Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

1971's "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" is largely credited as the film that inspired the Blaxploitation movement of the 1970s. However, it's not a particularly exploitive movie itself, with writer/director/star Melvin Van Peebles pulling the material from his gut, working to craft a piece of art that exists in a near surreal haze of edits and angles, also trying to speak to a specifically black audience about the state of individual empowerment. It's a crazy feature, but one with defined purpose, with Van Peebles endeavoring to rattle the world with his picture, pouring blood, sweat, and tears into the work. The effort shows, even when "Sweet Sweetback" periodically gets lost in its own cinematic loops.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1979's "Her Name Was Lisa" is notable is some circles due to its director, Roger Watkins, who previously created the vicious "Last House on Dead End Street." This awareness of helming intensity is important to retain while watching "Her Name Was Lisa," which, unlike many adult movies, has no interest in titillation. It's anti-erotica in many ways, and while it features all manner of sexual activity, the film is surprisingly grim, striving more to be a dramatic effort than an X-rated one.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1984's "Blood Suckers from Outer Space" (or "Bloodsuckers," with two spellings of the title acceptable it seems — not even the production has a definitive answer) is intended to be a satire of drive-in sci-fi/horror pictures from the 1950s and '60s. It has all the ingredients to work, delivering a tale of mysterious events occurring in a small Texas town, and one populated with all types of oddballs and freaks. The action is contained to a few locations, and make-up achievements are enjoyably exaggerated. Writer/director Glen Coburn has the right idea, and he almost connects with the feature, which offers intermittent delights while it tries to generate significant silliness without the benefit of refined screenwriting or professional actors. "Blood Suckers from Outer Space" has its appealing limitations, and Coburn is clearly reaching for a specific tone with the work, keeping the whole production cheery and loopy enough to pass. Bellylaughs are nonexistent, but chuckles are triggered along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

I'm sure someone, somewhere holds 1976's "Mastermind" in high esteem. Everyone has their guilty pleasures, and there's certainly a fanbase for star Zero Mostel. However, I believe most people sitting down to watch the feature will experience a distinct urge to shut it off five minutes into the viewing. Actually shot in 1969 (before being shelved for the next seven years), "Mastermind" is one of those "really?" movies that makes one wonder how certain projects actually make it all the way to production without anyone raising objections over content and a general lack of funny business. It's a horrible comedy, carrying on without awareness of its insensitivity (granted, it was a different time, but still) and lack of punchlines, solely reliant on Mostel to come up with bits of physical comedy to save the day. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

While 1985's "The Razor's Edge" is largely credited as the time Bill Murray finally decided to go dramatic, dialing down his habitually goofball ways to try out more introspective work, 1980's "Where the Buffalo Roam" is perhaps a more accurate starting position for the actor's career expansion. Building his name on "Saturday Night Live" and finding mainstream success with 1979's "Meatballs," Murray tries to go incognito for his portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson, the famed "outlaw journalist" who craved excess, using wild experiences and relationships to fuel his writing career. Endeavoring to become Thompson, Murray loses himself in an interesting way, but the movie doesn't reward his method intentions, with director Art Linson trying to herd cats with this adaptation of Thompson's stories. Linson wants to make a comedy. Murray wants to create a tribute. The film craves any scrap of structure it can find.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

