Here are my 2017 predictions for SHOUT FACTORY's announcement at Comic Con
From Shout Factory:
ROBIN HOOD: Prince of Thieves (Westchester/Morgan Creek)
HALLELUJAH I'M A BUM (UA/MGM)
EARTHQUAKE (Universal, theatrical and TV cuts)
FUTUREWORLD (Orion/MGM)
From Shout Select:
The BEACH PARTY movies...
Shout Factory has gone upscale with their new release of the Coen brothers Fargo, one of the darkest and funniest films to be added to the noir pantheon of productions, especially in color.
Packaged, quite elegantly, in a Steelbook, that will attract certain collectors, this is a release that's...
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]
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...
I love The Man in the Moon. It's one of the consummate films about growing up, and a child on the edge of adulthood.
It's one of those virtually perfect films, along with the fact that we now have a bit better idea of the talents of that 14 year-old girl, who made her first appearance in...
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
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
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]
The concept of creating a musical entertainment of Cervantes' windmill tilting creation, during the Spanish inquisition, sounds about as likely as a film about a play set in an insane asylum.
As a Hollywood musical, albeit shot in Italy, with Arthur Hiller at the helm, it never seemed to find...
It's a good time to be a Billy Wilder fan.
Both One, Two, Three, as well as The Fortune Cookie arrive at around the same time.
Between the two, came Irma La Douce (not yet released on Blu-ray) and Kiss Me, Stupid, available from Olive.
With The Fortune Cookie, Mr. Wilder created a new team --...
I'll watch anything that involves Billy Wilder.
I'll watch anything that involves James Cagney.
One, Two, Three, a Cold War comedy, is Mr. Cagney's penultimate performance, and it's a doozy. For the production, Mr. Wilder returned to Germany.
This is an easy one.
Buy it. Enjoy it.
The...
Matt Hough
Another Woman Blu-ray Review
Mid-life crisis hits many of us full-on and very hard, and that’s certainly the case in Woody Allen's Another Woman, an outstanding production that presents several characters wrestling with the restlessness and dissatisfaction that can come to those...
Matt Hough
The Fortune Cookie Blu-ray Review
Writer-director Billy Wilder’s view of human nature takes on an even sourer tone in his 1966 comedy The Fortune Cookie.
[review]
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Richard Gallagher
Ride the High Country Blu-ray Review
Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country, one of the cinema's classic westerns, is now available on Blu-ray with a gloriously stunning transfer from the Warner Archive.
[review]
Read more.
Matt Hough
Baby Boom Blu-ray Review
A light romantic farce that goes everywhere you expect it will and goes nowhere you expect it won’t, Charles Shyer’s Baby Boom is a pleasant time passer with just enough of a message to it that it won’t be a turn off to anyone in its audience.
[review]...
Matt Hough
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Blu-ray Review
David Swift's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying emerges as a bright, funny, and slick Big Business satire 1960s style with wryly tuneful songs and enjoyably engaging performances.
[review]
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I'm betting that some readers here may only know Robert Morse as Bertram Cooper of Mad Men.
For those folks, be aware that he's been in the business since the 1950s.
I "discovered" him in late 1961, when I saw the show on Broadway, with he and the legendary Rudy Vallee in the roles they...
Matt Hough
What's the Matter with Helen? Blu-ray Review
The shock machine that brought notoriety and riches to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte was running a bit low on inspiration by the time of Curtis Harrington’s What’s the Matter with Helen?
[review]...
Matt Hough
Chilly Scenes of Winter Blu-ray Review
Annie Hall: meet your kissing cousin: Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter, a bittersweet romantic comedy featuring lovers who meet, have a fun few months together, and part with the male side of the equation desperately and...
Matt Hough
Interiors Blu-ray Review
A fractured family several of whom are on the brink of self-destruction comes into focus in Woody Allen’s stark Interiors.
[review]
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As a Woody Allen film, his 1978 Interiors, was a bit of an anomaly.
It wasn't a comedy, but rather headed in the direction of Ingmar Bergman.
As Julie Kirgo notes in her excellent monograph, Mr. Allen was coming off of Annie Hall, and could do no wrong.
And he didn't.
It's just that...
What fans of the Robocop series receive via Scream Factory's new releases, are quality extras, and quite a few of them.
As far as imagery goes, it's a been there - done that sort of thing, even though Robocop 2 proclaims "a new 2k scan of the interpositive."
There's nothing wrong here, but I...
The original 1982 Poltergeist was a huge hit, and naturally has spawned offspring, and while the children of Poltergeist received neither the reviews nor acclaim of the first, there is a fan base.
This is where Scream Factory enters the fray.
Like any other licensee of MGM product, they could...
Matt Hough
Stanley & Iris Blu-ray Review
Martin Ritt’s Stanley & Iris isn't the masterpiece that tighter, more succinct writing and more intensively portrayed emotions might have made it, but it's a quiet cinematic gem of some dramatic force and containing such beauty that it can't be...
Matt Hough
Comes a Horseman Blu-ray Review
Character building is at the forefront and truly forms the heart of Alan J. Pakula’s Comes a Horseman.
[review]
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Matt Hough
Nicholas Nickleby (2002) Blu-ray Review
One of the greatest of English language novels, Charles Dickens’ The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby comes colorfully to the screen in Douglas McGrath’s 2002 adaptation Nicholas Nickleby.
[review]
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Matt Hough
The Barefoot Contessa Blu-ray Review
A bittersweet tale of a free spirited life brought prematurely to an end leaves a bit of a sour aftertaste in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa.
[review]
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Matt Hough
Stardust Memories Blu-ray Review
There’s the touch of the autobiographical in many of Woody Allen’s films but probably none more so than in Stardust Memories, a philosophical comedy that veers in and out of the surreal but stays rooted in reality long enough to tell an only...