Category: Reviews

The Sunday Woman (1975)

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I feel like I grouse a little too much about not having much of a readership. In truth, it isn’t that big of a deal. Sure, I wish more people read my stuff, but I’m not actually trying all that hard to gain a readership. I write because I like to write.

But I also realize that I tend to write about relatively obscure stuff. I don’t go to the movies every week and catch the hot movies. I don’t even tend to watch them at home and write about them. I watch stuff like this – an obscure Italian murder mystery that wasn’t likely known in the US when it came out, much less 50 years later.

Sometimes I tell myself to write about new things, or at least popular ones, but I can’t help myself. I watch what I like, and I write about that.

Oh well. This film may be obscure, it is certainly strange, but it was also pretty good. You can read my full review here.

Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror (1968)

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I’ve written over 1,300 articles for Cinema Sentries. I don’t know what the breakdown is between reviews and other things like Picks of the Week and Five Cool Things. I regularly try and do a post on this site with a link to my Cinema Sentries articles, but I’ve still got a ways to go.

I try to keep up with my new writings, but sometimes I get distracted. And when I have caught up, I try to dig into much older posts. I know none of this matters to anyone, but I’m kind of astounded I’ve written that many articles for Cinema Sentries. I really ought to branch out and write for some other publications.

Anyway, I forgot to post this review when I wrote it in August. Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror isn’t a Frankenstein movie at all, but rather it is Paul Naschy’s first werewolf film. He directed and starred in a whole bunch of werewolf films back in the day. I actually got a collection of them for Christmas. They are a lot of fun, as you can read in my review.

Alec Guinness Masterpiece Collection

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Like most people my age I first came to Alec Guinness through Star Wars and his memorable role as the old Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. Later, I loved him in The Bridge on the River Kwai and Oliver Twist. For years and years I thought of him solely as a dramatic actor. It was quite surprising, then to discover him as a delightful comedic actor.

I was quite thrilled to obtain this four movie set of some of his best comedies (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, and The Ladykillers.) You can read my full review here.

Young, Violent Dangerous (1976) Blu-ray Review

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I’ve probably said this before, but one of the many things I love about the state of home video these days is that there are so many boutique labels putting out so many wonderful, obscure movies. Movies I’d never even know existed if it weren’t for these releases. There are entire genres I wouldn’t even know about if it weren’t for boutique labels.  Poliziotteschi, for one. 

That Italian crime subgenre  was completely unknown to me until I started reviewing some of those films, and now it is one of my favorite genres (as you can see from my reviews). Young, Violent, Dangerous is kind of a subgenre of Poliziotteschi, which, like the title implies, involves young men who have come to a life of crime more or less out of boredom. 

It isn’t a great film, but I love that we not only have access to this type of film but we can own it in restored HD.  I call that a win-win.  You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Catch Me If You Can (2002) 4K UHD Review

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I watched Catch Me If You Can when it first came out in theaters. I immediately loved it. Tom Hanks was at the height of his power, Steven Spielberg was consistently still making great movies, and Leonardo DiCaprio was in his post-Titanic heartthrob period. Everybody was firing on all cylinders including John Williams who wrote an incredible score.

I hadn’t seen the film in many years when I received this new 4K UHD copy so I was real curious how well it would hold up. I’m here to say it is even better than I remembered. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Scars of Dracula (1970)

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Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of Hammer Studios horror films. The truth is I don’t necessarily think all their films are all that good, but there is something about them that I love anyway. They are like Classic Doctor Who in that manner.

Scars of Dracula isn’t a great film by any real measurement, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself with it anyway. I truly can’t get enough of Christophe Lee enjoying himself as Dracula.

You can read my review of this film in all of its 4K UHD glory right here.

I Know Where I’m Going (1945)

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Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are known for their large scale, brilliantly shot in technicolor productions such as The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus, but they also made much smaller production such as this film. I’d honestly never heard of it until I got a copy of it on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection, but I found it to be just lovely.

It is about a woman who goes to a small village in Scotland to meet her fiancee and get married but instead she falls in love with the local villagers and meets another man. That’s sound like every other romantic comedy out there, but in the hands of masters like Powell and Presssburger it is wonderful. You can read my full review here.

The Ninja Trilogy

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Some days I truly miss the old video stores. There was something special about walking through the aisles looking at the same VHS covers you’d seen a thousand times, hoping to stumble across something special. In those days before IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, I often had no idea what a movie was like other than that cover and a description written on the back. Some of those covers made the movies seem utterly amazing. Some of them are still etched into my brain (like the cover for April Fool’s Day where a woman’s hair is braided to look like a hangman’s noose).

I don’t think I ever managed to see any of the Ninja Trilogy when I was a kid, though I do remember looking at those VHS tapes and wishing I could rent them, but I sure was thrilled when I learned they were getting the UHD treatment.  Now I’ve not only seen them, but I own them, and I’ve reviewed them (something you can read right here at Cinema Sentries.)

Manhattan Melodrama (1934) Blu-ray Review

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Considering the talent – Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and WS Van Dyke (who directed most of The Thin Man movies) this film was entirely disappointing. Melodrama is right. This thing lacks all the wit and cleverness one would expect in a film with that cast.

You can read my full review here.