DVD Reviews

Well, this one definitely flew under the radar.  After its initial premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Mass quietly made its festival rounds, then only to be played in a very few select theaters, until finally in December, it got a VOD release, and now, to the thanks of Bleeker Street, we finally are  ...

Ghostface is back! Though it has been ten real-life years since we last saw the sad-faced masked murderer on the big screen, he’s still terrorizing the teens of the fictional town of Woodsboro where all the killing began some 25 years ago in 1996’s Scream ...

Ah, yes, there WILL BE blood.  Double Walker, one of my favorite independent offerings from last year, arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber and its recent partnership with Cranked Up Films.  While it has no bonus features, this release is certainly very welcomed ...

“Are you looking for laughs…or are you soul searching?” The reception of Douglas Sirk films have been…let’s say: mixed. Audiences of the time of its release in 1956 flocked to his pictures, but critics of the time dismissed his melodramas. They figured them as being too concerned with ...

There’s no aliens invading or giant tsunami waves or even an earth-killing meteor on its way. No, this classic keeps it simple. With Robert Aldrich in the director’s chair and Hollywood legend, James Stewart, leading the charge, The Flight of the Phoenix is a well-written, old-school disaster movie ...

Were you appalled by the viciousness of Kirk Douglas’ Einar character in 1958’s The Vikings? Was the “viking handkerchief” face washing scene in 1999’s The 13th Warrior one of the most disgusting things ever? Think you know what a viking is? You have no idea ...

I think that everyone knows that those early teen years were…confusing…to say the least. Everyone has had their own traumatizing experiences from that time (whether you choose to remember them or not). However, there is a sense of comfort knowing that we all went through it and  ...

“Unless a man believes that there is something great for him to do, he can do nothing great.” How on earth do you make a biopic set in the mid-19th century that poses as some kind of weird Western but yet somehow manages to successfully make strong political comparisons between ...

It is not your average revenge flick. Nor is it what you would expect from director Henri Verneuil and star Jean-Paul Belmondo for what was their seventh picture together. There are no jaw-dropping stunts from the screen legend, and in fact there is hardly any exciting action in this  ...

A small little underdog of a movie: it’s hard to believe but that’s exactly what Silence of the Lambs was. It was a film nobody wanted to make. Gene Hackman, who had paid for half the rights, bowed out, claiming it was too violent; Michelle Pfeiffer rejected the soon ...

Academy Award-winning filmmaker (turned producer here) Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) teams up with past and present members of the Eagles and produces a pretty solid documentary charting the band’s history.  Since ...

Rated: PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing violence and terror.
Runtime: 84 mins.
Director: Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang
Writer: Mark Wheaton (screenplay) & Todd Farmer (story)
Cast: Kristen Stewart; Dylan McDermott; Penelope Ann Miller; John Corbett ... complete cast
Tagline: There is evidence to suggest that children are highly susceptible to paranormal phenomena. They see what adults cannot. They believe what adults deny. And they are trying to warn us.
Genre: Drama/Horro/Thriller
Memorable Quote: "Where are they? What do you see?"
DVD Release Date: June 5, 2007

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language.
Runtime: 135 mins.
Director: Peter Jackson.
Writer: Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens
Cast: Stanley Tucci; Mark Wahlberg; Saoirse Ronan ... complete cast
Tagline: The story of a life and everything that came after...
Genre: Drama

Rated: R for pervasive strong crude and sexual content including graphic nudity, and language.
Runtime: 82 mins.
Director: Larry Charles
Writer: Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen; Pamela Anderson
Tagline: Coming November 3
Memorable Quote: "My moustache still tastes of your testes!"
Genre: Comedy
Release Date: November 3, 2006
Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

For the past year and a half, Kino International has been steadily releasing their acquired Buster Keaton catalog on blu-ray.  Each release is a bit better than the one before it; from artwork to restoration.  Go West and Battling Butler, while not the absolute best that ...

Disney’s 20^th animated classic has the distinction of being the last film Walt himself approved for production, and the first made after his death. It was the first Disney film of the 1970s, and some animation historians believe it marker a distinct turn in the style of ...

