Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF August 12th, 2013
  This Week's Highlights
Adiyoos! - A summer week from Blu-rays of Criterion Lubitsch to a collection of Betty Boop. We have new Calendar Listings on Blu-ray including films by Joseph H. Lewis, Jacques Tourneur, J.J. Abrams, Sidney Lumet, René Clair, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Hayao Miyazaki and James Ivory! We've posted a new CONTEST and our FEATURE Blu-ray and DVD of the MONTH selected for AUGUST Enjoy!

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FEATURE Blu-ray and DVD of the MONTH selected for AUGUST!
 

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(Week of) August 12th CONTEST  identify the clip on the CONTEST PAGE to win a Brand New Olive Blu-ray of Bullfighter and the Lady

 
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Today's DVD & Blu-rays (Amazon)

Blu-rays Under $10 (Amazon)

Blu-rays Under £6 (Amazon UK)

Blu-rays Under £10 (Amazon UK)

Movies & TVs (Amazon Canada)

LATEST ADDITIONS TO THE RELEASE CALENDAR:

Gun Crazy [Blu-ray] (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950) RB Warner France

Curse of the Demon [Blu-ray] (Jacques Tourneur, 1957) RB FR Wild Side Video

Star Trek Into Darkness [Blu-ray] (J.J. Abrams, 2013) Paramount

Serpico [Blu-ray] (Sidney Lumet, 1973) Paramount

World War Z [Blu-ray] (Marc Forster, 2013) Paramount

Beauty of the Devil [Blu-ray] (René Clair, 1950) Cohen Group

The White Dove (Holubice) / Josef Kilián (Postava k podpírání) - Two-film Special Edition - R2 UK Second Run

The Iceman [Blu-ray] (Ariel Vromen, 2012) Millennium

Body Bags [Blu-ray] (John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, 1993) Shout! Factory

Night of the Comet [Blu-ray] (Thom E. Eberhardt, 1984) Shout! Factory

Porco Rosso [Blu-ray] (Hayao Miyazaki, 1992) RB UK Studiocanal

Carry on Screaming! [Blu-ray] (Gerald Thomas, 1966) RB UK Studiocanal

The Witches [Blu-ray] (Cyril Frankel, 1966) RB UK Studiocanal

The Remains of the Day [Blu-ray] (James Ivory, 1993) RB UK Sony

Eve of Destruction [Blu-ray] (Duncan Gibbins, 1991) Shout! Factory

The Conspiracy [Blu-ray] (Christopher MacBride, 2012) Anderson Merchandise

Cult Horror Classics Double Feature [Blu-ray] (Re-Animator / The Hills Have Eyes) [Blu-ray] Image Entertainment (BEAVER REVIEW)  (BEAVER REVIEW)

My Name Is Nobody [Blu-ray] (Tonino Valerii, 1973) Image Entertainment

Shack Out on 101 [Blu-ray] (Edward Dein, 1955) Olive Films

Ambush at Cimarron Pass [Blu-ray] (Jodie Copelan, 1958) Olive Films

The Fury [Blu-ray] (Brian De Palma, 1978) RB UK Arrow Video

The Medusa Touch [Blu-ray] (Jack Gold, 1978) Henstooth Video

The Night of the Hunter [Blu-ray] (Charles Laughton, 1955) RB UK Arrow Academy

Creepshow [Blu-ray] (George A. Romero, 1982) RB UK Second Sight

From Here to Eternity [Blu-ray] (Fred Zinnemann 1953) Sony

This Is The End [Blu-ray] (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, 2013) Sony

The Frozen Ground [Blu-ray] (Scott Walker, 2013) Lions Gate

Bob and the Monster [Blu-ray] (Keirda Bahruth, 2011) R1

Schalcken the Painter [Blu-ray] (Leslie Megahey, 1979) RB UK BFI

Dead in Tombstone [Blu-ray] (Roel Reine, 2013) MCA

The Last House on the Left [Blu-ray] (Dennis Iliadis, 2009) Universal Studios

The Big Combo [Blu-ray] (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955) Olive Films

