Blogcritics Category: Video: Historical

Movie Review: The Bank Job

Fitz — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 08:05:41 EDT

How compromising pictures taken of a Royal on Caribbean holiday in the 1960s and '70s led to a 2008 movie.
Although I didn't particularly like The Bank Job, the film provides a window into an interesting time in London's history, when a sexually adventurous Royal caused more than a little trouble for the government and a group of thieves who stumbled into the conspiracy. Let's start at the beginning... In 1971, a small gang of thieves broke...

DVD Review: First Among Equals

Jen Johans — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 22:24:32 EDT

The West Wing meets Desperate Housewives. Who Wants to be a Prime Minister?
Typically in America, when you talk about a “red box,” you’re usually alluding to the increasingly popular, inexpensive DVD rental company RedBox, which -- operating like a vending machine -- dispenses discs on the cheap in and around major shopping centers. Moreover, the American version of the RedBox privately doles out...

DVD Review: I Got The Feelin' - James Brown in the '60s

El Bicho — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:00:19 EDT

A great tribute to James Brown and his impact on the �60s both, musically and culturally.
The subtitle of this set is slightly inaccurate as almost all the content focuses on the year 1968, two of the DVDs specifically dealing with his concert at the Boston Garden the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, but that doesn’t make the content any less compelling.Disc 1 features the television documentary The Night James...

DVD Review: The Robert Drew Collection - JFK Revealed (Primary/Crisis/Faces of November) (1963)

Ray Ellis — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:54:01 EDT

The parallels between the sixties and 2008 are eerie. Robert Drew's films make it all the more so.
With the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions upon us, and the Presidential race finally entering its last lap, US politics are a hot ticket. They’re burning up all the networks, and they’re the darling of the tabloids. Pity that in all that coverage, issues are buried beneath the glam factors of potential First Ladies and...

DVD Review: Brideshead Revisited (25th Anniversary Collector's Edition)

El Bicho — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:10:12 EDT

Revisit "Brideshead Revisited" with this 25th Anniversary set.
The 1981 British television miniseries Brideshead Revisited, adapted from Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel, first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV and then in the United States in 1982 as part of PBS’ performing arts anthology series Great Performances, which many in 2007 weren’t aware of as it was erroneously voted the seventh best...

DVD Review: Ballet Shoes

Jen Johans — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:12:04 EDT

Whether you prefer skating shoes or theatre shoes, Emma Watson's new movie is sure to be a perfect fit.
After Tom Hanks and his “big bad chain store” force Meg Ryan’s sweet little children’s bookstore, The Shop Around the Corner, out of business in Nora Ephron’s 1998 cinematic charmer You’ve Got Mail, she visits Hanks’ business for herself in a heartbreaking scene. And in the film, inspired by not only...

DVD Review: Recount

Scott C. Smith — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:51:39 EDT

Recount proves to be an engrossing look at the 2000 presidential election.
Is it possible to create a gripping drama based on events the viewer already knows the outcome to? Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery) and screenwriter Danny Strong accomplish this feat in Recount,which takes a look back at the 2000 presidential election and the efforts to determine whether Al Gore or George W. Bush...

DVD Review: Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

Barbara Barnett — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:31:11 EDT

A tribute film to the architect of the "folk revival," a man whose life has been dedicated to using music to better the world.
Like many in my generation, I grew up listening to folk legends like Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Arlo Guthrie, and Tom Paxton; Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Judy Collins. The Kingston Trio, the New Lost City Ramblers, and The Weavers played constantly on my parents' record player. By the time I was seven or eight years old, I...

DVD Review: Chicago 10

The Masked Movie Snobs — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:57:28 EDT

Steal this DVD!
Written by Fantasma el ReyChicago 10’s tagline, “The Convention Was The Drama. The Trial Was The Comedy,” is perfectly illustrated in the films’ hour and forty-three minutes. Blending actual footage and animation makes this documentary something different and unique, as were the participants in those events of 1968. Chicago...

DVD Review: Twenty-Four Eyes (The Criterion Collection)

The Masked Movie Snobs — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:52:22 EDT

Thanks to this sparkling new Criterion DVD release, US audiences finally have the opportunity to discover this hidden gem.
Written by Caballero OscuroTwenty-Four Eyes uses the story of a rural schoolteacher and her first class of students as a microcosm of the dramatic changes impacting Japan during the tumultuous decades between the late 1920s to the late 1940s. While little known in the US, the film is reportedly and deservedly a beloved classic in its native Japan....