DVDBeaver Newsletter - June 18th, 2007

 

Dankie! - We have a paltry 12 new reviews this week as the Summer doldrums kick in and my own subtle level of burnout flairs up. Still Lynch, the Coens, Vincente Minelli, espionage, cold (and hot) war, plus extensive calendar updates, news and our recommendations.

 

HD + Blu-ray NOTES: To address some recent emails - regarding our recent new format (HD + Blu-ray) reviews -> We are certainly not dismissing SD reviews and will continue to review all formats - of all regions - wherever possible. This past week we have had a bit of catch up to do with HD + Blu-ray. SD will remain our major focus. Stay Tuned: Cult Camp Classics early in the week!

 

BEWARE: Two Amazon comments regarding the upcoming The Cecil B. Demille Classics Collection:
"The versions of deMille's silent films that appear on this product are those preserved and prepared for video by Film Preservation Associates and they are used here WITHOUT permission or blessing of Film Preservation Associates. Please don't reward those who steal the work of others."
"There's nothing illegal about this offering, since all of the films are in the public domain, but it is VERY sleazy. The publishers have effectively stolen the hard work and expenses of the man who brought these films to video -- David Shepherd, who releases his films through Image Entertainment. Supporting this kind of PD "bootleg" will severely diminish the chances of other rare films being restored for DVD."

 

LOOMING: From the DVDBeaver ListServ (Thanks Pepsi!):

BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ - "Finnish Digital-TV has broadcasted now 12 of the 15 parts of BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ. The new restoration made by Fassbinder Foundation. I must say that this is the biggest disappointment of the year, I do hope Criterion can do wonders, or postpone the release and make a new restoration. I actually get a headache if I even look at the image for more than two minutes - I'm gonna drop the viewing and wait for the Criterion. If someone have the old tapes, don't throw it away yet!..."

 

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STRATEGIES: The best way to take full advantage of Amazon is to use PRE-ORDERs - lock in at the discount price by ORDERING - if perchance you decide against the purchase you have until the release date to cancel - at no charge.

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BLU-RAY STORE           HD-DVD STORE         HIGH DEFINITION DVD STORE

 

Easiest way to catch up is simply read the new Newsletter Archive HERE.

 

Some great deals (new prices!) at Amazon UK sales (all from our TOP 100 LIST!):

Last Year At Marienbad [1961] 70% OFF!, The Naked Island (Kaneto Shindô, 1960) 45% OFF!, Chungking Express [Wong, 1995] 38% OFF!, Metropolis [Lang, 1927] 40% OFF!, Stalker [Tarkovsky, 1979] 29% OFF!, STILL: Max Ophuls' DVDs of Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Reckless Moment (1949), Le Plaisir (1952) and Madame De...   are now 65% OFF HERE

Brighton Rock [1947] 41% OFF!, Belle de Jour - 40th Anniversary [1967] 70% OFF!, Europa Europa [1992] 70% OFF!, Vera Drake [2004] 65% OFF!, L'Enfer (2005) 85% OFF!, Détective (1985) 70% OFF!, The Tree of Wooden Clogs [1978] 55% OFF!, Pepi, Luci, Bom [1981] 67% OFF!, The Man Without A Past [2003] 70% OFF!, Goodbye Lenin! [2002] 75% OFF!, A Matter Of Life And Death [1946] 55% OFF!, Wuthering Heights [1939] 63% OFF!, The Deadly Affair [1966] 63% OFF!, The Way Ahead [1944] 35% OFF!, The Red Shoes - Plus Documentary [1948] 19% OFF!, Tiger Bay [1959] 42% OFF!, City Lights [1931] 57% OFF!, The Blue Lamp [1950] 54% OFF!

