Micah Gallo's DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us The Knick: The Complete Second Season (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71033 Fri, 30 Dec 2016 00:15:28 UTC Highly Recommended

The Knick Season Two takes television into new territory in content and form. The title refers to one of the original surgical hospitals in New York of the 1900s. At this time, The Knick serviced the poor and rich alike. Often times the poor were an opportunity for doctors to experiment with new potentially life-saving techniques without as much concern for the consequences of a death along the way to perfecting the surgery. Being at the bleeding edge of science and technology, the show presents surgery of the day in all its horror and glory.

Picking up in Season Two, John Thackery (Clive Owen) our Byronic genius head of surgery, is completely at the mercy of his addictions. As a result, any medical procedures he is performing seem to border on mad scientist or Nazi science officer territory rather than seeing him as the the brilliant young surgeon we meet in Season One. This twi...Read the entire review

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The Deadly Trackers (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71585 Tue, 06 Dec 2016 12:43:23 UTC Recommended

On the surface, The Deadly Trackers begins as a straightforward western. Sheriff Sean Kilpatrick, played by Richard Harris, wrestles with his desire for pacifism in a violent time. In the opening scenes, he is instructing his son to use intelligence over violence and what it really means to be a man. When a posse of thieves attempt to rob his small town of Santa Rosa, Kilpatrick doesn't use violence to get the upper hand, he uses his wits. Ultimately, the film descends into more of a classic seventies revenge picture like Rolling Thunder or Death Wish without any real sense of redemption for Kilpatrick, or the society he lives in.

Originally based off the screenplay Riata by Sam Fuller and meant for Fuller to direct, Deadly Trackers stars a number of known character actor veterans such as Rod Taylor (Frank Brand), Al Lettieri (Gutierrez, Mexican Policeman), ...Read the entire review

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Hidden Fear (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71480 Mon, 07 Nov 2016 21:48:10 UTC Rent It

Hidden Fear is an international noir thriller set in Denmark. Filmed on location in Copenhagen, Hidden Fear was released in 1957 at what most consider to be the tail end of the noir cycle. This film is chock full of labyrinthine streets and corridors, spontaneous fistfights with men or slapping women, following people to find clues and other expected tropes of the genre.

The incident that ignites the mystery is the death of a man named Martinelli. Mike Brent, an American, comes to Denmark after his sister Susan is arrested under suspicion of murder. Mike is a classic "fish out of water" who gets embroiled in an international intrigue, in the vein of many of the Hitchcock spy thriller films.

Though Hidden Fear has some of the grit and personal isolation and male displacement associated with classic Film Noir these elements as presented in this film feel more like pant...Read the entire review

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Girlfriend Experience: Season One (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71469 Sun, 06 Nov 2016 21:50:53 UTC Highly Recommended

The world of The Girlfriend Experience feels thrilling and alluring but simultaneously isolating and full of invisible boundaries. Every character operates with a hidden agenda. The ticking clock of suspense is if you don't discover the other's agenda by asking the right questions quickly you won't find out how their agenda can sabotage yours until it's too late. People, even supposed friends, can shift personalities on a dime.

Christine Reade is played with fierce intelligence in a delicately subtle and incredibly brave performance by Riley Keough. She's definitely an actor to keep an eye on for future work. We are introduced to Christine as a strong-minded individual. From the opening episode when she's with her friend Avery ordering champagne and food on some guy's card, it's immediately clear that she's the leader of the two."You can be whoever you want to be," her friend Avery her ...Read the entire review

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Blood and Black Lace (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67650 Sun, 26 Jun 2016 22:09:16 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

Occasionally a remastered Blu-ray presentation comes along that can make you completely re-evaluate a film. Warner Bros. disc of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Synapse Films' Steelbook of Lamberto Bava's Demons come to mind. Now, with Arrow Video's long-awaited disc of Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964), there is another Blu-ray to add to that list as this edition made me appreciate the movie for the seminal masterpiece that it is.

