blu-ray reviews

Matt Hough Pretty Poison Blu-ray Review There’s a soft, dreamy quality embedded in the psychotic and murderous foundation at the heart of Noel Black’s Pretty Poison. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough Children of Divorce Blu-ray Review Children of Divorce, Frank Lloyd’s 1927 melodrama of thwarted loves amid the privileged, may have a story that reeks of early 20th century romantic twaddle, but it features two of the late silent era’s most noteworthy stars: Clara Bow and Gary...

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Matt Hough The Boston Strangler Blu-ray Review The Boston Strangler is Richard Fleischer’s masterful 1968 examination into the serial killings and subsequent investigation of the infamous thirteen-victim murder spree which terrified Bostonians and some of the rest of America for almost two...

Matt Hough I Want to Live! Blu-ray Review I Want to Live!, Robert Wise’s riveting docudrama about the life of convicted murderer Barbara Graham, only gets more impressive with age. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough Kicks Blu-ray Review The theft of personal property leads to a startling coming-of-age story set in urban California ghettos in Justin Tipping’s Kicks. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Blu-ray Review There is a reason most television situation comedies don’t go the feature film route: often the eccentricities that seem so charming and funny on the small screen in half hour chunks get a bit overwhelming, predictable, and numbing...

Matt Hough Don't Think Twice Blu-ray Review “Dying is easy; comedy is hard” so the saying goes, but for many of the members of the improv troupe at the nucleus of Mike Birbiglia’s Don’t Think Twice, it’s living that’s hard, at least making a living doing comedy. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough The BFG Blu-ray Review Steven Spielberg's The BFG, a precocious fantasy set in the early 1980s, contains the magic and mirth that have come to be associated with the filmmaker at his most playful and child-like. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough Eliminators Blu-ray Review The WWE Studios' formula of stalk and fight action scenarios for its home video feature films continues cheerily along with James Nunn’s Eliminators. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough Jason Bourne Blu-ray Review Things return to familiar turf for star Matt Damon and his Jason Bourne director of choice Paul Greengrass after almost a decade away from the franchise, and audiences expecting the usual formula aren’t likely to be disappointed. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough Pete's Dragon (2016) Blu-ray Review A heartwarming family adventure fantasy, David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon takes some characters and situations from Disney’s own 1977 musical fantasy and fashions a new story more in tune with 21st century sensibilities. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough The Secret Life of Pets Blu-ray Review A mistake-prone walk in the park brings forth a day of riotous adventure and near-death experiences for two pooch adversaries in Illumination International’s The Secret Life of Pets. [review] Read more.

Matt Hough Hands of Stone Blu-ray Review In a career that spanned thirty-four years and championships in four different weight classifications, Roberto Durán holds a special place in boxing history. It's a shame that Jonathan Jakubowicz's Hands of Stone isn't better able to elaborate on the...

Matt Hough Kubo and the Two Strings Blu-ray Review Familial love which offers the powers of healing and memory forms the basis of Travis Knight’s Kubo and the Two Strings, a combination stop motion-CG animated fable that’s always beautiful to look at, often exciting to experience, but...

Matt Hough The Best of Cinerama Blu-ray Review Produced as a stopgap measure for Cinerama theaters awaiting the arrival of MGM’s The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won, The Best of Cinerama compiles memorable moments from the five produced Cinerama travelogues...

matt-hough Daisy Kenyon Blu-ray Review Not the typical women’s picture of the era even with Joan Crawford in the title role, Otto Preminger’s Daisy Kenyon spends just as much quality time examining the troubled men in this sophisticated triangle relationship as it does its conflicted...

matt-hough The House on 92nd Street Blu-ray Review The first American espionage film produced after World War II, Henry Hathaway’s The House on 92nd Street combines elements of documentary, melodrama, and film noir into a most unique cinematic creation. [review] Click here to read the...

matt-hough Finding Dory Blu-ray Review With its funny and touching story this time focusing on the blue tang with short term memory loss, Finding Dory takes some of the best elements from Finding Nemo and adds some delightful new characters all sharing in Dory’s various adventures on the...

matt-hough Boomerang Blu-ray Review A striking, fact-based story of murder treated in a more strident fashion and less as a thriller or melodrama, Elia Kazan's Boomerang’s very tone places it in its own rather rarefied atmosphere along with such other docudrama-based noirs as Call Northside...

matt-hough Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D Blu-ray Review Seven months ago when J. J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered on Blu-ray, there were many disappointed fans who weren’t going to be able to relive their 3D theatrical experience in their homes since Disney was only...

matt-hough I Wake Up Screaming Blu-ray Review I Wake Up Screaming is a first-rate film noir: a murder mystery with top-flight actors, an intriguing story, and solid direction to put it across. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend Blu-ray Review Tastes in comedy certainly vary from person to person, so it’s possible that Preston Sturges’ The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend may be more your cup tea than it was mine. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Boxcar Bertha Blu-ray Review In his second feature film Boxcar Bertha, director Martin Scorsese attempts to bring a kind of Bonnie and Clyde vibe to a rather uninteresting true story of depression life. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough The Train: Encore Edition Blu-ray Review A riveting and sadly under-appreciated World War II caper adventure made with great intelligence and heart behind the filmmaking, John Frankenheimer’s The Train holds its own with all films based on events coming from that conflict...

matt-hough Runaway Train Blu-ray Review Andrei Konchalovsky’s tough-as-nails prison escape picture Runaway Train is a thriller of rare and curiously majestic tone, quite a surprise coming from the Cannon Group which usually packaged cheap exploitation pictures of no great merit. [review]...

matt-hough Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte Blu-ray Review An effective exercise in Southern Gothic mystery and suspense, Robert Aldrich’s Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte carries with it the patina of award-winning participants both before and behind the camera, sweeping one up in its deliciously...

matt-hough Nine Lives Blu-ray Review Family comedies that take a workaholic father figure and open his eyes to the world that’s passing him by through some supernatural means are a fairly common commodity, and there’s certainly nothing special about Barry Sonnenfeld’s Nine Lives, a banal...

richard-gallagher On Dangerous Ground Blu-ray Review Nicholas Ray, one of the most interesting film directors of the mid-twentieth century, has been treated well by the Blu-ray gods of late. Criterion released a beautiful Blu-ray of In a Lonely Place in May, and more recently we were...

matt-hough Anthropoid Blu-ray Review Dealing with a momentous if little known incident in the history of the Czech resistance during World War II, Sean Ellis’ Anthropoid emerges as a docudrama of great and affecting quality. [review] Click here to read the original article.