Each and every year, like most collectors, I make a ton of purchases. I am always on the lookout for the best deals and the films that I really like. I do make a lot of "blind buys" and some of them turn out to be great buy but not all of them. Anyway, this is my list of the ten purchases I made that I love more than rest of the stuff I bought in 2022.
10. I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (Kino Lorber) For the longest time, around 20 years or so, I’M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA was the go-to “Blaxploitation” spoof. That was until BLACK DYNAMITE dethroned it. I still think that this a really fun film that has really funny scenes along with a few not-so-funny scenes. I do wish that there were more special features. The reason that this one made the list more than a few other releases is that after I picked up this release, Kino Lorber announced this very release was going out of print. You got to watch this film.
9. Star Trek: The Animated Series (Paramount) I remember watching reruns of the original series when I would be home sick. It was a great show that didn’t really require you to have followed the series up until now. Episodes worked on their own and I found that appealing. When I sat down to talk about this release, I realized I had actually seen the Animated Series in reruns at some point in my life. This is a great continuation of the original series while making the show accessible to those who really didn’t watch sci-fi but loved animation. This release is also very nice with a fun making-of doc on the third disc.
8. Wishmaster Collection (Lionsgate) Lionsgate has library of films that they are sssssllllllooooooowwwwwwllllllyyyyy releasing and they have been releasing films on blu-ray as The Vestron Video Series Collector’s Edition. I was glad that they did the WISHMASTER films in one collection because had they released these separately parts 3 and 4 would have been really poor sellers. I made my way through the series and I am glad I did. The first two films are genuinely good horror flicks about an evil djinn who tricks people into wishing for something and then giving them the bad version of it. The gore effects, for the first two films, are well done and bloody. The third and fourth films are ok. They’re not bad films. There is a lot to like about those films. Lionsgate really went all out for this release with a commentary track on each film with the first two films getting the bulk of the special features. Even if you are buying this collection for the first film, I thought it was still worth it.
7. Psycho Gorman (Raven Banner Releasing) PSYCHO GOREMAN was my favorite film of 2021. The film was so much fun with its Power Ranger infused fight scenes. There are scenes in this film that crack me up every time I watch the film and have never grown old. The blu-ray that we got here in the States was fine but the Canadian blu-ray release was going to be stacked. Ok. I knew I had to get this release. And I did. It is a wonderful release with so many commentary tracks and making of docs that there is no stone unturned. The cover art even uses the HOUSEGUEST spoof poster as the blu-ray cover.
6. Manos: The Hands of Fate (Synapse) MANOS is the first time I had seen a film that everyone else would hate this film, but I found myself loving. I knoew that it is considered one of the worst films of all time, but it has a charm that many bad films made wished they had. This is an “honestly” made film. What I mean by that is: it wasn’t made as a product. It was made as a film. Synapse did a restoration of the film a few years ago and then released it on blu-ray and it is marvelous. The film has never looked better and there are some great special features that look into the making of the film as well as the restoration work done to get us to this release.
5. Black Dog (Universal) I am a sucker for trucker movies especially the ones where there are a ton of bad guys who are trying to get to the sweet sweet cargo the trucker is driving. SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, WHITE LINE FEVER, and this film, BLACK DOG. I love BLACK DOG. The film is so much. The action is really well done and I liked the characters despite them being thinly written. The blu-ray doesn’t contain any special features, but it does contain the film which is good enough for me.
4. Vigilante (Blue Underground) William Lustig made some of the most New York films ever made. MANIAC, the MANIAC COP series, and VIGILANTE, a film that more people need to see. You’ve got Robert Forester and Fred “The Hammer” Williamson starring, but you also have Joe Spinell, Woody Strode, and Steve motherfucking James showing up as supporting characters. The film captures the sleaziness of early 80s New York perfectly and the film is a lot of fun to boot. Blue Underground really went all out for this release with amazing picture and sound along with a nice assortment of special features. I love this release and you should too.
3. Hackers (88 Films) My favorite year for movies is 1995. So many great films (STRANGE DAYS, TANK GIRL, LORD OF ILLUSIONS, etc) were released that year and my favorite of those films is HACKERS. There is so much to love about HACKERS it is ridiculous. The film is endlessly enjoyable and has a killer soundtrack that fits the film to a T. I have been waiting for decades for HACKERS to get the love it deserves on blu-ray and it was UK label 88 Films that would give me what I wanted. The film looks and sound pretty good, but it are the special features that make this release. You get an audio commentary and an hour or so long making of. I know that isn’t all that much but it is better than we have gotten in the past and makes me happy. Why I waited this long to buy this blu-ray, I have no idea.
2. Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (Blue Underground) MANIAC COP 3 was the first film in the series that I saw. Well, there was a shot in the film that I saw and remembered to this day. In this scene, a guy is shown carrying a woman down a tunnel that is lit by a few light bulbs overhead. The guy is really tall and his head hits every lightbulb causing them to break. This scene stuck with me and I always wondered what film it came from. When I watched MANIAC COP 3 for the first time about ten or so years ago, I saw the scene and I was so happy I was finally able to give a name to the film. This 4K blu-ray really special as it has a commentary track by William Lustig and Joel Soisson. The reason this track is special is that Lustig had left production halfway through and Soisson (who produced the film) had to take over and finish the film. This track is a must listen for anyone who wants to hear some great stories about a very troubled production. The picture, sound, and other special features are all great but the commentary track is just too good to pass up.
1. Evil Bong Stash Box (Full Moon) During a few days surrounding 4/20/2022, Full Moon announced a deal that would last only a few days: sign up for a year of Full Moon Features’ streaming service and you would get an EVIL BONG STASH BOX for free. On top of that, you would also be able choose ten free dvds or blu-rays from a pretty damn good list. So, you get the EVIL BONG STASH BOX (sells for $180) and ten blu-rays (sell for about $15 a piece) all for the cost of a year of Full Moon Features streaming ($59.99). I couldn’t pass this deal up. The EVIL BONG STASH BOX is a great set. You get nine films on blu-ray (EVIL BONG 1-7, THE GINGERDEAD MAN vs EVIL BONG, and WEEDJIES) with many of the EVIL BONG blu-rays being exclusive to this set. The box is huge and comes with space to keep your weed, so Rob Schneider would have a field day with it (that’s an SNL joke for a terrible sketch the show did in the 90s.) This set is so cool and my favorite purchase of 2022.
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