DVDBeaver Newsletter - October 1st, 2007

Shwmai! - HUGE newsletter -  22 new reviews!! - 2 Criterions, 9 Hi-def DVDs - European directors strongly represented with films by Agnieszka Holland, Miklós Jancsó, Bruno Dumont, G.W. Pabst, Pier Paolo Pasolini... an extensive 48 new Calendar Updates, Feature DVD of the Month, our recommendations, a contest winner and a new contest! Whewww!

CONTEST ACTIVITY: Last week's contest was quite easy (everyone got it - yes, Robert Wise' 'The Set-Up') and the prize is a new DVD of Oliver Stone's The Hand (with Michael Caine). Winner: Steve Benkin of NC. Congrats!

This week's contest is significantly more difficult and the prize is correspondingly sweeter...

Those who identify the NEW CLIP posted HERE (and on our homepage) will have a shot any winning a sealed copy of Criterion's DVD of Robinson Crusoe on Mars! I predict there will be far less individuals with the correct answer this time.

NOTE: Not all our future quote clips will be Film Noir - but we are in that groove at present.

Bear's repeating -The winner of new Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player was Pat Pilon. He is in possession and will share some comments (and possibly reviews) soon...

FEATURE DVD of the MONTH for October: In Theorem, Pasolini achieved his most perfect fusion of Marxism and religion with a film that is both political allegory and mystical fable. Terence Stamp plays the mysterious Christ or Devil figure who stays briefly with a wealthy Italian family, seducing them one by one. He then goes as quickly as he had come, leaving their whole life-pattern in ruins. What would be pretentious and strained in the hands of most directors, with Pasolini takes on an intense air of magical revelation.   BFI DVD compared HERE  PURCHASE HERE

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

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

Updated stuff I may indulge in: Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop from Criterion will most likely blow-away past releases including the recent R2 UK Universal edition. Kim Ki-duk's Time (I'll stick with this director for a while). It has received rave reviews so I may pick-up Hitler: A Career. There are some lauded Festival films coming to digital light; Day Break, Waiting for the Man, See How They Fall, Almost Brothers, Return to Innocence, etc.

Microcinema has two intriguing releases; Movieside Film Festival: 20 Award Winning Short Films from Around the World! and Resistance[s]: Experimental Films from the Middle East and North Africa.

I probably won't be indulging but Fassbinder fans may be keen on both The R.W. Fassbinder Collection - 1973-1982 and The R. W. Fassbinder Collection - 1969-1972.

Although I thought the SD transfer was excellent I may get the Hi-dif version of The Aviator to compare. Contrarily I thought the SD editions of the That's Entertainment Trilogy were very mediocre and may nab those in hi-def out of curiosity. Some stuff may be hard to resist - Twister (possible demo?) or Die Hard (machismo) - but I'll try.

The rest (divided into three categories):

LATEST SD Region 1 Additions to the Release Calendar

Ingmar Bergman: Four Masterworks: The Seventh Seal (1957), Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Virgin Spring (1960) and Wild Strawberries (1957) - Criterion

Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971) Criterion

Day Break (Hamid Rahmanian, 2005) - Film Movement

Dog Bite Dog (2-disc) (Pou-Soi Cheang, 2006) - Dragon Dynasty (Weinstein)

Waiting for the Man (John Covert, 1997) Cinema Obscura

Hitler: A Career (Joachim Fest, 1977) First Run Features

Martial Arts: 4 Film Favorites (2-disc - Militant Eagle, The Prodigal Boxer, Moon light sword and Jade Lion, The Bloody Fists) - Warner Home Video

Draculas: 4 Film Favorites (2-disc - Horror of Dracula, Dracula has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula AD 1972) - Warner Home Video

See How They Fall (Jacques Audiard, 1994) Synkronized USA

Live-in Maid (Jorge Gaggero, 2004) Koch International

Time (Ki-duk Kim, 2006) - Lifesize Entertainment

Almost Brothers (Lúcia Murat, 2004) - First Run Features

Return to Innocence (Rocky Costanzo, 2001) LifeLine Entertainment

Hairspray (Widescreen) (Adam Shankman, 2007) New Line

Rock Haven (David Lewis, 2007) TLA

Movieside Film Festival: 20 Award Winning Short Films from Around the World! - Microcinema

