Go Memphis Stories: DVD Nation

New on DVD: 'One Step Beyond: The Official First Season'

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:17:00 -0000

From movie critic John Beifuss' blog thebloodshoteye.com: You've heard of the Twelve Days of Christmas? Now, for the fourth straight year, The Bloodshot Eye counts down the Thirteen Days of Halloween with reviews of recently released All Hallow's Eve-appropriate DVDs, each day through -- well, through at least Nov. 4, I reckon...

DVD Nation: Menacing mama role in 'Friday the 13th' pays off

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:28:00 -0000

As a game-show celebrity in the 1960s, actress Betsy Palmer, now 82, was famous for using her head. Today, she's better known for losing her head. Although the "Friday the 13th" franchise is remembered primarily as a showcase for the creative mayhem of burly, silent, kill-crazy Jason, the most iconic maniac in post-"Psycho" horror history didn't begin his murder spree until "Friday the 13th Part 2" in 1981. (And he didn't acquire his signature hockey mask until "Part III" in 1982.)

DVD Nation: Sidney Poitier's success was as astonishing as Obama's

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:00:00 -0000

The election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first African-American president was an event of historic importance that still amazes. Did Sidney Poitier — the focus of a new DVD box set from Warner Home Video — help pave the way for this milestone? Poitier turns 82 on Feb. 20, and he’s still being promoted by Hollywood as the exemplar of African-American class and quality. And just in time for Black History Month, Warner Home Video has released “The Sidney Poitier Collection,” a four-film DVD set.

New "Little Rascals" DVD set offers double-edged sword content

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:07:00 -0000

It’s perhaps not surprising that Memphis — a city of haves and have-nots with a sometimes enviable, often deplorable history of race relations — was a top market in the 1950s and ’60s for “The Little Rascals,” as 80 of the Hal Roach-produced “Our Gang” comedy short subjects were re-titled when they were syndicated to local television stations beginning in 1955. The racial stereotyping and frequently gratuitous race-based comedy in the shorts troubled many adults and discomfited some younger viewers.

If you find gore a chore, check out classic horror DVDs

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:02:00 -0000

For movie theater patrons, Halloween in the 21st century typically means another “Saw” sequel, filled with images of gore, torture and sadism. Or, as Julius Caesar said last week, after the premiere of “Saw V”: Veni, vidi, vomit. Home viewers have many more options when it comes to fright. Those who prefer “classic” horror may be glad to know that Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price and “Dorian Gray” are on new DVDs, released to coincide with All Hallow’s Eve.

The Bloodshot Eye: Countdown to Halloween

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:49:00 -0000

You’ve heard of the Twelve Days of Christmas? Now, for the third straight year, The Bloodshot Eye counts down the Thirteen Days of Halloween with reviews of recently released All Hallow’s Eve-appropriate DVDs, each day through Oct. 31. In the 1977 “Omen”-inspired horror movie “Rain of Fire,” former Young Churchill Simon Ward plays a 32-year-old Antichrist named Angel Caine.

The (mostly) Southern cinema of David Gordon Green

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:01:00 -0000

Born in Little Rock, raised in Texas, film-schooled in North Carolina and now based in New Orleans, David Gordon Green proved he could be more than a critic’s darling, an authentic voice of the South and an heir to the poetic/mystic naturalism of Terrence Malick with his fifth feature film as a director, the Judd Apatow-produced, California-set hit stoner comedy “Pineapple Express.” The movie has collected more than $86 million at the U.S. box office since its Aug. 6 release.

Every day is Hammer time for actor Fred Williamson

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:52:00 -0000

When you call Fred “The Hammer” Williamson on his cell phone, if you’re lucky, he won’t answer. Because if he doesn’t answer, you’ll get to hear a phone message that is (a) kind of awe-inspiring, and (b) a reality check that reminds you of your status as a person who has not and never will be able to refer to himself, without irony, as “The Hammer.” “Yo, this is The Hammer,” Williamson growls, with an über-cool seismic bass rumble that is part B-movie intimidation, part Barry White seduction.

New "Mummy" opens Friday, but no wrap yet on old "Mummy"

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:26:00 -0000

From a whisper to a scream: The most famous sequence in the 1932 version of “The Mummy” — resurrected in a two-disc “Special Edition” DVD this month, to coincide with Friday’s release of the big-budget adventure epic “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” — begins with almost inaudible mumbling and ends with a shriek of terror. Barely moving his lips, a young archeologist (Bramwell Fletcher) in a camp in the Egyptian desert reads the words on the Scroll of Thoth that bring life to the 3,700-year-old thing in the sarcophagus behind him.

3D movies: OH, NO!! They're back!

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:49:00 -0000

“It Came from the 50s” could be the headline over this article. Another might be “The Thing That Wouldn’t Die.”In other words, 3D cinema — the “stereoscopic” process that become something of a punchline after being associated with such 1950s B-films as “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and “Cat Women of the Moon” — is back in a big way. But according to movie industry professionals, 3D cinema is no longer a joke, gimmick or annoyance (remember those funny red-and-green glasses?).