James Dean - Ultimate Collector's Edition [Blu-ray] (Giant, Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden) Region FREE UK Warner Home Video

Eric Rohmer Blu-ray Collection Boxset [Blu-ray] - RB FR Filmedia

The Sweet Hereafter [Blu-ray] (Atom Egoyan, 1997) RB UK Artificial Eye

Americano [Blu-ray] (William Castle, 1955) Olive Films

Querelle [Blu-ray] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982) RB UK Artificial Eye

The Fighting Kentuckian [Blu-ray] (George Waggner, 1949) Olive Films

Hannibal [Blu-ray] (Bryan Fuller, 2013) Lions Gate

Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 2 [Blu-ray] Olive Films

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [Blu-ray] (Irwin Allen, 1961) Fox UK

Funny Games [Blu-ray] (Michael Haneke, 2007) RB UK Artificial Eye

The Phantom of the Opera [Blu-ray] (Rupert Julian, 1925) RB UK BFI

Guest Wife [Blu-ray] (Sam Wood, 1945) Olive Films

Gaslight [Blu-ray] (Thorold Dickinson, 1940) RB UK BFI

Dexter: The Complete Final Season [Blu-ray] - Showtime

Slap Shot [Blu-ray] (George Roy Hill, 1977) Universal Studios

In the House [Blu-ray] (François Ozon, 2012) Cohen Media

Fantastic Voyage [Blu-ray] (Richard Fleischer, 1966) Fox Home Entertainment

Corruption [Blu-ray] (Robert Hartford-Davis, 1968) Grindhouse Releasing
 

 

ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): Hard to deny the Lubitsch masterpiece To Be Or Not To Be - via Criterion's definitive Blu-ray package as taking number one spot this week. I also quite enjoyed Betty Boop The Essential Collection Volume 1 - a very cool distraction and very cute. I found much more in Deranged - inspired by real-life Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein - and a sweet Blu-ray by Arrow. Simon Killer on Masters of Cinema Blu-ray has much to offer - although not to all tastes. Stuart Gordon's take on Edgar Allen Poe's classic The Pit and the Pendulum surprised me with its tension and adeptness. I couldn't see the reason for the accolades of What Maisie Knew - but to each his own! On DVD Eric covered The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti) from Second Run, the impressive Post Tenebras Lux and the less interesting 45 Minutes From Broadway and Amelia's 25th... Till next week!...

  THIS WEEK's REVIEWS / COMPARISONS
 

Betty Boop The Essential Collection Volume 1 BD - Newly re-mastered in HD from 4K scans of the original negatives and finegrains. Regarded as one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen; she was a symbol of the Depression era and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Roaring Twenties. Her popularity was drawn larger from adult audiences and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements. "Boop-Oop-A-Doop" The queen of the animated screen returns to allure and entice audiences all over again in this fantastic four-volume compilation featuring many of her greatest adventures. Volume One includes 12 animated short films available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. All 12 shorts were produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. Featuring the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe and Ann Little as Betty Boop. Also featuring guest voices of Cab Calloway, Jack Mercer, William Pennell and The Royal Samoans. Blu-ray Release date: August 20th, 2013

Post Tenebras Lux - POST TENEBRAS LUX (light after darkness) is the Cannes Film Festival prize winner that follows an upscale Mexican family whose move to the countryside in search of an ideal life results in domestic crisis and class friction. Stunningly photographed, the film is an enthralling and enigmatic exploration of the primal conflicts of the human condition. DVD Release Date: August 20th, 2013

