Hannibal Brooks (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movie: Directed by Michael Winner and released in 1969, Hannibal Brooks takes place during the Second World War and revolves around a British soldier named Stephen Brooks (Oliver Reed) who we meet on a prison train travelling through Nazi Germany. On said train, he makes the acquaintance of Pack (Michael Pollard), an American soldier who dreams of escaping despite the fact that failed escapees are frequently shot for their efforts. When the men arrive at Stalag 17, Brooks and a few others are sent to do manual labor at a nearby zoo, Brooks himself tasked with caring for an elephant named Lucy after being trained by a German zoo employee. Brooks, quite understandably, isn't happy about this. An animal the size of an elephant makes a lot of waste and a big part of Brooks' responsibilities include cleaning up after Lucy in that department. When a bombing raid by allied fo...Read the entire review »

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movie: Based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne (and incorporating elements from his other novel, The Mysterious Island) and released by Universal Studios in 1916 after roughly a year and a half of development and production, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was directed by Stuart Paton and was unique in that it made clever use of underwater photography techniques developed by brothers Ernest and George Williamson, the creators of the "photosphere." Shot in The Bahamas, the story begins when the U.S. government assigns the crew of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln to head out to see and investigate and destroy a monster' that has been spotted in the area. On board for the journey are French Professor Aronnax (Dan Hanlon), his daughter (Edna Pendleton) and a champion harpooner named Ned Land (Curtis Benton). This turns out to The Nautilus, a submarine ship designe...Read the entire review »