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Phantom of the Paradise
BD - A Faustain Rock Opera
version of Phantom Of The Opera. Record producer Swan (Paul
Williams) absconds with both the music and the female, Phoenix
(Jessica Harper), from the composer Winslow Leach (William
Finley). Disfigured by an injection-molding pressing plant, and
now mask-donning, Leach plots revenge on Swan and his
anticipated rock concert palace, The Paradise, by transforming
onto 'The Phantom'. Leach signs a contract with Swan to complete
the rock opera based on the life of Faust with Phoenix to star.
Leach exacts his vengeance, Hunchback of Notre Dame style, when
he is double crossed by Swan who instead hires pill-popping
feminine male glam-rock prima donna Beef (Gerrit Graham).
Arrow Blu-ray Release Date: February 24th, 2014
The Killers
BD - So muses hitman Charlie (Lee Marvin)
after his high-priced victim Johnny North (John Cassavetes)
gives in without a fight. Obsessed with the answer, Charlie and
his hot-headed associate Lee (Clu Gulager) track down Johnny's
associates, and uncover a complex web of crime and deceit
involving his femme fatale girlfriend Sheila (Angie Dickinson)
and ruthless mob boss Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan in his last
screen role).
Blu-ray Release date: February 24th, 2014
Darkman
BD - Neglecting Julie (Frances McDormand), his
lawyer lady friend, Dr. Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) works
feverishly to perfect his latest invention -- artificial skin
that could be used to treat burn victims. Peyton himself falls
victim to an explosion when one of Julie's crooked clients sends
his henchmen to sniff out an incriminating document that's been
left in Westlake's lab. Hideously disfigured and left for dead,
the good doctor receives an experimental medical treatment that
renders him super-strong, impervious to pain and prone to
heightened fits of rage. Rebuilding his lab into an underground
hideout, Westlake begins using his synthetic skin to impersonate
various characters and engineer his revenge against those who
destroyed his life. Reconnecting with Julie, however, becomes
the unsightly vigilante's biggest challenge.
Blu-ray Release
date: February 18th, 2014
The Mummy (1959)
BD - One by one the archaeologists who
discover the 4,000-year-old tomb of Princess Ananka are brutally
murdered. Kharis (Lee), high priest in Egypt 40 centuries ago,
has been brought to life by the power of the ancient gods and
his sole purpose is to destroy those responsible for the
desecration of the sacred tomb. But Isobel Banning (Furneaux),
wife of one of the explorers (Cushing), resembles the beautiful
princess, forcing the speechless and tormented monster to defy
commands and abduct Isobel to an unknown fate...
Blu-ray
Release date: November 5th, 2012
The Shadow
BD - A crime fighter created in the 1930s and
popularized in movies, pulp novels, and a radio show starring a
young Orson Welles, The Shadow came back to life in 1994 in this
slick, well-cast production. Alec Baldwin stars as Lamont
Cranston, a murderous opium dealer reformed by a Tibetan mystic,
who teaches him how to use his keen mental powers to manipulate
others. As penance for his past misdeeds, Cranston masquerades
as a degenerate New York City playboy by day and secretly plays
the heroic Shadow by night, staving off evildoers with a network
of agents and a cab-driving sidekick (Peter Boyle). A greater
challenge arrives when Cranston must fight Shiwan Khan (John
Lone), the final descendent of Genghis Khan, who has received
training from the same Tibetan master who instructed Cranston.
Shiwan plans to use atomic weapons to take over New York and
then the world. At the same time, Cranston meets socialite Margo
Lane (Penelope Ann Miller), and, although he's instantly
enamored of her, he discovers that her psychic abilities render
his secret identity vulnerable. Shout! Factory
Blu-ray
Release Date: February 25th, 2014
The Boston Strangler
BD - Boston women are being terrorized by a
serial killer who appears to be striking at random. Based on the
true story, the docu-melodrama follows the detectives path
through multiple leads. Only after that are we introduced to the
Strangler (Tony Curtis). The story closely follows the
perspective of the investigators who have very few leads, but
doggedly follow them up. Fleischer's split-screen imagery method
is at first unique but appears for extended periods of the movie
making it uncomfortable to settle into. The film coldly deals
with its subject matter with visual clues and adept depth.
