Directed by Ed Ragozzino  and written by Ed Hawkins and Ronald D. Olson, this is a pseudo-documentary, which, according to Wikipedia, is a movie that uses “documentary camera techniques but with fabricated sets, actors, or situations, and it may use digital effects to alter the filmed scene or even create a wholly synthetic scene.”

The North American Wildlife Research may not exist, but Chuck (George Lauris) from there is the narrator. He tells us all about the actual historical evidence of Bigfoot, including the Patterson–Gimlin film. His group is using computers to find the most likely place — in northern British Columbia — to see an undisturbed Bigfoot. If they can find it, they’ll get the money they need to do more research. 

The group that goes to find the Sasquatch has Chuck, along with Native American guide Techka Blackhawk (Joel Morello), explorer Josh Bigsby (Ken Kienzle), reporter Bob Vernon (Lou Salerni), anthropologist Dr. Paul Markham (William Emmons), animal handler Hank Parshall (Steve Boergadine) and even a cook, Barney Snipe (Jim Bradford). 

Following the feel of so many Bigfoot movies that came before and would come after, the group’s adventures are interspersed with other Bigfoot stories and tales are told around a campfire. Of course, we never see Bigfoot — well, stay tuned — but we do see rocks thrown and shadowy invasions into the camp, which, Aliens-style, are outfitted with motion trackers that, by the end, everyone thinks have been smashed by multiple Sasquatches. Once the crew leaves, there he or she is. There’s Bigfoot, in the shadows, all fuzzy. Congratulations, the movie is over.

The film was produced by Ronald Olson, a genuine Bigfoot researcher who founded the Eugene, Oregon-based North American Wildlife Research Company. Olson’s background gave the film a layer of authenticity that resonated with fans of the unexplained. I laughed as I wrote that, by the way. His father also owned American National Enterprises, a company well-versed in producing nature documentaries.

When this film played in theaters, there was merch! You could order a postcard featuring a picture of Bigfoot from the famous Patterson-Gimlin film, as well as a 7-inch record of the film’s soundtrack. It had the songs “High In The Mountains,” “Bigfoot Theme,” “Cougar Attack,” “The Pack Train,” and “Barney’s Theme.”

You can watch this on YouTube.

If there was a Mount Rushmore for the 1970s In Search Of aesthetic, Richard Martin would be carved right into the granite alongside Leonard Nimoy and Sunn Classic Pictures. Following his deep dives into the Bermuda Triangle and Bigfoot, Martin took his cameras beneath the waves for The Lost City of Atlantis, a paranormal documentary that, today, would air on basic cable but, back in the day, you’d have to go to a theater or drive-in to see. Or you could wait and see it on a rainy Saturday afternoon on a UHF station. Today, just turn on YouTube.

Before the internet ruined everything with things like facts and sourced data, we had the glorious era of the theatrical documentary. These were movies that promised to solve the mysteries of the universe for the price of a matinee ticket and in return, you got a deep, authoritative voice telling you that everything you know is a lie and that Greek philosophers were actually talking about a high-tech continent that sank because they played God with crystal energy.

Come with us to Bimini Road in the Bahamas. We’re going to spend a lot of time underwater looking at limestone blocks and we’ll be told that they aren’t natural formations but rather the paved highways of a sunken empire. It’s the kind of photography that looks incredible on a big screen, but, when viewed today on a grainy YouTube upload, looks mostly like some very confused divers poked at some rocks while a synthesizer soundtrack tried to convince you that the fabled land of Mu was behind one of these reefs.

You can’t talk about Atlantis without bringing in the Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce. The film leans heavily into Cayce’s predictions that Atlantis would rise again in the late 60s. Sure, it didn’t happen. Or, did it? The movie tells us that we just aren’t looking hard enough. It’s a wonderful bit of narrative gymnastics that connects the pyramids of Egypt, the Mayan ruins, nd the deep ocean floor into one giant, cosmic conspiracy.

What makes this film so watchable today isn’t the science; it’s the vibe. It’s the grainy 16mm footage of experts with massive sideburns and turtlenecks sitting in wood-paneled offices, talking about things to come that never did.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Ann (Andrea Gall) thought she had it all figured out. She’d go to college with her high school sweetheart; they’d stay together all four years, then get married and have some kids. But now she’s stuck living with a bunch of sorority sisters she can’t stand, while her man spends more time swimming with rich future CEOs than with her. Lucky for Ann — maybe — her high school best friend from the wrong side of the tracks, Dawn (Dana Wise), comes to school not to learn, but to balance the scales for our heroine.

Teh director and writer of this film, Leslie Delano, wrote the description on IMDB: “What happens when you go off to college and you find yourself out with the “in” crowd?… You call on your childhood friend to come “make nice” with the people who are being mean to you…and with a friend like Dawn, you won’t have any enemies. Welcome to the Dollhouse meets I Spit on Your Grave.”

Delano also made a short, The Wretched, about a woman trying to deal with an eating disorder while simultaneously trying to manage a bad marriage. Joe Bob is in it!