The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti) - This Slovakian nod to Italian neo-realism - although it really looks more like Antonioni than Rossellini - a summer in the life of alienated youth Fayolo (Marián Bielik) to explore the everyday realities of Slovakian socialism. An obsessive photography, Fayolo finds little authenticity in what he sees as his girlfriend Bela's (Jana Beláková) empty sentimentality, unaware of the deep sorrow that affects her and her brother over their mother's blindness and their father's distance. He resents his father whose position amongst the intelligentsia has left him ill-favored by the party (requiring his mother to work), especially when he is urged to volunteer to work the summer harvest as it would reflect well upon his father's reputation. When Fayolo leaves the city to pick the harvest in Melenany, he not only finds purely physical romance in Jana (Olga Salagová) but also a sense of social responsibility (and a little insight into his relationship with Bela) while attempting - as a "holiday harvester" - the issues hindering the workers' ability to harvest the crops. DVD Release Date: August 12th, 2013

To Be Or Not To Be BD - As nervy as it is hilarious, this screwball masterpiece from Ernst Lubitsch stars Jack Benny and, in her final screen appearance, Carole Lombard as husband-and-wife thespians in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who become caught up in a dangerous spy plot. To Be or Not to Be is a Hollywood film of the boldest black humor, which went into production soon after the U.S. entered World War II. Lubitsch manages to brilliantly balance political satire, romance, slapstick, and urgent wartime suspense in a comic high-wire act that has never been equaled. Blu-ray Release Date: August 27th, 2013

Deranged BD - Roberts Blossom gives an alarmingly convincing performance as rural eccentric Ezra Cobb, whose mother's death unhinges him to the point where he not only lovingly preserves her corpse in the living room but also goes out to find 'friends' to keep her company not all of whom are dead when he finds them! Perversely, Ezra's more worried about what mother would say about his various activities than he is about the prospect of being found out. Indeed, like Gein, he's cheerfully open about his activities when visiting friends, but no-one believes him. Like Carnival of Souls and The Honeymoon Killers, this is one of American horror cinema's great one-offs, an eerie, genuinely unsettling but also darkly comic experience. Blu-ray Release date: August 19th, 2013

What Maisie Knew BD - Scott McGehee and David Siegel's adaptation of Henry James' novel What Maisie Knew stars Julianne Moore as Susanna, a self-involved rock-star whose marriage to the equally egotistical Beale (Steve Coogan) is falling apart. They are both less than good parents to their six-year-old daughter Maisie. The girls finds some solace in the care of the family's nanny as well as when she's looked after by Susanna's new boyfriend. What Maisie Knew screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. Blu-ray Release date: August 13th, 2013

The Pit and the Pendulum BD - In the quest to save souls, the Spanish Inquisition will stop at nothing and knows no boundaries for its evil. Under the direction of Torquemada (LANCE HENRIKSEN - Aliens, Terminator) the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, a young baker s wife named Maria (RONA DE RICCI) is falsely accused of witchcraft and dragged before the Inquisition and the Cardinal (OLIVER REED Gladiator, Three Musketeers). Torquemada is enchanted by Maria s beauty and subjects her and her husband Antonio (JONATHAN FULLER Castle Freak ) to heinous tortures hoping to prove that his own desires for her are a result of her magic, and that she has bewitched him . With the help of Esmerelda, Maria s cellmate and confessed witch, Maria must find the power to save her husband Antonio from Torquemada s ultimate machine of torture: the inevitable, razor sharp PENDULUM poised over the inescapable PIT of hell. Blu-ray Release Date: August 12th, 2013

45 Minutes From Broadway - When a heart-broken actress and her "civilian" sister return to their theatrical family's crumbling home for very different reasons, secrets are exposed, rivalries are rekindled, and love as rare as a blue bullfrog begins to bloom. DVD Release Date: July 16th, 2013

Amelia's 25th - An all-star ensemble cast leads this irreverent and heartwarming comedy about what turning twenty-five means to a struggling actress in Los Angeles. With a disconnected father, a live-in boyfriend who s struggling financially, and a complex of noisy neighbors who call themselves artists, her life could not seem bleaker. Spanning the course of one day, Amelia gets guidance and wisdom from the most curious characters: a movie star, a photographer, casting directors, unemployed actors, plus-size sex shop owners, a psychic, and a cross-dressing neighbor, all who lead her down the winding road of acceptance. DVD Release Date: August 6th, 2013

