Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

1986's "Blue City" was part of a career strategy to mature leads Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy, who were working their way through teen cinema, hitting an apex with 1985's "The Breakfast Club." Of course, it's not easy to suddenly go from high school hallways to twentysomething agitations, making the evolution bumpy in "Blue City," which also has the unfortunate reality of being an incomplete, dismally performed film. Judd and Sheedy are only a small part of the feature's woes, but their miscasting doesn't help director Michelle Manning, who doesn't quite know how to piece together this adaptation of a 1949 Ross Macdonald book, trying to tart up the endeavor with shoot-outs, sex, and wiseacre behavior. Her efforts fail to congeal, leaving the picture disjointed and ridiculous, best appreciated as a makeover movie for two stars who weren't ready to graduate. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After branding their first superhero with "The Toxic Avenger," Troma Entertainment goes in for a second helping with "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.", with co-writer/directors Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz returning to a broadly comic realm of monstrous mutations and personal foibles as they head eastward to find a creation worthy of the studio name. Craziness ensues, as does tastelessness and directorial incompetence, but the scrappy, can-do spirit shared by the helmers doesn't salvage what turns out to be an overlong endeavor that takes a passably insane idea and ruins it with excess. Even by Troma standards, "Sgt. Kabukiman" feels like a first pass that was pushed into release, in need of reshaping and timing to make the premise work. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1969's "The Bed Sitting Room" is perhaps the most British film I've ever seen. It emerges from the minds of Spike Mulligan and John Antrobus, who bring their oddball play concerning the fate of England after a nuclear attack to the screen, with direction handled by celebrated mischief-maker Richard Lester. It's impenetrable work, often caught in a weird cycle of repetition as it works through misadventures episodically, but for admirers of Mulligan's famed sense of humor, "The Bed Sitting Room" collects an impressive roster of actors to bring such persistent peculiarity to life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After 1986's "Platoon" cleaned up at the box office and claimed Oscar gold, the global film industry looked for ways to replicate the success with additional tales from the Vietnam War. Perhaps the most obscure of the bunch is 1989's "The Siege of Firebase Gloria," a particularly irritable offering of combat shock from director Brian Trenchard-Smith, the prolific author of numerous B-movies. Perhaps a more refined helming touch was in order, but Trenchard-Smith grasps the essentials of wartime behavior and duality with obvious passion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Mark L. Lester, the director of "Truck Stop Women," returns the drive-in circuit with 1976's "Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw," which invests fully in violence and sex to help attract an audience. An updated take on western formula, the feature is a wily offering of exploitation cinema, resting somewhere between a sobering exploration of American violence and a broad sampling of bare breasts and gunplay, with Lester unsure where exactly he wants to land with this effort. Playing into era-specific appetites with crashing cars and stunning women, "Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw" satisfies with the basics, collecting enough extremity to entertain as intended. Anything thematically deeper tends to dissolve in Lester's hands. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

