DVD Reviews

Once again, director Tim Burton gets the quirk right and, once again, he’s come under fire for doing what he does so well: recapturing the world as he sees it with the camera.  Regardless of your feelings for Burton and Depp ...

Warning: the following release is intended for Grindhouse aficionados and trash trailer lovers only!!! Proving itself to be a bit of a history lesson in trash cinema, 42^nd Street is an exploitation lover’s wet dream: almost four hours of nothing but badass trailers ...

No, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has not flipped his lid.  The real-life pranks and antics he scored big laughs with in Borat and Bruno have been replaced with actors, but the dark and scathing commentary still underscores his latest, The Dictator.  Cohen still ...

Offering a little slice of horror to start off the summer, writer/producer Oren Peli (the brain behind Paranormal Activity) revisits the found footage phenomenon and presents us with a collection of nasty-looking nuclear mutants on a European vacation.  Many audience ...

Lethal Weapon is more than a franchise.  It’s more than a movie, too.  Created at Warner Brothers at a time when scripts with original ideas found themselves getting made (instead of reboot after reboot after remake after remake), Lethal Weapon is a force of ...

Prepare to roll your eyes.  I’m about to make a declaration that will probably offend some and cause a mild panic in others. Ready? Moonrise Kingdom is the absolute best Wes Anderson film. With this passionate look at the past, it seems the director of...

If you are at all like me, you see the possibilities that the gimmick of a man on a ledge somehow pulling off a jewel heist while pledging his innocence could sell itself on an assumed B-movie premise.  At once, all the white-knuckled moments flashed across your ...

Found footage films have primarily been outpouring from the horror genre, since The Blair Witch Project showed the film biz they could make a pretty penny; some to great success, most to a weary sigh. When Chronicle promos started to pop up, it caught the attention ...

It’s been about a week since I have seen Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.  Its themes – both haunting and human – have been resting inside me while I contemplate the dynamics of what I’ve seen.  Since then, I have seen the adverts on the television with the ...

While it started as an internet sensation, the real life story of an elderly man kicking ass and taking names on a bus has erupted into a full-fledged B movie starring genre geek favorite Danny Trejo. In Bad Ass, it seems Trejo is humanity’s last best hope for justice on ...

It’s hard to believe, but someone had to drag my ass to this movie back in 1998. I thought it was just another romantic comedy—something I’m just not fond of ever—and I have never been more emphatically proved wrong about a preconception in my life ...

Ignore the title. This isn’t an exploitation flick. Based on the true story of Sam Childers, a career criminal turned anti-Kony activist, Machine Gun Preacher presents a man maybe too far gone for redemption as he kills in the name of God. With the nicely handled ...

Bela Legosi was to Dracula as Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones to modern audiences. He so indelibly brought Bram Stoker’s count to life that whenever the world’s most famous vampire was mentioned, everyone would picture the angular caped man with a ....

The Grey, reuniting Neeson with his A-Team director Joe Carnahan (who asked him after fellow A-Team star, Bradley Cooper, dropped out), has appealed to many since it was released early this year, but not without its share of controversy ...

It might have taken two-decades but Pixar – the animation company responsible for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and The Incredibles – is finally (and rather specifically) addressing their female audiences with the heroine-led mother and ...

Cat Run is an explosive mess of an action/comedy film.  Potentially, it could have been a surprise with fans of Tarantino and Rodriguez action flicks.  Director John Stockwell (Blue Crush) desperately wants the film to exist in the same universe as ...

William Castle’s collaboration with Hanna-Barbera (the home of Huckleberry Hound and Space Ghost and a whole gallery of other characters) might be a bit too static with a dialogue-heavy script, but that doesn’t stop it from being a cerebrally ...

For months before its release, both Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston teased entertainment news magazines and websites with rumors of her topless moments in his new comedy.  Somewhere among all the flesh and limbs though, they forgot to season their collaboration ...

Based on the popular live action role-playing game on college campuses across America, Humans vs Zombies is exactly what it says it is.  Humans.  Verses.  Zombies.  It’s not quite the battle for the ages and - with World War Z still in production and more seasons of ...

In just five short years, Marvel’s Spider-Man gets the redbooted remake in Marc Webb’s thrilling The Amazing Spider-Man.  While, before seeing the picture, one could argue the rationale of such a move on Columbia’s part, the necessity however becomes clear rather ...

Spaghetti Westerns don’t tend to dip into the surreal.  Usually violent, the genre is soaked with cold-blooded killers, heathens, and thieves.  Django Kill (…If You Live, Shoot) adds a bit of psychedelic spice to its spaghetti sauce and, as a result, is a memorable feast for ...

What’s it going to take, America? What’s it going to take for us to act a little more kind to each other? That’s the question director Robert "Bobcat" Goldthwait puts forward in God Bless America, a biting satire of our American pop culture. Without batting an eye ...

High Noon in outer space?  Starring James Bond?  Yes, please.  Written and directed by Peter Hyams (The Presidio, Timecop, 2010), Outland – upon its initial release in 1981 – failed to win over most critics.  With a stunning high definition transfer, it can be suggested that ...

Ah, the psychedelic journey.  It’s a twisted and tortured trip and in Ken Russell’s Altered States, it’s a very primitive one.  Russell (director of The Devils, Gothic, and Lair of the White Worm) was hired on after the original director, Arthur Penn, balked at Warner Bros constant ...

The success and timeless longevity of Buster Keaton’s career probably owes much to his use of physical slapstick and his own intricate direction (Wes Anderson owes his career to the techniques Keaton established, by the way).  Many film scholars suggest that the ...

Releasing Casa de mi Padre in theatres was a gamble.  Take Will Ferrell and place him in the middle of a supremely melodramatic telenovela.  His nonsensical brand of humor subtitled.  Indeed, a very interesting gamble.  Perhaps even the biggest ...

The film that effectively put out the fire in Val Kilmer's Hollywood hot streak has arrived on blu-ray. If there’s anything else to be said about John Frankenheimer’s The Island of Dr. Moreau it’s that the source material, written by H.G. Wells, is so strong that ...

For those of you who feel that only Johnny Depp and Walt Disney can effectively promote the rabid pirate craze, the British have a fairly long-winded rebuttal.  Aw, screw it.  Ahoy, mates!  The folks over at BSkyB offer you the chance to ride alongside Jim Hawkns ...

Erase any memory you might have of Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Yes, even the three-breasted midget lady.  As fun as that one was, it’s time to get serious.  The memories of that blood-soaked campy action movie aren't needed ...

The Western genre meets up with daytime family drama in Kevin Reynold’s historically-detailed Hatfields & McCoys.  Originally broadcast on the History channel this past spring but strong enough production values for HBO or Showtime, this three-part miniseries ...