Displaying items by tag: DVD

Welcome back to my Dailies feature, Pick-Ups!

It’s designed to feature older Blu-ray releases that we haven’t gotten around to reviewing until now (sorry about that!), as well as select international releases and other unique titles on disc.

I try to do this column on a weekly basis, so be sure to check back regularly for more titles that are worthy of your attention. [Read on here...]

Welcome back to my Dailies feature, Pick-Ups!

It’s designed to feature older Blu-ray releases that we haven’t gotten around to reviewing until now (sorry about that!), as well as select international releases and other unique titles on disc.

I try to do this column on a weekly basis, so be sure to check back regularly for more titles that are worthy of your attention. [Read on here...]

(Photo by Robin Holland Photography)

Robert Altman said his last “that’s a wrap,” can you believe it, some eight or nine years ago and it seems as though any hope of mainstream studio films with emotional weight, sharp characters, social satire and natural, cliché free dialogue was buried right next to him.

Every Hollywood director since the beginning of the medium owes a debt to Robert Altman. His style was so distinctive, so fresh and so natural that people would say to themselves, “Oh that’s what directors do.”  [Read on here...]

Now where was I?

Sorry, I’ve not been here. I missed a bit – I’ll admit it and it for sure wasn’t to do with health or disinterest or a lack in passion. I just had to do stuff. But now I’m back.

But I come with good stories. Specifically regarding how movie awards season works.  [Read on here...]

Darn that Facebook.

I’ve gotten a hoot out of it – have loved reconnecting with high school friends and long lost family and have discovered as well that there are people in the world with pages dedicated to interests close to my heart, such as those kept by my favorite authors, pictures of the New York I loved in the 70s and 80s and tributes to great character actors such as Timothy Carey.  [Read on here...]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed an alarming increase in the number of MOD titles that are simply re-releases of out-of-print discs and a decrease in the number of never-before-released movies. We’re probably going to be seeing a lot more of that, unfortunately. But at least this week, there are a few brand new Most Wanted picks making their overdue DVD debuts. Let’s take a gander at them and at a special all-scary-movie edition of Wide Awake In Streamland for your Halloween viewing pleasure. [Read on here...]

Here are a couple of other stories from the salt mines of Oklahoma location scouting. There’s many, many more. But I can only bore so much..

Both tales involve the terrific writer, film critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter. In his 1993 novel Point of Impact, Hunter created the character Bob Lee “The Nailer” Swagger, which has now been featured, along with his father, Earl, in some 12 novels, the most recent of which is Sniper’s Honor.  [Read on here...]

Anybody know a good screenwriter? Here’s true scenario that would offer a perfect studio pitch.

And it’s a thriller, in a way, with a determined adventurer racing against time to seek justice for a hero from a past generation – one who sacrificed finances, reputation and goodwill to slay a dragon that was, in the long run, perhaps beyond even his reach.

This story is about John Wayne. This story is about Robert Harris. This story is about America and the importance of its cultural maintenance. And, ok, it’s also about personal obsession. Duke Wayne did what he said. No backing out. No cutting corners. No half assed. [Read on here...]

For a long time, I had the honor of serving the people of Oklahoma as their state film commissioner. I took the job only because we hadn’t created yet the position of “Lord High Minister of Culture.” To know the movie business was but a small component of the being the liaison with Hollywood – the job was for the most part about locations, locations, locations and I knew every bright golden haze on every Sooner state meadow and every field of corn as high as an elephant’s eye. [Read on here...]

Even with all the plaudits and platitudes, not enough was written upon the passing of Mickey Rooney. I don’t know, actually, if there could ever be enough.

Lord Laurence Olivier once called Mickey Rooney “the greatest actor of them all,” and Marlon Brando said he was “the best actor in films.” [Read on here…]