Taxi Driver – 40th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray Review)
November 18th, 2016 by Aaron Neuwirth
So it seems that every five years we will be getting a new edition of Taxi Driver on whatever home format is available. The classic Martin Scorsese neo-noir/psychological thriller has been given its share of acclaim so many times that delving into something new about the film almost feels unnecessary. And yet, this latest release adds on a new 40-minute Q&A to go along with all the other extras and the 4K digital restoration previously found on other Blu-ray releases of the film. For those who have never owned the film before, this is (for now) the ultimate edition as far as all that comes with this terrific and legendary film.
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Mechanic: Resurrection was a film I never made it to theatrically this year. In fact I never even saw the first film in the series. After reading Aaron Neuwirth’s review of the second one 
Personally, I’m not familiar with either of these going in, but The TAMI Show and The Big TNT Show sound like they were a big step and sort of monumental in terms of the concert film. Both movies are just some concerts with big names, but it was something of an event, lots of player, lots of hit singles. Shout Factory is using its Shout Select label to bring this film and its sister film, The Big TNT Show to Blu-ray for the very first time. Mastered from a new High-Definition transfer, The T.A.M.I. Show / The Big T.N.T. Show Collector’s Edition brings both of these history-making films to life in a definitive set that no fan or scholar of rock and soul music will want to be without. It will be available December 2nd! 
William Friedkin suffered the same kind of fate many of his 1970s breakout director contemporaries did, they started to sort of fall off their super high pedestal in the 1980s. Now, with Friedkin, I think a lot of his work during this time was actually good quality, it just wasn’t catching on or becoming a hit with audiences and/or critics just weren’t ready yet. To Live And Die In LA was seen as a sort of “return” for him as he finally put out a film with both critic and audience approval. He had been on a run of bombs and reviled movies like Sorcerer (Which is a MASTERPIECE) and Cruising (HIGHLY underrated, bold film). This was seen as a return to his roots of sorts, akin to finding himself a new French Connection. It was also the last loudly heralded film of his all the way until Bug and Killer Joe in the more recent years here. Shout Factory is labeling it under its Select series and giving it a Collector’s Edition that builds and improves upon the previous Blu-ray release on November 22nd. 
J’accuse, director Abel Gance’s (Napoleon) indictment of war, is a tale of romance and idealism in the tradition of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion. Abel Gance would revisit his 1919 epic J’accuse with the 1938 reimagining, this time with sound and a score by his The Woman Thief collaborator Henri Verdun. Gance’s film stars Victor Francen (A Farewell to Arms) and Jean-Max (Satan’s Paradise), J’accuse features supporting performances by Line Noro (Pépé le Moko), Paul Amiot (Le Cercle Rouge), André Nox (Savage Brigade) and Marie Lou (The Woman Thief). Directed by Abel Gance, J’accuse (which used his epic 1919 silent screen version as a template) is both a stirring indictment of man’s inhumanity to man and an ode to man’s capacity for love and compassion. The film is coming to Blu-ray from Olive Films on November 15th. 
Orson Welles is forever known for changing cinema as we know it and crafting a good handful of films that are timeless classics. Time is a kind passage to some classic cinema as well, in that most of his works that were deemed as failures or disappointments are able to be reassessed as time goes by and find a new audience that appreciates or is ready for a film that may have been ahead of its time, or just not quite understood when it was originally released theatrically. Macbeth is one of those for Orson Welles. While not perfect or a forgotten masterpiece (Like Touch of Evil), Welles take on Shakespeare proves to have some strong merit where it had been pretty much panned and even recut at the demand of the studio following its debut in 1948. Luckily here, Olive Films Signature Edition not only has both versions, but a pretty solid package to look back at the film in their latest release which will be streeting Noevember 15th. 
Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes was a film that came out of making three short films sharing that title. The feature film doesn’t stray too far and really is a series of eleven short films or vignettes. What they all carry in common are the fact that the whole movie is just about different people sitting at a table literally enjoying coffee and cigarettes. The title does not lie. This film received some festival buzz around 2003 when it came out and Jarmusch is a pretty popular (Yet more underground) filmmaker, so yeah, even if this is a Clerks situation, lets bring this sucker to the Blu-ray format. Its coming from the wonderful people over a Olive Films and will be available for purchase (Pre-order now, please) on Tuesday, November 15th. 
Olive Signature enters its third month of existence with a continued trend in rebranding and improving upon one of their previous Western genre releases. This will make it four total for the series out of six movies that have gone into the collection so far. November brings us to Hannie Caulder, the Raquel Welch revenge Western from 1971 that also co-starred Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine and Christopher Lee (His only appearance in a Western). The Burt Kennedy film now comes with some new interviews, a commentary and the nice packaging with the little booklet that these Signature Editions are known to have. Its also got a new look image and audio track as well. This film, along with Orson Welles MacBeth, will be available on Tuesday, November 15th. 
