Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 8th, 2012
"Gentlemen, I assure you she's the perfect type for the job. She's good at making friends with gentlemen, and we want somebody inside his house who has his confidence."
Say what you will about Alfred Hitchcock, but one thing he never lacked was confidence. Today filmmakers and film fans alike still worship at his altar. His church was the darkened neighborhood cinema, and no one held court better than the man fans affectionately refer to as Hitch. The flicker didn't come from candles as you might expect in such a place of worship. They emanated from the silver screen. He was canonized as the Master of Suspense, but Hitch was more than that, much more. He was actually quite a romantic at heart. Most of his films are romance stories. But Hitch placed these commonplace romances in uncommon environments. His lovers possessed all of the passion you would expect from a romance film, but their lives were usually in danger...and sometimes there were higher causes. Such is the case in Hitch's 1946 spy thriller Notorious.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 6th, 2012
Evidence has revealed the possibility that a Soviet Assassin code-named “Cassius,” thought to be long dead, is still at large after a US Senator is murdered. A veteran CIA operative (played by Richard Gere) is teamed up with an enthusiastic young FBI agent (played by Topher Grace) who has studied and obsessed over Cassius' actions since his days at Harvard.
This is the sort of film that cannot be talked about at great length without revealing the many important secrets it contains. This is especially frustrating because it is those same secrets that only add to my appreciate of the film because it adds layers to all of actor's performances when you know the lies they have been, and continue to have. That being said, multiple viewings could make for some interesting observations for those that enjoy this sort of spy thriller film.
Cold war rivalries and spy games are resurrected for the central plot of this film. The CIA and FBI are forced together to investigate the actions of Russian spies, both new and old. There are conversations outside the White House, War room style meetings, cat-and-mouse games between dangerous men and many other hallmarks of the spy genre.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 9th, 2011
A bar owner hires a hitman to assassinate his wife and her lover upon discovering their affair. What proceeds is a neo-noir packed with ample murder, betrayal and suspicions throughout.
This film is the directorial debut of Joel Cohen, thus making it the first in the line of “Coen Bros.” productions (Joel's brother Ethan naturally contributing as co-writer and co-editor). As well, Barry Sonnenfield is the Director of Photography, which helps to explain the outstanding visual composition of this film. With the combined efforts of the Coens and Sonnenfield, Blood Simple takes a modern, Southern US setting (in full colour I should note) and turns the mise-en-scene into something unmistakably of the noir genre. There are a few more hand held jostling than one would be acclimatized to in Coen Brothers films, which sometimes take away from the strictly “noir” style of framing shots, but do keep it from feeling too stifling or striated.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 20th, 2011
Deep inside most people's hearts lies a layer of curiosity. Many of us could go that one step farther and say it boils down to perversion. Whether it involves a spectacular car crash or two lovers in the throws of passion, there are uninhibited moments that we want to see. But what happens when those moments go beyond curiosity and straight into voyeurism? Worse yet, perhaps straight into a very dangerous situation? Well then one might be feeling much like Jeffery Beaumont in Blue Velvet, one of David Lynch's best movies.
In the serene peaceful town of Lumberton, we see blooming flowers, kids walking and Mr. Beaumont (played by Jack Harvey) watering the grass. However, the water hose hits a snag and gets caught up in the bushes. As he struggles with the apparatus, his heart suddenly gives out and he falls to the concrete below. As he lays there motionless on the ground, a child comes out to see what happened and the dog decides to take a drink. Ants lurch out of the ground and we fade to black.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 26th, 2011
The Durr household often enjoys a good vampire flic to warm the candlelight around the old HDTV (hey, shouldn't I be writing this for the 31 days of October delight?). The taste of blood, the price of your soul, nothing can prepare you for the demons that are right outside your door. Sure, they can promise you sexual pleasure and immortality but that blood is really hard to get out of your clothes. This evening we explore the title We Are the Night featuring four ghoulish women on the cover. Will they sate our palette for blood or perhaps share with us grooming tips? Let's find out.
