Everybody agreed including Ben Stillers dad (Charles Grodin)that it was ok Jaime fudged the facts in his documentary with Ben Stiller the only guy making a fuss?

I used to be a big Garfield fan, but had never seen this. Good film, but after one viewing I'm not as high on it as the Noir intelligentsia are. And the further away I get from it, the less impact I realize it had. I did like Thomas Gomez's performance, however, as Garfields always second place, family man brother.

Robert Mongomery plays Lucky Gagin- apparently one of the dimmest hoods ever, whose performance consists of facial expressions and vocal inflections that make him come across as mildly retarded. It doesn't help that his plan to blackmail a corrupt (and deadly) war profiteer is only half baked. Gomez appears here too, this time as a poor but stalwart Mexican who comes to the hero's aid. For a Noir, it oddly ends with a conventional appeal to good old fashioned US Patriotism. Adorable Wanda Hendrix, comes off fairly well as another local Mexican, following the hero around like a lapdog ready to help at a moment's notice. The coda at the end with her character though is particularly charming with the behavior feeling refreshingly real given the characters supposed age.

Unfortunately I had just re-calibrated the display using some recommended settings as a baseline. Ended up with a picture that seemed to look very good on most content, but not on this. All these SW films need to be remastered, but this one looked particularly harsh with the new settings, which pretty much killed my ability to get into into it this time. The clumsily stupid new line and ships departing and landing during the climax just added insult to injury and the entire viewing left a bad taste in my mouth. Shame too as I had been looking forward to watching it again for quite a while but had been waiting for 'just the right time'.

As disappointing as it was to revisit Empire, just the opposite was the case here. No shame. No regrets. This piece of Compass International schlock, with its non stop Bob Esty fueled disco soundtrack, abundant afros, ball baring shorts, , gratuitous use of Jimmy Van Patten, and a voluptuous, teenaged Linda Blair in her spandex Danskins was a complete blast to revisit.
Terrible film, with no nutritional value whatsoever. But it never fails to leave me happy. Now bring on Xanadu, dammit!

Satisfying to finally have seen this but I wasn't expecting something this bitterly acerbic. Makes sense though given the time-post Watergate and post Viet-nam, but right before the Bicentennial (that was omnipresent in every form of media, all year long). No better time to produce a stinging glimpse at the American character- and no better place to set it than in the capitol for "populist", real 'Merican, entertainment. Fortunately I was in a laid back mood and ready to spend 3 hours soaking something in. Not a film I will revisit as often as, say Roller Boogie, but it left a hell of an impression. And I'm still musing on it days later.

First time seeing it. Enormously entertained. The only thing more impressive than the gorgeous Montana scenery is the natural ability of Scarlett Jo in one of her first roles. Her character is front and center, with her performance intrinsic to the films ultimate success. And she handles herself like a complete pro. Wonderful to see all that early promise realized as an adult.
Not ashamed to say I was teared up through a good part of it. Long, not perfect, often Spielberg-like manipulative, but overall satisfying.

Disappointed. I was up for it and as it unspooled I found a lot to like. The ultimate result was scattershot B movie excess and interesting visuals masking a plot that was routine. Was also surprised that Meiko Kaji, who is a big selling point for this now, makes the least impression out of the three main actresses. Have had a hard time getting into Japanese cult films in the past, but even after my disappointment with this I'm still looking forward to giving Lady Snowblood 1&2 a shot soon, along with the Stray Cat Rock movies.

Still one of my favorite Hitchcocksm although the ending wartime propaganda sentiments come off as shrill and nonsensical when viewed away from that conflict (Hodiak's character's last line is "What are you going to do with people like that?" in response to a second German survivor fished aboard asking if the group intends to kill him. Apparently our smugness at our moral and ethical superiority should be enough to make us forget that Hodiak's character had to be stopped from preemptively executing the first German that washed aboard at the beginning of the movie). Still a great, unique film experience though.
The Film elements are in pretty rough shape, something I didn't recall from the DVD. HD makes the extensive wear and tear all too obvious. Fortunately the fog bound opening reel is about the worst it looks. After that it's intermittently smoother sailing. I doubt any eventual Region A release will look any better than Eureka's effort here.