The career of Dario Argento has seen its ups and downs, with the helmer recently struggling to maintain his vision while dealing with changing industry attitudes and audience expectations. But there was a time when he could do no wrong, with 1977's "Suspiria" his crowning achievement, gifted a setting and story where he could go hog wild with directorial interests, including immersion into the strangeness of the occult. Blasted with colors, quaking with sound, and teeming with nightmarish encounters, the production reaches deep into the unknown to locate a special feel for unnerving filmmaking, openly trying to disturb viewers with carefully controlled audio and visual elements, while the unexplained passes for mystery, making Argento one of the few helmers in history to pull off this a high-wire act. "Suspiria" carries such incredible menace and beauty, offering a curious balance of horror and art that tends to smother other offerings, but comes up gold here, guiding in great part by Argento's cinematic perfectionism and comfort with operatic torment, coming up with a dynamic offering that's terrifying and unforgettable.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Inspired by Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo," Sergio Leone elected to bring his special sensibility to the western genre, with 1964's "A Fistful of Dollars" his introductory work. Instead of creating a throwaway cowboy film, he reinvented the genre, delivering extraordinary tension and cinematographic intensity, finding special stylistic magic with his first effort in the future "Dollars Trilogy," which turned Leone into a legend and star Clint Eastwood into an icon. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Nearing the end of his lengthy career as a Hollywood hero and cowboy legend, Roy Rogers elected to make one for the horses with 1950's "Trigger, Jr." While Rogers remains the lead actor, keeping up his end of the bargain with sharp western swagger, songs, and fast fists, the rest of the picture remains with the titular horse and his unexpected adventure in the American southwest. Being a Rogers endeavor, "Trigger, Jr." isn't big on surprises, keeping close to comfort food formula as bad guys square off against the good guys, and the horses end up in big trouble, inspiring a fresh round of chases and mild shenanigans, sweetened with a few songs to settle the mood. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Seeing Phyllis Diller credited as part of the cast of 1991's "The Boneyard" inspires certain expectations for the film. However, while she is portraying a woman named Ms. Poopinplatz, Diller is actually quite game to go wherever writer/director James Cummins leads, including a rare screen appearance without her famous fright wig, showing up here with her naturally thinning hair, adding to the characterization. "The Boneyard" is an odd mix of camp and emotional sincerity, but Diller certainly helps the cause, adding enough energy to her corner of the movie to help boost the appeal of the overall work, finding Cummins struggling with pacing issues in the first half of the effort. It's a wild movie, but only when it finally reaches a point of explosion, and that's a long journey to a proper screen release.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The quest to bring the works of author H.P. Lovecraft to the screen has never been easy, demanding inventive filmmakers willing to work overtime to preserve the writer's artful appreciation for the macabre. Director Dan O'Bannon tries his luck with "The Resurrected," which adapts Lovecraft's 1941 novella, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," bringing a smaller period mystery to a more modern age via noir-ish intentions, transforming horror into a detective tale courtesy of screenwriter Brent V. Friedman. O'Bannon has a vision for "The Resurrected," which is teeming with atmospheric changes and cinematic tributes, but it lacks a defined pace, often sluggishly doling out gruesome imagery and sleuthing discoveries, most of which fail to charge up the viewing experience despite the production's interest in bizarre events and encounters.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There's the surface appeal of "A Pyromaniac's Love Story," and there's the more interesting tale of William Baldwin, with the 1995 picture coming at a crucial time in his then-burgeoning career. He was positioned as a Hollywood heartthrob, successfully navigating a few roles, such as 1990's "Flatliners," and won a massive break as the lead in 1991's "Backdraft," where he did a fine job portraying a conflicted firefighter suddenly thrust into a role of familial and professional responsibility. He seemed poised to take off, but along came 1993's "Sliver," a botched (but not entirely uninteresting) erotic thriller that asked too much of him, caught on a sinking ship as the movie bombed, which didn't simply throttle his career, but cooled his heat in full. 1995's "A Pyromaniac's Love Story" delivers a different side of Baldwin, who tries to be a comedian in the romantic film, channeling Jim Carrey with a wild-eyed performance that's ambitious and completely out of his range. Baldwin's acting dream dimmed in 1995 (coupled with the disastrous "Fair Game"), and there's a good reason for that, finding his take on an unhinged fire-starter with a pronounced limp wholly unpleasant, making his turn the most unlikable addition to an already joyless and aggressively quirky creation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Those in the mood for a creepy gothic chiller might respond highly to "The Lodgers," but the picture seems intentionally made for fans of Hammer Films and their unique legacy of horror endeavors. Director Brian O'Malley makes a distinct effort to replicate the deliberate moves of the studio's creepy productions, and screenwriter David Turpin fills the story with enough guarded perversion and unease to maintain interest in the unfolding tale. However, "The Lodgers" is a slow-burn viewing experience, almost to a point of complete stoppage at times, finding O'Malley so caught up in the atmosphere of his work, he periodically forgets to nudge it along. There are enough macabre interests to maintain an absorbing sit, but to reach a point of actual momentum, one must accept O'Malley's overly cautious handling of the feature's fright factor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

