DVD Reviews

This set from Arrow Video is arguably their best release yet.  It is indeed a labor of love as the company has carefully curated and gorgeously presented a selection of all-time Shaw Brothers classics in this box set.  You read that correctly.  From King Boxer to Mighty Peking Man and everything  ...

Oh, the power of the media! Many have used it for good, but others, like Louis Carrier (Jean Yanne) realize its potential to generate fear and garner much attention. He is not a psychopath carrying out a lifelong scheme, but rather, Carrier is what you would call a victim of society. Living in poverty  ...

The new comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson called The Hustle is an almost identical remake of the 1988 classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin - itself a remake of Marlon Brando’s Bedtime Story. I say “almost” because  ...

“Unless a man believes that there is something great for him to do, he can do nothing great.” How on earth do you make a biopic set in the mid-19th century that poses as some kind of weird Western but yet somehow manages to successfully make strong political comparisons between ...

“The worm is the spice!  The spice is the worm!” David Lynch’s Dune might not be the director’s favorite movie-making experience.  It also might not be on any science fiction fan’s top 10 list (although it probably should be).  Those sentences alone do not make Lynch’s attempt at bringing ...

Classic Hollywood making fun of itself? Count me in! Paris When it Sizzles goes full ridiculous in this charming, downright delightful romantic comedy so silly that you cannot help but smile the whole way through ...

The man with the straw hat is back!  And so are his ghoulish finds in the windy city of Chicago.  Watergate era television doesn’t get much better than with Kolchak: The Night Stalker.  And that, my friends, is a certified fact. It begins in a dingy motel room.  A cassette player is on.  A disheveled  ...

"When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." ...

“Can you still do the things with your eyes?  You’re not crazy if you can still do the thing with your eyes.” I will NEVER forget the first time I saw Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  I wouldn’t go outside in the rain for weeks afterwards thanks to the opening few minutes of  ...

“You’re insane…but you might also be brilliant.” When does a joke go on for too long? Isn’t the point to make the audience laugh? If you’re a comedian, then the answer to the latter would most likely be “yes.” But if you’re Andy Kaufman, then the answer is “no.” He never claimed to be a  ...

Folk Horror.  The very combination of the words suggest a clash of ideologies and, true to its nature, this seems to be its roots.  It is a concept of evil so entwined with the land that it is damn near impossible to ever tear its threads clean.  The voices in the woods; the pagan ceremonies on the  ...

There’s no aliens invading or giant tsunami waves or even an earth-killing meteor on its way. No, this classic keeps it simple. With Robert Aldrich in the director’s chair and Hollywood legend, James Stewart, leading the charge, The Flight of the Phoenix is a well-written, old-school disaster movie ...

Opening with a classic song from a bygone era is a bold move for this supernatural coming-of-age story about a bullied teen who takes matters into his own hands.  Especially when that familiar chorus - as The Platters’ own Tony Williams soars vocally - kicks in and the audience witnesses  ...

Wow.  A HUGE existential hurdle has just been crossed by a person who was raised on the set of the original film.  Makes sense then that the Ghostbusters story here in Ghostbusters: Afterlife is told from the viewpoint of a child discovering the truth about their own ghostbusting grandpa ...

And just like that . . . a future cult classic has arrived! Based on a Ubisoft game and featuring a wonderful cast and of solidly realized characters, Werewolves Within is the whodunnit horror/comedy of the year.  Fresh as the falling snow that has cut off the small town at the center of this  ...

Wasted talent. That’s the most economical way to sum up The 355, a female-led globetrotting espionage action thriller that finds its multi-racial cast of Hollywood A-listers muddling through a script so lazily written it gives generic a bad name  ...

Achieving the impossible is easy. All one needs is a clear vision, a lofty dream, and a brazen plan to make it come true, right? At least that’s what Richard Williams would have us believe. After all, Williams – father of tennis greats Venus and Serena – had a vision in the late ‘70s that two ...

Your savior has arrived! There’s something wrong with Maud (Morfydd Clark, Crawl).  This is important to identify correctly as we are with the poor girl for the entire movie.  In fact, we never leave her side no matter what happens or what dark forces take over her body as they communicate ...

Leave this house now!   Peggy (Sian Barbara Allen, Billy Two Hats) never should have taken the housekeeping job at the Elliot Estate.  She knows this now that its deadly mysteries have been unearthed.  Of course, it might be too late for her, but it is not too late for us.  You’ve been ...

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  ...

Writer/director Julia Ducournau’s sophomore feature film, Titane, is definitely one of the wildest and most shocking films that you will ever see…but in all of the best ways. You will squirm. You will grip your arm rest. You will even spew out many “No”s at the screen (trust me, I did the same). But the  ...

Greetings from Valkenvania! Written and directed by Ghostbusters’ Dan Akroyd, Nothing But Trouble has achieved almost legendary status as Akroyd’s OTHER horror/comedy.  You know, the one that was the box office BOMB, blasting itself into oblivion with its troll-like Valkenheiser ...

In 1992, the first feature film made by a Scottish woman was released. That was Margaret Tait with Blue Black Permanent. Seven years later, Lynne Ramsay became the second with her own feature debut, Ratcatcher. And what a debut film it is! ...

“Are you looking for laughs…or are you soul searching?” The reception of Douglas Sirk films have been…let’s say: mixed. Audiences of the time of its release in 1956 flocked to his pictures, but critics of the time dismissed his melodramas. They figured them as being too concerned with ...

Now, this right here is the KA-RAZY chopsaki kung-fu that I miss about the martial art flicks from the 1980s!   Written, directed and starring Taiwanese martial arts legend John Liu (The Secret Rivals, Invincible Armor), New York Ninja is truly a ...

Ah, yes, there WILL BE blood.  Double Walker, one of my favorite independent offerings from last year, arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber and its recent partnership with Cranked Up Films.  While it has no bonus features, this release is certainly very welcomed ...

It’s a party to die for! Demonic spirit or not, Killer Party proves why wild costume parties inside abandoned fraternity houses are a really bad idea.  There’s just a lot to unpack by way of young adults and their raging hormones before the twisted spirits ...

Well, this one definitely flew under the radar.  After its initial premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Mass quietly made its festival rounds, then only to be played in a very few select theaters, until finally in December, it got a VOD release, and now, to the thanks of Bleeker Street, we finally are  ...

This is a movie about the girl next door . . . turned into a robot in a life-saving operation by the teenage genius who lives on her block.  Still with me?  You should be as Deadly Friend, directed by Wes Craven, is a forgotten gem of 80’s horror schlock as it successfully combines horror elements with  ...

Perhaps one of, if not the most important film movement in cinema’s history is that of the French New Wave, that made its audacious emergence in the late 1950’s and lasted until about the late 1960’s. Throwing out every rule of the dominating studio system, this movement took to the streets  ...