Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Well folks, 2025 is almost over and what a busy and productive year it has been here at Road Rash Headquarters. Christmastime has rolled around again and that can only mean one thing, it’s time for the gift guide. As always, we’ve had lots and lots of fabulous releases to review and we are happy to present our favourites.
Whether you are looking for an epic box set or a stocking filler, there’s something in here for everybody. Pull on your best santa hat and Christmas jumper and let’s dive in.
This year we have embraced the 4K UHD revolution and there have been some fantastic releases to enjoy. Our first pick this year is the fantastically guilty pleasure Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy 4K UHD box set, lots of fun to be had. There’s eighties classic Road House, sci-fi classics Outland and Dark Star, and disturbing seventies drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as well as the star studded Boogie Nights.
5 stars
Cowabunga, they’re back!
In the early nineties, a group of mutated turtles came out of the sewers and onto our cinema screens, bringing a generation’s favourite comic book and cartoon heroes to noisy, action packed, pizza fuelled life.
With incredible animatronics from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, as well as tons of great and genuinely well choreographed martial arts and stunt
...more5 star glorious restoration of a kick ass eighties classic.
Directed by Rowdy Herrington (Gladiator, Striking Distance), this delightfully violent and sleazy action thriller film was first released in 1989, with a screenplay from R. Lance Hill (Out For Justice) and Hilary Henkin (Wag the Dog).
It is available to own in the UK on Limited Edition 4K UHD from 2nd June
...more5 Star
4K Sci-fi True Grit.
Arrow Film bring us another classic Sci-fi film, this time from 1981, a film written and directed by Peter Hyams (Time Cop, 2010: The Year We Make Contact), it’s commonly agreed that it is a reworking of High Noon, but in space. Where a man takes his job far too seriously, and he won’t back down
...more5 Star
A Sci-fi Fan’s Dream Come True
Well, it started out as a seventy-three-minute independent USC student film, and now some fifty years later, this iconic Sci-fi film has arrived on Blu-ray and a 4K perfect restoration by Fabulous Films. With the original director’s cut, and the longer theatrical cut, plus plenty of bonus material, (see below). What
...more5 Star
Jack is the Man.
Fetch publicity has done a wonderful thing in bringing us One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for the first time on 4K UHD Blu-ray, and boy is it crispy, bringing 1975 straight into the 21st century. Considered by critics and audiences to be one of the greatest films ever made, and directed by Miloš Forman (Amadeus,
...more5 Star
70s-80s Hedonism.
From a high school short film (The Dirk Diggler Story) by writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, One Battle After Another) to being nominated at the Oscars. And when you watch this 4K UHD from Fetch Publicity you can see why, as the acting from this list of now household names, is superb. Based
...moreIf you prefer a little horror under your Christmas tree, the you can’t go far wrong with the A Nightmare on Elm Street Complete Collection on 4K and the gloriously gory Re-Animator in 4K splendour.
5 stars, horror in it’s definitive form.
In 1984 Wes Craven crashed into our cinemas and living rooms with a terrifying new concept and incredibly scary serial killer character, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund – Red, Freddy vs. Jason) who changed the face of horror forever. Over the course of a decade, the nightmares kept on coming, at the hands of various
...more4 stars, a fantastic restoration of a blood soaked classic.
Re-Animator was first released in 1985 and was one of the most outrageous gore fests to come out of the 80’s horror scene. This blood spattered masterpiece was loosely based on the novella by H.P. Lovecraft and brought to the big screen by director Stuart Gordon (Robot Jox, Space Truckers).
It is available in a
...moreIf you enjoy a good TV series there have been some cracking offerings this year, starting off with remastered series 1, 2 and 3 of iconic 1970’s cop show The Sweeney on Blu-ray. There’s the gentle but compelling whodunnit Murder Before Evensong, and for horror fans, The Walking Dead: Dead City Series 2 and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Series 3.
5 Star Nostalgia
50 Yrs of
Grit, Grime and Crime.
In the dry crisp air of January 1975, those watching Thames TV were in for a shock, as The Sweeney burst onto the small screens across the land. As the members of Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police, deal with serious violent crime in London. Created by Ian Kennedy Martin (The
...more5 Star
The Sweeney, Harder Hitting than Earnie Shavers.
1 September 1975 and series two of the Sweeney hits Thames television. With Regan (John Thaw, A Year In Provence, Inspector Morse) and Carter (Dennis Waterman, New Tricks, Minder) and the rest of the Flying Squad keeping the streets of London safe. This time there are more shooters, more tyre-screeches and it gets
...more5 Star
Eleven Hours of…
You’re Nicked!!!
Monday, Sep 6, 1976 and series three of the Sweeney hits Thames television. With Regan (John Thaw, A Year In Provence, Inspector Morse) and Carter (Dennis Waterman, New Tricks, Minder) and the rest of the Flying Squad keeping the streets of London safe. This time there are more shooters, more tyre-screeches and it gets personnel. With
...more4 star easy paced ecclesiastical murder mystery.
