// Category Archive for: DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: In The Heart Of The Sea

By Jeffery X Martin

Ron Howard’s whaling adventure In the Heart of the Sea is an ambitious film, reaching into a few classic sub-genres, but ultimately, finding no purchase there. What remains is a pastiche of retreaded ideas and some weird-looking CGI. As the true story behind the novel Moby Dick, viewers have a good idea of what they’re getting into, but will wind up with less than they expected.

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In Case You Missed It: February 28 – March 5, 2016–Twitter Trolls, TV & More

By Less Lee Moore

This week was part February, part March, and jam-packed with pop culture.

Twitter recently vowed to fight harassment online. Naturally racist and misogynist trolls were outraged, which is hilarious considering their constant whining about “social justice warriors” being outraged on Twitter. Here is an excellent report on the whys and wherefores of this new announcement and whether or not it stands a chance of being successful.

Speaking of controversy, did you know that a straight Christian man posed as gay for a year and then wrote a book about it? It’s pretty illuminating.

If you haven’t been paying attention, our own Tyler Hodg has been faithfully recapping every episode of the new Fuller House series on Netflix. So far, the show has been wildly uneven, but might finally get it right around episode 10. Too bad there are only three more to go…

Also in TV news, Lucha Underground picks itself up after a not-so-great episode from last week (though Sachin warns that we shouldn’t mention Sexy Star vs. Kobra Moon ever again), Outsiders still refuses to develop some of its characters for some reason, and The Walking Dead introduces a new insufferable character named Gregory. Oh, and (spoiler alert) Rick kills someone. Again. (Can’t take that guy anywhere.)

If you’re looking for some old movies you might have missed, Jeffery’s here to help. Check out the new Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 1 collection from Arrow or The Bees from Vinegar Syndrome, which includes not only bees but also John Saxon.

Everyone’s been talking about Deadpool lately, but why? As Laury reports, it might just be the comic book movie that will change the game. It got her to become a Ryan Reynolds fan, after all. Wrestling aficionados will be interested in new documentary The Sheik, which Jeffery notes that at times feels more scripted than your average wrestling match.

New music this week gets reviewed by Melissa. It includes the self-referentially titled but ultimately disappointing Music To Listen To Music To from La Sera and the much more enjoyable Poison & Medicine from Marc Stone, who hails from New York but has a shockingly good grasp on New Orleans and the blues.

It’s 2016 and that might mean a new Lana Del Rey album is in the near future. But what if you’re still not sick of listening to Honeymoon yet? Matt Craven explains why it might be her secret masterpiece.

Perhaps the only kind of music more divisive than LDR or rap is country. You might be a country music fan if you like even one of these 16 tunes.

What happened this week on Today In Pop Culture? The Bermuda Triangle, The National Anthem, King Kong, The Salem Witch Trials, and how Leap Year fits into the space-time continnum.

Blu-Ray Review: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys, Vol. 1

By Jeffery X Martin

The recent Arrow Video compilation, Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 1, highlights the kind of films we don’t often think of when it comes to Japanese cinema. These aren’t cheesy monster movies with guys in rubber suits, nor are they fantastic period dramas about dynastic politics and great wars. These three movies are star vehicles, melodramatic potboilers with handsome leading men and damsels in distress.

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DVD Review: The Sheik

By Jeffery X Martin

Normally, when you hear about someone who started with nothing, made it big, then lost it all to drugs and general bad behavior, it’s some Hollywood starlet or Tom Sizemore. This is not the case with The Sheik, a documentary about one of the most famous professional wrestlers of all time, The Iron Sheik.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Bees

By Jeffery X Martin

Mother Nature always gives us humans a little something to be afraid of. Fire ants, hurricanes, just some little nudge to remind us that the links on the food chain are weak and interchangeable. In the late 1970s, the big scare was killer bees, super-aggressive buggers that migrated from Mexico into the United States. They attacked in swarms and wouldn’t stop, even after their prey was dead.

These bees became the subject for a few nature-run-amok movies. None of them were particularly good (see Irwin Allen’s The Swarm for some high-level bad moviemaking), but none of them were quite as earnest or weird as Alfredo Zacarias’s exploitation movie, The Bees.

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In Case You Missed It: February 21 – 27, 2016–Cults, Conspiracy Theories & More

By Less Lee Moore

Let’s get things started with some OMGWTFLOL and a short history of women throwing their tampons at you.

