Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
No Escape is an all around entertaining film perfect for a Saturday movie night. No, it doesn’t make you think or have any profound performances but the acting isn’t bad with Owen Wilson serving as a fine everyman type of character and Pierce Brosnan in his small part is a lot of fun. This is probably worthy of a rental.
Léon: The Professional is a masterpiece of work from Luc Besson and is easily my favorite and most emotion-filled film to date. The performances by Jean Reno (who deserved an Oscar nomination), Natalie Portman and Gary Oldman were all fantastic in their own distinctive ways and it’s just an all around well made flick with good mixture of drama and suspense.
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Dangerous Game is an uneven and quite frankly frenetic film that happens to have some strong performances especially from Harvey Keitel that it keeps it from being a complete turkey. The Blu-ray released by Olive Films is rather limited with only a trailer and average-to-adequate video and audio transfers.
Scorpio had the ingredients to be a fun espionage thriller but instead it meanders and never fully comes together in spite of solid performances by Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon. The Blu-ray released by Twilight Time offers good video and audio transfers but falls short in the features department, though the commentary isn’t bad.
Where Deadly Prey was so bad its good, Deadliest Prey is just plain bad and could really be considered a remake with a very similar plot and generally the same shots (not to mention virtually the same type of opening credits). Perhaps others might get something out of this turkey, I myself will never revisit it.
Deadly Prey is one of the best bad movies ever made and if it were only that, I’d give it a better rating but most everything on this release was terrible. The video had almost a VHS quality to it and the audio is limited. There are some bonus material so it’s not a complete dud but considering the price, it’s a tad steep and only worth it at a bargain bin cost.
Far from perfect, Man from U.N.C.L.E still has some entertainment value thanks more for the cast including Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer combined with the direction by Guy Ritchie unleashing the cool factor in droves with the 1960s style, rather than with the story.
Broken Lance is a well made studio Western from the 1950s that features, no surprise, top notch performances most notably Spencer Tracy. The shooting locales and production design is commendable to go along with Leigh Harline’s score, which is available as an isolated track.
The Final Girls is one of the better surprises of 2015 with some clever writing, a fun plot device and some unexpectedly genuine moments with the mother-daughter storyline. The Blu-ray has a fair amount of features especially the two commentary tracks and the video and audio transfers are more than adequate for the genre.
Fatherland isn’t great but the performance from lead actor Gerulf Griffiths wasn’t bad and the story at least held some interest. That said, this really isn’t my cup of tea but might be worth checking out at some point. The Blu-ray released by Twilight Time offers so-so video/audio transfers and sadly no bonus material to peruse.
The Fifth Element is a mixed bag of a film with some great flare and style but then you add in Chris Tucker and his obnoxious character to balance all that good out. On the plus side, Gary Oldman, as outlandish as his character is, is a lot of fun to watch and Milla Jovovich provides a nice spark.
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Bad Boys I & II is another bang-bang series from Michael Bay and although I disliked the sequel, the original at least is enjoyable enough. The pairing of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence offers fun chemistry between the two and the action scenes are at least unique in some sense although done to death by Bay himself to the point where you’re not sure if you’re watching Bad Boys or Transformers.
Tinto Brass isn’t a filmmaker for everybody and in my small sampling of his films that have been released on Blu-ray, its apparent I’m not as enamored with him compared with others. The Voyeur is no different but it does have interesting cinematography. However, this Blu-ray release has substandard video, average audio and limited number of bonus features.
Sense & Sensibility is a well made adaptation of the Jane Austen classic headlined by a stellar cast but especially Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant and is well worth watching as it has its heartfelt but funny moments. The Blu-ray released by Twilight Time has good video and audio transfers and a fine selection of bonus material.
Shadows and Fog is one of the more forgotten films in Woody Allen’s repartee and for the most part, it’s not a bad little comedy though it is typical Allen in terms of his performance and writing. Clearly it’s nowhere near the quality of Manhattan or Annie Hall, or more recently Midnight in Paris, but it might be worth a watch.