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Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema, Volume 1: Big House, U.S.A. (1955)

Details: Published: 16 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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From stunning, widescreen vistas in Colorado's Royal Gorge National Park to some deftly handled underwater scenes (filmed in Santa Monica, California), Big House, U.S.A. does not disappoint, going dark with the gruesome murder of a kid at the beginning ...

The Tent - Movie Review

Details: Published: 16 July 2020; 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 ...

Greyhound (2020) - Movie Review

Details: Published: 17 July 2020; Written by Frank Wilkins

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Tom Hanks is in command yet again. In his fifth turn as the commander of one vessel or another (sixth if you count the shrimp boat Jenny), the esteemed actor dons the double stripes of captain once again, this time in Greyhound as Captain Krause in charge of the USS Keeling (callsign: ...

Pretty in Pink: Paramount Presents Edition (1986) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 15 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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“You don’t want to go out. You don’t want to go home. What do you want to do, Andie?” The pink, volcanic ensembles. The cast - Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer, Annie Potts, James Spader, and Andrew McCarthy - bringing their best acting to a BRILLIANT script ...

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema, Volume I: Storm Fear (1955) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 14 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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Classic film noir - with its emphasis on atmosphere and futility - simply doesn’t get any more claustrophobic than in Cornel Wilde’s directorial debut, Storm Fear. A classic thriller which has West (The Naked Prey) starring, producing, and directing ...

Yeti: The Giant of the 20th Century (1977) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 14 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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It begins, hilariously enough, with some fairly shitty-looking stock footage of glaciers sliding off into the sea. Big budget this Yeti flick is not. Relatively quickly, we are whisked away to a fishing trip that quickly gets ruined by a ...

Coven - Movie Review

Details: Published: 14 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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If the opening few frames of Coven - as five scantily clad females (later referred to as "Josie and The Pussylickers") make their way toward us through smoke and a pitch-black night - doesn’t get your attention, then nothing else will in this supernatural horror film. These badass babes definitely ...

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema, Volume I: He Ran All the Way (1951) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 13 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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“You’ll eat my dinner or one of you walks out of here with a bullet in his head.” John Garfield, one of the original rebels in film cinema, is absolutely on fire in He Ran All The Way and, sitting right next to him, is Shelley Winters, a true partner in crime, as ...

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema, Volume I: Witness to Murder (1954) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 13 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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The “witness” in this film noir title is Barbara Stanwyck. The murderer is George Sanders. I’m not spoiling anything for those who have never seen Witness to Murder. In fact, we see the murder happen in the very first scene as Stanwyck as Cheryl Draper looks out her apartment ...

The War of the Worlds: Criterion Collection (1953) - Blu-ray Review

Details: Published: 13 July 2020; Written by Loron Hays

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“No one would have believed, in the middle of the 20th century, that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by Intelligences greater than man's. Yet, across the gulf of space on the planet Mars, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our Earth with envious eyes ...