There's no denying that Peter Yates is a gifted filmmaker with numerous directorial achievements on his resume. He's the mastermind of "Bullitt" and "Breaking Away" (put "Krull" in there too if you're feeling generous), but he's had more than his share of off years, periodically unable to will himself out of a bad creative situation. 1995's "Roommates" is mounted with the best intentions, with screenwriters Max Apple and Stephen Metcalfe trying to fashion a valentine for curmudgeonly old men and the pearls of wisdom they leave behind, forcing Yates to master a tone for the picture that's somewhere between lovable and combative, with a healthy dose of syrup added for taste. Sadly, "Roommates" doesn't really strive for a sophisticated understanding of multi-generational relationships, instead going a soap opera route that's wholly manipulative. Yates really wants viewers to bawl like baby during the feature, but there has to be a little more than superficial conflicts and cutesy antics with a senior citizen to melt the heart.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Building his reputation with action and horror offerings such as "Black Caesar" and "It's Alive," writer/director Larry Cohen goes the comedic route for 1981's "Full Moon High." Instead of making scary stuff, he lampoons scary stuff in the picture, which enjoys playing with the conventions of drive-in cinema, mixing satire of teen-centric movies with an overview of changing moral attitudes in America. It's a noticeable change of pace for Cohen, and while he's attentive to the creature feature aspects of the effort, he neglects to serve up appealing funny business. "Full Moon High" has a lot of energy and interest in satisfying viewers with rat-tat-tat joke timing, but Cohen's scattergun approach grows exhausting in a hurry, especially when the production doesn't take time to refine the gags. Cohen elects the "throw at wall, see what sticks" approach, and the delivery doesn't entirely work for this endeavor, which is meant to represent a lighter side to the helmer's cinematic interests, but often falls flat on its face.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Film production can be an arduous process, but for "Basmati Blues," it was an endless cycle of disruptions and delays. The picture was actually shot in 2013, long before star Brie Larson enjoyed a career boost with her Oscar-winning performance in "Room," with the production spending the next five years reshooting and tinkering to create a final edit before finally seeing a theatrical release earlier this year. It's an uncommon moviemaking story, but it helps to keep such chaos in mind while watching the effort, which opens with a big heart and desire to please, only to slowly grind its way to tedium as director Danny Baron tries to do too much with very little. The concept here is to rework Bollywood formula to fit an American tale of romance and corporate villainy, but Baron is lost at sea, sticking close to punishing formula to help find his way out of this mess. Larson does the best she can with such unchallenging material, and she ends up the lone highlight, smiling and dancing her heart out while the rest of "Basmati Blues" stumbles around, on a weird quest to be a proper musical extravaganza and a condemnation of Monsanto-style agribusiness corruption.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1989's "Blue Vengeance" is a cop movie with horror interests, though co-writer/co-director J. Christian Ingvordsen does a lot more than simply blend genres. The picture is more of a sandbox where the production plays with different ideas of suspense and action, using the wilds of New York City in a rather exciting way, keeping the low-budget endeavor on the move as it tries to make a manhunt feature with limited resources. "Blue Vengeance" has obvious technical and filmmaking limitations, leaving it best suited for low expectations, which permits its askew vision for procedure and gore to shine brightest, watching Ingvordsen have a ball cooking up strange events in his home city, giving the effort a compelling B-movie spin. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Sam Hoffman plays it safe with the plot of "Humor Me," his directorial debut, making a movie about the arrested development of a man facing substantial responsibilities, moving in with his father for a free room and to find some clarity. However, formula is thinned out by personality, with Hoffman generating appealing characterizations, putting the players through amusing challenges as he hunts for significance in the dramedy. As the title suggests, there's plenty of levity and passive-aggressive behavior to enjoy, and Hoffman secures success with the pairing of leads Jemaine Clement and Elliot Gould, who pull off an itchy family dynamic with terrific timing, bringing heart and laughs to "Humor Me," which benefits greatly from their unique talents. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

While the summer of 1983 was always going to be dominated by the release of "Return of the Jedi," it's fascinating to note that Universal Pictures really thought they had something special with "Doctor Detroit," which was issued a few weeks before the "Star Wars" sequel. Strange comedies were certainly welcomed by adventurous audiences, but here was a movie that offered a lighthearted take on prostitution and, in a way, gang violence, putting emphasis entirely on star Dan Aykroyd, who was making his debut as a leading man after teaming with friend John Belushi on numerous projects. No matter how one considers the endeavor, "Doctor Detroit" is a very weird feature, and while it didn't end up doing much business during its initial theatrical release, the film remains an amusing curiosity, recalling a time when a major movie studio though they had R-rated gold with difficult material, trying to bypass inherent darkness with musical numbers, cartoon-style silliness, and Aykroyd's natural comedic extremity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

As the story goes, director Norman J. Warren caught a showing of "Suspiria" and was greatly impressed with the stylistic choices made by filmmaker Dario Argento, also respecting his general disregard of a traditional narrative to live in the moment with abstract wonders. Warren, born and bred in the U.K., decided to try to replicate a slice of Italian cinema in his homeland, with 1978's "Terror" a hodgepodge of giallo craftsmanship and horror freak-out obsessions. The helmer of "Prey" and "Satan's Slave," Warren already knew a thing or two about freaking out audiences, but with "Terror," he strives for mimicry, and as plenty of other challengers already understand, it's hard to do what Argento does, especially during the "Suspiria" years. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

The title "Seven" is most associated with the chilling 1995 David Fincher hit, which provided a depressing reminder of the world's cruelties and capacity for evil. Director Andy Sidaris actually used the title earlier, and I think most people would rather live in his world. 1979's "Seven" is a secret agent actioner from Sidaris, who's best known for movies such as "Hard Ticket to Hawaii," "Savage Beach," and "Malibu Express," creating a career that often highlights pretty people engaging in ultraviolence, always in a warm, tropical setting. He's a master in the "girls with guns" subgenre, and "Seven" is his second pass at establishing exploitation career interests, this time taking the mayhem to Hawaii, where the battle begins between wicked men and the select few hired by the government to assassinate them. Sidaris is known for one thing, and he does it relatively well in the picture, which understands ridiculousness, but remains focused enough to supply a fun ride of chases, bikinis, and extreme concentration on villain routines. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com