DVD Reviews

Searching for Sugar Man clocks in a swift 85 minutes but the true story it tells – about an unknown folk-rock artist from Detroit, Michigan who doesn’t even know he’s bigger than Elvis in South Africa – is one you will never forget.  Rodriguez is his name ...

It has been a decade since last we heard from director Walter Hill (The Warriors, 48 Hours) and his latest, Bullet to the Head, offers no explanation for the ten year silence.  No apology needed from the maestro, mind you.  Just sit back and enjoy the one-liners.  Bullet to ...

Well, at least it tries to do something different with the whole superhero genre.  Imagine if DC’s Justice League or Marvel’s The Avengers were fractured and driven apart by one of their villains for all eternity.  Imagine if that villain was Jigsaw from the SAW series ...

It’s been heralded as a minor classic.  It’s also the first movie to showcase zombies – whether the walking dead or just poisoned.  Let’s be honest, though.  It’s far beyond the appropriate time to recognize Victor Halperin’s White Zombie as a masterpiece of horror. ...

Yippee ki yay, double-dipper! It’s Die Hard’s 25^th anniversary celebration but you won’t find much of a party going on here.  The disappointing collection from 20^th Century Fox is essentially the same transfers we’ve seen before, making this only a stop-gap release until ...

Digital or film?  Those are your choices for the future of moviemaking.  Do we fall forward or fall back and rely on the natural look of film to carry us into the future?  Discuss.  Chris Kenneally’s new documentary, Side by Side, is certain to heat up the conversation ...

Easily the best thing about Here Comes the Boom is that its executive producer, Adam Sandler, does not make an appearance.  Designed to be a feel good movie in the vein of Rocky and Warrior, Frank Coraci’s film largely falls flat due to an uneven spread of comedy ...

The anti-hero, the McGuffin, the duplicitous femme fatale, film noir, German expressionism seeping its way into film—these things have influenced movies for longer than this reviewer’s father has been alive, and they’re things that we take for granted because ...

The man behind those Wu-Tang slash and burn head-bobbing beats, the RZA, makes his directorial debut and revitalizes the martial arts genre with a film saturated with ridiculous amounts of blood and high-flying kicks. You will believe a man can fly thanks to ...

Derek Cianfrance, who brought us 2010’s beautifully tragic Blue Valentine, again explores the seamy edges of family dysfunction with his The Place Beyond the Pines that premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Only this time, he shifts the ...

Bad hairdos, really large insects, and gore, gore, gore is what you’ll find inside this skin-crawling nest.  Yes, it’s the six-legged bug who gets toasted and then roasted in this creature feature produced by Julie Corman. It’s a ow budget disaster and Scream ...

That’s right, fellow freaks, TerrorVision is back in print!  Finally freed from its VHS prison by the kind folks over a Shout!/Scream Factory, TerrorVision gets coupled with another gory gem from the late 1980’s, Video Dead, for a nasty little double feature that will definitely ...

Poor Renny Harlin. What went down as arguably his best (and certainly most atmospheric) film and intended American debut, Prison, never saw the light of day in what was supposed to be its big theatrical release. Yes, Dead Heat got its slot. Tiny theatres ...

Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront won 8 academy awards in 1955 and could still win those awards if released, as is, today.  This is more than just a movie.  Kazan’s ability to capture reality is more than just magical; it’s his talent.  On the Waterfront’s verisimilitude is ...

Ladies and gentlemen, in my time as a film reviewer I have journeyed to many a far off foreign place to bring you the news – good or bad – about new, domestic releases.  I have combed the bottom of the barrel; raided your father’s closet; even traversed your ...

What’s big and tall and heading to theaters across the nation?  Jack the Giant Slayer and, yes, it’s every bit as fee-fi-fo-FUN as it should be.  It’s sure to anger the cynical moviegoer with its Princess Bride-esque Fairy Tale vibes.  While the dangerously wrong-headed ...

Yul Brynner’s iconic silver-eyed gunslinger makes his debut on blu-ray this month and, as if no time has passed, Westworld reclaims its throne as the unstoppable thriller that it is.  This lean and mean thriller was an afternoon staple of my youth but, seeing it now as an...

Imagine Steven Spielberg's film career without direction.  What would that look like?  Well, as a survivor of his output in the mid-to-late 80's, I can tell you it isn't very pretty.  The adult fantasy material he churns out is Always paper-thin and fails to Hook you with ...

In just over an hour, silent comedian Buster Keaton achieves more laughs in College than most comedians do in their entire career.  His mastery of physical comedy is in its peak form and the short, made immediately following his now certified classic The General ...

When it comes to teenage terror, one cannot get any better than the menacing red gelatin threat of director Irvin S. Yeaworth’s The Blob.  It’s an efficient horror house scare and, as far as entertainment goes, it’s perfectly structured to still get a response from modern ...

The atmospheric residue of Chan-wook Park’s Stoker is not easily scrubbed off.  Not that you’ll want to get clean so soon after its credits roll, though.  No, the normal reaction for the type of on-screen psychosis is to bask in its glow and thank your lucky stars that ...

“It is a time of dread…” and so begins Willow and the partnership between actor-turned-director Ron Howard and creator/executive producer George Lucas. It wasn’t their first partnership. That was American Graffiti way back in 1973, of course. But it was ...

Monster movies often get a bad reputation – especially cheaply made knock-offs – but, like this multi-cultural production of cheese and carnivores, what works about them is often overlooked.    It’s a shame.  It’s also to be expected from a genre not ...

Badlands and its harrowing killing spree is pretty much still, for lack of a better word, badass.  Based on the true story of one Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, writer/director Terence Malick’s debut is a poignant bloodbath; a film that doesn't ...

The lack of respect The Hudsucker Proxy gets is criminal.  Anyone who proudly proclaims to be a Coen brothers fan should give this release a serious chance.  For me, it’s an easy favorite of theirs in that it’s a straight up ballbuster of a comedy.  Full of dark visual gags ...

Serialized science fiction rarely gets as good as Canada’s Continuum.  Created by Simon Barry, Continuum centers on the dramatic conflict between a group of socially aware rebels from the year 2077 who time-travel to Vancouver, BC in the year 2012 and the ...

Universal’s monster catalogue had long been dormant, come the 1950s, and a smaller British production house called Hammer were savvy enough to recognise the potential of plundering those long beloved characters. They had already made a successful foray ...

You’ve got my attention, Mr. Wong. Opening with a riddle involving an ax, a slug, and a reanimated neo-nazi who has had his head stitched back on with weed trimmer line, John Dies at The Endproudly announces the return of writer/director Don Coscarelli (Bubba ...

Roaring onto Blu-ray and VOD everywhere, are the notoriously funny Baytown Outlaws.  This gang of dirtball sleazoids – much like the film with its mesh-up spaghetti western meets 1970s drive-in vibe – aren’t aiming to be taken seriously but they sure are having ...

Sometimes stark naked ambition alone can create a lasting legacy.  Morris Engel’s Little Fugitive is all the proof you need. It’s not much to look at but its visual poetry has an unmatched beauty.  It’s the tiny cub that roars. Scrappily shot in black-and-white with ...