Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

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

It's no secret that producer Roger Corman likes to keep costs down on his productions. He's actually famous because of it, but 1966's "Queen of Blood" goes beyond his habitual frugality, working out a plan to transform two Russian movies into a sci-fi distraction for American audiences. Writer/director Curtis Harrington pulls off an impressive bit of editorial puzzling with "Queen of Blood," and while he can't completely hide the seams between Russian and American footage, he manages to overcome budgetary limitations with healthy amounts of style and an endearing commitment to genre highlights. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After wowing audiences with 1991's "Delicatessen," co-directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet revive their blazing idiosyncrasies with 1995's "The City of Los Children," which attempts to top their previous collaboration with a new wave of Terry Gilliam-inspired oddity and extremity that's meticulously designed, with the production absolutely determined to create a screen space crowded with nightmares and misadventures, tilted with defined French style. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The plot of 1948's "Pitfall" concerns a challenge to martial stability, with a bored man taking a chance on a dangerous woman, only to encounter unexpected repercussions. It's a tale that's not unfamiliar to the world of film noir, arriving with suitable levels of temptation, threat, and guilt, but director Andre De Toth handles routine with some imagination, keeping "Pitfall" low to the ground as it explores various levels of intimidation. This patience results in the more refined effort, but one that's not afraid to bloody its knuckles on occasion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1963's "A Child Is Waiting" has its heart in the right place. A drama concerning the efforts of teachers at a state institution dealing with special needs children and their confused, frightened parents, the picture seeks to destigmatize the mentally challenged, with director John Cassavetes striving to infuse a sense of realism into an otherwise formulaic but effective feature. "A Child Is Waiting" isn't profound, but for a film of its era, it challenges the viewer with unusual community spirit, while stars Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland (in one of her final performances) handle emotional throttling well, keeping the movie steely enough to avoid a few maudlin temptations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It's widely noted that Nirvana's 1991 masterpiece, "Nevermind," was the album that killed off interest in hair metal. But maybe, just maybe, the release of "Shock 'Em Dead" that very same year also contributed to the cause. Horror meets killer licks in the genre extravaganza, which looks to dazzle viewers with driving music, topless women, and demonic acts of survival, riding a dying musical movement into Valhalla as it shares the pleasures of ornate guitars and towering hair. Admittedly, there's the distraction of Traci Lords to keep things interesting, but as goofy B-movies blasting past their expiration date go, "Shock 'Em Dead" is a surprisingly leaden effort, losing the war with coherence and passable acting as it fights to maintain utter absurdity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"The Mask" is an exercise in strangeness, but only in spurts. The 1961 Canadian production is a frustrating sit, alternating between static dramatic passages teeming with banal exposition and visits to a nightmare realm brought on by the wearing of a special cursed mask. Surreal horror meets television procedural in the mediocre feature, which carries an abundance of eeriness, encountered through the display of some truly unsettling visuals. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Catch My Soul" was originally conceived for the stage, where the spare qualities of a theater setting could emphasize the intimacy of this take on William Shakespeare's "Othello." At one point, Jerry Lee Lewis was part of the cast, securing a certain live energy that helps viewers work through the inherent sluggishness of modernized Shakespeare. In 1973, a film adaptation arrived, and one directed by Patrick McGoohan, making his feature-length helming debut after years of triumphant television work, including a lead role on "The Prisoner." Trading the stage for the expanse of New Mexico, a substantial amount of liveliness is lost in the open air, finding McGoohan struggling to keep this odd take on Othello and Iago's battle of manipulation alert enough to connect as a rock opera. Music is prominent, and there's plenty of passion to spread around, but "Catch My Soul" never ignites as intended, always just short of a good idea or a powerful performance. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com