 

LATEST Additions to the Release Calendar HERE (PRE-ORDER!):

NOTEWORTHY... or how to make a cineophile broke (more broke?):

Some releases I will be buying (and most likely reviewing or comparing)- The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection, Deliverance [HD DVD] (John Boorman, 1972) Warner, We Are Marshall (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] (McG, 2006) Warner Brothers, Anne of the Thousand Days & Mary Queen of Scots - Universal Studios, Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, 1992) R2 UK - Bluebell Films, Hammer Film Noir Collector's Set 2: (Terror Street, Wing of Danger, Paid To Kill, The Glass Tomb, The Black Glove, The Deadly Game, The Unholy Four, A Race For Life) VCI Entertainment, Hustle and Flow [HD DVD] (Craig Brewer, 2004) Paramount and Taxi Driver (Limited Collector's Edition) (Martin Scorsese, 1976) Sony Pictures.

 

The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection (Babes in Arms / Babes on Broadway / Girl Crazy / Strike Up the Band) Warner

Deliverance (Deluxe Edition) (John Boorman, 1972) Warner

Deliverance [HD DVD] (John Boorman, 1972) Warner

Deliverance [Blu-ray] (John Boorman, 1972) Warner

Masters of Horror: Season One Box Set (Ws) (DVD) - Anchor Bay

The Graduate (2-disc Aniv. Collectors Edition) MGM

Elizabeth (Shekhar Kapur, 1998) [HD DVD] Universal Studios

Malpertuis (Harry Kümel, 1971) Barrel

We Are Marshall  [Blu-ray] (McG, 2006) Warner Brothers

We Are Marshall (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] (McG, 2006) Warner Brothers

Anne of the Thousand Days & Mary Queen of Scots - Universal Studios

The Lookout (Scott Frank, 2007) Miramax

Black Sabbath (Mario Bava, 1963) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

Human Resources (Laurent Cantet, 1999) R2 UK Soda Pictures

Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, 1992) R2 UK - Bluebell Films

Il Ladro di bambini (Gianni Amelio, 1992) R2 UK - Arrow Films

I, Monster (Stephen Weeks, 1971) R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment

Henri-Georges Clouzot Collection - Le Corbeau (1943), Quai des Orfevres (1947) and The Wages of Fear (1952) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

Je t'aime moi non plus (Serge Gainsbourg, 1976) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

Vacancy (Nimród Antal, 2007) Sony Pictures

True Heart Susie & Hoodoo Ann - (D.W. Griffith, 1919) (Lloyd Ingraham, 1916) - Image Entertainment

The Glass Mountain (Edoardo Anton, 1949) VCI

American Me [HD DVD] (Edward James Olmos, 1992) Universal Studios

Going Under (Eric Werthman, 2004) Blue Underground

Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006) Zeitgeist Films

Hammer Film Noir Collector's Set 2: (Terror Street, Wing of Danger, Paid To Kill, The Glass Tomb, The Black Glove, The Deadly Game, The Unholy Four, A Race For Life) VCI Entertainment

Hustle and Flow [HD DVD] (Craig Brewer, 2004) Paramount

Being John Malkovich [HD DVD] (Spike Jonze, 1999) Universal Studios

Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (Prakash Mehra, 1978) Eros Entertainment

The Bells Of Death: Shaw Bros Special Edition (Yueh Fung, 1968) Image Entertainment

What the Peeper Saw (James Kelly, 1971) Televista

Othello (Stuart Burge, 1965) Warner Home Video

Renaissance (Christian Volckman, 2006) Miramax

Taxi Driver (Limited Collector's Edition) (Martin Scorsese, 1976) Sony Pictures

Creature From the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954) Universal Studios

A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Dieterle, 1935) Warner Home Video

Romeo and Juliet (George Cukor, 1936) Warner Home Video

 

RECOMMENDATIONS: Some reviews of note this week: The Departed (BR) , The War Tapes, Some Came Running, The Big Lebowski (HD), The Panic in Needle Park and The One-Armed Swordsman. NOTE: I loved the last 3!

DISAPPOINTMENT:  - Mulholland Dr. (HD) - a real shame that Studio Canal dropped the ball here. Perhaps the upcoming Optimum HD Edition will improve upon it?

