THE FILM:

I had not seen Luis Mandoki's Trapped since I went with my mom to the theater opening weekend back in 2002. I enjoyed it then for what it is: a trashy, B-movie thriller full of melodrama that might have been made for Lifetime TV if not for its violence, language and A-list cast. The film holds up decently after 18 years, thanks in large part to convincing performances by Charlize Theron and a young Dakota Fanning. This child-endangerment thriller certainly does not rival movies like Ransom or Man on Fire in technical merits or dramatic heft, but it does offer pulpy thrills. I still maintain the inclusion of musician Courtney Love in a supporting role is one of the film's best q...Read the entire review

Licensed from Sony's Columbia Pictures library, Mill Creek and Kit Parker Films' Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956 is a worth-every-penny collection of nine varied featured films. Some are Sam Katzman (or Sam Katzman-level) programmers, while a few are ambitious, moderately more expensive "Bs," and there are even a couple of British imports, including one with big stars and in Technicolor. All nine have points of interest, and the film transfers are, for the most part, excellent.

The films in this set are: Bait (1954), The Crooked Web, Cell 2455 Death Row, 5 Against the House, The Night Holds Terror, New Orleans Uncensored, Footsteps in the Fog (all 1955), Spin a Dark Web, and Rumble on the Docks (both 1956).

Read the entire review

]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73802 Mon, 22 Apr 2019 21:56:58 UTC Rent It

Good news and bad news. Sheena (1984) turns out to be a far better film than its reputation would suggest but, alas, Mill Creek's new, budget-priced Blu-ray release is pretty awful, offering a video transfer that's not much better than standard-def DVD.

Based on the Will Eisner-Jerry Iger comic book character, debuting in 1937, the movie bombed at the box-office and received mostly scathing reviews, including five "Golden Raspberry Award" nominations. But the film isn't at all the campy, gooey mess I was expecting. The director, John Guillermin, had previously helmed two of the very best Tarzan films, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) and Tarzan Goes to India (1962), and his work on Sheena adopts a similarly, resolutely sincere tone and a real sense of grandeur. Sheena is not a failed attempt at camp; rather, it's a straight-faced jungle adventure/fantasy with mom...Read the entire review

]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73793 Thu, 18 Apr 2019 18:12:03 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

Directed by Alan Rudolph in 1984 and based on a script by Bud Shrake, Songwriter tells the story of, well, a songwriter named Doc Jenkins (Willie Nelson). When the deal he's made with prolific publisher Rodeo Rocky (Richard Sarafian) turns out to be a whole lot less rosy than he was expecting it to be, Doc decides to scrap it all and go out on his own. Bound and determined to make it to the same mogul status that Rocky has, he starts his own company called, maybe a little predictably, Lone Star Music.

Doc's got a bit of a secret weapon in his arsenal in the form of Gilda (Lesley Ann Warren), an undiscovered gem of a singer with a whole lot of potential. He comes up with a scheme to use her name on his songs and to setup his old pal Blackie Buck (Kris Kristofferson) as the ‘official' president of the company. Soon enough, Gilda strikes a chord with the listening...Read the entire review

]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73501 Fri, 07 Dec 2018 20:03:22 UTC Rent It

