Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

When praising a film like "Aquamarine," it's never about creative innovation or shocking turns of fate. Here's a picture that's clichéd up the wazoo, playing directly to a target demographic of young teen girls with its fantasy of mermaid contact and BFF separation. It's not the details that make the movie an engaging sit, it's the way director Elizabeth Allen manages to keep the endeavor spirited and kind, allowing "Aquamarine" to be an offering of wish-fulfillment with restraint, refusing to corrode the effort with unnecessary behavior. It's warmly acted and brightly made, and while it doesn't exactly providing a challenging sit, it comes together quite nicely, managing to tell a bubbly story in a clear way. For this level of PG-intense sleepover entertainment, to remain appealing is no small feat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Filmmakers are often tempted to treat mental illness as a golden ticket to melodrama, orchestrating extremes of behavior in the name of manipulation, giving actors free reign to create the experience of psychological torture in the broadest manner imaginable. When a rare feature comes along that doesn't indulge overkill, it's cause for celebration. 1962's "David and Lisa" has its share of heated moments, but writer Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry are careful to treat the characters with respect, searching motivation and instinct with sensitivity and a great degree of understanding. Far from a crude movie of the week, "David and Lisa" manages to isolate internal frustration and troubling interactions, emerging as a story of tentative endearment, but also one of rare comprehension (at least for its time), portraying schizophrenia and obsessive actions with attention to detail, not outbursts. It's an emotionally satisfying picture with limited manipulation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Cannon Films gives the director of "Death Wish II" a chance to make a period piece, and this is the result. 1983's "The Wicked Lady" should rightfully challenge helmer Michael Winner's base sensibilities, tasked with bringing a costume drama to the screen, yet his blunt ways with cinematic craftsmanship bend the material towards a routine of sex and violence. While not without a few scenes of beguiling madness, the movie spends more time struggling than soaring, grounded by a bizarre lead performance from Faye Dunaway and Winner's dedication to transforming a bawdy story into a Penthouse Letter, with a few softcore scenes breaking up the action. While never intended to be a Merchant/Ivory production, "The Wicked Lady" could use a blast of dignity, often caught trying too hard to be raunchy and ridiculous, lacking proper creative lubrication to carry this semi-farce, kinda-melodrama all the way to the finish line without encouraging a few pained reactions from the viewer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Maybe you thought your last vacation was bad? 1978's "Long Weekend" is an unnerving reminder that hotels and resorts are perhaps the only way to truly relax in the big, bad world. A horror effort that invests almost completely in atmosphere, "Long Weekend" is a highly effective exercise in slow-burn terror, putting the entirety of its focus on two characters as their extraordinarily troubling camping trip to a remote Australian beach turns into a prolonged test of survival. However, it's not poor planning that comes back to haunt the couple in question, but a karmic explosion of animal retaliation in response to human savagery, allowing the screenplay to explore a different type of suspense. The feature takes time to get where it's going, but the reward is superb tension and unpredictable surges of intensity, with stars John Hargreaves and Briony Behets capturing utter distress as director Colin Eggleston orchestrates an unforgettable downward spiral of sanity, with villainy agreeably dimensional and the great outdoors ruined forever. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2005, actress Lindsay Lohan was at a crossroads in her career. Building a fanbase with Disney fare such as "The Parent Trap," "Freaky Friday," and "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," while nurturing a career as a pop star during MTV's last stand as a music-oriented cable channel, Lohan was running out of time, stuck with a starring role in "Herbie Fully Loaded" that played to children while she was breaking into adulthood. Resisting the lure to keep playing young, Lohan elected to make a few grown-up films that reflected her maturity, using 2006 to appear in "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Bobby," while returning to starring duties with "Just My Luck." Positioned as a hip romantic comedy with a heavy lean toward slapstick, the effort provided Lohan with an opportunity to play a savvy businesswoman in the NYC fast lane, take on a more pronounced sexual identity, and mingle with other adults. What "Just My Luck" failed to supply was a sense of humor and a director capable of turning a dreadful script into adequate escapism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

