Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

There were moments during the course of the third season of "Downton Abbey" where it felt as through creator/writer Julian Fellows was trying to turn his beloved creation of manner and misconduct into a slasher film. There was a sizable body count of main players as the program concluded its most successful year, generating a divisive response amongst fans, especially those who promised themselves to noble Aryan knight, Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens). The demise of Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) was equally shocking, though, to be fair to Fellowes, it appears he didn't have much of a choice when it came time to shed characters for actors who no longer wanted to be a part of the production. Keeping the turbulent tone of Season 3 in mind while embarking on this latest journey of refined melodrama is important, as Fellowes has elected to soften the majority of the narrative this time out, possibly hoping to lure back viewers left cold by all the senseless carnage of the previous year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Credited as a "technology columnist and best-selling author," David Pogue is one animated guy. He's the host of "Making Stuff 2," a follow-up to his lauded 2011 series for "Nova," once again embarking on a journey around the globe, now on the hunt for scientific breakthroughs born from "Wilder," "Colder," "Safer," and "Faster" exploration. The goal of the series is to display the enormity of human ingenuity that remains active, with geniuses and ambitious types searching the natural world for inspiration that could possibly fuel innovation, with many of the visits concerning radical changes in bioengineering. The result is an entertaining show that values a sense of discovery, allowing the viewer to find excitement as experimentation unearths surprising results, creating a more advanced scientific viewpoint. The series is also comedic and slickly edited, making sure accessibility greets even the most complex theory. Pogue works to maintain dignity about the work, but he's not above a cartoon moment or two. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Referred to as the "Godfather of Gore," filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis built a legacy on the wonders of repulsive, violent entertainment. With "Blood Feast" and "Two Thousand Maniacs," Lewis gifted moviegoers a new style of horror picture that erased boundaries, delivering grotesque imagery typically involving dismemberment and torture. However, big screen pain didn't always pay the bills and, under various pseudonyms (such as "Mark Hansen" and "R.L. Smith"), Lewis returned to sexploitation endeavors that originally launched his career, before bloodshed turned him into a genre legend. With "Ecstasies of Women," "Linda and Abilene," and "Black Love," Lewis stumbles through three particularly patience-testing productions, armed only with flat cinematography and an army of actors willing to bare all for the camera, engaging in all types of softcore and hardcore shenanigans while the helmer works diligently to pad these efforts out to feature-length status. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Psychotica" is a backyard horror effort that's utterly inept, with writer/director Jonathan Wright caught up in a delusion that his tiny, gory commentary on sinister government control and drug addiction is going to carry any weight after enduring a painful no-budget production approach. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If the 1994 sleeper hit, "Four Weddings and a Funeral," kicked off the whole middle-class, Richard Curtis-scripted notion of the "Britcom," 1999's "Notting Hill" turned such submissive endeavors into a formidable industry, creating a sizable dent at the box office, even directly competing with the behemoth known as "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace." Its impressive performance isn't surprising, as the picture is the type of Casual Friday film audiences love when they take time to find it, only here Curtis has an ace up his sleeve with star Julia Roberts, who tempers the English bite of the effort with her flashy Hollywood charisma, forcing the production to find a halfway point between comedy and romance that would be able to register worldwide. Moments charm and the screenplay has a wonderful fondness for its characters, yet "Notting Hill" takes its time to arrive at a foregone conclusion, glacially working through quirk and stuttered contemplation that doesn't carry the pace it should. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

What happens when the scary stuff no longer terrifies? Time to bring in the cleavage. 1971's "Twins of Evil" is a selection from the sexploitation era of Hammer Horror, where the studio, slowly running out of ideas, decided to follow cultural trends and emphasize sexuality as a way to attract attention to their releases. It's a smart play, as the fusion of lust and death has proven itself to be an irresistible combination, a fact extending to this picture. While short-sheeted in the story department, "Twins of Evil" is an evocative vampire story with a fascinating focal point, trotting out identical twins (and Playboy models) Mary and Madeline Collinson to portray the yin and yang of virginal susceptibility, with the production using their good looks and, ahem, other attributes to create a sensual suspense feature that's supported in the acting department by the great Peter Cushing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

How does one approach a film like "The Beach Girls," with all its questionable material and fixation on titillation? It's not an especially good movie, with fumbling performances, on-camera mistakes, and a screenplay dripping with goofy stereotypes. At times, it's downright horrible. However, this 1982 production carries a weird aura of innocent fun, with silly shenanigans its only real concern, generating a party atmosphere of dancing, sexin', and imbibing while it shares copious amounts of nudity to guarantee screen interest. A major force in the beach picture revival of the 1980s (1984's "Hardbodies" being its crowning achievement), the feature sets out small goals for itself and accomplishes them without much of a fuss. "The Beach Girls" is just amiable enough to entertain, though a steady finger on the fast-forward button is recommended to slip past the moldy vaudeville routines that pass for a sense of humor here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

