Jesse Skeen's DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Some Girls (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75462 Sat, 14 Jan 2023 18:13:15 UTC Recommended

Patrick Dempsey was a bit of a mainstay in late-80s comedies. He stars in this 1988 film (re-titled from Sisters seemingly at the last minute) as college student Michael who spends his Christmas holiday from school with his soon to be former girlfriend's odd family. Arriving at the airport in Quebec, Gabby (Jennifer Connelly) is late in picking him up and soon after arriving at her family's large home proclaims that she is no longer in love with him. The question is, why does Michael stay the rest of the time?

Before this news is broken, Michael finds that Gabby's family is rich judging from their very large castle-like house, but also rather nuts- particularly her father (Andre Gregory) who wears little to no clothes even in the middle of winter. (He explains this much later in...Read the entire review

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Bedtime for Bonzo (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75459 Tue, 03 Jan 2023 21:53:20 UTC Recommended

1951's Bedtime for Bonzo became a pop-culture reference 30 years later when its star Ronald Reagan became President of the United States. Reagan had a somewhat brief acting career before becoming president of the Screen Actors Guild and then pursing real politics as the governor of California and ultimate President. This lightweight, silly comedy was brought out as an embarrassing part of his past, sometimes calling him "Bonzo" as an insult. I remember it being shown a few times on independent TV stations shortly after Reagan took office, MCA also released it on tape that year but I never managed to see it until this Blu-Ray was put out.

The premise is entertaining enough, with Reagan becoming a surrogate father to a "monkey" (actually a chimpanzee, while he's always called a mo...Read the entire review

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Fall (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75439 Wed, 16 Nov 2022 17:52:02 UTC Recommended

This movie had me sold just on the basis of its setting being a 2,000 foot TV transmission tower. The Sacramento TV market is served by several towers of that height located in the town of Walnut Grove between Sacramento and Stockton. Even with the quality of content from TV stations these days being in the toilet, I still can't help but look up at the towers whenever I go by. Same goes for transmission towers in other areas, such as San Francisco's famous Sutro Tower. That said, the thought of going to the top of those things to work on them terrifies me, and I certainly wouldn't put myself through that to keep any of today's TV on the air.

The main setting of the movie Fall is a fictitious tower, one that was set up in the middle of a desert seemingly in Arizona. First questio...Read the entire review

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Paravision Dreams: The Golden Age 3-D Films of Pine and Thomas (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75437 Tue, 15 Nov 2022 16:50:52 UTC Highly Recommended

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Although much of the industry hoped that home 3D viewing would be popular from the likes of modern superhero and animated movies, us real film buffs were more excited by the prospect of classic 3D films from the 1950s being seen at home for the first time. More than ten years later, the industry has largely written home 3D off as a "failure" while die-hards like myself press on with whatever we can get. A bright spot has been that a good number of 50s titles have indeed been issued on 3D Blu-Ray, some with limited availability, and most of them made possible by Bob Furmanek and 3-D Film Archive. They restored the three Paramount movies included here, which have previously been issued individually but went out of print rather quickly. This new "Paravision Dreams" set gives those who missed th...Read the entire review

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Goldengirl (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75438 Mon, 14 Nov 2022 18:59:50 UTC Skip It

This 1979 release from AVCO/Embassy Pictures is quite a curiosity. It was made to tie in with the 1980 Olympics, although it doesn't really present them in a favorable manner. The story goes that it would initially play in theaters summer 1979, which it did, and then show the next year on network TV as a two-part miniseries with additional scenes. Although this movie has the US competing at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, in reality the country pulled out of the games that year, and this movie's TV broadcast was pushed back a year as a result.

