Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Complete Collection - BLU-RAY

On the highway to Los Angeles with $1 million in Vegas casino skimmings, mob couriers Tony (Wes Bishop) and Frankie (Stefan Zema) played Good Samaritans to roadside damsels in distress Marcia (Lynn Harris) and Dana (Lois Ursone). After the ladies suggested a motel stop to show their gratitude, they pulled guns and fled with the cash... leaving their very angry dupes on an or-else chase to get it back. Thought-lost thriller from exploitation maestro Lee Frost co-stars David F. Friedman, Bob Cresse. 92 min. Standard; Soundtrack English; featurette; image gallery; theatrical trailer.

In the early 1970s, Kinji Fukasaku's five-film Battles Without Honor and Humanity series was a massive hit in Japan, and kicked off a boom in realistic, modern yakuza films based on true stories. Although Fukasaku had intended to end the series, Toei Studio convinced him to return to the director's chair for this unconnected, follow-up trilogy of films, each starring Battles leading man Bunta Sugawara and telling separate, but fictional stories about the yakuza in different locations in Japan. In the first film, Bunta Sugawara is Miyoshi, a low-level assassin of the Yamamori gang who is sent to jail after a bungled hit. While in stir, family member Aoki (Lone Wolf and Cub's Tomisaburo Wakayama) attempts to seize power from the boss, and Miyoshi finds himself stuck between the two factions with no honorable way out. In the second entry, The Boss's Head, Sugawara is Kuroda, an itinerant gambler who steps in when a hit by drug addicted assassin Kusunoki goes wrong, and takes the fall on behalf of the Owada family, but when the gang fails to make good on financial promises to him, Kuroda targets the family bosses with a ruthless vengeance. And in Last Days of the Boss, Sugawara plays Nozaki, a laborer who swears allegiance to a sympathetic crime boss, only to find himself elected his successor after the boss is murdered. Restrained by a gang alliance that forbids retributions against high-level members, Nozaki forms a plot to exact revenge on his rivals, but a suspicious closeness with his own sister jeopardizes his relationship with his fellow gang members. The New Battles Without Honor and Humanity films are important links between the first half of Fukasaku's career and his later exploration of other genres. Each one is also a top-notch crime action thriller hard-boiled, entertaining, and distinguished by Fukasaku's directorial genius, funky musical scores by composer

Five-disc set includes Death Wish (1974)Director Michael Winner's original vigilante thriller, based on the novel by Brian Garfield, that spawned a slew of sequels and copycat killers still packs a potent punch. New York City architect Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) takes the law into his own hands after his wife is killed and daughter raped by thugs, patrolling the streets and blasting away any hood unlucky enough to cross his path. With Vincent Gardenia, Hope Lange; look for Jeff Goldblum in his screen debut. 93 min. C/Rtg R Death Wish II (1982)Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is back... and meaner than ever! After moving his family from the crime-plagued streets of NYC to the crime-plagued streets of L.A., Kersey's daughter becomes a victim at the hands of a violent street gang and dies in a bloody escape attempt. So Paul (characteristically) once again goes on a one-man vigilante killing spree in an effort to exact compensatory street justice. With Jill Ireland, Vincent Gardenia, J.D. Cannon, Anthony Franciosa, Robin Sherwood co-star. 89 min. C/Rtg R Death Wish 3 (1985)Crime-busting vigilante Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) returns in the third action thriller, defending the terrorized residents of a New York apartment building from a horde of marauding gang members and blowing the punks away as only pistol-packing Paul can. With Ed Lauter, Martin Balsam, Deborah Raffin, Gavan O'Herlihy, Marina Sirtis, Alex Winter; Michael Winner directs. 91 min. C/Rtg R Death Wish 4 The Crackdown (1987)Talk about a war on drugs! In the fourth entry in the popular series, architect-turned-no-nonsense vigilante Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) sets his sights on stopping a drug cartel after their illegal actions result in the overdose of his girlfriend's daughter. The seventh collab between Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson co-stars Kay Lenz, John P. Ryan, and Danny Trejo. 100 min.