Its intentions are pure, but Benji's Very Own Christmas Story (1978) is one of the least essential holiday specials of its era. The main culprit is a 25-minute running time: our story is too slight to leave any kind of lasting impression, as it plays out like several scenes from a longer production that was left unfinished. Here's how the story goes: Mary and Cindy (Patsy Garrett andCynthia Smith) are guests of honor in Switzerland, where their lovable pup Benji will be featured as grand marshal of the upcoming holiday parade. During their brief stay, they meet up with Kris Kringle (Ron Moody), who's nursi...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73481 Thu, 29 Nov 2018 16:26:53 UTC Recommended Nightwing / Shadow of the Hawk: This bare-bones Double-Feature Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment combines a pair of '70s Native American Shockers that will appeal to two types of genre fans; those who need to see every horror-thriller ever made, and those who specialize in Native American Shockers. Both features have enjoyed previous lives in VHS and DVD form, but here they are now with better picture quality to scratch that itch! But wait! Are the movies any good? We shall see ... Nightwing (1979) Nick Mancuso stars as Masaki Deputy Youngman Duran, a strong advocate for his people, who's up against weaselly Tribal Chairman Walker Chee (Stephen Macht) and his suspicious dealings with the Federal Government. However, that's not the worst of it, as something is killing livestock (and people), in such a way that freak-show Phillip Payne (David Warner) is on the case. What...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73477 Wed, 28 Nov 2018 19:28:51 UTC Highly Recommended The Show: Over the last five decades or so, there has been no shortage of sitcoms that take place in educational institutions. They're mostly centered on high school, but college also gets its occasional turn in the form of quirky shows about early adults struggling to find their place in life. Community is special amongst them because it's mainly about misfits of various ages who are trying to grasp a second chance at life. That insightful premise is wrapped about a heightened high concept tone that borderlines on a live action cartoon narrative. The formula that creator Dan Harmon puts together satisfies the Matt Groening-style irreverent and borderline absurdist humor mixed with characters we can immediately relate to, no matter how archetypal they might get in service of any given joke or bit. Apart from Season 4, where Harmon stepped out as the showrunner, leaving behi...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73471 Tue, 27 Nov 2018 15:40:30 UTC Highly Recommended As mismatched a double-feature disc this might be, Mill Creek's pairing of Age of Consent with Cactus Flower (both 1969) is an incredible bargain for two very good films. An extras-loaded British Blu-ray of the former all by itself sells for more than double the price. Excepting for the short (55 minutes) The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972), Age of Consent was effectively director Michael Powell's last feature. One of the great British filmmakers, Powell's talents first became evident in the late 1930s on such films as The Edge of the World (1937) but really exploded when he partnered with Hungarian emigre Emeric Pressburger as The Archers, co-writing, producing, and directing a long series of uniquely dramatized, visually sumptuous film...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73460 Tue, 20 Nov 2018 19:29:57 UTC Highly Recommended The Show: Community had such a unique place within the pop culture landscape in the early portion of the 2010s that I'm not completely sure it could be summed up. It included the emergence of the showrunner like few other peers of the time, resulting in a nationwide tour for and focus on its subject (Dan Harmon). Either jokingly or with an air of pomposity it included things that drove storylines or served as a backdrop that few others did on network television; who was doing shows around Dungeons and Dragons or paintball on network television, and making them fun and kind of poignant at the same time? But it was showing people who were perhaps marginalized or stigmatized in society and giving them a chance to shine within a group dynamic sometimes, which could be toxic like some others could. Normalizing them in a weird way. The show's premise is for lack of a better word, k...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73442 Thu, 08 Nov 2018 22:30:30 UTC Rent It A visually ambitious slice of futuristic drama, Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis (2001) is kinda-sorta based on his 1949 manga and Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film...but not really. The spirit is the same, though: like most stories rooted in science fiction, Metropolis attempts to predict the future by borrowing concepts from different time periods, inventing a few new ones, and hoping to reveal something meaningful about our current time in the process. It doesn't fulfill all those promises, but at least stays afloat on pure visual strength: with its impressive combination of hand-drawn animation and CGI elem...