Terrence Malick and Néstor Almendros rewrote the rule books for imagery and narrative on this story of quiet desperation in the agrarian America of a bygone age. We discovered Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard; Linda Manz joined the ranks of cult names. Days of Heaven 4K 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray The Criterion…
‘The Fight on the Island’ Nine years before Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Jean-Louis Trintignant played another right-wing zealot dispatched on a murder mission. Filmed in Paris and Normandy, Alain Cavalier’s gem of a thriller depicts anti-democratic militant terror subversives in action in France, at the same time that the notorious OAS was active. Romy Schneider takes…
It says so in the song: when Barbarella and I get together the planets all stand still! Arrow and Paramount bring Roger Vadim’s intergalactic bande-dessinée to 4K, for the enjoyment of Home Theaters equipped for the high-resolution format. Jane Fonda’s fille de l’espace spreads Free Love to the ends of the Galaxy, while thwarting Milo…
Everybody likes this picture. James L. Brooks’ major hit movie, adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry, charts the rocky relationship of a Texan mother and daughter. Audiences loved the clashing personalities and quirky interaction between stars Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and especially Jack Nicholson as the discipline-problem ex- astronaut next door. Name an award,…
Adventuresome crime generates high thrills in Michael Crichton’s entertaining heist picture, adapted from his own novel set in 1855. Charming crook Sean Connery, light-fingered ‘screwsman’ Donald Sutherland and saucy Lesley-Anne Down pull off a slick caper in the age of gaslight and Victorian elegance. The lavish production puts Connery through some incredible real-life stunts atop…
Have you heard The Word, NASA? The other name for Mars is Death. The nifty screenplay by Sci-fi scribe Jerome Bixby lends the horror chills a basic logic, when Marshall Thompson & Shawn Smith battle a Martian stowaway on board a homebound spaceship. This Kino disc of the monsterrific ’50s favorite improves the transfer and…
Hollywood’s first talkie version of the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic was also the final film of silent superstar Colleen Moore. The dramatization of the Puritan ABCs (what do the B & C stand for?) is also a post-Code downer, putting the shame firmly on Mame Hester Prynne even as it exposes the hypocrisy of colonial intolerance….
An MIA ‘film prodigal’ has been returned to the fold, thanks to this well-curated restoration and remaster. Long unavailable in good condition, we can finally enjoy Riccardo Freda’s Gothic masterpiece as it should be seen, in glowing color and with a choice of language tracks. The tagline “His candle of lust burnt brightest in the…
William Holden earned his Best Actor Oscar as J.J. Sefton, a POW who runs the rackets in the prisoners’ barracks, and whose cynical opportunism attracts the hatred of his fellow prisoners. Suspected as a traitor collaborating with the Germans, Sefton doesn’t hide his contempt for his comrades. Adapting this Broadway hit was a career-saver for…
This overlooked and orphaned drama presents Candice Bergen as an alienated newcomer to Chicago. James Caan contributes a carefully modulated performance, and Peter Boyle feels real in a part that we’d expect to be pitched for comedy. Writer Peter Hyams presents a dark tale of Woe in the City, director Herbert Ross emphasizes the gloom…
Sci-fi completists and diehard fans of ‘fifties TV fun will want to know about this remastered disc containing all 13 episodes of the short-lived 1959 TV series, starring Marshall Thompson as America’s ‘tom thumb in a suitcase’ superspy, and Arthur Franz as his full-sized secret agent partner. Vintage special effects see them battle oversized animals…
Tod Browning’s final fantastic film is . . . totally bonkers. Humans are reduced in size and dispatched like zombies to take revenge on a prison escapee’s enemies. It’s all to enable the escapee to reunite with his beloved daughter, so why not paralyze some chumps and condemn the puppet people to a strange living…
Behold this mindless monster duo from the Feelin’ Fine summer of ’59, Texas- produced and ready to tear up drive-in screens. THE GIANT GILA MONSTER is truth in advertising, plus you get hot rods, non-rebellious teen rebels, and gospel-folk ‘rock’ music to accompany the hungry lizard with the flippidy flippidy tongue. The second show is…