There’s that sigh of relief from fellow Trek fans, as there’s a sort of gamble that paid off. Previously, Star Trek: The Animated Series was only available in the 50th Anniversary box set that came out back in September from Paramount. As a matter of fact, aside from having everything from the original crew in one nice package, the only new draw to it was the Blu-ray deubt of the 1970s animated series. Most of us assumed it would receive its own standalone release down the line. Surprisingly, we only had to wait just a a little over two months to find out our hold out was worth is. It now comes in a nice little 3-disc set of its own with some limited edition small art prints that are posters for episodes and all the bonus material featured on the previous DVD release of the short lived extension. You’ll be able to pick this one up for purchase on November 15th. Rejoice! Your Blu-ray collection of Star Trek (Original Crew) is complete! 
Sausage Party, which sort of made its premiere at SXSW this year, is one film I purposely missed out on theatrically this year. I know I’m not alone in my way of thinking. The overall consensus is very split on this one too. Either people seem to love it or others outright hate it like our boy Bron Anderson 
As most probably expected, Finding Dory became the year’s biggest film this summer. Following one of Disney/Pixar’s most successful, beloved and heralded films of all time was sort of a no-brainer in the wondering of who’s going to go see it. This time they would focus on the fish with the short term memory loss, Dory, who was voiced by Ellen Degeneres. The whole crew from the first film returns for this adventures as well as adding in some new friends voiced by character acting favorites. I recently covered the digital release for the film, this is the one that covers the Blu-ray release (Which indeed includes the digital version as a bonus as well as the DVD edition of the film). Its coming November 15th, so there’s still time to get your pre-order in and have it waiting for you on release day. 
All good things must come to an end and all Mockingjays must have their part 2. And it all felt like it came and went so quickly. Just a mere 3 and a half years following the first film, here we were with a fourth (extra film to be honest) and final chapter. It was quite an enlightening and engaging journey through some terrific science fiction, action and thrilling politics. The series also gave us a iconic actor/character in Katniss Everdeen that will forever remain one of cinema’s best. The Hunger Games series raised the bar and went beyond the level of just simply something for the young adult enthusiasts. While Twilight never went beyond the Twi-hards (And there are a TON of them) and Harry Potter really didn’t pick up the all-ages crowds til around the fourth one, The Hunger Games had it from the start. And here’s its climactic finish. You can own it and the rest of the films on 4K UHD Blu-ray when Lionsgate drops them November 8th. 
Following in the footsteps of its contemporaries, Harry Potter and Edward Cullen, Katniss Everdeen had the final book in her series split into to. For the fans of the novel, it brought some head scratching, that of the three books, Mockingjay would get split and not one that could have been more detailed in Catching Fire. When it comes to the splits of these novels, you get the impression the studio is trying to milk the cow dry, but in Harry Potter’s case, it actually worked out very well. Either way with Hunger Games: Mockingjay, you can just look through a purely financial standpoint and see that Lionsgate made the correct choice from that angle. This penultimate film in the Hunger Games series isn’t splitting any differences when it makes its debut on the 4K UHD Blu-ray format on November 8th. 
Following on the heels of Harry Potter and the Twilight films, The Hunger Games was the next in line to carry the torch of big time young adult novel adaptations turned blockbuster films. This first film was expected to do well, but wound up taking in a massive box office haul, which not only was a record for when it was released, but also for something that wasn’t a sequel or based off of anything prior. This first film catapulted Jennifer Lawrence into superstardom and made her the total “it girl” that still seems to be running. Starting in 2012 and ending in 2015, the series came and went in a flash. But fear not, the complete series is now hitting 4K UHD, the first to have its entire run on the format (Unless you count the nu-Trek as its own series, but technically, its part of the longer 13 film ouvre in the lore). 
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is one of the most popular works of theatre of all time. People may not know what the play or script is about completely, but many get the gyst or recognize the title when its dropped (A lot throughout film and television history). Previously made into a feature film in 1951, 1985 brought a televised version of the play featuring Dustin Hoffman brining his gravitas to television. This iteration proved a pretty big success, garnering a whopping ten Emmy nominations that year. It took home three of them, including statues for both actors Dustin Hoffman (Leading in a movie or mini series) and John Malcovich (Supporting). The film is being released under the Shout Select banner and isn’t the first television movie under the label. If you’ll remember, their first was John Carpenter’s Elvis, starring Kurt Russell. This Blu-ray rendition of the 1985 movie will be available on November 15th. 
The marketing for Imperium was completely misleading! They presented it as just another film about Neo-Nazi America that just HAPPENS to star Daniel Radcliffe. This totally bums me out because I TOTALLY would’ve seen this in the theater! Honest to god, I freaking LOVE movies about Neo-Nazis! But more on that later. The biggest thing that the trailers left out about this movie was the way the Government, or more specifically the FBI, perpetuates the idea that Arab extremists are the primary threat when it comes to domestic terrorism in America. When in reality the majority of the terrorist activity that takes place in the states is actually perpetrated by white extremists.
