Reel Reviews - Official Site

To this day, there remains something insanely special about director Brian De Palma’s Carrie.  It is based on the once-discarded novel by Stephen King, but was painstakingly adapted for the screen by Lawrence D. Cohen.  Cohen got everything about King’s first novel right  ...

Read more: Smallfoot (2018) - Blu-ray Review

Renée Zellweger.  Matthew McConaughey.  A bizarre chainsaw wielding family.  Leatherface.  The Illuminati.  Wait, wait, wait.  WHAT!? We were warned.  We didn’t listen.  This movie was always going to come out on Blu-ray and now, after months of preparation, the end ...

Read more: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation – Collector’s Edition (1994) - Blu-ray Review

If there’s anything to be said about the Mission: Impossible franchise it is that it lives up to its name by continuing to defy the odds with its little game of self oneupmanship – each new installment seemingly doing the impossible by keeping the franchise alive, viable, and  ...

Read more: Mission: Impossible - Fallout - Blu-ray Review

If it wasn’t for the over-the-top acting of Charles Fleisher (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and Priscilla Barnes (Three’s Company), then The Backlot Murders, a satire of the horror genre, would be a total waste of your time.  But there’s a trick to  ...

Read more: The Backlot Murders (2002) - Blu-ray Review

When it comes to matters of horror, religion will always be mined.  Life and death and the quest for what’s on the other side, right? The Nun, the latest spinoff from The Conjuring series, has been spooking people with its trailers for quite some time.  The film; however ...

Read more: The Nun (2018) - Blu-ray Review

“Miss Nicholson . . . at 12:10am the hand became alive. . .” If ever those words are uttered around me when staring at a dismembered arm, you bet my ass is headed for the door . . . even if it is the icy breath of the North Pole ...

Read more: The Thing from Another World (1951) - Blu-ray Review

In the post-Thanos world of the MCU, it’s nice to be welcomed into the comforting arms of a film we can simply sit back and enjoy. And that’s certainly the case with Ant-Man and the Wasp, a fast-paced, funny, superhero romp that is light on emotion and heavy on humor ...

Read more: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) - Blu-ray Review

How does the song go?  "Let the bodies hit the . . . BBQ grill?"  Because, yep, that's what happens in this seriously demented flick.  Are the steaks done already?!  Ready. Fire. Aim.  This Nail Gun Massacre has been reloaded ...

Read more: Nail Gun Massacre: Limited Edition (1986) - Blu-ray

Born from the pages of a short story, bottle fed on the milk of science fiction, raised on a road trip, and nurtured in the loving bosom of family drama, the new movie Kin is a curious but frustrating conglomeration of many genres. Certainly an ambitious undertaking from filmmaking ...

Read more: Kin (2018) - Blu-ray Review

Classic Who.  The Beeb.  Blu-ray.  Newly remastered.  Need I say anymore? Because the new decade needed a new Doctor.  The changing of the guard – Tom Baker will always be MY Doctor – was inevitable, I suppose, for a long-running program ...

Read more: Doctor Who: Peter Davison – Complete Season One (1982) - Blu-ray Review

The end of the summer season is upon us, Moviegoers.  What better way to celebrate the last hurrah of silliness then with a mega-sized shark causing all sorts of chaos at the cinema?  True, The Meg – about a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon ...

Read more: The Meg (2018) - Blu-ray Review

Nasty girls in bunny suits!  Who needs ‘em?  Certainly not Tom (Bruce Watson).  Deciding early on that bosoms should always be well-covered, this strange dude goes on a one-man rampage in a seedy part of Los Angeles and delivers one savage attack after another ...

Read more: The Swinging Barmaids (1975) - Blu-ray Review

When successful New York photographer Ronit (Rachel Weisz) finds out that her rabbi father died, she flies home to London and stays with her married friends, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) and Esti (Rachel McAdams). The rest of the Orthodox Jewish community is  ...

Read more: Disobedience (2018) - DVD Review

Get your Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster glasses ready!  The drinking is about to commence with the release of this heralded (and still quite funny) six-episode television series on blu-ray!  As a manual, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which has come in handy many ...

Read more: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Special Edition (1981) - Blu-ray Review

Amputees attack! If you are reading this then you are probably wondering if Dwayne Johnson’s new action flick is as yet another brainless actioneer.  Skyscraper is EXACTLY that.  Dumb.  Stupid.  Shameless. The movie, defying gravity and logic time and ...

