DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Army of Darkness - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray [SteelBook] (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75421 Fri, 28 Oct 2022 17:19:48 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

The Movie:

There's a reason why there are five reviews of variants of Army of Darkness, the final film in the Evil Dead trilogy, just in the same way there was an outcry to have a final film for the Evil Dead trilogy. People enjoy the way the lead character is equal parts larger than life in his braggadocio and sometimes lacking in his pragmatism. It scares the heck out of you one moment and makes you laugh the next. And it found the right mix of elements in each of the films to launch some careers in the process.

Anyway, Army was co-written by Sam and Ivan Raimi (Drag Me to Hell) co-wrote the film, with the former directing. Compared to the previous two films, Ash (Bruce Campbell, Read the entire review

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The Return of the Living Dead (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75402 Fri, 14 Oct 2022 06:08:48 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

...Read the entire review

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Cool World (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75377 Tue, 27 Sep 2022 20:18:09 UTC Recommended

The Movie:


A wonderfully weird and horny movie that could only have come from the wonderfully weird and horny Ralph Bakshi, 1992's Cool World, a mix of live action and traditional cell animation not unlike Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in that regard, is essentially a film noir, albeit one where a good chunk of the cast is made up of cartoon characters.


The story revolves around Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne), a man who spends ten years in prison, and while in the slammer, created a popular comic book series called Cool World whose lead character was a sex pot named Holli Would (Kim Basinger). It was a form of escape for him while doing time and something to do to pass the time. Jack's been having visions of Holli for some time, where she wants to escape from Cool World into the real world and become a flesh and blood human being. The only way that this ...Read the entire review

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Cat People (1982) - 4K Ultra HD (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75368 Wed, 14 Sep 2022 17:52:24 UTC Rent It

The Movie:


1942's Val Lewton-produced Cat People became a classic and overcame its meager beginnings as a low-budget B-horror by showcasing such a suspense-over-creature-effects style that the titular creatures are actually never seen. Of course, this was partly due to the budget being so small that the crew couldn't afford costumes that would be passable for even a b-movie, but art through adversity created a haunting tale of longing and rage that's told entirely through shadows and growls.


One of the ground rules for a remake is almost always that it shouldn't blindly follow in the footsteps of the original. In that sense, Paul Schrader's vision for Cat People passes the smell test. As implicit as the 1942 film was when it came to its tension, lore, scares, and undertones of sexual frustration, Schrader chose a path that was equally as explicit.


This meant that the se...Read the entire review

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Dog Soldiers (Collector's Edition) (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75365 Fri, 09 Sep 2022 21:13:07 UTC Highly Recommended

THE FILM:

Neil Marshall has had a hard time replicating the acclaim he received over his directorial debut, Dog Soldiers and follow-up The Descent. Subsequent films like Centurion and Doomsday are not without merit, but they fail to capture the energy and excitement of Marshall's first two outings. A group of highly skilled soldiers participates in a training exercise in the Scottish Highlands, where they stumble upon the remains of a group of Special Air Service men. A survivor, Capt. Richard Ryan (Liam Cunningham), does not provide straight answers about the situation, and the new unit soon is attacked by unseen assailants. They discover their attackers are nine-foot-ta...Read the entire review

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Fire in the Sky (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75307 Tue, 19 Jul 2022 19:18:04 UTC Recommended

Fire In The Sky:

Fire In The Sky (1993) prefigured The X-Files by a couple of years but is very much in that vein, from a time when UFOs and alien abductions were still cranking away in popularity in the United States zeitgeist. (As opposed to the early 2020s, when the US government has opened up and admitted the large-ish number of previously-classified UFO encounters, which are more commonly believed to be just weird unexplained phenomena and not actual flying saucers.) Featuring a curious cast and unique special effects, Fire In The Sky plays something like a more traditional drama with an investigation feel, rather than the alien horror feature theatrical trailers were selling. With an effective structure and solid performances, it works regardless of what viewers might expect.

