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THE WINNERS - BOXSETS
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First Place,
Criterion's The Koker Trilogy. Abbas Kiarostami first came to
international attention for this wondrous, slyly self-referential
series of films set in the rural northern-Iranian town of Koker.
Poised delicately between fiction and documentary, comedy and
tragedy, the lyrical fables in The Koker Trilogy
exemplify both the gentle humanism and playful sleight of hand that
define the director’s sensibility. The set includes
Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987),
And Life Goes On
(1992), and
Through the Olive Trees (1994)
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"An indecipherable beauty & quietness pervades nearly all of
Kiarostami's movies" - Simón Cherpitel "Nothing
Criterion has done (with the exception of the
Zaitochi box set) has
earned my admiration more. Not just 3 brilliant restorations but the
generous supplements, including Kiarostami in full flow on 'Truth &
Dreams' which is like another take on the making of the trilogy, as
'Through the Olive Trees' was of course. Glorious!" - Billy
Bang |
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Second
Place is Indicator's Marlene
Dietrich & Josef von Sternberg at Paramount, 1930-1935 - RB
UK Indicator. The collaboration between filmmaker Josef von
Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich is one of the most
enduring in all Hollywood cinema. Tasked by Paramount bosses to
find 'next big thing', director von Sternberg lighted upon
German silent star Dietrich and brought her to Hollywood.
Successfully transitioning from the silent to the sound era,
together they crafted a series of remarkable features that
expressed a previously hitherto unbridled ecstasy in the process
of filmmaking itself. Marked by striking cinematography,
beautiful design and elaborate camerawork these vibrantly
sensuous films redefined cinema of the time, while Dietrich's
sexually ambiguous on-screen personas caused a sensation and
turned her from actor to superstar and icon. Marlene
Dietrich & Josef von Sternberg at Paramount, 1930-1935
includes
Dishonoured,
Shanghai Express,
Blonde Venus,
The
Scarlet Empress,
The Devil Is a Woman and
Morocco.
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"Indicator overall for achieving graphic diversity while
maintaining a very appealing consistent visual identity for
their whole line. But most of all for their Dietrich-Sternberg
box set, with its amusing pseudo-Art Deco cover, as well as the
booklet and the digipacks, all very stylish.
This set easily surpasses the one Criterion put out of
those same 6 films. Indicator adds a few very good commentaries
(Criterion had none), replicates some extras and adds new ones." - Luc
Pomerleau
"Even if it has to be considered as the UK
market counterpart of the Criterion box-set released one year
ago, it's still the best box-set of the year: for the package,
for the extras and, above all, for the beautiful artwork,
refitted from the original materials and assembled by Nick
Wrigley." - Alfredo Santoro |
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Third Place is Criterion's Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films:
1954-1975 (Criterion). In 1954, an enormous beast clawed its
way out of the sea, destroying everything in its path—and
changing movies forever. The arresting original Godzilla soon
gave rise to an entire monster-movie genre (kaiju eiga), but the
King of the Monsters continued to reign supreme: in fourteen
fiercely entertaining sequels over the next two decades,
Godzilla defended its throne against a host of other formidable
creatures, transforming from a terrifying symbol of nuclear
annihilation into a benevolent (if still belligerent) Earth
protector.
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"A package that looked like it would fit on a
bookshelf rather than a Blu-ray shelf, the pop art inspired
artwork from a selection of artists was an excellent companion
to Criterion's release of the "Zatoichi" a few years back. The
set just missed the Top Boxsets list, as the extras were a
little disappointing with many of the older DVD commentaries and
featurettes being left off and the original Japanese version of
"King Kong vs Godzilla" having burned-in English subtitles."
- James-Masaki Ryan
"The classic daikaju films of my childhood
finally given the respect they deserve. I remember back when a
laserdisc boxed set was rumored, my heaving media library is
glad Criterion took their time and the set bowed in this much
less "monstrous" offering. Never thought I'd see these films all
in one collection—and certainly not from Criterion. Leave it to
them to prove me wrong in such a satisfying manner." -
Todd Killinger
"It’s hard to pick any Japanese package over
a single Ozu release (e.g. THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE
from Criterion); but this is a JOY for all completists. For the
rest, here are several Japanese fantasy masterworks from Honda
Ishiro; a lovely physical package; and THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE
VERSION OF GODZILLA vs. KONG (1962)." - Peter Yacavone |
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Fourth Place is
Indicator's Hammer Volume Four: Faces of Fear - R0 UK Indicator.
Four classic Hammer chillers presented on Blu-ray for the very
first time in the UK. Accompanied by a wealth of new and
archival extras – including exclusive new documentaries, audio
commentaries, alternative versions, new and archival cast and
crew interviews, a series of appreciations of their female
stars, analyses of their composers’ scores, and extensive
booklets – this stunning limited edition box set is strictly
limited to 6,000 units.
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"Another assortment of neglected titles or some that have a checkered
reputation. This volume is the most stacked yet, with commentaries galore (even
for the trailers) and extras so numerous it is daunting to put each disc into
the player. It may be argued that in two cases the overall extras are more
interesting than the movie itself (hint: they are both in colour). It's also the
first worthwhile presentation on home video of Joseph Losey's SF cautionary
parable The Damned, which was stupidly marketed as part of the rebellious teen
hoodlums sub-genre." - Luc Pomerleau "3.5 masterpieces in for
the most part ravishing restorations with lovingly curated extras. The best
offering from INDICATOR yet and hopefully their new standard" - Peter
Yacavone |
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Fifth Place is Network's Monty Python's Flying
Circus Norwegian Blu-Ray Edition. Years in the making, the
entire original television series of Monty Python's Flying
Circus has been fully rejuvenated for the first time. Sketches,
some edited for timing, taste and copyright reasons, have been
carefully restored to their intended length and the majority of
Terry Gilliam's animations have been newly scanned in High
Definition and restored to a specification way beyond their
original format.
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"The most creative and surreal of 70s UK comic tv. Lunatic
genius worthy of blu ray upgrade." - Moshe Black "I
don’t know when I’ll be able to afford this, but I’ve gone
through Gary’s review and extensive documentation of the
incredible BBC archival work for this remaster (of a series
combining video, 16mm, and more). The results are not as
stunning as BBC’s DOCTOR WHO sets, but so what." - Peter
Yacavone
"Absolutely stunning restoration work, exhaustive extras,
and enough liner notes to choke an albatross. The set weighs
more than a dead parrot pining for the fjords and is worth every
pound. Network proves once again how much they care for their UK
broadcast heritage. " - Todd Killinger |
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Six Place
is Kino's Hitchcock: British International Pictures
Collection (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927-1931). Before he became
known as the Master of Suspense in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock
had already established himself as a precociously talented
filmmaker in England. Hitchcock: British International Pictures
Collection brings together five features he directed for the
production company that first displayed his talents. Four of
them are visually dynamic silent films: atmospheric boxing drama
The Ring, sprightly comedies The Farmer’s Wife and
Champagne, and a love triangle set on the Isle of Man,
The Manxman. Also included is the 1931 sound feature The
Skin Game, a rousing melodrama about feuding families. These
features display Hitchcock's command of visual language long
before his Hollywood sojourn, proving he was a master from the
beginning.
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Seventh Place is Masters of Cinema's
Fuller at Fox - Five Films 1951-1957. A towering figure of
American cinema, Samuel Fuller was a master of the B-movie, a
pulp maestro whose iconoclastic vision elevated the American
genre film to new heights. This package has the impossibly tense Korean-War
drama
Fixed Bayonets! (1951); the outrageous and
confrontational spy-thriller
Pickup on South Street
(1953); the Cold War submarine-actioner
Hell and High Water
(1954); the lushly photographed, cold-as-ice noir,
House of
Bamboo (1955); and the audacious Western with a feminist
twist,
Forty Guns (1957). Also included is Samantha
Fuller s 2013 documentary, A Fuller Life, featuring friends and
admirers of the great director reading extracts from his
memoirs.
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"In the year of the long goodbye to Fox, it's not without
melancholy that we embrace this MoC box-set, with some of the
best Fuller features presented in new enhanced masters and
accompanied with the Samantha Fuller's documentary "A Fuller
Life". - Alfredo Santoro
"Essential package fully upgraded picture and great
extras." - Moshe Black |
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Eighth Place is Shout!
Factory's Universal Horror Collection:
Volumes 1,
2
and
3.
Universal Horror Collections include tales of terror from the
archives of Universal Pictures, the true home of classic horror.
These first three collections include The Black Cat
(1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray
(1936), Black Friday (1940), Murders in the Zoo
(1933), The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942), The
Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942), The Mad Ghoul
(1943), Tower of London (1939), The Black Cat
(1941), Horror Island (1941), and Man Made Monster
(1941).
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"Shout! takes the top spot with beautiful (and commentary-laden) curations of
the perpetually-underrated masterpieces of Universal in their Karloff/Lugosi
horror heyday 1931-1939." - Peter Yacavone "The first
volume is the stand-out as it brought together some excellent Lugosi-Karloff
vehicles with an abundance of extra features. Volume 2 was a notable step down
in terms of the quality of both the movies and of the extras, but Volume 3
marked a partial step up again." - Luc Pomerleau |
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Ninth Place is
Turbine's Psycho Legacy Collection features the World
Premiere f Alfred Hitchcock’s classic uncut on
Blu-ray Disc for the first
time + Psycho II, III, IV + remake + “Bates motel”
TV movie + full-length documentaries “The Making of Psycho”,
“Psycho Legacy” & “78/52” on 8 Blu-Ray Discs incl. over 15 hours
of bonus features + Audio Commentaries and 4×3 Retro Versions +
large size 120 page book “The Psycho Files” by Tobias Hohmann
(in German) + Din A1 Poster “Norman Bates” + 4 DIN A2 Posters +
6 Art Cards + Replicas of Sam Loomis’ Letter (English/German) +
25 sheets of “Bates Motel” notepaper and a “Do Not Disturb” door
hanger...
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"A giant big box with every official release of the Psycho franchise (apart
from the tv-series "Bates Motel"). Overwhelmed by lots and lots of physical
gadgets, the very reason to blind buy it is because of the inclusion, for the
first time, of the original unrated and uncut version of Hitchcock masterpiece,
reconstructed including the missing seconds from a HD scan of a German print.
" - Alfredo Santoro |
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Tenth Place is Indicator's The Shocking
Cinema of Norman J Warren (Satan's Slave,
Prey,
Terror,
Inseminoid,
Bloody New Year)
[Blu-ray] (Norman J Warren, 1976-1987) Region Free. One of
British genre cinema’s most important and distinctive
independent filmmakers, Norman J Warren made a series of horror
films which were at the forefront of a new wave in British
horror during the 1970s. Reflecting a period of permissiveness
and fearlessness, Warren’s distinctive stylings are far removed
from the Gothic conventions of Hammer Films, deliberately upped
the ante in terms of sex, violence and gore to create a new
breed of horror that was designed to shock for shock’s sake.
