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Posted on 08.15.07 by Charlie @ 3:22 pm
   The highlight of the week is clearly David Lynch’s Inland Empire, another film in his series of utterly baffling but nevertheless mesmerizing hallucinatory mysteries — a pattern that seems to have taken a particular form with Lost Highway and refined in Mulholland Drive. Inland Empire was Lynch’s first feature film in 6 years, no doubt in part because of his focus on developing www.DavidLynch.com and creating original material for it (in the form of various experimental shorts — I’ve seen Dumbland and didn’t think much of it, for whatever that’s worth). Note also that Inland Empire is available through Lynch’s website for $14.92 + s/h - likely a better price than you’ll find elsewhere. Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 08.10.07 by Charlie @ 6:59 pm
CSB’s look at the exciting releases on DVD, Blu-Ray
   Overall, this has been a fairly quiet week for Region 1 DVD and high-definition discs — really the highlight of the week was a handful of Hong Kong releases on Region 3 DVD, courtesy of the Shaw Brothers catalog. Of the hundreds of Shaw Brothers movies that Celestial has released in the last few years, one of the most asked-about titles remained MIA until this week: The Kid With the Golden Arm. Lo Meng’s stand-out performance as the villain that made this a huge hit in the West. This week Celestial also released the Casino Tycoon box (featuring, would you believe it, Casino Tycoon and Casino Tycoon II, both starring Andy Lau) and Swordswomen Three, a “wu xia” film starring a trio of sword-wielding martials arts ladies as they fight uber-villain Lo Lieh to control the “Han Family Sword”. The new film from Park Chan Wook (director of Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr./Lady Vengeance) I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay, also hit Region 3 DVD this week (see our capsule review here), although as fair warning many of our readers who enjoyed Park’s earlier works aren’t thrilled with I’m a Cyborg. Filed under: General and Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 08.04.07 by Charlie @ 12:38 pm
    300 is here! And in HD no less. I for one have been looking forward to this unabashed action-and-nothing-else movie for several weeks. A limited edition set of the DVD that included a spartan helmet was available at Best Buy for a few milli-seconds before selling out, but can still be found at certain retail locations (and on eBay of course). Interesting that the result of this is having to choose between buying it in high definition or getting the helmet, you’d think they’d want to put them together for the “ultimate edition” type of thing.  A new box set of Fox Film Noirs (on Region 1 DVD) is always cause for excitement — many hours of excitement, in fact, as this week’s Volume 4 in the series includes a whopping 10 films. Luckily, while the number of films may be daunting, the price is not — with online discounts, it works out to just over $4 a film, if only all big dvd releases were this cheap! Two of the films (Where Danger Lives and The Big Steal) star Robert Mitchum, and Illegal, another highlight, stars Edward G. Robinson. I figure that at some point the quality of these sets will start to wane, as you’d think they have cherry-picked the best films for the first few sets, but so far at least they’ve been consistently entertaining. Let’s hope they can keep it up (a full listing of the films included can be found below). Filed under: General and Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.18.07 by Charlie @ 8:25 pm
CSB gives you our weekly summary of the important DVD and high-definition releases this week from around the world. Click “read more” below to see a full list of this week’s highlights.
