Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF July 2nd, 2018

Hail up! FIRSTLY! The Criterion 50% OFF sale is ON HERE. Stock up for the Winter! Another very strong week with Blu-ray reviews of packages by Kino, Arrow, Indicator, Bandai, Milestone, Shout! Factory, Carlotta, Twilight Time, Shameless, of films directed by Orson Welles, Samuel Fuller, Michael Mann, Hirokazu Koreeda, Robert Wise, Albert Brooks, Bill Gunn, Abel Ferrara, Justin Benson + Aaron Moorhead, Sergio Martino, Steve James and others, and a new Listing Page; Blaxploitation. Our Calendar has updates of films-to-Blu-ray, including works by Felix E. Feist, David Cronenberg, Wolf Rilla, Fred Zinnemann, Lynne Ramsay, Peter Ustinov, Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, Umberto Lenzi, Brad Peyton, Peter Fonda, Billy Wilder and we have our Feature Blu-ray is posted for JULY Enjoy!!

LISTING PAGES:

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 chosen for the Month of JULY!

Barnes and Noble's 50% Criterion SALE is ON! Plenty to covet!

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

Gary at 2ze dot com

ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): Indicator's Sam Fuller at Columbia 1937-1961 Region FREE Blu-ray boxset with It Happened in Hollywood (1937), Adventure in Sahara (1938), Power of the Press (1943), Shockproof (1949), Scandal Sheet (1952), The Crimson Kimono (1959) and Underworld U.S.A. (1961) representing some of the most hard-hitting, outspoken, politically progressive and visually audacious of the Hollywood studio era. Must own. One of our more popular comparisons in a while is the French Carlotta Blu-ray of Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin a solid upgrade for the directors loyal fanbase. I was keen on Michael Mann's The Jericho Mile a unique and memorable prison-sports film with commentary on the Kino Blu-ray. Robert Wise's The Curse of the Cat People comes to 1080P comparing very favorably to the old DVD and offers two commentaries. Val Lewton aficionados should nab - and hope for more of his output to HD! Hirokazu Koreeda's feature-length directorial debut Maborosi comes to two different Blu-ray transfers this year. A masterpiece for the discerning world-cinema aficionado. Arrow's stacked Blu-ray package of Justin Benson + Aaron Moorhead's sci-fi mystery The Endless also has the directorial pair's first feature, the intriguing and closely linked, Resolution - Wow great genre entertainment - I could watch stuff like this all night. Indicator bring the 1979 thriller The China Syndrome to their competent listing of Region FREE Blu-ray packages as well as Albert Brook's brilliant comedy-romance Modern Romance. Two gems - and easy recommendation. Pasta western lovers should embrace Arrow's five Blu-ray set of The Complete Sartana Collection - with some great style-soaked genre-adventure fun - commentaries, visuals essays, interviews - tons of value. Abel Ferrara? Vampires? Christopher Walken? Lili Taylor? Arrow Blu-ray? The Addiction is too desirable. My Sister Eileen is a stellar musical romantic-comedy with Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon and Bob Fosse... on Blu-ray from Twilight Time. Bill Gunn's Personal Problems is rarely seen and appears for the first time in a full-length, two-part version restored from the original camera tapes - on Blu-ray thank to Kino. The sports-biography Prefontaine has Jared Leto as the Olympic runner and R. Lee Ermey as his mentor/coach. A worthy double feature Blu-ray with The Jericho Mile. Colin reviewed Vigil and it sounds like an exceptional film out of New Zealand - on available on Region FREE Blu-ray from Arrow. Sergio Martino's relatively classy cannibalsploitation The Mountain of the Cannibal God stars Ursula Andress and Stacy Keach on Blu-ray from Shameless in the UK. No DVDs this week - maybe next!

'For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.' - Judy Garland

Have a weather-basking week!

The Endless BD - Benson and Moorhead play brothers, former members of a crazy UFO death cult , who receive a mysterious video cassette in the mail. The tape contains an eerie calling card from their past, inviting them to attend an event called the Ascension. Despite their apprehension, the pair agree to return for one day. At first their old friends in the cult seem warm and welcoming, but things soon turn strange as the brothers find themselves drawn into a vortex of bizarre rituals, strange messages, unseen forces and sinister supernatural secrets that threaten to tear apart the very fabric of reality. Arrow Blu-ray Release Date: July 2nd, 2018

Prefontaine BD - This biographical sports drama is the true story of an Olympic runner whose life ended tragically short. Jared Leto stars as Steve Prefontaine, a teen who develops a running talent despite unorthodox physical traits such as a short stature and legs of different lengths. "Pre" is still sufficiently impressive enough on the track field to be recruited by Bill Bowerman (R. Lee Ermey), an Oregon college coach who creates homemade running shoes in his garage. His arrogant attitude vexes even his girlfriend (Amy Locane), but Pre's athletic skills prove to be the real deal, as he wins an NCAA championship and qualifies for the 1972 Olympics. Blu-ray Release Date: July 3rd, 2018

Modern Romance BD - Neurotic, self-obsessed Robert Cole (Albert Brooks) is a successful film editor who splits up with his on-off girlfriend (Kathryn Harrold), only to try and win her back when he finds he can't live without her. Considered by many to be one of America's greatest comic talents, and sought out by filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Judd Apatow, Steven Soderbergh and Nicolas Winding Refn, actor-writer-director Brooks created what is perhaps his most caustic and excruciatingly honest film in Modern Romance. Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th, 2018

