Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

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

1984's "The Violent Breed" plays like a movie that was made when another production wrapped early, giving the producers a chance to reuse the locations and the cast, hastily arranging another shoot. The screenplay is credited to Nino Marino and Fernando Di Leo (who also directs), but there's little evidence of a story or ideas, and characters aren't fleshed out in the least. Someone, somewhere wanted a quickie actioner with little to no effort put into dramatic entanglements, and that's what "The Violent Breed" is. Things go boom and actors make pained faces, but a greater understanding of motivation and stakes is ignored, with Di Leo quickly assembling vague conflicts to inspire some jungle mayhem. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1979's "Screams of a Winter Night" is notable for being one of the few horror films of the era to offer frights to a wider audience, securing a PG-rating for this drive-in release. It's also a picture that was heavily edited, with the anthology feature dropping one of its segments after a test screening, losing nearly 30 minutes from the run time (the segment has been restored on this Blu-ray). Such severe cutting is usually a problem for most movies, but less time with "Screams of a Winter Night" is actually a good thing, as director James L. Wilson isn't too familiar with the benefits of pacing, preferring to play the endeavor as slowly as possible, thinking often unbearable stillness somehow equals suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are not a lot of ways to approach a werewolf story, with freshness lacking when it comes to the details of transforming bodies and vicious appetites. Writer/director Sean Ellis ("Cashback," "Anthropoid") searches for a new take on a monster movie, and he finds it with "The Cursed," which brings such terror to the late 1800s, offering a story about land seizure, denial, and grief. There's also the occasional sequence of stalking between predator and prey, but Ellis doesn't go overboard with his moments of violence. Instead, he elects to take the slow-burn route, playing tribute to Hammer Films and their deliberate ways of exploring an unfolding nightmare. "The Cursed" isn't always riveting, but it comes together as an intelligent study of werewolf fantasy and threat, doing something different with a well-worn concept. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The escalating ways of loneliness are explored in 2018's "Ode to Nothing," which examines a most unusual relationship between a funeral home owner who finds comfort in the presence of a fresh corpse. The premise is ripe for a slapstick take, but writer/director Dwein Baltazar strives to find the emotional pull of such a partnership, offering a serious take on the pains of isolation and social anxieties. "Ode to Nothing" has issues with indulgence, as Baltazar delivers a slow-burn vision for the tale, favoring extended shots that feel unnecessary, but she has an original take on heartache, and the lead performance from Marietta Subong is a richly observed understanding of character distress. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Lewis Teague is credited as the co-director of "Dirty O'Neil," making his professional debut with a low-budget sexploitation/thriller offering before embarking on a career that included work on "Alligator," "Cujo," and "The Jewel of the Nile." People have to start somewhere, and Teague is tasked (joined by co-helmer Leon Capetanos) to create something similar to a romp about a small-town cop who enjoys dealing with criminals and local women during his daily rounds. "Dirty O'Neil" is drive-in fodder, with barely a plot and the thinnest of characterization, offering an episodic exploration of bad behavior with a few detours into supercop cinema. It's all fun and games until the production grows incredibly dark, which is the wrong creative decision to make when the material is basically shapeless, adding disturbing severity to a simplistic weekend distraction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1962's "Night Creatures" was originally titled "Captain Clegg," while the film is a loose adaptation of the "Doctor Syn" books, created by Russell Thorndike. The material goes by many names, but this hardly matters to Hammer Films, who attempts to transform the story of a pirate captain in hiding into a modest adventure with some mild horror elements, turning to trustworthy star Peter Cushing to capture the essence of a secretive rogue. "Night Creatures" (the American title) is mostly supported by Cushing's wonderful work, giving the picture a sense of life as the writing struggles to make a tale of smuggling seem exciting, with Hammer laboring to stretch meager antagonisms into a feature-length endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1999's "Backwoods Marcy" is trying to do something different with the horror genre. After decades of demeaning victim roles for women, writer/director/star Dawn Murphy wants to change things up, taking command of a movie that places a male character in jeopardy, with the