DVD Reviews

The Women-in-Prison genre of exploitation film is definitely not dead. It just needs some much needed resuscitation from brave filmmakers who aren’t afraid to exploit - what Roger Corman did in the late 60s (when the Hays Code was finally put to rest) - moral guidance. Anything for a shot of  ...

Tis hard to believe in this century that the name Peter Jackson wasn’t known to that many in the mid- 90s. Film nuts like myself were aware of him, devouring the likes of Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles eagerly. I remember distinctly saying to a friend, after viewing Jackson’s R-rated puppet movie, that I ...

At its heart, Killer’s Kiss is a movie where the choreography of ballet dancing meets the moves of boxers crossing in the ring.  Film fans recognize it as Stanley Kubrick’s second film (the first being his 1953 debut feature Fear and Desire), in which he took the streets of New York with 35 mm  ...

Writer/director Eric Swelstad (The Curse of Lizzie Borden 2: Prom Night, Too Good to Be True) deserved better with his small town satanic panic flick, Heartland of Darkness.  The film, also referred to as both Fallen Angels and Blood Church, works like gangbusters and delivers  ...

On again, off again. In love, out of love. Going back to school, starting a new job. Everything is fluid and everything is changing in the whimsical and lustful drama from French director Jacques Audiard. Capturing the residential district of Les Olympiades in beautiful black and white photography ...

Psychological. Shocking. Suspenseful. And downright BEAUTIFUL to look at. The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection II release in Ultra 4K is a DEFINITIVE release for some of the most thrilling classics from the master of the macabre. Seriously, there is no flaw to be seen in both the  ...

A vampire murder mystery? Sure! Why not? So, the intentions of this movie are perhaps a bit unclear. You have the famed director of Dracula, Tod Browning, teaming up with the man who is the embodiment of the world’s most famous vampire, Bela Lugosi, for a…non-Dracula vampire ...

We’ll call them the classic, the prequel, and the sequel. Breaking the mold of the cop/detective story that audiences of the time were all too familiar with, the writers (Felix Chong and Alan Mak) and directors (Alan Mak and Andrew Lau) of the iconic Infernal Affairs trilogy sought to inject new life into the ...

Tampering with evidence?  Bullying witnesses?  Doctoring voice recordings?  Just what won’t the mob do?!  Looks like it is all in play in 1957’s Chicago Confidential, written by Robert T. Marcus, which is now on blu-ray thanks to Kino Lorber’s ongoing Film Noir: The Dark Side of  ...

The Dead live ... again! This time in Ultra 4K, thanks to the Criterion Collection. This release includes a 4K digital restoration, supervised by director George A. Romero, "Night of Anubis," a work-print edit of the film, and two audio commentaries featuring Romero, the film's producer and  ...

It’s Groundhog Day!  Ready to relive this magical day over and over again?! Well, Phil Conners (Bill Murray) might not be ready to do it, but you certainly will.  Revisiting the highlights of director Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day include watching Murray assault the many characters in the town ...

From sea to shining sea!  That’s the attempted reach of 1951’s The Raging Tide, yet another film noir offering highlighting the streets and alleys of San Francisco.  With steely-eyed direction from prolific director George Sherman (Larceny, The Sleeping City) and ace cinematography from Russell Metty (The Stranger, Touch of ...

Shot on video and completely off its rocker as it relishes in its super low, low, low budget with early CGI effects thanks to Rob Neep, Blood of the Chupacabras begins with a disclaimer about the very existence of the creature at the center of this bloodbath and then, after a mother kicks some kids  ...

A bit similar to his acclaimed 2017 film, Call Me by Your Name, with his latest film, Bones and All, director Luca Guadagnino tackles another forbidden love story. But this one requires, let’s just say…more of an acquired taste. Much like its French cousin, Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau ...

Hard-boiled and crackling with stark intensity, Los Angeles after dark is always an exciting place.  Especially with all the femme fatales walking the streets. Whether it be out on the street or gazing out the window of your home, the air of unpredictability is always lurking ...