Five of Norman J Warren’s horrifying chillers are presented here
in new restorations
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"Luxurious box set full of goodies, for the UK master of the
1970s b-movie horror." - Moshe Black |
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NOTABLE Blu-ray BOXSETs in 2019
(but not in Top 10) - in random order):
3 Silent
Classics by Josef von Sternberg (Criterion)
The Indian Epic:
The Tiger of Eschnapur & The Indian Tomb - Fritz
Lang, 1959 - Film Movement
Buster Keaton Volume 2: Sherlock Jr / The
Navigator (Cohen)
Abbott and Costello - The Complete Universal
Pictures Collection (Shout! Factory) (US) (RA) - "The
15 disc set includes 28 features with lengthy documentaries,
featurettes, interviews, and commentaries, with the unmistakable
comedy duo." - James-Masaki Ryan
Ida Lupino:
Filmmaker, Kino Lorber, Region A
Of Flesh and Blood: The Cinema
of Hirokazu Koreeda (BFI) (UK) (RB) - "The four
disc set an excellent set of earlier works from the master
filmmaker that touches emotionally on a very deep and beautiful
level in each of the films included. The BFI have provided an
excellent collection of works along with a generous selection of
extras including a commentary track for each." -
James-Masaki Ryan
A Film Trilogy by Ingmar
Bergman Through a Glass Darkly / Winter Light / The Silence -
Criterion
The House of Hitchcock Collection (Saboteur, Shadow
of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man
Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, The
Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, Family Plot, Alfred
Hitchcock Presents Episodes) (Alfred Hitchcock, 1942-1976)
Universal
Blood Hunger: The Films of José Larraz (Whirlpool,
The Coming of Sin, Vampyres) (José Ramón Larraz, 1970-1978)
Arrow Video
Noir Archive Vols. 1,
2,
3, Millcreek Region FREE
Derek Jarman - Volume 2 (BFI) (UK) (RB)
- "The BFI follows up their massive Volume 1 set with the
second half of Jarman's career, which continued his standard
defying filmmaking style, coupled with his impending death from
AIDS. Hours and hours of extras are included in this excellent
boxset." - James-Masaki Ryan
The BRD Trilogy: The
Marriage of Maria Braun etc. (Criterion)
The Vengeance Trilogy
(Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) [Blu-ray]
(Chan-wook Park, 2002-2005) Arrow UK - "The announcement and
releases of this set was mangled, with Arrow revealing an extras
stacked Oldboy release, then delaying it due to replacements of
some extras, then announcing it would include Park's two other
films in the Vengeance Trilogy as bonus films, and then issuing
the same discs from the Oldboy Limited Edition as "The Vengeance
Trilogy" with much better artwork and packaging but having a
lesser booklet. With that out of the way, the presentations of
the films themselves and the amount of extras were great, as
well as replacing the London slang subtitles for Oldboy with
retranslated standard subtitles." - James-Masaki Ryan
The Fly
Collection Blu-ray - The Fly (1958), Return of the
Fly (1959), Curse of the Fly (1965), The Fly (1986) and The Fly
II (1989) - Shout! Factory
The Omen
Collection; 1976's The Omen, Damien: Omen II, The
Final Conflict, Omen IV: The Awakening, and the 2006 The Omen.
Shout! Factory
The Ringu
Collection (Ringu, Ring 0, Ring 2 and Spiral) Arrow
Hemisphere Box of Horrors [Blu-ray]
(The Blood Drinkers, Curse of the Vampire, Brain
of Blood, The Black Cat, Torture Chamber of Dr.
Sadism) (Various, 1964-1971) Severin -
"A very worthy companion to their previous
"Blood Island" set, this is one collection of drive-in fare that
definitely benefits from insightful commentaries which give the
(otherwise a bit dull) films cultural context and interest (at
least for this fan)." - Todd Killinger |
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BLU-RAYs OF THE YEAR |
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First Place
is Criterion's Detour.
From Poverty Row came a movie that, perhaps more than any other,
epitomizes the dark fatalism at the heart of film noir. As he hitchhikes
his way from New York to Los Angeles, a down-on-his-luck nightclub
pianist (Tom Neal) finds himself with a dead body on his hands and
nowhere to run—a waking nightmare that goes from bad to worse when he
picks up the most vicious femme fatale in cinema history, Ann Savage’s
snarling, monstrously conniving drifter Vera. Working with no-name stars
on a bargain-basement budget, B auteur Edgar G. Ulmer turned threadbare
production values and seedy, low-rent atmosphere into indelible pulp
poetry. Long unavailable in a format in which its hard-boiled beauty
could be fully appreciated, Detour haunts anew in its first major
restoration.
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"Who would have thought it
possible? After decades of having to make due with so-so or barely
watchable editions of this title, we finally have a 4K digital
restoration from excellent source materials- released by Criterion!
Detour is not just an example of making the most of what you’ve got, of
overcoming budget limitations or crafting a credible B movie from a
pig’s ear of pulp material. This restoration reveals Detour to be first
rate- a tale of Destiny, of unrelenting Fate and one of the finest of
the classic film noirs. Period." -
Schwarkkve
"After decades of trash public domain editions
around the world, it finally comes the one and only, the definitive
release of an underrated masterpiece of American cinema." -
Alfredo Santoro
"Others may have first seen this film like I did,
in a crummy print, by accident, flipping between channels at a
godforsaken hour. Like its atmosphere this film seems to be made for
discovery in the twilight zone. It's one of those noir films that is
never the same second time around. Still who wouldn't want to thank the
Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation for their work on this
beautiful restoration. There is a fine detailed booklet essay by Robert
Polito but for a film only 69 mins long could a commentary also not have
been possible? People have waited not years, but DECADES, for this
restoration and MORE would have been nice. I was so looking forward to
the Edgar G. Ulmer doc but it was too dated and choppy for me for me. I
much preferred the Noah Isenberg interview." - Billy Bang |
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In Second Place Arrow's
Khrustalyov, My Car! Named after the apocryphal exclamation of
Soviet security chief Lavrentiy Beria as he rushed to Stalin's deathbed,
this blackly funny, deliriously immersive satire distils the
anticipation and anxiety in the Moscow air, as the Soviet despot lay
dying. Late winter 1953. The lives of nearly half the planet are in
Stalin's hands. A military surgeon, General Yuri Georgievich Klensky
(Yuri Tsurilo), finds himself a target of the ''Doctors' Plot'': the
anti-Semitic conspiracy accusing Jewish doctors in Moscow of planning to
assassinate the Soviet elite.
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Jonathan Rosenbaum's #1 pick this year in our Poll! "Following
on from their wonderful Hard to Be a God release, Arrow have
outdone themselves with a lavish limited edition package for
German's nightmarish classic. The film truly an experience to
behold, and the disc's extras and booklet really help
contextualize the cinematic odyssey. " - L H
"Navigating a very obtuse narrative with skill and
intellect which helps you maintain your focus on the incredible
visual elements of the film." - Oliver Kingdon |
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Third Place
is Masters of Cinema's Der Golem. An iconic early horror
masterpiece, Der Golem was Paul Wegener s third attempt at adapting the
Golem character for the big screen. Starring and co-directing with Carl Boese,
Wegener crafted one of silent cinema's most enduring masterpieces. In the Jewish
ghetto in 16th century Prague, Rabbi Low (Albert Streinruck, Asphalt) creates a
forbidding clay Golem (played by director Paul Wegener) to protect his people
from the tyrannical Emperor Luhois (Otto Gebuhr). Brought to life with a demon
spirit and an amulet placed in the centre of the creature s chest, the Golem is
a seemingly indestructible juggernaut, performing acts of great heroism. But
when the Rabbi s assistant attempts to control the Golem for selfish gain, it
becomes a terrifying force of destruction, rampaging through the ghetto leaving
fire and death in its wake.
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"A silent classic finally gets the treatment it deserves on HD video, with a
commentary and useful extras that put it into context and on an equal footing
with other equally worthy films of the era that have already seen HD editions."
- Luc Pomerleau "Kudos once again to Eureka—the revered keepers of
silent film flame—for this stunning production. A worthy follow-up to "Metropolis"
and "Cabinet of Doctor Caligari." - Todd Killinger |
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Fourth Place
is Flicker Alley's Blu-ray of The Man Who Laughs.
Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, the story centers on the
extraordinary adventures of Conrad Veidt s Gwynplaine, whose
wide and mirthless grin inspired DC Comics legendary Batman
villain, the Joker. Veidt's character has become well known to
most cinephiles. Orphaned as a child, Gwynplaine is punished by
the king for his father s transgressions, by having face carved
into a hideous grin. Disfigured and alone, Gwynplaine rescues a
blind girl Dea, and both end up staring in a sideshow where they
fall in love. Because she cannot see, Dea does not know about
her lover s tormented grin.
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Fifth Place
is Kino's Bob le Flambeur
- A 4K Restoration!
From the legendary director Jean-Pierre Melville. Suffused with wry humor,
Bob Le Flambeur melds the toughness of American gangster films with Gallic
sophistication to lay the roadmap for the French New Wave. As the neon is
extinguished for another dawn, an aging gambler (Roger Duchesne) navigates the
treacherous world of pimps, moneymen and naďve associates while plotting one
last score—the heist of the Deauville casino. This underworld comedy of manners
possesses all the formal beauty, finesse and treacherous allure of green baize.
Boasting a wonderful screenplay by Melville and Augusta Le Breton (Raffia,
Rizzio) and stunning black-and-white cinematography by Henri Decay.
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"My favorite Melville and the quintessential 50’s French
gangster picture, Bob le Flambeur has it all: neon-infused noir photography by
the legendary Henri Decaë, a rogue’s gallery of colorful underworld types, a
complex love triangle featuring the world-weary protagonist, his younger protégé
and a beautiful, naďve femme fatal, a casino heist, an examination of
friendship, integrity, weakness and the respect between professionals on both
sides of the law. Kino’s Blu-ray is a solid representation of this excellent
film." - Schwarkkve |
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Sixth
Place
is Indicator's
No Orchids for
Miss Blandish. Possibly the most controversial British film
ever produced, this lurid crime drama caused an unprecedented
storm of controversy upon release: local councils banned it, the
Bishop of London denounced it, and MPs demanded an investigation
into the BBFC for allowing it to be seen.
Based on the notorious novel by James Hadley Chase (which itself
was condemned by George Orwell), No Orchids for Miss Blandish is
a mixture of sex, violence and immorality, and tells the brutal
story of a kidnapped heiress who falls for one of her crazed
captors. This fascinating example of British film noir, which
the Monthly Film Bulletin described as “the most sickening
exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism ever to be
shown on a cinema screen.
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Seventh Place is
Severin's VIY. In 19th century Russia, a seminary student is
forced to spend three nights with the corpse of a beautiful young witch.
But when she rises from the dead to seduce him, it will summon a
nightmare of fear, desire and the ultimate demonic mayhem. Bursting with
startling imagery and stunning practical effects by directors Konstantin
Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov, this "overlooked classic" (Paste
Magazine) has influenced generations of directors for more than half a
century and is still unlike any horror movie you've ever seen.
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Chosen in Gregory Meshman's Top 10!
