Archive
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Land
“The Marksman” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.LandOftentimes a human being is the star of a movie. Occasionally, it’s an animal. Rarely is it something that would otherwise be an inanimate object. Even more rarely is a movie’s star a place. However, as the title...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Judas and the Black Messiah
“The Little Things” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Judas and the Black MessiahThe man is powerful, confident, eloquent, and persuasive. His language is fiery and direct—it begs no question. The man says what he means and he means what he says. He comes across as...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Fun with Dick and Jane
“Vanquish” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Fun with Dick and JaneOne of the joys of a movie from a bygone era is to see a slice of life that is different from today. People may not change much over the decades, but things like hair styles, clothes, and cars sure do....
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Furies
“The Mortuary Collection” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The FuriesIt’s amazing to watch “The Furies” and know that it was Walter Huston’s last movie. There he was, fresh off his Best Supporting Actor Oscar win for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and giving a...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Willy’s Wonderland
“Leap of Faith” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Willy's WonderlandNicolas Cage doesn’t talk in “Willy’s Wonderland.” That’s not to say he never makes a sound. We do hear the occasional grunt come from him. However, he speaks no words. This is fine. He doesn’t have to...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Shadow in the Cloud
“Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Shadow in the CloudWhen a movie is 83 minutes long, it’s reassuring when it wastes no time getting right to the action. The last thing a short movie should be is a slog, and it’s amazing that there...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Defending Your Life
“Wonder Woman 1984” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Defending Your LifeThe great movies are the ones that stick with you. While most movies quickly evaporate after viewing, a great one provides memories that last a lifetime. I first saw writer-director-star Albert...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Soul
“News of the World” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Soul Animation company Pixar has been going so strong so for long that its toughest competition is itself. As someone who watches all of its movies, I’ve come to expect a high level of excellence in technical...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Promising Young Woman
“Psycho Goreman” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Promising Young Woman It’s been said many times that it’s impossible to really, truly, completely know someone. This is generally true when considering that most people don’t spend 24/7 with each other. It’s even more...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Damn Yankees
“Vanguard” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Damn Yankees Most sports fans prove how dedicated they are by buying season tickets, special cable packages, or multiple clothing articles with their team’s logo on it. In “Damn Yankees,” George Abbott and Stanley Donen’s...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Fatale
“Monster Hunter” and “Scare Me” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.Fatale As I begin to write this review while listening to Bernard Herrmann’s score to Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal 1958 masterpiece “Vertigo,” I’m reminded of something the Master of Suspense said during...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Croods: A New Age
“Wrong Turn” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Croods: A New Age Punch monkeys rule. They don’t say much, but they’re very colorful and let their actions, i.e., their punching, do their talking for them. And it’s not just punch monkeys. It’s also kick monkeys,...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee
“Archenemy” and “Fear of Rain” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee The opening scene of “The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee” starts off with Paul Hogan, playing a fictionalized version of himself, walking around the Hollywood Hills when a large...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Freaky
“Greenland” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Freaky A good sign that a movie is out to have fun and be entertaining is when it plays with the studio logo. It’s a signal to the audience that what we’re about to see is not a serious prestige picture, but rather...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Let Him Go
“Host” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Let Him Go Settings matter. At least they should. In the best story writing, time and place have a meaning. They’re not merely incidental to the plot. They inform the characters and action as events unfold. “Let Him Go” has a...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Fatman
“Batman: Soul of the Dragon” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Fatman As someone who’s watched a superfluous overabundance of movies, I sometimes ponder if every original idea has been exhausted. Then I watch something like “Fatman,” with a brazenly weird and...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Kid Detective
“Dreamland” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Kid Detective The title may be “The Kid Detective," but this is definitely an adult movie. Adam Brody plays the title character, Abe Applebaum. He’s 32 years old and still gets the same small “who stole the cookie from...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Freshman
“Spell” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Freshman One of the major advantages of comedy over drama is that in comedy, consequences don’t have to matter. Take for example the opening scene of 1990’s “The Freshman,” in which Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) takes...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Love and Monsters
“12 Hour Shift” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Love and Monsters The post-apocalyptic landscape of “Love and Monsters” would not be out of place in a zombie movie. The aerial shots show us the peace and tranquility of dense, calm forests and the tree-lined streets...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Honest Thief