 Two movies from this year’s New York Asian Film Festival hit the streets this week on DVD in the United States: Thailand’s action-packed Dynamite Warrior (starring Ong Bak’s stunt coordinator) and Yo Yo Girl Cop, the newest film by Kenta Fukasaku, the son of master Japanese filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku. Click here to read our full coverage of Dynamite Warrior from the New York Asian Film Festival. And check back for our write up of Yo Yo Girl Cop, which will be posted in the next few days. But as usual it is The Criterion Collection that steals the limelight this week with the long overdue release of Billy Wilder’s classic Ace in the Hole. Missing in action for many years, Ace in the Hole is the unknown Billy Wilder masterpiece. It may lack the following of a Sunset Boulevard or a Double Indemnity (because the dialogue is not as witty), or of Sabrina (because it is not as romantic), but it makes up for those elements with raw, brutal emotion and outrage. Kirk Douglas is his usual compelling self as a sleazy news reporter who cynically exploits a man trapped in a cave-in to build up a circus-like atmosphere. Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.10.07 by Charlie @ 5:55 pm
New British Gangster Film; Turkish Superman Double Feature; New Trio from The Criterion Collection; Four New Films in the “MGM Film Noir” Series and More!  You wouldn’t know it from most release calendars, but this week is actually a very exciting week for DVD. They’re hidden in obscure pockets around the web, but — if you know where to look — a wide range of gems hit the street this week. The new must-see British gangster movie Outlaw was released Monday on Region 2 DVD (PAL) by director Nick Love and starring Sean Bean, Danny Dyer and especially Bob Hoskins!! Chances are you’ve seen Snatch and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, and maybe you’ve seen the Daniel “before-he-was-007″ Craig film Layer Cake — and if you have, you probably liked all of them. Well, there’s a lot more where that came from, and you don’t have to go back to Mike Hodges’s 1971 UK gangster classic Get Carter to hit paydirt. In just the last few years, several excellent gangster films have come out in the UK that are virtual secrets, they’re so unknown. Of those, director Nick Love is arguably the guy you most need to know about. In addition to this week’s release of Outlaw, Love has directed two other gangster films that are must-sees. The Business, a slick modern gangster movie in the vein of Layer Cake, and The Football Factory, about soccer hooligans (essentially gangsters). Many guys I’ve met from the UK in the last few years have proclaimed The Football Factory to be their favorite film, and while other soccer hooligan movies preceded it (The Firm, I.D. etc.) this is the most enjoyable by a long shot. As a side note, I also highly recommend I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead starring Clive Owen, though it is darker/more serious. Beware: Outlaw, like many of these films I’ve mentioned is only available at the moment on Region 2 (PAL), so you will probably need an all region, PAL-converting DVD player to see them if you live outside of Europe. Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.06.07 by Charlie @ 9:54 pm
Happy 4th of July to those of our readers in the USA this week. As with past holiday weeks, the dvd release calendar this week stateside is dull as can be.     Luckily that hasn’t stopped Celestial Pictures from continuing their heroic effort to release the entire Shaw Brothers library on home video. For those that don’t know, several years ago the Company began releasing all 700+ Shaw Brothers films — including many of the most important martial arts films from the golden age that was the 70’s and 80’s Hong Kong. The simple quantity of films being produced created a unique environment for martial arts filmmaking in that basically everyone on set all the way down to the extras had made many, sometimes hundreds, of martial arts films before. And with that level of experience and knowledge on set, they were able to take the films to far higher levels than you can today. Most major action movies in Hollywood today star actors with little or no martial arts experience, so that the cast spend most of the time learning how to make basic kicks and punches, and the Hong Kong industry has shrunk drastically from the golden days of the Shaw Brothers, so while the martial arts expertise exists, the depth of shooting experience does not. Although a handful of these films have begun to be released in the USA (including The Bells of Death this week), the overwhelming bulk are only available on these Celestial Pictures dvds which are “region 3″ and require an all-region dvd player. But if you do have an all-region dvd player, and if you like martial arts films, these are some of the most exciting releases to come out all year. Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.28.07 by Charlie @ 2:55 am
I like the way Warner Home Video thinks. Put yourself in their shoes: You’ve got four box sets full of movies in a new line that you’re going to call “Cult Camp Classics”. How are you going to release them? Monthly? Quarterly? Two sets of two boxes? And then someone over there decides, aw, hell, let’s release all 12 at once. That’s what happened this past Tuesday.     And you have to understand, this is arguably a significant shift for the good. Take their series of old 1930s gangster films starring James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, for example. They released the “Warner Gangsters” box set in January 2005, and then didn’t release the next box, the “Tough Guys” collection, until July 2006. Of course, we’re talking about a LOT of films that Warner is churning out to DVD, and frankly a lot of us haven’t even finished plowing through the Tough Guys box set from last July. But still, this is a great development, even if Trog and Hot Rods to Hell aren’t quite as important to the history of film as say, Little Caesar. But there are some gems here. Although few people have actually SEEN Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, that darned poster for it is just plain everywhere, and let’s face it, you’re curious to see what all the hubbub is about, no? I’m guessing that first set of “Sci-Fi Thrillers” will be the most popular. But, to us here at CSB, the most interesting in the bunch is buried in pack #4, even if, as CSB regular Dave Austin notes, it’s a bit of a let down: Probably of the most interest, though sadly not of the highest quality, is The Colossus of Rhodes, to be released individually and as part of Warner’s Cult Camp Classics 4 - Historical Epics collection. The reason for the interest is that this is an early peplum from director Sergio Leone, who, as I’m sure you all know, went on to make his name as the premiere director of spaghetti westerns like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Sadly, this 1961 sword-and-sandals epic is mostly a snooze, with the colossally miscast Rory Calhoun dragging down the rest of the cast. Only an all-too brief finale with the titular statue livens things up. Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.19.07 by Charlie @ 4:07 pm