Model Susan Anton makes her movie debut as Goldine, being trained and treated from birth to be a super-athlete known the world over as Goldengirl. Her backstory isn't made very clear and after seeing the movie I'm still not sure if she was b...Read the entire review

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One Potato, Two Potato (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75386 Thu, 29 Sep 2022 15:32:03 UTC Recommended

Racism has been an ugly part of American history, but in the 1960s more films were calling it out. The subject of interracial romance and marriage, which was still illegal in some states then, was a popular topic most famously in 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner but this small and short film (named after the children's game that the main character's daughter is seen playing in a schoolyard) tackled it three years earlier and much more seriously.

Julie (Barbara Barrie) and her daughter Ellen Mary (Marti Mericka) have been left behind by Ellen's father Joe (Richard Mulligan, in an early role) as he simply disappears from their lives. They seem to get on well enough- Julie is gainfully employed and early in the film meets...Read the entire review

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Native Son (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75355 Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:56:24 UTC Recommended

Richard Wright\'s \"Native Son\" was a book I read in high school English class, and has been made as a movie three times (once just three years ago, updated to modern times.) It deals largely with themes of race and class, although regardless of those it\'s hard to argue that the main character didn\'t just get himself into a really bad situation.

This first film adaptation was released in 1951 and produced in Argentina as the story and author Wright (who was already blacklisted) just wouldn\'t be touched by any US studio then, although a stage version produced by Orson Welles had been reasonably successful. Wright himself plays the main character- a poor black man in Chicago named Bigger Thomas. The book gives no explanation for his name, and here it\'s remarked tha...Read the entire review

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Aliens, Clowns and Geeks (Special Edition) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75318 Fri, 29 Jul 2022 23:39:34 UTC Rent It

I'm just gonna be honest here- considering the talent involved in this, the results are a bit disappointing. I don't know the story of what went into the making of this, perhaps it was one of those productions where things just didn't work the way they were supposed to- but for all I know, maybe everyone was happy the way this turned out and it just didn't click with me for whatever reason. "Aliens Clowns & Geeks," written and directed by Richard Elfman (Danny's brother), appears to be marketed as a follow-up to his 1980 cult classic Forbidden Zone, with that referenced right on the front cover. Forbidden Zone wasn't by any means a perfect film but is quite amazing given the time it came out and the resources which personally set Richard Elfman back financially quite a bit. This recent production doesn't really compare, and...Read the entire review

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The Resonator: Miskatonic U (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75280 Mon, 13 Jun 2022 17:16:05 UTC Recommended

1986's From Beyond, sort of a sister film to Re-Animator in that it had most of the same cast and crew taking on another HP Lovecraft story, has been little-known but loved by most who have seen it. "The Resonator: Miskatonic U" hopes to attract those fans; I recognized the name of the fictional Massachusetts university right away but hadn't heard much else about it. The back cover of this Blu-Ray calls it "a companion of sorts" to From Beyond- you can sort of call it a sequel, but it pales a bit in comparison due to being shot on hi-def video at a noticeably lower budget than a feature film, and running just a little over an hour.

Crawford Ti...Read the entire review

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Almost Summer (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75270 Thu, 09 Jun 2022 19:46:21 UTC Recommended

Released in 1978, Almost Summer is one of those movies that was only marginally popular at the time and never got released on any home video format until now. The poster art makes it look like a typical drive-in teen comedy, but once this one lures you in with a beach party scene at the beginning, the focus switches to a high school election, which might not be what the target audience had in mind.

Bruno Kirby is Bobby, the "schemer" common in many high school movies. He's been pushing a candidate for next year's student body president whose only competition is Bobby's ex-girlfriend Christine Alexander "The Great." Besides wanting to see her fail he also has some money riding on the election's outcome- but Christine gets his guy suspended from school and thus disqualified. Not l...Read the entire review

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a-ha: The Movie (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75216 Thu, 28 Apr 2022 15:59:09 UTC Recommended

