Reel Reviews - Movie Reviews, blu-ray/DVD reviews

Scream (2022) - Movie Review

Details: Published: 21 January 2022; Written by Frank Wilkins

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Ghostface is back! Though it has been ten real-life years since we last saw the sad-faced masked murderer on the big screen, he’s still terrorizing the teens of the fictional town of Woodsboro where all the killing began some 25 years ago in 1996’s Scream ...

Melvin Van Peebles - Essential Collection: The Story of a 3 Day Pass (1967), Watermelon Man (1970), Sweet Sweetback’s Baddasssss Song! (1971), Don’t Play Us Cheap (1972) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 18 January 2022; Written by Loron Hays

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Independent films don’t get any more baadasssss than with Melvin Van Peebles at the helm. Recognize that right now and we can remain on speaking terms. The collective black consciousness is alive and well in his filmography and, thankfully, his independent output left a lasting mark on pop ...

Mass (2021) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 18 January 2022; Written by Emily Strong

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Well, this one definitely flew under the radar. After its initial premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Mass quietly made its festival rounds, then only to be played in a very few select theaters, until finally in December, it got a VOD release, and now, to the thanks of Bleeker Street, we finally are ...

Blood-A-Rama Triple Frightmare: Help Me . . . I'm Possessed (1976), Night of the Strangler (1972), Carnival of Blood (1970)

Details: Published: 18 January 2022; Written by Loron Hays

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“Doctor! Doctor! She’s . . . dead.” A horror triple feature from the vaults of the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA)? Yes, please! Call it the return of the Drive-In schlock. Hell, call it whatever you want. I call these films - Help Me . . . I’m Possessed, Carnival of Blood, and Night of the ...

The Celebration: Criterion Collection (1998) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 18 January 2022; Written by Emily Strong

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Perhaps one of, if not the most important film movement in cinema’s history is that of the French New Wave, that made its audacious emergence in the late 1950’s and lasted until about the late 1960’s. Throwing out every rule of the dominating studio system, this movement took to the streets ...

Shawscope Volume One - Limited Edition - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 16 January 2022; Written by Loron Hays

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This set from Arrow Video is arguably their best release yet. It is indeed a labor of love as the company has carefully curated and gorgeously presented a selection of all-time Shaw Brothers classics in this box set. You read that correctly. From King Boxer to Mighty Peking Man and everything ...

Jack Frost 2: Revenge Of The Mutant Killer Snowman - Abridged Version - Collector's Edition (2000)

Details: Published: 13 January 2022; Written by Loron Hays

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Make no mistake about it. Jack Frost 2: Revenge Of The Mutant Killer Snowman is not a great movie. It might not even be that necessary considering the first one was all bark and little bite, but as we are talking about a psychotic (and in this one, resurrected) snowman who kills for jollies, I guess ...

Jack Frost: Collector’s Edition - MVD Rewind Collection (1997) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 13 January 2022; Written by Loron Hays

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The new comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson called The Hustle is an almost identical remake of the 1988 classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin - itself a remake of Marlon Brando’s Bedtime Story. I say “almost” because ...

The Xrossing - Movie Review

Details: Published: 13 January 2022; Written by Loron Hays

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The Perth Hills are on fire again! In a figurative sense, that is as souls cry out for a path toward paradise. If it sounds too poetic to be achieved in a couple of hours, just know that The Xrossing, a tough coming-of-age story which is dedicated to the memory of Andrew “Drewz” Namok - will ...

Dune - 4k UHD Review

Details: Published: 07 November 2021; Written by Emily Strong

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Continuing his string of slow-burn, meditative science fiction films, director Denis Villeneuve’s version of Dune has finally given the epic tale a much-deserved justice. Now…I am not here to drag David Lynch’s Dune (1984) through the dirt with a boat load of low-blow comparisons. (In fact, I think ...