The film thrives on the friction between Dawn’s unpolished, blue-collar aggression and the calculated, elitist cruelty of the Swim Elite. And it doesn’t hold back on showing the casual bigotry of the fraternity/sorority crowd. They view Ann as poor white trash simply because she’s on scholarship and doesn’t fit their aesthetic.

I really dug this. Everyone feels real, someone sniffs crushed glass thinking it’s blow, there’s a made-for-TV BDSM club, and as I am a rich racist, I will forever delight in the destruction of the one percent. As you would imagine, I am totally on Dawn’s side and wish she would smoke a cigarette and stand in front of a burning school at the close of this.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Sean Foster (Asher Angel) is all about academic success and dreams of attending MIT. His journey to the Ivy League is complicated when he crosses paths with Flora Morgan (Paris Berelc), a rebellious, wealthy girl who has no interest in college or traditional academic achievement. The twist comes when Flora’s parents, desperate to see their daughter succeed, offer Sean the ultimate bribe: if he can woo Flora and influence her to start caring about her studies, they will write him the prestigious recommendation letter he needs to secure him a dorm room next to Tim the Beaver.

Directed by Fawzia Mirza, who wrote and starred in Signature Move, and written by Christine Duann (who wrote the novel it’s based on) and Rebecca Webb, this is a basic romcom, but I have found that I really enjoy them the older I get. Berelc is way better than this movie deserves, even if she’s 28 playing 18, but when has that ever stopped teen comedies?

As they spend time together, Sean realizes Flora is hiding a deeper side to her personality, noting that she knows a lot more than she lets on. Flora discovers that Sean isn’t just a math nerd but is actually quite sentimental. The problem is that Sean realizes his feelings have become real. His friends warn him that it’s getting out of hand and that he needs to tell her the truth, but he worries that revealing the deal with her parents will destroy the genuine trust they’ve built.

I did like that Flora forms a friendship with Sean’s sister, and that the right thing happens for every character. Yes, predictable is the word used for this movie, but then again, sometimes that’s nice to have, even if I hate the third-act moment when the lovers have to break up. It gets me every time. Instead of dating in high school, I watched movies like this.

You can watch this on Tubi.

If you’ve watched as much true crime as the B&S About Movies house, you know that this is about Bryan Kohberger, who murdered four University of Idaho students by the names of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle.  Lots of shows, from Dateline and 20/20 to 48 Hours, have told this story. How will this Tubi Original hold up?

It’s hard to say. Instead of leaning into one narrative approach — Is this a dramatic retelling? Is it interviews? Is it visiting with the media who told the original story? — it does all of them and therefore, none of them well. Or am I the problem, having heard this so many times that I wonder if I know the tale better than the people telling it? If I feel like that, is it because  I’ve followed the exact same extensive media coverage that this documentary critiques?

The big difference is that for the first time ever, viewers are shown images from inside the house at 1122 King Road. This includes bodycam footage from the first responding officers, who described the scene as a nightmare scenario. You also hear from a survivor, Dylan, and the actual 911 call from another roommate who made it out, Bethany, where she frantically reports that something just happened. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

I am sorry, Red Sonja. For years, I have doubted you. Surely you cannot be as good as Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer. You have to be a weaker sister, I always thought, so I avoided you.

I was wrong. So wrong.

Today, dear reader, I am here to tell you that while this film is not as good as the first two Conan romps, it’s still an astounding sword and sorcery adventure filled with plenty of great effects, well-shot battles and a cast of some of my favorite actors.

Oddly enough, Red Sonja may be owned by the Robert E. Howard estate, but the character itself was really created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. In the original Howard story, The Shadow of the Vulture, Red Sonya of Rogatino was actually a 16th-century gun-toting warrior fighting the Ottoman Empire. Thomas and Windsor-Smith took that fierce spirit, swapped the pistols for a broadsword and dropped her into the Hyborian Age, and thus, the She-Devil with a Sword was born.

Man, those 70’s Conan comics were so popular! People fell in love with the idea that Sonja could be as tough as Conan and had promised the goddess Scáthach that, in exchange for heightened strength, stamina, agility and fighting skills, she would never lie with a man until he could defeat her in fair combat.

Let’s not debate how the survivor of sexual assault must pretty much get beaten up to enjoy lovemaking, because that’s the kind of complex argument that won’t be solved inside a movie that’s really about stabbing people. I’m not saying it’s an important discussion to have, but I’m an expert in exploitation movies, not humanity.

Directed by Richard Fleischer, whose career goes from the heights of Soylent Green and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to the depths of The Jazz Singer and Amityville 3-D — not to mention Mandingo — this moves quick, looks good and is just plain fun.

After surviving the death of her family and being attacked by the soldiers of Queen Gedren (Sandahl Bergman*, who seems to relish the opportunity to play a villain instead of the female sidekick), Sonja trains to become a legendary warrior.

Meanwhile, her sister Varna (Janet Agren, Hands of Steel, City of the Living Dead) has become a priestess in an order of women who plan on banishing the Talisman, which created the world but could now destroy it. If any man touches it, he disappears, so of course, Gedren wants to use it for her own ends. Led by Ikol (Ronald Lacey, Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark), her army kills the priestesses and takes the Talisman for their queen.

