Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF December 14th, 2015
  This Week's Highlights
 
 

Mysh Bzi! NOTE: Our Year-End Poll Ballots are ready HERE PLEASE PARTICIPATE! (how we have good ideas - is to have lots of ideas!). We have reviews this week of discs from Criterion, Arrow, Carlotta, Shout! Factory, of features directed by Jacques Rivette, Robert Siodmak, Massimo Dallamano, Howard Brookner, Dick Richards, Raoul Walsh, Mario Bava and more. Our Release Calendar includes new films-to-Blu-ray directed by the likes of Samuel Fuller, Pier Paolo Pasonlini, Luciano Ercoli, Henry Hathaway, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Robert Hamer and more. We have a CONTEST posted with a Brand New Criterion Blu-ray prize! Enjoy!

Feature Blu-ray and DVD chosen for the Month of DECEMBER!

TELL US Your favorite Blu-ray and DVDs of the Year!

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(Week of) December 14th CONTEST  identify the clip on the CONTEST PAGE to win Criterion's Blu-ray of Jellyfish Eyes  Best of luck!
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Gary at 2ze dot com

LATEST ADDITIONS TO THE RELEASE CALENDAR:

Fixed Bayonets! [Blu-ray] (Samuel Fuller, 1951) RB UK Masters of Cinema

Hawks and Sparrows (1966) / Pigsty (1969) [Blu-ray] Limited Edition RB UK Masters of Cinema

The Merchant of Four Seasons + Beware of a Holy Whore [Blu-ray] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970, 1971) RB UK Arrow

Death Walks Twice: Two Films by Luciano Ercoli (4-Disc Limited Edition Boxset) [Blu-ray + DVD] (includes Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight) - Arrow US

Black Mama White Mama [Blu-ray] (Eddie Romero, 1973) Arrow US

Seven Thieves [Blu-ray] (Henry Hathaway, 1960) RB DE Koch Media

Primal Impulse [Blu-ray] (Luigi Bazzoni, 1975) RB DE Koch Media

Fear Eats the Soul [Blu-ray] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974) RB UK Arrow

Headline (John Harlow, 1943) R2 UK Network

Offbeat (Cliff Owen, 1961) R2 UK Network

Pink String and Sealing Wax [Blu-ray] (Robert Hamer, 1945) RB UK Studiocanal

Revenge [Blu-ray] (Sidney Hayers, 1971) RB UK Network

Boys' School [Blu-ray] (Christian-Jaque, 1938) Pathé

Empire of the Ants - Creature Features Collection Vol. 3 [Blu-ray] (Bert I. Gordon, 1977) RB DE Koch Media

The Magnificent Ambersons [Blu-ray] (Orson Welles, 1942) RA JP IVC

Modesty Blaise [Blu-ray] (Joseph Losey, 1966) RA JP

Horse Money [Blu-ray] (Pedro Costa, 2014) RB UK Second Run

Ashes and Diamonds [Blu-ray] (Andrzej Wajda, 1958) RB UK Arrow

Curse of the Faceless Man [Blu-ray] (Edward L. Cahn , 1958) Kino Lorber

Woman in the Moon [Blu-ray] (Fritz Lang, 1929) Kino Lorber

Spies [Blu-ray] (Fritz Lang, 1928) Kino Lorber

Hiroshima Mon Amour 4K [Blu-ray] (Alain Resnais, 1959) RB UK StudioCanal

Pauline at the Beach [Blu-ray] (Eric Rohmer, 1983) Kino Lorber

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin [Blu-ray] (Lucio Fulci, 1971) Mondo Macabre

Murders in the Rue Morgue / The Dunwich Horror [Blu-ray] - Shout! Factory

The Challenge [Blu-ray] (John Frankenheimer, 1982) Kino Lorber

Irrational Man [Blu-ray] (Woody Allen, 2015) Sony

Taviani Brothers Collection [Blu-ray] (Padre Padrone, The Night Of The Shooting Stars, Kaos) Cohen Media

Kiki's Delivery Service [Blu-ray] (Hayao Miyazaki, 1989) Disney

The Sicilian [Blu-ray] (Michael Cimino, 1987) Shout! Factory

Secretary [Blu-ray] (Steven Shainberg, 2002) RB UK Palisades Tartan

Beachhead [Blu-ray] (Stuart Heisler, 1954) Kino Lorber

Pressure Point [Blu-ray] (Hubert Cornfield, Stanley Kramer, 1962) Olive

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [Blu-ray] (William Cottrell, David Hand, 1937) Disney

