Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

I wouldn't plan for an elaborate dinner and exquisite dessert before screening the German film "Wetlands" at home. It's not a movie made to stoke appetites, it's a restless creation hoping to repulse in a myriad of ways, endeavoring to find beauty within the folds of unrepentant illness. Based on a novel by Charlotte Roche, "Wetlands" sets out to the capture the head rush of a broken adolescence, with all its impulses, curiosities, and emotional unrest, and the feature is certainly vivid enough to reach a few high points of frightfully detailed experience that are rarely explored on-screen. However, its visual intensity is tiring and incessant shock value tends to weaken already feeble emotionality present later in the picture. This is certainly unforgettable work, but often for the wrong reasons. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Not only is 1959's "Ten Seconds to Hell" a genuine nail-biter, but it manages to find another corner of WWII history to explore, pulling emphasis away from the Allied effort in Europe to explore tensions in Germany during the initial phases of reconstruction. Adapted from a Lawrence P. Bachmann book and directed by Robert Aldrich ("The Longest Yard," "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"), the feature hands viewers a unique perspective, tracking the conflicts and confusion of six disgraced German soldiers who've accepted a bomb disposal detail that seldom permits a happy ending. It's a flipside of wartime honor and duty that isn't frequently explored, observing the shell-shocked reaction of traditional enemies now in charge of piecing together a shattered country. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before the great Elmore Leonard adaptation explosion of the 1990s, bringing the likes of "Get Shorty," "Out of Sight," and "Jackie Brown" (based on his novel, "Rum Punch") to the big screen, there were slim pickings when it came to authoritative productions using the author's colorful and threatening literary world. 1986's "52 Pick-Up" makes a game attempt to commit Leonard's universe of tough guys and big problems to celluloid, even attracting John Frankenheimer as a director — perhaps the most leathery moviemaker working at the time. Even armed with surefire elements of sleaze and underworld chicanery, "52 Pick-Up" barely registers a heartbeat, stumbling through a confused narrative that strives to examine a man facing the biggest mistake of his life, but ends up detailing the actions of three impossibly idiotic thugs, which throws off the intensity of the effort. Select scenes crackle with tension, and star Roy Scheider does his professional duty to make his character appear together when he's actually falling apart, but this isn't steady work from Frankenheimer, who's lost in the particulars of porn and criminal buffoonery, never achieving necessary suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The full title is "Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon," which might be a play for irony from writer/director John Maybury, who doesn't actually make sense of his subject despite having the cinematic tools to do so. A blizzard of images with the occasional blip of emotional clarity, "Love is the Devil" is more of a sensory experience, finding the viewer blasted with the mere idea of Bacon's intricate appetites in both art and sex, not necessarily gifted a concrete vision of creative stimulus and domestic intent. It's raw, unhinged work, but it's often caught servicing Maybury, not the needs of drama. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The American Slave experience on film tends to follow a set course of merciless violence and dramatic despair. "The Retrieval" makes a valiant effort to remove itself from customary images of plantations and seething white characters, electing for an intimate tale of connection between lost souls, taking the action to the forests and creeks of the country. It's a Civil War picture that's barely about combat, instead working to find other corners of history to mine as it builds a powerful relationship between its main players and explores their unique bond during a time of constant threat. Spare and heartfelt, "The Retrieval" is exceptional work from writer/director Chris Eska, who takes time with his script to extract as much self-examination as possible, deepening the personalities as they struggle with the reality of the changing nation, fighting for their lives along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Antonio Margheriti made a name for himself with 1964's "Castle of Blood," a gothic horror effort beloved by fans of the genre. That same year, the helmer returned to duty with "The Long Hair of Death," a similar feature in tone and candlelit threat, continuing a career quest to explore dark shadows and eerie events. "The Long Hair of Death" is stocked with ghoulish developments and duplicitous characters, but that lack of pace ends up crippling a promising chiller. As much as Margheriti would like to scare the pants off viewers, he would be better off trying to keep them awake. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

