Into the Blu

When I first picked up Cronos I was immediately attracted to the interesting cover art done by Mike Mignola who created the comic character Hellboy, which Guillermo has adapted into two films (also with Ron Perlman) so it’s no surprise that he was involved in this… Cronos is Del Toro’s debut feature film and it’s always great to see where filmmakers start out… How does his early work stack up against his later work?

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button certainly has a very interesting and innovative premise. Imagine living your life in reverse, being born as as baby with old and winkled skin, no hair, advanced cataracts that make you virtually blind as well as advanced arthritis that makes it nearly impossible for you to move let alone walk. However, as you grow older and into your teens, things begin to improve. You begin to see better, you can walk with the aid of a cane, your hair begins to grow in. As you get older and older, you get better and better, actually getting younger as you get older. Continue Reading

 The Criterion Collection is written as “gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality…”  Wages of Fear is one of the first movies to join the Criterion Collection and comes to us from acclaimed suspense director Henri Georges Clouzot.  The film arrived in movie theaters in 1953 in France and didn’t hit the U.S. until two years later.  How does this alleged classic fair on Blu-ray?  Let’s find out… Continue Reading

Lately many Hollywood films have either partially or completely drawn from foreign film, and can you really blame the Hollywood execs? My experience with foreign films has been nothing but positive, from German and Spanish all the way to Japanese and Chinese, with Chungking Express falling into the ladder category (Hong Kong to be more specific). With the odd exception, I have found myself craving some originality in the films I’ve been watching, hoping for some complexity and stylistic visuals. Everything I’ve heard about Chungking Express points in the positive direction, and fourteen years after its release I will finally get the chance to make that determination for myself. Continue Reading