Ghost Story [Blu-ray] (John Irvin, 1981) RB UK Second Sight

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka [Blu-ray] (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 1988) Kino Lorber

Rock the Kasbah [Blu-ray] (Barry Levinson, 2015) Universal

Beowulf & Grendel [Blu-ray] (Sturla Gunnarsson, 2005) RB UK Platform

Kill Me Three Times [Blu-ray] (Kriv Stenders, 2014) UK Universal

Experimenter [Blu-ray] (Michael Almereyda, 2015) Magnolia

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things [Blu-ray] (Bob Clark , 1972) VCI Entertainment

Quentin Tarantino Collection [Blu-ray] - 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992), 'Jackie Brown' (1997), 'Pulp Fiction' (1994), 'Kill Bill: Volume 1' (2003) 'Kill Bill: Volume 2' (2004) - RB UK Lionsgate

Secret Admirer [Blu-ray] (David Greenwalt, 1985) Olive

Hana-Dama: The Origins [Blu-ray] (Hisayasu Satô, 2014) Olive

The Fall, Series 1 [Blu-ray] - Acorn Media
The Fall, Series 2 [Blu-ray] - Acorn Media

Beat Street [Blu-ray] (Stan Lathan, 1984) Olive Films

The World of Kanako [Blu-ray] (Tetsuya Nakashima, 2014) Cinedigm

Show Me a Hero [Blu-ray] (Mini-Series, 2015) HBO Studios

Mercy Street [Blu-ray] (Roxann Dawson, 2016) PBS

Ambush Bay [Blu-ray] (Ron Winston, 1966) Kino Lorber

Bone Tomahawk [Blu-ray] (S. Craig Zahler , 2015) Image Entertainment

Extraordinary Tales [Blu-ray] (Raul Garcia, 2015) Cinedigm

Pieces [Blu-ray] (Juan Piquer Simón, 1982) Grindhouse Releasing

The Walk [Blu-ray] (Robert Zemeckis, 2015) Sony Pictures

Mystery Date [Blu-ray] (Jonathan Wacks, 1991) Olive Films

The Passage [Blu-ray] (J. Lee Thompson , 1979) Kino Lorber
 

 

ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): What with reviewing the 12+ hour Out 1 this week, and the end of the year slowdown, the coverage is a bit sparse. It gets our top nod as such an ambitious film and wonderful Region FREE Blu-ray package - the dream of so many cinephiles and Jacques Rivette fans. I also enjoyed Arrow's What Have You Done to Solange?, also region FREE, Blu-ray - Massimo Dallamano's charismatic mystery/thriller is a top-shelf Giallo. Criterion's Blu-ray of Burroughs: The Movie is a fascinating and revealing documentary that is easy to recommend! The Car gets a Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory - a raging auto cult thriller from the late 70's - tons of fun. On DVD, Gregory covered Robert Siodmak's The Suspect and it's a must own for Noir fans. Gregory also compared two SD versions of the artistic and unjustly maligned Esther and the King now on a superior PAL video transfer. I was thrilled with 1975's Farewell, My Lovely with Robert Mitchum as Raymond Chandler’s legendary detective Philip Marlowe in this delicious neo-noir mystery gem. Eric reviewed the highly acclaimed Italian drama The Dinner, the comedy Guidance, Science Crazed - one of the Holy Grails of Canadian cult cinema and The Brothers - Season 2 - a Brit drama from 70's TV. .. To help get in the mood; "Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan!". Relax - it will be okay this week.

