Marley & Me: 3-Disc “Bad Boy” Edition (w/ Bonus Digital Copy + DVD) (Blu-ray Review)
For whatever reason, I still haven’t gotten around to reading the 2005 memoir by John Grogan, on which Marley & Me is based. Before watching the film, I knew it was a story about a family’s relationship with their dog. What I didn’t realize is that Marley & Me is really a much larger life […]
Blu-ray Review: Doubt
Meryl Streep is just one of the few actors I’ve watched over the years who truly has the ability to mesmerize me. I’ve often said she could simply sit silently in a chair for fifteen minutes and make it an affecting experience. With her performance in 2008’s Doubt, Streep has once again proven she is […]
DVD Review: To Catch a Thief – The Paramount Centennial Collection
Few would argue director Alfred Hitchcock’s status as a master of suspense. However, his 1955 effort, To Catch a Thief, can hardly be considered among the best in his suspense cannon. If a person’s first exposure to Hitchcock is To Catch a Thief, they may wonder how he got his “master of suspense” moniker. While […]
DVD Review: Lilo & Stitch – 2 Disc Big Wave Edition
Released in June of 2002, Lilo & Stitch marked the 42nd animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. Written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the film made a splash at Cannes that year and was nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Co-director Chris Sanders, who had created […]
Blu-ray Review: Gigi
Gigi has finally arrived on Blu-ray, looking better than I’ve ever seen it before. Released in 1958, the film reunited director Vincent Minnelli with producer Arthur Freed, Alan Jay Lerner and actress Leslie Caron. After the success of An American in Paris, Freed and Minnelli were more than happy to put a new twist on […]
Blu-ray Review: The Robe – Special Edition
I first saw The Robe when I was about eight years old, at a showing by a local film society. I remember the man who introduced the film telling us that the movie we were about to see was the first film released in CinemaScope. That meant nothing to me then but I would later […]
DVD Review: The Other End of the Line
Over the last few years, it seems as though American and European film audiences have become increasing interested in the Indian film industry. While India has been making films since the 1930’s, it’s Bollywood, the country’s Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry, that has occasionally attracted Hollywood and European stars to appear in films there. In […]
DVD Review: Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird – 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
It seems hard to believe but Follow That Bird is nearly a quarter century old. I was almost thirteen when the film came out and I’m not ashamed to admit, I saw it at a local theater. Having grown up with the gang on Sesame Street, I was curious what their first feature film would […]
DVD Review: The Odd Couple – The Paramount Centennial Collection
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau made several films together but probably none is more beloved than The Odd Couple. Released on May 2, 1968, written by Neil Simon, the film was based on the Tony Award winning play of the same name. There’s little doubt that The Odd Couple’s two main characters, Oscar Madison and […]
DVD Review: Johnny Got His Gun
With credits including Kitty Foyle (1940), Bill of Divorcement (1940), Roman Holiday (1953), (using the name of Ian McLellan Hunter as a front) and Spartacus (1960), Dalton Trumbo is considered by many one of the best screenwriters to ever work in Hollywood. Dalton Trumbo is also widely remembered as being part of the “Hollywood Ten,” […]