Police Story: Lockdown (China-Hong Kong, 2013, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, NR, 110 min.). This is the seventh film in the “Police Story” series, with the first, also starring Jackie Chan, debuting in 1985. There were three sequels to the first film, a spinoff in “Supercop 2” and two reboots, of which this is the second. In March 2023, a sequel to “New Police Story,” again starring Chan, was announced as being in development. The first three “Police Story” films were voted among the best action films of all time in Time Out’s poll of film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors, with “Police Story” ranked 5th, “Police Story 2” ranked 61st and “Police Story 3: Supercop” ranked 75th.

While a realistically-aged Chan plays the main character, this time he is Detective Zhong Wen, who heads to the Wu Bar in search of his estranged daughter, Miao Miao (Jing Tian of “Kong: Skull Island,” “The Great Wall”). Miao is now the girlfriend of the nightclub's owner, Wu Jiang (Liu Ye of “Curse of the Golden Flower”). Zhong disapproves of Miao's relationship, which leads to an argument between them. Before Zhong can make amends with Miao, he is struck in the head by Wu’s hired thug. Regaining consciousness, Zhong finds himself strapped to a chair, with his hands bound by metal wires. Zhong soon finds out that some 16 other bar patrons, including his daughter, are being held captive.

While Wu at first demands $80 to $90 million, what he really wants is to talk to prisoner Wei Xiaofu (Zhou Wiao’ou) about a pharmacy robbery that led to a death and at which Zhong was the officer on the scene as the death occurred. In addition to two flashbacks to the pharmacy incident, there is a flashback to Wu’s career as a Muay Thai fighter.

Among the fine Chan action sequences is when Zhong frees himself from the chair and then sneaks through the nightclub – located in a former factory, so it is large – fighting when necessary, until he needs give himself up to save Miao. In exchange for release of some of the hostages, Zhong has a brutal fight against a bigger opponent. The film, directed and co-written by Sheng Ding (“Saving Mr. Wu,” “A Better Tomorrow 2018”), has an explosive ending, when the police forces storm the nightclub.

At least three times during the film, there are “what if” moments, alternatives that never happen. Extras include an English dub; fun outtakes during the closing credits; a look at director Sheng’s vision (4:20); interviews with Chan (3:51), Liu (6:11, discussing fight styles) and Jing (6:14); and behind-the-scenes views (5:15). Grade: film 3.25 stars; extras 2 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Vengeance of an Assassin (Thailand, 2014, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, NR, 89 min.). While the assassins' code is to stick to the mission, while never taking your eyes off the target and showing no mercy, Natee (Dan Chupong of 2 “Ong-Bak” films, “The Expendables 4”) only became a killer to discover who killed his parents. Natee, aka Thee, had been raised with his younger brother Than (Nathawut Boonrubsub) by their uncle, who runs an auto repair shot.

The film actually opens with a dream sequence of the most unusual soccer game you will ever see. It takes place inside a decrepit warehouse or factory, where old cars and boats are strewn about with apparent abandon. The players are not just content to get the ball into an unseen goal, but everything is a giant melee, with the ball used to pummel several players into submission. There also is a portion with water – leading to some cool moves -- and a few huge barbecue pits full of burning embers, in which several players fall, sending smoking embers across the warehouse floor and onto players' backsides.

The scene then shifts to reality, with Thee sneaking into his uncle’s hidden files about his parents. This leads to Thee being thrown out and he goes to live with Uncle Thong Norum, who trains him to be an assassin. Possibly, Thee is the assassin who kills many at a club, but only the assassin’s legs are shown in this violent section. Meanwhile, Than also has been sneaking into his uncle’s files, finding combat training VHS tapes, which leads him to practicing combat techniques.

Thee gets the assignment – assignments are left in envelopes in a graveyard -- to find Ploy (Nisachon Tuamsungnoen), the daughter of a Thai official. When Thee learns Ploy is to be killed, he instead protects her, which sets up a chase scenario. Even Ploy’s grandfather is forced to betray her.

