New Blu-ray Reviews

Operation Petticoat Blu-ray Movie    

Eureka Classics / Blu-ray + DVD

Eureka Entertainment | 1959 | 120 min | Rated BBFC: U | Dec 02, 2019 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

World War 2 comedy about a submarine commander who finds himself stuck with a decrepit (and pink) sub, a con-man executive officer and a group of army nurses.

Comedy / Romance / War

Mad Love Blu-ray Movie  

Kino Lorber | 1995 | 93 min | Rated PG-13 | Dec 17, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

A love story of young college-bound teens on the verge of a breakdown.

Drama / Romance

Kaili Blues Blu-ray Movie  

路边野餐 / Lù Biān Yě Cān

Grasshopper Film | 2015 | 110 min | Unrated | Apr 25, 2017 | Neil Lumbard

Chen, a preoccupied doctor working in a small clinic in the rain-drenched city of Kaili, decides to fulfill his late mother’s wish and sets off on a journey to look for his brother’s abandoned child. His partner in the clinic, a lonely old lady, asks him to also find her former lover, giving him a photograph, a shirt, and a music cassette. On the way, Chen passes through a mysterious town where distinctions between past, present, and future appear to slip away.

Drama / Mystery / Foreign

Fragment of an Empire Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley | 1929 | 110 min | Not rated | Aug 09, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

A story of a man who loses his memory during the First World War, regains it 10 years after the Russian Revolution and returns home to a new and alien St. Petersburg.

Drama / Foreign

Playing God Blu-ray Movie  

Kino Lorber | 1997 | 94 min | Rated R | Dec 10, 2019 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Dr. Eugene Sands, an ex-surgeon lured into a dark underworld by a hip-but lethal-mob, finds himself caught in a web of murder and mayhem...and growing far too close to the top mobster's seductive mistress.

Crime / Drama / Thriller

IceMan Blu-ray Movie  

Kino Lorber | 1984 | 101 min | Rated PG | Dec 10, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

HE'S 40,000 YEARS OLD. Deep within an Arctic glacier they found him, preserved by a miracle of nature, brought back to life by a miracle of science. Now medical science wants to exploit him in the name of research. One man wants to stop them...in the name of humanity. But he'll need more than a miracle to survive...he'll need a friend.

Drama / Sci-Fi

Paradise Blu-ray Movie  

Kino Lorber | 1991 | 111 min | Rated PG-13 | Dec 17, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

Lily and Ben Reed, a young couple torn apart by a family tragedy. It would take a miracle to rekindle their love and a miracle arrives in the form of a summer guest - Willard Young played by Elijah Wood.

Drama / Coming of age

Midaq Alley Blu-ray Movie  

El callejón de los milagros

Film Movement | 1995 | 144 min | Not rated | Nov 06, 2018 | Neil Lumbard

The story of people in one Mexico City neighborhood and the connections among them: Don Ru, the owner of the local pub; Eusebia, his wife; Chava, his son, and Abel, his friend, who emigrate to the USA in search of fortune; Susanita, the single landtender always dreaming of marrying a good man; Guicho, the pub's employee, who extracts the money when Don Ru is not there and finally marries Susanita; Alma, the pretty girl of Abel's dreams, who becomes a luxury prostitute while he's away; Jimmy, the handsome young man Don Ru becomes infatuated with; and others. Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Naguib Mahfouz.

Drama / Foreign

Spettacolo Blu-ray Movie  

Grasshopper Film | 2017 | 91 min | Unrated | Mar 13, 2018 | Neil Lumbard

Once upon a time, villagers in a tiny hill town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: they turned their lives into a play. Every summer, their piazza became their stage and residents of all ages played a part – the role of themselves. Monticchiello’s annual tradition has attracted worldwide attention and kept the town together for 50 years, but with an aging population and a future generation more interested in Facebook than farming, the town’s 50th–anniversary performance just might be its last. Spettacolo tells the story of Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, interweaving episodes from its past with its modern-day process as the villagers turn a series of devastating blows into a new play about the end of their world.

Documentary / Foreign

The Queen of Spades Blu-ray Movie  

Kino Lorber | 1949 | 95 min | Not rated | Oct 15, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

An army officer has become obsessed with playing cards. Convinced that an elderly countess possesses the secret of winning every game, the young officer’s obsession leads him into a satanic world of madness, mayhem and murder, where death is only the beginning.

Drama / Horror

Devil's Revenge Blu-ray Movie  

Special Edition / Blu-ray + CD

Cleopatra | 2019 | 90 min | Not rated | Oct 15, 2019 | Jeffrey Kauffman

John Brock is a down-on-his-luck archaeologist who returns from an expedition to the caves of rural Kentucky after unsuccessfully trying to locate a mysterious relic that his family has sought for generations. Upon his return, John starts to see dream-like visions of a ferocious bird-like creature from ancient folklore. John soon learns that the cave he came into contact with on his last expedition was indeed the cave that contains the relic and also a portal to Hell and a place of worship for the Occult. John discovers that the only way to stop the increasingly realistic visions is to go back to the cave with his family, find the relic once and for all, and destroy it.

