Re-Animator is a fun horror-comedy from the mid-80s, with enough blood to satisfy gore-hounds, and receives a nice upgrade over its 2012 Blu-ray stocked full of wonderful extras, a few new to this release from Arrow Video, and offering up excellent video and audio transfers.
Stormy Monday is a decent little, and probably little-known, 1980s British crime-drama marking writer/director Mike Figgis’ debut. It features a quad of fine performances headlined by Sting, Sean Bean and Melanie Griffith and a well paced plot.
Doberman Cop wasn’t exactly my kind of movie but it does contain the charms of the 1970s Japanese cinema with some fun cheesiness thrown in for extra measure. This Blu-ray released by Arrow includes some okay bonus features, good video and so-so audio transfers.
Pulse (aka Kairo) is one of the best J-Horror films I’ve seen perhaps only behind Ringu, with its unsettling atmosphere and absolutely creepy-as-all-hell, not to mention disturbing, scenes. It’s also a thought-provoking film which, albeit dated with its technology, still applies today.
The Jacques Rivette Collection might not be the most loaded of Arrow Film’s releases as there are only a few featurettes, but the films included here are quality work and well worthwhile especially for fans of French cinema, or at least unique pieces of films.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage to me isn’t a great giallo movie but is notable being Dario Argento’s feature debut and has great style to it even when character actions aren’t entirely believable. Still, any Argento or giallo fans will get a kick out of this film.
This two-disc release from Arrow Films’ “Arrow Academy” line, Spotlight on a Murderer offers great video and audio transfers but falters a bit in the features department with only an older featurette, though the accompanied booklet is worth a read.
Evil Ed is one quirky but entertainingly bad film and although I really was even aware of it before this Arrow Video release, it apparently does have enough of a following that this set includes a “Special ED-ition Cut” with ~6 more minutes of footage.
Madhouse maybe has a modest following, but being this my first viewing, I found it awfully tedious with little to no thrills not to mention no scares whatsoever, and add in some below average performances, even by 1980s slasher standards, it makes for just a bad movie.
Often funny with plenty of gore for horror-hounds, Brain Damage is plenty of fun though I felt it got on the lengthy side in many instances — the sex scene in particular went on forever — yet the film was entertaining enough.
Cops vs. Thugs is a well made, finely acted crime-drama (with some genuinely humorous moments), that anyone interested in foreign releases would enjoy.
The Climber was an interesting little Italian flick and features a fun performance by lead Joe Dallesandro and although I wasn’t fully involved with the crime-thriller centric story, no doubt any fan of Italian cinema might find it at least interesting.
Admittedly I’m really not a fan of surrealism cinema, not that the ideas go over my head (albeit some do) but often times it comes across pretentious and worse yet, outright dull. Even so, Kiju Yoshida’s visuals are at least something to behold.
Not going out on a limb to say that Donnie Darko is a transformative kind of movie, one that even so many years later still holds up so well and features tremendous performances from most involved.
Caltiki: The Immortal Monster is a quirky 1950s Italian flick that is part silly, part respectable for its effects work that is worthy of watching if only for that aspect, and viewing with friends might make for a fun time.