    Once again, the big story this week is from the Criterion Collection, and after last week’s Ozu box set and with another release out next week, it’s really beginning to be a full-time job to keep up with those guys. What a nice problem to have. CSB’s own Jeff has long been awaiting the dvd release of If….: “If. . . . is one of the finest films of the 1960s, an absolutely stunning work that is finally making its long-overdue debut on DVD. The film depicts an armed rebellion at a horribly repressive English boarding school. Director Lindsay Anderson mixes harrowing, documentary-like passages depicting the school’s indignities and injustices with scattered surreal moments that display a wit worthy of Bunuel. My first viewing of If. . . . in high school left an indelible impression on me. I happened upon the film on the Bravo cable television network sometime subsequent to its opening credits and was hypnotized immediately. I called one of my friends on the telephone who was nearly as big a film buff as I was, and asked him if he was watching Bravo. Of course, he was. Neither of us could determine whether we were watching a documentary or a fictional film, but we both agreed that we had never seen anything quite like it.” On the other side of the spectrum, Dragon Dynasty has a slate of region 1 DVDs of some of the greatest kung fu films of all time. Although collectors have scrambled to pick up these releases as they’ve dribbled out on region 3 disc from Celestial Pictures, believe me they were not the concentrated best-of-the-best that we see being released this week. If you have an interest in martial arts movies, but aren’t sure where to start, these are NOT just more of the same, all four of these are among the top classics of the golden age of the Shaw Brothers. My favorite is the One Armed Swordsman, not because it is the best of the bunch (it’s not) but because it permanently altered star Jimmy Wang Yu’s career. He would spend the bulk of the next many years trying to hide that second arm of his in the endless sequels starring a one-armed fighter.     David Austin, another essential part of the Cinema Strikes Back team and our resident Shaw Brothers guru, had this to say about 36th Chamber: “As for 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Liu Chia-leung’s classic’s classic lives up to its reputation, as Gordon Liu works his way through the grueling tests of the Shaolin monastery in order to fight the evil Qing. Just as One-Armed Swordsman forced Wang Yu to fight one-handed, after the success of 36th Chamber, Gordon Liu was rarely seen without a monk’s bald head. My Young Auntie, also by Liu Chia-leung, turns things 180 degrees, with a wacky comedy about a kung-fu fighting widow (decidedly youthful Kara Hui) who finds herself the senior member of an extended kung fu family. For once, the comedy and the fu both work, climaxing in one of the best fight scenes ever to grace a Shaw film. Liu and Hui tried this formula again soon after in The Lady Is the Boss, with greatly lessened results.” Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: 1 Comment |
This week they hit us with three discs: the British film If…. starring Malcolm McDowell of Clockwork Orange fame, and two 1970s Yugoslavian films by director Dusan Makavejev, which (knowing Criterion) should be very interesting.|
Posted on 06.12.07 by Charlie @ 2:26 am
Eclipse’s Late Ozu, The Bridge, Alone With Her, Ghost Rider, Breach,
Wow! The new releases on dvd this week are staggering and a welcome change after a few slow weeks. The full list of releases this week on DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is listed below, but allow me to point a few of the highlights. Most importantly, the folks over at The Criterion Collection continue their new Eclipse line this week with volume three: Late Ozu. The Criterion Collection has of course released several Yasujiro Ozu films in their collection in the past, but seeing as the master director made over 50 films, he is a perfect candidate for this new series. For those who haven’t heard the news, the Eclipse line is a monthly box of Criterion-worthy films (usually five) in addition to the regular slate of four to five films released under The Criterion Collection banner. Essentially, the folks at Criterion can only give the “criterion treatment” to so many films a month, and they’re backlogged on all the great films they own the rights to, most of which have never been given proper releases. So rather than put out their signature-releases that are overflowing with every extra imaginable, these “Eclipse” discs have no extras at all — just the films in pristine prints, often that weren’t previously available. This is of course perfect for those of us movie nuts who don’t make time for the extras anyway, always rushing to get to the next film in the stack – after all the Criterion Collection is as revered for its selection as any extras they dig up. In any case, this set of Yasujiro Ozu films is my favorite set of the bunch so far. Although the first two sets are commendable, I find that a little Ingmar Bergman goes a long way, and while hope springs eternal, I have no idea when I’ll have time to watch a five-plus hour Louis Malle documentary on India, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. But a box of Ozu films, now that I can get behind. And of course, the Criterion folks also have a standard Criterion release for us this week, the well-regarded The Two of Us. Now, if there was only more time in the day…. Filed under: Movie News and DVD News: This Week in DVD and DVD News and People: Kim Ki-duk and Contributors: Charlie and People: John Frankenheimer Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.06.07 by Charlie @ 5:01 pm
Think of it as a last chance at DVD spring cleaning. Each week for the next several months is jam-packed with exciting dvd releases, so this week is one of our last chances to get caught up on movies, with a relatively quiet slate of films out this week. That said, there are a few exciting nuggets to look for this week. Most importantly, the Sergio Leone Anthology has finally arrived on North American shores. Now, because three of the four films included in this set (including the uber-classic Westerns A Fist Full of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) have been released numerous times in the past, it is really the fourth film in the set — Duck, You Sucker! – that makes this set noteworthy, as it marks the first release of the film in the USA or Canada (aka “region 1”). Of course, the disc has been available in the UK for the last year and had been available in South Korea for several years now, so many of our readers with special, all-region dvd players will have already seen it. But for those that haven’t, I assure you it is a real treat, starring James Coburn and right up there with the other three that make up Sergio Leone’s classic “Man With No Name” trilogy. Duck, You Sucker! is also being released individually this week for those who aren’t looking to buy the whole set. Thank you MGM!
