What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – January 14th, 2025
So here’s a little peak behind the curtain… it’s not only that the studios slow down their releases in the first month of the year, but it takes a little while for the PR companies to get back up and rolling and sending review titles out to us reviewers again. So it’s a pretty small week in terms of titles I have to review. There are more than that hitting the shelves, naturally, but these are the only ones I’ve received so far this year. I expect to have a bigger column next week. Read on for a few fun titles, though!
In This Week’s Column:
- Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling (Blu-ray)
- Icons Unearthed: Marvel (Blu-ray)
- Ultraman: Ultra Galaxy Fight (Blu-ray)
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling (Blu-ray)
The Movie: I know in some circles it’s probably sacrilegious to admit this, but I’ve never been a big Richard Pryor fan. I can appreciate his groundbreaking comedy and I like a few of his movies, but as a screen personality, I always found him a little bit grating. So I was a little bit surprised when I saw that The Criterion Collection was releasing Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling as part of their prestigious line-up.
The film, co-written and directed by Pryor, is a loosely autobiographical journey through the life of a comedian who has been badly burned after setting himself on fire while freebasing. In a coma, he leaves his body and revisits himself throughout his life, to help him understand how he got to such a low point in his life. Pryor himself had such an incident six years prior to the release of this film, so it’s not hard to see where his real life influences the on-screen events.
The result is a surprisingly dramatic and effective film. We see Jo Jo’s childhood growing up with a mother who loved him but was a madam, we see him breaking into comedy, and we see how drugs and alcohol start to damage his relationships and life. It’s probably more dramatic than Pryor fans wanted to see — although there is some great stand-up mixed in — but I can see how the film earned Criterion’s attention.
The 4K Video/Audio: The film has been restored and remastered as is usual for Criterion and this release comes with both a 4K Ultra HD disc and a Blu-ray Disc. The 4K Ultra HD adds some punch to the proceedings, notably in terms of the colors taking on more vibrant hues and the image clarity looking as good as a film from the mid-1980s could. The soundtrack is a 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio that largely focuses on music and dialogue, making sure neither overpowers the other or gets lost behind the other. All in all, it’s a strong presentation for a film that probably didn’t have the best source material to work with.
The Bonus Features:
- New interview on the film with filmmaker Robert Townsend
- Interview with director Richard Pryor from a 1985 episode of The Dick Cavett Show
- Full color essay booklet
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up: Ultimately, even though I’m not the biggest Richard Pryor fan, I was impressed by Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling. It’s an introspective movie that also plays out like a straight fictional narrative; if you know nothing about Richard Pryor at all, you can still watch and enjoy the movie on its own merits, and that’s the way out should be.
Icons Unearthed: Marvel (Blu-ray)
The Show: This is the fourth entry in the home video release series of Iconic Unearthed, and every time a new one comes out, I get excited. Why? Because they’re outstanding, that’s why!
Created by Brian Volk-Weiss, who brought us the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us and parlayed that into a deluge of documentary shows about toys, movies, toy stores, tv shows, and everything else, Icons Unearthed is a show that takes huge pop culture icons and dives into the making of them. But this is no ordinary or fluffy making-of featurette type of material, no. First of all, the show gets access to pretty much anyone and everyone who had anything to do with Marvel and the MCU. They also also dig up archival footage and interviews like nobody’s business. And then, they put it all together in a light-hearted and zingy way that makes the shows so much fun to watch that they feel like no other documentaries out there. There’s definitely a flavor to Icons Unearthed that will feel familiar to anyone who’s watched The Toys That Made Us or The Movies That Made Us, and it’s terrific.
Over the course of eight episodes, the show dives deep into the creation of the Marvel Universe, starting with their pre-MCU offerings like the Incredible Hulk TV show, and movies like Howard the Duck and Blade. They then move into Phase 1 of the MCU and that’s pretty much the focus of the show from there on out, ending with the first Ant-Man movie. While they don’t have everyone in the MCU sit down for interviews, there are some pretty big names featured in new interviews, including J. Michael Straczynski, Mark Millar, Clark Gregg, Roger Corman, Jeph Loeb, and even Lou Ferrigno! There’s a bunch of new interviews, but there’s also a ton of archival interviews with people who built the Marvel movie universe, as well as more behind-the-scenes footage than you can shake Thor’s hammer at! All in all, it’s a terrific show and I will keep watching as long as they keep making it!
The Bonus Features:
- Over five hours of uncut interviews with: Lou Ferrigno, Mark Millar, Clark Gregg, JJ Field, and J. Michael Straczynski.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up: In short, even if you think you’ve seen every Marvel making-of there is, I can guarantee you you’re going to hear fun new stories you’ve never come across before and you’ll love every minute of it.
Ultraman: Ultra Galaxy Fight (Blu-ray)
The Movies: Specialty distributor Mill Creek continues their excellent line of Ultraman franchise home video reviews with their first new Ultraman-related title in a while, Ultraman: Ultra Galaxy Fight. This Blu-ray collection is a three-disc set that includes two Ultraman-related TV miniseries: Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes, Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy, and Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad make up the first one; while Ultraman Regulos and Ultraman Regulos: First Mission comprise the second.
The Ultra Galaxy Fight miniseries is kind of like the Ultraman version of the Justice League versus the Legion of Doom, with a deadly super villain threatening the galaxy and Ultraman Ginga, Ultraman Victory, Ultraman X, Ultraman Orb, Ultraman Geed, Ultraman Rosso, Ultraman Blu and Ultraman Ribut teaming up to defeat him. (Apparently, it also serves as something of a prequel to Ultraman Taiga.) The Ultraman Regulos series focuses on the mysterious and amnesiac Ultraman Regulos as he trains to become a powerful fighter and defeat a deadly threat to the galaxy. (Admittedly, most Ultraman characters eventually go up against a Deadly Threat to the Galaxy of one sort or another.)
The shows can be a little confusing for people not well steeped in Ultraman lore, but at least Ultra Galaxy Fight has kind of a recap/intro that will give you the basics of what is happening in the Ultra universe. Still, the shows are frenetic, fun, and cheesy in all the ways you’d expect Ultraman properties to be. And, as more recent entries in the franchise, the special effects and visuals are also pretty damn awesome!
The Bonus Features: Unfortunately, there are no extra features on the set, although you do get a free playable card from the Ultraman Card Game included in the Blu-ray case.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up: Ultraman fans have seen Mill Creek’s content slow down over the past couple of years, but this excellent new collection is a typically high quality release. Ultrafans, make sure to add this to your collections!