Back to the Beach - Paramount Presents (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV Back to the Beach (1987) took audiences and critics by surprise. A reunion/sequel/throwback to AIP's "Beach Party" movies of the 1960s, movies starring Annette Funicello and/or Frankie Avalon, this quasi-final series entry's achievements are modest but the fun-factor is undeniable. Director Lyndall Hobbs infuses its unambitious broad satire with several outstanding set pieces. It captures the spirit of the original films while mostly successfully updating it for the 1980s. The original movies were noted for their celebrity cameo appearances, and the cameos in this one are well-chosen and mostly delightful, though best appreciated if the viewer is not aware of them beforehand. The original series began with Beach Party (1963), gaining steam with up to t...Read the entire review »

Three Thousand Years of Longing by Oktay Ege Kozak When Mad Max: Fury Road came out and blew everyone's minds, a lot of critics remarked that director George Miller is a grandpa and that they expected him to make patient and reflective movies now that he's in the twilight of his years. Certainly not the best and craziest action film of recent years that single-handedly revolutionized the genre at a time when such a thing was deemed to be a long shot.Well, perhaps to appease those expectations, here comes Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing, the existentially introspective movie that critics might have originally expected from an intellectually and emotionally complex grandpa of his ilk.As amazing and groundbreaking as Everything Everywhere All Once is, its success will not do any favors for the audience's expectations here. In order to piggyback on that lightning in a bottle's success, Three Thousand Years of Longing's dis...Read the entire review »