• Blu-ray Review – City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold

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    Expectations were low for 1991's "City Slickers," which was a modestly budgeted summer release starring Billy Crystal, who was trying to build a leading man career after the success of "When Harry Met Sally." The picture offered adult audiences relatable themes on aging and friendship, delivering nuggets of midlife crisis awareness while exploring the open world, complete with western-style misadventures and animal encounters. "City Slickers" managed to surprise many by becoming the sleeper hit of the year, becoming the fifth highest grossing feature of 1991 (right below "The Silence of the Lambs"), while Jack Palance collected an Academy Award for his work as the crusty cowboy, Curly. A sequel wasn't necessary, there was nowhere left to go with the premise, but Crystal thought he had a sure thing with 1992's "Mr. Saturday Night" (his directorial debut), a hyped dramedy that was envisioned as an awards magnet and box office behemoth, and while the vanity project managed to collect a few nominations, audiences avoided it, knocking the star off-course in his quest to become a bankable name. For Crystal, there was only one way to win back his audience: a sequel. For 1994's "City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold," Crystal is aiming to please, recycling old jokes, rehashing familiar subplots, and even bringing back Palance to make sure the follow-up generates the same excitement as the previous chapter in the Mitch Robbins saga. It turns out, the "one thing" only really works once. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – He Knows You’re Alone

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    1980's "He Knows You're Alone" is most notable for two things: it was one of the first slasher features to ride the success of 1978's "Halloween," and it offers a young Tom Hanks in his first screen acting job. These bits of trivia tend to define the picture's position in horror history, but director Armand Mastroianni and screenwriter Scott Parker provide more suspense and characterization than the average genre offering, giving the endeavor a little more to work with when trying to frighten audiences. "He Knows You're Alone" isn't a sophisticated chiller, but the production has some good ideas for hideous happenings, paired with energetic performances to bring the nightmare to life. It's an entertaining movie that achieves most of its creative goals, keeping things uneasy without getting completely ugly. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Minnesota Movie Ads – September 1988

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  • Blu-ray Review – Grave Secrets

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    1989's "Grave Secrets" is a curious mix of paranormal investigation and human trauma, with screenwriters Jeffrey Polman and Lenore Wright trying to create a screen nightmare for genre viewers that also deals with rather severe real-world agony. It's a bizarre concoction at times, but director Donald P. Borchers doesn't bother to stop and really consider the material, laboring to pull off a ghost story on a limited budget, masterminding various encounters with the other side. The helmer does well with practical effects, making a passably involving haunted house tale at times, getting "Grave Secrets" where it needs to go as the material explores mysterious happenings at a rural bed & breakfast. Deeper consideration of what's really going on with the characters isn't welcomed, as Borchers is primarily looking to summon a case of the creeps, not a fetal-position-inducing overview of human suffering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Altered Innocence: Vol. 1

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    With "Altered Innocence: Vol. 1," the label aims to find a fresh audience for a collection of short films with LGBTQ themes, also dealing with endeavors exploring the growing pains of adolescence. These are 12 offerings that vary in tone and creative approach, and a few of them are music videos that take the surreal route to understanding human sexuality and identity. "Altered Innocence: Vol. 1" hopes to share underappreciated or forgotten shorts from a wide variety of moviemaking voices. Some of these selections aim for laughs or tears, while a few gradually expose the horrors of life, but they all offer a distinct creative fingerprint, delivering cinematic stories from burgeoning talent. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Karen

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    Writer/director Coke Daniels doesn’t appear to be sincere with “Karen,” which takes a look at rising hostilities in an elite community when a black couple moves into the neighborhood. Daniel is chasing a meme, with the name “Karen” synonymous with entitled white women trying to either push their demands or ruin lives with confrontations that are usually racial motivated. The whole concept of the nickname is strange, making light of mental illness and weaponized bigotry, and Daniels tries to turn such misery into a clunky blend of dark comedy, social commentary, and exploitation filmmaking. Unfortunately, the movie is a crude endeavor that doesn’t even try for a sophisticated understanding of the world’s ills, preferring to pander to its target audience with broad villainy and a painful miscasting, with star Taryn Manning showing no signs of life in the eponymous role. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Worth

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    What is life worth? It’s the central question posed in “Worth,” with writer Max Borenstein venturing into the depths of decision making with the material, which is based on the battle of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, where lawyers were brought in to decide how much money was required to appease those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack. It’s a brutal position of morality and legality that’s superbly handled by Borenstein, who manages to shape a compelling story out of a quest that carried on for years, while lacking the usual rounds of personal vices to keep things centered on the lead characters. “Worth” is a film about an education, with light Dickensian touches and a layered performance from Michael Keaton, who generates a compelling emotional through line for the effort, which involves various supporting characters and different battles of representation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Cinderella (2021)

