DVD/Blu-Ray Review
Blu-Ray Review: Shot Caller
For over a century, there has been a continuing debate regarding the role of the criminal justice system in terms of punishment and rehabilitation. Those of a conservative persuasion largely see the prison system as a deterrent. A place to punish offenders for their crimes. Liberals would argue that the emphasis should be on rehabilitation. …
Blu-Ray Review: The Apartment
For more than five decades Jack Lemmon was a familiar face on big screens and a much-loved actor. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Mister Roberts in 1955 and made over fifty films before he reprised his most famous double act with Walter Matthau in The Odd Couple II in 1998. …
Blu-Ray Review: The Cremator
For a species which specialises in horrendous acts of depravity, the lowest point (so far) in human history was unquestionably The Holocaust. The true horror has been documented many times in literature and on the big screen. This has been done in many ways, most famously on film by Steven Spielberg in Schindler’s List. However, …
Blu-Ray Review: Melville – The Essential Collection
It’s no exaggeration to say that the French aren’t exactly short of great film directors. Bresson, Godard, Clouzot, Truffaut, Varda, Tati, Chabrol, Rohmer, Demy – the list goes on and on. Jean-Pierre Melville is easily up there with such vaunted company. Much of his work was influenced by his time serving in the French Resistance …
Blu-Ray Review: Carrie
There must be very few authors who have had more of their work adapted for film and TV than Stephen King. I can only think of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and of course God. Indeed, 2017 has been a bumper year for him. Along with the stylish new version of It, there’s also been films …
Blu-Ray Review: House
The Vietnam War was a nightmarish experience for all involved. Whilst you could write countless books on the horrors endured by the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians, American cinema is more concerned with the impact on the aggressors. Indeed, American soldiers became victims themselves due to the lack of duty of care shown to them by …
Film Review: Beyond Skyline
The large majority of sequels tend to be pale imitations of the original. Sometimes, they equal it in terms of accomplishment without managing to really explore any new ground (John Wick, Guardians of the Galaxy). Others, such as Starship Troopers, Tremors and From Dusk Till Dawn, are just cheap knock-offs in a thinly-veiled attempt to …
Blu-Ray Review: Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter
No film studio can claim to possess the wonder and magic that Studio Ghibli manager to inject into everything they do. Not even Disney or Pixar. They’ve created a raft of unforgettable films including Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro, The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Grave of Fireflies. However, they’ve never previously …
DVD Review: England is Mine
If you ask a group of people who their favourite band of all time is, it’s likely that a fair few will respond with ‘The Smiths’. Whilst Morrissey is now a sad parody of his former self, there’s no denying that, regardless of your thoughts on the man, they produced some cracking songs. Indeed, there’s …
Blu-Ray Review: The L-Shaped Room
For a few years around the beginning of the 1960s, British new wave cinema burned fast and fierce. Shot in black and white, and with an emphasis on portraying real people, it produced some of the most creative and powerful films of the era. The likes of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, This Sporting Life, …