Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

1977's "Kingdom of the Spiders" is not a particularly original film, but it does have specificity of threat, selecting one of the more powerful phobias shared by millions. Sure, sharks and birds don't provide the most peaceful imagery, but there's something about spiders that hits right at the heart of horror. Director John Cardos doesn't have much of a budget to do something epic with "Kingdom of the Spiders," but he values his tiny stars, keeping crawly things motoring along as the cast and a substantial number of extras explore levels of panic. It's not polished work, but it's mostly fun and filled with cheap thrills.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Returning for duty with his "Point Blank" star Lee Marvin, director John Boorman cuts to the heart of war in 1968's "Hell in the Pacific," which boils down World War II conflict to the adventures of two soldiers (one American, one Japanese) stranded on a remote island. Boorman ditches dialogue and throttles incident with "Hell in the Pacific," wisely investing in pure physicality to communicate ideas both large and small, allowing Marvin and co-star Toshiro Mifune to play out their scenes in a feral manner, which makes for riveting cinema. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Gay Dillingham wants to accomplish a few goals with the documentary "Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary." Part of the picture delivers a biography of its subjects, tracking their life experiences, especially the ones that helped to shape their future as gurus of sort, with both men taking command of the psychedelics movement of the 1960s, finding Leary's more radical vision for brain-altering odysseys matching well with Dass's spiritual hug. "Dying to Know" also explores the mystery of death, asking fascinating questions about the journey to the other side, with both men seeking out ways to comfort those who refuse to embrace the finality of life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If there was anyone capable of doing something with a shot at becoming the next Inspector Clouseau, it's Roberto Benigni. While he wasn't a household name in the U.S. in 1993, Benigni was making his way to global recognition with films like "Johnny Stecchino," "Down by Law," and "Night on Earth," earning raves for his special sense of humor, with emphasis on slapstick. That co-writer/director Blake Edwards cast Benigni in "The Son of the Pink Panther," his second attempt to revive a dead franchise, is not a surprise. What is amazing about the production is how little comedy it gives its star, who's often out there on his own, working to make weak jokes work with help from his special way with broken English and physical endurance, hoping to live up to Peter Sellers standards with his take on Clouseau-ian tomfoolery. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

By 1983, the "Pink Panther" franchise was big business for co-writer/director Blake Edwards, who was eventually stuck without his all-important star after the death of Peter Sellers in 1980. Edwards wasn't ready to slaughter the golden goose, concocting a "tribute" with 1982's "The Trail of the Pink Panther," which utilized old footage to resurrect Sellers for one final victory lap as Inspector Clouseau. Edward waltzed into reboot territory with "The Curse of the Pink Panther," which debuted less than a year later, submitting a new bumbling detective in Sleigh, played by Ted Wass. Trying to keep the heart pumping on a dying series, Edwards bends over backwards to make "Curse of the Pink Panther" work, but all it takes is two minutes of Wass in the starring role to understand how badly miscalculated the refreshing is, stumbling through old jokes with man who just doesn't possess the proper insanity to carry the brand name forward.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After collaborating on 1963's "The Pink Panther" and 1964's "A Shot in the Dark," director Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers were interested in taking a break, moving on to different creative endeavors, switching their attention to 1968's "The Party." Producer Walter Mirisch had other plans, determined to bring back Sellers's bumbling detective Inspector Clouseau even if he couldn't persuade Sellers to return to the job. Enter Alan Arkin, who takes over the role for "Inspector Clouseau," with the respected and practiced actor tasked with replicating Sellers in many ways to sustain the franchise, which was growing in popularity with audiences. However, as talented as Arkin is, he does have his thespian limitations, and imitating Sellers-as-Clouseau is one of them.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"One Dark Night" is a horror film originally released in 1983. It is not R-rated. During a time when nearly every genre picture was trying to be the most gore-rific, angriest production around, this little movie plays it relatively calm, joining the likes of "Poltergeist" as a chiller that's mostly chill, only raising hell periodically. It's the first feature from co-writer/director Tom McLoughlin, who would go on to rated R shenanigans with 1986's "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives," but here, in his debut, he hopes to channel the world of Roger Corman, trying to create something creepy with a limited budget, setting the effort inside a single location for most of the run time. "One Dark Night" takes an eternity to get where it needs to go, but it's worth the wait, finding McLoughlin inventive with escalation, getting in a few genuinely eerie moments along the way.