Rick & Morty Season 1-3 <small>by Kurt Dahlke</small><hr /> Rick and Morty: There's this little show called Rick and Morty, from the Adult Swim network, and if you don't know it, or worse, don't like it, I pity you, dog. No really. Wubba Lubba Dub Dub or something! Rick and Morty is the brainchild of two dinguses named Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, and it's pretty much the epitome of animated comedy for arrested adolescent males raised on The Simpsons, with a splash of Devil Doll and Radiskull thrown in for good measure. As such, it has a lot to tell us about the state of America, circa 2016, if you know what I'm saying. (If you do, let me know, because I don't think I do.) It's also fiercely smart, packed-to-the-gills with High Concept, and (depending on how drunk or stoned you are) incredibly funny. It's even funny if you're not f-ed up, but being in such a state certainly doesn't hurt. This set collects previousl...Read the entire review »

The Midnight Man (Blu-ray) <small>by Stuart Galbraith IV</small><hr /> A murder-mystery jointly produced, written, and directed by star Burt Lancaster and frequent collaborator Roland Kibbee, The Midnight Man (1974), is not the turgid, clunky film I was expecting. Indeed, in many ways it's not much like other 70s films of its genre at all, instead strongly resembling much later high-quality murder-mysteries produced for British television. Like Inspector Morse (1987-2000) and its follow-ups, it has adopts a low-key, methodically-paced approach, and like Broadchurch (2013-2017), the identity of the murderer is almost secondary to the story's exploration of a small community's deep dark secrets, skeletons in myriad closets which the investigation gradually reveals. The Midnight Man is not at all great cinema, but it's intelligent and for its time, surprising. Read the entire review »

Lowlife (Blu-ray) <small>by Francis Rizzo III</small><hr /> <style></style> In 10 Words or Less There's no loyalty amongst criminals The Movie I found it interesting that while watching this film, Criterion announced their upcoming release of Michael Haneke's Funny Games, a film I have very little interest in revisiting...Read the entire review »

The Wandering Earth <small>by Olie Coen</small><hr /> Director: Frant Gwo Starring: Chuxiao Qu, Jing Wu, Jin Mai Jaho Year: 2019 I sought out Wandering Earth because it looked to be a bigger deal than normal, a foreign sci-fi flick that has made its way to America and would force us to take notice. Only one theatre is my city was playing it, but rolled the dice when normally I would let a movie like this slide by, because I thought there was a chance that this experience would be different, that it might just blow me away. On that level, I guess I was disappointed, because Wandering Earth isn't Interstellar, it's more Armageddon,...Read the entire review »

The Vengeance Of She (Blu-ray) <small>by DVD Savant</small><hr /> Reviewed by Glenn Erickson In the late end of the 1960s Hammer was still producing remakes; before their re-imaginings of Universal's horror and fantasy classics they began with feature versions of popular TV shows. Hammer's 1966 remake One Million Years B.C. and 1965 remake She performed exceedingly well, boosting the careers of their female stars Raquel Welch and Ursula Andress. H. Rider Haggard's book She has never fully faded from the public consciousness. Haggard's supernatural myth connects our world to long-lost civilizations that possessed occult powers of magic: the immortal white queen Ayesha rules over a savage tribe and seeks the reincarnation of her lost love. Noted silent film versions of She wer...Read the entire review »