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ONE VOICE
(not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey):
The most notable release this week is John Schlesinger
masterpiece
Midnight Cowboy on
Criterion's new 4K-restored Blu-ray.
Yes, it has some green, but the film's detail has never
looked this good. Trust me. Staying with Criterion, Paul
Schrader's visually stunning
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
is brilliant and the new Blu-ray
is far in advance of the old DVDs. Paul Newman directed
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the
Moon Marigolds and we've compared
Twilight Time and Indicator
Blu-rays of this award-winning 70s drama. Kiyoshi
Kurosawa's mysterious
Cure (Kyua) comes
to Blu-ray from The
Masters of Cinema and this crime-horror is a significant
upgrade in 1080P. Must own. We are fortunate to get two
Andrey Zvyagintsev films to Blu-ray
from Artificial Eye this week,
The Return (aka Vozvrashchenie)
and
The Banishment are
both masterworks of cinema that fully deserve the upgrade to
home theatre HD. Joseph L. Mankiewicz's
Suddenly, Last Summer
is now on Indicator Blu-ray
- with one of Elizabeth Taylor's most memorable roles. The
LOVED the Noir-ish start of
5 Steps to Danger -
Ruth Roman and Sterling Hayden on ClassicFlix
Blu-ray - GIMME MORE! Ditto
for
Down Three Dark Streets
with more Ruth Roman!
Little Murders is a
totally, unique and bizarre, black comedy, big-city social
satire dealing with themes of trust, paranoia,
indifference... funny, human, touching, shocking - and I was
pleased to indulge in the Indicator
Blu-ray with commentaries
(plural). Certainly recommended! Delmer Daves'
The Hanging Tree is
a dynamite Gary Cooper western and the Warner Archive
Blu-ray is significantly
superior to SD transfers. I thoroughly enjoyed
Dark Was the Night
- a compact 50's-style 'B' creature-feature homage - small
town... something in the woods. A constantly revisited
Blu-ray. Roger Corman's
most ambitious and expensive production, the gangster
thriller,
The St. Valentines Day Massacre
is offered on Indicator Blu-ray
and it looks miles ahead of the last DVD.
The Super Inframan
is just too dang good - creativity abounds with spandex
costumes and Paper-Mache monsters from the golden age of
Hong Kong cinema. Thanks to 88 Films for the delightful
Blu-ray. Bruno Mattei's
Violence in a Women's Prison
pushes the boundaries but keeps the appeal high in this
gals-behind-bars classic on Blu-ray
from Severin. Colin compared Code Red + 88 Films
Blu-rays of
The Boneyard where
children turned into zombies wreak havoc in a coroner’s
building with just a burned-out psychic, an experienced cop
and two coroners to stop the madness. Yes,
The Devil Incarnate
is probably Paul Naschy's best film - sex, bawdy comments,
dark comedy and lack of restraint make the commentary-added
Blu-ray a winner.
The Dark Half has
Stephen King story and George A. Romero's direction but this
garden-variety horror-thriller doesn't take full advantage
of its fascinating doppelganger-concept potential.
Jungle was intense
with Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe proving his acting
chops - reviewed on Blu-ray
from Umbrella. There is no way
Creepozoids should
be last on this list - it's definitely one of the better
cult 'B' post nuclear-apocalypse 'Alien' rip-offs with perky
Linnea Quigley and future porn-icon Ashlyn Gere. Hey, it's
not that bad... really! And its a good quality
Blu-ray with director
commentary!
'Before you
criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way,
you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes.'
Have a neighborly week!!!!
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The Devil Incarnate
BD - The action takes place
in 16th century Spain. The Devil comes to earth to live as a
mere mortal. Together with a human companion, Tomas, he travels,
like Don Quixote, through the countryside and has a series of
wild encounters with both men and women. On the way he acquires
great wealth and even fathers a child. But too late he learns a
terrible lesson about we devious humans.
Blu-ray Release Date: May 8th, 201
Creepozoids
BD - The year is 1998, six
years after the nuclear apocalypse, and the fallout continues to
plague survivors with periodic bouts of highly toxic acid rain.
A group of army deserters take refuge in a seemingly abandoned
laboratory complex. They soon discover that the lab was once a
top-secret government research centre gone awry. Still lurking
in its corridors, a hideous genetically engineered monster
emerges and a mysterious substance transforms one of them into
another deadly creature! 88 Films
Blu-ray Release Date: July 10th, 2017
Violence in a Women's Prison
BD - When Emanuelle (the
legendary Laura Gemser) goes undercover in a penitentiary, she
will endure a nightmare of sadistic guards, voracious lesbians,
rat attacks, feces fights and enough graphic mayhem for a dozen
women-in-prison trash epics. Blu-ray Release Date: May 8th,
2018
Little Murders
BD - Patsy (Marcia Rodd) and
Alfred (Elliott Gould) meet when she rescues him from a beating
on the crime-ridden streets of New York City. Patsy is
immediately taken aback by Alfred's apathetic approach to life,
which is in stark contrast to her ardent optimism. She pursues
and ultimately marries him in the hopes of changing him.
