Posts Tagged ‘Cinema Sentries’

Texas Chainsaw 3D Blu-ray Review: Wither Heatherface?

Posted: 13 May, 2013 in Movies/TV
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Texas Chainsaw 3D Blu-ray Review: Wither Heatherface?

While I was never a “huge” fan of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre series (the ones that started with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in ’74), I must confess that one of my favorite LPs in my record collection is that of the soundtrack from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 from 1986. Of course, any motion picture soundtrack that contains Concrete Blonde, Oingo Boingo, Timbuk3, and The Cramps simply demands to be taken seriously – and there’s even an offering from The Lords of the New Church (a group that, interestingly has a new singer named Adam Becvare) entitled “Good to Be Bad” – which was inspired from a line of dialogue from the film, and recorded solely for the album. Read the rest of this entry »

Heavenly Shades of Delight: Twilight Time’s Blu-ray Releases, Volume Three

Posted: 9 May, 2013 in Movies/TV
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Heavenly Shades of Delight: Twilight Time’s Blu-ray Releases, Volume Three

Once more, friends, we (or rather I) invite you to join me as I poke about a bit with some of the newer Twilight Time Blu-ray releases in another chapter of the Heavenly Shades of Delight series, which started with Volume One and Volume Two earlier this year. For this illustrious third entry, I am taking a peek at seven titles from the exclusive niche label – each of which is available exclusively online from Screen Archives (providing they’re not sold out already, that is!). Read the rest of this entry »

Berlin Correspondent DVD Review: A Nifty L’il WWII Espionage B-Flick

Posted: 7 May, 2013 in Movies/TV
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Berlin Correspondent DVD Review: A Nifty L’il WWII Espionage B-Flick

For many B-movie lovers like myself, the late great German-born Martin Kosleck will perhaps be best remembered as the mad scientist who helped create the titular creations in one of the earliest gore flicks, The Flesh Eaters in 1964 – and as a baddie in the ultra-campy no-budget American James Bond rip-off Agent for H.A.R.M. in ’66. Decades prior, however, Kosleck made a career playing villainous Nazis (including Herr Goebbels himself – four different times!) in World War II-themed motion pictures boasting both large and small budgets alike. His frequency inhabiting such roles was not just another case of prime Hollywood typecasting at its finest, though: Kosleck detested Hitler and the Nazi Party – and he put as much evil as he could into each part in order to help the war effort by portraying the Nazis as the immoral bastards they really were. Read the rest of this entry »

Carnival in Costa Rica DVD Review: An Endless Unfunny Rom-Com Musical

Posted: 5 May, 2013 in Movies/TV
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Carnival in Costa Rica DVD Review: An Endless Unfunny Rom-Com Musical

In case it has slipped past both your central and peripheral paths of vision in recent years, the residents of the United States of America don’t really care for its neighbors beneath it. Apparently, they feel they’re, well – beneath them. Canadians? Kosher – so long as they don’t talk politics or health care. Mexicans? Never. Not in a million years. Who cares if they do all of the menial tasks most of the USA’s own citizens feel are a tad too tedious: they still don’t like them. And that goes doubly so for those lazy, happy-go-lucky Costa Ricans – who are something of the subject of the awful 1947 Twentieth Century Fox Technicolor romantic comedy musical, Carnival in Costa Rica. Note how I say they are “something of the subject” – this is because there’s nary an actual Costa Rican in the entire dreadful picture. Read the rest of this entry »

The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe DVD Review: For Curiosity Seekers Only

Posted: 4 May, 2013 in Movies/TV
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The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe DVD Review: For Curiosity Seekers Only

While he was one of the authors who appealed to me during those days of darkness that dominated both my fashion sense and overly-artistic mind in the not-too-distant past, I must confess the notion of a motion picture based on the romantic side of Edgar Allan Poe seems like a real head-scratcher in my opinion. Ironically, outside of something in the vein of a BBC miniseries, Poe’s tragic existence would perhaps be best-fitted for fiction – whether it be Hollywood’s overly sensationalized 2012 film The Raven with John Cusack, or as an illusory cameo who sets up the entire plot of a ’60s Italian horror flick like Castle of Blood (or its ’70s remake, Web of the Spider, wherein Poe was brought to life by – of all people – Klaus Kinski). Read the rest of this entry »