Fire In The Sky starts...Read the entire review

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Alligator (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75153 Thu, 24 Feb 2022 19:18:59 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

...Read the entire review

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2021 World Series:Collectors Edition (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75122 Tue, 18 Jan 2022 16:58:56 UTC Rent It

The Movie:

I've been out of some kind of loop when it comes to baseball and with life getting in the way of things in 2021 all the more so, but imagine my surprise when it was the Atlanta Braves back in the saddle when it came to some form of success. I do remember them stinking the joint up for a few years but more than that, I remember their usual act of close but no cigar in the early 1990s. With the demon slain and a World Series ring earned, Shout! and Major League Baseball put together their annual Collector's Edition for the champions.

And for good reason too; Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, and Freddie Freeman each had 30 home runs, with the first two having driven in more than 100 runs each. Charlie Morton and Max Fried logged 14 wins each from the pitcher's mound, and Will Smith (not the (Men in Black guy) logged 37 ...Read the entire review

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Halloween (1978) 4K Ultra HD https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75037 Wed, 03 Nov 2021 16:29:45 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

The Movie:

With the recent Halloween Kills, Michael Myers and his whiteface Captain Kirk mask is still going strong as an enduring slasher franchise after four decades. Ironically, John Carpenter\'s 1978 horror masterpiece, perhaps the finest distillation of the genre\'s id, was the one story that derived its strength from never continuing on from its haunting and perfect ending.

Carpenter\'s Michael Myers is pure, unmotivated, non-sensical, unstoppable evil. The reason for what was first conceived as a low-budget exploitation flick called The Babysitter Murders lingering as the pure distillation of terror to this day lies in Carpenter stripping as much reason and humanity from his iconic killer as possible, making him represent the random and sudden specter of death when we least expect it, and when we\'re at our most comfortable and sheltered.

The universality of this fear that\'...Read the entire review

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Little Vampire (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75034 Tue, 02 Nov 2021 16:49:57 UTC Rent It

The Movie:

So apparently this 2020 animated version of Little Vampire is not, in fact, some Euro reboot of 2000's The Little Vampire starring Jonathan Lipnicki, but is actually a comic series in France that this film was based on. It's not necessarily that I was hoping for a Blu-ray of this film I either didn't know or forgot about when it first came out, but this is animated, and has things that resemble Halloween (and I watched it with my family on Halloween), so perhaps I was looking for something new, who knows?

Joann Sfar wrote the comics, co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Sandrina Jardel and directed the animated feature, telling the story of the Vampire, who has desires to be part of the human world. The vampire meets Michel, a boy living with his grandparents (following the death of his parents), and t...Read the entire review

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Halloween II (1981) (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75030 Thu, 28 Oct 2021 16:49:50 UTC Highly Recommended

THE FILM:

John Carpenter's Halloween is my favorite movie. That 1978 horror film truly is the immortal classic; a perfectly executed suspense film that inspired generations of horror fans. Rick Rosenthal directs the 1981 sequel, Halloween II, with Carpenter and Debra Hill returning to write and produce. The original film is heavy on suspense and light on gore, but this follow-up, released the year after the graphic Friday the 13th, focuses more on bloody kills than building suspense. That is not to say Halloween II is a bad film; it is not. Artfully shot by cinematographer Dean Cundey, the film is a direct and worthy continuation of Michael Myers' night of terror in Haddonfield, Illinois. Where it falters is in pacing and execut...Read the entire review

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Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75015 Wed, 20 Oct 2021 22:20:02 UTC Recommended

...Read the entire review

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Kubo and the Two Strings - LAIKA Studios Edition (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75014 Mon, 18 Oct 2021 16:49:40 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

Kubo and the Two Strings:

Kubo and the Two Strings, (2016) stop-motion animation studio Laika's fourth film, represents a leap into maturity for a studio already pretty steeped in headiness. While the first three movies aren't exactly kids' stuff, for a variety of reasons, the themes of love, loss, adult fallibility and the fragility of families found within Kubo and the Two Strings are profound and affecting, holding up to multiple viewings. Kubo is also a thrilling and often hilarious adventure too, one that not only engages on a purely cinematic level, but that also expands the boundaries of stop-motion animation. Is it Laika's best film? Sure, though I haven't seen Missing Link (2019) yet …

Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a young Japanese boy of about 12 years, living with his mother in a cave outside the village. Mom (Charlize Theron) is comatose a lot of the time,...Read the entire review

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Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75010 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 16:49:25 UTC Highly Recommended

...Read the entire review

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Halloween III: Season of the Witch (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75006 Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:04:31 UTC Highly Recommended

...Read the entire review

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The Boxtrolls - LAIKA Studios Edition [Blu-ray + DVD] (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74979 Tue, 21 Sep 2021 16:15:52 UTC Highly Recommended

The Boxtrolls:

The Boxtrolls is the third film from Portland, Oregon-based stop-motion animation studio Laika, released in 2014. Loosely based on the book "Here Be Monsters!" by Alan Snow, the charming movie tells the story of a boy raised by trolls, and his journeys in the surface world of humans. Fans of Laika's intricate work will find the movie, and this extras-packed release, irresistible.

We're introduced to human toddler Eggs (so named because that's what the box he wears used to contain) living underground amongst the boxtrolls, creatures who live a magical existence tinkering with tools and such which they swipe from the garbage on midnight raids to the world above their sewer home. Eggs has been adopted more-or-less by a troll named Fish, who teaches him to jam along with a barbershop quartet record. Unfortunately, above ground, exterminator Archibald Snatcher has vowed to ...Read the entire review

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Dreambuilders - Blu-ray + Digital (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74968 Mon, 13 Sep 2021 18:28:24 UTC Rent It

The Movie:

I've been slowly trying to broaden my kid's cinematic horizons lately, but the window between something that looks silly against something that may be a little too ‘mature' (in the non-romantic context) for his tastes, with the most recent attempt being Dreambuilders, a 2020 animated film from Denmark that could be viewed as a lesser family member to either Monsters, Inc. or Inside Out, two gems within the Pixar stable.

From a screenplay by Soren Hansen and directed by Kim Jensen and Torri Zinck, the film looks at Minna, the only child to her father John. When John meets someone, Minna becomes stepsister to Jenny, a caustic, superficial teen preoccupied with popularity and status. When Minna realizes that she has the ability to control the d...Read the entire review

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The Transformers: The Movie 35th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook [4K UHD] (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74926 Mon, 16 Aug 2021 17:42:55 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:

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Set in the distant future of the year 2005, Transformers: The Movie, directed by Nelson Shin and released theatrically 1986, takes us to Cybertron, the home planet of both the heroic Autobots and sinister Decepticons, the latter of whom have recently taken over the planet, sending the Autobots to regroup on one of the planet's moons. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Autobots' leader, Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), has been killed in a battle with Megatron (sorry if that's a spoiler but it's pretty impossible to talk about the movie without bringing it up), leaving what's left of the Autobots in a bit of a spiral and leaving Megatron in pretty rough shape himself. Before Optimus Prime dies, however, he passes the baton to Ultra Magnus (voiced by Robert Stack).

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Megatron (voiced by Frank Welker), the leader of the Decepticons, and a few of his crew...Read the entire review

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House of Wax (2005) (Collector's Edition) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74889 Wed, 28 Jul 2021 16:14:50 UTC Recommended

THE FILM:

The fifth in a string of popular horror films released by production house Dark Castle Entertainment around the new millennium, House of Wax may best be remembered for its tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign, which promised to let you "See Paris Die!" The Paris referenced is socialite Paris Hilton, who has a supporting role in the film, which is a loose remake of Vincent Price's 1953 3-D original. Strong production values and atmosphere make up for a few slow sections, and Jaume Collet-Serra's House of Wax benefits from good performances by Elisha Cuthbert as the "final girl" and Brian Van Holt in a dual role. Shout! Factory now releases the film under its Scream Factory banner in a new Collector's Edition, which offers a restored picture, lossless sound and a decent slab of extras.

Carl...Read the entire review

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Just a Gigolo (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74870 Fri, 09 Jul 2021 20:38:25 UTC Rent It


I'd been curious about Just a Gigolo (Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo, or "Nice Gigolo, Poor Gigolo," 1978) for decades, and the best thing I can say about it is that this curiosity has been duly satiated. Widely panned, even by its star, David Bowie, the movie is all style and no substance. I couldn't wait for it to end.

