Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD from 2010 and earlier.
1969
Afterschool
Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
Au Pair Girls
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: It may be completely silly, but “Au Pair Girls” goes down surprisingly easy, avoiding becoming outright pornography through its use of broad slapstick and winking humor.
Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: It’s trash, literally: something that wasn’t good enough for its intended purpose, and so Disney slapped a box on it and charged money for it.
Berserk!
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Berserk! in many ways is a B-Picture: illogical, a bit obvious in its artiface, but Crawford gave it her all and was totally committed to the role.
Casino Royale
Stephen Carty @ Flix Capacitor
The Corridor
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: …delivers a satisfying wallop of schizoid horror…
Cristian Nemescu Shorts
Henry Stewart @ The L Magazine
- Excerpt: The greatest Romanian New Wave director died young, but he left behind more than his one feature.
The Dark Mirror
- Excerpt: Robert Siodmak’s 1946 crime drama “The Dark Mirror” is a psychological thriller with a romantic twist. Olivia De Havilland crushes the role of troubled twins caught up in a murder scandal.
The Defector
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Falstaff
Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]
- Excerpt: I film di Orson Welles non si limitano a raccontare una storia, ma sono, essi stessi, fonte di un’ inesauribile mitologia.
The Game
- Excerpt: …[Fincher] more readily identifies with the person being manipulated than with the manipulator.
Heaven’s Gate
Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]
- Excerpt: Un film smisurato, dalle ambizioni senza confini, magnificamente diretto e interpretato da quattro attori in stato di grazia: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert e Jeff Bridges.
Hedwig and The Angry Inch
- Excerpt: Ten years ago, a conversation about one movie changed the course of my life. Ten years later, I still really love the movie, and the person shared that conversation.
Husbands
Stephen Carty @ Flix Capacitor
Licence to Kill
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: The good: this is beautifully complicated stuff… The bad: simply, that it’s not a Bond film.
Lonesome
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: Watching Paul Fejos’ Lonesome in 2012 is a fascinating and revelatory experience.
Made Of Honor
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: It is a truth universally acknowledged in modern romantic comedies that a man can screw all the women he wants because every woman he meets not only wants to get screwed by him but believes she should be treated like a bargain basement hooker in exchange for the pleasure of his time.
Magnolia
Stephen Carty @ Flix Capacitor
The Manchurian Candidate
Márcio Sallem @ Cinema com Crítica [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: John Frankenheimer revela o limiar em que políticas e paranoia se confundem; e o resultado não é menos do que espetacular.
Man-Trap
- Excerpt: Edmond O’Brien’s “Man-Trap” is a fairly conventional crime picture in terms of plot, but the 1961 melodrama can be pretty thrilling when the emotional stakes rise to dangerous levels. Words end up being more deadly than bullets, though there are plenty of both to go around.
My Son John
- Excerpt: “My Son John” is an overdone and overly earnest effort. The 1952 propaganda picture dramatizes what may have been a very real fear: a family is shocked when their son comes home a communist.
One More River
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
The Red Squirrel
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: …plays like a postmodern Spanish version of “Vertigo,” only with obscure portents of squirrelly doom and comically absurd dream sequences.
Robin Hood (1922)
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Showgirls
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Intelligently made by a smart director in full command of his powers.
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
Roderick Heath @ Ferdy on Films
The Texas Rangers (1951)
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
This Is Cinerama
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: Flicker Alley has provided a stellar presentation that is a veritable feast for film enthusiasts.
Touch of Evil
- Excerpt: Digging into this film has been a long time coming. It hasn’t just waited through nine months of Blind Spots; it’s been patiently waiting for me on my own shelf for years
Umberto D.
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: Has a legitimate claim at being called the saddest film of all time.
Up
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: UP is more than an adventure story with a fantastical premise. It really is about life, and how it goes on even when we lose people important to us.
Les visiteurs du soir
Jamie S. Rich @ Criterion Confessions
- Excerpt: Les visiteurs du soir is a carefully rendered morality play in which privileged individuals who are amused by the misery of the less fortunate have the tables turned and become the playthings of a power greater than their own.
Way of A Gaucho
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
White Christmas
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: This might come as a surprise, but the song “White Christmas” did not originate from the film White Christmas.
Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich
- Excerpt: hough an entertaining period documentary, “Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich” is really a visual showcase for the giant “Cinemiracle” projection process. Encompassing, essentially, three different screens, this gorgeously photographed chronicle of a Norwegian ship’s trip around the world is a marvel of cinematic expansiveness.
