Category: Home Viewing with Peter

Oscar has never been kind to films made in languages other than English. Even in the waning days of silent films when all films shown in the U.S. were released with English subtitles, masterpieces such as Carl Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc and G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box (both of which are available…

I began going to the movies in earnest fifty years ago, the summer I was 13. Many of the films I saw in theatres in 1957, as well as many of that year’s films I’ve since caught up with, are currently available on DVD. The year’s big awards winner, and still deserving of all its…

Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Columbo and Jessica Fletcher are beloved in their own right, but no sleuth, professional or otherwise, had as long an on-screen career as Charlie Chan, whose series of films lasted from 1929 through 1949, with occasional revivals on both the big and small screens in the years since. Chan,…

The story of the 300 Spartans fighting to the death against the Persian army has been told for 2500 years. The CGI effects-heavy film made from Frank Miller’s (Sin City) graphic novel doesn’t have anything in it likely to stay with you more than 2500 minutes (that’s less than 2 days). Miller, who never lets…

While any time may be the right time, hot summer nights are especially ideal for chilling out with a good thriller. There’s nothing like breaking out in a cold sweat to bring the temperature down. DVD companies seem to know that and have just released a slew of films that do just that. Focusing on…

If one hasn’t gotten their fill of Harry Potter by reading the newly-published seventh and final book in the series or going out to see the film version of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, one can plan a marathon showing of the first four films on DVD, Harry Potter…

What does an orphanage in Bombay have to do with a wedding in the Copenhagen suburbs? Nothing and everything as you will find out After the Wedding if you stick with it. The 2006 Oscar-nominated Danish film, directed by Susanne Bier (Open Hearts, Brothers), which plays like the last act of Fanny without the comedy,…

Bridge to Terabithia, the current number one best-selling DVD according to Rentrak, is the second filmed version of the 1978 Peabody Award winning novel. The first was a 1985 made-for-TV movie that played on PBS. Disney’s marketing of the film made it seem as though it were another Narnia. Though it has elements of Disney’s…

There was a time not so long ago when holidays in America meant more than a day off from work. Now, aside from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, what holidays do Americans really celebrate? Certainly not the 4th of July (Independence Day), except as an excuse to watch fireworks displays or, in some cases, set…

The American Film Institute (AFI) has revamped its decade old list of the greatest American films. Called 100 Years…100 Films, the original list was used as a selling tool by DVD marketers to bring public awareness to films that might otherwise have been overlooked. The marketing strategy has come full circle. Just as the original…

The Criterion Collection scores again with two eagerly-awaited releases: Lindsay Anderson’s If… (1968 UK, 1969 US) and Claude Berri’s The Two of Us (1967 France, 1968 US). Thematically, If…, about a repressive boys’ school, resembles Jean Vigo’s Zero for Conduct (1933). Artistically, it’s very much a film of its time. 1969, the year it was…

This week’s DVD releases run the gamut from the original Nancy Drew, personified by the delightful Bonita Granville, to Jack Benny in drag in a long lost treasure, to Chris Cooper at his nutty best. The new Nancy Drew seems to be marketed to nine- and ten-year-olds, the kind of film you plop a child…

This week’s DVD releases offer a little something for everyone, from vintage Eddie Murphy to the film that torpedoed his Oscar chances this year. From a boxed set of World War II films to a foiled film version of a beloved stage musical. Norbit, directed by Brian Robbins, was one of the most poorly reviewed…

May 12 marked the 100th anniversary of Katharine Hepburn’s birth. Other actors and actresses may have had longer careers, but none ever stayed at the top for as long as Hepburn did in her remarkable 62 year screen career. That career spanned from 1932’s A Bill of Divorcement to 1994’s made-for-TV One Christmas neither of…

This week’s plethora of DVD releases is enough to start even the heartiest DVD collector’s head spinning – what to buy, what to buy, what to ignore… This being the Tuesday before Memorial Day, Warner Bros. is releasing Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated Letters from Iwo Jima in a two-disc special edition and reissuing his Flags of…