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Cartel violence in Mexico is vividly rendered in 2013's "Heli," which takes elements of violence fairly far to make a point about the brutality of gangs and corrupt law enforcement. Co-writer/director Amat Escalante has a vision for his feature, playing it spare to emphasize unease, working to understand the plight of the impoverished and emasculated in Mexico, under siege from all sides, but when does example become excess? It's a fine line "Heli" has trouble walking, often caught enjoying its horrors instead of using them to make a larger point about menace in the middle of nowhere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1978's "Nurse Sherri" was marketed as the next horror sensation, following "Carrie" and "Ruby" in the ongoing saga of meek women coming into contact with unusual, destructive powers. It's a bit of a stretch to position the effort next to more respected genre offerings, but when it stands up straight and goes for chills, "Nurse Sherri" can be entertaining, working to generate a level of dread and horror as evil erupts from unexpected sources. Director Al Adamson isn't known for quality work ("Carnival Magic," "Dracula vs. Frankenstein"), and his streak continues here, but with lowered expectations, the weird highlights of the feature provide a reasonably successful distraction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Perhaps there are a few people out there who secretly would like to see Woody Allen in his prime make an adult movie. 1974's "A Touch of Genie" is as close to granting that wish as possible, finding director Joseph W. Sarno mounting a sex comedy that favors Jewish stereotypes and New York City anxiety, playing up nebbish behavior and domineering mothers, all the while slipping into hardcore entertainment now and again, to remind viewers they're not watching an Allen-style production.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The 1970s were a creatively fertile period for writer/director Hal Ashby, who commanded such classics as "The Last Detail," "Harold and Maude," "Shampoo," and "Being There." The 1980s weren't as kind, finding Ashby unable to sustain past inspiration for films such as "The Slugger's Wife" and "Second-Hand Hearts." 1986's "8 Million Ways to Die" represents Ashby's final effort before his death two years later, and it's arguably his worst picture, though not for traditional reasons of bad choices and misplaced ambition, but for legal issues, with the helmer badgered during production and eventually removed from the project altogether after a dispute with the suits. Someone else cut "8 Million Ways to Die" together, and lord almighty, they did a terrible job.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The director of "La Sapienza," Eugene Green creates highly specific films for certain, more adventurous audiences. He's cheeky but dry, taking on the enormity of emotion through stillness, keeping his framing tight and symmetrical, while performances are deceptively robotic, retaining distance as a way to articulate urgency. Green is an eccentric, but he's capable of constructing motivations and escalations, with his latest, "The Son of Joseph," pulling inspiration from art and biblical studies to inspire a tale of paternity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Julie Taymor is a highly respected director who gained a reputation for imaginative, challenging work with triumphs such as the stage version of "The Lion King," also rattling movie theaters with effort such as "Titus" and "Across the Universe." Joining this list of accomplishments is 2014's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which finds Taymor returning to Shakespeare for inspiration, transforming a relatively small space on the stage into a dreamscape free fall starring known characters and host of artistic surprises.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One can appreciate what co-writer/director Jeffrey Delman is trying to do in 1986's "Deadtime Stories," looking to fairy tales to inspire a horror anthology that hunts for the thin line between frights and silliness. The vision is there, but the execution leaves much to be desired, confronted with three tales of various tonalities and production polish, with the worst one oddly chosen to close out the picture. "Deadtime Stories" is meant to be a thrill ride of genre surprises, with plenty of gore, some nudity, and broad antics out to entertain its intended audience. However, Delman is hanging on by his fingernails with this endeavor, never establishing consistency between the segments, losing concentration on the essentials of storytelling to play as messy as possible with dismal ideas that fail to tickle or terrify. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

