Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

Arriving in 1978, "Crazylegs Crane" represents the other end of the quality spectrum for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, who offer 16 shorts of fumbled comedy and aggressive voicework with saga of a bird and a dragonfly mixing it up on a daily basis. Even with lowered expectations for television animation from the 1970s, "Crazylegs Crane" tests patience with its unadventurous storytelling and slack sense of humor, content to rework select gags repeatedly, with only the rare moment of oddity arriving to wake the series up. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Marshall Brickman is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen, co-scripting efforts such as "Sleeper," "Manhattan," "Manhattan Murder Mystery," and the Academy Award-winning "Annie Hall." It's an impressive resume, but Brickman's directorial output isn't quite as stunning, encountering rough creative seas with 1980's "Simon" and 1983's "Lovesick." 1986's "The Manhattan Project" may not be a towering achievement of cinematic craftsmanship, but it's the best thing Brickman helmed during his career, guiding an exciting and idiosyncratic thriller that played into the nuclear fears of the era (unfortunately, little of that has faded away in our current volatile age) while remaining an effective teen-centric offering, investing in smart characters and complex situations. "The Manhattan Project" isn't above a dramatic manipulation or two, but it carries confidently, trying to explore a real-world scenario of human fallibility and intelligence, with Brickman working to achieve a nail-biting tone to preserve the escapist qualities within this sobering film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Brooksfilm is the company Mel Brooks created to help develop personal projects, helping them through the Hollywood system. The quality of these efforts varied wildly, but 1986 was a particularly volatile year for the company, which welcomed the release of "The Fly," arguably one of the best horror pictures of the 1980s, showcasing a thunderous directorial vision and creative freedom from David Cronenberg. In '86, Brooksfilm also shepherded "Solarbabies," an awkwardly titled take on "Mad Max" that featured a cast on roller skates, emoting to a glowing blue sphere. There's certainly no way to compare the movies in terms of artistic and dramatic reach, but it's difficult to fathom what Brooksfilm was thinking with "Solarbabies," their attempt to join the fantasy film sweepstakes of the decade, only without a defined approach to transform its vast collection of absurdities into high-flying, fast-rolling, orb-cradling fun. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Working to create their own take on the destructive misadventures of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises delivers "The Ant and the Aardvark," a 17-episode saga featuring playful combat waged between an anteater who sounds like Jackie Mason (John Byner provides the voice) and Dean Martin-esque insect named Charlie (also Byner). Doing away with plot and a great assortment of supporting characters, the production focuses almost solely on the titular duo, who spend these brief blasts of screen time engaging in all kinds of violent shenanigans and zany chases, playing up cartoon slapstick with a merry-go-round of exaggerated misfortune. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While enduring a career of sporadic work, writer/director Victor Nunez has a special way with characterization, taking extreme care with the lives he's dramatically dissecting on film. With 1993's "Ruby in Paradise," Nunez delivered a rich understanding of personal freedom and fears, while exploring Floridian locations with unusual respect for the state's natural beauty and idiosyncratic residents. 1997's "Ulee's Gold" is Nunez's second major feature and arguably his best work, building on the education "Ruby" provided to help blend slightly more commercial interests with his dedication to soulful dissection, led by a terrific performance from Peter Fonda. Channeling the work of John Sayles, Nunez pulls sizable drama out of subtle details and modest personalities, sticking to the basics of human behavior to create engrossing frustrations, gently nudging the tale to mild violence to help provide shape to the character study. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Miracle Beach" has terrible timing. A 1984-style beach shenanigans endeavor that was ultimately produced in 1992, the feature missed its chance to battle the competition, coming up with its own display of horndog antics featuring a bevy of topless women, while goofball supporting characters manage slapstick requirements poorly. Perhaps in the thick of the trend, the film might've found its place as harmless entertainment, trying to provide enough bikini-ogling antics as possible while nursing its fantasy premise. In the 1990s, the effort sticks out awkwardly, positioned as bottom shelf video store fodder for teenage boys. Weirdly bland and incredibly unfunny, "Miracle Beach" is too friendly to inspire viewer rage, but the boredom it generates as it goes about its business stumbling through terrible scenes is enormous, with director Skott Snider caught uncomfortably between the "Mannequin"-esque date movie he wants to make and the T&A fest the producers are counting on. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A creation from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, "The Inspector" (which ran from 1965-69) picks up where the main title sequence of "The Pink Panther" and its first sequel, "A Shot in the Dark," left off, rethinking abstract animated ideas into a short film series that ran before feature films, but eventually found its audience on television. Although it never identifies the lead character, "The Inspector" is basically "The Inspector Clouseau Show," offering a slightly brighter take on law enforcement shenanigans. The cartoon universe is a terrific fit for Clouseau, who offers his wit, patience, and gift for pratfalls to the program, which spends 34 episodes recycling the same jokes, but also achieves a significant amount of laughs and entertainment value, with the producers giving their creation a healthy dose of impish behavior and broad disasters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Author Robert Ludlum built a brand name with his literary endeavors, favoring the thriller genre with dense work that adored spy games and their working parts. A few of his novels have been adapted for television and the big screen, most notably "The Bourne Identity" and its numerous sequels, which found a way to translate his special handling of suspense and paranoia for the mass audience. However, before Jason Bourne ruled the box office, there was 1985's "The Holcroft Covenant," which doesn't share the same raw intensity, but keeps up with the Ludlum vision as it explores secretive evil deeds, duplicitous characters, and globetrotting locations. This isn't the finest hour for director John Frankenheimer (creatively, most of the 1980s didn't go his way), but the helmer does supply meaty direction that at least tries to turn this tale of banking and identity into a nail-biting viewing experience. It doesn't quite take overall, but with Michael Caine in the lead role, "The Holcroft Covenant" remains compelling, even when it arranges full-on absurdity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Ray Milland pulls double duty in 1962's "Panic in Year Zero," directing and starring in a post-apocalyptic tale that doesn't have the budget to imagine the end of the world, but does just fine with elements of dread. A bold depiction of doomsday survival, the feature bravely looks at the chaos following a nuclear attack, doing so during a period in time when the end of the world was an all too real possibility. Milland doesn't try to suffocate his audience, instead keeping "Panic in Year Zero" surprisingly buoyant, filling the effort with chases, shoot-outs, and heated confrontations, making it more of an exploitation endeavor than a requiem for the American Way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Scoring a point for truth in advertising, 1984's "Monster Dog" actually submits the hellish fury of a monster dog, making it a minor success in terms of delivering on a titular promise. The rest of the picture's quality is open for debate. A rare foray into acting for rock music legend Alice Cooper, "Monster Dog" provides the master of shock with an appropriate thespian challenge, tasked with portraying a shadowy recording artist with an interest in the macabre. Perhaps this is slow-pitch softball for Cooper, but the feature doesn't make the transition easy, pitting the singer against the harshness of Italian genre filmmaking, with its loose dubbing, general dismissal of storytelling, and iffy special effects. At the very least, the movie supplies two Cooper tunes and gifts gorehounds with a few sticky encounters, meeting demands with a passably entertaining home invasion/werewolf/killer dog extravaganza that eventually does away with plot altogether, preferring to cling to a routine of violence and lackluster suspense to fill the run time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Mind games command 1962's "Journey to the Seventh Planet," but they're the inexpensive kind, giving the picture a chance to keep costs down by messing with group consciousness, which is easier on the special effects budget. An endearing offering of confusion from director Sid Pink, "Journey to the Seventh Planet" manages to overcome its monumental monetary limitation, showcasing delightful visual invention to bring a taste of paranoia and alien manipulation to life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

War films, especially WWII films, typically favor the intensity of combat, watching leathery men set out to shut down the enemy, using heated battles to keep audiences invested in the routine of conflict. 1960's "The Gallant Hours" offers nothing in the way of extravaganza, preferring to take the introspective route as it explores Admiral William F. Halsey (James Cagney) and his leadership approach during the five-week period leading to the Guadalcanal campaign. It's an unexpectedly restrained feature, but its careful way with drama and psychological inspection is exceptionally managed by director Robert Montgomery, who puts his faith in the cast, trusting them to provide the firepower intentionally avoided by the rest of the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The horrors of war are gracefully examined in 1954's "The Purple Plain," which downplays military valor to cut to the center of psychological ruin facing a fighter pilot who wants to die in combat, only to find heroics instead. Director Robert Parrish guides this sensitive study of depression, with Gregory Peck capably managing layers of quiet intensity in the lead role, which demands an exhaustive performance that indentifies the shattering of a soul and its eventual repair through the possibility of love. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1985's "Perfect" is generally regarded as a low point in 1980s cinema, also cited as the film that brought down star John Travolta's career after a string of hits and interesting misses, disrupting a career that once seemed destined for greatness. Perhaps in its day and age, the feature was a strange, humorless production that was marketed as a celebration of the superficial, boasting a title that teed up opportunity for widespread ridicule. Today, "Perfect" certainly isn't perfect, but it's a far more interesting picture than its reputation suggests, generating a celebration and critique of journalism that's rich with professional detail and carries a lived-in quality during all the fictional reporting. The theatrical cut ends up a mess, but never a tedious one, with the film handling the grind of the news-making machine with palpable fatigue, while Travolta and co-star Jamie Lee Curtis make credible transformations into fallible people. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While marketing efforts are more interested in selling the most macabre elements of 1972's "Pigs" (titled "The 13th Pig" on the print), the feature really isn't about a pack of killer swine. Instead of barnyard chaos, writer/director/star Marc Lawrence goes a psychological route with his material, exploring multiple cases of trauma and psychosis while periodically returning to the grunting exploits of pigs that've developed a taste for human flesh. "Pigs" is interesting work, trying to bend expectations away from B-movie exploits to something more experimental and ghoulish, blending expected violence with a mystery of sorts that plays out in a most unusual way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1985's "Blue Ice" chases a darker atmosphere of sleuthing and world power, blending noir-ish interests with its collection of traditional adult film highlights. Director Philip Marshak ambitiously transforms a detective story into a journey that uncovers cult interests and the return of Nazi rule, working to create a compelling offering of cinema that's not always entirely interested in a celebration of sex. "Blue Ice" doesn't have the budget to match its imagination, but it does retain personality and pleasing oddity, keeping things interesting as the tale studies mystical powers and aggressive encounters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sincere sexism and comedy is an uncomfortable mix, but 1972's "The War Between Men and Women" gives the tonal nightmare a try. Starring Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris, the feature is dripping with acid, with director Melville Shavelson ("Yours, Mine and Ours") working to locate lightness to a diseased lead character. The mission is impossible, but "The War Between Men and Women" is inventive with its odyssey into the black heart of relationship cynicism, blending animation and fantasy with a more sobering reality, given a certain spin by the talented cast. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It may be hard to imagine, but three decades ago, a Johnny Depp movie could find its way to theaters and nobody cared (enter your "Transcendence" jokes here). After scoring a major supporting role in Wes Craven's original "A Nightmare on Elm Street," Depp graduated to leading man status with 1985's "Private Resort," joining newcomer Rob Morrow, with the young actors suddenly in charge of a sex comedy, running around a sun-soaked location ogling women and dodging trouble. Another offering from the teen cinema takeover surge of the 1980s, "Private Resort" is caught between the bikini-peeling demands of the subgenre and director George Bowers's quest to construct a Mel Brooks-style farce, laboring to make the feature as broad as humanly possible while still tending to the exposure of bare breasts. While not the worst title to emerge during the decade's obsession with sleazy behavior, the film isn't exactly a stunner, trying too hard to please with slapstick that doesn't blend smoothly with the endeavor's creeper interests. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While it wasn't the biggest hit to emerge during the teen cinema gold rush of the 1980s, "Hardbodies" is often singled out for its precise celebration of subgenre highlights. Its pay cable omnipresence is certainly to blame here, with the 1984 picture often taking over rotational duties in the evening after "The Beastmaster" reigned during the day. Out of all the vulgar, dim-bulb beach and party features that clogged multiplexes (and video store shelves) during the decade, the effort's longevity is really no surprise, with co-screenwriter/director Mark Griffiths filling the movie with enough nudity and sexual high jinks to beguile his target audience, keeping "Hardbodies" eventful when it comes to R-rated encounters. The rest of the film doesn't share the same excitement, slogging through paint-by-numbers writing that spectacularly fails to make wholly repulsive characters appealing in any way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Sean S. Cunningham stunned Hollywood in 1980 when his tiny horror feature, "Friday the 13th," came out of nowhere to dominate the box office and spawn a franchise that remains beloved to this day. Handed a free pass to do whatever he wanted, Cunningham first returned to the genre that served him so well (1982's "A Stranger is Watching") and then issued 1983's "Spring Break," reuniting him with the low-budget comedy aesthetic he developed early in his career. Smelling blood in the water, Cunningham sets out to bite off a piece of the teen horndog genre, manufacturing his own ode to naked women, beach party shenanigans, and matters of the heart. "Spring Break" offers nothing new to the subgenre, and while it samples R-rated tomfoolery, it's almost reluctant to truly dig into salacious business, offering a movie that, with some clever editing, could almost pass for a PG viewing experience. His competition arrives with cynicism and anger issues, but Cunningham keeps this nonsense good-natured for the most part. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com