A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened Blu-ray Review: Bringing Balance and Answers After 45 Years
By Joe Garcia III |
Making its sole television appearance on November 17, 1978, the Star Wars Holiday Special is an event that remains forever ...
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The Trip to Italy Movie Review: She’s Got a Lovely Gait. Probably Padlocked.
By Greg Hammond |
The Trip to Italy is the second of four films directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Steve Coogan and Rob ...
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From the Couch Hole: Best of the Rest 2023 – You Can Burn The Midnight Oil With Me
By Shawn Bourdo |
From 2005-2013 and 2014-2022, I punctuated each year with an ever increasingly complex Best of List. In 2021 I returned ...
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The English Patient Movie Review: When Were You Most Happy?
By Greg Hammond |
Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient is an epic war drama with two romances thrown in for spice. All three parts: ...
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Anti-Nowhere League: We Are the League DVD Review: Rude and Crude…They Are the League
By Joe Garcia III |
Anti-Nowhere League did this and they did that. Animal did it with a shiny axe. So what? Winston shoved a ...
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The Trip (2010) Movie Review: Everything’s Exhausting When You’re Past 40
By Greg Hammond |
Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip is a strange beast: a television series made up of six episodes that were cut and ...
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The Facts of Murder Blu-ray Review: A Blending of Italian Genres
By Mat Brewster |
During the fascist regime of Mussolini, films and stories about crime were either deeply censored or outright banned in Italy. ...
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Oppenheimer Blu-ray Review: Prometheus Bound
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's 2005 biography American Prometheus, Oppenheimer's screenwriter/director Christopher Nolan has crafted a compelling ...
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Elegant Beast Blu-ray Review: The Family That Scams Together
By Kent Conrad |
We know the Maeda family are shady from the first scene. They're rearranging the furniture in their apartment to hide ...
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The Emerald Forest Blu-ray Review: The Jungle Trip
By Joe Keaton |
Upon scanning the list of movies John Boorman has directed, one thing (to me) stands out. He has taken a ...
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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 ...
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Blast of Silence Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Silent Night, Hole-y Night
By Steve Geise |
Frank is grumpy because he has to travel out of town for work during Christmas season. Leaving Cleveland for the ...
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From the Couch Hole: Best of Film 2023 – I Still Don’t Understand What the Play Is About
By Shawn Bourdo |
From 2005 through 2013 and then, after a hiatus, from 2017-2021, I have punctuated each year with an ever increasingly ...
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Gentleman Jim Blu-ray Review: Still Packs a Punch
By Joe Garcia III |
Gentleman Jim (1943) directed by Raoul Walsh stars Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith in a biopic inspired by the life ...
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Standard Operating Procedure Movie Review: We Just Did What We Were Told
By Greg Hammond |
Errol Morris’ 2008 documentary Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) concerns itself with the photos uncovered at Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 ...
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Point Break (1991) 4K UHD Review: “27 banks in three years – anything to catch the perfect wave!”
By Joe Keaton |
In Point Break (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Johnny Utah, an FBI hotshot (Keanu Reeves), joins an FBI schlub (Gary Busey) to ...
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The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg DVD Review: See One of the Best Minds of His Generation
By Gordon S. Miller |
Originally released in 1993, Jerry Aronson documents The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, the famed Beat Generation poet who ...
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House of the Long Shadows Blu-ray Review: Four Horror Icons Enter an Old Dark House
By Joe Garcia III |
House of the Long Shadows (1983) directed by Pete Walker (Frightmare) brings together Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and ...
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All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Movie Review: And We Sleep and Eat with Death
By Greg Hammond |
Lewis Milestone’s movie All Quiet on the Western Front comes from the novel of the same title by Erich Maria ...
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Masaaki Yuasa: Five Films Blu-ray Review: Time to Ride the Wave
By Steve Geise |
Just in time for next year’s 20th anniversary of anime director Masaaki Yuasa’s first feature film, GKIDS and Shout! Factory ...
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The Train 4K UHD Review: “You talk about the war. I talk about what it costs!”
By Joe Keaton |
Based on a true story, director John Frankenheimer’s The Train (1964) is about the lengths the French Resistance went to, ...
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Barbie Blu-ray Review: When Worlds Collide
By Gordon S. Miller |
Director/co-writer Greta Gerwig was granted access to Mattel's Barbie franchise and created a subversive blockbuster that explores gender politics, but ...
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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 ...
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Mondo New York Blu-ray Review: A Time Capsule Full of Uninhibited Freedom and Expression
By Davy |
Performance art, for many, is something that most people will take with a grain of salt, or twenty. However, it ...
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Thunderbolt and Lightfoot 4K UHD Review: Cimino Rising
By Joe Keaton |
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is of note for two reasons. The first is that it was the directorial debut of Michael ...
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Grave Images Blu-ray Review: A Low Budget “Tales from the Crypt” Knock-Off
By Joe Garcia III |
Grave Images (1991) has a very cool name but is a very low budget Tales from the Crypt (1972) knock-off. ...
