DVD Reviews

Confession time, Boils and Ghouls!  I grew up  - even as fat as I was – wanting to be Michael Paré’s cool as a cucumber Tom Cody from Streets of Fire.  Most my age wanted to be cracking shit with a bullwhip and making off, just like Indiana Jones,  with golden idols and, while I was keen to  ...

A swinging sixties marital comedy with the charming Shirley MacLaine and the prim and proper Richard Attenborough? Sure! Why not? It’s an innocent request from the workaholic brasserie manufacturer Robert Blossom ...

What does family really mean? Is it the people who are related by blood through no choice of your own? Or is it more? Is it the people who choose to protect you and stick with you – the people who genuinely care about you? Well, this conversation is the driving theme of acclaimed director  ...

Tis hard to believe in this century that the name Peter Jackson wasn’t known to that many in the mid- 90s. Film nuts like myself were aware of him, devouring the likes of Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles eagerly. I remember distinctly saying to a friend, after viewing Jackson’s R-rated puppet movie, that I ...

In a family-owned butcher shop situated in a sun-scorched small town, we meet Sara (Laura Galán) – an overweight teenager who is constantly bombarded with the merciless bullying and gossip of other kids her age. To them, she’s “Piggy.” ...

On again, off again. In love, out of love. Going back to school, starting a new job. Everything is fluid and everything is changing in the whimsical and lustful drama from French director Jacques Audiard. Capturing the residential district of Les Olympiades in beautiful black and white photography ...

We’ll call them the classic, the prequel, and the sequel. Breaking the mold of the cop/detective story that audiences of the time were all too familiar with, the writers (Felix Chong and Alan Mak) and directors (Alan Mak and Andrew Lau) of the iconic Infernal Affairs trilogy sought to inject new life into the ...

“Give me your money or I’ll bust you up.”  It is this line that forever alters the decision-making of an architect driven to murder. Morbidity goes mad in director Michael Winner’s Death Wish, a revenge flick from 1974 that made Charles Bronson a household name of full-throttled action and made ...

It’s Groundhog Day!  Ready to relive this magical day over and over again?! Well, Phil Conners (Bill Murray) might not be ready to do it, but you certainly will.  Revisiting the highlights of director Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day include watching Murray assault the many characters in the town ...

A bit similar to his acclaimed 2017 film, Call Me by Your Name, with his latest film, Bones and All, director Luca Guadagnino tackles another forbidden love story. But this one requires, let’s just say…more of an acquired taste. Much like its French cousin, Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau ...

“Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie?  Or are you gonna bite?” If one needed to sum up who Quentin Tarantino was in one word, I think the best one would be “pioneer.” He ushered in a new wave of film that is replicated over and over again, ad nauseum, until the entire pool is over saturated with ...

Everything seems nice enough. The neighbors are friendly. The apartment is modern and clean. Her husband has a good job. But to Julia (Maika Monroe), something is wrong – everything is wrong.  From the very instant we meet Julia in a taxi with her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman), her discomfort jumps right ...

After the release of his first two films, 2017’s Get Out and 2019’s Us, one thing became perfectly clear about Jordan Peele as a filmmaker: the guy undoubtedly understands the importance of baking rich themes and abstract motifs into the DNA of his stories. His films are rarely what they initially  ...

With such heavyweight Hollywood hits as the Witches of Eastwick, the Happy Feet movies, Lorenzo’s Oil, and of course, the Mad Max films – namely Mad Max: Fury Road which reignited the Miller fascination, there's simply no denying George Miller's place in the pantheon  ...

Ladies and gentlemen, the world of horror has a new scream queen. Her name is Mia Goth. With a dozen or so high-profile roles over the last decade, the youthful ingenue is certainly no newcomer to the biz, but her two latest films – Ti West’s X which released earlier this year and now its  ...

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 ...

2022 has been an incredibly good year for horror hounds. With such jewels as X, Prey, The Black Phone, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Nope, and most recently Pearl having already scared up plenty of attention this year, it’s quite an unexpected surprise that we get yet another gem to add to  ...

“Bones, there’s a thing out there.” Perfection in sound and vision looks like this. If you don’t get goosebumps over hearing Jerry Goldsmith’s epic preamble in the fully restored Director’s Cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture then you ...

They can’t all be winners now can they? Don’t get me wrong. I love the original Star Trek franchise with a passion and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock has a special place in my heart BUT it just doesn’t survive the scrutiny of a critical lens, you know? The film is flawed in some of the  ...

There are literally thousands of vampire films out there. In the sea of bloodsucker tales, it is truly a special occurrence when one stands above the crowd. Stepping away from any genre at all, it’s even rarer when a confluence of director and script produces something that is so perfectly blended  ...

“I’m not an animal!” I don’t need to tell you that Robert De Niro is arguably one of the best and most committed actors to ever live. I don’t need to tell you that Joe Pesci’s mere presence in a countless number of films is nothing short of iconic. And I certainly don’t need to tell you that ...

Ah, yes, the American Dream. It’s what has attracted countless immigrants to the land of opportunity, right? But shortly after arriving, there are so many instances in which said immigrants face the harsh reality that the American Dream seems to be a myth. This type of reality, while seldom told ...

In which Producer Harve Bennett and Director Nicholas Meyer climb aboard the USS Enterprise, adding a revenge element to the classic crew as the consequences of an episode in the original series entitled “Space Seed” comes full circle. It is, in fact, 1967 meeting 1982 and the scenario works  ...

Despite its stellar cast made up of no fewer than five Oscar winners, three Oscar nominees, more than a handful of Emmy winners and nominees, and a crew stuffed with its fair share of industry recognition, Amsterdam is one of the biggest disappointments to come down the pike in quite some  ...

There’s something to be said about a movie that knows exactly what it wants to be, satisfactorily executes that vision, and never apologizes for getting by on its commonality ...

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The Munsters originally ran from 1964 to 1966 and, as it was often cheap and messy, the humor came across in fits and starts as monster caricatures tried to impersonate traditional mother and father roles found in American sitcoms ...

“That’s what it is all about: rust and decay, ya know. But within that are warm houses and cars.” Originally released in November of 1999, American Movie, director Chris Smith’s documentary about Wisconsin-based filmmaker Mark Borchardt’s trials in getting his feature length independent  ...

1989 would see the last of a trilogy of films that Halloween fans now dub The Thorn Trilogy. This would be the last Halloween film to feature the character of Jamie Lloyd (not played by Danielle Harris sadly) and the first sequel to bring back original Halloween kid Tommy Doyle (with Ant Man  ...

What a month! Not only did I get to extol the virtues of The Lost Boys on UHD this Halloween, but what should arrive in the mail but Tom Holland’s equally classic 1985 vampire flick, Fright Night. The 80s is known for many classic horror flicks, most of which—including this one—have been remade ...

“Please let me keep this memory, just this one.” What do you get when you combine the weird and innovative nature of a Charlie Kaufman script with the daring visuals of director Michel Gondry? Obviously, the only answer is the cult classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. With its totally ...