DVD Reviews

Released years before the Alan Moore revisions of DC Comics Universe’s environmentally concerned soul crusader, Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing isn’t so much a superhero movie in the traditional sense as it is a creature feature for the camp crowd of matinee ...

Cy Roth’s Fire Maidens of Outer Space from 1956 is 78-minutes of black-and-white science fiction B-movie cheese.  It should be noted that most of that cheese has spoiled.  While this isn’t the worse film ever made, it is a close contender.  Having admitted that the film ...

Originally inspired by spacey Mormon theology concerning a planet named Kolob and the council of twelve, the original Battlestar Galactica movie (but really just the first three episodes of the series cut into a motion picture) arrives on Blu-ray this month courtesy ...

A Boy and His Dog is the perfect post-apocalyptic movie.  The dark humor from science fiction author Harlan Ellison (writer for Star Trek, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Outer Limits) is striking and solid and, in spite of this being a short story adaptation, largely ...

With a billion dollar franchise like Twilight to her name it was inevitable that Stephanie Meyer’s other works would quickly find their way to the big screen. According to those in the know, Meyer quickly penned this alien invasion story after completing Eclipse, and ...

The no CGI mandate continues as Adam Green’s uber-bloody Hatchet series comes up with its third and freshest entry.  Directed by BJ McDonnell, Hatchet 3 begins precisely where the second one ended – with actress Danielle Harris butchering the main antagonist ...

One of the few filmic anomalies in the classic era of the long-running Doctor Who series has finally received the upgrade it so richly deserves.  Jon Pertwee's first outing as the Doctor is the first time the adventures of the Time Lord were shown in color.  That in itself ...

Loosely based on the real life Canadian manhunt for `Mad Trapper' Albert Johnson, director Peter Hunt (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) proves once again to be stellar behind the camera as Death Hunt belongs in its own genre.  Is it completely action-filled? ....

A slimmed-down (or well-concealed) John Travolta plays a cold-blooded Serbian war criminal (wait, what?) and Robert De Niro forgets his southern accent over Jaeger shots in director Mark Steven Johnson’s Killing Season.  This combination of talent should have worked ...

Once upon a very brief time, Dolph Lundgren was being groomed to be the next badass superstar.  And then Hollywood woke up, realizing he was already a parody.  Made at the very peak of his brief rise to superstar fame here in America, Dark Angel – now considered ...

Oh, but no.  Just no. Having no idea what to expect from a movie entitled Pawn Shop Chronicles but sporting an interesting cast, I thought I would give it a fair shake.  Unfortunately, that’s where my fairness ends.  This redneck attempt at Pulp Fiction is neither ...

I’m being generous with a 3 star review for Larry Cohen’s flawed movie, I know.  Kick dust at me.  Go ahead.  The gimme-my-paycheck acting of David Carradine is terrible; the court scenes are grueling at best; the twitching of Michael Moriarty, the dopiness ...

Primal terror has never looked this good before. Joe Dante’s The Howling is back from the woods, cleaned up, sharpened, and ready to bite again. You could argue it’s the most important werewolf movie ever made — and you wouldn’t be wrong. Before Gremlins made him a household name, Dante  ...

It’s like Scooby-Doo met David Bowie in a haunted house and decided to throw a burlesque show.  There are B-movies, and then there’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show—a glitter-drenched fever dream that crawled out of a sci-fi graveyard, stole a corset, and never looked back. And now - The  ...

Because Marvel won’t make movies this gross. So, The Toxic Avenger is back—because apparently we’ve run out of superheroes who can see out of both eyes and don’t leak glowing sludge. The original was the crown jewel of late-night cable rot, a glorious dumpster fire from the fine folks at Troma  ...

Finally, the long wait is over. Angela Baker is coming home … again. There are very few writers who truly understand how comedy can support horror and vice versa in the filmmaking community. Fritz Gordon, the screenwriter of Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp ...

I mean, truly there are 3 stars in this plastic-wrapped corpse collection of a whodunnit if only for the vibrant crash-zoom opening which features Edwige Fenech dancing in her golden bra as if at a European Go-Go with a vibrant energy few women can match  ...

Who’d have thought that vikings in ridiculous costumes could be this endearing?!  Certainly no one I know . . . especially if you just gradually tune in and out of this western-inspired adventure.  Throw in some shoot-outs (by way of knives) and a showdown in the sunset and you have director Mario Bava’s nod   ...

If the opening moments of Kill, Baby, Kill aren’t enough to set you on edge, then I suppose nothing else in Mario Bava’s bloody good movie will either.  Move along, kid.  There’s literally nothing for YOU to see here if you remain unaffected by its suspense.  This film, celebrated immediately upon its release  ...

Mario Bava’s thriller, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, is really where the Italian giallo began.  Yes, it is borrowing heavily from Hitchcock  But there is a breathless agility to its overall mystery that operates a bit more fantastical than Hitch dared as a young woman (Letícia Román), while vacationing   ...

I’m not going to mince words here. Truck Turner is one seriously badass flick. It is the type of B-movie that gets me so excited for the unlimited possibilities of low budget cinema. It is sooo much better than Shaft and the countless other Blaxploitation films offered up in the wake of 1971’s Sweet    ...

Directed by Mario Bava (Planet of Vampires), Black Sabbath remains an influential horror film. It is, after all, where Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and Ozzy Osbourne (who all marveled at the fact that people actually paid money only to leave theaters that scared) got their band name from. But one quick   ...

Originally titled The Mask of Satan, Mario Bava’s feature length debut, released here in the United States as Black Sunday, was a gothic-sized hit for Roger Corman’s American International Pictures.  The hype was all about its shocking images.  While tame when compared to today’s horror, Bava’s film  ...

Crime is a disease.  He is STILL the cure.  That’s right, Marion “Cobra” Cobretti is back on the streets!  This time in stunning 4K thanks to Arrow Video, who have remastered and restored this 1980’s classic from the original 35mm negative and given it a sun-kissed audio uptick as well! ...

Written and directed by Larry Cohen (The Stuff, It's Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent, Original Gangstas), Black Caesar is essentially a remake of 1931’s Little Caesar with Edward G. Robinson.  To its credit; however, Cohen’s film has enough stylized action and Harlem locale in it to make it   ...

Barry Shear's Across 110th Street remains a hard-hitting look at racial violence in the streets of New York City. Loaded with hundreds of F-bombs, there's no denying its visceral power and, while the film gets lumped in with a lot of other Blaxploitation flicks from the era, the gritty realism  ...

Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow remains an absolute joy ride through pure imagination.  It is - by design - retro in feeling, high on nostalgia, pulpy in its comic book fantasy, and - thanks to Shout! Factory - now hitting its stride on home video thanks to this 4K treatment.  It seems the times  ...

The Long Kiss Goodnight, the critically-panned 1996 American action thriller film co-produced and directed by Renny Harlin and written by Shane Black, has finally arrived on 4K thanks to the fine efforts of Arrow Video.  This brand new 4K restoration has been minted from the original 35mm  ...

Once upon a time ago, Pam Grier – with her name proudly resting ABOVE the titles – could sell a movie. Hell, she WAS the movie. What a powerful time in movie history that was; an African-American woman selling an action flick. Such is the case with William Girdler's Sheba, Baby,  ...

Shout Factory has taken us back to the grit and grime of the Los Angeles streets circa 1973, thanks to their restoration and release of Jack Hill’s blaxploitation cult classic, Coffy, which is part of their Blaxploitation Classics, Vol. 1 release, a set which features THE BADDEST CATS TO STEP  ...