Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

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

The name's Fanon. Jerry Fanon.

Actor James Coburn is no stranger to the world of superspy franchises, having worked through the lighthearted Derek Flint pictures of the 1960s. 1979's "Firepower" has a bit of James Bond envy, with "Death Wish" director Michael Winner working to mount his own take on exotic locations, golden women, and roughhouse men attempting to save the world. A brawny, noisy movie, "Firepower" is a reasonable facsimile of a Roger Moore-era 007 adventure, favoring excessive characters, stunt-heavy action, and a few secret agent tricks. However, Winner isn't entirely out to replicate, adding his own extremes to the effort, laboring to energize a plot that's basically a basic bounty hunter story into a towering display of excitement. The feature almost gets there, aided by a few violent chases and escapes, but it's not the most stimulating endeavor, periodically lost in laborious expositional banter that doesn't widen the scope of the hunt as profoundly as the production imagines. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

About 17 years ago, when I attended a midnight showing of "The Beyond" during its brief Quentin Tarantino-approved re-release, I received my first look at Duke Mitchell's "Massacre Mafia Style" (a.k.a. "Like Father, Like Son" and "The Executioner"). The trailer (later revealed to be the opening sequence of the endeavor) was a display of ultraviolence and unintentional comedy that blew my mind, sharing a bizarre vision of mass death, bad acting, missed cues, and big hair that proved to be irresistible, triggering an immediate need to see the film. Contact would come years later at a cult movie society screening, which utilized a print that was likely used as finish line tape for local marathons, leaving the viewing experience unstable, mucking with Mitchell's idiosyncratic vision. Now "Massacre Mafia Style" has arrived on Blu-ray with a revived image and clear soundtrack, allowing B-movie daredevils and the curious an opportunity to view the effort as Mitchell intended, permitting appreciation for its substantial passion, iffy creative choices, and torrent of violence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Don't Go in the Woods" is as close to a cinematic representation of a stroke as I've ever seen. The 1981 shocker seems like a cruel joke from director James Bryan, who, all fueled up on the slasher craze of the era, elected to try out his own take on the permissive subgenre, moving the action into the wilds of Utah mountain areas. Surrounding himself with friends and family, armed with script credited to Garth Eliassen, Bryan fights for some type of cinematic vision with "Don't Go in the Woods" (sometimes known as "Don't Go in the Woods…Alone!"), but filmmaking skill eludes the man. Stumbling through a series of casual kills with unidentified characters, the effort looks to chill viewers with displays of random violence and agony, but it mostly confuses in a way I've never seen from a horror picture. Without boundaries and sense, Bryan coughs up a greatest hits reel of pain, trying to pass off the wildly scattered results as some type of parody, but it's mostly just nonsense, albeit periodically amusing nonsense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There is a vibration of life that runs through "Memphis," which eschews a straightforward narrative approach to soak up the details of the famous city and the picture's star, musician Willis Earl Beal. Playing a variation of himself, Beal is our guide to madness, watching the broken bluesman attempt to consider his limitations during a potent period of creative blockage, dealing with impatient record label executives and various supporting characters in his life, including his son. Insular but effective, "Memphis" is an evocative odyssey into confusion and the responsibility of influence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Reflecting a country in the midst of a seismic cultural change, cinema of the 1960s attempted to address the ills of a nation. Following a trail set by psychedelic drug use and political upheaval, filmmakers set out to create eye-popping, feral pictures that would appeal to a younger audience, often transforming parental figures and the rest of the establishment into villains, demonizing their authority and commitment to greed. A lesser known entry in the "groovy, man" uprising is 1969's "Cult of the Damned" (a.k.a. "Angel, Angel, Down We Go"), a movie that doesn't have much in the way of dramatic firepower, but it's drenched with period-specific malaise and rock and roll influence, emerging as a musical crossed with a teen angst drama, with elements of horror, abstraction, and daredevil sports poured into the brew. It's exhaustively repetitive and brutally snail-paced, but for those who automatically embrace counterculture cinema generated during this particularly volatile era, "Cult of the Damned" is a lost entry in the freak-out subgenre. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although it teases the presence of political debate with a hot potato subject, "Charlie Wilson's War" is more of a cocktail hour movie, treating significant world events as everyday business. Focusing on American influence during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the picture shies away from the grim details of the conflict, preferring to explore its rather unlikely genesis, with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Mike Nichols (this being his last film in an amazing career) creating a sense of playfulness while juggling troubling facts, trying their best to keep the true-life tale approachable despite its substantial carnage, underhanded dealings, and eventual ties to American disaster. It's not entirely successful as a comedy, but "Charlie Wilson's War" has a certain spring in its step that keeps it appealing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The world is changing, always evolving. "Earth: A New Wild" is a five-episode series dedicated to understanding how nature is coping with its future, sending host Dr. M. Sanjayan around to numerous continents to discover the secrets of planetary growth and how extremes as processed by animal life. Through "Home," "Plains," "Forests," "Oceans," and "Water," "A New Wild" takes time to study impending disaster and hope for a brighter tomorrow, focusing on human involvement to help ecosystems and creatures along, working diligently to correct many mistakes made along the way. It's an epic look at the corners of Earth and its mysterious ways, with Dr. Sanjayan excited to share his often remarkable findings with the viewer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com