Archive for April 2015
Book Review: Crate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records by Bob Suren
Crate Digger tells the story of the Florida punk scene over the past 30 years through the favorite records of the author.
Read MoreScooby-Doo! and Scrappy-Doo! The Complete Season 1 DVD Review: Puppy Power Does Work
Scooby and Scrappy solve mysteries back when Shawn was a pre-teen.
Read MoreNazi Hunters: The Heroes Who Defeated Hitler DVD Review: The Story of the Filthy Fifth
An in-depth look at the British Fifth Royal Tank Regiment and the tanks they used to overpower the Germans during World War II.
Read MoreScreaming Eagles (1956) DVD Review: The Allied Artists Invasion of Normandy
The Warner Archive Collection preserves a seldom seen (but highly enjoyable) WWII quickie ripe with B movie and TV veterans.
Read MoreThe Friends of Eddie Coyle Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Crime, Lowkey, and Unsentimental
Peter Yates’ 1973 crime drama explores how important, and how expendable, “Friends” can be in Boston’s working-class criminal underground.
Read MoreAvengers: Age of Ultron Review: Marvel Rests on Their Laurels with Lumbering Popcorn Movie
The bloated runtime leaves little time for characterization, but a whole lot of time for things to go BOOM!
Read MoreOur Mother’s House DVD Review: The Illegitimate Dawn of an Unofficial New Wave
Seven kids raised on religion, a dead mother, and a deadbeat dad. You do the math.
Read MoreGhost Story: Turn of the Screw DVD Review: Should Have Turned It Off
A completely forgettable adaptation of a novel I’ll never read.
Read MoreInherent Vice Is the Pick of the Week
This week brings us a P.T. Anderson film that isn’t as popular as I expected, a talking Bear that is, plus Mark Wahlberg, King Henry VII, and some bloody good bloody TV.
Read MoreThe Bounty (1984) / U Turn (1997) Blu-rays Review: Twilight Time Goes South
The two best bad trips you can possibly book this season.
Read MoreTribeca 2015 Review: Dirty Weekend: What Happens in Albuquerque Stays in Albuquerque
Matthew Broderick timidly takes a walk on the wild side in Neil LaBute’s funny but ultimately flaccid satirical fable.
Read MoreAll at Sea [aka Barnacle Bill] DVD Review: Alec Guinness in Full (Multiple) Form
The Warner Archive Collection brings us the last genuine Ealing Comedy, which also features a young (and already bald) Donald Pleasance.
Read MoreBook Review: Compound Cinematics: Akira Kurosawa and I by Shinobu Hashimoto
The screenwriter for some of Kurosawa’s best films discusses their collaboration and more.
Read MoreOne Foot in Heaven DVD Review: Ass-Kickers, Shit-Kickers, and Methodists
Fredric March stars as Minister William Spence in this forgotten (but enjoyable) biopic.
Read MoreTribeca 2015 Review: Grandma: Lily Tomlin’s Tour de Force
Tomlin inhabits a tailor-made role in this funny, touching gem; strong cast saves the film from sentimentality and plot’s too-convenient construction.
Read MoreLong Weekend (1978) Blu-ray Review: Nature Can Be a Real Mother
The ’70s Australian eco-horror classic finally gets the treatment it deserves from Synapse Films.
Read MoreSolomon and Sheba (1959) Blu-ray Review: A Show with Everything (Including Yul Brynner)
A tale as old as recorded time. The script isn’t that fresh, either.
Read MoreTribeca Film Festival 2015 Review: The Overnight Is Quasi-Porn Without the Money Shot
Innocents Taylor Schilling and Adam Scott are seduced, sort of, in this weird, funny but ultimately skin-deep comedy/drama.
Read MoreLenny (1974) Blu-ray Review: They Call Dustin Hoffman Bruce?
Yep, it’s a happy kind of picture, kids. But at least you’ll be able to see sultry Valerie Perrine in the buff!
Read MoreFortitude Is the Pick of the Week
This week’s new releases include a murder in the arctic, a sad Jennifer Aniston, Iranian vampires, Liam Neeson getting taken (again), and some arty foreign flicks.
Read MoreMonkey Warriors DVD Review: A Fascinating Look at How Monkeys Have Adapted to City Life
BBC Earth takes a look at the lives of monkeys forced to live in the city.
Read MoreTribeca 2015 Review: A Courtship: Christian Mingle to the Max
Disappointed by dating? Documentary shows what happens when a young woman decides to let God play matchmaker.
Read MoreStar Wars Celebration 2015 Review: The Biggest Star Wars Convention in the Galaxy
The world’s largest Star Wars convention offered stars, cosplay, exclusive merchandise and recreated film sets.
Read MoreTeen Titans Go!: Appetite for Disruption DVD Review: Young Superheroes’ Bratty Beginnings
Kids and adults (and tweens especially) will enjoy the fun, fast-paced episodes.