  THIS WEEK's REVIEWS / COMPARISONS
 

Out 1 BD - Jacques Rivette's epic-scale meditation on art, politics and relationships is an eight-Episode, 740 minute drama that begins as an examination of two Parisian theater companies. Lili (Michele Moretti) is a member of an experimental troupe preparing a radical new interpretation of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, while Thomas (Michel Lonsdale) is in charge of a state-funded group who are rehearsing another work by the same ancient Greek playwright, Prometheus Unbound. Drifting in and out of the orbit of these two groups are Sarah (Bernadette Lafont), an author and longtime friend of Thomas; Colin (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a deaf street musician; Frederique (Juliet Berto), a sexy confidence woman, and the bohemian owner of a knick-knack shop who often changes her name (Bulle Ogier), among many others. Blu-ray Release Date: January 12th, 2016

What Have You Done to Solange? BD - From director Massimo Dallamano, cinematographer on both A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, comes giallo classic What Have You Done to Solange?, the debut feature of actress Camille Keaton. A sexually sadistic killer is preying on the girls of St. Mary's school. Student Elizabeth witnessed one of the murders, but her hazy recollections of a knife-wielding figure in black do nothing to further the police's investigations. Why is the killer choosing these young women? And what does it have to do with a girl named Solange? Blu-ray Release Date: December 14th/15th, 2015

The Car BD - Fasten your seatbelts for the terrifying thrill ride that has become a cult classic - The Car! The peaceful tranquility of a small Western town is disturbed when a murderous car wreaks havoc by viciously mowing down innocent victims. New sheriff Wade Parent (James Brolin) may be the only one who can stop this menace in its tracks until he realizes that the driver of this indestructible vehicle is far more dangerous than any man it is driven by pure evil. With a digitally remastered picture The Car has never been more thrilling more chilling or more explosively entertaining! Shout! Factory Blu-ray Release Date: December 15th, 2015

Burroughs: The Movie BD - Made up of intimate, revelatory footage of the singular author and poet filmed over the course of five years, Howard Brookner’s 1983 documentary about William S. Burroughs was for decades mainly the stuff of legend; that changed when Aaron Brookner, the late director’s nephew, discovered a print of it in 2011 and spearheaded a restoration. Now viewers can enjoy the invigorating candidness of Burroughs: The Movie, a one-of-a-kind nonfiction portrait that was brought to life with the help of a remarkable crew of friends, including Jim Jarmusch and Tom DiCillo, and that features on-screen appearances by fellow artists of Burroughs’s including Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, and Terry Southern. Blu-ray Release date: December 15th, 2015

Farewell, My Lovely - The immortal Robert Mitchum stars as Raymond Chandler’s legendary detective Philip Marlowe in the neo-noir mystery Farewell, My Lovely. The hardboiled Marlowe’s latest cases (one, a search for an ex-convict'’s lost love, and the other, the murder of a client) take on an even more sinister turn when they begin to connect, leading the private eye deeper and deeper into the seamy underbelly of 1940s Los Angeles. As the stakes are raised and the body count swells, it looks like Marlowe might be next on the list to take the big sleep. DVD Release Date: November 17th, 2015

Esther and the King - Just over a decade before she would gain fame and some fortune as Alexis Carrington in television's Dynasty series, Joan Collins starred as Esther in this melodramatic, routine Biblical story. The setting is Persia in the 4th century BC, as Esther comes to the attention of the recently widowed King Ahasuerus. The king has been trying to stifle and defeat the campaign of hatred fomented against the Jews by his evil minister Haman (Sergio Fantoni). Before the King can pair off with Esther and defeat the villainous Haman, there are several intervening adventures and an additional, attractive woman who competes for attention. KSM DVD Release Date: September 17th, 2012

The Dinner - Based on the New York Times bestselling novel, The Dinner turns an ordinary meal among family into a taut morality play as the limits of polite society are tested and two brothers discover just how little they know about each other. To Massimo, a gutsy defense attorney, the monthly dinners with his pediatrician brother Paolo and their wives at a posh local restaurant are a status symbol, even if the time is spent in forced familiarity and inconsequential conversation about the latest films, the day's news or their children's schoolwork. When Paolo's wife Clara sees disturbing security camera footage of a homeless woman being mercilessly beaten, she worries it may be her teenage son Michele and his cousin, Massimo's daughter Benni, who are responsible for the gruesome attack. Their fragile balancing act of respectability and class now shattered, the two families navigate the repercussions of this senseless assault, revealing in the process the skewed priorities and moral shortcomings of their privileged, insulated perspectives. DVD Release Date: November 24th, 2015

