Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD.
Reviews of Classic Films
The Brood
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
The Learning Tree
Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: [VIDEO ESSAY] Gordon Parks’s adaptation of his semi-autobiographical novel is a rich melodrama about the plight of blacks living in 1920s Kansas, where racism reigns supreme.
Man Bites Dog
Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: [VIDEO ESSAY] Self-reflexive social satire rarely comes with such a hilarious fury of black humor as it does in this ingenious mockumentary about filming a serial killer’s pursuits.
My Own Private Idaho
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: …feels like an interesting story that keeps getting interrupted by a high school class’ Shakespeare rehearsal.
Rocky
Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: [VIDEO ESSAY] “Rocky” struck a nerve with American audiences at the time because it spoke directly to a ‘70s era lower middle-class dream of success that has since been exploded into a billion pieces.
Star Wars
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
Vivre sa vie
- Excerpt: Vivre sa vie is one of Godard’s most moving and soberest films.
Recent Home Video Releases
Darling Lili
Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
Hustle
Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
Phase IV
Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
Other Reviews from 2014 and earlier
12 Years a Slave
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
20.000 Days on Earth
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
22 Jump Street
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
3 Days to Kill
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
300: Rise of an Empire
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
Alice in the Cities
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
- Excerpt: This is where Wenders strikes gold because Alice in the Cities isn’t some cute odd couple pairing for antics or heartwarmingly revelatory meaning of life epiphanies. They are kindred spirits, lonely and longing to be seen and heard when everyone else has pushed them aside.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
American Sniper
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
Annabelle
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
Army of Darkness: Collector’s Edition
M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
Automata
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
Back to the Future Trilogy: 30th Anniversary Edition
M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
Dear White People
- Excerpt: Funny, angry, fair and complex, Dear White People is a very promising debut for Simien and an important intervention about race in America.
Divergent
Hugo Gomes @ http://cinematograficamentefalando.blogs.sapo.pt [Portuguese]
Hammer Horror Classics: Volume 1
M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (Extended Edition)
M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers
James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
- Excerpt: Cinema Fearité Bids Farewell To Gunnar Hansen With ‘Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers’ – His ‘Other’ Chainsaw Movie
Miss Meadows
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Founds itself on a coarse irony, then fails to do much with the premise you couldn’t find in a one-sentence logline.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
- Excerpt: The sequel is clunky, sluggish, poorly cast (hey, opening credits: no appearance by Clu Gulagher is a “special appearance”), not funny, and worst of all, not scary. But the picture is a fascinating curio nonetheless, for one simple reason: it is packed to the gills with gay subtext, so much so that it’s been embraced by the LGBT community and made over into something resembling a cult classic.
Out 1
- Excerpt: Out 1 subtly pivots into a more reflective mode for its final hours, one that officially dissolves the concrete details into ciphers and red herrings and redirects attention to the sources of the anxieties driving them. It’s here that the film most deeply fascinates, where it digs into the hitherto unclear connections between its various wandering souls and insinuates the faiths and fears that either brought them together or drove them apart.
Paperhouse
Henry Stewart @ Brooklyn Magazine
- Excerpt: There really are no other movies like this one.
Pieces
Henry Stewart @ Brooklyn Magazine
- Excerpt: There’s little to “get”—just lots of unrestrained madness to relish.
Pillaged
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
She’s Funny That Way
Samuel Castro @ Ochoymedio.info [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Una comedia de enredos que nos hace recordar títulos más afortunados de no hace mucho tiempo.
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
Twice Upon a Time
Watership Down
Jamie S. Rich @ Criterion Confessions
- Excerpt: Those caveats certainly don’t diminish Watership Down’s impact. The storytelling is still quite strong, and some of the choices are daring even without placing Watership Down in its historical context.