We open up to a plane on auto-pilot that is witness to a horrifying display of murder and blood letting. Three girls, Louise, Charlotte, and Nora (played by Nina Hoss, Jennifer Ulrich, and Anna Fischer respectively) survey the damage. Unfortunately, none of them really know how to fly a plane, but that's what they get for killing the pilot. They get ready for their departure but Louise hears one more voice from the back of the cabin. She finds a stewardess and looks deep into her eyes before snapping her neck. The three women soon depart for the ground below.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 14th, 2011
Ever watch one of those movies that you don’t quite get or understand the first time around? You are certain that the movie is decent and the plot moves along well. But the problem is there are plot holes and the viewer is sure of them. Until they watch the movie a second time. Then either the viewer realizes the movie is brilliant or still full of plot holes. Well, today I encounter one of those films, Dressed to Kill and I think this one has filled out nicely.
It is another morning. Mike Miller (played by Fred Weber) shaves his face with a straight razor and we pan to the very nude Kate Miller (played by Angie Dickinson) taking a shower. She watches him intently and then starts to touch herself (this is unrated kids, we get to see a whole lot of Angie). As she becomes more aroused and more into herself, she doesn’t notice that there is now a man behind her. He takes her aggressively and she cries out in pleasure as we fade to black.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 26th, 2011
As I have mentioned before on this site, I was married to somebody else before my lovely Sarah. So unfortunately, I know a thing or two about controlling spouses. People who try to force them their loved ones into things they would not normally do and make the least insignificant things into overly important ones. It is a terrible harmful practice and leaves both partners scorned. Thankfully I learned to love again. Let me see what I will think of another controlling drama entitled N-Secure.
A horse carriage rides across the city. We see a young couple, David Alan Washington (played by Cordell Moore) and Robin Joyner (played by Essence Atkins). Later at Chez Philippe, they enjoy some dinner and share some time at their fireplace where David gives Robin a necklace and then we get a romantic night. The next morning, David wakes up and starts his meticulous daily routine before telling Robin to get up and make him breakfast.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2011
Looking for a something a bit different for you gangster flick fix? Then look no further than this box set of gritty, thematically linked Italian crime pictures from director Fernando Di Leo. Things don't get much more delightfully 70s than this.
Caliber 9 headlines Gastone Moschin as Ugo Piazza, a mob tough guy just out of prison. Everyone believes he stole 300 grand from the the mafia, which leads to no end of beatings and threats of worse. The old gang forces Ugo to work for them again, in order to keep an eye on him, and he tells girlfriend Barbara Bouchet that his plan is to find out who really took the money.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 19th, 2011
When I got to college, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I had signed up for computer science so I could go on to be a video game programmer. The truth is, I placed that as my major because I did not know what else to put. As luck would find it, five years later would get me a degree in Finance which I have never used in the professional world. But there was one thing in college I knew for sure. I wanted nothing to do with any fraternity and I am guessing Brotherhood is not going to change this opinion.
We start off the story with four frat guys in a van (if that van was down by a river, I’m out of here). Frank (played by Jon Foster), the pledge leader puts on a mask and runs out to rob a convenience store and comes back. He demonstrates that he wouldn’t ask the pledges to do anything he wouldn’t first. The other three are noticeably frightened because they think they will be arrested. Eventually one of the pledges decides to do it and when they hit the next store, he completes his task quickly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 25th, 2011
(What follows is my cohort Gino Sassani's review, as it was written for the Blu Ray release of this same film. I have only added changes for the Video and Audio sections as DVD is naturally different than Blu Ray).
The Picture Of Dorian Gray was actually Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel. It was quite a controversial subject when it first arrived on the scene in 1890, but not because of the horror element. The book is often sexually explicit and contains more than a flirtation with homosexuality. The main themes have survived, but much of the work itself has been forgotten. We know the work almost exclusively from the classic film from 1945 where Hurd Hatfield played the title character. The more notable members of that cast included Peter Lawford, Donna Reed, and Angela Lansbury. That film downplayed the debauchery elements and focused on the one element that appears to remain strongest in our collective memories, that of the picture aging instead of the man. It’s that deal with the devil that most of us think about when we hear the name Dorian Gray, or Dick Clark for that matter.
![Blood Simple [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/blood-simple-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Blue Velvet [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/blue-velvet-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Dressed to Kill [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/dressed-to-kill-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![N-Secure [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/n-secure-blu-ray-large.jpg)
