It is June, we are halfway through the year. Admittedly we have hit the boring stretch of it all, and the holidays are month’s away. What’s a nerd to do? Well, fortunately we have awesome movies to keep us companies, and this month we have the Severin’s Sweatin’ to the Mid Year Sale loading fans…
Blu-ray Review – Cursed – Scream Factory
While driving through the Hollywood hills late one night, Ellie (Christina Ricci) and her brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) nearly run over a huge animal running across the road. Ellie loses control of the car and they get into a wreck with fellow motorist Becky (Shannon Elizabeth). When they stop to help Becky get unstuck from…
Without Warning (1980) Blu-ray review (Kino Lorber)
Also known as It Came Without Warning and The Warning, Greydon Clark’s Without Warning is a precursor to 20TH Century Fox’s Predator. You might say Without Warning was a huge inspiration to Predator! In fact, Kevin Peter Hall, the actor that played the alien in this movie, went on to play Predator! The story…
Blu-ray Review – 2LDK – Unearthed Films
Roommates Rana (Maho Nonami) and Nozomi (Eiko Koike) are actresses competing for the same role in an upcoming film. Nozomi is a softspoken and polite stage actress and this part will be her big film debut. Rana is a loud and opinionated former child star who ain’t freakin’ naïve about the film business. She needs…
Blu-ray Review – Monkey Kung Fu – 88 Films
Each armed with half of a wooden key, two criminals (played by Siu-Tung Ching and Chiu-Sing Hau respectively) escape from jail in search of a treasure left behind by a kung-fu master. The treasure is not gold, silver, or bitcoins. In fact, it’s an old manuscript on the monkey style of martial arts. Before they…
The Alienist: Angel of Darkness Blu-ray review
Based on the novel of the same name by Caleb Carr, The Alienist: Angel of Darkness is the second season of The Alienist television series that takes place in the late 1800s, 1896 and 1897 respectively. The series is directed by David Caffrey and Claire Kilner and features the same core cast in Dakota Fanning,…
Blu-ray Review – Le Cercle Rouge – Criterion
Review—Le Cercle Rouge (Criterion, UHD) Author: Palo Sionoplia Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge is impossible to review; instead, one speaks of it in hallowed terms. Filmed on the heels of the Le Samourai and Army of Shadows, brilliant films in their own right, Melville’s penultimate film is the work of an artist at the peak…
Blu-ray Review – Lies and Deceit – The Films of Claude Chabrol
Review—Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol (Arrow Video) Author: Palo Sionoplia Films: Cop au Vin, Inspecteur Lavardin, Madame Bovary, Betty, Torment While Arrow’s first foray into the vast catalogue of Chabrol films focuses on late-career works helmed by the auteur in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the dueling motifs of lies and…
Blu-ray Review – Infinite Stratos – Complete Collection – Sentai Filmworks
Infinite Stratos is a 2011 anime series that has already had a Blu-ray release about a decade ago, followed by a sequel series. A third series is now on the horizon (8 years after the 2nd), and I assume that is the reason for this timely re-release. Infinite Stratos is based off a light novel…
Blu-ray Review – Somali and the Forest Spirits
Somali and the Forest Spirit is a series that I had some minor expectations for having heard somethings over the last year or so from friends. But I try not to be swayed by the court of public opinion (although everything I heard was very positive), so I went into this not viewing a frame….