DVD/Blu-ray Reviews

Lon Chaney as Quasimodo.  Need I say anymore?  I don’t really think so, but I’ll flex.  The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a certified REEL CLASSIC of silent, cinematic horror and it begins right there with Chaney’s performance as the deaf, half-blind, hunchbacked bell-ringer of the famous Cathedral of ...

This life can be a long, rambling walk down a twisting highway.  Just ask Mr. Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates), the “junior birdman” who dreams of a cockfighting championship while he puts others to the side in his quest for the title.  ...

Talk about a toxic relationship! The one shared between Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage) and his handler Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult, About a Boy) has gotten so bad that Renfield, a former real estate agent who sold his soul to the Count some 100 years ago, attends a  ...

It’s Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn. Are you sold on it yet? No? Alright, let’s talk: When you think about Tracey-Hepburn films, Frank Capra’s 1948 State of the Union is certainly not as revered or remembered in the way that Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, or even Guess Who’s  ...

It’s TOTAL DESTRUCTION DAY!  Break out the party favors!  I meant the Geiger counters.  Gather the women ‘round and tell them the news: the sooner they have kids, the better for all of mankind!   Wait.  What?  Welcome to the paranoid world of ...

Let’s get this out of the way upfront: If you aren’t a Wes Anderson fan, then it is recommended you stay far, far away from his latest film, Asteroid City. Similarly, if you don’t “get” his brand of filmmaking, there’s really no need to waste your time reading any further, as nothing here is going  ...

"I've got my head. I've lost my leopard!" As far as screwball comedies go, the pairing of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn was probably seen as an odd choice in 1938. She didn’t have a hit film and Grant, hitting his comedic stride, was just coming off of The Awful Truth to ...

Can we talk about Super Fly’s opening for a minute?  Street shot and completely on the - pardon the pun - fly, this engaging opening is one hell of a way to open Super Fly, the late Gordon Parks, Jr. (Three the Hard Way, Aaron Loves Angela) film.  Right away, we are caught up in the  ...

During a particularly stubborn bout of doing what writers do best: procrastinate - screenwriter Jimmy Warden ran across a 1985 news piece that became the seed of his next project. The true story involved the news of a 175-pound black bear that was found dead in the Chattahoochee  ...

The comedic timing.  The charisma of all involved.  The breaking of the fourth wall.  Hollywood’s definitive leading man!  What’s not to love about Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House as Cary Grant takes his physical comedy and his mannerisms from the office to home construction woes ...

Spellbinding science fiction doesn’t get any more outrageous than it does here in The Brain Eaters, a 61-minute schlocky shocker from the Drive-In era of B-flicks.  This is what happens when Small Town, America finds itself at the center of a UFO invasion!  Hide the jars of pickles, Ma and  ...

With a deadline looming over the troubled sailors, Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail makes the film’s numbered days last as long as possible with its simple plot and generous humanity. Starring Jack Nicholson as the rough and rugged Billy “Badass” Buddusky, Otis Young as the sensible and strict  ...

A psychological thriller in which Boris Karloff does NOT play a creature of the night?  Say it ain’t so?!  But it’s true.  Isle of the Dead, produced by the legendary Val Lewton, concerns itself with that which haunts Greek nightmares: the Vrykolakas and this female vampire is certainly NOT  ...

Hey, BU-DDY.  Eric is out for blood.  And, really, who can blame him?!  Disfigured when some greedy commercial real estate developers set fire to his house in order to build a mall over it, Erik now hides himself in the air ducts and the subterranean passageways, cutting anyone who dares cross  ...

As if we needed something else to confirm Viola Davis’ place in the shrine of truly remarkable actresses, along comes The Woman King, an elaborately choreographed historical epic in which she towers over nearly every aspect of the film’s production ...