“The Last Shift” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Honest Thief “Honest Thief” reminded me of a thought I had in regard to Liam Neeson while watching “Taken 3” in 2014: He shouldn’t run. He can still walk, fight, shoot, drive, and growl his lines like the second coming...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The War with Grandpa
“The Craft: Legacy” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The War with Grandpa If only all wars were as fun and conducted with as much love as “The War with Grandpa.” How great would it be if pranks were used as weapons instead of guns? Or if those fighting the war made...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Tenet
“Battle of the Bulge: Winter War” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Tenet I spent two and a half hours of my life watching “Tenet.” From this time, I can say that the performances are excellent, the visuals are jaw-dropping, and the action scenes are bold, creative,...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Possessor
“Made in Italy” and “Smiley Face Killers” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.Possessor Have you ever had an awesome secret that you wish you could share with the world, but know you can’t? It’s like that being a movie critic sometimes. We see a lot of mediocrity and...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Attack
“The Rental” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Attack One of the great joys and benefits of movies in home video format, and in this case Blu-ray, is the chance to discover hidden gems. These are older movies that don’t get the fame or recognition that other...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Irishman
“Ava” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Irishman It’s my general policy when reviewing movies to focus solely on the movie itself and ignore external factors. However, given the controversy regarding the credibility of Frank Sheeran, played by Robert De Niro in...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Unhinged
“The New Mutants” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Unhinged The city that serves as the backdrop for “Unhinged” is one populated by extensive freeway congestion, aggressively hostile drivers, and an infrastructure that’s described as a confusing mass of spaghetti...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Bill & Ted Face the Music
“The Last Dance” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Bill & Ted Face the Music “Bill & Ted Face the Music” does what the last movie in any good trilogy does: It refers back to the previous movies, comes full circle, and ties up loose story points. As we know from...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Shepherd of the Hills
“Antebellum” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Shepherd of the Hills The sight of a young, trim, virile John Wayne wearing a big brim hat and brandishing a Winchester repeater could easily lead anyone to think that 1941’s “The Shepherd of the Hills” is a western....
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Ipcress File
“Friendsgiving” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Ipcress File Given that “The Ipcress File” is a British spy movie from 1965, it’s best to answer the burning question first: How does Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) compare to that other famous British spy whose...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Haunt
“Tremors: Shrieker Island” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Haunt I appreciate “Haunt,” a movie about an extreme haunted house, for being scary in the same way that haunted houses themselves are scary. There is a wide variety of settings, and each of those settings...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
“Batman: Death in the Family” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie I have to admit to approaching “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” with hesitation and trepidation. This is due to the fact that I hold the television series “Breaking Bad” in...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Secret Garden
“The Pale Door” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Secret Garden The private world of children is invariably one of magic, wonder, and imagination. It inhabits its own plane of existence away from the stifling and seemingly arbitrary rules of boring, buzzkill...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Milagro Beanfield War
“The Silencing” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Milagro Beanfield War “Milagro” means “miracle" in Spanish. We learn this early in “The Milagro Beanfield War,” and it’s important to keep in mind throughout. Our first clue that there are some fantasy elements in...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Masque of the Red Death
“Most Wanted” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Masque of the Red Death“The Masque of the Red Death” was produced and directed by Roger Corman. Some know that name as the man who helped kicked off a roster of who’s-who names in Hollywood, including Jack Nicholson,...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Roman Holiday
“Becky” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Roman Holiday Sometimes cliches are cliches for a reason, and oftentimes it’s because there is at least some bit of truth to them. I’ll dust off this old chestnut for “Roman Holiday”: They don’t make them like they used to. I...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Bad Education
“Superman: Man of Tomorrow” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Bad Education Midway through “Bad Education” there’s a montage sequence in which small candy canes and Christmas cards are being stuffed into envelopes. These cards are meant for the parents of the Roslyn,...
Mulan
No Mushu, no songs, no problem. It's an empowering action spectacle that, although it stumbles out of the gate, is held aloft by its progressive depiction of life in the barracks, lush pageantry and committed actors who who hit more than they miss. Is it worth...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Clockwise
“Irresistible” and “Rogue” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.Clockwise As many fans of the iconic British comedy troupe Monty Python well know, the best choice for the role of an authority figure who constantly gets thwarted is John Cleese. No one puts on the airs of...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The King of Staten Island
“The Trip to Greece” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The King Of Staten Island As an avid movie watcher, and particularly as one who is required to think critically about the sounds and images being paraded in front of me, it’s easy to get cynical. I see a premise...
