DVD/Blu-ray Reviews

John Carter is a pulp-soaked spectacle of science fiction sound and vision.  With eye-popping 3D effects that “whiz-bang” and “golly-gee” the senses down to their sockets, John Carter is a planet-hopping celebration of pulpy matters and pulse-rattling pomp ...

John le Carré has one of the most critically lauded spy writers in the world for many decades, and, now in his eighties, continues a regular and popular output of novels for the world to devour. The real life former SIS operative has carved himself out ...

From the so-bad-it’s-good camp comes this little slice of 1970’s low-budget cheese and PG-rated sleaze.  The year was 1971 and, from the colorful lab sets and hilarious man-in-a-monster-suit attacks, America was obviously afraid of two-legged fish attacks ...

Fresh off the rousing success of last year’s Bridesmaids, four members of that cast rejoin for Jennifer Westfeldt’s indie comedy Friends With Kids, an anemic little film that hits in stops and spurts but ultimately feels like nothing more than a feature-length sitcom ...

Played for laughs and not for scares, famed producer/director Roger Corman’s cult classic from 1960 arrives on blu-ray with little fanfare, but what a celebration it is for its fans.  The Little Shop of Horrors is a comedy masterwork that still resonates ...

While truly never a fan of director Tarsem Singh’s work (movies such as The Cell and The Fall), there’s no denying his visual style makes for a convincing foundation with which to build a movie upon.  Enter Immortals.  Every single frame of this film looks like the gold-encrusted ...

Filmmaking brothers Jay and Mark Duplass have carved out a nice little niche for themselves as a pair of brilliantly creative artists who continue to turn life’s seemingly innocuous little circumstances into finely crafted works of art: a mother trying to cope with ...

The Hunger Games, based on the first book in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins about a state-run TV talent show where 24 teenagers fight against each other for food, will capture everyone’s attention this weekend.  It’s a movie where its lead character - a headstrong female ...

Released from Kino International this month, a company set to conclude its run of Keaton high definition transfers soon, is a glimpse at the rarely seen and hardly heard version of the silent comedian.  The Lost Keaton: Sixteen Comedy Shorts presents Buster Keaton’s ...

Time was when the mention of a double act with Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller would have had this reviewer racing for the nearest cinema. They are two of the most indelible and successful comedians the world has ever seen. In recent years, however, their output has ...

Rule breaker.  Savvy business man.  Trend setter.  Lover of the bare female form.  Forget Don Draper, legendary director/producer Roger Corman is the original Mad Man.  No other man could get actor Jack Nicholson to absolutely weep (albeit from behind a sharp pair ...

The Horror genre just got a much needed kick in the pants courtesy of Drew Goddard (Cloverfield) and his co-writer Joss Whedon (The Avengers).  I won’t mince words here; Cabin in the Woods is indeed a game changer.  It might even be THE game changer for ...

War Horse is a beautifully shot throwback to another era of filmmaking.  Sentimental in style and full of clichés it wholeheartedly rides straight into the sunset, this World War I epic about a boy and his horse could have easily been made in the 1950s.  It’s wide-eyed ...

In what amounts to the soft rock version of Alexander Payne’s hard-hitting The Descendants, one family – led by the accomplished acting skills of Matt Damon - mourns the loss of their mother (and his character’s wife) with the purchase of a zoo ...

Snake Plissken is back. Whoops.  I mean, a super-spy go-to-government stud named Snow (Guy Pearce, playing Kurt Russell, adorned in a ‘Warning: Offensive’ t-shirt) is back on the job in co-directors Stephen St. Leger & James Mather’s Lockout.  It’s cheesy ...