Upon first hearing the title of this release, I got a little bit too excited- 1977's ABBA: The Movie is the only other time I've known of when a band put out a film with its name and "The Movie", and ABBA's release was a great semi-fictional time-capsule of their heyday. Alas, this one featuring Norway's A-Ha, known mostly for the inescapable 1985 hit "Take on Me" but putting out several more brilliant records that didn't get the attention they deserved, is a rather straightforward documentary which traces their origins and gives us a look at what they've been up to lately. Despite disbanding a few times and even having a formal "break-up" in 2010, they have managed to re-form and continue touring. One of the first things we learn here is that the three members have conflicting views on recording any new songs. As a music fan with no talent of my own, I've often felt sorry for those who have ...Read the entire review

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Coming 2 America (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75197 Thu, 31 Mar 2022 16:32:43 UTC Recommended

It's been said a billion times, but sequels are both loved and hated- they're loved because it gives viewers a chance to see a continuation of a favorite movie, but they're hated because often the sequel just can't live up to the quality of the original. 1988's Coming To America was the result of an idea star Eddie Murphy had years prior and was one of that year's high points and has become an all-time favorite among many. More than 30 years later, Coming 2 America tries to recapture some of that magic, and left me with rather mixed feelings.

Most of the original movie's cast are back here- Eddie Murphy is Prince Akeem of the fictional African country Zamunda, still married to the American woman he met in the first...Read the entire review

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Broadcast Signal Intrusion (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75169 Thu, 10 Mar 2022 16:09:25 UTC Rent It

This is one I should have liked more, since it deals with video equipment and an obscure piece of TV history. In 1987, the airwaves of Chicago were briefly hijacked by a prankster wearing a Max Headroom mask. He managed to override the signals feeding the TV transmitters and first broke into a local newscast for just a few seconds, but the alert engineers saw it right away and were able to restore the signal. He then tried the city's PBS station, which didn't have as many technical people on duty, and was able to override an episode of "Doctor Who" for more than a minute. His audio signal wasn't too clear so nobody's sure what he was saying other than some possibly rude comments about local TV personalities. This was before the internet but the incident made the national news. The FCC looked into it but to this day the perpetrator has not been identified. He wisely never made any further attempts at...Read the entire review

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C.H.O.M.P.S. (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75159 Wed, 02 Mar 2022 15:51:33 UTC Recommended

The latest addition to the "I can't believe this is on Blu-Ray" list, this 1979 farce from American International Pictures with Hanna-Barbera (in their failed attempt to launch a live-action division) finally gets a good quality home release. The title stands for Canine HOMe Protection System, devised by the movie's hero Brian (Wesley Eure who at the time was famous for simultaneous roles on TV's Land of the Lost and Days of Our Lives). He works at Norton Securities (apparently before they got into anti-virus protection) for boss/owner and potential father-in-law Ralph (Conrad Bain, best known as Mr. Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes) but is close to being fired as he can't come up with any new technologies to save the company from being taken over by rival Mr. Gibbs (the legendary Jim ...Read the entire review

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How About Adolf? (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75119 Wed, 12 Jan 2022 15:32:07 UTC Recommended

This German import, titled Der Vorname in its native language (literal translation being the first or given name) is one of those comedies where an innocent dinner party gets out of hand from a conversation. Somewhat insecure professor Stephan (Christoph Maria Herbst) who prides himself on being right all the time is married to Elisabeth (Caroline Peters). Elisabeth's underachieving brother Thomas (Florian David Fitz) and her longtime friend Rene (Justus von Dohnanyi) arrive at their house one evening for dinner, and Thomas announces that his girlfriend Anna (Janina Uhse) and he are expecting a son to be born soon. Everyone wants to know what they plan to name him, so he first makes them guess a few hundred potential names before revealing that they've decided to name him Adolf. Yes, as in Adolf Hitler. I don't know the history of that name myself but it seems ever since that particular perso...Read the entire review

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Dirty Laundry (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75095 Mon, 13 Dec 2021 15:48:45 UTC Recommended

The classic plot device of switched bags that look the same but have far different things inside is the basis for 1987's Dirty Laundry, which might be a perfect example of a 1980s direct-to-video movie. This was in fact issued on VHS by Sony in their earlier effort to be a player in movie distribution a couple years before they bought Columbia Pictures. If the cheesy music score and unmistakably 80s colors don't immediately grab you, the cast list certainly will- we've got legendary singers Frankie Valli AND Sonny Bono playing bad guys, Cousin Oliver himself Robbie Rist, and Olympic runner Carl Lewis!

