Michael Keaton broke big with 1982's "Night Shift," emerging as a fresh comic talent in need of suitable material. With 1983's "Mr. Mom," Keaton found himself with a real hit (starring in the 9th highest grossing feature of the year, besting "Risky Business" and "National Lampoon's Vacation"), becoming a hot commodity in Hollywood, but he couldn't capitalize on sudden fame, losing momentum with some efforts (including "Johnny Dangerously" and "Touch and Go") that couldn't do much with his unique screen presence. Part of the problem was 1987's "The Squeeze," which endeavored to stuff Keaton's jittery rhythms into a semi-noirish caper that tries to be twisty and mysterious, but also makes room for Keaton's on- brand tomfoolery. "The Squeeze" isn't a mess, but it doesn't feel complete, putting immense pressure on its leading man to cook up some sizable laughs while working on a production that's a bit more interested in noise than performance. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The director of "The Lords of Flatbush," Stephen Verona returns to the concerns of young men and their inherent impatience with 1987's "Talking Walls," which finds the helmer in charge of making horndog cinema, only to fight this reality every step of the way. While it's credited as an adaptation of a Mike McGrady novel (1977's "The Motel Tapes"), the picture certainly doesn't play like literary cinema, working between a comedic overview of voyeurism involving improvisational play from a collection of actors and a dull romance between the lead character and the French woman he can't seem to possess in full. I'm not sure what the production history is on "Talking Walls," but it plays like a feature that was second-guessed days into production, with Verona scrambling to make something sellable on the VHS market when his original dramatic vision was quickly exposed as pure tedium. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A celebrated author in her native New Zealand, Janet Frame decided she didn't want others to tell her own story, eventually issuing three autobiographies to sufficiently cover the extent of her experiences in her homeland and beyond. With the release of "To the Is-Land," "An Angel at My Table," and "The Envoy from Mirror City," Frame offered a full understanding of the horrors and personal awakenings she experienced as she became a woman, richly detailing her memories and the perceptions. For direction Jane Campion, the opportunity to dramatize these tales was irresistible. Working from a screenplay by Laura Jones, Campion creates a "trilogy" with "An Angel at My Table," which was originally created as a television mini- series, soon reworked into a chapter-based feature film, bringing the scope of Frame's life to the screen with the lengthy run time it deserves. Protective of the subject's work, Campion shows extreme care for Frame's journey, providing remarkable casting and locations for the story, while Jones has the decidedly more pressurized job of condensing such extraordinary turns of fate into a cohesive endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Framing John DeLorean" emphasizes early on that Hollywood has spent decades trying to figure out a way to bring the titular icon's story to the screen. And yet, with all these competing projects and various completed screenplays, nothing has come of it. Directors Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce ("Batman & Bill") step up to the plate with "Framing John DeLorean," but the duo isn't interested in a straightforward bio-pic of the automobile designer, electing to mix things up a bit by turning the production into a semi-documentary, blending informational stretches with dramatic recreations and behind-the-scenes activity during the shoot. It's a bizarre cocktail of perspectives and realities, but not an unappealing endeavor, with the helmers using such unconventional storytelling to showcase an unconventional man, finding a fresh way to chart the rise and fall of John DeLorean. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Hoping to participate in the supernatural horror craze of the late 1970s, co-writer/director Herb Freed delivers 1980's "Beyond Evil," which takes soul- possession horrors to the Philippines. However, such a location is the only exotic element of the production, which offers a fairly routine chiller about an evil spirit infiltrating a fresh body. Freed tries to fill the endeavor with some new age magic, but scares are limited here, as Freed often goes the pedestrian route when exploring a household haunting. Thankfully, there's a cast assembled here that works very hard to inject some life into the endeavor, but blandness tends to win out in the end, even with the presence of some slightly goofy B-movie violence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Tom Botchii Skowronski is aiming to put his own stamp on comic book cinema with "Artik," merging the brute force of a serial killer story with a fantasy face-off, only here the opposing forces are a murderer and a straight-edge soldier trying to do something right in his life. It's stylish picture, doing so much with very little in the budget department, and when approached in the right mood, "Artik" engages to certain extent, with Skowronski trying to remain creative and aggressive with the little room he's given himself to explore this showdown between light and dark. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director George Roy Hill was in a rare industry position in 1975. Two years earlier, he delivered "The Sting," which went on to collect a fortune at the box office (ending up the second highest-grossing feature of the year) and multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1973. Hill could suddenly do whatever he wanted, and with the power of multiple hits (including 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), he elected to bring a personal project to the screen, funneling his own experiences as a pilot into "The Great Waldo Pepper," his valentine to the world of early aviation, with all the dangers and glory it contained. It's inspired work from the helmer, who secures strong characterization from screenwriter William Goldman, but absolutely dives into aerial sequences, which provide the production with genuine moments of suspense and some jaw-dropping stunt work. "The Great Waldo Pepper" has some issues with pacing consistency, but Hill gives the effort a wonderful specificity, providing viewers with a peek into the psychology of daredevils gradually being denied the thrill of danger. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Fraternity life doesn't need much embellishment to become perfect fodder for horror entertainment, and screenwriter Joyce Snyder sets out to be as authentic as possible when exploring the humiliations of a New Jersey university's Hell Week in 1990's "Pledge Night." Snyder has divided the viewing experience into two parts, examining frat house rituals and a supernatural terror, working to blend the different tones into a one scary event, playing into genre expectations while adding enough realistic grotesqueries to unnerve viewers who may be only prepared for a traditional haunt. "Pledge Night" doesn't strive to upset expectations, but it's better film when exploring the reality of fraternity terrors, with Snyder's effort to transform the movie into a sequel-ready production getting in the way of some genuinely disgusting moments. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A Spanish production from director Ignacio F. Iquino, 1982's "Secta Siniestra" is the kind of picture that is so focused on what it wants to be, it forgets how to actually be. It's a clumsy endeavor with all kinds of technical sloppiness and an overall disregard for production polish, but the feature is determined to be a scary experience, and for some viewers, such magical filmmaking will just might be enough to pass. Approach it as refined cinema and "Secta Siniestra" is going to bring on a headache in the hurry. Enjoy it as B-movie nonsense, and there's some amusement to be had with Iquino's habitual refusal to acknowledge his creative limitations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

James Hong has enjoyed an incredible acting career dating back to the 1950s, playing a wide variety of characters in nearly every genre around. However, in 1989's "The Vineyard," Hong strikes gold as a wicked vintner who uses the blood of youth and the power of black magic to secure eternal life, which is not a character one comes around often enough. Co-directing (with William Rice) and co-writing the endeavor as well, Hong tries to do everything for "The Vineyard," which has its rough B-movie movements and iffy assembly, but also manages to be immensely entertaining, with moments of horror, sleaze, and flashes of camp helping to generate an amusing sit with an awfully strange endeavor. Hong understands what the work needs, and he gives it all he's got to secure cult appeal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With a title like "Itsy Bitsy," there's a promise made for a lighthearted killer spider picture. It suggests something cheeky is on the way, with co- writer/director Micah Gallo chasing the gleeful mischief of 1990's "Arachnophobia," or perhaps trying to match the B-movie release of 2013's "Big Ass Spider." Gallo is in no mood for laughs with his feature-length helming debut, presenting a more sobering take on arachnid hellraising, coming close to making the starring spider more of a supporting part in the effort, which focuses instead on the ravages of addiction, the struggle of parenthood, and the chest-caving grief of loss. "Itsy Bitsy" is a bad title for the endeavor, as it offers no joyful horror release, remaining closer to the pains of the wounded heart than matinee thrills, trying to be a gritty, aching take on eight-legged intimidation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com