January 30th, 2020
The big winter releases are starting to come out, but the overall quantity of releases is still rather soft. Terminator: Dark Fate is the biggest release of the week, but it isn’t the best. As for the best, it was a close two-way race between Fail Safe and Parasite, with the latter winning by the tiniest of margins.
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June 16th, 2015
This week we have two Studio Ghibli films making their Blu-ray debuts. The first, Spirited Away, is one of their best-known movies. The other, The Cat Returns, is not. Fans of the studio will obviously want to pick up both of these Blu-rays, but will they have appeal beyond the hardcore fans?
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December 19th, 2013
Part III of the Holiday Gift Guide is a little late due to reasons you probably don't want to hear the details about. (I believe I've developed a food allergy to something in Eggnog.) The third installment of our holiday gift guide includes independent films, classics, foreign films, etc. The fastest way to find gifts is to go to the Independent Spirit Awards nominations and find any film that is on that list that is already out on DVD / Blu-ray (Frances Ha, Mud, etc.). Unfortunately, most of the films competing for Awards Season glory are still in theaters and not available as gifts. But there are still many films worth picking up, starting with...
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December 2nd, 2013
The Jack Ryan franchise is a strange one. There have been four films so far, with a fifth on the way, and during that time, four different actors will have played the titular role. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit hits theaters in mid-January, so it is a perfect time to release the four earlier movies on a Blu-ray box set. (Or to be more accurate, re-release the 2008 Blu-rays in one box set.) How many of these earlier films are worth checking out? And is the box set good value?
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March 18th, 2013
Strange Frame is a low-budget animated film with an LGBT twist to it. When I got the chance to review it, it sounded so weird I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Will it appeal to its target demographic? Will it have more mainstream appeal? Or is it just too weird for anyone?
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January 13th, 2013
Tales from the Crypt was a fun anthology horror TV series that ran for seven seasons on HBO starting in 1989. Because it was on HBO and not a basic cable channel, it had the full freedom to show as much gore and nudity as they want. In 1995, the show made the leap to the big screen with a trilogy. Demon Knight started things off and while it earned weak reviews, it still did well enough to justify a sequel. That sequel was Bordello of Blood, which was eviscerated by critics and bombed at the box office. As a result, the final film, Ritual, wasn't released for five years, and then it was dumped direct-to-DVD. Is it as bad as that sounds? Or was it punished for the previous film's box office struggles?
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