DVD Reviews

Doing exactly what he does best, Jason Statham delivers the body count numbers that matter in this re-imagined and re-tooled 1972 Charles Bronson action revenge flick.  The action is bloody and high-spirited and the dialogue is low, making...

Director: Mike Leigh
Writer:Mike Leigh
Cast: Jim Broadbent; Leslie Manville; Ruth Sheen; Imelda Staunton

A Mike Leigh film: people; situations; reactions; misery as a by-product of happiness. In examining his entire scope of work, from 1988’s emotion-packed High Hopes to the latest little unassuming masterpiece, Another Year, it becomes crystal clear that the British filmmaker has an incredibly captivating way of turning the least significant of human interactions into a momentous movie event.

There’s a bit of cruel irony at play in The Roommate, Christian E. Christiansen’s debut film in which its lead character Sara (Minka Kelly) plays an aspiring designer who moves to L.A. to get her college degree in fashion design...

Based very, very, very loosely upon the events of an Australian cave-diving accident in 1988, Sanctum provides a chilling look at heavy-handed adventure and at Hollywood acting inside what can only be described as one prolonged IMAX film. The...

From its stylized opening, Hatchet II begins with much better production values than its predecessor. Yet, the homage to 1980’s horror schlock remains.  Adam Green’s Hatchet II picks up exactly where the original ended...

It probably took a hell of a lot of weed smoking to produce the general wackiness behind Touchstone’s (their first animated feature since 1993) take on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Romeo & Juliet...

In what feels more like an epic Western from the 1970’s than a sword-and-sandal piece of celluloid fun, Channing Tatum stars as the hero who travels to the edge of the world in pursuit of his father’s lost totem; a totem that symbolically will restore...

Barney’s Version is a well-made condensation of Mordecai Richler’s prize-winning boat anchor of a book. While sometimes a little scatter-brained and occasionally a bit uneven, this wise, witty character piece feels much lighter...

Now, this is hardcore ‘70s cinema.

Brutally engaging and rough around the edges, the original I Spit On Your Grave returns like an avenging siren to home theatres with this splendid

The spy genre has been around in force since the 60s, so its popularity has never been drawn into question. What has been, especially in recent times, is what more can be said about that particular topic...

Frustrating is the word that comes to mind after sitting through this latest attempt to lift Australian cinema out of its doldrums, away from the usual indie-fair, and to a more mainstream, international audience...

Unknown wants to be an edge-of-your-seat thriller.  It wants to recapture the glory of Taken and The Bourne Identity and even grabs at some basic Hitchcockian themes. Unfortunately, it never lives up to what...

Woody Allen’s creative second wind continues in the sails of his latest overseas production.  Leaving Manhattan once again, after the ill-received Whatever Works (a film that should have worked a lot better than it actually did)...

Leave it to Orson Welles to tackle the subject of continued fascism after WWII.  Never one to shy away from topicality, left-wing minded Welles directs The Stranger, after stroking the coals of paranoia and isolation with unapologetic opening...

Ed Helms and company give heartland-comedy refreshing new life with the recent Sundance darling, Cedar Rapids. Helms, the executive producer of the film as well as its main character, is slowly inching his sweet little naïve self into the...

There’s a workinghorse-like mentality to all of Tony Scott’s films.  You certainly know what to expect.  Always enjoyable and seldom misfiring, his catalog of film is the stuff of legend (from Top Gun to Déjà Vu).  Recently though, the machinery of...

Vampire films are as prolific as zits on a teen’s face. While there is something of a buzz the last couple of years about the fanged ones being the ‘it’ subject to mine right now, the truth is they have never really gone away. From Nosferatu into the 21^st century...

Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me explain to you why I am even giving this film even one star. It boils down to one actress: Nicky Whelan. You know, the barista from the trailers.  The one the two idiots lustfully gawk...

Bursting forth with the cinematic speed of zooming muscle cars and the urgency of flooding nose bleeds, Drive Angry is a 70’s cinephile’s pleasure. I’d add “guilty” to that pleasure terminology if the film sucked. In fact, it does not...

British TV writer and Filmmaker, Christopher Morris got the idea for Four Lions, a British satire about a group of men bent on jihad, from three years of research in which he spoke with imams, police...

There’s a dangerous sense of urgency that outlines the case for first-time director Michael Webber’s The Elephant in the Living Room.  In spite of its playful and clever title, this is one documentary that is deadly serious about...

It’s been ten years since Memento was originally released to universal acclaim.  Look at what director Christopher Nolan has accomplished since then: Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins...

From the opening few comical seconds of Paramount’s Rango, it is evident that its primary source of inspiration has its roots in the iconic spaghetti westerns that Sergio Leone once made. The water-drained deserts, the hot as hellfire sun...

The go-go ‘80s get another loving celluloid tribute with Take Me Home Tonight, a film that succeeds (but just barely), not by poking fun at the decade of leg warmers, big hair, and even bigger cell phones, but rather by embracing...

You know you are dealing with a real “goodfella” when it takes two films to tell your life story.  Jacques Mesrine was that type of larger-than-life figure of the criminal scene.  Publicity hound or philosopher; both were...

Modern crime capers don’t get much better than Steven Soderbergh’s slick take on Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight.  Always a dazzler with rich material, Soderbergh has a wonderful habit of giving his audiences exactly what they want: style and...

You’re groaning already.  I know you are.  Deep down inside, there’s a part of your soul that cannot believe there is yet another retelling, respooling, redux, retread deluxe (the KING SIZED) version of Charlotte Brontë’s...

Good grief, Charlie Brown, is this movie ever really awful dinner theatre offerings.  Uninspired and generally boring, Red Riding Hood plays out its tale of revenge as if it really were a dish best served cold - with no blood and no heart...

I love L.A. What other city affords such an enjoyable opportunity to make fun of, as it’s being slowly and methodically dismantled, piece-by-piece by an invading alien force?  The string of potential jokes...

There’s a sense of timeless purity that encases Walt Disney’s Bambi in a shell of cinematic quality.  From the kids’ voices that grace the beginning of Bambi’s life to the first...