Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF April 30th, 2018

Kopisanangan! A good week with Blu-ray reviews of packages by Criterion, Twilight Time, Kino, Arrow, Olive, Umbrella, Vinegar Syndrome, Severin Films - directed by Robert Bresson, Roberto Rossellini, Jacques Demy, Martin Ritt, King Hu, John Boorman, Russell Mulcahy, Philip Dunne, John G. Avildsen, Paul Wendkos, Andy Sidaris, Joe D'Amato and others. Our Calendar has a global update of films-to-Blu-ray, including works by Alfred Hitchcock,Fritz Lang, Robert Wise, David Cronenberg,Stephen Frears, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Steven Soderbergh, John H. Auer, Nathan Juran, William Wyler, Richard Lester, Robert Zemeckis, John Frankenheimer, Paul Verhoeven, Sergio Martino, The Coen Brothers and many more. We have our Feature Blu-ray for APRIL posted plus we are preparing prizes for a new CONTEST stay tuned!

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)

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Feature Blu-ray chosen for the Month of APRIL!

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ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): I'll be brief(er) - we have such a diverse mixture of Blu-ray titles this week from the masterpiece of Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar to infamous filth auteur Joe D'Amato's Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals from Roberto Rossellini's documentary-like Viva L'Italia to Andy Sidaris' super cult actioner Seven, from King Hu's contemplative Legend of the Mountain to the goofy B-Horror Blood Hook, from John Boorman’s masterful autobiographical Hope and Glory to Russell Mulcahy's 80's Ozploitation creature-feature Razorback, from the multi-themed marital drama No Down Payment to the condemned-witch-curse horror of Terror from the brilliantly realized unwanted teen-pregnancy drama Blue Denim to the bank-heist cum-romance Special Delivery, from Jacques Demy's critical examination of a disconnected city in Model Shop to the politically-warped thriller Joe. Eric reviewed 3 DVDs for us this week; a suspenseful Ozploitation thriller Money Movers, plus the Canadian-made horror Pyewacket and the arty black and white drama It Takes From Within.

'Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.' - Sophia Loren

Have an even better week than last week!!

Blue Denim BD - Writer-director Philip Dunne, collaborating with Edith Sommer on an adaptation of James Leo Herlihy and William Noble’s play, brings us Blue Denim (1959), an echt-Fifties “issue movie” about a pair of teenagers (Carol Lynley, Brandon de Wilde) who find themselves facing the horror of an unwed, unwanted pregnancy. These are “good kids,” for whom things go wrong, to the dismay of parents, friends, educators, all of whom, somehow, have failed to educate these children: babies having babies, indeed. Highlighted by a score from the singular Bernard Herrmann. Blu-ray Release Date: April, 2018

Model Shop BD - Model Shop (1969) offers the great French filmmaker Jacques Demy’s take on America of the era, and specifically, on Los Angeles. Bringing his celebrated character, Lola (the divine Anouk Aimée, reiterating her eponymous role from Demy’s 1960 film), to the City of Angels, he introduces an American, George (Gary Lockwood, giving a sensitive performance): unemployed, broke, about to be drafted to Vietnam, and suddenly madly in love with Lola, a woman he has only briefly glimpsed. As George searches for his potential amour, Demy gives us a portrait of the city that captured his heart in the same, lightning-bolt way. Blu-ray Release Date: April, 2018

No Down Payment BD - An all-star cast – including Joanne Woodward, Sheree North, Tony Randall, Jeffrey Hunter, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Rush, and Pat Hingle – highlights No Down Payment (1957), a Martin Ritt-directed “problem film” about the denizens of a California subdivision, struggling to make ends meet even as they deal with racism, alcoholism, and promiscuity. Appropriately, given the film’s uneasy themes, the screenplay was written by blacklisted Ben Maddow, fronted by Philip Yordan. Blu-ray Release Date: April, 2018

Seven BD - Cycle-flick veteran William Smith stars as the head of a highly trained US intelligence team, each with the requisite invaluable "special talent." Headquartered in Hawaii, the team aims its sights on a powerful crime syndicate. Since the syndicate's henchmen are all martial arts experts, a combination of brawn and brains will be required throughout. The title alludes to the seven mobsters who must be wiped out by Smith & company in order to collect their $7 million reward. Blu-ray Release Date: May 7th, 2018

Special Delivery BD - When a group of Vietnam vets holds up a bank in downtown Los Angeles, the cops close in fast, apprehending all of them except for Jack Murdock (Bo Svenson). Jack drops his cut of the money into a mailbox and, coming back later, finds he has to wait until midnight for a postman to unlock it. He lingers nearby and meets neighborhood girl Mary Jane (Cybill Shepherd) who saw him stash the loot. She wants a cut, and Jack reluctantly agrees, unaware that she's not the only one who saw him. Blu-ray Release Date: May 7th, 2018

