FILM FRENZY

The Time Machine in the Burns home, and The Time Machine star Rod Taylor posing with Bob and Kathy Burns in 1993, as seen in Beast Wishes (Photos: Anchor Bay)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K, and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

BEAST WISHES (2012) / LONG LIVE THE KING (2016). Both documentaries are directed by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger. Both feature many of the same talking heads. Both are affectionate tributes to classic horror and science fiction. And both are godsends to those who spent their childhoods poring over every issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Beast Wishes is a lovely and loving look at Frank and Kathy Burns, who were as known for their good hearts as they were for their great collection of movie memorabilia. Inside their home rests the most phenomenal assortment of props from past genre flicks, including the spaceship Nostromo from Alien, one of the flying saucers from Plan 9 From Outer Space, the Time Machine from the 1960 George Pal classic (Kathy’s favorite item), and the ape armature used in the original 1933 version of King Kong (Bob’s favorite item). Various directors and FX artists, among them Joe Dante, John Landis, and seven-time Oscar winner Rick Baker, serve as exuberant talking heads, not only praising the Burnses for preserving an important part of film history but also for their kindness and generosity, best exemplified by the elaborate shows they used to stage every Halloween for their neighbors — shows for which such luminaries as Baker and fellow Oscar-winning makeup artist Dennis Muren would volunteer to help build. Kathy passed away in 2021 and Bob just last year, which makes the mere existence of this documentary even more appreciated.

Bob Burns is himself one of the talking heads in Long Live the King, which pays tribute to King Kong. Burns, Dante, and others are on hand not only to gush over the 1933 masterpiece but in many cases offer their critiques on the many great-ape films that followed. Thus, viewers are subjected to discussions of such efforts as the same year’s cheapie sequel Son of Kong, the Dino de Laurentiis and Peter Jackson remakes of King Kong, and such offshoots as Mighty Joe Young and King Kong vs. Godzilla. The analysis of the original Kong is appreciated, and there’s plenty of humor aimed at the more inferior of the films that followed. (For a ranking of 16 “great ape” movies, check out King Kong: Ranking the Giant Ape Films.)

Blu-ray extras on Beast Wishes include Q&A sessions with Dietz and cast and crew, and a blooper reel. Blu-ray extras on Long Live the King include audio commentary by Dietz, and all three episodes of Season One of the comedy web series Monsterkyd Manor, featuring Bob and Kathy Burns.

Beast Wishes: ★★★½

Long Live the King: ★★★

BLUE MOON (2025). While Blue Moon is a complete original — Robert Kaplow wrote the script directly for the screen — one would be forgiven for thinking it was based on a play. The entire story takes place in one location, the famous Manhattan eatery Sardi’s, and the piece is neatly divided into three acts. Act One: Lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) arrives at the restaurant and proceeds to lambast the new musical Oklahoma!, which was co-written by his longtime partner, Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott). Act Two: Hart joins the celebratory party being thrown at Sardi’s for Rodgers and Oklahoma! partner Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney). Act Three: Hart retreats into the venue’s coat room for a lengthy chat with a college student (Margaret Qualley) with whom he’s become infatuated. Crisply directed by Richard Linklater — who landed not one but two movies on my 10 Best of 2025 list (Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague) — and showcasing a never-better Hawke, Blue Moon emulates its leading character: Like Hart, it’s wry, witty, wistful, garrulous, freewheeling, and suffused with a sense of the melancholic. This earned a pair of Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

There are no Blu-ray extras. (Purchase this title here.)

Movie: ★★★½

JAMES STEWART: 4-FILM COLLECTION (1940-1962). One of the all-time greats, James Stewart made so many fine films that a truly worthy Blu-ray set would be required to house at least a couple dozen movies. But we’ll happily settle for this collection, which goes 4-for-4 in providing stellar entertainment.

In the same year in which they appeared in The Mortal Storm (below), James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, and Frank Morgan co-starred in The Shop Around the Corner (1940), a delightful romantic comedy that was later reconfigured as 1998’s Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan hit You’ve Got Mail and before that as the 1949 Judy Garland musical In the Good Old Summertime. Two bickering employees (Sullavan and Stewart) at a Hungarian retail store don’t suspect that they’re actually each other’s lovestruck pen pal. Morgan plays the shop owner, just one of the many characters brought to vibrant life by director Ernst Lubitsch, scripter Samson Raphaelson, and a peerless cast. Set just before Christmas, it’s a sound selection for holiday viewing but can really be enjoyed any day of the week, any week of the month, and any month of the year.

