Blu-ray Review: Conclave
A film squarely for adults, Conclave is based on Robert Harris’s 2016 novel of the same name. While many of the films centered on religion have been fodder for the horror and thriller genres, Conclave explores the ancient, secretive process of selecting a new pope. Filled with surprising twists and turns, the film is respectful […]
4K UHD Review: Interstellar (10th Anniversary Limited Edition)
Released in 2014, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar ranks as one of the greatest contemporary science fiction films. In my 2015 release of the Blu-ray, I wrote that seeing it “at home on a television will not have the same effect as seeing it in the sprawling space of a darkened theater.” While that statement still has […]
4K UHD Review: Footloose (40th Anniversary Edition)
Based on the real-life effort from the kids of Elmore City, Oklahoma, to overturn a law in their town banning public dancing, Footloose is about more than rowdy high school kids wanting to show off their cool moves. Though driven by its soundtrack (Footloose was one of the first films to use its soundtrack as […]
4K UHD Review: Terms of Endearment (Paramount Presents)
In a career that has spanned more than fifty years, writer/director James L. Brooks has had success in both television and film. Having created Room 222 in 1969, Brooks teamed up with Allan Burns to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Lou Grant. In 1978, Brooks was a co-creator of the sitcom Taxi. […]
Blu-ray Review: The Day After
[amazon_link asins=’B07DKSSDDH’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’08e0f0dd-a30a-11e8-b22e-ad5ccc66fa31′]One of the best films ever directed for television, Nicholas Meyers’ (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) The Day After, recently arrived on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Originally broadcast on November 20, 1983, Meyers’ terrifying impact of nuclear war on a Kansas town was a phenomenon–100 million […]
4K UHD Review: Interstellar
[amazon_link asins=’B0767FCYDW’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a2baee8e-e757-11e7-a754-331df426d35a’]Released in 2014, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar ranks as one of the great contemporary science fiction films. In my 2015 release of the Blu-ray, I wrote that seeing it “at home on a television will not have the same effect as seeing it in the sprawling space of a darkened theater.” […]
The Manhattan Project (Blu-ray)
Marshall Brickman is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen on the screenplays for Sleeper, Annie Hall (which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar), and Manhattan. However, in the 1980’s he did take a stab at directing his own screenplays, including 1980’s Simon, 1983’s Lovesick and 1986’s The Manhattan Project. While none of […]
Best of Enemies (Blu-ray)
In the summer of 1968, ABC was dead last in the ratings, behind CBS and NBC (“They’d be fourth, but there were only three,” jokes one talking head). Looking to offset its inability to provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions, the network hired two well-known intellectuals—William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal—to […]
The Roosevelt’s: An Intimate History (Blu-ray)
Politics has had its share of dynasties—the Adamses, the Kennedy’s, the Bush’s—but none can compare to the Roosevelt’s. Theodore Roosevelt and his fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt served a combined total of nineteen years as President of the United States. Franklin’s wife Eleanor, both admired and reviled, paved the way for many modern women, becoming […]
Terms of Endearment (Blu-ray)
In a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, writer/director James L. Brooks has had success in both television and film. Having created Room 222 in 1969, Brooks teamed up with Allan Burns to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Lou Grant. In 1978, Brooks was a co-creator of the sitcom Taxi. In […]