Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD from 2011 and earlier.
Abouna
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Antoine and Colette
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Babette’s Feast
- Excerpt: Babette’s Feast is a film that slowly and gradually wins you over. What seems to put you to sleep early on comes to take meaning in the joyous second half all has been building to. The result is a substantive yet appealing drama you needn’t be an art house snob to enjoy.
Jamie S. Rich @ Criterion Confessions
- Excerpt: Axel does not resort to histrionics or dramatic revelations. His film actually develops in a manner that reverses the common technique: he begins by expressing more, and he ends by expressing less.
Bikini Beach
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Bikini Beach isn’t ‘good’. It’s just tremendously, wonderfully goofy.
Black Sabbath
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
The Celestine Prophecy
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Daisies
Jamie S. Rich @ Criterion Confessions
- Excerpt: Daisies is go-go dancing on top of the outmoded communist regime, which has failed to update its dance moves since the days of Charlie Chaplin pantomime. The kids are growing up, the country is not.
Dial M for Murder
The Exorcist III
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Suggests that Blatty had seen and loved many films without ever really paying attention to how they worked.
Fear in the Night (1947)
Brett Gallman @ www.oh-the-horror.com
Floating Clouds
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
James Plath @ Family Home Theater
- Excerpt: For all its flaws, Greystoke is still better than the romanticized live-action versions of Tarzan that Hollywood has produced.
The Howling
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
The Ice Storm
- Excerpt: For a movie about beautiful people living in beautiful homes in a beautiful neighborhood, Ang Lee‘s ‘The Ice Storm’ is oppressively cold and eerie.
Ishtar (Director’s Cut)
- Excerpt: One’s first impression of Ishtar is that it’s a tad tone-deaf like its protagonists, but once it hits the desert for an unfunny and uninteresting espionage plot, you start to understand the notoriety the film won’t soon be able to shake. The big budget largely went to the stars and writer-director, all of whom fall far short of past glories and their potentials.
The Kentucky Fried Movie
- Excerpt: Not surprisingly, 36-year-old sketch comedy The Kentucky Fried Movie is hit-and-miss as well as quite dated.
Kidnapped
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
The Life of Oharu
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
- Excerpt: What can’t be ignored is just how little chemistry there is between Holden and Jones. For a famous romantic movie, it’s pretty clear–and anecdotes from the production back this up–that the two lovers didn’t get on at all.
The L-Shaped Room
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Meatcleaver Massacre
Brett Gallman @ www.oh-the-horror.com
Minnie and Moskowitz
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Mothra
Brett Gallman @ www.oh-the-horror.com
Paris Is Burning
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Peggy Sue Got Married
- Excerpt: Though it falls apart at its end and never realizes the full potential of its intriguing premise this comedy remains lightly entertaining. It also happens to be full of future movie and television stars, which always adds value.
Priest
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Russian Ark
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Safety Last!
- Excerpt: The film has stood the test of time remarkably well. It remains charming and whimsical while telling a tale that is perfectly relevant: a guy trying to impress a girl with more than a little insincerity.
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Shark in Venice
Skullduggery
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Such an intellectual and artistic sinkhole, such a meandering, dead-end slog that simply making it all the way to the end of its brutal 95 minutes feels like a real personal triumph.
A Story of Water
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Subversive Saturday: The Bunny Game
Matthew Blevins @ Nextprojection.com
The Sunshine Boys
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: For me, Neil Simon tends a bit to the sentimental and superficial, but The Sunshine Boys is neither. The Sunshine Boys shows how even the most time-worn material can be spun gold in the hands of veteran entertainers who understand how to tell a story—beginning, middle, and end.
Triple Standard
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: US Short Film Review
Undead or Alive: A Zombedy
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
