Devil in a Blue Dress: Criterion Collection (Blu-ray) by Justin Remer The Movie: In a Q&A featurette on Criterion's new Blu-ray release of Devil in a Blue Dress, screenwriter-director Carl Franklin answers an audience question about the possibility of other films featuring the lead character of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins. He says that all of novelist Walter Mosley's Rawlins books had been optioned at the time the film was made with an eye toward building a Denzel Washington-fronted franchise, but a regime change at TriStar Pictures killed that idea quick. Presumably, a lack of studio support is part of why the film underperformed at the box office back in 1995 as well.It's a rotten shame, because Devil in a Blue Dress is a hardboiled treat with Washington in lean and mean fighting form, supported by a ridicul...Read the entire review »

High Desert Kill (Blu-ray) by Kurt Dahlke High Desert Kill: What horrors did the late-'80s bring? For one, made-for-TV movies that weren't really made-for-TV since they were made for cable networks like the USA Network. So, while High Desert Kill, (1989) directed by Harry Falk, certainly has a moment or two, and even managed some theatrical showings outside of America, it is neither fish nor fowl. This is one of those releases that might briefly scratch an itch if you saw it as a kid, and enjoy hazy memories of it, or if you have money to burn and need to see everything that Chuck Connors or Marc Singer ever starred in. For the rest of us, it's pretty dorky and poky and only comes to fitful life in the last 20 minutes. High Desert Kill finds a trio of hunters, Jim, (Anthony Geary General Hospital) Brad, (Marc Beastmaster Singer) and Ray, (Micah Grant) out for a little fun weekend of shooting in the New ...Read the entire review »