"Another rare gem finally given a proper polish and mainstream
release by the fine folks at Severin. Never thought I'd see this as a
domestic release (with requisite belts and whistles, no less). No more
grainy YouTube streaming for this witchy tale (though that does somewhat
add to its clandestine mystique)." - Todd Killinger |
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In Eight Place
is Second Run's Blu-ray of A Blonde in Love .
Presented from a brand new 4K restoration that premiered at 2019
Cannes Film Festival, A Blonde in Love is widely regarded as one
of the great films of the 60s. A subtle and beautifully observed
social satire which maintains a remarkable balance between
despair and hope, this bittersweet romance from Milo Forman, the
multiple Oscar-winning director of Black Peter, One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, unfolds as a
sweetly seductive film but also provides a wry critique of life
under totalitarianism. Forman is able to distil universal truths
from the simplest of situations and present them with a sharp
yet compassionate eye.
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In Jonathan Rosenbaum's TOP 10 this Year! "An
upgrade from their earlier DVD release in a HD transfer with a Milos Forman
interview and a detailed Michael Brook essay. Everyone remembers the middle
section of young lovers in a hotel room and their post coital bliss, but this is
sandwiched between two hilarious sections of quotidian desperation, before and
after. Also like Kiarostami, mostly done with non professional actors. This film
is rightly beloved by many." - Billy Bang |
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Ninth
Place
is Kino's 4K Restoration of Last Year at Marienbad.
Winner of the Golden Lion at the 1961 Venice Film Festival,
Last Year in Marienbad (1961) is a hypnotically beautiful
puzzle box of a film, and one of the most influential in
history. Alan Resnais's sensuous tracking shots and Delphine
Seyrig's iconic Chanel gowns have become part of the cinematic
lexicon, and can now be seen in a gorgeous 4K restoration from
StudioCanal.
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"Perhaps the most sublimely austere cinema ever created"
- Rob J. |
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Tenth Place
is Wicked Vision (DE)'s
Blu-ray of The Most Dangerous Game. A superb, pre-Code
action-adventure film, based upon a famous short story by Richard
Connell, it follows big game hunter, Bob Rainsford, (Joel McCrea), as he
becomes quarry for another, the opulently deranged Count Zaroff,
(floridly played by Leslie Banks). Utilizing some of the amazing sets
made for King Kong, the film is sometimes thought of as a
place-holder to keep key cast and crew available during Kong's lengthy
animation schedule. This included actors Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong,
Noble Johnson and Steve Clemento, as well as editor Archie Marshek,
composer Max Steiner, sound effects expert Murray Spivak, illustrators
Mario Larrinaga and Byron Crabbe, and optical effects wizards Vernon
Walker and Linwood Dunn.
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"Wicked-Vision Media's Region-Free Blu-ray of "The Most Dangerous
Game" deserves some major kudos. The image contains stronger blacks and
a more detailed picture, producing finer grain and detail than the
previous Flicker Alley Blu. The 2016 audio commentary is included, along
with a new 2019 track. Both commentaries are in German with English
subtitle options. It's this very attention to detail that's indicative
of most of Wicked-Vision's stellar output." - Colin Zavitz |
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Labels |
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1. |
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Criterion surprised many of their
niche when their coveted 1000th spine # was reported as an eight
Blu-ray
15 film Godzilla extravaganza boxset. Certainly a divergence
from the previous year's 39-film
Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema package. The release came with some
complaints that may be addressed in a rumored replacement program, but
it is loaded with entertainment value. Criterion
distinguish themselves from their competitors with the high quality of
their world cinema titles and attention to detail in disc production.
The innovator of the audio commentary seems to be stepping away from
that supplement while others are embracing it aggressively.
DVDBeaver-ites still can't get enough of Criterion's
consistent value. We'll see what
2020 brings... and what their eventual year-end 'big' package will be. Any guesses?
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"Favourite label: Indicator. Reason: Good taste in
movies, nice design of booklets, enthusiastic, professional." -
Jeff Heinrich "Indicator UK because they are doing
a superb job with & making worthwhile what are mainly 2nd line titles,
besides the few truly enduring classics they also issue" - Simón
Cherpitel "Indicator edges out MoC by a nose
because of the advised eclecticism of its choices and the consistent
quality of each package. " - Luc Pomerleau |
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3. |
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"Kino Lorber has leaped forth as a top provider of
numerous classic titles in generally excellent transfers." -
Simón Cherpitel "Kino Lorber's 2019 offerings
were staggering in number, with titles ranging from "Gone Fishin'" to
"Last Year at Marienbad". Mad respect" Colin Zavitz
"In my controversial opinion, KINO LORBER have surpassed CRITERION
and ARROW as the world’s best distributor/producer of BDs (particularly
with their acquisition of Studiocanal titles to follow Universal, Fox,
and Disney). Despite famous missteps, they now release an incredibly
diverse selection of incredibly high quality films in reliably excellent
transfers. Even their humbler releases are often terrific." -
Peter Yacavone
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4. |
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"This was an exceptional year from Eureka from
their Montage Film releases and Eureka Classics series and the
tried-and-true Masters of Cinema Gold-standard. They have stepped-up to
the massive competition in the digital media space and continue to
improve with their niche of film aficionado consumers being the biggest beneficiary.
They will always have my support (and so will DVDBeaver.) -
Sam Whitney
"Seemingly granted a windfall by the releases of
martial arts films from Jackie Chan and others (of very high quality
despite not making my lists), they are now pursuing more releases from
Buster Keaton and King Hu in 2020 (plus much more yet to be announced if
their quality this year is maintained). Add consistent customer service
and an entirely positive site redesign and they get my vote." -
Oliver Kingdon |
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5. |
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"Arrow wins this narrowly for me. However, this is
really a great time for Boutique labels putting out obscure gems with
beautiful transfers and restoration work. I feel indebted to many
labels, both literally and figuratively. I limited my top ten releases
to one per label to show the field of great labels doing the lord's work."
- Jason Overbeck "Arrow has been the most consistent for high quality
single releases. Khrustalyov my Car! is a standout without a doubt, they
should be commended for bringing another bold and wondrous Alexei
German masterpiece to boutique movie-buying audiences. " - L H
"Criterion, Scream Factory, Network, Indicator, they all came close,
but time after time I have to say my enjoyment of Arrow's quality
releases—each stacked with amazing supplements, stunning Arrow-sponsored
restorations, and topped off with gorgeous, original cover art—puts them
over the top for me. Japanese musicals, Spaghetti westerns, 80's teen
flicks, horror, sci-fi, comedy, everything Arrow takes aim at ends with
a bullseye." - Todd Killinger
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The rest (no order) |
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In our
community, Second Run are know as the good guys... for legitimate reasons.
They are good guys and produce some of the most unique
fan-favorite content in the Blu-ray
sphere. Specialties include Czech new Wave and European
content, plus directorial rarities and less-seen documentaries. There release are almost exclusively region FREE and we love to
help expose their product to the entire world.
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"Named after the pedestrian street (Cecil Court) in
London, England, linking Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane - the
business center of the British film industry during the silent film era.
“Flicker Alley” is one of THE most professional curators of
silent, classic, experimental and independent cinema production on
Blu-ray. Period. I don't know where I'd be without them. They have
my vote, for the second year in a row, for favorite
Blu-ray producer" - Stan Theodore |
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Here at
DVDBeaver, we are so happy that Network out of the UK have taken the plunge into
Blu-ray. We have reviewed
many
of their DVDs over the years and the titles definitely have
a synergy with our following. They deserve a huge congratulations on the
gargantuan
Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Complete Series
Blu-ray set and we await more
British noir
like
Green For Danger, from their British-centric catalogue, to reach 1080P in
2020!
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"Warner Archive continues to offer more American
movies of general quality & entertainment than anyone else because of
the depth of their stockpile." - Simón Cherpitel
"Warner Archive have some of the greatest films in their
library, however we get constant comments in Social Media about lack of
new extras and SHOUTING, and/or yellow, subtitles.
We love you Warner... love us back!" - Gary Tooze
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Synapse Films
releases new, digitally remastered films in the Horror, Science Fiction,
Cult and Independent genres on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD. This
would be a landmark year with their stellar release of Dario Argento's
1977
Suspiria on stellar
4K UHD. Like everyone else, all we can say is
'Wow'. They deserve some special recognition and our continued support.
I can't wait to see what they produce in 2020!
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"British Film Institute keeps going with classic
titles from years past while publishing Sight & Sound magazine that's
been going since 1932 = 88 years!" - Simón Cherpitel
"BFI - Consistently bringing a diverse amount of content from its
home country of the UK to a new spotlight, as well as with international
cinema and digging through their vaults for some unique extras, the
label had a stellar selection of works released this year." -
James-Masaki Ryan
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"Vinegar Syndrome - Not only did they drop tons of
killer releases with unimpechable transfers and best-in-the-biz
packaging and artwork, but they also released their first 4K disc!"
- Jordan Johnson "Vinegar Syndrome continues
releasing overlooked films from the past, with 2019 seeing some
great premieres/restorations, such as; "Taking Tiger Mountain", "Putney
Swope", "Secta Siniestra", "Hell Comes to Frogtown", "Amityville: The
Cursed Collection", "Berserker", "Decoder", "The Candy Snatchers",
"Nightbeast", "Lust in the Dust", "In the Cold of the Night", their
first ever 4K UHD title, "Tammy and the T-Rex", and my pick for their
finest release of the year, "The Corruption of Chris Miller"." -
Colin Zavitz |
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Severin is
dedicated to rescuing, restoring and releasing the most controversial
and provocative features from around the world. Included this year
beyond their lauded
VIY, were
the unrated Director’s Cut of
Gwendoline (aka The Perils of Gwendoline
in the Land of the Yik Yak),
Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (aka
Lycanthropus) (that Gary loved),
Joe D'Amato's
Emanuelle and Francoise,
Killer Crocodile, 1959's
Jack the Ripper,
the wonderful
All the Colors of
Giallo 3-Disc Collection,
Sergio Martino's
All the Colors of
the Dark, the
Hemisphere Box of Horrors (The Blood
Drinkers, Curse of the Vampire, Brain of Blood, The Black Cat, Torture
Chamber of Dr. Sadism) and
Escape From Women's Prison plus
much more... long may they reign! - Colin Zavitz |
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Wild Side Video
in France stand out as having the most impressive books
included in their impressive Blu-ray box sets. I've never
seen anything like them in all my years of reviewing - most have
hundreds of stunningly beautiful full page photos and (relatively, very
little) French text. It is amazing. They are, unfortunately,
contractually obligated to have mandatory French subtitles (for English,
or other) languages in their packages. So they are exceedingly
French-friendly but we love seeing what they are coming out with as the
packages themselves border on being 'art'. Can't wait to see what they
release in 2020!
