Gwangi! Ready your rifles and lariats because this is one of the best. Harryhausen’s happiest dinos- à go-go epic comes thundering back in HD heralded by Jerome Moross’s impressive music score. Unless you count The Animal World, all of the stop-motion magician’s feature films are now available in quality Blu-rays. The Valley of Gwangi Blu-ray…
A thyroid operation every ten years, plus regular libations of an eerie green liquid, has allowed Anton Diffring to live over a hundred years without looking a year over forty. Hammer’s medical horror show features Christopher Lee, Hazel Court and sumptuous cinematography, but not a whole lot of surprises. The Man Who Could Cheat Death…
As a musical it’s excellent — fine tunes and lyrics, great singing and dancing by the ever-youthful Fred Astaire, the glorious songbird Petula Clark, and the impishly weird Tommy Steele cast appropriately as a grimacing Leprechaun. The update of what was a politically acute Broadway hit in 1947 is awkward but the show is a…
Joan Micklin Silver applies sensitive direction to Ann Beattie’s novel about a lonely guy trying to win back his girlfriend, and going about it in all the wrong ways. John Heard is excellent as Charles, who can’t understand why Laura (Mary Beth Hurt) has gone back to her husband and child. The whole thing plays…
It’s awful, it’s terrible, it’s difficult to watch — but it’s finally available in its original 3-D, in the improved Space-Vision process. A giant monkey attacks Seoul, trashing cardboard buildings, toy boats and a dead shark (and it’s not shamming). Keep a good movie on hand to rinse this one away immediately afterwards. Not recommended…
Who would have thought that a ’90s ‘slacker’ independent filmmaker would make such a strong romantic statement? Well, it’s not all romance in the old sense. In what must be a project of love, Richard Linklater examines the ongoing love life of Jesse & Céline, in three movies spread across eighteen years. The conversations flow…
In the 1970s crime films morphed into sadistic vigilante fantasies about tough-guy heroes avenging terrible crimes against their families. Veteran noir director Phil Karlson directed the bruiser’s bruiser Joe Don Baker in a standard tale of violent vengeance, with the violence factor given an extra bloody boost. Framed Blu-ray KL Studio Classics 1975 / Color…
This is the ultimate in screen sadism circa 1947, and it’s all in the debut film performance of Richard Widmark as a too-nasty-for-words hood who likes to shoot people in the stomach. Actually, Victor Mature is not bad in a grim story of a stool pigeon that tries to square himself with the law, and…
Ace director Donald Siegel uses superior direction to transform a so-so who-dunnit into a thrilling big screen spectacle, using the Grand Canyon as a backdrop for a multiple murder set in an Arizona mining town in decline. The cameraman focusing on the scenery and the hair-raising stuntwork — everything we see is real — is…
Ermanno Olmi’s three-hour saga is a masterful ethnographic recreation of the long-gone way of life of Italian tenant farmers, virtual slaves working for a landowner. We see the entire agrarian lifestyle, with hints of modern times on the way. An ever-present backdrop of spiritualism and faith keeps the laborers going. Using unprofessional actors and an…
Did Republic’s serial-makers lose their marbles? This is an endurance test of a thriller, with 12 chapters that refuse to advance a story beyond the same repetitive ambushes and fistfights. It’s got monsters in the form of giant crawfish bred to… well, bred for almost no reason at all. With Phyllis Coates and Myron Healey….
