Shaft (1971) (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray) by William Harrison THE FILM:Gordon Parks' 1971 crime thriller Shaft really hooks you from its opening credits; as leather coat-clad Richard Roundtree struts to the sounds of Isaac Hayes, dodging traffic and shooting the shit with street vendors, you cannot help but smile. Who is this cool man? He is the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks; he is Shaft. After decades of treating black characters like caricatures, the movie industry began to change. Shaft began what film critics would label "Blaxploitation cinema;" a nod to the violent and sex-heavy films popular in 1960s midnight screenings. Some black organizations were critical of Shaft and the films it inspired, branding it exploitative in glorifying violence and gangsterism. Others celebrated the film for its minority characters who felt like actual people instead of sanitized, offensive stereoty...Read the entire review »

Heartbreakers (1984) (Blu-ray) by Justin Remer The Movie: Peter Coyote and Nick Mancuso play the titular Heartbreakers in Bobby Roth's 1984 Los Angeles-set drama. These characters aren't young men, but they aren't exactly old either. They are certainly old enough to know better.Coyote is Arthur Blue, a mercurial painter whose recent work has focused on pseudo-pin-ups inspired by Bettie Page. His relationship to Cyd (Modern Romance's Kathryn Harrold) implodes after five years because, despite his sensitivity, Blue wasn't able to make room for their relationship beside his work.Mancuso is Blue's longtime pal Eli, a businessman in his father's schmatta empire. Eli claims to want a relationship but -- shocker!...Read the entire review »

The Octagon (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movie:The Ninja, unholy masters of terror. Scott (Chuck Norris) knows they're real but runs into a problem when he realizes that no one else does. Everyone thinks that the ninjas are long gone. When he escorts a lady friend home and the pair is attacked, Scott knows his fears are going to be realized, and this is further confirmed by the flashbacks he has where we learn of his ninja training alongside his brother - now an evil ninja himself.Soon, Scott meets a foxy lady with a mysterious motive. Through her he becomes intertwined in a secret ninja crime ring known only as The Octagon. Luckily he's got his buddy's anti-terrorist task force (headed up by none other than a pierced Lee Van Cleef of Day Of Anger!) to help him stop the evil ninjas from killing everyone and succeeding in their evil plan. The more Scott investigates things, the stranger the situation ...Read the entire review »