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73424 Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:43:40 UTC Recommended The Show: NOTE: The images included here are promotional stills that do not represent the quality of the Blu-ray set under review. It shouldn't be so hard for a disc-loving fan of TV, but sometimes it can be. As fans of old shows like Gunsmoke and Perry Mason can attest, sometimes it feels like it takes longer than the original show ran on the air to get studios to release all the episodes on DVD or Blu-ray. And new shows are certainly not spared from this fate. Masters of Sex, which premiere...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73301 Sun, 09 Sep 2018 16:40:55 UTC Highly Recommended In 10 Words or Less Six friends that are more fun than those other Friends Reviewer's Bias* Loves: Good sitcoms, Happy Endings, the cast Likes: Mill Creek's recent output Dislikes: Hates: TV's quick h...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73292 Wed, 05 Sep 2018 14:26:08 UTC Highly Recommended In 10 Words or Less Finally, we can laugh at documentaries Reviewer's Bias* Loves: documentaries, Bill Hader Likes: Fred Armisen, parodies Dislikes: the general perception of documentaries Hates: Missing out on existing extras The Show Unless you only know people with a shelf full of Criterion DVDs, most people you meet will not know Swimming to Cambodia. They will not know Salesman. They may know Jiro Dreams of Sushi, but only because it was on Netflix and made in the past decade. But most people simply don't watch documentaries unless they are the hot, new streaming series, like Wild, Wild Country or The Staircase. Documentary Now! was not made for them. How...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/72854 Mon, 12 Mar 2018 13:42:19 UTC Highly Recommended A real bargain ($8.11 as I write this) for this Hammer Films Double Feature, Mill Creek's release of Never Take Candy from a Stranger (1960) and Scream of Fear (1961) is a great opportunity for those who enjoyed Sony's earlier "Icons of Suspense" DVD boxed set to upgrade, while first-time viewers can enjoy a real treat, two outstanding, very different films from the modest British film company for practically nothing. With Never Take Candy from a Stranger (original British title: Never Takes Sweets from a Stranger, 1960), Hammer tries to have it both ways: make a deadly serious, nearly uncompromising drama on a taboo subject nevertheless a serious social problem, but also make something suitably marketable. They succeeded in the form...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/72834 Sat, 03 Mar 2018 23:40:32 UTC Recommended The Movie: Mill Creek Entertainment offers up another Hammer Horror double feature, pairing up two of the famous studio's shockers from the Sony vaults. Maniac: Directed for Hammer by Michael Carreras in 1963 from a script by Jimmy Sangster, Maniac is set in France and opens with a scene in which a pretty young woman named Annette Beynat (Liliane Brousse) accepts a ride home from school offered to her by an older man. This man works locally as a groundskeeper. He takes Annette off into a remote area and he rapes her. Annette's father learns what has happened to his daughter, kidnaps the man who did it, and then leaves him for dead after torturing him with a blowtorch. The authorities find out about this act of vengeance and send him away to an insane asylum, while the locals all completely understand why he did what he did. Time passes and Jeff Farrell (Kerwi...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/72534 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 01:12:49 UTC Recommended A complete series collection of Just Shoot Me! arrives onDVD for the first time much to the joy of fans. This series, whichranfor seven seasons, from 1997-2003 is a sitcom from executive producersBrad Grey(The Departed, The Sopranos), Steven Levitan (ModernFamily,Wings), and Bernie Brillstein (Ghostbusters, Alf), and it was created by Steven Levitan (Modern Family). The comedy tacklesthe workplace through the exploration of the behind-the-scenes of a fashionmagazine. It's your typical fashion magazine covering the latestfashion trends, beautytips, models, and dating advice, and the show is a comedicspin on thefashion world and the way magazines are created. The series revolves around theeccentric employees who work for Blush fashion magazine. One suchemployee is MayaGallo (Laura San Gi...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71446 Mon, 31 Oct 2016 22:05:05 UTC Highly Recommended The Movie: Created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann, Miami Vice ran on NBC from 1984 through 1989 but even when the final episode aired, the series remained popular in syndication for years. The show was more than just another series about tough cops, it was a cultural phenomenon going on to influence fashion and style in a big way. The show was also pretty revolutionary in how it incorporated popular music of the day into its soundscape. The series maintains a solid audience to this day. The series now makes its debut on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment. The pilot introduces us to a Miami vice cop named James "Sonny" Crockett (Don Johnson) who loses his partner (Jimmy Smits) when their drug bust goes south. Shortly after this happens, the Miami Police Department is paid a visit by a New York cop named Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas). It turn...