Category: Reviews

Airport, Airport 1975, Airport ’77, and The Concorde…Airport ’79 4K UHD Reviews

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I have become a big fan of 1970s disaster movies. There is just something wonderful about a great big cast full of classic movie stars and up-and-comers all facing off against some ridiculous disaster. Airport (1970) essentially launched that genre and created most of its tropes. They released three more Airport movies, all of which had very little to do with each other, and were sometimes only barely connected to an actual airport but did all star George Kennedy as Joe Patroni, a mechanic/pilot/administrator.  Kino Lorber recently released them all in 4K, and I reviewed them for Cinema Sentries.  They have now released a boxed set of all four, but I got them individually.

You can read them in order here:
Airport (1970)
Airport 1975 (1975)
Airport ’77 (1977)
The Concorde…Airport ’79 (1979)

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Body Puzzle (1992) Blu-ray Review

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Lamberto Bava was the son of Mario Bava. Mario Bava was one of the great Italian directors of the 1960s and 1970s. A former cinematographer, Mario Bava’s films are gorgeous, often filled with bright, bold colors and fantastic camera placements.  Lamberto wasn’t nearly as good, but he still made some fun films.  

Body Puzzle isn’t great, but it has a great idea. A serial killer is collecting various parts of his victims to create…well, I won’t spoil anything, but it’s a fun concept that’s a little clunky in its execution.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Errol Flynn Collection (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Santa Fe Trail, Edge of Darkness, Objective Burma, Adventures of Don Juan) Blu-ray Review

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When I was a kid in the 1980s, I listened to The Beatles and Jerry Lee Lewis, and I watched shows like The Monkees and Father Knows Best. I knew who Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre were. I had at least a cursory knowledge of artists who were popular decades before I was born.

I often wonder if kids today have that same sort of knowledge. It isn’t fair to expect teenagers today to know who The Beatles are, or Bogart. They existed not a couple of decades before teenagers today were born, but more than half a century ago. But do they know Nirvana and Alanis Morissette, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Demi Moore? Maybe. I see kids wearing Nirvana shirts all the time, and we’ve shown my daughter lots of films from the 1980s.

I don’t know if any of this is important. I do know that I love classic cinema, and I’m always thrilled to see old films get nice new releases. I did know who Errol Flynn was as a kid, but until this set came out I’d only seen one or two of his movies.  I really enjoyed getting to know him better. You can read my full review of the set here.

Joan Crawford Collection (Grand Hotel, The Damned Don’t Cry, Possessed, The Women) Blu-ray Review

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DVD collecting is a fun, but frustrating hobby. Frustrating because movies come in so many different cases. There are DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K UHD formats. There are boxed sets, special editions, steelbooks, anniversary sets, and more. It is hard to keep up. I write a weekly column about new releases, and I can’t keep up with everything. 

I want to own a physical copy of my favorite films. That’s the first consideration. But then I want the best quality copy, so maybe I need to upgrade to Blu-ray or 4K. But as a collector, I also like fancy sets with gifts like posters, lobby cards, and boxes that I can show off.  Then I have to consider the special features like commentaries, interviews, etc. It can get overwhelming and expensive trying to get the best stuff. 

There is also shelf space to consider. I have half a dozen bookcases filled to the brim with DVDs and an increasingly large stack of unsorted things I don’t have the space for. I’ve come to love little boxed sets of several movies. You have to be careful with them because sometimes the quality is poor and all too often the cases are cheap, but a good set gives you lots of movies with good quality, lots of extras but keeps the space down to a minimum.

I really enjoyed this set of Joan Crawford movies, as you can see from my review over at Cinema Sentries.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection 4K UHD Review

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The Nightmare on Elm Street series is one of the best horror series ever made. That’s faint praise considering most horror franchises eventually turn to crap. Certainly the Nightmare series has a few duds, but even the bad ones have moments that are worth watching. If nothing else, the kills are usually interesting. The original is one of the best horror movies of the 1980s. Last year they released it with a wonderful 4K UHD transfer, and now the original seven films are getting the works. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

The Hard Way (1943) Blu-ray Review

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You should never say no to Ida Lupino. I first discovered her playing a blind woman in On Dangerous Ground. It was a small role, but memorable. Soon after I learned what an incredible woman she was. She entered Hollywood at an early age, but was constantly getting in trouble for refusing roles she felt was beneath her.

As her star rose she formed her own production company and started directing her own films. She was only the second woman entered into the Director’s Guild of Hollywood. Like I say, I always watch her in anything I can get my hands on.

She stars with Joan Leslie in The Hard Way, a film that reminded me a lot of All About Eve. She plays a woman who pushes her sister into the life of an actress. Initially this is to get her out of the poor town poverty they grew up in, but that morphs into untethered ambition that destroys everything in its path.

I didn’t love the film, but I do think it is worth watching. You can read my full review here.

Last Known Address (1970) Blu-ray Review

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I love a good shoe leather movie. That’s a film that gets into the nuts and bolts of a job. Whether it is police work, newspaper reporting or any other thing, it is fascinating to watch people really do their jobs. Last Known Address has a lot of shoe leather. We watch our two cops knock on doors, meticulously dig through paperwork and do the type of policing most movies skip over.

There is a balance to that, you have to make the shoe leather interesting or audience will get bored and skip to something else. This movie keeps it interesting. I loved it.

You can read my full review here.

The Strange Woman (1946) Blu-ray Review

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Hedy Lamarr was a remarkable woman. Not only was she a great actress, but she was an inventor too. She helped design a torpedo navigation system that became the basis for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies.

Here she plays a woman who is considered strange, and perhaps evil because she has the audacity to act like a man. Not in any physical, sexual, or gendered way, but rather she recognizes that to get what she wants, she has to do what the men do around her – she has to take it.

It is a strange movie, and not a particularly great one, but it has a great performance from Lamarr. You can read my full review of the new Blu-ray over at Cinema Sentries.

The Rapacious Jailbreaker (1974) Blu-ray Review

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This Japanese drama is loosely based on a real guy who kept breaking out of jail only to be sent back shortly after (then he’d break out again.) In the film this becomes his entire identity. He cannot live in the hell that is prison, yet when he escapes he doesn’t know what to do with himself so he always gets caught and finds himself back in prison.

It is more of a character study than any type of thriller, but it is a good one. You can read my full review here.