Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

Co-writer/director Robin Spry attempts to combine the needs of thriller cinema with his own creative interests in documentaries and social issues. 1977's "One Man" is a Canadian production that's after a little more than simple jolts, with Spry entering a marketplace loaded with films about conspiracies and paranoia, looking to compete with his own take on suspense. The feature certainly has its limitations, but the helmer crafts an involving study of corruption in many forms, locating ways to tend to character and plot while keeping the picture on its feet for the most part, infusing the work with a little verite voltage. "One Man" has moments of unique power and involving points of pressure, with Spry handling a difficult tonal mix with some care, creating a gripping viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1989's "Blind Faith" has the initial appearance of an erotic thriller from the era, watching a cop and his partner engage in rough sex after dabbling in drugs, putting on a display of disease that's meant to disturb and titillate. And then writer/director Dean Wilson moves away from such atmosphere, replacing exploitation interests with a psychology game, and a talky one at that. "Blind Faith" is basically a filmed play, with Wilson using his run time to study the levels of irritability and monologuing skills of the characters, who are dealing with murder, manipulation, and intimidation, but the feature would rather remain static. The helmer is attempting to create something uneasy with unsavory turns of plot, but he doesn't earn viewer interest with this glacial examination of police interrogation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Michael Mann hasn't made a film since 2015's "Blackhat," a misguided and unexciting feature that represented a late career pull towards mediocrity for the helmer, who also suffered through some creative constipation in 2009's "Public Enemies." Going smaller and simpler, Mann returns with "Ferrari," which isn't a bio-pic of automobile titan Enzo Ferrari, but a moment in time with the man as he struggles with business and family, finding his renown focus starting to fail him as he begins to feel the weight of the world. There's plenty of racing in the picture, but Mann and screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin (who passed away in 2009) hope to find a human experience as Enzo's mistakes and gambles collide over the course of one important year. "Ferrari" isn't Mann in epic mode, but he captures excitement on the track and pain in the heart. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite has tried to forge an unusual career, dealing with oceanic creature concerns in "Blackfish," exploring the war experience in "Megan Leavey," and examining intimate relationships in "Our Friend." Now she heads to the stars with her latest endeavor, which details rising tensions between Americans and Russians on a space station when the world below erupts into nuclear war. "I.S.S." is written by Nick Shafir, who cooks up a promising tale of paranoia and close-quarters tension, using the space station setting to play with games of trust and escalating violence, with Cowperthwaite in charge of finding a visual and dramatic rhythm to the feature. "I.S.S." struggles to match the potential of its premise, but the helmer extracts some decent performances and captures compelling visuals with this mostly talky survival film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1987's "Redneck Zombies" is an exercise in excess from director Pericles Lewnes, who looks to combine the broadest of comedy with the grossest of splatter cinema. It's a promise he intends to keep, presenting a feature that has little interest in pulling back when it comes to extended scenes of extremity. Outrageousness appears to be the end game for the no-budget, shot-on-video endeavor, and such a tone works for a few stretches of the film. As an overall viewing experience, "Redneck Zombies" is more punishing than amusing, with Lewnes lacking a basic sense of pace and restraint when approaching the intended obnoxiousness of the effort. He prefers to go all-in on overkill, making for a very long sit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The video store. For some, it's a source of tremendous nostalgia, recalling a time when communities gathered to rent movies, often hunting for titles in a sea of options. There was candy, video games, and walls covered in posters and advertisements. There was physical contact with product, increasing excitement as film-watching risks were taken. For others, the video store is the place your parents occasionally talk about while failing to find anything on a streaming channel. "Everything to Entertain You" is a short documentary about Video Headquarters, perhaps the most popular video store in New Hampshire, which kept its doors opened for 32 years, enduring all kinds of financial and business attacks until it finally closed in 2015. Director Brantley C. Palmer was part of the Video Headquarters experience and he was there when it all came to a close, picking up a camera to document such an event. "Everything to Entertain You" provides a history of Video Headquarters and its employees, but it's also a mild offering of remembrance, gifting viewers a time machine to an era when the world of home video was something thrilling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1993's "Age of Demons" endeavors to explore the end of the world, with mischievous sorceresses aiming to resurrect evil through magic and murder, attempting to trigger some type of apocalypse. It's the stuff of epic filmmaking, but