TV mainstay Leigh McCloskey is the star of our show, playing everyman Jay who dreams of a music career but meanwhile has to run to the laundromat next to the Alpha Beta supermarke...Read the entire review

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King of the Mountain (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75021 Thu, 21 Oct 2021 16:45:57 UTC Rent It

From 1981, this is a typical "carsploitation" movie of the era selling itself on its racing scenes but actually focusing more on a sub-plot involving the music industry. The main character is Steve (Harry Hamlin), who works in an auto repair shop with a colorful group of characters including Rick (Grizzly Adams himself, Dan Haggerty) and Cal (Dennis Hopper, who was reportedly not sober during filming), a former racing legend who is now just burnt-out smoking and drinking while watching the races from the sidelines. The main racing "scene" is the twisted roads along Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, which I've casually driven along a bit myself. Practical drivers go slow along there, but these guys go as fast as possible narrowly avoiding crashes and falling off the side of the road- the title "King of the Mountain" is given to whoever can do this the fastest and longest and Steve aspires for that tit...Read the entire review

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The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75019 Wed, 20 Oct 2021 16:28:28 UTC Rent It

The real-life story of D.B. Cooper has been twisted around since it happened in 1971. About the only thing historians agree on is that in 1971, he successfully hijacked a commercial airline, was given $200,000 of the airline's money (where it came from and why that much was on the plane is unexplained) and parachuted out of it somewhere over the state of Washington and was never seen or heard from again. "What happened after that is anybody's guess" says the narrator in this somewhat forgettable narrative from 1981 of how things might have played out.

Treat Williams plays the anti-hero, and the movie opens with his stunt double making the leap out of the plane- in broad daylight, even though the actual event occurred at night in the rain. He lands in the middle of a forest during deer...Read the entire review

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Moment by Moment (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74951 Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:39:17 UTC Recommended

When John Travolta got "hot" in the 70s, he scored a 3-movie deal with producer Robert Stigwood, two of which are well-known: Saturday Night Fever and Grease. The third one, 1978's Moment By Moment isn't so well-known and is regarded as a huge flop. It hasn't been seen much outside its original release as it was never issued on any home video format until now (but was available for a while on Netflix streaming back when they frequently got obscure older titles), but luckily Kino through its deal with Universal has finally rectified that so us lovers of bad cinema can experience it for ourselves.

Travolta plays a young drifter who goes by the name of...Read the entire review

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CHEER! RALLY! KILL! 5-FILM COLLECTION DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74788 Fri, 23 Jul 2021 16:21:13 UTC Recommended

Sports bore the hell out of me, but I still have a weakness for cheerleaders. Their skimpy outfits with short skirts get me every time. Of course I could never land one given that my general personality is just about the opposite of theirs, but that can't stop me from looking. Bring it On and its direct-to-video sequels are long-time favorites, and I highly recommend the long out of print "Cheerleaders Collection" from Anchor Bay if you can get your hands on it, which features three great 70s cheerleader-themed sexploitation movies. "Cheer! Rally! Kill!" isn't in the same league; this is a collection of five Lifetime movies all with the word "Cheerleader" in the title that keep things TV-safe but are still mildly amusing- all but one of them seems to have the message that cheerleaders are simply bad people and you should neither become...Read the entire review

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Million Dollar Mystery (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74779 Thu, 13 May 2021 14:43:34 UTC Rent It

The late 70s and early 80s saw a number of treasure-hunt contests- first in the form of novels where the first one to guess where the money or treasure in the story was hidden would win that as a prize, and then a couple direct-to-video programs- the most famous being Vestron Video's "Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse" from 1984 which was so out there that nobody could correctly provide the answer. In 1987 Dino DeLaurentiis got the idea to do a movie centered around a contest after seeing people lined up to buy lottery tickets. What we got from that was this smaller-scale knockoff of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World starring some of the era's "up and coming" comedians, some of whom went on to bigger things and some fading into obscurity.

