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Two Witches Blu-ray Review: Two Witches Casts a Classic Horror Spell

“You're in the dark now” as hinges creak, shadows creep, candles flicker and danger lurks in shadowy places throughout this ...
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Sisu (2023) Movie Review: A Bloody, and I Mean Bloody, Good Time

What happens when you take John Wick, cross it with Inglourious Basterds, and sprinkle a dash of the Man with ...
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Heat (1986) Blu-ray Review: Burt Reynolds Comes Back Fighting

They call him "Mex." His name is Nick Escaflante (Burt Reynolds), and we meet him drunk in a bar hitting ...
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Hell is For Heroes Movie Poster for a DVD Case

Hell Is for Heroes Blu-ray Review: Slowly Draws One in Just Enough to Guarantee Disappointment

Have you ever come upon a movie that you are sure you must have seen before, but just can’t remember?  ...
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Living Blu-ray Review: Anchored by the Exquisite Metamorphosis of Bill Nighy’s Lead Performance

Directed by Oliver Hermanus, Living is adapted from 1952 Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952) by screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, who set the ...
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Magic Mike’s Last Dance Blu-ray Review: The Cohesiveness and Comradery of the First Two Installments Is Missing

Magic Mike’s Last Dance is a departure from the previous films. While it still offers sexy, astoundingly choreographed dance numbers ...
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TCM Classic Film Festival 2023 Review: Celebrating Film Legacies

My eleventh opportunity to cover the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood provided an opportunity to enjoy some old favorites ...
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Cocaine Bear (Maximum Rampage Edition) Blu-ray Review: Bump This Up to the Top of Your To-Watch List

In the grand cinematic tradition of bear-rampage movies like Grizzly and Grizzly 2 comes Elizabeth Banks's Cocaine Bear, an amusing ...
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The Big Easy (1986) Blu-ray Review: Corrupt Cop Chews Scenery

For Remy McSwain (Dennis Quaid), life in the Big Easy is smooth. He's got his big smile (he's Dennis Quaid, ...
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The Seventh Seal Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Chess with Death

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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Sick of Myself Movie Review: The Dark Side of Narcissism

Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s new film is the darkest of black comedies, at least until the comedy runs out. He imagines ...
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Sweetwater (2023) Movie Review: Inspirational Sports Story Hampered by Cliches

Martin Guigui’s Sweetwater begins with a sports reporter (Jim Caviezel) getting into a taxicab and start discussing the possibility of ...
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Wild in the Country (1961) Blu-ray Review: Dramatic Elvis in the Country

See Elvis Presley run Wild in the Country. Watch him croon as lovely ladies swoon. There's Millie Perkins, Tuesday Weld, ...
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Black Sunday (1977) Special Edition Blu-ray Review: The Creep in the Blimp

It gets off to a fast start. Yet Black Sunday (1977; dir. John Frankenheimer), one of the better disaster flicks ...
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iMordecai DVD Review: Judd Hirsch Strikes Gold in His Golden Years

iMordecai is the Taxi TV series reunion I never knew I needed, starring alums and fellow Oscar nominees Judd Hirsch ...
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Secret Defense Blu-ray Review: Twisty Secrets Hampered by Indefensible Direction

This French drama gets off to a promising start when a scientist named Sylvie (Sandrine Bonnaire) learns that her father ...
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The Super 8 Years DVD Review: A Remembrance of the Past

Films can be meditative and self-reflecting, meaning they can come from one's own experience (internal or external). This can also ...
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Interview with Actor Cary Elwes on His New Film, Sweetwater, and His Performance as Ned Irish

While most people know Cary Elwes for his work as the dashing Westley in Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride, the ...
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Arsène Lupin Collection Blu-ray Review: Two Hits and a Miss

The famous fictional thief arrives on Blu-ray in this new collection of three of his French theatrical adventures. The Lupin ...
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Star Trek: The Next Generation 4-Movie Collection 4K UHD Review: First 4K Contact

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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Silent Avant-Garde Blu-ray Review: Interesting and Assorted Curiosities

I have come around on silent cinema, and I've always loved experimental/avant-garde films. Putting the two rather misunderstood categories of ...
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Cool Hand Luke 4K UHD Review: Grin Like a Baby, Bite Like a Gator

