DVD/Blu-Ray Review
DVD Review: The Girl Who Knew Too Much
During the ’60s and ’70s a weird and wonderfully strange type of film began do dominate Italian cinema. Giallo films are epitomised by a certain strangeness and a mix of crime, mystery, exploitation and horror elements. Suspiria is the finest example of the sub-genre and Dario Argento its chief exponent. Along with Suspiria, some of …
DVD Review: Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla
It has been a strong couple of years in Australian and New Zealand for horror films. The Antipodeans are currently leading the world in producing innovative and quality genre pictures. The Babadook, What We Do In The Shadows and Housebound have all demonstrated a shrewd appreciation for the more intelligent aspects of horror, with Wolf …
DVD Review: The Promised Land
Capitalism and poverty have been tackled through the mediums of literature and film in many different ways over the years. The most famous writers to broach the subject are Charles Dickens and Emile Zola, but there are countless examples from Eastern Europe as well (Fyodor Dostoevsky immediately springs to mind). Władysław Rejment won the Nobel …
DVD Review: Stalingrad (20th Anniversary Edition)
There have been some classic war movies over the years which, instead of glorifying conflict deal with the madness of war. Vietnam spurned a whole plethora of these, most notably Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter and Coming Home. There have also been many powerful anti-war films about the World Wars including Paths of Glory, Oh! …
Blu-ray Review: The Killing Fields (30th Anniversary Edition)
The role of a producer has faded in importance over the years, but at one time it was considered to be of equal significant as the director. Possibly the greatest British producer and one of the best known names in British cinema during the late ’70s and 80s was David Puttnam. He produced several of …
DVD Review: The Naked City
The Second World War brought with it one of the richest genres in cinema – film noir. Staring towards the end of the conflict and running to the end of the next decade, Hollywood was dominated by a plethora of rich and stylish crime dramas. Detour, D.O.A., The Big Sleep, The Killers and Double Indemnity …
DVD Review: All This Mayhem
There have been several excellent skateboarding documentaries: Dogtown and Z-Boyz, Waiting for Lightening, Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator and Bones Brigade: An Autobiography to name but a few. I’m not a particular fan of extreme sports but there’s something about the whole world of skateboarding which is fascinating. These documentaries generally seem to …
DVD Review: Soul Boys of the Western World
The ’80s was an era of bright clothing, bizarre haircuts and pop cheesy enough to disturb even the least lactose intolerant (although I don’t remember that existing back then). In an era of political upheaval and social change, there were a number of youth movements reflecting the need of a generation to find their place …
DVD Review: Pritchard and Dainton – ‘The Rise and Falls’
‘“From zero to hero to zero again” is Lee Dainton’s summation of the crazy, roller-coaster world he has shared with his long-standing partner in crime Matthew Pritchard. ‘The Rise and Falls’ is a heartfelt eye-opener of a documentary featuring the madcap antics of this pair, from childhood to global superstardom with ‘Dirty Sanchez’ and beyond. …
DVD Review: Le Jour se lève
Considered by some to be one of the greatest films ever made, Le Jour se lève is definitly the most famous example of poetic realism movement. Marcel Carné’s film was praised upon its release in France in 1939 but was quickly suppressed by the Vichy government less than a year later. After the war it …