Divided into two parts (the chase and the questioning) anyone
who has the remotest interest in police investigation will be
intrigued. Curtis, Fonda and Kennedy were all excellent.
Blu-ray Release Date: April 17th, 2013
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
BD - Jacques Demy's 1964 masterpiece
is a pop-art opera, or, to borrow the director's own
description, a film in song. This simple romantic tragedy begins
in 1957. Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French
auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève
Emery (a luminous Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed
mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the
evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in
Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and
must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an
offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel,
reprising his role from Demy's masterful debut, Lola). A
completely sung movie, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is closest in
form to a cinematic opera. Composer Michel Legrand composed the
score, modeling it around the patterns of everyday conversation.
Blu-ray Release Date: February 10th, 2014
Downhill (Hitchcock)
BD - Superlative technique from the
27-year-old Hitchcock almost – but not quite – compensates for
the major script problems (see below). Camerawork is
consistently imaginative and ahead-of-its-time, including some
startling hand-held sequences towards the end as Roddy staggers,
fever-stricken, off a boat. Most breathtakingly virtuoso touch
is a complex shot pulling back from Roddy adjusting his tie – we
think he's dressing up for a fancy evening out, then realise
he's working as a waiter, and then realise he's playing a waiter
on stage. Brilliantly done. Hitchcock is clearly not especially
interested in the story (who can blame him?) but uses it as an
excuse to explore the medium (much use of colour-tints to
indicate the 'moods' of various scenes) and generally learn the
ropes.
Blu-ray Release date: November 7th, 2013
The Reptile
BD - This chilling monster film metaphorically
examines the horrors brought home by British colonialism. Harry
and Valerie (Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel) inherit the Cornwall
home of Harry's brother, who died under mysterious
circumstances. The local villagers are tight-lipped and afraid,
and the couple's neighbor, the hostile Dr. Franklin (Noel
Willman), hides in a large mansion with his frightened daughter
Anna (Jacqueline Pearce) and a strange foreign man (Marne
Maitland). The truth is that Franklin had been investigating a
secret tribe of snake-people on his last trip to Borneo, and
they had reacted to his intrusion by making Anna one of them. As
a result, the girl turns into a hideous cobra-woman every
winter, with bulging eyes, a scaly face, and large, venomous
fangs.
Blu-ray Release date: June 18th, 2012
Come Back, Africa - The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 2
BD -
Lionel Rogosin's religion could be dubbed liberation
cinematography he made films as a way to fight injustice. In
1957, Rogosin followed his calling to South Africa creating Come
Back, Africa - a powerful and moving drama exposing the harsh
reality of life under the system apartheid. Shooting secretly
under the very noses of the feared South African police, Rogosin,
his crew and his cast (including journalists/activists Lewis
Nkosi, Bloke Modisane, and Can Themba) risked arrest and
deportation. Miriam Makeba, whose electrifying appearance in
Come Back, Africa launched a legendary career, found herself
banned from her country after she traveled to Venice for the
movie's premiere. The scenes shot in the vibrant black ghetto of
Sophiatown are precious images of a lost world. Nkosi later said
of the film, It is a monument. We were able to show the world
what South Africa really was like.
Blu-ray Release date:
February 25th, 2014
Serpico
BD - Adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from Peter
Maas's book, Sidney Lumet's drama portrays the real-life
struggle of an honest New York City cop against a corrupt
system. Neophyte officer Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) is determined
not to let his job get in the way of his individuality. Despite
his colleagues' leery reactions, he keeps one foot firmly
planted in the counterculture, sporting a beard and love beads
and living in bohemian Greenwich Village, while he performs his
police duties with dispatch. Serpico's peers genuinely ostracize
him, however, when he refuses to take bribes like everybody
else. Appalled by the extent of police corruption, Serpico goes
to his superiors, but when he discovers that they have ignored
his charges, he takes the potentially fatal step of breaking the
blue wall of silence and going public with his exposé.
