafia don Lino Avoca (Vincent Price), who orders hitman Milo (Dennis Hopper) to track her down and kill her. Anne changes her identity, moves to Seattle and builds a new life, while Milo, preparing for his mission, becomes increasingly obsessed with her. When he finally finds Anne, Milo needs to decide what his next move will be. (BLU-RAY)

BIRDEMIC 3 – SEA EAGLE (2022)

With full creative control restored, writer/director James Nguyen goes back to basics to complete his immortal action-adventure eco-terror vision. As The Reprobate proclaims, “there is so much madness at work here that nothing seems impossible”: When global warming triggers climate chaos along the Northern California coast, two scientific researchers will discover tender romance, sudden wealth, awkward dancing, appalling CGI, space elevators, automatic weapons and a plague of sea eagle attacks that could lead to the extinction of life on Earth. (DVD)

BLOOD RELATIVES (2022)

Francis, a 115-year-old Yiddish vampire, still looks 35. He’s been roaming American backroads in his beat-up muscle car for decades, keeping to himself, and liking it that way. One day, a teenage kid, Jane, shows up. She says she’s his daughter, and she’s got the fangs to prove it. They go on the road, deciding whether to sink their teeth into family life. (DVD)

BLOODLANDS: SERIES 2 (2021) 

DCI Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) returns, as the murder of a crooked accountant unravels a trail of greed that threatens to expose the true identity of the legendary assassin, codenamed, Goliath. Between Tom and redemption stands the accountant’s widow, Olivia (Victoria Smurfit), whose intentions may be far from innocent. (DVD)

BORDERS OF LOVE (2022)

Hana (Hana Vagnerová) is starting to feel that her relationship with Petr (Matyáš Reznícek) is getting into a rut. So she decides to liven things up and starts sharing her erotic fantasies and secret desires with him. It’s just a small step from words to action. Soon they are exploring their own intimacy, trying experiences with other partners and increasingly pushing the limits of just how far they can go in love and sex. However, such an experiment with freedom can easily get out of hand. (DVD)

CITY HUNTER (1993)

A special agent assigned to protect a well-to-do businessman gets more than he bargains for when his charge is kidnapped during an ambush. Teaming up with a detective, he soon finds that not all is as it seems… (BLU-RAY)

CRIME STORY (1993)

Fighting his own personal demons, Inspector Eddie Chan must find a kidnapped businessman, a task which will put him in the line of fire from mobsters and a double-crossing agent. (BLU-RAY)

HEAT (1986)

Ex-mercenary Nick Escalante isn’t a violent man by nature. He’s just good at it. And when things get very, very bad, he’s naturally at his best. Las Vegas is the backdrop for all the torrid action of Heat, as screen legend Burt Reynolds (Hustle, Stick) plays the softhearted bodyguard who’s out to protect his friends. When a gangster’s son brutally beats an old flame, it ignites a tightly wound thriller that pits Burt against the mob and culminates in a vicious cat-and-mouse climax. (BLU-RAY)

HIS DARK MATERIALS: SEASON 3 (2019)

Based on “The Amber Spyglass,” the third novel in Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy, the final chapter of this epic fantasy series finds Lyra (Dafne Keen), the prophesied child, and Will (Amir Wilson), the bearer of The Subtle Knife, on a journey to a dark place from which no one has ever returned. As Lyra’s father’s great war against the Authority edges closer, they will learn that saving the worlds comes at a terrible price. (DVD)

KOMPROMAT (2022)

Based on incredible true events, Jérome Salle’s gripping new espionage thriller depicts the remarkable story of a French public servant who unwittingly finds himself in conflict with one of the modern era’s most powerful and dangerous forces: Russia’s FSB. (DVD)

LICHTENSTEIN, ROY: WHAAM! BLAM! ROY LICHTENSTEIN AND THE ART OF APPROPRIATION (2022)

LOVERS LANE (1999)

Passions are aroused and old wounds reopened in this sassy post-Scream teen slasher based on the urban legend of “The Hook”. Description: A steamy secret tryst that was brutally cut short on Valentine’s Day an unlucky thirteen years ago comes back to haunt the teens who linger around the lovers lane where the double slaying took place. The County Sheriff Tom Anderson (Matt Riedy) has just about come to terms with the fact that it was his wife who died in another man’s car on that fateful night. His daughter Mandy (Erin J. Dean), who as a four-year-old saw her mother’s corpse carried away from the scene, has a different take on things. It doesn’t help that her classmate Michael (Riley Smith) lost his father to the same hook-handed homicidal maniac in that night’s incident. To cap it all off, as another Valentine’s Day comes round, reports come through that the man arrested as “The Hook” has just bust out of his asylum. (BLU-RAY)

MY HAPPY ENDING (2023)

NEW GODFATHERS (1979)

With the American Mafia families pooling their resources to bring huge quantities of cheap heroin into the country, it’s up to Italian customs official Ivano Radevic (Gianni Garko) to allow the authorities to intercept the drugs en route to the USA. Radevic enters into an unlikely partnership with Naples mob boss Don Francesco Autiero (Mario Merola), whose specialty is cigarette smuggling. Together they enter into an unpredictably violent war on drugs. (BLU-RAY)

