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In 1968, director George A. Romero re-defined the word “zombie” with his feature debut Night of the Living Dead, one of the most highly respected and beloved horror movies ever made. Unfortunately, Romero and his collaborators didn’t make as much money off of that film as they should have, due to a copyright mistake that instantly put Night of the Living Dead in the public domain. So twenty-two years later they decided to produce a remake with legendary special effects artist Tom Savini directing. The 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead (watch it Here) didn’t have the smoothest production – in fact, Savini has described the experience of making Night ’90 as “the worst nightmare of my life,” and says that the finished film only represents a small percentage of the vision he had for it. The rest was lost due to budgetary limitations, clashes with the producers, and the wrath of the MPAA…...

Tom Savini‘s 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead will celebrate its 35th anniversary with a SteelBook 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray release on September 23 via Sony.

In addition to the theatrical version, a new uncensored cut is included, both newly restored in 4K with Dolby Vision. Supervised by Savini, the alternate cut restores gore that was originally cut to avoid an X rating, in addition to starting in black and white before transitioning to color.

“Yes finally,” Savini wrote on Instagram. “Completely uncut, uncensored, and as I intended 35 years ago… it is black and white for a bit, as a homage to the original, and then color opens the curtain to my remake.”

Disc 1 – 4K Uhd:

Uncensored cut Theatrical version 4K restoration presented with Dolby Vision/Hdr Commentary with director Tom Savini on the Uncensored Cut, moderated by Michael Felsher (new) Audio: Dolby Atmos (both versions), 5.1 (both versions), 2-Channel...

Based on an earlier episode in the life of wild child Mowgli, and not related directly story-wise to Disney's 1994 live-action "Jungle Book", producer Raju Patel's new film swings into the fray with the unwieldy title "Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo."

Eleven-year-old newcomer Jamie Williams carries the rousing adventure film, but without a headliner such as Jason Scott Lee, the TriStar release is headed for modest business. There are some chilling moments and mild violence in "The Second Jungle Book", directed by Duncan McLachlan ("Running Wild"), making it suitable primarily for young boys.

Co-stars Baloo the bear, Grey Wolf and Bagheera, a black panther, are accorded much screen time, and there's elemental chemistry between growling, monkeylike Mowgli and his protective pals. There is also a small army of scheming chimps who try to kidnap Mowgli, forcing the latter to escape by hopping on a train.

The 1890s scenario credited to Bayard Johnson and Matthew Horton is based on one of Kipling's original stories, but it amounts to the predictable elements of bad guys trying to capture Mowgli, mad monkeys in exotic ruins and lots of action, with four-footed and fanged heroics.

After escaping from the train with a trained monkey, Timo, Mowgli is stalked by a no-nonsense P.T. Barnum talent scout (Bill Campbell), an ugly snake charmer (Dyrk Ashton) and Timo's clownish owner David Paul Francis). The sneaky guide of these stalk characters is a standard villain in the person of Mowgli's scheming uncle (Gulshan Grover).

As it happens, the chimps kidnap Timo and the humans bag Mowgli. Everyone ends up in the lost city, where they discover an old soldier (Roddy McDowall) who likes to fire cannons. Mowgli has close calls with cobras and pythons, while not all the men after him are heartless assassins.

Credit goes to the two-legged performers who breathe some life into the lackluster dialogue scenes. And those fabulous chimps are the best achievement of animal coordinator Brian McMillan and crew.

The film's primary attractions are such sights as Williams' character climbing through the forest and bonding with untalkative Baloo and Bagheera. Cinematographer Adolfo Bartoli and production designer Errol Kelly do justice to the wide-screen format, and the film looks super.

Filmed in Sri Lanka, the production overall is shipshape.

RUDYARD KIPLING'S

THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK:

MOWGLI AND BALOO

Sony Pictures Releasing

A TriStar Picture

MDP Worldwide and Sharad Patel present

A Kiplingbook/Raju Patel production

A Duncan McLachlan film

Director Duncan McLachlan

Writers Bayard Johnson, Matthew Horton

Producer Raju Patel

Executive producers Sharad Patel, Mark Damon

Director of cinematography Adolfo Bartoli

Production designer Errol Kelly

Editor Marcus Manton

Composer John Scott

Costume designer Ann Hollowood

Casting Don Pemrick, Dean Fronk, Jo Gilbert

Color/stereo

Cast:

Mowgli Jamie Williams

Harrison Bill Campbell

King Murphy Roddy McDowall

Chuchundra David Paul Francis

Buldeo Gulshan Grover

Running time -- 90 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...