There are some decent fight scenes, including one in which Thee uses whatever is at hand against several attackers. He also has a brutal fight against a female assassin and, in effect loses, but still manages to dispatch her. Ploy takes Thee to Doctor Si Fu (Winston Omega, a stunt actor in several films), who beats up six men pursuing Thee and Ploy.

Later, somehow Than joins a Thee fight sequence, with some good kick fighting inside a train and then battles atop the moving train. Ultimately, one portion of the train is launched into the air, where it collides with an attacking helicopter. One or both of the brothers – the film does become unclear at times – take out a whole building of bad guys, and Thee even gets hits by cars four times.

The film was directed and co-written by Panna Rittikrai, who died after making this film. He was one of the most iconic Thai directors and martial arts choreographers, known for his work on the three “Ong Bak” films. Here, the action sequences lift the film over an uneven, often-confusing plot. Grade: film 2.75 stars

Revolver Lily (Japan, 2013, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, NR, 139 min.). In 1924, ex-spy Yuri Ozone (Ayase Haruka of “Our Little Sister”), a former assassin for Japan’s Shidehara Agency in Taiwan with 57 confirmed kills around the world, links with newly-orphaned Shinta Hosomi (Hamura Jinsei of “Gold Boy”), who has been given intel about missing imperial Japanese funds, to protect him. Army forces, led by Tsuyama, are out to capture the lad as his father, a former military investor, had absconded with 160 million yen, which is hidden in an account that will vanish into the holding bank’s control within 10 days. Needed are a code and Shinta’s thumb print.

Yuri has been hiding for 10 years, running an underground brothel in Tokyo. She has a lawyer friend in Iwami (Hiroki Hasegawa), who helps her investigate and, ultimately, get in touch with the imperial Navy, which also wants the funds and whose leader pledges to forestall war for 10 years if the Navy gets the money.

Going to investigate the Hosomi deaths, she encounters Shinta on a train and saves him from several attackers. While she kills three men, after they jump off the train, they are followed by others and attacked.

As the deadline nears, the body count racks up extremely high, with Yuri and Shinto helped by two of her associates in the final attempt to pass through the Army, outside the Navy’s gates. Grade: film 3 stars

Big Brother (Hong Kong, 2018, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, NR, 101 min.). In this winning film, Donnie Yen (the “Ip Man” films, “John Wick 4,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) plays former U.S. marine Henry Chen, who returns to his old high school in Hong Kong to teach troubled students, although he has no teaching background. Much later in the film we learn Chen’s backstory, which includes that he was a troublemaker at that school when he was a kid.

Several of the students and their home life are given glimpses during the opening credits. Chen gets his home room’s attention – one student was even cooking food, while another was playing guitar – by causing the overhead fire sprinkler to go off. He also teaches liberal studies, but in his rather unique way. In fact, Chen seems to know a lot about just about everything, including cellphone radiation, the use and ingredients of cigarettes, and even videogame updates.

After five students get almost expelled for fighting, Chen helps them settle down, including reaching out to their families and doing what he can to bridge understanding with the students One family has twin brothers (Bruce Kwan-Chi Tong as Bruce and Chris Kwan-Yiu Tong as Chris), but one makes a choice that impacts Chen badly. Among the fun sequences is giving a girl a chance to race her father through city streets and even a marketplace in vehicles. Another time, Chen fights an MMA fighter in a locker room to rescue his student, who has been locked in a locker after it was discovered his boss ordered him to drug a fighter.

While Chen tries to help the students so they will fare well on college entrance exams, a shady group is trying to prevent that as they want the school to close so they can develop the land.

Directed by Kam Ka-Wai (2 “Ip Man” films) and written by Chan Tai-Lee (“Ip Man 4: The Finale”), the film is entertaining throughout and the two fight sequences are aggressive. Yen is perfect in the role of a teacher with practical skills. Grade: film 3.5 stars

Legend of the Demon Cat (Hong Kong, 2017, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, NR, 119 min.). A demon cat appears and breaks the peace of Chang'an City, causing a series of strange events, including the death of the current emperor. Imperial poet Bai Letian (Huang Xuan of “Extraordinary Mission,” TV’s “Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy”) and Japanese monk Kukai (Shota Sometani of “The Boy and the Beast”) join efforts, with their investigation leading to the death of a previous emperor's concubine. Meanwhile, there is a whole host of paranormal incidents caused by a mysterious talking black cat that has a deadly agenda. The cat, by the way, only eats eyeballs!