Holy chainsaws and creepy crawlies, dudes and dudettes! Pine Hills Summer Camp is open once again! I can think of nothing better to do with your time this Halloween season than spending it with this glorious, B-movie embracing creature feature The feisty fun never stops thanks to ...

“I’ve written myself into my screenplay.” Leave to Charlie Kaufman (with the help of “Donald Kaufman”) to pen one of the most neurotic and meta stories ever that also manages to be mind-blowingly innovative, hilarious, exciting, relatable, and somehow even a bit sad. Yes, any and all of his other ...

Based around a single make-or-break heist, The Asphalt Jungle is known in the halls of film noir thrillers as the first ever caper flick and, honestly, this brilliantly scripted offering is more than deserving of its praise and its legacy, which is why the Criterion Collection has added it to their list of  ...

Shot on Video, tape warts, print noise, and all, Slaughter Day is a most ambitious horror from the days of fuzzy definition and red bandanas. It is both fun and thrilling with some off-the-wall POV shots as Blake and Jonah, played by real life twins Blake (Rising Dead, Who Saw the Men in  ...

“Give me your money or I’ll bust you up.”  It is this line that forever alters the decision-making of an architect driven to murder. Morbidity goes mad in director Michael Winner’s Death Wish, a revenge flick from 1974 that made Charles Bronson a household name of full-throttled action and made ...

Are there two sides to everyone? One good and simple. The other…bordering on evil perhaps. And does this “evil” side live in all of us just waiting to be unleashed? While attending church one morning, Dr. Jekyll (Spencer Tracy) witnesses a man - once a good, upstanding citizen – turn  ...

Fresh from the success of 1978’s Halloween, director John Carpenter returns to horror and its star Jamie Lee Curtis for his follow-up feature film. The Fog is a supernatural horror flick that is heavy on atmosphere and creativity and, in spite of its age, its creepy vibe and physical make-up effects  ...

How does one cure a drought-ridden town in the middle of Kansas? Well, you call the handsome and charming rainmaker of course! And maybe he can bring more than just a little rain to this Midwest rural town…if you know what I mean ...

"Ya wanna dance, Mike Doyle?!" The hills!  The fog!  The slick city streets!  The atmosphere is on point as Johnny Stool Pigeon opens and that’s thanks to cinematographer Maury Gertsman, who shot Singapore, the first offering in this set from Kino Lorber ...

Sometimes box office bombs deliver payloads years after their release.  Scream Factory, releasing Space Truckers on blu-ray with new featurettes, know this and offer audiences another chance to hitchhike alongside Dennis Hopper, Debi Mazar, and Stephen Dorff as they seek an astronomical  ...

“Some things there’s no moving on from.” The concept of The Banshees of Inisherin is something so simple. Yet from it there spouts a well of introspective and evocative questions that perhaps every human somehow faces in their own lifetime. After we take in the gorgeous view of the coast of an Irish  ...

Pear smuggler Matt Gordon (played wonderfully by Fred MacMurray) has returned to the scene of his heartbreak: Singapore.  Cue the lush heartstrings!  The drama!  The crimes!  And, oh, the Casablanca influences as Singapore, with boat and schooner whistles blaring in the distance instead  ...

Visual Vengeance and Wild Eye Releasing have STUCK IT again with the release of L.A. AIDS Jabber, a shot on video horror flick which is a bit more serious than it lets on to be. Oh, and don’t worry, that taste in your mouth for even considering this title washes away quite easily, especially when  ...

Ah, the Cold War.  Good times.  Good times.  And, with Red Dawn leading the way, it produced a great many war-themed movies during the 1980s all with Russia on its mind. One of those, albeit more teenage-driven than Rambo II, is now appearing on 4K Ultra HD.  WarGames remains  ...

Want to watch some classic films for the first time again?  Scoop up this release.   Psychological.  Shocking.  Suspenseful.  And downright BEAUTIFUL to look at.  The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection release in Ultra 4K is a DEFINITIVE release for some of the most thrilling classics from the  ...