Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

Stephen Hopkins isn't the most refined filmmaker, but there's always been something about his career that suggests he'd rather be making high art than genre entertainment. He broke through in Hollywood with his work on 1989's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child," and built a reputation for violent thrillers with 1990's "Predator 2," 1993's "Judgement Night," and 1994's "Blown Away." All of these features have significant creative problems, but Hopkins still found gigs, and 1995's "The Ghost and the Darkness" seemed like a project capable of taking the helmer to the next level of respectability, offered material (scripted by William Goldman) that carries a frightening atmosphere while supported by some of the finest cast and crew in the business at the time, giving what's essentially another "Jaws" knock-off some true cinematic regality. "The Ghost and the Darkness" plays like a production aching to achieve event movie status, but it never quite reaches such ambition. It's an entertaining picture with a cracking pace for the first hour, but Hopkins is a strange choice to guide the endeavor, stuck trying to find a balance between the grisliness of the true story behind the Tsavo Man-Eaters experience and the character study of Goldman's writing, which is often obscured through mangled editorial moves. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As pop culture deep cuts go in 2022, "Inspector Ike" certainly has the weirdest inspiration in recent memory. Co-writers Ikechukwu Ufomadu and Graham Mason (who also directs) head back to the 1970s, looking to parody the state of television mystery movies, inventing a faux world for a gifted NYC detective and his periodic run-ins with murder. The pair concoct a comedy, and one created on a shoestring budget, limiting the technical replication of the picture, but Ufomadu and Mason manage to score some hearty laughs with this extremely specific valentine to the "Columbo" world of small-screen cops and their expert ways with sleuthing. "Inspector Ike" isn't built for bigness, remaining a modest offering of silliness, and it largely succeeds through engaged, playful performances and occasional ideas that deliver on the promise of such a strange spoof. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Some credit is due to co-writer/co-directors Harpo and Lenny Guit, who certainly understand how to identify the exact tonality and level of humor found in "Mother Schmuckers," doing so right in the opening scene. We meet siblings Issachar (Maxi Delmelle) and Zabulon (Harpo Guit) while they mess around in a kitchen, with their mother, Cachemire (Claire Bodson), instinctively knowing the two are up to no good. Turns out, she's right, with the siblings in the process of cooking a lump of feces, preparing to taste it because the pair are morons. Mom catches the sight of it, and eventually throws up right on the camera lens. And this, dear readers, is how "Mother Schmuckers" begins, making for a long 65 minutes before the Guits find their way to a conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The Blu-ray packaging for 1975's "The Mob" ("La Gammick") lists the film as "Almost completely unseen outside of Quebec." Not a lot of movies can make that claim, giving the endeavor a unique identity as a crime picture that never found a wide audience, remaining a Canadian viewing experience for a select crowd. Now unleashed on disc, "The Mob" has the challenge of meeting expectations, offering a story of a criminal where his violent actions aren't explored in a cinematic manner for the most part. He's the talkative type, keeping the feature to a series of conversations, confessions, and modest confrontations, which is about as Canadian as it gets. Expectations for something more explosive should be lowered, as co-writer/director Jacques Godbout enjoys playing more of a psychological game with his characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2015's "They Look Like People" is sold as a horror feature to attract viewers, but the material actually concerns the disintegration of reality for a very ill character. Writer/director Perry Blackshear explores the insidious ways of mental illness, using the intimacy of friendship and all the trust it requires to capture a dangerous situation of instability. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Jackass" is the success story. The MTV show was an immense hit, bringing the world of skate video shenanigans and backyard stunts to the masses, helping to inspire the early imagination of the YouTube generation. However, before Johnny Knoxville, there was Ralph Zavadil, an Ontario native who spent time between 1990 and 1995 working to entertain cable customers with his special brand of insanity. He became Cap'n Video, a figure of stunts and cartoonish behavior attempting to bring lunacy to the small screen, using a wild blend of humor and recklessness. Zavadil loved playing the part, and for five years, he was the king of his castle, offering a one-man-band production push to sell himself as an entertainer with an unusual appetite for destruction. "Beauty Day" is director Jay Cheel's effort to catch up with the star of "Cap'n Video," exploring a bizarre career and a weird man as he gears up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his cable debut. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A hunt for identity drives the plot of 2019's "Take Me Somewhere Nice," with writer/director Ena Sendijarevic offering a semi-biographical tale of exploration and isolation. The writing tracks the experiences of a young Dutch woman (Sara Luna Zoric) as she makes her way to Bosnia, hoping to find her estranged father after learning about his hospitalization. A road trip movie of sorts emerges, but the helmer isn't interested in a lighter understanding of travel. She maintains her distance with this static celebration of filmmaking, leaving the storytelling tremendously underwhelming. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Ted K" examines the developing madness of Ted Kaczynski, a man who, for decades, terrorized America with threatening manifestos and homemade explosive devices, earning the nickname, "The Unabomber." Screenwriters Gaddy Davis, John Rosenthal, and Tony Stone (who also directs) don't create a biopic of the monster, instead looking to understand the corrosive nature of his thinking while living in isolation in the Montana wilderness. The details of such a life aren't prioritized by the production, with "Ted K" more interested in the subject's screaming mind and his management of extreme intelligence, which led him down a deadly path of action that wounded and killed innocent people, much to his delight. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Video Murders" is an ominous title for a movie that's not exactly threatening. It's sold as a slasher, highlighting the menace of an unstable man as he develops into a serial killer, and one who enjoys filming his ghastly acts of violence. However, the actual picture is more of a psychological drama with some periodic supercop action, with director Jim McCullough Sr. ("Mountaintop Motel Massacre") trying to make his feature more meaningful than just another cheap horror endeavor. And there is a little more to the effort than simple bloodshed, but restraint doesn't equate pace, as there's little forward momentum to "Video Murders," which fails to come up with enough incident to fill the run time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1971's "Born to Win" offers actor George Segal a chance to showcase a bit more of his range, challenged to portray a drug addict in all stages of desperation. Segal's casting takes a little time to get used to, with the star working against his usual charms to detail the deterioration of a once stable person who now lives a life of constant risk, craving only a fix as his reward. "Born to Win" carries a strange darkly comic tone for such a bleak subject matter, with co-writer/director Ivan Passer attempting to juggle moods for the endeavor, striving to make the feature approachable while still respecting the downfall arc Segal is very eager to inhabit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Vik Rubenfeld attempts to manufacture his own take on film noir with 1989's "Alien Private Eye." It's a detective story with sci-fi touches, but the whole endeavor is trying to replicate movie classics from the 1940s, putting an investigator in the middle of a criminal mess, lured in by feminine powers while forced to fight for his life as trouble intensifies. Rubenfeld has his fandom, which offers some very light energy to the effort, but this is his moviemaking debut, and inexperience is a major issue for the picture. "Alien Private Eye" has an idea, but no real clue what to do with it, with Rubenfeld managing limited resources and wooden performances, with the stiffness of it all eventually shutting down any possible fun factor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before experiencing some creative appreciation for his 2018 film, "Knife+Heart," director Yann Gonzalez was already hip-deep in artistic experimentation in 2013's "You and the Night." It's his ode to the passions, madness, and the comfort of strangers, sold in a highly visual manner that establishes his cinematic interests to come. Only here, there's distinct coolness to the execution, with Gonzalez trying to turn theatrical material into a cinematic show of force. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1974's "Death Wish" was an adaptation of a novel by Brian Garfield, who expressed his disappointment in the picture, which turned out to be a major hit for the producers. Tapping into a growing feeling of disillusionment in the criminal justice system and fear concerning rising crime rates, "Death Wish" found its moment, offering viewers a crude summation of Garfield's ideas, sold with reliable steeliness from star Charles Bronson. There wasn't more story to tell, but there was more money to be made, inspiring new producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus to revive the brand name eight years later, bringing back Bronson and director Michael Winner to revive vigilante escapism. "Death Wish II" restores Paul Kersey to full power, but there's no material to support the character, who once again embarks on a mindless hunt for big city scum. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As explained in the supplementary material on this UHD release of 1988's "FleshEater," Co-writer/director/star Bill Hinzman was interested in cashing in on his own cult fame as the first zombie found in George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," aware that his face was forever associated with the horror classic. "FleshEater" was soon born, with Hinzman endeavoring to create his own epic with a lunch money budget, reviving his old undead ways to fuel what's basically a loose remake of "Night of the Living Dead," offering the fanbase a return to the ways of rural survival. The helmer certainly delivers with gore and exploitation elements, but he's not a storyteller, with the feature coming to a dead stop one too many times, making for a tedious viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Roger Corman is known for recycling anything he can to keep producing genre entertainment for a cult audience, and he does it again with 1991's "Dead Space," which is a remake of 1982's "Forbidden World." Characters have been slightly reworked, but the plots are basically the same, following a man of action as he goes up against a mutated monster in the middle of nowhere. Of course, such a setting allows Corman to keep the effort as low budget as possible, tasking director Fred Gallo ("Dracula Rising") to figure out ways to make tight hallways, labs, and living spaces interesting for 75 minutes of screen time. It's a challenge Gallo can't conquer, as most of "Dead Space" is repetitive and silly, but he has a committed lead performance from Marc Singer to help keep the endeavor somewhat palatable, with the actor trying to make extended nothingness look exciting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Breeziness is not a quality normally associated with adult entertainment, but 1984's "Stiff Competition" breaks away from the bleakness of the industry by offering something fun to watch while still meeting expectations for carnal activity. Director Paul Vatelli creates a spoof of sporting world competitiveness with the endeavor, embracing a "thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat" atmosphere of rivalries and personalities clashing over a most unusual test of skill. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Cineastes and scholars often praise, borderline worship, films from the 1970s, and understandably so. It was a decade of challenging endeavors, respecting audience intelligence and patience, with studios and talent taking risks to deliver textured, meaningful work. But there were stinkers too, a lot of them, with 1972's "Bluebeard" (an adaptation of a French folktale) caught between a desire to appear like a sophisticated production and the cold reality of its campy-ish approach to horror. It's a deeply weird serial killer story, and one with a confused sense of tone and morality, rendering the picture quite ridiculous as it strives to explore an absurd figure of evil with a straight face. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2019's "Other Music" is a documentary about a store in New York City that meant the world to its customers. Other Music specialized in album sales, opening its doors in 1995, when the music business was red hot, giving owners Josh Madell and Chris Vanderloo a chance to create a space catering to a more obsessive type of music fan interested in burgeoning sounds and scenes. In 2016, Other Music closed, with directors Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller picking up cameras to cover the establishment's final six weeks of life, trying to make sense of this special relationship between the business and its loyal customers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Communion" was a 1987 book written by Whitley Strieber, with the author detailing his experiences with alien abduction, working with hypnosis to make sense of his blurred mind, helping to identify what happened to him. The book was marketed as "A true story," but there were many doubters when it came to Strieber's experiences, but that didn't stop the title from becoming a major best-seller, attracting those curious about the "grays" and their experimental interests in humans. A film adaptation was quickly assembled, with Strieber taking on the role of screenwriter, transforming the novel into an accessible mystery with a slight horror atmosphere, making sure to emphasize the journey of a man encountering alien activity and all the psychological problems that followed. Director Philippe Mora ("Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf," "Pterodactyl Women from Beverly Hills") is in an unenviable position to turn the nightmares and therapy into a workable movie, which is a task he fails. "Communion" deals with a dubious subject matter and it turns it all into ridiculousness, relying on Walken to use his thespian jazz to make the drab production magically interesting, but the actor deliberately pushes the effort into campiness, joined by Mora, who transforms alien interests into a terrible puppet show. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2019, director Ken Burns oversaw the creation of "Country Music," looking to understand an American sound as it developed over the course of the twentieth century. Burns is back with "Benjamin Franklin," returning to the formation of a nation, once again digging to the roots of American history, this time focusing on the efforts of a single man who, as a boy, wanted to learn everything he could, hoping to shape his own education, which would take him on a most unique ride of power and position. The documentary is divided into two chapters, going from Franklin's first days to his last, and in between resides an astonishing list of achievements that turned the subject into something of a celebrity during his extremely long life. As with previous documentaries from Burns, there's more to Benjamin Franklin than the basics in wit and electricity, with the two-parter working to understand his vices and prejudices, along with his doubts, especially with his own family. "Benjamin Franklin" provides the comfy sweater style and presentation common to all Burns productions, but it offers a slightly more aware comprehension of the man and his legacy, hoping to appreciate his shortcomings as a way to understand the full extent of his atypical life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com