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

DVD Review: Take This Waltz

By Less Lee Moore

Take This Waltz, writer/director Sarah Polley’s latest feature, is lovely to look at, with bright, stimulating visuals and convincing dialogue performed beautifully by the cast. It is also terrifically exasperating. Much of this is due to the central character, Margot, portrayed by Michelle Williams.

Granted, I haven’t seen Michelle Williams in anything but Brokeback Mountain, so it’s difficult for me to tell if she’s incredibly gifted at playing an extremely annoying person or if that’s her acting style, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt. However, it also makes it difficult to decide whether to root for her.

28-year-old Margot meets single Daniel (Luke Kirby) on a business trip and there is instant chemistry, or at least we can understand why she’s attracted to him. He’s handsome, sharp, and witty. Then we discover that not only is Margot married, but also that Daniel lives across the street. As she astutely observes right after than discovery: “Oh shit.” Things get more complicated from there, with Margot and Daniel dancing around each other but never consummating anything physically, on ongoing situation skillfully rendered in the pool scene where the two swim around each other like fighting fish.

(more…)

DVD Review: 360

By Danny R. Phillips

On paper, 360 looks like a good idea; much as I am sure, The Bay of Pigs Invasion looked like an ideal, foolproof military action. Well, neither one of these endeavors worked out very well.

All the pieces are there for a potentially great film. The writer of Frost/Nixon (Peter Morgan), decent director (Fernando Meirelles) and a cast that boasts great actors like Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, and the too-often-overlooked Ben Foster.

360 is a film that tries to show how seemingly unconnected things are, in fact, related. Everything is related in one way or another despite geography, sex, or belief. It is a gallant effort but falls short. Anthony Hopkins is a driven, possessed father looking for a missing daughter; Jude Law is dying in a marriage-gone-cold with Rachel Weisz playing the part of the distant, closed off wife. There is also a dentist with a romantic side; these are four characters and screenwriter Morgan is just getting started.

(more…)

Blu-Ray Review: Excision

By Less Lee Moore

For his first feature, Excision, writer and director Richard Bates, Jr. has assembled quite an impressive cast: Malcolm McDowell, John Waters, Traci Lords, Ray Wise, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Marlee Matlin. Visually, the film is stunning, with pristine, static, centered shots and vivid colors. Excision‘s plot—a disturbed, misanthropic high school student named Pauline dreams (literally) of being a surgeon but her parents just don’t understand–doesn’t sound unique when boiled down to its most basic elements, but Bates manages to create a film that is genuinely disturbing.

Blood plays a crucial role in Excision, too. There is a whole lot of it. Yet it’s not a horror film, despite being well received by a lot of horror film websites and blogs, which puts it into that difficult position of being a genre film that doesn’t fit easily into any genre.

At times, this can be problematic. Excision feels like it wants to be a pitch black comedy or a parody of the suburban dream, but it’s not actually funny. Granted, some of Pauline’s quirks and attempts to navigate her unwelcoming environment at home and school are humorous, but not in a laugh out loud way. The roles of McDowell, Waters, Lords, and Wise in this context could seem like stunt casting, except for the fact that they’re all really good, particularly AnnaLynne McCord as Pauline and Traci Lords as Pauline’s mother Phyllis, whose character arc might represent the best work she’s ever done.

(more…)

Blu-Ray Review: The Barrens

By Less Lee Moore

As someone who has never seen any films in the Saw franchise, I was unfamiliar with writer/director Darren Lynn Bousman until now. The legend of the Jersey Devil has been covered on both The X Files and Supernatural, so I was curious to see what a film about the creature—and one starring True Blood‘s Stephen Moyer no less—would be like. I was not disappointed.

Although The Barrens is not technically a horror film, it has elements of horror: monsters, paranoia, insanity, and just enough gore to be convincing. Unfortunately, dramatic thrillers with horror elements usually disappoint genre fans looking for scares or splatterfests. This is a shame, because The Barrens is a great movie.

The film was shot on Super 16 and the difference between this format and digital is obvious immediately. It has a wonderful gritty and grainy texture and shows off some incredible lighting set-ups to their fullest extent. My only complaint would be the overuse of flash edits in some of the scenes, but I realize that at least a few of these were necessitated by budget restraints and weather conditions.

(more…)

Blu-Ray Review: Prometheus

By Less Lee Moore

Oh Prometheus. If loving you is wrong I don’t want to be right. I didn’t think a movie could court as much controversy unless it was directed by Christopher Nolan. How naïve I was back then!

