Blu-ray Review: Silence of the Lambs

Forget the increasingly pointless sequels (what were you thinking Ridley?): nearly 20 years on from its first appearance on our cinema screens, 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs’ combination of horror, drama and humour is still as potent a mix as it ever was.

Blu-ray Review: Lakeview Terrace

Ever had problems with your neighbours? Chances are that the person living next door to you isn’t a policeman with race issues, who takes an instant dislike to you and your spouse and who goes out of their way to force you out of the neighbourhood using increasingly dangerous methods. If they are, then my commiserations.

Blu-ray Review: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Adapted from the short story by Alan Sillitoe, whose Saturday Night and Sunday Morning had taken the British box office by storm just two years earlier, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) once again showed a member of the poor, Northern working class trying to break free from his “captors” – be it the Establishment or the daily 9-to-5 grind.

Blu-ray Review: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Choose factories. Choose the North of England. Choose abortion, sex and extra-marital affairs. Choose kitchen sinks. Choose Saturday Night and Sunday Morning on Blu-ray, and take a trip back to the time when the British film industry received a kick up the Middle Classes, in style.

Blu-ray Review: Being There

Although nobody knew it during production, Peter Sellers performance in 1979’s Being There would be his penultimate one, a reminder to audiences of the seemingly effortless acting he was capable of away from the crowd pleasing antics of the Pink Panther series.

Blu-ray Review: GAZWRX – The Films of Jeff Keen

“It went right over my head and seemed a little threatening, but I’m all for it.” Those words are from director Willy Russell describing a trilogy of films from experimental film maker Jeff Keen. As I’ve sat and watched a number of Keen productions on the new GAZWRX Blu-ray set, I’m tempted to agree with [...]

Blu-ray Review: The Pink Panther Special Edition (1963)

Something of a curio in the long running series (11 films and counting including the upcoming Steve Martin sequel), 1963’s The Pink Panther was the cinemagoing public’s first glimpse of Peter Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, even if the film’s makers had no intention of him being the star.

Blu-ray Review: Raging Bull

We’ve probably all got films we haven’t seen but know we really should. Citizen Kane is probably up there at the top of most people’s list while others are admitted to quietly in hushed tones once in a while. One of my guilty secrets has always been Raging Bull, a film that just never came my way. Until this week.

Friday Film Round-up

Tying into my Reel Time column in today’s Edinburgh Evening News, here’s a quick round-up of the film-related posts published this week on the blog…
My review of The Wrestler compared it favourably to a film I enjoyed a few years back…coverage of the Cameo’s one-off appearance of cult movie legend Bruce Campbell on 5 February [...]

Blu-ray Review: The Fall

One evening during the 2008 Edinburgh Film Festival I found myself getting into a conversation about “must see” movies being screened during the fortnight. One of those present was The Telegraph’s Tim Robey who waxed lyrical about a virtually unknown film from director Tarsem Singh called The Fall.

Blu-ray Review: Standard Operating Procedure

“What is outside the frame of the photographs that we look at?” asks director Errol Morris at the start of his commentary to the Blu-ray release of his eye-opening new documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, “do photographs reveal the truth to us or do they hide the truth?”

Blu-ray Review: Pineapple Express

For many fans of cult 1999-2000 US TV show Freaks and Geeks, tragically killed in its prime by heartless network execs, the resurgance of executive producer Judd Apatow as Hollywood’s King of Comedy is something of a victory for the little guy.

Blu-ray review: Man on Wire

Google the definition of “obsession” and one of the results you’ll return is: “The domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire.”. What you should probably be reading is the name “Philippe Petit”, the Frenchman whose walk on wire between New York’s Twin Towers on August 7 1974 forms the basis of 2008’s Man on Wire.