blu-ray reviews

Matt Hough Marshall Blu-ray Review An early case in the career of pioneering NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall makes Reginald Hudlin’s Marshall worth seeing even if the courtroom theatrics and the drama therein never reaches explosive or truly memorable heights. [review]

Matt Hough Wuthering Heights (1970) Blu-ray Review Emily Bronte’s Gothic romance returns to the screen in Robert Fuest’s 1970 version of Wuthering Heights, an expensive color production that sadly lacks the atmosphere and intimately chilling, dysfunctional interpersonal relationships that...

Matt Hough Forever Amber Blu-ray Review Otto Preminger’s Forever Amber offers us the mostly sanitized highlights from Kathleen Winsor's overheated novel with the title character making some mighty societal leaps so that she’s eventually a fit consort for the King of England. [review]

Matt Hough The Hospital Blu-ray Review A chaotic comedy of errors courtesy of the satirical pen of playwright Paddy Chayefsky, Arthur Hiller’s The Hospital is part personal drama and part lunatic comedy with a dash of murder mystery tossed in for good measure. [review]

Matt Hough Alice (1990) Blu-ray Review Woody Allen takes another stab at surreal character exploration with Alice, a sort of kissing cousin to the magical events that unfold in his masterpiece The Purple Rose of Cairo. [review]

Matt Hough Tomorrow Is Forever Blu-ray Review A pre-World War II domestic melodrama with fathers and sons and a mother caught in the middle of their views toward the upcoming war, Irving Pichel’s Tomorrow Is Forever offers appealing leading performances and views of a couple of future stars...

Matt Hough Brad's Status Blu-ray Review It used to be called “mid-life crisis,” but more modern sociologists have now deemed it “status anxiety”; in either case, it’s the focus of Mike White’s existential dramedy Brad’s Status. [review]

Matt Hough The Stolen Blu-ray Review A young, naïve new mother must brave alien territory and duplicitous strangers to locate her kidnapped infant in Niall Johnson’s The Stolen. [review]

Richard Gallagher The Pirates of Blood River Blu-ray Review The Pirates of Blood River is a somewhat curious entry from Hammer Films which stars the inimitable Christopher Lee as an eyepatch-wearing cutthroat. It has arrived on Blu-ray with a typically excellent high-definition transfer...

Matt Hough Victoria & Abdul Blu-ray Review Victoria & Abdul is a delightfully executed biographical portrait of two individuals whose mutual admiration brought them both pleasure and pain. [review]

Todd Erwin Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season Blu-ray Review The abbreviated seventh season of HBO's popular Game of Thrones manages to strategically set all the pieces into play for the upcoming final season's showdown between Westeros and the White Walkers. [review]

Matt Hough Home Again Blu-ray Review After doing award-winning caliber work on television’s Big Little Lies this past season, it’s somewhat disheartening to see the talented Reese Witherspoon succumb to such a generic, marshmallowy romantic comedy like Hallie Meyers-Shyer's Home Again...

Continue reading...

Matt Hough Bananas Blu-ray Review It may be haphazard and fundamentally absurd, but Woody Allen’s Bananas still packs a massive comedy punch. [review]

Matt Hough Sayonara Blu-ray Review A measuredly-paced look at interracial romantic entanglements amid the bigotry of the post-World War II era in Japan, Joshua Logan’s Sayonara captures both the comic and tragic sides of the story spread among six or seven major characters in a beautifully...

Richard Gallagher Battle Cry Blu-ray Review Battle Cry, a sprawling but sanitized adaptation of the best-selling novel by Leon Uris, arrives on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive in glorious high-definition. [review]

Continue reading...

Matt Hough Logan Lucky Blu-ray Review Going for a hillbilly variation on his own Oceans Eleven, director Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky doesn’t quite manage to pull off the same kind of inspired caper film, but it boasts a fair share of downhome humor and a brace of amusing cameo...

Continue reading...

Matt Hough Holiday Inn: 75th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review A sure cure for what ails you, Mark Sandrich’s Holiday Inn is one of the classics of Hollywood’s golden age of musicals. [review]

Matt Hough Birth of the Dragon Blu-ray Review While ostensibly about Bruce Lee’s transition from master of Wing Chun kung fu to a new fighting style called Jeet Kune Do, the genesis of today’s mixed martial arts, Birth of the Dragon only gives us some of the backstory of two fascinating...

Matt Hough Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You Blu-ray Review Attempting to craft a holiday tale that could rank with The Grinch, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and A Charlie Brown Christmas as Christmas perennials, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You presents a...

Matt Hough The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature Blu-ray Review It’s the sweet, uncomplicated critters versus mercenary mankind in Cal Brunker’s The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, a frenzied, almost hyperactive comic animated adventure. [review]

Matt Hough Patti Cake$ Blu-ray Review Suffused from beginning to end with rap both sensitive and profane, Geremy Jasper’s Patti Cake$ makes the most of its familiar show-biz wannabe narrative complete with ingratiating performances and a production that’s as authentic in look and feel as a...

Matt Hough He Walked by Night: Special Edition Blu-ray Review He Walked by Night brings a slightly modified true crime story to the screen with a mesmerizing lead performance and action so fascinatingly taut and realistically mounted that it’s impossible not to get caught up in the action...

Matt Hough Ingrid Goes West Blu-ray Review Meant to be a black comic examination of the current social media generation who must document its entire life on-line for all the world to see, Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West is more depressing than revelatory, its leading character a charmless...

Matt Hough Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Review If the original Home Alone left you wanting more of the same, you should find Home Alone 2: Lost in New York exactly what the doctor ordered: a rehash of the original film with bigger, dirtier ambushes on display...

Matt Hough Captain from Castile Blu-ray Review Historical fiction on an epic scale, Henry King’s Captain from Castile offers a lush production and a host of stars enacting the personal story of a fugitive from the 16th century Spanish Inquisition told against the backdrop of Hernando...

Matt Hough Wild Bill Blu-ray Review As with so many legendary personalities from the Old West, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction when trying to tell their singular stories, and that’s certainly the case with Walter Hill’s boisterous and somewhat unfocused Wild Bill. [review]

Continue reading...