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

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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Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham Blu-ray Review: Superhero Goes Supernatural

Based on the Elseworlds miniseries of the same name written by Mike Mignola and Richard Pace, Batman: The Doom That ...
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The Dark (1979) Blu-ray Review: I’d Be Okay If It Had Stayed in the Dark

The Dark is probably better left there, in the dark. Starring William Devane, Cathy Lee Crosby, Richard Jaeckel with appearances ...
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Kubrick by Kubrick Movie Review: Stanley Speaks

Director Stanley Kubrick died March 7, 1999, a few months before the release of his thirteenth and final feature film, ...
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Flaming Ears Blu-ray Review: A Striking Experience

Despite the fact that you always hear the demeaning phrase "Cinema is dead", when it comes to many areas of ...
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Dead Silence (2007) 4K UHD Review: Scary Dolls Don’t Do Anything

James Wan has had an interesting career. An absolute underdog, coming from Malaysia via Australia, he made the film Saw. ...
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Knockabout Blu-ray Review: Sticks, Shticks, and Slapstick

Arrow Video continues their new series of Sammo Hung releases with this action comedy from early in his directorial career. ...
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Make Believe Seattle 2023 Review: Smoking Causes Coughing

If you’re in the Seattle area this weekend, Make Believe Seattle Film Festival is making its debut with a fascinating ...
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The Son of the Stars Movie Review: Rare ‘80s Romanian Cartoon Gets Blu-ray Release

Thanks to Deaf Crocodile Films, U.S. viewers will finally get the chance to watch this Romanian sci-fi rarity. The film ...
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Chilly scenes of winter.

Chilly Scenes of Winter Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The Star of the Movie Is Director Joan Micklin Silver

Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Ann Beattie. ...
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Babylon 4K UHD Steelbook Review: That Old Hollywood Stomp

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

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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Heartland of Darkness Blu-ray Review: Linnea Quigley’s Lost Movie

Heartland of Darkness is truly straight from the 1980s. Filmed in1989 but never released in its entirety until 2022. Known ...
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Rocky: The Knockout Collection 4K UHD Review: The Contender

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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The Retaliators (2022) Blu-ray Review: Crisis of Faith Meets Zombies

Stories about men encountering a crisis of faith are as old as stories, or as old as crises, or at ...
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Millionaires’ Express Blu-ray Review: Chinese Bullet Train

After shining a light on the rise of the Hong Kong film industry with their phenomenal Shaw Brothers box sets, ...
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The Vagrant (1992) Blu-ray Review: Baffling, but Never Boring Horror Film

The Vagrant has about four movies worth of themes and plots, but less than a single film's coherence. It's weird, ...
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Panther (1995) Blu-ray Review: No, Not That Black Panther

From director Mario Van Peebles comes Panther (1995), the highly fictionalized story of the rise and fall of the Black ...
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The House That Screamed Blu-ray Review: A Hallmark of European Horror

I have discovered so many hidden gems in the horror genre. These films contain expert filmmaking, strong performances, sheer atmosphere, ...
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The Magic Flute (2023) Movie Review: Bargain Harry Potter Set to Opera

I’m not familiar with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s original opera, The Magic Flute, nor am I familiar with other renditions that ...
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Fill ‘er Up with Super Blu-ray Review: A Down-to-Earth Meditation of Male Bonding and Bruised Masculinity

I always enjoy simple films about the flaws of human beings and how their insecurities and toxicities are made bare ...
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Creed III Movie Review: This Time (Like Every Time) It’s Personal

Michael B. Jordan does double duty for the first time, making his directorial debut on Creed III, the ninth movie ...
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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Blu-ray Review: Puss Meets Death for the Ninth Time

The Shrek series has been dormant in the cinema for over a decade, since the release of the first Puss ...
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Training Day 4K UHD Review: King Kong Ain’t Got Sh*t on Him!

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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Robert Townsends Hollywood Shuffle Poster

Hollywood Shuffle Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Be the Change You Want to See

When struggling actor Robert Townsend was frustrated by the stereotypical and racist roles he was being offered as a black ...
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 4K UHD Steelbook Review: Grinding Relentless Horror Classic

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

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?

Stop motion animation is a pretty weird medium. It was an early special effects trick, long since superseded by technology. ...
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