Read MoreTribeca 2015 Review: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon
1970s comedy nexus National Lampoon fondly remembered in a documentary with humor and humanity.
Read MoreBatman vs. Robin Blu-ray Review: Another Dark and Dangerous Day in Gotham
DC’s latest animated film is a dark but engaging adaptation of Batman’s Court of Owls storyline.
Read MoreThe Fog of War Movie Review: Hindsight Is 20/20
“An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
Read MoreHe Loves Me, He Loves Me Not DVD Review: A Movie So Nice You’ll Watch It Twice
A fun take on both the romantic comedy and femme fatale genres and so cleverly constructed that I never minded its flaws.
Read MoreBook Review: In the Company of Legends by Joan Kramer and David Heeley
Classic-film fans are very fortunate the authors took the time to create this book.
Read MoreThe Big Shot / Swing Your Lady DVDs Review: A Binary Blast of Bogey
The Warner Archive Collection delivers two entirely different sides of Humphrey Bogart, including the film he perhaps hated making the most.
Read MoreTom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn DVD Review: Lost in Translation
Tweens and fans of the Disney Channel will like seeing Jake T. Austin as Huckleberry Finn. But parents will have to hold out hope for a definitive take on the classic character.
Read MoreMr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. Movie Review: Visually Captivating
A simple man asking simple questions with complex answers that he cannot understand.
Read MoreThe Immigrant DVD Review: Finding Grace in the Worst of Times
If this is the American dream, why would anyone come here?
Read MoreMidsomer Murders: Set 25 Blu-ray Review: Deadly Doings in Midsomer
The 25th Midsomer Murders set celebrates such events as the birth of Betty Barnaby, and the 100th episode of the series.
Read MoreDaryl Hall & John Oates: Live in Dublin DVD Review: 90 Minutes of Hits
Singles kings Hall & Oates are served well with this 2014 concert in Dublin.
Read MoreThe Alphabet Murders (1965) DVD Review: Oh, My Aching Little Grey Cells!
Tony Randall makes for one of cinema’s least memorable Hercule Poirots in this dire British spoof of the Agatha Christie novel.
Read MoreMaps to the Stars Is the Pick of the Week
This week brings us new films by David Croneberg, Jean-Luc Goddard, and Tim Burton plus old films by Carol Reed and Preston Sturges and much more.
Read MoreFar from the Madding Crowd (1967) Blu-ray Review: A Magnificent Festering!
If you avoid certain NFL-oriented video games, does that mean you’re Far from the Madden Crowd?
Read MoreShania Twain: Shania: Still the One: Live from Vegas Blu-ray Review
I thoroughly enjoyed watching and recommend it for any fan.
Read MoreOdd Man Out Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Deft and Thrilling Storytelling
An extremely overlooked masterpiece of personal and spiritual redemption.
Read MoreTV Review: The Comedians (2015) – “Pilot” / Louie – “Potluck”
FX presents Must-Squirm TV.
Read MoreHans Crippleton: Talk To the Hans Movie Review: It’s So Good, I Almost Hated It
It does to reality television what Napoleon Dynamite did to Idaho.
Read MoreFast, Cheap & Out of Control Movie Review: Skewed Look at Human Behavior
Errol Morris’s meditation on human behavior as seen from four men with very strange jobs.
Read MoreA Brief History of Time Criterion Collection Review: A Quirky, Idiosyncratic Tribute
A deep examination of a very complex, but legendary visionary
Read MoreTo Sir, With Love (1967) Blu-ray Review: Twilight Time Goes to School
Sidney Poitier’s students have a bad reputation. What they need is a little adult education.
Read MoreStormy Weather (1943) Blu-ray Review: What an Eye for Beauty This Storm Has!
Twilight Time brings an early precursor to the blaxploitation subgenre (seriously, it is!) to Blu-ray.
Read MoreA Most Violent Year Is the Pick of the Week
This week brings us the Netflix rabbit hole, the Fighters of Foo, The Immigrant, and some TV boxed sets.
Read MoreA Most Violent Year Blu-ray Review: A Most Underrated Film
One of 2014’s best films hopes to discover new eyes on Blu.
Read MoreWild (2014) Blu-ray Review: Embrace the Beauty
It is an inspiring, thought-provoking film, with every moment to be savored.
Read MoreGone with the Pope Blu-ray Review: Duke Mitchell’s Unsung Swan Song Finds a Voice
The film that takes the expression “Years in the Making” to a whole new level finally gets a chance to be seen by all.
Read MoreThe Thin Blue Line Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Paradigm Shift
Errol Morris changes the documentary game in 102 minutes.
Read MoreGates of Heaven / Vernon, Florida Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Loving the Absurd
The characters Errol Morris speaks to in his first two films are living embodiments of the old maxim that truth is stranger than fiction.
Read MoreThoughtful & Abstract: Looking at The Walking Dead’s Glenn Rhee
T&A focuses their attention of the young, unlikely leader of the group: Glenn.
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