Japan Organized Crime Boss (1969)

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Kenji Fukasaku’s Japan Organized Crime Boss is a film about a man lost in time. He’s an old Yakuza who still lives by a code. But he’s been in prison for a while and that has made him want to live a quiet life. But like Michael Corleone the people all around him keep dragging him back in. But those people don’t have a code. The world is changing and it’s left him behind.

This is a good film, but a more thoughtful film than you might imagine with that title. It is shot like a documentary and is building a mythology around the Yakuza that probably never existed. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

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I’m still trying to learn how to watch silent movies. I have the hardest time keeping my mind from wandering. It helps when the film is full of interesting visuals like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and when it comes with a beautiful new transfer like this release. Ditto when it has some good music to go with it. Read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Little Women (1994)

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Though I am the right age to have grown up with this adaptation of Little Women, I only first watched it a few years ago. I’ve come to love both the story (or at least cinematic adaptations of the story, for I’ve never read the book) and this particular adaptation. This new 4K UHD release is a stunner as you can read in my review over at Cinema Sentries.

Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) 4K UHD Review

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In the past few years, I’ve only gotten into Werner Herzog, but I’ve gotten into him in a very big way. His documentaries are endlessly fascinating, but I find his narrative films most interesting. Even when they aren’t great, they are clearly made by someone with great passion and skill.

Aguirre, The Wrath of God is probably my favorite film of his. I recently reviewed the new 4K UHD release from Shout Factory which you can read over at Cinema Sentries.

North by Northwest (1959) 4K UHD Review

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In my most recent movie journal, I rated North by Northwest with one star. Reader CleJackson noted this and said he was looking forward to reading my one-star review.

Of course, that rating was an accident. North by Northwest is one of my favorite movies. It is the perfect entertainment. It is Alfred Hitchcock at the height of his powers directing Cary Grant at the height of his charm.

I love it so much. I did review the new 4K UHD release of the movie and I definitely did not give it a one-star rating. You can read my thoughts over at Cinema Sentries.

Evil: The Complete Series DVD Review

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Evil is one of those shows I wouldn’t think I would like but it turns out I really love. It is basically a procedural that started out on broadcast TV. I normally avoid that sort of thing. But it was created and show-runned by Robert and Michelle King who have made a habit of taking established broadcast TV tropes and turning them into something original.

The concept – three people, a priest, a lapsed-Catholic psychologist, and an atheist scientist investigate paranormal shenanigans for the Catholic Church – is pretty standard broadcast TV stuff. But they made it really fun. This is especially true after the first season when it was dropped by CBS and became a streaming-only show. Then it gets really good and weird.

You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) 4K UHD Reivew

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The ’80s were weird. People gave the Chiodo Brothers – three dudes who had never made a movie before – $2 million to write/direct/produce a horror film about a bunch of space clowns who come to Earth and turn people into Cotton Candy Slurpees.

And it’s pretty good.

I wish we had more of that weirdness today.

You can read my review of the film over at Cinema Sentries.

Goodbye & Amen (1977)

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When I was a teenager and first beginning to truly love movies I sent off for a movie catalog. I saw an ad in the back of Rolling Stone or Spin or some such thing and I wanted to see what type of films were available outside of my little small town. What I got was a Xeroxed copy of a copy of a copy of some typed-out list of films. I think there were occasionally pictures and there were definitely some synopses of the films.

I didn’t buy any of the movies, or rent them, but I was endlessly fascinated by that catalog. Here were all sorts of films, hundreds of them, that I’d never heard of. I think they were mostly cult films, foreign films, low-budget B-movies, the type of films that I now love, but it opened up this idea that there was a cinematic world out there, just out of reach that maybe someday I could explore.

I mention this because I think of young cinephiles now. How literally nearly every film ever made is available to them if they know how to look. How sites like IMDB and Letterboxed and countless others give them information and recommendations for all sorts of films in every genre imaginable. What an amazing time it must be for them. I mean it is an amazing time for me, but I can’t imagine how awesome it must be for kids just now discovering movies.

I am, of course, a huge proponent of physical media. While I certainly stream my fair share of movies, nothing quite beats sliding in a disc and pressing Play. One of the things I love about all these boutique Blu-ray companies is that they regularly supply me with great films I never knew existed.

Goodbye & Amen is one such film. It is an Italian thriller about a C.I.A. agent living in Rome with plans to start a coup in some African country. But his plans are thwarted when one of his agents starts shooting random people and holds a couple of people hostage in a hotel room.

It is well-shot, and directed, and is an utterly enjoyable watch. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Broken Oath (1977)

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We are neck deep into 31 Days of Horror. I love it. I love watching horror movies. I love writing about them. But I gotta admit, sometimes it is hard. Sometimes my “real” life wears me out, brings me down, freaking exhausts me.

This week has been a physically exhausting one for me at work. I come home and maybe watch a movie, but finding the energy to write about one has been difficult.

Luckily, I’ve written lots of other reviews for Cinema Sentries and now I get to share one with you.

Broken Oath is a Hong Kong, Kung Fu adaptation of the Lady Snowblood story. It isn’t as good as the original Japanese film, but it is still a lot of fun. You can read my review here.

The Facts of Murder (1959)

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One of the things I love about Boutique Blu-ray companies like Arrow, Criterion, and Radiance is that they fill their discs with lots of cool extras. There will be behind-the-scenes featurettes, interviews, and audio commentaries. I can’t say that I always watch and listen to all of these things, but I love that they exist. If you do dig into them through many films, you can get quite a cinematic education.

On one of the extras to The Facts of Murder, I learned that American Film Noir led to Italian Neorealism, which influenced Italian Crime Dramas which ultimately led to the Giallo. That’s one of those things that makes perfect sense when you think about it but that through line is not something I had previously thought about.

The film is a good one. It is an interesting mix of traditional film noir elements with Neorealism. It reminded me a little of a Maigret adaption with its investigation as slice-of-life feel. You can read my full review here.