MartinLogan
Paradigm Art Embracing Science
Axiom
Hegel Music Systems
Bluesound
SVS
NAD
PSB
NAD

Blu-ray Movies

Details
Blu-ray movies

August 2019

A Mesmerizing Jane Fonda on Criterion Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 987
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
****

Extras
****

Jane Fonda won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Klute (1971). Though she went on to win another Oscar, for Coming Home (1978), as well as many Golden Globes and other awards, we perhaps most easily remember her for the prostitute she plays here. Klute was one of the first films I remember seeing that explored the desires and vulnerabilities of a strong female character. Not long into rehearsal, Fonda wanted to quit, but director Alan J. Pakula (1928-1998) persuaded her to stay on. At the time, Fonda was heavily involved in the movement to end the war in Vietnam, but Pakula later attested that she never let that get in the way of her profession.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

July 2019

Sergei Bondarchuk’s Restored Masterpiece Dazzles in a New BD from Criterion

The Criterion Collection 983
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
****1/2

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
****

Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace is in the DNA of all Russians. I don’t know if it’s true any longer, but in the 1960s, when this film version was released, every Russian teenage girl wanted to be Natasha Rostova, here radiantly portrayed by Lyudmila Saveleva -- at least, that’s a view supported by one of the excellent extras Criterion includes in this Blu-ray Disc edition.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

June 2019

An Oscar-Winning Film Gets the Criterion Treatment

The Criterion Collection 974
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
****

The Heiress, released in 1949, was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Oliva de Havilland; Best Art Direction/Set Direction, Black-and-White, John Meehan, Harry Horner, Emil Kuri; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, Edith Head and Gile Steele; and Best Music, Aaron Copland. Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s screenplay was based on their play, which in turn was based on the novel Washington Square, by Henry James. In addition to de Havilland, The Heiress starred Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, and Miriam Hopkins. William Wyler, whose The Best Years of Our Lives had won no fewer than seven Oscars only three years before, directed with a sure hand.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

May 2019

A Definitive Blu-ray Edition of Elia Kazan’s Cautionary Tale

The Criterion Collection 970
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
***1/2

In the summer of 1953, Andy Griffith was in Manteo, North Carolina, playing Sir Walter Raleigh in The Lost Colony, the longest-running outdoor production in the history of American theater. That same year, as Deacon Andy Griffith, he recorded the comedy monologue “What It Was, Was Football” for Colonial Records. It was only Colonial’s third recording, and when Capitol Records took it over and put their own label on it, the record became one of the most popular comedy singles of all time, with sales of almost 800,000. I was 12 years old, and Colonial was on a street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that made a T intersection with the tiny street on which I lived with my parents. My dad knew someone who had a connection, and took me down to meet Griffith. He was warm and friendly, pretty much like the character he later played on TV in The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968).I liked him a lot.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

April 2019

Criterion Scores with a Brilliant Blu-ray of a Neglected Masterpiece

The Criterion Collection 963
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
****

Extras
***

Although African-American writer and film director Charles Burnett has long been active as a filmmaker and is highly regarded by his peers, his work is not well known to the general public, especially white audiences. He’s mostly been involved in making documentaries and dramatic films for television that have seemed to fly under the radar. Now, having seen To Sleep with Anger (1990), I’m inclined to think he’s one of our greatest directors.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

March 2019

Orson Welles's Truncated Masterpiece Looks Great on Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 952
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
***1/2

Picture Quality
****

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
****

RKO Radio Pictures cooked up this truncated version of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) while the director was away in South America, filming his next (unfinished) film, It’s All True. At first Welles tried to communicate with RKO via long-distance calls, using fellow director Robert Wise as go-between, but to no avail: RKO made drastic cuts, rearranged the order of scenes, shot new scenes -- some directed by Wise -- and tacked on a sappy, happy ending.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

February 2019

A Cult Classic Done Right from Arrow Films

Arrow Films AV179-TM
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
***1/2

Picture Quality
****

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
***1/2

Produced in Spain in 1972 for a measly $300,000, Horror Express has received terrible treatment since its release. It flopped in Spain but was better received in the UK, where it got excellent reviews. The US release was a disaster. The distributor had so little interest that it provided misleading poster art and, according to some reports, released a workprint to theaters.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

