Killer Greek scenery in CinemaScope graces Jean Negulesco’s relaxed thriller about art theft in the Aegean. But viewers are more likely to remember Sophia Loren’s sexy wet diving costume that insured that her American debut didn’t go unnoticed. Boy on a Dolphin Blu-ray KL Studio Classics 1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min….
The biggest, most lavish hook-up between Hollywood and the Pentagon was this Anthony Mann-James Stewart collaboration, a morale & recruiting cheer for America’s intercontinental bombing air force, the service that kept the peace by holding up our side of the balance of fear. Strategic Air Command Blu-ray Olive Films 1955 / Color / 1:66 widescreen (VistaVision)…
In the early ’70s Walter Matthau excelled in three powerful cops ‘n’ robbers movies; the second sees him as a tough, laconic San Francisco detective charged with an impossible task — running down a machine gun mass murderer, with no clues and no living witnesses. The Laughing Policeman Blu-ray KL Studio Classics 1973 / Color…
The great Fred Zinnemann’s last feature is a very personal story, a fairly uncomplicated drama with a mountain climbing backdrop. Sean Connery plays older than his age as a Scotsman on an Alpine vacation, toying with social disaster. With excellent, non- grandstanding performances from Betsy Brantley and Lambert Wilson. Five Days One Summer DVD-R The…
Krzysztof Kieślowski’s magnum opus for Polish Television is a transcendent ‘cycle’ of moral tales, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. But sometimes it’s difficult to get the connection — these brilliant mini-movies are pretty tricky. Dekalog Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 837 1988 / Color / 1:33 flat full frame; 1:70 widescreen / 583…
‘Beat Takeshi’ goes rogue cop in his first self-directed feature, as Takeshi Kitano. It’s excellent, a brutal tale with a fascinating lead character and a directorial style that compels one to watch — it’s never easy to know what will happen next. Violent Cop Blu-ray Film Movement 1989 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 103…
It’s a spooktacular reboot with nothing we haven’t seen before — but the jokes are good and the comediennes form a welcome ensemble. You’d think that this one would have been committee’d and PC’ed to within an inch of its proton packs, but the personalities make it entertaining. Ghostbusters Blu-ray Columbia Pictures/SonyColumbia Pictures / Sony…
Lord Greystoke is back in Africa righting wrongs, freeing the enslaved, smiting the Belgians and rescuing his blonde damsel in distress. We’ve got more 3-D scenery, irate gorillas and special effects than we can shake a stick at… but do we really have Tarzan? The Legend of Tarzan 3-D Blu-ray Warner Home Video 2016 /…
Are you 3-D capable? This classic-era Sci-fi is one of the better ’50s films ever designed for 3-D, and the restoration on this much-coveted new release is excellent. Meteors explode in your face! A rockslide rumbles into your lap! Bizarre superimpositions! Ray gun blasts! And don’t forget Ray Bradbury’s feel-good sense of wonder speeches, delivered…
Warners knocks us out with a beautifully remastered RKO noir. Nicholas Ray’s crime tale is like no other, a meditation on human need and loneliness. It’s a noir with a cautiously positive, hopeful twist. On Dangerous Ground Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date October…
Political terror scenarios were a bit simpler in the 1950s, and movies about them fairly rare. Frank Sinatra gives a strong performance as the villain John Baron, in a tense tale of presidential assassination by high-powered rifle. Suddenly Blu-ray The Film Detective 1954 / B&W / 1.75 widescreen / 75 min. / Street Date October…
Richard Wenk’s 1986 horror comedy is even better than we remember — funny, reasonably scary, and stylish. Grace Jones’ vampire queen is intimidatingly strange, and great makeup effects and polished direction insure that the jokes and chills get equal attention. Vamp Blu-ray Arrow Video 1986 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street…
Writer-director Sergio Sollima gives us one of the best ‘political’ Italo westerns from the pre- May ’68 era… with two top stars in great form, Gian Maria Volontè and Tomas Milian. This two-disc German import has both the long and short versions of the movie in HD, with full language options for each. Face to…
