Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

"The Chase" commences like most film noirs, setting up a dangerous game between shadowy men, with the charms of a woman wreaking havoc with several lives. The 1946 picture has passable style and an interest in storytelling peculiarity, adapting Cornell Woolrich's challenging novel for the screen. Director Arthur Ripley has ideas for "The Chase," but little interest in cranking up the cheap thrills of this frequently absurd thriller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nearly a century after his short film debut, the scope of Buster Keaton's early career is finally being explored in full. "Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection (1917-1923)" builds on a previous 2011 Blu-ray release, adding new titles to the years when Keaton joined comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle on the screen, establishing his brand of poker-face reactions and physical humor before striking out on his own. It's an odyssey that samples genres and ambition, but always delivers Keaton's special touch with two-reeler cinematic pursuits, honing skills that would later be exploited to perfection in his feature-length movie career. Included here are 33 shorts, lovingly restored by the team at Lobster Films, who do their best to preserve Keaton's legacy despite working with scattered source material. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After experimenting with more narrative-driven sexploitation in "For Men Only," writer/director Pete Walker graduates to feature-length naughtiness with 1969's "School for Sex," expanding his creative interests and run time, providing more opportunity for nudity and silliness. "School for Sex" is barely a movie, but it does actually live up to its promise of bawdy behavior, though Walker doesn't seem particularly aware that most viewers aren't watching the picture for its comedic value. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Making a career leap from nude 8mm loops to material fit for theatrical distribution, writer/director Pete Walker retains his sexploitation style for 1968's "For Men Only," which looks to merge some rather unadventurous ogling with mild comedy antics — think "Benny Hill," but without the cheeky spirit. "For Men Only" isn't aggressive or inventive in any way, with Walker somehow masterminding smut that one could watch with a grandparent and not feel weird about it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Between work on "Little Big Man" and "Straw Dogs," Dustin Hoffman made time to star in 1971's "Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?" A forgotten entry in the star's colorful filmography, the feature breaks up Hoffman's run of successes, watching the restless thespian climb into an indulgent, unbearable mess of a movie, trying to win audiences over with his commitment to character. "Harry Kellerman" is borderline unwatchable to anyone with limited interest in countercultural cinema, with its experimental interests and stream-of-consciousness storytelling reserved strictly for those who know what they're getting into. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After finding success with a nightclub act devoted to the rhyming style of the character Dolemite, comedian Rudy Ray Moore collected his earnings and decided to try his luck with a feature, self-financing an action extravaganza that combines the actor's love for sex, martial arts, and performance. By any standards, 1975's "Dolemite" is a poorly constructed film, frequently exposing technical mishaps, thespian limitations, and editorial indifference, walking and talking like a particularly inept home movie. And yet, the power of Moore is a special thing, securing his strange sense of humor through sheer force, finding a way to overcome the effort's mistakes and deliver a rousing, exceedingly bizarre take on urban authority. Armed with dead-eyed bravado, non sequiturs, and sheer volume, Moore is the reason to remain invested in "Dolemite," which provides the blaxploitation tradition with a much-needed shot of endearing ridiculousness, finding Moore committing to every moment of this outrageous picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I'm not sure how much cocaine was snorted and acid was dropped during the production of 1968's "Candy," but it wasn't nearly enough. A psychedelic journey into amorous encounters and farcical adventures, "Candy" is meant to represent the shifting creative interests of the time, taking a freewheeling look at sex and control, with a screenplay by Buck Henry trying to make sense of a novel by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. It's loud, wild, and carefree movie, and it's an absolute mess that mistakes length for importance. "Candy" is difficult to digest, more appealing as a road map of bad ideas than the mind-bomb experience director Christian Marquand intends to create. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1985's "Trashy Lady" is a rather extravagant adult cinema effort from director Steve Scott, who looks to celebrate the traditions of the gangster genre from the 1930s, assembling a highlight reel of dangerous encounters that typically end in sexual gratification. The basics in seduction and temptation are covered, but there's more concentration on glamour and role-playing to give "Trashy Lady" a decidedly filmic presence. It's a bit too loose from a narrative standpoint, but creative achievements are numerous here, offering more to the viewer than the essentials in hardcore entertainment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1956's "A Kiss Before Dying" is an oddly managed movie. A suspense picture with macabre twists, the effort only really comes alive when it locks on to evildoing, suddenly inspired to crank up thrills and chills in a manner that's supremely effective. And yet, these peaks of tension are few and far between, with director Gerd Oswald almost going out of his way to keep the rest of "A Kiss Before Dying" (adapted from a novel by Ira Levin) as still as possible, refusing to reach the potential of the piece. