DVD Talk
Reviews & Columns
Reviews
DVD
TV on DVD
Blu-ray
International DVDs
Theatrical
Reviews by Studio
Video Games

Features
Collector Series DVDs
Easter Egg Database
Interviews
DVD Talk Radio
Feature Articles

Columns
Anime Talk
DVD Savant
HD Talk
Horror DVDs
Silent DVD

discussion forum
DVD Talk Forum

Resources
DVD Price Search
Customer Service #'s
RCE Info
Links

Columns




December 31, 2010

Savant's new reviews today are:







Savant's new reviews today are:



Glenn Erickson's
DVD Wish List 2011

Savant outfits his new Wish List for 2011 with an essay- thought piece about the state of the disc biz from the collector's point of view. It's the fifth year for this time-consuming madness, but industry people peek in here to see what disc fans want to see.
01/01/11

Moonfleet

Fritz Lang's only film in CinemaScope is a moody adventure of smugglers on the English coast. Rogue criminal Stewart Granger wants rid of a young boy in his care, but is overcome by his better nature. The mysterious ending suggests the creation of a legend. From the Warner Archive Collection.
01/01/11

The Black Pirate
Blu-ray

Kino International continues its series of silent classics on Blu-ray with Douglas Fairbanks' thrilling, funny swashbucking adventure -- in the very unusual process of two-strip Technicolor. A charming Count poses as a Pirate King to save both his skin and that of a beautiful hostage, Billie Dove. With a second "talkie" version and a half hour of fascinating daily outtakes.
01/01/11

and

Cronos
Blu-ray

Guillermo del Toro's first feature is a wholly original, classy horror offering that honors the heritage of old Universal chillers. Federico Luppi is rejuvenated by a mysterious mechanical artifact, only to find that the price of immortality is too awful to bear. With great Criterion extras. Blu-ray.
01/01/11


Greetings!

As you can see, I've provided a "thrilling ClimaX" for the outgoing year of 2010! The new year begins with unbounded optimism, New! and Improved! with our special secret ingredient, pragmatic cynicism!

Actually, I hope that my 2011 DVD Wish List essay doesn't come off as paranoid, at least not too paranoid. "Being connected" these days seems more and more like surrendering to technological dependencies. Give me a dog-eared old book and I'm happy; the last thing I need to do is to report on my momentary state of existence on a Social Network. I plague my friends and relatives with social emails only every couple of weeks or so, and I'm sure they get enough of me that way.

Speaking of keeping in touch, thanks for all the holiday greetings, which have even included a Christmas card or two. Savant's secret headquarters are a warmer place for them. With the rains in retreat and the sun out, we'll once again have no torrents or wind storms for the Rose Bowl parade ... somebody made a deal with the devil on that one.

I'll get back into the links 'n' news mode on my next post -- except to say that my friends at MGM just found out that their office is moving from Century City to Beverly Hills. If anybody wants a picture of the towering MGM building with its logo on top, now's the time to take it.

Last note -- if any of you read my Roger Corman's Cult Classics Triple Feature review the first day out and noticed all the typos and half-finished sentences, it should be fixed now ... somehow I posted draft #2 instead of the final draft #4. That's my final journalistic mal paso for 2010 -- I can't make any more! Cheers and peace to all of us, Glenn Erickson



December 28, 2010

Savant's new reviews today are:

Roger Corman's Cult Classics Triple Feature

The Shout! Factory hits a home run for Sci-Fi Fans with three of Roger Corman's Allied Artists thrillers: Not of This Earth, Attack of the Crab Monsters and War of the Satellites. Big concepts on tiny budgets, but Corman comes through with the goods, including fun turns from actors Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Jonathan Haze, Dick Miller, Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Mel Welles, Richard Devon, Dick Miller and Susan Cabot. A two-disc set, with interesting extras.
12/28/10

Escape from Zahrain

Arab freedom fighter Yul Brynner leads a group of crooks, rebels and a sexy nurse (Madlyn Rhue) on a cross-desert run for the border. Not Ronald Neame's best showing, but with nice character turns from Sal Mineo, Jack Warden and (in a cameo) James Mason. Olive Films.
12/28/10

and

Adriatic Sea of Fire

This oddball French/Yugoslavian production depicts a true but disappointingly unexciting WW2 incident, the attempt to smuggle a Yugoslavian destroyer out of Nazi hands, and deliver it to the English Navy. Claudine Auger stars as a playgirl who helps a valiant officer locate a missing valve (for the ship!). From Pathfinder Pictures.
12/28/10


Greetings!