Words On Bathroom Walls
A well intentioned, user friendly look at mental illness. Is it worth $10? Yes
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Outpost
“Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Outpost It’s been said that art imitates life. It’s also been said that history repeats itself. The truth in these axioms was clearer than ever to me as I watched “The Outpost,” about a U.S. Army...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Lorenzo’s Oil
“The Tenant” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Lorenzo's Oil “Lorenzo’s Oil” has a first half that shows why some people become atheists, and a second half that shows how some people find their way to God. The movie, which is from 1992, starts off in 1984 and tells the...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Marriage Story
“Scoob!” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Marriage Story "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”—Dick the Butcher from William Shakespeare's “Henry VI,” Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2. I thought of this quote while watching writer-director Noah Baumbach’s...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Lady Eve
“The Swing of Things” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Lady Eve Barbara Stanwyck is a charmer. With her petite frame and inviting smile, she has a sweet, endearing, approachable, girl next door quality that makes her extremely likeable—even if the character she is...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Trolls: World Tour
“Sweetness in the Belly” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Trolls: World Tour A great shock awaited me in the opening of “Trolls: World Tour.” No, it wasn’t the discovery that the land inhabited by Queen Poppy (voice of Anna Kendrick) and her best pal Branch (voice of...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Force of Nature
“Four Kids and It” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Force Of Nature With all of the pomp, circumstance, glitz, and glamor that comes with being a Hollywood movie star, it’s easy for us outsiders to lose focus on what is under that veneer. Before any of your favorite...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Murder by Decree
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Murder By Decree There’s a banter between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson that, when done properly, is musical. The contrast between the flabbergasted Watson, played in 1979’s “Murder by Decree” by James...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Etruscan Smile
“Impractical Jokers: The Movie” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Etruscan Smile The opening credits of “The Etruscan Smile” waste no time. Just a logo and some company credits, then the directing credit for co-directors Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis. That’s it. We...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Brian’s Song
“We Summon the Darkness” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Brian's SongSay the numbers “40” and “41” to a Chicago Bears fan and it’s an almost sure bet they’ll know who you mean. For the rest of us, these numbers belong to Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo, two running...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Extra Ordinary
“Robert the Bruce” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Extra Ordinary Possessed cheese is a thing. At least it is according to “Extra Ordinary,” a comedy from Ireland about a driving instructor named Rose Dooley (Maeve Higgins) who also has the gift to communicate with...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Invisible Man
“Scorsese Shorts” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Invisible Man It’s been standard for a while for modestly budgeted motion pictures to use Toronto, Ontario, as a stand in for New York. The city structure, climate, and architecture are close enough to make it...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Onward
“Sonic the Hedgehog” and “The Way Back” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.Onward The 3D animated movies made by Pixar look good—really good. They’ve been impressing audiences with their depth of field, light and shadow, and their own rules of physics for the past...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Call of the Wild
“Birds of Prey” and “Fantasy Island” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Call of the Wild If a movie like “The Call of the Wild” doesn’t give you a hankering to see the Alaska and the Yukon territory in Canada, nothing will. The vistas in the movie are absolutely...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Gretel and Hansel
“Bloodshot” and “The Rhythm Section” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.Gretel And HanselLooking up director Osgood Perkins (son of Anthony Perkins of “Psycho” fame, for those keeping score of such things) on IMDB, I discovered that he started his directing career in...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Guns Akimbo
“Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Guns AkimboIt is mostly by reading that I acquire new words to my vocabulary. Movies have taught me some words, but those have mostly been from higher-brow scripts. I don’t think that many...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Gentlemen
“Bad Boys for Life” and “The Turning” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Gentlemen“The Gentlemen” is one of those ironic titles. It’s about a group of men—and one woman—who are anything but gentle. Sure, the men look the part with their posh, well-tailored suits...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: Just Mercy
“Underwater” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.Just MercyI sometimes think if modern society had a polytheistic religious structure like those of our ancient ancestors, there would be a god of movies. This god would, for the most part, be a lazy, unimaginative lout who...
Blu-Ray Pick Of The Week: Dolittle
“Little Women” and “Cats” are also new to Blu-Ray this week.DolittleI predict that in fifteen to twenty years, “Dolittle” will be remembered fondly as a classic. The how and why is because this movie delivers exactly what it needs to deliver for its target audience:...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: The Current War
“Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.The Current WarThe last names of the chief players in “The Current War” are ones we know today: Edison and Westinghouse. Edison is of course Thomas Edison. As played by Benedict Cumberbatch...
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: 1917
“The Grudge” is also new to Blu-Ray this week.1917It seems like the term “movie magic” has been bandied about for as long as movies have been around. Using it so casually for so long has of course meant that it’s lost its impact. It tends to hit people’s ears with all...
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