NEW GODS: YANG JIAN (2022)

Thirteen years after Yang Jian imprisoned his sister, the once-powerful hero also known as Erlang Shen now scrapes by as a poor bounty hunter. When a mysterious woman hires him, Yang Jian soon finds himself chasing down a familiar figure. He must stop Chenxiang, his long-lost nephew, who searches for a powerful, but dangerous artifact. As Yang Jian confronts his past, he must face treacherous vigilantes seeking to bring catastrophic destruction. (BLU-RAY and DVD)

ONE FINE MORNING (2022)

ONE LANE BRIDGE: SERIES 3 (2020)

OUTLAWS, THE: SERIES 1 (2021)

POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP (1992)

To infiltrate a drug cartel, police Inspector Chan Ka Kui (Jackie Chan) goes undercover in a Chinese prison. There, he earns the trust of Panther (Yuen Wah), a cartel member, by breaking him out of prison. With the help of another undercover agent (Michelle Yeaoh), they travel to Hong Kong and join up with Panther’s gang. Ka Kui is accepted by the gang’s leader (Ken Tsang), but his operation is jeopardized when Ka Kui’s girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) accidentally reveals his true identity. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)

PRIMAL: SEASON 2 (2019)

Named “Best Animated TV Show of 2022” by Vulture, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal follows the tale of a caveman at the dawn of evolution as he forms an unlikely friendship with an almost extinct dinosaur. In Season Two, Spear and Fang journey to a new world to rescue Mira from her captors only to find it is a place filled with savage brutality. (BLU-RAY and DVD)

PROTECTOR, THE (1985)

When the daughter of a wealthy businessman is kidnapped, two New York City cops travel to Hong Kong to make trouble for the nefarious drug lord they suspect is behind the crime. (BLU-RAY)

RETURN TO SEOUL (2022)

Freddie (explosive newcomer Park Ji-min) has returned South Korea for the first time since her adoption and move to France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country where she knows very little, including the language, to learn about where she was born. (DVD)

SMALL AXE (2020) (5 FILMS) (CRITERION)

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS: SEASON 3 (2020)

Season Three challenges the U.S.S. Cerritos ensigns in (hilarious) ways they could never imagine, starting with a shocking resolution for Season Two’s epic cliffhanger finale. (DVD)

SUNDAY WOMAN (1975)

An odious architect is beaten to death and a high society wife (Jacqueline Bisset, Day for Night) and her gay friend (Jean-Louis Trintignant, The Conformist) are the key suspects with a discarded letter implicating them in the crime. Commissioner Santamaria (Marcello Mastroianni, Fellini’s 8 ½) is assigned to the case and tries to uncover the murder suspect in upper-class Turin. With a murder mystery narrative worthy of Agatha Christie, The Sunday Woman is also a sharp critique of Turin’s upper crust. The screenplay, by the celebrated duo Age & Scarpelli, famed for their masterpieces in the Commedia all’Italiana boom including Big Deal on Madonna Street and The Organizer, is a whip-smart adaptation of the best-selling novels by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini with the lead character of Santamaria inspired by the real-life head of the Flying Squad. The much-heralded director Luigi Comencini (Misunderstood) often worked in a combination of comedy and drama, finding humour in tragedy, and is only waiting to be rediscovered as a master of post-war Italian cinema. (BLU-RAY)

TERRIFIER 2 (2022)

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022) (CRITERION)

TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LUCKY STARS (1985)

The Five Lucky Stars are tasked with protecting the friend of an assassinated police informant while the Police Chief and her team try to root out an illegal drug operation. (BLU-RAY)

WHEELS ON MEALS (1984)

As they operate a food truck in Spain, two friends are called upon to use their martial arts expertise to help protect a pickpocket from a ruthless gang. (BLU-RAY)

WINNERS & SINNERS (1983)

Just released from prison, five steadfast friends do their very best to stay out of trouble, but quickly find themselves involved in an all-out war! (BLU-RAY)

WOODCUTTERS OF THE DEEP SOUTH/WORKING TOGETHER (2022)

Down in the lush backwoods of Mississippi and Alabama, history is being made. Poor Black and White working people are trying to overcome the forces of racism among themselves to organize into cooperative associations to dispel the bonds of their economic captors—the paper and pulpwood companies. In his unique Woodcutters of the Deep South (1973), Lionel Rogosin (On the Bowery) allows the people in the film to tell and live their own story. We see them in their homes, with their families, in the forests, which provide them the things that make them woodcutters— trees and freedom. Interviews with the men directly involved in the formation of the group—The Gulf-Coast Pulpwood Association—reveals the intricacies of this venture, an inspiring depiction of unity among workers of all races.

Michael A. Rogosin’s Working Together (2022) examines the consequences and questions that were implied in Woodcutters. Inherent in the original film is not only the question of Black and White folks working together, but what happened to the Civil Rights movement in the ’70s. By revisiting the film with Bob Zellner, who was in the original film, and other major Civil Rights workers, Lionel’s son Michael helps to understand what happened and is happening in America today. (DVD)