However, after a devastating and random act of violence, Alfred
and his in-laws descend further into the insanity and violence
surrounding them. Blu-ray
Release Date: April 30th, 2018
The Boneyard
BD - A policeman (Ed Nelson)
and a psychic (Deborah Rose) link cult mayhem to a morgue (run
by Norman Fell) where ancient ghouls are on the loose. The film
plunges into the nightmarish experiences of a portly, depressed
psychic (Deborah Rose), whose involvement in a grisly
child-murder case leads her and her detective partner (Ed
Nelson) to an imposing, fortress-like mortuary. Code Red + 88
Films Blu-ray Release Date: April,
2018
The Super Inframan
BD - A tale of futuristic
heroism and spandex costumes that could only have been dreamed
up during the golden age of Hong Kong cinema. Featuring the sort
of ambition that puts most superhero flicks to shame, this is a
brilliant bicep-flexing bout of good vs. evil - as a costumed
Chinese patriot takes the fight to a city-destroying
mega-villain. Blu-ray Release
Date: April 23rd, 2018
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the
Moon Marigolds BD
- Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Paul Zindel, Paul
Newman's second film as director stars his wife Joanne Woodward
as an abusive, over-bearing mother raising her two daughters
(Nell Potts and Roberta Wallach) in an atmosphere of bitterness
and hatred. Twilight Time and Indicator
Blu-ray Release Date: April, 2018
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
BD - Paul Schrader's
visually stunning, collagelike portrait of acclaimed Japanese
author and playwright Yukio Mishima (played by Ken Ogata)
investigates the inner turmoil and contradictions of a man who
attempted an impossible harmony between self, art, and society.
Taking place on Mishima's last day, when he famously committed
public seppuku, the film is punctuated by extended flashbacks to
the writer's life as well as by gloriously stylized evocations
of his fictional works. Blu-ray
Release Date: May 22nd, 2018
5 Steps to Danger
BD - Stranded in a small
California town after experiencing car trouble, vacationing John
Emmett is spared the tedium of bus travel when he has a chance
meeting with Ann Nicholson who offers him a lift if he'll agree
to split the driving duties to Santa Fe. He soon learns that Ann
is actually a patient recovering from a nervous breakdown,
however, and a simple little road trip blossoms into a Cold War
nightmare as the couple are ensnared in a web of mystery
involving vital national security secrets!
Blu-ray Release Date: April 24th,
2018
The St. Valentines Day Massacre
BD - Roger Corman's most
ambitious and expensive production his only film for a major
studio is a violent and lurid account of the events leading up
to one of the most infamous events in American crime history.
Detailing the bitter and brutal rivalry between feuding Chicago
mob bosses Al Capone and 'Bugs' Moran, Corman s vividly realised
film features terrific performances from Jason Robards, Ralph
Meeker and George Segal, and remains one of Corman's best films.
Blu-ray Release Date: April
30th, 2018
Cure (Kyua)
BD - Set in and around a
barren, decaying Tokyo, a series of murders have been committed
by seemingly average, ordinary people who claim to have had no
control or explicit memory over their horrifying actions.
Detective Kenichi Takabe places his own sanity on the line as he
tries to end the wave of unexplainable homicides which are
linked with a large slash across the neck/chest of the victims
in the shape of an "X". Is it a form of hypnosis from a strange
amnesiac drifter?... or is it something deeper.
Blu-ray Release Date: April 23rd,
2018
Suddenly, Last Summer
BD - In this adaptation of
Tennessee Williams' play, young socialite Catherine Holly
(Elizabeth Taylor) is traumatized and committed after witnessing
her cousin's violent death on a trip to Europe. Her aunt, Violet
Venable (Katharine Hepburn), wants to hide the events of her
son's death and attempts to bribe young surgeon Dr. John
Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) to perform a lobotomy on Catherine.
But John vows to find out the truth about Catherine's state
before taking any action. Indicator
Blu-ray Release date: April 30th, 2018
Down Three Dark Streets
BD - When FBI agent Zack
Stewart is gunned down in the line of duty, supervisor John
"Rip" Ripley (Broderick Crawford) takes over his caseload.
