DVD Reviews

There’s very little that Tom Hanks hasn’t done. From enduring the discomfort of support brassieres in TV’s Bosom Buddies, to foiling pirates on the high seas in Captain Phillips, America’s favorite actor has just about done it all. The guy even battled his way through Covid-19 with the grace of  ...

Genevieve is completely CRACKERS and I love it! Nicholas Michael Jacobs, independent film director of Night, Urban Fears, and Tales from Six Feet Under, is back with his latest horror/comedy, Genevieve.  This time out his take on the whole Annabelle doll haunting series of flicks gets served ...

What does a filmmaker do when attempting to revive a franchise that has lain dormant for more than a decade? In the case of Bad Boys For Life, directors Adil and Bilall do what most other filmmakers have done: they adapt the story to fit a new cultural landscape, they riff  ...

Recycled!  Repurposed!  These riot girls RULE the battleground known as the GridIron! Opening with a very brief scene involving the collection of freshly sawed off limbs and then a much longer all girl punk rock band beatdown, Spare Parts welcomes us all back to the bloody arena of ...

At one point in Just Mercy, the new film from director, co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton (The Glass Castle), the film’s main character Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) points out that “the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth, it’s justice.” Those words set the tone for the tangle of legal and  ...

Where have you been, Guy Ritchie? We’ve missed your language, your punch, your sleight of hand, and that self-referential swagger that defined your early days as a filmmaker. We got hardly any of that as you set out for more commercial ventures like Swept Away, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,  ...

In which Joe Dante, the director of Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins, The Burbs, Matinee, Innerspace, and other cult classics, turns toys into objects of delightful HORROR!  It’s as if The Puppetmaster and Toy Story met in a dark alley and had a quickie, giving birth to this cult classic 9 months  ...

2005 saw the end of the prequel trilogy, and what a job it had before it to finally deliver what we’d been promised since the trilogy was announced: the descent of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side and the rise of Darth Vader ...

Freedom! Adventure!  Flying like Peter Pan across . . . a circuit board?!  Damn straight!  Forget about Neverland, folks!  Back when Explorers was originally made, it was the digital age that we were venturing into and, with an opening flying montage as Ethan Hawke bursts through heavy  ...

Episode 2 made a couple of firsts in Star Wars history. Firstly, it would be the first of them shot entirely digital. Secondly, and unfortunately, it would be the first of the episodes to debut with a now tarnished perception. The Phantom Menace had not gone down well with the critics and a great ...

Guns! Sin! And bathtub gin! In this women-centered d♀uble feature from Shout! Factory, Crazy Mama takes a commanding lead for Producer Roger Corman as Academy Award winner Cloris Leachman pulls off yet another crazy character with that of Melba Stokes as she and her crazy family  embark on a road trip like ...

There’s a reason Cats had such a successful Broadway run as one of the longest-running musicals in history with over 7,000 performances spanning some 18 years. Many reasons, actually. The biggest being the brilliant songs and catchy tunes from Andrew Lloyd Webber. They are simply wonderful, and  ...

It might be intense and rather somber, but there’s no mistaking the meaning behind Revenge of the Bushido Blade!  Someone is out for BLOOD! Presented for the first time in a brilliant and shockingly glossy 4K remaster, Revenge of the Bushido Blade (aka The Last Reunion or  ...

 Twice now, in different decades, Star Wars has resurrected itself and rewarded Lucas handsomely. With the recent sequel trilogy now behind us, the parallels between their reception and the era of the prequel trilogy are difficult to ignore. Both critics and the Star Wars fan base have major issues with ...

Boobs!  Bullets!  Bawdy Babes!  What’s not to love about Angie Dickinson in Big Bad Mama?!  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing!  And producer Roger Corman knows it which is why Big Bad Mama is a curvaceous cult classic.  The sequel made in 1987?  Well, not so much, but - hey- (going  ...

This film would be the culmination for a generation of Star Wars fans, and we couldn’t have been better primed for it. We would wait three years to learn the answers to the most tantalizing cliffhangers ever conceived. Was Han Solo gone forever? Was Darth Vader lying to Luke? I can  ...

Because the “good old boy” way of doing things needs to get steamrolled by a 1942 M4 Sherman tank from time to time! There are a few valuable lessons to be learned from this sometimes witty Smokey and the Bandit wannabe title ...

Raise your hand if the news of yet another adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel, Little Women coming to theaters on Christmas Day failed to jingle your bells. Okay, we can all put them down now. After all, with so many previous adaptations – including 1949’s version starring Elizabeth Taylor and ...

“I’m on TV!  I’m on TV!” Because we all love the scene-stealing LUNACY of a Cage-centered meltdown, especially when his character is named Rick Santoro!  Go, Tyler! Go, Tyler! Goooooooooo!  ...

The spongy post-apocalyptic trip that is Waterworld, Dear Readers, is NOT the belly flop you were looking for.  Dances with Waves?  Think again.  This film, warts and bruises and all, continues to arrive safely upon receptive shores with yet another new transfer which carries the same message ...

If your maitre d’s offer of free private access to a secluded beach that you will share with only a few select fellow guests seems too good to be true, it’s probably because it is. ...

The greatest sequel ever made… There. Done… Oh, you want more? All right then. Star Wars changed cinema forever. Some say to its detriment. Its penetration into the world’s lexicon was all encompassing. It was in everyone’s vernacular after 1977, and made the left of field auteur George Lucas the ...

Timeless TWO-COLOR Technicolor terror!  It’s the return of the Moon Killer and this time it is thanks to a superb 4K restoration!  That’s what awaits cult enthusiasts within the sheer horror that is 1932’s Doctor X, a pre-code murder-minded marvel in which rape and cannibalism get a headlining  ...

Star Wars’ new caretakers, Disney, have gone to painstaking work to be able to release this series of films for the first time in 4K. After purchasing the franchise from George Lucas, acquiring 20th Century Fox, and continuing the Star Wars saga with (so far) 5 new ...

In which the cult-approved Nicolas Cage fights off demonic animatronic mascots! He even dances in one key sequence as he gets ready for the ultimate battle against the last remaining heavy, ol Willy himself! I mean, seriously, HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG WITH THIS IDEA? ...

If one of the final moments of director J. J. Abrams’ Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker - two lightsabers sinking into the sands of Tattooine - hits you rather hollow, it is by the director’s choice.  The Skywalker Saga is over with this film, but what’s shocking is that it really doesn’t feel ...

Mention independent director Andy Milligan in the wrong company and - WOW - you might find yourself submerged in the River of Jordan or receiving an exorcist by Father Merrin himself.  He is that reviled by church-going folk, but then so is Rob Zombie, so maybe you should reconsider the  ...

Filmmaker Sam Mendes gets down and personal with his new film, 1917 about two young British soldiers sent on an impossible mission to save hundreds of their fellow soldiers. Though largely fictionalized, his tale comes from an actual account told by his paternal grandfather who served in the ...

Smokin’ babes with REVEALING outfits BADASS swords?  Count me in! The myths! The legends!  The NAKED women!  Everything hangs out in this blu-ray twofer offering from the Roger Corman vaults of Shout! Factory and Corman’s fans have plenty of supple flesh to give thanks for as naked ...

The latest iteration of Bob Clark’s ultra-gory yule tide slasher, Black Christmas, promises a modern take on the cult horror classic that stoked the fears of every sorority girl back in 1974  ...