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    There are going to be adaptations of “Cinderella” for many lifetimes to come. The folk tale has been a constant source of family entertainment, with many productions over the last century trying to refresh the magic of the story. For 2021, writer/director Kay Cannon (“Blockers”) gets the call to something with the source material, and she returns to her roots to reimagine “Cinderella,” with the “Pitch Perfect” writer returning to the land of jukebox musicals to hip-up ancient material. It’s a pop music world for this endeavor, which also boasts a decidedly more progressive screenplay and a new vision for the Fairy Godmother, reworked here as a “Fabulous Godmother,” who represents the overall drive for representation in the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Superhost

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    “Superhost” isn’t just another horror tale about the dangers of dealing with Airbnb-style vacation rental homes. It eventually reaches a point of no return with a demented homeowner, but writer/director Brandon Christensen is more interested in the ways of social media vloggers who value clicks over sincerity, trying to maintain online fame in increasingly desperate ways. “Superhost” is no condemnation of the YouTuber lifestyle, but it uses this specialized mania to inspire a clash between show hosts and the landlord who is determined to land a positive review. The picture isn’t an aggressive example of genre entertainment, but the film builds with confidence, and it helps to have strong performances selling the creepy atmosphere of the endeavor, creating a believable divide between the real world and tireless video-making ambition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman

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    “Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman” is the second film about the serial killer that’s been unleashed this month (or the third, if you’re including the Blu-ray release of 1978’s “Killer’s Delight). There have been numerous movies made about the murderous ways of Bundy, but this one is written and directed by Daniel Farrands, a helmer with a deep affection for horror pictures from the 1980s. He’s been trying to transform real-world crimes into slasher entertainment, recently hitting Ten Worst lists with “The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” and “The Haunting of Sharon Tate.” This is the only kind of feature Farrands makes, and he’s back to his routine with “American Boogeyman,” which not only doesn’t understand the definition of “boogeyman,” but reaches a new low of tastelessness, transforming Bundy’s barbaric ways with female victims into bottom-shelf schlock, reveling in the violence the serial killer lived to cause, while the writing makes a ghastly last-minute attempt to turn crass exploitation into a celebration of police procedure and survival instinct. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – We Need to Do Something

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    “We Need to Do Something” is based on a novella by Max Booth III, who also provides the screenplay for the feature adaptation. He’s not here to deliver a thundering offering of horror, preferring to use a claustrophobic situation to monitor a family breaking down into madness, toying with thinning patience and long-simmering hostilities. “We Need to Do Something” occasionally teases outbreaks of “Evil Dead”-style goodness, but Booth III and director Sean King O’Grady don’t go all the way with their more macabre ideas, preferring to make a puzzle instead, and one that deals with black magic, self-harm, and frayed family ties. The picture is a slow-burn endeavor, which periodically works against the production, but there’s a minor sense of doom brewing in the effort, which keeps it involving, and blasts of gruesomeness certainly help the cause. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Zone 414

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    “Zone 414” is for viewers either looking to huff some “Blade Runner” fumes or are searching for similar material that’s simplified, without all the pesky artistry that often competed with the core detective story. The production doesn’t hide its love for “Blade Runner” (or its sequel), but it also doesn’t have enough imagination to find its own way, with screenwriter Bryan Edward Hill coming up short as he cooks up a character study that’s wrapped in a futureworld mystery, and one that’s loaded with synthetic humans, corporate overlords, and questions concerning what it means to be alive. A lot is missing from “Zone 414,” including excitement, with the picture more about head games played by uninteresting characters, and there’s not enough money in the budget to really go wild with locations and technology. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – Mogul Mowgli

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    In a case of strange release timing, “Mogul Mowgli” hits screen less than a year after the debut of “Sound of Metal,” a feature about the primal need for musical release hitting the cruelty of physical impairment, forcing the artist to understand a different future for himself. The picture offered actor Riz Ahmed the role of a lifetime, giving his all to the part, and he was rewarded with critical accolades and a trip around the awards circuit. Now there’s “Mogul Mowgli,” which also examines the burning frustrations of a musician trying to make sense of his life when everything he’s worked for is suddenly stopped by illness. The films are remarkably similar, which might create a feeling of déjà vu for some, but the emotional volatility contained within both endeavors can’t be denied, with “Mogul Mowgli” offering more attention to trials of family and faith to go along with its understanding of bodily submission. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Film Review – The Gateway

