Reviews

Blu-ray: Conversation Piece (1974) A retired American professor (Burt Lancaster) lives a solitary and luxurious life in a house in Rome. His world takes an unexpected turn when he is forced to rent part of his house to a countess and her companions: a lover, a daughter and the daughter’s boyfriend. Forced into interaction with the […]

Blu-ray: Hangmen Also Die! (1943) Hangmen Also Die! is set in wartime Czechoslovakia, where surgeon Franticek Svoboda is pursued by the Nazi police and is assisted in evading them by Mascha Novotny. News spreads that the Nazis’ head executioner, known as the Reichsprotector (the Hangman) has been assassinated. Is the doctor the killer? With Fritz Lang […]

Blu-ray: All Night Long (1962) There is something magical about watching black and white movies. Maybe it’s because I don’t watch them very often so it’s a novelty, or it could be that there is something genuinely wonderful and classy about that era of cinema. The Artist from 2011 was a reminder of just how glorious movies […]

Blu-ray: The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971) My introduction into the genre of Giallo began (like many other people) in the 1980’s and the movies of Dario Argento on VHS. The lurid colours, assured direction and twisting storylines had me hooked to such classics as Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno, Tenebre and many more by a plethora of other directors […]

Blu-ray: Matinee (1993) Set against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, Matinee tells the story of Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton), a boy whose obsession with sci-fi and horror movies masks his loneliness at always being ‘the new boy in town’ as his Fathers Navy career moves them from military base to military base around the country. […]

Blu-ray: Review: Buster Keaton – The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 Unfortunately for me, it’s very difficult to write a review of this really wonderful boxset without it turning into a ‘History of Cinema’ lesson. Mainly because (in my opinion) you can’t compare these films to contemporary films, despite them being ‘movies’ they come from a different […]

Blu-ray: The Commitments (1991) In Dublin, Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) is sick of failing to sell knocked off gear and wants a better life, so decides to form a soul band with his friends Outspan (Glen Hansard) and Derek (Ken McCluskey). He holds auditions in his parents house and manages to assemble a rag-tag band […]

Cinema: Jason Bourne (2016) In my opinion the Bourne movies helped to make James Bond relevant again! The brutal close combat and taut story really showed Bond a thing or two, and I believe it was a major influence in the direction of the most recent 007 movies. It’s been 9 years since the last Bourne film, […]

Blu-ray: Terrahawks (Volume 1) (1983) What is there to say about Gerry Anderson that hasn’t already been said? From my point of view the word ‘Legend’ seems an appropriate way to describe the man who provided so many amazing childhood memories with the likes of Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Invasion: […]

DVD: Kidnapped (1971) There have been various filmed versions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Kidnapped‘, but for me it is the dual leading roles of Michael Caine as Alan Breck, and Lawrence Douglas as David Balfour which makes this my preferred adaptation, plus the beautiful end title song ‘For All My Days‘ by Mary Hopkin is the audio […]