Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: November 2024

Galaxy Quest 4K 11/30/24

Never give up, never surrender!  A comic spoof of Star Trek and Trekkie worship does not sound promising, but this bright and funny space adventure is enlivened by an able cast — Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell and Daryl Mitchell. Especially good are the goofy aliens that need help in a galactic war – interpreted by Enrico Colantoni and smartly performed by Colantoni, Missi Pyle and Rainn Wilson. The movie is kind to fan convention culture, too. On 4K Ultra HD + Digital (no Blu-ray this particular package) from Paramount Home Entertainment.
11/30/24

Top Cat — the Complete Series 11/30/24

Back in the 5th grade we had never heard of Damon Runyon, whose spirit animates Hanna-Barbera’s second network TV show. Reviewer Charlie Largent jumps into the one-season-wonder’s 30 episodes, all fully remastered from 4K scans. There’s this laid-back con-man cat named T.C., see, and his back-alley associates Benny the Ball, Choo Choo, Spook, The Brain and Fancy Fancy. Believe it or not, it was a big deal in the fourth grade, even though all I can remember is the theme music. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
11/30/24

Nothing is Sacred: Three Heresies by Luis Buñuel 11/26/24

Three Buñuel masterpieces arrive in remastered Blu-ray presentations, accompanied by excellent new extras. The Exterminating Angel clobbers elitist complacency. The irreverent Simon of the Desert skewers the notion of blessed martyrdom. Viridiana is the shocker that gave Franco’s Spain a slap in the face — and it’s here in a much improved video transfer. Among the new goodies are a commentary from Michael Brooke and video intros from Richard Ayoade, Alex Cox, Guillermo del Toro, and Lulu Wang. On Blu-ray from Radiance.
11/26/24

Paper Moon — 4K 11/26/24

It’s a seriocomic fable from the Great Depression: Ryan O’Neal’s Moses Pray runs a predatory racket hawking expensive Bibles, and the only one to see through the con is the orphan Addie Loggins, played by O’Neal’s own daughter. What could have been a big casting mistake is a sensation — Tatum O’Neal carries the movie and then some. Peter Bogdanovich’s most endearing picture won over the 1973 audience despite being in B&W, to better resemble a show from 40 years before. Production designer and co-everything Polly Platt recreates the visual look of the past as seen in John Ford films. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/26/24

The Walking Dead (1936) 11/23/24

The Dead Walk — and accuse!  One of the best non-classic horror films of the ’30s is a polished production: Michael Curtiz and cameraman Hal Mohr give star Boris Karloff a spooky spotlight for a macabre tale of justice from beyond the grave. Karloff is brilliant as an executed convict resurrected by science, who becomes an avenging angel against the crooks that framed him. The glossy new video remaster is sourced from the film’s original nitrate — and looks it. Also starring Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn and Barton MacLane. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
11/23/24

Funny Girl — 4K 11/23/24

Barbra Streisand’s movie debut takes a slot in the Criterion Collection, and jumps to 4K Ultra HD. Opened up from Broadway and slimmed down to focus on its incandescent star, it persists as a superior musical, alternately funny and touching. Streisand showed can’t-lose intuition when it came to the big decisions: knowing that her emotional singing style would be flattened by lip-sync to a pre-recorded track, the finale partly records a direct performance. Barbra came across as The Real Deal, up close and personal; audiences continue to be riveted by her. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/23/24

El Vampiro: Two Bloodsucking Tales from Mexico 11/19/24

This fanged Drácula Mexicano predates Christopher Lee!  Germán Robles cuts an aristocratic profile as Count Karol de Lavud, vampiro extraordinario, in two films that marked Mexico’s full embrace of traditional gothic horror. Before masked wrestlers, Aztec mummies and baggy pant comedians took over, director Fernando Méndez styled the genre after the Universal tradition. The research in the disc’s extras — thank you Jesús Palacios, Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro & Carmen Serrano — opens new veins of thought in horror movie history. Charlie Largent reviews El vampiro and its followup El ataud del vampiro — and survives.  On Region Free Blu-ray from Powerhouse Indicator.
11/19/24

The Proud and Profane 11/19/24

Deborah Kerr shines as an emotionally troubled war widow who volunteers to do Red Cross work in the Pacific Theater of WW2. William Holden is the he-bull Marine colonel who claims her almost as a right of rank. Not a combat film, it’s nevertheless a polished production with a gallery of fine acting support — all somewhat hampered by so-so direction and a script that opts for ‘easy out’ solutions to sticky emotional problems. Another VistaVision winner in a sterling presentation. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
11/19/24

Seven Samurai — 4K 11/16/24

Behold a ‘world cinema classic’ that needs no defending, no way, no how … a review isn’t really necessary, just see it!  This new 4K remaster is a real beauty, doing additional cleanup and brighten-up work. Otherwise it’s still the same fantastic epic, with marvelous characters, a gripping storyline and spectacular battles. Toshiro Mifune’s flea-bitten almost-a-samurai has everything needed to fight with the pros; he completes the most ‘magnificent’ defense team in combat film history. Kurosawa’s direction is inspired — his action montage ideas were so advanced, they couldn’t be imitated. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/16/24

