Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD from 2010 and earlier.
After Life
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Altered States
John J. Puccio @ Movie Metropolis
- Excerpt: Think of it as an extravagant and exhilarating, if over-the-top, piece of filmmaking that’s silly, to be sure, but engrossing at the same time.
Batman [1989]
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Only minor Burton, with hindsight on our side, and its chief merits and flaws are as one of the formative texts of superhero cinema.
Batman Returns
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Kind of a lousy Batman film, and also kind of a great Burton film.
Batman Forever
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: The gulf between the dark universe Burton’s film set up and the tremendously silly camp world that Schumacher and Goldsman were hunting for was too great to hybridise the two.
Batman & Robin
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Among the worst wide-release films of the 1990s, offering virtually nothing in the way of positive compensation other than an excellent chance to mock it with a cadre of like-minded, drunk friends.
Chariots of Fire
Stephen Carty @ Flix Capacitor
Cherry Bomb
The Clan of Cave Bear
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: A goofy and ill-made movie that wants to be deadly serious and acts incredibly daft, and the average between these two points is of a joyless, dull nothing.
Coma
John J. Puccio @ Movie Metropolis
- Excerpt: …a genuinely suspenseful mystery thriller, with a conspiracy angle unfolding in due course without a lot of fuss and bother.
Crime Does Not Pay
- Excerpt: This series is a mix of procedural, with detectives doing proto-CSI work to solve the crimes, and morality tale with terrible ends for the criminals. And while they are clearly low budget, they feature better production values than a lot of B movies and generally move at a driving pace…
The Dark Knight
Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
Deliverance
Alan Bacchus @ Daily Film Dose
Diamonds Are Forever
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Makes the disastrous, franchise-altering decision to underscore how fusty Bond is by diving right into campines.
Dirty Pretty Things
- Excerpt: when Miramax released this British thriller in the US in the summer of 2003, it did so with “Amélie”s star Audrey Tautou alone claiming above-the-title billing and the poster art in a seemingly undressed state.
Down by Law
- Excerpt: Jim Jarmusch’s original black and white drama tells the story of three strangers in New Orleans who wind up sharing a cell in prison, from which they together escape.
The Face of Another
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Fantastic Planet
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: The Terry Gilliam-meets-Salvador Dalí-in-space animation combined
with the acidic prog-rock soundtrack encourages (or even precipitates) altered states of viewing, but “Fantastic Planet” is more than JUST an astral trip.
Flash Gordon
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
The Game
Stephen Carty @ Flix Capacitor
The Great Gatsby (1974)
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: It’s the kind of adaptation that future generations of high schoolers will be condemned to watch and make them think all books are boring.
Gunga Din
Alan Bacchus @ Daily Film Dose
Highlander
- Excerpt: Key to the film’s success is its casting. Fresh from Luc Besson’s cult hit Subway, Lambert brings an edgy presence to the lead role. His acting is not exactly refined but he’s intensely watchable, whether in action or sizing up his foes with a stare he later put down to being short sighted and robbed of his glasses on set. He’s ably matched by the inimitable Brown, who makes no attempt to pretend this is a serious film and throws himself into the villain’s part with exuberant relish. It’s a rare actor who can be that OTT and yet genuinely scary at the same time, but Brown, convincingly unhinged, pulls it off.
Highlander II: The Quickening
- Excerpt: There are plenty of low budget science fiction films with weak acting, bad scripts and tacky plots that remain great fun to watch. This isn’t one of them. Its desperation is apparent in a scene where a jarred jukebox suddenly blasts out Queen. If this is a kind of magic, it’s Paul Daniels after several sherries too many.
The Living Daylights
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
The Mark of Zorro
- Excerpt: It took Fairbanks to bring his sensibility and his personality to the genre to infuse it with fresh blood, boyish enthusiasm, and joie-de-vivre. Fairbanks made action fun.
Newsies
- Excerpt: Drubbed by critics and avoided by the public, the period musical was an epic flop…and yet, these days, those who know it tend to love it.
No Greater Glory
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: Based on a beloved Hungarian children’s book, The Paul Street Boys, this 1934 family film about two boys clubs fighting over a playground doubles as a subtle antiwar statement from humanist director Frank Borzage.
No Time For Love
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
The Out-of-Towners
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
The Outside Man
- Excerpt: Though set and shot in Los Angeles, with a largely American cast… and a distinctive score with funky soul guitar and wah-wah pedal, this gangster movie turned cat-and-mouse thriller is a French production with a European sensibility shot on the streets of Los Angeles.
Planet B-Boy
Alan Bacchus @ Daily Film Dose
Predator/I Come in Peace
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
Pusher II
Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinéma [French]
Pusher III
Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinéma [French]
Ransom
- Excerpt: Featured in every TV ad and trailer, “Give me back my son!” is the one line everyone remembers and it is about all you need to know in terms of plot.
Red Dawn
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
Requiem For A Vampire
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
The Saphead
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: Kino continues its devotion to Keaton’s oeuvre with yet another excellent presentation, even if the film in question is ultimately a minor work.
Shut Up And Kiss Me
- Excerpt: It’s an interesting attempt to blend the gay relationship genre with the mainstream romcom, and Ben’s close friendships with straight people, very naturally drawn, allow for discussions about contemporary masculinity and what men are expected to want,.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Alan Bacchus @ Daily Film Dose
Step Up
The Tall T
Alan Bacchus @ Daily Film Dose
Tokyo Story
Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Very Bad Things
Via Dolorosa
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Weird Science
- Excerpt: It’s hard, however, to argue in defence of Weird Science, a severely dated and unpleasant comedy in which a grown woman continually offers sex to a couple of 15-year-old boys.
