Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

Maybe I'm alone here, but it's strange that 1974's "Truck Stop Women," which is intended to titillate and provide good old boy fun, opens with a bloodbath, watching mafia enforcers gun down a bathing target and his topless partner. It's quite the introduction, but co-writer/director Mark L. Lester isn't messing around with this ode to skin and sin, creating a B-movie party with plenty of bare breasts and a sizable body count. "Truck Stop Women" is a lot of things, but tonally cautious isn't one of them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The quest for life after death can easily lead to madness, but for newly widowed Fred (Barry Coe), the need to resurrect his late wife proves remarkably…casual. 1973's "Doctor Death" lives up to its title, offering a strange odyssey into spiritual switcheroo courtesy of the main character (John Considine), who takes Fred on a special journey into murder and resurrection, while director Eddie Saeta and writer Sal Ponti try to figure out ways to add gore and menace to this horror show, which often leans toward the ridiculous. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the craze to replicate the increasing box office fortunes of the James Bond franchise in the 1960s, producers went hunting for their own superspy properties, looking for material rich with style, loaded with absurdities, and capable of launching multiple sequels. Director Joseph Losey was put in charge of 1966's "Modesty Blaise," an adaptation of a British comic strip (created by Peter O'Donnell), tasked with turning static black and white images into a boldly colored adventure, soaked in the juices of the era. The merriment is there for the taking, but "Modesty Blaise" is an unnervingly inert picture that's too caught up in visual flash, offering a story that peters out after the first act. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a farce, 1984's "American Dreamer" lacks a certain amount of verve to carry it from start to finish. I suppose this is to be expected when a European spy romp is directed by the man who made "Halloween II," and helmer Rick Rosenthal seems particularly baffled by the working parts of the picture. Although it aims to be spirited, "American Dreamer" isn't magical enough to impress, often flailing with lukewarm plotting and distant performances, unable to blossom in full. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Dukhtar" is a Pakistani production that takes a look at the cyclical nature of child exploitation in the region, often packaged as religious and cultural formality. However, instead of preaching to the audience, writer/director Afia Nathaniel uses thriller conventions to help detail the impact of female submission, highlighting the horrors and humanity of a land she clearly loves. It's nail-biter for sure, but "Dukhtar" has something more on its mind than panic, working to define its disposable characters as people struggling for a gasp of freedom. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One of the most important visionaries of the giallo genre, director Dario Argento was in a particularly tight spot career-wise when he decided to make 1982's "Tenebrae." After experiencing a global hit with 1977's "Suspiria," which moved his creative interests toward the supernatural, Argento hit a brick wall with the atmospheric thematic sequel, 1980's "Inferno." Lacking forward momentum professionally, Argento returned to his roots with "Tenebrae," finding himself back in command of a murder mystery that emphasizes violence, playing to his strengths as a stylish conductor of hellzapoppin' goodies. Overseeing evil and mounting paranoia, Argento goes into self-examination mode as well, emerging with an intriguingly personal take on nightmarish events, dissecting his career and mental health while delivering all the bloodshed fans could want. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With disaster movies all the rage in the 1970s, producers were scrambling to figure out ways to inspire the cinematic possibilities of mass panic and destruction. Horror hit the airlines, amusement parks, outer space, and boats, but fire was a particular obsession for a few of these titles, with 1974's "The Towering Inferno" a prime example of the Irwin Allen formula that would go on to bewitch audiences for nearly a decade. Adding to screen chaos is 1979's "City on Fire," which amplifies a roaring threat to a community-wide scope, inviting a cast of the famous and the desperate to fill mediocre roles, adding a degree of recognition to a routine of burning buildings and streets. Directed by Alvin Rakoff ("Death Ship"), "City on Fire" is obvious, playing directly into subgenre expectations as it lovingly details loss of life and urban annihilation, but the helmer does manage to make an entertaining feature out of recycled parts. While it's far from a riveting dramatic achievement, the picture has its charms, blending the work of semi-committed actors with scenes of explosive panic, carrying enough hysteria to deliver a suitable disaster extravaganza. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Big skies and deep mountains dominate 1949's "Canadian Pacific," which stars Randolph Scott as a surveyor caught up in railroad development tensions, villainous schemes, and the passions of two women. It's period entertainment that trusts in pronounced emotions and action, making for a pleasingly traditional take on heroes and villains, but with an outdoorsy, pioneer atmosphere that offers escapism flavored with historical events. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Picking up where "Canadian Pacific" left off, director Edwin L. Marin and star Randolph Scott return to the Great White North in 1950's "The Cariboo Trail," selecting another tale of hard men making their way through untamed land. For this chapter, a gold rush is explored, pitting earnest cattlemen against entrenched land owners up to no good. Much like "Canadian Pacific," Marwin goes for big spirits and screen movement with "The Cariboo Trail," though this effort is noticeably more character-minded than the previous picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Bringing a popular radio show to the big screen requires special care, challenging the production to be ambitious with visuals to help match the theater of the mind already in progress. 1932's "Chandu: The Magician" elects to secure audience interest through spectacle, hoping to dazzle viewers with extensive and exceptional special effects, turning "Chandu: The Magician" into a cinematic showcase of artistry and awe, sprucing up the fatigued crime-busting subgenre. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Near the end of his career in silent cinema, director John Ford crafted "3 Bad Men," a western with all the emotionality and sweep that would come to define his career. A tale of moral choices and Wild West antagonisms, the picture plays to Ford's filmmaking interests, adding a sense of gravity to a routine of restless cowboys, fiendish villainy, and open expanse aching to be explored. It's a simple feature in design, but there are human textures presented here that keep it away from routine, with Ford interested in contrasting intimate moments with big screen chaos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1975's "The Candy Tangerine Man" is blaxploitation with a different attitude, trying to turn a ruthless pimp into a something of a screen hero. Director Matt Cimber adds a dash of James Bond to the violent mix of attitude and intimidation, working to celebrate the actions of The Black Baron (John Daniels): hustler during the week, suburban dad on the weekends. While the feature struggles to maintain focus on critical elements of the genre, it gets by on oddity, with Cimber attempting to raise hell with limited resources and a wild imagination for screen excess. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Returning to the blaxploitation world in 1975, director Matt Cimber employed a different type of crime-fighting vibe for "Lady Cocoa." Replacing violence with conversation and confrontation, the feature is more a character-based thriller, finding inspiration in behavior and attitude while the story slowly builds moments of suspense. Star Lola Falana is an apt focal point for the picture, bringing chirpy moxie to the effort, greatly enhancing its charms as periodic inertia sets in, watching Cimber try to build a nail-biter that merely samples excitement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it has the set-up of a classic thriller, 1985's "Eleni" takes a mournful route when detailing the events of the Greek Civil War. An adaptation of Nicholas Gage's best-selling autobiography, the picture uses the fist-clenching reaction of revenge to explore a divided era of politics and cruelty, finding a personal story of loss driving the drama, which volleys between subtle and hysterical. "Eleni" doesn't always come together as director Peter Yates imagines, but there's a deep sense of emotion that periodically arrives to hold attention, hitting a few dark moments of grief and suffering that motivate the story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Zorro is an icon that has been shaped through all forms of media, passed down through generations since his 1919 debut. There are iconic depictions of the character, but rarely has one interpretation encountered universal approval like 1940's "The Mark of Zorro," where star Tyrone Power picked up the sword and the mask and made a hero soar across the screen. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, "The Mark of Zorro" hits all genre sweet spots, keeping Power and his co-stars front and center to bring complete charisma to the production, which has just as much fun watching the talent interact as it does staging sword fights and chases. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

What's most surprising about 1951's "Rawhide" is its ferocity, refusing to go soft as it explores rising tensions between stagecoach service officials (including Tyrone Power) and a single mother (Susan Hayward), and an outlaw gang who's taken over the station, searching for a shipment of gold. The essentials in antagonism are there, but "Rawhide" has real snap, detailing troubling times with terrific performances and a sense of danger that separates it from the traditional black hat/white hat entertainment of the day. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After rocking the world with blaxsploitation hits "Dolemite" and "The Human Tornado," star Rudy Ray Moore was in the mood to switch up his formula of sluggish martial arts and tentative sex play, embracing his comedic potential with 1977's "Petey Wheatstraw," which replaces scowling with mugging. The film intentionally inches Moore away from his aggressive ways, transforming the brightly decorated star into more of a ringmaster role, overseeing the wacky antics director Cliff Roquemore tries to secure, paying tribute to industry legends and personal heroes. "Petey Wheatstraw" is a ridiculous movie, but intentionally so, satirizing Moore's still-forming screen persona while working to strengthen storytelling ambition, with the screenplay reaching out to fantasy and religion to help secure a fresh adventure for the star, who's ready and rhyming to get right back into the action. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While the gold standard for surf movies was set all the way back in 1966 with Bruce Brown's "The Endless Summer," it hasn't stopped filmmakers from trying to explore the combination of water sports and world travel. Director Jeremy Rumas takes a more dreamy approach to the pastime with "Hangs Upon Nothing," which does away with structure, introductions, and locations to simply take in the power of rolling waves and the spirit of surfing freedom, endeavoring to connect man and nature as a few subjects embark on daily adventures into the ocean, enjoying the most beautiful places on Earth. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Pioneers of African-American Cinema" provides historians, admirers, and the curious with an opportunity to explore the Black experience in the movie industry as it was from 1915-1946, focusing on individuals to claimed power for themselves, financing and producing pictures for their own audience, taking control of creative endeavors. It's a five-disc odyssey highlighting restored "features, shorts, fragments, and documentaries," bringing rarities to light that underline cultural attitudes of the eras, but also showcase developing storytelling confidence, experimentation, and courage as a few names, including Oscar Micheaux, emerged as leaders of a burgeoning movement, working to find its own perspective away from discrimination and expectation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Ale Abreu's "Boy & the World" is both a celebration of animation and a hypnotic trip through Latin American culture and history. Settling on a kaleidoscopic atmosphere for the feature, Abreu sends viewers on a cinematic ride of colors and music, intentionally avoiding dialogue to tell the story through bright, inventive imagery, giving the effort an explorer's spirit and surprising heart. "Boy & the World" is stunning work, filling its brief run time with ample energy and true directorial vision. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com