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71440 Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:08:31 UTC Recommended The Series: In 1982 a young man named Michael Knight (played by a big haired Member's Only jacket wearing David Hasslehoff) drove off the back of a truck in his slick, black Trans Am, and into our collective TV watching hearts. The ladies swooned for him, and the guys all wanted to be just like him. Michael Knight was the coolest cat to hit TV that season, and his car made him even cooler. Michael and his indestructible talking car K.I.T.T. had many adventures, but the first season is the one that turned all of us the children of the eighties into serious converts. Some of us were hardcore enough to make our own K.I.T.T.'s out of Hot Wheels cars and bring them to school to impress our friends. Well, maybe not many of us, but at least one other kid at school and I were, because Michael Knight was the coolest. Knight Rider was previously released on DVD in single season ed...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71244 Tue, 06 Sep 2016 02:18:40 UTC Recommended Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Mill Creek has come through on its promise, with two Blu-ray double features of Columbia (Sony) Hammer titles. It's a fine way to release studio Hammer holdings to the rabid, acquisition-hungry fans. As the source studio for Mill Creek's offerings is Sony, we have every right to expect great transfers, audio and picture. If Mill Creek gives them quality encodings, it's a lock. The movies themselves are both classy entertainments, each of which has its following. And if the price online is correct, even cheapskate Savant will be buying copies. What Mill Creek has done essentially, is taken a Sony 4-title "Icons of Horror" DVD release from eight years ago, swap out a B&W title for a color title, bump it up to HD and divide it in two. The Two Fac...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/71243 Tue, 06 Sep 2016 02:18:40 UTC Recommended Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Okay, this sounds like the right way to release studio Hammer holdings to the rabid, acquisition-hungry fans: Blu-ray double Bills. As the source studio for Mill Creek's offerings is Sony, we have every right to expect great transfers, audio and picture. If Mill Creek gives them quality encodings, it's a lock. This first double-bill is a good selection. One classic and one classy entertainment, and both have their followings. And if the price online is correct, even cheapskate Savant will be buying copies. What Mill Creek has done essentially, is taken a Sony 4-title "Icons of Horror" DVD release from eight years ago, swap out a B&W title for a color title, bump it up to HD and divide it in two. The Revenge of Frankenstein...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/69693 Wed, 09 Dec 2015 20:14:19 UTC Highly Recommended That '70s Show is one of the best (andfunniest)television sitcoms ever created. The series is a throwback sitcom whichtakesplace in Wisconsin in 1976. The show focuses on Eric Forman (TopherGrace) andhis friends as they grow up during the 70's. It is from executiveproducersMarcy Carsey and Tom Werner (both of whom produced Roseanne and3rd Rockfrom the Sun). Eric and his friends spend much of their timehanging out inthe basement. They also go out in Eric's Vista Cruiser and go on roadtrips orspend time hanging out at the disco. It is the 1970's: That '70sShowis apop-culture bonanza filled with references to the decade and thecultureprominent at that time. From vinyl recor...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67227 Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:08:50 UTC Highly Recommended "When I start out to make a fool of myself there's very little can stop me." - Michael O'Hara I've seen Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai (1947) five or six times through the years, and still half the time I don't know what the hell is going on. Howard Hawks's The Big Sleep (1946) is a model of comprehensive linear storytelling by comparison. The Lady from Shanghai isn't nearly as good as Welles's Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Chimes at Midnight (1967) and a few others. It's not even Welles's best noir: Touch of Evil (1958) is far superior. But it was produced, directed, stars, and was co-written by Welles, and those credentials alone make The Lady from Shanghai a film like no other, and it's still one of the greatest of film noirs. Top-billed Rita Hayworth, Welles's wife at the time, was Columbia Pict...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67228 Sat, 14 Mar 2015 15:25:27 UTC Recommended The Movie: Directed by Laslo Benedek and released in 1953, The Wild One may seem a little tame by modern standards but it remains an iconic film and there's no disputing the fact that in its day, this movie was pretty strong stuff. The plot revolves around The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, or B.M.R.C. if you want to go by the logos painted on the backs of their leather jackets, led by a tough guy named Johnny Strabler (Marlon Brando). The movie lets us know right from the start, when they steal a trophy at a motorcycle race and mess with the local cops, that these guys are bad news. From there, we see the B.R.M.C. swoop into a small town, again, really just to cause trouble. Some of the local business owners are okay with them, as the bikers are happy enough to spend money on beer and food, but the cops aren't so keen. Sheriff Harry Bleeker (Robert Keith) is one of those cop...