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The Last Days of Disco
BD - The Last Days of
Disco is a clever, comic return to the nighttime party scene
in early eighties Manhattan from director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan).
At the center of the film’s roundelay of revelers are the icy
Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale) and the demure Alice (Chloë Sevigny),
by day toiling as publishing house assistants and by night
looking for romance and entertainment at a premier, Studio
54–like club. The Last Days of Disco is an affectionate
yet unsentimental look at the end of an era, brimming with
Stillman’s trademark dry humor. Blu-ray
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Twins of Evil
BD - Two beautiful orphaned
identical twins, Maria and Frieda Gellhorn (Playboy centerfold
models Mary and Madeleine Collinson), move to the village of
Karnstein to live with their uncle Gustav Weil (played by Hammer
horror favorite, Peter Cushing), a fanatical puritan and leader
of the local witch-hunting Brotherhood. The village Count
(Damien Thomas, Never Let Me Go), an evil man who
secretly practices Satanism, uses black magic and transforms
into a vampire. Unhappy with her new life, Frieda seeks escape
and tragically falls under the spell of the Count. Now overcome
with an insatiable hunger for human blood, Frieda has to hide
her secret from her sister, and escape her uncle's killing
grasp! The wait is over! This Hammer horror classic is now
available from Synapse Films in an all-new 1080p high definition
transfer and loaded with exciting exclusive special features.
Also stars Kathleen Byron (Black
Narcissus), David Warbeck (Lucio Fulci's
The Beyond) and Dennis
Price (Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos)!
Blu-ray Release Date: July 10th
2012
Metropolitan
BD - One of the most
significant achievements of the American independent film
movement of the 1990s, writer-director Whit Stillman’s debut,
Metropolitan, is a sparkling comedic chronicle of a middle-class
young man’s romantic misadventures among New York City’s
debutante society. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Original Screenplay, Stillman’s deft, literate script and
hilariously high-brow observations mask a tender tale of
adolescent anxiety. Blu-ray
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Rio Grande
BD - Wayne's Captain York
from
Fort Apache has become
a Colonel by the time Rio Grande closes the Ford cavalry
trilogy, but is still much exercised by troubled notions of
authority in both the mirrored families of home life (O'Hara and
estranged son Jarman) and command (hamstrung by the
inconveniently close Mexican border while keeping down marauding
Apaches). A bit wordy, a bit plot-heavy, and with an unfortunate
tendency to saccharine musical excess (the Sons of the
Pioneers), it's fairly minor but still resonant Ford.
Blu-ray Release date: August 7th,
2012
Bound
BD - Destined for cult status, this provocative
thriller offers a grab bag of genres (gangster movie, comedy,
sexy romance, crime caper) and tops it all off with steamy
passion between lesbian ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) and a
not-so-ditzy gun moll named Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who meets
Corky and immediately tires of her mobster boyfriend (Joe
Pantoliano). Desperate to break away from the Mob's influence
and live happily ever after, the daring dames hatch a plot to
steal $2 million of Mafia money. Their scheme runs into a series
of escalating complications, until their very survival depends
on split-second timing and criminal ingenuity. Simultaneously
violent, funny, and suspenseful, Bound is sure to test
your tolerance for bloodshed, but the film is crafted with such
undeniable skill that several critics (including Roger Ebert)
placed it on their top-ten lists for 1996...
Blu-ray Release date: August 7th,
2012
Firstborn
BD - A teenager (Christopher
Collet, The Manhattan Project) and his kid brother (Corey
Haim, in his film debut) spar with their mother's shady new
boyfriend (Peter Weller,
Robocop) in this
dramatic thriller from veteran British director Michael Apted (Gorky
Park). Teri Garr (Mr. Mom) stars as the young
divorced mother, trying to balance her relationship with her
kids and her drifter boyfriend. The boys think they see the man
for what he is and need to somehow save their mother from his
clutches. The stellar cast includes future superstars Robert
Downey Jr. and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Blu-ray Release date: July 31st, 2012
The Blood Beast Terror
BD - Peter Cushing (Horror
Express) and Robert Flemyng (Battle of
Britain) star in this classic horror film. A crazed
etymologist is dabbling in gruesome experiments that are turning
his beautiful daughter into a vampire-beast with an insatiable
lust for blood! From Cushing's investigations of the opening
atrocities to the fieryfinale--this gory thriller from legendary
director Vernon Sewell (Ghost Ship) is definitely not for
the squeamish! Blu-ray Release
date: July 17th, 2012
They Made Me a Fugitive
BD - Academy Award nominee
Trevor Howard (Brief
Encounter,
The Third Man) gives
one of his greatest performances as Clem, an ex-serviceman who
is fed up after the War and drawn to the excitement of
black-marketeering. His psychopathic, sadist gang boss, Narcy
(Griffith Jones), betrays him when he refuses to deal in drugs,
and the story becomes a breathtaking tale of revenge. The
complex ending of They Made Me a Fugitive is not a trivial
resolution, but lives up to the social consequences of this
violent and disturbing film that Leonard Maltin raves ''No holds
barred...packs a real punch.'' From legendary screenwriter Noel
Langley (The
Wizard of Oz).