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Grindhouse Releasing is a Hollywood-based
distribution company dedicated to the restoration and preservation of
classic exploitation films. They have been quiet for a while prompting
more than a few emails to inquire as to their health. We here at
DVDBeaver have always appreciated their past diverse output from
The Big Gundown to
The Swimmer, from the Poliziotteschi
The Tough Ones to Lucio Fulci's dream-like Giallo
The Beyond, the allegorical independent film,
An American Hippie in Israel,
Corruption with Peter Cushing,
Pieces with Lynda Day George and more. We hope they return
in 2020
with a new slate of exciting exploitation titles brought to Blu-ray!
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"Twilight Time are probably the most consistent
Blu-ray production company. Solid 4K-sourced, dual-layered transfers
with 30 Mbps bitrates, often supplemented with astute commentaries and we dearly hope they can
continue with their impressive output of strong films to 1080P in the
coming years."
- Gary Tooze "After Nick's
(Redman) death (God bless him) early this year &
Julie Kirgo being let go, the Twilight Time label is sadly disappearing
into darkness." - Simón Cherpitel
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Another independent producer, Mondo Macabro has some of
the most provocative world cinema content; released in 2019 - 1969's
Greek prisonsploitation
The Wild Pussycat,
1971's French Gothic sex/horror
The Devil's Nightmare, 1975 Spanish
Horror
Killing of the Dolls, the South
Korean oddity
Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death,
and the unbridled perversity romp
Emanuelle in America. Not every
world cinephile's cup-of-tea but we encourage them to expand their
content and we will help them reach new audiences in any way we can.
This is stuff you aren't likely to see anywhere else! |
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Shout! Factory remain a bit of a conundrum to us here at
DVDBeaver. We love so many of their titles from extensive Hammer Studios
output to classic genre sci-fi and horror films. But when I think of
their marquee releases of the year; say, the stacked 1988's
The Blob and loaded
The Fly Collection. Together I think they only received a
lone vote
in our poll. Our niche loved their Universal Horror Collection
sets, essential Noirs
The Glass Key,
This Gun for Hire, and
Criss Cross. De Palma's
Obsession, and interesting titles like
The
Vengeance of She,
Someone to Watch
Over Me,
Boom!,
The Entity ,
Fright, 1979's
Dracula, plus vintage
sci-fi horror like
The
Mole People,
The
Body Snatcher,
Tarantula,
The Alligator People,
The Monolith Monsters,
Monster on the Campus,
This Island Earth,
The Leopard Man,
The Leech Woman,
Circus of Horrors, the Ozploitation
thriller
Road Games, and I was very keen on their 1932's
Murders in the Rue Morgue. Perhaps their corporate
facade that doesn't really put a human face on their product - one told
me that they work feels formulaic. I don't know. Their products are
usually loaded with extras and commentaries, some of the best covers - and
fans are appreciative. We would like to connect with them in 2020 and
continue support them. We are anxious for more of the Roger Corman
library, Hammer, Universal horror and steelbooks! |
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Film Noir on Blu-ray
It's been
another great year for fans of classic film noir. The Criterion
Collection started us off with their upgrade of Hitchcock's
Notorious in January and Flicker Alley ends it in December with
Film Noir Foundation's restoration of underrated
Trapped. Two of
the most wanted titles,
Detour and
Phantom Lady finally joined
the high-definition format in both US and UK from Criterion and
Arrow Academy, respectively.
Warner Archive finally upgraded
The Set-Up, finishing off
Warner's essential DVD boxset
Film Noir Classic Collection
Volume 1. From Volumes 2-5, only
On Dangerous Ground is
available on Blu-ray, so there is a long way to go.
Gaslight and
The Letter
are 2 other titles released on
Blu-ray by Warner Archive,
unfortunately their original versions - British
Gaslight
(1940)
and early talkie The Letter (1929) - did not get HD treatment,
but earlier
Gaslight is included on disc in SD.
Kit Parker Films gave us three 9-film collections of noirs and
near-noirs from Columbia Pictures, some of them previously only
available in DVD-R and most of them never expected to get HD
treatment at all. Despite packing 3 films on each disc, the
quality is surprisingly good - you can notice in our comparisons
what a difference higher resolution makes!
UK is still a great source of essential noir that otherwise
unavailable in US -
Human Desire from Eureka,
The Reckless Moment from Indicator and
Nightfall from Arrow Academy. Two
latter releases are region free! Speaking of Arrow Academy,
The Big
Clock and 2 Joseph H. Lewis underrated noirs,
My Name Is Julia Ross and
So Dark the Night, received simultaneous releases
in UK and US.
Along with
British noir, we decided to expand the list to
include French titles from the classic film noir period. There
were many British and French noirs receiving HD treatment in
2019 - from proto-noirs
Poison Pen and
Port of Shadows to late
in the cycle
Psyche 59 and
The Third Secret.
Jean-Pierre Melville's 2 classics
Bob le flambeur
and Le Doulos went from
Criterion DVD to Kino Lorber Blu-ray discs without losing in
quality (unlike Becker's
Touchez pas au grisbi that suffers from
poor transfer).
This Gun for Hire was a great release from Shout! Factory, but
Criss Cross and
The Glass Key suffer from some softness. Another
disappointment is 2 films in Ida Lupino's boxset -
The Bigamist
and The Hitch-Hiker "upgrade", especially in comparison to their
stellar releases of
Desert Fury and
Naked Alibi.
We look forward to what 2020 brings and already posted our first
noir Blu-ray review of the new year -
British noir
The Slasher aka Cosh
Boy from Kino Lorber.
-Gregory
Meshman
'Dark Cinema'
released on Blu-ray in 2019:
5 Against the
House (Phil Karlson, 1955) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
711 Ocean Drive (Joseph M. Newman, 1950) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Address Unknown (William Cameron Menzies, 1944) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Assignment: Paris (Robert Parrish, Phil Karlson, 1952) Kit
Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Bait (Hugo Haas, 1954) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Beautiful Stranger
(David Miller, 1954) RB UK Network
The Big Clock
(John Farrow, 1948) Arrow Academy
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
"Australian born director John Farrow directs his wife
Maureen O’Sullivan, Ray Milland, Charles Laughton and his wife
Elsa Lanchester with competent assurance." - David
Redfern
The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Black Book (aka
Reign of Terror) (Anthony Mann, 1949) Kit
Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Bloody Brood (Julian Roffman, 1959) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Bob le flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Caretaker (aka
The Guest) (Clive Donner, 1963) RB UK BFI
The Case Against Brooklyn (Paul Wendkos, 1958) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Cell 2455, Death Row (Fred F. Sears, 1954) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Criminal (aka
The Concrete Jungle) (Joseph Losey, 1960) RB
UK
The Crimson
Kimono (Samuel Fuller, 1959) Kit Parker Films
Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Crooked Web (Nathan Juran, 1955) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Damned (aka
These Are the Damned) (Joseph Losey, 1962) R0 UK
Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Dark City (William Dieterle, 1950) RB
UK Arrow Academy
Dead of Night (Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil
Dearden, Robert Hamer, 1945) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
"The
grandfather of anthology films given a high-polish 4K
restoration and in-depth documentary. Watch out, Criterion, Kino
is snapping at your heels." - Todd Killinger
Desert Fury (Lewis Allen, 1947) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) The Criterion Collection
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Le Doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
"A toss-up with Melville’s later UN FLIC as
representative of KINO’s fantastic offerings of Gallic Noir
(e.g. TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI): perhaps the best sustained wave of
BD releases, if calculated in terms of genre, in several years."
- Peter Yacavone
Dragonwyck (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946) RB UK Indicator
(Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Escape in the Fog (Budd Boetticher, 1945) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Footsteps in the Fog (Arthur Lubin,
1955) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) Warner Archive
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Green for Danger (Sidney Gilliat, 1946) RB UK Network
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Guilt of Janet Ames (Henry Levin, 1947) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Gun Runners (Don Siegel, 1958) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Human Desire (Fritz Lang, 1954) RB UK Eureka Video
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
It Always Rains on Sundays (Robert Hamer, 1947) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Johnny Allegro (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Kansas City Confidential (Phil Karlson, 1952) R0 FR Rimini
Editions
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Killer That Stalked New York (Earl McEvoy, 1950) Kit Parker
Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944) RB UK Eureka Video
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Letter (William Wyler, 1940) Warner Archive
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Lineup
(Don Siegel, 1958) Kit Parker Films
The Long Dark Hall (Reginald Beck, 1951) RB
UK Network
The Long Haul (Ken Hughes, 1957) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Man Between (Carol Reed, 1953) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Man on a String (André De Toth,
1960) Kit Parker Films
The Miami Story (Fred F. Sears, 1954) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Midnight Lace (David Miller, 1960) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Mirage (Edward Dmytryk, 1965) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
My Name Is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, 1945) Arrow Academy
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Naked Alibi (Jerry Hopper, 1954) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
New Orleans
Uncensored (William Castle, 1955) Kit Parker Films
The Night Has Eyes (aka
Terror House) (Leslie Arliss, 1942) RB UK Network
The Night Holds Terror (Andrew L. Stone, 1955) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Night and the
City (Jules Dassin, 1950) Wild Side
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Nightfall
(Jacques Tourneur, 1956) R0 UK Arrow Academy
No Orchids for Miss Blandish (aka
Black Dice) (St. John Legh
Clowes, 1948) R0 UK Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946) The Criterion Collection
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Panique (aka Panic) (Julien Duvivier, 1946) The Criterion
Collection
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
"Welcome release of a hard-to-see Julian Duvivier thriller."
- David Redfern
Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944) Arrow Academy
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Pickup Alley (aka
Interpol) (John Gilling, 1957) Kit Parker
Films / RB UK Arrow Academy
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Poison Pen (Paul L. Stein, 1939) RB
UK Network
Port of Shadows (aka
Les Quai des brumes) (Marcel Carné, 1938)
Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Portrait in
Black (Michael Gordon, 1960) Kino Lorber
Psyche 59 (Alexander Singer, 1964) R0 UK Indicator (Powerhouse
Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Queen of Spades (Thorold Dickinson, 1949) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Razzia sur la chnouf (Henri Decoin, 1955) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949) R0 UK Indicator
(Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Rumble on the
Docks ( Fred F. Sears , 1956) Kit Parker Films
The Running Man (Carol Reed, 1963) Arrow Academy
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Secret People (Thorold Dickinson, 1952) RB
UK Network
The Set-Up (Robert Wise, 1949) Warner Archive
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Seven Days to Noon (John Boulting,Roy Boulting,
1950) Kino Lorber
The Shadow on the Window (William Asher, 1957) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
She Played with Fire (aka
Fortune Is a Woman) (Sidney Gilliat,
1957) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
So Dark the Night (Joseph H. Lewis, 1946) Arrow Academy
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Spin a Dark Web (aka
Soho Incident) (Vernon Sewell, 1956) Kit Parker Films
Taste of Fear (aka
Scream of Fear) (Seth Holt, 1961) R0 UK
Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
They Made Me a Fugitive (aka I Became a Criminal) (Alberto
Cavalcanti, 1947) R0 UK Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Third Secret (Charles Crichton, 1964) RB UK Indicator
(Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Tijuana Story (László Kardos, 1957) Kit Parker Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Time Without Pity (Joseph Losey, 1957) R0 UK Indicator
(Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Touchez pas au grisbi (aka
Hands Off the Loot) (Jacques Becker,
1954) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Trapped
(Richard Fleischer, 1949) Flicker Alley
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Whirlpool
(Otto Preminger, 1949) Twilight Time
Woman in Hiding (Michael Gordon, 1950) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944) RB UK Eureka Video
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Giallo on Blu-ray in 2019
The term "giallo" (translated literally as
"yellow") refers to a particular cinematic form of, mostly,
Italian-produced murder mystery films that can blur the line
between art and exploitation. There are new Giallo
Blu-ray releases this past year:..