Wow, this truly inspirational film sees modern realities vanquishing a traditional way of life — and doesn’t pull the usual reverential heartstrings. Michael Powell’s breakout feature combines ethnographic docu-realism with the cinematic image-communication he learned in silent movies, and the result is a masterpiece — an adult art film that needs make no excuses. The…
Somebody at Universal-International had a good, fresh idea for a psychologically-based murder thriller — but was the studio system not conducive to creative experimentation? Ray Danton and Colleen Miller put their all into a story that feels like a rough draft for Psycho, with a main character doing his best to be ‘normal’ yet prey…
Paramount’s contribution to Halloween ’23 — and its signal of support for hard video media — comes in the form of this horror gift box with five very different flavors of Scary: Rosemary’s Baby, Pet Sematary, Crawl, Smile and a ‘mystery title’ we’ve been asked not to reveal. All are in 4K with Digital codes;…
David Cronenberg’s most out-there ick-thriller precedes 30 years of weaker blow-your-mind sci-fi ‘mind evolution’ sagas, Matrices, etc.. It’s the scary truth: humanity is merging with communication and entertainment technology — is your cell phone physically attached to your body yet? Slimy James Woods and fearless Deborah Harry tresspass into a shady cable TV realm that…
We were already big fans of Douglas Fairbanks’ fantastic silent The Thief of Bagdad; this double-bill disc gives us excellent encodings of the producer-star’s Robin Hood and The Black Pirate, supremely entertaining adventures that conjure up everything a Big Night at the Movies can be. Douglas Fairbanks is at his best; it’s impossible not to…
The latest double feature from the new label Film Masters yields two thrillers from dynamo producer Roger Corman, filmed in snowy South Dakota using the same actors and technical talent. The monster romp is a fine directing debut for cult favorite Monte Hellman, from a retread crime script by the dependable Charles B. Griffith. The…
The skeletal claws of the DEAD reach out at us from Franco-era Spanish horror, where cruelty and oppression seem built into every violent fantasy. Amando de Ossorio hit pay dirt with this fright show that ignited a mini-franchise: a curse from the past looses the ghoulish remains of evil Knights Templar, eyeless zombies that ride…
Yes, it’s a review of a 7 year-old disc release, but we’re tired of waiting for new Halloween movies! We seize the chance to finally absorb one of Tobe Hooper’s most notable efforts — how does it hold up after 44 years? The answer is ‘not at all bad,’ even though the 3-hour TV version…
Big budget westerns from the past are looking better than ever — the fine cinematography and big-star casts dazzle as contemporary films never do. Steve McQueen took a leap to stand-alone action stardom in Henry Hathaway’s prequel to The Carpetbaggers, telling a western backstory. The film’s violence is extremely rough for 1966, and an impressive…
Let’s pop back once again to take in an old-fashioned Lone Samurai saga — this one’s worth it. Preceding the Lone Wolf and Cub series but sharing a creator and some of the same violent stylistics, it’s a hero-on-the-road tale with creative, original touches, including a spy-ninja angle that enlists what looks like magic at…
Stylish and energetic, this gangster saga from Brian De Palma and David Koepp is solid both in characters and genre action. It’s a crime tragedy set in Spanish Harlem, with a fine perf from Al Pacino as a former kingpin trying to go straight. He’s sprung from a long prison term by Sean Penn’s mob…
The legendary Jim Thompson strikes again: director James Foley’s spin on this intense, character-driven crime piece may be the movies’ truest expression of Thompson’s jaundiced world view. It’s a top title for its players Jason Patric and Rachel Ward, with Bruce Dern sealing the deal. The low-rent margins of Palm Springs are the setting for…
Out of the legendary Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘fifties comes another story that ends on The Day the Music Died. Luis Valdez’s account of the rise and sudden silencing of the great Richie Valens avoids exaggeration to instead celebrate the young man’s positive potential. This is the show that put Lou Diamond Phillips on the map,…