Highly Recommended THE FILM: Please Note: The screen captures used here are taken from promotional materials provided by Sony Pictures Classics, not the Blu-ray edition under review. It happens to the best of them, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m talking about the “maturing” of some prominent, long-running filmmakers–John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, David Cronenberg–who started out as …
Highly Recommended As sometimes happens, I’m reviewing the British (and Irish) mystery series George Gently (2007-present) out of sequence. I examined Series 2 , a DVD release, in May 2010, and then took a gander at Series 3 , on Blu-ray, in June 2011
Rent It Adapting Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name, which had been released earlier that same year, Disclosure (1994) is a somewhat better than one might expect.
Highly Recommended THE MOVIE: Please Note: The stills used here are taken from the film’s promotional materials, not the Blu-ray edition under review. An expedition of four enters the Siberian wilderness.
Highly Recommended THE SHOW: Please Note: The stills used here are taken from the series’ promotional materials, not the Blu-ray edition under review. I’ve been known to complain from time to time how, every Thursday night, my Twitter feed fills up with quotes from NBC’s comedy line-up. Every other tweet ends up being someone repeating a line from that evening’s 30 Rock , Parks & Recreation , or …
Highly Recommended Don’t read this review of Princess Jellyfish . I mean it! Watch a couple of (completely legal and legitimate!) episodes on YouTube , then run out and buy this DVD/Blu-ray combo pack
Skip It Entering the picture to James Bond-style guitar riffs, and quickly dispensing of a few nobodies without messing up his nice suit or slick shades, there’s no question that Mandrill (Marko Zaror) is a cool character in the mind of director/writer Ernesto D az Espinoza. The mind of the viewer is another story. Zaror is a talented martial artist with some eye-popping moves in his arsenal …
Highly Recommended THE FILM: Please Note: The screen captures used here are taken from the standard-definition 2005 DVD edition , not the new Blu-ray release under review. Although M has to be my favorite Fritz lang film, period, and I wouldn’t give up Metropolis or Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler for anything, there is a part of me that’s tempted to concur with the critic Dave Kehr’s assertion that …
Skip It For most, a photograph of this new Underworld: The Essential Collection box will be all the review they’ll need: it’s the same discs, cases, and content made available with these guilty pleasure flicks since the first days of the Blu-ray format, only equipped with a limp, inessential bonus disc and a snazzy box to give it some gusto. I say most because, unless I’m incorrect, the majority …
Recommended THE PROGRAM: Please Note: The screen captures used here are taken from promotional images provided by PBS, not the Blu-ray edition under review. It is both disturbing and unsurprising that The American Experience: Clinton , the recent PBS documentary on the multiple rises and falls of our 42nd president, plays like a melodrama that makes frequents dips into soap opera before righting …