The Jericho Mile BD - Director Michael Mann co-wrote the teleplay for The Jericho Mile with Patrick J. Nolan. Peter Strauss stars as "Rain" Murphy, serving a life sentence in Folsom Prison for first-degree murder. To break up the boredom of prison life, Murphy begins running laps around the prison recreation track. Prison officials take notice when Murphy runs a mile in less than four minutes. They lobby to enter Murphy into the Olympics, an act of largesse that not only pulls Murphy out of his misanthropy but also helps to unify his racially divided fellow prisoners. Originally telecast March 18, 1979, The Jericho Mile was filmed on location at Folsom Prison, with several inmates playing small roles--and talking the talk of prisoners, never mind the TV censors. Blu-ray Release Date: July 3rd, 2018

The China Syndrome BD - This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon). Indicator Blu-ray Release date: June 25th, 2018

The Curse of the Cat People BD - Officially a sequel to Lewton's 1942 chiller classic Cat People, this has some of the same characters as the previous film but offers a completely different perspective - that of a child. Carter is the disturbed little girl who lives in a dream world, conjuring up an imaginary playmate. Simon is Irena, the ghost of her father's first wife, who nine out of ten cats prefer. Marvellously eloquent, and touchingly accurate in accessing the secret landscape of a child's mind. Blu-ray Release Date: June 26th, 2018

Sam Fuller at Columbia 1937-1961 BD - In a career spanning more than 60 years, Samuel Fuller never stopped looking for truth and never shied away from controversy. His films were as rough and gritty as the stories he told, combining incisive, intelligent storytelling, with passionate, two-fisted, direction, creating a singularly unique body of work. Now Sony Pictures and the Film Foundation have gathered together all 7 Columbia Pictures features in which he participated as writer or director into an electrifying Blu-ray set. Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th, 2018

The Mountain of the Cannibal God BD - Ursula Andress travels to the New Guinea jungle in search of her scientist husband who s vanished in the untamed Green Inferno. Soon, giant spiders, killer crocs and deadly snakes bare their teeth as her expedition, lead by cult-fave Stacey Keach, journeys towards the sacred mountain of the Cannibal God! There a flesh-eating demon will enslave her in an eruption of frenzied orgiastic climax... Blu-ray Release Date: May 28th, 2018

My Sister Eileen BD - Yet another adaptation of Ruth McKenney’s timeless autobiographical stories about two lively Ohio girls trying to make their way in New York City, this musical version of My Sister Eileen (1955) stars Betty Garrett as brainy writer Ruth and Janet Leigh as beautiful actress Eileen. Among their suitors are a randy publisher (Jack Lemmon) and a sympathetic soda jerk (Bob Fosse, who also provides the sensational choreography). Blu-ray Release Date: June, 2018

The Addiction BD - Director Abel Ferrara applies his eccentric vision to the vampire genre with this cerebral "Art" film about graduate philosophy student Kathleen Conklin (Lili Taylor), who is bitten by an aggressive female vampire (Annabella Sciorra) and soon spirals into a nightmarish world of blood addiction and existential angst. Driven by her merciless condition, she attacks several of her pretentious friends and classmates (even her professor) and mainlines their blood like heroin. Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th-26th, 2018

Maborosi BD - Winner of the 1995 Golden Osella award (for best director) at Venice Film Festival, Hirokazu Koreeda's feature-length directorial debut "Maborosi" is a hauntingly beautiful film about a young woman who faces an inexplicable death of her husband. Reminiscent of Yasujiro Ozu's style, Koreeda weaves the story with a minimalist grace. Former model Makiko Esumi's reserved performance as the heroine is quite effective, and leaves a lasting impression. Milestone Blu-ray Release Date: July 10th, 2018

The Complete Sartana Collection BD - Sartana tapped into more than just his Spaghetti Western predecessors a mysterious figure, he has a spectral quality, aided by his Count Dracula-alike cloak which also nods towards comic strip figure Mandrake the Magician, with whom he shares he shares a penchant for card tricks. He takes pride in his appearance unlike the Eastwood s dusty wanderer or Nero's mud-caked drifter. And there's a dose of James Bond too in his fondness for gadgetry and the droll sense of humour. Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th - July 3rd, 2018

Vigil BD - A stranger appears in a remote New Zealand farmland at the exact time a farmer accidentally falls to his death. The mysterious outsider grows close to some of the dead man s family, to the point where he and the widow become lovers. But her eleven-year-old daughter, Toss, struggling to come to terms with the death of her father as well as her impending womanhood, believes the intruder to be the devil and sets about protecting her family and their homestead. Blu-ray Release Date: July 10th, 2018

Mr. Arkadin BD - Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) is one of cinema’s great mysteries. How did a globetrotting narrative of espionage, amnesia, and backstabbing come to be itself marked by these qualities? In the film, small-time American smuggler Guy van Stratten is hired by elusive billionaire Gregory Arkadin to investigate the tycoon’s past. What follows is a dizzying descent into the Cold War landscape of a Europe trying to erase its history. In making the film, Welles was ultimately banned from the editing room by producer Louis Dolivet. As a result, many versions exist, none of them definitive. Carlotta Blu-ray Release Date: July 8th, 2015

Personal Problems BD - Bill Gunn—actor, playwright, novelist, and director of the art-horror classic Ganja and Hess (1973)—teamed with novelist/essayist Ishmael Reed and poet/publisher Steve Cannon to produce what Reed has called a “meta-soap opera.” This extraordinary, rough-edged ensemble piece explores black working-class lives with candor and emotional intensity and features a who’s who of important artists including Walter Cotton, Vertamae Grosvenor, Jim Wright, and Sam Waymon, with music by Carman Moore, and cinematography by Robert Polidori. Rarely shown and, when screened, seen in a mutilated cut hampered by the poor quality of available materials, it appears for the first time in a full-length, two-part version restored from the original camera tapes. Seen in its proper form, Personal Problems is nothing short of a revelation. Blu-ray Release Date: July 3rd, 2018

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