DVDBeaver Newsletter - July 9th, 2007

Barev Ches! - We have another 17 new reviews this week (5 of which are comparisons). 3 multi-film boxsets, two Criterion DVDs, great Noir, a gentle Asian gem, an under-rated courtroom drama, a dark modern murder(er) story, a couple of HD and a couple of Blu-ray. We have a new article by Jonathan R. and films by Tarkovsky, Fritz Lang, Coppola, Teshigahara...

NEW ARTICLE: "18 Thrillers You Might Have Missed" by Jonathan Rosenbaum

HD + Blu-ray NOTES: I now have an equal number of new format DVDs and will be able to do a few A vs. B comparisons if I'm ever given some time. Stay tuned!

Masters of Cinema DVD releases are between 40-54% OFF at Amazon.UK!

 HERE including...

Le Silence de la mer (40% OFF!), Scandal (45% OFF!), Assassination (45% OFF!), Pitfall (45% OFF!), Humanity & Paper Balloons (45% OFF!), Kuroneko (45% OFF!), Kwaidan (40% OFF!), Faust (54% OFF!), Asphalt (45% OFF!), The Idiot (45% OFF!), The Face of Another (45% OFF!), Shoeshine (45% OFF!), Twenty-four Eyes (45% OFF!), The Naked Island (45% OFF!), Prisoner of Shark Island (45% OFF!), Vengeance is Mine (45% OFF!), Metropolis (45% OFF!), Francesco Giullare di Dio (45% OFF!), The Holy Mountain (54% OFF!), Sunrise (45% OFF!), Funeral Parade of Roses (45% OFF!)

and 4500 UK DVDs UNDER £5 HERE - Up to 70% OFF!

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BLU-RAY STORE           HD-DVD STORE

 HIGH DEFINITION DVD STORE        ALL OUR NEW FORMAT DVD REVIEWS

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

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

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

Aside from some of the new format stuff (We haven't confirmed that UK Blu-rays will play in North America - unlike region-free HD, Blu-ray presently has 3 regions - see HERE) - I'll be getting: Panahi's Offside, The Fallen , The Seventh Seal [Special Edition] that we understand is also coming out in Blu-ray in the UK. She (Deluxe Two Disc Edition), Blueprint For Murder / Man In the Attic (2-disc), Fun stuff; Chosen Survivors / The Earth Dies Screaming (2-disc), The Lives of Others, Private Property and Snow Cake.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Just me:

STUFF I STRONGLY RECOMMEND: Three Films By Hiroshi Teshigahara, (of the three boxsest its the only one I feel strongly about), Ivan's Childhood, The Rainmaker, Noir essentials - The Woman in the Window and Kansas City Confidential.

FILMS I ALSO LIKED BUT AM SO-SO ON THE DVD: Hana and Alice

REVIEWED ON BEAVER BUT NOT SEEN (by me): Catch Us If You Can, Perfume - The Story of a Murderer, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (BR).

New Reviews:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (BR) - Enter: Johny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, about whose character the worst that might be said is that he seems to be making it up as he goes along. Of course, it is that very ambiguity – or, if you're so inclined to see it that way, aimlessness - that either fascinates or drives you crazy: in either case, we are never quite sure of Sparrow’s motivation, though we are (at least in the first movie) always intrigued by where he will go next. In Captain Jack, Depp has created one of the most original and endearing characters to appear on screen in a very long time, rightfully receiving an Oscar nomination for The Black Pearl. Blu-ray DVD Release Date: May 22, 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (BR) - The sequel, Dead Man's Chest, could only be worse, I assured myself. It was, but not all that much, nor hardly to the point of distraction. In fact, my second viewing was much more satisfactory – at least I was prepared for some of the scenes I had thought went on too long. (Most critics felt that the second sequel, At World's End, went on even longer, so I was again prepared. Let's hear it for low expectations! While not nearly up the standards of the first movie, it was not a difficult experience, and quite possibly seeing on video will be even less so.) My main criticism of Dead Man’s Chest was not so much its length or the length of its action sequences, as it’s relative lack of anything that so grabbed my visual, dramatic and emotional attention as the walking dead in The Black Pearl, who would turn in and out of skeletons as they entered and left a beam of the full moon. Blu-ray DVD Release Date: May 22, 2007

Esther Williams Vol. 1 - Warner brings us five films of 'the million dollar mermaid' Esther Williams. Laughs, romance, music--just add water! Get into the swim of Hollywood's Golden Era with musical number outtakes, classic shorts, cartoons, and more. Bathing Beauty: a big splash in her first starring role: Williams is a teacher at a women's college--and wacky Red Skelton enrolls to be near her. An astonishing flames-and-fountains aquatic finale. Easy to Wed: A spiffy remake of the screwball classic Libeled Lady, with Esther as the lady libeled. Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, and Lucille Ball round out a funny four-sided love triangle. On An Island With You: Paradise for musical-comedy fans! Esther (in a series of swimsuits and sarongs) plays a film star on a tropical location shoot. With Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, and Jimmy Durante. Neptune's Daughter: The polo team's in town and so is the fun for Esther, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton, and Betty Garrett. Includes Frank Loesser songs and one of Esther's greatest splash-happy finales. Dangerous When Wet: Cartoon legends Tom and Jerry join Esther in the light-hearted extravaganza about a girl who swims the English Channel--and meets a dashing Frenchman (Fernando Lamas). DVD Release Date: July 17th, 2007