Resistance[s]: Experimental Films from the Middle East and North Africa - Microcinema

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones - Volume 2 - Paramount Home Video

Ocean's Eleven, Twelve & Thirteen Gift Set - Steven Soderbergh - Warner Home Video

Monty Python's Life Of Brian - Immaculate Edition (Terry Jones, 1979) Sony Pictures

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Widescreen Edition) (Mike Newell, 2005) - Warner Home Video

LATEST Region 2 UK Additions to the Release Calendar

John Ford Director's Collection (4-disc - The Informer (1935) The Fugitive (1947) Mary of Scotland (1936) and Wagonmaster (1950) R2 UK - Universal Pictures UK

The Tree Of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi, 1978) R2 UK - Arrow Films

After Life (Hirokazu Koreeda, 1998) R2 UK - Soda Pictures

The R.W. Fassbinder Collection - 1973-1982 (8-discs) (Fear Eats the Soul; Effi Briest Fox and his Friends; Mother Kusters goes to Heaven; Fear of Fear; Satan's Brew; Chinese Roulette; The Marriage of Maria Braun) - R2 UK - Arrow Films

The R. W. Fassbinder Collection - 1969-1972 (9-discs) (Love is Colder Than Death; Katzelmacher; Gods of the Plague; The American Soldier; Niklashauser Journey; Rio des Mortes; Beware of a Holy Whore; The Merchant of Four Seasons; The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant) - R2 UK - Arrow Films

The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935) R2 UK - Network

Alec Guinness - In The Frame Collection (Bridge On The River Kwai, Our Man In Havana, The Prisoner. HMS Defiant, Cromwell and Murder By Death) - R2 UK - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

John Mills - The Screen Icons Collection - The Baby And The Battleship (Lewis, 1956), It's Great to Be Young (Frankel, 1956), Lady Caroline Lamb (Bolt, 1972) and The Gentle Gunman (Dearden, 1952) - R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment

NOTE: Both The Seventh Seal [Special Edition] and The Seventh Seal [Blu-ray] Rboth from  from Tartan R2 UK have been pushed back to December 3rd, 2007.

LATEST Hi-Def Additions to the Release Calendar

A Bridge Too Far [Blu-ray] (Richard Attenborough, 1977) MGM

The Aviator [HD DVD] (Martin Scorsese, 2004) Warner

The Aviator [Blu-ray] (Martin Scorsese, 2004) Warner

Die Hard [Blu-ray] (John McTiernan, 1988) - 20th Century Fox

Die Hard Collection (4-disc) [Blu-ray] - 20th Century Fox

Hairspray [Blu-ray] (Adam Shankman, 2007) New Line

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [HD DVD] (Mike Newell, 2005) - Warner Home Video

Legends of the Fall [Blu-ray] (Edward Zwick, 1994) - R2 UK - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Ocean's Thirteen [HD DVD] (Steven Soderbergh, 2007) R2 UK - Warner Home Video

Ocean's Thirteen [Blu-ray] (Steven Soderbergh, 2007) R2 UK - Warner Home Video

Ocean's Eleven, Twelve & Thirteen Gift Set [HD DVD] - Steven Soderbergh - Warner Home Video

Ocean's Eleven, Twelve & Thirteen Gift Set [Blu-ray] - Steven Soderbergh - Warner Home Video

Prison Break [Blu-ray] (6-disc) (Paul Scheuring, 2005) - 20th Century Fox

Shrek The Third [HD DVD] (Chris Miller, 2007) Paramount Home Video

That's Entertainment Trilogy [HD DVD] (3-disc) - Warner Home Video

That's Entertainment Trilogy [Blu-ray] (3-disc) - Warner Home Video

Twister [HD DVD] (Jan de Bont, 1996) Warner

Twister [Blu-ray] (Jan de Bont, 1996) Warner

New Reviews:

I only reviewed 8 of the 22 DVDs this week but liked; My Way Home, Theorem, and Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

Very minor recommendations: Cinema16: European Shorts, Species and 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. 

Saw it, but didn't review: I liked Top Gun HD better than anytime I have ever seen the film (whatever that means). I wouldn't have been as harsh as Leonard on the hi-def version of Deliverance (I have the HD) but there are richer looking hi-def transfers out there for sure although this is definitely the best this film has ever looked digitally.

