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3 Apr
2021 |
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Twentieth Century |
John Barrymore and Carole Lombard are a riot as a Svengali-like playwright and his protégée in one of the films that gave birth to the screwball comedy subgenre. Howard Hawks directs from a script by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, leaving Slarek to just sit back and enjoy the show on Indicator's new Blu-ray release. |
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29 Mar
2021 |
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The Mauritanian |
Imagine having some shady friends who may or may not be involved in a world-changing event that plunges the biggest world power into a global war with a noun. How would that power treat you? Camus tours the Gitmo gift shop (it’s for real) of The Mauritanian… |
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27 Mar
2021 |
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Fandango at the Wall |
What the world needs now… are talented musicians on both sides of the dividing wall separating Mexico from the United States. Varda Bar-Kar’s Fandango at the Wall is a celebration of what can unite us when the world seems so torn apart. Camus lets loose his inner percussionist… |
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26 Mar
2021 |
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The Criminal Code |
Walter Huston is a District Attorney who takes change of the prison to which he previously sent a young man who unintentionally killed the son of a wealthy individual in The Criminal Code, a compelling early sound film from Howard Hawks. Slarek shares jail time with a first-rate cast on Indicator's newly released Blu-ray. |
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26 Mar
2021 |
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26 Mar
2021 |
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25 Mar
2021 |
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Rose: A Love Story |
Text and subtext are in sublime balance in Jennifer Sheridan's assured and compelling Rose: A Love Story, in which a couple have chosen to live in isolation to protect a secret whose exposure could destroy their relationship. We're reposting this London Film Festival review in advance of the film's welcome5 April UK release from Signature Entertainment. |
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24 Mar
2021 |
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Sammo Hung, Johnnie To and Robert Weine on Eureka Blu-ray in June |
Eureka has announced new Blu-ray titles for release in June: Sammo Hung's unique ground-breaking action-horror comedy, Encounter of the Spooky Kind;Johnnie To's immersive crime thriller, PTU; and Robert Wiene’s work of sinister German Expressionism, The Hands of Orlac. |
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24 Mar
2021 |
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23 Mar
2021 |
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21 Mar
2021 |
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Things Change |
Revisiting a film that has fallen off your radar after a twenty year gap can find you wondering why you so liked it in the first place, but not so with Slarek and David Mamet's unexpectedly warm delight of a second feature, Things Change, which is released on a fine Blu-ray tomorrow by Indicator. |
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19 Mar
2021 |
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Viy |
After an unfortunate encounter with a witch, a young seminary student is called upon to say the last prayers of the women the witch transformed into in the 1967 Soviet supernatural horror, Viy. Slarek falls for a film on a terrific 2-disc Blu-ray set from Eureka that includes a second feature adaptation of the same story. |
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19 Mar
2021 |
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19 Mar
2021 |
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18 Mar
2021 |
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The Dig |
Infrequently - which is why it’s such a lovely surprise - a film comes along that is directed in such a novel way, you are transported by the freshness of its vision. A true, albeit melancholy story of a famous historical find, The Dig is a superbly acted gem. Camus uncovers this treasure… |
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13 Mar
2021 |
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Crimewave |
All but disowned by director Sam Raimi, his comical follow-up to his smash indie debut The Evil Dead was plagued by production problems and studio interference, but for some of us it's still a hugely entertaining and imaginative work. Slarek visits an old favourite on Indicator's warmly welcomed and impressively featured new Blu-ray. |
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24 Feb
2021 |
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Pulse |
The only feature from writer-director Paul Golding, Pulse is an unjustly overlooked 1988 tech-horror twist on the haunted house movie, in which a home is invaded by a malevolent electrical force. Genre fan Gort is astonished he's never caught this one before, and salutes Eureka's new Blu-ray. |
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17 Feb
2021 |
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Columbia Noir #2 |
Indicator has followed its excellent collection of noir titles from Columbia Studios with the appropriately titled Columbia Noir #2, another terrific six-film set of lesser-seen but quality noir titles, all with commentaries and other supplemental features. A delighted Slarek steps back into the shadows. |
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13 Feb
2021 |
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Breeder |
Social commentary meets torture porn in screenwriter Maria Møller Christoffersen and director Jens Dahl's well made, well acted but uneven mix of up-to-date concerns and too-familiar horror tropes. Slarek gets medical with Montage Pictures' new Blu-ray. |
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1 Feb
2021 |
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Light Sleeper |
Willem Dafoe plays a lonely courier who works for a high class drug dealer played by Susan Sarandon in Paul Schrader's arresting, richly textured and compellingly performed 1992 character study. Slarek revists a too-often overlooked film on Indicator's impressive new Blu-ray. |
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31 Jan
2021 |
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Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea |
A bonkers Czech comedy about Nazis time traveling to deliver an H-bomb to Hitler and the man pretending to be his own twin in order to inadvertently save the world comes to Blu-ray via Second Run. Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea is reviewed by clydefro. |
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25 Jan
2021 |
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Link |
Camus was at director Richard Franklin’s side all through pre-production, production and some post-production of his anthropological thriller Link, shot in the UK in 1985. After an attempt at a dispassionate Blu-ray film review, a few behind the scenes stories… |
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24 Jan
2021 |
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The Valdez Horses |
Charles Bronson gives one of his finest performances as a mixed-race horse trader who forms a bond of friendship with a young boy who turns up at his door looking for work in a captivatingly understated and gently paced 70s western. Slarek is completely caught out by the poetry of a film he might not have seen were it not for Indicator's fine new Blu-ray. |
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21 Jan
2021 |
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The Valachi Papers |
Charles Bronson plays real-life mafia foot soldier and whistleblower Joe Valachi in this engaging chronicle of his life of crime. Slarek is surprised just how faithful the film is to actual events, and learns a lot about Valachi, his criminal career and the making of the film from the excellent special features on Indicator's new Blu-ray. |
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16 Jan
2021 |
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The Don is Dead |
One of the first of the mob-themed crime films to appear in the wake the wake of the success of The Godfather, The Don is Dead is a neat little gangster movie whose qualities easily eclipse its small flaws. Slarek mobs up for a film whose director and cast are worth the price of admission alone and which looks great on Eureka's new Blu-ray. |
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10 Jan
2021 |
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Saint Maud |
In cinemas last October, the assured little gem, Saint Maud suffered, like every one else, from the Covid effect. It becomes available on digital, DVD and Blu-ray on the 1st February… Camus has seen a review screener and urges you to seek it out. |
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