George A. Romero’s Knightriders (1981) Blu-ray Review: The Most Sincere, Underrated Drama About Adult Outcasts Ever Made

Posted: 23 April, 2013 in Movies/TV
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George A. Romero’s Knightriders (1981) Blu-ray Review: The Most Sincere, Underrated Drama About Adult Outcasts Ever Made

The setting is a quiet forested area, with a gentle, calming body of water nearby. A king awakens completely nude on the ground – his slumber distributed by a vision of a black bird – with his just-as-bare queen lying next to him. He goes about his ritualistic afternoon: bathing in the water, lightly lashing himself in the back with a small, flexible branch, only to then don his tunic, his sword, his armor and helmet, and then – as if a moment had been pulled straight out of the pages of a forgotten Monty Python screenplay, the king and queen mount a motorcycle and head down the road in contemporary early ’80s America. What’s wrong with this picture? Absolutely nothing. Read the rest of this entry »

John Dies at the End DVD Review: Hey, Thanks for the Spoiler Alert!

Posted: 22 April, 2013 in Movies/TV
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John Dies at the End DVD Review: Hey, Thanks for the Spoiler Alert!

Every filmmaker has some sort of visual signature that can be easily recognized in their works. Sometimes, such as in the instance of Alfred Hitchcock, it’s a brief walk-on role that you have to look out for (to say nothing of his directorial style, but that’s quite literally beside the point in his case). For others, it’s the tendency to repeat the same damn scene in every movie they make – such as that no-talent hack Michael Bay and his frequent usage of something exploding on a freeway as the camera pans away. And then there are directors like the great Don Coscarelli. Actually, there’s only one Don Coscarelli: I can’t imagine another moviemaker in this universe who would be capable of pulling off Phantasm, The Beastmaster, and Bubba Ho-Tep. Read the rest of this entry »

Warlock (1959) DVD Review: A Dynamic Western Presented in an Outdated, Eviscerating Format

Posted: 17 April, 2013 in Movies/TV, TV
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Warlock (1959) DVD Review: A Dynamic Western Presented in an Outdated, Eviscerating Format

OK, so let me bring you up-to-date here, kids: recently, Fox Cinema Archives released several classic motion pictures – originally presented in theaters in CinemaScope – in the dreaded, severely outdated process of pan-and-scan (something that was used for older 4:3 TVs, but which is flat-out ridiculous in this day and age, what with widescreen television sets and all). As Douglas Adams would say: “This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” Well, seeing as how everyone else has griped about this faux pas (or would that be a “Fox pas“?) – including Cinema Sentries writer Will McKinley -  I’m just going to bypass the introductory bitching and actually discuss the fine motion picture Fox has massacred by presenting on DVD in this outdated, eviscerating format in 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

The Marriage-Go-Round DVD Review: James Mason, ’60s Swinger at Large!

Posted: 14 April, 2013 in Movies/TV
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The Marriage-Go-Round DVD Review: James Mason, ’60s Swinger at Large!

Adapting a work from one form of entertainment to another is not an easy task. Imagine, if you will, what might happen were one to add a Descriptive Video Service audio track to a film like Koyaanisqatsi. Or if Cannibal Holocaust were turned into a bloodless Broadway musical. Something would inevitably get lost in translation, making way for that age old adage about capturing lightning in a bottle. But what happens if you hand that magical glass container over to someone – say a complete and total dumbass – and they go and punch holes in the lid so that the poor lightning can breathe? Well, if you’re looking for a good example, The Marriage-Go-Round should more than suffice. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, Men! Oh, Women! DVD Review: Oh, Brother!

Posted: 14 April, 2013 in Movies/TV
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Oh, Men! Oh, Women! DVD Review: Oh, Brother!

If someone were to voluntarily stroll up to me and willingly make it a point to talk to me about the classic War of the Sexes genre of romantic comedies that highlighted many a headliner at cinemas of yore, chances are they would invoke the holiness of those oh-so-dated-yet-timeless Doris Day/Rock Hudson vehicles. Were such a conversation with a complete stranger to occur, however, my first thought would not stray towards the appeal of either aforementioned lead performer. Instead, I would grin with delight over the very thought of the quintessential War of the Sexes co-star, Tony Randall – one of the few male comedic performers in history to be able to make me laugh without having to do anything – and who is preceded in my book of greatness only by Avery Schreiber. Read the rest of this entry »

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