The powerful drama The Mortal Storm (1940) is set in 1933 Germany but might as well take place in 2026 America. Martin (Stewart) and Fritz (Robert Young) are friends with all the members of the Roth family, including Professor Roth (Frank Morgan), his daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan), and his stepsons Otto (Robert Stack) and Erich (William T. Orr). But once Hitler is declared the German Chancellor, a split occurs, with Martin, Freya, and the Professor wary of the nation’s new leader and Fritz, Otto, and Erich becoming unquestioning members of the Nazi Party. The latter trio believe every lie uttered by their fascistic leader; Professor Roth is ridiculed and persecuted for his belief in science; those deemed inferior and not of pure blood are savagely beaten; Martin’s pacifist leanings and rejection of an authoritarian government lead to him being called a traitor against his country — stop me if any of this sounds familiar. Setting aside the frightening topicality, this is notable for being one of the few anti-Nazi pictures produced before the US entered World War II.

One of the five Western collaborations between Stewart and director Anthony Mann (the first was 1950’s Winchester ’73, the last, 1955’s The Man From Laramie), The Naked Spur (1953) finds the actor cast as Howard Kemp, a bounty hunter in pursuit of the murderous Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan). Forced to take on a grizzled gold prospector (Millard Mitchell) and a dishonorably discharged cavalry officer (Ralph Meeker) as his partners, Kemp eventually catches up with Ben and his traveling companion (Janet Leigh). The savvy Ben pits his captors against each other, a psychological maneuver that results in distrust and betrayal. This exemplary oater earned Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom an Academy Award nomination for Best Story and Screenplay.

How the West Was Won (1962) isn’t one of the best choices to add to a James Stewart box set since he’s but one of the countless all-stars popping up for a brief period; on the other hand, it is an exemplary motion picture. It took three directors and a cast of thousands (reportedly over 12K) to present this saga about the taming of the American West as seen through the eyes of the members of one pioneer family. Stewart appears as a frontiersman who marries one of the clan’s daughters (Carroll Baker); others in the gargantuan cast include Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, John Wayne, and Henry Fonda. Divided into five sections of variable quality, the film is too episodic to provide a comprehensive overview of this chapter in American history (and in a mere 164 minutes, to boot), but this Cinerama production is first-rate all the way. A box office smash — it was #2 for 1963, below only Liz and Dick’s Cleopatra — it earned eight Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and won three: Best Original Screenplay (James R. Webb), Film Editing, and Sound.

Extras on The Shop Around the Corner consist of two radio adaptations, one with Sullavan and Stewart, the other featuring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche; the 1940 live-action short The Miracle of Sound; and the theatrical trailer. Extras on The Mortal Storm consist of the Oscar-nominated 1939 cartoon Peace on Earth; the 1940 live-action short Meet the Fleet, starring King Kong’s Robert Armstrong, future Superman George Reeves, and The Mortal Storm supporting player William T. Orr; and the theatrical trailer. Extras on The Naked Spur consist of the 1953 live-action short Things We Can Do Without; the 1953 Oscar nominee for Best Cartoon Short, Little Johnny Jet; and the theatrical trailer. Extras on How the West Was Won consist of filmmaker and film historian audio commentary; a piece on Cinerama; and the theatrical trailer. (Purchase this title here.)

The Shop Around the Corner: ★★★½

The Mortal Storm: ★★★½

The Naked Spur: ★★★½

How the West Was Won: ★★★½

THE NARROW MARGIN (1952). The Narrow Margin is both a quintessential “B” flick and an essential film noir. It’s certainly an example of how skilled direction can enhance a movie, as Richard Fleischer’s imaginative staging milks maximum tension out of the film’s claustrophobic setting. Charles McGraw plays the gruff detective who’s assigned to escort a mob boss’ widow (Marie Windsor) from Chicago to Los Angeles so she can testify before a grand jury. Their mode of transportation is a train, and the bulk of the trip is spent dodging the gunmen who’ve been assigned to bump her off. Fleischer would go on to direct big-budget studio films like the excellent 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the execrable Doctor Dolittle, but this modest programmer, a box office sleeper that had been made for only a couple hundred thousand dollars, remains one of his finest achievements. This earned Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard an Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture Story. A decent remake followed in 1990, with Gene Hackman and Anne Archer in the leads.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by director William Friedkin (The French Connection), featuring audio interview excerpts of Fleischer; the 1952 live-action short So You Never Tell a Lie; the 1952 Daffy Duck cartoon The Super Snooper; and the theatrical trailer. (Purchase this title here.)