Do you like Charles Manson? Sure, we all do! Popshifter’s latest podcast is available now and it’s full of commentary on The Veil, The Sacrament, Lana Del Rey, and other cult-related ephemera.

Check it out here.

The tenth season of The X-Files ended this week and the Internet hivemind was not exactly pleased. Read what Jeffery X Martin thought of each of the six episodes.

Still not satisfied? FINE. Here’s my take on Season 10.

Full House is back! Well, sort of. Tyler takes on the first three episodes of Fuller House, the reboot that everyone/no-one wanted. Commiserate with Laury on The Walking Dead and Outsiders, and laugh with Sachin about Lucha Underground and Broad City.

The Oscars air on Sunday and while everyone’s been buzzing about #OscarsSoWhite, let’s not forget that they aren’t exactly queer-friendly, either. Here are 5 unfortunate truths about LGBT diversity in Hollywood, plus a scathing assessment of the industry’s transphobia from nominee and transgender musician Anohni.

There is a lot of music news this week, and Unicorn Booty has you covered on NOW HEAR THIS! Learn all about the need for the #FreeKesha movement, Santigold’s latest album, and more.

Looking for some new music? May we suggest Santigold, Emitt Rhodes, Bill Carter, Golden Daze, or Wolfmother?

On the movie front: Tim Murr wonders why 1988’s Alien Nation doesn’t have a proper Blu-Ray edition, Jeffery X Martin wanders down the darkly humorous path of disenfranchisement with Criterion’s new release of The Graduate and calls Creed “one hell of a movie.” If you live in Canada, you can check out the new CBC documentary Girls’ Night Out, which discusses the sobering personal cost of binge-drinking.

What happened this week on Today In Pop Culture? The RMS Britannic, Lawrence Welk, Nazis, Tootsie Rolls, and clones.

Blu-Ray Review: Creed

By Jeffery X Martin

People forget that Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in the Best Picture of 1977, Rocky. That’s an Academy Award in the hands of Stallone. Isn’t that odd? We forget about it because Stallone’s output since Rocky has been so spastic. He’s given us fantastic performances, like the half-deaf officer in Cop Land. Then again, he’s also given us three Expendables movies and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

Does he hate us? Does he love us? How can we know?

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Blu-Ray Review: Pieces

By Jeffery X Martin

Horror fans have known for decades that there is no other movie quite as delightfully crazy banana-pants as Pieces. With the infamous tagline, “You don’t have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre,” Pieces honestly attempts to be a straight-ahead horror film. It’s not.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Mutilator (1984)

By Jeffery X Martin

The Mutilator is an oddity in the slasher genre, less for what it is and more for what it is not. If you’re looking for copious amounts of nudity, look elsewhere. There’s not even a lot of bad language. On that level, The Mutilator is more like a live-action Disney movie from the Sixties. You half expect Dean Jones and Don Knotts to show up.

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In Case You Missed It: February 7 – 13, 2016

By Less Lee Moore

James Spader in Jack’s Back

In Case You Missed It…

Over at Dirge Magazine, they’re celebrating Violentime’s Day all week. What is Violentime’s Day you ask? Here’s an explanation.

Do you like listicles? Yeah, you can admit it. Here are 8 Horror Movie Couples To Make You Question Your Relationship, 8 Sexy Songs For Romancing The Dead, and Love Songs That Aren’t Actually Love Songs, if you’re feeling snarky.

I’m jonesing for James Spader in my review of Scream Factory’s excellent reissue of Jack’s Back. (Seriously. So dreamy!)

On the TV landscape, we’ve got reviews of The X-Files, Lucha Underground, and the new WGN America show Outsiders.

Looking for new music this week? Unicorn Booty’s got you covered.

Speaking of music, have you ever heard of the song “The Boiler” by The Special AKA with Rhonda Dakar? It’s the first pop song about rape and it was released in 1982.

Could Kendrick Lamar beat Michael Jackson at this year’s Grammys? Here’s why that’s a thing that could happen and why it’s worth talking about.

Everyone’s talking about The Satanic Temple lately, especially after they praised Robert Eggers’ new flick The Witch. Here are 6 ways The Satanic Temple has trolled the religious right.

What happened this week on Today In Pop Culture? Sal Mineo, Ziggy Stardust, The Virgin Mary, G.I. Joe, and The Beatles.