What looks good (I didn't review) - Flanders and Olivier, Olivier and of course The Threepenny Opera.

Staunchly reject: If you want pornography then just buy it - don't cloak it by getting something like Caligula. The film is a total mess and the DVD fairly weak with supplements that only reinforce the film's hideousness.

The Threepenny Opera - The sly melodies of composer Kurt Weill and the daring of dramatist Bertolt Brecht come together on-screen under the direction of German auteur G. W. Pabst (Pandora's Box) in this classic adaptation of the Weimar-era theatrical sensation. Set in the impoverished back alleys of Victorian London, The Threepenny Opera follows underworld antihero Mackie Messer (a.k.a. Mack the Knife) as he tries to woo Polly Peachum and elude the authorities. With its palpable evocation of corruption and dread, set to Weill's irresistible score, The Threepenny Opera remains a benchmark of early sound cinema. DVD Release Date: September 18th, 2007

Surf's Up BR - What's this: Another penguin movie! Well, sort of. But after the first few minutes I doubt if you'll find much in common with Happy Feet and certainly not with March of the Penguins. I wonder if the world will divide itself into the tappers, the surfers and the naturalists. For me, Surf's Up was, by far, the most fun. And, for its being an animated feature, also the more interesting technically. DVD Release Date: October 9, 2007

Deliverance BR - Lewis (Reynolds), outlines the adventure to his buddies at the outset: the Cahulawasee River will soon be no more, stopped up by a dam, placing hundreds of square miles under water. Four guys, two canoes, fishing, camping, a guitar – what more could you ask? But the threat comes not from the river, thrilling as its rapids are, but from a pair of mountain men who come upon Ed and Bobby (Ned Beatty) unexpectedly. They tie Ed to a tree as he watches Bobby be raped. To many, this scene is gratuitous or loathsome. DVD Release Date: September 18, 2007

Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut BR - Not being a great fan of Colin Farrell and having read the summaries of reviews of the original theatrical release in late 2004, I passed on Oliver Stone’s epic drama about the man who may have been the “greatest” of the “Greats.” Now, 3 years later, this new Blu-ray edition – “Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut” – is being touted as an improvement over the original. A disproportionate number of “director’s cuts” are not much more than excuses to resell the title in a new package, but some, such as Amadeus and The Last Emperor, are actual improvements. The same, I suspect, could be argued for this new edition though, even without having seen the prior version, I can say with confidence that certain basic problems remain. DVD Release Date: September 18, 2007

Troy (Director's Cut) - BR - This edition of Troy, like Alexander Revisited, released on Blu-ray by Warner at the same time, is a re-cut of the original film. In this case, adding some 30 minutes, some of it fleshing out, so to speak, the relationship of Helen and Paris and going some way to explain the whys and wherefores of their fated fever. Also included is more bickering between Achilles and Agamemnon, which can only be a good thing. However, I could have done without the extra gore and fake blood in the battle scenes. All in all, though, the extra time is worth the price of admission.

My Way Home - In the final days of World War II, a young Hungarian is making his way home, through countryside full of the debris of war, when he is captured and imprisoned by Russians. Left in the custody of a young Russian soldier, the two youths form a friendship in spite of not speaking each other’s language. The Hungarian’s attempts to continue his journey homeward provide the framework for this powerful film, considered Miklós Jancsó’s first masterpiece. DVD Release Date: October 1st, 2007

Cinema16: European Shorts - Cinema16 is pleased to announce the US release of Cinema16: European Short Films (US edition). This two-disc edition features previously unseen short films and early works by some of today's most notable filmmakers, as well as award-winning films from its rising stars including Christopher Nolan, Roy Andersson, Jan Svankmajer, Ridley Scott, Lars Von Trier and Nanni Moretti. DVD Release Date: September 25th, 2007

Flanders - The winner of the Grand Prix at last year's Cannes festival, Flanders opens in northern France where Samuel Boidin's blank-faced Demester tends to his livestock, slops out the barns and has thoroughly functional, muddy sex with local lay Barbe (Adelaide Leroux). There are echoes of Andrew Kotting's This Filthy Earth (from Zola's La terre) in the air of bestial human existence, but crucially none of the passion which fired that altogether more melodramatic work. When Demester and his neighbours are called up to fight a nameless war (they don't know where it is, and neither do we) his expression hardly changes, even as rural drudgery gives way to casual slaughter, rape, castration and worse. DVD Release Date: September 24th, 2007

