The Human Condition (The Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV Its power undiminished 60 years after it was made, The Human Condition (1959-61) fully retains its power to shock audiences with its unflinchingly honest look at the consequences of Japanese militarism in Manchuria during the Second World War. Based on Junpei Gomikawa's 1958 novel, regrettably never published in English, and directed by Masaki Kobayashi, each of whom witnessed many of the same small humiliations and wartime atrocities as the novel's hero, Kaji, the movie of The Human Condition rebuts a wave of apologist, pro-militarist historical films produced by Shintoho Studios at the time, and Toho Studios' Japanese Navy epics, special effects-driven films that simultaneously glorify and condemn Japan's wartime actions. The entire story runs nine and two-thirds hours. The first third, known in English as The Human Condition: No Greater Love, was originally released in...Read the entire review »

Spiral: From the Book of Saw (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) by William Harrison THE FILM:Remember when it wasn't Halloween if it wasn't Saw? The popular horror franchise spawned from the 2004 hit from James Wan churned out six quick sequels over the next six years. Unfortunately, the law of diminishing returns mandated increasingly mediocre movies, and the delayed seventh sequel, Jigsaw, was not the successful resurrection the franchise desired. Now, Darren Lynn Bousman, director of Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV, returns with a spinoff film, Spiral: From the Book of Saw. With its flashy marketing and poster campaign, I wa...Read the entire review »

The Devil's 8 AKA The Devil's Eight (Blu-ray) by Kurt Dahlke The Devil's 8:Woe is the reviewer who grabs what looks like a cracking-good car-crashing exploitation picture from the screener pool, mistakenly thinking it hails from 1979, when in fact that year is 1969. (Something about judging a book by its cover and misreading Roman Numerals at a quick glance.) The Devil's 8 is no disappointment, though it's not what the doctor ordered. If your prescription calls for a relatively mild programmer that aspired to something slightly better than playing regional drive-ins as the last century got ready to wind down, this Blu-ray will tickle you, but it will have the most appeal for a select set of viewers who specialize in such things, not generalists like myself.Christopher George (before he got big hair and was forced to slum in Italian Horror) stars as Federal Agent Ray Faulkner, a boozing carouser who is pegged to collar Moonshine Kingpin Burl (...Read the entire review »