Tag: kino lorber

Somewhere In Time (1980)

somewhere in time

Somewhere in Time is a film I’ve always felt like people loved. I thought it was a revered minor classic. I watched it many years ago and was a little disappointed in it, but when I got the opportunity to review this new UHD release from Kino Lorber, I figured it was time to give it another try.

Furthermore, I was still disappointed in it. Apprently, I was wrong thinking everybody else loved it because all my Letterboxd followers feel the same as me and all the reviews I’ve read find it to be mostly average.

Christopher Reeve becomes obsessed with an old painting of Jane Seymour and finds a way to travel back in time to meet her. 

Reeve and Seymour look beautiful, and the idea of the story is interesting, but I never really bought into the romance.  And the film didn’t seem all that interested in the time travel aspects. 

You can read all of my thoughts over at Cinema Sentries.

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.

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.)

Dogtooth (2009) 4K UHD Review

dogtooth

Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the most creative, strange, and incredible directors working today. Dogtooth was his second feature film, and it might be his strangest.

It is about a man and a woman with three adult children. The children have never been let out of the house/garden. They are regularly taught false meanings to everyday words. They believe they have a fourth sibling, whom was bad and thus was sent to live outside of the yard and to whom they regularly talk to and throw gifts (but who doesn’t actually exist.) Etc. Basically the parents had children to experiment on them.

It gets even weirder but that would spoil the film. It is utterly bizarre but like all Lanthimos films there is something deeper going on behind the strangeness. I loved it, but I don’t know that I’ll ever want to watch it again.

You can read my full review here.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XIII Blu-ray Review

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I’ve talked about these film noir sets from Kino Lorber on multiple occasions. I’m always surprised they keep making them. I’m always surprised there are that many film noirs to release. But I love them just the same. I hope they keep making them forever.

This set includes a mostly great spy thriller, a surprisingly thoughtful thriller with a mentally ill killer, and a really rather good remake of a Hitchcock film.

You can read my full review here.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXV Blu-ray Review

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I’ve reviewed so many of these sets I don’t know what else to say about them. This one has three films from Republic Pictures directed by John H. Auer, whom I’d never heard of before.

The films are The Flame (1947) a melodramatic Double Indemnity-esque caper with too many characters and a couple of blondes I couldn’t tell apart. City That Never Sleeps (1953) is a docu-style drama filled with loads of interesting characters and some terrific noir cinematography. Hell’s Half Acre (1953) is an exotic noir set on the mean streets of Honolulu.

They are all pretty good, actually, and you can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XIX

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I’ve reviewed a bunch of these film noir sets from Kino Lorber over the last few years. Not all of the films are great, some of them are pretty lousy if I’m being honest, but I love that these films are getting released in HD.

This set features stars such as Charlton Heston, Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan, and Ida Lupino (those last two are in Beware, My Lovely a film I reviewed last Noirvember).

All three films are pretty good if not exactly true classics. You can read my full review here.

Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

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I love me a good submarine movie and this is the film that essentially created all of the usual tropes of the genre. It isn’t the best that was ever made, but it isn’t far from it either. Anytime you’ve got Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable in a picture you know you’re gonna get something interesting. Anyway, here’s my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVI

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Kino Lorber, the boutique Blu-ray label has been releasing these sets of three relatively obscure film noirs for a few years now. I’ve reviewed quite a few of them, and while not every film is a classic, or even that good, I always enjoy watching them.

You can read my full review of this set over at Cinema Sentries. 

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XV

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I’m finally through with watching all those Shaw Brothers kung fu flicks, and I’m now ready to start my Noirvember watching properly.

First up was this nice set of three films from Kino Lorber. These aren’t the greatest movies ever made, they’re not even the greatest film noirs ever made. Actually, they’re not all even that good. But I love that these obscure and not amazing films keep getting Blu-ray releases.

You can read my review over at Cinema Sentries.