Next HD - Next is yet another loud, stupid action movie with poorly-conceived ideas about being able to see the future. It also has the misfortune of featuring one of Cage’s worst haircuts ever. Like Minority Report and Paycheck, Next is based on a Philip K. Dick story, and like Paycheck, Next is so inept and unoriginal that it simply rips off Minority Report for its better ideas and visuals (such as the eyeball brace placed on Cage’s head). Fans of Jessica Biel will be disappointed to see that there’s no fan service at all. “Next!” is exactly what you’ll be saying after seeing this movie. DVD Release Date: September 25th, 2007

Knocked Up HD - It may be a bit, um, premature to say so, but Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up strikes me as an instant classic, a comedy that captures the sexual confusion and moral ambivalence of our moment without straining, pandering or preaching. Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Mr. Apatow’s earlier film, it attaches dirty humor to a basically upright premise. While this movie’s barrage of gynecology-inspired jokes would have driven the prudes at the old Hays Office mad, its story, about a young man trying to do what used to be the very definition of the Right Thing, might equally have brought a smile of approval to the lips of the starchiest old-Hollywood censor. DVD Release Date: September 25th, 2007

The Iron Rose - Many of Rollin's horror films have a surrealist influence and strike a balance between the director's love of pulp novels, silent adventure/crime serials and a morbid romantic poetic sense. La Rose De Fer eschews the pulp elements in favor of morbid romance (though there are a few surrealist touches throughout)... DVD Release Date: September 25th, 2007

Top Gun HD - I actually think this may be one the best 'surface' films ever made (throw Flashdance in that group as well). It certainly helped build Cruise up to mega-stardom. It is not excessively memorable but as I watched it again (and then yet again in the background when my wife came home) I did get some good 'vibes' - it's a feel good film about achieving, overcoming obstacles and finding love. And that's okay - many people just want that much out of a film and I think it still stands up well today in those regards. The marriage of music and action is a little MTV-ish, Cruise's smile is a shade like a used-car salesman - sure there are weaknesses. It's no Bicycle Thief. It wasn't trying to be. DVD Release Date: October 2nd, 2007

Species - Firstly, this film has developed a kind of cult-status - certainly it's flawed but combine a decent sci-fi concept, healthy star power (Sir Ben Kingsley and Forest Whitaker) and finally - hottie Natasha Henstridge (first film for the lass) is partially nude a few times and we have the reason for its appeal. As a straight film its a bit of a dud but I admit some interest as a fairly exploitive HR Giger art-infused throw away - yeah I can't argue with critics that hate it but I can be a 'gullible guy' quite often and admit it has some personal appeal. DVD Release Date: October 2nd, 2007

Olivier, Olivier - Agnieszka Holland based the screenplay for her film on a newspaper article that she'd read: a nine-year-old boy disappears from his family home and returns, suddenly, six years later. While keeping us hooked on the mystery aspect of the story (is the new Olivier really the same boy?), Holland's main interest clearly lies in exploring the psychological tensions that are provoked within the family by the disappearance and return of the son. DVD Release Date: July 2nd, 2007

Dragon Heat - Yes, Biehn is in Dragon Heat, and he and Maggie Q (an American who worked in Hong Kong for several years before returning here for Mission: Impossible 3 and Live Free or Die Hard) play international assassins causing trouble in Hong Kong. Young Interpol agents, who all happen to be photogenic ethnic Chinese, want to redeem themselves after being humiliated in their first encounter with the terrorists. This makes for a very busy affair that doesn’t amount to much since it’s never clear why the bad guys are after a triad boss. Still, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, Dragon Heat can be dumb fun for people who enjoy polyglot movies. It’s amusing trying to keep up with the mix of Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Korean that spill rapidly from the actors’ mouths. DVD Release Date: September 18th, 2007

