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 ...
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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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Paramount Scares Volume 1 4K UHD Review: An Embarrassment of Riches
By Greg Hammond |
The Paramount Scares Volume 1 4K UHD box set comes packed full of scares. First there are the five movies, ...
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Kiss the Girls 4K UHD Review: A Quality Thriller Showing Its Age
By Greg Hammond |
Early in Gary Fleder’s Kiss the Girls, Washington, D.C. forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) goes to North ...
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Carlito’s Way 4K UHD Review: Sad Streets
By Jack Cormack |
It’s more than just a Scarface (1983) reunion. In Carlito’s Way (1993), director Brian De Palma and Al Pacino give ...
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The Black Phone 4K UHD Review: Unnerving Kidnapping Tale
By Kent Conrad |
Proper new screen horror villains are rare. While it seems like they pop up all the time, the ones that ...
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Night of the Demons 4K UHD Review: Shameless & Shameful Evil Dead Rip-off
By Kent Conrad |
When I saw the opening credits of Night of the Demons, I had the feeling that the animated floating demons ...
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The Exorcist 4K UHD Review: William Friedkin’s Masterpiece
By Greg Hammond |
William Friedkin's The Exorcist is based on the novel and screenplay by William Peter Blatty. The film opens in Iraq, ...
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Cocaine Bear 4K UHD Review: Fans of the Genre Might be Pleased
By Greg Hammond |
In 1985, a drug dealer dumped cocaine out of his Cessna and then fell from the plane to his death. ...
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 4K UHD Review: Batman in Love
By Kent Conrad |
In the last couple of decades, DC has been aggressive about adapting its comic book stories into films. Some of ...
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Enter the Dragon 4K UHD Review: Are You Not… Entered?
By Jack Cormack |
Enter the Dragon (1973; dir. Robert Clouse) is one of the most famous kung fu movies ever made. In the ...
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City of the Living Dead 4K UHD Review: Where Zombies Are Ghosts
By Kent Conrad |
What makes Italian horror films of the '70s and '80s exciting is that anything can happen. What makes them infuriating ...
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Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Danke Schoen for a Perfect Movie
By Kent Conrad |
For a certain segment of the population, this is the movie. The movie. One of my older brothers. My high ...
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Rio Bravo 4K UHD Review: Degüello
By Jack Cormack |
For Rio Bravo (1959; 141 mins.; dir. Howard Hawks)—my favorite Western or damn near it—I have almost no critical faculty. ...
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Nightbreed 4K UHD Review: Clive Barker’s Monster Mess
By Kent Conrad |
It's unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that Clive Barker hung up his directing hat. He made his first film, Hellraiser, ...
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Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: A Master Reflects
By Kent Conrad |
With a master artist, their later works are impossible to judge outside of the context of their careers. One could ...
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 4K Digital Review: All the Feels
By Steve Geise |
After focusing on Star Lord’s family back story for the first two movies, writer/director James Gunn turns his attention to ...
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The Truman Show 4K UHD Review: Prescient Dystopic Satire
By Kent Conrad |
What's frightening about The Truman Show, a dystopic nightmare about the co-option of human experience and survival in a corporate ...
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The Rules of the Game Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: The Shooting Party
By Jack Cormack |
On the brink of WWII, Jean Renoir—inspired by baroque music and an opera, Les Caprices de Marianne—took his collaborators to ...
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National Lampoon’s Vacation 4K UHD Review: This is No Longer a Vacation — It’s a Quest!
By Jack Cormack |
The basic idea behind National Lampoon’s Vacation is easy to guess—the movie is a lampoon, a harsh satire, of the ...
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Creepshow Collector’s Edition 4K UHD + Blu-ray Review: The Best E.C. Screamer Ever Put on Film
By Jack Cormack |
If horror comedies and horror anthology movies are not your thing, skip the Creepshow (1982). Otherwise, check it out. This cult ...
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Time Bandits Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: A Child’s Nightmare Fantasy
By Kent Conrad |
Is Time Bandits a children's movie? It stars a child, and there's nothing on the face that a child shouldn't ...
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Branded to Kill Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Yakuza Movie as Experimental Art
By Kent Conrad |
Goro Hanada's life is spinning out of control. His wife spends all his money, so he's always on the financial ...
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Wings of Desire Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Stay
By Jack Cormack |
Not much happens in Wings of Desire (1987; dir. Wim Wenders), but it’s among the most beautiful of films. In ...
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Superman 5-Film Collection 4K UHD Review: Super-Reeve
By Jack Cormack |
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… Warner Bros.’s new 4K UHD Superman 5-Film Collection (1978-1987)! But is it worth ...
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All-Star Superman 4K UHD Review: Great Comics, Okay Movie
By Kent Conrad |
Superman is a difficult character to write good stories about because… he's Superman. Impervious to damage, always the strongest and ...
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The Seventh Seal Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Chess with Death
By Jack Cormack |
The Criterion Collection has just released Ingmar Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal (1957), in 4K UHD. When I first saw ...
