Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF April 12th, 2010

This Week's Highlights

Quechua Ancashino! - If we include the Russ Meyer Collection individual coverage we have a whopping 36 discs reviewed this week. Among others we have Chaplin, Eisenstein and Spielberg on Blu-ray plus a newer, moving, film with Jeff Bridges (Best Actor Oscar), Criterion, Masters of Cinema, and, exclusively available, Cary Grant - The Early Years boxset, Warner Archive Noir, Essential Martial Arts, plenty of horror... and more. A new contest with a sealed Criterion Blu-ray as prize! (this is, admittedly difficult - you smarties)!

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

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Crazy Heart BD - Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can't help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man's crazy heart. Blu-ray Release date: April 20th, 2010

The Faculty BD - Resident geek at the local high school, Casey Connor (an adolescent Elijah Wood) doesn't want to go back to school. And for good reason: Casey and Delilah (Fast & Furious' Jordana Brewster) had just witnessed the murder of the school nurse (Selma Hayek) by two faculty members (Robert Patrick & Piper Laurie) the day before. Only the nurse springs back to life when Casey & Delilah return with the authorities. Must be aliens, they reluctantly conclude. Blu-ray Release date: November 10th, 2009

Gandahar - Rene Laloux's 1972 cult film "The Fantastic Planet" was an intriguing addition to the slim field of science-fiction animation, and his new offering, "Light Years," is another. All animation is fantasy unbound by limitations, a theater of true possibilities, but it seldom has the visionary underpinning evident in Laloux's work -- certainly not in the genre of animated features, where everyone seems to follow the storytelling footsteps of Walt Disney (even when, like Ralph Bakshi, they stumble on the esthetics)... DVD Release Date: October 22nd, 2007

Les Maitres Du Temps - On planet Perdide, an attack of giant hornets leaves Piel – a young boy – alone in a wrecked car with his dying father. A mayday message reaches their friend Jaffar, an adventurer travelling through space. On board Jaffar’s shuttle are the renegade Prince Matton, his fiancée, and Silbad who knows the planet Perdide well. Thus begins an incredible race across space to save Piel… DVD Release Date: October 22nd, 2007

The Russ Meyer Collection is fully covered via the individual releases - Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens, Eve and the Handyman / The Immoral Mr. Teas, Lorna / Mudhoney, Finders Keepers Lovers Weepers / Pandora Peaks, Good Morning...And Goodbye!/ Motor Psycho, Black Snake / Wild Gals of the Naked West , Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Common Law Cabin/Cherry, Harry, and Raquel, Mondo Topless, Supervixens, Up! and Vixen DVD Release Date: March 28th, 2005

Cary Grant - The Early Years - Before he was the suave, sophisticated and dashing movie star known as Cary Grant, he was a rising young leading man appearing in every type of genre film from war epic to action-adventure to romantic melodrama. "Cary Grant: The Early Years Collection" is a three-picture sampler of his early years at Paramount studios that includes "Devil and the Deep" (1932), "The Eagle and the Hawk" (1933), and "The Last Outpost" (1935).

Dog Soldiers BD - After Cooper (Kevin McKidd) fails a special ops initiation under the direction of Captain Ryan (Liam Cunningham, THE CARD PLAYER), he returns to his regular unit under Sgt. Wells (Sean Pertwee, EVENT HORIZON). Weeks later, the unit is attacked during a training maneuver in Scotland and they come across a critically injured Captain Ryan whose own unit has been torn to shreds. Blu-ray Release Date: May 5th, 2009

Deep in the Woods - An attractive quintet of young actors is hired to perform "Little Red Riding Hood" at the remote chateau of Axel de Fersen (François Berléand) for the benefit of his nephew Nicolas (Thibault Truffert) and become slasher fodder for a sinister figure wearing the troupe's "big bad wolf" costume who may be an escaped rapist prowling the countryside, the sinister cop who pops up out of nowhere (a la THE CAT AND THE CANARY), one of the troupe, or a member of the household (which also includes Leos Carax favorite Denis Lavant plays Axel's sinister taxidermist groundskeeper). DVD Release Date: October 23rd, 2001

Split Second - Stephen McNally and Paul Kelly are escaped cons who travel through the desert to their hideout, a ghost town situated in the middle of an atomic bomb testing site, set to detonate the next morning. As the cons travel to the ghost town, they pick up a variety of characters to hijack their cars and to keep them as hostages. The hostages: Jan Sterling is the tough talking dame who's been around, Keith Andes as the newspaper reporter, Alexis Smith as the self-centered wife in Nevada for a divorce, Robert Paige as her current squeeze, and Arthur Hunnicutt as a desert miner who adds a touch of humor to the film. Warner Archive DVD Release Date: January, 2010

One Deadly Summer - Eliane (Isabelle Adjani), a beautiful young woman, settles into a small town in the south of France with her introverted mother and physically handicapped father. Traumatized by her knowledge that her mother was raped by three men before she was born, Eliane thinks she's on a trail of vengeance when she's courted by a young garage mechanic (Alain Souchon), whose father has the only clue to the identity of her mother's aggressors. But as the story unfolds in Rashomon-like flashbacks and narrations, the tale becomes increasingly complex and leads inexorably to a stunning conclusion. DVD Release Date: May 11th, 2010

