DVD Reviews

From identical dresses to the fire which ravishes Manderley, the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) can never, ever take the place of Rebecca.  Cue the romance, the heartbreak, the haunted tension and wind it all up because this film is all about the snap.  That’s what makes this ...

A minister-turned-serial killer in one of the most beautiful films ever made by Hollywood?  Sure.  Why not?  When the results of exaggerated set designs and a directing style reminiscent of early silent cinema are as good as they are in The Night of the Hunter, no one is going to complain  ...

Was he trying to kiss or kill her on that hilltop?  The verdict is still out as Suspicion makes its debut on blu-ray thanks to the efforts of the Warner Archive Collection. Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact - which is as dissimilar as they...

You can’t say that Hitchcock didn’t warn audiences of Hitler.  He made several films with Hitler’s world view overhanging the shadows in each frame.  But, after a decade in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock took that warning to a new level and gave audiences the ultimate romance between a ...

“I know what happens in those mystery pictures!  A guy walks over to a perfectly ordinary door he opens it up and - ZOWIE! - out falls a body right on its kisser!” And, of course, a body falls to the ground!  When it comes to getting the tone of horror comedies right, you have to sometimes go ...

Sandra!  Junior?  SANDRA! Junior? SAAAANNNNNDRA! Having successfully stolen the show in 1941’s One Night in the Tropics, the comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello - who were big on radio but untested on film - were quickly signed by Universal Pictures ...

THE POST SAVES EARL WILLIAMS!  Hear all about it in His Girl Friday, now available on blu-ray thanks to the Criterion Collection.  Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell with standout performances from ...

If you ever get a hankering for some solid improvisational comedic skills on display throughout a major motion picture, look no further then director Leo McCarey’s slapstick comedy, The Awful Truth.  It might have been his first film for Columbia Pictures, but that didn’t stop McCarey from  ...

Swamp gators (with their mouths taped shut as evidenced by this crisp 4K handling!), dead lawyers, and mighty sums of money!  Such frightful delights await those that can stay sane in the Norman clan.  ...

It’s the simplest twist of fates as Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard return to do battle with the supernatural in The Ghost Breakers!  Voodoo, ghosts, and island-bound zombies!  Add in a criminally underrated performance from Willie Best and you have the makings of another REEL CLASSIC! ...

Sometimes it takes meeting the wrong person to finally get to the right person.  That’s one of the territories in Holiday, an often overlooked romantic comedy from 1938 which deals with clashing values and what it means to truly live as pie-in-the-sky dreamers mix drinks with the aristocrats  ...

In which a rather stoned-looking King Kong (put down the sleep inducing berries, man!!) gets to ride a bundle of hot air balloons across the sea and then summon a whole lot of lightning in order to kick Godzilla’s radioactive thunder thighs! King Kong vs Godzilla is exactly what Toho needed after the lukewarm ...

If you think sequels are a side effect of the modern era, you are absolutely incorrect.  For proof of this, let’s take a look at the subject of this article: 1933’s Son of Kong, which gives the audience another take on monsters, making this version of Kong a bit more . . . fun and lovable  ...

“We may be witnessing a Biblical prophecy come true--the beasts will reign over the earth.” Today, on Kaiju Korner, I’m going to flip the script a bit and focus on . . . bugs.  While usually small and parasitic in their general annoyances, bugs are a BIG problem for a lot of people. From flies to beetles,  ...

With the brand-new release of ALL FIVE (so far) of the Monsterverse movies on Ultra 4K, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit 2017’s Kong: Skull Island.  Received well both critically and commercially, this kaiju film is a visual spectacle and the new 4K upgrade - courtesy of Warner Brothers - doesn’t  ...

Let the titans battle!  Directed by Adam Wingard, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is one hell of a monsterverse slugfest as Kong must recruit a super-charged Godzilla in a battle for more than just Hollow Earth.  If that statement means little to you then, rest assured, this movie  ...

Welcome to Kaiju Korner, where we celebrate all things concerning Japanese fantasy and giant monsters! What do bathtub toy boats and plastic helicopters have in common with a stunt coordinator pioneer in a monster suit?  Hint: the action takes place in Japan.  That’s right.  Godzilla, the mother of  ...

Welcome back to Kaiju Korner, where we celebrate all things concerning Japanese fantasy and giant monsters!  This time on the monster-sized docket for all things mutated and giant-sized is Godzilla Raids Again, the first sequel to the monumental originator which would change the layout of the typical  ...

Welcome back, Fellow Film Travelers! In today’s coverage of all things kaiju and massive, we’re going to hop in the Way Back Machine and set the time coordinates for 1925! That’s right, it’s time to cover a true pioneer in film special effects, The Lost World, which features ...

For this installment of Kaiju Korner, we tackle the screen debut of Rodan, Godzilla’s best and worst frenemy in a number of kaiju sequels, as he takes to the skies in his film debut over an erupting Mount Aso and wreaks all sorts of havoc for the4 civilians below thanks to his  ...

“Once they were men; now they are land crabs.” The late GREAT Roger Corman was not one to shy away from kaiju territory, no matter the ridiculousness of the story. His early B-movies are absolute marvels at what he was able to pull off on a dime-sized budget and that’s where we take things ...

Mutated by the H-bomb one octopus takes its deformity into its own hands and attacks!!  That’s right, Kaiju Kravers, it’s time to ramp up those fears of a nuclear attack with It Came From Beneath the Sea!  ...

In which the Yakuza enter into a Godzilla flick.  Yes, those badass dudes.  Sure, their involvement in the plot of Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla proves to be little more than shoot-out to add some conspiracy to the failed implementation of Project T - a psychic way to control  ...

Monsters. Mutants. And mayhem from the skies above! It’s all here in Godzilla: Final Wars, the one movie designed to end the kaiju reign of terror once and for all  ...

“Did it ever occur to you that beneath the superficial you’ve learned about, there could be a great and passionate devotion to this god?” When it comes to The Mummy, few films have delivered anything close to Universal’s original 1932 film with Boris Karloff in the role of Imhotep, an ancient  ...

“It’s alive! It’s alive!” Thanks to the glorious electrical effects of Kenneth Strickfaden, most viewers know the key sequence in Frankenstein in which the mad Henry Frankenstein (a tremendous performance from Colin Clive) brings his stitched-together creation of random human ...

Frankenstein will never die.  Know this. While some form of the monster may come and go, the mad scientist responsible for all his carnage will never completely disappear.   Hammer’s final moments with their first incarnation of his evil, gloriously played by Peter Cushing, might have sent him to the gallows pole but, deep down inside, all of us knew that it wasn’t really the end of his  ...

“I am Dracula. I bid you welcome.” In which the Universal Monsters film series moves away from the silent era and legitimately begins!  Pre-Code Horror doesn’t get any better than here with Producer Carl Laemmle’s Dracula, a film which is often overlooked by some disciples ...

It’s a deadly game of bat and mouse!!! The steady beat.  The blistering horns.  That powerful theme of James Bernard’s pierces the walls of this cemetery; it is majestic even.  It sounds like a procession as the camera marches us toward the tomb of Dracula.  And then, because we’d not have it any other way, there is a sprinkling of ...

While the majority of people probably think of Andrew Lloyd Webber when they hear any mention of The Phantom of the Opera, there remains a loyal following of film lovers who, correctly, can’t help but picture Lon Chaney’s terrified expression in his full phantom regalia as he is unmasked for the first time.  It’s a frightening  ...