French director Alain Resnais experienced a powerful, eclectic career before his death in 2014 at the age of 91. With such classics as "Hiroshima mon amour" and "Last Year at Marienbad," Resnais defined a generation of filmmakers, contributing to the rise of the French New Wave with his dignified work. "The Life of Riley" isn't his most triumphant effort, but this adaptation of an Alan Ayckbourn play provides a fitting end to his career, finding the last picture from Resnais touching on themes of life and death, love and loneliness, and the comfort of others. As parting shots go, it's remarkable how fitting the material is to the helmer's personal journey. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Police procedural television shows are a dime a dozen these days, with murder the daily diet for most channels. Inspiration is limited, with productions content to provide comfort through familiarity, tracking cops and baddies with all the enthusiasm of an actor trapped in a multi-year series deal. "Fortitude" seeks to shake up formula by changing locations, moving away from the big city, rooms filled with computer screens, and coldly lit labs to head to the Arctic. Moving the action to a remote village north of Europe, "Fortitude" selects snow and depression to set the mood, approaching its tale of murder and paranoia from a perspective of human survival and community intimacy. It's a cold world out there, with the program endeavoring to use such bleakness to its advantage as it motors through 12 episodes of sex, violence, and observation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As they entered the moviemaking stage of their career, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis selected a military comedy to keep up with the competition, deploying their balance of smooth and sharp to mess around with the details of life in the service. 1950's "At War with the Army" hedges its bet some with the addition of director Hal Walker, who previous worked with Hope and Crosby on "The Road to Utopia," bringing a well-oiled understanding of comedy team timing to the screen. An adaptation of a play by James B. Allardice, "At War with the Army" struggles to become something cinematic, retaining its theatrical origins with stiff slapstick and finger-snap dialogue, and while Lewis tornados around the frame, energy is missing from this amiable but unremarkable effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After scoring a minor hit with the kiddie comedy "Big Fat Liar," director Shawn Levy wanted to graduate to the world of young adults. Despite his inability to stage a big screen joke, Levy gravitated toward "Just Married," with the 2003 effort requiring a helmer capable of balancing slapstick and heart, spritzing the endeavor with a little acidic humor. "Just Married" is one of those comedies that should piece together easily enough, yet Levy has a way of making simple tasks seem impossible. Recruiting stars Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy, the director embarks on a dissection of thinning marital patience and European calamity, yet he somehow comes up spectacularly short of his goal, issuing a feature that's almost completely devoid of laughs, charms, and warm fuzzies as the two leads scream punchlines at each other for 90 long minutes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jean-Luc Godard's "Goodbye to Language" is a film that defies explanation, and that appears to the point of the work. It's a swan dive into images, conflicts, and sound, loosely tied together with the story of a combative relationship and the adventures of a dog. It's philosophy and experimentation, light and dark, love and poop. Yes, bowel movements do factor into the flow of "Goodbye to Language," which takes on the weight of the world with Godard's finely-tuned esoteric vision, asking viewers to completely devour a cinematic experience that's not about interpretation, but complete and utter submission. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a Man Out of Time movie, 1991's "Late for Dinner" aims more for sweetness than shock, though it certainly doesn't discount the value of a nice surprise. It's a strange time travel feature from director W.D. Richter, who previously helmed the eye-crossing cult comedy "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension," making an obvious effort to soften his touch with complex storytelling by taking on a screenplay (credited to Mark Andrus, "As Good as It Gets," "Georgia Rule") that's more emotional, surveying a tale of cryogenic reawakening and the sacrifice of time. The plot is obviously scrambled, with visible staples in place to hold the narrative together, but sincerity remains, helping to guide light comedy and warm dramatics to a welcome place of personal reunion, highlighting the picture's strengths with intimacy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Well, there are certainly tales included in this feature, but I'm not convinced there's any terror. The legendary master of the penny-counting approach to filmmaking, Roger Corman made an incredible amount of movies during his directorial career. A sizable portion of them were devoted to the works of acclaimed writer Edgar Allan Poe, with Corman bringing the likes of "House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum" to the big screen. 1962's "Tales of Terror" eschews the long-form adaptation challenge, wrapping three short stories up in an anthology effort, offering brief blasts of Poe for devotees while keeping Corman and screenwriter Richard Matheson on their toes as they oversee disparate stories of human undoing. While the macabre and the menacing were Poe's calling card, "Tales of Terror" doesn't offer much in the way of fright, finding the production unable to slip into scary mode with material that actually welcomes sustained chills. Heck, the picture even becomes a comedy at one point. Lowered expectations are in order with this endeavor, as wonderful cinematography, performances, and genre decoration await those willing to ignore the feature's frustratingly mild intensity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1949's "Cover Up" was sold as a heated noir, with leathery men, a smoking gun, and a blazing dame on the original poster, promising a vigorous display of crime and assorted sins. The picture isn't anywhere near those standards of escapism, but it's an interesting mystery from director Alfred E. Green, who captures the askew dramatic drive of the screenplay, which provides a new identity for the standard detective tale. In "Cover Up," an insurance man (played by Dennis O'Keefe) is the protagonist, using his history with fraud to pry open an unusual case of murder in small town U.S.A. I'm not sure a premise like this could even work in 2015. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sidney Chambers is a most unusual protagonist for a murder mystery show. While his calling takes him into the priesthood, Sidney retains his sins and vices, spending six episodes of "Grantchester" smoking, drinking, listening to jazz, womanizing, lying, stealing, and struggling with memories of murder while in service during World War II. He's not your average vicar, giving "Grantchester," based on the novels by James Runcie, an unexpected kick when dealing with its routine of death and investigation, permitting the material welcome complexity when confronting matters of the heart. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"The Way He Looks" isn't a message movie, it's a human story about longing and self-exploration. Credit writer/director Daniel Ribeiro for its restraint, building a tale that isn't insistent with hysterics to make a point about sexual awareness. The picture has its clumsy moments, but it takes on a considerable dramatic challenge, searching for a way to showcase the warmth of burgeoning attraction and love while remaining careful with additional concerns involving parents and social circles. "The Way He Looks" tinkers with teen cinema formula, but it largely avoids crushing cliché, electing to play moments honestly and gently, allowing the viewer to process the delicate emotions in play. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1974, writer/director/star Duke Mitchell debuted "Massacre Mafia Style," a rip-roaring take on mob violence and Italian heritage that acted as the creator's personal response to the phenomenon known as "The Godfather." A few years later, Mitchell attempted a follow-up, building "Gone with the Pope" over weekends, using favors and his internal drive to see the feature to completion. Unfortunately, production stalled as it was nearing the finish line, with reels of Mitchell's work tucked away in a storage space, destined to be lost forever after the helmer's death in 1981. Enter Grindhouse Releasing, who acquired the footage with plans to restore Mitchell's vision to the best of their ability. Devoting years to the effort, stitching together moments, ideas, and oddities, the producers managed to make a movie, delivering a valentine to Mitchell's indefatigable cinematic spirit and his unique screen presence. "Gone with the Pope" is undeniably rough around the edges, but it does find unmistakable personality in the midst of a potential mess, making what should've been a disposable curiosity into a formidable continuation of the "Massacre Mafia Style" aesthetic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Since everything these days is woven into the world of comic book heroes, "Owl Power" follows trends, exploring the "superpowers" of these secretive birds, on a quest to share significant facts about the stars of the show. The omnipresent bird, found in every continent except for Antarctica, makes for a fascinating subject, with the daily life of the average owl filled with sophisticated hunting duties, using natural skills to attack prey and keep safe as new generations are nurtured. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Troma Entertainment isn't known for their commitment to quality film. They specialize in easily marketable schlock, often drawn to frightfully violent entertainment to secure interest from horror genre admirers. The company's purchase of the 1988 Belgian picture, "Rabid Grannies," comes as no surprise, finding the provocatively titled endeavor happy to share its fascination with the grotesque, developing a thin storyline to service what becomes a random grab-bag of nightmarish imagery tied to a loosely defined demonic possession. At 68 minutes, it's barely a movie, but that doesn't stop director Emmanuel Kervyn from trying to squeeze suspense out of absolutely nothing, playing to the back row with broad performances and a few tasteless encounters, all funneled into a senseless scare feature that's never authentically unnerving outside of frighteningly inept editorial decisions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1960's "Black Sunday" is the movie that put director Mario Bava on the map. A helmer with an enormous capacity for creativity and low-budget craftsmanship, Bava funneled his cinematic skill into a gothic chiller, boasting a spooky castle, witchcraft, and poor saps tinkering with the devil. Delighting in mood and visual heft, "Black Sunday" solidifies Bava's appetites as a filmmaker and secures his gifts with atmosphere, bringing out eerie events with an eye toward disquiet and menace, attaining a sense of dread while sticking to era-specific demands of action and impassioned performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Hester Street" is certainly a rarity, arriving in 1975 as a tale of traditional Jewish values colliding with American permissiveness around the turn of the century. And the picture was written and directed by Joan Micklin Silver, making her the rare female helmer in a largely male-driven industry. Its specialty is its saving grace, stepping forward as a rare film of distinct perspective and religious discussion, while maintaining a comfortable focus on domestic unrest, permitting simplistic but valued drama to carry the viewing experience. Evocative on a modest budget, Silver pulls off something of a miracle with "Hester Street," managing to capture a time and place without the benefit of a budget or major stars, putting her faith in the power of the conflicts provided here, adapting a 1895 book by Abraham Cahan with a distinctly '70s headspace of grit, empowerment, and heartache. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com