When You’re Strange (2009)

Directed by Tom DiCillo, and narrated by Johnny Depp, When You’re Strange utilises footage shot between 1966 and 1971 (including some shown in the strange HWY: An American Pastoral and Feast Of Friends) to tell the story of the rise and, well, rise of The Doors. Yes, there was a hell of a lot of [...]

August 29th, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

Modern Times (1936)

While Chaplin is known for his physical comedy, Modern Times moves the Tramp into a new direction, making a hard hitting statement about the depression era and man coexisting with machine. Chaplin’s lovable Tramp character is seen here as a factory worker, on the verge of a breakdown as he’s...

August 23rd, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

The Gold Rush (1925)

Besides silent movies, what characterized this era – at least in my mind – was cartoons and animated films which emerged in force in the 1930s. And there are many parallels between Chaplin’s brand of humor and that found in the Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons. Any comparison of cartoon...

August 23rd, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

The Last Seven (2010)

It’s London, it’s present day, it’s all familiar territory with one major difference. Instead of the huge population that we know London has it has, somehow, been reduced to just the seven people referenced in the title. Just what has happened to everyone else and why these seven people are wandering...

August 20th, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

Defending Your Life (1991)

Average Joe Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) is one day hit by a bus. He wakes up at an existential way station, the comfortable Judgment City, where his life is going to be reviewed so that it can be determined whether he has evolved far enough to go to the next level of existence, or whether [...]

August 10th, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

Earth Girls Are Easy is a campy sci-fi comedy with grisly song and dance numbers, set in ‘80s San Fernando Valley, and starring Valley girl Valerie (Geena Davis), who’s a manicurist. Everything’s pink, (almost) everyone’s blond, and then three aliens in a giant blow dryer land in Valerie’s...

August 10th, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

The Shape of Things to Come (1979)

I am cursed with a sore affliction: I am crazy about sci-fi. I have been known, now and again, to buy DVDs of sci-fi movies that I rate even as low as 2 stars out of 10. I know: I’m an insane collector. Still, some movies (even some rated above 2) are so dull and [...]

August 5th, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

Hollow Man (2000)/Hollow Man 2 (2006)

Hollow Man – If you’re going to update The Invisible Man for modern moviegoers then you may have fun with the concept, mix in some decent special effects and generally heighten the megalomania that shone through in the fantastic old Universal classic. And if you’re going to do all that then you...

July 29th, 2010 | DVD Reviews | Read More

Clash of the Titans (2010)

1981’s Clash of the Titans is not a film remembered for great storytelling or emotional depth, but rather it’s landmark use of Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion effects. Harryhausen delved deep into Greek mythology for his work on the 1981 project; garnering gasps of awe and nostalgic adoration from...

July 27th, 2010 | DVD Reviews, Feature | Read More

Stalker (1979)

Stalker is based on the science fiction novella Roadside Picnic (1971) by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. It concerns a brief alien visit to Earth, and the aliens having left mysterious “zones” here and there, where the laws of physics don’t function normally. The focus of the movie is one such zone....

July 23rd, 2010 | DVD Reviews, Feature | Read More

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