female presence in the production a malevolent one. For that, credit is paid to the helmer, who's actively attempting to subvert cliché with the concept, creating a slightly different exploitation endeavor. Appreciating "Backwoods Marcy" is one thing, but actually sitting through the shot-on-video effort requires tremendous patience with Murphy's amateur approach, which often favors real-time screen movement and lifeless moments of suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before he took on the world of performance art in 2019's "Project Space 13," writer/director Michael M. Bilandic took aim at the world of contemporary art in 2013's "Hellaware." The helmer is clearly disturbed by the New York City art scene, using his career to satirize the pretentious and the ridiculous, this time examining a young artist's desperation to separate himself from the competition, working with the strange darkness of an Insane Clown Posse-like rap group to inspire his latest effort to make a name for himself. "Hellaware" has a premise with potential, but Bilandic likes to keep his commentary minimal and humor bone-dry, making for a short but disappointingly slack viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For "On the 3rd Day," director Daniel de la Vega looks to transform the material into a Dario Argento-style shocker, with the Argentinian production hoping to resemble an Italian genre offering. The screenplay (credited to Alberto Fasce and Gonzalo Ventura) aims to create confusion as a way to inspire the central mystery. It's an approach that only works when the writing is top-notch, skillfully scrambling the pieces of the tale before a solution is eventually provided. "On the 3rd Day" isn't up to the challenge, keeping viewers in the dark as de la Vega pays more attention to showmanship than storytelling. He makes a stylish feature at times, but he offers nothing more than shot construction, leaving the viewing experience disappointingly empty. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Stop-Zemlia" is a 2021 Ukrainian production that explores the world of teenagers facing the end of their adolescent experience. They're about to enter adulthood and all the confusion that inspires, still working out the finer points of communication and relationships as they endure days at school and nights of social gatherings. Writer/director Kateryna Gornostai departs from the usual routine of melodrama when it comes to the aching hearts of young people, arranging a docudrama feel to the endeavor, hoping to give it a more active sense of psychological inspection. Hallway aches and pains are present, but "Stop-Zemlia" offers different dramatic moves than most teen-centric offerings, setting a quieter mood of reflection and consideration as Gornostai hopes to make something human. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"The Long Walk" is an unusual feature from director Mattie Do ("Dearest Sister") and screenwriter Christopher Larsen. The story plays with time, establishing two experiences for the same character as he deals with life as he knows it and life as it once was, 50 years ago. It's a genre picture, but suspense isn't immediately identified, as Do takes the title to heart, enjoying the slow-burn nature of the tale, which is meant to sneak up on viewers. "The Long Walk" isn't ultimately effective as a chiller, but Do conjures some terrific atmosphere with the endeavor, and she has actor Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy, who delivers outstanding work in the lead role. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Slaughterhouse Rock" is an unusual title for a picture that offers very little music and spends limited time inside of a prison. However, it's catchy, and acquiring attention in any form is the goal of the production, with director Dimitri Logothetis ("Pretty Smart" and the recent Nicolas Cage actioner, "Jiu Jitsu") hoping to participate in the horror boom of the 1980s with this monster movie. "Slaughterhouse Rock" is the rare genre offering to open with some imagination and visual gusto before sliding into stasis during its second half, finding all the creature feature material less interesting than the nightmare realms Logothetis arranges for his introductions. The endeavor generally does away with clarity as it unfolds, but it manages to grab attention right away, which is enough to support the uneven viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It's never a good sign when a film's origin story involves the development of 20 minutes of random footage into a full-length feature. 1985's "Hard Rock Zombies" was never meant to be seen in the traditional sense, originally created for use as a background visual in the little seen "American Drive-In," but director Krishna Shah had a change of heart, looking to join the horror gold rush of the 1980s with his own offering of MTV visuals and cartoonish violence involving the undead and, well, Nazis. He doesn't exactly have an idea of what he wants to do with "Hard Rock Zombies," but Shah is doing it anyways, coming up with a barely coherent comedy that delivers a few gore zone visits and plenty of musical performances, turning this endeavor into a particularly dark and unfunny episode of "The Monkees." Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The "Airport" series made a lot of money for Universal, who managed to stretch such profit potential over a decade. They churned out four installments of air disaster melodrama, finally putting the franchise to bed with 1979's "The Concorde – Airport '79." 1980's "Airplane!" managed to find an audience with its parody of "Airport" and similar disaster endeavors, successfully pantsing such formula and ridiculousness. However, there was still Hollywood interest in the details of mid-air danger, with 1983's "Starflight One" striving to best the competition by taking its unfolding nightmare into space while still adhering to audience expectations for this ensemble effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1989's "Slash Dance" (or "Slashdance," depending on the day, apparently) is an eye-catching title for a feature that struggles to hold viewer attention. The movie isn't a slasher experience in any traditional sense, and stage performance is limited to repetitive scenes of rehearsal. Writer/director James Shyman isn't entirely invested in any single idea for the production, electing to make something kinda-sorta campy and possibly menacing, with perhaps some action here and there. "Slash Dance" isn't confusing, but it doesn't try to do anything specific, with Shyman most interested in keeping his camera trained on actresses in tight dance gear. The potential for an exploitation romp is there, but the helmer doesn't have the energy to transform the material into a proper diversion. It's more of a filmed community theater production, sure to disappoint those expecting a more robust horror event. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Project Space 13" is possibly a comedy about the performance art world, but it's difficult to know exactly where director Michael M. Bilandic is hoping to accomplish with this production. There's a game cast and a setting that explores the dual experience of a world gone mad and an artistic vision disrupted, but laughs aren't readily apparent in the picture and a more dramatic journey isn't welcome. Bilandic puts as much as he can onscreen, ending up with a 66-minute-long study of pretentiousness and paranoia in the COVID-19 world that would've been better served in short film form. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Signal: The Movie" is a continuation of a Japanese television show that was originally created in South Korea. The programs are available on streaming channels, and watching them is sure to provide some much needed context as to what it going on. "Signal: The Movie" tends to throw viewers into the middle of the ongoing narrative, but it does clarify the premise of the series, where Sergeant Ooyama (Kazuki Kitamura) from the past magically connects with Lieutenant Saegusa (Kentaro Sakaguchi) of the present via a battery-less two-way radio. It's a police procedural meets "Frequency," with the big screen take basically resembling an episode of television entertainment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2006's "Pathogen" puts a film critic in quite a precarious position. On one hand, the movie is created by 12-year-old Emily Hagins, who pours her love of cinema, especially horror pictures, into the making of this no-budget production. On the other hand, the movie is made by a pre-teen perhaps unprepared for the technical challenges of the process. "Pathogen" is a riff on zombie outbreak endeavors, this time taking the action to the suburbs of Austin, TX, where the undead are rising, putting five middle-schoolers in a difficult position to save the world. It's a backyard effort from Hagins, who's sincere in her quest to follow her dream and realize her screenplay, but it's hard to imagine this feature being of any interest to someone who doesn't have a personal connection to the helmer. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2003's "The Core" aims to participate in the supercharged disaster movie movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s, where productions such as "Armageddon" and "The Perfect Storm" offered audiences the sheer power of visual effects, making an enormous amount of money in the process. With the dangers of space, sea, and land already explored on multiple occasions, screenwriters Cooper Layne and John Rogers aim to come up with something different, conjuring a doomsday scenario involving the center of the Earth. "The Core" hopes to be sincere with its science and characterization, which is laudable, but it's much more entertaining when it ventures into ridiculousness, trying to sell a nutty concept for planetary rescue while offering up the usual in disparate personalities and sequences of destruction. It's not a picture that welcomes a deeper inspection of scientific and technological particulars, but director Jon Amiel ("Entrapment," "Sommersby") gets the whole thing up and running with impressive speed, trying to build momentum capable of plowing through the layers of weirdness this endeavor provides. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com