Murder Before Evensong is a 2025 British Crime/mystery drama series, based on the popular novel of the same name written by The Reverend Richard Coles, formerly of eighties pop bands Bronski Beat and The Communards and directed by David Moore (Indian Summers, Fool Me Once).
An Acorn TV original, it is available to own in
...more4 stars, the journey home continues.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 is a 2025 spin off from the popular The Walking Dead franchise, created by David Zabel.
This post-apocalyptic American TV Series continues on directly from the end of Season 2 so it is highly recommended to familiarise yourself with that before watching this one.
It is available on Blu-ray, DVD
...more4 stars, a bloody, brutal and satisfying sequel.
The Walking Dead: Dead City is an American post-apocalyptic horror drama series, created for AMC by Eli Jorné (Wilfred) based on the popular The Walking Dead characters Maggie and Negan. Season 2 takes place a year after the events of Season 1, so please be sure to watch the first series before reading
...moreIt has been another great year for anime enthusiasts with some excellent collections released on Blu-ray. Get stuck into the super emotional Love Flops, fantasy tales The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen and The World is Still Beautiful, relaxing slice of life Wasteful Days of High School Girls and last but not least the fabulous Bubblegum Crisis.
4 star fun and surprisingly emotional story.
Love Flops is an original 2022 Japanese anime television series, animated by Passione (Wasteful Days of High School Girls, Hinako Note) and directed by Nobuyoshi Nagayama (Are You Lost?).
It is presented here on Blu-ray with original Japanese soundtrack and English dub, courtesy of MVM Films.
“Today you’ll experience some very exciting encounters. Your lucky words
...more4 Star
Second Play Through Time.
This anime is based on the Japanese light novel series written by Tenichi. MVM brings us the full twelve episodes in this collection. Where we see a young woman reborn in a world based on the otome game Our Ray of Light, she had been playing the game for a really long time, and she knows
...more4 star refreshing and uplifting animated series.
The World is Still Beautiful is a 2014 Japanese anime series based on the manga series written and illustrated by Dai Shiina and was adapted for television by Studio Pierrot (Yona of the Dawn, Tokyo Ghoul).
It is available to own now in the UK on Collector’s Edition Blu-ray courtesy of MVM Entertainment.
“For crying out
...more4 star hilarious and fun anime series.
Wasteful Days of High School Girls is a 2019 Japanese anime series based on the manga written and illustrated by Bino. Directed by Takeo Takahashi (Spice and Wolf), it is adapted for anime by studio Passione (Love Flops, Yuri is My Job!).
It is available to own in the UK on Blu-ray from 25th August
...more4 Star
Life Means Nothing in Mega Tokyo!
Classic anime comes to Blu-ray, you would not believe the price I had to pay to get Bubblegum Crisis on video back in the day (early 1990s), never mind the VHS player to go with it, just to watch this cyberpunk extravaganza. Now MVM presents this Perfect Collection – Collector’s Edition, eight episodes with
...moreAnd finally, let’s take a look at the great selection of remastered Westerns, the perfect gift for Dad, that have been released this year. They include epic Clint Eastwood films The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and For A Few Dollars More, revenge tale The Hell Benders, and the John Wayne classic Apache.
5 Star
Another Town, Another Rope.
Iconic does not get any more iconic than The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, but this release will have you on the edge of your seat again, as IMDb says the film is 148 minutes, but this 4K UHD release gives you the International cut at 162b minutes, and the Extended cut at 179 minutes,
...more5 Star
When Giants Come Together.
It is Iconic film time from Arrow Video. From writer/director Sergio Leone (A Fistful Of Dynamite (AKA Duck, You Sucker!), Cemetery Without Crosses, A Fist Full of Dollars) comes the second film with the man with no name, For A Few Dollars More. Now releasing on Blu-ray and 4K UHD, this remastered release brings you the
...more4 Star
1 Million Reasons to be Ruthless.
In a time when Spaghetti Westerns were fashionable, something different came to the silver screen, The Hellbenders, a hard hitting hour and a half of pure hatred and vengeance fuelled western, set at a time when the Civil war was at an end, but not for one family that wants to see the South
...more4 Star
An Army of One.
Based on the ‘Broncho Apache’ by Paul Wellman (Wild West: Kansas, Oklahoma, Great Plains), this was adapted by producer Harold Hecht (Marty, Run Silent Run Deep) and Burt Lancaster (The Train, Birdman of Alcatraz) and directed by the now famed Robert Aldrich (Twilight’s Last Gleaming, The Flight of the Phoenix), now it has been restored and
...moreWell, there you have it, this year’s recommendations for your festive viewing pleasure. Get filling those stockings and on behalf of Road Rash Reviews we would like to wish all our readers a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!
