Mill Creek Entertainment recently put out Steelbook versions of 4 fan favorites. These movies have been available on home video before, but as a Steelbook fan myself, these are great upgrades.
The best of the four is I Know What You Did Last Summer. The sort of stepsister to Scream, I’ve always enjoyed the film. Along with Scream it helped rebuild horror in the 1990s with fresh talent and fresh takes on the genre. Four friends accidentally kill someone and then are hunted down for covering up their actions. With heartthrobs Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr, and Ryan Phillippe, the cast is 90s perfection. It’s a throwback to the slashers I grew up on in the 1980s, but with a modern (for the time) take. It’s not as beloved as Scream, but I think it’s as good or if not better than that franchise’s sequels. The Steelbook is very cool with excellent cover coloring. If you collect Steelbooks or 90s horror, this is a must own.
Sticking with horror, the Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Shue, Josh Brolin starring Hollow Man has a nice new Steelbook too. This is the Director’s Cut of the 2000 version of HG Wells’ The Invisible Man. Bacon plays a scientist who along with his team tests out formulas for invisibility. The government/military wants the technology and Bacon decides to test it out on himself and his team isn’t able to bring him back to normal. He spirals out of control of course and becomes a mad man. It feels a bit dated and the effects are definitely late 90s/early 2000s, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the film. Bacon tends to be the good guy in most films so his turn as evil is worth the price. If you are a fan, the Director’s Cut Steelbook is a nice upgrade.
Speaking of late 90s effects, the cult classic Anaconda gets a shiny Steelbook as well. Before Sharknado and Snakes on a Plane there was Anaconda. A film crew out to find a mysterious tribe saves a man on a sinking boat played by Jon Voight who’s out to capture a giant anaconda and soon he takes over their boat. Voight is over-the-top in the now iconic role. Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Owen Wilson, Danny Trejo and more star. It’s utterly ridiculous, but it’s also so-bad-that-it’s good. Very few modern creature features capture the essence of the sub-genre as effortlessly as Anaconda. The A-List cast makes it all the better. Is it good? Absolutely not, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun and this Steelbook is also a must-own for fans.
Last of the Steelbooks is Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. I should absolutely love this spoof of Walk the Line starring John C. Reilly, but for whatever reason the film has never worked for me. Jenna Fischer is great in it and Reilly does the spoofing well, but I’ve just never found the film all that funny. This Steelbook is the Hard as Steel Ultimate Edition so fans will eat it up so there’s that. I’ve given the film four or five attempts through the years and every time I leave wanting more from it. I laugh at parts, but as a whole it feels like Will Ferrell’s Semi-Pro, a film on paper that screams at me to love, but just doesn’t stick the landing.
Last we have some anime, Tears to Tiara: The Complete Collection. This was an interesting take on legendary mythology and is based off a video game. There are characters based on King Arthur, Lucifer and other mythologies during the Celtic, British and Roman times set during the Dark Ages. It’s 26 episodes on 3 discs so it takes a while to get through. I liked the action in it. There is sword fighting and medieval weaponry and fighting techniques. There is some magic and what not which I’m not always a fan of, but at least it fit the time period. I do think the show dragged on enjoying the earlier episodes more than the later ones. Fans will enjoy this release though. I’ve never played the game so I can’t tell you how accurate to the game it is.
The Nerds Templar 