Juice (4K Ultra HD) (Blu-ray) by William Harrison THE FILM:Ernest R. Dickerson graduated from Spike Lee's cinematographer to feature filmmaker with this 1992 drama, which spotlights four black teenagers living in Harlem. The film benefits from strong performances and solid cinematography but does not have quite the impact of contemporaries Boyz N the Hood or Menace II Society. Shot on location in Harlem, Juice marks the big-screen debut of enigmatic rapper Tupac Shakur, who portrays quasi-villain Roland Bishop, a man who becomes addicted to a fast, violent lifestyle. Before breaking bad, Bishop spends time with friends Quincy "Q" Powell (Omar Epps), Raheem Porter (Khalil Kain) and Eric "Steel" Thurman (Jermaine Hopkins) doing what boys do; cutting class, hitting on women and sp...Read the entire review »

Dancing with Crime / The Green Cockatoo (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV An untitled double-feature billed as "Film Noir Classics," Dancing with Crime (1947) and The Green Cockatoo (1937) are really British crime mellers that would be potboilers were it not for the handful of star names in each cast. Further, while both films may have been "digitized in association with the British Film Institute," Cockatoo is obviously derived from secondary elements; it looks okay, but far from great. Dancing with Crime (1947) is a very ordinary crime thriller with a pedestrian script, though its cast and depiction of early postwar Britain is interesting. A young Richard Attenborough stars as London cabby Ted Peters, engaged...Read the entire review »