Earth II Blu-ray Review: A Science Fiction Pilot That Fails to Engage
By Gordon S. Miller |
Earth II (1971) is a television pilot that didn't make it to series. Within the TV movie, Earth II is ...
Read More Heavens Above! Blu-ray Review: Peter Sellers Plays It Straight
By Steve Geise |
Following the release earlier this month of I’m All Right Jack, Kino Lorber continues their exploration of mid-career Peter Sellers ...
Read More The Magnificent Chang Cheh Blu-ray Review: Splendid
By Mat Brewster |
Chang Cheh was a prolific Chinese director who helmed nearly 100 films in his storied career, most of them for ...
Read More Posse (1975) Blu-ray Review: Solid Western with an Interesting Story
By Joe Garcia III |
What's in a tagline? With Posse, it's pretty spot on: “Posse begins like most westerns. It ends like none of ...
Read More The Eel (1997) Blu-ray Review: A Man and his Eel
By Kent Conrad |
The Eel (1997) is a quirky oddball comedy that opens with a viciously bloody and brutal murder. Yamashita, white-collar worker, ...
Read More Basquiat Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Beguiling Tribute
By Davy |
Like many brilliant youths who died way before their time, legendary New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) never had the ...
Read More V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal Blu-ray Review: Violence & Sex Galore!
By Mat Brewster |
Growing up in the late 1980s, movie theaters were my sanctuary, and movie-rental stores were my church. My favorite rental ...
Read More Burke and Hare (1972) Blu-ray Review: Light on Fright Tale of Brothels and Body Snatchers
By Joe Garcia III |
Burke and Hare is director Vernon Sewell's bawdy, dark comedy based on the murders committed by William Burke and William ...
Read More Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXV Blu-ray Review: This Series Continues to Delight
By Mat Brewster |
Kino Lorber has now released 25 sets in its Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series. At three films ...
Read More The Wind Rises Blu-ray Review: An Atypical Miyazaki Story with the Typical Miyazaki Artwork
By Gordon S. Miller |
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his 2009 manga of the same name, The Wind Rises tells a ...
Read More I’m All Right Jack Blu-ray Review: Come for the Stars, Stay for the Sparkling Satire
By Steve Geise |
This 1959 British comedy boasts an impressive array of acting talent headlined by Peter Sellers, but its true strength is ...
Read More Winchester ’73 Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People
By Gordon S. Miller |
Director Anthony Mann and James Stewart had a prolific partnership, releasing eight films in five years. The first was Winchester ...
Read More Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau Blu-ray Box Set Review: Legendary Actors Elevate Classy Genre Films
By Steve Geise |
French director Alain Corneau helmed this trio of hardboiled crime dramas featuring top-tier acting talent and gritty scripts. The new ...
Read More Joan Baez: I Am a Noise Blu-ray Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Woman
By Gordon S. Miller |
Directed by Miri Navasky, Karen O'Connor, and Maeve O'Boyle, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise tells the story of the ...
Read More Sadie McKee Blu-ray Review: A Fine Joan Crawford Performance Saves the Film
By Mat Brewster |
Joan Crawford was born to suffer. I don't mean that literally, but as an actress, she had a face that ...
Read More The Mask of Satan (1989) Blu-ray Review: Lamberto Bava’s Take on His Father’s ‘Black Sunday’
By Joe Garcia III |
The Mask of Satan (1989) finds writer/director Lamberto Bava (Demons) paying tribute to his father, Mario, and his 1960 gothic ...
Read More Hit Man (1972) Blu-ray Review: Tyrone in Action and Pam Grier’s Performance Make It Well Worth Watching
By Mat Brewster |
In 1971, Ted Lewis released Jack's Return Home, a novel about a London mob enforcer who returns to his hometown ...
Read More Hatari! Blu-ray Review: Fun in the Sun with Howard Hawks and John Wayne
By Mat Brewster |
Director Howard Hawks and John Wayne made five films together. Four of them were westerns. Two of them (Red River ...
Read More He Dreams of Giants Blu-ray Review: Terry Gilliam Tilting at Windmills Again
By Gordon S. Miller |
After a decade of writing and development to adapt Cervantes' Don Quixote, Terry Gilliam first began production on The Man ...
Read More Character Blu-ray Review: The Unforgettable Tale of Two Characters
By Steve Geise |
A rising young lawyer runs afoul of the police when he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of the ...
Read More A Woman of Paris Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Search for Fulfillment During the Jazz Age
By Davy |
Charlie Chaplin, the genius actor, composer, and filmmaker, remains one of the most legendary and influential figures in the history ...
Read More Godzilla vs. Biollante Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Rose by Any Other Name
By Gordon S. Miller |
Godzilla vs. Biollante is the 17th film in the Godzilla franchise, the second of the Heisei period, and is the ...
Read More Wolf Man Blu-ray Review: Iconic Character Transforms into Modern, Body-Horror Tale
By Greg Hammond |
Wolf Man, directed by Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man) and written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck, is a reboot of ...
Read More Losing Ground Blu-ray Review: The New 4K Restoration Is a Marvel
By Davy |
Version 1.0.0 The late Kathleen Collins, poet, playwright, writer, filmmaker, director, civil rights activist, and educator, made only two films ...