Wow, a real vacation from reviewing -- I had enough welcome family in the house and work to do to keep me from even thinking about writing. Part of this work was rerouting rainwater runoff last Wednesday to keep my yard from flooding, and my first chore Christmas morning was to take a bucket and bail several hundreds of gallons of water. This accounts for some residual soreness.

I have a review up for the Roger Corman's Cult Classics Triple Feature, which was fun to write on. Pretty soon the supply of unseen '50s science fiction films is going to dry up, and then where will I be? I've gotten a tall stack of new Warner Archive Collection discs to dig into before Saturday, as well as reworking the Savant Wish List for 2011 ... that hopefully will be up for the January 1 deadline. So life is back to pleasant-normal around here.

My big Christmas gift this year disc wise is a Blu-ray for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a title that has heretofore eluded me. Everyone says the show is great so I'm looking forward to some fun.

Thanks for writing (and all the friendly Christmas notes). See you on Saturday! Glenn Erickson



December 18, 2010

Well Hello ... here's just checking in from DVD Savant. As self-appointed dictator of the Savant Empire, it looks like I'm giving myself the week off ... if only because I haven't had a minute to sit at a computer in four days.

Which is good -- so far the Holiday is going well, not counting the endless rain. You'd think it was Oregon or Washington State out there!

I'll check in on Saturday but can't say I'll have any reviews. Things will slow down after that so maybe I'll have some next Tuesday. I figure that most Savant readers have incredibly exciting lives and won't mind my absence. Savant who?

Just in passing, I did see True Grit last night, and it's just fine, with Jeff Bridges & Matt Damon really good. It's very much like the original Hathaway picture that won John Wayne an Oscar ... with Bridges reinventing the character and an interesting take on the stubborn young girl determined to hunt down her father's klller. All it's lacking is a better music score (I haven't heard one song repeated ad infinitum like this since On the Beach). Also bugging me a little is a joy-killer ending that probably follows the book faithfully but doesn't leave us with a smile. People are calling it a comedy ... which I think short-changes the movie.

See you later ... Maybe I'll check in with an (irrelevant) personal report over the holiday weekend!

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



Saturday December 18, 2010

Savant's new reviews today are

Sherlock Jr. / Three Ages
Blu-ray

A wonderful Buster Keaton double bill, combining his most surreal investigation of cinema with plenty of gags and visual tricks worthy of a stage magician. Three Ages is a comedy caveman tale, while Sherlock Jr. sees projectionist Buster solving his romantic problems by entering his dreams, as realized on the movie screen. With scenes filmed 100 feet from Savant's office window in Larchmont -- 86 years ago!. In glorious Blu-ray, from Kino International.
12/18/10

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain

The enticing Ann Dvorak stars in a bottom-of-the-Depression saga of an unlucky girl who gets herself tangled up with four men, a baby and the law. Lee Tracy is a nervy newspaperman who assumes she's the Wrong Kind of Woman. One of the best Pre-Code dramas, highly recommended. Sale priced at the Warner Archive Collection.
12/18/10

and

Vampire Circus
Blu-ray

A real Christmas present for Hammer fans, this 70s rarity mixes vampirism with magic in a gypsy carnival atmosphere. With plenty of "R" rated delights, restored and uncensored in High Definition. And it's on Blu-ray, from Synapse.
12/18/10




Greetings!

Want a Link? Friend, writer and Seattle denizen Mark Bourne has a typically good post up about the tepid remake of The Time Machine. Dig around a bit on his entries and you'll also find very involved essays on the original The Time Machine and Forbidden Planet. Although most Dr. Who fans must already know about it, I got a kick out Mark's link to a YouTube post of a funny Dr. Who song. Well, I thought it was funny, especially the bunny rabbit.

I just realized that keener viewers than I (probably at Video Watchdog) reported that a brief scene was missing from most cable presentations of John Huston's The Kremlin Letter. I hope that it will be restored when that new Twilight Time DVD comes out next month ....

Good news for Savant is that Shout! Factory's Roger Corman triple bill of Not of This Earth, War of the Satellites and Attack of the Crab Monsters may be in my greedy paws in a day or two. It's not due for several weeks, so I'll have to figure out whether to post the review sooner or later.

