Kent Conrad

Night of the Demons 4K UHD Review: Shameless & Shameful Evil Dead Rip-off

A beautiful 4K release of a movie tailor-made for Halloween parties, not so great for just watching.

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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 4K UHD Review: Batman in Love

Batman’s first animated feature film brings all the best of the animated series to the silver screen.

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Foolish Wives Blu-ray Review: The First Million Dollar Picture

Erich von Stroheim directs and stars in a film with elaborate sets, some enormous action pieces, and little narrative drive.

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City of the Living Dead 4K UHD Review: Where Zombies Are Ghosts

A new 4K release of Lucio Fulci’s incomprehensible but atmospheric and gory supernatural zombie thriller.

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Ferris Buellers Day Off Movie DVD Poster of a Man

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Danke Schoen for a Perfect Movie

John Hughes’ wistful and hilarious celebration of youth and ’80s Chicago comes to 4K.

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Nightbreed 4K UHD Review: Clive Barker’s Monster Mess

The follow-up to Hellraiser had a bumpy time getting to cinemas, and its theatrical release is given the 4K treatment.

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Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: A Master Reflects

This deliberately paced anthology has the master reflecting on the nature of man and his world, with constant beautiful imagery.

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Book Review: Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers: The Count Roquefort Case and Other Stories: The Disney Afternoon Adventures Vol. 3

Another in Fantagraphics’ continuing reprint series of comic stories based on the Disney Afternoon lineup.

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Book Review: Scrooge McDuck: The Dragon of Glasgow by Joris Chamblain and Fabrizio Petrossi

An addition to Scrooge McDuck’s early lore, this story, translated from French, is a brief, powerful coming of age tale.

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Book Review: Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge: Operation Galleon Grab by Giorgio Cavazzano

Part of Fantagraphics Disney Master’s series, this collection highlights some of artist Giorgio Cavazzano’s best duck comics.

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The Truman Show 4K UHD Review: Prescient Dystopic Satire

The wild notion of a life under constant public scrutiny has become even more relevant 25 years after its release.

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The White Buffalo Blu-ray Review: Bizarre Prairie Jaws

Often as beautifully shot as it is bafflingly plotted, this Western monster movie is an odd artifact of its time.

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Time Bandits Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: A Child’s Nightmare Fantasy

Terry Gilliam’s classic story of a childhood interrupted by adventure shines in this new 4K transfer.

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Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux Blu-ray Review: Oddest of Odd Bedfellows

Guy Maddin’s bizarre story about friendship ruined has a rare commodity in an art film… a sense of humor.

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The Bridges at Toko-Ri Blu-ray Review: The Toll of War

Will Holden and Grace Kelly stand out in this film about aviators in the Korean war.

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Book Review: Doris Danger: Giant Monsters Amok by Chris Wisnia & Ricky Sprague

A tribute to ’60s American monster comics, Doris Danger is a loving tribute for an extremely specific niche audience.

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Violent Streets (1974) Blu-ray Review: Blood and Guts Yakuza Story

Real life former yakuza Noboru Ando plays a retired gangster who wants to escape a life that won’t leave him alone.

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Samurai Wolf 1 & 2 Blu-ray Review: A Scruffier Yojimbo

Hideo Gosha’s sword for hire stories depict an unkempt but decent ronin in a hellscape of dishonor and violence.

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Branded to Kill Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Yakuza Movie as Experimental Art

The movie that supposedly got Seijun Suzuki fired deserves its reputation as a wildly experimental, bizarre, and entertaining gangster movie.

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All-Star Superman 4K UHD Review: Great Comics, Okay Movie

Near immortal Superman deals with an all-too-human problem in this choppy adaptation of a great limited comic series.

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Backtrack (1990) Blu-ray Review: Dennis Hopper’s Lost… Piece

Credited to Alan Smithee in theaters, Dennis Hopper’s re-edited Backtrack feels ahead of its time, and completely out of step.

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Heat (1986) Blu-ray Review: Burt Reynolds Comes Back Fighting

An entertaining but disjointed actioner that mixes comedy, violence, and drama in a way that never really comes together.

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The Big Easy (1986) Blu-ray Review: Corrupt Cop Chews Scenery

Breezy crime story moves from comedy to drama as a happily corrupt cop finds he might actually be doing wrong.

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The Maltese Falcon (1941) 4K UHD Review: Bogart’s Big Break

This cynical ’40s detective drama shines in 4K, which gives new life to the story criminals looking for a bird.

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Book Review: Fools Die on Friday by Erle Stanley Gardner

This reprinted detective story by Perry Mason creator is about a poisoning… where the prime suspect becomes the first victim.