January 2019

Barbara Stanwyck as The Woman in Charge

Criterion Collection 954
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
****

Forty Guns (1957) opens in silence. There’s an overhead long shot of the arid prairie, a small wagon crossing it like an ant. In a medium shot, the wagon is revealed as carrying three men whom we later learn are the Bonell brothers: Griff (Barry Sullivan), Wes (Gene Barry), and Chico (Robert Dix). The sound of hooves is heard, getting louder and louder. Suddenly, from around a bend in the road, Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck) appears all in black, on a galloping white horse, leading 40 horsemen in two ranks. They split up to surround the wagon, and the point of view nervously shifts between high and low shots, emphasizing the tenseness of the situation. Drummond won’t appear again onscreen for another 20 minutes, but . . . what an entrance! Stanwyck was given one of the most memorable introductions ever caught on film.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

December 2018

Sony Pictures 51742
Format: Blu-ray

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
**1/2

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
***1/2

Most readers know the plot of Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937), based on the novel by James Hilton. British government envoy Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) escapes a war-torn Eastern European country, only to discover that he and his four companions have been kidnapped and transported to Shangri-La, a mythical land in the Himalayas. Conway, a pacifist, almost immediately feels at home in this land that has no rulers, no strife, no war, and little of the other baggage of civilization.

Read more …

Details
Blu-ray movies

November 2018

Criterion Succeeds with an Early Wuxia Masterpiece

The Criterion Collection 937
Format: 4K BD

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****

Sound Quality
**1/2

Extras
***1/2

In film, inns, taverns, and barrooms are usually plain, innocuous settings with an undercurrent of mystery that often attract conniving patrons who ramp up the action and turn them into battlegrounds. You find them in all cultures. Remember Treasure Island and the Benbow Inn? The titular establishment in this film is an isolated, peaceful inn with wooden tables, a bar on the first floor, and, on the second, a balcony leading to bedrooms -- nice accommodations for travelers.