B-movies don't have it easy these days. Thank the SyFy Channel, who've built a brand name on obvious schlock, constantly ruining the fun with their formula of intentional absurdity and dangerously low budgets, hoping to transform the network into a year-long meme that attracts the attention of social media watchmen and the easily entertained. SyFy has gone out of their way to take the zip out of bottom shelf discoveries, making the bluntly titled "Big Ass Spider!" even more of a surprise. From the outside looking in, the feature resembles yet another backyard creation hoping to create a monster movie ruckus with limited resources, armed with shaky CGI and a wink-happy sense of humor. However, "Big Ass Spider!" proves to be a real charmer with a professional sense of cinematic duty, deftly merging mayhem with chuckles as writer Gregory Gieras and director Mike Mendez set out to reclaim the tattered subgenre with some degree of invention and a belief in the simplistic screen power of a giant spider invasion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It seems appropriate for the "Nature" series to devote an entire episode to the business of creature copulation, because the subject always seems to creep into every show anyway. Assembling an assortment of clips from various global documentary excursions, "Love in the Animal Kingdom" seeks to summarize various acts of seduction from a few of the world's most interesting animals, showcasing the long, tiring battles some males are faced with when trying to attract a little attention from the opposite sex. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The balance between the science of life and its inherent, untouchable mysteries is what drives the human experience. It's a hunger for knowledge and understanding that motivates a mind into constant analysis and reflection, and for some, the push and pull of such thinking slowly develops into obsession. Director Michael Apted, captain of the masterful "Up" documentary series, explores this insatiable drive of intelligence in two documentaries, 1997's "Inspirations" and 1999's "Me & Isaac Newton," capturing the process of art, the study of self, and the quest for answers in an exceedingly complex world. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1980's "The Octagon" was the fifth starring role for martial arts master Chuck Norris, and the first to try a few things differently as he built a career on mindless actioners. Instead of the traditional intimidate and pummel routine, the picture strived to include a worldwide sense of doom, tackling a story about the swelling state of terrorism with a sizable roster of players, leaving the heavy lifting to a group effort, allowing Norris to concentrate on his contemplative looks. It's ambitious work but not always successful, with director Eric Karson biting off a little more than he can chew when it comes time to build momentum with such a top-heavy film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

