Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF July 16th, 2018

Gyebale ko The Criterion 50% OFF sale is ON HERE. Stock up for the Winter! Another very strong Summer week with Blu-ray reviews of packages by Arrow, Kino, Masters of Cinema, 101 Black Label, Twilight Time, Wild Side, of films directed by Billy Wilder, Seijun Suzuki, Hong Sang-soo, Sergio Martino, Kevin Brownlow, Byron Haskin, Philippe de Broca, Jonathan Miller, Vincent Ward, Paco Plaza, William Witney, James Goldstone, and our new Listing Page; Blaxploitation. Our Calendar has updates of films-to-Blu-ray, including a massive Criterion including works by Ingmar Bergman, Roger Corman, Kelly Reichardt, David Leitch, George A. Romero, Ridley Scott, Joss Whedon, Oliver Stone, William Wyler 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): There is something for everyone this week. Without one title jumping out, there are plenty of strong titles. I was very keen to discover The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey - a brilliant adventure / fantasy out of New Zealand. Impressive cinema on Arrow, Region FREE, Blu-ray. Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce is a wonderfully fun re-pairing of Lemmon and MacLaine - Kino's Blu-ray offers two commentaries. Giallo fans will delight in Sergio Martino's The Case of the Scorpion's Tale - an Italian mystery-thriller deeply ensconced in the genre and available on Region FREE Blu-ray from Arrow. Philippe de Broca's King of Hearts has reached legendary status as a multi-layered comedy from the mid 60's on a highly impressive 4K restoration Blu-ray. Sweet. Hong Sang-soo's cinema can be an acquired taste, but once fairly sampled can be immensely rewarding - Arrow's Region FREE Blu-ray two-pack has his Tale of Cinema and Woman is the Future of Man in one desirable package - let's have more! It's hard not to embrace Seijun Suzuki's heavy-handed delirium, and magnificently titled, of Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! further augmenting his cult-status and on Region FREE Blu-ray from Arrow. Because of its Noir cast (Lancaster, Douglas, Lizabeth Scott) and ex-con, double-cross premise I Walk Alone has a lot of offer for fans of the dark cinema - Kino add an informative commentary on their Blu-ray. Take a Girl Like You has adult themes of its time and makes a thoroughly enjoyable romance-comedy out of the UK - on Region FREE Blu-ray from Twilight Time. The mid 50's crime-thriller A Strange Adventure, on Kino Blu-ray, also touches some Noir conventions and make a desperate yarn with an equally appealing commentary. I am watching this one many times. The 70's disaster epics took many forms and one of the more unique was Rollercoaster starring George Segal, Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda. 101 Films Black Label, out of the UK, have gone to town with a double Blu-ray package offering both the U.S. theatrical cut and the German "uncut" version of the film with commentary, documentary, interviews and a book. Wow. It Happened Here is a 'what if' film imagining that England had lost the war in 1940 and been occupied by Nazi Germany - a fascinating neorealist expose by Kevin Brownlow that has been released on Blu-ray by BFI. Tiger By the Tail is a slapped together thriller barely saved by a bikini-clad Tippi Hedren and gyrating Charo. The Kino Blu-ray's fun commentary gives it value though. Wild Side's Blu-ray of Veronica - a creepy Paco Plaza horror - is for French-language audiences only. Let's get to some DVD reviewing next week!

'The only safe things is to take a chance.' - Mike Nichols

Have a dance or two this week!

Irma La Douce BD - The stars and director of The Apartment reunite in the bawdy, charming and romantic farce about a French policeman (Jack Lemmon) who falls in love with a prostitute (Shirley MacLaine). Meet Nestor (Lemmon), a young man with a very complicated love life. To keep his beloved, the proud and profitable lady of the streets Irma la Douce (MacLaine), off the streets, he disguises himself as Lord X, who immediately becomes Irma’s sole client and means of support. But what’s a jealous boyfriend to do when the illustrious Irma claims that the man she’s really in love with is not the smitten Nestor, but the dotty old Lord himself? Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th, 2018

Rollercoaster BD - Thrills abound in this high-speed suspense yarn as a determined terrorist (Bottoms) begins to turn America s amusement parks into battlefields. The tension mounts as affable safety inspector Harry Calder (Segal) attempts to track down the saboteur who has targeted the country s most popular rollercoaster and its riders for senseless destruction. The edge-of-the-seat excitement mounts as the battle of wits between Calder and the terrorist builds to an explosive climax. Blu-ray Release Date: July 23rd, 2018

The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey BD - Cumbria, 1348 the year of the Black Death. Griffin, a young boy, is plagued by apocalyptic visions which he believes could save his village. Encouraging a small band of men to tunnel into the earth, they surface in 1980s New Zealand and a future beyond their comprehension but must complete their quest. Nominated for the Palme d Or at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey is a bold and often startling fusion of medieval fantasy and time travel science fiction, quite unlike anything you ve seen. Blu-ray Release Date: July 23rd-24th, 2018

It Happened Here BD - an intricate imagining of England in 1944 if it had lost the war in 1940 and been occupied by the Germans--qualifies as science fiction. And the second, Winstanley (1975)--an account of the failed effort of a nonviolent religious sect called the Diggers to establish a commune in Surrey in 1649--qualifies as a period piece. But to my mind both films are science fiction, because a vanished era is the focus of the sort of curiosity, awe, and wonder commonly reserved for the future. Blu-ray Release Date: July 23rd, 2018

