USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (Blu-ray)
Nicolas Cage turns up again as the Captain of the USS Indianapolis, the ill-fated naval ship first given big screen notoriety via a monologue in Jaws. Equal parts wartime weepie, shark attack movie and half-baked court room drama, USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage fails on every level to convey the fascinating nature of the true […]
White Bird in a Blizzard (Blu-ray)
Filmmaker Gregg Araki has made a career of dealing with teenage angst. While his latest effort, White Bird in a Blizzard, is his most adult film to date, he’s careful not to stray too far from familiar territory. Styled similarly to a 1950’s Douglas Sirk melodrama—the bright and colorful surface conceals the darkness of suburban […]
Blu-ray Review: LOL
A remake of a 2008 French feature of the same name, LOL (“Laughing Out Loud”) is a baffling and somewhat annoying experience. The original film’s writer/director Lisa Azuelos has returned to helm her story about the tug-of-war between teens and adults. Clearly, those backing the project felt Ms. Azuelos was best qualified to re-imagine her […]
Blu-ray Review: I Melt With You
I Melt With You from director Mark Pellington (Henry Poole is Here) centers around four men having to face disappointments they’ve always feared. Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe), and Tim (Christian McCay) are college friends that reunite every year. This year they meet at a beautiful, isolated house where they consume […]
Blu-ray Review: Original Sin
Original Sin is based on the novel “Waltz Into Darkness” by Cornell Woolrich, the author of the story Hitchcock used as the basis for Rear Window. However, in terms of quality, it would be difficult to find two more dissimilar films. Unlike Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Original Sin fails to generate any real suspense. While there are […]
Blu-ray Review: 61*
In the spring of 1961, major league baseball was changing. The American League had expanded its ranks by two teams (the Los Angeles Angels and the second incarnation of the Washington Senators), and the 154-game baseball season had been extended by eight games. As a result, Babe Ruth’s 1927 single-season home run record–a since-shattered sixty–seemed […]
DVD Review: Hung – The Complete First Season
HBO | 2009 | 315 mins. | MA When the HBO series Hung premiered last June, I ignored it and didn’t watch a single episode. Based on the title, I assumed it would be some sort of empty headed sex romp. However, when I began watching my review copy a couple of weeks ago, I […]