a few words about

No joking about this release. Dead-on Perfect in every detail. Gorgeous 4k imagery, superb audio in Dolby Atmos. An incredibly nuanced job by all concerned toward one of the most beautifully produced 4k releases of the year. Everyone needs a copy! And for those who don't know, time to read...

Possibly I'm just not a Lovecraft fan, although I find Arthur Machen's work very interesting. Different tones. Richard Stanley's Color out of Space was recommended to me, and I've viewed the 4k, which is a lovely 4k release. It's the film, or possibly the screenplay that the problem...

Cinema memories are a bit akin to muscle memory, especially as viewed through the aforementioned fog of time. It was my memory, having not seen the film since the Blu-ray was released eleven years ago (it was released twenty-two years ago), that it was a superb retelling of the zorro legend...

For The Invisible Man, Blumhouse, in league with director Leigh Whannell, goes beyond base genre, and has created a beautifully re-invented version of the 1933 Universal classic of the same name, starring Claude Rains, as directed by James Whale, from the novel by H.G. Wells. Elizabeth Moss...

Warner's latest addition to their 4k home theater library is just for fun. I make no claims to understanding the permutations and combinations of the DC Universe, any more than I do that Marvel. It's a full time job. But this is Ms Quinn's backstory. Over at rogerebert.com Christy Lemire...

“Can’t act; slightly bald; can dance a little…” What an extraordinarily wonderful occurrence. A three-strip Technicolor production making its way to Blu-ray, appearing to perfectly mimic the look of three-strip Technicolor - one of only seven that Warner released in 1948. In this case, a...

I generally read reviews after I see a film, as I prefer to go in cold. My go-to is usually a combination of the trades, NY Times and Roger Ebert. For this one, Roger was absolutely on track. Go here: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/days-of-thunder-1990 Day of Thunder is an entertaining...

For fans of lycanthropy, and who isn't a fan of lycanthropy, a film far more violent and in one's face than the Universal horror films of the past. Based upon the novel The Werewolf of Paris by black-listed writer, Guy Endore, it became one of the more notorious Hammer Horrors, decimated by...

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I had no idea what I was going to be seeing when I popped Shout Factory's new 4k release of D-Day in my player. My intention was to watch ten or fifteen minutes and get an overview. That didn't occur. This production, and the resultant 4k release, are so good, that 43 minutes later, I was...

Robert Mulligan made some wonderful films, and while the 1965 production Inside Daisy Clover isn't one of his best, it's an interesting little film. 27 year-old Natalie Wood plays 15 year-old Daisy, and it works. At that ripe old age this was her 38th film. Rebel was her 23rd. It's your...

The Mystery of the Wax Museum is a restoration success story - literally a film returned to life from the ashes. A 1933 two-color Technicolor horror/thriller, and the basis for the 1953 House of Wax, survived for decades only via a well-used 35mm nitrate print found in Mr. Warner's vault. Now...

Adrian Lyne's Flashdance opened on April 15, 1983, to generally disastrous reviews. It was based upon' the life of Maureen Marder, construction worker / stripper. Fortunately, for me, I'd not read them. Saw it in a theater, and loved it. A 20 year-old young woman, stuck in a decaying...

John Sturges' The Great Escape was a July 4th gift to cinema-lovers. Based upon actual events, as lived by the author of the source book, Paul Brickhill, it's one of the finest, most stirring, and patriotic films concerning World War II. It was filmed in Germany, in 1962, by cinematographer...

Here's a bona fide classic Universal title from Criterion. The wonderful classic from 1939, Destry Rides Again. James Stewart taking second billing to Marlene Dietrich, as directed by George Marshall, who'd been working in film since 1915. One for the ages, so just grab a copy. It's a new...

I've been waiting for this one. A true gangster comedy. Actually, more than that. In all its 4k - it's Real 4k - glory, this release from Universal is more like the Citizen Kane of gangster films. With a wonderful cast -- Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Michele Dockery, Jeremy Strong...

Without a doubt, Paramount's 1933 Alice in Wonderland is one of the strangest films to come from the studio during that era. It is known from contemporary interviews, that the author, Charles Dodgson, known as Lewis Carroll, had always wanted his books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the...

Not too many 5s from these quarters lately, so it gives me a huge pleasure to bring your attention to a superb film, and one of Kirk Douglas' best. Lone are the Brave, 1962, in glorious black & white. A few months ago, I was thrilled to be able to screen Universal's gorgeous new 4k restoration...

Never was a Presley fan, but I can understand and respect those who were. He was a pop singer in the '50s, and '60s, before hitting Vegas in the '70s. Between 1956 and 1969, he appeared in over twenty feature films Fox, M-G-M, Paramount and indies. King Creole, a 1958 Paramount production, is...

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Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, a 1951 fantasy directed by Albert Lewin, is an interesting film. Photographed by Jack Cardiff, it's also (or has been in the past) a beautiful film. Because of this, and a discussion I had with Ray Rohauer, (the source for the Cohen library) aeons ago, I...

I can think of few films in which the characters are anywhere near as dislikable as those in Sweet Bird of Youth. Tennessee Williams had a way with such characters. As directed by the wonderfully literate Richard Brooks, this Broadway transplant, almost loses it's studio trappings, but never...

Sumptuous. Glowing. Golden. The way to view Warner Archive's beautiful new Reflections in a Golden Eye is definitely as the filmmaker intended. Wonderful film. Spectacular Blu-ray presentation. It is acknowledged that Mr. Huston (son of Texas Sam Huston) liked to play with color and...

Looking for a thriller to screen - Hitchcock would be a good bet. Something cerebral - possibly Wyler, Mankiewicz Westerns - Ford, Hawks And for a modern production with an accent on sports, Ron Shelton isn't a bad way to go. I'd not seen his 1996 Tin Cup since it appeared theatrically, but...

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Return of the Jedi is either the third or sixth film in the Star Wars series, dependent upon how one perceives it. Regardless, you all know the storyline. The new 4k UHD / HDR release from Disney is just fine. Has grain been managed? Of course, but it looks fine. Possibly because of it, one...

Based upon the novel by Robert Ward, who used actual characters toward "my personal interpretation of our oldest romantic legends, one which, despite all or progress, live on in the hearts of most Americans." Occurring at the end of the era that we would consider the "old west," producers Alan...

Hitchcock, Lloyd, Keaton, Hawks, Wyler, Wellman... Victor Halperin? Not a name that generally arises in discussions of the cinema, and yet in one arena, he's legendary, most probably based upon the slightly lower budgeted production he directed just before he did Supernatural for Paramount...

Ernst Lubitsch has a very special place in cinema history. Working his way through acting (Max Reinhardt) and filmmaking in Germany during the silent era, his career in the Colonies began in 1923, directing Mary Pickford in Rosita. Over the years, he became known for a certain sensibility -...

I've always had an appreciation for the British cinema, and aeons ago had a friend, Al Kilgore, who was a major collectors of 16mm prints of the greatest films to be seen. As I recall, it was Al who loaned me a print of Outcast of the Islands, directed by Carol Reed, and released in 1951...