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Humphrey Bogart is one of the ugliest leading men in cinema history. In some alternate universe he probably rose no higher than playing Thug #2 ...with Charles Bronsan lurking in the background as Thug #3 . But what his face lacks in typical matinee idol symmetry, his screen presence compensates for with a vengeance. And there are no finer examples of Bogey's enduring appeal than The Big Sleep (1946) and Key Largo (1948), both featuring memorable roles for his most famous co-star, Lauren Bacall. In the case of The Big Sleep , adapted from Raymond Chandler's pulp novel, there was considerable effort put forward to ensure that the Bogart-Bacall chemistry was recaptured on screen. The film's release was delayed for reshoots that beefed up Bacall's role and put her on more even footing with her leading man. Both the theatrical version and the pre-release cut are presented on Warner Archive's new blu-ray (although the pre-release cut is only standard def). ...

One of the great joys of being a horror fan is that even the most marginal titles offer up a sense of time and place that few other film genres can offer. They not only reflect the cinematic sensibilities of the era in which they were made, but also its social fears and anxieties filtered through a sieve of pop culture nightmares. The American Horror Project collects three such under-the-radar films and showcases them with all the pomp and circumstance usually reserved for legit classics like Texas Chainsaw or Night of the Living Dead . Bear in mind, there are only so many undiscovered horror gems left to polish. In fact, each film in the set stretches the definition of horror to the breaking point; more than a few fans will find them too artistic, inept or obtuse for their tastes altogether. But for those with an open mind - and an adventurous film collection - Arrow Video's limited edition will expand your horror horizons. Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (1973) is cer...

The Mutilator (1984) is a late-to-the-party slasher that garnered more fans from its oversized VHS artwork than it probably ever did from those who watched the finished product. And who could blame them. Put together by a cast and crew of mostly amateurs, the photography was so dark, the theme song (based on the original title Fall Break ) so horrifically misguided, and the killer so unthreatening that the film could barely compete with TV horror fare. But the years have been kind to director Buddy Cooper's wannabe production. And Arrow Video's high-definition restoration has been even kinder . The overall ineptitude is still there, but now The Mutilator feels like a charming "lets-put-on-show" slasher fan film, full of innocently horny victims waiting for their turn in the make-up chair. After a stagey prologue in which 8-year-old Ed Jr. accidently kills his mom with a shotgun, we flash forward to the college years where he has seemingly put the incident be...

The technological singularity - a hypothetical moment when artificial intelligence becomes self-aware and destroys all human life just for spite - isn't exactly a new concept. But with each new generation of iPhone and SmartTV the actual act of wiping us out seems to become easier and easier. Just blocking Amazon might send half the population into a depressed suicidal state. Think of how difficult computers had it back in the '50s when their processors took up a few city blocks and were programmed by punch cards. Now that's a challenge! And that's exactly what a group of plucky scientists are up against in Gog (1954), a cold-war sci-fi thriller set in a secret bunker where the Nuclear Operative Variable Automatic Computer (his friends call him NOVAC) has run amok, sabotaging one experiment after another and leaving a behind a body count of some of the best American minds. Actually, it turns out that NOVAC is being manipulated. By whom or what is the film...

Ninjas might be an endangered species now, but in the '80s they were everywhere : movies, television, cartoons, action figures. The nerdy kid who bagged your groceries? A ninja. That ***hole who stood you up at prom? A ninja. You couldn't toss a Frisbee in the park without some ninja knocking it out of the air with a throwing star. They were a menace, I tell you! Full disclosure, that might be completely accurate. But that's the thing about ninjas; you just never know where they'll pop up. Like in Arrow Video's new blu-ray release of Pray for Death (1985) starring Sho Kosugi who kick started (see what I did there) the whole ninja craze co-starring with Franco Nero in Cannon Film's Enter the Ninja (1981). Although that would be overlooking the mask-clad warriors inserted rather clumsily into Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite (1974). But now we're just splitting ninjas. Rising from the ranks of martial arts extra into an almost accide...

In the surprisingly crowded sub-genre of "killer brain" films, Donovan's Brain (1953) always seems to get the most attention. Likely because it was quickly sold to television and played ad nauseam in the living rooms of impressionable young tykes everywhere. As a quintessential piece of '50s science fiction, it fits in quite nicely with other independently produced quickies of the era: an expensive idea executed with cheap actors and even cheaper sets. Yet it's that idea, based on a novel from Curt Siodmak, that resonated well enough for countless other filmmaker's to rip it off over the decades. In an isolated Arizona lab, Dr. Patrick Cory (Lew Ayres) is busy pickling monkey brains in a special solution in an attempt to keep them alive and active outside of their monkey bodies when an even better test subject drops into his lap. A plane crash kills renowned millionaire (and tax scofflaw) W. H. Donovan, but with the brain still functioning, Cory rem...

There has never been - and probably never will be - a more aptly titled movie than Comin' At Ya , the 1981 spaghetti western that kick started the short-lived second generation of 3D motion pictures. Producer / star Tony Anthony had had some success with his Stranger films, a progressively wackier series of internationally-financed Clint Eastwood rip-offs that showcased his offbeat slacker appeal and comic touch. Ironically, the plot of Comin' At Ya is as serious as spaghetti westerns get, but it's balanced with some of the most ludicrously entertaining "in your face" 3D effects ever attempted on screen. After his wedding day is interrupted by two thugs who leave him for dead and abduct his beautiful bride (the legitimately beautiful Victoria Abril), bank robber H.H. Hart (Anthony) saddles up for revenge, tracking his quarry to a run-down border town where dozens of women are sold into the prostitution trade. With the help of a drunken Irishman, Hart hat...

Almost every review of The Vincent Price Collection III is likely to point out that none of the films included are what fans would exactly call "high profile" releases. Scream Factory has already presented the actor's most popular collaborations with Roger Corman on their Edgar Allan Poe series in collections 1 and 2. For those only interested in viewing the highlights of Price's career, you can probably call it a day. But this third (and final ?) collection offers some unexpected cinematic rewards for those with an urge to dig deeper. Master of the World (1961) was American International Picture's attempt to compete with big boys like Fox and Columbia in adapting a Jules Verne novel (or in this case, combining two of them) with all the pomp and circumstance of a roadshow presentation. The final product falls well short of that, but it's not for a lack of creative effort. Price plays Captain Robur, a Nemo devotee whose quest to end war results in ...