Catch Us If You Can - Despite it being a “pop musical” starring the Dave Clark Five, John Boorman’s debut feature, ‘Catch Us If You Can’ (1965), shares Kerouac’s disillusionment and joins him in slamming the door on 60s youth culture. That decade’s hipsters are dismissed as the “products of affluence,” and their rebellion is as superficial as the studding on those leather jackets. Indeed, an early scene in the film's breezy, Godardian(2) first act shows the coolly-beautiful couple – Steve (Dave Clark) and Dinah (Barbara Ferris) – tearing through the streets of London in an E-Type Jaguar, whilst shouting at pedestrians through a megaphone, “Change your way of life!”. DVD Release Date: June 4th, 2007

The Joan Collins Superstar Collection - Well before Joan Collins played scheming 'super-bitch' Alexis Carrington on TV's Dynasty (1981-89) she appeared in some low-budget British movies. But in 1951, she caught the attention of Hollywood when she appeared in the Howard Hawks epic Land of the Pharaohs (1955). Primarily cast as a sultry, brunette siren, she was in several films in the late '50s and early '60s, including The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) and Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (both included this boxset). In the '60s and '70s she worked in many low-budget horror films and in some television (she was the guest star in 1967's "City on the Edge of Forever" one of the most celebrated episodes of the original Star Trek series). She is often referred to as "The British Open" because of her permissive sexual lifestyle although claims to have turned down Frank Sinatra, Robert F. Kennedy, Darryl F. Zanuck and Dean Martin. Collins has also written some salacious novels, books on beauty tips and a scathing autobiography. Twentieth Century Fox has chosen to celebrate some of her early work with a 5 disc boxset of her film from the late 1950's including The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), Sea Wife (1957), Stopover Tokyo (1957), Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958) and Seven Thieves (1960). DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

Kansas City Confidential - An action-packed film noir directed by Phil Karlson with a flare for showing off how violent it can be, but it's hardly a credible story. It's filmed in a semi-documentary style, as it opens when three masked men successfully rob a Kansas City bank of over a million dollars. They use a florist' van to make their escape, where they meet the fourth member of the gang in another vehicle--the Mr. Big who set up the heist. He gives the three spending money and half of the king card to identify themselves when they will meet a month later to split up the loot. The only one who knows all their identities is Mr. Big, therefore no one can squeal. Mr. Big sends each of the three to a foreign country to await a wire which will inform them where to meet for the split. DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

Hana and Alice - The beauty of Iwai's films are all the things that are not said. We gather so much subtle information about the characters (especially Alice) that, in a typical non-verbal, passive, Asian way - we are deeply drawn to her life growth and struggle. The friendship aspect of the film is more in regards to one friends outgoing nature persuading the other to pursue her dreams. This is a beautiful film, filled with brilliant camera work of obtuse angles and capturing emotionally clandestine moments. It is modestly paced, but it seems this is the only way to express this films narrative. It has Iwai's marketed female understanding signature written all over it. What a gorgeous viewing experience. DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

Ivan's Childhood - The debut feature from the great Andrei Tarkovsky, Ivan’s Childhood is an evocative, poetic journey through the shadows and shards of one boy’s war-torn youth. Moving back and forth between the traumatic realities of WWII and the serene moments of family life before the conflict began, Tarkovsky’s film remains one of the most jarring and unforgettable depictions of the impact of violence on children in wartime. DVD Release Date: July 24th, 2007

The Rainmaker - This competent, anonymous legal drama (scripted by Michael Herr) is the best John Grisham adaptation yet. We're back in ingénue Southern lawyer territory, following law school grad Rudy Baylor (Damon) through his inaugural case to a mercurial triumph against the odds. So far, so insipid; thankfully, the story is less the usual addled potboiler than a diary of civil litigation - centering on Rudy's pursuit of a giant insurance company accused of stalling on health claims arising from policies marketed to the poor and unrepresented, such as his client Donny Ray Black (Whitworth). Rudy describes the dilemma of his calling in voice-over, musing over ideals and corruptions, compromises and lawyer jokes. His pilgrim's progress leads us through an entertaining gallery of lawyerly archetypes. There's the cynic, Rudy's long sold-out adversary Leo F Drummond (Voight); the corrupt, his low-life employer Bruiser Stone (Rourke); and the merely ignoble, his 'paralawyer' assistant Deck Schifflet (DeVito). There's a wider perspective on the legal action, too, counterpointing Rudy's 'rainmaking' lawsuit with both a damp squib of another case, and a subplot involving Danes' abused wife which suggests the limitations of the law. DVD Release Date: July 24th, 2007