 All the Colors of
the Dark
(Sergio Martino, 1972) Severin
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
A
Black Veil for Lisa
(Massimo Dallamano, 1968) RB UK 88 Films
(ALT-Blu-ray
REVIEW)
The Bloodstained Butterfly (Duccio Tessari, 1971) RB Austria /
Germany Camera Obscura
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Corruption of Chris Miller
(Juan Antonio Bardem, 1973) Vinegar Syndrome
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Double Face
(Riccardo Freda, 1969) UK Arrow Video
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The
Fifth Cord
(Luigi Bazzoni, 1971) Arrow Video
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
(Luciano Ercoli, 1970) Arrow Video
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire
(Riccardo Freda, 1971) Arrow Video US
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Killer Nun (Giulio Berruti,
1979) Arrow Video
The Killer of Dolls (Miguel
Madrid, 1975) Mondo Macabro
Murderock (Lucio Fulci,
1984) Scorpion Releasing
The New York Ripper (3-Disc Edition) (Lucio Fulci,
1982) Blue Underground
Night Killer (Claudio Fragasso, Bruno Mattei,
1990) Severin
Nightmare Beach (Umberto Lenzi, 1989) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Opera (aka Terror at the Opera) (Dario Argento, 1987) Scorpion
Releasing (Deluxe Edition) / RB UK Cult Films
Paganini Horror (Luigi Cozzi, 1989) Severin / RB
UK 88 Films
Plot of Fear (Paolo Cavara, 1976) RB Germany Cineploit
The
Possessed
(Luigi Bazzoni, Franco Rossellini, 1965) Arrow Video
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Psychic
(Lucio Fulci, 1977) Scorpion Releasing
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Strip Nude for Your Killer
(Andrea Bianchi, 1975) Arrow Video
Touch of Death (Lucio Fulci, 1988) Raro
Video
Watch Me When I Kill (Antonio Bido, 1977) Synapse Films
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Wax Mask (Sergio Stivaletti,
1997) Severin
Who Saw Her Die?
(Aldo Lado, 1972) Arrow US
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Hammer Studios on Blu-ray in
2019
Last year (2018) Warner Archive
brought us Hammer titles
Dracula A.D. 1972, 1958's
Horror of Dracula and 1973's
The Satanic Rites of Dracula to
Blu-ray
but this year nothing except the Hammer-esque
The Fearless Vampire Killers directed by Roman
Polanski. Shout!
Factory took the 'bull by the horns' or rather 'the
vampire by the throat' this past year with 18 Hammer Studios
Blu-ray editions loaded with
commentaries and supplements. Thankfully 2019 also had the
wildly popular Indicator
Hammer Volume
Four: Faces of Fear Region FREE
Blu-ray boxset with
Taste of Fear,
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll,
The Revenge of Frankenstein,
and
The Damned.
"Quatermass 2, Quatermass
and the Pit, The Abominable Snowman, A Nigel Kneale
trifecta, with older commentaries (featuring the scriptwriter
and the directors) and new ones, as well as archival extras and
several new ones. Probably the definitive editions for these
titles." - Luc Pomerleau
The Abominable Snowman
(Val Guest, 1957) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
(Seth Holt, Michael Carreras, 1971) Shout!
Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Devil Rides Out
(Terence Fisher, 1968) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde
(Roy Ward Baker, 1971) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Fear in the Night
(Jimmy Sangster, 1972) Shout! Factory
(ALT-BEAVER
REVIEW)
Frankenstein Created Woman
(Terence Fisher, 1967) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Horror of Frankenstein
(Jimmy Sangster, 1970) Shout! Factory
(ALT-BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
(Roy Ward Baker, 1974) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
- "Rumor has it Shout
Factory held up release of this title so they could obtain both
cuts of the feature. Delighted to finally have this
oft-overlooked Hammer oddity in my collection (though I'll still
hold onto my Anchor Bay DVD for nostalgia's sake). Tough to
choose only one flick from Scream Factory's warmly received
Hammer releases, but this is a shining example of what they are
able to do and do well." - Todd Killinger
Lust for a Vampire
(Jimmy Sangster, 1971) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Quatermass 2
(Val Guest, 1957) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Quatermass and the Pit
(Roy Ward Baker, 1967) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Reptile
(John Gilling, 1966) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1958) R0 UK
Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
Scars of Dracula
(Roy Ward Baker, 1970) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Straight on Till Morning
(Peter Collinson, 1972) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Taste of Fear (aka
Scream of Fear) (Seth Holt, 1961) R0 UK
Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Damned (aka
These Are the Damned) (Joseph Losey, 1962) R0 UK
Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
To the Devil... a Daughter
(Peter Sykes, 1976) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
(Terence Fisher, 1960) R0 UK Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The
Vengeance of She
(Cliff Owen, 1968) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Witches
(Cyril Frankel, 1966) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
TV
We don't usually venture to the the many Dr. Who sets, Game of Thrones, Japanese Anime,
Animated Superhero (Batman, Teen Titans etc.), The Handmaid's
Tale etc. etc. but our niche, who tend to have a nostalgic view
on things, and are beginning
to appreciate vintage (and some modern) TV on
Blu-ray, in the form of
complete broadcast series, Mini-series and the occasional
'Made-for-TV'
Movie.
In late 2018 we reviewed these vintage Television series:
(CLICK COVERS For REVIEWS)
And in 2019 we had more original 'TV' to cover or explore here
are a few of the Blu-ray
editions mentioned in our poll:
"Scooby-Doo Where Are You! (Warner Brothers) - A complete
nostalgia vote, this is a wonderful 50th birthday Scooby Snack
all gussied up on blu-ray and delivered in an amazing 3-D
haunted house. Maybe not the most exhaustive extras one might
want, but they do those meddling kids proud." - Todd
Killinger
"Personally, I was blown
away by Chernobyl, Fawlty Towers had me in tears I was laughing
so hard,
Jonny Quest was pure joy to revisit with my sons, and
I'm a big Jesse Stone fans and it was very pleasing to see three
of those neo-noirs in HD. We, obviously, can't forget the
elephant in the room - Network's
Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Complete Series
Blu-ray set. " -
Gary Tooze
(CLICK
For REVIEW / PURCHASE LINK)
The new 4K UHD format requires both a 4K TV and
4K UHD Player. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are incompatible with
existing Blu-ray players, although
the 4K UHD Players are backwards compatible (The
Oppo Digital UDP-203 will play 4K UHD
Blu-ray,
Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD,
DVD-Audio, SACD, and CD.) The format currently supports three
disc capacities, each with their own data rate: 50 GB with 82
Mbit/s, 66 GB with 108 Mbit/s, and 100 GB with 128 Mbit/s. There
is content available from Sony, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. 20th
Century Fox, Paramount Home Media Distribution, and Walt Disney
Studios. It destroys streaming in terms of quality, this format
is Region FREE playable worldwide plus more broadcast is going
the 4K route - notably for live sports. This is different from
4K restored Blu-ray transfers which
are becoming more common from Criterion, Arrow and others. As
stated above, DVDBeaver has purchased a
OLED65 LG TV
with Dolby Vision + HDR (increasing the color depth to 10-bit
per color) plus a versatile
Oppo Digital UDP-203 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
But we have not reviewed any UHD titles to date. Predictably
this format is superior to
Blu-ray (3,840 x 2,160 resolution)
and has initially gravitated to releasing popular, modern,
action and visually dynamic film in this disc format (see the
majority below). We hope to see some Around the World in
Eighty Days (1956), South Pacific (1958), Ben-Hur
(1959), West Side Story (1961), Mutiny on the Bounty
(1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963),
Cleopatra (1963), The Fall of the Roman Empire
(1964), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), My Fair Lady
(1964), The Sound of Music
(1965,) Airport (1970), and Patton (1970) in this
format in the near future.
Coming in 2020:
The 4K UHD - the
format is continuing with improved support and our Poll had more selections compared to
last year and we have reviewed (with screen captures!)
Suspiria,
Pan's Labyrinth,
The Wizard of Oz,
The Shining,
Batman Returns,
Don't Look Now,
The Man Who Killed Killed and then The Bigfoot,
Bram Stoker's Dracula,
Lucy,
They Live,
Shutter Island,
The Matrix,
Alien,
Toy Story,
A Few Good Men,
2001: A Space Odyssey,
Schindler's List,
The
Neon Demon, Dawn
of the Dead,
Saving
Private Ryan,
The
Texas Chain Saw Massacre,
The
Big Lebowski,
and I
Am Legend.
The TOP 10 vote-getters for 2019:
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First Place
is Lionsgate's
Apocalypse Now -
Final Cut 40th Anniversary [4K UHD] (Francis Ford
Coppola, 1979) . A never-before-seen and newly restored cut of
Francis Ford Coppola’s spectacular cinematic masterpiece in a
way which the director believes “looks better than it has ever
looked and sounds better than it has ever sounded”.
Apocalypse Now follows Army Captain Willard (Martin Sheen,)
a troubled man sent on a dangerous and mesmerizing odyssey into
Cambodia to assassinate a renegade American colonel named Kurtz
(Marlon Brando), who has succumbed to the horrors of war and
barricaded himself in a remote outpost.
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Second
Place
is Synapse's
Suspiria [4K
UHD] (Dario Argento, 1977) Synapse Films.
Jessica Harper stars
in this frightening tale of a young student who uncovers dark
and horrific secrets within the walls of a famous German dance
academy. What spirals out from that simple premise is one of the
most powerful and hallucinatory nightmares ever captured on
celluloid! Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA comes to home video from
Synapse Films in an exclusive new 4K restoration from the
original uncut, uncensored 35mm Italian camera negative, with
the original theatrical 4.0 English surround sound mix.
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Third Place is
Warner's The Shining [4K UHD] (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Region Free Warner. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter
caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his
writer's block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley
Duvall), and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who is plagued by psychic
premonitions. As Jack's writing goes nowhere and Danny's visions become
more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel's dark secrets and begins to
unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.
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In
Fourth Place is Fox’s Alien .
"In space, no one can hear you scream." A close encounter
of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien
invades a spacecraft in Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic. On
the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo's crew
is woken up from hibernation by the ship's Mother computer to
answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas's
(Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but
things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out
of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt).
.
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Fifth
Place
is Studio Canal's Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now.
Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie give career-best
performances as John and Laura Baxter, an art restorer and his
wife struggling to recover from the trauma of their daughter’s
accidental drowning. To assuage their grief, the young British
couple travel to wintry Venice, on a working holiday to restore
a church. Once there, they get involved with two otherworldly
sisters, Heather and Wendy (Hilary Mason and Clelia Matania),
one of whom is a blind medium who insists she can get them in
touch with their late daughter and warns them of danger. A truly
original work that blends psychological thriller with a
disturbing sense of the macabre, Don’t Look Now also
offers a profound and poignant mediation on love and loss.
Making evocative use of its disquieting, out-of-season setting,
an emerging generation of directors (not least Steven Soderbergh)
have cited the film as an influence, ensuring that its reputation
as a modern classic continues to grow.
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"This
is what we need physical media for. Leaps and bounds over
the other editions! Now where is the Man Who Fell to Earth"
- Peter Yacavone
"Don't Look Now is
such a deep film experience that you can get something new out
of each time you view it. It's parental bereavement issues,
mystery and horror elements and so underplayed at time that it
keeps you at a very high level of suspense. As the extras can
testify Roeg's 'language of color' is brilliant and unique -
remaining an integral part of the narrative. The 4K UHD image is
out-of-this-world and there are new highly valuable extras. It
couldn't happen to a more relevant film. Home theater
aficionados are truly living in the best of times." -
Gary Tooze |
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In
Sixth Place is Warner's The Wizard of Oz .
The fantasy/musical plot needs no preface, but - Dorothy
(Garland) is a schoolgirl living in Kansas with family and her
little dog, Toto. One afternoon, a twister sucks up Dorothy's
house and she and Toto are dropped beyond the rainbow into
Munchkinland. With a pair of magical red slippers and some
advice from Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke), Dorothy, Toto
and three new friends--the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Tin Man (Jack
Haley), and Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)--follow the yellow brick
road to the Emerald City, where they must ask the all-powerful
Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan) to get Dorothy and Toto back home.
The Wicked Witch (Margaret Hamilton), however, is determined to
get her hands on the slippers, and sends out her flying monkeys
to capture the group of new friends...
.
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"What can you say? - an absolute must-own and every few years, or 1/2 decade,
I revisit and remember the film's brilliance. Our culture would be weaker
without The Wizard of Oz and this is, quite handily, the best home theatre
presentation of all time. It's hypnotic - once you start you can't stop. Our
highest recommendation!" - Gary Tooze |
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Seven
Place
is Studio Canal's They Live.
NOTE: It was released in
late 2018 but our review was not till the summer of 2019,
confusing many voters. Our bad. It still got the seventh most
votes so we decided to leave it since I love it so much.
Set in an oppressive Reagan-era
Los Angeles, a place in the midst of a financial depression,
John Nada is a drifter in search of work. Landing a job on a
construction site and a place to stay in a homeless shanty town,
Nada stumbles upon an underground group and a pair of magical
sunglasses that allow him to see the truth – that aliens are
among us and control us through radio waves and subliminal
advertising. Looking through the sunglasses, we see a startling
depiction a drab grey world filled with creepy looking aliens
and embossed with sloganeering (‘Obey’, ‘Conform’, ‘Marry and
Reproduce’).
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"This is my most
rewatched John Carpenter film - myself and my two sons love the
passive alien invasion angle, and the noble drifter, perfectly
played by Rowdy Roddy Piper - who's "Nada" is reluctantly
exposed to the conspiracy. Carpenter's, prescient, deeper themes
continue to seem even more contemporary. The 4K package is a
winner - a huge advancement in a/v and all the previous extras
plus a new 3/4 hour documentary. If you appreciate this film -
the Studio Canal 4K UHD is, by far, the best presentation and
contains the most extras." - Gary Tooze |
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In
Eighth Place is
Warner's Batman Returns.
In this first sequel to 1989's Batman, the Caped Crusader
(Michael Keaton) is up against the Penguin (Danny DeVito), the
hideously deformed scion of a wealthy Gotham City family. The
Penguin plots with evil businessman Max Schreck (Christopher
Walken) to become mayor and then turn Gotham into a cathedral of
crime. Upon overhearing these plans, Schreck's mousy secretary
Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) is tossed from a high-rise
window by her boss. Rescued by a covey of kittens, Selena
transforms into the leather-clad Catwoman. In this guise, she
teams with the Penguin and Schreck to divvy up their ill-gotten
gains and help discredit Batman-but she also has her own scores
to settle.
"Batman Returns is such a visual and
character-driven film. Of the early Batmans' - it remains my
favorite - mostly, I think, because of the eclectic villains -
even Walken is superb - and, let's not forget, Burton's 'decor'
(adore the Wayne Mansion) plus the obvious with the ultimately
alluring Miss Pfeiffer as an unforgettable Catwoman / Selina
Kyle. Great dialogue here too - fun and 'superhero'-serious at
the same time. I was very pleased to view it in the 4K UHD
presentation. I still love the score and frequent eye-candy. If
you enjoy Batman Returns - this is the digital version to watch
it with." - Gary Tooze
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Ninth
Place
is Lionsgate's
The Witch. In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a
farmer (Ralph Ineson), his wife (Kate Dickie) and four of their
children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family
blames Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), the oldest daughter who was
watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. With
suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings Mercy (Ellie
Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson) suspect Thomasin of
witchcraft, testing the clan's faith, loyalty and love to one
another.
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"I'm glad the film got attention -
many did not like The Witch - and others, like myself, loved it.
I have bought this on the strength of the poll voting and look
forward to watching it in 4K UHD. I was especially keen on the
dialogue" - Gary |
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In
Tenth Place is Vinegar Syndrome's Tammy and the T-Rex.
Tammy is a popular high school cheerleader whose new boyfriend,
Michael, might be the love of her life. But Tammy’s jealous ex,
Billy, won’t stand for anyone coming between him and ‘his’ girl,
so he and his friends kidnap Michael, leaving him to be mauled
by a lion in a local wildlife reserve. Comatose and at death’s
door, Michael’s body is stolen from the hospital by mad
scientist Dr. Wachenstein, who extracts his brain and implants
it into a giant robotic T-Rex. Horrified by his predicament and
new dinosaur body, he escapes from the doctor’s lab and begins
brutally killing his former bullies. Meanwhile Tammy and her
best friend Byron start searching for a suitable human corpse in
which to re-transplant Michael's brain...
.
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"Well, more than a dozen people voted for this, Vinegar Syndrome's first
foray into 4K UHD. It was released on their site in 2019 but doesn't come to
Amazon till January 2020. We have a copy and will review!" - Gary |
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OUR BANNER CONTEST:
No one got them all but one individual were close with only
4 incorrect -
(kudos to the winner David Gillman and second
place to
Jeff Heinrich and Connie M.)
TOP ROW (left to right):
The Shining,
Secret Ceremony,
Robocop,
All About Eve,
Suspiria ('77),
'Monty Python's Flying Circus',
Wizard of Oz,
Blonde Venus,
Man Without
a Star,
Jezebel,
In Fabric,
The Story of Temple Drake,
Notorious,
Fragment of an Empire,
Last Year at Marienbad,
Gone to Earth,
Klute,
Cruising,
L'Argent,
Quartermass and the Pit,
This Island Earth,
The
Leopard Man,
A Blonde in Love,
Gone to Earth,
Bob le Flambeur,
The Circus,
Bob le Flambeur,
All the Colors of Giallo.
(CLICK to ENLARGE)
BOTTOM ROW
(left to right):
Gaslight,
La vie de Jésus,
They Live,
Silent Partner,
Bend of the River,
Boom!,
Eyes of Laura Mars,
The Heiress,
Fantômas,
Diamonds of the Night,
Alphaville,
This Island Earth,
Eyes of Laura Mars,
Romance,
Easy Rider,
The Body Snatcher,
Holy Mountain,
Detour,
Irma la Douce,
Phantom Lady,
Der Hund von Baskerville,
My Name is Julia Ross,
La Verité,
The Strange
Door,
Notorious,
These are the Damned,
Billy the Kid vs. Dracula,
Rider
on the Rain.
Thanks to all who participated!
Best Cover Designs:
Another year for impressive artistic covers whether from new
inventive artists or replicas of vintage posters! Arrow,
Criterion, Kino, Masters of Cinema, Indicator and a few other
labels getting a fair share of votes. So many inventive covers,
often chosen from extensive, artistic, old poster designs. Many
are collectable in their own right. ( Mostly in alphabetical
order! - each
received 4 or more votes!)
NOTE: Notice
the subtlety of Lionsgate's Apocalypse Now cover with the
reflection being Kurtz!
On SD DVD. Briefly, we only had a few DVDs selected this year
but the format is far from dead. I am watching more DVDs than
in previous years as I am always finding new films I want to expose myself to...
that aren't yet, and may never be, on Blu-ray.
This is what I recently watched (not from 2019)
(CLICK
for more information)
I have a pile of them on my desk to review and
am hoping to cover some in 2020!
Notable Rants and
Praise
Overwhelming kudos to Tim Lucas, Lee Gambin,
Kat Ellinger, Samm Deighan, the tri-fecta of Howard S. Berger,
Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson, constant accolades for
Toby Roan, Imogen Sara Smith, Michael Brooke, Richard Harland
Smith, Troy Howarth, Alex Cox, Eddie Muller, Alan K. Rode, Julie
Kirgo, Laura Mayne, Adrian Martin, Tony Rayns, Ted Newsom,
Constantine Nasr, David Kalat, C. Courtney Joyner, David Del
Valle, Stephen Thrower etc. etc. surface for their
excellent commentaries and/or analysis. Thank you ALL!
NOTE: Quite a few are also members of
DVDBeaver's Facebook group! Come join us!
"Condemn Paramount for its short-sighted lack of
interest in their own artistry and heritage. Paramount continues
to decline to release Blu-rays if a DVD has already previously
produced. They aren't even interested in licensing Blu-rays out
to other boutique labels. Hopefully, the recent trickle of
horror films from Shout and the recurring rumors will signal a
change in this customer-unfriendly policy.
Still unable to fathom why so many cinema classics have yet to
be released on Blu-ray:
Bringing Up Baby
Lady Eve
War of the Worlds
The Alamo
Freaks
Adam's Rib
Gunga Din
Stray Dog
Drunken Angel, etc.. etc. etc." - Gary Slatus
***
"Favourite package- Koker Trilogy for the
clever way the individual digipacks fit into one other- the 3rd
holds the 2nd which holds the 1st- just as 'Through the Olive
Trees.' reflects on 'And Life Goes On' which in turn is a
reflection on the locale and cast who appears in 'Where Is the
Friend's House' However I also have a gripe about it- the usual
one of Criterion outer boxes still being made of thin boards.
Could they send someone to Arrow Academy or Eureka to learn how
they make sturdy outer boxes? Even the BFI have got in the act
for god's sake!" - Billy Bang
***
"FAVORITE Commentary of 2019: Richard Harland
Smith - Alice Sweet Alice
The Italian Job 50th edition did not have a new remaster
of the film." - Moshe Black
***
Commentaries: "So many quality offerings it is
impossible to pick only one. I will single out some especially
notable regular contributors: Adrian Martin, Imogen Sara Smith,
Jonathan Rigby, Kat Ellinger, and the team of Kim Newman/Stephen
Jones." - Luc Pomerleau
***
"It’s absolutely amazing how many great releases
have come out in the midst of the (fakely proclaimed) death of
physical media. Hollywood hasn’t killed it yet.
