DVD/Blu-Ray Review
DVD Review – Too Late Blues (Masters of Cinema)
John Cassavetes was a pioneer of American independent film, and despite making such classics as A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Faces and Love Streams, he did spend a short period of his early career working within the Hollywood studio system. Too Late Blues is his second film, and the …
Blu-Ray Review: Harold and Maude (Masters of Cinema)
You’re unlikely to see a more perfect opening sequence than the beautiful beginning of Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude. Along with sublime musical accompaniment from Cat Stevens, it perfectly sets the scene to this offbeat American love story between two of life’s outsiders. Introverted and obsessed by death, Harold (Bud Cort) lives an unhappy yet …
Blu-Ray Review – Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
“It’s going to take a dead man to save the country…from a death merchant’s dream of destruction!” The 80s was an odd decade, but it was a high point for action films. John Rambo, John McClane, Riggs, Indiana Jones, Jack Burton and Chuck Norris (he needs no character) are all household names, but chances are …
DVD Review: Goal of the Dead
With all the World Cup excitement it seems as thought football has been dominating most people’s lives over the last few weeks. Football fans are sometimes perceived as mindless idiots, but in Goal of the Dead directors Thierry Poiraud and Benjamin Rocher take that slur to another level. Paris are headed to play an end …
DVD Review: Pulp: A Film about Life, Death and Supermarkets
Whilst most of the band prefer shopping at Waitrose, Pulp: A Film about Life, Death and Supermarkets feels more like Morrisons fayre than its up-market sibling. Florian Habicht’s film is perfectly affable and enjoyable to a point, but suffers from having an identity crisis; caught between a concert film and straight documentary. It ends up …
Blu-ray Review: Absentia
There are a depressingly large amount of uninspiring, lazy and just plain bad horror films made. The proliferation of cheap technology has made it progressively easier for anyone to have a go at making films on a small budget. Absentia was funded though Kickstarter and cost a mere $70,000, and whilst there’s some interesting ideas …
DVD Review: The Night is Young
With the release of Mauvais Sang (oddly named The Night is Young for English speaking audiences), Leos Carax confirmed his place as one of France’s most inventive and creative young directors, and a leading light in the Cinema du look movement. It’s beautifully inventive and creative, moving away from the imitation of Boy Meets Girl …
DVD Review: Generation Iron
Sometimes, from seemingly out of nowhere, a documentary really takes me by surprise. I’m really not a fan of bodybuilding and quite frankly can’t fathom why people would want to do it. Back in 1977 Pumping Iron first shed light on the world of bodybuilding and was the first glimpse the world had of a …
DVD Review: Hari-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
In 1963 Masaki Kobayashi won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes for his film Harakiri. There’s nothing quite like the word “remake” to send a wave of fear through your average film obsessive, but nothing much phases Takashi Miike. After building a reputation in extreme Asian cinema, the prolific director has settled down over the …
DVD Review: The Chris Marker Collection
Cast you mind back to a time before the internet. One of the only ways to discover what wonders the world held in store was through the medium of documentary. Writer, photographer, documentary film maker, multimedia artist and film essayist, Chris Marker was a man of many talents. Associated with the Left Bank Cinema movement, …