Lord Kalidor** (Arnold Schwarzenegger) finds Varna and brings Sonja to her, where she learns of the Talisman and how she can kill two birds with one stone by destroying it and Gedren. Her adventures take her to meet Prince Tarn (Ernie Reyes, Jr.), a young king of a land destroyed by Gedren, and his bodyguard Falkon (Paul L. Smith, who was the handyman in Pieces and Bluto in Popeye). She also defeats the ominous Lord Brytag (Pat Roach, the former pro wrestler who shows up as a major bad guy in so many movies, from the mechanic that Indiana Jones knocks into a Flying Wing in Raiders of the Lost Ark to Hephaestus in Clash of the Titans, Toth-Amon in Conan the Destroyer and General Kael in Willow) before an awesome duel with Kalidor for the right to aardvark*** and then another battle against Gedren as her castle explodes with lava flowing everywhere.

Speaking of that great cast, this also features a third Indiana Jones alum, Terry Richards, who played the Arabian swordsman that Indy so memorably shot after a long flourish of sword-swinging. Plus, Tutte Lemkow, best known as the Fiddler on the Roof, is a wizard, and the Swordmaster who trains Sonja is Tad Horino, who was also Confucius in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. Erik Holmey, who played the soldier who asked, “What is best in life?” and replied, “The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair!” is in this. And of course, Arnold’s buddy Sven-Ole Thorsen shows up.

Plus, how can you be let down by an Ennio Morricone score?

Again, I’m sorry, Red Sonja. You’re actually pretty darn good.

*Bergman was offered the role of Red Sonja, but turned it down, choosing instead to play Queen Gedren. Producer Dino De Laurentiis met with actress Laurene Landon and was set to offer her the role until he learned that she had already played the same part in Hundra. He spent a year looking for an actress who looked like an Amazon, almost picking Eileen Davidson (The House On Sorority Row) before discovering Brigitte Nielsen on the cover of a magazine.

**There’s a fan theory that Kalidor is really Conan, as some heroes would use “adventuring names” while they were in other counties, like how Gandalf was also known as Mithrandir. De Laurentiis didn’t have the rights to use Conan again, which explains the financial situation. Speaking of money, Arnold signed up for a cameo as a favor to the producer, but one week turned into four, and when he saw a rough cut of the movie, he realized that he was really a co-star. This is why he terminated his 10-year deal with De Laurentiis.

***They totally did, for real, according to Arnold in his book Total Recall – My Unbelievably True Life Story. Nielsen confirmed this in her book You Only Get One Life, saying that they had “no restrictions” in their lovemaking. You know, while some of us debated whether Stallone or Schwarzenegger was the best action hero, Neisen has Biblical knowledge.

The Arrow Video 4K UHD release of this film has a 4K restoration from the original negative with new HDR grading by Arrow Films. Extras include two coimmentaries, one by critics Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth and the oyther by comic book expert Dave Baxter; new interviews with Ernie Reyes Jr.; action unit supervisor Vic Armstrong; Arnold’s stunt double Pietro Torrisi, stuntman Ottaviano Dell’Acqua, assistant production manager Stefano Spadoni, FX artist Domingo Lizcano discussing the work of Emilio Ruiz del Río and make-up FX assistant Adriano Carboni; archival interviews with poster artist Renato Casaro and assistant director Michel Ferry; The Man Who Raised Hollywood, an archive featurette on Schwarzenegger’s career featuring filmmakers Peter Hyams and Arthur Allan Seidelman, producer Edward Pressman and others; a trailer; an image gallery; a reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options by Renato Casaro; a collectors’ perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the film by John Walsh, Nanni Cobretti and Barry Forshaw; a double-sided foldout poster featuring two original artwork options by Renato Casaro and six postcard-sized reproduction artcards. You can get it from MVD.

The rapid-fire world of professional tennis meets the raw reality of new motherhood in The Second Set, a documentary that proves even a four-time Grand Slam champion isn’t immune to the what now? The moment that follows childbirth. While many sports docs focus on the glory of the comeback, director Kathleen Jayme captures the quieter, more harrowing struggle of Naomi Osaka navigating postpartum depression while the world of tennis demands she return to elite form.

Produced by a powerhouse lineup including Nike, LeBron James’ SpringHill and Osaka’s own Hana Kuma, this isn’t just a highlight reel of aces and trophies. It’s an intimate, often heavy look at a woman rebuilding her identity from the ground up. We see Osaka just six months after giving birth, grappling with the fear that her first set of fame might have been the peak, and wondering if she can still find that killer instinct while her heart is focused on her daughter, Shai.

I don’t know much about tennis, but this was still an amazing film. It’s one thing to go through the sport, but realizing all the real-life pressures gave me an insight I would never have otherwise. You don’t need to know the difference between a cross-court forehand and a double fault to feel the weight of Osaka’s anxiety. It’s a universal story about the terrifying transition into parenthood.

You can watch this on Tubi.