Simon Killer BD - A deeply disturbing character study of a handsome and sociopathic American in Paris, writer-director Antonio Campos's Simon Killer hones further the psychological perceptiveness and keen filmmaking craft exhibited in Campos's acclaimed feature debut Afterschool. Brady Corbet (Melancholia, Thirteen, Martha Marcy May Marlene) plays Simon, a recent college graduate full of promise and potential, who goes to Paris to begin a trip around Europe following a break-up with a long-time girlfriend. An outsider adrift upon a profound sense of loss, Simon takes solace in the company of Victoria (Mati Diop of 35 Shots of Rum), a beautiful, young, and mysterious prostitute - and their fateful journey begins... Blu-ray Release date: August 26th, 2013
 

 Next 4 weeks on the Calendar

August 12th, 2013

 

The Damned [Blu-ray] (Rene Clement , 1947) Cohen Media (BEAVER REVIEW)

Emperor [Blu-ray] (Peter Webber, 2012) Lions Gate

Flashdance [Blu-ray] (Adrian Lyne, 1983) Paramount

Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff [Blu-ray] (Marvin J. Chomsky, 1979) Vinegar Syndrome

The Odd Angry Shot [Blu-ray] (Tom Jeffrey, 1979) Synapse Films

Olympus Has Fallen [Blu-ray] (Antoine Fuqua, 2013) Sony Pictures Entertainment

Perry Mason: The Ninth and Final Season, Vol. 2 - Paramount

The Pit and the Pendulum [Blu-ray] (Stuart Gordon, 1991) RB UK 88 Films (BEAVER REVIEW)

The Presidio [Blu-ray] (Peter Hyams, 1988) Paramount

Seconds [Blu-ray] (John Frankenheimer, 1966) Criterion Collection (BEAVER REVIEW)

Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966) Criterion Collection

The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti) (Stefan Uher, 1962) R2 UK Second Run (BEAVER REVIEW)

Shane [Blu-ray] (George Stevens, 1953) Paramount (BEAVER REVIEW)

What Maisie Knew [Blu-ray] (Scott McGehee, David Siegel, 2012) Millennium (BEAVER REVIEW)

 

August 19th, 2013

 

The Adventures of Prince Achmed [Blu-ray] (Lotte Reiniger, 1926) RB UK BFI

Amour [Blu-ray] (Michael Haneke, 2012) Sony (BEAVER REVIEW)

The Awful Dr. Orlof [Blu-ray] (Jesús Franco, 1962) Redemption

Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Volume 1 [Blu-ray] - Olive (BEAVER REVIEW)

The Big City [Blu-ray] (Satyajit Ray, 1963) Criterion Collection (BEAVER REVIEW)

The Big City (Satyajit Ray, 1963) Criterion Collection

Castle Freak [Blu-ray] (Stuart Gordon, 1995) Full Moon Pictures (BEAVER REVIEW)

Charulata [Blu-ray] (Satyajit Ray, 1964) Criterion Collection (BEAVER REVIEW)

Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964) Criterion Collection

Deranged [Blu-ray] (Jeff Gillen, 1974) RB UK Arrow (BEAVER REVIEW)

Emil and the Detectives (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1931) R2 UK BFI

Killing Season [Blu-ray] (Steven Johnson, 2013) Millennium

Knock on Wood [Blu-ray] (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1954) Olive Films

My Favorite Spy [Blu-ray] (Norman Z. McLeod, 1951) Olive Films

Nightmares Come at Night [Blu-ray] (Jess Franco, 1970) Redemption

No Place on Earth [Blu-ray] (Janet Tobias, 2012) Magnolia

Off Limits [Blu-ray] (George Marshall, 1953) Olive Films

On the Double [Blu-ray] (Melville Shavelson, 1961) Olive Films

Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, 2012) Strand Films (BEAVER REVIEW)

The Tarnished Angels [Blu-ray] (Douglas Sirk, 1958) RB UK Masters of Cinema (BEAVER REVIEW)

