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Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour (1945) wasn't exactly a lost film, but every remaining print was in such bad shape, it might as well have been. Anyone who caught the infrequent screenings on Turner Classic Movies could attest that it looked like 10-miles of rough road, with dirt, splices and a warped soundtrack distracting from what those-in-the-know claimed was an unheralded masterpiece of film noir. Well, thanks to a massive restoration by the Criterion Collection, this piece of poverty row history is finally getting its due. Hitchhiking cross country to reunite with his fiancé, Tom (Al Roberts) is a talented pianist who life has hit its own rough patch; and things get rougher when the talkative fellow who picks him up keels over on a lonely stretch of road. Fearing the police will blame him, Tom drives off in the man's car and clothes, assuming his identity just long enough to get to California. But the plan is interrupted by Vera (Ann Savage), a femme fatale who's wis...

Oliver Stone has never been much for subtlety. Perhaps that's what makes him a perfect match for Talk Radio (1988), based on Eric Bogosian's in-your-face play about Barry Champlain, a celebrity shock jock whose on-air crisis of conscience threatens to sabotage the show just before it goes into national syndication. Stone's film takes as much pleasure in crucifying its egotistical protagonist as it does condemning the American public that deified him in the first place. Barry (Bogosian) hosts a successful late-night program, relishing his role as the man everyone loves to hate and prodding callers to extremes of social, political and racial bigotry. And his personal life is equally messy, with life-in girlfriend and sympathetic ex-wife (Ellen Greene) who acts as a life preserver amidst the on-air chaos. Meanwhile, his boss (Alec Baldwin) sweats over each provocative phone call and phony bomb threat in hopes that they'll survive to climb the corporate ladder. ...

Sonny Chiba's Street Fighter films combined the elegant style of Bruce Lee with the ugly grittiness of Charles Bronsan. The success of that grindhouse aesthetic probably brought Chiba the closest of competitors to inheriting the kung fu crown. But Toei Studios weren't taking any chances; the film became a franchise that very same year with Sister Street Fighter (1974), pushing protégé Etsuko Shiomi into the spotlight, with Chiba along for the ride for the sake of continuity. A spin-off in name only - Chiba plays an entirely different character here - Sister Street Fighter has a breakneck pace, stuffing in enough hand-to-hand combat to fill two or three films. There's a semblance of a plot (one that is repeated almost verbatim on each sequel) that introduces us to Koryu (Shiomi), a cute but deadly martial arts student whose brother has been kidnapped by drug smugglers. Teaming up with members of a local kempo school, she must defeat a rogue's gallery of villain...

In 1957, television was still public enemy number one as far as Hollywood was concerned. And while the two industries would learn to co-exist eventually, there were still a few good-natured shots fired over the bow now and then. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? gets in a few good licks on its small-screen rival and the absurdities of the advertising industry, populated by a bevy of booze-soaked, upwardly mobile hacks desperate to save their jobs at all costs (pot...meet kettle). Rockwell Hunter (Tony Randall), however, is a man of integrity, raising his teenage niece, dating a sensible girl and sweating over the creative details of every important account...all with no recognition or respect. But that changes when his pitch for a new ad campaign starring Hollywood bombshell Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) catapults him into the ranks of the executive elite. Not only that, but Marlowe uses him as a promotional boyfriend - "Loverman" - to spite an old boyfriend and keep h...