Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: February 2026

Ben-Hur   — 4K 02/28/26

Warners’ new 4K remaster of William Wyler’s towering Road Show blockbuster is a feast for the eyes and ears; the rich encoding will put the word ‘epic’ back into the home theater experience. Wyler’s tasteful direction of that costume-actor-for-all-eras Charlton Heston makes most Biblical epics look tawdry. The chariot race is an action set-piece that will likely never be topped. It was all performed for real, with stuntmen and real horses, and several thousand extras on a set as big as a collosseum. Plus Miklós Rózsa’s powerful film score. On 4K Ultra-HD + Digital Code from Warner Bros. Entertainment.
02/28/26

Dillinger 02/28/26

John Milius’s all-star gangland gundown is great fun for fans of gun action and America’s number one Public Enemy. Stars Warren Oates and Ben Johnson hail from Sam Peckinpah’s stock company, but the roll call of supporting gun thieves is just as stellar: Harry Dean Stanton, Geoffrey Lewis, John Ryan, Richard Dreyfuss, Steve Kanaly, Roy Jenson and Frank McRae. Michelle Phillips is a kidnapped gun moll, while Cloris Leachman has a memorable cameo as The Lady in Red. Bang Bang! — most of these rural bandits get themselves shot to pieces. On Blu-ray from MGM.
02/28/26

Tarzan and his Mate 02/24/26

It’s outrageously violent and eye-openingly explicit — the second Johnny Weissmuller / Maureen O’Sullivan jungle epic is wall to wall animal attacks, tribal carnage and woo-woo erotic scenes that push the limits of pre-Code tolerance. MGM spent a pile of money on tricky animal trainers and clever special effects to depict spectacular battles and gruesome wild beast attacks. O’Sullivan wears her revealing jungle outfit with pride, and Weismuller is one of the all-time top action heroes. Sexy, vulgar and frequently in questionable taste, it entertains more than most modern action thrillers. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
02/24/26

Network  — 4K 02/24/26

Easily the most prescient picture of the 1970s, Paddy Chayefsky’s warning of broadcast horrors to come couldn’t be more relevant to today’s news media communication morass. Corporate values turn a venerated TV news institution into an infotainment sewer, years before the advent of brain-snatching Reality TV. The satire is hilariously spot-on with its targeting of greed, hypocrisy and old-fashioned Yankee venality. Everybody deserved Oscars: William Holden, Peter Finch, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight and the much-missed Robert Duvall. Only Faye Dunaway survives!  Satire may be dead, but Chayefsky’s ‘window shout’ classic keeps yelling at top volume. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
02/24/26

Westworld   – 1973, 4K 02/21/26

Michael Crichton proved himself smarter than the Hollywood system with this neatly conceived, modestly produced moneymaker. Everyone remembers Yul Brynner’s psycho robot gunslinger, in an amusement park automated for violent thrills and robot sex. Nobody remembers that this might be the movies’ first mention of a ‘computer virus,’ although the ensuing Robot Roll Call Revolt against humanity isn’t really explained. Richard Benjamin and James Brolin have fun with high noon gun-downs, and enjoy their bed-downs with clockwork saloon girls. The well-paced story lets us sort out the future-sex issues on our own. The restored and remastered encoding can’t be faulted, and original actors and filmmakers contribute to the extras. On 4K Ultra HD (only) from Arrow Video.
02/21/26

A Long Ride from Hell 02/21/26

UK correspondent Lee Broughton returns with coverage of a Spaghetti Western that is unique in as much as it was the legendary Steve Reeves’s only genre entry as well as being his final film. Director Camillo Bazzoni’s show is a decent enough, action-heavy swan song for the iconic actor; Reeves is ably supported by a plethora of genre stalwarts and fan favourites that include Wayde Preston, Rosalba Neri, Aldo Sambrell, Spartaco Conversi and Nello Pazzafini. The new release is from Germany; Lee’s one disclaimer is that he has also contributed the disc’s audio commentary. On Blu-ray from Explosive Media.
02/21/26

One Battle after Another   — 4K 02/18/26

 Paul Thomas Anderson’s major Oscar contender comes to disc in top condition; CineSavant’s Charlie Largent finds it thrilling, out of control yet fully controlled by its high-powered director. Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti and Benicio del Toro inhabit an all-too credible battleground landscape with new terms like ‘The French 75, ‘The White House’ and ‘The Christmas Adventurers Club.’ It’s a new America: immigrants, protesters, journalists, professors, college students, school kids, and American citizens just out for a walk had better beware. Charlie calls it a new kind of family movie. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Warner Bros..

02/17/26

Lubitsch Musicals   Eclipse Series 8 02/18/26

 These pre-Code comedies of manners were America’s talking-picture introduction to ‘the Lubitsch touch.’ They’re spirited bedroom farces, even though the innuendo and pliable sexuality all happens standing up with both feet on the floor. French song & dance man Maurice Chevalier became the international ambassador for French oo-la-la suggestiveness. Co-starring are Jeanette MacDonald, Miriam Hopkins, Claudette Colbert; for one feature Chevalier’s place is taken by English star Jack Buchanan. On Blu-ray from Eclipse / Criterion.

02/14/26

Red Dust 02/18/26

 Understanding pre-Code movies gets easy after seeing MGM’s sultry romance set in an exotic, sweaty rubber plantation. The big draw is cock o’ the walk Clark Gable, who gets to flex his mustache with both Mary Astor and newly-crowned sex star Jean Harlow. Director Victor Fleming is at his best, and so is that rain barrel turned into the movies’ most famous bathtub. Also starring Gene Raymond, Donald Crisp and Tully Marshall. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.

02/12/26

3:10 to Yuma   — 4K 02/18/26

 Stunning in HD, this A+ western is a total knockout in crisp 4K. Glenn Ford and Van Heflin’s performances as a ruthless outlaw and a reluctant deputy take Elmore Leonard’s raw-boned shotgun ordeal to the top of the genre, circa 1957. Those Arizona locations look amazing, with all that dramatic break o’ dawn lighting. Plus Richard Jaeckel, Leora Dana, Henry Jones and (swoon) Felicia Farr. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

02/09/26

Krakatit   — 4K 02/03/26

A thinking man’s apocalypse movie?  Otakar Vávra’s highly original film on the atomic panic of the late 1940s will either be too intellectual for Science fiction fans … or they will think it the most intelligent anti-nuke picture ever. It’s from Czechoslovakia before the communist coup and therefore not Soviet propaganda. But it is humanist, pacifist, and not-too enamored of American military arrogance. It’s from a classic Karel Capek book about a super explosive, updated to be an atomic parable. What’s most challenging is the artistic format: the entire show is a subjective fever dream experienced by a lone wolf Oppenheimer type who finds that he has the power to blow up the entire planet. It’s truly different. The one recognizable star for Sci-fi fans is Florence Marly, and if you know who she is, you’re going to be curious. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile Films.
02/03/26

Dante’s Peak   — 4K 02/03/26

It’s fundamentally a dum-dum ’90s disaster picture, an action-jeopardy roller coaster ride tailored to compete with the Roland Emmerichs and the Michael Bays … and we liked it. Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton and director Roger Donaldson put it across so well that we don’t mind the silly science or the cute dog; the special effects are excellent too. The 4K encoding shows us that the CGI folk were really getting their act together by this time. So shoot me: I was entertained against my better judgment. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/03/26