Iron Giant Blu-ray Review

“For a distinctly American film in style and period, it’s voraciously anti-American in themes. Maybe there’s the key to Iron Giant’s lackluster theatrical performance. Set in the heart of June Cleaver’s purified 1950s, there are single mothers and artistic beatniks mixing with anti-bomb, anti-war, and the coup de gras, anti-gun leanings. A film too early then, rushing into a sensible conversation about firearms mere months after the Columbine tragedy exposed a most American of problems. So maybe Iron Giant was too uncomfortable to watch, or worse, it was correct on the issue before anyone realized. It’s hard to overcome the cultural fear of being in the wrong, let alone paying someone to tell us so.”

Read my full Iron Giant Blu-ray review at DoBlu

Them! Blu-ray Review

“Them breaks America’s spirit. Guns are left broken on the ground; for once they’re not enough. The film shrieks at science for their atomic breakthroughs, generic in modern times if delivered with eerie prominence from Edmund Gwenn’s Dr. Medford and the sizable form of James Arness. World War II’s veterans are fighters, but also alcoholics committed to special hospital wings. Them even cites the Bible to suggest civilization has lived up to the worst of our potential – “We may be witnesses of a Biblical prophecy come true.”

Read my full Blu-ray review of Them! at DoBlu

Vacation Blu-ray Review

“Warner’s remake/reboot/sequel (the film never appears sure) is surreal in the absolute meaning of the term. Vacation ’83 took place on Earth. Much of Vacation ’15 seems to have emanated from an alien transmission. Vacation is the ultimate hand-over-head whiff, where purpose and tone is so bludgeoned, what remains is indefensible mush.”

Read my full review of Vacation at DoBlu

Mad Max (PS4) Review

“Fury Road was cinema at its purest visual form. There was necessity and merit and reason to each shot. Everything was important. Editing discipline proved remarkable. This skill has yet to be learned on the interactive side. Bloat is easier. Looking further back, Mad Max’s theatrical origins can inspire film studies. That pre-apocalypse represented inevitability, reflected the ’70s oil crisis, and expressed frustration with rising Australian crime rates.

The mainstream video game sort-of adaption exists to subdue forum posts from those who quantify their purchase merely by numbers – those of time and content. That’s why linear video games are dead or dying and with them, so are the inroads to narrative innovation. Now games are so lost, selling energy drinks in the apocalypse isn’t a funny faux pas; it’s a depressing expectation.”

Read my full review of Mad Max at Game Skinny

Mortal Kombat X (PS4) Review

“So that’s where Mortal Kombat X is caught, between the cheaply amateurish (yet sickeningly pleasurable) blood-and-guts spectacle of its origins and the means of overbearing IP owners who wish it to be broadly inclusive entertainment. Mortal Kombat only works one way and it is not the way Warner thinks it does. To detach Mortal Kombat from such ancestry is defeatist. Of course it was born for profits, but it was by accident. Unexpected. Mortal Kombat X, by comparison, is too glossy. The blood is more real, the brains more bouncy. All of this happens because dollar signs command it to, not because a handful of developers spent their time pushing social acceptability. It now feels dishonest, pandering even.”

Read my full review of Mortal Kombat X on Medium

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) Review

“Developer Monolith is provided the freedom of the M-rating, a means for a mix-in of squirting blood letting and physics driven head rolling. And yet, Mordor is artificial. It’s grossly violent only because it can be and the industry allows it. Talion’s less a hero than he is a vengeful spirit who kills without context, mostly because that context was considered unimportant enough to be brushed aside in mere minutes of an elongated story. There’s precedence of war, but no power of emotion. It’s a ridiculous one man slaughter because they’re ugly, he’s not, women are in trouble, and the square button hosts the traditional action function of slashing a sword… and a kiss.”

Read my full review for Shadow of Mordor at Pulp365

300: Rise of an Empire Blu-ray Review

“Visually is where new director Noam Murro and otherwise strong cinematographer Simon Duggan splinter, lost in-between measures to clone yet differentiate their cinematic palette. Empire washes out with a weaker grain and same post-production, green screen infatuation, but none of the graphic novel induced density. While battalions of ships on eerily calm, CG waters are intense, memorability is reduced to zero. Cliff falling, bodies warped into a tree, and Meme generating kicks are lost. Where Snyder’s work induced praise like “visionary,” this is raw 3D bloodshed without uniqueness.”

Read my my full Blu-ray review for 300: Rise of an Empire at DoBlu

Norma Rae Blu-ray Review

“Politically lifted, Norma Rae retains its relevancy at a time of gross income inequality, even if the insular perception cuts off before post-Union results set in. This is less an anecdote of Southern disgruntlement and more singularly fixated on Rea’s gumption in a period where race division was still embedded, let alone a woman’s rights movement. Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. build their screenplay around an audience appealing heroine while director Martin Ritt smartly lets Field’s work the camera. Results are genuine and feel delivered without acidic embellishment.”

Read my full Blu-ray review of Norma Rae at DoBlu

Gravity Blu-ray Review

“Disaster movie maven Irwin Allen would be astonished by this exhilarating display of cinematic wrath, tantamount to marketable “edge of your seat” jargon. Generic and overused, but few films envelope themselves to such a level as to pull an audience forward. Gravity does. There is a balance of near silent composure, aggressively dislodged into masterfully employed tension as physical and mental breakdowns occur.”

Read my full review of Gravity on Blu-ray at DoBlu