Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF April 2nd, 2018

Tālofa! Another strong week with Blu-ray reviews of packages by Indicator, Masters of Cinema, Arrow, Twilight Time, Kino, Elephant Films, Studio Canal, Severin Films, Movinside and others - directed by Robert Siodmak, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Terence Fisher, Richard Fleischer, André De Toth, Stephen Frears, Takashi Miike, Anthony Harvey, Jesús Franco, Philip D'Antoni, Peter Sykes, Dick Clement. Our Calendar has films-to-Blu-ray, including works by Ridley Scott, John Carpenter, Allan Dwan, King Hu, Sergio Martino, Peter Yates, William A. Seiter, J. Lee Thompson, Ewald André Dupont, Michael Cimino, Herk Harvey, Joe Wright, Steven Spielberg, Roman Polanski, Hirokazu Koreeda and we have our Feature Blu-ray for APRIL posted plus the winners of our recent CONTEST published for the month of March with the 3 amazing prizes. Enjoy!!

LISTING PAGES:

50's + 60's SCIENCE-FICTION (on Blu-ray), CREATURE-FEATURES (on Blu-ray!), PRE-CODE FILMs (on Blu-ray!), SILENT ERA FILMs (on Blu-ray!), HAMMER Studios (on Blu-ray!) The 100 BEST Neo-Noirs (on Blu-ray!), The GREATEST 100 Westerns (on Blu-ray!), Giallo on Blu-ray!, ESSENTIAL NOIR on Blu-ray!, Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.FR (France), Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.DE (Germany) and our LATEST ARTICLES: Movies From... the End of the World,  The Beauties of Star Trek (TOS)

DVDBeaver has their own store at Movie Zyng - check it out! Many have $1 shipping - even overseas!

Feature Blu-ray chosen for the Month of APRIL!

FOLLOW US on TWITTER! (where we post important reviews, contests - prizes, polls, calendar updates - plus much more...)

Month of March CONTEST WINNERS: 

S. Papadimitriou wins Criterion's AK Akira Kurosawa Box

David K. of LA wins the Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

and J.D. Lafrance wins the sealed Criterion Blu-ray of "The Third Man" (thanks to everyone for participating - stay tuned for a new contest soon!)

If there are DVD or Blu-ray titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend!

Gary at 2ze dot com

ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): I was so pleased this week with the Masters of Cinema Early Hou Hsiao-Hsien: THREE FILMS 1980-1983 Blu-ray package - important film with expert analysis - a pure keepsake. The Lion in Winter is a magnificent film and despite some reservation on the 4K-restored image there is plenty to appreciate, including a commentary with this Kino Blu-ray release. I got quite a kick out of the Arrow Blu-ray of Takashi Miike's samurai fantasy Blade of the Immortal. It has homage in the over-the-top, detailed production incorporating an immense amount of savagery and blood. Otley is a very cute UK adventurous comedic spy-spoof - such a nice surprise on Blu-ray from Indicator. Richard Fleischer's The New Centurions get another impressive, Region FREE, Blu-ray release - now from Twilight Time - a solid cop-drama based on the Joseph Wambaugh novel. Speaking of early 70's Police films, and Twilight Time Blu-ray releases, we get an alternate video presentation with their Blu-ray of the car-chase-intense The Seven-Ups with Roy Scheider. Wooah. Robert Siodmak's iconic Noir Criss Cross gets a slight Blu-ray upgrade but fans of the dark cinema deserve a more complete package. The Elephant Films Blu-ray will have to suffice while we wait. So much can be read into Andre de Toth's Ramrod with Veronica Lake - a unique western in a great Blu-ray package from Arrow. Stephen Frears' debut feature, Gumshoe, where a wannbee private-eye, played by Albert Finney, who is thrust into a real missing person mystery. Great fun on Blu-ray from Indicator. I enjoyed the murder-mystery Town on Trial on Blu-ray from Indicator. A British crime thriller that deals with police-procedures and a sideline romance for the head detective played by John Mills. While I still love this Brit Horror with the Hammer-esque trifecta of Cushing, Lee and Fischer - I'm afraid we are still waiting for a superior Blu-ray release of Night of the Big Heat. One of the last Hammer Horror efforts - the 1976 To the Devil a Daughter has Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Denholm Elliott and Nastassja Kinski - Satanists and religion make for an enticement of the Studio Canal Blu-ray. One of Jess Franco's better efforts - which is not saying volumes - The Sadist of Notre Dame comes to, Region FREE, Blu-ray from Severin. It has the director himself play a defrocked priest turned hooker-slashing psychopath. Yeah - that's right. Eric covered The Crossbreed on DVD - another bargain-basement demonic possession popcorner...

'I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.' - The Shawshank Redemption

Have a week with new film experiences!

The Lion in Winter BD - It's Christmas 1183, and King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) is planning to announce his successor to the throne. The jockeying for the crown, though, is complex. Henry has three sons and wants his boy Prince John (Nigel Terry) to take over. Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn), has other ideas. She believes their son Prince Richard (Anthony Hopkins) should be king. As the family and various schemers gather for the holiday, each tries to make the indecisive king choose their option. Blu-ray Release Date: March 13th, 2018

Early Hou Hsiao-Hsien: THREE FILMS 1980-1983 BD - One of world cinema s most dynamic and highly regarded auteurs, Hou Hsiao-hsien has influenced entire generations of filmmakers and was once dubbed one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema . The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present three films from early in his career, Cute Girl, The Green, Green Grass of Home and The Boys from Fengkuei, all making their worldwide debut on Blu-ray. Blu-ray Release Date: April 16th, 2018