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Dead Silence (2007) 4K UHD Review: Scary Dolls Don’t Do Anything

James Wan’s far less popular follow-up to Saw has atmosphere, visual style supporting a story that never really works.

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Dragonslayer (1981) 4K UHD Review: Great Dragon, Murky Movie

A fantastic special effects creation matched with a layered (perhaps too layered) story makes its HD home debut.

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The Vagrant (1992) Blu-ray Review: Baffling, but Never Boring Horror Film

A brisk if tone-deaf horror comedy about a homeless man who won’t leave is baffling in good and bad ways.

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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Blu-ray Review: Puss Meets Death for the Ninth Time

Visual invention, fun adventure and unexpected poignancy make this a surprisingly welcome return of the Shrek spin-off.

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Book Review: The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1925-1927

A new hardcover collection of Krazy Kat’s Sunday strips is still baffling, head shaking and beautiful.

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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Grinding Relentless Horror Classic

The grimy horror redefining classic re-emerges on 4K with a filmic presentation that emphasizes the grueling naturalistic film.

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Kubo and the Two Strings 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Stop-motion Tribute to Samurai Cinema

Newly on 4K UHD, this stop-motion tribute to Japanese cinema is an unparalleled technical feat.

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The Boxtrolls 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Charming, Odd, Ugly Beautiful?

Laika’s third (and weirdest) stop-motion movie about a child growing up with lovable eccentric monsters shines on 4K.

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Book Review: Talespin: Flight of the Sky-Raker and Other Stories: The Disney Afternoon Adventures Vol. 2

A collection of several comic reprints mostly from the Disney Adventures magazine has fun stories from various Disney Afternoon shows.

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Three Colors Trilogy Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Enigmatic Masterpieces About People Connecting

Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s famous trilogy, and final films, bring their visually arresting and enigmatic stories to 4K.

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El Vampiro Negro (1953) Blu-ray Review: An Argentinian “M”

An interesting and entertaining remake of Fritz Lang’s great thriller shifts the stories perspective with limited success.

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Silent Running 4K UHD: Sci-Fi Hippy Dreams Dying

Visually impressive ’70s sci-fi film has an ecological message, if not a lot of story.

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National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 4K UHD Review: Calamitous Christmas Classic

Clark Griswold’s disastrous attempt to manufacture a perfect Christmas has laughs and looks great on the new 4K UHD.

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles 4K UHD Review: Thanksgiving’s Annual Lesson

John Hughes first movie about adults embodies the lesson of Thanksgiving: that sometimes the most important thing is just to get along.

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Contraband (1980) Blu-ray Review: Explosively Violent Crime Action

Lucio Fulci’s drama about cigarette smugglers tells its crime story with horror movie levels of violence and gore.

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Elf (2003) 4K UHD Review: Farrell and Favreau Hit

John Favreau’s engaging holiday modern classic, starring Will Farrell, shines on 4k.

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The Nun and the Devil Blu-ray Review: Which Mother Will Prove Superior?

A power struggle in a convent reveals hypocritical structure of the church in this beautifully shot if unengaging historical drama.

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The Company of Wolves 4K UHD Review: Little Red’s Wolf Fetish

A dream-like riff on the Little Red Riding Hood story is at times mesmerizing, and at more times unfocused.

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The Kindred (1987) Blu-ray Review: Practical Effects, Impractical Storytelling

A late ’80s practical effects showcase has an overbusy story that simultaneously has too much and not enough going on.

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Casablanca 4K UHD Review: Here’s Looking at UHD

The 4K rerelease of the indelible Hollywood classic is as memorable as ever, and now looks better than ever.

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E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Blu-ray Review: ’80s Friendly Alien Invasion

Spielberg’s second great alien encounter film is now 40 years old, and just as powerful as when it was new.

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Blind Fury (1989) Blu-ray Review: ’80s Action Meets Japan Pulp

In this adapted samurai film, Rutger Hauer’s a blind swordsman who wanders America, righting wrongs and teaching about manhood.

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Happy Birthday to Me (1981) Blu-ray Review: Canuxploitation Slasher Slog

Canada produced slasher movie boasts “six bizarre murders”, actually boasts bizarre plot twists that strain credibility and storytelling.

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Army of Darkness 4K UHD Limited Edition Steelbook Review: Long Live the Medieval Dead

The third Evil Dead film turns from horror to adventure as Ash brings his accomplished incompetence to the Middle Ages.

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The Lost Boys 4K UHD Review: Flashy ’80s Vampire Flick

Joel Schumacher’s story of teenage vampires terrorizing a California beach town is an often fun, often irritating mess.

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