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‘Clueless’ looks sharp on Blu-ray

April 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Brittany Murphy and Alicia Silverstone on Clueless Blu-ray

"Clueless" looks smarter and smarter as the decades go by. Amy Heckerling's delightfully cynical tale of worldly teens obsessed with designer clothes, sports utility vehicles and cell phones still rings true, down to the last fashionista. The slanguage Heckerling invented for her Beverly Hills High kids survived into the next century, proving every bit as seminal as the pioneering work of Moon Unit Zappa. "Clueless" (1995) was in the personal-makeover business long before reality TV got in … [Read more...]

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‘The Fades’: Adolescent vs. apocalpyse

March 6, 2012 By 1 Comment
bbc3 series the fades on US blu-ray

They're hot, sexy and dead -- and they want to eat your flesh. The apocalypse looms, but fortunately the world has a savior -- a 17-year-old bed-wetter who cowers before his twin sister. The title of the BBC teen horror series "The Fades" refers to ghosts who can't quite cross over the other side. Despairing of the limbo, they start to chomp on the living in order to come back to life. Beyond that, the mythology gets incredibly detailed and messy, just the way geeks like it. The six-part … [Read more...]

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‘Spellbound’ on Blu-ray: a nightmare revived

March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
gregory peck, ingrid bergman in hitchcock film Spellbound on Bl-ray

A man takes scissors to a surrealistic curtain, cutting an eyeball in half. Another man runs across a terrible angular landscape, stalked by a gigantic bird. A faceless tyrant lets slip a warped wheel as the camera slithers into the void of its center hole. Just another day at the office for Salvador Dali, mad genius and painter of the unreal. The above nightmare, "ordered by telephone" for Mr. Alfred Hitchcock, serves, of course, as the centerpiece of the 1945 psychotherapy thriller … [Read more...]

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‘X: The Unheard Music,’ ‘Sid and Nancy’

January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
exene-x-band

"Being under the radar is a good thing," says Exene Cervenka, the singer-poet of the L.A. rock band X. "Celebrity-hood is not a good thing. … Being able to live your life as an artist and matter is a good thing. … I'm happy with the way things turned out. She pauses. "Other people in the band, maybe not so much …" X holds the title of quintessential L.A. rock band, brushing past such contenders as the Doors (too psychedelic) and Love (too ephemeral). Yet the quartet's profile … [Read more...]

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‘Blue Velvet’ a stunner on Blu-ray

November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
dennis hopper and isabella rossellini in david lynch film

Those lost and deleted scenes from "Blue Velvet" have been found, and for better or worse they're on display as extra features on MGM's Blu-ray debut of this touchstone of American surrealism. While mostly interesting, the 50 minutes of deleted scenes reveal no artistic oversights, no need for the fabled 4-hour director's cut. David Lynch's razor cut into all the right places. Twenty-five years on, it's a bit disorienting to look back at the cultural firestorm sparked by "Blue Velvet." … [Read more...]

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Ghostly images: ‘Carriage,’ ‘Kuroneko’

October 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Swedish actors in Criterion Phantom Carriage Blu-ray

Death can't catch a break in Hollywood. That's Death with a capital "D," the entity in black wielding a scythe. Aside from the "Final Destination" series (no screen time), "Meet Joe Black" (ugh) and "Harry Potter" (cameo), Death has been passed over in favor of the flesh-eating zombies, stylish vampires and demented serial killers of contemporary cinema. Too bad. Death cuts a fine figure in the lands of shadow and fog. Ingmar Bergman knew. He cast the gatherer of souls as the co-star of … [Read more...]

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Boooo on Blu: Top 10 horror movies

October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
audition-horror-film

There's a certain charm to watching scratchy old horror movies on Halloween, but when the going gets weird you gotta go Blu-ray. Ghosts, monsters, zombies and the rest of the gang want to look their best for the big fright night -- that means razor-sharp high definition images accompanied by blood-curdling lossless audio. Here are some of Screen & Stream's Blu-ray favorites for Halloween. Stake Land (Dark Sky Films): Post-apocalyptic movies overrun by the undead almost always fail to live … [Read more...]

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‘Carlos’ blasts way onto Blu-ray

September 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Edgar Ramírez in Carlos on Blu-ray

Film directors have lionized killers as long as there has been film. With time comes absolution and insulation for directors who discover the misunderstood romantic heroes inside serial murderers. No better example than "Bonnie and Clyde." In the past three years we've seen exhaustive -- and excellent -- works on revolutionary Che Guevara, the French gangster Jacques Mesrine, the career terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Germany's radical left-wing Baader-Meinhof Gang -- coldblooded killers … [Read more...]

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‘The Blues Brothers’ on Blu-ray

August 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Dan Aykroyd and John Belusi

The Blues Brothers: Two white TV comics who dared to sing the blues and, incredibly, came out king bees. John Belusi and Dan Aykroyd's R&B musical plays like a honey-dipped harp, even after 30 years. Now it's enshrined in HD with Universal's Blu-ray release of "The Blues Brothers." Fans of the "Saturday Night Live" comics and the giants of black music that they proudly showcased should consider this a call for an immediate and enthusiastic upgrade from previous DVD versions. Sound and … [Read more...]

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‘Stake Land’: Vampire apocalypse

August 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
indie horror movie stake land

Draw a triangle. Use "The Road," "I Am Legend" and "28 Days Later" as corners. There, in the shadowy center, we find "Stake Land," a low-budget effort that's probably the best horror film of the year. Post-apocalyptic movies overrun by the undead almost always fail to live up to their incredible premise, but "Stake Land" delivers on multiple fronts. It's intelligent, plenty gory and borderline humanistic. Gloomy and atmospheric, the film isn't afraid to play long scenes without dialog. … [Read more...]

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