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    Co-writer/director Michele Civetta almost finds a dramatic path worth taking in “The Gateway.” It’s hard out there for low-budget movies, and almost all of them turn to action and crime to capture the attention of potential audiences. Sadly, “The Gateway” follows suit, but it also strives to understand difficult character histories and behaviors, at times getting dark with its study of a decent man fighting his demons and the world around him. Civetta commits to a certain level of understanding in the writing, but he doesn’t take it all the way, turning down the potential of a gritty drama, diluting the endeavor with criminal antics involving drugs, gangs, and bad dudes. Perhaps there isn’t much to the effort, but in a sea of similar underworld examinations, this feature has certain scenes that promise a more sincere and realistic tale to come, but Civette doesn’t try hard enough to preserve the human aspects of the screenplay. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Smile

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    Finding success making Robert Redford movies such as 1969's "Downhill Racer" and 1972's "The Candidate," director Michael Ritchie found his hot streak cooled some with 1975's "Smile," which was basically balled up and thrown away by the distributor during its initial theatrical release. Such cruel treatment robbed Ritchie of another hit, but it didn't stop the feature from becoming something of a cult title, gaining admiration and building a fanbase over the last 46 years. While not Ritchie's finest endeavor, "Smile" showcases his skill with actors and controlled chaos, examining the nervous energy of a California beauty pageant and all the contestants, judges, and crew who create an event intended to celebrate femininity, only to bring out the worst in people. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Wildcats

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    In 1976, director Michael Ritchie created "The Bad News Bears," which went on to become a comedy classic and a beloved sports-themed film. It dealt honestly and hilariously with the realities of team sports, capturing a refreshingly honest underdog movie experience. In 1986, Ritchie returns to the same concept with "Wildcats," this time joined by Goldie Hawn, who plays the coach of a struggling high school football team, tasked with whipping slackers into shape, a job the character isn't sure about. For his second time around, an older Ritchie doesn't have the same dedication to nailing the nuances of the sport or the team dynamic, put in charge of Hawn-branded entertainment, which was big business in the 1980s, finding the actress riding the success of "Private Benjamin" into several cheery knockoffs. "Wildcats" isn't nearly as sharp as it could be, with Ritchie and writer Ezra Sacks ("FM," "A Small Circle of Friends") playing it safe with the material, dealing with broad humor and cliched personal problems. The whole thing is meant to be held together by Hawn's charm, and there's plenty of that, but the production is missing a strong screenplay, giving the sport and its participants some needed Buttermaker-approved grit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – All-American Murder

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    During his interview for the Blu-ray release of 1991's "All-American Murder," actor Charlie Schlatter reveals that he initially met with director Ken Russell about the project, excited that the mastermind behind the psychedelic highs of "Tommy" would be in charge of a minor whodunit with surges of graphic violence. Whatever occurred behind the scenes isn't clear, but Russell eventually left the project, quickly replaced days before shooting by Anson Williams, who made a name for himself as Potsie Weber on classic show "Happy Days," spending a full decade making comedy for network television. Williams transitioned to T.V. direction after "Happy Days" ended, banging out episodes of shows like "L.A. Law," "Hooperman," and "Just the Ten of Us." "All-American Murder" is Williams's feature debut, and if there's anybody in the business who's the exact opposite of Ken Russell, it's Anson Williams. After watching the picture, one gets a sense of what the gonzo "Altered States" and "Crimes of Passion" moviemaker could've done with the material. Williams doesn't embarrass himself, but it quickly becomes clear this type of film is beyond his skill set, unable to sustain initial interest in the details of the central crime. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Minnesota Movie Ads – August 1978

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  • 4K UHD Review – Fanny Lye Deliver’d

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    Making his first film since 2008's "Soi Cowboy," writer/director Thomas Clay pours everything he's got into "Fanny Lye Deliver'd," a 17th century drama that takes its time to get anywhere. Clay has constructed a true cinematic journey, creating a picture that's all about language and screen details, working to make this tale of Puritan living feel as authentic as possible. There's a rough side to the endeavor, which takes a significant amount of screen time to discover, as Clay is more interested in building tension gradually, eventually reaching a point of fury that's realistically motivated. A sort of period version of "Funny Games" is exposed, and Clay indulges himself with acts of sexual and physical violence. But there's something about "Fanny Lye Deliver'd" that suggests he'd rather shoot farm life routines and landscapes all day, with the limited story served up here almost becoming a burden to the moviemaker. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

  • Blu-ray Review – Summer Camp Girls

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    1983's "Summer Camp Girls" presents an odd take on the seasonal getaway, rethinking the pleasures of the open world with friends and counselors by turning the whole experience into a prison-lite event for a group of 18-year-old girls discarded by their elite families. Hope for a "Meatballs"-esque take on camp shenanigans isn't rewarded, but director Gary Graver and writer Harold Lime try to sustain something of a fun factor to the picture, which deals more with nutty seductions than juvenile pranks, trying to maintain some heat for adult cinema fans. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com