Audrey Hepburn 570

Audrey Hepburn In The Movies: DVD Review

by with No Comment DVDReviews

A look back at the career of a five-star Hollywood actress… 

Timothy Knight’s 39-minute documentary Audrey Hepburn In The Movies takes movie fans on a whistle-stop tour of the British actress’ filmography. There’s a rush to pile through the early years so the film critic can focus on the good stuff, although to its credit the doc doesn’t linger as long as you might expect on My Fair Lady or Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

Audrey Hepburn In The Movies DVD cover

Still, there’s not much chatter about her bit parts in films such as Laughter In Paradise and The Lavender Hill Mob (which paid her way as a trainee ballerina), or her breakthrough role in the stage production of Gigi. The end of her career gets similar treatment, with her last three films – Bloodline, They All Laughed and Always – dashed off in just a few moments.

What we do get is a lot of trailer footage (with its laughably sexist and amazingly cheesy dialogue!) of hits such as Funny Face, Roman Holiday and Sabrina, linked together by snippets of Knight’s chat. Don’t expect too much hard-hitting insight, though, as the tagline “A celebratory documentary” sums up the reverence placed on one of Hollywood’s greatest stars.

Playing the entire documentary or selecting a specific movie from the menu will have the same result: the footage of Hepburn in action will have you reaching for her full-length films in your DVD library. On that basis, Audrey Hepburn In The Movies is a success. One for a rainy afternoon.

VERDICT: 6/10 

Audrey Hepburn In The Movies DVD back cover

Audrey Hepburn In The Movies is released on DVD by Wienerworld on 14 January 2013 and can be purchased from Amazon. 


The Foreign Duck The Native Duck & God In A Coin Locker 470

Third Window Films goes for ‘make-or-break’ year

by with No Comment Home EntertainmentNews

Asian distributor announces 2013 release schedule…

Third Window Films says 2013 will be a “make-or-break” year, following major setbacks in the previous 12 months. The company’s stock of home entertainment titles was destroyed in the fire caused by the London rioters at Sony’s Enfield warehouse, while Third Window also took the decision to pull out of theatrical distribution.

“Third Window Films is going for a make-or-break 2013 with a wide variety of titles, across many genres and years, to try and promote the best of Japan to the West,” said a company statement which described 2012 as “very turbulent”.

Third Window said it had always attempted to do all it could to mix up Asian cinema more than any other company and warned that too many of the same films are being screened at festivals and released for home entertainment across the world. “We are trying to show what else is out there (while at the same time trying to give the audience what they want) by mixing established and new directors, plus unseen works from those with big followings,” the statement said.

The company said it plans to listen to what its audience wants and will take requests on-board, including giving consumers a choice of sleeve art design or DVD extras. It will also continue to try and educate its audience with the releases of lesser-known titles, expanding their scope on the East. “Unfortunately though, it’s not easy balancing all these things, especially with the very high costs of manufacturing Blu-rays and extortionate BBFC costs, but we’ll do our best so that we can keep it going as far as we can!” Third Window Films said.

The company’s 2013 schedule sees the release of The Foreign Duck, The Native Duck & God In A Coin Locker on 14 January, which is a previous title from the team of Yoshihiro Nakamura and writer Kotaro Isaka (Fish Story). The Woodsman & The Rain follows on 28 January, from emerging talent Shuichi Okita. Other titles on the schedule include Pang Ho-Cheung’s Vulgaria (15 April); Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1998 films Eyes Of The Spider and Serpents Path (24 June); Takashi Miike’s For Love’s Sake (29 April); The Story Of Yonosuke (September 2013); and See You Tomorrow, Everyone! (October 2013).

Third Window will also release on Blu-ray and DVD, for the first time in the world, two of Shinya Tsukamoto’s classic films digitally restored by the director himself. Bullet Ballet and Tokyo Fist will be offered as two separate releases with exclusive extras and cardboard slipcases featuring original artwork, with the on-sale date for both titles still to be confirmed.

