blu-ray reviews

Matt Hough The Bridge at Remagen Blu-ray Review An overlooked action-filled war film which fell midway between the big hits The Longest Day in 1962 and A Bridge Too Far in 1977, John Guillermin’s The Bridge at Remagen deserves to be better known. [review]

Matt Hough The Quiet American Blu-ray Review A gnawingly bitter love triangle and some enigmatic political posturing unfolding against the backdrop of escalating turmoil in 1950s Southeast Asia give Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Quiet American a most unique personality. [review]

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Matt Hough Hell and High Water Blu-ray Review A popcorn thriller from the Hollywood studio years, Samuel Fuller’s Hell and High Water offers underwater submarine face-offs and on land action scenes all in the service of a Cold War scenario that’s even more devious and nihilistic than much...

Matt Hough Ugetsu Blu-ray Review The natural runs headlong into the supernatural in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, one of the most celebrated Japanese films of the postwar period and widely considered to be the best film of Mizoguchi’s long and prolific career. [review]

Richard Gallagher The Stone Killer Blu-ray Review The Stone Killer, an above-average cops and mob film starring Charles Bronson, comes to Blu-ray from Twilight Time with an excellent high-definition transfer courtesy of Sony. [review]

Matt Hough They Live by Night Blu-ray Review Emphasizing its tragic romance rather than its bleak film noir facets, Nicholas Ray’s They Live by Night is one of the very best youth-on-the-run films ever made. [review]

Matt Hough Inspector Clouseau Blu-ray Review Bud Yorkin’s Inspector Clouseau certainly can’t compare to any of the Clouseau efforts starring the legendary Peter Sellers, but on its own it contains enough comic inspiration and a decent enough leading performance to be worth a rental if for...

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Matt Hough Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire Blu-ray Review The fourth in the series of Dragonheart films, this third sequel to the 1996 original feature film, subtitled Battle for the Heartfire, is another made-for-home video effort, well enough done as these things go though no one...

Matt Hough The Man in the Moon Blu-ray Review A poignant coming of age story set in the late 1950s and concerning sisters vying for the attention of the same boy, Robert Mulligan’s The Man in the Moon treads a careful path between straight out romance and family drama. [review]

Matt Hough Who'll Stop the Rain Blu-ray Review The utter disillusionment and nihilistic attitudes that were products of the Vietnam War are quite palpably and violently represented in Karel Reisz’s Who’ll Stop the Rain. [review]

Matt Hough Beauty and the Beast (2017) Blu-ray Review In the midst of Disney’s latest trend of reinvention of its animated properties into live action recreations (Cinderella, The Jungle Book) and reimaginings (Maleficent) comes its most ambitious and invigorating effort yet, Bill Condon’s...

Matt Hough Bambi: Signature Collection Blu-ray Review Of the Disney Big Five (the first five animated features Disney produced beginning with Snow White), Bambi is its supreme masterpiece. [review]

Matt Hough Year of the Comet Blu-ray Review A romantic caper film that’s lighter on the caper and the romance than it should have been, Peter Yates’ Year of the Comet offers charming parts for its two young leads but trips heavily when its footing should be feather light as the battle for a...

Matt Hough The Last Word Blu-ray Review An octogenarian forges a new family for herself in her waning days in Mark Pellington’s The Last Word, an adept if predictable comedy-drama that brings the always welcome Shirley MacLaine back to feature film prominence. [review]

Matt Hough The Man in the Glass Booth Blu-ray Review A scintillating theater piece gets a terrific cinematic treatment in Arthur Hiller’s The Man in the Glass Booth. [review]

Matt Hough The Paradine Case Blu-ray Review The Paradine Case may have offered master director Alfred Hitchcock fewer opportunities for “pure cinema” that he usually applied to the projects he chose to direct, but he nevertheless explores three different troubled marriages in various ways...

Matt Hough One, Two, Three Blu-ray Review Billy Wilder’s frenetic Cold War comedy One, Two, Three is a farce of verbal, rather than physical, slapstick. [review]

Matt Hough Before I Fall Blu-ray Review A Groundhog’s Day for the Young Adult generation with all the attendant meanness, angst, and sarcasm that quite naturally go along with it, Ry Russo-Young’s Before I Fall brings a worthwhile if expectedly familiar bittersweet message to its intended...

Matt Hough Collide Blu-ray Review Eran Creevy’s Collide is a flea-brained action picture with fast-paced stunts and all claims to logic thrown right out the window. [review]

Matt Hough My Life as a Zucchini Blu-ray Review A story of damaged children, their fears and foes, their friends and families: that’s Claude Barras’ My Life as a Zucchini, one of the more delicately handled and bittersweet animated films of this or any other year. [review]

Matt Hough The Great Wall Blu-ray Review A breathtakingly shot but narratively infantile historical fantasy, Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall is a disappointing action adventure spectacle. [review]

Matt Hough Get Out Blu-ray Review A horror movie with deeper sociological implications that are only partially realized, Jordan Peele’s Get Out to its credit strives for more of the psychological horror of The Shining or Rosemary’s Baby rather than the gross-out gore fests of most of...

Richard Gallagher Seven Days in May Blu-ray Review Seven Days in May is a taut, intelligent thriller about an attempted military takeover of the United States government which has been beautifully brought to Blu-ray by the Warner Archive. [review]

Matt Hough The Space Between Us Blu-ray Review A sci-fi teen romance with lots of heart but gaping plot and characterization holes, Peter Chelsom’s The Space Between Us entertains in spite of its many problems. [review]

Matt Hough Heat: Director's Definitive Edition Blu-ray Review Michael Mann’s Heat may concern cops and robbers, but its richness in character exploration and the vividness of its action sequences take it far into another realm of action picture. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough The Young Girls of Rochefort Blu-ray Review The Young Girls of Rochefort, Jacques Demy’s 1967 song-and-dance follow-up to his pop opera The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, didn’t receive the overwhelming acclaim of its predecessor, but time has been kind to this unique French musical...

Matt Hough Mindgamers Blu-ray Review Visionary sci-fi thrillers can be either superb (The Matrix, Ex Machina) or abysmal (Battlefield: Earth); sadly, Andrew Goth’s Mindgamers (originally titled DxM) falls into the latter category: a stupifyingly garbled and uninvolving futuristic adventure...

Richard Gallagher Our Man in Havana Blu-ray Review Our Man in Havana is a droll, entertaining spoof of British Intelligence that is skillfully adapted by Graham Greene from his own novel and directed by Carol Reed. An added pleasure is the wonderful black & white location filming in Cuba by...