Beginning on a rainy and windy night, a series of murders begin at a fashion house in Italy. Beautiful young models are viciously killed by a faceless man in a trench-coat and fedora. Could it be that the killer is trying to hide secret information contained inside a mysterious red journal? This fashion house is built on top of an old castle and the dark dungeons below reveal that under the surface of glitz and glamour, humanity's bas...Read the entire review

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Manhunter (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/70609 Tue, 24 May 2016 23:46:54 UTC Recommended

If you enjoy Michael Mann's psychological police procedurals such as Thief or Heat, or if you have a taste for the stylings of the original Miami Vice television show, you'll understand the DNA of Manhunter. Today Manhunter is somewhat known for technically being the original incarnation of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter in cinema. Frankly the film is more a vision unmistakably filled with the personal obsessions of director Michael Mann. If "film is fashion" as David Fincher has said, then Manhunter is the ultimate 80's fashion statement.

Will Graham (William Peterson) is in retirement from crime scene investigation after a serious traumatic injury at the hands of Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox, here spelled Lecktor). Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina), Graham's old boss at the FBI, asks him personally to investigate an ongoing serial murderer being called the...Read the entire review

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Sex Murder Art: The Films Of Jorg Buttgereit (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/70936 Fri, 13 May 2016 13:05:54 UTC Highly Recommended

Juxtaposed against the seen-it-before variety of "safe" remakes, homages directly referential of better films and gutless technical exercises full of phony jumps scares that sometimes pass for real horror these days, Sex Murder Art: The Films of Jorg Buttgereit is a breath of pungent air.

Jorg Buttgereit looks like if an Ubermensch dressed as a punk rock fan. He is tall, good looking, strong and wears black t-shirts with various bands on them. His persona comes off completely different still: he's intelligent, serious about cinema as an art form while also being a goofy, self-effacing boy next door who just likes making movies and having fun with his friends. Similarly, his films are a conundrum, blending elements without regard to cinematic laws. Instead his films have full intention to break almost every enforced rule, like a disobedient child who does the opposite of what he is told...Read the entire review

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A Prayer for the Dying (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/70875 Tue, 03 May 2016 10:16:44 UTC Highly Recommended

Based on the novel by Jack Higgins, A Prayer for the Dying plays archetypically like a modern western with some moments of explosive action and a characteristically moody Mickey Rourke in the lead.

We begin with a scene that could have been ripped out of local headlines in Belfast in the eighties: IRA members set a bomb intended for the military and instead kill a bus full of young schoolchildren. Martin Fallon (Rourke) stands watching the aftermath without twitching, frozen like a statue even after the military personal are firing automatic weapons in his general direction. He decides in that moment he wants out of the violent life he's been leading. When he goes to a connection to get a passport to leave the country for good, he finds himself under pressure for one last job to kill a local gangster. He reluctantly agrees and kills the target in a graveyard, but the crime is witnessed...Read the entire review

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Misconduct (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/70861 Tue, 26 Apr 2016 23:42:50 UTC Rent It

Misconduct reminds me of the type of erotic thrillers made in the wake of Basic Instinct. The kind of sexy Hitchcockian pastiche Brian De Palma has always done so well. Unfortunately, Misconduct lacks some of the technical finesse, and most of the lurid charm and guileless gusto that makes the aforementioned films so exciting.

Ben Cahill (Josh Duhamel) a young married attorney on the rise is willing to cut corners to get ahead. Especially if he can convince himself the other side is "bad" and deserves it. Arthur Denning (Anthony Hopkins), is a wealthy aged pharmaceutical executive with a seemingly limitless amount of power and money. They share a common connection with a young beautiful woman named Emily (Malin Akerman) who may be crazy. When Emily is kidnapped for ransom it's unclear whether she's the victim or the perpetrator. She had approached Cahill and gave him infor...Read the entire review

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War And Peace (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/70822 Wed, 20 Apr 2016 21:31:47 UTC Recommended

The title War & Peace should need no introduction for most. The novel is of legendary stature both for its lengthy page count and as a respected tome of philosophy and literature. But fear not entertainment seekers, here we have an adaptation that attempts to breathe new life into this classic melodrama. The clear aim is to appeal to modern audiences and use the episodic format to do the property justice, all while giving you proper bathroom breaks.

The drama unfolds against the backdrop of the rise of Napoleon and proceeds with his eventual invasion into Russia. Through these world events we track the lives of several aristocratic families. In particular, the focus tends towards how the younger generation shifts perspectives under the pressures of war. They begin the narrative already deprived of their hearts true desires because of political circumstances handed down from their pa...Read the entire review

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