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/65410 Sun, 07 Sep 2014 16:16:06 UTC Recommended In 10 Words or Less Classic late-'90s sitcom fun Reviewer's Bias* Loves: Sitcoms Likes: George Segal, Enrico Colantoni Dislikes: David Spade, multi-cam sitcoms Hates: Laugh tracks The Story So Far... NBC's sitcom set at a fashion magazine had a solid run of seven seasons, despite bouncing around the schedule and eventually leading to the creator becoming disenchanted with the network. The first three seasons have previously been released on DVD by Sony in 2004 (season 1 and 2) and 2009 (season 3.) DVDTalk has reviews of each set. The Show It's amazing to see how NB...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/64931 Sat, 19 Jul 2014 12:51:23 UTC Rent It The Movie: Directed by Joel Schumacher in 1990, Flatliners follows five students enrolled in medical school: Nelson (Keifer Sutherland), Doctor Rachel McMannus (Julia Roberts), David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Doctor Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), and Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt). They're involved in some unorthodox experiments spearheaded by Nelson in which they will work together to find out what is out there after we die. To do this, Nelson convinces the other four to kill him but then to bring him back immediately after via resuscitation. Surprisingly enough, it works, and after Nelson proves that it can be done, the other four start wondering if they shouldn't take the trip themselves. And so they do. Each member of the group has their own motivation for this death tripping, be it to further expand their medical research or simply to gratify their own fragile ego. As these e...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/64131 Tue, 20 May 2014 05:21:07 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series Not that long ago, about the only way to see the Japanese cuts of the original Gamera films (1965-1980), giant monster movies emanating from Japan's Daiei Studios, was to import pricey Japanese laserdiscs. If you wanted only, say, the first four movies, you could expect to shell out nearly $300, and that was for discs without the benefit of English subtitles. As I write this, today one can see far superior high-definition versions of these same four films, with English subtitles, for a mere $3 apiece. Incredible. The first six Gamera movies were a fixture of 1970s television, often running, as they did in my hometown Detroit market, once or twice annually as part of "Japanese Monster Week" on The 4 O'clock Movie and similar programs. These movies fascinated little boys of that generation, in some respects more even than Gamera's progenitor, Godzilla, the "King of the Monsters." Unlike n...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/64130 Wed, 30 Apr 2014 05:39:42 UTC Recommended Gamera, Gamera You're so very strong Gamera, Gamera Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus Is it Mars or is it Venus?   Come on, space monsters It cuts, it pokes, go go go! It has mighty jet propulsion Gamera's strong Gamera, Gamera Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/64070 Tue, 11 Mar 2014 11:17:58 UTC Highly Recommended THE PROGRAM Like many titans of any profession, it's often inevitable that at some point into your waning years, the general public may raise a backlash when "things aren't the same anymore." There may be no greater example than the career of Bill Cosby, widely considered one of the greatest standup comedians to ever live, star of some truly fine TV, star of some less than fine films, and all around cultural icon. I've frankly found it disturbing that as one of America's greatest storytellers has grown in age and experienced a life of not just vast success but true tragedy (the murder of his only son), that for younger generations, Bill Cosby isn't the revered sage he was two decades prior, but instead a confused, rambling man telling kids to pull up their pants. Granted, a lot of that might be over generalization, but there is a strong case that Cosby no longer commands the respect he ...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/63930 Sun, 02 Mar 2014 23:28:51 UTC Rent It Once notorious, glorious trash...now sadly faded tripe. Bargain outputer Mill Creek Entertainment, through Sony, has released Charlie's Angels: Season 1, a 4-disc, 23-episode collection of the pop culture phenomenon's premiere 1976-1977 season on ABC. Starring that charismatic, gorgeous trio of stylish private eyes Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and Jaclyn Smith, this first season of Charlie's Angels created absolute pandemonium in America's Bicentennial year, igniting outrage from many viewers offended by its "jiggle TV" insensibilities, sparking indignation from critics insulted by its glitzy-but-empty entertainment calories, and triggering outright fury from a lot of horny guys like my father who couldn't understand why it wasn't broadcast seven nights a week. Seen today, though, Charlie's Angels' historical worth is a small footnote...while the entertainment value ...