Kent Conrad

The Thing Expanded Movie Review: Exhaustive Look at Exemplary Film

Can you spend five and a half hours talking about one film? For reals fans of The Thing, the answer is, “yes, please.”

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Stone Cold (1991) 4K UHD Review: Glorious Last Gasp of ’80s Action

It failed to launch Brian Bosworth as an action star, but this over-the-top actioner is a crass, violent delight.

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Gambling Ship (1933) Blu-ray Review: Gangster Grant Sinks Ship

Cary Grant is a gangster trying to get out of the life, but who unknowingly falls for another gangster’s girl.

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This Is the Night (1932) Blu-ray Review: Cary Grant’s Assured Debut

Fun pre-Hayes code semi-musical comedy about romantic misadventures in ’30s Paris and Venice.

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The House of Seven Corpses 4K UHD Review: The House of Nothing Happening

Despite a clever movie-in-a-movie set-up, this horror film feels like it doesn’t want to do the horror parts.

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The Phantom (1996) 4K UHD Review: Goofball Pulp Antics

This strait-laced adaptation of the long-running comic strip is earnest, maybe too much so, but delivers actions and fun.

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Agitator Blu-ray Review: Violence, Loyalty, and Betrayal

Miike’s hard-edged yakukza film about loyalty and misplaced commitment contains not just violence, but the quieter aspects of gangster life.

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Book Review: Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Tales of Andold Wild Duck: Disney Masters Vol. 26

Tales of Donald Duck’s Scottish ancestor Andold and more in this collection of duck stories by Italian artist Marco Rota.

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Keeper 4K UHD Review: Weird Movie, Fantastic Direction

Osgood Perkins finds dozens of ways of keeping a single location interesting in this creepy supernatural horror thriller.

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Book Review: Ducktales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp and Other Stories: The Disney Afternoon Adventures Vol. 06

Another worthy collection of comic stories taken from the Disney Afternoon TV shows, with a particular standout Talespin adventure.

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Dust Devil (1992) 4K UHD Review: Beautiful, Baffling African Horror

This elliptical dream-like film that straddles multiple genres is beautifully shot but has a story that is hard to grasp onto.

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Dan Curtis’ Dead of Night (1977) Blu-ray Review: Trilogy of Terror Redux

This ’70s TV-movie anthology of horrors stories written by Twilight Zone alum Richard Matheson moves deftly from sentiment to terror.

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Dan Curtis’ Classic Monsters Blu-ray Review: Made-for-TV Mayhem

Three quality made-for-TV movies based on classics Frankenstein, Dracula, and Jekyll & Mr. Hyde from the creator of Dark Shadows.

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Rampage (1987) 4K UHD Review: Murder Thriller Almost Gets It

This grim thriller about a vampiric killer ironically bites off more than it can chew, while being constantly fascinating.

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Peter Gabriel: Taking the Pulse Blu-ray Review: All Strings Attached

Documenting Peter Gabriel’s experiment with rearranging his music for orchestra, this excellent concert video was filmed in 2010 in Italy.

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Book Review: Shiver As You Read!: Atlas Comics Library No. 6

Collection of horror-tinged stories from Amazing Detective Cases and Men’s Adventures might be the most entertaining Atlas Comics anthology yet.

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Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride 4K UHD Review: Such a Beautiful Nothing

Meticulous crafted, aesthetically gorgeous, this spiritual follow-up to Nightmare Before Christmas suffers from a woefully underdeveloped script and mediocre songs.

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Patterns (1956) Blu-ray Review: Business Always, and Never Changes

First feature film written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling is about the personal cost of just doing business.

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Book Review: Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle

Collecting two classic comics and two modern mini-series by controversial comic artist whose graphic, challenging art continues to push boundaries.

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Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex Movie Review: Glam’s First Cosmic Dancer

Covering both T. Rex’s Marc Bolan and an album tribute to his songs, this documentary deftly introduces the dreamwalking songwriter.

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Get Carter (1971) Blu-ray Review: Birth of British Gangster Movies

A cold, mirthless thriller about a dangerous gangster ruthlessly investigating the death of his brother, regardless of the cost.

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His Kind of Woman Blu-ray Review: Film Noir Follies

Mitchum and Russell (and Vincent Price) gallivant in a movie that is half bleak noir, half bizarre resort town comedy and romance.

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Cloud (2024) Movie Review: Internet Haters Go Gunning

This enigmatic thriller about human interaction and the intersection of online and real life is taut, frightening and strange.

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Book Review: Atlas Comics Library No. 5: Police Action

A new collection of a short-lived comic book series from 1954 of tales of crime and police action.

