Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD.
Recent Home Video Releases
Elysium
- Excerpt: Elysium is a film that will hopefully endure as a return to classic sci-fi form, not an a-level choice, but far above the countless genre entries that have come and been forgotten.
Fruitvale Station
- Excerpt: A remarkable debut feature from writer/director Ryan Coolger, the based-on-true-events docudrama Fruitvale Station is a real eye-opener, turning the spotlight on a horrible tragedy and unnecessary death that touches on a lot of difficult topics that relate to our times, particularly given the ongoing debate about “post-racial” America.
Jayne Mansfield’s Car
- Excerpt: When I worked at an indie video store some time ago, a customer once told me, “The more famous people in a movie you’ve never heard of, the less chance it has to be good.” Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jane Mansfield’s Car, actor Billy Bob Thornton’s return to directing.
Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear
Brent McKnight @ Beyond Hollywood
- Excerpt: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear is straight up, badass action that brings to mind Chuck Norris in his prime.
Post Tenebras Lux
- Excerpt: It unmistakably gets under the skin, it’s most unnerving achievement being creating that exact nagging self-doubt, causing me to fret over whatever it was that maybe I missed. One could almost call it a Mexican Upstream Color, a movie that fascinates and somehow entertains, all the while glossing over the emptiness of the exercise.
Riddick
M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
Other Reviews from 2011 and earlier
Adventure in Kigan Castle
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee Coffee and more Coffee
Blue Is the Warmest Color
- Excerpt: Except for the elephant in the room, a decent portrait of a relationship
Enemies: A Love Story
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: Paul Mazursky’s adaptation of the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, made exactly 20 years after Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, isn’t concerned with parodying the free love/therapy of the ’60s that Mazursky clearly saw through, but it could be considered something of a prequel.
Favorite Film Discoveries of 2013
Peter Gutierrez @ Rupert Pupkin Speaks
Good Vibrations
Matthew Blevins @ Nextprojection.com
- Excerpt: Good Vibrations takes us through decades of Terri Hooley’s seemingly inconsequential existence and shows the power one dreamer’s soul against the impossible realities of living in a nation at odds with itself. It’s a freewheeling biopic that brings the characters from an understudied era in world history to life as Terri is shown as an unlikely catalyst for social change.
Persona Non Grata
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Vic
- Excerpt: Vic is a truly unforgettable 30-minutes of filmmaking that will speak most loudly to both film fans with deep appreciation for film history and those who have felt the painful pang of being forgotten.
The Visitor
Matthew Blevins @ Nextprojection.com
- Excerpt: Finding a recognizable face through the wispy haze of its over-lit stages is jarring as a film such as this lives outside of conventional space and time, lured and forever trapped by the false assurances of permanent modernity that will have one believing that Pong will always be topical and Xanadu hairdos will never go out of style.
