Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF November 14th, 2011

Sveiki!  - Criterion (2) and Blu-rays including films by Werner Herzog, Sidney Lumet, George Cukor, William Wyler, D. W. Griffith, Wes Anderson, Ishirô Honda, Jean-Jacques Annaud as well as DVD reviews and more.... The Criterion SALE with 50% OFF everything HERE continues at Barnes and Noble. We also have a new Clips contest with a Criterion Blu-ray prize. “"If you're the police, where are your badges?.”

 

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FEATURE DVD and Blu-ray of the MONTH chosen for NOVEMBER! HERE

November 14th CONTEST - identify the clip on the CONTEST PAGE to win a Criterion Blu-ray of Fanny and Alexander 

If there are DVD titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend!

Gary at 2ze dot com

My Fair Lady BD - At one time the longest-running Broadway musical, My Fair Lady was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from... the George Bernard Shaw comedy Pygmalion. Outside Covent Garden on a rainy evening in 1912, dishevelled cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) meets linguistic expert Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). After delivering a musical tirade against verbal class distinction, Higgins tells his companion Colonel Pickering (Wilfred Hyde-White) that, within six months, he could transform Eliza into a proper lady, simply by teaching her proper English. Blu-ray Release Date: November 15th, 2011

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation BD - James Stewart stars as Roger Hobbs, a banker who's looking forward to a quiet holiday with wife Peggy (Maureen O'Hara). Mrs. Hobbs, however, has a different idea and hires a holiday home by the sea that will accommodate the whole family. The couple's troubles begin when the abode turns out to be a crumbling gothic edifice rather than a beautiful villa and continue as their miscreant siblings cause havoc. Blu-ray Release Date: October 21st, 2011

Quest For Fire BD - A colossal adventure odyssey that turns back the hands of time to the very beginning of man's existence. 80,000 years ago, when man roamed the earth, he was exposed to the many harsh elements of nature. Against the perilous atmosphere of rugged terrain, rival tribes and savage beasts, Quest for Fire examines a peaceful tribe's search for that all important element fire, and the knowledge to create it. Focusing on human dream as well as realistic insights into pre-historic man, the constant struggle for survival is vividly recreated in this sensational production. Blu-ray Release date: November 10th, 2011

The Collector BD - Near the end of his career, Wyler focused his veteran skills on John Fowles's novel The Collector, and it's easy to see how Wyler would be drawn to the story's resonant psychological underpinnings. It's conceivable that the director was also fascinated by the cinematic precedents set by Alfred Hitchock's Psycho and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom; like those films, Wyler's 1965 production of The Collector focuses on the obsessions of a young man whose need for a woman's affection leads him to desperate measures at the expense of his object of desire. Blu-ray Release Date: November 8th, 2011

Horror Express BD - In 1906, British anthropologist Sir Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee, HORROR OF DRACULA) discovers the frozen remains of what he believes to be a missing evolutionary link, and crates it to take it back to England with him aboard the Tran-Siberian Express. The crate arouses curiosity and suspicion when a thief who tried to break into it turns up dead (with blank eyes). Also on board the train is Saxton's colleague Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN)... Blu-ray Release Date: November 29th, 2011

The Birth of a Nation BD - Nearly 100 years after its initial release, THE BIRTH OF A NATION remains one of the most controversial films ever made and a landmark achievement in film history that continues to fascinate and enrage audiences. It is the epic story of two families, one northern and one southern, during and after the Civil War. D. W. Griffith's masterful direction combines brilliant battle scenes and tender romance with a vicious portrayal of African-Americans. It was the greatest feature-length blockbuster yet to be produced in the United States and the first to be shown in the White House. Blu-ray Release Date: November 22nd, 2011

Destroy All Monsters BD - The year is 1999, and all of Earth's monsters have been captured and detained at Ogasawara Island. All is well in the solar system until one day, a race of alien women brainwashes the monsters and releases them, causing havoc around the world. Godzilla attacks New York City, Rodan invades Moscow, Mothra lays waste to Beijing, Gorosaurus destroys Paris, and Manda attacks London! Blu-ray Release Date: November 8th, 2011

A Separation BD - The stand out film of the 2011 Berlin Film Festival and winner of the Golden Bear, A Separation is a suspenseful and intelligent drama detailing the fractures and tensions at the heart of Iranian society. Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, the film boasts a range of superb performances from the ensemble cast who collectively received the Silver Bears for both Best Actor and Best Actress at the Berlinale. The compelling narrative is driven by a taut and finely written script rooted in the particular of Iranian society but which transcends its setting to create a stunning morality play with universal resonance. Blu-ray Release date: November 21st, 2011

Rushmore BD - Wes Anderson’s dazzling sophomore effort is equal parts coming-of-age story, French New Wave homage, and screwball comedy. Tenth grader Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is Rushmore Academy’s most extracurricular student—and its least scholarly. He faces expulsion, and enters into unlikely friendships with both a lovely first-grade teacher (Olivia Williams) and a melancholy self-made millionaire (Bill Murray, in an award-winning performance). Set to a soundtrack of classic British Invasion tunes, Rushmore defies categorization even as it captures the pain and exuberance of adolescence with wit, emotional depth, and cinematic panache. Blu-ray Release Date: November 22nd, 2011