 

New Reviews:

 

Infernal Affairs - I have read that Infernal Affairs almost single-handedly revived the Hong Kong gangster film back in 2002. Together with its very successful sequel the following year, Infernal Affairs made quite an impression and no doubt paved the way for Johnny To to get back on track with his very droll PTU: Police Tactical Unit in 2003, the very dark Election and its sequel in 2005 and 2006, and the rhapsodic Exiled in 2006. Taken together, I think highly of Infernal Affairs and its first sequel (dare I name it: Infernal Affairs II) . . . the second sequel, not so much, nor is it particularly necessary or even useful. Infernal Affairs II takes its time to sort itself out. It's positively sluggish compared to the original, but it also takes its time with character development which, by this time, feels like just what the doctor ordered.

 

The Departed (BR) - The Departed gets into a couple of quagmires the more background it offers. Why, we might ask, does boss Nicholson (played with a little too much Charley Partanna meets the Joker, didn't you think?) trust DiCaprio as much he does, given that he knows he is an "ex"–police officer? Screenwriter William Monahan's way out of this question is to make Nicholson's suspicions a focal point of the drama, eventually requiring him to devolve into an emotional meltdown as the truth becomes inescapable. Monahan gets into even more trouble with the character of the police psychiatrist (played, rather appropriately like someone in way over her head, by Vera Farmiga.) She has an extra-office relationship with not one, but both of the moles. While this offers an opportunity to tease us with possibilities of a triple encounter, it stretches believability, and it makes an idiot of the single female character in the film.

 

The War Tapes - It’s easy to get bored, if not downright jaded, by one Bush-bashing, Halliburton-hating tirade after another, but sometimes a special film comes along. “The War Tapes” may well be the best Iraq war documentary I have yet seen, with “My Country, My Country” a close second. “The War Tapes” offers a little bit of Bush-bashing and more than a little Halliburton-hating, but here the politics are strictly personal. In 2004, Director Deborah Scranton and crew handed out cameras to several members of Charlie Company of the New Hampshire National Guard, asking them to film their training and their tour of duty in Iraq. The film uses the video diaries of three of these soldiers: Steve Pink, a 24-yr old carpenter, Michael Moriarty, a 34-yr old forklift operator, and Zach Bazzi, a 24-yr old college student. DVD Release Date: May 15th, 2007

Breach (HD/SD Combo) - One of the strengths of Breach, a thriller that manages to excite and unnerve despite our knowing the ending, is how well it captures the utter banality of this man and his world. Unlike Kim Philby, an aristocratic figure who swanned across the world while passing classified British and American information to the Soviets, Mr. Hanssen, played by the stellar Chris Cooper, comes across as a middle manager type, a drone in a suit. The real double agent practiced his tradecraft in Washington and New York, not Cairo and Istanbul, and delivered the goods — more than 6,000 pages — in garbage bags secured with tape. With his weekend casuals and Ford Taurus, he might have been just another suburban dad bagging leaves. HD-DVD Release Date: June 12th, 2007

Mulholland Dr. (HD) - Originally intended for TV, Mulholland Dr. is much in the mould of Twin Peaks and Lost Highway. Lynch's characteristically bizarre noir focuses (probably too strong a word!) on a young beauty (Harring) who loses her memory after a car accident and hides out in a house where she's found and befriended by the absent owner's helpful niece (Watts), new to LA in the hope of becoming an actress. Meanwhile, a hot young film director (Theroux) is having trouble with the Mob trying to influence his choice of leading lady. Despite too many detours into nonsensical narrative cul-de-sacs, and too many shots that slowly travel towards corners down darkened corridors to the accompaniment of ominous rumbles, this works well enough as unsettlingly nightmarish suspense. That is, until it suddenly and stupidly decides to switch characters' identities, leaving one with a so-what feeling of déjà vu. HD-DVD Release Date: May 21st, 2007

Some Came Running - Some Came Running takes the literal parameters of "Melodrama" - music and drama - and like Sirk or Visconti he laces the seemingly naturalistic drama of the screenplay with operatic strength emotion and intensity. Through the performances and most magnificently through his superbly rendered 'Scope mise en scène.