While much of the action seems not to make sense for a long time, the film, directed and co-written by Chen Kaige (“Farewell My Concubine”) often looks gorgeous, particularly the flashbacks to the previous emperor’s Feast of Great Happiness and his introduction of his love Lady Yang. The film has a lot of magic and illusions, including two brothers who turn into flying cranes.

The film also comes with an English dub. Grade: film 3 stars

Row 19 (Russia, Well Go USA, Blu-ray, NR, 77 min.). There also is a horror element in this aerial disaster film, which, frankly, is one of the most confusing films I have seen in some time. Ekaterina (Svetlana Ivanova) is a psychologist who is taking a plane trip with her 7-year-old daughter Diana. Ekaterina is special because she was the only survivor of a plane crash 20 years earlier, when she was seven.

The setup is a bit weird as there are only seven passengers on the plane, which has to be de-iced due to inclement conditions. All other flights have been cancelled. There is an elderly couple, with the woman afraid to fly; Pavel, an artist who continually ignores the businessman he is seated near; Ekaterina and her daughter; and the kind man (Wolfgang Cerny as Alexei) who sits across from Ekaterina. We never see the pilot, only two stewardesses.

Turbulence hits the plane and those onboard begin to die, usually gruesomely. Ekaterina has both flashbacks and visions, one of which states that the earlier plane crash never happened. She thinks she sees an old woman that she also saw as a child on the doomed plane and believes the woman is back to complete her mission of collecting souls. Of course, no one sees all the hand prints on the outside of the plane windows, and little is made of the fact that Alexei also was the sole survivor of a disaster, in his case a bombing when he was a war correspondent. The film does close with quite the crash sequence though. Grade: film 2 stars

The Narrow Margin (1952, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 72 min.). This sleek – only 72 minutes – thriller is a great noir, directed by Richard Fleischer and William Cameron Menzies, and written by Earl Felton, Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard. Goldsmith and Leonard earned an Oscar nomination for their motion picture story. Felton (“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “The Happy Time”) wrote the screenplay.

The film has Los Angeles Police Detective Sgt. Walter Brown (Charles McGraw of “Spartacus,” “The Birds,” “In Cold Blood”) escorting a widow by train from Chicago to Los Angeles to testify before a grand jury about who was involved in bribes and payoffs with her late gangster husband. As Brown and his six-year partner Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes (Don Beddoe of “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Cyrano de Bergerac”) go to pick up Mrs. Frankie Neall (Marie Windsor of “The Killing,” “Cat-Women of the Moon,” “The Day Mars Invaded Earth”) at the safe house apartment, they are attacked.

Brown and Neall make it to the train separately, which is smart because the bad guys know what Brown looks like, but not what she looks like. Two or three bad guys also make it on the train and start hunting Neall down. The most obvious mobster is Joseph Kemp (David Clarke of TV’s “Ryan’s Hope”), who uses missing luggage as an excuse to search the train freely.

Also aboard the train are Mrs. Ann Sinclair (Jacqueline White of “Crossfire,” “Riders of the Range”), her young son Tommy (Gordon Gebert of “Holiday Affair”) and his nanny Mrs. Troll (Queenie Leonard of “And Then There Were none,” “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”); overweight Sam Jennings (Paul Maxey of “Till the Clouds Roll By,” TV’s “The People’s Choice”); and new threat Densel (Peter Virgo of “Shakedown”) – all in the tight confines of the train (highlighted by Brown’s trouble passing Jennings in the narrow corridors).

Brown keeps running into Mrs. Sinclair, whom he eventually treats as a substitute to fool the gangsters, and her son, who thinks Brown is a robber. However, it is not until late that he realizes the boy is her son. Also, Brown suspects Jennings is one of the bad guys.