More notable than 1972's "The Offence" is the story concerning how movie was actually funded. Star Sean Connery, pulled back into James Bond duty for "Diamonds are Forever," contractually demanded a greenlight for two additional pictures of his choosing, hoping to burn off the 007 blues with a heaping helping of serious dramatic work. Well, he wasn't messing around, as films do not come more sobering than "The Offence," an adaptation of the John Hopkins play, which features an intense dissection of psychological strain and a particularly volatile sense of gamesmanship involving the law and human weakness. Directed by Sidney Lumet and co-starring Trevor Howard, the effort is bleak and unforgiving. No wonder Connery had to use his Bond clout to nudge it into production. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jake Paltrow, son of Bruce and brother to Gwyneth, made his feature-length directorial debut with 2007's "The Good Night." A successful foray into dreamscapes and loneliness, Paltrow showed surprising confidence with the effort, overseeing strong performances and a distinct visual style to start his career on the right foot. "Young Ones" is his long-overdue follow-up, and the wait between projects may have hurt the helmer in the long run. An ambitious attempt to marry literary-style storytelling with a cinematic futureworld of misery, the picture is mostly paralyzed by its intentions, unable to gain much traction as a family drama or as an examination of dystopian panic. Although created with care, boasting impressive tech credits, "Young Ones" doesn't generate much tension or post-show reflection, working a bit too hard to emerge as artful and important when it's barely interesting, prone to wandering instead of remaining dramatically commanding. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While 1963's "The Girl Hunters" isn't the most rousing picture, it does offer the rare sight of an author portraying his own literary character on film. Mickey Spillane suits up for duty as private detective Mike Hammer for the feature, challenged to come up with a satisfying performance that matches his legendary writing. Pre-leathered, mumbly, and mischievous, Spillane is an interesting choice to topline this adaptation of his 1962 novel, but, in the end, he's not a performer, often revealing frustrating rigidity while his co-stars confidently manage lukewarm material. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A film of unfortunate timing, 1976's "The Missouri Breaks" arrived in theaters boasting the participation of stars Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson. It was a heavyweight battle of thespians brought on by prior triumphs such as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Godfather," solidifying the leads as legends in their field. Arriving in the shadow of future classics is a cruel fate for any feature, but Arthur Penn's "The Missouri Breaks" was hit particularly hard by its production position, delivering an askew, permissive western with no real shape to an audience expecting a clash of the titans. Time has been kind to the endeavor, allowing modern viewers a chance to embrace the picture's compelling eccentricities without the burden of outrageous expectations, at least those beyond the basic thrill of watching two of the finest actors in movie history slap on gun belts and chase each other around the old west. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before "Rocky," Sylvester Stallone was just an average working actor in Hollywood trying to make a living. After "Rocky," he was transformed into a screen legend, riding a reputation as a cinematic hero to box office success and Oscar gold, making him one of the biggest stars of the 1970s. The follow-up to his little movie that could was 1978's "F.I.S.T.," a feature that attempts to deliver a disquieting look at the rise of the labor movement in America, co-scripted by Joe Eszterhas (his first produced work) and directed by Norman Jewison. With Stallone's participation, "F.I.S.T." is more of a light slap when it comes to challenging methods of union influence, instead trying to find heroism in this thinly-veiled take on the Jimmy Hoffa story. Numerous elements flatline in the film, but Jewison does pull a fine performance out of Stallone, padding the picture with enough talent and sequences of fiery indignation that propel the overlong, undernourished effort along. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With the movie industry on the prowl for adventure stories during the 1970s, the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs was mined on several occasions, with director Kevin Connor leading the filmmaking charge on efforts such as "The Land That Time Forgot" and "The People That Time Forgot." "At the Earth's Core" was Connor's second round with Burroughs, with the 1976 endeavor using established creative momentum to plunge into the center of the planet, meeting all types of monsters and mayhem while keeping star Doug McClure employed as the go-to guy for Burroughs-inspired heroism. A B-picture with wonderful passion for the material, "At the Earth's Core" has its issues with pace and repetition, but it's immense fun at times, utilizing creative special effects and spooky villainy to support a run of gallantry and primal survival sequences, using the novel's influence to jumpstart an endearingly set-bound extravaganza that, at one point, features a fire-breathing frog. It's impossible to deny a movie that favors such a bizarre sight. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's plenty of bizarre cinema out there to sample, yet few have the capacity to both horrify and delight quite like 1991's "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky." Based on a Japanese manga that reveled in violence, the film adaptation isn't one to let fans down, ordering up a buffet of carnage that includes impalements, disembowelments, beheadings, skinnings, and a considerable loss of limbs. A wildly over-the-top effort, "The Story of Ricky" is also aware of its extremity, often caught braiding emotional sincerity with cinematic absurdity. The narrative does take a few naps as it slowly unfolds, but storytelling isn't a top priority here. Director Lam Nai-choi is more enlivened by the challenge of orchestrating macabre antics between feuding characters, splashing blood and screams all over the frame as every martial arts-based encounter turns into an occasion to detail excessive gore. There's a certain thrill in viewing such goofball hostility, and the feature isn't afraid to go absolutely bonkers when necessary. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After scoring a career highlight with 1975's "Nashville," director Robert Altman followed up one of his most famous efforts with a movie that perhaps only his die-hard fans have seen. 1976's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson" is far from Altman's most lauded work, but it's one of his better pictures, spotlighting a filmmaker working his gifts with conviction, bringing in major Hollywood heavyweights to help him realize his idiosyncratic vision. In this case, the star is Paul Newman, yellowing his teeth and wearing a cruddy wig to portray a Wild West icon coming to terms with the crumbling foundation of his mythological origins. While "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" teases a tone of revisionist western lecturing, it remains a semi-comedy with outstanding screen detail, electing to trust the audience when it comes to the deconstruction of a western legend by simply providing the uncomfortable particulars of these characters and their abrasive interaction during a time of premiere American storytelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's never been any doubt that Bonnie Hunt is one of the funniest performers around. Her whip-crack wit, inherent geniality, and natural flair for improvisation have always made her a welcome addition to any movie or television show, even when trapped in limited supporting roles. For "Return to Me," Hunt graduates to the director's chair (also co-scripting with gifted performer Don Lake), helming a crushingly sweet and genuine tale of coincidence, magic, and love, but also managing to keep the laugh count high. Cynics aren't allowed past these gates, as Hunt shoots straight from the heart, working diligently to keep the picture as approachable and lived-in as possible, effortlessly translating her skills with timing and authenticity to the screen with this outstanding charmer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The afterlife is serious business to co-writer/director Wagner de Assis. Adapting the 1944 book by Francisco Candido Xavier, the helmer isn't interested in keeping "Astral City: A Spiritual Journey" merely comforting. He wants the effort to have profound meaning, giving viewers a soulful journey while still paying attention to bright visual effects and matters of the heart. And the Brazilian production works to a certain extent, with the filmmaker whipping up enough dead zone oddity and melodrama to hold attention, though it comes up a little short in its quest to move the world into moral responsibility. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In a post-"Dirty Harry" world, moviegoers were hungry for screen heroes with limited patience for evildoing, fulfilling a shoot-first-ask-questions-later attitude for the 1970s. 1972's "Hickey & Boggs" attempts to butch up with charismatic stars, sending old "I Spy" pals Robert Culp (who also directs) and Bill Cosby into the heart of Los Angeles as two private detectives on a missing persons case who end up in too deep with criminals and a pile of cash. Downplaying frisky banter for a harder edge of investigation, "Hickey & Boggs" surprises with its severity, taking a grim view of crooks and cops, while keeping the interplay between Cosby and Culp regulated to wry exchanges and knowing looks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Downton Abbey: Season 4" was met with enormous hostility by fans and critics. Spending three seasons tracking the emotionally chilled antics of the Crawley Family, emphasizing decorum, hushed rumor, and the occasional dramatic flare-up, the show suddenly downshifted into more manipulative scripting from creator Julian Fellowes, with a subplot featuring sexual assault identified as particularly irksome to those already deep into the English fantasy. "Season 5" sets out to rebuild what was lost, largely eschewing dire events and horrifying violence to restore a bit of the old energy that's been lost to practice and time. In fact, "Season 5" is determined to poke sunshine through the clouds, even opening the first episode with a joke. Gasp! While I wasn't offended by Fellowes's visit to the dark side, it's clear many were, making this new round of tea, gossip, and internalized torment easy to recommend to those feeling burned out after last year. The production doesn't abandon every bad habit, but there's a distinct atmosphere of course-correction helping to make the brand name comfy again. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As eye-rubbing, brain-bleeding moviemaking of the outrageous goes, "The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears" doesn't really care if the audience is involved in this surreal journey into the internal spaces of murder and madness. It's a defiant, beret-tilting art house offering that's meant to be admired by cineastes, not enjoyed by the average joe, with directors Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani creating the picture strictly for their own enjoyment, building a hallucinatory cityscape of insanity one fluttering edit and suggestive image at a time. "The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears" is only appreciable as pure cinematic craftsmanship, and it's a gorgeous movie, teeming with inventive compositions and feral lighting. However, as a mystery concerning dead bodies and suspicious men, there's no tractor beam pull to the enigmatic happenings, leaving the effort all about form. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After his work on 1973's "The Long Goodbye," which took period material and glued it to a modern era, co-writer/director Robert Altman elected to remain in the past with 1974's "Thieves Like Us." An adaptation of Edward Anderson's 1937 novel, the feature is a wholly convincing examination of fledgling bank robbers in the Deep South and the lives they struggle to maintain as law enforcement officials and the media step up their efforts to capture the men. Starring Keith Carradine, John Shuck, and Bert Remsen as the outlaws (Shelly Duvall, Louise Fletcher, and Ann Latham co-star), "Thieves Like Us" retains all the hallmarks of an Altman endeavor, including his commitment to authenticity, slowing the pace of the picture to a crawl as he inspects fragments of humanity found within these notorious monsters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com