Read the entire review

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Honky Tonk Freeway (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74777 Wed, 12 May 2021 16:17:03 UTC Recommended

1981's Honky Tonk Freeway is truly a movie of its time, and uniquely American even though it was largely a British production. It apparently was also a huge bomb in theaters; I remember though wanting to see it on another screen at the mall theater where my mom had taken me to see a Disney double feature, my suggesting we see this movie instead being met with a resounding no. I didn't know anything about this movie at the time but how could you go wrong with that title?

As the title suggests it's partly a road movie, but it's also several different intertwining stories a la Robert Altman's Nashville which are all headed in the same direction, the fictional town of Ticlaw Florida (Mount Dora in real life). Mayor Read the entire review

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The Projectionist (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74751 Mon, 19 Apr 2021 15:31:12 UTC Rent It

When I heard that Kino was releasing this title I thought it was going to be the 1974 movie with that name, which featured an early appearance by Rodney Dangerfield. It ended up being a new unrelated documentary from Abel Ferrara, about New York area movie theater operator Nicolas Nicolaou. Having worked in the movie theater business myself from 1991-2001 and once hoping to spend my lifetime in it, this was still of great interest.

We learn a bit about Nicolaou's early years in the Mediterranean country of Cyprus, and then his family's move to New York City in 1970. One of his first odd jobs was at a local movie theater, and ended up staying in that business working at several theaters and eventually managing and owning some of ...Read the entire review

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Positive I.D. (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74735 Mon, 22 Mar 2021 20:47:10 UTC Recommended

Released in 1987, Positive ID is one of those movies that frequently showed up on video store shelves of the era but not actually watched by many. The cover picture, retained on this new Blu-Ray release, gives the impression of a cheap B-movie but turns out to be a bit more substantial than that.

There's a rather unique narrative style here, playing dramatically at some points and more like a documentary in others. The viewer is thrust into the story as the movie starts, without any real introductions to the characters or situations. Stephanie Rascoe is Julie, a suburban housewife who is recovering from a traumatic incident, which isn't specifically identified as a "brutal rape" until 38 minutes into the movie. She hasn't been able to go to work in a few months and her husband (...Read the entire review

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Isn't She Great (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74716 Wed, 03 Mar 2021 16:14:12 UTC Rent It

The challenge of any movie based on a real-life person is whether an audience will have any interest in them. Released in 2000, Isn't She Great was a rather high-profile bomb. Its subject is author Jacqueline Susann (played by Bette Midler), most famous for writing the 1966 novel "Valley of the Dolls" and a few other melodramatic works before passing in 1974. Valley of the Dolls of course was adapted into a movie in 1967 (which Susann reportedly hated) and is now regarded as a camp classic.

At 95 minutes, this movie plays like a rushed Cliff Notes biography. We first see her as a stage actress, and quickly learn that she wants to be "somebody"- in other words famous, a household name. Irving Mansfield (Nathan Lane) ...Read the entire review

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Schoolgirls in Chains (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74712 Tue, 02 Mar 2021 21:00:19 UTC Recommended