The Big Lebowski (HD) - Released in 1998 the Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski centers around the confluence of divergent U.S. cultural anomalies that are defined by the essential qualities of two decades. We meet characters that are stuck in the 70's and who are unable or unwilling to adapt to the 90's. The cultural referencing continues with a focal backdrop of the unique community that has fashioned itself around the American pastime of bowling. The Coens also found time in the films 118 minutes to honor past film genre's including westerns, hard-boiled detective pulp and Busby Berkley musicals. HD-DVD Release Date: June 26th, 2007

Harsh Times (HD) - It’s difficult to imagine the little boy in Empire of the Sun, the gun-kata expert in Equilibrium, the Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, or twin magicians in The Prestige as a psychotic Spanish-speaking Angelino homey. After all, Christian Bale is Welsh. Yet, he does a convincing job of playing one in David Ayer’s Harsh Times. Bale is capable of volcanic fury without appearing over-the-top, so his descents into post-traumatic-stress attacks are unnervingly real. Bale plays an ex-soldier who suffers from intense nightmares. He attempts to land jobs with the LAPD and Homeland Security, but his messy personal life prevent him from attaining easy professional advancement. Enraged, he goes on booze and drugs binges while getting into bar and gun fights. HD-DVD Release Date: June 12th, 2007

The Panic in Needle Park - A gruelling but highly responsible film about the influence of heroin on a New York street romance. Schatzberg moves with considerable force over the urban territory of Midnight Cowboy, using hand-held cameras and a sustained editing rhythm to convey the couple's gradual descent into hell as mercilessly as he shows the needles entering his characters' veins (in close-up). Pacino, as the boy, proves that he didn't need Coppola to make him act, but Kitty Winn is less satisfactory, and the film is finally subject to an iron law of diminishing returns after its plot plumbs the depths and can find nothing to do except batter us some more. In fact, the anti hard drugs message comes on so strong and so realistically that the British censor's ban (lifted in 1975) seems positively malicious: it's precisely this kind of suppression of information which results in junkie mythologies. (From the novel by James Mills). DVD Release Date: June 19th, 2007

Lost in Translation (HD) - ...Lost in Translation, thoroughly and touchingly connects the dots between three standards of yearning in movies: David Lean’s Brief Encounter, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, and Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love. All three movies are, in their way, about a moment of evanescence that fades before the participants’ eyes -- as is Translation. (Translation also exhibits the self-contained, stylized lonesomeness found in post-punk, like New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle.) HD-DVD Release Date: May 29th, 2007

The One-Armed Swordsman - One-Armed Swordsman is a prime choice for The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s "Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film" series. The movie is one of the essential classics of Hong Kong cinema, and its director Chang Cheh (Super Ninjas, Five Deadly Venoms) lorded over Chinese martial arts movies in the 60s and 70s. At the time, his films were only matched in acclaim by those of King Hu (Come Drink with Me, A Touch of Zen) and in popularity by those of Bruce Lee (Return of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon). DVD Release Date: June 19th, 2007

Miss Potter - Miss Potter is easy on the eyes. The first movie directed by the Australian filmmaker Chris Noonan since his sleeper hit Babe 11 years ago, it has the same pastel storybook palette and the same overriding mood of gentleness. Scenes filmed in the English Lake District, where Potter vacationed with her family and studied the local fauna, unfold like heavily captioned pages in a travel brochure. Any hint of whimsy is welcome. And in the picture’s most endearing moments, the author’s characters stir to animated life on the page as she communes with them. DVD Release Date: June 12th, 2007
 

Next 2 weeks on the Calendar:

 

Week of June 18th, 2007

 

36th Chamber of Shaolin (Chia-Liang Liu, 1978) Weinstein Company

The Big Street (Irving Reis, 1942) Turner Home Ent

Harrison's Flowers (Elie Chouraqui, 2000) Lionsgate

If.... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968) Criterion

King Boxer (aka 'Five Fingers Of Death') (Cheng Chang Ho, 1972) Weinstein Company

