Torso 4K UHD Review: ‘The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence’
By Jack Cormack |
Torso (1973; dir. Sergio Martino) is pure, unfiltered giallo—a movie drenched in blood, nudity, and unapologetic sleaze. It’s rough around ...
Read More The Strangers (2008) 4K UHD Review: Remarkably Taut Suspense Thriller
By Kent Conrad |
The basic outline of The Strangers is absolutely nothing new: bad guys attack people in a house. Doesn't go well. ...
Read More Friday the 13th (2009) 4K UHD Review: Remake Exceeds Low Expectations
By Kent Conrad |
The most famous visual of Friday the 13th is Jason Voorhees in a hockey mask. But Jason wasn't the villain ...
Read More The Chronicles of Riddick 4K UHD Review: An Unexpected Expanded Treasure
By Kent Conrad |
Pitch Black did not seem like a movie that deserved a sequel. It was a serviceable action-horror sci-fi picture that ...
Read More Game Night 4K UHD Review: Game of Life Offers Monopoly of Laughs
By Greg Hammond |
Co-directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, Game Night is a comedy-kidnap-caper film starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams ...
Read More High Crime (1973) 4K UHD Review: The Italian Connection
By Mat Brewster |
Made during the infamous Italian Years of Lead (a decades-long period of political turmoil and heavy street violence), High Crime ...
Read More Black Mass (2015) 4K UHD Review: Government-Approved Gangsterism
By Kent Conrad |
Gangster movies tend to hang on loyalty. Gangs tend to hang on loyalty. The lower thugs not giving up their ...
Read More IF 4K UHD Review: The Opposite of a Magical Adventure
By Greg Hammond |
John Krasinski directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in 2018’s dark thriller A Quiet Place. In 2020, Krasinski wrote and directed A ...
Read More The Lady from Shanghai 4K UHD Review: Twisty, Twisted Noir Classic
By Kent Conrad |
Except maybe Citizen Kane, everything Orson Welles directed has a kind of asterisk by its name. However good the movie ...
Read More Demons & Demons 2 4K UHD Review: Completely Bonkers in the Best Possible Way
By Mat Brewster |
From his debut film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, in 1970 to Opera, his last great film, made in ...
Read More Risky Business Criterion Collection Review: Introducing Tom Cruise and Guido the Killer Pimp
By Greg Hammond |
Written and directed by Paul Brickman, 1983’s Risky Business turned Tom Cruise into a superstar. And it isn’t just dancing ...
Read More The Case of the Bloody Iris 4K UHD Review: A Typically Stylish Giallo
By Kent Conrad |
The Case of the Bloody Iris exemplifies the appeal of the giallo completely. Giallo is the Italian precursor to the ...
Read More Team America: World Police 4K UHD Review: Pulls the Right Strings
By Greg Hammond |
From Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the long-running TV series South Park (328 episodes between 1997 - ...
Read More South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut 4K UHD Review: Still Funny but Aging Rapidly
By Greg Hammond |
South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, directed by Trey Parker, and written by Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady, is ...
Read More Chinatown 4K UHD Review: Noir Gold; or “The point is, the girl dies”
By Jack Cormack |
As a masterpiece, Chinatown needed its two main creators, screenwriter Robert Towne (who won the movie’s sole Oscar) and director ...
Read More One from the Heart: Reprise 4K UHD Review: Coppola’s Folly Redeemed?
By Kent Conrad |
After the Godfather films, Francis Ford Coppola went from disaster to disaster. Apocalypse Now is the famous problematic film… but ...
Read More Killer Klowns from Outer Space 4K UHD Review: The Bloody Circus Comes to Town
By Greg Hammond |
Killer Klowns from Outer Space, written, directed, produced, and starring the Chiodo Brothers (pronounced kee-oh-do) is a comedy/action/horror movie that ...
Read More Peter Gabriel: Back to Front 4K UHD Review: Old Dog, New Tricks
By Kent Conrad |
Artists touring old albums has been, since about the mid '00s, seemingly how they make their money. It's hard to ...
Read More Once Upon a Time in the West 4K UHD Review: Weird West
By Jack Cormack |
In Once Upon a Time in the West (1969; dir. Sergio Leone), a just-widowed beauty, Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale); a ...
Read More The Crow: 30th Anniversary Edition (1994) 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Grim Classic Adaptation Returns
By Kent Conrad |
There's no getting around Brandon Lee's death when discussing The Crow. An actor's death during the production or release of ...
Read More Mean Girls (2004) and Mean Girls (2024) 4K UHDs Review: So Fetch They’re Grool
By Greg Hammond |
It is interesting that the book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New ...
Read More Rolling Thunder 4K UHD Review: Dead Inside
By Jack Cormack |
In director John Flynn’s Rolling Thunder (1977), Major Charles Rane (William Devane) has just come home to San Antonio after ...
Read More Nostalghia 4K UHD Review: Out, Out, Brief Candle
By Jack Cormack |
In director Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia (1983), a glum Russian poet, Andrei (Oleg Yankovsky), treks the Italian countryside with his comely ...
Read More The Ring Collection 4K UHD Review: Video Terror’s Diminishing Returns
By Kent Conrad |
The Ring (2002) might be one of the most influential horror movies of the new century. Based on the Japanese ...
Read More Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom 4K UHD Review: Inventive Action Sequences Keep the Story Alive
By Greg Hammond |
James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is funny, action-packed, filled with strong performances, and it is one of the ...
