Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF July 23rd, 2018

Halito! The Criterion 50% OFF sale is ON HERE. Stock up for the Winter! What a mix this week with Blu-ray reviews of Shaw Bros. wuxia and fantasy, cannibalsploitation, Nordic Noir, epic Malick, masterpiece Lubitsch, a iconic Cuban gem, a memorable post-apocalypse film, neo-noir and much more by Criterion, Elephant Films, Kino, 88 Films, Shameless, Movinside, , of films directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Terrence Malick, Jerry Schatzberg, Nicholas Meyer, Susan Seidelman, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Umberto Lenzi and others, and a new Listing Page; Blaxploitation. Our Calendar has updates of films-to-Blu-ray, including works by Brian De Palma, Hal Ashby, Cornel Wilde, Rob Reiner, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Olivier Assayas, Jacques Rivette, Frank Darabont, Vincente Minnelli, The Wachowski Brothers 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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ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): Criterion rules this week with Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life Blu-ray which includes a different looking new extended version of the film featuring an additional fifty minutes of footage. Amazing. Ernst Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait is in brilliant Technicolor via Criterion's 4K-restoration on Blu-ray. A masterpiece that has never looked better on digital. Memories of Underdevelopment is the most widely renowned work in the history of Cuban cinema. It is now on stacked Criterion Blu-ray advancing beyond Mr. Bongos. Susan Seidelman's 1982 Smithereens also gets the Criterion treatment with a wonderful Blu-ray for the first independent American film to compete for the Palme d’Or. One of the most memorable, and scary, post-apocalypse films of the 80's with a handful of characters trying to survive a nuclear holocaust. The Day After has made it to Blu-ray and Kino gives us both the original 122-Minute TV Cut and the 127-Minute Theatrical Cut on separate Blu-rays. Wow. I enjoyed Modus (Season One) - a Nordic Noir television series on Kino Blu-ray that follows a psychologist and ex-FBI profiler's investigation of a serial killer. The Midnight Man has Burt Lancaster as an ex-con security guard involved in solving a murder. It's on Blu-ray on Movinside out of France. Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox is considered one of the mainstays of the 'Cannibal Exploitation' genre - and Shameless out of the UK have put it to Blu-ray. Yes. 88 Films bring us more Shaw Brothers with the good-natured fantasy The Human Goddess and the brooding martial arts popcorner Dragon Missile - both on Blu-ray. They have also produced a stacked Blu-ray for the 80's horror Bad Dreams as part of their 'Slasher Classics Collection' with commentary and interviews. Fire Birds is an odd Top Gun retread (only with helicopters) but the honest Blu-ray commentary has value and, lastly, I was neither a fan or the film nor the poor quality Blu-ray of The Seduction of Joe Tynan with Alan Alda and Meryl Streep. DVD reviews are simmering...

'The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind..' - Humphrey Bogart

Have a peaceful week!

Bad Dreams BD - Unity Field, a "free love" cult from the '70s, is mostly remembered for its notorious mass suicide led by Harris (Richard Lynch), its charismatic leader. While all members are supposed to burn in a fire together, young Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin) is spared by chance. Years later, the nightmare of Unity Field remains buried in her mind. But when those around Cynthia start killing themselves, and she begins having visions of Harris, she may be forced to confront the past -- before it confronts her. Blu-ray Release Date: July 23rd, 2018

Smithereens BD - Susan Seidelman established her distinctive vision of 1980s New York with this debut feature, the lo-fi original for her vibrant portraits of women reinventing themselves. After escaping New Jersey, the quintessentially punk Wren (Susan Berman)—a sparkplug in fishnets who lives dangerously downtown—moves to the city with the mission of becoming famous. When not pasting up flyers for herself or hanging at the Peppermint Lounge, she’s getting involved with Paul (Brad Rijn), the nicest guy to ever live in a van next to the highway, and Eric (Richard Hell), an aloof rocker. Shot on 16 mm film that captures the grit and glam of the setting, with an alternately moody and frenetic soundtrack by the Feelies and others, Smithereens—the first independent American film to compete for the Palme d’Or—is an unfaded snapshot of a bygone era. Blu-ray Release Date: August 21st - 27th, 2018

The Day After BD - The countdown has begun! Against the real-life backdrop of the US deployment of WMDs in Europe during the escalating Cold War, this dramatically involving and agonizingly graphic film about nuclear holocaust detonated a direct hit into the heartland of America, becoming the most watched TV movie of all time. Starring Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg and John Lithgow, this controversial, potent drama remains one of the most talked-about programs in history. Blu-ray Release Date: August 7th, 2018