writer/director/star Damon Foster doesn't have the resources to really capture exciting visuals. Instead, he goes the shot-on-video route, and he's very interested in turning the picture into a farce, using every opportunity he can find to add jokes and silliness to the offering. While it initially seems like a horror movie, "Age of Demons" quickly labors to be as wacky as possible, with Foster attempting all kinds of comedy, eventually turning the effort into an homage to Japanese kid show entertainment. The feature is definitely out there, but not in an inviting way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Pierre Morel's career started off strong, overseeing the charming parkour entertainment of "District 13," and he stunned the world with his efficient command of 2008's smash sleeper, "Taken," showing comfort with straightforward action storytelling. Everything post-"Taken" has been a disappointment, with Morel unable to replicate his largest hit, overseeing duds such as "The Gunman" and "Peppermint" over the years. He's back in the genre with "Freelance," which is initially presented as more of a comedy, following the activity of a reluctant hero trying to keep himself and other people alive in South American jungles. Laughs aren't present in the feature, which eventually sheds its comedic interests, giving viewers a film of confusing tonality, while Morel hopes to cover for the mess of "Freelance" with bloody violence and quippy co-stars, adding another dud to his baffling career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1992's "Unlawful Entry" represents director Jonathan Kaplan's return to the exploitation offerings of his early career. Receiving respect and professional opportunities in Hollywood after the success of 1988's "The Accused," Kaplan burned off most of this goodwill with the 1989 misfire, "Immediate Family," forcing him to find material with a little more box office potential. And nothing was hotter than psychological thrillers focusing on unhinged people targeting suburban citizens. Screenwriter Lewis Colick ("The Dirt Bike Kid," "Flamin' Hot") looks to serve up some disturbing material with "Unlawful Entry," which touches on sexual obsession and police corruption, giving Kaplan plenty to work with as he develops screen tension. Unfortunately, the helmer only finds modest inspiration for the endeavor, which begins with a bang and ends with tedious formula, ruining a feature that works well when dealing with sinister business. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Gyorgy Kovasznai offers an ambitious tale of doubt and fear in 1979's "Bubble Bath." He creates a musical that explores various experiences in life, with the Hungarian production also delivering surreal animation to help expand reality and permit the helmer to play with visual elasticity and artful intent. "Bubble Bath" doesn't always come across as a feature fully prepared to fill 80 minutes of screen time, but Kovasznai has an outstanding creative approach for the project, which is impressively crafted and periodically energetic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1983's "Blonde Death" is a slice of campy crime from writer/director James Robert Baker (billed here as "James Dillinger"). He's armed with a lunch money budget, access to an empty house, and a video camera, looking to pay tribute to the juvenile delinquent cinema of his youth with the endeavor, mixed with plenty of affection for the work of John Waters. "Blonde Death" strives to go wild with unruly behavior and outrageous punishments. Heck, it even visits Disneyland for a few minutes, really doing something dangerous along the way. But as a study of crime and lust, the effort struggles to get past its no-budget approach, dealing with a thin story that doesn't really go anywhere, leaving viewers with shrill performances visibly wrestling with showy dialogue, while comedy is a real your-mileage-may-vary situation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1991's "The Zombie Army" is a shot-on-video production that makes full use of its location. In this case, it's an abandoned psychiatric hospital, with director Betty Stapleford using the facility to visualize the end of the world. Or at least the end of a handful of Army personnel ordered to establish a base where an insane young man is capable of conjuring dark magic with help from electricity. There's no epic presented to viewers here, with Stapleford (and screenwriter Roger Searce) endeavoring to make a mess of bodies for 79 minutes, generally disregarding even a basic story to help encourage audience participation. "The Zombie Army," which is "based upon an actual event," plays like a highlight reel for an aspiring makeup effects team, with Stapleford more concerned about splatter than drama. For some, this will be enough. For others, seek your no-budget grotesqueries elsewhere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It seems a little odd to consider now, but at the time of its release in 1990, "Darkman" was simply the studio debutante ball for director Sam Raimi. Now, 34 years after its unexpected late-summer success, the movie has grown into an interesting puzzle piece in the filmmaker's career, bringing him from the no-budget wizardry of "Evil Dead II" to the big-budget helmer we know today. While fraught with Hollywood growing pains and home to a few clunky ideas, "Darkman" is truly one of Raimi's liveliest creations — a pure shot of comic book-inspired eccentricity, barnstorming visuals, and regard for the dark side of justice. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The early 1970s were a strange time for William Shatner. He was a working actor attempting to manage his "Star Trek" past into a viable professional future, looking for opportunities to break typecasting and perhaps challenge himself. As "Star Trek" slowly evolved into an iconic franchise, Shatner was off doing odd things with scrappy filmmakers. Such experimentation is found in 1974's "Impulse," with the actor trying his luck as a villain, portraying a deranged man willing to kill to protect his secrets. "Impulse" is a weird picture, with screenwriter Tony Crechales and director William Grefe ("Stanley," "Mako: The Jaws of Death") aiming to find horror and suspense in the study of an unraveling human being, with Shatner in charge of communicating such psychological burning. The feature connects as camp, giving those hunting for prime Shatner-ing a clear view of the performer's instincts when it comes to interpreting the ways of an imbalanced man. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nostalgia, the undiluted variety, can assume the form of tender memories that enhance the human experience, providing illumination in the strangest of places. Nostalgia can also foster obsession, either for objects or a return to a supposed simplicity of life that's impossible to reconstruct in the modern world. 2008's "The Rock-afire Explosion" itemizes the efforts of sensitive individuals who ache to grasp the elusive comfort of the past to help brighten their future, only the object of desire in play here might raise a few eyebrows. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nicolas Cage's wild career has come to this: starring in a movie about a mute loner going to war against a Rock-afire Explosion-esque, pizza place animatronic animal band over the course of one long night. Actually, "Willy's Wonderland" fits snugly into Cage's filmography, playing to his career interests in oddball characters and extraordinary situations, allowing him to use his penchant for showy acting to its fullest potential. Writer G.O. Parsons doesn't come armed with an ambitious screenplay, but he does an inventive job fiddling around with genre ideas, while director Kevin Lewis attempts to transform the feature into a surreal nightmare of caffeine-fueled violence and menacing robots. "Willy's Wonderland" doesn't offer anything more than it initially delivers, and that's enough to keep Cage busy and viewers amused with this oddball bloodbath. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Joining the race of "thoughtful" sci-fi/fantasy/horror filmmaking is 1974's "The Terminal Man," with Hollywood looking to do something with Michael Crichton's literary offerings after the success of 1971's "The Andromeda Strain." Mike Hodges ("Get Carter," "Flash Gordon") accepts the challenge of the adaptation, with the writer/director tasked with making something cinematic from a book that's largely about scientific study. Hodges tries to transform the page into a visual experience, but the material doesn't exactly welcome tension, finding most of the endeavor static, attempting to find some profundity in the examination of man's tinkering in the ways of computer science. And there's a critical miscasting holding the movie back, with George Segal, a wonderful actor, provided a part he doesn't really know what to do with, forcing Hodges to work around him at times. "The Terminal Man" has the makings for a thriller, but nothing materializes during the run time, resulting in a glacial study of a scientific breakthrough, medical hubris, and the broken genius at the center of it all. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1999's "Galaxy Quest" is a film that did okay during its initial theatrical release, but its real shot of popularity came afterwards. Fandom eventually found the movie, elevating the sci-fi comedy to cult status, appreciating its celebration of geek culture and all things "Star Trek." Director Jack Bennett hopes to add his enthusiasm for the picture with 2019's "Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary," which looks to honor all the working parts of the production and meet those who've devoted major chunks of their lives to keeping the effort in the minds and hearts of the public. This is no "Trekkies," but something softer, with Bennett refusing a more candid understanding of the production process, preferring to add some layers of shine to the reputation of "Galaxy Quest," making something congratulatory instead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1983's "Stud Hunters" isn't big on plot, but it carries a sizable feel for California living in the era. Director Suze Randall deals with story elements that almost seem autobiographical, with the main character a fatigued photographer dodging a sleazy publisher while dealing with untested talent. "Stud Hunters" uses the premise to introduce various situations of seduction, but it also makes time to soak up the sun at the beach, with Randall piecing together a reasonably entertaining picture with some time capsule appeal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1981's "Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle" is meant to serve as an offering of intimacy from the adult film star. Also claiming a directorial credit, Sprinkle is ready to break the fourth wall with the endeavor, inviting viewers on a tour of her fantasies and daily realities, offering vignettes instead of a narrative drive for the picture. The star is charming and unnervingly open with her private life in "Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle," which is solely committed to exploring the actress's tireless libido and her ability to turn any situation into something physical and somewhat haunting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com