Time Bandits [Blu-ray] (Terry Gilliam, 1981) RB UK Arrow

Time Bandits Steelbook [Blu-ray] (Terry Gilliam, 1981) RB UK Arrow

The Unseen [Blu-ray] (Danny Steinmann, 1980) Scorpion Releasing

A Virgin Among The Living Dead [Blu-ray] (Jess Franco, 1973) Redemption

 

 

August 26th, 2013

 

And Then There Were None [Blu-ray] (René Clair, 1945) VCI

Au hasard Balthazar [Blu-ray] (Robert Bresson, 1966) R2 UK Artificial Eye

The Brides of Dracula [Blu-ray] (Terence Fisher, 1960) RB UK Final Cut Entertainment

Calendar [Blu-ray] (Atom Egoyan, 1993) RB UK Artificial Eye

Charulata [Blu-ray] (Satyajit Ray, 1964) RB UK Artificial Eye

Convoy [Blu-ray] (Sam Peckinpah, 1978) RB UK Studiocanal

The Coward (Kapurush) [Blu-ray] (Satyajit Ray, 1965) RB UK Artificial Eye

Death Hunt [Blu-ray] (Peter R. Hunt, 1981) Shout! Factory (BEAVER REVIEW)

Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder (Love Is Colder Than Death, Katzelmacher, Gods of the Plague, The American Soldier, Beware of a Holy Whore) Criterion Collection

The Evil of Frankenstein [Blu-ray] (Freddie Francis, 1964) RB UK Final Cut Entertainment

Exotica [Blu-ray] (Atom Egoyan, 1994) RB UK Artificial Eye

The Fall of the House of Usher [Blu-ray] SteelBook (Roger Corman, 1960) RB UK Arrow

Flat Top [Blu-ray] (Lesley Selander, 1952) Olive Films

The Great Gatsby [Blu-ray] (Baz Luhrmann, 2013) Warner Home Video

Hanging For Django (Una lunga fila di croci) [Blu-ray] (Sergio Garrone, 1969) Raro Video USA

A Hijacking [Blu-ray] (Tobias Lindholm, 2012) RB UK Arrow

The Idolmaker [Blu-ray] (Taylor Hackford, 1980) Shout! Factory

In the Fog [Blu-ray] (Sergei Loznitsa, 2012) RB UK New Wave Films

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye [Blu-ray] (Gordon Douglas, 1950) Olive Films

The Land of Hope [Blu-ray] (Shion Song, 2012) RB UK Third Window Films

Mahapurush: The Holy Man [Blu-ray] (Satyajit Ray, 1965) RB UK Artificial Eye

Mouchette [Blu-ray] (Robert Bresson, 1967) RB UK Artificial Eye

La notte [Blu-ray] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) RB UK Masters of Cinema

Only the Valiant [Blu-ray] (Gordon Douglas, 1951) Olive Films

Prime Suspect [Blu-ray] (Christopher Menaul, John Strickland etc. 1991-2006) (BEAVER REVIEW)

Simon Killer [Blu-ray] (Antonio Campos, 2012) RB UK Masters of Cinema (BEAVER REVIEW)

Something in the Air [Blu-ray] (Olivier Assayas, 2012) RB UK Artificial Eye

To Be or Not to Be [Blu-ray] (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942) Criterion Collection (BEAVER REVIEW)

To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942) Criterion Collection

 

September 2nd, 2013

 

5 Dolls for an August Moon [Blu-ray] (Mario Bava, 1970) Kino

The Audrey Hepburn Collection [Blu-ray] R0 UK Paramount

The English Teacher [Blu-ray] (Craig Zisk, 2013) Cinedigm

From Up on Poppy Hill [Blu-ray] (Goro Miyazaki, 2011) Cinedigm

The Little Mermaid [Blu-ray] (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1989) RB UK Walt Disney Studios

Marnie [Blu-ray] (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964) Universal (BEAVER REVIEW)
   
     
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