Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD from 2010 and earlier.
Babo 73
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Bedlam
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: A weak end to a great career [for producer Val Lewton], but not, in and of itself, a bad movie.
Black Sunday
Bugs Bunny Superstar
- Excerpt: The subversive ‘toons, which feature a variety of Looney Tunes personalities though the beloved, titular Bugs most of all, comprise three-quarters of the film’s 90-minute runtime. The documentary footage is of greater interest here, which is undoubtedly the opposite of what the original audience’s sentiment likely would have been.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Whipping up the energy to dislike it seems entirely disproportionate to how trivial and disposable the product is.
The Candidate (1972)
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: It gets a vote of confidence.
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: A more sophisticated barbarian than most would concede.
Dark Star
John J. Puccio @ Movie Metropolis
- Excerpt: Finally, we get a frame-by-frame digital restoration of the film, presented in Blu-ray high definition. That’s saying a lot for a cult film made on a shoestring.
French Cancan
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Lonesome
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Moulin Rouge!
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Sensual ravishment, indeed.
My Son John
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
The Pirate
- Excerpt: The Pirate isn’t so alien that you’ve no clue what it’s trying to do, but as you watch it, you get the idea that something just isn’t right.
Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 2
- Excerpt: compiling these recent efforts together reveals that what is a fun novelty before a film or on its DVD doesn’t necessarily add up to outstanding entertainment when watched in succession. While some of Volume 2’s shorts are very good, many are just all right.
Possession
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film could be seen as a metaphor for women’s liberation, the battle between the sexes, idealization of one’s lover, faith vs. fate and/or a political statement, but even for those who couldn’t care less about underlying meaning, “Possession” is very effective as straight up, very stylish horror.
The Postman Always Rings Twice
John J. Puccio @ Movie Metropolis
- Excerpt: The film projects an undercurrent of barely disguised passions and sexuality.
Quantum of Solace
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: An abominable action movie.
The Ring
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: …an effective fright machine; it’s the only Hollywood remake of a J-horror hit that’s capable of standing on its own against the Asian original.
Sunset Blvd.
Brian Holcomb @ Cinemablend.com
- Excerpt: One of the great joys of the film is watching the way in which William Holden’s naturalistic performance clashes with an actress and performance style from an earlier age.
Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures
Jamie S. Rich @ Criterion Confessions
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
World on a Wire
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: The movie’s sanity-questioning themes may have been shopworn even in 1973, but rarely have they been delivered with such depth and artistry.
You Only Live Twice
Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: Watching the schizoid You Only Live Twice—satisfying in some respects, frustratingly comic in others—is instructive in explaining why Connery was getting fed up with the series and how the Bond movies would eventually stray quite far from their source material before its triumphant reboot decades later.
Zorns Lemma
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: …we judge experimental films by a different set of criteria than commercial films, or even art films; we don’t hope to enjoy them so much as to see our expectations of what a ‘film’ can be challenged and expanded. In that sense, “Zorns Lemma” is worth encountering for students of cinema at its most basic level.