Movie: ★★★½

SABRINA (1995). Julia Ormond’s central performance is a major debit in this agreeable if unexceptional remake of the 1954 Billy Wilder classic in which a chauffeur’s daughter (Audrey Hepburn) is wooed by a wealthy playboy (William Holden), much to the consternation of his older brother (Humphrey Bogart). In this version, Harrison Ford tackles the Bogie role — he’s Linus Larrabee, a ruthless businessman who decides to court Sabrina (Ormond) so that her interest in his younger brother David (and vice versa) won’t mess up a billion-dollar merger that’s in the works. Of course, his best-laid plans start to unravel once he begins falling for her. Director Sydney Pollack took a chance by casting a TV host — the popular Greg Kinnear, from E!’s Talk Soup — in the role of David, but Kinnear immediately established himself as a natural and went on to have a successful career. Ford was also well-chosen, shining in a change-of-pace role. But the movie isn’t named Linus or David — it’s called Sabrina, and it’s the picture’s biggest failing that, despite its scattered merits, it can’t even live up to its own title due to Ormond’s pedestrian performance. This earned a pair of Oscar nominations for Best Original Score (John Williams) and Best Original Song (“Moonlight,” warbled by Sting).

Blu-ray extras consist of film historian audio commentary and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

SAN ANTONIO (1945). The vast majority of Errol Flynn’s screen time was spent in swashbucklers, war films, and Westerns — here’s one from the latter camp, although it hardly qualifies as one of his best efforts in the genre. He stars as Clay Hardin, a rancher who returns from Mexico to the Texas town of San Antonio to reclaim the cattle stolen from him by Roy Stuart (Paul Kelly), a saloon owner who oversees some rustling operations on the side. Flynn is typically fine, injecting plenty of humor into the role when required, and S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall brings his own welcome brand of comedy to his part of Sacha Bozic, the manager of saloon singer and love interest Jeanne Starr (frequent Flynn co-star Alexis Smith). But the story isn’t particularly interesting, the action set-pieces run hot-and-cold, and the climactic showdown with Roy is a real disappointment. This earned a pair of Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song (“Some Sunday Morning”) and Best Color Art Direction-Interior Decoration.

Blu-ray extras consist of the 1945 live-action short Frontier Days; the 1945 Porky Pig cartoon Trap Happy Porky; and the theatrical trailer. (Purchase this title here.)

Movie: ★★½

FILM CLIPS

MAN IN A COCKED HAT (1959). Titled Carlton-Browne of the F.O. in its native U.K. but retitled Man In a Cocked Hat for its U.S. run, this stars Terry-Thomas as a Foreign Office diplomat who’s sent to a forgotten British island colony to check it out. While there, he not only discovers that the Russians have an interest in the island but he also has to contend with the corrupt dealings of a local politico, Prime Minister Amphibulos (Peter Sellers). While it gets better as it goes along, this isn’t nearly as funny as other British comedies from the period — even Sellers’ buffoonish antics don’t draw the expected laughs.

The only Blu-ray extra is film journalist audio commentary.

Movie: ★★½

A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (1974). One of writer-director John Cassavetes’ most popular pictures, this magnifies in squirmy detail the efforts of married couple Nick and Mabel Longhetti (Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands) to cope with her — or should that actually be their? — mental meltdown. Falk and Rowlands are phenomenal in this uncompromising (if overlong) drama that earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Rowlands and a Best Director nomination for her real-life hubby.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by composer and sound recordist Bo Harwood and camera operator Mike Ferris; an archival audio interview with Cassavetes; a 2004 conversation between Rowlands and Falk; and a still gallery.