Believing that one of Stewart's three active investigations will
reveal the identity of his killer, agent Ripley's assignment
takes him "Down Three Dark Streets": chasing down fugitive
criminal Joe Walpo (Joe Bassett), breaking down small-time hood
Vince Angelino (Gene Reynolds), and hunting down an unknown
extortionist threatening helpless Kate Martell (Ruth
Roman)--ending with a thrilling climax set against the backdrop
of the iconic "Hollywood" sign! Blu-ray
Release Date: May 22nd, 2018
The Banishment
BD - Sumptuously
photographed, rural family drama from award-winning director
Andrei Zvyagintsev. Set in an unnamed location and time, the
story follows Alex (Konstantin Lavronenko), Vera (Maria Bonnevie),
their young son and daughter, and Alex's brother Mark (Alexander
Baluyev), as they relocate from the city to Alex and Mark's
father's old house in the country. Once there, Vera tells Alex
that she is pregnant by another man, causing Alex to face huge
personal dilemmas, wondering whether to forgive her or exact
revenge. Blu-ray Release Date:
April 16th, 2018
The Return (aka Vozvrashchenie)
BD - Russian director Andrey
Zvyagintsev makes his feature debut with this haunting, poignant
family drama. Teenage brothers Andrei (Vladimir Garin) and Ivan
(Ivan Dobronravov) have lived with their mother (Natalya Vdovina)
and grandmother (Galina Petrova) for as long as they can
remember when their long-lost father (Konstantin Lavronenko)
suddenly turns up after a twelve-year absence. While Andrei
seems happy to see him, the younger Ivan is reluctant and
suspicious of his father's motives. The three take a boat to a
deserted island in a remote lake in the north of Russia - a trip
which turns into an endurance test as the boys struggle to come
to terms with their father's presence and cruel, mysterious
ways. Blu-ray Release Date:
April 16th, 2018
Midnight Cowboy
BD - One of the British New
Wave’s most versatile directors, John Schlesinger came to New
York in the late 1960s to make Midnight Cowboy, a
picaresque story of friendship that captured a city in crisis
and sparked a new era of Hollywood movies. Jon Voight delivers a
career-making performance as Joe Buck, a wide-eyed hustler from
Texas hoping to score big with wealthy city women; he finds a
companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum
leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida, played by
Dustin Hoffman in a radical departure from his breakthrough in
The Graduate. A critical and commercial success despite
controversy over what the MPAA termed its “homosexual frame of
reference,” Midnight Cowboy became the first X-rated film
to receive the best picture Oscar, and decades on, its influence
still reverberates through cinema.
Blu-ray Release Date: May 28th-29th, 2018
Jungle
BD - In a career-best
performance, Daniel Radcliffe is superb as Ghinsberg, a young
man travelling the world in the early 1980s, against the better
wishes of his strict parents. A survival film that marches to
the delirious beat of its own hallucinogenic drum, Jungle bows
inventively before the bad guy to end all bad guys: Mother
Nature. Blu-ray Release Date:
February 8th, 2018
The Hanging Tree
BD - Many stars saddled up
and rode into Technicolor sunsets during the great Western
revival of the 1950s, but only a few would be forever associated
with the rugged individualists of the West. Among them are John
Wayne, Randolph Scott and the start of The Hanging Tree, Gary
Cooper. The story takes place in Skull Creek, an 1870s Montana
gold camp. Dr. Joseph Frail (Cooper) arrives, setting out his
shingle near the camp's boom-or-bust hubbub of adventurers,
ladies of fortune, mountain men and just plain decent folks. As
skilled with a six-gun as with a scalpel, Frail will need both.
A tragic past shadows his days. Blu-ray
Release Date: February 8th, 2018
The Dark Half
BD - Horror writer Thad
Beaumont (Hutton) hopes to distance himself from his murder
novels and from George Stark, the name he has used to
anonymously author them. To achieve this, he cooks up a murder
to play out in real life: a publicity stunt that should lay
Stark to rest forever. But when the people around him are found
gruesomely slain (and his own fingerprints dot the crime scenes)
Beaumont is dumbfounded until he learns that Stark has taken on
life of his own...and begun a gruesome quest for vengeance!
Koch Media Blu-ray Release Date:
February 8th, 2018
Dark Was the Night
BD - Maiden Woods is a
remote and quiet town of decent, hard-working people, but
something stirs in the dark woods surrounding this isolated
community. After a logging company decimates an area of the
forest, a rash of increasingly violent and unexplainable events
transpires. Sheriff Paul Shields (Kevin Durand) and his deputy
(Lukas Haas) struggle to confront their own personal demons
while facing down a new breed of raw terror that is possibly
older than humanity itself… and much, much hungrier.
Blu-ray Release Date: November 3rd,
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