For me, the perfect storm is the one that stays far away. But today, I powered up the equipment, strapped myself in, and let loose the sound and the fury of Wolfgang Petersen's film.
More Ben-Hur than Spartacus, director Ridley Scott's Gladiator is painted with broad strokes of sentimentality, gory violence, and New Age spirituality.
Since he first delighted audiences and divided critics with his stylized, idiosyncratic first feature, Strictly Ballroom, writer/ director Baz Luhrmann has gone on to make Romeo+Juliet and Moulin Rouge - each more ambitious, more stylized, and more dividing of critics than the last. Each has also had greater success at the box office and in accumulating awards both in the U.S.
Criterion's 1999 DVD edition of The Seventh Seal is a favorite partly because of its wonderfully substantial extras. Now the company has upped the ante by releasing Ingmar Bergman's 1957 black-and-white classic on a stunning Blu-ray Disc and adding to those extras, all now in high-def.