The Captive Heart (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV Apparently the first postwar POW drama, The Captive Heart (1946) is generally excellent, an unusual Ealing Studios production that's a little closer in spirit to The Best Years of Our Lives than, say, The Great Escape. An ensemble film, it follows the experiences of a half-dozen or so British POWs at a German prison camp, but also the impact of their long absence back home. Basil Dearden directed this adaptation of Guy Morgan's fact-based novel, he having served in the same prison camp used for filming. Following the disaster at Dunkirk, in June 1940 hundreds of British prisoners of the German Army are marched hundreds of miles to a prison camp in northwestern Germany. During the march, the major characters are introduced, as are their loved ones ...Read the entire review »

Dynamo (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV Above average for its type, Dynamo (1978) is but one of dozens of "Bruceploitation" movies, a subgenre of Kung Fu film exploiting the fame of dead superstar Bruce Lee. When Lee died at just 32 in July 1973, he was fast becoming an international sensation. Yet only three starring movies were released when he was alive: The Big Boss (1971), Fists of Fury (1972), and Way of the Dragon (1973). The partly American-financed Enter the Dragon (also 1973), produced for about $850,000 yet grossed as much as $350 million worldwide, was released mere weeks after his death. Another Lee film, Game of Death, was partially shot in 1972 but put on hold when Enter the Dragon came along. That one was finished using just 11 minutes of Lee footage, the remainder awkwardly substituting doubles. The movies made in the wake of Bruce Lee's death typically starred "Lee-alik...Read the entire review »