Bloodlines:
The Art & Life Of Vincent Castiglia
(2018/Waterfront DVD*)/Dick
Cavett Show: ''And That's The Way It Is...'' + Inside The Minds Of...
V. 1, 2 & 3 (1969 -
1995/S'More DVD*)/Free
Lunch Society
(2017/Icarus DVD)/Gamechangers:
Dreams Of BlizzCon
(2018/FilmRise/Blu-ray/*all MVD)
Picture:
B-/C+/B-/B Sound: B-/C+/B-/B Extras: B/D/C+/C Main
Programs: B/B/B+/B
Next
up are the latest documentary and special interest releases,
including the return to DVD of one of the greatest of all TV talk
shows...
Vince
Castiglia's unique art is highlighted in this great documentary
Bloodlines:
The Art & Life Of Vincent Castiglia
(2018).
If you're an artist yourself or simply a fan of art, then you will
want to check out of this artist's unique work as he paints in human
blood! The surreal imagery is both haunting and impressive, as the
level of detail and realism is on point.
The
film features interviews with not only Vincent Castiglia himself, but
several others including Martin Eric Ain (Musician, Celtic Frost),
Michael Anthony Alago (Record Executive), Gregg Allman, (Musician,
Allman Brothers Band), Sandra Baretta (Motion Designer, SFX), Alf
Battig, (Graphic Designer), Jeff Beverly (Collector), Randy Blythe
(Musician, Lamb of God), and many more. The documentary is a
highlight of Castiglia's work and some of the perceptions that others
have about his portfolio and philosophies.
The
documentary is presented on anamorphically
enhanced
standard definition DVD with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and
a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix. The film is nicely filmed on
video and everything looks as good as it can on the compressed
format.
Special
Features include...
H.R.
Giger Museum, Bar and Ghost Train
Damien
Echols Extended Interview
Drawing
John Borowski's Blood
John
Borowski visits Facebook
Production
Photos Slideshow
and
Film and Web Series Trailers
To
find out more information on this documentary visit:
https://bloodlinesdocumentary.com/index.html
Next
up, we have a new company taking over one of the moist underrated
talk shows of all time, smarter than just about anything being made
today. The
Dick Cavett Show: ''And That's The Way It Is...'' and
three volumes of
Inside The Minds Of...
are the first of a new wave of releases form the vault spanning about
30 years. The first title compiles newscasters is a 2-DVD set
including two contrasting Walter Cronkite interviews (he's retired
from the CBS
Evening News
by the second one), Mike Wallace (Robert Klein shows up in the first
of) has two shows, then we get Barbara Walters (Gig Young and Frank
Reynolds show up), Don Hewitt/Morley Safer/Diane Sawyer for 60
Minutes,
Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather round out DVD 2..
The
Minds
DVDs are selections of comedy talent, with V.1
offering a solid Robin Williams turn, Bobcat Goldwater his usual
out-of-control self, Richard Lewis being insightful and Gilbert
Gottfried in rare form being funny but also revealing more than
expected. V.2
offers two shows with George Carlin never holding back, Steve Martin
great as usual and Martin Mull with rarely-heard thoughts from the
sometimes forgotten talent. V.3
is a double DVD set with a pre-Sanford
& Son
Redd Foxx (1969) and Dick Gregory on DVD 1, joined by Eddie Murphy
and Richard Prior (both 1985) on DVD 2.
I
always enjoy the show, even if I like some guests more than others,
in part because you never know what Cavett will come up with. Are
the current talk show hosts trying too hard or just being too
commercial? We do not have any who go out of their way to be
understated and funny in a constantly smart way that does not pander
or water-down what they do. Guess Cavett is better than he veer got
credit for, so we hope more DVDs are on the way and soon!
The
1.33 X 1 color image on the Cavett
DVDs come from old NTSC videotape over the decades and include analog
videotape flaws including video noise, video banding, telecine
flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage.
The newer shows offer lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, while the older
ones have lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (the change happening by the
1980s) and they also sound as fine as they can with that old codec,
but I bet lossless versions with some cleaning up would be even
better.
There
are no extras, but here are links to two older DVDs we reviewed of
the series...
John
Lennon & Yoko Ono Collection
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3019/The+Dick+Cavett+Show:+John+&+Yoko+Collection
Comic
Legends
(the generation older than this from the three DVDs above)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3558/Dick+Cavett+Show+-+Comic+Legends
Imagine
a world where the Government paid you basic income for just being an
American citizen... and yes, that's on top of your work salary.
Wouldn't that be nice? This unconventional income movement is
discussed in depth in the documentary The
Free Lunch Society
(2017). The film brings up a lot of interesting sides on the subject
and most surprising is that this practice was actually tried in
Alaska and other places to much avail. The film goes in depth from
political perspectives, interesting clips from popular culture, and
well conducted interviews.
Presented
in standard definition on DVD with an anamorphic widescreen aspect
ratio of 2.35:1 and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, the film looks and
sounds fine for the format. Compression issues evident (especially
when comparing directly to HD), but the overall presentation doesn't
have any noticeable issues outside of its limitations.
Special
Features include The
Free Lunch Society Talk Show
with Michael Bohmeyer and three Promotional Web Clips.
This
is a very interesting documentary that everyone should check out.
Esports
(electronic sports) are a big deal in other countries and one such
sport BlizzCon, which centers around the computer game StarCraft
2, is
one such event. This interesting sports central documentary,
Gamechangers:
Dreams of BlizzCon
(2018), highlights two star players MC and MMA throughout a year of
the World Championship series and, like any other sport, what
sacrifices it takes to earn the top title.
Directed
by John Keating, the film stars Seong Won Mun, Min Chul Jang, and Dan
Stemoski to name a few.
In
1998, StarCraft
became a groundbreaking video game and would go on to become the
foundation of esports and the force behind the online streaming
medium Twitch. This global phenomenon began in the modest South
Korean internet cafes known as PC bangs. It was from these humble
beginnings that our characters "MC" and "MMA"
became prodigies. The documentary follows the two lives of these
players and the toll that the game takes on their personal lives.
The
film is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect
ratio of 1.78:1 and audio tracks in both lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and
2.0 surround mixes. Some different languages pop up and are
accompanied by English subtitles. Being a documentary, there were
obviously different formats at play in its creation including HD
video and news clips, etc. There are some beautiful time-lapse
photography shots and sweeping images of the competition when the
event is taking place. Overall, the visuals are solid and the
editing and overall filmmaking behind this is very well done.
The
only extra is an HD trailer.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Cavett)
and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/