To the Devil a Daughter BD - Occult novelist John Verney (Widmark) is on a book-signing tour in London when he’s approached by friend Henry Beddows (Elliott), who asks him to look after Henry’s daughter Catherine (Kinski). Catherine, raised (almost since birth) in a remote convent in Bavaria, has been under the careful tutelage of the mysterious Father Michael Rayner (Lee). As events unfold, Rayner is revealed to be an excommunicated priest heading a cult of satanic worshipers following the demon Astaroth. Blu-ray Release Date: January 29th, 2018

Criss Cross BD - Robert Siodmak was one of the most influential stylists of the 40s, helping to create, in films such as Phantom Lady and The Killers, the characteristic look of American film noir. But most of his films have nothing more than their pictorial qualities to recommend them--Criss Cross being one of the few exceptions, an archly noir story replete with triple and quadruple crosses, leading up to one of the most shockingly cynical endings in the whole genre. Movinside Blu-ray Release Date: February 6th, 2018

The Seven-Ups BD - Roy Scheider stars as Buddy Manucci who leads 'The Seven-Ups', an elite squad of undercover detectives known for their ruthlessly efficient tactics and their record of putting away criminals for a minimum of seven years. Twilight Time's Blu-ray Release Date: March 2018

The New Centurions BD - Richard Fleischer's gritty and fateful portrait of LA cops adapted from Joseph Wambaugh’s autobiographical bestseller, is anchored by superb performances from George C. Scott as a world-weary older cop who quietly fears becoming obsolete, and Stacy Keach as the young rookie he takes under his wing. Twilight Time's Blu-ray Release Date: March 2018

Night of the Big Heat BD - A freak heat wave sends the temperatures soaring on a remote island. Dr Stone (Peter Cushing) and Callum (Patrick Allen) try to uncover the mysterious reason for the sudden change in climate. But the arrival of Callum's former mistress (Jane Merrow) forces the atmosphere to boiling point and it falls to Godfrey Hanson (Christopher Lee) to discover that the rising heat is the start of an invasion of merciless aliens... Movinside Blu-ray Release Date: September 28th, 2017

The Sadist of Notre Dame BD - Franco himself stars as a defrocked priest turned hooker-slashing psychopath, prowling the streets of Paris in a fever of violence, voyeurism, rampant nudity and S&M depravity. Olivier Mathot, Pierre Taylou, Antonio DeCabo and Jess' beloved muse Lina Romay co-star in what Franco considered to be his most personal film of all, now scanned in 4k from elements discovered in the crawlspace of a Montparnasse nunnery. Blu-ray Release Date: April 3rd, 2018

Blade of the Immortal BD - Based on the Manga series of the same name by Hiroaki Samura, Blade stars Takuya Kimura (Love and Honour) as Manji, a highly skilled samurai, who becomes cursed with immortality after a legendary battle. Haunted by the brutal murder of his sister, Manji knows that only fighting evil will regain him his soul. He promises to help a young girl named Rin (Hana Sugisaki) avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by ruthless warrior Anotsu (Sôta Fukushi). The mission will change Manji in ways he could never imagine... Blu-ray Release Date: April 2nd, 2018

Ramrod BD - Andre de Toth's bizarre Freudian western (1947, 94 min.) features Veronica Lake in drag and Joel McCrea as a fading phallic symbol (you thought the title was accidental?) performing a barely sublimated sadomasochistic ritual—she's a lady ranch owner who teams up with her foreman to put her chief competitor, her father, out of business. Blu-ray Release Date: March 5th, 2018

Otley BD - Tom Courtenay plays Gerald Arthur "Gerry" Otley, a charming but feckless young drifter who scrapes a living from selling antiques in trendy 1960s London. Gerry's responsibility-free life suddenly takes a serious turn, when he finds himself caught up in a round of murder, espionage and quadruple crossing. He is mistaken for a spy; is kidnapped and detained several times; and becomes romantically involved with a foreign agent (Romy Schneider) working for British Intelligence. Blu-ray Release Date: March 19th, 2018

Gumshoe BD - Finney plays a bingo caller and failed comedian in a seedy Liverpool nightclub who imagines himself a Bogart-like detective ("gumshoe" was a common slang term for a private eye, a reference to the soft-soled shoes worn for sneaking around unheard). The story, narrated by Finney's Eddie Ginley in language imitative of the tough-talking heroes created by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, follows Ginley's initial foray into his dream job when his advertised services are called upon by a mysterious fat man who provides him with a young woman's photo, a gun, and a 1000 pounds in cash but no instructions. Blu-ray Release Date: March 19th, 2018

Town on Trial BD - This gripping murder mystery begins when Miller, a village woman of loose morals, is found strangled on the property of an elite social club. There are several likely suspects, so Mills, a Scotland Yard detective, is called in to solve the case. First on his list is Farr, a blackmailer with a concocted war record. He is employed as the club's secretary and is also the father of Miller's unborn child. Another likely suspect is Coburn, a Canadian doctor who had left his native land in a rush, which causes some curiosity. Also on Mills's list is Keen, the town's mayor. Blu-ray Release Date: March 19th, 2018

The Crossbreed - Terrorized by vivid nightmares since she was a child involving a woman violated by a demon, Amy (Angela Durazo) develops misgivings about her own pregnancy to twins. Without realizing that her boyfriend John (Nathan Schellerup) has inadvertenly learned about her pregnancy and is looking forward to becoming a father, Amy procures an abortion with the help of best friend Rose (Katy Bentz). DVD Release Date: March 6th, 2018

 Next 2 weeks on the Calendar