-Are we really all just going to live in a world where THE OTHER
SIDE OF THE WIND is never going to receive a physical disc
release? SERIOUSLY? Come on Netflix- make a deal with somebody.
It cant hurt them one iota.
-I’m still waiting for Film Detective to release their
long-intended BD of CAPTAIN KIDD (1945). I really hope someone
will take note of this and add their voice.
-CRITERION, meanwhile, had a great year of releases, with less
bite-rate pinching, but I worry about their obsession with their
streaming channel, their determination to revisit titles already
available in excellent BD transfers, and the unavailability of
so many of their holdings on BLU-RAY. Criterion, it’s time to
give us the (formerly on DVD) holdings of KUROSAWA, KOBAYASHI
and SAM FULLER- not to mention RODAN and the rest of the TOHO
brood." - Peter Yacavone
***
"I think this was a great year for Criterion,
Arrow, and Shout/Factory. I shouldn't forget Kino, especially
with their releases of Alphaville, Last Year at Marienbad,
Dogtooth, and Hitchcock: British International Pictures
Collection." - David Hollingsworth
***
"Once again, I must complain when English
subtitles and/or closed captions are not included. This makes
those of us with hearing issues unable to enjoy such new
releases. I'm talking to you, Network in the UK and Warner
Archive in the US!
Keep up the great work, Gary. I hope several others increased
their Patreon donations and that this might help your website a
wee bit to survive." - David T. Steere Jr.
***
"FAVORITE LABEL: Arrow wins this narrowly for me.
However, this is really a great time for Boutique labels putting
out obscure gems with beautiful transfers and restoration work.
I feel indebted to many labels, both literally and figuratively.
I limited my top ten releases to one per label to show the field
of great labels doing the lord's work.
FAVORITE Commentary of 2019 (or commentaries): Really enjoyed
Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan's excellent commentary work on
Arrow's Blood Hunger: The Films of Jose Larraz boxset, ALL
THE COLORS OF THE DARK and Ellinger alone on THE
FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION and the trailers
compilation ALL THE COLORS OF GIALLO. Tim Lucas' track
for LOST HIGHWAY didn't make the blu-ray but it was still
a very interesting listen. Troy Howarth's commentary work on the
recent releases of Lucio Fulci have helped my appreciation of
the films, specifically CONQUEST and MURDER ROCK."
- Jason Overbeck
***
Favorite DVD of the Year: Microhabitat
(Contents Panda) - A touching and beautifully done film about a
young woman facing the challenges of life under economic
hardship." - Gregory Elich
***
"We are spoiled by the great work of the boutique
labels such as Arrow, Indicator, Masters of Cinema and many
others."
"Criterion UK had a stunning release slate this
year, but it is frustrating that releases are announced then
cancelled due to censor edits or clashes with other labels.
Surely, better to have done these territory checks before any
announcements are made?"
FAVORITE Commentary of 2019 (or commentaries): Cruising
(Arrow Video) - Commentary by William Friedkin and Mark Kermode
- William J Leitch
***
"Huge kudos to indies Le chat qui fume, Kino
Lorber, Synapse, and Vinegar Syndrome for adopting the 4K UHD
format! Which just makes it all the more aggravating that
Criterion and Arrow remain 1080p-bound holdouts. I used to look
to Criterion as the gold standard in home video - no longer."
-Jordan C. Johnson
***
"FAVORITE COMMENTARY: John Waters (Criterion) -
Yes, they are port-overs from previous releases, but Mr. Waters
*never* disappoints and his commentary on "Female Troubles"
and "Polyester" are not to be missed. You feel like
you're sitting in Mr. Water's rumpus room hearing him reminisce
about home movies (which, of course, we are).
This is my OCD talking, but I have to say my rant and praise go
hand-in-hand. These labels are all creating beautiful packaging
for their releases, however, they are so often very fragile
(O-rings, I'm looking at you) that they rarely survive the
rigors of the amazons and Walmarts of the world. I guess my
request is that companies either do away with the fancy
slipcases, or make them more durable (Vinegar Syndrome excels at
this). The whole point of such frills is to make the release
attractive on the shelf, but as (sadly) so few titles are made
available in brick & mortar stores in this day and age, I fail
to see the point. (And yes, I know that content should be the
thing, but I like my collection to look as lovely on my shelf as
they do on my flatscreen—First World Problems at their best!) "
- Todd Killinger
***
LABEL OF THE YEAR: Kino / BLU-RAY ESSAY OF THE
YEAR: A.L. Kennedy, 1984 / BLU-RAY COVER ART OF THE YEAR:
Cinema Guild, Gebo and the Shadow.
"This year was like no other for classical and
modernist films finding blu-ray releases. It's not improbable to
say 2019, by itself, offers a considerably well-rounded film
education! Criterion largely fell back upon sure bets and
standard bearers, while Kino, for example, brought numerous
nervier works to the light of day. The year was so bountiful
that it may prove to be the high-water mark of transporting
cinema's past into the present. For blu-ray releases, several of
the most demanding and rewarding filmmakers of the modernist
period, including Miklós Jancsó (with only two films on blu-ray
to his name, one incorrectly cropped!), Manoel de Oliveira (two
films) and Nagisa Oshima (four films) remain woefully
under-represented." - Peter Henne
***
"Favorite Commentaries of 2019: Dr Adrian Martin
for his erudite commentary on The Big Clock. Tom Weaver,
David Schecter and Dr. Robert J. Kiss share production minutiae
as the melodramatic excesses of The Strange Door unfold
on screen."
Best DVD: La Morte Che Assolve / The Absolving Death
(Carlo Alberto Lolli, 1918) MicLab Fondazione Cineteca Italiana
– A 2k restoration of the only surviving film of the great
silent era diva Elettra Raggio (1887-1973).
Shame on Universal for palming off Arrow Academy with a poor
master for their release of Phantom Lady. Also shame on Arrow
Academy for doing little about it and thinking no one would care
or notice. This noir deserves a better upgrade. Go in the
proverbial corner both and write a thousand times: “This is a
real mess. We apologize and will replace with a full 4k
restoration and re-release immediately.”
Why did Shout! Factory advertise a trailer on the sleeve of
their release The Body Snatchers? Unless it’s an Easter
egg it cannot be found on disc! Slipshod or what?
Bravo Les Documents Cinematographiques. Founded by Jean Painlevé
in 1930 this French company has released several features on
DVD. Veille D’Armes (1935) and La Route Impériale
(1935) both directed by Marcel L’Herbier. All their releases
carry English subs not only on the main feature itself, but on
all supplementary material as well. Trailers, interviews etc.
This is unheard of as far as the rest of French digital releases
are concerned.
- David Redfern
***
FAVORITE Commentary of 2019: Tie - David Jenkins
on "The Young Girls of Rochefort" (BFI) (UK) (RB) and Jim
Hemphill - "Betrayed" (BFI) (UK) (RB) Both are well
researched, informative, excellent exclusive commentary tracks.
Favorite DVD of the Year:
TIE: Do Not Adjust Your Set - Collector's Edition - BFI
(R2) / At Last the 1948 Show: The Complete Series - BFI
(R2) These two television releases feature the Monty Python crew
in their pre-Python days, along with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band,
Marty Feldman, "Captain Fantastic", memorable wacky skits, and
characters that stand the test of time. Both releases feature
all the surviving episodes with a huge amount of extras
including audio only surviving portions, lengthy new interviews,
and more.
Rants and Praises:
There are some honorable mentions to be made such as the 1920
German silent classic "Der Golem" (Eureka) (UK) (RB) and Milos
Forman's underrated 1981 film "Ragtime" (Arte Editions) (France)
(RB) receiving excellent treatment on Blu-ray - but those discs
have been delayed by the post office and I have not received
them personally yet, and I'm only going by other people's
trusted reviews. Sony's release of "Poetic Justice" (1993) was a
surprise, as they went a step further to include audition
footage and deleted scenes for the first time ever, all being
transferred in HD, plus a new interview with Singleton, which
unfortunately became his last with his passing only a few months
later. 88 Films as well as Eureka have been doing some excellent
work releasing restored editions of Jackie Chan films and other
Fortune Star properties, such as "The Protector" (1985) and
"Crime Story" (1993) from 88 Films and "Three Films with Sammo
Hung" and "Two Films by John Woo" from Eureka.
For some dishonorable mentions, "It's a Wonderful Life" may have
received a 4K restoration and new release from Paramount on UHD
and Blu-ray, but the release was a mess, with the US UHD release
only including the baffling color version on the bonus Blu-ray
and leaving off the previously released extras, and the
international Paramount UHD/BD releases having the restored
black and white version with none of the older extras, only
containing the quick new featurettes. It seems like it is
following the trend seen in Disney's line of "Signature Edition"
releases, by reissuing films already on Blu-ray with new extras,
and leaving behind the more significant older extras, and this
year Disney continues that as well with many of their reissues.
Besides presentation of the films themselves, the major labels
were not at their best in 2019, and sadly the trend will most
likely continue in that direction more for the future. -
James-Masaki Ryan
***
"Favorite DVD of the Year: A Place To Call
Home [Ltd Ed DVD] - Acorn - There are MOD Blu-ray editions
of this wonderful Australian melodrama 6-season series, but I
can't vouch for it. I can say that Acorn TV's 1080p streaming
sports a great image but the audio suffers from PAL speedup
which the DVD doesn't - Go figure." - Leonard Norwitz
***
"Praise to Arrow for finally announcing the
Jodorowsky boxset for 2020, the accompanying cinema releases are
also much welcomed. Rant that it's been a rumour for so long and
that the cover art wasn't slightly more original!" -L H
***
FAVORITE Commentary of 2019 (or commentaries):
Michael Brooke on SR's Diamonds of the Night!
***
"Great stuff still being put out by the major
boutique labels including Arrow, Criterion, Eureka/MoC, Second
Run, Second Sight, Indicator, and more, although the prospects
for 2020 seem less hopeful at this point. Would like to see
Arrow and others do some 4K UHD releases for their bigger
titles." -Timothy Holm
***
The most disappointing commentary of the year was
Nick Pinkerton's on KL's The Milky Way. Not only does he miss
some facts and trivia that are either well-known or easily
available through basic research, but he gets a bit lost in the
picaresque trip woven by Buńuel and Carričre. He also relies too
heavily on lengthy quotations from previous scholarship. Perhaps
a general lack of empathy with the director's work in his final
French phase, a culture and language Pinkerton may not be very
familiar with.
***
"A weaker year in comparison to 2017 and 2018,
apart from "Detour" no big and hugely-waited title
released (e.g. "Othello" and "The Magnificent
Ambersons" in 2017/8 or "Barry Lyndon") but a solid
year of improvements of existing HD titles with a lot of
masterpiece released in definitive releases.