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1976 was a big year for young actress Jodie Foster. Making a major leap to starring roles, Foster appeared in "Taxi Driver," "Bugsy Malone," and "Freaky Friday," solidifying her skill with comedy and drama, but also pushing Foster to play adult roles as a child, selecting projects that knew what to do with her unnerving maturity. "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" is perhaps the least known of the group, but it represents Foster's strongest work, tasked with portraying a troubled adolescent working to wave off attention on her troubling deeds, encountering true disease during a particularly eventful winter. "Down the Lane" is engrossing and unsettling, with director Nicolas Gessner unafraid to take the tale to dark places, mixing up suspense through subtle acts of predatory behavior. It's strange but effective movie, yet Foster is the reason to remain with it, finding a role that makes the most of her skill and impressive presence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As it enters its final season, "Mr. Selfridge" does what many shows do when facing a creative challenge for its last hurrah: it leaps ahead in time. Nearly a decade has passed since the conclusion of "Season 3," but there's plenty of unfinished business to tend to over these remaining ten episodes, with the producers eager to move away from the stuffy period established in the first three seasons of the show, but unwilling to ditch the melodramatic encounters that have plagued the series since its debut. Dramatically, nothing much has changed in "Mr. Selfridge," with "Season 4" concentrating on reviving old relationships and adding considerable tragedy to the life of the titular character as he deals with aging and business obsolescence, trying to remain youthful and spirited as he's slowly put out to pasture. The potential is there for an introspective study of a man facing his mortality, laboring to remain in step with the times. But verisimilitude isn't the way of the show's writers, who once again delve into exaggerated antics to maintain a "General Hospital" vibe. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With "The Messenger," director Su Rynard utilizes the plight of the songbird as a way to warn viewers that environmental catastrophe is here to stay. Instead of creating a valentine to the tiny creatures, the production is more interested in doomsday, generating a sobering look at the dwindling songbird population around the globe and what's causing this troubling loss of life. It's not easy to digest, but "The Messenger" is an important documentary that adds to the discussion of pollution, which arrives in many forms. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the midst of churning out low-budget thrillers during the 1980s, most for Cannon Films, actor Charles Bronson decided to spend some time with his wife, Jill Ireland, his frequent co-star. 1987's "Assassination" is their first screen pairing since 1982's "Death Wish II," and it feels like a production that was more valued for the vacation it provided than the quality of its script. Supremely dopey and weirdly directed, "Assassination" is largely held together by oddity, with the feature transforming the fiftysomething screen legend into a butt-kicking Secret Service superhero who's irresistible to women, playing up Bronson's cool genre demeanor and way with a gun. However, it's the time spent with Bronson and Ireland that's most compelling about the picture, watching the couple enjoy a chance to collaborate as they dodge explosions, ride motorcycles, and exchanged sharp banter, welcoming character hostilities.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Just what does one do with Martin Kove? I'm sure this was a question Hollywood was wrestling with during the 1980s, trying to make sense of Kove's ascendance to screen villainy in "The Karate Kid," where the actor made a tremendous impression on audiences, fueling the film's masterful way with climatic payoff. But could he carry an entire endeavor with such intensity? After decades in television and supporting parts in features, 1987's "Steele Justice" was Kove's hour of power, gifted a Rambo-esque revenge thriller that offered the star a chance to emote, destroy, and snarl, trying to fit in with the decade's generation of action heroes. Kove is game, committed to his character and the production's vision for citywide violence, but "Steele Justice" is one incredibly goofy picture. A B-movie that doesn't make much time for logic, the effort crashes through cliché and absurdity, building up a rhythm of roughhousing that showcases Kove's masculinity and writer/director Robert Boris's imagination for mayhem. It's not good work, but it does work with lowered expectations.