1965 – Stream On Demand

‘The Knack… and How to Get It’ – goofing on swinging London on Criterion Channel

!Featured, based on a play, Blu-ray, British Cinema, Cannes winner, Classic Movie, Comedy, Criterion Channel, DVD, SVOD 09/20/2022 Sean Axmaker

Richard Lester brought the same acrobatic, tongue-in-cheek style of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ to this frivolous comedy of swinging London and the sexual revolution

Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Alphaville’ – crimes of the future free on Kanopy

!Featured, Blu-ray, Crime, Cult Movies, DVD, Free, French New Wave, International Classics, Kanopy, Science Fiction, SVOD 06/25/2022 Sean Axmaker

Eddie Constantine is Lemmy Caution in this mix of science fiction drama and pulp fiction private eye thriller.

Toshiro Mifune is ‘Red Beard’ on HBO Max and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, HBO Max, historical, International Classics, SVOD 06/05/2022 Sean Axmaker

Akira Kurosawa’s ambitious drama stars Mifune as a gruff doctor in the slums of 17th century Edo. It was their final collaboration.

Agnes Varda’s ‘Le Bonheur’ – beauty and tragedy on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Criterion, Criterion Channel, Directed by Women, drama, DVD, French New Wave, International Classics, Romance, SVOD 03/07/2022 Sean Axmaker

This sun-dappled tale of a tragic love triangle in the Paris suburbs, looks like an impressionist painting come to life.

‘Pierrot le fou’ – Belmondo and Karina crime spree on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Crime, Criterion, Criterion Channel, DVD, French New Wave, International Classics, satire, SVOD 01/31/2022 Sean Axmaker

Jean-Luc Godard directs this mix of road movie, a crime fantasy, a cultural satire, and modern film noir in Technicolor and CinemaScope.

Richard Burton is ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’ on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, BAFTA winner, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, Essential Viewing, literary adaptation, spies and espionage, SVOD, thriller 08/19/2021 Sean Axmaker

Martin Ritt directs this superb film of John le Carré’s novel, the first of many adaptations of le Carré’s wary novels of Cold War espionage and still one of the best.

Dean Martin in ‘Kiss Me, Stupid’ on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, based on a play, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Comedy, DVD, music, SVOD 03/04/2021 Sean Axmaker

Billy Wilder was a master at sneaking sex into films like The Apartment and Irma la Douce in the years before the ratings system, but this is his most gleefully cynical and brash sex comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1965) was so maligned on release it almost sunk Billy Wilder’s career. Dean Martin plays a parody […]

Barry Sullivan stars in Mario Bava's Italian sci-fi horror cult film

Mario Bava’s ‘Planet of the Vampires’ on Amazon Prime Video

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, Cult Movies, DVD, Halloween, horror, Science Fiction, Streaming Movies, SVOD 02/03/2020 Sean Axmaker

Despite the title Mario Bava’s funky 1965 sci-fantasy thriller Planet of the Vampires (Italy, 1965), there are no bloodsuckers to be seen, merely an unseen force that kills the astronauts (led by a craggy Barry Sullivan) that land on a primeval otherworldly planet of jagged rocks, bubbling lakes of lava mud, and purple skies. If […]

Giuliano Gemma (billed as Montgomery Wood) as Ringo in the spaghetti westerns from Dessario Tessari

Spaghetti Blu-ray: A pair of ‘Ringo’s and ‘A Fistful of Dynamite’

Arrow, Blu-ray, Kino Lorber, Spaghetti Cinema, western 04/03/2018 Sean Axmaker

A Pistol for Ringo/The Return of Ringo: Two Films by Dessario Tessari (Arrow, Blu-ray) A Fistful of Dynamite (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray) Duccio Tessari is not one of the directors known for spaghetti westerns. In fact, he only directed two in his long and successful career, both with Giuliano Gemma (billed as Montgomery Wood) playing against […]