An Encore Edition. Peckinpah’s macabre South of the border shoot ’em up is back for a second limited edition, with a new commentary. It’s still a picture sure to separate the Peckinpah lovers from the auteur tourists – it’s grisly, grim and resolutely exploitative, but also has about it a streak of grimy honesty. Bring…
Savant uncovers the true, hidden ending to this Fritz Lang masterpiece. The moral outrage of Lang’s searing attack on lynch terror hasn’t dimmed a bit — with his first American picture the director nails one of our primary social evils. MGM imposed some re-cutting and re-shooting, but it’s still the most emotionally powerful film on…
Another release of the Kramer-Foreman-Zinnemann classic gives Savant another chance to make his argument that this supposedly ‘liberal’ movie is too confused to be anything but political quicksand — if anything, its statement is bitterly hawkish. High Noon Blu-ray Olive Signature 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date September…
Is the third time the charm for Jack Finney’s stubborn human duplicator pods? Abel Ferrara keeps the faith and makes a straight, effective revisit of the paranoid classic. Does it all seem too familiar now, or are we just more Pod-like and less excitable? Body Snatchers Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1993 / Color / 2:40…
It’s a minor — very minor — Terence Fisher Sci-Fi suspenser that reaches the bare genre minimum and nothing more. Love the title and love those great stills, but when it’s finished you’re going to be saying, ‘Now all I need is a good alien invasion movie!’ The Earth Dies Screaming Blu-ray KL Studio Classics…
High camp or just plain trash? A cultural-cinematic swamp in perfectly rotten taste, this adaptation of Jacqueline Susann’s supermarket ‘dirty book’ seeks out tawdry sleaze like no American movie had before. Junk beyond belief, and great entertainment if you’re in a sick frame of mind. Valley of the Dolls Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 835 1967 /…
Want a nine-hour dose of the truth of existence so harrowing that it will make you feel grateful no matter how humble your situation? Masaki Kobayshi’s epic of the real cost of war boggles the mind with its creeping revelations of cosmic bleakness. Yet all the way through you know you’re experiencing a truth far…
With a title like this you know it has to be good. Irvin Kershner got his start directing on this small-scale tale of kids and crime. Jonathan Haze and Abby Dalton are standouts in the cast while the uncredited executive producer who put up the cash is said to have been Roger Corman. It’s a…
Randolph Scott fights to let the railroad go through in this old-fashioned rip-snorting action adventure movie, the kind where shooting bad guys means never having to say you’re sorry. Jane Wyatt gets top billing but the big burner on this prairie is newcomer Nancy Olson, who puts more sex appeal into her homegrown heroine than…
David Lynch and Mark Frost’s 1990 TV series looks better than ever, while the 1992 feature prequel digs deeper in Laura Palmer’s unpleasant final days with fewer rewards. CBS’s 9-disc retrospective is a setup for the highly awaited series continuation — delayed by 25 years. Twin Peaks: The Original Series, Fire Walk with Me &…
Is this Rod Serling’s best teleplay ever? Van Heflin, Everett Sloane and Ed Begley are at the center of a business power squeeze. Is it all about staying competitive, or is it corporate murder? With terrific early performances from Elizabeth Wilson and Beatrice Straight. Patterns Blu-ray The Film Detective 1956 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen…
Writer/Director Gary Ross constructs a historical-film miracle: a meaningful true tale about the Civil War that doesn’t bog down in details. Rebel deserter Matthew McConaughey leads a wartime insurrection against both the South and the North. It’s hard to believe that it really happened. Free State of Jones Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Universal Studios…
Olive’s new branded line reissues the Nicholas Ray classic with a full set of authoritative extras — plus a never-before-seen widescreen transfer, in all of its Trucolor glory. Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden never looked better — we can all compare theories about la Crawford’s color-coded costumes. Just how masculine is Vienna supposed to be?…