Film Noir the Dark Side of Cinema XXII 11/16/24

22 is a lucky number for noir:  D.A. Humphrey Bogart defies Murder Incorporated in The Enforcer.  Sexpot Carol Ohmart lures Tom Tryon into a web of crime in the VistaVision The Scarlet Hour.  And thieves try to slip through interstate roadblocks carrying millions in gold bullion in the fascinating Plunder Road.  It’s a good selection of 1950s noir titles made by both old pros and a creative independent, covered with expert commentaries by Alan K. Rode and Jeremy Arnold. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
11/16/24

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas — 4K 11/12/24

🎶 Let’s all get up and dance to a song movie that was a hit before your mother was born 🎶 … or your grandmother, maybe. Does anybody under 50 know who Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye were?  1954’s biggest hit may not be today’s current fashion, but it’s got fine music and some great choreography: Rosemary Clooney sings, Vera-Ellen dances. When new it was already nostalgic, and now it’s a time capsule from a completely different era of show biz. In the glory of VistaVision and Technicolor, the Christmasy sentiment pops in 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital. From Paramount Pictures.
11/12/24

Seven Chances + Sherlock Jr. 11/12/24

They’re not listed as Buster Keaton’s best silent comedies, but we think they’re fantastic, from the peak of his directorial genius. Seven Chances exaggerates the dilemma of a fellow who must marry on a deadline to inherit a fortune, precipitating an onslaught of women in wedding dresses, a (comic) nightmare horde. In Sherlock Jr. Keaton plays fast and loose with film form. The story involves treacherous girl-nappers, but Buster expresses his hero’s romantic yearnings with fantasy sequences that deconstruct cinema: he ‘enters’ a movie screen and joins in the storyline. The restoration is a collaboration between Kino, Blackhawk Films and the French company Lobster; the music scores are by Robert Israel. On Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
11/12/24

Godzilla — 4K 11/09/24

The original Japanese super-dragon is back, for the first time in the USA in an improved Toho remaster that restores the awesome majesty of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya’s overachieving Kaiju fantasy. The 500-foot leviathan’s debut feature will be a surprise for folk expecting him to scrap with Mothra or dance a jig on the Moon: just 9 years after Japan became the first atomic-age target, the somber horror fantasy reopened an un-healed national wound. Also included is the U.S. recut we’ve all seen 100 times, that re-frames the story through American eyes. It’s Hollywood’s most successful re-shoot & re-edit revision job. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/09/24

The Invasion — 4K 11/09/24

This fourth remake of Jack Finney’s mind-bending Sci-fi horror tale didn’t click at the box office, but our Pandemic experience has made it more relevant. Nicole Kidman and a good cast can’t be faulted, but if a powerful thriller with something big to say was intended, it didn’t come off. As a tense chase picture, it has its good qualities — and we get a pre-007 Daniel Craig in the bargain. The extras point out textural hints that may have been the focus of director Oliver Hirschbiegel. The Ultra HD endcoding really pops — even tiny samples of the ‘alien slime’ look creepy-crawly alive. On 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video.
11/09/24

Night of the Blood Beast + Attack of the Giant Leeches 11/05/24

This ’50s cult monster double bill was produced by the Corman brothers Roger and Gene. The first re-plays ideas from several Sci-fi classics on a shoestring budget, and squeaks by with a novel wrinkle of its own. Using some of the same crew and actors, the second item is even cheaper. It hasn’t a single original idea, yet occupies a proud roost in cult circles owing to the opportune casting of hottie Yvette Vickers. That there Liz Walker would still be steamin’ up the swamp, if them consarned scum-Leeches hadn’t-a sucked up all her fine bayou blood. Durn pests. The extras include full commentary coverage by Tom Weaver. On Blu-ray from Film Masters.
11/05/24

Creature with the Blue Hand + Web of the Spider 11/05/24

aka Die Blaue Hand.   Is a German krimi a murder mystery, a horror film, or what?  Reviewer Charlie Largent checks out an adaptation of an Edgar Wallace page-turner about a series of ghastly murders; as it features Klaus Kinski, the disc company has coined the not-bad term ‘Euro-Kinski.’ We’re eager to know how it looks. Included is Web of the Spider, Antonio Margheriti’s remake of his own earlier ‘Danza Macabra.’ The special edition adds an alternate version of Creature with the Blue Hand and an audio commentary by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. On Blu-ray from Film Masters.
11/05/24

Circus of Horrors — 4K 11/02/24

Dr. Rossiter will give you something to scream about!  Sidney Hayers’ Big Top terror flick is luridly oversexed, excessively gruesome — and great fun. Mad plastic surgeon Anton Diffring creates his own harem of facially-restored women who also happen to be criminals. Circus acts provide the ‘accidents’ to remove any that become a liability. It’s a garish display of good filmmaking, crazy thrills and questionable taste … and a non-guilty pleasure we’re proud to praise. Now more wickedly delightful in 4K Ultra HD from KL Studio Classics.
11/02/24

Enough Rope 11/02/24

aka Le Meurtrier.   Taken from a story by Patricia Highsmith, director Claude Autant-Lara’s murder thriller can boast an attractive cast: Maurice Ronet, Gert Fröbe, Robert Hossein, Marina Vlady and Yvonne Furneaux. The slick production, good music and committed performances can’t be faulted, but the point gets lost amid a lot of yelling. Just the same, Hossein and Fröbe know how to enliven a scene, and the location work is a travelogue to Nice of 1963. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
11/02/24