Guidance - David Gold, 36, a pathologically immature former child actor, has never been able to get over high school. Recently diagnosed with skin cancer, unemployed and with nothing left to lose, he fakes his resume and gets a job as a high school guidance counselor. Quickly winning over the students at Grusin High with his laidback attitude and similar interests, he befriends Jabrielle, a teenaged outcast and soon learns that sometimes you can go too far, especially when it comes to committing a ridiculous crime. DVD Release Date: November 24th, 2015

The Brothers - Season 2 - Robert Hammond died while doing the deed with his secretary/mistress Jennifer. His 3 sons Edward, Brian and David inherit the family trucking company and try to run it. DVD Release Date: November 9th, 2015

Science Crazed - Modern technology and bizarre chemical engineering are to blame for the strange goings on at the renowned Shelley Institute, as well as for this movie. After Doctor Wilbur Frank is fired from performing dangerous experiments, the scientist injects one of his imprisoned female subjects with an untested human growth serum. Only hours later, the innocent woman dies violently, giving birth to a full grown human male. Almost human that is. With a frenzied urge to kill, the creature destroys the unfortunate Dr. Wilbur and runs amok in the maze of corridors and rooms of the institute. The local town cop, McCoy, joins forces with Wilbur’s assistants, Terry and Joan, and together the trio fights to survive the savage onslaught of the beast. DVD Release Date: November, 2015

The Suspect - Charles Laughton stars in director Robert Siodmak's excellent 1944 suspense thriller as a middle-aged shop manager in turn-of-the-century London who's driven to murder his shrewish wife when he falls in love with a beautiful young woman, and is then pursued by both a determined Scotland Yard detective and a blackmailing neighbor. Laughton gives one of his most subtle, controlled performances as a basically good man who turns murderous when his nagging wife threatens to expose his "friendship" with beautiful Ella Raines. DVD Release Date: May 22nd, 2014
 

 Next 4 weeks on the Calendar

December 14th, 2015
 

Axe/Kidnapped Coed [Blu-ray] - Severin Films

Blood Rage [Blu-ray] (John Grissmer, 1987) Arrow US (BEAVER REVIEW)

Blood Rage [Blu-ray] (John Grissmer, 1987) RB UK Arrow (BEAVER REVIEW)

Boys' School [Blu-ray] (Christian-Jaque, 1938) Pathé

Burroughs: The Movie [Blu-ray] (Howard Brookner, 1983) Criterion (BEAVER REVIEW)

The Car [Blu-ray] (Elliot Silverstein, 1977) Shout! Factory (BEAVER REVIEW)

Count Dracula [Blu-ray] (Jesús Franco, 1970) Severin Films

Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion [Blu-ray] (Jesús Franco, 1970) Blue Underground

The Last Horror Film [Blu-ray] (David Winters, 1982) Troma Entertainment

Marquis de Sade's Justine [Blu-ray] (Jess Franco, 1969) Blue Underground

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation [Blu-ray] (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015) Paramount

Quentin Tarantino Collection [Blu-ray] - 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992), 'Jackie Brown' (1997), 'Pulp Fiction' (1994), 'Kill Bill: Volume 1' (2003) 'Kill Bill: Volume 2' (2004) - RB UK Lionsgate

Stalingrad [Blu-ray] (Christian Deick, 2003) Synapse Films

What Have You Done to Solange? [Blu-ray] (Massimo Dallamano, 1972) Arrow US (BEAVER REVIEW)

What Have You Done to Solange? [Blu-ray] (Massimo Dallamano, 1972) RB UK Arrow (BEAVER REVIEW)

Wolf Totem [Blu-ray] (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 2015) Sony

Zombie High [Blu-ray] (Ron Link, 1987) Shout! Factory

 

December 21st, 2015

 

The Brain That Wouldn't Die [Blu-ray] (Joseph Green, 1962) Shout! Factory

The Bridge Season 3 [Blu-ray] - RB UK Arrow

Nightmares [Blu-ray] (Joseph Sargent, 1983) Shout! Factory

Pawn Sacrifice [Blu-ray] (Edward Zwick, 2014) Universal

 

December 30th, 2015

 

Baccano! - Collector's Edition [Blu-ray] (Ryôgo Narita, 2007–2008) RB UK Anime Ltd

Blood and Black Lace [Blu-ray] (Mario Bava, 1964) Arrow US (BEAVER REVIEW)