The solid film comes with an audio commentary by film director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) and audio excerpts of Fleischer; the Joe McDoakes short “So You Never Tell a Lie” (10:52); and the Looney Tunes cartoon “The Super Snooper” with Daffy Duck (7:11). Grade: film 4 stars; extras 3 stars

Manpower (1941, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 103 min.). The film stars Edward G. Robinson and George Raft as electric company co-workers, who repair damaged or broken lines, usually in bad weather or dangerous situations. Robinson (“Key Largo,” Double Indemnity”) is Hank McHenry, who drinks a bit too much and is an often-disappointed womanizer. Raft (“Scarface,” “Some Like It Hot”) is Johnny Marshall, better looking but mostly solitary. The film is directed by the great Raoul Walsh (“High Sierra,” “They Died with Their Boots On,” both also 1941), but has a somewhat strange mix of drama and comedy.

A fierce night storm leads to a dangerous bout with active lines and McHenry sustains a nasty leg injury that leaves him with a permanent limp. While he recovers at the hospital, surrounded by the crew, who include "Jumbo" (Alan Hale Sr.), Omaha (Frank McHugh) and Pop Duval (Egon Brecher), he learns he has been promoted to foreman, which includes a pay raise and time on the ground.

Into their lives comes Fay Duval (Marlene Dietrich of “Morocco,” “Touch of Evil”), Pop's daughter who is released from prison after serving a year for stealing a wallet. Fay now works at a seedy Midnight Club that has female escorts, but she even gets to sing a song. McHenry is immediately smitten with her. When Pop is fatally injured on the job during an ice storm, McHenry starts dating her. Marshall feels Fay is wrong for McHenry and even offers her $150 to leave him. She only takes $50 as “a loan.”

McHenry proposes, even though Fay tells him she does not love him. Marshall’s money offer has the opposite effect and Fay announces she will marry McHenry. Things seem to work out afterwards, although, since it is still the 1940s, they have separate beds in the bedroom. It is funny seeing her in an apron, cooking biscuits for McHenry’s breakfast, with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. Things get complicated when an airplane hits a power line, injuring Marshall, who goes to live with them at McHenry’s insistence for several weeks. During that time, Fay admits she has feelings for Marshall.

Marshall does have a temper, as he gets into two fights with multiple opponents and even slaps Fay once. The ending is predictable.

A couple of fun scenes include Smiley trying to carry the wedding cake and the counter guy at a diner translating orders into slang. Look for Eve Arden (“Grease,” TV’s “Our Miss Brooks”) as Fay’s work friend Dolly.

Extras are two cartoons: Merrie Melodies’ “Snowtime for Comedy” (7:15) and Looney Tunes’ “Joe Glow, the Firefly” (6:49). Grade: film 3 stars; extras 1.25 stars

Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (1941-1972, Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 2 hours 47 min.). There are 25 classic theatrical cartoons, produced by Walter Lantz. This collection showcases some of the wildest antics in animation history, including characters Chilly Willy, Maggie and Sam, Pepito Chickeeto, Gabby Gator, Maw and Paw, Hickory, Dickory and Doc. Woody is in eight of the cartoons, as the bulk are devoted to his friends. Towards the end of the collection, Lantz sets his sights on some traditional fairy tales and nursery rhymes, including a 10-minute take on “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as Tom Thumb Jr. and the "Three Little Kittens."

Extras include an assortment of vintage shorts focused on various aspects of the creation of cartoons (many featuring Lantz himself), plus the "Spook-A-Nanny" short. Grade: collection 3.5 stars; extras 3 stars

The New Fred and Barney Show: The Complete Series (1979, Warner Archive Collection, 2 Blu-rays, NR, 410 min.). Almost 20 years after the original “The Flintstones” series, Hanna-Barbera brought the characters back in this short series. The set contains all 17 episodes. Here, Harry Corden voices Fred, while Mel Blanc is Barney, Jean VanderPyl is Wilma and Gay Autterson is Betty.

The 24-minite episodes have Fred and Barney meet a variety of one-off characters. There also are light supernatural elements, such as in "Fred & Barney Meet the Frankenstones." In "Moonlighters," Fred and Barney resort to part-time jobs after receiving a pay cut from Mr. Slate. "Barney's Luck" involves a lucky coin that works well for Barney, but acts the opposite for Fred. Grade: collection 3.5 stars