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Giallo Essentials [Red Edition] Blu-ray Box Set Review: Mixed Bag, Solid Box

Just in time for the holiday gift giving season, Arrow Video has repackaged three individual Blu-ray releases from 2018/19 into ...
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David Byrne’s American Utopia Movie Review: Beautifully Filmed but Imperfect Concert

David Byrne is one of those typical outsider becoming insider American stories. He set out to make oddball music, and ...
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Wife of a Spy Blu-ray Review: Understated Japanese Spy Thriller

Wife of a Spy is the latest film by Japanese craftsman Kiyoshi Kurosawa. He was one of several filmmakers, along ...
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Party Girl (1958) Blu-ray Review: Neon Underworld

Fans of director Nicholas Ray (best known for the James Dean vehicle, Rebel Without a Cause) should enjoy Party Girl ...
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Mad Max Anthology 4K Ultra HD Box Set Review: Work in Progress

You know how all major video games launch with issues that have to be fixed after release? Well, sometimes it ...
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The Ghost Ship/Bedlam Double Feature Blu-ray Review: Two Val Lewton Suspense Thrillers

Val Lewton ran the horror film unit at RKO Picture from 1942 to 1946. The massive success of Cat People, ...
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Black Friday Movie Review: Needed More Bruce Being Bruce

It’s Thanksgiving night and the store associates at We Love Toys are getting ready for the annual Black Friday sale. ...
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Some Came Running Blu-ray Review: ’50s Melodrama Feels Familiar

Prestige dramas in each decade in American cinema each tend to have their own flavor, and in the '50s, it ...
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Freud Blu-ray Review: Montgomery Clift Exorcises His Demons

This mid-career effort by legendary director John Houston is overlong, clinical, and ponderous, and yet Montgomery Clift’s tortured lead performance ...
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles Limited-Edition Blu-ray SteelBook Review: This Ain’t No Turkey Trot

Its premise is simple. And yet, Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987; dir. John Hughes) is cast to perfection, balancing moments ...
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Two from Sergei Eisenstein: October & Alexander Nevsky DVD Reviews

Sergei Eisenstein was one of the most important film theorists and directors of early cinema. If he didn't invent the ...
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Lullaby of Broadway Blu-ray Review: Don’t Sleep on This Joyous Delight

Doris Day leads an engaging cast in this fairly conventional but highly entertaining musical. She stars as a young dancer ...
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Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road Movie Review: His Music, and His Life, Past and Present

The story of Brain Wilson and the Beach Boys has been told before in the form of documentaries and motion ...
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Counterpoint Blu-ray Review: Battle of the Cellos

Towards the end of World War II, soldiers gather in a bombed-out church to listen to a symphony orchestra as ...
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Middle Earth Ultimate Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD Review: Beautiful Box but Incomplete

The Lord of the Rings is a landmark of modern cinema. New Line's audacity of committing to a trilogy before ...
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Night Has a Thousand Eyes Blu-ray Review: Psychic Thriller a Near Miss

What a great title. Night Has a Thousand Eyes. It evokes a sense of mystery, even of terror. The opening ...
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ParaNorman (LAIKA Studios Edition) Blu-ray Review: A Strange and Unique Film

Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is your average 11-year-old growing up in Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts. Well, as average as any boy ...
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The Beast Must Die (1952) Blu-ray Review: Argentinian Revenge Noir

The structure of The Beast Must Die is the first thing to notice about it. It has a now standard, ...
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Coraline (LAIKA Studios Edition) Blu-ray Review: A Fantastic Fairy Tale

Based on Neil Gaiman's award-winning children's novella, writer/director Henry Selick's Coraline is a fantastic fairy tale about a young girl ...
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Karen Dalton: In My Own Time DVD Review: Sad Songs, Sad Life

Karen Dalton, as described by one of the participants in this documentary, was one of the few folk singers in ...
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The Bitter Stems Blu-ray Review: Argentine Noir

Alfredo Gasper is a hard-working newspaper reporter in Argentina who has become disillusioned about the trajectory of his stalled career. ...
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The Accused (1949) Blu-ray Review: Works Something Like a Film Noir in Reverse

The classic film noir plot goes something like this: a man, usually a not too bright one, meets a woman ...
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Batman: Year One Commemorative Edition 4K Ultra HD Review: Good Batman Story Unexceptionally Told

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns made a bigger splash, but of the two famous Frank Miller revisionist Batman stories of ...
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Mad Love (1935) Blu-ray Review: Grotesque ’30 Body Horror

Mad Love would be a long lost Universal horror film had it not been made by MGM. It has a ...
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Breakheart Pass Blu-ray Review: Like an Agatha Christie Western

