Uncategorized

Joe’s Apartment Blu-ray Review: Riding Cockroaches Into the Sunset

Joe’s Apartment is a black comedy/musical/romance written and directed by John Payson. It stars Jerry O’Connell as down-on-his-luck New York ...
Read More

There Is a Monster Movie Review: A Labor of Love That Misses the Mark

There Is a Monster is the story of Jack, a photographer who is hoping for his big break while dealing ...
Read More

Book Review: The Bitter End and Other Stories, Illustrated by Reed Crandall

Fantagraphics presents yet another unparalleled collection in their EC Artists series with The Bitter End and Other Stories. This time ...
Read More

From the Couch Hole: Watch Out, Take Care

Previously on FTCH, we were full of pork belly in 2001 when we met at the Einstein Intersection with Monsieur ...
Read More

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One Blu-ray Review: It Starts with a Flash

Based on DC Comics' 12-issue miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985) written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, ...
Read More

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVI Blu-ray Review: I’m Thrilled They Keep Releasing Them

Kino Lorber continues their long tradition of releasing relatively obscure film noir. This collection features three very different films ranging ...
Read More

The Odd Couple: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review: Opposites Attract Laughs

The Odd Couple, which earned playwright Neil Simon his first Tony, is about a pair of mismatched divorcees sharing an ...
Read More

Eureka (1983) Blu-ray Review: Greed, Grudges, and Gruesomeness

Eureka is four films in one, in succession. First, it's an experimental art film about a man obsessed with finding ...
Read More

The Outside Man Blu-ray Review: Outsider Deray Crafts an Insider Look at 1970s L.A.

While this film may look like a typical 1970s U.S. crime drama at first glance, dig a little deeper and ...
Read More
Jackie Chan Emergence of a Superstar Poster

Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: An Enjoyable Six-Pack of Chan’s Early Films

Jackie Chan movies entered into the Criterion Collection in 2019 with the one-two punch of Police Story/Police Story 2. The ...
Read More

Has Anybody Seen My Gal Blu-ray Review: Keep Looking, the Old Man Is in the Way

This 1952 charmer masquerades as a Rock Hudson/Piper Laurie rom-com, but pay close attention to that waving man behind the ...
Read More

Journey to Bethlehem Blu-ray Review: Joyful, Joyful, Movie, I Adore Thee

As a Christian, I will admit that movies catered toward my demographic are mostly hard to stomach. They usually come ...
Read More

Run Silent, Run Deep Blu-ray Review: Gable and Lancaster Are great

When my brother joined the Navy in the mid-1990s, he volunteered for submarine duty. It paid more than serving on ...
Read More

From the Couch Hole: Just Like a Song in Days of Yore

Previously on FTCH, we started the year on Dune with a 'Shroom Swiss burger. The heroes used the Iron Claw ...
Read More

Slamdance 2024 Review: Chaperone: Highs and Lows in Hilo

Misha is going nowhere fast. Nearly 30 years old, she’s in a perpetual state of arrested development, plodding along in ...
Read More

American Dharma Movie Review: Duty, Fate, and Destiny

American Dharma is a documentary film in which director Errol Morris interviews Steve Bannon, who, among many other roles, was ...
Read More

Thinner: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Review: Lose the Fat to Find a Good Story

Tom Holland’s (dir. Fright Night, Child’s Play) Thinner, based on the novel by Stephen King, is a body horror/thriller starring ...
Read More

Kingdom of the Spiders DVD Review: Shatner vs. the Tarantulas 

Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) stars William Shatner and Tiffany Bolling locked in battle with thousands of spiders in this ...
Read More

Book Review: Atlas Artist Edition No. 1: Joe Maneely: “The Raving Maniac” and Other Stories

Before Marvel Comics was Marvel Comics, it was Atlas Comics. Fantagraphics kicks off a new archival series in their ongoing ...
Read More

Strange Invaders Blu-ray Review: I Married a Woman from Outer Space

Strange Invaders (1983) directed and co-written by Michael Laughlin, is a quirky ode to science fiction movies of the 1950s ...
Read More

From the Couch Hole: We Could Steal Time, Just for One Day

Previously on FTCH, way back in 2023, the boy and the heron went to a castle in the sky for ...
Read More

Why We Fight (2020) Blu-ray Review: Three Athletes Tell Us Why They Do

Why We Fight is a look at three combat sports athletes and why they are so passionate about the Martial ...
Read More

Book Review: Smoking Kills by Thijs Desmet

Smoking Kills by Thijs Desmet has a simple premise. Though we don’t know how long he has been in the ...
Read More

A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened Blu-ray Review: Bringing Balance and Answers After 45 Years  

Making its sole television appearance on November 17, 1978, the Star Wars Holiday Special is an event that remains forever ...
Read More

The Trip to Italy Movie Review: She’s Got a Lovely Gait. Probably Padlocked.