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/63844 Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:49:09 UTC Highly Recommended Content: Some people may not know this, buy Married... With Children is actually the first prime-time television series to air on Fox in 1987. It stars Ed O'Neill (TV's Modern Family) as miserable family patriarch and TV legend, Al Bundy and lhe series lasted over a decade, which even spawned a couple short lived spin offs. I'm sure just about everyone has heard of this iconic television series at one point or another. Married... With Children was known for it's push the envelope attitude and cruel humor. Looking back at these first two seasons on DVD it's easy to tell why audiences fell in love with the Bundy's. The series revolves around a miserable married man, named Al Bundy. Al isn't particularly overjoyed about his life. He has a wife named Peg (Katey Sagal from Futurama and Sons of Anarchy) who doesn't work/cook/clean, or do much of anything to be quite...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/63841 Tue, 25 Feb 2014 13:50:44 UTC Skip It My memory may be faulty, but I recall Scott Adams' "Dilbert" cartoon suddenly becoming a bit of a national phenomenon in the mid-'90s (possibly thanks to Adams' written book The Dilbert Principle, a New York Times bestseller). Calendars, shirts, dolls, further written books, and other merchandise followed, with the big media push capped by an animated TV show. The program attracted some heavy-hitters, namely "Seinfeld" scripter Larry Charles, who helped Adams develop the show. "Dilbert" landed a strong comic cast, including Daniel Stern, Chris Elliott, Kathy Griffin, and Larry Miller. Danny Elfman was even roped in to record a theme by someone apparently hoping "Simpsons" magic would rub off. Then the program ended up on now-forgotten UPN, and the show was basically done for. Although it ran for thirty episodes, many people don't seem to remember a show ever existed. Watching these episodes in...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/62998 Sat, 01 Feb 2014 14:03:48 UTC Highly Recommended Reviewer's Note: Having written a lengthy article on Sony's Good Times: The Complete Series DVD collection back in 2008, I'll port over parts of that review here, along with specific details about this new re-release from Mill Creek. "Let's face it, James: this family ain't Ozzie and Harriet." Budget house Mill Creek, under Sony's license, has released Good Times: Seasons 1 & 2, a three-disc, 37-episode collection of the smash-hit CBS sitcom's first one and a half seasons, episodes which originally aired from February, 1974, to May, 1975. Offering unquestionably the best two seasons of this groundbreaking Norman Lear sitcom, Mill Creek's Good Times: Seasons 1 & 2 isn't any more penny-pinching than Sony's 2008 full series release (in other words: unrestored video and no extras again)...unless you count cramming on about four more e...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/55319 Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:17:00 UTC Rent It The Movie: Directed by Darren Sarafian in 1994, Terminal Velocity stars Charlie Sheen at the height of his powers as a skydiver named Richard Brody - but all his friends call him Ditch. He's not the type to care about rules, in fact, he's a bit of a thrill seeker - when we first meet him he's jumped out of an airplane and sailing to safety with a star spangled parachute right in the busy part of town. He's that kind of guy, the kind that will jump out of a plane, ride a motorcycle to safety and then make a pass at your girlfriend, but he also takes his job as a skydiving instructor pretty seriously. So seriously does he take it, in fact, that he's clueless as to how the pretty blonde that just talked him into taking her up for a jump - Chris Morrow (Nastassja Kinski) - managed to fall out of the plane to her death. Even the pilot he used on the trip (Melvin Van Peebles) can't ...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/55342 Sun, 03 Jun 2012 01:15:35 UTC Recommended Reviewed by Glenn Erickson European art film directors of the 1960s seemed to like omnibus films. All the big names save Antonioni and Bergman participated in them, giving us such interesting and varied anthology pictures as Boccaccio '70, Paris vu par... and even Spirits of the Dead. Visconti, Fellini, Pasolini, Chabrol, Godard, De Sica, Polanski. Federico Fellini was once asked why, and gave a simple answer. As his public expecting a new masterpiece every time out, the pressure was such that his entire career was on the line with every new feature. But a short film "doesn't count." Fellini could try some off-the-wall idea, or an idea unsuitable for an entire feature. T...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/55334 Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:29:44 UTC Recommended The Movies: The second Spaghetti Western double feature to hit Blu-ray from budget release superheroes Mill Creek Entertainment teams up two of the finest examples the genre has to offer, The Grand Duel starring Lee Van Cleef and Keoma starring Franco Nero. While very different from one another, both films are great in their own way and absolutely worth checking out for fans of the genre. Let's take a look... The Grand Duel: Giancarlo Santi's 1972 film, also known as The Big Showdown (which is what appears on the title card for the print used for this release), follows a man named Sheriff Clayton (Lee Van Cleef) who gets his mitts on a wanted man named Philip Wermeer (Alberto Dentice credited as Peter O'Brien) who has been accused of calling the patriarch of the powerful Saxon family. When a gang of bounty hunters show up with the intention of takin...Read the entire review ]]>