More Articles By Cyril Pearl
- The Mike Douglas Show: Moments and Memories
SRO/KULTUR Street: March 27 Prebook: now > Clips and comments from the daytime talk show. One of the most innocuous TV talk show hosts of his time, Mike Douglas helmed a daytime talk show that originally aired in syndication from 1961 to 1982. Moments and Memories compiles a healthy collection of show clips, featuring such bold-faced names of the era as Billie Jean King, Kiss, Kareem Abdul-... More - The Ice Storm: Criterion Collection
CRITERION/IMAGE Street: March 18 Prebook: now > Ang Lee’s carefully layered character study of malaise-ridden ’70s suburbanites gets the Criterion treatment. Based upon the novel by Rick Moody, The Ice Storm follows the dissatisfying lives of two suburban Connecticut families circa 1973. More - State of Play
BBC/WARNER Street: Feb. 26 Prebook: now > Outstanding British political miniseries offers thrills, suspense and intricacies. A popular and critically acclaimed British TV miniseries, State of Play focuses on a journalist (John Simm) and his caustic editor (Bill Nighy) as they attempt to solve a mystery linked to seemingly unrelated deaths. More - Life is a Bed of Roses
KIMSTIM/KINO Street: Feb. 19 Prebook: now >A 1984 non-linear musical fantasy from well-known French provocateur Alain Resnais. French auteur Alain Resnais’s colorful 1983 concoction is a musical fantasy that bounces around three parallel stories that take place in and around a fantastical castle forest-covered Ardennes countryside over the course of 60 years. More - American Gangster HD DVD
UNIVERSAL Street: Feb. 19 Prebook: now > Ridley Scott offers a stunning—and star-studded—depiction of the urban jungle circa 1970. Ridley Scott’s New York crime saga about ’70s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and the Jersey cop (Russell Crowe) who’s determined to bring Lucas down was a theatrical hit this fall and is poised to continue deliv... More - The Last Emperor: Criterion Collection
CRITERION/IMAGE Street: Feb. 26 Prebook: now > Criterion’s luxurious package of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 award-winning epic is both expansive and expensive. One of the great modern epics that has been sorely in need of a proper DVD presentation, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor receives a magnificent makeover and more in Criterion’s new four-disc edition. More - Romance & Cigarettes
SONY Street: Feb. 12 Prebook: now > John Turturro’s working class musical features an all-star cast and a score of familiar hits. John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes is a tale about love and infidelity, served up in the style of a modern-day musical wherein the performers break into dance and song, mostly lip-synching to a selection of numbers by such performers as Bruce Springsteen, James Brown, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Nick Cave. More - Slings & Arrows: The Complete Collection
ACORN Street: Feb. 5 Prebook: now > Entertaining Canadian series about a chaotic classical theater troupe. The critically acclaimed Canadian TV series about a dysfunctional classical theater troupe in Canada was previously issued season by season, but it now arrives as a complete set with a bonus disc of new extras. More - Across the Universe
SONY Street: Feb. 5 Prebook: now > Colorful ’60s love story set to the music of The Beatles. Film and theater director Julie Taymor’s (Frida, Titus) star-crossed musical love story between Liverpool dockworker Jude (Jim Sturgess) and American suburbanite Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) is set against the colorful backdrop of the ’60s and all the evolving counter-culture with which... More - Blonde Ambition
SONY Street: Jan. 22 Prebook: now > Dismal romantic comedy starring Jessica Simpson is neither romantic nor funny. At one point early in Blonde Ambition , a passing subway train whooshes air up through a grate and billows star Jessica Simpson’s skirt over her head a la Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch . Sadly, this film isn’t The Seven Year Itch and Simpson ain’t no Monroe. More - Pan’s Labyrinth HD DVD
NEW LINE/WARNER Street: Dec. 26 > Guillermo del Toro’s politically charged fantasy sounds even better than it looks on HD DVD. Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s startlingly adult fable about a young girl (Ivana Baquero) in 1944 Fascist Spain who creates a fantasy world in her mind (and ours!) to cope with the harsh realities of her life was one of the most original and memorable films of 2006. More - The Kingdom HD DVD
UNIVERSAL Street: Dec. 26 > Bullets and bursting bombs overwhelm the explosive politics in this Middle East action thriller. The fiery, action-filled American retaliation to terrorism in The Kingdom makes for a vigorous workout for a home HD DVD system (more so than the film’s investigation sequences and political agenda). More - The Naked Prey
CRITERION Street: Jan. 15 Prebook: now > Gorgeous presentation of Cornel Wilde’s primal adventure pitting man against African tribe. Leading man-turned-filmmaker Cornel Wilde’s 19th century adventure about a white marksman (Wilde) hunted for sport by primitive African tribesman has lost none of its primal, violent power. More - The Game Plan
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson scores with his comic chops in this winning family entry. Street: Jan. 22 Prebook: now Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is the MVP of this formulaic family flick about superstar football quarterback Joe Kingman (Johnson) and 8-year-old Peyton Kelly (Madison Pettis), who shows up one day and announces that she is the daughter Joe never knew he had from... More - The Heartbreak Kid HD DVD
DREAMWORKS/PARAMOUNT Available now > Farrelly Brothers’ uninspired remake doesn’t play any better in high-def. The Farrelly Brothers’ poorly conceived remake of director Elaine May’s 1972 black comedy removes the East Coast-style and ethnic flair of the original and replaces them with over-the-top physicality and vulgar silliness. More - Blade Runner: 5-Disc Collector's Edition HD DVD
WARNER Street: Dec. 18 Prebook: now > Ridley Scott's dystopian L.A. saga receives a definitive high-def presentation. The one thing you must remember about Ridley Scott's flawed masterpiece is that its followers all have their own ideas about how specific scenes and images should look, sound and feel. More - Eastern Promises
UNIVERSAL Street: Dec. 26 Prebook: now > David Cronenberg’s tough crime drama stars Viggo Mortensen as a Russian mobster. The second collaboration between filmmaker David Cronenberg and actor Viggo Mortensen (the first was 2005’s outstanding A History of Violence ) is this tough crime drama about a Russian mobster (Mortensen) and a British midwife (Naomi Watts)... More - Halloween
WEINSTEIN/GENIUS Street: Dec. 18 Prebook: now > Remake of classic slasher flick goes heavy on gore and language. After writing and directing a pair of memorably original horror outings—House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects—musician/filmmaker Rob Zombie takes on a remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 shocker Halloween. More - Sunshine
FOX Street: Jan. 8 Prebook: Dec. 12 > Heady intergalactic adventure provides eye and brain candy. This sci-fi thriller from director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) is set 50 years in the future at a time when the sun is slowly beginning to die out. As the Earth will soon meet the same freezing fate, a team of astronauts and scientists (including Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Fantastic Four... More - I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition
MILESTONE/NEW YORKER Available now > Landmark Russian-Cuban co-production features dazzling cinematography. Mikhail Kalatozov’s famed 1964 film remains one of cinema’s most breathtakingly beautiful films. Comprised of four interweaving vignettes about various people in Cuba—an aging peasant, a beautiful woman, a university student and a young farmer—this Russian-Cuba... More
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