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (2013). As befits its stage origins, this adaptation of Tracy Letts’ play finds virtually all of the action occurring inside one residence: the Oklahoma home of poet Beverley Weston (Sam Shepard) and his wife Violet (Meryl Streep), whose steady supply of pills (to deal with her mouth cancer) has made her all-around unpleasant. When he goes missing, various family members show up to provide support. That includes their three daughters: Barbara (Julia Roberts), arriving with her estranged husband (Ewan McGregor) and their teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin) in tow; Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), secretly carrying on an affair with her stammering cousin (Benedict Cumberbatch); and Karen (Juliette Lewis), who brings along her skeevy fiancé (Dermot Mulroney). A:OC doubtless works better in the theater, where its supposedly shocking twists are par for the course and where the restrictive mise-en-scène is expected (director John Wells does little to open this up for the screen). But as a formidable acting showcase, look no further. The British thespians (McGregor and Cumberbatch) fare the worst — not because of their performances (they’re adept at playing Americans), but because their characters are the least developed. But Nicholson is touching as the wallflower among the sisters, and I never tire of the folksy nature of either Shepard or Chris Cooper (casting them as brothers was inspired). As for Streep, she acts up her usual storm; it’s a fiery, scenery-masticating turn, but it doesn’t rank among her classics. The best performance comes from Roberts, who hadn’t been this good in over a decade. She’s the real star, in screen time as well as character arc, and it’s absurd that she received a nomination in the Best Supporting Actress Oscar category while Streep nabbed one for Best Actress.

Movie: ★★★

HAYWIRE (2012). Appeasing everyone from your grandmother to your little sister, director Steven Soderbergh populated Haywire with hunks of every age, starting with 67-year-old Michael Douglas and running through 51-year-old Antonio Banderas, 40-year-old Ewan McGregor, 34-year-old Michael Fassbender, and 31-year-old Channing Tatum before bottoming out with 24-year-old Michael Angarano. I suppose we should thank scripter Lem Dobbs for not fashioning a role for 19-year-old Taylor Lautner to complete the spectrum. Despite that dreamboat-heavy cast, this isn’t a big-screen episode of Spartacus or a sequel to Gladiator, although its leading player was then best known for TV’s American Gladiators. That would be Gina Carano, the mixed martial arts fighter who made her mark in the arena usually under the moniker “Crush.” As he did with Kentucky Fried Chicken manager Debbie Doebereiner in Bubble and porn star Sasha Grey in The Girlfriend Experience, Soderbergh has again taken someone who hails from outside the realm of mainstream Hollywood and built a movie around her. The plot of Haywire is nothing special — a government operative who has just successfully completed a mission gets betrayed by one (or more) of her colleagues and finds herself on the run — and Soderbergh directs in a coolly detached style. As for Carano, the limitations of the film aren’t her fault: Admittedly, her emoting borders on the wooden side, but she does have charisma and a natural screen presence — too bad she wasted that goodwill by later short-circuiting her own career with her ugly, idiotic behavior.

Movie: ★★½

THE MASTER (2012). There’s a great scene in 1984’s Amadeus when Mozart (Tom Hulce) tries to convince Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones) to allow him to stage a particular opera. Replies the Emperor, “You are passionate … but you do not persuade.” That snatch of dialogue might as well be the slogan for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. The film features passionate performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams, all of whom received Oscar nominations. It’s obviously a work of passion for its creator, who stages it with his typical flair and inventiveness. And yet it never quite persuades us to believe in its convictions, its viewpoints, even its sense of purpose. Phoenix is Freddie Quell, a World War II vet who returns to the world in a shell-shocked condition. An often temperamental man, he soon becomes a disciple of sorts to Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman), the founder of a religion known as The Cause. No one, not even Dodd’s wife Peggy (Adams), can understand why such a cultured gentleman like Lancaster would hang around an uncouth thug like Freddie. But it’s a relationship that works in spurts — and that pretty much describes the film itself. Although Lancaster Dodd and The Cause are clearly based on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, the film approaches the religion from such a safe, soft plateau that it’s hard to get a proper slant on its inner workings and outer appeal. This problem would perhaps have been alleviated by making Lancaster Dodd, the picture’s most interesting character, the protagonist, but this is Freddie’s story, thereby keeping audiences at an unfortunate distance. The Master contains some genuinely powerful scenes and potent performances, but for the most part, even some PTA true believers might lose some of their faith after kneeling before this heavily hyped, but curiously aloof, endeavor.

