DVD/Blu-Ray Review
Blu-Ray Review: Last Year in Marienbad
Very occasionally, a film will come along which defies expectations and logic. A film which plays with the very texture of film and storytelling to create something which is simultaneously ambiguous, perplexing and profound. Between 1959 and 1963 Alain Resnais made three films which all dealt with fragmented memories and clouded history. Whilst both Hiroshima …
Blu-ray Review: Witness for the Prosecution
Whilst Charles Laughton is now probably best-known for the only film he directed, Night of the Hunter, he was a versatile an indominable stage and screen actor. He made over fifty films across five decades and is probably best known for his performances in The Private Life of Henry VIII, Hobson’s Choice, Mutiny on the …
Blu-Ray Review: Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
Whilst the country found itself in a deep depression after defeat in World War II and subsequent occupation, the 1950s is considered to be the golden age of Japanese cinema. Three of the greatest films of all time (Rashomon and Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa and Tokyo Story – Yasujirō Ozu) were released that decade, …
Blu-ray Review: Custody
Divorce or separation is never an easy time for those involved but it’s often the children who suffer the most. It’s all too common for adults to get caught-up in their own personal conflicts and not realise the impact their animosity is having on their loved ones. This is the subject of actor turned director …
Blu-Ray Review: I Vitelloni
Federico Fellini was one of the greatest directors and screenwriters ever to work in Italian cinema. Films such as 8 ½, La Dolce Vita, La Strada and The Night of Cabaria still regularly feature in ‘best-of’ lists and grace special screenings and retrospectives around the world. After beginning his career as an assistant and writer …
DVD Review: The Night Eats The World
Zombies have become big business over the last couple of decades. They seem to have seeped into every nook and cranny of popular culture. Whilst the success of The Walking Dead is possibly partly to blame, that doesn’t really explain the sudden proliferation of films since the turn of the century. The likes of (the) …
Blu-Ray Review: The Crime of Monsieur Lange
Jean Renoir was undoubtedly one of the greats of early cinema and amongst the most influential directors in the history of French film-making. Indeed, two films he made during the 1930s (La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game) are often cited in lists of the greatest works of the period. Renoir was one …
Blu-ray Review: Missing
Most of the history taught in schools around the Cold War centres on tensions between the USA and the USSR and nuclear proliferation. However, the biggest destructive impact of this period was in the proxy wars fought in countries across the globe. Whilst Vietnam and Korea are the most famous examples, both sides were (often …
DVD Review: The Last Warrior
Over the last decade or so Russia has begun to re-position itself on the world stage as a cinematic competitor to China and America. In a similar vein to the Chinese experience, it has found that many things its citizens find commonplace are often viewed as unusual outside its borders. However, that is slowly changing. …
Blu-Ray Review: Jackie Chan’s Police Story and Police Story 2
Whilst the recent footage of Tom Cruise’s accident on the set of Mission Impossible: Fallout may have left a few feeling queasy, he’s by no means the first actor to put himself on the line for his art. No one pushes the boundaries quite like Jackie Chan, who continues to risk life and limb (albeit, …