Thanks for reading, hope you like today's reviews! Glenn Erickson



December 13, 2010

Savant's new reviews today are

DVD Savant
Picks
the Most Impressive Discs of 2010

It's time again for Savant's ideosyncratic list of favorites for the year, plus a roundup of the sinister happenings at Savant central, The key words this year were "serendipitous invitations". It's the TENTH YEAR for DVD Savant's Best-Of List!
12/14/10

America Lost and Found:
The BBS Story

Blu-ray

Criterion hits us with a giant Blu-ray set of "New Hollywood" pictures from the studio launched by The Monkees. Exacting transfers of Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Drive He Said, A Safe Place and The King of Marvin Gardens. Beaucoup extras and a fat book of essays as well.
12/14/10

and

The Matador
Blu-ray

Pierce Brosnan is terrific in this otherwise misfiring "fun" tale of a hit man who makes a bosom friend ... and has a nervous breakdown. With Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis. On Blu-ray from The Weinstein Company.
12/14/10




Greetings! Well, I actually did some shopping today, so maybe Christmas is happening after all ...

I'm hoping for reactions to my DVD Savant Most Impressive Discs of 2010 list, as long it doesn't involve violence ... it was a lot of work!

Correspondent Stefan Andersson forwards a link to a fascinating blog entry by author Christina Faust, who has information about a newly-found third version of Jules Dassin's classic noir Night and the City. Ms. Faust gives a pretty thorough description of the differences in this cut.

I've started seeing some Academy Screeners this year, for the Online Film Critics Society. I thought 127 Hours wasn't bad, and that's after really disliking the director's Oscar winner set in India. The movie's many tricks and diversions prevent us from feeling what it's really like to be trapped like that, but the acting is reasonably affecting. Better yet, there are no false heroics nor any message beyond "stop being a self-centered jerk". So that's okay.

Also saw Black Swan, which for me was unintentionally hilarious -- overcooked, obvious, pretentious and derivative. The world of high-toned Ballet, we are assured, is a lot like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, day in day out. Nobody even seems to ENJOY dancing. It's all about power, paranoia, and hallucinating recycled horror ideas from Polanski, Cronenberg and Dario Argento. Couldn't wait for it to be over.

I have True Grit and will hopefully get to it in the next few days .... it's sort of my "Great Western Hope" for the year. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



December 10, 2010

Savant's new reviews today are

Modern Times
Blu-ray

The Little Tramp comes to Blu-ray in his last official outing -- a mostly silent film made seven years into the talkie era. And he's finally at the proper 24fps frame rate! A sparkling transfer is accompanied by a number of fine extras. From Criterion.
12/11/10

King of the Roaring 20's:
The Arnold Rothstein Story

Another revisionist Allied Artists gangland thriller, this one stars David Janssen as one of the richest criminals from the prohibition era. Most of the historical facts have been changed but we get good performances from Dan O'Herlihy, Jack Carson and Dianne Foster, and a great perf from Mickey Rooney. The Warner Archive Collection.
12/11/10

and

Greaser's Palace

Robert Downey Sr's passion play in western dress is an underground film expanded to 35mm, color and locations near Santa Fe. Allan Arbus is Jesse, a zoot-suited messiah who dishes out miracles and in return receives nothing but grief from the unenlightened and unwashed. With Luana Anders and Toni Basil; music by Jack Nitzsche. From Scorpion Releasing.
12/11/10


Greetings!

The first and biggest piece of news is about the Warner Archive Collection's DVD-R of The Cyclops, which I reviewed just last week. Sharp eyes have noticed that it disappeared from the WAC's online WB Store on December 1, and there's a reason -- the Collection has found and restored the missing seconds of action from the film's climax. Anyone who ordered the disc before December 1 and would like to receive a free replacement has only to make a phone call. Details have been amended to the Savant review .

Second, fellow Metropolis devotee Gordon Thomas forwards a link the website of the Alloy Orchestra, where Roger C. Miller is selling MP3-CDs of the Allloy Orchestra's score to the silent film. It can be synchronized with Kino's DVD or Blu-ray. I had the privilege of hearing this performed in concert, and I'm rushing my order out today.

Joe Dante turns our attention to an arresting short subject viewable on the web, Nuit Blanche. It comes with a 'making of' added feature.

Any fans of Brian DePalma's Phantom of the Paradise out there? An entire new 'wing' has been added to the superfan site about the 1974 horror comedy musical at the Swan Archives. They call the site an "obsessive/compulsive scene-by-scene walkthrough/analysis". And I would add, "thorough".

Let me say in passing that I've received so much positive mail for my The Green Slime that I now feel guilty for not giving it a more reverential write-up. Or perhaps that's why they like it? In any case, let me also recommend Stuart Galbraith IV's DVDtalk review of The Green Slime -- Stuart is da man when it comes to knowing the full story behind Japanese fantasy pix.

