Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD from 2011 and earlier.
The Boogie Man Will Get You
- Excerpt: The Boogie Man Will Get You is harmless fluff, putting two horror regulars into slim comedic situations in hopes that they’ll manage to make something out of them. Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff are good in this would-be wartime chuckler, but the gags are as dead as the monster Karloff is most famous for playing.
Cavalcade
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Intesting as a tapestry of the first generation and a half of the 20th century, but wow it is a dry as bad toast.
Cimarron
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: EWhat a creaky, dusty old relic this is.
Die, Monster, Die!
Andrew Wyatt @ Gateway Cinephiles
- Excerpt: Despite Die, Monster, Die!’s significant divergences from its source material in terms of both plot and tone, it quite capably conveys “The Colour Out of Space’s” mingling of secular and Puritan dread.
Dogville
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: “Justine” acted out on the set of “Our Town.”
Grand Hotel
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Were it not for the stories, this would just be an empty portrait of great stars.
It Happened One Night
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: The comedy is still potent, the romance not so much.
Little Fugitive
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …a charmer from another age.
The Magnificent Seven
Millennium Actress
Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinema.com
My Fair Lady
- Excerpt: …extreme staginess, questionable editing, poor use of the wide screen, production values that feel like watered-down Minnelli, a lot of strutting about in lieu of actual dancing, and a general air of forced energy.
Night of the Demons 2
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: An overlooked gem of 90s horror, a fun, campy, self referential work of low budget excess that is almost impossible to resist.
Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Rebecca
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Self-consciously prestigious literary filmmaking… more in line with the producer’s career than the director’s.
Reversal of Fortune
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
The Running Man
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: It’s a remarkably prescient media satire, presaging the reality TV craze by almost 15 years and even went so far as to cast Family Feud’s Richard Dawson as the show’s egomaniacal host.
Samson
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Sheitan
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: This movie really hates young people, which is cool and all—hey, we all want those damn kids to stay off our lawns—but “Sheitan” goes just a little too far.
Silent Souls
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Socrates
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
The Story of G.I. Joe
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: A film honoring the ordinary foot soldier of World War II and the war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, who told their stories.
The Vertical Ray of Sun
- Excerpt: The Vertical Ray of the Sun, the 2000 drama from Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung (Norwegian Wood), is an artfully conceived, beautifully realized cinematic poem, a story of life that could be compared to Wong Kar-Wai or Hou Hsiao-hsien, both masters of the blithe rhythms that Hung so effortlessly dances to. Yet, The Vertical Ray of the Sun is also very much representative of a singular voice, of a tone that indicates the artist’s assurance of his own perceptions and his willingness to trust his instincts.