Blu-ray Release date: June 24th, 2012
Confidence (Bizalom) -
Szabó's Oscar-nominated 1980 feature is a haunting and moving
experience dealing with complex, yet very human questions of
love, trust, loyalty, and betrayal under exceptional
circumstances. Janos and Kata are thrown together during WW2 and
forced to pose as husband and wife to hide from the Nazis. The
intensity and suffocating intimacy of their new relationship and
the circumstances in which they find themselves, forces them to
confront past prejudices and assumptions and challenge what they
truly believe. DVD Release Date: June 25th 2012
Hudson's Bay - This
sweeping drama chronicles the foundation a Canadian institution:
the Hudson's Bay Trading Company. Set in the 17th century when
the fur trade was at its peak the story centers on Radisson, a
far-sighted entrepreneurial fur trapper, and his sidekick who
dream of establishing a major trading post on the title bay.
Opportunity arises when they encounter an exiled British
aristocrat and begin teaching him frontier ways. He in turn has
them travel to England with him. There the determined Radisson,
must first convince King Charles that the proposed post would be
a lucrative venture. The king eventually agrees to fund the
first post and Radisson, his partner and the aristocrat return
to the Canadian frontier. DVD Release Date: July 17th, 2010
Intent to Kill - British
melodrama maven Jimmy Sangster adapted his screenplay for Intent
to Kill from a novel by Michael Bryan. Richard Todd plays a
Montreal doctor who is in love with his pretty American
assistant Betsy Drake. Todd is saddled with a viper-tongued wife
(Catherine Boyle), who wants him to leave the provinces for a
posh practice in London. The good doctor's problems are
intensified when he is obliged to perform delicate brain surgery
on a hated South American president (Herbert Lom), who has been
targeted for assassination by a "trusted" colleague (Carlo
Giustini). Only the intervention of police detective Paul
Carpenter saves Todd from stopping a bullet himself. The heated
intrigues of Intent to Kill are contrasted by the wintry
Montreal exteriors. DVD Release Date: July 17th, 2010
Down By Law
BD - Director Jim Jarmusch
followed up his brilliant breakout film
Stranger Than Paradise
with another, equally beloved portrait of loners and misfits in
the American landscape. When fate brings together three hapless
men—an unemployed disc jockey (Tom Waits), a small-time pimp
(John Lurie), and a strong-willed Italian tourist (Roberto
Benigni)—in a Louisiana prison, a singular adventure ensues.
Described by Jarmusch as a “neo-Beat noir comedy,” Down by Law
is part nightmare and part fairy tale, featuring sterling
performances and crisp black-and-white cinematography by the
esteemed Robby Müller. Blu-ray
Release Date: July 17th, 2012
Mystery Men
BD - In Kinka Usher's
'Mystery Men' we are introduced to some of the lesser know brand
of caped crusader - in this universe we have Captain Amazing
(Greg Kinear), Ben Stiller as Mr. Furious (who's power, it seems
is to just get really, really mad) - the wonderfully deadpan
William H. Macy as the oddly armored 'Shoveler' - Hank Azaria
plays the silverware-tossing 'Blue Raja' - the always
hilariously cold Janeane Garofalo, existing on the legacy of her
character's father (NOTE: who has the same first name - Carmine
- as her real father!), is 'The Bowler' - Paul Reubens, with a
sort of surprise comeback, is 'The Spleen'. Plus the
only-when-nobody's-looking 'Invisible Boy', there philosophical
leader 'Sphinx', dastardly villains like The Disco Boys or
Geoffrey Rush as Casanova Frankenstein - it all seems perfectly
complete. Blu-ray Release Date:
July 24th, 2012
The Kid With a Bike
BD - The Dardennes create
tension out of human drama and draw believable, excellent
performances from their entire cast. Cyril, almost 12, has only
one plan: to find the father who left him temporarily in a
children's home. By chance he meets Samantha, who runs a
hairdressing salon and agrees to let him stay with her at
weekends. Cyril doesn't recognize the love Samantha feels for
him, a love he desperately needs to calm his rage. This
affecting and gripping drama is one of the finest films from the
directors of
The Child,
Rosetta &
The Silence of Lorna.