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The Sorrow and the Pity Blu-ray Review: A Multi-perspective Essay on the German Occupation of France
By Joe Keaton |
It’s 259 minutes long, it’s a bunch of interviews with folks who resisted (and others who collaborated with) the German ...
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Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Blu-ray Review: Bring Out Your Dead
By Greg Hammond |
The premise of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (Lindsey Anderson Beer’s directorial debut) is that there is a local Pet Sematary (misspelled ...
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Clue 4K UHD Review: Who Farted?
By Joe Keaton |
Clue (1985; dir. Jonathan Lynn), based on the beloved board game, sucks like a lamprey. Regarded by many as a ...
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Dumb Money Blu-ray Review: Fascinating to Watch Because of the Plot and Entertaining Because of the Cast
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on Ben Mezrich's The Antisocial Network, Dumb Money tells the true story of the GameStop short squeeze when Keith ...
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The Quatermass Xperiment Blu-ray Review: The Beginnings of Hammer Horror
By Mat Brewster |
Our beloved Hammer Studios didn't always make beautifully designed gothic horror films. For their first decade-plus of existence, they made ...
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Immediate Family (2023) Movie Review: A Must-watch for Music Lovers
By Darcy Staniforth |
Denny Tedesco introduced the world to the Wrecking Crew with the release of his film of the same name. Now Tedesco ...
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2 Days in the Valley Blu-ray Review: Not Quite Pulp Fiction
By Kent Conrad |
It's hard to overstate the change that Pulp Fiction made on mid-budgeted filmmaking in the early '90s. It's not like ...
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Showdown (1993) Blu-ray Review: It’s High School Bloodsport
By Joe Garcia III |
Before Never Back Down (2008) there was Showdown (1993)! A high school senior in a new city gets bullied, finds ...
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The Life of Emile Zola Blu-ray Review: Paul Muni Gives a Great Performance in the Lead Role
By Gordon S. Miller |
Starring Paul Muni, The Life of Emile Zola is part biopic, part courtroom drama as it tells the story of ...
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Goodbye, Dragon Inn Blu-ray Review: An Ode to Going to the Movies
By Mat Brewster |
One of my earliest memories is seeing Return of the Jedi at the cinema. I would have been seven years ...
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Days of Heaven Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Blue Harvest
By Joe Keaton |
The Criterion Collection has released Days of Heaven (1978; dir. Terrence Malick) in 4K as part of a 4K UHD/Blu-ray ...
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Marty Movie Review: A Classic Best Picture You Must Seek Out
By Greg Hammond |
In Delbert Mann’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, Marty, starring Ernest Borgnine, you will find yourself cheering for Marty during ...
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Far from the Apple Tree DVD Review: Amazing Visuals Upgrade an Average Story
By Greg Hammond |
In Grant McPhee’s Far from the Apple Tree, Judith (Sorcha Groundsell) is a visual artist who is given the opportunity ...
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The Color Purple (1985) 4K UHD Review: Ms. Celie’s Blues
By Joe Keaton |
Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of the famed Alice Walker novel—about the journey a poor black woman, Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), takes ...
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The Exiles (1961) Blu-ray Review: This Film Is a Revelation
By Davy |
Fish-out-of-water stories are pretty common and now cliched; they feature characters who usually leave their home, especially for better lives ...
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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 ...
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Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer Movie Review: The Master Becomes the Subject
By Steve Geise |
After a lifetime of training his lens on other fictional and real subjects, Werner Herzog is now the subject of ...
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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 ...
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Moonage Daydream Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Phantasmagoric Journey Through the Art and Mind of David Bowie
By Gordon S. Miller |
Taking its title from a David Bowie song of the same name originally recorded by his band Arnold Corns then ...
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The Last Tycoon (1976) Blu-ray Review: Uneven Goodness
By Greg Hammond |
In The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan’s final film), it is the Great Depression and Robert De Niro plays stratospheric Hollywood ...
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The Lady from Shanghai Blu-ray Review: Forget It, Michael. It’s Chinatown
By Gordon S. Miller |
Irish sailor Michael O'Hara (Orson Welles, who also wrote, directed, and produced) is the film's narrator and he tells the ...
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Le Combat Dans L’ile Blu-ray Review: An Overlooked Surprise by an Underrated Filmmaker
By Davy |
I love film noir and always enjoy its complex, seedy characters; straightforward but nonetheless entertaining plots; and shadowy atmosphere. This ...
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The Fog of War Blu-ray Review: Robert McNamara Tells All
By David Wangberg |
Although I’ve never held a role in politics, nor do I intend to, there’s no doubt that they come with ...
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Laurel & Hardy: Year One – The Newly Restored 1927 Silents Blu-ray Review: A Standout Release
By Gordon S. Miller |
Flicker Alley has followed up their Laurel or Hardy: Early Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy with Laurel ...
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