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.
Cat People is another weird and certainly unusual cult classic released through Shout’s Scream Factory line. The Blu-ray offers up adequate if not, at least to these eyes, over sharpened picture, and solid lossless audio tracks.
Zulu is an exhilarating war-drama with great performances and incredible cinematography by Stephen Dade.
Titus is most certainly an ambitious film and while I didn’t particularly enjoy it and doubtful I’ll ever revisit it, it’s not a complete waste of time, well worth seeing for Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange.
The Following”: The Complete First Season had plenty of potential with fine performances, a decent enough story but it’s squandered with inept characters and frustrating subplots that are more filler and don’t go anywhere. Still, it’s not a complete waste of time and with only 15 episodes, is at least worth the time commitment.
Vikingdom isn’t a good movie, plain and simple. It’s cheaply done, the acting isn’t anything noteworthy and the story is half-baked. But worse of all, it’s just not that interesting of a movie on the whole and I couldn’t care less about anything or anybody. The DVD released by Epic has an OK amount of features while the audio/video is quite average.
Witchboard is another obscure little horror movie brought to you by Scream Factory and they have certainly put together a nice package with good audio/video transfers a decent amount of features that any fan will enjoy.