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Star Trek: The Next Generation 4-Movie Collection 4K UHD Review: First 4K Contact
By Steve Geise |
Following up on last year’s six-movie 4K box set of the original Star Trek movies, Paramount has moved on to ...
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Cool Hand Luke 4K UHD Review: Grin Like a Baby, Bite Like a Gator
By Jack Cormack |
It’s not I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) (still the best chain gang movie I’ve seen)—but… Cool ...
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The Maltese Falcon (1941) 4K UHD Review: Bogart’s Big Break
By Kent Conrad |
Is The Maltese Falcon a film noir? To many viewers, it's not a question. It's black and white. There's crime. ...
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Dead Silence (2007) 4K UHD Review: Scary Dolls Don’t Do Anything
By Kent Conrad |
James Wan has had an interesting career. An absolute underdog, coming from Malaysia via Australia, he made the film Saw. ...
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Babylon 4K UHD Steelbook Review: That Old Hollywood Stomp
By Jack Cormack |
Babylon (2022; dir. Damien Chazelle) does for silent movies what Boogie Nights (1997; dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) did for ‘70s ...
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Dragonslayer (1981) 4K UHD Review: Great Dragon, Murky Movie
By Kent Conrad |
The title Dragonslayer brings to mind knights in shining armor. Villainous, fire-breathing wyrms. Damsels chained to posts in sacrifice to ...
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Rocky: The Knockout Collection 4K UHD Review: The Contender
By Jack Cormack |
A Philly ham-and-cheese tough with heart, Rocky Balboa is one of cinema’s best underdogs. Say what you like about its ...
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Training Day 4K UHD Review: King Kong Ain’t Got Sh*t on Him!
By Jack Cormack |
Let’s talk about Training Day (2001; dir. Antoine Fuqua). Modern-day L.A.: Jake, a rookie cop (Ethan Hawke, in an Oscar-nominated ...
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Grinding Relentless Horror Classic
By Kent Conrad |
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre deserves its reputation. For grisliness, for nastiness. And for excellence. It's a rare movie that ...
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Kubo and the Two Strings 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Stop-motion Tribute to Samurai Cinema
By Kent Conrad |
Kubo and the Two Strings is the story of an estranged family coming together. It is the story of a ...
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The Boxtrolls 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Charming, Odd, Ugly Beautiful?
By Kent Conrad |
Stop motion animation is a pretty weird medium. It was an early special effects trick, long since superseded by technology. ...
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The Magnificent Seven (1960) 4K UHD Review: McQueen Rising
By Jack Cormack |
It’s an Old West spin on a brilliant film, director Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. And hey, did it need to ...
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Dazed and Confused Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: School’s Out
By Jack Cormack |
Dazed and Confused (1993; dir. Richard Linklater) circuits darkness: On the last day of school before the summer of 1976, ...
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Three Colors Trilogy Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Enigmatic Masterpieces About People Connecting
By Kent Conrad |
The Three Colors of this film trilogy, Blue, White, and Red, are so-chosen for the French tri-color flag (sorry, U.S.A.) ...
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Silent Running 4K UHD: Sci-Fi Hippy Dreams Dying
By Kent Conrad |
One of the things that made Star Wars such a huge hit was the state of '70s cinematic sci-fi. Because ...
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Pulp Fiction 4K UHD Review: Jukeboxer
By Jack Cormack |
Joy to the world: Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction—a gritty crime romp set in mid-1990s L.A.—is now out in 4K Ultra ...
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National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 4K UHD Review: Calamitous Christmas Classic
By Kent Conrad |
Clark Griswold, the epitome of the American Middle-Class male, is on a slow burn. He has a vision of perfection. ...
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The Polar Express 4K UHD Review: Dead-eyed and Dreaming
By Jack Cormack |
The Polar Express (2004; dir. Robert Zemeckis; rated G) is a weird, dark flick that should be darker. A motion-capture ...
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A Christmas Story 4K UHD Review: You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!
By Jack Cormack |
A Christmas Story (1983; dir. Bob Clark) is a charmer—a sweet and funny yuletide gem that’s never too cute for ...
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles 4K UHD Review: Thanksgiving’s Annual Lesson
By Kent Conrad |
Neal Page is not a bad guy. He's tightly wound, a little too serious, but the most important thing to ...
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Elf (2003) 4K UHD Review: Farrell and Favreau Hit
By Kent Conrad |
Elf is a strange premise, anchored on a strange performance. Will Ferrell plays the grown-up version of a baby from ...
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Blue Hawaii 4K UHD Limited Edition Review: Death by Half-baked Clambake
By Jack Cormack |
When did Elvis Presley’s decline start? From the cradle. I’m no Elvis scholar (I’ve listened to dozens of his albums ...
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The Company of Wolves 4K UHD Review: Little Red’s Wolf Fetish
By Kent Conrad |
The Company of Wolves (1984) is only kind of a werewolf movie, in that werewolves in the 20th century took ...
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