CineSavant

Blu-ray Secrets and Lies Director Mike Leigh's social-personal observations of life as it is lived in the U.K. always get to me -- this one may simply be a more realistic soap opera, but it's so good that one pays no attention to technical matters, who the actors are or when they are 'acting' ... it just 'is,' and...

3-D Blu-ray Dynasty 3-D 3-D goes Kung-Fu in Super-Touch!   The 3-D Film Archive restores a Far East oddity from the year of Star Wars, an all-action sword, fist and supernatural magic combat spectacle. The big battles play like choreographed dance numbers, but with sound effects and screams taking the place of music. The disc's 3-D extras are of...

Gorath It's another CineSavant review of a movie largely unavailable, especially the original Japanese version. This third Ishirô Honda / Eiji Tsuburaya outer space action epic is probably the best Toho science fiction feature ever, an Astral Collision tale in which the drama and characters are as compelling as the special effects. Nothing can stop a...

Blu-ray Journeys through French Cinema Bertrand Tavernier breaks the barrier between fans of European movies and 101 classic French pictures that most of us have never gotten a peek at. The key to this eight-hour film clip excerpt round-up is the hosting-curatorship of Tavernier -- the fascinating miniseries has plenty to offer both fans that have never seen an old...

Blu-ray Five The first post-nuclear science fiction thriller is a grim & gripping end-of-the-world tale with rough content for its year. Arch Oboler's best movie watches as five motley survivors discover that their pre-apocalyptic prejudices have survived as well, precipitating a savage struggle in the shadow of doom. The filming was an artistic collaboration with established film...

Region Free Blu-ray Arizona Colt Lee Broughton returns with a review of Michele Lupo's fine-looking Spaghetti Western, Arizona Colt. Giuliano Gemma stars as the eponymous anti-hero-cum-bounty killer who goes head-to-head with Fernando Sancho's villainous Mexican bandit. The show's collateral damage comes in the shapely form of fan favourite Rosalba Neri while its highly reluctant love interest is played by none...

Blu-ray Crossfire Hollywood learns to imbed a social message into a crime thriller. John Paxton's adaptation of Richard Brooks' neat murder tale is solid noir because it sheds light on the malaise of returning soldiers. No parades and confetti here: Robert Ryan is the hateful bigot but the other characters live amid equally shadowy values -- laid-back...

Blu-ray Nosferatu in Venice This obscure Italian horror has Christopher Plummer, Donald Pleasence and atmospheric locations -- and a making of story that Severin tells in full unexpurgated detail. Never released in an English- language territory, Augusto Caminito's brooding shocker had four directors. Its commercial chances were derailed by its deranged star, Klaus Kinski, who poses well, molests his...

Blu-ray Battle Hymn This dubious mix of war combat and faith-based inspiration is as well directed as any of Douglas Sirk's films, even if literally every scene seems to be saying the wrong thing. Combat pilot Col. Dean Hess helped found and publicize a major orphanage in South Korea, but as personified by a pious Rock Hudson his...

Blu-ray The Bridges at Toko-Ri The most glamorous movie about the Korean War experience lauds the bravery of Navy aviators while spelling out the downside of fighting an unpopular war. William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March and Mickey Rooney turn in sharp performances, and Charles McGraw gets his best character part as a no-nonsense flight commander. Paramount's special effects department...

Blu-ray The Criminal Code Howard Hawks' early sound picture is a worthy prison drama -- with top performances from Walter Huston and Boris Karloff, both just as their film careers began to take off. Huston shows the screen how a stage actor can take command: his DA-turned warden character is corrupt yet retains his air of authority. Karloff's convict...

Blu-ray Damn Yankees A musical that charms even audiences that don't like musicals, this adaptation of a big 1955 Broadway hit is noted for capturing much of the original's power and brilliance -- more legendary stage performances should be filmed like this, immortalizing theater history that otherwise disappears into the ether. Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ Brown and...

Blu-ray The Time Travelers Ib Melchior's best-directed movie is a futuristic space opera with a time travel theme, all done at a production level suitable for a Halloween fun house. Yet its talented crew comes up with exciting visuals to match Melchior's flaky-but-fun eclecticism: Androids, Mutants, 'deviants,' hydroponic gardens, force fields, time warps... and a sexist attitude or two...

