Skip It The Film: With advancements in technology and the perseverance of immersive entertainment (videogames, live-action role-playing), Michael Crichton's idea for Westworld — realistic environments populated with lifelike robots designed for rules-free chaos for those with the financial means — seems closer to feasible in our not-so-distant future than depicted in the '70s sci-fi classic …
Recommended THE FILM: Hollywood has long dramatized the lives of unremarkable men with ease, but often stumbles when retelling the story of someone truly exceptional. Filming the life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini is no easy task. The former United States Olympian survived a plane crash in World War II, only to be stranded on a raft for 47 days before he was sent to a Japanese internment camp …
Recommended Its title suggests a film noir, but in fact Stranger at My Door (1956) is a Western drama with religious overtones, a very offbeat film for B-movie studio Republic Pictures, which specialized in far more routine oaters. It's a strange movie, on one hand filmed in Republic's usual flat style for the most part, and the religious aspects are heavy-handed, annoying, and at times …
Recommended THE FILM: After getting shot by a Richard Nixon-masked bank robber during a heist, LAPD officer Dennis Meechum (Brian Dennehy) turns his account of the events into a bestselling novel. Years later, Meechum is a successful detective looking for a hit follow-up novel but lacking inspiration
Recommended NOTE: The photos accompanying this review are taken from various internet sources and do not represent the quality of the Blu-ray under review. The Movie: The 1967 folk song “The Alice's Restaurant Massacree” is essentially a shaggy-dog story set to ragtime guitar, in which singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie recounts his run-in with small-town law over illegally dumping a bunch of post …
Highly Recommended The Movie: Chris Rock joined the upper echelons of the stand-up comedy game nearly twenty years ago, and even though he hasn't released an hour-long special in seven years, it's that work onstage that defines his career.
Recommended I'd held back on watching At War with the Army (1950), Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis's starring debut, specifically because that was their one movie that had fallen into the public domain. Years back I made it through about five minutes of one those Dollar Video versions, but it looked terrible and I stopped watching
Recommended The photos accompanying this review are taken from promotional materials and do not reflect the quality of the Blu-ray under review. The Movie: Why has the goofy 1989 comedy Troop Beverly Hills remained a perennial favorite for over two and a half decades
Recommended THE FILM: Ah, My Girl . A film I remember really liking when I was 11. Now that I am pushing 30, some of its charms have worn off, though it remains a decent coming-of-age story