Nevertheless, the movie has an irresistible cast, most famously 76-year-old Marlene Dietrich in her final film role. Other than a brief cameo appearance in Paris When It Sizzles (1964), she hadn't acted in films since Judgment in Nuremberg (1961). (Though the liner notes for the Blu-ray refer to that as a "cameo," in fact she had a substantial role.) During this period, Dietrich became a hugely popular cabaret star, working closely with Burt Bacharach and performing before large audiences, but that ended in 1975 when she was injured in a fall, and t...Read the entire review

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Lupin III: The First (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74684 Fri, 12 Feb 2021 16:39:14 UTC Recommended

Lupin III: The First:

Lupin III: The First (correctly said; "Lupin the third, the first" which sounds kind of weird) features crackling action and a breathless pace, plus gorgeous visuals, for a first (not third) rate evening of movie entertainment which will thrill the whole family. The story combines Dan Brown-style historical mythology with Studio Ghibli verve, and is very fun indeed!

My experience and understanding of the Lupin III franchise was nil as I approached this movie, though my teenager lists Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro as one of their favorite films, so when this stunning Blu-ray presentation landed in my lap, I had to take on the challenge. I'm happy I did!

Lupin III: The First swings into furious action from the get-go, and never really lets up. Per most action movies, which this one most definitely is, an opening caper sets the story up, eventually...Read the entire review

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2020 World Series Champions: Los Angeles Dodgers [Blu-ray + DVD] (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74651 Thu, 21 Jan 2021 15:58:26 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

I just got done talking a little bit about sports and wondering what they will be in a world post-Covid, but I haven't really gotten into sports during Covid, which Major League Baseball decided it wanted to do. Rather than scrap the season when the virus emerged at the beginning of the year, MLB decided to do a truncated season, mostly done to empty seats and some done to empty venues. It wasn't without bumps in the road as numerous teams had outbreaks among their personnel (to say nothing of contentious talks on trying to even start the season) but they managed to get 60 regular season games and a postseason in as well.

The Los Angeles Dodgers stood head and shoulders above most, finishing with the best record over the shortened season, winning 43 of those 60. The team lost no notable players in a trade with the Boston Red Sox while acquiring All-Star outfielder Mookie...Read the entire review

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Adaptation. (Shout Select) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74569 Tue, 17 Nov 2020 17:32:36 UTC Recommended

THE FILM:

It has been nearly 18 years since I watched Spike Jonze's Adaptation., which hardly seems possible given that Nicolas Cage does not age. The feverishly anticipated, second feature-length collaboration between director Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation. sought to replicate the success of their genre-bending Being John Malkovich. The film does not quite hit that high mark, but it is certainly no slouch. Based on both Susan Orlean's novel "The Orchid Thief" and Kaufman's own struggles to adapt that work into a screenplay, Adaptation. finds Cage playing twins Charlie and Donald Kaufman alongside Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Judy Greer. These kind of meta cinematic experiments can crash and ...Read the entire review

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The Other Lamb (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74467 Mon, 24 Aug 2020 20:38:17 UTC Skip It

Although the battle is far from over, especially when it comes to mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, the last few years have at least been a transformative period in terms of awareness of the gender imbalance in filmmaking, especially behind the camera. The cultural and systemic oppression of women is also a major factor when it comes to faith or religion, especially within a political landscape that seems to encourage a new fringe ideology or doctrine every day. In theory, The Other Lamb, a film both written and directed by women (C.S. McMullen and Malgorzata Szumowska, respectively) and about women trapped in one of said cults should be a fascinating experience, but the film is so thunderously unsubtle in its metaphor and uninterested in exploring its ideas further than its didactic message that the viewer can probably grasp everything the film has to say just by contemplating the title.Read the entire review

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Thir13en Ghosts (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74436 Wed, 22 Jul 2020 20:31:49 UTC Rent It

Whew! Now that Uncle Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham) is dead, everything's starting to look up.

