Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

Director Richard Fleischer captures a true event movie with 1958's "The Vikings," which strives to be the most enormous film of the year. Draped in authenticity and carried by star power, the feature mostly succeeds with its mammoth plans, delivering wide swings of action and drama as the helmer aims to maintain widescreen power while keeping its tale of love and war approachable, even intimate when time allows. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Alien 3" is largely credited as the definitive AIDS allegory buried within a sci-fi tale, but 1988's "Transformations" beat it to the punch by a few years. A Charles Band production, directed by Jay Kamen, the feature isn't a subtle creation, liberally mixing sex and death to secure a horror event with real-world inspiration, delivering a tale of viral menace that's perfectly in step with a paranoid decade. "Transformations" is an obviously budget-minded effort with limited resources to work with, but to Kamen's credit, he delivers an adequate punch with this ridiculous movie, happily serving up exploitation elements while trying to keep control of the narrative, which doesn't always follow through on initial promises of alien terror. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It's somewhat surprising that the Catholic Church would want anything to do with "The Rosary Murders," with production access to churches repaid with a strangely condemning screenplay that depicts holy leaders as dim, corrupt figures bound by absurd organizational laws. However, general disapproval of religious practices and leadership is the least of the 1987 picture's problems, finding its approach to big screen mystery strangely lethargic, taking an uneventful route when detailing a serial killer's rampage across Detroit. "The Rosary Murders" has the tools to generate passable thrills with a decent whodunit, but director Fred Walton ("April Fool's Day," "When a Stranger Calls") doesn't provide the energy needed to bring the story to life. Much of the movie is put in star Donald Sutherland's hands, tasked with maintaining emotional depth and procedural surprise. The actor is good here, at least restless enough to keep the viewing experience from slipping into a coma, but he's no miracle worker. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

An adaptation of Curt Siodmak's 1942 novel, 1953's "Donovan's Brain" isn't really a horror story, with a rather leisurely command of the macabre. Instead, the picture pulls most of its power from mad science and telekinetic manipulation, achieving suspense through oddity as a brain residing in a fish tank of cloudy fluid manages to take control of the genius that put it there. Delivering a quintessential 1950s tale of sci-fi torment, there's a lot to like about "Donovan's Brain," which is generally credited as the production that inspired a rash of similar head-gone-mad features. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1954's "Beachhead" is perhaps the quietest war film I've seen in recently memory. The picture makes extensive use of sneak attacks and stealth, with dialogue exchanges largely whispered, providing an unusual acting challenge for stars Tony Curtis and Frank Lovejoy, who are asked to dig into meaty WWII lines while dialing back on intensity. Thankfully, performances are alert enough to carry the movie, which follows military formula without hesitation, looking to provide viewers with the basics in combat pressure and Men on a Mission heroics, only without the thespian volume this type of production often demands. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While 1945's "The Southerner" isn't a documentary, it does get a few details of the American Dream exactly right, creating an unnerving realism that's softened somewhat by the picture's literary approach to storytelling (adapted from the novel by George Sessions Parry). It's directed by Jean Renoir, who offers an impressive amount of sympathy for his lead characters, striving to identify the malleability of the human spirit as it's hit from all sides by tragedy and defeat. "The Southerner" isn't quite the funeral dirge it promises to be, supporting a mood of perseverance that inspires as much as it horrifies. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was a time in the 1980s when Hollywood was intent on making James Woods a star. An actor respected by critics and peers, Woods never made the leap to a bankable lead, starring in a string of forgettable thrillers and dramas that tried to make the most out of his manic energy and screen authority. Arguably the least effective effort from the batch is 1988's "Cop," which labored to transform the jittery thespian into a gun-swinging police superhero who's irresistible to the ladies and frequently stumbles over clues without trying. Adapted from a James Ellroy novel, "Cop" is never far away from a ridiculous moment, with writer/director James B. Harris trying to construct a suspenseful event with very little tension and a semi-baffling story, relying on Woods to simply do his lip-licking thing to boost the movie's appeal. To be fair, the star is game to do anything