Lucille Ball Film Collection (Dance Girl Dance / The Big Street / Du Barry Was a Lady / Critic's Choice / Mame) Turner Home Ent

My Young Auntie (Chia-Liang Liu, 1981) Weinstein Company

Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, 1971) Criterion

The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967) Weinstein Company

Perry Mason - Season 2, Vol. 1 - Paramount Home Video

The Sicilian Clan (Henri Verneuil, 1969) R2 UK - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Stolen Life (Li Shaohong, 2005) First Run Features

Sweet Movie (Dusan Makavejev, 1974) Criterion

Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971) R2 UK Universal Pictures UK

Windom's Way (Ronald Neame, 1957) R2 UK Network

 

Week of June 25th, 2007

 

Alain Delon - The Screen Icons Collection (Un Flic, Plein Soleil, L'eclisse, Traitement De Choc) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

American Me [HD DVD] (Edward James Olmos, 1992) Universal Studios

Attack of the 50Ft. Woman (Nathan Juran, 1958) Warner Home Video

Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006) R2 UK Artificial Eye

Being John Malkovich [HD DVD] (Spike Jonze, 1999) Universal Studios

The Big Lebowski [HD DVD] (Joel Coen, 1998) Universal Studios

Black Sabbath (Mario Bava, 1963) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

Breakaway (Henry Cass, 1955) R2 UK Odeon Entertainment

Caged (John Cromwell, 1950) Warner Home Video

Cairo Road (David MacDonald, 1950) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray, 1977) R2 UK Artificial Eye

Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006) Zeitgeist Films

Cult Camp Classics 1 - Sci-Fi Thrillers (Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman 1958 / Giant Behemoth / Queen of Outer Space) - Warner Home Video
Cult Camp Classics 2 - Women in Peril (The Big Cube / Caged / Trog) Warner Home Video
Cult Camp Classics 3 - Terrorized Travelers (Hot Rods to Hell / Skyjacked / Zero Hour!) Warner Home Video
Cult Camp Classics 4 - Historical Epics (The Colossus of Rhodes / Land of the Pharaohs / The Prodigal) Warner Home Video

Girl in the Headlines (Michael Truman, 1963) R2 UK Odeon Entertainment

The Glass Mountain (Edoardo Anton, 1949) VCI

Going Under (Eric Werthman, 2004) Blue Underground

Hammer Film Noir Collector's Set 2: (Terror Street, Wing of Danger, Paid To Kill, The Glass Tomb, The Black Glove, The Deadly Game, The Unholy Four, A Race For Life) VCI Entertainment

Henri-Georges Clouzot Collection - Le Corbeau (1943), Quai des Orfevres (1947) and The Wages of Fear (1952) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

Human Resources (Laurent Cantet, 1999) R2 UK Soda Pictures

Hustle and Flow [HD DVD] (Craig Brewer, 2004) Paramount

I, Monster (Stephen Weeks, 1971) R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment

Jan Svankmajer - The Complate Short Films - R2 UK - Bfi Video

Jean Paul Belmondo - The Screen Icons Collection (Le Professionel, A Bout De Souffle, Pierrot Le Fou, Stavisky And A Double Tour.) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962) / Sans soleil (Chris Marker, 1983) Criterion

Je t'aime moi non plus (Serge Gainsbourg, 1976) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

The Kon Ichikawa Story (Shunji Iwai, 2006) R2 JP (with Eng. subs)

Il Ladro di bambini (Gianni Amelio, 1992) R2 UK - Arrow Films

Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, 1992) R2 UK - Bluebell Films

Queen of Outer Space (Edward Bernds, 1958) Warner Home Video

Le Silence de la Mer (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1949) - R2 UK Eureka - Masters of Cinema

 

Sunshine for us all,

Gary

 

P.S. DVD of the Year - 2006 still remains a popular place to peruse.