With a title like Schoolgirls in Chains you sort of know what you're in for, although like many movies of this type the title was decided on later and isn't entirely accurate- the cover art certainly isn't either. Made circa 1973 the story focuses on two brothers- Frank (Gary Kent, who also served as production manager) who's kind of smart, and John (John Stoglin) who is mentally eight years old. Living in an isolated house with their demented mother (Greta Gaylord), they keep themselves amused by kidnapping young women and holding them captive in the cellar (but not in chains), where they are raped by Frank and "played with" by John- somewhat innocent kids' games like hide and seek but also playing "doctor" where he shoves random pills down their throats and tries to "operate" on them with his pocket knife. As the movie starts they already have two captives, one of which is seriously ill and...Read the entire review

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Newman's Law (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74685 Wed, 24 Feb 2021 15:12:36 UTC Recommended

George Peppard stars in this middle-weight cop film first released in 1974. Title character Vince Newman has a reputation for high integrity, which annoys some of his fellow police force as well as the criminals. While busting a small-time drug pusher and refusing to look the other way in exchange for a share in his profits, Newman and his partner Garry (Roger Robinson) are led to an old house which not only has a huge stash of drugs but turns out to be run by the notorious international dealer Frank Lo Falcone (Louis Zorich), who has escaped prosecution for a good number of years. He's been in Italy but gets extradited back to the US where his gang of lackeys rush to his side and help him move into a fancy new house. It turns out that they had already "bought" a cop on the force to handle this and keep Falcone out of trouble, but Newman came into the picture unexpectedly and the only solution is t...Read the entire review

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Words on Bathroom Walls (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74637 Wed, 13 Jan 2021 15:24:04 UTC Recommended

The front cover makes this look like another run-of-the-mill teen romance, but the romance elements are secondary and feel a bit tacked on. The real focus is mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia to be exact. Adam (Charlie Plummer) not only hears voices all around him, but also sees people who aren't really there who serve as bodyguards and guardian angels. (One tough bodyguard is portrayed by Lobo Sebastian, carrying a baseball bat and ready to use it on anyone who gives Adam trouble, and a vulgar alter-ego played by Devon Bostick, who appeared as Roderick in director Thor Freudenthal's Diary of a Wimpy Kid, gives him pointers on dealing with the opposite sex.) Adam also has a hard time at home with his father having run off a few years ago, leaving him with his mother (Molly Parker) who is reasonably supportive but has recently bro...Read the entire review

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Fellinis Casanova (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74609 Mon, 21 Dec 2020 16:16:01 UTC Recommended

18th-century period pieces aren't exactly my favorite genre, but I was drawn to Fellini's Casanova after finding part of it on the "dead side" of an old DiscoVision laserdisc of an NFL highlights film. This included a very strange scene with several small pipe organs mounted on a wall all being played with random notes- one man is wheeled up on a high ladder to play one mounted near the ceiling. I had to see the entire movie after that, but despite being an early laserdisc release that edition is a bit hard to find and hasn't been widely issued on other formats since then- the only US release after that seems to have been a burned-on-demand DVD. It has been issued on Blu-Ray in Europe at least twice, and now Kino brings it to the US.

The producers of this movie wanted a ...Read the entire review

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The Cat And The Moon (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74562 Thu, 12 Nov 2020 15:12:01 UTC Recommended

Alex Wolff, once half of Nickelodeon's "Naked Brothers Band" (and hopefully since forgiven his parents for putting him in something with that name) makes his directorial debut here and also stars as Nick, a kid whose backstory we learn only in passing as the film progresses. He arrives in New York at the home of Cal (Mike Epps), a former bandmate of his father's who we learn died a few years ago- the movie's title is from a poem that his dad used to read to Nick at bedtime. His mom is currently in rehab so he has nowhere else to go for now.