With the calender already this far into December, I now need to finish off the Savant Best of 2010 article (here's last year's). Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



December 06, 2010

Savant's new reviews today are

The Green Slime

Will You Believe It When You're Dead?!" Hopelessly inept spacemen vs rubber zit monsters epic becomes a hilarious cult item because, because, you tell me! Robert Horton, Richard Jaeckel and Luciana Paluzzi emote up a storm on space station Gamma III. From the Warner Archive Collection.
12/07/10

Straight to Hell Returns

Director Alex Cox gathers thirty of his favorite actors and 80s rock/punk pals in Spain for an action packed, attitude-laden ode to spaghetti westerns. With Joe Strummer, Sy Richardson and a whole passel of name musicians. The "returns" refers to a remastered, restored director's cut with some new special effects to add a bit of blood splatter here and there. From Microcinema International.
12/07/10

and

Videodrome
Blu-ray

Marshall McLuhan meets Philip K. Dick in David Cronenberg's heavy-duty sci-fi opus. Looking for a new thrill for his soft-core cable channel, a programmer finds "the new flesh" by merging with his taboo video visions. James Woods and Debbie Harry star; now on Blu-ray from Criterion.
12/07/10


Greetings!

I think I have my wildly subjective 'best of 2010' list nailed down, and will be posting it before the 15th. I was shocked to find out just how many really good deep library classics came out this year; anybody trying to nab them all must qualify for one of those extended tax breaks. Here's what I have on my plate for the moment:

On DVD I have in hand Adriatic, Sea of Fire (Pathfinder Pictures), Greaser's Palace (Scorpion Releasing), the Disney docus The Boys and Waking Sleeping Beauty. For Burn On Demand discs, ready to go are The Swan, The Strawberry Blonde, The Strange Love of Molly Louvain, King of the Roaring 20s, Susan Slept Here and Bachelor Mother (all Warner Archive Collection).

The pickings on Blu-ray aren't bad either: I'm screening The Matador (Weinstein), Cronos (Criterion), Sherlock Jr./The Three Ages (Kino International), America Lost and Found the BBS Story with Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, A Safe Place, The Last Picture Show & The King of Marvin Gardens (Criterion). I'm also going to give The Antichrist (Criterion) a spin if I can get up the nerve.

Pretty much all I'm expecting before the holiday are Blu-rays of The Black Pirate (Kino International) and one of the last Hammer horrors I haven't seen, Vampire Circus (Synapse). But those should keep me plenty busy, and if I run out, I'll double back and do essays on movies that should be on disc, but aren't.

I know you have plenty of things to do before the holidays, so thanks for checking by DVD Savant to see what's going on! -- Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson.



December 03, 2010

Savant's new reviews today are

The Night of the Hunter
Blu-ray

Criterion's superb Blu-ray (and DVD) appoints Charles Laughton's only directorial effort with a can't-believe-it extra, a 2.5-hour compilation of daily outs that reveals a multitude of secrets behind Laughton's directing style. Ever seen somebody who can really direct at work?
12/04/10

College Coach

Crooked coach Pat O'Brien stocks his team with paid ringers, including a gridiron heel who romances his wife, Ann Dvorak. Dick Powell is the team captain who rebels, in between songs. Crazy pre-code corruption madness directed by William Wellman, from the Warner Archive Collection.
12/04/10

Walt & El Grupo

An excellent 2008 documentary about Walt Disney's fateful goodwill trip to South America, an adventure in 'good neighbor' diplomacy, heavy-duty cultural research -- and a good way to escape from the grief of a labor strike! Really worth seeing; very good history. Disney DVD.
12/04/10

and

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

Meiko Kaji stars in this extreme Japanese exploitation movie, consisting of equal parts violence & cruelty, and ravishingly beautiful images. From Eastern Star.
12/04/10


Greetings!

Akk! The holidays are coming too fast ... I should be getting things ready but it's too comforting to just sit and write. A couple of fun links today, courtesy of correspondent & advisor Gary Teetzel:

This 6-minute music video of Let It Be features an odd collection of stars, mostly icons of the 80's and early 90's, to promote a Norwegian TV show. Gary found it on Blastr: Gylne Tider - Let It Be.

And smart people always know Never to Mess With King Vultan, according to the London English Standard. A word to the wise ...

Dick Dinman offers a Fantasia-themed Radio Show this week, interviewing the delightful Marge Champion, the legendary dancer/choreographer who was the Disney model/choreographer for Snow White, the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio, Mr. Stork in Dumbo and Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasia. As it discusses a couple of other new musical Bu-rays, the radio show is called Fantasia's Sound of Music on a White Christmas.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson


Don't forget to write Savant at [email protected].

Advertise With Us

Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum |
Copyright © DVDTalk.com All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information