Movie Gazette Online: DVD, Blu-ray News and Reviews

DVD Review: Treasure Houses of Britain

Rory L. Aronsky — Tue, 22 May 2012 02:37:18 +0000

To get to Hash House a Go Go on 5th Avenue in San Diego, famous for its enormous sage fried chicken on top of enormous bacon waffles, you have to walk. There’s no parking lot to the right or left of the restaurant. We parked in a nearly empty lot a few blocks away, noting [...]

DVD Review: The Dean Martin Variety Show – Uncut

Rebecca Wright — Mon, 21 May 2012 03:30:12 +0000

Having run for nine seasons, The Dean Martin Show was one of the most popular shows on television during its 1965-1974 run. Broadcast during a time of great political upheaval, as war raged in Vietnam, Dean Martin’s relaxed, laid back attitude seemed to be a breath of fresh air for both his audience and his [...]

DVD Review: The Woodmans

Rory L. Aronsky — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:00:28 +0000

Photographer Francesca Woodman died years ago. It is apparent from how her parents, sculptor Betty, and painter George, speak distantly of her. The pain is still there, but it’s not as acute as it must have been when they found out. The Woodmans are a family of artists. Charlie, Francesca’s older brother, a video artist, [...]

Blu-ray Review: One For The Money

Rebecca Wright — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:55:53 +0000

In an attempt to get her floundering film career back on track, Katherine Heigl took a shot at playing beloved character Stephanie Plum, the heroine of author Janet Evanovich’s long-running series of mysteries. On paper, One for the Money probably seemed like a safe, wise career move. After all, Stephanie Plum has a built in [...]

DVD Review: Hazel – The Complete Third Season

Rory L. Aronsky — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:13:15 +0000

To hope for more episodes like season 2’s “Hazel’s Day Off” in Hazel: The Complete Third Season is too much hope, but an observation is unearthed that went unnoticed before: Episodes are marginally better when the Baxter family isn’t occupied with domestic matters. This should have been apparent from “Hazel’s Day Off” alone, but the [...]

DVD Review: Sleeping Beauty (2011)

Rena Sapon-White — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:01:27 +0000

Novelist Julia Leigh makes her directorial film debut with the hauntingly exquisite Sleeping Beauty (2011). Starring newcomer Emily Browning as struggling college student Lucy, the film follows her nihilistic journey through the gloomy jungle of Sydney, Australia as she tries to make her way to rent money. Sparse finances, of course, are just the red [...]

Blu-ray Review: The War – A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

Rebecca Wright — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:34:24 +0000

As one of the most pivotal events in American and World history, there is no shortage of documentaries and films based on World War II. In 2007, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick debuted The War on PBS, a six-part 15-hour epic that explained the War through the stories of the men who fought it and [...]

DVD Review: 95 Miles to Go

Rory L. Aronsky — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:56:57 +0000

On a Friday in February 2005, with my parents at a taping of the fourth-to-last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, I saw Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, and Monica Horan at work, but I was more interested in watching director Gary Halvorson at the quad split, a monitor on a [...]

Blu-ray Review: Ganja & Hess – Kino Classics Remastered Edition

Rebecca Wright — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:02:29 +0000

In 1973, Ganja and Hess from black American playwright, novelist, actor and film director Bill Gunn was chosen as one of ten best American films of the decade at the Cannes Film Festival. However, when the film opened later that year in New York to dismal box office, the film’s distributor, Kelly-Jordan Enterprises, removed the [...]

DVD Review: Young Goethe In Love

Rory L. Aronsky — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:54:07 +0000

The German title of Young Goethe in Love is Goethe!. The exclamation point is supposed to foster hopes of exuberant energy and good humor that would be expected from 23-year-old Johann Goethe (Alexander Fehling), a deliberate failure at his law school, intent on becoming famous through his writing. He’s reliably arrogant about his talent before [...]