From the "Who thought this was a good idea?" file comes 1982's "Partners," which looks at an odd couple relationship between two undercover cops, one heterosexual (Ryan O'Neal) and one homosexual (John Hurt), as they pose as a couple to help hunt down a possible serial killer targeting the gay community. A rare foray into feature-length filmmaking from legendary television director James Burrows, "Partners" takes a bad idea and spends 90 minutes pretending it's a good one, trying to dilute any ugliness by infusing the movie with enlightenment arcs that aren't the least bit credible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In what would become his final film, F.W. Murnau's 1931 epic "Tabu" is a "Romeo and Juliet"-style exploration of forbidden love and tragic mistakes. The emphasis here is placed on tropical locations, with the production traveling to Bora Bora to make a native drama that employs authenticity when visiting local waters and villages, making the feature something of a travelogue for audiences unable to reach the Pacific Ocean paradise. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's no shortage of adaptations when it comes to "A Christmas Carol." The Charles Dickens novel has been examined throughout all types of media, but it's rare when a production manages to find the right tone of misanthropy and salvation that defines the story. 1984's "A Christmas Carol" originated as a television movie, but the George C. Scott-starrer feels as vital as any big screen effort, leading a charge of operatic emotion that fills the film with tremendous spirit, making the strange journey of Ebenezer Scrooge feel vital once again. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a tale of obsession, "The Kindergarten Teacher" is difficult to approach, as the object of desire (intellectually, not sexually) is a five-year-old child. Writer/director Nadav Lapid understands he's skating on thin ice with his premise, but he manages to create something unsettling without crossing lines of good taste. Crafted with care and attentive to the details of human response, "The Kindergarten Teacher" is an intricately woven study of care developing into delusion, with Lapid showing amazing control over the feature's tone and pace. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay!" has lost little of its potency during the nearly three decades since its theatrical debut. A sobering look at India's street children as they fight for survival and a chance to belong, the feature blends an impressive level of authenticity with secure dramatics, creating a vivid look at survival challenges and broken hearts. While the covert art displays a smiling child, consider the image ironic, as there's little here that inspires giggles once Nair begins to peel away layers of betrayal and obsession. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While teen cinema in the 1980s was primarily geared toward young boys, 1984's "Where the Boys Are" emerges as the rare switcheroo, targeting females with its collection of bonding, non-threatening male characters, and weirdly chaste forays into sexual experimentation. It's a remake of a 1960 production, with producer Allan Carr ("Grease") trying to bring cutesy beach party shenanigans into a more cynical decade. "Where the Boys Are" doesn't connect as intended, but it's not a complete wipeout, finding charm with its four lead actresses: Lisa Hartman, Wendy Schaal, Lynn-Holly Johnson, and Lorna Luft. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Following up his success with 1922's "Nanook of the North," documentarian Robert Flaherty traveled to the island of Savai'i to capture life in a Samoan village, with plans to replicate his observational aesthetic. The experiment didn't quite work out as imagined, forcing the filmmaker to gently nudge reality along, offering a representation of a changing culture in 1926's "Moana." Greeted with indifference during its initial theatrical run, the feature was rescued from obscurity by Flaherty's daughter, Monica, who decided to record her own soundtrack for the silent movie in 1976, returning to the tropics to add voices, atmospherics, and music, attempting to redefine the visuals in a fresh way. The result is "Moana With Sound," which doesn't represent initial artistic intent, but expands on an already fascinating feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1959's "The Gunfight at Dodge City" arrived two years after the Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas production, "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," perhaps attempting to cash in on a trend by following a fringe character into a new realm of western hostilities. The saga of Bat Masterson (played by Joel McCrea) is explored in "The Gunfight at Dodge City," with the production aiming to revive the same sense of cowboy justice in a civilized area, largely succeeding when it comes to the display of cheap thrills. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film noir receives extensive bruising with 1949's "The Crooked Way," which marries criminal activity with an amnesia story, putting star John Payne through an obstacle course of bad guys, belligerent cops, and troubled women as his character works to piece together a shattered life. It's bold entertainment, with big thrills and a nice smashmouth quality as threats escalate into action, with director Robert Florey maintaining a sure pace to discoveries and intimidation, resulting in a surprisingly eventful movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Teen horndog cinema of the 1980s visits the arcade in 1983's "Joysticks," with writer/director Greydon Clark aiming to mastermind his own "Porky's" with this ode to token-fingering juvenile pursuits, bare breasts, and the underdog spirit. It's supremely goofy work, featuring a supporting turn from Joe Don Baker (joining Jon Gries, John Diehl, and Corinne Bohrer), merely out to service its intended demographic of sedated adolescent boys, never rising above sophomoric humor and screamed performances. It's junk, but there's one element of the movie that consistently holds attention: video games. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1967's "The Wild Eye" is a response to the Italian "mondo" subgenre, where filmmakers ventured around the globe to find the horrible and the odd to photograph, blurring the line between reality and irresponsibility. This type of shock value plays a key role in director Paolo Cavara's picture, which finds actor Philippe Leroy portraying a thinly disguised version of the helmer, obsessed with finding the perfect collection of misery to help transform his latest epic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Grizzly" is often described as a rip-off of "Jaws," and it turns out, the accusation is correct. The 1976 animal attack movie isn't shy about its influences, reworking elements from Peter Benchley's novel and Steven Spielberg's cinematic adaptation to fit its own design of forest-bound horror. However, this pilfering isn't exactly a crime, as "Grizzly" finds its own footing after introductions are made, doing a fine job transitioning the shark role to an enormous bear, while star Christopher George does his best to keep panic in the air as director William Girdler figures out ways to keep the titular star an enticing menace. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Gunslingers and revenge dominates 1955's "Robbers' Roost," a steely western that inspects a methodical path to vengeance. George Montgomery stars as a cowboy on a special mission, finding himself tangled up with cattle rustlers, encountering a companion in one dubious individual (Richard Boone), while another (Peter Graves) is outright antagonistic, complicating the hunt for the heartbroken hero. "Robbers' Roost" isn't a complex genre effort, satisfied with the basics in intimidation and roughhouse behavior, keeping shootouts and fisticuffs coming as director Sidney Salkow manages tension capably. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1958's "Fort Massacre" is a survival movie that's disguised as a western, tracking the efforts of U.S. Cavalry officers as they experience environmental, native, and internal pressures during a trek through the southwest. Starring Joel McCrea, Forrest Tucker, and John Russell, the feature serves up a buffet of meaty performances dealing with escalations in violence and paranoia, periodically indulging the genre routine with battle scenes and horse chases through gorgeous New Mexico shooting locations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

During a horror movie craze that revived the works of Edgar Allan Poe for the big screen, producers scrambled to locate another wellspring of ghoulish activity to exploit, finding hope in author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Adapting selected works to form an omnibus event, 1963's "Twice-Told Tales" attempts to find terror in strange stories of obsession, murder, and perversions of science. Bringing in star Vincent Price to act and host the effort is a step in the right direction, but director Sidney Salkow isn't the finest judge of pacing, dragging out intriguing situations of torment past their expiration date. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com