Read More Inserts Blu-ray Review: Blue Movie Babylon
By Rocky London |
Inserts (1975; dir. John Byrum), once rated X (now NC-17), is one of those weird, dirty little art movies that ...
Read More Scala!!! Or, The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World’s Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits Blu-ray Review
By Gordon S. Miller |
Scala!!! Or, The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation ...
Read More The Cat (1988) Blu-ray Review: This Cat Toys with the Audience
By Steve Geise |
This 1988 German heist film has such a conventional first act that it seems almost miraculous when it develops into ...
Read More Werewolves (2024) Blu-ray Review: Strong Monster Effects Bolster Action-Horror Flick
By Greg Hammond |
The premise for Stephen C. Miller’s Werewolves is a strong supernatural action plot: one year ago, there was a supermoon ...
Read More I Love Lucy: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review: Arguably the Greatest Sitcom of All Time
By Gordon S. Miller |
After only the first two seasons were previously released on Blu-ray, I Love Lucy: The Complete Series now presents all ...
Read More Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters Blu-ray Review: Bustin’ and Cartoons Will Make You Feel Good
By Gordon S. Miller |
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is a compilation movie of spooky Looney Tunes cartoons bridged together by a story in which Daffy ...
Read More Wicked (2024) Blu-ray Review: The Cast and Crew Defy Gravity
By Gordon S. Miller |
Director Jon M. Chu's Wicked is an adaptation of the first act of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's 2003 stage ...
Read More September 5 Blu-ray Review: The Thrill of Live TV, the Agony of Defeat
By Gordon S. Miller |
On September 5, 1972, during the Munich Summer Olympics, the first games broadcast live around the world, Palestinian militant group ...
Read More Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review: A Fun Show Geared Towards a Young Audience
By Gordon S. Miller |
As Hanna-Barbera was transitioning from cartoon shows about funny animals to adventure stories, Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles initially ran ...
Read More King Lear (1987) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Baffling, Exacting, and Endlessly Fascinating
By Davy |
The late, legendary French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022) was one of the cinema's greatest rule-breakers. He never followed ...
Read More Hokuriku Proxy War Blu-ray Review: A Chaotic, Confusing Delight
By Mat Brewster |
An elderly man is buried up to his head in the snow-covered dirt. A group of younger men race a ...
Read More Full Moon in Blue Water Blu-ray Review: Perfect for a Sunday Afternoon
By Mat Brewster |
Full Moon in Blue Water is the type of film I used to call a Sunday Afternoon Movie. When I ...
Read More Romance & Cigarettes Blu-ray Review: A Charming Musical for Adults
By Greg Hammond |
John Turturro’s (writer/director) film Romance & Cigarettes is filled with fun surprises. For instance, it is ten minutes into the ...
Read More Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review: Father Tries His Best
By Gordon S. Miller |
Initially appearing as a segment on the anthology show Love, American Style entitled “Love and the Old Fashioned Father,” Hanna-Barbera's ...
Read More Juror #2 Blu-ray Review: 12 Angry Jurors
By David Wangberg |
It’s amazing how, at 94 years old, Clint Eastwood is still churning out feature films on a somewhat consistent basis. ...
Read More Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Vol. 4 Blu-ray Review: A Fantastic Collection of Laughs
By Gordon S. Miller |
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice continues with Volume 4, which presents 27 cartoons, three cartoons from the 1930s, ten from the ...
Read More Stalag 17 (70th Anniversary Edition) Blu-ray Review: Billy Wilder Strikes a Successful Balance of Drama and Comedy
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based upon the 1951 play of the same name by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 is ...
Read More Running on Karma Blu-ray Review: Running on Empty
By Steve Geise |
Hong Kong star Andy Lau and director Johnnie To have collaborated on around a dozen films together, but this one ...
Read More Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: See Who Killed Laura Palmer
By Gordon S. Miller |
On April 8, 1990, Twin Peaks debuted and the medium was never the same. The surreal, supernatural, soap opera from ...
Read More Underworld Beauty Blu-ray Review: Nikkatsu Noir
By Steve Geise |
Director Seijun Suzuki will likely always be best known for his genre-defying, hyper-stylized masterworks, Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill, ...
Read More The Mother and the Whore Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Brilliant, Vulgar, and Intimate Landmark
By Davy |
Some film lovers do have the tendency to skip French cinema. They think it's usually about infidelity, referencing this and ...
Read More Black Eye Blu-ray Review: The Hammer Builds a Winner
By Steve Geise |
Fred “The Hammer” Williamson stars in this mid-’70s crime drama, which for the right audience is really all you need ...
Read More Conclave Blu-ray Review: A Well-written, Thought-provoking Drama
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, Conclave is a compelling film about palace intrigue at the Vatican when ...
Read More Weak Spot Blu-ray Review: Total(itarian) Fun
By Mat Brewster |
Sometimes you come to a movie blind, having no idea what it's about. Sometimes that's a lot of fun. The ...
Read More Pandora’s Box Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Captivating Morality Tale
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904), writer/director G.W. Pabst's ...
Read More The Hitcher Blu-ray Review: A Solid Game of Cat and Mouse
By Greg Hammond |
In the opening of Robert Harmon’s The Hitcher, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell), who is delivering a car from Chicago ...
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