DVD/Blu-ray Reviews

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Robert Wise’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Many critics and fans have dismissed it because, to them, it’s …ehem… boring.  Okay, sure, soap operatic Star Wars it isn’t but the film – to its credit – is a most successful leap ...

Released towards the tail end of The Cold War, 1984’s Red Dawn serves as writer/director John Milius’ follow-up to his compromised stab at epic fantasy Conan the Barbarian.  With MGM finally releasing the now two-year-old remake (which is probably not ...

His name is Bond. 007. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to others.  Regardless of what you call him, Bond is THE ultimate icon. And everyone knows icons cannot be killed. For 50 years, James Bond has been a part of our culture and - with his 23^rd adventure, Sam Mendes’ Skyfall, ...

Runtime:111  mins.
Director: Mike Hodges
Writer: Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Cast: Sam J. Jones; Max von Sydow
Tagline: He'll save every one of us!
Genre: Action | Adventure
Memorable Quote: "Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!"
Release Date: December 5, 1980
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: June 15, 2010

There’s a harsh reality for public education presented in Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman and an even harsher lesson to be learned for its filmmaker.  Having directed Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman and an...

Good science fiction is a rarity these days.  With mindless CGI spectacles and other Hollyweird distractions it’s hard to communicate a decent narrative that satisfies the brain while pleasing to the senses.  Most of Hollywood builds a career out of the razzle and ...

Widely regarded un-filmable with its arching themes that span three continents, two oceans, and many years, Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi gets the big screen treatment by fearless filmmaker Ang Lee. But where the Wachowski’s came up short with Cloud Atlas, and ...

Rated: Rated PG-13 (Spain)
Runtime: 105 mins.
Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Writer: Jorge Guerricaechevarría (writer); Álex de la Iglesia (screenplay)
Cast: Elijah Wood; John Hurt; Julie Cox ... complete cast
Tagline: Crimes à Oxford
Genre: Foreign/Crime/Thriller
Memorable Quote: "If we can find out the meaning of numbers, we can find out the meaning of life."
Distributor: THINKFilm

Roman Polanski’s American debut arrived with Rosemary’s Baby in 1968 and, to this day, the film remains a blistering masterpiece of mood, art, and mayhem. There’s a reason this tale is considered by many to be the benchmark of filmic horror entertainment ...

Director: Randall Wallace
Writer: Mike Rich
Cast: Diane Lane, John Malkovich; James Cromwell

Whereas 2003’s Seabiscuit won gold for its story about an undersized horse that carried a troubled jockey’s emotional baggage and lifted the spirits of a nation paralyzed by the Great Depression, Secretariat is the story of a horse that wasn’t small, outmatched or expected to lose. And that’s where the film’s makers faced their biggest challenge: to craft a compelling sports story about a horse that wasn’t an underdog.

Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Catfish) are back in the paranormal saddle again. They deserve much better material. Straining the found footage concept in an effort to top themselves, Paranormal Activity 4 quickly falls apart as our fear of the ...

Leave it to the Swedes to think up something as fascinatingly bizarre as Troll Hunter.  Using the cinema vérité style of The Blair Witch Project and combining it with strict adherence to a bit of Scandinavian folklore, filmmaker André Øvredal keeps the ...

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for drug content, some sensuality and war violence.
Runtime: 142 mins.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writer: Eric Roth
Cast: Tom Hanks; Gary Sinise; Mykelti Williamson; Sally Field ... complete cast
Tagline: The story of a lifetime.
Genre: Drama
Memorable Quote: "Life is like a box of chocolates"
Release Date: July 6, 1994
DVD Release Date: August 28, 2001
Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Rated: R for strong brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use.
Runtime: 96 mins.
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: Josh Olson
Cast: Viggo Mortensen; Maria Bello; William Hurt
Tagline: Tom Stall had the perfect life... until he became a hero.
Genre: Drama
Release Date: September 23, 2005
Studio: New Line Productions

MPAA Rating: R for sci-fi violence/gore and language.
Director: Alien: Ridley Scott; Aliens: James Cameron; Alien III: David Fincher; Alien: Resurrection: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writer: Alien: Dan O'Bannon; Aliens: James Cameron; Alien III: David Giller & Walter Hill & Larry Ferguson; Dan O'Bannon
Cast: Sigourney Weaver; Tom Skerrit; Lance Henriksen; Charles S. Dutton; Winona Ryder
Genre: Sci-fi | Horror
Tagline: A word of warning...
Memorable Movie Quote: "Get away from her, you bitch!"
Release Date: Alien 1979; Aliens 1986; Alien 3 1992; Alien Resurrection 1997
Blu-ray Release Date: October 26, 2010.