New December Release Tuesdays

I hope you had a Merry Christmas as I sure did.  I finally got some spare time at work to get things caught up around here and finally finished the mandatory stack of Christmas movies except for It's a Wonderful Life.  End the new year on a high note have a happy and prosperous new year!  Here are the some of the notable new releases this December:

The Predator- When a young boy accidentally triggers the universe's most lethal hunters' return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled scientist can prevent the end of the human race. Director Shane Black comes back to the franchise he helped start and hoped to make this franchise an event again, but reviews were all over the place on this and the box office was pretty tepid too.  I am not sure how you rescue this thing now.

Starman- An alien takes the form of a young widow's husband and asks her to drive him from Wisconsin to Arizona. The government tries to stop them. This is one of John Carpenter’s unappreciated films and that’s a shame because it is a really good one but hopefully this new special edition from Shout Factory will turn this movie on to some new viewers.  Jeff Bridges is fantastic in anything he is in but his chemistry with Karen Allen in this is superb.  The highest of recommendations.

Maniac- A psychotic man, troubled by his childhood abuse, loose in New York City, kills young women and takes their scalps as his trophies. Will he find the perfect woman in a photographer, and end his killing spree? Confession time- I have never seen this flick.  I have known about it and have seen the cover art for years but never indulged in this until now and boy was it worth the wait on blu ray.  It earns it cult classic status with all the blood and gore you want and it is back when New York was a crap hole and was a seedy, secondary character itself.  I am glad I finally got around to this classic.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 2- The now-adult Ricky talks to a psychiatrist about how he became a murderer after his brother, Billy, died, which leads back to Mother Superior. Yeah, this falls in to the so bad it’s good category and I enjoy it every Christmas season with the first one.  As always a nice job from Scream Factory on this one.  Garbage Day!

Hang Em’ High- When an innocent man barely survives a lynching, he returns as a lawman determined to bring the vigilantes to justice. Wow, fifty years since this came out and Clint is still turning them out.  I have bought this on VHS, laser disc, DVDs, and now multiple blu rays but I had to have this double dip from Shout Factory because it will be great.  Thanks Santa!

Mission Impossible: Fallout- Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.  I missed this one and it’s on a lot of top ten lists so will hopefully get to it soon.

The Nun- A priest with a haunted past and a novice on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate the death of a young nun in Romania and confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun. I have liked the Conjuring universe so far so let’s see if this sister can be scary.

Yellowstone- A ranching family in Montana faces off against others encroaching on their land.  I don’t watch network TV but I did enjoy this on the Paramount Network and it was hands down the best show on TV this year.  Season 2 comes out this summer.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation- A group of teenagers get into a car crash in the Texas woods on prom night, and then wander into an old farmhouse that is home to Leatherface and his insane family of cannibalistic psychopaths.  This movie sat on the shelf for a long time because the nobodies in this then became somebodies so whoever owns this held onto it to use their star power but it still bombed and it is an absolute mess as I remember it.  I watched on a Japanese import laser disc probably a year before it was released here and just did not care for it.