Memories of Underdevelopment BD - Even though director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a staunch and devoted supporter of the revolution, Memories of Underdevelopment offers a raw and uncompromising analysis of the newly formed system of government. Through a moving blend of narrative fiction, still photography and rare documentary footage, Alea catalogues the intricacies of the early days of the Castro regime; producing a stirring and enigmatic work that feeds off the culture of the very subject it is studying: Cuba. Criterion Blu-ray Release date: August 28th, 2018

The Tree of Life BD - Four decades into an already legendary career, Terrence Malick realized his most rapturous vision to date, tracing a story of childhood, wonder, and grief to the outer limits of time and space. Reaching back to the dawn of creation, Malick sets a story of boyhood memories on a universal scale, charting the coming of age of an awestruck child (newcomer Hunter McCracken) in Texas in the 1950s, as he learns to navigate the extremes of nature and grace represented by his bitter, often tyrannical father (Brad Pitt) and his ethereal, nurturing mother (Jessica Chastain, in her breakout role). Shot with nimble attention to life’s most fleeting moments by Emmanuel Lubezki, the Palme d’Or–winning The Tree of Life marks the intimately personal, cosmically ambitious culmination of Malick’s singular approach to filmmaking. Criterion Blu-ray Release date: August 28th, 2018

Heaven Can Wait BD - Newly deceased playboy Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche) presents himself to the outer offices of Hades, where he asks a bemused Satan for permission to enter the gates of Hell. Though the Devil doubts Henry’s sins will qualify him for eternal damnation, Henry proceeds to recount a lifetime spent wooing and pursuing women. Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Director, Heaven Can Wait is an enduring classic that showcases director Ernst Lubitsch’s trademark blend of wit, urbanity, and grace. Blu-ray Release Date: August 21st, 2018

The Midnight Man BD - One night after finishing his rounds as security chief at Jordan College, Quartz Willinger (Cameron Mitchell) stops by an after-hours club for a drink and walks in on the middle of a robbery, during which he is savagely beaten by three hillbilly thugs. While recovering from his injuries, he needs a replacement and arranges to hire an old friend, Jim Slade (Burt Lancaster), an ex-cop who has just been paroled on a murder conviction, for killing the man he caught with his wife. He finds the job an awkward fit but a welcome relief from prison, especially once he meets his parole officer, Linda Thorpe (Susan Clark). Blu-ray Release Date: June 27th, 2017

Cannibal Ferox BD - An academic, Gloria (Lorraine De Selle), journeys to the Amazon jungle where things go awry when her party encounters sadistic druggy villain Mike (Giovanni Lombardo Radice aka John Morghen), as the travellers venture further into the heart of darkness, they soon discover what it means to be the hunted prey. Blu-ray Release Date: July 30th, 2018

The Human Goddess BD - The Shaw Brothers veered into outright fantasy territory with The Human Goddess - and often hilarious and very timely look at the state of Hong Kong in the early 1970s! Released in 1972 to adoring audiences, and directed by the iconic Meng Hua Ho this is an oddball outing even by the esoteric standards... Blu-ray Release Date: July 9th, 2018

Dragon Missile BD - Headlined by the legendary kung-fu icon Lo Lieh this brutal tale of rivalry and skullduggery in ancient China packs a potent punch from start to finish. Absolutely crammed full of carnage - the blood flies thick and fast as the 'missile' itself glides across the screen and slices limbs from bodies in this wuxia wonder. Blu-ray Release Date: July 9th, 2018

Fire Birds BD - Nicolas Cage stars in the below-par action film Fire Birds -- a dying ember from Reagan-era nationalistic jingoism. In this Top Gun retread, Cage plays Jake Preston, a hotshot Army helicopter pilot who is being trained to use the U.S. Army's Apache aircraft to destroy the drug fields of a South American drug cartel. It up to his taskmaster instructor Brad Little (Tommy Lee Jones) to teach Jake humble lessons before he can be trusted to launch into the skies against the drug dealers. Blu-ray Release Date: July 10th, 2018

Modus (Season One) BD - A smart and brooding Swedish detective series, Modus Season 1 follows psychologist and ex-FBI profiler Inger Johanne Vik (Melinda Kinnaman) as she finds herself and her autistic daughter drawn into an investigation of a series of disturbing and brutal deaths in Stockholm. Blu-ray Release Date: July 17th, 2018

The Seduction of Joe Tynan BD - A liberal United States senator, Joe Tynan (Alan Alda) is in over his head with both his work and his home life. Joe sees little of his wife, Ellie (Barbara Harris), due to the demands of his job, and their relationship is further strained when he begins to fall for Karen Traynor (Meryl Streep), a pretty attorney. Blu-ray Release Date: January 17th, 2018
 

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