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- Created: 01 October 2021
- Written by Frank Wilkins
If we are to believe the film’s promotional materials, namely its poster which asks “Who Made Tony Soprano,” then The Many Saints of Newark is an origin story for the fictional gangster played by James Gandolfini in David Chase’s groundbreaking, award-winning HBO drama series ...
Read more: The Many Saints of Newark - 4K UHD Blu-ray Review
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- Created: 25 February 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: Alligator 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray: Collector’s Edition (1980) - 4K UHD Review
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- Created: 11 July 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
"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 ...
Read more: Bringing Up Baby: The Criterion Collection (1938)
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- Created: 09 January 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
The run of Daniel Craig as James Bond comes to its stunning and long delayed conclusion with No Time to Die, an action-packed spectacle of fun and tears that seriously delivers. For “final” Bond films, this one satisfies on every level connecting the dots and plot points of previous entries ...
Read more: No Time To Die: Collector's Edition – 4K Ultra HD Review
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- Created: 21 February 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: Paranoiac: Collector’s Edition (1963) - Blu-ray Review
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- Created: 23 May 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House: Warner Archive Collection (1948) - Blu-ray Review
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- Created: 17 September 2021
- Written by Emily Strong
Despite the film’s strong foundation and rather rich themes, Paul Schrader’s newest project, The Card Counter, is unsuccessful in attempts to achieve a tense and mysterious tone, and ultimately ends up as a dull, messy drama full of awkward dialogue and performances ...
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- Created: 21 February 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
Now, this right here is the KA-RAZY chop Saki kung-fu that I miss about the action flicks from the 1980s! Written, directed and starring Taiwanese martial arts legend John Liu (The Secret Rivals, Invincible Armor) , New York Ninja is truly a one-of-a-kind martial arts film as a mild-mannered sound ...
Read more: New York Ninja (1984) - Vinegar Syndrome Exclusive - Blu Ray Review
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- Created: 13 May 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: Isle of the Dead: Warner Archive Collection (1945) - Blu-ray Review
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- Created: 24 September 2021
- Written by Frank Wilkins
It’s time for Clint Eastwood to hang up his acting hat for good. There, I said it. And that’s coming from one of the guy’s biggest fans. Sure, the man is inarguably a true Hollywood legend having appeared in more than 50 films, from 1950’s sci-fis, to countless war dramas, to starring roles in a dozen or ...
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- Created: 20 February 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
Primal terror has never looked this good before! Writer/Director Joe Dante (Gremlins) humorously takes on America’s culture of violence with 1981’s The Howling. Manically led by a charging performance from Patrick Macnee (BBC’s The Avengers), The Howling and Dante – alongside Jon ...
Read more: The Howling 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray (1981) - 4k Review
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- Created: 05 May 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: M: The Criterion Collection (1931) - Blu-ray Review
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- Created: 11 September 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
The intense stage lighting. The stylized production design. The black gloved-hand killer. The dramatic and often weirdly over-stylized music with electronic throbbing Goblin-like rhythm and pulses. And, yes, the buckets of blood splashed everywhere. If this were the 1970s, the best decade for ...
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- Created: 20 February 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
Are you ready to take a chance again?! Written and directed by Colin Higgins (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 9 to 5) and featuring the debut of Chevy Chase in a feature film (when he left SNL in ‘76), Foul Play - while originally dismissed by a lot of print critics at the time of its release ...
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- Created: 07 March 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
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- Created: 18 February 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
“You made two mistakes. One was getting up and the other was making fun of Shirley Temple.” Directed by David Berlatsky and starring Gary Conway as a decorated World War II veteran who returns home to try to save his farm from being taken over by the bank, The Farmer, a ...
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- Created: 27 March 2022
- Written by Emily Strong
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 ...
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- Created: 13 February 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
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- Created: 07 December 2021
- Written by Christopher Symonds
This low budget ($300,000 USD) slasher film, made by a USC graduate in the late 70s, would spawn countless sequels and give its backers some serious profits, the world horror auteur John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis. Those things make the love for this simple tale worth it alone. It’s cementing ...
Read more: Halloween (1978) - 4K UHD Collector's Edition Review
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- Created: 03 February 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
"The motion picture that follows is a fable. In it there are many nudists but only one monster. In life, it is generally the other way around." Brain dead dialogue? Plenty of female flesh? Monster madness? Where do I sign up?! AGFA and Something Weird, those cool-headed ...
Read more: The Monster of Camp Sunshine/Honeymoon of Terror (1964) - Blu-ray Review
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- Created: 30 January 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
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- Created: 07 December 2021
- Written by Christopher Symonds
Only three years after Halloween swept the world up in the antics of Michael Myers, John Carpenter reluctantly returned to write the follow up, after pressure from Akkad and especially producer Irwin Yablans. Halloween 2 would be financed, written, filmed and released in 1981. They didn’t mess ...
Read more: Halloween II (1981) - 4K UHD Collector's Edition Review
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- Created: 27 January 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
Fishing with grandpa was never as wild and as out there as in this slasher satire! That’s right, Gorehounds and Guppy Heads, Blood Hook is back to get you in the mood for some more summertime hijinks . . . and this time all the muskie madness and mutilations are completely uncensored! Whoop ...
Read more: Blood Hook (1985) Vinegar Syndrome Exclusive - Blu-Ray Review
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- Created: 10 January 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
“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 ...
Read more: It Happened One Night: Criterion Collection (1934) - Blu-ray Review
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- Created: 27 August 2021
- Written by Frank Wilkins
Candyman. Do you dare say it? We’re coming up on 30 years since the hook-handed killer – known affectionately as the Candyman – haunted the honeycombed halls of the Cabrini-Green housing project in 1992’s Candyman. And now he’s back to paint those same corridors red in a ...
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- Created: 19 January 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
007 who? The Man From Hong Kong has all that you crave! Operating as if Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Jimmy Wang Yu) was the one and only James Bond, The Man From Hong Kong blows its action sky high and delivers a spirited action-adventure flick that could only come out of the pages of ...
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- Created: 03 January 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
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 ...
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- Created: 11 July 2021
- Written by Loron Hays
Marvel does Bourne! With plenty of globe-hopping and mouth-dropping action sequences, Black Widow finally arrives in theaters after an over yearlong delay due to Covid-19 and reminds us of why we absolutely love the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its many characters. With heart ...
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- Created: 18 January 2022
- Written by Loron Hays
Independent films don’t get any more baadasssss than with Melvin Van Peebles at the helm. Recognize that right now and we can remain on speaking terms. The collective black consciousness is alive and well in his filmography and, thankfully, his independent output left a lasting mark on pop ...
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- Created: 29 December 2020
- Written by Loron Hays
It’s hard to conceive in this era of remakes that some redos in the history of cinema go on to become classics in their own right. For genre fans, John Carpenter’s The Thing is often cited as a prime example. For comedy, however, Billy Wilder’s beloved cross-dressing romp, Some Like It ...
Read more: Some Like It Hot: Criterion Collection (1959) - Blu-ray Review
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