Do rediscovered ‘lost’ movies always disappoint? This Depression-era pre-Code science fiction disaster thriller was unique in its day, and its outrageously ambitious special effects — New York City is tossed into a blender — were considered the state of the art. Sidney Blackmer and a fetching Peggy Shannon fight off rapacious gangs in what may…
Being called the French Hitchcock does Claude Chabrol a disservice, as his dark thrillers approach mystery and suspense almost completely through character, not cinematics. These three very good 1990s productions are completely different in tone and approach, and each showcases a stunning French actress. Betty, Torment (L’enfer), The Swindle (Rien ne vas plus) Blu-ray…
A lengthy talk-fest interview of the underrated filmmaker, who takes us through his life story as a personal journey, not a string of movie assignments. Sidney Lumet seems to attract a lot of criticism, and so did this docu for not challenging his opinions or rubbing his nose in his less admirable movie efforts. The…
It’s hard to think of a musical that would benefit more from a Blu-ray boost than Ken Russell’s kaleidoscopic all dancing, all singing send-up of theatrical clichés on the music hall stage, circa 1925. We’re just happy that the adorable Twiggy got to be put in a film like this, to be enjoyed forever. The…
Screen horror gets a fun-ride boost with the adventures of a trio of home-alone kids squaring off against demons from, ‘right in their own back yard.’ Creative, expertly daring special effects heighten a perfect spook thriller for young kids, that’s has more and better ‘Boo’ moments than most of the hardcore genre classics of its…
Charlie Bronson cashed in big with this lightweight action thriller co-starring Jill Ireland and Robert Duvall. Did Duvall get involved because the original concept was a serious look at political scandals between big business, the CIA and Chile? The clues from the real source story are still there. Breakout Region B + A Blu-ray Koch…
Yep, yet another fleet of giant alien spaceships has Earth surrounded, but Denis Villeneuve’s movie is not your garden variety invasion fantasy. Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner have a limited time to figure out how to communcate with alien creatures whose intentions are a complete unknown. It’s a rare sci-fi thriller that succeeds on a…
Lewis Milestone’s poetic character study of an infantry landing in Italy gives us a full dozen non-cliché portraits of men in war, featuring a dramatic dream team of interesting character actors. Dana Andrews was the only big star in the cast, joined by hopefuls Richard Conte, Lloyd Bridges and John Ireland; the standout crew includes…
The story of Mildred and Richard Loving could easily have become a sledgehammer epic about social injustice. Writer-director Jeff Nichols instead sticks to the facts and recounts their ordeal with a quiet subjectivity that neither exaggerates nor sanctifies. The result is a marvelously affecting demonstration of how a civilized, progressive America rights a wrong. Ruth…
The Edge of Seventeen Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Universal Studios Home Entertainment 2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date February 14, 2017 / 34.98 Starring – Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Hayden Szeto, Alexander Calvert. Cinematography- Doug Emmett Film Editor –…
Manchester by the Sea Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Lionsgate 2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 39.99 Starring – Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Liam McNeill, C.J. Wilson, Gretchen Mol, Michelle Williams, Matthew Broderick. Cinematography – Jody Lee Lipes Film Editor –…
Hacksaw Ridge Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Summit Entertainment 2016 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 139 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 39.99 Starring – Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Vince Vaughn, Rachel Griffiths, Luke Pegler. Cinematography – Simon Duggan Film Editor – John Gilbert…
Valkoinen Peura (The White Reindeer) Region B Blu-ray VLM Media (Finland) 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat / 68 74 min. / Street Date November 25, 2016 / Available from CDON.COM / €19.95 Starring: Mirjami Kuosmanen, Kalervo Nissilä, Åke Lindman, Jouni Tapiola, Arvo Lehesmaa. Cinematography, Editing: Erik Blomberg Costume, Wardrobe, Makeup: Mirjami Kuosmanen Original…
One Million Years B.C. Blu-ray KL Studio Classics 1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91, 100 min. / Street Date February 14, 2017 / Available from Kino Lorber 29.95 Starring: Raquel Welch, John Richardson, Percy Herbert, Robert Brown, Martine Beswick Cinematography: Wilkie Cooper Special visual effects: Ray Harryhausen Art Direction: Robert Jones Film…
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 96 min. / Street Date February 28, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring: Victoria Vetri, Robin Hawdon, Patrick Allen, Drewe Henley, Sean Caffrey, Magda Konopka, Imogen Hassall, Patrick Holt, Jan Rossini, Carol Hawkins, Maria…