The Great Leap (Blu-ray) by Justin Remer The Movie: Before her groundbreaking (and infamous) work as a director on Triumph of the Will and Olympia, Leni Riefenstahl was an interpretive dancer turned screen sensation in Germany. She made her name acting in "mountain films" (Bergfilms), an idiosyncratically German genre in which nature takes a prominent role and most footage was shot in treacherous real locations. (Personally, as a fan of surfing movies, I immediately got the appeal of this kind of flick as soon as I started watching today's selection.) Most of Rief...Read the entire review »

Cattle Annie and Little Britches (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV Made at a point when the Western genre seemed to have run its course*, Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981) is a curiosity. Based on Robert Ward's same-named book (he co-wrote the screenplay), the movie is populated by many historical outlaws, including Bill Dalton (Scott Glenn), Bill Doolin (Burt Lancaster), and Cattle Annie (Amanda Plummer) herself, played by an intriguing mix of veteran and emerging film talent. The film is rife with interesting concepts, similar to though not directly culled from earlier films, including The Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but it never quite coalesces. The art direction, costumes, and cinematography are all good, but director Lamont Johnson doesn't really have a feel for the form. And while Kino's new Blu-ray offers the complete, 98-minute cut of the film, it plays like important character development and story material is...Read the entire review »