Category Archives: On DVD

A general heading under the non-specific heading of, well, On DVD. In other words, films that have already, most likely, screened in theaters or some venue as specified by the distributors and subsequently pressed to the DVD format for viewing at home or in other venues as determined by the viewer.

Gravity (2013)

Posted on May 31, 2014 by rorydean

Despite the overwhelming positivism, both in reviews and ratings and award show gold, “Gravity” suffers from the same nausea ad infinitum that often relegates it to little more than a snappily dressed carny barker inviting the wanderer to navigate the tent poles of what will become a scattered visit to theater of the absurd. Continue reading →

Posted in Movie I've Seen, Movie Makers & Shakers, Movies You Should or Should Not See, My Review of Their Review:, On DVD, Online, philosophy and film, Rants & Raves | Tagged 2013, above the line, alfonso cuaron, asteroid movie, CGI space drama, children of men director, Christopher DeFaria, Dr. Ryan Stone, drama, ed harris, effects-driven storytelling, Emmanuel Lubezki, epic, Film, george cloooney, gravity, Jonás Cuarón, Mark Sanger, Mathew Arnold, Matt Kowalsky, movie review, practical movie reviews, rory dean, sandra bullock, sci-fi, shuttle, space, spacewalk | 11 Comments

Concussion (2013)

Posted on May 24, 2014 by rorydean

Writer-Director Stacie Passon’s 2013 film “Concussion” masterfully crafts the complexity of inward glances to produce a quality of deafening silence that fills the screen with the unconveyable voracity of wounded hearts. Continue reading →

Posted in Movie I've Seen, Movie Makers & Shakers, Movies You Should or Should Not See, My Review of Their Review:, On DVD, Online, philosophy and film, Rants & Raves | Tagged 2013, above the line, affluent suburban housewife, comfy mirrors of normalcy, concussion, David Kruta, identity crisis, Johnathan Tchaikovsky, Julie Fain Lawrence, lesbian bed death, LGBT films, maggie siff, malaise, mid lifer crisis, practical movie reviews, queer cinema, robin weigert, rory dean, Rose Troche, stacie passon | Leave a comment

Twixt (2011)

Posted on December 6, 2013 by rorydean

“Twixt” is about dead-end roads and the distracted ambition of the travelers we find there in a makeshift world about middle grounds between dreams and the indecision of lost souls. We are invitees to the inky interiors of Coppola’s own perplexed life and the accumulated imaginings of his career. The result, while rewarding to Coppola aficionados and otherworldly adventurists, “Twixt” succeeds in ways and means that are simply not for everyone. Continue reading →

Posted in Movie I've Seen, Movie Makers & Shakers, Movies You Should or Should Not See, My Review of Their Review:, On DVD, Online, philosophy and film, Rants & Raves | Tagged 2011 movies, above the line, atmosphere of questions, Baudelaire, Coppola, dead-end roads, dream fueled, duncan jones, Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Ford Coppola ., horror, kevin smith, landscape of mirrors, lost souls, Poe-driven, practical movie reviews, psychological happenstance, red state, rory dean, the only cure is art., Twixt, Val Kilmer | 2 Comments

Stand Up for Pain in the Oblivion of Pines

Posted on September 15, 2013 by rorydean

I watch so many movies I often get swept up in the effort to write about all of them in an effective and coherent way. Monday to Wednesday and I’m already behind, by Friday I’ll be right back here scrambling. This time I’m micro-reviewing, a handful of celluloid with the films Oblivion, Pain & Gain, Stand Up Guys and The Place Beyond The Pines. Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Movie I've Seen, Movies You Should or Should Not See, My Review of Their Review:, On DVD, Online, philosophy and film, Rants & Raves | Tagged above the line, al pacino, Alan Arkin, blue valentine, Bradley Cooper, Brian De Palma, bucket list, christopher walken, crazy stupid love, Derek Cianfrance, Die Hard, Joseph Ruben, Le Mecanisme de cineaste du jour, limitless, made for TV forgettable, michael bay, Mikael Salomon, miss it, moon, Movie Mechanic, oblivion, Pain & Gain, Paul Verhoeven, practical movie reviews, rory dean, ryan gosling, see it, silent running, stand up guys, the place beyond the pines, tom cruise, Wolfgang Petersen | 3 Comments

Game of Thrones

Posted on September 13, 2013 by rorydean

Prepare yourself for smart and articulate tones, a broad and artful universe taken masterfully from an adaptation that respectfully brings the source material to the screen. Faithful to followers and enticing to regular theater goers, the producers aptly marry art with history for a particular kind of pop eccentricity, blurring ‘what might have happened’ with ‘what could have’, the best kind of speculative realism that enjoys hearty fiction almost equally. Continue reading →