Read more …

  1. "My Man Godfrey"
  2. "Heaven Can Wait" (1943)
  3. "A Matter of Life and Death"
  4. "The Addiction"
  5. "Moonrise"
  6. "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"
  7. "King of Jazz"
  8. "Tom Jones"
  9. "Pulp"
  10. "Barry Lyndon"
  11. "The Big Knife"
  12. "The Breaking Point"
  13. "Lost in America"
  14. "Spotlight on a Murderer"
  15. "Rumble Fish"
  16. "Blow-Up"
  17. "The Lair of the White Worm"
  18. "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown"
  19. "The Asphalt Jungle"
  20. "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"
  21. "Night Train to Munich"
  22. "Chimes at Midnight"
  23. "Carnival of Souls"
  24. "Here Comes Mr. Jordan"
  25. "In a Lonely Place"
  26. "Only Angels Have Wings"
  27. "Bicycle Thieves"
  28. "My Own Private Idaho"
  29. "Gilda"
  30. "The American Friend"
  31. "In Cold Blood"
  32. "Kwaidan"
  33. "The Honeymoon Killers"
  34. "Day for Night"
  35. "Night and the City"
  36. "The Killers"
  37. "Ride the Pink Horse"
  38. "Odd Man Out'
  39. "Sullivan's Travels"
  40. "The Soft Skin"
  41. "Mark of the Devil"
  42. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (75th Anniversary Edition)
  43. "The Sword of Doom"
  44. "The Palm Beach Story"
  45. "It Happened One Night"
  46. "Safe" (1995)
  47. "Time Bandits"
  48. "The Shooting / Ride in the Whirlwind"
  49. "F for Fake"
  50. "My Darling Clementine"
  51. "The Vanishing" (1988)
  52. "Dracula" (1979)
  53. "The Innocents"
  54. "Macbeth" (1971)
  55. "All That Jazz"
  56. "Vengeance Is Mine"
  57. "Insomnia" (1997)
  58. "Judex"
  59. "Red River"
  60. "Touch of Evil"
  61. "Ace in the Hole"
  62. "Double Indemnity: 70th Anniversary Limited Edition"
  63. "Riot in Cell Block 11"
  64. "Inside Llewyn Davis"
  65. "The Hidden Fortress"
  66. "Tess"
  67. "Foreign Correspondent"
  68. "Rififi"
  69. "Throne of Blood"
  70. "The Uninvited" (1944)
  71. "Eyes Without a Face"
  72. "The Devil’s Backbone"
  73. "Seconds"
  74. "Babette's Feast"
  75. "Things to Come"
  76. "Richard III"
  77. "Jack Reacher"
  78. "The Blob"
  79. "Badlands"
  80. "Africa: Eye to Eye with the Unknown"
  81. "On the Waterfront"
  82. "The Awakening"
  83. "The Tin Drum"
  84. "Purple Noon"
  85. "Manufactured Landscapes"
  86. "Rashomon"
  87. "Rosemary's Baby"
  88. "Moonrise Kingdom"
  89. "Les visiteurs du soir"
  90. "Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures"
  91. "Titanic"
  92. The Rescuers: 35th Anniversary Edition (The Rescuers / The Rescuers Down Under)
  93. "The Hunger Games"
  94. "Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax"
  95. "High Fidelity"
  96. "Down by Law"
  97. "Yellow Submarine"
  98. "Barbarella"
  99. "Shallow Grave"
  100. "Accident"
  101. "The Secret World of Arrietty"
  102. "Buck Privates"
  103. "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol"
  104. "War Horse"
  105. "A Night to Remember"
  106. "To Catch a Thief"
  107. "Dangerous Liaisons"
  108. "Lady and the Tramp: Diamond Edition"
  109. "Real Steel"
  110. "Godzilla"
  111. "Design for Living"
  112. "Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy"
  113. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
  114. "The Lady Vanishes" (1938)
  115. "The Debt"
  116. "Super 8"
  117. "Beginners"
  118. "Island of Lost Souls"
  119. "The Four Feathers" (1939)
  120. "The Tree of Life"
  121. "Captain America: The First Avenger"
  122. "The Lion King: Diamond Edition"
  123. "Dumbo: 70th Anniversary Edition"
  124. "Hanna"
  125. "Cul-de-sac"
  126. "Jane Eyre"
  127. "Source Code"
  128. "Insidious"
  129. "Beauty and the Beast" (1946)
  130. "Kiss Me Deadly"
  131. "Solaris"
  132. "American Graffiti"
  133. "Papillon"
  134. "Smiles of a Summer Night"
  135. "Blow Out"
  136. "Kes"
  137. "The Incredibles"
  138. "Tron: Legacy / Tron: The Original Classic"
  139. "The Ten Commandments"
  140. "Topsy-Turvy"
  141. "Sweet Smell of Success"
  142. "Fish Tank"
  143. "Bambi"
  144. "Waiting for Superman"
  145. "Let Me In"
  146. "Alice in Wonderland: 60th Anniversary Edition"
  147. "Once Upon a Time in America"
  148. "The American"
  149. "Backdraft: Anniversary Edition"
  150. "The Disappearance of Alice Creed"
  151. "Cronos"
  152. "Fantasia / Fantasia 2000"
  153. "America Lost and Found: The BBS Story"
  154. "Disney’s A Christmas Carol"
  155. "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Level Up! Collector’s Edition"
  156. "Toy Story 3"
  157. "I Am Love"
  158. "Psycho -- 50th Anniversary Edition"
  159. "The Magician"
  160. "Beauty and the Beast: Three-Disc Diamond Edition"
  161. "Babies"
  162. "Breathless"
  163. "Eyeborgs"
  164. "Black Orpheus"
  165. "Kalifornia"
  166. "Mother"
  167. "Black Narcissus"
  168. "Brooklyn’s Finest"
  169. "The Leopard"
  170. "Green Zone"
  171. "Flash Gordon"
  172. "The Wolfman: Two-Disc Unrated Director’s Cut"
  173. "The Road"
  174. "Tombstone"
  175. "Saving Private Ryan: Sapphire Series"
  176. "M"
  177. "Avatar"
  178. "Ride with the Devil"
  179. "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call -- New Orleans"
  180. "Sherlock Holmes"
  181. "Broken Embraces"
  182. "Toy Story: Special Edition"

Page 4 of 23