4K Ultra-HD + Blu-ray + Digital Apocalypse Now Final Cut 4K Apocalypse Now in 4K?  After The Wild Bunch this is one title likely to get me to invest in a new format. Francis Coppola & John Milius' Vietnam War epic may not be perfect, but it's one of the most exciting movie experiences ever and one of the top achievements of the first film school...

Blu-ray The Flame Barrier Nope, it's not on disc but it's getting written up here because so few people know it and it's been difficult to see my entire adult life. The fourth Gardner/Levy United Artists horror/sci-fi picture of '57-'58 is another trip into a jungle's Heart of Darkness, where awaits a deadly satellite fallen from orbit. Have we...

Region B Blu-ray The Masque of the Red Death Whoa!  CineSavant reviewed a different release of this movie just four months ago. Roger Corman's 7th Poe/Gothic adaptation is probably his best, thanks to a Beaumont/Campbell screenplay that fully engages with Edgar A.'s morbid agenda. It's not really kiddie fare, what with the unrelenting emphasis on cruel torture, perverse values and Godless nihilism. Vincent Price's...

Blu-ray Show Boat (1951) MGM's remake of the grand musical can't be ignored -- the restored transfer is stunning, demonstrating the studio's technical skill at full tilt. There are good aspects to this version, even if it's mostly a missed opportunity more notable for production backstories than for itself. It's Kathryn Grayson's high water mark at MGM, and Howard...

It's nearly perfect and utterly profound, a masterpiece -- Larisa Shepitko made only four theatrical features yet this Soviet movie about the Great Patriotic War earns her a firm place in film history. Moral betrayals under stress, in the face of profound evil... it's the human condition. Astonishing for a Mosfilm production of the time, the film equates nationalistic sacrifice with Christian martyrdom. Criterion's extras tell the impressive story behind the making of this major Soviet production. The Ascent A few months ago we reviewed Soviet filmmaker Elem Klimov’s Come and See, a WWII epic that fully conveys the horror of the war as experienced by an ordinary civilian, a teenage partisan. Klimov’s wife and fellow filmmaker Larisa Shepitko had an equally stellar career struggling against the communist censors. Her final film The Ascent...

Region B Blu-ray Things Change I don’t need to return many of David Mamet’s celebrated classics … as good as it is, I find Glengarry Glen Ross oppressive to the point of despair. Had I seen it at age twenty I’d never have tried to get a job anywhere. A Mamet character talks less to communicate than to impose power...

Blu-ray Runaway Train When I first started working for The Cannon Group on La Cienega in early 1987, I saw the posters on the walls for awful- looking pictures and asked, what’s the best film they’ve made?  Everybody answered, ‘Runaway Train.’ That was a Cannon movie?’ I liked it on the ‘Z’ Channel but forgot that it was...

Blu-ray San Francisco How can we commemorate the 30th anniversary of a disaster that claimed three thousand human lives?  Hey, why not an uplifting movie with a redemptive message? A big hit and a nominee for Best Picture, San Francisco displays both the strengths and weaknesses of the studio system in the Golden Era. As a star vehicle...

Blu-ray Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García For all of its flaws Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García is actually one of Sam Peckinpah’s better pictures. As the last film made before his career dissolved in alcohol and drugs, it shows a commitment missing from his subsequent work with the partial exception of the war movie Cross of Iron. Peckinpah’s crumbling...

Blu-ray “Doc” When you’ve spent a lifetime searching out all the good westerns that have been made, finding a winner you passed over is a special occasion. I once caught a few seconds of Frank Perry’s “Doc” in a bad TV print and never bothered to seek it out. Kino’s new disc swivels my perception 180° …...

Good News The Arthur Freed MGM musical unit gives this 1927 musical remake the old College Try!  It’s a vehicle for the wartime sweetheart June Allyson, aided by Peter Lawford, who is quite good if not real musical material. The fun original tunes are joined by a couple of new ones, including an all-time terrific song &...

The Deep Peter Benchley’s follow-up to Jaws is a treasure hunt thriller starring Robert Shaw and filmed in the pearly waters off Bermuda. The exciting underwater scenes boosted the careers of Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset but the memory that stuck in the minds of millions was a particular wardrobe decision for Bisset’s siren of the deep....

Blu-ray The Parallax View Around 1996 or so the Los Angeles County Museum of Art put on a film series honoring the creative use of the widescreen (anamorphic) screen shape. I missed Garden of Evil but caught the incredible The Parallax View on the Leo S. Bing Theater’s ultra-wide screen. I say this because Panavision and CinemaScope movies always...