King of Hearts BD - A cult comic masterpiece from acclaimed director Philippe de Broca, King of Hearts was a flop upon initial release in France, but was a smash hit in the US, where it ended up running for five years straight. During the latter part of World War I, Private Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) is chosen to go into the French town of Marville and disconnect a bomb that the German army has planted. However, Charles is chased by some Germans and finds himself holed up at the local insane asylum, where the inmates are convinced that he is the "King of Hearts." Blu-ray Release Date: June 16th, 2018

Tiger By the Tail BD - The final directorial effort by veteran filmmaker R.G. Springsteen. A Vietnam War veteran (Christopher George) returns home to restore his relationship with his estranged brother (Dennis Patrick), a principal shareholder of a California racetrack. Upon arrival, he discovers that his brother has been murdered during a robbery. After being framed for his brother’s murder, he looks up his old flame (Tippi Hedren) to assist him in solving the robbery and murder. Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th, 2018

A Strange Adventure BD - Legendary serial and western director William Witney directed this film noir about a trio of armored-car robbers who make their getaway by forcing a young hot-rodder (Ben Cooper) to be their driver. The vicious criminals take over a mountain cabin for a hideout after overpowering its occupants. The suspenseful crime drama co-stars Joan Evans, Marla English, Jan Merlin and Nick Adams. Beautifully shot in black-and-white by Bud Thackery. Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th, 2018

Woman is the Future of Man BD - The title of Hong's comedy of manners and mores, taken from a Louis Aragon poem, is gently misleading: the woman here, bar-owner Sun-Hwa (Sung), is actually a figure from the pasts of the two men, aspiring film-maker Kim (Kim) and university lecturer Lee (Yu). Both men had affairs with her in their student days, although they recall her very differently. And when they meet for the first time in some years (Kim has been studying in the US) they decide to look her up - and both of them fall for her all over again. Blu-ray Release Date: July 16th-17th, 2018

Tale of Cinema BD - In Seoul, the paths of two men and one woman intersect and move apart from one another, centering around their love for cinema. A suicidal student meets a young woman who decides to follow him in his fatal gesture. Coming out of a cinema, Tongsu, an unsuccessful filmmaker, spots a beautiful young woman, and recognizes her: she is the main actress in the film he has just seen. The life of this wavering and distressed young man strangely echoes the one of the young man from the beginning... Blu-ray Release Date: July 16th-17th, 2018

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! BD - Assigned a standard Yakuza film in the hardboiled vein pioneered at Japan s famed Nikkatsu Studios, director Seijun Suzuki and his frequent leading man Jo Shishido used 1963's Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! to flip the Japanese gangster film genre on its ear. A rapid fire gun heist, credits with an infectious jazz pop score, and a wide-screen close-up of a burning car announce Detective Bureau 2-3 as the film that would both lampoon and redefine Asian crime films for an irreverent new decade of garish panache and ultra-violent cool. Blu-ray Release Date: July 9th-10th, 2018

I Walk Alone BD - Byron Haskin directed this classic film noir about two bootleggers on the lam. Partners Frankie (Burt Lancaster) and Noll (Kirk Douglas) split up to evade capture by the police. Frankie is caught and jailed, but Noll manages to escape and open a posh New York City nightclub. Years later Frankie is released from the clink and visits Noll with the intention of collecting his half of the nightclub's profits. But Noll, who has no intention of being so equitable, uses his ex-girlfriend Kay to divert Frankie from his intended goal. Co-starring Wendell Corey and legendary noir baddies Marc Lawrence and Mike Mazurki. Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th, 2018

The Case of the Scorpion's Tale BD - The second giallo by genre master Sergio Martino, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail combines stunning views of Athens and the Greek coastline with brutal bursts of violence, a typically tangled script by Ernesto Gastaldi, and a cast overflowing with Euro cult talent, including Alberto de Mendoza Janine Reynaud and Luigi Pistilli. Blu-ray Release Date: July 16th-17th, 2018

Veronica BD - Verónica (or Vero, ably potrayed by newcomer Sandra Escacena), has a bit more on her plate than the average teenage girl: with her mother (Ana Torrent) constantly working, Vero is left in charge of her younger sisters and brother, feeding them, getting them dressed and to school in the morning, and babysitting most nights. On top of this she must deal with the usual trappings of adolescence. For some relief from the daily pressures of her life, she and her friend Rosa buy a ouija board from a local vendor, and decide to try and speak to the spirit of Vero's deceased father. Blu-ray Release Date: December 20th, 2017

Take a Girl Like You BD - The great satirist/writer/director Jonathan Miller’s only venture into cinema, Take a Girl Like You (1970) is an adaptation of the Kingsley Amis novel about a virginal young woman, Jenny (Hayley Mills, in one of her first “adult” roles), and the men who pursue her, particularly Patrick (Oliver Reed), who finds that deeper feelings may overtake his genial caddishness. Also starring Noel Harrison, John Bird, and Sheila Hancock, and featuring a score by Stanley Myers. Blu-ray Release Date: July, 2018
 

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