Bone Tomahawk [Blu-ray] (S. Craig Zahler , 2015) Image Entertainment

Mon roi [Blu-ray] (Maïwenn, 2015) RB UK Studiocanal

Ray Donovan: The Third Season [Blu-ray] - Showtime Entertainment

Secretary [Blu-ray] (Steven Shainberg, 2002) RB UK Palisades Tartan

 

January 4th, 2015

 

The Angry Silence [Blu-ray] (Guy Green, 1960) RB UK Studiocanal

Ashes and Diamonds [Blu-ray] (Andrzej Wajda, 1958) RB UK Arrow (BEAVER REVIEW)

Banshee: Season 3 [Blu-ray] - HBO Studios

Beowulf & Grendel [Blu-ray] (Sturla Gunnarsson, 2005) RB UK Platform

The Captive City [Blu-ray] (Robert Wise, 1952) Kino Lorber

The Captive Heart [Blu-ray] (Basil Dearden, 1946) RB UK Studiocanal

The Complete Lady Snowblood [Blu-ray] Criterion Collection

Experimenter [Blu-ray] (Michael Almereyda, 2015) Magnolia

Fantomas [Blu-ray] (Louis Feuillade, 1913) Kino Lorber

Gas-s-s-s [Blu-ray] (Roger Corman, 1970) RB UK Signal One

The Green Inferno [Blu-ray] (Eli Roth, 2013) Universal

The Hotel New Hampshire [Blu-ray] (Tony Richardson, 1984) Kino Lorber

The House Where Evil Dwells / Ghost Warrior [Blu-ray] - Shout! Factory

Kill Me Three Times [Blu-ray] (Kriv Stenders, 2014) UK Universal

Love [Blu-ray] (Gaspar Noé, 2015) Alchemy (BEAVER REVIEW)

Mr. Majestyk [Blu-ray] (Richard Fleischer, 1974) RB UK Signal One

Over Your Dead Body [Blu-ray] (Takashi Miike, 2014) Shout! Factory

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues [Blu-ray] (Dan Milner, 1955) Kino Lorber

Spellbinder [Blu-ray] (Janet Greek, 1988) Kino Lorber

The Trip [Blu-ray] (Roger Corman, 1967) RB UK Signal One

True Detective: Season 2 [Blu-ray] HBO Studios

Two For the Seesaw [Blu-ray] (Robert Wise, 1962) Kino Lorber

Valentino [Blu-ray] (Ken Russell, 1977) Kino Lorber

The Visit [Blu-ray] (M. Night Shyamalan, 2015) Universal Studios

The Walk [Blu-ray] (Robert Zemeckis, 2015) Sony Pictures

Yongary, Monster from the Deep [Blu-ray] (Ki-duk Kim, 1967) Kino Lorber

 

January 11th, 2016

 

45 Years [Blu-ray] (Andrew Haigh, 2015) RB UK Artificial Eye

The American Friend [Blu-ray] (Wim Wenders, 1977) Criterion Collection

The Bed Sitting Room [Blu-ray] (Richard Lester, 1969) Kino Lorber

Bitter Rice [Blu-ray] (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949) Criterion Collection

Bolero / Ghosts Can't Do It [Blu-ray] - Shout! Factory

Churchill's Secret [Blu-ray] (Charles Sturridge, 2015) RB UK Spirit Entertainment

Figures in a Landscape [Blu-ray] (Joseph Losey, 1972) Kino Lorber

Hana-bi (Fireworks) [Blu-ray] (Takeshi Kitano, 1997) RB UK Third Window Films

How I Won the War [Blu-ray] (Richard Lester, 1967) Kino Lorber

Irrational Man [Blu-ray] (Woody Allen, 2015) Sony

The Knack, and How to Get It [Blu-ray] (Richard Lester, 1965) Kino Lorber

Love [Blu-ray] (Gaspar Noé, 2015) RB UK Curzon / Artificial Eye (BEAVER REVIEW)

Out 1 (13-Disc) [Blu-ray] (Jacques Rivette, 1971) Carlotta Films (BEAVER REVIEW)

Primal Impulse [Blu-ray] (Luigi Bazzoni, 1975) RB DE Koch Media

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead [Blu-ray] (Tom Stoppard, 1990) Image Entertainment

Seven Thieves [Blu-ray] (Henry Hathaway, 1960) RB DE Koch Media

 
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