Four months after the “Prometheus sucks!” furor died down (just in time for the considerably less hysterical “Cloud Atlas sucks!” and “The Master sucks!’ outrage to begin), those of us who didn’t write petulant, ignorant letters to Damon Lindelof had to have our hearts trampled on all over again in preparation for the “Prometheus still sucks!” onslaught.

If you saw Prometheus and hated it, I would urge you to rewatch it on Blu-Ray. However, we all know how film critics are loath to change our minds on anything and (heaven forbid) admit we might be wrong. I saw Blade Runner in the late ’80s and honestly hated it. I was interested enough, however, to see the Director’s Cut theatrical release in 1992 and immediately changed my mind. Granted, the voiceover was removed in that version, but I also like to think I grew up a little bit.

(more…)

DVD Review: Beyond The Black Rainbow

By Less Lee Moore

How do you describe a movie like Beyond The Black Rainbow, much less review it with a critical eye? It’s bizarre, hypnotic, compelling, disturbing, and stunning. My only complaint is that I was unable to witness the spectacle on the big screen, but even on DVD the movie is powerful and incredible.

Beyond The Black Rainbow presents a basic story, one we’ve heard before: a controlling doctor, a mysterious clinic, a tormented patient. There are other, less clear-cut or easily understood elements that contribute to the unsettling, overwhelming experience of watching Beyond The Black Rainbow. To attempt an explanation would be to rob the viewer of witnessing and interpreting these things for him or herself.

There are influences, to be sure—Altered States, The Grudge, Suspiria, The Brood—but nothing feels stolen. Beyond The Black Rainbow is a universe unto itself. It’s beautiful and horrible at the same time.

(more…)

Blu-Ray Review: Chained

By Less Lee Moore

Chained is a gripping, grueling experience. I had originally seen Jennifer Lynch’s latest film in August in one of the Screaming Rooms at Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear, part of FanExpo Canada. This feeling was only exacerbated upon a second viewing of the film, this time on the newly released Blu-Ray from Anchor Bay.

Chained, despite the title and subject matter (a serial killer keeps a young boy prisoner), is not a straight up horror movie, but is far more horrific than the mainstream, high-budget horror movies that have glutted theaters over the last few years.

Vincent D’Onofrio plays Bob, a taxi driver who kidnaps women, brings them home, rapes and murders them, and forces his captive, Tim, to help him clean up the mess. It’s sordid, but to avoid the movie based on the synopsis would be a mistake.

(more…)

Blu-Ray Review: The Tall Man

By Less Lee Moore

If you’ve discussed horror films with me for more than five minutes, you likely know my feelings about French director Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs. It’s a film that infuriated me when I saw it, but not for the reasons that you might think. Yet the potential of Martyrs to be a truly great horror movie is what made me curious about Laugier’s most recent feature, The Tall Man, out on DVD and Blu-Ray September 25.

Those who loved Martyrs for its uncompromising violence may despise The Tall Man, feeling incredibly disappointed. Martyrs 2 it is not. If you are willing to put aside expectations and embrace a beautifully crafted, wonderfully acted, suspenseful, and thought-provoking film that is heavy on subtext and light on gore, than I urge you to check out The Tall Man.

(more…)

John Lee Hooker, Cook With The Hook: Live 1974 DVD

By Jemiah Jefferson

One of the rare live video recordings of blues legend John Lee Hooker was filmed with three cameras at a festival in Massachusetts called “Down in the Dumps,” the second in a hoped-for series of concerts on the site of a city landfill area, and shown on local access television in 1974. Thank heavens that this footage didn’t suffer the fate of so much video tape of the era, and survived to the 21st century to released on a bare-bones DVD called Cook With The Hook: Live 1974. Additional material might have been nice, but we must assume there isn’t any, besides what’s on the explanatory, single-sheet disk insert.
(more…)

Ian Hunter Band Featuring Mick Ronson, Live At Rockpalast

By Hanna

While lately the BBC and specialized music channels have finally been repeating and showing their collected musical material, German TV has been far ahead of them, broadcasting their music shows such as ZDF’s disco and comprehensive DVDs of shows like Musikladen, while the BBC still fails to release anything like a Top of The Pops DVD, and its Old Grey Whistle Test issues are limited and, annoyingly, themed.
(more…)