Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF June 17th, 2019

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Lowena dhywgh! Some fabulous reviewed Blu-rays this week by Indicator, Shout! Factory, Kino, Arrow, 88 Films, Olive Films, Disney/Pixar, Altered Innocence... of films directed by Carol Reed, Terence Fisher, Jack Clayton, John Schlesinger, Jean-Luc Godard, Sidney J. Furie, Yann Gonzalez, Anthony Simmons, Meng Hua Ho, John Lasseter, Daryl Duke  and others. Our Calendar has new updates of films-to-Blu-ray by directors Carol Reed, Billy Wilder, Milos Forman, Seth Holt, Michael Carreras, John Carpenter, Sydney Pollack, William Dieterle, Leslie Howard,Brian De Palma, Sergio Garrone,Nic Pizzolatto and more. We also have our Feature Blu-ray and 4K UHD posted for JUNE Enjoy!!

LISTING PAGES:

Cinema of Japan, Discs of the Year for 2018, The TOP 100 DISCS, Ingmar Bergman's Cinema, HAGSPloitation, BLAXPloitation, OZPloitation, 'WOMEN IN PRISON' CINEMA, 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)

Feature Blu-ray and 4K UHD chosen for the Month of JUNE!

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ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): A few films in particular I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting on new Blu-ray this week. I hadn't see Daryl Duke's The Silent Partner for maybe 30-years and the Kino Blu-ray package with new commentary plus Elliott Gould interview really impressed me. It's a deeply symbolic and thematically layered Neo-Noir and we strongly recommend the new BD that comes out Tuesday. I was also very keen on Carol Reed's The Running Man on new Indicator Blu-ray. A brilliant thriller as told by a master - and the new BD has a commentary and many extras. There is fabulous value here. Sidney J. Furie's The Entity has always been an fascinating film with an amazing performance from Barbara Hershey. Shout! Factory's new Blu-ray advances dramatically over the previous editions with new supplements including a commentary. There is no question that this is the one to own. Kino treat Jean-Luc Godard fans to impressive Blu-ray upgrades with Détective and First Name: Carmen - unbound cinema with unique rhythms. They are both wonderful 1080P film-like advances over SD. Frankenstein Created Woman is lovable Hammer fodder with Peter Cushing and sexy Susan Denberg and Shout! Factory's a/v as well as new, extras, commentaries and interviews garner appreciation and fans should pick this up as the definitive Blu-ray issue to-date. While Toy Story in 4K UHD doesn't escalate to some of the recent highs in outstanding new-format video - it's still the best presentation yet available for this masterwork that playfully follows the universal interaction of children and toys. The Oily Maniac is one of the icons of the extreme, outrageous, Hong Kong creature-feature-esque 70's horrors. 88 Films Blu-ray is a must-own for anyone who embraces the charisma of this, relatively short-lived, genre. Knife+Heart is a gay-themed murder mystery that evokes William Friedkin's Cruising , De Palma (Body Double) and Dario Argento (Opera). Not to all tastes but it has appeal for the adventurous cinephile. John Schlesinger's The Believers is described as a finely crafted, modern-day supernatural thriller with less-explored voodoo roots - now on bare-bones Blu-ray from Olive Films. 1977's gritty Black Joy, on Blu-ray from Indicator, sports a soundtrack of soul, funk, dub and reggae focusing on immigrants in a ghettoised London. Jack Clayton's last film, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne has an ensemble cast with an incredible lead by Maggie Smith. It's on a new stacked Blu-ray from Indicator.

"I was changing a light bulb over Groucho Marx's bed, so I took my shoes off, got on his bed and changed the bulb. When I got off the bed he said: 'That's the best acting you've ever done.." Elliot Gould

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The Silent Partner BD - A masterpiece of cunning and suspense… Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould, The Long Goodbye) discovers how interesting life can be when he is transformed from mild-mannered bank teller into daring, ingenious bank robber in a matter of seconds. Held up at the bank by the criminal Reikle (Christopher Plummer), Miles manages to stash most of the money in a deposit box first. When Reikle realizes he’s been shortchanged, he plans to take revenge—and a great battle of wits ensues. To keep the money, Miles reaches new heights of courage, seducing the robber’s girlfriend (Céline Lomez) and his boss’s mistress (Susannah York, The Killing of Sister George). Blu-ray Release Date: June 18th, 2019

First Name: Carmen BD - Jean Luc-Godard's First Name: Carmen (1983) is a radical reinvention of Bizet s opera, updating the story of sexual obsession with bank robbery and kidnapping. Godard himself appears as doddering Uncle Jean, who lends his house to his niece Carmen (Maruschka Detmers) while he is recovering in a mental institution. Carmen and her gang of youthful pals stage a bloody robbery of a bank, during which she falls in love with one of the security guards (Jacques Bonnaffé). Her gang is in the planning stages of an even bigger crime the kidnapping of an industrialist (or his daughter), using the shooting of a documentary on luxury hotels as a pretext. This bizarre crime spree of sex and death is told via Godard's dizzying deconstructive style and DP Raoul Coutard s eye-popping colors, creating a singular work of art to rival Bizet. Blu-ray Release Date: June 18th, 2019