Dark Circle - “Dark Circle,” directed by Judy Irving (“The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” and Chris Beaver (no relationship to this website), arrives on DVD from era of “Damnation Alley” and “The Day After” as welcome reminder of the greatest threat to world peace. The documentary focuses initially on the Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant in Colorado, where plutonium triggers for bombs are manufactured. The plant executives and government officials assure the citizens that the plant is completely safe and that there is no possible risk to anyone working there or living nearby: nothing to see here, move along. Strange then that Rocky Flats was initially built in secret in 1952 and the first public evidence of its existence came from an accident which send a billowing cloud of thick smoke (no risk to the public, of course) into the air.

Perfume - The Story of a Murderer - This is a dark, dark, dark film, focused on an obsession so complete and lonely it shuts out all other human experience. You may not savor it, but you will not stop watching it, in horror and fascination. Whishaw succeeds in giving us no hint of his character save a deep savage need. And Dustin Hoffman produces a quirky old master whose life is also governed by perfume, if more positively. Hoffman reminds us here again, as in Stranger than Fiction, what a detailed and fascinating character actor he is, able to bring to the story of Grenouille precisely what humor and humanity it needs, and then tactfully leaving it at that. Even his exit is nicely timed. DVD Release Date: July 24th, 2007

China - Century of Revolution - These documentaries cover much of China during the 20th Century, beginning with the overthrowing of the Qing Dynasty by Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary forces around 1911 and ending during the mid-1990s when rapid economic development introduced de-stabilizaing elements into society. China in Revolution is the first and perhaps most-remarkable of the three documentaries--remarkable because it offers rare footage of historical figures such as Chiang Kai-shek before he was the most powerful man in China. China in Revolution covers the ground between 1911 and 1949, the year of the Nationalists’ withdrawal to Taiwan. DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

The Woman in the Window - A classic noir thriller with Robinson in top form as the likeable professor of criminal psychology who finds his most vivid fantasies and fears fulfilled when his wife and kids take a vacation and leave him alone to cope with the evils of the big city. Meeting up (innocently, it seems) with the woman of his dreams - the subject of a painting in a gallery window he passes regularly - he becomes involved first in the violent killing of a man, then in blackmail. Meanwhile his DA pal (Massey) keeps him in touch with the police's search for the killer. With Bennett and Duryea superb as the eponymous heroine and the blackmailer, and atmospheric camerawork by Milton Krasner, it's not merely a dazzling piece of suspense, but also a characteristically stark demonstration of Lang's belief in the inevitability of fate: Robinson, basically a good man, makes one small slip in a moment of relaxation, and he's doomed. DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

A Bullet For Joey - With fear of communism running rampant, Hollywood scripts of the 1950s often dealt with Soviet plots to undermine the American way of life. One example is United Artists' A Bullet for Joey (1955), starring Edward G. Robinson as a police inspector on the trail of a spy who plots to kidnap an important American atomic scientist. George Raft co-stars as the gangster who is hired to carry out the abduction - but balks when he learns what is at stake and helps the G-man keep the world safe for democracy. DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

Three Films By Hiroshi Teshigahara - One of the most acclaimed Japanese directors of all time, Hiroshi Teshigahara distinguished himself in the sixties with a series of sinuous, atmospheric, and daring films. Teshigahara found his spiritual partner in novelist and screenwriter Kobo Abe, with whom he collaborated on these Kafkaesque portraits of identities in peril, films that captivated mainstream audiences while also touching the edges of the Japanese avant-garde. The existential ghost story Pitfall (Otoshiana), the shocking, erotic fable Woman in the Dunes (Sunna no onna), and the sci-fi–tinged nightmare The Face of Another (Tanin no kao) are among cinema’s enduring enigmas and rarest pleasures. DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

Being John Malkovich (HD) - The movie just keeps getting better. I don’t want to steal the surprises and punch lines. Even a Charlie Sheen cameo is inspired. At one point, Malkovich enters himself through his own portal, which is kind of like being pulled down into the black hole of your own personality, and that trip results in one of the most peculiar single scenes I’ve ever seen in the movies. Orchestrating all this, Cusack’s character stays cool; to enter another man’s mind is of course the ultimate puppeteering experience. HD DVD Release Date: June 26th, 2007

American Me (HD) - Gut-wrenching, brutal, and powerful, American Me is not enjoyable in the conventional sense, but nevertheless stands out as one of the year's most impressive purely dramatic offerings. It's a story of violence and its dehumanizing consequences that, in some ways, is reminiscent of The Godfather, with characters that echo those from the Puzo/Ford-Coppola epic. Director Edward James Olmos fearlessly takes aim at the culture of machismo which has enveloped so many inner city youths. This is an unrelenting, unalloyed condemnation of that lifestyle, a portrait of the sort of brutality that violence begets. HD DVD Release Date: June 26th, 2007