DVD/Blu-Ray Review
DVD Review: Bad Samaritan
With the recent successes of the likes of The Witch, A Quiet Place, Get Out and It Comes at Night, more and more people have become interested in horror movies. However, there’s still a pretentious sniffiness towards genre cinema in many quarters, with idiotic terms like ‘elevated horror’ or ‘post horror’ bandied about. Films like …
Blu-Ray Review: Night of the Creeps
Some people look to the stars with hope, others with fear. The excitement caused by the ‘Space Race’, which culminated with the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969, inspired a new wave of science fiction writing and film-making. This continued until the end of the Cold War. During the ‘80s horror boom, this fascination transformed …
DVD Review: Dead Night
One of the greatest joys of being a horror fan is that it’s a genre which doesn’t always take itself entirely seriously. Directors often revel in the weird and wonderful, taking extreme liberties with believability and common sense. Take a well-trodden sub-genre and do something entirely ridiculous with it. This is precisely what Brad Baruh …
DVD Review: Eye of the Needle
As well as being very personable and rather charming, Donald Sutherland is a consistently impressive actor. He’s now 83 and has been going strong since the 1960s. It’s mind-blowing to think that he’s never even been nominated for an Oscar (although the Academy have awarded him an honorary gong). Given his performances in films such …
DVD Review: He’s Out There
One of the most underappreciated facets of modern movie-making is that of sound and sound design. Whilst it’s rarely mentioned, especially compared to say cinematography or editing, it can make or break a film. You only need to watch something like Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio or John Krasinski’s A …
Blu-Ray Review: The Collector
Whilst his name may not be as familiar today as some of his contemporaries, there’s absolutely no doubt that you’ll know many of William Wyler’s films. Whether it’s a blockbuster (Ben-Hur), romance (Roman Holiday), drama (The Best Years of our Lives), musical comedy (Funny Girl) or Western (The Big Country). In his 1965 film The …
DVD Review: The Eyes of Orson Welles
There are few, if any, film-makers or cinephiles doing more to promote, enlighten and educate than Mark Cousins. The adopted Northern Irishman was responsible for introducing a whole generation to the delights of outsider cinema in his ‘90s TV series Moviedrome. His documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey re-wrote film history and remains the …
Blu-ray Review: Who Killed Teddy Bear?
Whilst the last century has seen a whirlwind of scientific, technological and medical advances, human ‘evolution’ has been much more sluggish. The recent outing of predators like Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K., along with the #metoo movement, have shown that when it comes to misogyny and everyday sexism we still live in a distinctly patriarchal …
Blu-Ray Review: The Nun
Whilst there will never be a consensus regarding who was the most important or influential director of the French New Wave, there’s no debate about who was the leading lady. Anna Karina is best-known for her work with Jean-Luc Godard. She became his muse, starring in many of his films including Alphaville, A Woman is …
Blu-ray Review: Salvador
One word you would never use to describe Oliver Stone is ordinary. He’s made a reputation for his wild, crazy and testosterone-driven antics, both behind the camera and in real life. Never too far from controversy, his films are often abrasive, angry and purposefully confrontational. The Vietnam War veteran first came to prominence for writing …