Don't take that the wrong way, though. There's nothing the least bit heartless or mercenary about Cyrus' nephew Arthur (Tony Shalhoub), who barely even knew the guy, and his kids Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts) didn't even know they had an uncle. But still, the family's suffered all sorts of loss in recent years. Their old house went up in flames, taking their mother/wife Jean (Kathryn Anderson) with it. Now flat broke and mired in debt, the surviving members of the Kriticos family are barely scraping by in a cramped, dingy apartment. They're so overjoyed at the prospect of high-tailing it out of Dodge that the...Read the entire review

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The Kiss of the Vampire (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74400 Tue, 07 Jul 2020 20:31:17 UTC Highly Recommended

If only newlyweds Gerald (Edward de Souza) and Marianne (Jennifer Daniel) had thought to bring a spare can of petrol in their motorcar. Having driven merrily to wherever it is they'd planned to honeymoon, this review would've been of an altogether different film. But alas, their fuel tank runs dry just outside a hopelessly remote Bavarian village. The local innkeepers have had but one paying guest in years: Professor Zimmer (Clifford Evans), sneered at as the local drunk and a man with seemingly nothing more to offer than vague, ominous warnings. There's little sign of life in the village, and certainly no one comes to the inn's pub anymore to share a pint.

Not that it's a terribly tall order, but Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman) proves to be a far more inviting host,...Read the entire review

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Glengarry Glen Ross (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74353 Fri, 05 Jun 2020 14:48:41 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:

Written by David Mamet, and based on his play of the same name, director James Foley's 1992 film of Glengarry Glen Ross is set around the Brooklyn office of real estate company Premiere Properties. Blake (Alec Baldwin) runs the show, answering to the higher ups at the company's Manhattan location. He runs a very competitive ship, pitting agents against one another to get the highest sales for a month in order to win a new Cadillac. That's a nice price for whoever comes in first, of course, but whoever comes in last loses their job. Office manager John Williamson (Kevin Spacey), who has never held a sales job in his life, hands out leads as they come in, and he's not above playing favorites, resulting in an unfair playing field. The best leads he gets, the ‘Glengarry leads,' he only hands out to those performing the best, which further complicates things in the office...Read the entire review

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The Curse of the Werewolf (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74346 Sat, 30 May 2020 20:21:29 UTC Highly Recommended


"Sometimes it so happens that the spirit of one of these beasts finds entrance into a body while it yet lives – usually at the moment of birth. Then, the soul and the spirit war with each other to gain mastery of the body. If the soul of the man is strong and clean, we'll generally exorcise the spirit of the beast before it is many years old, but if, for some reason, the soul is weak – an inherited weakness, an accident of birth – then...a werewolf. That's what he is, my son."


Read the entire review

]]> Mystify: Michael Hutchence (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74335 Thu, 21 May 2020 14:40:33 UTC Recommended

Michael Hutchence, the late front man for 1980s and 90s band INXS (whose 1983 single "The One Thing" was introduced to me via Casey Kasem's American Top 40 radio show, as it debuted right at #40) is profiled here 22 years after his death which was ruled as a suicide. It's directed by Richard Lowenstein who also directed many of the band's music videos, but Hutchence himself is the main subject here rather than the band or its music. Although it doesn't present his entire life story, we learn a bit about his early life- born in Australia his family moved to Hong Kong for a bit during his childhood and later his mother took off with him for the United States. Those who knew him as a kid say he was shy then, but surprised everyone by opening up and discovering that he loved to perform. He was already close friends with the three Farriss Brothers (Andrew, Jon and Tim) who had started a band and became t...Read the entire review

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Millennium Actress (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74276 Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:56:03 UTC Highly Recommended

In the vast subgenre of movies about movies, Millennium Actress may not have the stature of many American live-action movies, but director Satoshi Kon has crafted something as beautiful as it is complex, elegantly telling three separate stories that intertwine into an overall narrative. Each one of these stories is a necessary complement to the other, and yet each one is individually exciting, requiring a different skillset and touch from Kon. For years, the film has been largely unavailable in America, released once in the early 2000s on a DVD from DreamWorks that has been out-of-print for years, but the recent attention paid to the late filmmaker's impressive catalog (including the recent Blu-ray of Perfect Blue and upcoming US Blu-ray releases of Tokyo Godfathers and "Paranoia Agent") means it is once again available for film fans to discover and enjoy.