Hot Damn! One of the best blind buys I've made this year. Gritty NYC police drama that finally offers something in that genre I don't feel like I've seen before. Michael Moriarty plays a naive young man whose innate decency and earnestness makes him wholly unsuited to be a cop in the big, bad city. An honest mistake and tragic results ensue. Excellent support from a cast of terrific character actors fill out the frame. Only a couple of minor knocks. One is Yaphet Kotto's on camera performance which gets a little too theatrical, while his voice over work comes across as too mannered. It's at odds with the way the rest of the actors inhabit their characters in a more naturalistic way. Along similar lines- while much of the film is shot on the busy NYC streets, including an impressive foot chase, we often have a view of crowds of people lined up on the opposite street standing still, anticipating the action that will pass by. Other than some TV shows of the era, I don't recall ever seeing a NYC lensed film where crowds were so visibly lined up behind invisible barricades watching filming in so blatant a way. For as much as the authenticity of the street filming adds, that aspect seriously degrades the illusion.
Other than that, a great film and one I'm happy to have finally discovered.

Prime Noir and one of my all time favorite classic films. Lana Turner has never been better and Garfield is the textbook Noir chump. Cecil Kellaway's doomed husband Nick is a big departure from the book, but it works for this slightly glossed up, MGM code approved version. Terrific support from Leon Ames and Hume Cronyn as the careerist DA and souless defense attorney. I'll take this one any day over the grittier, closer-to-the-text '81 remake.
The PQ, from elements that have been kept in extremely well shape, is also absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

Loved it. One of the few times I agree 100% with the pull quote on the front of the jacket. I was hooked right at the opening when the protagonist excitedly begins texting his friends about the contest he's won and we see this from the POV of his smartphone as it goes about mapping the subtlest changes in his expression. Have to be honest though- as spellbinding and thought provoking as this was as it unfolded, it seems just a little thinner and less substantial in retrospect. I think this has to do with the same plot mechanics that initially make it so entertaining, but leaves the impression afterwards that it's ultimately a more conventional genre picture than it initially seemed.
That's where I am now. I'll be curious to see how it plays a second time down the road.
Following the posts of the region B release (from June) I was fully expecting to see an image that was soft and smeary- going by what people were saying the theatrical viewings looked like. I was pleasantly surprised as the image always looked decently sharp and resolved to me. Maybe not stunningly crisp, but 100% fine on my set up.

Happy to watch George Sanders in anything. Here he's in Italy with wife of 8 years Ingrid Bergman to sell off a villa owned by his popular, deceased bachelor uncle. The marriage is in trouble, with it's poor communication and synchronicity issues being mirrored by their status as strangers in a strange land not knowing the language.
Because they're Brits, we're thankfully spared a lot of the histrionics we would get with a modern US take on the same subject. But at the same time, their Brit reserve also mutes the sense of the rift, with their complaints about each other and Sanders divorce intentions seeming to come out of thin air. Didn't hate it, but also not something that truly impressed or clicked with me. Also haven't given it a second thought since seeing it several days ago. Hopefully the other two films in the set will leave a more lasting impression.
After some noisy title cards, the film proper kicks in and the meat of the film, from a recent restoration, looks very impressive.

Flaccid sex & horror romp. Other than the plot featuring identical brothers (identical down to the same facial blemishes) it's not very unique or imaginative, or energetic for that matter. Kind of just shambles along, doling out the naked flesh intermittently in an effort to to keep viewers flagging attention until the big black mass/wedding blood letting climax. For a grindhouse 70's euro horror, I suppose it's not terrible- just nothing all that special.
As per usual for Code Red stuff, there are some significant print issues, though the compression and encoding are solid.

"Son, didn't your momma ever teach you not to use your mouth for breakin' wind?"
Some of the most fun, theatrically idiosyncratic colloquial dialogue outside of Miller's Crossing livens up a Moby Dick-lite tale of Wild Bill Hiccock after a white buffalo that has been haunting his dreams. Chief Crazy Horse is also after the creature to redeem his honor and avenge the death of his infant child at the horns and hoofs of the beast. The pacing is a little off and a nifty roster of quality supporting players like Kim Novak, Clint Walker, John Carradine, and Slim Pickens show up for barely one scene and are never seen again. Not Bronson's best from the decade, maybe not even in the top five, but I still found it pretty entertaining and don't regret the blind buy.
Early on, with a detail laden outdoor panoramic shot of rocks and scrub, I though the images was on the verge of breaking up in artifacts, but after that it was solid.