Joe BD - When executive Bill Compton's (Dennis Patrick) daughter, Melissa (Susan Sarandon), overdoses at the house of her drug-dealer boyfriend, Compton flies into a rage and kills the dealer. He tries to make it look like a robbery gone wrong but, in a bar afterward, confesses his crime to a stranger named Joe (Peter Boyle). Joe is a hippie-hater and approves of Compton's actions. Moreover, when Melissa goes missing, he helps Compton track her down in the hope of killing a few hippies himself.) Blu-ray Release Date: April 24th, 2018

Legend of the Mountain BD - Although most commonly associated with the Wuxia genre, in 1979 King Hu directed the epic fantasy-horror, Legend of the Mountain. Heavily influenced by traditional Chinese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist philosophy, it has come to be regarded as one of his greatest filmmaking achievements. Kino Blu-ray Release Date: May 1st, 2018

Razorback BD - Somewhere deep in the Australian outback there's a marauding, indestructible creature that can rip a man in half and destroy a homestead in seconds. This giant freak of nature is nine hundred pounds of tusk and muscle - and it is hell bent on terrorizing the small isolated community of "Gamulla" - a town as violent and primitive as the beast that threatens it. The astonishing feature film debut of music video maestro Russell Mulcahy... Blu-ray Release Date: May 27th, 2014

Hope and Glory BD - Hope and Glory, John Boorman’s autobiographical film is a nostalgic and gently comic remembrance of England during the turbulent Blitz as seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Billy Rohan (Sebastian Rice-Edwards). While the beauty of the aircrafts and tanks holds endless wonders for the young boy, others know all too well the destruction they bring. Blu-ray Release Date: April 24th, 2018

Viva L'Italia BD - To celebrate the centenary of Italy, the Italian government commissioned Rossellini to make a biopic of Giuseppe Garibaldi, one that would follow his exploits with the Thousand and their role in the country s unification. Rossellini approached the film as he had Francesco, giullare di Dio, presenting the main character in neo-realist mode, as though making a documentary. Blu-ray Release Date: January 30th, 2018

Terror BD - The country estate of filmmaker James Garrick has been haunted for centuries by a mysterious and deadly curse. Everyone in his family line comes to a gruesome end at the hand of an unknown supernatural assailant. When Garrick's long lost cousin Ann unexpectedly arrives at his secluded manor, mayhem and bloodshed soon follow. But is Ann the person behind these acts of carnage or could something more horrifying be afoot? Blu-ray Release Date: May 1st, 2018

Blood Hook BD - 17 years ago, Peter's grandfather went missing under mysterious circumstances. Now, Peter and his friends have returned to the placid Wisconsin town to check out his inherited lake house and to partake in the annual 'Muskie Madness' fishing competition. Soon after his arrival, Peter begins to sense that something isn't quite right, but none of his friends, nor the local sheriff, will believe him. But as townsfolk and tourists begin to disappear, Peter becomes determined to solve the mystery, as well as that of his grandfather's disappearance, and soon finds himself facing off against a fish hook wielding madman! Blu-ray Release Date: May 1st, 2018

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals BD - In 1977, infamous filth auteur Joe D'Amato combined the insane extremes of eroticism and cannibalism for the most groin-grinding, gut-munching, gore-spewing EuroSleaze saga of them all. When journalist Emanuelle (the ever-luscious Laura Gemser) discovers evidence of an extinct cannibal tribe in a Manhattan mental hospital, her investigation will take her to the Amazon jungle for an orgy of carnage that SexGoreMutants calls " … feral, demented and nasty. And in exploitation terms, that's entertainment!" Severin Blu-ray Release Date: May 8th, 2018

Au Hasard Balthazar BD - A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence. Blu-ray Release Date: May 29th, 2018

Money Movers - The counting house at "Darcey's Security Services" is a fortress. Security is intense and any would-be-robbers have little hope...unless they get "inside" help. MONEY MOVERS is a fast-moving ultra-violent telling of Australia's biggest and bloodiest armed robbery - the theft of $20 million from a payroll counting office. Directed by acclaimed film maker Bruce Beresford and boasting a top-notch Aussie cast including Bryan Brown Charles (Bud) Tingwell Tony Bonner Ed Devereaux and Terrence Donovan, MONEY MOVERS "delivers an intriguing plot and hair-raising suspense with incredible pace and ferocity. DVD Release Date: March 7th, 2018

It Takes From Within - An ominous, bleak atmosphere permeate a desolate town where an unnamed man and woman make preparations to attend a burial. The tension builds as the two experience increasingly disturbing incidents involving manifestations of dread and despair while the internment draws near. DVD Release Date: January 30th, 2018

Pyewacket - Canadian horror in which a teenage girl unintentionally summons an evil spirit when finding a way to rid of her mother. After the death of her father, Leah (Nicole Muñoz) falls in with a crowd who have a profound interest in the occult. As her angst-filled relationship with her mother becomes unbearable, she attempts to find a way to dispose of her indefinitely. Practicing a ritual that will bring forth a spirit to kill her mother, she gets more than she bargained for when it takes on a form that Leah recognises all too well. DVD Release Date: April 23rd. 2018

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