Movie: ★★½

OBVIOUS CHILD (2014). In writer-director Gillian Robespierre’s unfussy and unassuming debut feature (based on her own short film), Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) is a standup comedian, and what instantly struck me was the awfulness of her routine. Her material, which wallows in crudity the way a pig wallows in mud, is of the frat-boy variety, displaying little of the biting wit or social relevance that made household names out of profane comics ranging from Richard Pryor to Margaret Cho. And because our first glimpses of Donna are as an obnoxious performer, we fear that we won’t shake our negative vibes over the course of the picture. No worries there. As a character, Donna Stern proves to be a mirror reflection of the movie surrounding her: intelligent, spirited, honest, and more than a little awkward. As the movie gets underway, we see Donna losing her boyfriend and her job in rapid succession. She needs something to lift her out of the doldrums, and she finds it in Max (Jake Lacy), a squeaky-clean guy who digs her quirky humor. But before you can say “formulaic rom-com,” Donna discovers that she’s pregnant. Of course, Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up already looked at pregnancy within the structure of a comedy, but this film is an entirely different beast. Though it’s rife with humor, the pregnancy itself is handled with refreshing candor, and Robespierre never blinks as she examines her lead character and understands that here’s someone who’s simply not ready for motherhood. Obvious Child is bold in the way in which it confronts one of the most controversial issues of our time and proceeds to treat it in a matter-of-fact manner — while this approach will infuriate many, it’s also reflecting the realities of the world in which we live.

Movie: ★★★

THE RULES OF ATTRACTION (2002). This atrocious movie, centering on troubled students at a New England college, hits all the keywords for conjuring up foul imagery: “misogyny”; “rape”; “vomit”; “scatology”; “nose-picking”; “Bret Easton Ellis.” Writer-director Roger Avary’s adaptation of Ellis’ novel might make some salient points, but it’s impossible to be sure because everything is simultaneously buried, drowned, and smothered to an excessive degree. Even more heavy-handed than the screen versions of the author’s American Psycho and Less Than Zero, this satire nevertheless attempts to serve as a much-needed affront to the numerous teen comedies that view those coming-of-age years at college as a time of great joy tempered with just a smidgen of awkwardness and insecurity. Rules mercilessly explores the dark side of this period in one’s life, centering on some of the troubled students attending a New England college: Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek, RIP), who uses and abuses people (especially women) as he sees fit; Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder), a bisexual infatuated with Sean; and Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon), a virgin whose basic decency stands no chance of survival amid all the casual cruelty surrounding her. The Rules of Attraction dares to bring up issues that other movies of this nature wouldn’t even consider touching, but Avary scarcely gives them their due because he’s too busy trying to gross out audiences at every turn (the “highlight”: a nerd puking on a girl while they have drunken sex). He also employs numerous cinematic techniques to further distance viewers from the action, but aside from an expertly edited sequence detailing one student’s European vacation, the show-off stylistics prove about as aimless as anything else in this thoroughly obnoxious endeavor.

Movie: ★

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (2009). In tackling Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book, writer-director Spike Jonze and co-scripter Dave Eggers had a difficult problem to overcome. Because Sendak’s book is so slender — certainly not enough to fill a 100-minute movie — the pair had to build on characterizations, alter some connecting tissues, and concoct entirely new scenes. The end result isn’t a bastardization of the literary classic, but neither is it a further canonization of the acclaimed source. Max Records plays young Max, a troubled child not very adept at dealing with anger or frustration. After a spat with his single mom (Catherine Keener), Max bolts from the house, soon stumbling on a body of water where a small boat awaits him. Max sails away and eventually arrives at an island inhabited by large, furry beasts who alternate between sounding like confused children and neurotic adults. Max enjoys spending time with all these behemoths as they play various games and generally have a good time, but petty squabbles erupt among the beasts, and Max, who’s been made their leader, clearly doesn’t always have the answers or advice that they hope to hear. Technically, the film is a stunning achievement, and the beasts — a combination of costumes and CGI — particularly look astonishing. But there’s a reason why Sendak’s book runs only a few dozen pages, and by blowing up the story, Jonze has in effect stripped it of much of its wide-eyed wonder. Both the book and the movie are children’s tales sporting a dark underbelly, but unlike its source material, the film version is literal to a fault, resulting in a suffocating atmosphere that further undermines the simplicity of the tale. Like the wild things inhabiting Max’s world, it’s fascinating but also lumbering, and — to paraphrase The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” — it’s unlikely to make everyone’s heart sing.

Movie: ★★½