For the Love of the Game HD - That Kevin Costner guy--he sure loves baseball. He portrayed baseball players in Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and For Love of the Game. He even played an ex-baseball player in The Upside of Anger even though the movie had nothing to do with America’s Pastime. Costner as a movie star is most-likable as a baseball player, which makes it ironic that he won Oscars for producing and directing Dances With Wolves and not for swinging a baseball bat. As good as Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, and Brian Cox are, Costner is the one who keeps viewers awake during the over-long For Love of the Game. DVD Release Date: September 18th, 2007

1408 - If elements of 1408 seem a little familiar, it shouldn't be a surprise. Here's John Cusack, once again having lodging problems (see also Identity). Here's a supernatural debunker faced with something that refuses to be debunked (see also The Reaping). And here's a movie about a room-for-rent where people go in but don't come out (see also Vacancy). Yet, despite all of these recycled plot elements bobbing around, there's nothing stale about 1408, which is easily the best horror film of 2007. Too often, we see a movie with a great setup like this ruined by a subpar ending. However, 1408 deftly sidesteps that trap, delivering a conclusion that somehow manages not to disappoint while at the same time leaving things open-ended enough that viewer interpretation comes into play. DVD Release Date: October 2nd, 2007

Theorem - In Theorem, Pasolini achieved his most perfect fusion of Marxism and religion with a film that is both political allegory and mystical fable. Terence Stamp plays the mysterious Christ or Devil figure who stays briefly with a wealthy Italian family, seducing them one by one. He then goes as quickly as he had come, leaving their whole life-pattern in ruins. What would be pretentious and strained in the hands of most directors, with Pasolini takes on an intense air of magical revelation. In fact, the superficially improbable plot retains all the logic and certainty of a detective story. With bizarre appropriateness, it was one of the last films made by Stamp before he virtually disappeared from the international film scene for some years. BFI DVD Release Date: September 24th, 2007

Robinson Crusoe on Mars - Special-effects wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy-film lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the unknown. When his spaceship crash-lands on the barren wastelands of Mars, U.S. astronaut Commander "Kit" Draper (Paul Mantee) must fight for survival, with a pet monkey seemingly his only companion. But is he alone? Shot in vast Techniscope and blazing Technicolor, Robinson Crusoe on Mars is an imaginative and beloved techni-marvel of classic science fiction. DVD Release Date: September 18th, 2007

4: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Now I wouldn't put this sequel anywhere near X-Men 2 or Spiderman 2 (both which I touted in THIS article) but, in overall terms, it continued to export the adventurous purity of the comic universe in which the characters, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and brother and sister Sue and Johnny Storm, inhabit. As far as transporting the narrative wonders of superhero comic art to the silver screen - well, there can be few complaints. Special effects and technology produce an accurate visage of what I recall as a boy reading these stories and impatiently waiting for the next month's issue to arrive. Half of these versions are the accuracy of the appearances and the ability to mimic the protagonists and villains. They do a fabulous job! DVD Release Date: October 2nd, 2007

Elizabeth HD - The costume drama escapes its mothballs in this labyrinthine conspiracy movie, which opens on the fiery persecution of Bloody Mary's reign. When young, skittish Elizabeth (Blanchett) succeeds, one can well understand the misgivings of the court. Cecil (Attenborough) would have her marry a foreign prince to shore up the country's parlous state, but the new queen prefers the company of the charming Lord Dudley (Fiennes). Elizabeth's pragmatic Protestantism makes her the target for numerous Catholic intrigues, drawing in the Duke of Norfolk (Eccleston), Mary of Guise (Ardant) and her nephew Anjou (Cassel), the French and Spanish ambassadors (Cantona and Frain), and even the Pope himself (Gielgud). DVD Release Date: September 18th, 2007

Caligula (Imperial Edition) - Nobody wanted anything to do with Caligula: Gore Vidal didn't want his name on it, producer Bob Guccione of Penthouse didn't want the Italian director to finish it (then didn't want reviewers to see it), the stars didn't want to be associated with it. The appealing idea of a raging loony who has the power to pursue his little whims has attracted and sunk better talents than these. Indeed, dotted throughout there are glimpses of what might have been: Caligula enquiring of an ebbing Gielgud what it's like to die, a death machine that operates like a combine harvester, some exotic sets in Italo-barbaric style. But all in all it's a dreary shambles, directed by Brass toto drosso con abandimento. DVD Release Date: October 2nd, 2007