The Trip to Italy is the second of four films directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Steve Coogan and Rob ...
Read More

From the Couch Hole: Best of the Rest 2023 – You Can Burn The Midnight Oil With Me

From 2005-2013 and 2014-2022, I punctuated each year with an ever increasingly complex Best of List. In 2021 I returned ...
Read More

The English Patient Movie Review: When Were You Most Happy?

Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient is an epic war drama with two romances thrown in for spice. All three parts: ...
Read More

Book Review: Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “Maharajah Donald” by Carl Barks

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “Maharajah Donald” is Volume 4 in Fantagraphics’ The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. The book collects ...
Read More

Anti-Nowhere League: We Are the League DVD Review: Rude and Crude…They Are the League

Anti-Nowhere League did this and they did that. Animal did it with a shiny axe. So what? Winston shoved a ...
Read More

TV Review: Star Wars Holiday Special

In 1978, Star Wars fans had little content beyond the film to immerse themselves. There was the movie novelization ghost ...
Read More

The Trip (2010) Movie Review: Everything’s Exhausting When You’re Past 40

Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip is a strange beast: a television series made up of six episodes that were cut and ...
Read More

Please, Not Now! Blu-ray Review: Brigitte Bardot Will Have You Saying Please, Now!

Brigitte Bardot is here to heat up the New Year in this steamy comedy from provocative writer/director Roger Vadim (Barbarella). ...
Read More

The Facts of Murder Blu-ray Review: A Blending of Italian Genres

During the fascist regime of Mussolini, films and stories about crime were either deeply censored or outright banned in Italy. ...
Read More

From the Couch Hole: Best of TV/Streaming 2023 – Every Day Here Is the Freakin’ Super Bowl

From 2005-2013 and 2017-2020, I punctuated each year with an ever increasingly complex Best Of List. In 2021, I returned ...
Read More

Oppenheimer Blu-ray Review: Prometheus Bound

Based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's 2005 biography American Prometheus, Oppenheimer's screenwriter/director Christopher Nolan has crafted a compelling ...
Read More

Elegant Beast Blu-ray Review: The Family That Scams Together

We know the Maeda family are shady from the first scene. They're rearranging the furniture in their apartment to hide ...
Read More

The Emerald Forest Blu-ray Review: The Jungle Trip

Upon scanning the list of movies John Boorman has directed, one thing (to me) stands out. He has taken a ...
Read More

The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) 4K UHD Review: Struggles to Find its Footing

The phenomenal success of Randall Wallace’s screenplay for 1995’s Braveheart gave him carte blanche on his next film for which ...
Read More

Book Review: Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling by Mark A. Vieira

After TCM host Ben Mankiewicz sings the studio's praises in the Foreword to Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling, author ...
Read More

Blast of Silence Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Silent Night, Hole-y Night

Frank is grumpy because he has to travel out of town for work during Christmas season. Leaving Cleveland for the ...
Read More

From the Couch Hole: Best of Film 2023 – I Still Don’t Understand What the Play Is About

From 2005 through 2013 and then, after a hiatus, from 2017-2021, I have punctuated each year with an ever increasingly ...
Read More

Gentleman Jim Blu-ray Review: Still Packs a Punch

Gentleman Jim (1943) directed by Raoul Walsh stars Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith in a biopic inspired by the life ...
Read More

Standard Operating Procedure Movie Review: We Just Did What We Were Told

Errol Morris’ 2008 documentary Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) concerns itself with the photos uncovered at Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 ...
Read More

Point Break (1991) 4K UHD Review: “27 banks in three years – anything to catch the perfect wave!”

In Point Break (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Johnny Utah, an FBI hotshot (Keanu Reeves), joins an FBI schlub (Gary Busey) to ...
Read More

The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg DVD Review: See One of the Best Minds of His Generation

Originally released in 1993, Jerry Aronson documents The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, the famed Beat Generation poet who ...
Read More

House of the Long Shadows Blu-ray Review: Four Horror Icons Enter an Old Dark House

House of the Long Shadows (1983) directed by Pete Walker (Frightmare) brings together Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and ...
Read More

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Movie Review: And We Sleep and Eat with Death

Lewis Milestone’s movie All Quiet on the Western Front comes from the novel of the same title by Erich Maria ...
Read More

Masaaki Yuasa: Five Films Blu-ray Review: Time to Ride the Wave

Just in time for next year’s 20th anniversary of anime director Masaaki Yuasa’s first feature film, GKIDS and Shout! Factory ...
Read More

The Train 4K UHD Review: “You talk about the war. I talk about what it costs!”

Based on a true story, director John Frankenheimer’s The Train (1964) is about the lengths the French Resistance went to, ...
Read More

From the Couch Hole: With a Pretty Girl Dancin’ to Jug Band Music

Previously on FTCH, Godzilla raids again for the cherry game fuel. Godzilla and the Muppets sang, "We're the best of ...
Read More

Search & Filter

Categories

Subscribe!