Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: April 2021

Switchblade Sisters 04/27/21

The always-dynamic director Jack Hill goes teen-gang wild with this absolutely crazy take on JD pictures, pitched three octaves higher than normal exploitation drama. All the nasty-rasty thrills are here, from an episode of WIP sadism to brutal misogyny to a gang skirmish fought on a roller skating rink. Hill’s gang epic is so stylized, it’s almost a fantasy. What began as one of those exploitation cheapies with three women, comes alive with the dynamic Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail and Monica Gayle — even with all the sexist cruelty on view, the no-limits performances feel liberating, energizing. With some good interview and analysis extras. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
04/27/21

Quick Change 04/27/21

On the short list of post- classic-era comedies I can see over and over again is this beautifully executed Bill Murray crime comedy, which he co-directed. The fact that its basically silly main joke is whining about New York City doesn’t keep it from being hilarious from one end to the other. When it comes time for a getaway to the airport, Manhattan might as well be an impenetrable maze, an island of doom. Geena Davis and Randy Quaid give excellent comedy support, while Jason Robards holds up the police dragnet end of the story. The disc has no special extras but Murray’s movie is as satisfying as ever. With Bob Elliott, Jamey Sheridan, Phil Hartman, Tony Shalhoub, Garry Goodrow, Stanley Tucci, Victor Argo, Philip Bosco, Kurtwood Smith. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
04/27/21

Fukushima 50 04/24/21

This Japanese docudrama is an excellent primer on the scary near- meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011. After the earthquake, a tsunami triggered a ‘major nuclear event.’ A group of dedicated engineers struggle against odds to regain control. It’s another 21st Century disaster writ large — we applaud the camaraderie and commitment of the response teams while bureaucratic and political BS threatens to doom half of Japan. As with last week’s Spacewalker I’m betting that most negative reviews were written by people who saw the English language dub job … in the original Japanese, star Ken Watanabe’s performance is terrific. On Blu-ray from Capelight.
04/24/21

The Hot Spot 04/24/21

A sizzling neo-noir that should have boosted Dennis Hopper into feature bankability goes a tad slack — my guess is that Hopper’s fine directing instincts got blurred in the editing process. Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, Jennifer Connelly and others are well cast in Charles Williams’ hardboiled sex ‘n’ crime yarn, and the temperature indeed rises when Johnson gets near his co-stars. The narrative momentum breaks down somewhat, but the great-looking show is still a favorite, atmospheric and oversexed. With Jack Nance, on Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
04/24/21

Defending Your Life 04/20/21

Albert Brooks’ most entertaining picture is still about modern anxieties, but this time seen through a satirical ‘film blanc’ filter. Neurotic ad man Daniel has a bad encounter with a bus and finds himself in a bizarre Heavenly Waiting Room for the Afterlife … except that it’s an entirely different system than that of St. Peter — he’s judged not for his sins or lack of faith, but his character and courage. This stopping-off point to a new life is plenty disconcerting for Daniel, especially when he meets the woman of his dreams (Meryl Streep). The judges practically applaud her exemplary, near-perfect life. How can Daniel ever compete?  Criterion’s extras give us a genuine theologian’s analysis of Brooks’ astute afterlife comedy. Co-starring Rip Torn, Lee Grant and Shirley MacLaine. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
04/20/21

Annie Get Your Gun 04/20/21

MGM’s old-fashioned Irving Berlin musical has superior songs and powerful performances, especially that of Betty Hutton. She gets plenty loud and rambunctious, but it fits the ‘big’ Annie Oakley character. And the talented, under-appreciated Howard Keel really fires up the screen with her in songs like ‘Anything You Can Do.’ The WAC disc contains plenty of George Feltenstein- rescued unused audio material, plus footage … depressing footage … of Judy Garland’s attempt in the leading role. Yep, the show may be PC minefield begging for a Cancel Culture intervention, but if it goes we’ll have to put most of Hollywood film history in a landfill. With Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish, Edward Arnold and Benay Venuta. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
04/20/21

The Invisible Man Appears & The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly 04/17/21

Reviewer Charlie Largent takes on the challenge of figuring out this pair of vintage sci-fi pictures from Japan. The invisible man of the first film (1949) takes second place to an odd crime yarn about a thief that wants to possess a particular jewel. The invisibility idea makes little internal sense — the film’s most interesting aspect is the unusual actress Takiko Mizunoe. The second ‘invisible thriller’ is even more of a puzzle, a battle between and invisible man and a criminal who can shrink himself. Arrow’s extras help us understand what’s going on… a little bit, anyway!  On Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
04/17/21

Spacewalker 04/17/21

Dmitriy Kiselev’s overlooked Russian thriller is an exciting and inspirational true account of the first walk in space by a Soviet cosmonaut — a mission that nearly became a tragedy. It’s almost as emotional an experience as Apollo 13 — the worthy cosmonauts demonstrate ‘the right stuff’ under much more trying conditions. The beautifully produced and splendidly acted show makes it seem a crime that foreign movies this good are routinely denied theatrical exhibition here. The Blu-ray comes with an excellent pair of featurettes, with the participation of the original spacewalker Alexey Leonov. On Blu-ray from Capelight.
04/17/21

