Tuesday Purchases - 5/16

On Tuesdays, I have been known to buy movies. Here are the titles that ended up in my hands today.

1. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Best Buy steelbook exclusive)

I have to admit, I wasn't as crazy about Resident Evil: The Final Chapter as I was about the previous two installments in the franchise, but it's still a solid sci-fi/action film. What Paul W. S. Anderson created with Afterlife and Retribution were well shot, slick action films, that actually used 3D technology to enhance the composition of certain frames. The Final Chapter is well shot, and does have slick action (and good 3D), but ends up coming up just a bit short when compared to Afterlife and Retribution. The editing in this one is more frenetic, and while I like that the editing differentiates it from the previous two films, it comes off as just slightly jarring.

But I also like films that are slightly jarring.

I'm also not sure how I feel about this steelbook artwork. I skipped the previous Resident Evil Pop Art exclusives from Best Buy, but considering this is the only steelbook released of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in the United States at the moment, I just went with it.

2. Return of the Dragon (AKA Way of the Dragon) and Game of Death

Confession time: I have only seen a couple of Bruce Lee films in their entirety. I've seen the final fight scene between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in Way of the Dragon. I've seen bits and pieces from Game of Death. But I've never sat down and watched both films from start to finish. And as someone who considers themselves a fan of martial arts and action cinema, I'm ashamed to admit this.

And what better way to introduce myself to these two films than with the new Blu-rays from Shout Factory? Maybe seeing them theatrically would be better, but that's not an option at this time.

I have read zero reviews on the quality of these two releases, but I'm assuming they're probably the best releases for these films on the market right now. Looking forward to spending 200 or so minutes with Bruce sometime in the near future.

3. Savage Dog

All the way from Germany comes this Blu-ray of Savage Dog. With a number of notable action film icons (Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Cung Le, and Juju Chan), I've heard surprisingly little about the film so far. However, if Scott Adkins appears in a film, even if there's bad word of mouth around it, I will go out of my way to watch it as soon as possible.

And that goes double if Scott Adkins plays Boyka.