Read More The Heroic Trio/Executioners Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Insane Hong Kong Lady Action
By Kent Conrad |
In the pre-Internet era, information about different cultures’ cinema was obscure. It was rumor. It was some still in a ...
Read More Contagion 4K UHD Review: If I Could Throw Your Computer in Jail, I Would
By Greg Hammond |
Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, written by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum), is about a pandemic which spreads quickly and kills ...
Read More Darkman 4K UHD Review: A Must-See for Sam Raimi Fans
By Greg Hammond |
In Sam Raimi’s Darkman (1990), Liam Neeson, in his first starring action role, plays Dr. Peyton Westlake, a researcher in ...
Read More Footloose (1984) 4K UHD Review: Rambunctious, Though Mostly Tired
By Greg Hammond |
After the death of his father, Ren McCormack (Keven Bacon), and his mother (Frances Lee McCain) move from Chicago to ...
Read More Willy’s Wonderland 4K UHD Review: Nicolas Cage Brings a Whole Lot of Fun
By Greg Hammond |
Kevin Lewis’s Willy’s Wonderland stars Nicolas Cage, a possibly mute, probably just super quiet, nameless drifter driving the backroads, who ...
Read More The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) 4K UHD Review: Struggles to Find its Footing
By Greg Hammond |
The phenomenal success of Randall Wallace’s screenplay for 1995’s Braveheart gave him carte blanche on his next film for which ...
Read More Point Break (1991) 4K UHD Review: “27 banks in three years – anything to catch the perfect wave!”
By Jack Cormack |
In Point Break (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Johnny Utah, an FBI hotshot (Keanu Reeves), joins an FBI schlub (Gary Busey) to ...
Read More The Train 4K UHD Review: “You talk about the war. I talk about what it costs!”
By Jack Cormack |
Based on a true story, director John Frankenheimer’s The Train (1964) is about the lengths the French Resistance went to, ...
Read More Face/Off 4K UHD Review: Great Performances and a Fun Sci-Fi Script
By Greg Hammond |
In John Woo’s Face/Off, FBI Special Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) holds a particularly personal grudge against no-good-nic Castor Troy ...
Read More Thunderbolt and Lightfoot 4K UHD Review: Cimino Rising
By Jack Cormack |
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is of note for two reasons. The first is that it was the directorial debut of Michael ...
Read More Clue 4K UHD Review: Who Farted?
By Jack Cormack |
Clue (1985; dir. Jonathan Lynn), based on the beloved board game, sucks like a lamprey. Regarded by many as a ...
Read More Days of Heaven Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Blue Harvest
By Jack Cormack |
The Criterion Collection has released Days of Heaven (1978; dir. Terrence Malick) in 4K as part of a 4K UHD/Blu-ray ...
Read More The Color Purple (1985) 4K UHD Review: Ms. Celie’s Blues
By Jack Cormack |
Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of the famed Alice Walker novel—about the journey a poor black woman, Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), takes ...
Read More Titanic 4K UHD Limited-Edition Collector’s Boxed Set Review: A Must-Have for Titanic Lovers
By Greg Hammond |
James Cameron’s Titanic is 25 years old this year. To celebrate, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures have put together ...
Read More Silver Bullet 4K UHD Review: A Reasonably Creepy Creature Feature
By Greg Hammond |
Based on Stephen King’s novellette The Cycle of the Werewolf, and with a screenplay also by King, one would expect ...
Read More The Fugitive (1993) 4K UHD Review: Non-Stop Action and Thrills
By Greg Hammond |
Andrew Davis’ The Fugitive is a non-stop action roller coaster that will leave you breathless. It is based on the ...
Read More Marathon Man 4K UHD Review: Is It Safe?
By Greg Hammond |
John Schlesinger’s movie Marathon Man was written by William Goldman from his novel of the same name. In it, “Babe” ...
Read More Terms of Endearment 4K UHD Review: Great Performances Make for a Great Film
By Greg Hammond |
James L. Brooks produced, wrote, and directed Terms of Endearment based on the popular novel by Larry McMurtry. He also ...
Read More Scrooged 4K UHD Review: The Ghost of Murray’s Sense of Humor
By Greg Hammond |
Richard Donner’s Scrooged is a “comedic” retelling of Charles Dickens’ 19th century novella, A Christmas Carol. Bill Murray plays Frank ...
Read More Witness 4K UHD Review: Competent Thriller; Excellent Romance
By Greg Hammond |
Peter Weir’s Witness is a contemporary police drama / romance that takes place in 1984 in Philadelphia and the Amish ...
Read More Rebel Without a Cause 4K UHD Review: A Beautiful Film that Shoots You in the Heart
By Greg Hammond |
Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause concerns itself with children learning how to be adults and their parents who never ...
Read More Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two 4K UHD Review: Once Again, It Is All About the Fighting
By Greg Hammond |
In Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen , Part One, the Justice League (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green ...
Read More The Legend of Zorro 4K UHD Review: Not So Legendary
By Kent Conrad |
The Mask of Zorro (1998), while not a perfect movie, had a near-perfect sense of tone, and fantastic casting. Antonio ...
Read More Red Dragon (2002) 4K UHD Review: Hopkins’ Last Lecter
By Kent Conrad |
While Silence of the Lambs is justly Thomas Harris's most famous story about Hannibal Lecter, it's the previous novel, Red ...
Read More Le Mépris (Contempt) 4K UHD Review: Contemplative, Frustrating, and Painfully Sad
By Greg Hammond |
Le Mépris (Contempt) written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1963 is based on a 1954 Italian novel called Il ...
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