Masters of Cinema Blu-ray Release Date: February 24th, 2014
Stolen Face - Classic Hammer horror, about an obsessive surgeon
and the lengths he will go to for the perfect wife. After Dr
Philip Ritter (Paul Henreid) falls in love with talented pianist
Alice Brent (Lizbeth Scott), he is devastated when he finds that
his feelings are not reciprocated. Taking in disfigured convict
Lily (Mary Mackenzie), Ritter uses his plastic surgery skills to
remodel her face into an exact likeness of Alice, convinced that
he can cure her criminal tendencies by curing her outward
appearance. Ritter soon realises the extent of his mistake when
Lily quickly reverts to her criminal ways. DVD Release Date:
November 5th, 2012
23 Paces to Baker Street - Van Johnson portrays a blind American
writer living in London. Blessed with an acute hearing sense,
Johnson overhears a kidnapping plot but neither his friends nor
the authorities believe him, chalking up his story as the
product of a writer's imagination. Disgruntled, Johnson vows to
scuttle the kidnapping himself -- with the assistant of his
fiancée Vera Miles. Despite his handicap, Johnson puts the
pieces together using sounds as evidence and guidance.
Ultimately Johnson finds his life in danger when he corners the
criminal in a dark alley. 23 Paces to Baker Street was one of
several ''50s 20th Century-Fox films shot on location in London
to take advantage of Fox's "frozen funds" -- money earned by the
studio in England which by law could only be spent in that
country. DVD Release Date: March 1st, 2013
Alice, Sweet Alice - When ten-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields in
her first screen appearance) is killed in church on the occasion
of her first communion, her seemingly innocent older sister
Alice (Paula Sheppard) becomes the prime suspect. Matters become
complicated as more of Alice s family members are attacked,
along with residents of her apartment building. Can a
twelve-year-old girl be capable of such mayhem, or is someone
else with a vicious plan destroying her family? DVD Release
Date: February 17th, 2014
Dr. Mordrid - Doctor Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs) is an
interdimensional sorcerer whose earth cover consists of acting
as a super for a Manhattan apartment building. He gets word from
his contact that a rival sorcerer, Kabal (Brian Thompson), has
escaped and is coming to earth to take over the planet. Framed
by Kabal for murder, Mordrid is sent to jail where his
girlfriend (Yvette Nipar) is the only one who can help him
escape -- and prevent the destruction of Earth. DVD Release
Date: February 17th, 2014
Frost - At a remote glacier drilling station on the outskirts of
the arctic circle, two young researchers wake up to discover
that their station base camp has been mysteriously abandoned
with no sign of their team anywhere. As the arctic weather
worsens and darkness descends the base is shaken by
ear-splitting screams and flashing lights. Believing these to be
signs of their missing colleagues the pair head out into the
darkness frantically following a trail of blood in the snow, not
knowing what they will find at the other end… DVD Release Date:
February 10th, 2014
Antisocial - Five university friends gather at a house party to
ring in the New Year. Unbeknownst to them, an epidemic has
erupted outside, causing outbreaks around the world. With
nowhere else to turn, they barricade themselves indoors with
only their phones, laptops, and other tech devices. They use
their devices to research the possible cause of this outbreak.
Information and video footage over flow their computers as they
descend further into the cause and the ensuing chaos. As the
virus spreads, the mood in the house changes from fear to
paranoia. Who is safe? Who can they trust? Reality becomes
blurred as they slowly discover the source of the virus causing
the sickness...and there is no going back. DVD Release Date:
January 28th, 2014
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