I don’t mind admitting Chicago is an amazing musical that holds up just as well today as it did 10 years ago and still deserving of its 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture. The performances, both in acting and singing, from Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere are astounding not to mention Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly also turn in wonderful performances.
“Dallas”: The Complete Second Season is another solid year of great drama and some fantastic acting most notably from the late great Larry Hagman who unfortunately only had a few episodes before his passing. The DVD released by Warner Brothers has some good bonus material and the audio/video transfers are both well done.
Sorority Party Massacre fails in almost all phases from the title itself, the casting, acting and direction. I understand what the filmmakers were going after, mixing different movies and genres but it doesn’t mesh well enough, unfortunately because it did have the opportunity to be the fun kind of bad movie instead of just plain bad.
The praise for Million Dollar Baby might have waned over the years and upon its release got its fair share of spoofs, but 8 years later I still loved just about every minute of it even if it’s as depressing as all hell.
Stop-Loss is a well made war-drama featuring several fine performances from Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum. I wasn’t floored by the film and it doesn’t even compete with the best war movies and it doesn’t possess much replay value, but it might be worth a watch.
A Chorus Line certainly has its fans and detractors with the latter angered at how it was adapted and although I’ve never seen the stage play, I can’t say I’d blame them as it’s not a very well made musical, though the opening musical number was catchy and some of the performances from the stage players weren’t bad.
Death Wish is quintessential 1970s crime and grit and with the performance of Charles Bronson makes it a classic in its own right. It’s a fairly thought-provoking flick as well about vigilante justice and its effect on society though even on that front, its skin deep.
Two Weeks Notice isn’t the most memorable romantic-comedy or anything but Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock share good chemistry together even if the story is a bit thin. The catalog Blu-ray released by Warner ports over all of the features from the DVD and offers a moderate upgrade in both the picture and audio.
City of Angels has some cheesy moments and Nic Cage early on doesn’t quite exude leading man who can act creepy yet still nab pretty (and smart) surgeon, but once you get beyond that, the story mostly works and somehow Cage and Ryan share good on-screen chemistry.
Darkman is a cheesy but really fun throwback to the B-movie horror days of Hollywood. Liam Neeson is wonderful and turns in a great performance considering the amount of make-up he had to work under while Sam Raimi, far from perfect direction, shows what would come with his Spider-Man franchise.
Twilight Time has another wonderful Blu-ray release on their hands with a fantastic restoration for both the video (especially amazing) and audio that any fan of Khartoum will hopefully appreciate.
The Shadow had plenty of potential but thanks to budgetary constraints and a screenplay that probably could’ve used a polish, that’s all this film is left with. But now 20 years later, it receives new life on Blu-ray to the point hopefully it finds a new audience and Hollywood takes another stab considering the advancement in visual effects with value to the dollar.
Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is one of the best documentaries made on a single franchise cutting through the typical back-slapping you tend to get with interviews and instead there was honesty about the flaws the movies had, difficulties filming and how the franchise ultimately built New Line Cinema.
Man in the Dark is not the best film noir or anything but it kept my attention for its 70-minute duration, though I’d hardly recommend it especially for fans of the genre.
Big Sur is a solid drama featuring great performances, particularly from Jean-Marc Barr while the cinematography and score are both absolutely beautiful. The DVD released by Ketchup Entertainment is pretty minimal with good audio/video transfers but limited in the bonus feature arena.