the script asks of him, but it's difficult to get past a basic miscasting when it comes to the trials of a bulldozing supercop on the trail of history's most uninteresting serial killer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With 1979's "The Passage," director J. Lee Thompson returns to the Men on a Mission formula that served him well during 1961's "The Guns of Navarone," out to mastermind a cinematic take on Bruce Nicolaysen's novel. It's a return to a World War II landscape, this time taking the action to the Pyrenees mountains, where a story of survival is allowed time to explore numerous physical and psychological challenges. While Thompson brings a meaty, action-centric mood to the feature, he's less certain with its dramatic capabilities, rendering "The Passage" a strange mix of indulgence and inattentiveness, with the production as a whole struggling to define its tone as the effort swings from nobility to camp without warning. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1983's "Pauline at the Beach" is regarded as an installment of writer/director Eric Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series, with the French New Wave veteran continuing his examination of human behavior as its challenged by deception, painful truths, and disappointment. For this production, Rohmer takes his fixations into the sun, adding the sensuality of beach bodies and the lure of a long vacation to ornament a coming-of-age exploration, puckered by sketchy characters and extended dissections of romantic need. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's certainly a faceless man provided here, but it's the curse part of the title I'm not so sure of. A horror effort from 1958, "Curse of the Faceless Man" is small-time programmer with an interesting plot, pitting science and art against an unexplainable discovery found at the site of the Pompeii disaster, unleashing a stone creature who's not above killing anyone who stands in the way of longstanding love. Actual scares aren't generated by the production, but "Curse of the Faceless Man" remains an agreeably odd B-movie that keeps its macabre star front and center. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1966's "Ambush Bay" has the impossible task of selling Mickey Rooney as a grizzled career Marine, handing the diminutive actor a machine gun and some choice lines to build him into a force of nature. To the production's credit, the transformation works, with Rooney one of the highlights of this meat-and-potatoes war film, joined by Hugh O'Brian and James Mitchum in a World War II story that explores the price of valor and the fatigue of combat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Pieces" is a tale of murder and the assembly of a particularly macabre puzzle, offering filmmaking that's just as challenging to put together. It's a weird, wild effort from 1982, with director Juan Piquer trying to both pants and celebrate the slasher genre, using giallo training to create a suspenseful journey into absurdity, with a black-gloved killer the star of this lively show. "Pieces" isn't cohesive, more about chasing whims than telling a story, but it's undeniably fun, with patient genre fanatics rewarded with another gory chainsaw massacre, and one built with intriguing self-awareness, knowingly making a screen mess with familiar cinematic elements. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A towering talent and beloved personality, John Candy was a special screen presence. An expert with timing and temper, Candy contributed to some of the finest comedic works during his media reign, with projects such as "SCTV," "Stripes," "Uncle Buck," and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" just a few of his achievements. He was the best, but there's a painful truth to Candy's legacy: he wasn't always a good judge of quality when picking jobs. He never gave a bad performance, but he toplined more than a few stinkers, with gigs like "Armed and Dangerous," "Summer Rental," and "Wagons East" helping to temper enthusiasm for Candy's filmography. 1991's "Delirious" is one of those lesser Candy offerings, though it never lacks in sheer velocity. Director Tom Mankiewicz certainly has a vision for a romp through soap opera clichés, but there's very little successful humor in the feature, which usually doesn't have the writing to back up the satire. It's broad work, never boring, but "Delirious" periodically comes across winded and unprepared, stranding Candy in the middle of a farce that never catches fire, dependent on its star to handle much of the silly business. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As much as "Edge of Seventeen" appears like a standard coming-of-age movie, it carries itself in a different, more dignified manner. Dealing with issues of identity and freedom, the picture uses its cheery 1984 setting to dig deeper into character concerns, with director David Moreton and screenwriter Todd Stephens taking their time with the emotional needs of the participants, working through moments of sexuality and shattered trust with unusual care. Although it has every opportunity to devolve into a screamy, pouty melodrama, "Edge of Seventeen" keeps itself together through fine performances and good taste, trying to make sense of a special conflict without torching the entire production. Its restraint is remarkable at times, investing in sensitivities instead of volume and cynicism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The tour of tattered innocence continues in 1989's "Pretty Peaches 3," with director Alex de Renzy recruiting star Keisha to portray the titular temptress, a nymph who once again is in search of a bad education. Slowly leaving the adult film aesthetic of the 1980s behind, the helmer builds a more confident and plot-loaded "Pretty Peaches" event with the second sequel, sending his heroine into a world populated with questionable people looking to exploit and contain the wonder of a sexually eager young woman. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1987's "Pretty Peaches 2" is technically a sequel to the 1978 Alex de Renzy adult movie, but the helmer isn't connecting the dots with this follow-up. It's more of a thematic continuation, once again retuning to a cartoonish depiction of innocence to explore sexual experimentation and awakening. It's episodic, but de Renzy certainly has a vision for his title character, creating a strange collection of opportunists and accidents that brings out pleasing mischief during this surprisingly eventful feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When "National Lampoon's Animal House" destroyed the box office competition in 1978, a string of knockoffs were all but guaranteed. One of the strangest to emerge from the mist remains 1980's "Gorp," a summer camp festival of sophomoric behavior that strains to ape "Animal House" tomfoolery in every way. Director Joseph Ruben ("Sleeping with the Enemy," "The Stepfather") and screenwriter Jeffrey Konvitz largely invest in chaos to bring the strangely titled "Gorp" to life, believing that noise and aggressively odious behavior is the key to acquiring audience approval. Unable to land a single joke, the feature quickly transforms into an endurance test with painfully exaggerated characters and dispiritingly desperate attempts at juvenile humor. There's not even a plot to help tie it all together, rendering the effort a highlight reel of unimaginative monkey business that often feels like it's never going to end. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The producers of "Up the Creek" were smart. Instead of trying to mimic "Animal House" and "Porky's" with a group of nobodies, they went out and hired the actors partially responsible for the success of those films. Playing into trends of the era, 1984's "Up the Creek" is quite open about its creative pilfering, arranging a playful rafting chase that barely pays attention to the water, more consumed with pranks, bare breasts, and frat-house shenanigans, looking to become the next big thing in beer-stained, sophomoric entertainment. It's refreshing to find a picture that's honest about its intentions, but clarity of direction doesn't make the feature any funnier. Strangely designed to avoid the one element of the plot that gives the effort a distinct personality, "Up the Creek" is a winded affair that's always one step behind punchlines and sight gags, far too obsessed with other movies in the marketplace to land an inspired moment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The best cult films don't know they're cult films. It's difficult to manufacture oddity; it truly has to come from the heart, with complete incompetence instinctual. 1991's "Samurai Cop" has built a reputation as a B-movie wonder over the years, charming audiences with its earnest goofballery, born from the mind of writer/director Amir Shervan. Sadly, the helmer passed away a decade ago, but his legacy continues (via crowdfunding) with "Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance," a follow-up that tries to hit all the same low-budget, no-talent beats as the original effort, only here the extravaganza is served up with a towering side of self-awareness. Die-hard fans may rejoice at the prospect of revisiting the "Samurai Cop" universe 25 years later, but it's clear from the start that the production isn't interested in building the potential of the brand name, content to replicate its severe limitations with a noticeable dip in enthusiasm. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A geek, as defined in "Luther the Geek," is a disturbed carnival sideshow performer who bites the heads off snakes and chickens, usually for a reward that helps to calm urges of alcoholism and drug addiction. It's not the geek as we know it today, making future trips to Best Buy all the more uncomfortable. "Luther the Geek" is a horror film that plays around with the nightmarish vocation, transporting a Depression-era celebration of the macabre to a slightly more modern setting, with writer/director Carlton J. Albright creating a slasher-type event with a truly disturbing murderer. It's a weird movie, but one that owns its strangeness through a commitment to character and unusual encounters between the (clucking) hunter and his understandably confused prey. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com