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When director Martin Ritt and actress Sally Field collaborated in 1979, the result was "Norma Rae," a penetrating drama about one woman's personal awakening. When Ritt and Field reteamed in 1981, the result was "Back Roads," which effectively ruined all the goodwill "Rae" created, tarnishing the production's post-Oscar-winning glow. While Ritt's helmed his share of disappointments, nothing has been quite as misguided as "Back Roads," which does everything wrong in terms of thespian charm and narrative momentum, striving to generate romantic comedy butterflies with a sobering story of failure. Perhaps enamored with the potential to mount a road movie featuring two busted-but-not-broken characters striving to share their hearts of gold with each other, Ritt loses touch with the essentials of personality, conflict, and storytelling, unable to guide the effort as stars Field and Tommy Lee Jones share what's politely called "negative chemistry," visibly looking like they'd rather be anywhere else but in this film. It's difficult to blame them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After building a name for himself with low-budget films such as "Goodbye Solo" and "Man Push Cart," writer/director Ramin Bahrani graduated to more high-profile fare with 2013's "At Any Price," starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron. A tale of farmland woe and family sin, the feature was a melodramatic disaster, punishing audiences with ridiculously broad performances and absurd writing. Bahrani recovers a bit of his old mojo with "99 Homes," which surveys the state of the nation in 2010 as it deals with a ruined housing market and destitute owners. It's a movie about the acid burn of morality in the face of financial reward, and Bahrani has the right idea during the picture's early moments, which pinpoint the shame, horror, and emotional violence of eviction in a deeply disturbing manner. The rest of "99 Homes" doesn't reach the same level of authenticity, finding Bahrani returning to old habits as subtlety is replaced by opera, ruining the primal scream of the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In his 1994 production, "Baseball," director Ken Burns set aside time to explore the career of Jackie Robinson and his influences on the sport and national race relations. There was no room for an in-depth examination of Jackie's life and times, with his experience largely detailed in suspect bio-pics (like the recent "42") and periodic interviews before his death in 1972. Championed by his widow, Rachel, "Jackie Robinson" allows Burns and his team (including co-directors Sarah Burns and David McMahon) a chance to take in an entire life, offering a four-hour documentary that tracks Jackie from birth to death and beyond, highlighting his famous sporting dominance, racial unease, and eventual experience away from the baseball diamond. It's a long journey, but as always with Burns and Co., it's incredibly informative and smoothly assembled, permitting a new opportunity to see Jackie Robinson as he was: a man, not a stoic superhero.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Released during the blur of teen cinema in the 1980s, "Secret Admirer" often plays like an effort from the 1940s. While R-rated and periodically raunchy, co-writer/director David Greenwalt infuses the feature with unexpected good taste, laboring to find an alternative way to play up shenanigans featuring horny teens without giving in to the habits of the subgenre. Not that "Secret Admirer" is a film fit for the entire family, but I've never encountered a picture about sex that was so afraid to mention the word "sex" when detailing a few amorous escapades, almost going out of its way to deny salacious details. Lacking invention but agreeably acted, the movie invests entirely in misunderstandings, more interested in the potential for a farce than a true inspection of virgin confusion. Greenwalt has the chance to do something special with the material, but his timing is stiff, his writing dull, and his lead character absurdly unappealing.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1984's "Beat Street" was supposed to be the major breakdancing movie hit of the summer, only to find its thunder stolen by Cannon Films, who rushed "Breakin'" into theaters earlier in the season, capturing the hearts and allowance money of American teenagers hunting for a cinematic representation of the body-quaking fad. While "Breakin'" was a cartoon, "Beat Street" endeavors to represent the soul of hip hop culture, offering a more sobering take on battling gangs, the achievement of lofty dreams, and the reality of poverty in the big city. It's still semi-comical stuff, but the feature is more interested in characterization, putting its collection of dancers, artists, and DJs through an emotional obstacle course that's only broken up by extended displays of acrobatic moves.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Supercop cinema heads to the Great White North in "Shadows in an Empty Room," a 1976 production directed by Alberto De Martino ("The Pumaman"). Taking intrigue and murder to the rough streets of Quebec, the picture has a certain cultural point of view to keep it engaging, offering a mystery populated with restrained, almost polite participants. The helmer strives to keep the feature eventful and, at times, horrific, and for those who enjoy their police adventures with real bite, "Shadows in an Empty Room" supplies an enormous amount of crashing and smashing to fill up its run time, with De Martino more committed to the essentials of bodily harm than the nuances of a whodunit. And thank goodness for that. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com