The trio o...Read the entire review

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The Wizard (Collector's Edition) (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74257 Fri, 20 Mar 2020 05:20:10 UTC Highly Recommended

I love The Wizard. It's so bad.

[click on the thumbnail to enlarge]

In case Lucas (Jackey Vinson) and his Power Glove didn't tip you off, we're not talking about an "alakazam!" type of wizard here; more the "he's making the jump, it's his second time through, and he hasn't even taken a hit yet!"-in-Ninja-Gaiden variety. Not that anyone would believe young Jimmy (Luke Edwards) would be capable...Read the entire review

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2019 World Series Champions: Washington Nationals (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74204 Fri, 14 Feb 2020 21:02:58 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

I'm not that big of a baseball fan anymore, and certainly am not a fan of the Washington Nationals, for reasons outside of loyalty or customer experience. However, with current events coming out in baseball these days it's hard to deny that their 2019 season and World Series win were something to behold, largely because of what they had to overcome. More on the former in a minute.

As of this writing, the Astros have been found to be cheating to wide and elaborate degree; stealing pitching signs, then tipping off their batters using television monitors and hitting a trash can. I don't know when it started (I haven't been up on the scandal as much as others), but they went from 84 wins in 2016, to winning more than 100 in each of the last three seasons, winning the World Series in 2017 and then returning in 2019 to face the Nationals.

The Nats were in dire straits ear...Read the entire review

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Brewster's Millions (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74176 Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:20:58 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

It's extremely easy for the poor to lose everything in America. But if you're wealthy, our system of unchecked capitalism will find a way to reward you for even the most frivolous behavior. That's why George Barr McCutcheon's early 20th Century novel, Brewster's Millions, is one of those quintessentially American stories that have been adapted numerous times in Hollywood history.

Director Walter Hill's 1985 version came at an opportune time for an update on the tale of a common man named Brewster (Richard Pryor), who inherits 300 million dollars from a cranky long lost relative (Hume Cronyn). But of course there's a catch: Brewster has to spend 30 million dollars in 30 days. If he manages to get through all of that money without a penny of assets accumulated, he gets the 300 big ones. The premise is ripe for a farce with a side of satire, a...Read the entire review

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Sliding Doors (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74175 Mon, 27 Jan 2020 18:36:33 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:

When it comes to making sure I evaluate a movie with a high concept premise on its own merits, I ask myself a simple but important question: Would this property work even without the gimmick? Would 1917 be as thrilling without the "one shot" concept? Would Memento's story be as gripping if it was told in linear order? If the answer is yes, then the high concept premise works exactly as it should: A creative support to give the film a pinch of originality, instead of being its raison d'etre.

22 years after its release, Sliding Doors holds up mainly because it's still a charming and fun Brit rom-com with engaging and relatable characters, as well as a nice balance between the genre's lighthearted tropes and the implementation of some genuinely surprising dramatic turns. The high concept itself is so ingrained in our culture, that menti...Read the entire review

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Very Bad Things (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/74166 Tue, 21 Jan 2020 15:09:54 UTC Skip It

THE FILM:

Peter Berg's 1998 directorial debut Very Bad Things is not quite a very bad film, but it certainly comes close. This mostly unfunny dark comedy sees mild-mannered office drone Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) set to marry stuffy bridezilla Laura Garrety (Cameron Diaz). His boys, including Robert (Christian Slater), brothers Adam (Daniel Stern) and Michael (Jeremy Piven), and Charles (Leland Orser), take him to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, much to Laura's chagrin. Before the night is over, a local hooker and hotel security guard are dead in Kyle's room and a symphony of repeated bad decisions has just begun. Berg also wrote the screenplay, which certainly feels like a late ‘90s product, but most of the jokes fail to land smoothly. In the end, Very Bad Things becomes a crass, meandering bore despite its frequent violence and depravity.

Diaz is kind ...Read the entire review

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