This week also sees the release by Classic Media of two more in their line of classic Godzilla films with Ghidorah: the Three-Headed Monster and Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (released under its alternate title: “Invasion of the Astro Monster”). Although these titles have been released previously on vhs, Classic Media has put together definitive editions of the films as part of their continuing and excellent line of Godzilla releases. In addition to releasing the film with a cleaned up picture and the proper aspect ratio, one of the more exciting features here is that they have included both the original Japanese language track with English subtitles as well as the original English dub that so many Godzilla fans grew up watching. Personally, I stick to the subtitles, but it’s nice to have the option. Expect a full review from David soon. On the even weirder side, Palm Pictures is releasing (with extras no less) The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai, a Japanese pinku film about a call girl who develops super-human intelligence and spends her time pleasuring herself with George Bush’s disembodied finger. It’s not precisely good (in fact, it’s not good at all), but the bizarro and sleaze factors go to 11. For those who like their sex scenes peppered with philosophical conversation. We’re also excited about the release of The Sand Pebbles, a solid and remarkably grim film about an American navy ship patrolling the waters near China in the 1920s (and starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough, among others). On the HD front, Blood Diamond has finally gotten its belated release along with Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy on Blu-Ray disc. Also, a handful of catalog titles came out this week simultaneously on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, including John Wayne starrers Rio Bravo and The Cowboys, and the popular Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America. Filed under: Movie News and DVD Companies: Palm Pictures and People: Godzilla and DVD News and Contributors: David and DVD News: This Week in DVD and Contributors: Charlie and DVD Companies: Classic Media Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.29.07 by Charlie @ 1:50 pm
Today is a relatively sleepy day for new dvd releases as people yawn their way back from the long weekend here in the USA, but there are a few nuggets of note. The most noteworthy is Zhang Yimou’s latest Curse of the Golden Flower, which has been available on dvd for some time but comes out on Blu Ray disc today for those of you who were able to hold out (I succumbed and got the standard-definition dvd myself). On dvd, the only significant mainstream release is Hannibal Rising, which did not do as well at the box office as the earlier films in the series, though that’s hardly surprising, seeing as it does not star Anthony Hopkins. The unusual The Call of Cthulhu – a rare “new” silent film also streets this week (click here to read a review of the film by Cinema Strikes Back’s own Dave Austin). And I’m particularly happy to see that the Rawhide folks continue to release that series sequentially on dvd – for a while it looked like they were going to be the only major Western serial determined to stick to “best of” releases. Let’s hope they continue with the season by season plan. Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and DVD News: USA and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 05.22.07 by Charlie @ 10:23 am
The Matrix Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2, Apocalypto, Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and The Good German  If this year determines who will win the high-definition sprint to dominate the future of home video, then today the starting gun went off to launch that race. The competitors are well known: on the one hand, we have Universal and their format HD-DVD — last year’s champion in sales, but an underdog today. The other competitor is of course Sony and their rival format Blu Ray, which has taken a significant lead by capturing 68% of this year’s high-definition sales courtesy of the embedded Blu Ray player in the Playstation 3. For years now, many have predicted this format war would be about content, and indeed we’ve seen in the past year that even individual titles, if they are popular enough, can swing the debate. Blu Ray’s release of the recent James Bond entry Casino Royale was so popular it became the first high definition disc to crack the top 10 of all home video releases, normally all regular dvds. Blu Ray was, of course, quick to announce the surge in sales. Both sides hope to do the same thing today, as rival heavyweight titles go head to head. For HD-DVD, today marks the release of the Matrix Trilogy in high definition. With two separate sets (a “Complete” Matrix Trilogy vs. an “Ultimate” Matrix set), it is arguably the most asked-for of all high definition titles and is