Blu-ray Release date: July 24th,
2012
The Long Haul - Harry
Miller (Victor Mature) is an Ex-GI living in a tiny, rundown
flat in Liverpool with his English bride and young son. Harry
feels trapped in his life there: the best job he can get is
driving a truck for his wife’s uncle, and his desire to return
to the States is a constant source of friction between the
couple. When he lends a hand to the gorgeous, petulant
girlfriend of big-time racketeer Joe Easy (Patrick Allen), Harry
finds himself tempted by more than just the lovely Lynn (Diana
Dors). Similar in theme to
They Drive by Night and
the great
Thieves’ Highway, this
little known noir gem has more twists and turns than the English
countryside; written and directed by Ken Hughes (Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang and
Casino Royale) who
specialized in British suspense stories (or Brit Noir) before
resettling in Hollywood. DVD Release Date: September 21st,
2010
She Played With Fire -
British writer and director Sidney Gilliat (Green
for Danger,
The Lady Vanishes) is
responsible for some superb moments of cinematic suspense. This
lesser-known crime drama – based on the book "Fortune is a
Woman" – featuring the beautiful Arlene Dahl (The
Black Book,
Slightly Scarlet) as a
married woman who runs into a former boyfriend, insurance
investigator Oliver Branwell (Jack Hawkins,
The Bridge on the River Kwai,
Five Finger Exercise), in the line of his business. When
her husband (Dennis Price, Murder Most Foul) dies in a
fire, the two re-kindle a relationship that ended abruptly.
Eventually, murder, arson and blackmail threaten to consume them
both. Newly remastered. DVD Release Date: May 1st, 2012
They Made Me a Criminal / Lady Gangster
- First, director Busby Berkeley's "They Made Me a Criminal"
stars John Garfield as a boxer who goes on the run after he is
suspected of killing a man. While he attempts to clear his name,
he takes refuge in a camp for juvenile delinquents while a
detective tries to track him down. With Claude Rains and the
Dead End Kids. Then, in "Lady Gangster," Faye Emerson
shines as a no-nonsense gun moll whose dreams of becoming an
actress are complicated when she is blamed for a heist. With the
help of a kindly district attorney, can she turn her life
around? Frank Wilcox, Ruth Ford, Julie Bishop, and, in an early
role, Jackie Gleason co-star. DVD Release Date: June 29th,
2004
For You I Die - Convict
Johnny Coulter (Paul Langton), nearing the end of a prison
sentence, is forced to take part in a prison break organized by
gangster and thug Matt Gruber (Don Harvey).
Coulter is told to hide out in a backwoods holiday camp. There
he’s to make contact with Gruber’s woman, an ex-chorus girl Hope
Novak (Cathy Downs) and let her know that Gruber will be along
to fetch her as soon as things cool down. Coulter locates the
camp, makes the meet, and keeps his head down. However Novak is
not at all the hard-bitten hoofer that he’d been expecting. And
it turns out she no longer wants anything to do with Gruber.
DVD Release Date: May 15th, 2012
The Last Mile - The plot is
basic stuff about doomed men in the big house, how they're
treated by the guards, what motivates them, how the prison
system works, as Hollywood sees it anyway. In style the film's
similar to many period gangster films of its time. Rooney had
already played Baby Face Nelson a couple of years earlier. He's
in fine form here as a desperate inmate determined to break
free. And he takes a lot of people with him in the stunning last
half-hour of the film, in which the bullets are flying left and
right. DVD Release Date: April 26th, 2012
Man of Courage - They don't
call District Attorney John Wallace "Honest John" for nothing,
given his reputation for putting high-profile criminals behind
bars. All he needs is one more big case to ensure his election
as the state's next governor - and big-shot politico Mark
Crandall is going to give it to him on a silver platter. A
mutilated corpse has been identified as mobster George Dickson.
Now D. A. Wallace has the body, a motive (the insurance money),
and a prime suspect (Dickson's estranged wife Sally). Despite
misgivings about the evidence, which is purely circumstantial,
Wallace wins the conviction. Sally gets 20 years to life in
federal prison, and Wallace gets elected governor. Then Crandall
drops a bombshell: He bought and paid for a witness to provide
phony evidence against Sally Dickson. Crandall framed her, but
Wallace convicted her. As Crandall sees it, he now owns Wallace.
But "Honest John" drops a bombshell of his own: He grants Sally
Dickson a full pardon, resigns the governorship, and convenes a
grand jury to investigate a miscarriage of justice in which he
was an unwitting - and now unwilling - participant. But
Crandall's nefarious cohorts won't go down without a fight, and
even Sally is bent on revenge. DVD Release Date: May 15th,
2012 |