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Though Nick is a bit of a loner who spends his free time getting high, he quickly makes friends with like-minded foul-mouthed classmates Seamus (Skyler Gisondo) and Russell (Tommy Nelson) and invite him to many drug-fueled get-tog...Read the entire review

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The Best of Cher DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74522 Mon, 12 Oct 2020 20:41:20 UTC Recommended

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Time Life brings us more from Cherilyn Sarkisian, better known as Cher, from her split with Sonny up to one of her many comebacks in 1999. Sonny and Cher's variety series ended in 1974 when their marriage did also, but by 1975 each of them were back on TV separately. Cher remained on CBS with some of the old show's staff including costume designer Bob Mackie and keeping pretty much the same format minus Sonny. She typically began the show with a cover of a current popular song and a monologue, then launched into comedy sketches interspersed with some other musical performances including some from guest stars who often lent whatever comedic talents they had as well.


Ten episodes are included here with an impressive list of guests including Elton John, Lily Tomlin, t...Read the entire review

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A Man, a Woman and a Bank (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74489 Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:38:45 UTC Recommended

This 1979 film which was titled A Very Big Withdrawal in preview screenings and reissues features Donald Sutherland as aspiring thief Reese. With Paul Mazursky as computer-genius buddy Norman, they watch a brand-new bank being built in Vancouver and plan to rob it after it opens and then flee the country. The construction site has minimal security at night, so they're able to go in and mess with the equipment as it's being installed giving Norman control over all of the alarms and locks. The plan seems perfect on paper, but of course there has to be just one little thing that messes it up- this happens when Reese visits the construction site during the day wearing a hard-hat and blending in with all of the other workers so he can nonchalantly grab some of the building's blueprints and just walk out with them. Photographer Stacey (Brooke Adams, who appeared with Sutherland in the remake of Read the entire review

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A Different Story (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74506 Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:36:43 UTC Recommended

This film from 1977 starts out as a sort-of different story (the title is part of the theme song's lyrics) but quickly morphs into a more usual romantic comedy as it goes along. Perry King is Albert, a gay man from Belgium living as a non-citizen in Los Angeles with a famous conductor. That relationship soon ends and Albert finds himself with no place to live, so he spends the night in an empty house that's up for sale. He's awoken the next morning by realty agent Stella (Meg Foster), who lets him shack up in her dingy little house. She can't do a lot of the things stereotypical women of that era are expected to do, but Albert is a whiz at cooking and cleaning. Since he's gay he's not even threatening, and besides that it turns out Stella is a lesbian, revealed when the date she's been preparing for all day turns out to be a woman, supposedly shocking to audiences of that time.

Read the entire review

]]> P.O. Box Tinto Brass (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74490 Tue, 08 Sep 2020 19:22:12 UTC Recommended

Cult Epics delivers us Americans another film from Italy's Tinto Brass, known by some as the "absolute master of erotica". He's probably best known here for 1979's Caligula, which many think of as a "big-budget porno" but those who've actually seen it know is more of a campy historic tale with some hardcore shots spliced in by producer Bob Guccione. Brass began in the 1960s making experimental films with somewhat explicit content, and leaned more towards light-hearted adult fare by the late 80s which this 1995 tribute to himself fits in with. Titled Fermo Posta Tinto Brass in its original Italian, it's a series of vignettes based on fan mail he's received.

The setup has Brass in his office with assistant Cinzia Roccaforte bringing in the day's mail, consist...Read the entire review

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Mind Games (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74404 Fri, 10 Jul 2020 14:27:12 UTC Recommended

This little-seen thriller released in 1989 is sort of like that same year's Dead Calm in an RV instead of a boat. Husband and wife Dana (Edward Albert, son of Eddie) and Rita (1980 Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly) are drifting apart but trying to stay together for the sake of their son Kevin (Matt Norero). Dana figures a trip up the California coast in their RV is just the thing to keep the family together. One of their first stops proves to be a big mistake though, as Kevin goes off exploring and runs into young drifter Eric (Maxwell Caulfield, the Cool Rider from everyone's favorite sequel Grease 2.) Kevin's immediately fascinated with him for some reason, and first invites him to join his family for their home-cooked dinner, then gets him to ride with them at least ...Read the entire review

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