Archive for June 2013
21 & Over Blu-ray Review: If You’re Itching for a Good Teen Party Flick, Look Somewhere Else
It’s a lot of rehashed ideas from the 80s that are poorly executed.
Read MoreMovie 43 Blu-ray Review: At Least the Sketch Comedy Movie Got the Sketch Part Right
Someone in Hollywood has Polaroids of these people. Of this I am convinced.
Read MoreBrazil Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Dreams and Nightmares Courtesy of Terry Gilliam
Some times the little guy wins and some times he loses.
Read MoreIn Old Arizona Blu-ray Review: Proof Not All Classics Are Classic
Tonight, on Racial Stereotype Theater.
Read MoreSafety Last! Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Time Is Money
The matter of Harold Lloyd’s lack of fame has been of much discussion over the years. He is often cited by film buffs as one of the three masters of the silent comedy era, with the other being Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin. Yet somehow the Nebraska-born Lloyd is often now overlooked in conversations about…
Read MoreThings to Come Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: An Overly Didactic Technical Marvel
A sometimes prescient and sometimes naïve examination of the future.
Read MoreSafety Last! (1923) Criterion Collection DVD Review: A Silent Comedic Masterpiece
It is clearly the work of a man at the peak of his powers.
Read MoreUpside Down Is the Pick of the Week
How did I let this slip through?
Read MoreWilfred: The Complete Season 2 Blu-ray Review: Disgustingly Funny
The show is crass, rude, disgusting, and very, very funny.
Read MoreJoseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers: 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Review
If you own one DVD set, it should contain this series.
Read MoreLAFF 2013 Review: A Compelling Look at Our Nixon
This found-footage documentary that offers a compelling look at his presidency from the inside.
Read MoreBeck: Volume 7 and 8 DVDs Review: He’s Not a Loser, Baby, And He’ll Catch Your Killer
The more you watch the more you want to see.
Read MoreMarketa Lazarova Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Defiantly Experimental
Epic black and white Czechoslovakian film tests narrative patience but offers ample visual rewards
Read MoreDoctor Who: The Mind of Evil DVD Review: A Curiosity Piece
The Doctor and Jo battle the Master in a story that tells us more about the latter than the former.
Read MoreThings To Come (1936) Criterion Collection DVD Review: An Unforgettable Piece of Cinematic History
Fascinatingly weird vision of H.G. Wells.
Read MoreSlugterra: Slugs Unleashed DVD Review: Arrested Development
Second DVD collection from the TV series contains fast-paced standalone episodes with no unifying arc.
Read MoreBurn Notice: Season Six DVD Review: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
After rejoining the CIA, Michael Westen gets burned again.
Read MoreVexed: Series 2 DVD Review: A Vexing Decline
New co-star inevitably changes the chemistry, but not for the better.
Read MoreThe Last Ride (2012) Blu-ray Review: It Should Never Have Been Taken
I’m sure a pitch meeting happened where somebody said, “It’s a film about an unlikely friendship that forms between two men who are forced to travel together.”
Read MoreMedium Cool Criterion Collection DVD Review: The Theatrics of Observation and Social Crisis
A tour de force of political docu-drama.
Read MoreQueen: Live at Wembley Stadium 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Review: A Wonderful Keepsake
Revisiting one of the iconic group’s most dynamic performances.
Read MoreDoctor Who: Inferno: Special Edition DVD Review: Murdering Radioactive Mutants Unite!
Inferno is definitely one of the better ones, and with all of the extras, this package is a sweet one.
Read MoreA Good Day to Die Hard Blu-ray Review: Lots of Action with Little Substance
John McClane ceremoniously passes off the torch to his son Jack in this fifth installment of the franchise
Read MoreStoker Is the Pick of the Week
If you like films at all, you’ll likely find something to enjoy from this week’s releases.
Read MoreThe Beach Boys: Good Vibrations Tour DVD Review: A TV Special That’s Barely OK
This is a tour not worth taking.
Read MoreLast Shop Standing DVD Review: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the Independent Record Store
When a store such as Hudson’s Record & Tape Centre closes after 105 years of business, it is cause to take notice.
Read MoreMission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Review: A Movie on Cruise Control
lt is not a well-made movie.