Nick Wrigley, the best cover designer of all: his work of
reshaping of original materials to fit the covers is stunning
and inspirational. PRAISE! Warner: a lot done (with the Archive
collection and the collaboration with Criterion and now Arrow)
but a lot to be done: another year has passed without any
"Greed", any "The Wind", any "The Devils" in HD. Italian labels:
it's a hard life, but something is really moving. Koch Media
Italy a few years ago entered in the collector box-set territory
with excellent results; Eagle Pictures is the exclusive
distributor of the Studiocanal library in the territory and
entered in the 4k field; CG Entertainment just announced the HD
distribution of Alberto Grimaldi's library (new 4K restoration
of Bertolucci's "1900" and "Last Tango in Paris" or Fellini's
"Ginger and Fred" and "Casanova" coming soon in 2020). ". -
Alfredo Santoro
***
"FAVORITE Commentary of 2019: Too many to mention
but if you see names like Tim Lucas, Lee Gambin, Kat Ellinger,
Samm Deighan, Howard S. Berger, you know you're in good hands".
- Colin Zavitz
"Some of my favorite films of 2019 received the
'barebones' release treatment and/or DVDBeaver did not review. I
hope to recommend those titles at a future date. As always,
working with Gary is an absolute pleasure and I look forward to
many more years. Thank you to all our Patrons and supporters for
keeping us afloat when things looked rough. Looking forward to
next year's look back, if not just so I can say that "hindsight
is 2020". - Colin Zavitz
***
FAVORITE Commentary of 2019 (or commentaries):
Amanda Reyes- DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (Warner
Archive)
I need to say a few words about info on the back covers. It
sounds like a niche complaint, but the type is getting smaller
and the organization is haphazard. I really hope companies think
this through in the future
Arrow needs to come back to Beyond Fest. We miss you guys!
I really dug a bunch of Severin's releases (like VIY), but what
is up with THE CHANGELING? Has the disc been fixed?
I love Second Run as a company. Lots of cool discs from movies
that have been almost forgotten. Can they start a US / Canada
office? Same thing with Third Window- you guys are the only ones
putting out Sion Sono films and there's an audience in Region A
for them.
African cinema is almost unknown in the US, almost non-existent
outside major cities, and disc presence is even worse. A
champion is needed.
The company reps that pop up on message boards- you guys are
awesome. Keep it up. And the companies that send reps to
conventions- you rule. I love seeing those guys.
Paramount (and now the Miramax library) really needs to get more
of their catalog titles out to boutique labels. Some of their
early efforts are encouraging, but I fear they could get easily
discouraged.
The Vestron Line is sorely missed.
I am deeply concerned about titles from 20th Century Fox. I'd
buy blu-rays of ANNE OF THE INDIES, A HATFUL OF RAIN, and SONS
AND LOVERS if they appeared, but with Twilight Time in a state
of ambiguity and Disney being "coy," we might be looking at a
situation comparable to Paramount's.
I'm making my annual plea to get THE DEVILS on blu.
Criterion- This the 60th Anniversary of SPARTACUS. A new
blu is overdue.
So, what's up with Olive? We're starting to worry.
I know this is a laundry list, but I actually like a lot of
what's out there. If I didn't care, I wouldn't be complaining.
Gabriel Neeb
***
My 'coulda, woulda, shoulda' list of a few
Blu-rays that, I think,
deserved a little more love than our poll supplied them:
In the Heat of the
Night
[Blu-ray]
(Norman Jewison, 1967) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Charly [Blu-ray]
(Ralph Nelson, 1968) Kino
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The
Possessed [Blu-ray]
(Luigi Bazzoni, Franco Rossellini, 1965) Arrow
Video UK
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Peppermint Soda [Blu-ray]
(Diane Kurys, 1977) Cohen
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
La
vérité [Blu-ray]
(Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Human Desire [Blu-ray]
(Fritz Lang, 1954) RB UK Eureka
(BEAVER
REVIEW) - key Noir - Gloria
Grahame and Glenn Ford - Gary
To
Sleep with Anger [Blu-ray]
(Charles Burnett, 1990) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Trapped [Blu-ray]
(Richard Fleischer, 1949) Flicker Alley
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Kid Brother
[Blu-ray]
(Ted Wilde, 1927) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Far from Heaven
[Blu-ray]
(Todd Haynes, 2002) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Jivaro 3D [Blu-ray
3D] (Edward Ludwig, 1954) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
River's Edge [Blu-ray]
(Tim Hunter, 1986) RB DE Alive
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Rider on the Rain [Blu-ray]
(René Clément, 1970) Kino
(BEAVER
REVIEW) - Loved this to death
- Gary
Diamonds of the Night [Blu-ray]
(Jan Němec, 1964) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
A Face in the Crowd [Blu-ray]
(Elia Kazan, 1957) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Lilith [Blu-ray]
(Robert Rossen, 1964) RB UK Indicator
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Snake Pit [Blu-ray]
(Anatole Litvak, 1948) RB UK Indicator
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Shoulda been in the TOP 50 -
Gary
Fantomas 1960s Collection (Fantomas / Fantomas
Unleashed / Fantomas vs. Scotland Yard)
[Blu-ray]
(André Hunebelle, 1964-1967) Kino
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Spanish
Prisoner [Blu-ray]
(David Mamet, 1997) Ammo Content
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Not a great BD but this is my most
rewatched film - Gary
All About Lily Chou-Chou [Blu-ray]
(Shunji Iwai, 2001) Film Movement Classics
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Alligator People [Blu-ray]
(Roy Del Ruth, 1959) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Nun (aka La religieuse) [Blu-ray]
(Jacques Rivette, 1966) Kino
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
[Blu-ray]
(Tommy Lee Jones, 2005) Sony
(ALT-BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Haven't even see this
particular BD but am a huge fans of this film
and have all the Euro Blu-rays - Gary
Who?
[Blu-ray]
(Jack Gold, 1974) UK Indicator
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Very weird, very cool - Gary
The Andromeda Strain [Blu-ray]
(Robert Wise, 1971) UK Arrow Video
(ALT-BEAVER
REVIEW)
Death and the Maiden
[Blu-ray]
(Roman Polanski, 1994) RB DE Studio Canal
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Probably my favorite Polanski after The
Tennant (why ain't that on BD?) - Gary
The Silent Partner [Blu-ray]
(Daryl Duke, 1978) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Canucksploitation - looks like The Eaton's
Centre! - Gary
Scum [Blu-ray]
(Alan Clarke, 1979) Region Free UK Indicator
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The
Wild Heart [Blu-ray]
(Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1952) Kino
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
My fav Jen Jonres and its P+P -
Gary
Peter Pan [Blu-ray]
(Herbert Brenon, 1924) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
This Island Earth [Blu-ray]
(Joseph M. Newman, 1955) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
My fav 50's sci-fi and finally in the best
presentation - Gary
Attack of the Robots (aka Cartes sur table)
[Blu-ray]
(Jess Franco, 1966) Redemption
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
I actually liked a Jess Franco flic!
- Gary
The Psychic [Blu-ray]
(Lucio Fulci, 1977) Scorpion Releasing
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
1984
[Blu-ray]
(Michael Radford, 1984) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Shoulda been in the TOP 50 -
Gary
Criss Cross
[Blu-ray]
(Robert Siodmak, 1949) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn [Blu-ray] (Elia
Kazan, 1945) RB UK Eureka
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Leopard Man [Blu-ray]
(Jacques Tourneur, 1943) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Master-poet of a director
- Gary
L'Argent [Blu-ray]
(Marcel L'Herbier, 1928) Flicker Alley
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Harder They Come [Blu-ray]
(Perry Henzell, 1972) Shout! Factory
(ALT-BEAVER
REVIEW)
- "A 4K restoration in the
original 1.66:1 framing, including the long unreleased follow-up
film "No Place Like Home", plus over 8 hours of extras, this 3
disc edition is the definition of a definitive release."
- James-Masaki Ryan
The Ear (aka Ucho) [Blu-ray]
(Karel Kachyna, 1970) RB UK Second Run
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice [Blu-ray]
(Yasujirô Ozu, 1952) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Shoulda been in the TOP 50 -
Gary
The Leech Woman [Blu-ray]
(Edward Dein, 1960) Shout!
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Circus of Horrors
[Blu-ray]
(Sidney Hayers, 1960) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Bizarre horror fun! - Gary
Mirage [Blu-ray]
(Edward Dmytryk, 1965) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Eyes of Laura Mars [Blu-ray]
(Irvin Kershner, 1978) Region Free Indicator
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
The Letter
[Blu-ray]
(William Wyler, 1940) Warner Archive
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Coulda been in the TOP 50 - Gary
Hercules in the Haunted World
[Blu-ray]
(Mario Bava, 1961) Kino
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
A Journey to the Beginning of Time [Blu-ray]
(Karel Zeman, 1955) UK Second Run
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
- "With releases of director
Karel Zeman's Czech special effects masterpieces "Invention for
Destruction" and "The Fabulous Baron Munchausen" on Blu-ray last
year, Second Run follows them up with the director's 1955 film
inspired by "Journey to the Center of the Earth". With two
versions of the film and a good amount of extras to support the
4K restoration, it's a wondrous experience to behold more than
60 years later."
- James-Masaki Ryan
Fright [Blu-ray]
(Peter Collinson, 1971) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Ummm.. SUSAN GEORGE! Nu'ff said -
Gary
When We Were Kings
[Blu-ray]
(Leon Gast, 1996) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Coulda been in the TOP 50 - Gary
Zoltan... Hound of Dracula (aka Dracula's Dog)
[Blu-ray]
(Albert Band, 1977) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Let your hair down you snobs! -
Gary
Days of Wine and Roses
[Blu-ray]
(Blake Edwards, 1962) Warner Archive
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
This film makes me weep! - Gary
Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (aka
Lycanthropus) [Blu-ray]
(Paolo Heusch, 1961) Severin
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Krimi-esque fun! - Gary
Cold War
[Blu-ray]
(Pawel Pawlikowski, 2018) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Can't believe this did not
make TOP 10 - may be the best film I saw in
2019! - Gary
Fawlty Towers - The Complete Collection
[Blu-ray]
- RB UK BBC
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
This show makes me sob... in tears of
laughter - Gary
Un Flic [Blu-ray]
(Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972) Kino Lorber
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Green for Danger
[Blu-ray]
(Sidney Gilliat, 1946) RB UK Network
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
- Best 'Who-Dun-It' in its era and beyond
- Gary
Upgrade [Blu-ray]
(Leigh Whannell, 2018) RB UK Second Sight
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Already given many deserved accolades
- Gary
The Holly and the Ivy
[Blu-ray]
(George More O'Ferrall, 1952) Kino
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Now, Voyager
[Blu-ray]
(Irving Rapper, 1942) Criterion
(BEAVER
REVIEW)
Coulda easily have been in the TOP 50 -
many votes but fell short - Gary
Secret Ceremony [Blu-ray]
(Joseph Losey, 1968) RB UK Indicator
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
Very weird, very cool -
Gary
The Abominable Snowman [Blu-ray]
(Val Guest, 1957) Shout! Factory
(BEAVER
REVIEW) -
My favorite New Hammer of 2019 -
Gary
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