Author Archive: Jef Burnham
Jef is a writer and educator in Chicago, Illinois. While waging war on mankind from a glass booth in the parking lot of a grocery store, Jef managed to earn a degree in Film & Video from Columbia College Chicago, and is now the Editor-in-Chief of FilmMonthly.com.
The Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection: Musicals
Warner Bros. is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year with the release of a series of expansive box sets highlighting 50 and 100 of the best/most celebrated films the studio’s ever released, 20 Academy Award-winning Best Pictures, adaptations of Superman on television, and selections of the studio’s output in the genres of romance and the [...]
Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts (OVA Collection)
In my previous review of Baka & Test: Season Two, I raised a number of complaints about that particular season, but I had failed to mention therein two complaints I had about the season that did not make it in to the review as they then seemed petty, but are now relevant. There were notable [...]
Toriko: Part Two
When I first heard about Toriko, I swore I’d have none of it. There was no way it could possibly work. I’d only be wasting my time. I mean, a fighting anime centered on food? That’s a bit of a stretch. Yet, here I am reviewing the second collection of the series released by FUNimation [...]
The Thieves
Last September, I had the pleasure of screening Korean writer/director Dong-Hoon Choi’s 2006 feature, Tazza: The High Rollers when it arrived on North American DVD. And it knocked my friggin’ socks off! It was easily the most sprawling epic of a gambling picture I had ever seen, and so tightly structured and paced that I [...]
Disney’s Peter Pan: Diamond Edition
Today’s Diamond Edition release of Peter Pan marks the Blu-ray debut of this 1953 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios. Now, I must admit before delving too deep the picture that, while considered a classic by many, Peter Pan isn’t really one of Disney’s best pictures. However, the reasons for this frankly aren’t as interesting [...]
Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts (Season Two)
When FUNimation released Baka & Test: Season One in 2011, the second season of the series was only just then airing in Japan. Given the breakneck pace at which I plowed through the first season and the high praise I heaped upon those 13 episodes and FUNimation’s Blu-ray/DVD release of them, you can imagine how [...]
All Superheroes Must Die
I know the Trost Bros.’ 2011 film, The FP,gets some flak, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t kind of love it. And I maintain that anyone who doesn’t love it, probably just didn’t get it. Yet, as evidenced by my review of The FP, I did have some reservations about the picture, and I [...]
Hannah and Her Sisters / Sleeper
I debated covering the recent home video re-releases of both these films separately, detailing the merits of each respective release in its own, dedicated article. But face the facts here folks, no one should own Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) when they haven’t got his 1973 film, Sleeper, on the shelf as well. [...]
That Obscure Object of Desire
Luis Buñuel’s final film, 1977’s That Obscure Object of Desire, makes it Blu-ray debut on the Studiocanal Collection on January 29, 2013. Based on Pierre Louys’ 1898 novel, La Femme et le Pantin, the film is a fascinating exploration of desire, class struggles, man’s inability to understand women, and, oddly enough, terrorism. It tells the [...]
Shakugan no Shana S: OVA Series
The fifth release in FUNimation Entertainment’s series of Shakugan no Shana Blu-ray and DVDs, available today, collects the 4-episode OVA series, Shakugan no Shana S.Although the first two episodes take place at nonspecific points during the series’ first two seasons and the closing two-parter serves as a prequel to the series, S is intended to [...]
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