1969's "The Reivers" is based on a William Faulkner novel, with director Mark Rydell doing a serviceable job trying retain the project's literary origins. An episodic feature concerning a coming-of-age journey, "The Reivers" is best appreciated for its atmosphere, as the production creates an enjoyable turn-of-the-century mood with fading innocence and industrial influence, giving viewers a pleasurable time machine viewing experience that helps to digest the periodic tedium of the plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1979's "Play Motel" is a confusing picture from director Mario Gariazzo, with its focus mixing the terror of a traditional giallo endeavor with the sleaze of soft-core pornography. Somewhere in the mix is a story, though any level of dramatic engagement is cast aside for exploitation highlights. There blood and bare skin in "Play Motel," which struggles to build momentum as a chiller, stopping every ten minutes to assess the visual potency of naked women. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After finding success with "The Toxic Avenger" and "Class of Nuke 'Em High," Troma Entertainment decided to get serious with 1988's "Troma's War." At least as serious as director Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz are willing to get while still clinging to fart jokes. Attempting to simulate political commentary in the midst of Troma-branded slapstick carnage, "Troma's War" emerges as a particularly confused production, lost somewhere between a need to play the entire movie as broadly as possible and a desire to communicate the fallibility of the military-minded 1980s, with Kaufman and Herz manufacturing a response to Regan's America that never gels as imagined. A loud, bloody, unfunny display of tastelessness, the picture has its moments of Troma-stamped shenanigans, but the overall effort is missing clarity of plot and a more devious display of satire. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1966's 'Navajo Joe" is a straightforward revenge picture questing to create an icon out of the titular character, portrayed by Burt Reynolds. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by Sergio Corbucci, "Navajo Joe" is all action and intimidation, striving to generate an agitated tone of boiling rage as it details failed heists and southwestern chases, emerging as a wonderfully entertaining adventure that's Quentin Tarantino approved, with the filmmaker lifting sections of Ennio Morricone's wily, anthemic score to breathe a special cinematic life into his masterpiece, "Kill Bill." Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A variation on "The Dirty Dozen" set during the Civil War, 1972's "A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die" is an admirable attempt to launch an adventure starring a cast full of grizzled, beefy men, each scripted with quirks and a secretive history. While James Coburn takes top billing, the feature makes room for its ensemble, making up for a lack of action by emphasizing juicy personalities colliding in a spaghetti western-style production. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In his follow-up to "The Big Gundown," director Sergio Sollima continues to mine his fascination with gray areas of conscience and loyalty, instilling 1967's "Face to Face" with moral complexity that helps to support the picture's occasionally iffy dramatics. It's a western with meaning, using a history of Italian politics to inform its plot, and it when it settles down and explores character, it proves itself to be intelligent, lacking some needed urgency to work up necessary suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1957's "The Monster That Challenged the World" is one of many horror features created during the rising years of the Atomic Age, using paranoia and progress to feed B-movie requirements, giving audiences something to be frightened of besides the daily news. Of course, the film now registers as pure silliness, witnessing the discovery and wrath of a giant mollusk at it rises out of the Salton Sea to devour those curious enough to go near it. However, the production shows creative effort rare to the era, working on characterization between attack sequences, trying to shape a personality to the picture instead of simply working through the kills. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1962's "Burn, Witch, Burn" is an unusual combination of a witchcraft thriller and a workplace drama, with both sides of the story managing to generate all the proper pressure the production needs to build tension. Wonderfully performed and inventively made, "Burn, Witch, Burn" (a.k.a. "Night of the Eagle") offers quite a compelling commotion, with style and bursts of anarchy welcome in a tale that's always on the prowl for suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Like a giant layer cake of self-awareness, camp is piled on top of camp in 2000's "Psycho Beach Party," which looks to pants various genres of the 1960s, committing to a broad style of silliness to achieve its goals. Adapting his own theatrical production, screenwriter/co-star Charles Busch wins points for enthusiasm, trying to massage a spirited take on bikini-clad high jinks and serial murder for as long as possible, aided by wonderful performances from the cast, who give themselves completely to the low-budget endeavor, playing loud and lively. However, a little of "Psycho Beach Party" goes a long way, and the feature has trouble maintaining manic energy, with obvious dips in inspiration throttling the merriment Busch is eager to summon. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are moments when "La Sapienza" is a hypnotic, gracefully made piece of filmic art, and there are moments when it feels like a parody of one. From writer/director Eugene Green, the feature is a specialized viewing experience that invests in stillness to such a degree, the effort stops moving entirely at times. It's gorgeously made, with absurdly beautiful cinematography by Raphael O'Byrne, but "La Sapienza" is often caught trying to pass as a sophisticated assessment of loneliness and marital connection, intentionally abandoning the human experience to play out like experimental theater, set within the walls of architectural mastery. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com