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.
costing an astounding $36 million back in 1978/79 (equivalent of over $100 million today), Raise the Titanic is an obscure film that maybe found some form of an audience today but back then was one of the biggest box office flops of all time. And frankly, despite some OK underwater effects and model work, the movie is kind of dull and not terribly well acted.
Getting That Girl isn’t the greatest rom-com but the cast are all well cast, highlighted by Gia Mantegna, and work well with one another even if the script delves into high school cliché territory. The DVD release offers a solo BTS featurette and adequate if not average audio and video transfers.
Blind Date is a fun little romantic-comedy that, with the casting of Bruce Willis, tries to capture the rivalry/romance of “Moonlighting” which was into its second season when this was released in 1987.
Sweetwater is actually not a bad little western/thriller featuring a well-rounded story and, especially, a fantastic crew headlined by January Jones, Ed Harris and Jason Isaacs who each give near-phenomenal performances.
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is yet another solid release by Twilight Time and a coup for fans of the fantasy series
Mischief Night is your typical and cheap direct-to-video horror movie with nothing new to offer although I did find star Noell Coet to be one of the few highlights, so hopefully she finds better material in the future. The DVD released by RLJ Entertainment isn’t overly impressive with merely adequate video/audio transfers and a forgettable bonus feature.
This direct-to-video sequel to a movie I frankly barely heard of and never seen, actually wasn’t bad. Despite a kind of lame subtitle, Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear isn’t a bad movie with well choreographed fight scenes and on the whole a nicely framed picture from director Isaac Florentine.
Royal Flash is a fun adventure-comedy with what is a deplorable central character but played so perfectly by the energetic and personable Malcolm McDowell, though from my reading, fans of the novel weren’t overly thrilled with the adaptation.