sure to light a fire under sales of HD-DVD (it will not be available on Blu Ray for months to come). What’s the difference between the two sets? Money isn’t a big factor — when considering sale prices from major online retailers, the difference between the sets is only about $10. But the Ultimate set includes dvd-quality (and so NOT high definition) extras that are identical to those found on the Ultimate 10-disc Matrix dvd set released last year. Only the trilogy itself is high-definition (a big disappointment for fans hoping to get Animatrix in HD). And because the extras are the same as the dvd mega-set, if you have that set already, there is really no reason to get the extras all over again with this release. Regardless of which set you prefer, however, this set will prompt a huge spike in HD-DVD sales. But Blu Ray isn’t going to stand by and let HD-DVD steal their thunder (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: Charlie and Studios: Universal Pictures and Studios: Sony Pictures and Movie News: High-Definition DVD and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 08.24.06 by David @ 9:29 pm
KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL – Moral quicksand  Kekexili (the title has been reversed in the English version to put the more comprehensible Mountain Patrol first) is the story of a rural Tibetan militia formed to fight poachers and preserve local wildlife. Shooting in cinema verite style, from the perspective of a Chinese journalist reporting on the group, director Chuan Yu creates a grim and ambiguous morality tale that stays well within the grey areas of human nature. The militia, and their fierce leader Ri Tai, are admirable in many ways, and it is easy to respect what they are trying to do. However, it quickly becomes clear that the men are deeply compromised individuals, and that the moral line between them and poachers is not as clear as it first appears. Filed under: DVD News: Japan and Movie News and DVD News and DVD News: USA and General and TV and Cable News: US and International and DVD News: Italy and DVD Companies: Criterion Collection and DVD Companies: Panik House and TV Shows: Arrested Development and Contributors: David and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 07.11.06 by David @ 12:01 pm
An interesting grab-bag of films this week, all from Asia. Johnny To returns with ELECTION 2 (Hak se wui yi wo wai kwai) We at Cinema Strikes Back chose Johnny To’s Election as our top film pick of 2005 (see article here), so we are very excited that Election 2 (2006) is being released on Region 0 Hong Kong DVD by Panorama on July 14. In keeping with most new HK releases, the DVD looks great and is anamorphic widescreen.  Election 2, which picks up two years after the first film, does not disappoint, though it is not a masterpiece like its predecessor. All the major characters from the first film (that survived) return for the sequel, including Nick Cheung as Jet. The film does suffer a little from its tighter focus on Jimmy (Louis Koo), the business-minded gangster who supported Simon Yam in the previous film. Jimmy is interesting but not as compelling as Simon Yam or Tony Leung’s characters in the original. As before, the secondary characters (with the exception of Jimmy’s underwritten wife) are great, though Lam Suet makes what amounts to little more than cameo. The standout newcomer is Mark Cheng, playing Jimmy’s bodyguard, a vicious killer who may also be the most likeable character in the film. Filed under: General and Movie News and DVD News and DVD News: Hong Kong and DVD News: Japan and People: Johnnie To and DVD Companies: Criterion Collection and DVD Companies: Media Blasters and Movies: Election 2 (2006) and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.27.06 by David @ 1:38 pm
Genre film fans should be drooling. This week sees the release of an amazing assortment of wild films, including some long-absent classics and some newly-discovered gems. Let’s take a look. Two Sogo Ishii films – BURST CITY and ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000 VOLTS  New company Discotek has had some solid releases so far, but this time they hit one out of the park. Sogo Ishii has remained criminally underserved by DVD in America, with only his so-so samurai epic Gojoe receiving a proper release until now. Ishii was essentially the Jean-Luc Godard of the Japanese punk scene, creating cyberpunk masterpieces that focused on bosozoku biker gangs, punk rockers and freaks of all kinds. His influence stretches far, from Shinya Tsukamoto to more recent indie punk films like Wild Zero. Filed under: General and Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: David and DVD Companies: Media Blasters and DVD Companies: NoShame Films and DVD Companies: Mondo Macabro and DVD Companies: Panik House and DVD Companies: Discotek and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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