Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD.
Reviews of Classic Films
Blu is the New “Black”
- Excerpt: Blu-ray reviews of Criterion titles including The Black Stallion.
A Brighter Summer Day
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: Edward Yang’s first masterpiece differs from the similarly themed West Side Story is in its broad, intricate consideration of entire families of mainland Chinese uprooted by the ascendency of Mao Tse-tung and its examination of the transition from one set of cultural values—respect for authority and one’s elders—to another—Western individualism, emancipated youth, and possession-oriented consumerism.
Cesar and Rosalie
The Fabulous Baker Boys
The Gay Divorcee
Kristen Lopez @ Journeys in Classic Film
Max and the Junkmen
My Reputation
Kristen Lopez @ Journeys in Classic Film
Ned Kelly
Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud
Platoon
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Platoon is in the end I think not about Vietnam. It is about morality: in war and within ourselves.
Shall We Dance (1937)
Kristen Lopez @ Journeys in Classic Film
The Sting
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: The Sting is a delight from beginning to end.
Swing Time
Kristen Lopez @ Journeys in Classic Film
Wings
Roderick Heath @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: Looked at as a monument to the craft and dynamism of Hollywood filmmaking at the cusp of that first great, wrenching change in the industry, the transition to sound, Wings is indeed a stirring, even staggering relic.
Recent Home Video Releases
He Ran All the Way
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
- Excerpt: Blacklisted by the studios while being investigated by the House of Un-American Activities Committee, it was fitting that John Garfield was able to make one last film with United Artists, a company that for the most part was home for filmmakers with liberal leanings.
Ida
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Storm Fear
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
- Excerpt: Not a exactly a classic, but Storm Fear is worth seeing for some of its counter-intuitive casting.
Other Reviews from 2012 and earlier
Bad Ronald
James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
- Excerpt: Cinema Fearité Presents ‘Bad Ronald’ – As Scary As A Broadcast Television Movie In The Seventies Could Be
Criminal Court
Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
I, Madman
Innerspace
James Plath @ Family Home Theater
- Excerpt: Innerspace is one of the better, older comedy-adventures and a great candidate for family movie night. Unlike Fantastic Voyage, this one seems to get better with age.
The Interview
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Separate from the scandal and misery the film caused Sony in terms of leaked e-mails and hacking from a terrorist regime so paranoid and devoid of humor, The Interview as a film is unfunny, insulting to the audience, crass, immature, and just terrible.In other words, it’s a Seth Rogen production.
Lady in the Dark (1944)
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Showgirls
- Excerpt: When you get down to it, ‘Showgirls’’ problem is a simple one: everyone in it is just vile. I’m not one of those dopes who insists you can’t make a movie without “sympathetic characters,” but I do require compelling ones. The thin, terrible people of ‘Showgirls’ are equally loathsome; you don’t have a rooting interest in Nomi or her “dream,” and as a result, ‘Showgirls’ is 131 minutes of watching trashy, vapid people being terrible to each other.
Society
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Society”s eccentricities are part of what makes it loveable. A movie whose showstopping moment is a man with a face on his butt should have a few warts—the hairier the better.
The Trip
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: It’s Roger Corman’s most experimental film—and one of his best.
