DVD/Blu-Ray Review
Blu-Ray Review: Five Easy Pieces
During the 1970s, there were a number of great American actors who both captivated cinema audiences and won a string of awards. Jack Nicholson was up there at, or near, the top. There are few who could claim to have had a stronger decade than the New Jerseyan. The likes of One Flew Over the …
Blu-Ray Review: Late Phases
Tales of a werewolf or a wolfman have been part of folklore of European since Medieval times. Indeed, these cursed shapeshifters appeared in historical texts long before then. They’re also a staple of genre cinema, with the likes of An American Werewolf in London, Ginger Snaps and The Howling all held in high regard by …
Blu-Ray Review: Dawn of the Dead
Today, zombies are prevalent in just about every aspect of popular culture. However, whilst shows such as The Walking Dead cemented their place in the mainstream, this hasn’t always been the case. Indeed, whilst they’ve been a feature of genre cinema since Victor Halperin’s White Zombie in 1932, it was George A. Romero’s original trilogy …
Blu-Ray Review: King of New York
There are few actors working in Hollywood today who are as instantly recognisable and steadfastly loved as Christopher Walken. Whilst he’s had a remarkably diverse and rich career, which includes starring in such eclectic films as Hairspray, The Deer Hunter and A View to a Kill, he’s become known for a rather terrifying screen presence. …
Blu-Ray Review: Girlfriends
The 1970s was a time of change and liberalisation in America. Following on from the conservative post-war years, the 1960s opened up a whole new world of opportunity; which continued into the next decade. Feminism began to make waves across the major urban areas, including LA. Hollywood reacted slowly, but it’s a period when several …
Blu-Ray Review: Silent Night, Deadly Night 1 & 2
Whilst Christmas is a time of celebration and family for many, it can also be a truly horrific experience. Especially if you’ve been naughty. In the West we’re brought up with the legend of a benevolent Santa Claus, but that’s not how the smiling bearded figure started out. Indeed, he was initially used as a …
Blu-ray Review: Gemini
Japan is home to the weird, the wonderful and the worrying. It’s probably no surprise that such a traditionally rigid and regimented society has proved to be a catalyst for some of the most creative and audacious art. When it comes to the extreme and the imaginative, very few directors can match Shinya Tsukamoto. Most …
Blu-ray Review: Jeepers Creepers
There’s nothing genre fans seem to love more than a franchise. The bigger, the better. It all started in the 1980s during horror’s golden age. The likes of Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th and Halloween’s popularity resulted in what a cynic might term as ‘cashing in’. Suffice to say, these sequels and prequels are, …
Blu-Ray Review: Eraserhead
There aren’t many film directors who are truly one of a kind. David Lynch sits firmly in this camp. Whilst you often hear something described as ‘Lynchian’, it almost always isn’t. Heck, how many people in the film industry have got their own adjective? Whilst Twin Peaks remains his opus, every film he’s made in …
Blu-Ray Review: Beau Travail
During the past couple of years, a strange thing has happened to Claire Denis. The renowned director of such brilliant films as 35 Shots of Rum, Bastards and White Materials has always been popular and feted on festival circuits, but she now appears to have become the fairy godmother of European arthouse cinema. Whilst a …