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Dirty Harry 4K UHD Review: Justice and Anarchy

Clint Eastwood’s iconic cop faces down a creature of pure malevolence using the system’s rules to protect him from justice.

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Book Review: The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1928-1930

Another fine collection of the consistently Krazy Sunday strips of one of the great American comics.

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Better Man 4K UHD Review: Robbie Williams Is a Monkey

Perhaps the most unorthodox biopic ever, Better Man features British pop star Robbie Williams as a monkey. It works.

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Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Movie Review: The Zombies Have Resurrected

A ’60s powerhouse of songwriting dispersed before their biggest hit, but their story does not end there.

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The Eel (1997) Blu-ray Review: A Man and his Eel

’90s Japanese film about parolee finding a new life is an odd mix of comedy, drama, and occasional brutal violence.

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The Long Kiss Goodnight 4K UHD Review: Aggressively Entertaining, Aggressively Stupid

A charged spy action thriller tries to act clever while being pretty dumb.

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Steven Wilson: Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall 4K UHD Review

It’s a tasteful and interesting rendition of a fantastic concert by an oddball artist.

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Dune: Part Two Blu-ray Review: Stunning, Sterile Sci-fi Spectacular

Dune: Part Two is an amazing spectacle.

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Horrible History: Four Historical Epics by Chang Cheh Blu-ray Review: Heap of Punching, Dash of History

A collection of four historically themed films from Shaw Brothers productions is heavy on the chopsocky, light on the real history.

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Book Review: Atlas Comics Library No. 4: War Comics Vol. 1

Fourth in this archival series by Fantagraphics, this volume collects eight issues of grim, violent stories of war.

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The Block Island Sound 4K UHD Review: Something in the Water

An atmospheric slow burn about family dissolution and some weird mind control monster living in the water.

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The Addiction 4K UHD Review: Vampires, Philosophy, and More Vampires

Maverick director Abel Ferrera’s black and white film about philosophy, the nature of evil, and New York doctoral candidates biting necks.

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Demolition Man 4K UHD Review: Frozen Ass-Kickers Against the Future

One of Stallone’s last major successes of the ’90s, this sci-fi action satire finally comes to 4K.

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Galaxy Quest 4K UHD Steelbook Review: It Never Gave Up

The cult classic that deserves as wide an audience as possible comes to 4K UHD.

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Drag Me to Hell 4K UHD Review: Raimi Returns to Horror

A gory, sometimes goofy but often actually scary return to the genre is a hidden gem in the Raimi catalog.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 4K UHD Review: Surprisingly Fresh for a Dead Guy

While not as inventive as its predecessor, this very late sequel is still entertaining and cheerfully morbid.

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The Sting of Death (1990) Blu-ray Review: Love, Lies, and Madness

An elliptical, unnerving film about infidelity, love, marriage and the sacrifices couples make for each other, even their sanity.

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American Movie 4K UHD Review: Film, Family, and Alcohol Abuse

This 1999 documentary features a Midwest filmmaker who has more ambition than talent and dedicated as much to beer as to cinema.

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Two Taoist Tales Blu-ray Review: Wild Supernatural Hong Kong Action

This pair of comedy-horror kung fu films bring plenty of questionable laughs with unquestionably impressive martial arts action.

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Tattooed Life Blu-ray Review: Suzuki’s Never Conventional Yakuza Tales

Two brothers on the run hide out with a construction crew that gets targeted by the Yakuza, ending in a wildly stylized finale.

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The Strangers (2008) 4K UHD Review: Remarkably Taut Suspense Thriller

Fifteen years later, The Strangers still impresses as a gritty suspense thriller with more on its mind than base thrills.

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Friday the 13th (2009) 4K UHD Review: Remake Exceeds Low Expectations

Jason Voorhees gets back to basics of wearing a hockey mask and killing people in this all-right remake.

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The Chronicles of Riddick 4K UHD Review: An Unexpected Expanded Treasure

The sequel to Pitch Black expands the universe while continuing to be an engaging action sci-fi thriller.

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Book Review: Total Recall: The Official Story of the Film by Simon Braund

This coffee table book tells the story, in words and copious pictures, of the making of this unique sci-fi action thriller.

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Prison Walls: Abashiri Prison I-III Blu-ray Review: Yakuza Behind Bars

A majorly successful series of ’60s Japanese cinema tells yakuza stories in an around the inmates of a notorious prison.

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Book Review: Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch by Guy Colwell

The Garden of Earthly Delights, by Hieronymus Bosch, is one of the most famous pieces of art in the history of the Western world. It’s an enormous and enormously detailed painting that covers three huge wood panels. There are the smaller side panels, and a larger center. The left panel is the Garden of Eden,…

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