Take a moment and look at the cover art for this Blu-ray which is the recreation of the original poster. ...
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The Suicide Squad Blu-ray Review: Suicide Isn’t Painless with James Gunn at the Helm

As mentioned in my review of the movie, the main reason for its success is because James “Gunn is a ...
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In the Shadow of Hollywood: Highlights from Poverty Row Blu-ray Review: Independent ’30s B-Movies

Entertainment is often called a recession-proof (or even depression-proof) industry. The theory being that even when people are at their ...
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Audrey Hepburn 7-Movie Collection Blu-ray Review: More Loverly Than Ever

This collection of Audrey Hepburn’s most memorable starring roles has been available on DVD since early 2019, but has only ...
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The Sheik (1921) Blu-ray Review: A Silent and Problematic Classic

In December of 1912 a beautiful young man with the unlikely name of Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filiberto Guglielmi di ...
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Movie Review: Joy Ride (2021)

As a writer and a comedian, you never want to be hacky. And I certainly don't want to be hacky ...
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The Naked Spur Blu-ray Review: A Classic ’50s Western

The Naked Spur (1953) was the third of five westerns between actor James Stewart and director Anthony Mann. Stewart plays ...
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A poster of the movie Throw Down by Johnnie To

Throw Down Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Brawl Room Blitz

Johnnie To’s Throw Down is a titular double entendre. Not only is it a film about martial arts (kind of); ...
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The Incredible Shrinking Man Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Giant-Sized Fun

I wonder what it is about stories of humans being shrunk down to tiny size or living in a land ...
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Injustice (2021) Blu-ray Review: An Intriguing Story in An Alternate DC Universe

Based on the Injustice: Gods Among Us video game and the Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One comic book series, ...
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Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection 4K Ultra HD Review: Four Classic Horrors

The longevity of the iconography of the Universal monster films in popular culture is truly remarkable. A single image of ...
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Deep Red (1975) 4K Ultra HD Review: Argento’s Giallo Swan Song

In Deep Red, Dario Argento finally synthesizes his art and obsessions, and creates a film where the entire visual strategy ...
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Ratcatcher Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Definite Punch to the Gut

Despite only having four feature-length films and a handful of shorts, filmmaker Lynne Ramsay has crafted a compelling body of ...
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Change of Habit Blu-ray Review: Easy Habit to Break

This offbeat film bears the distinction of being Elvis Presley’s final acting role, which is about the only remarkable thing ...
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Crocodile Dundee Trilogy Blu-ray Review: Yes, There Were Three

Paul Hogan had a successful career in Australia including his own sketch comedy show that was also popular in the ...
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Becoming Cousteau Movie Review: From Exploration to Conservation

Decades before David Attenborough became a household name in the U.S., Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the king of nature documentaries. Along ...
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Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 3 Blu-ray Review: Another Must-own for Fans of Avery and Animation

The Warner Archive Collection has released the third volume of their Tex Avery Screwball Classics line, bringing the total number ...
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Demons I & II Blu-ray Review: Italian Gore Shlock Romp

One of the keys to great schlock is integrity, and sincerity. Schlock that works cannot ever let the audience know ...
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Come September Blu-ray Review: Hudson Rocks the Riviera

Rock Hudson is in prime leading man form in this beautifully photographed 1961 romp through the Italian Riviera. Hudson plays ...
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The Cheat (1931) Blu-ray Review: Third Time Isn’t the Charm

I'm about two steps away from completely being a classic movie snob. I've loved classic movies pretty much my entire ...
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Vera Cruz (1954) Blu-ray Review: Twisty Western Caper

Vera Cruz (1954) is an interesting western: it's a buddy movie where the buddies never really like each other. It's ...
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Torch Singer (1933) Blu-ray Review: A Very Modern Pre-Code

One of the interesting things about reviewing very old films is the tension between my modern standards and my understanding ...
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The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) Blu-ray Review: Bedraggled

Woe to the viewer who tries to sit through director Paul Morrissey’s take on The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring ...
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On Broadway DVD Review: Start Spreading the News

After an unprecedented 18-month shutdown caused by the pandemic, Broadway finally started reopening many shows last month. Oscar-nominated director Oren ...
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A Night at the Opera Blu-ray Review: A Comedy Classic

The Warner Archive Collection has released A Night at the Opera on Blu-ray. It is the first Marx Brothers movie ...
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Hot Saturday Blu-ray Review: Fascinating Pre-Code Shenanigans

Had Hot Saturday (1932) been made just a few years later, it would have been a completely different film. It ...
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