Irma Vep 04/17/21

Olivier Assayas takes a very different trip into silent movie nostalgia, with a director’s ill-fated attempt to remake the 1915 serial Les Vampires. Hong Kong action star Maggie Cheung is cast as the erotic rooftop nightcrawler Irma Vep!  We see the state of Paris filmmaking in the mid-90s, with a clueless, frustrated director (Jean-Pierre Léaud) out of ideas — what business has Irma Vep in the modern world?  Meanwhile, Cheung dons her vinyl catsuit for a personal creepy crawly mission — just to see if it gives her a thrill. Criterion’s special edition contains both a full episode of the silent serial plus a must-see documentary on the life and work of the legendary Musidora, a major sex symbol of the silent era. With Nathalie Richard, Bulle Ogier and Lou Castel. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
04/17/21

The Furies 04/13/21

When not making tons of money collaborating with James Stewart, Anthony Mann directed some really grim westerns. This mini-epic spells out the ugly real-life Code of The West: seizing land and establishing private empires. Walter Huston’s T.C. Jeffords maintains his sprawling fiefdom through economic tyranny (he prints his own money and expects banks to accept it) — and by simple violence, murdering the people that have lived on ‘his’ land for generations. Barbara Stanwyck is the feisty heir who wages generational war on her piratical father. It’s the darkest and most subversive of HUAC-era ‘noir’ westerns. With Wendell Corey, Judith Anderson, Gilbert Roland and Thomas Gomez. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
04/13/21

The Man in Search of his Murderer 04/13/21

The name talent attached makes this late- Weimar thriller a must-see proposition: Billy Wilder, Robert & Curt Siodmak, Franz Waxman. Their dark murder farce resembles what would later become the self-aware Black Comedy. The trouble begins when a suicidal nice guy can’t pull the trigger, and hires a crook to do the job for him. The satire is clever but the execution is awkward — the filmmakers set up big laughs that the heavy German filming style doesn’t deliver. Just the same, the situations seem extremely progressive, ahead of their time. On Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
04/13/21

Perdita Durango 4K Ultra HD 04/10/21

What could sear your retinas as thoroughly as forbidden cult cinema in 4K Ultra HD? The unrestrained crime-shock transgressors Perdita and Romero cut a path of lust, cult ritual madness and amoral nastiness across the U.S./Mexico border. Kidnapping, murder and theft are among their printable crimes. Álex de Iglesia’s beautifully produced slice of post- Tarantino excess arrives in a completely uncut original version. With James Gandolfini, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Don Stroud and Alex Cox. On Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Severin Films.
04/10/21

Black Sunday 04/10/21

John Frankenheimer’s biggest production since Grand Prix turns the touchy subject of international terrorism into a frightening, outlandish story of a plot to kill thousands of spectators during one of America’s defining rituals, the Super Bowl. Black September operative Marthe Keller seduces disturbed Viet Vet Bruce Dern into perpetrating the crime; Israeli agent Robert Shaw races to stop them. The super-crime is both outrageous and credible — making the show seem very modern, even prophetic. True to form, Frankenheimer filmed much of the movie’s final 40-minute suspense sequence during a real Super Bowl game. With Fritz Weaver, Bekim Fehmiu, Steven Keats and Michael V. Gazzo. On Blu-ray from Viavision [Imprint].
04/10/21

Doctor X 04/06/21

It’s the disc everyone wants right now — vintage Hollywood horror fully restored to its amazing original Technicolor luster. A scientific investigation into some grisly Full Moon Murders culminates in a bizarre experiment in the fantastic lab of five potential mad doctors. Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill became horror stars, Lee Tracy provides the sidebar laughs, and then the unknown killer divulges his horrifying, Cronenberg-like secret: Synthetic Flesh! The Warner Archive scores with a follow up to last year’s The Mystery of the Wax Museum. With Preston Foster, who keeps a beating heart (not his own) in a glass jar. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
04/06/21

Hercules and the Captive Women 04/06/21

This debut of muscleman favorite Reg Park is one of the better sword ‘n’ sandal epics; it has good action and a terrific villainess in Fay Spain. The okay story is Benoit’s L’Atlantide, re-shaped to fit the fad for all things Hercules. The Film Detective’s disc is the Woolner Bros.’ American release, trimmed by half a reel and given an entirely new audio mix. It’s still an impressive show. On Blu-ray from The Film Detective.
04/06/21

Secrets and Lies 04/03/21

Director Mike Leigh’s social-personal observations of life as it is lived in the U.K. always get to me — this one may simply be a more realistic soap opera, but it’s so good that one pays no attention to technical matters, who the actors are or when they are ‘acting.’  It just ‘is,’ and it’s so involving that one becomes anxious over the smallest thing. The actors grab our attention from the outset: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook. It’s Leigh’s most acclaimed feature and the perfect antidote for bloated event filmmaking. And unlike some of his pictures, you walk out with a smile on your face. Extras include new interviews with Mike Leigh and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
04/03/21

Dynasty 3-D 04/03/21

3-D goes Kung-Fu in Super-Touch!   The 3-D Film Archive restores a Far East oddity from the year of Star Wars, an all-action sword, fist and supernatural magic combat spectacle. The big battles play like choreographed dance numbers, but with sound effects and screams taking the place of music. The disc’s 3-D extras are of special interest — we take a tour of every display section of a 1955 department store in full dimensional images. Starring Tao-Liang Tan, Ying Bai, Kang Chin, David Wei Tang, and that irresistible charmer Bobby Ming. On 3-D Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
04/03/21