Nora Prentiss - Dr. Richard Talbot is bored with his hum drum life. His life has become routine. He shows up for work at the same time every day then heads home at six o'clock to a passionless wife and two kids. His life is forever changed when he treats a sexy night club singer after hours at his downtown office. First becoming friends, the couple quickly start an affair which eventually leads the previously up-tight Talbot to fake his own death and run off with the woman. DVD Release Date: July, 2009

The Unsuspected - For the best in stylish, upper-crust 40s murder mystery, there are really only two choices: Laura and The Unsuspected. The former has a reputation as a timeless classic; the latter is much, much darker and far more satisfying as a film noir, but remains underappreciated. DVD Release Date: May 8th, 2009

Battleship Potemkin BD - The level of appreciation for the film depends on one’s tolerance of endeavoring to accept the numerous symbols and parallels administered through typical over exaggerated silent film acting. Eisenstein himself represents The Church as he plays the wild looking Russian Orthodox chaplain. It is hard to pinpoint actual flaws in the acting due to the style in which the film is made, often at a blisteringly edited pace with no focus on any individual characters. Blu-ray Release Date: April 20th, 2010

Beast Stalker BD - As Steve McQueen had his Blob and Raymond Burr his Godzilla I guessed Beast Stalker was Nicholas Tse's and Nick Cheung's chance to prove they could do schlock as well as the next guy. In fact, I was very surprised by this movie. From the title, which is the worst thing about Beast Stalker, the film turned out to be a far cry from the fantasy/horror/vampire née video game movie it predicted. Nor is the "Beast" an totally unsympathetic character, thanks largely to Cheung. Blu-ray Release date: October 27th, 2009

Fist of Legend BD - Being a neophyte in the martial arts genre, I took the advice of some experts who say "that you will not see more exciting martial arts fighting in any film". "Fist of Legend" is often considered the jewel in the crown of this brand of Asian acrobatic action films with little doubt why! Blu-ray Release Date: April 20th, 2010

The Fugitive Kind - Four Oscar–winning actors—Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, and Maureen Stapleton—sink their teeth into this enthralling film, which brings together the legendary talents of director Sidney Lumet and writer Tennessee Williams. A smoldering, snakeskin-jacketed Brando is Val Xavier, a drifter trying to go straight. He finds work and solace in a southern small-town variety store run by the married, sexually frustrated Lady Torrance (Magnani), who proves as much a temptation for Val as local wild child Carol Cutrere(Woodward). Lumet captures the intense, fearless performances and Williams’s hot-blooded storytelling and social critique with his customary restraint, resulting in a drama of uncommon sophistication and craft. DVD Release Date: April 27th, 2010

City Lights BD - My favorite Charlie Chaplin feature (1931) -- his first sound picture, but not, properly speaking, his first talkie--is also probably the one on which he exercised the most patience and perfectionism, with almost two years of shooting, countless retakes, and a recasting of the female lead (with Georgia Hale, his female lead in The Gold Rush, eventually replaced by Virginia Cherrill, who was herself subsequently fired and rehired, as the blind flower-selling street waif who believes Chaplin’s Tramp is a millionaire). Blu-ray Release Date: May 6th, 2010

Minority Report BD - It's a high-tech style-over-substance extravaganza. The action is beautifully paced augmenting some tight suspense. This is another example of Blu-ray altering my earlier impressions. I wasn't crazy about Minority Report theatrically nor when I revisited in on DVD - but, perhaps, with diminished expectations - I concentrated more on the film's strengths; a brisk-paced and inventive science-fiction adventure with Cruise's invincible leading-man physicality and justice-seeking everyman charm. Blu-ray Release date: April 20th, 2010

Invisible Target BD - The movie has its share of plotholes, clichés and naïve philosophizing about right and wrong, good and bad, but I wasn’t bored, despite its two-hour length. The movie has some moments of intended humor that generally provoked a smile rather than a groan. I enjoyed the characters – all over the top, consistent with the fight sequences where people managed to walk away from hits and falls that would kill a “normal” person. I also wanted to see just how or if Benny Chan would or could top the previous fight. He does. Blu-ray Release Date: December 27th, 2007

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist BD - "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" doesn't quite grab a share of that emotion, but it does get a half share. Michael Cera is a lovesick senior who spends his time making playlist CDs, in honor of the awful superficial girl who dumped him months ago. Cera's comic skill is way beyond his 20 years. He has timing and delivery. He can act, and he has that extra something, the gift of being likable, of inciting empathy in the audience. Blu-ray Release date: February 3rd, 2009

Creature of Darkness - Things progress in a stalk-and-slash fashion with the monster in a raincoat and hat a la I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER picking them off one by one as air force jets observe without attempting to help. The action picks up once they start baiting the monster but then the film leaves several loose ends as if hoping for a sequel. DVD Release Date: April 13th, 2010

Alucarda - After the deaths of her parents, Justine (Susana Kamini, MANSION OF MADNESS) is sent to a convent. She quickly establishes a sexually-tinged friendship outcast roommate Alucarda (Tina Romero). When the two girls encounter a satyr-like gypsy (Claudio Brook of Bunuel's SIMON OF THE DESERT), he initiates them into a witches' sabbat but the prayers of Sister Angelica (Tina French) - whose love for Justine is more spiritual than Alucarda's - result in the death of the coven's leader. The devil takes revenge by possessing the girls and bringing chaos to the convent that requires the joint efforts of the priests (lead by David Silva) and the skeptical local doctor (Claudio Brook, again) to exorcise the convent. DVD Release Date: 25 March 2003
 

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