DVD Reviews

Spellbinding science fiction doesn’t get any more outrageous than it does here in The Brain Eaters, a 61-minute schlocky shocker from the Drive-In era of B-flicks.  This is what happens when Small Town, America finds itself at the center of a UFO invasion!  Hide the jars of pickles, Ma 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’s Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn. Are you sold on it yet? No? Alright, let’s talk: When you think about Tracey-Hepburn films, Frank Capra’s 1948 State of the Union is certainly not as revered or remembered in the way that Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, or even Guess Who’s  ...

Hey, BU-DDY.  Eric is out for blood.  And, really, who can blame him?!  Disfigured when some greedy commercial real estate developers set fire to his house in order to build a mall over it, Erik now hides himself in the air ducts and the subterranean passageways, cutting anyone who dares cross  ...

Classic Hollywood making fun of itself? Count me in! Paris When it Sizzles goes full ridiculous in this charming, downright delightful romantic comedy so silly that you cannot help but smile the whole way through ...

"I've got my head. I've lost my leopard!" As far as screwball comedies go, the pairing of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn was probably seen as an odd choice in 1938. She didn’t have a hit film and Grant, hitting his comedic stride, was just coming off of The Awful Truth to ...

"When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." ...

Beginning with an explosion which levels a poppy field, Cleopatra Jones is one bad mutha!  Drug trafficking is about to get the red light thanks to her blazing guns. With an undefined beauty and a ...

The comedic timing.  The charisma of all involved.  The breaking of the fourth wall.  Hollywood’s definitive leading man!  What’s not to love about Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House as Cary Grant takes his physical comedy and his mannerisms from the office to home construction woes ...

“You’re insane…but you might also be brilliant.” When does a joke go on for too long? Isn’t the point to make the audience laugh? If you’re a comedian, then the answer to the latter would most likely be “yes.” But if you’re Andy Kaufman, then the answer is “no.” He never claimed to be a  ...

Dirty O’Neil, released during the same year as The Swinging Cheerleaders and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is yet another on wild romp through exploitation flicks.  It is essentially about the love life of a small-town cop.  Filled to the bring with backseat action, corny one-liners, and lots  ...

A psychological thriller in which Boris Karloff does NOT play a creature of the night?  Say it ain’t so?!  But it’s true.  Isle of the Dead, produced by the legendary Val Lewton, concerns itself with that which haunts Greek nightmares: the Vrykolakas and this female vampire is certainly NOT  ...

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 ...

The “Brother Man from the Motherland” returns to settle yet another score!  Can you dig it? Funked up by Isaac Hayes’ incredible score and theme, Richard Roundtree is back in action as Harlem P.I. John Shaft in this trio of signature blaxploitation offerings from directors...

Madness.  Mayhem.  And, of course, MURDER.  This is what follows the anti-archetype characters of M.  It is a thriller that is meant to unsettle the viewer with its hunt for a serial killer, making it an unforgettable REEL CLASSIC ...

Wow.  A HUGE existential hurdle has just been crossed by a person who was raised on the set of the original film.  Makes sense then that the Ghostbusters story here in Ghostbusters: Afterlife is told from the viewpoint of a child discovering the truth about their own ghostbusting grandpa ...

Stop Motion animation addicts rejoice!  Monster from Green Hell has been unleashed and, for those few seconds of stop motion glory, it’s worth it! ...

The new comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson called The Hustle is an almost identical remake of the 1988 classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin - itself a remake of Marlon Brando’s Bedtime Story. I say “almost” because  ...

Wasted talent. That’s the most economical way to sum up The 355, a female-led globetrotting espionage action thriller that finds its multi-racial cast of Hollywood A-listers muddling through a script so lazily written it gives generic a bad name  ...

An American Werewolf in London begins with Blue Moon howling across the speakers while pastoral settings flicker by.  It isn’t until we get to “Written and Directed by John Landis” before we see any signs of life and it is a truck full of sheep, with two young American backpackers, David (David  ...

Suspicions!  Accusations!  It’s all on the screen in this minor film noir classic.  The Suspect arrives on blu-ray thanks to Kino Lorber and I, as a fan of Laughton’s performances, couldn’t be happier ...

Achieving the impossible is easy. All one needs is a clear vision, a lofty dream, and a brazen plan to make it come true, right? At least that’s what Richard Williams would have us believe. After all, Williams – father of tennis greats Venus and Serena – had a vision in the late ‘70s that two ...

“Is your sword for hire?  I would pay anything for it. What is wrong?  Is your sword too small. . . “ Go BOLD or GO HOME, right?  Surely, that must have been behind this sword and sorcery romp as a bad king dares to raise a demon from the depths of Hell in order to conquer even more land for  ...

One wouldn’t normally equate Cary Grant with a family movie about adoption and the drama which lies therein, but perhaps that’s why Room for One More (also known as The Easy Way) lingers with viewers.  Grant, playing one half of The Roses, never gets time alone as his house is filled  ...

Writer/director Julia Ducournau’s sophomore feature film, Titane, is definitely one of the wildest and most shocking films that you will ever see…but in all of the best ways. You will squirm. You will grip your arm rest. You will even spew out many “No”s at the screen (trust me, I did the same). But the  ...

It lives in the sewers of Chicago.  It’s 36 feet long and weighs over 2000 pounds.  This gargantuan is also very, very hungry.  Its name is Ramon and, after being flushed down the toilet by an angry Dad, is now about to break out from beneath the city!   And Chicago will never be the same  ...

“She’s afraid of the big bad wolf.  Tra la la la laaaaaa.” It Happened One Night remains a phenomenal romantic comedy.  After all these years, this pre-code American film - which was made when being a reporter was idolized and the screwball comedy was only just hitting its stride - still hits all the perfect notes as ...

“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 ...

This is what happens when an abusive drunk tries to drive the last remaining link to his family’s inheritance absolutely mad in order to cash it in all for himself.  Moody, full of fine performances, and with plenty of twists along the way, Paranoiac is a black-and-white gem of atmospheric terror ...

The Marx Brothers are coming! The Marx Brothers are coming!  Well, after a bit of exposition that is as Casablanca (and others like that film) get a big kiss-off thanks to the parody on display throughout the 86-minutes that make up A Night in Casablanca.  This REEL CLASSIC might not be the ...