Based on his successful stage play of the same name (and the same cast) The Shape of Things is the latest effort from Director Neil LaBute who best know for his films centered around tangled relationships and brutal encounters where people are so utterly cruel to each other you can't help but cringe (see In The Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors)

The Shape of Things in many way is LaBute 'light', it's a much softer, quieter and smaller film which seems content following the intertwined relationships of four people. Almost myopic in its focus The Shape of Things never strays far from the two main characters of the film and when it does the entire cast only consists of four actors. LaBute who wrote, directed and produced The Shape of Things does an admiral job of keeping the dialog sharp and fresh, but there's just so much dialog it inevitably causes the film to drag. Also The ...Read the entire review

Savant has to admit he ordered this DVD thinking it was RKO 281, for which Citizen Welles is an alternate title. Instead, this is a special two disc edition of Orson Welles' very good films The Stranger and The Trial, with some extra material.

Both films are acknowledged classics. The Stranger (1946) is Welles' very good thriller about a government agent (Edward G. Robinson) tracking a Nazi war criminal (Orson) to a small New England town, where he's managed to ferret himself away under a false identity and is about to marry a local woman (Loretta Young). In a clever game of cat & mouse, the agent tightens the noose around the suspected Nazi, who eventually turns on his new wife for betraying him. Kind of Welles' answer to Alfred Hitchcock's Shado...Read the entire review

Review:
Ryder, P.I.

Movie:
Ryder, P.I., originally released in 1986, was directed by Karl Hosch and Chuck Walker. Both shared the writing credit with Dave Hawthorne and Bob Nelson, who starred in the film as well (as Sky Ryder and Eppie, respectively). Also appearing in the film are Francis Raines (Valerie), Howard Stern (Ben Wah), and quite a few other New York based comedians.

After botching his last few investigative assignments, Sky Ryder is given one last chance. He's been following Mrs. Feldstein for over a year, as her husband suspects her of cheating, and now that the husband is again out of town, the boss wants the case closed. And so he won't screw this one up, his boss assigns Eppie, the office idiot, to help him. However, things are made more complicated when they manage to save a woman named Valerie from a gang of bikers, and having no place to go, Ryder tak...Read the entire review

I figure I must just be an old soul. I love the romance and nostalgia of the early 20th century films. For someone who grew up in the discoed-out 70's and the metal-head 80's, the old musicals, black and whites and bigger than life spectacles of yesteryear make me feel, some how, more in touch with America's past. If you have the slightest bit of sympathy for me than you'll love Showbiz Ballyhoo.

This 1982 documentary of the Hollywood, star-making machine of the early half of the 20th century is stuffed full of footage the public has never seen. With screen tests, bloopers, publicity reels and behind the scenes footage, this DVD is packed full of some of the most fascinating pictures of Hollywood that you may ever see. How often do we get to see Vivien Leigh, Loretta Young and Joan Fontaine screen test for the same role in Rebecca? When's the last time you saw Bogart, Flynn or Cagney flu...Read the entire review