The one-two punch of "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" gave birth to a host of productions aiming to achieve a similar level of box office success with the same moviemaking ingredients. It was a surge in the late 1970s that created the likes of "Xanadu," "Can't Stop the Music," and, of course, "The Apple," a particularly absurd attempt to mount a Hollywood-style rock musical, written and directed by Menahem Golan, also known as the co-founder of the infamous schlock studio, Cannon Films. "The Apple" was meant to be Golan's ticket to the big time, remaining on trend with disco-inspire production values and big musical ambition, but it didn't find an audience. Actually, it found an audience, but one that reacted violently to the feature's semi-camp/semi-sincere take on biblical temptation, requiring a period of obscurity for the effort before it was reassessed in the early 2000s, rechristened as a Midnight Movie experience and deservedly so, with its general lunacy and earnestness best appreciated fully fatigued and/or drunk.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The thought of making a movie about Christopher Columbus in 2017 is absurd, with any possible production sure to be swiftly blasted by condemnation from various concerned parties. However, back in 1992, there was a race to put as many Christopher Columbus features on screen as possible, offered during a pre-social media era when those acutely aware of the famous explorer's true achievements had no place to protest. Four tales of Columbus's journey across the world were delivered for the 500th anniversary of his "discovery" of America, with one, "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery," a bloated, moronic bomb from Alexander and Ilya Salkind, while director Ridley Scott was gifted a premiere creative opportunity with "1492: Conquest of Paradise," endeavoring to craft a more realistic take on the story, but still paying tribute to the spirit of exploring and the savagery of man.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"A Fantastic Fear of Everything" is an acquired taste, submitting such an itchy, darkly comic atmosphere that's utterly guaranteed to energize those in step with its madness, while others will find the enterprise an overly mannered grind to get through. It's polarizing work that carries immense creativity and sharp sense of humor, burrowing into the spinning mind of a destructively phobic man during an intense period of suspicion. Thankfully, star Simon Pegg is up for the challenge, bringing to the screen a truly scattered character who's hilariously bound by his fears, articulated with all the spasms and pauses the actor is particularly skilled at delivering.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1971's "Willard" is a fairly gentle horror movie, only paying attention to genre demands on occasion, using its tale of killer rats and their human leader as a way to explore a damaged mind finally getting a taste of power. It was a curious revenge picture, but effective, preserving the inherent weirdness of the plot while staging a few murderous encounters between man and rodent. The feature was a hit, thrilling audiences looking for a squirmy good time, making the possibility of a sequel a no-brainer. However, 1972's "Ben" doesn't seem to understand what made "Willard" a smash, taking a far more sedate approach to detailing a pest infestation, almost transforming the concept of a homicidal rat into a family film, stripping away frights to make a modest tearjerker about a dying boy and his beloved pet. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Take a look at the marketing for 1971's "Willard," and one could come away with the impression that the releasing company was offering a snuff film for sale, reserved only for the most practiced moviegoer. Watch "Willard," and it's a relatively cheery PG-rated chiller about a man and his relationship with a colony of rats. So much for the "This is one movie you should not see alone" tagline. I can't image what director Daniel Mann had to do to maintain order on his set, but his efforts result in an entertaining horror picture, but one that plays rather peacefully between acts of rat-based savagery, leaning on star Bruce Davison to conjure some unnerving behavior and cuddle time with his tiny co-stars to help the feature sustain what little unease it provides.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To be fair to 1987's "Twisted Nightmare," slasher cinema rarely makes sense. It's a genre that often employs irrational characters acting as stupidly as possible, while filmmakers barely hang on with snoozy plots that only service the needs of the almighty Kills. "Twisted Nightmare" initially appears to have a narrative direction worth following, introducing a Native American curse established long ago that's revived for a fresh round of big screen slaughter. However, something went seriously wrong under the care of director Paul Hunt, who abandons plot, personality, and continuity as his movie struggles to make it to the 90 minute mark. People certainly die, and in horrible ways, but the rest of the endeavor is a bewildering assembly of editorial apathy and awful performances, sure to tax even the most forgiving slasher fan.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com