Category: Film

Zulu is a 1964 film that depicts the epic Battle of Rorke’s Drift that occurred in 1879 between the British Army and Zulu warriors during the Anglo-Zulu War. That line alone may very well be enough to either inspire or repel prospective viewers. The Cy Endfield-directed production already has its share of devoted followers who...

Just when it seemed small-gauge filmmaking was becoming a thing of the past (at least in terms of viable commercial releases), along comes the micro-budget horror film I Am ZoZo. Writer-director-cinematographer Scott Di Lalla decided to forgo the often characterless sharpness of high definition video in favor of Super 8mm film stock. Shot entirely on...

In 1989, The Little Mermaid restored Walt Disney Animation Studios to the standards of its glory years after a very trying decade. An adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic, Mermaid’s co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker, aided immeasurably by the music of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, crafted a true Disney classic. Now available...

Set in 1776, smack dab in the middle of the American Revolutionary War, Drums Along the Mohawk is an notably placid Western. The John Ford-directed film, shot in color in 1939, meanders along at a nearly casual pace. Gil Martin (Henry Fonda) marries his best gal Lana (Claudette Colbert, well into her 30s at the...

Some movies begin to slip from the memory as soon as the end credits roll. Others fade while actually viewing the movie, with each scene becoming increasingly harder to pay attention to. So it is with Blood of Redemption, a direct-to-video action flick so crushingly purposeless, it’s a challenge even following the by-the-numbers, cookie-cutter plot....

Boutique label Twilight Time recently added Brian De Palma’s 1984 cult fave Body Double to its lineup of limited edition Blu-ray releases. With only 3,000 copies available, it didn’t take long for the title to completely sell out. What all the fuss is about over this barely competent Hitchcock riff is beyond me, but secondary...

The Tom and Jerry brand continues to be a lucrative franchise for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Whether made up of new or repackaged material, the titles keep on coming. Falling into the former category is the all-new Tom and Jerry’s Giant Adventure, available on Blu-ray and DVD (or both formats together, along with a code...

Some movies are best approached with as little prior knowledge as possible. For anyone partial to either ponderous sci-fi or anything starring Tom Cruise, all you need to know in advance is that Oblivion falls into both those categories. It’s not action-oriented sci-fi, understand that before going in. Oblivion aspires to be more along the...

The creepy thriller Stoker, now on Blu-ray, was the final film produced by the late Tony Scott. It’s also the first English-language production directed by acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Aside from those two distinctions, the more likely hook for curious potential viewers is the cast, which includes Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, and Dermot...

Twenty-three years after its original theatrical release, Stephen Frears’ The Grifters still holds up as a chilling portrait of utterly unscrupulous characters engaged in the seedy underworld of con artists. Finally available on Blu-ray, the hard-boiled, neo-noir thriller is bolstered by the performances of John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, and Annette Bening. The latter two were...