The Running Man (1963) BD - Rex Black (Laurence Harvey) has successfully faked his death in a plane crash and escaped to sunny Málaga under a new identity, waiting for his wife Stella (Lee Remick) to arrive with £50,000 of life insurance money. It’s the start of a blissful, trouble-free new life for the couple – until Stephen (Alan Bates), the insurance agent in charge of investigating Rex’s death, suddenly arrives in town. Is he just holidaying in Spain, as he claims, or is he on assignment to foil Rex’s scheme? Blu-ray Release Date: June 17th, 2019

Détective BD - "Détective" is one of Godard's most engaging films, even though it has not been one of his most celebrated. Wheeler Winston Dixon described it as a “straightforward commercial venture,” the film Godard made “precisely in order to direct "Je vous salue, Marie" (1985).” But dismissing it in this way fails to recognize that, even in a film where Godard is forced to compromise, there is still much to be recommended. While "Détective" does tell a story of sorts, it is more than a mere narrative film. It still has many of the striking sound/image experiments and investigations into the forms, textures and affects of the plastic and temporal arts that we have come to expect from a Godard film. It also has a playful comic energy. Blu-ray Release Date: June 18th, 2019

The Believers BD - Following the tragic death of his wife, psychologist Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) and his young son Chris (Harley Cross) relocate from Minneapolis to New York City to start a new life. Enlisted by Lt. McTaggert (Loggia) to help solve a baffling suicide case involving voodoo, Cal soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation with ties to a Caribbean religious cult and a series of ritualistic murders that will place him and those he loves in grave danger. Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th, 2019

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne BD - In 1950s Belfast, penniless spinster Judith Hearne (Smith) falls for charismatic James (Bob Hoskins.) Succumbing to his attentions, Judith makes a series of profound changes to her life, including re-evaluating her deep relationship with her church, to enable the love for which she so desperately yearns. Blu-ray Release Date: June 24th, 2019

The Entity BD - Academy Award nominee Barbara Hershey stars as Carla Moran, a hard-working single mother who, one terrible night is raped in her bedroom by someone or something that she cannot see. Met with sceptical psychiatrists, she is repeatedly attacked in her car, in the bath, and in front of her children. Could this be a case of hysteria, a manifestation of childhood sexual trauma, or something even more horrific? Shout! Factory Blu-ray Release date: June 11th, 2019

Toy Story 4K UHD - Toy Story was the first feature-length film animated entirely by computer. If this seems to be a sterile, mechanical means of moviemaking, be assured that the film is as chock-full of heart and warmth as any Disney cartoon feature. The star of the proceedings is Woody, a pull-string cowboy toy belonging to a wide-eyed youngster named Andy. Whenever Andy's out of the room, Woody revels in his status as the boy's number one toy. His supremacy is challenged by a high-tech, space-ranger action figure named Buzz Lightyear, who, unlike Woody and his pals, believes that he is real and not merely a plaything. The rivalry between Woody and Buzz hilariously intensifies during the first half of the film, but when the well-being of Andy's toys is threatened by a nasty next-door neighbor kid named Sid -- whose idea of fun is feeding stuffed dolls to his snarling dog and reconstructing his own toys into hideous mutants -- Woody and Buzz join forces to save the day. 4K Ultra HD Release Date: June 24th, 2019

Frankenstein Created Woman BD - A dead and frozen Baron Frankenstein is re-animated by his colleague Dr. Hertz proving to him that the soul does not leave the body on the instant of death. His lab assistant, young Hans, is found guilty of murdering the local pub owner with whom he had an argument where he foolishly swore to kill the man and Frankenstein acquires his body immediately after the execution. Hans had been quite friendly with the dead man's daughter Christina who returns just in time to see him guillotined. Distraught, she commits suicide and is brought back to life by the good Doctor but with Hans' brain replacing her own. As memories return to her - Hans' memories in fact - she sets out to pursue and kill those responsible for having sent him to his death... Shout! Factory Blu-ray Release date: June 11th, 2019

The Oily Maniac BD - Based on a folk tale and shot predominantly in Malaysia, this Shaw Brothers horror thriller garners unintentional laughs right from its opening shot of the title fiend emerging from the depths, accompanied by John Williams' famous "dun-dun-dun-dun" theme from JAWS. The music announces the creature's every appearance, desperately trying to lend menace to a villain that resembles a charred and melted version of the Michelin Tire man. Adding to the silliness is the fact that Yung cannot transform without somehow coating himself in oil, leading to scenes of Danny Lee desperately limping through construction sites and industrial areas looking for a barrel he can dive into (luckily, even coconut oil will do in a pinch!). The special effects are amusingly dire: the maniac can transform into an animated glob, allowing him to flow under doors and even travel through plumbing. Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th, 2017

Black Joy BD - Presenting vivid characters, terrific action and a superb soundtrack of soul, funk, dub and reggae, Anthony Simmons’ gritty film is an honest and insightful comic drama, exposing the lives of unemployed black Britons and immigrants in a ghettoised London. Blu-ray Release Date: June 24th, 2019

Knife+Heart BD - Paris, Summer 1979. Anne (French pop star Vanessa Paradis) produces third-rate gay erotic cinema. After her editor and lover Lois leaves her, she tries to win her back by shooting her most ambitious film yet with her trusted, flaming sidekick Archibald. But one of her actors is brutally murdered and Anne gets caught up in a strange investigation that turns her life upside-down. Shot on 35mm and featuring a killer retro score from M83, Yann Gonzalez's KNIFE+HEART is an ultra-stylish and blood-soaked ode to '70s-era De Palma, Argento, and Friedkin. Blu-ray Release Date: June 4th, 2019
 

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