Read MoreThe Girls in the Band Movie Review: A Fascinating Story About Women in Jazz
Little-known female jazz instrumentalists finally get deserved recognition in this documentary, which spans from the late 1930s to the present.
jazz, girls in the band, documentary, music
Dark Skies (2013) Blu-ray Review: A Compelling Family Drama Undercut by Aliens
The film isn’t super scary, but it does have a slow built of creepiness and intensity.
Read MoreMan of Steel (2013) Movie Review: A Movie Made Solely to Sell Kiddie Meals
I wish I had Superman’s powers, just so I could spin the world around backwards and turn back time just long enough to prevent this film from being made.
Read MoreLife Is Sweet Criterion Collection DVD Review: The Chocolate Thrust of Life Itself
Mike Leigh’s wonderful Life Is Sweet is less a film about something and more a film about the thrust of life itself. It focuses on a family of four in North London as they try to eke their way through various curveballs and ongoing struggles. The performances are pitch-perfect, the dialogue crackles with realism, the…
Read MoreFast & Furious 6 Movie Review: Flashy & Fantastic
It bucks conventional wisdom about sequels and is the best one yet.
Read MoreKilling Lincoln Blu-ray Review: Before and After
It suffers from being dull in its reenactment.
Read MoreGarbage: One Mile High…Live Blu-ray Review: One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Garbage
For the home viewer, there’s little beyond the songs that makes the concert feel unique.
Read MoreDoctor Who: Series Seven, Part Two Blu-ray Review: The Doctor Returns with a New Companion and a New Attitude
This half of the seventh series is well done and the interaction between the two main characters adds a breath of fresh air to the franchise.
Read More2+2 Movie Review: Something About These Swingers Doesn’t Add Up
What we have with 2+2 is a film without much forthrightness, character, realism, and sex appeal.
Read MoreDoctor Who: The Snowmen Blu-ray Review: This Year The Doctor’s Christmas Gift Is a New Companion
It’s entertaining, but difficult to understand why it needed to be released separately from Series Seven, Part Two.
Read MoreWild Strawberries Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Beautiful, Complex, Symbolic Film
A fully rewarding film with great emotional wealth and intellectual grace.
Read MoreWild Strawberries Is the Pick of the Week
Criterion has created a masterful presentation with their Blu-ray.
Read MorePrometheus (2012) Blu-ray Review: A Feast for the Senses, An Appetizer for the Mind
My deep appreciation of the film’s visual style is why I am so disappointed there are problems with the script.
Read MoreHearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse Movie Review: The Epic Ordeal Behind An Epic Film
An engaging documentary about a man with huge dreams and all the things that conspired to destroy them.
Read MoreGeorge Gently: Series 5 DVD Review: The Most Intriguing and Intense So Far
An excellent mystery/police drama, all set to the fascinating backdrop of England in 1968.
Read MoreMasaki Kobayashi Against the System DVD Review: Angry and Elegant Political Films
Early films from the director of Harakiri reveal a rancorous, politically minded filmmaker.
Read MoreEvocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie Review: A Lot of Hot Air
As the movie played, it became more and more evident that it wasn’t my memory that had failed me, but rather Downey, who was less of a cultural icon and more of a one-hit wonder.
Read MoreMan of Steel (2013) Movie Review: Man of Action, but Little Thought
A Superman I don’t completely recognize and I’m okay with that.
Read MoreBook Review: Doctor Who: Harvest of Time by Alastair Reynolds
The Doctor and the Master find themselves at the cold end of time.
Read MoreBreaking Bad: The Fifth Season Is the Pick of the Week
Walt finally sets the pieces in place to be the kingpin he was born to be but it never seems enough.
Read MoreTeenage Rebel DVD Review: Without a Clue (or Widescreen)
Who knew Michael Rennie could get down and boogie so well?
Read MoreGeorge Gently Collection: Series 1-4 DVD Review: A Hidden Treasure
The first four series of this British gem are now available in a box set.
Read MoreNow You See Me Movie Review: A Lot More Magic Could Have Saved It from Mediocrity
Unfortunately, after introducing some great characters and a very interesting storyline, the film stalls out in the middle.
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