DVD Talk Collector Series Submarine movies come in all shapes and sizes, from the highs of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and The Enemy Below (1957, really half a submarine movie) to the depths of Hellcats of the Navy (1957, not nearly as bad as its reputation) and the absurdities of Atomic Submarine (1960). But Ren Cl ment’s The Damned (1947) is the most authentic submarine movie I’ve ever …
DVD Talk Collector Series One of the real finds on Blu-ray this year is The Disappearance (1977), a heretofore almost impossible to see Canadian-British co-production starring Donald Sutherland as an assassin-for-hire whose effectiveness is compromised when his wife inexplicably disappears. Despite handsome production values and a top-flight cast of Canadian and British actors, actor-turned …
Skip It THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution. If you’re going to shoot a “found footage” movie in 2013, you better have a damn good reason for doing so. I’m not against this cinematic trick sparked by The Blair Witch Project in 1999, but I am against lazy, nauseating filmmaking.
Recommended The Film : The story of Thor Heyerdahl’s 5,000-mile expedition across the open seas on a wooden raft has already been visualized by a trustworthy source: himself, in his Oscar-nominated documentary from the late-’40s.
Highly Recommended I don’t know why it takes me so long to follow certain TV shows (other than not having cable, of course). Season One of The Walking Dead sat unwrapped on my shelf for close to a year before I finally cracked it open, thanks to my consistent lack of free time and standard reviewing obligations. It didn’t take me long to tear through all six episodes and I quickly snapped up …
Highly Recommended THE MOVIE: Please Note: The stills used here are taken from promotional materials and other sources, not the Blu-ray edition under review. I am not sure what is more disturbing: James Cagney’s performance as the sociopathic gangster Ralph Cotter in the 1950 film Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye or the fact that Phil Spector was allegedly watching the movie in his limo the night he shot …
Rent It The Movie: The latest film from the animated wing of 20th Century Fox is Epic , following in the wings of similarly one word-titled animated films full of adventure, wonder and bravado. But just how well this film measures to the recent crop of similar ones in the genre remained to be seen for me until I finally experienced the slightly hyperbolic Epic on Blu-ray. So time to crack open …
Rent It THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution. The road to adapting Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel “On the Road” for the screen was filled with potholes and began several decades ago when the author courted Marlon Brando for the lead role of Beat generation drifter Dean Moriarty. Brando expressed little interest in the part, and Francis Ford Coppola eventually …
Recommended The Movie: For a while there in the late ’70s and very early ’80s, American pop culture was in the grips of deja vu: the cinemas offered Grease and The Buddy Holly Story , Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley had us in stitches, and seemingly every other song on the radio was a smoothed-out Golden Oldie (thanks for nothing, Linda Ronstadt). Somehow lost in this poodle-skirted shuffle was …
Rent It THE FILM Please Note: The images used here are photos provided by Sony Pictures Classics and do not directly reflect the picture quality of the Blu-ray edition under review. Without a doubt, writer/director Ramin Bahrani ( Chop Shop , Goodbye Solo ) has a head on his shoulders and a thoughtful engagement with the impact of our social, political, cultural, and economic climate and its …