Horror

The Garden Blu-ray Movie  

Zeitgeist Films | 1990 | 92 min | Not rated | Aug 27, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.

Drama

Trapped Blu-ray Movie  

Deluxe Edition / Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley | 1949 | 79 min | Not rated | Dec 31, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

In order to take down a successful counterfeiting ring, the US Treasury Department releases a master counterfeiter from jail to plant as bait.

Crime / Drama / Film-Noir

Carrington Blu-ray Movie  

Olive Films | 1995 | 123 min | Rated R | Nov 15, 2016 | Neil Lumbard

The story of the relationship between painter Dora Carrington and author Lytton Strachey in a World War One England of cottages and countryside.

Biography / Drama

J'accuse Blu-ray Movie  

I Accuse

Olive Films | 1938 | 120 min | Not rated | Nov 15, 2016 | Neil Lumbard

After serving in the trenches of World War I, Jean Diaz recoils with such horror that he renounces love and personal pleasure to immerse himself in scientific research, seeking a machine to prevent war. He thinks he has succeeded, but the government subverts his discovery, and Europe slides with seeming inevitability toward World War II. In desperation, Diaz summons the ghosts of the war dead from the graves and fields of France to give silent, accusing protest.

Drama / Horror / War / Foreign

BPS Battle Programmer Shirase: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie  

Maiden Japan | 2003-2004 | 125 min | Rated TV-14 | Aug 06, 2019 | Neil Lumbard

What is it that passes behind those dry, sorrowful eyes? Akira Shirase, the solitary programmer who has an unusual aptitude for problem solving: He is called a legendary hacker, and few know his true identity. What has he lost, what has he gained, and what has he seen in pockets of the vast internet? How now does he feel, on what is false and what is true and what exists in code? This is the man they call Battle Programmer Shirase - also known as BPS!

Anime / Comedy / Sci-Fi / Foreign

Napping Princess Blu-ray Movie  

Ancien and the Magic Tablet / Blu-ray + DVD

Shout Factory | 2017 | 111 min | Not rated | Jan 30, 2018 | Neil Lumbard

Why am I snoozing all the time? I keep having this dream… Kokone Morikawa lives with her father in Okayama Prefecture. She's a typical high school senior with no special talents except one: she can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. Recently she's been having a series of strange dreams. Her father Momotarō, a gruff man of few words, doesn't seem to pay much attention to his daughter; he spends most of his time repairing and modifying cars. The year is 2020, three days before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics. Without warning, Momotarō is arrested and taken to far-off Tokyo for questioning. He's a misfit, but Kokone can't believe that he would really do anything bad. With help from college student and childhood friend Morio, Kokone is determined to make her way to Tokyo and free her father, as well as unravel the mystery of her dreams. Along the way, she discovers that those dreams are the key to facing her challenges in the real world. Kokone uses her only talent – napping – to embark on a mysterious journey that straddles dreams and reality. And waiting for her at the end of her adventure is a small but precious truth…

Adventure / Anime / Drama / Family / Fantasy / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Teen / Foreign / Coming of age

In This Corner of the World Blu-ray Movie  

この世界の片隅に / Kono sekai no katasumi ni / Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

Shout Factory | 2016 | 130 min | Rated PG-13 | Nov 14, 2017 | Neil Lumbard

Set in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture during World War II, an eighteen-year-old girl gets married and now has to prepare food for her family despite the rationing and lack of supplies. As she struggles with the daily loss of life's amenities she still has to maintain the will to live.

Anime / Drama / History / War / Comic book / Foreign

Three Films with Sammo Hung Blu-ray Movie    

Eastern Condors / The Iron-Fisted Monk / The Magnificent Butcher | Eureka Classics

Eureka Entertainment | 1977-1987 | 3 Movies, 4 Cuts | 299 min | Rated BBFC: 18 | Oct 07, 2019 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

No synopsis for this title.

Action / Adventure / Comedy / War / Martial arts / Foreign / Period

The Magnificent Butcher Blu-ray Movie    

林世榮 / Lam sai wing | Eureka Classics

Eureka Entertainment | 1979 | 109 min | Rated BBFC: 18 | No Release Date | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Hailed as one of the greatest kung-fu movies of all time, Magnificent Butcher is a powerhouse of martial arts action starring Hong Kong Legend Sammo Hung and directed by Yuen Woo-ping. A student at master Wong-Fei-hung's martial academy, chubby and likeable butcher Lam Sai-wing (Sammo Hung) constantly lands in trouble - no more so than when he comes to the rescue of Kao Da-Hoi (Yuen Biao), the son of Master Ko (Lee Hoi-san) who heads opposing kung-fu school the Five Dragons. The good-hearted Sai-wing never suspects that Da-hoi is plotting against him by orchestrating a series of events to frame Sai-wing for murder of Da-hoi's half-sister. Hot for vengeance and to clear his good name, Sai-wing first faces off against Da-hoi, leading to the ultimate martial arts showdown when Sammo Hung launches his 'five animals' against lee Hoi-san's 'five elements' fung-fu style!

Action / Adventure / Comedy / Martial arts / Foreign