MPAA Rating: R for pervasive strong sadistic brutal violence, rape and torture, nudity and language.
Director: Steven R. Monroe
Writer: Stuart Morse
Cast: Sarah Butler; Chad Lindberg; Tracey Walter
Genre: Horror
Memorable Movie Quote: "Smile real pretty for the camera"
Release Date: October 8, 2010
Blu-ray Release Date: Not yet announced.

MPAA Rating: R for some disturbing images and language.
Director: Adam Green
Writer: Adam Green
Cast: Emma Bell; Shawn Ashmore; Kevin Zegers
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Memorable Movie Quote: "The sarlacc pit. From "Return of the Jedi". Uh, hello. Being slowly digested over a 1000 years - worst death ever."
Release Date: No theatrical wide release
Blu-ray Release Date: September 28, 2010.

Overtly throwback and unapologetically patriotic, Red Tails is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a band of “colored personnel” who fought through racism in America to fly as fighter pilots over Europe for the Army Air Corps during World War II ...

First things first. If you don’t “get” exploitation filmmaking, nothing we say here is going to make you understand. Nor is it going to convince you to watch Hobo With a Shotgun, the Sundance darling from Michael Eisener now working its way...

MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.
Runtime: 101 mins.
Director: Henry Selick
Writer: Henry Selick (screenplay); Neil Gaiman (book)
Cast: Dakota Fanning; Teri Hatcher; Jennifer Saunders
Tagline: Be careful what you wish for.
Genre: Animation | Family | Fantasy
Memorable Quote: "Coraline Jones always dreamed of finding a better world"
Release Date: February 6, 2009
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: July 21, 2009
Distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio; Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Ellen Page
Genre: Drama | Mystery| Sci-Fi
Memorable Movie Quote: "We create the world of a dream. We bring a subject into that dream and they fill it with their secrets."
Release Date: July 16, 2010
DVD Release Date: December 7, 2010

Rated: PG-13 for some language.
Runtime: 117 mins.
Director: Gabriele Muccin
Writer: Steve Conrad
Cast: Will Smith; Jaden Smith; Thandie Newton; Brian Howe
Tagline: The Pursuit of Happyness.
Memorable Quote: "I met my father for the first time when I was 28 year old. When I had children, my children were going to know who their father was."
Release Date: December 15, 2006

MPAA Rating: PG for scary sequences and images.
Runtime: 96 mins.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writer: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Jim Carrey; Sage Ryan; Colin Firth; Gary Oldman ... complete cast
Tagline: Disney's A Christmas Carol.
Genre: Animated/Comedy / Family
Memorable Quote: "I'm light as a feather! Merry as a schoolboy! "
Release Date: November 6, 2009
DVD Release Date: November 16, 2010.

In the sea of remakes, reboots, sequels that have been lathered heavily upon us in recent years, it is hard for one to remember many that have you leaving the theatre thinking it was a worthwhile endeavour. More often than not, despite the all too repetitive spin doled ...

Rated: R for pervasive strong brutal violence and language, sexuality and drug content.
Runtime: 122 mins.
Director: Wayne Kramer
Writer: Wayne Kramer
Cast: Pal Walker, Cameron Bright; Chazz Palminteri...complete cast
Tagline: Ready. Aim. Run
Release Date: February 24, 2006

MPAA Rating: Not rated by the MPAA.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Joseph Stefano
Cast: Anthony Perkins; Janet Leigh; Vera Miles
Genre: Classic | Horror
Memorable Movie Quote: "I think I must have one of those faces you can't help believing."
Release Date: August 10, 1960
Blu-ray Release Date: October 19, 2010.

Man will probably never be able to conquer and control the forces of nature.  The fate of the RMS Titanic is proof enough of the high price for playing “King of the World” with nature.  Tales like this are full of consequence; they are meaty with drama and diligence ...

Leave it to Godzilla to restore the balance as the 2014 summer box office begins to warm up and go nuclear. That’s right the King of the Monsters returns! From Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, director Gareth Edwards (previously behind the wonderfully dazzling  ...

Rated: R for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language.
Runtime: 94 mins.
Director: Christophe Gans
Writer: Roger Avary (screenplay); Nicolas Boukhrief (story)
Cast: Radha Mitchell; Sean Bean; Laurie Holden
Tagline: Enjoy your stay.
Memorable Quote: "To find your daughter, you must face the darkness of Hell."
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi
Opens: April 21, 2006