Read more: Skyscraper (2018) - Blu-ray Review

Thank God for Black and Decker!  Start laughing now because, with those words, one member of Force: Five, a "team" of martial arts experts (a term I use loosely here . . . even though this film is comprised of sports stars) assembled to rescue a senator’s daughter from a ...

Read more: Force: Five (1981) - Blu-ray Review

Much of the fun and joy of watching a Star Wars movie these days comes not from discovering something new, but rather from revisiting everything old with a new set of eyes. Whether the original series of sequels and prequels or within the Star Wars Story ‘tweeners,  ...

Read more: Solo: A Star Wars Story - Blu-ray Review

Forget about the search for water.  This time out in the cinematic wastelands , the general public simply wants topless women in skintight leather shorts!  And, financed by producer Roger Corman, Wheels of Fire aims to please ...

Read more: Wheels of Fire: Roger Corman’s Post Nuke Collection (1985) - Blu-ray Review

Because crime is a family affair. I’m not going to say that we needed an Ocean’s 11 spin-off. All I am going to say is that, as an avid fan of Steven Soderbergh’s style-centric comedic heist films starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, I am just thrilled to see the franchise ...

Read more: Ocean's 8 - Blu-ray Review

Finally, the real truth about the walking dead can be told (and sold) to the masses.  Boils and Ghouls, I bring you the blood-curdling classic known as Zombie!  The eye violence!  The zombie wrestling with the shark!  The suspense!  The WTF moments!  The rotting zombies!  And  ...

Read more: Lucio Fulci's Zombie: 3-Disc Limited Edition (1979) - Blu-ray Review

What if all this autonomous technology and cybernetic artificial intelligence stuff we’ve so ardently allowed to slowly creep into our lives suddenly went haywire and began crashing cars, recording our conversations, and sending our most private discussions to random people in  ...

Read more: Upgrade (2018) - Blu-ray Review

Ever heard of the absolute suck-fest known as The Phantom Menace?  Yeah, well this similarly titled movie is much, much better.  The Phantom Empire, which features two nubile young cave "bunnies" wrestling with each other as its climax, is not unlike reading  ...

Read more: The Phantom Empire: 30th Anniversary Edition (1988) - Blu-ray Review

Hey, Meatsicle! Get your ass some popcorn and go to the show this weekend. Another round of great comic book sendoffs has been sent to theaters and you don’t want to miss this shit. At all.  ...

Read more: Deadpool 2 (2018) - Blu-ray Review

They walk! They talk!  They bite the head off of E.T.  They even shoot tiny spikes from their pelts!  The Critters movies, last scene on VHS and crummy DVD releases, returns and they, with brand new 2K scans from the original film elements, look better than ever before!   ...

Read more: The Critters Collection: Critters (1986), Critters 2: The Main Course (1988), Critters 3 (1991),...

So many movies have been made about inspiring teachers, you wonder what’s left to say about them. But the indie drama Miss Stevens tells a fresh new story about a very human, flawed English teacher named Rachel (Lily Rabe from American Horror Story) who connects  ...

Read more: Miss Stevens - DVD Review

“I was born in a house with the television always on…” David Byrne, the lead singer of Talking Heads, has directed only one feature film . . . so far.  And his movie, True Stories, begins on the open road.  It is a dirt road that divides two agriculture areas.  A girl is on the ...

Read more: True Stories: Criterion Collection (1986) - Blu-ray Review

The horror genre is going to some interesting new places of late. With the recent critical and box office success of last year’s Get Out, the acceptance of last month’s intoxicating mind trip Annihilation, and now with A Quiet Place’s rousing world premier at Austin’s SXSW  ...

Read more: A Quiet Place - Blu-ray Review

When Italians do American-styled action flicks, they usually hit the stereotypes AND the action a hell of a lot harder than we do.  Thought First Blood was a tough watch, especially when the entire town gets blown the hell up?  Think again.  Because Blastfighter, directed  ...

Read more: Blastfighter (1984) - Blu-ray Review

Foundations need to be shaken. Whatever happened to man’s best friend?  Isle of Dogs, written and directed by Wes Anderson, has the answer and it comes into focus via stop-motion.  This is Anderson’s second stop-motion feature but it might ...

Read more: Isle of Dogs (2018) - Blu-ray Review

Chicago is a very beautiful city.  From the inspiring architecture to the sports teams, a thriving cultural history – whether being celebrated in seasonal bursts or by the rousing cuisine – absolutely thrives within its city limits.  Even the boarded-up ghetto areas offer a beauty  ...

Read more: Candyman: Collector's Edition (1992) - Blu-ray Review