They certainly don't make films like this anymore. 1977's "Day of the Animals" was released during a time of "nature strikes back" horror pictures, looking to spook audiences with a plausible enemy born from the shadows of the great outdoors. It's an interesting subgenre, and one that doesn't find many takers these days due to strict animal handling issues, leaving a title like "Day of the Animals" doubly compelling as both an exploitation movie and a sneaky production that somehow masterminded brutal animal attacks on a limited budget, though perhaps it's best to leave behind-the-scenes particulars alone (call it the "Milo and Otis" rule). Although undeniably silly and ridiculously broad at times, the feature remains a beguiling look at an environmental meltdown, using hot button scientific study of the time to inspire a violent chiller that pits man vs. beast or, during one scene, boy vs. shirtless Leslie Nielsen. Either way, "Day of the Animal" is a terrifically entertaining look at a unique type of doomsday. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As the Italian Western genre began to flourish in the mid-1960s, taking the world by storm, certain pictures, such as "A Fistful of Dollars," were quickly solidified as modern classics, making a director like Sergio Leone synonymous with squinty actors and ruthless Ennio Morricone scores. However, a few other gems managed to slip into view during this fertile period, including 1966's "The Big Gundown," a fascinating manhunt tale from helmer Sergio Sollima that employed a political slant to its tale of unlikely respect, making the feature as much about the changing tide of American and Mexican relations as it was about cowboy violence. Impressively shot and edited, "The Big Gundown" manages to thrill, tickle, and thunder in all the ways a masterful western should, adding a nice counterpoint of flawed heroism to the genre's operatic accomplishments. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Interpretational filmmaking should be a great many things. We hope for mystery, symbolism, emotion, and art. To be in the hands of a helmer who takes this responsibility seriously results in dynamic, unforgettable cinema. "Post Tenebras Lux" is determined to stake its claim as a wonder of the subconscious, with writer/director Carlos Reygadas turning on the art-school afterburners to craft a vaguely defined ode to patriarchal concerns, class anxiety, and naturalistic splendor. It's not a feature that welcomes a thorough dissection, since most, if not all the movie exists in Reygadas's mind, where the images hold special meaning and the characters possess significant traits only one man is meant to understand. Undeniably beautiful but exhausting and intermittently intolerable, "Post Tenebras Lux" is one of those pictures that doesn't seek approval and doesn't particularly care if anyone is watching. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although the promise of a rare Russ Meyer work will sell this double feature to the curious, the pairing of "Fanny Hill" and "The Phantom Gunslinger" is more about broad comedy and Albert Zugsmith's commitment to the advancement of silly business. If boings on a soundtrack, cakes smashed into faces, people slipping and falling, and little people scurrying around are your thing, this double shot of absurdity is going to scratch that itch in a major way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the success of narrative-driven films such as "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian," it seems regressive for the lauded comedy group (including Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Terry Gilliam) to return to their sketch-show origin with "The Meaning of Life." Building momentum with fantastic adventures through history and religion, Monty Python's 1983 endeavor has a noticeable lack of energy and almost no cohesion about it, stumbling around big ideas on life and death with all the concentration of a group on the brink of going their separate ways. It's a hit-or-miss effort that features all the hallmarks of the team's work, offering rich design elements, puckered animation, gross-outs, and crack comic timing. Despite its obvious shortcomings, "The Meaning of Life" also happens to be devastatingly funny at times, hitting a few beats of silliness with traditional Python precision — terrifically loony moments that manage to salvage the entire viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Around the early 1970s, Clint Eastwood was a major actor looking to make a transition to directing. Cutting his teeth on actioners and westerns, it would've made perfect sense for Eastwood to select a project that played to his strengths, allowing him a chance to impress the industry by taking the easy career route. Instead, the star made "Play Misty for Me," an itchy psychological thriller that showcased his gifts with modest staging, performance, and mood. Finally, in 1973, Eastwood was ready to saddle up again, with "High Plains Drifter" a return to form, assuming command of a flinty, violent western, finally able to craft his own take on a well-worn genre. Channeling the spirits of former collaborators Don Siegel and Sergio Leone, along with decades of experience on the backs of horses, Eastwood rose to the occasion, generating a refreshingly bizarre feature with an unexpected mean streak. Mysterious, sporadically comical, and classically Eastwood, "High Plains Drifter" is a wholly satisfying revenge saga that's askew enough to surprise as it exercises known elements. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Ah, the 1970s. It was a time of randy teen behavior, bralessness, and rampant high school mischief. It was an age before movie make-up, where anyone could scrounge up a few bucks to make a film about adolescent behavior and not even bother with a plot. 1976's "The Pom Pom Girls" isn't a classic of the genre by any means, but it contains a charmingly free-flowing take on matters of the juvenile heart, following whims without any concern for structure, while encouraging its untested cast to express emotions far beyond their skill levels. Raggedy and unshowered, "The Pom Pom Girls" is best appreciated as a time capsule, where viewers of today can look back on an era before lawsuits, social media, and proper nutrition, where the only concern facing young men of the day was the number of girls they could sleep with before the weekend was over. Obvious and determined shortcomings aside, the feature does a fine job itemizing the dilemmas of '76, developing into a beguiling snapshot of the way things once were. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It's hard to believe this all started with "Air Bud." The 1997 picture has spawned a series of sequels and spin-offs that have transformed a simple tale of a basketball-shooting pooch into cash cow for Disney, who issue a DTV production every year, using the power of puppies to latch on to whatever trend is happening in Hollywood. The dogs have met Santa, searched for buried treasure, and enjoyed Halloween, but now it's time to suit up in spandex and save the world. "Super Buddies" is the latest in the "Air Buddies" franchise, working with visual effects to turn everyone's favorite canine pack into caped crusaders, protecting lovable humans from an intergalactic threat. As these things tend to go, kids won't mind the light action and mild jesting, with the whole production played in an exhaustively cartoon mode to avoid the burden of actual screenwriting. Older viewers may not be as patient, though "Super Buddies" could be of use to die-hard comic book cinema fans unable to wait for the next Marvel or DC endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

On the 50th anniversary of his assassination in Dallas, the life and times of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is recounted in the new American Experience production, "JFK." Stripped of conspiracy theories and belabored political dissection, the two-part program seeks to pull focus away from eye-crossing debate to expose how John lived his life, growing from a sickly boy into one of the most powerful men in the world. Gathering interviews with experts, family members, and authors, collecting photos and film, and using recordings created by John while in the White House, "JFK" constructs a dynamic weave work of experience and ambition, shaping a portrait of an American icon that's honest and engaging. Instead of playing up the myth, the show scrapes away the protective layer of time to expose John as a fallible man who strived to make his homeland a better place, using connections, good looks, and intelligence to achieve greatness in a manner that might inspire his fellow Americans, working to protect a country he dearly loved. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com