12 Angry Men BD - 12 Angry Men, by Sidney Lumet, may be the most radical courtroom drama in cinema history. A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system that is as riveting as it is spare, this iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose’s teleplay stars Henry Fonda as the dissenting member on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. The result is a saga of epic proportions that plays out over a tense afternoon in one sweltering room. Lumet’s electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature film debuts. Blu-ray Release Date: November 22nd, 2011

Cave of Forgotten Dreams BD - CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, a breathtaking new documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog (Encounters at the End of the World, Grizzly Man), follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. One of the most successful documentaries of all time, CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS is an unforgettable cinematic experience that provides a unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago -- almost twice as old as any previous discovery. Blu-ray Release date: November 29th, 2011

Nostalgia for the Light - The vast, arid Atacama desert in Chile is the only place on earth that resembles the surface of Mars. It was the ideal place to take in the wonders of the universe and astronomers from all over the world erected observatories across the desert surface. Local interest in astronomy was also piqued, including that of director Patricio Guzmán (THE BATTLE OF CHILE). All of this came to an end with the 1973 military coup of Augusto Pinochet, during which the study of astronomy was discouraged (it was feared that prisoners could use the constellations to navigate an escape route) and studied in secret. DVD Release Date: September 13th, 2011

Back Street - Fannie Hurst's novel becomes a pair of classic melodramas in this twin bill. First, Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullavan are the star-crossed lovers in 1941's "Back Street." Reunited in New York City years after their marriage plans were sabotaged, Sullavan discovers that Boyer is now wed to another. Desperate to remain a part of his life, she agrees to become his mistress. With Richard Carlson, Tim Holt, Frank McHugh. Then, producer Ross Hunter's 1961 filming of "Back Street" stars Susan Hayward (in a career-defining role) as a woman who meets and falls for a handsome Marine (John Gavin) returning home from World War II. Fate brings them back together when Hayward moves to the Big Apple to start a fashion design career, but upon learning that Gavin now has a wife and child, she must stay in the shadows and is forced to accept her role as his mistress. DVD Release Date: September 26th, 2011

The Purple Gang - Pay now. Or pay with your life. Armed and arrogant, a baby-faced teen named Honeyboy Willard terrorizes hardened rumrunners until they agree to shell out protection money. Soon Honeyboy and his underage thugs, the Purple Gang, control Detroit, turning the screws until local businessmen, driven to desperation, call in the Chicago Mafia to outmuscle their homegrown mob. Disarmingly boyish, Robert Blake (In Cold Blood) makes a chilling Honeyboy, a psychopath equally thrilled by luring a cop to his death or cramming his best pal alive in a coffin, pouring in cement, and dropping him in the river. “That’s the way we work,” Honeyboy says. Bet on it. DVD Release Date: July 12th, 2011

The Letter - Adulteress Leslie Crosbie fires a bullet into her lover then, for good measure, five more. At trial, her plaintive testimony tilts the jury toward acquittal. Then scheming Leslie learns someone has a telltale letter she wrote to her paramour. Starring in the 1929 screen tale of Somerset Maugham’s The Letter is the actress who made a name for herself as the stage’s Sadie Thompson in Maugham’s Rain: Jeanne Eagels. As Bette Davis did when she famously played Leslie 11 years later, Eagels earned a Best Actress Oscar® nomination for her volatile performance. Eagels tragically died six months after the film; today it remains the lone available talkie testament to her talent. Kim Novak played Eagels in 1957’s biopic Jeanne Eagels. DVD Release Date: June 21st, 2011

Griff the Invisible - By day, 28-year old Griff (Ryan Kwanten, TV's TRUE BLOOD) is a timid shipping liaison mercilessly bullied by popular co-worker Tony (Toby Schmitz); by night, however, he is a rubber-suited crime fighter patrolling his neighborhood (and usually terrifying his neighbors more than the perceived threat). When wanted posters with his masked superhero likeness (and a mock-up mannequin) are posted around the neighborhood, his older brother Tim (Patrick Brammall) suspects that Griff is indulging in his fantasy world again... DVD Release Date: November 15th, 2011

Big House U.S.A. - A tough and realistic crime drama unfolds as ruthless convicts (Broderick Crawford, Charles Bronson, Ralph Meeker, Lon Chaney, Jr., and William Talman) execute a successful prison escape to secure $200,000 in hidden ransom money. DVD Release Date: January 28th, 2011

Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption - 12 years after the Zombie Apocalypse Virus was released (12 A.Z.) and the US and Soviet Union jointly detonated all of their nuclear arms at tactical sites in hopes of wiping out the zombies, the world is a wasteland where the zombies outnumber the living, and the living can be even more monstrous than the dead. Ex-soldier Knox (Johnny Gel), who has been running around with a group of ruthless ex-military soldiers called The Marauders and lead by the sadistic Rome (Jerry Lynch), is saved from death-by-fire for treason by fellow Marauder Maddox (Jeremy rush) who dumps him in the middle of the desert (and is promptly burned alive for his efforts). DVD Release Date: October 20th, 2011
 

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