Turned out to be a Slim Pickens double feature night- with Dick Miller, Patrick Macnee, Forrest J, and Dee Wallace turning into a Schih Tzu, all along for the ride. I adore the hell out of this one and had a pure blast watching it again. While it's a shame the master used for the Bd is as electronic and edgy as it is, on my set up at least, it still offered a nice bump above the last DVD that I thought was already pretty solid.
Spectacular suite of extras too. Not the perfect, definitive release of the film I would have wished for due to the limitations of the transfer, but oh so close.

Jack MacGowran, a few years before he would wind up at the bottom of the stairs outside of Linda Blairs bedroom window, plays an absent minded scientist (who keeps a succession of cue cards to assist him in the simplest of daily tasks). One day he notices a hole in the wall that separates his apartment from the young English bird (Jane Birkin) next door. And so begins an infatuation tinged with psychedelic hallucinations and daydreams that to it's credit actually comes together at the end- though for some viewers that might be too little and too late. At times it had a vibe similar to an early Woody Allen comedy (like Bananas) and I could easily see the lead being only slightly rewritten to accommodate him. One of the main continuing points of interest with the movie is the score by George Harrison, fully in his Indian influenced mode.
Decent looking disc from Shout for a movie that hasn't always been easy to see.

Entertaining bottom-of-the-bill oater, made a little more interesting by the focus on the women in conflict in a town straddling the border between the North and South in the last days of the Civil War. Interesting to see a young Dan O'Herlihy as the lead romantic interest, a few decades before shipping out those Shamrock Halloween masks. Also interesting to watch under current social conditions as the "Rebel" characters are rendered sympathetically (as is a charmingly young Jesse James), while the main villainy is reserved solely for the apolitical Quantrell and his raiders.
Solid disc from mostly good elements.

B.C. superhero myth given the typical DeMille spectacle spit and polish. Both leads are at least ten years too old for their characters, especially Hedy, but they do a decent enough job nonetheless. Though George Sanders, as usual, comes off the best as the unflappable ruler of the Philistines. Lesser DeMille, though the big finish is actually well staged and packs a good punch.
The blu ray is an eye popper, with all of DeMille's colorful excesses brilliantly rendered down to the smallest peacock feather.

Featherweight (and chaste) romantic fantasy made perfectly amiable by the casting of perennial charmer William Powell and Ann Blythe as the title characters. Sagged a bit in the midsection, but overall a pleasant, old fashioned diversion. William Powell is one of my favorite actors of all time though, so I might be grading this one on a curve. Film elements are in generally good shape and Olive's disc is solid.

First (and only time, until last night) that I saw this was back in 2002 when I paid a premium to import the Region 2 DVD just then released. I'd been reading about what a great movie this was for years up till then and was salivating at the opportunity to finally see it (on my first, then year old front projector). After that single viewing, the disc would kick around my piles of movies like an unloved orphan. Being a Region 2 disc, it wasn't worth the hassle trying to unload it. Every time I ran across the case I would roll my eyes and sadly shake my head. My antipathy towards it came primarily from it's sucker punch ending. While I was properly shocked and knocked back seeing it for the first time, the impact of it was so strong and unexpected, that it made everything preceding it seem like creepy but empty feints solely to set up a gimmicky climax. For the last 13 years I've never once had the urge to re-watch it, feeling it would be nothing but a big, tedious waste of time.

Ended up picking it up in the B&N sale the day before on a whim, and because watching the S-C Bd of Far From The Madding Crowd recently, I was gobsmacked by how beautiful Roeg's cinematography was. Also in the last 13 years I've become an increasingly huge fan of another Roeg film, Walkabout.
After about 5 or 6 false starts at trying to watch other films (all were in 2.35 AR and I didn't want to change the set up for one film) I decided to give this a shot and I was absolutely blown away. I was fundamentally wrong about this having little replay after knowing the ending. This film is so tightly constructed, that knowing in advance what fate has in store makes this even more chilling to watch unfold. Everything that I originally thought had been sleight of hand, creepy for creepy's sake bits of business, I now see are all puzzle pieces that snap firmly into place. Last night's viewing honestly gave me goosebumps and flipped my opinion of it 180 degrees. I fully realize now why people had always been so high on it and it's vaulted up to the top of my 70's horror list alongside longtime favorites like Let's Scare Jessica To Death and The Changeling. I wouldn't be surprised if it overtakes both those at some point. Brilliant movie given a damn near perfect presentation from Criterion.