 


A Very Harold And Kumar 3D Christmas John Cho Kumar Patel Kal Penn Harold Lee 470

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas: Blu-ray Review

by with No Comment 3DBlu-rayReviewsVideos

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas has less holiday spirit, more holiday spliff… 

Bored of Christmas? Imagine how Kumar (Kal Penn) feels when his dealer offers him holiday flavoured flavours, including Rudolf The Red-Eyed Reindeer and It’s A Weederful Life. Yes, the boys are back and having already been on an eventful trip to their local White Castle burger store and escaped from Guantanamo Bay, this time they try and survive the holidays.

The plot sees the stoner duo caught up in more major troubles while hunting for the perfect Christmas tree, with wrecked cars, psycho gangsters and Broadway shows just some of the obstacles this time around. It’s a pretty flimsy affair, given added depth – so to speak – thanks to the extra dimension of 3D.

“Hasn’t the whole 3D thing jumped the shark by now?” asks Harold (John Cho). And while the in-your-face technology fails to live up to the onscreen boast of making Avatar look Avatarded, it does have some nice touches – as Kumar’s smoke rings pop out of the screen like fireworks.

The best present in this threequel? The return of Neil Patrick Harris, who was gunned down in the last movie. Switch off your brain’s higher functions in anticipation of another off-the-wall journey and like a baby hotboxing in a marijuana-filled car, you will get the giggles.

Extras were unavailable but include three minutes and 35 seconds of deleted scenes, as well as two brief on-set interview pieces with Tom Lennon (Bringing Harold & Kumar Claymation To Life, three minutes and 35 seconds; Through The Haze With Tom Lennon, eight minutes). An UltraViolet digital copy of the film is also available.

VERDICT: 6/10 

 

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is released in the UK on DVD and 3D Blu-ray today. 


Excision AnnaLynne McCord Dreams Blood

Excision: Review

by with No Comment CinemaDVDReviews

We need to talk about Pauline… 

Ticking off the plot points in director Richard Bates Jr’s Excision should be an exercise in eye-rolling. Teen misfit? Check. Dull suburban setting? You bet. Sexual urges on the path to womanhood? Of course. Overbearing parent? And then some.

Given the number of times audiences have been bombarded with all of those concepts, the big surprise is that first time feature director Bates is able to wring so much blood from such an old corpse. He takes his mission to bring fresh horror to these stale elements very seriously and the well-worn cliches of a nice family home, nagging parents and awkward teen exchanges become a suburban landscape so weird it is no surprise when a resident of Twin Peaks shows up (Leland Palmer – aka actor Ray Wise, playing the school headmaster).

The story follows Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord), a delusional teenage outcast who spends her time browsing surgical equipment on eBay and bunking off school to read medical books in the local library. This unhealthy anatomical obsession is not helped by the fact that her sister Grace (Modern Family’s Ariel Winter) has cystic fibrosis and may need a serious operation to save her life.

Pauline’s blossoming sexual awakening also brings with it the kind of erotic dreams Ken Russell (The Devils) would have loved, full of semi-naked, writhing extras with a fetish for blood. It is clear from the very first frame of Excision that Pauline is heavily aroused by these nighttime visions, and they become more intense as her mental state deteriorates.

While the world inside Pauline’s head is disturbed, the one outside it isn’t much better. Family dinners provide endless drama as she battles a repressive, disapproving mother (ex-adult film star Traci Lords), who dotes on the younger, sickly daughter. Meanwhile, at school her classmates view her with suspicion and disgust, the word “Gross” already hanging in the air before they speak it aloud. Her social standing isn’t helped by her boyish, spotty looks. The one time she does properly scrub up, it’s a real transformation.

However, Pauline is not a powerless victim to her circumstances. McCord plays her as an angry outsider, full of rage and dark thoughts. Bates adapted Excision from his highly-praised short film of the same name, which picked up 24 awards from more than 50 film festivals – including Austin Fantastic Fest and the Sundance Film Festival. His snappy dialogue in this extended version provides Pauline with plenty of zingers that lift the humour up from those murky depths, her quick wit and outspoken remarks leaving other characters stunned.

Excision is released in UK cinemas on 2 November 2012, with the DVD and Blu-ray arriving in shops just 10 days later. Bonus features include the film’s original theatrical trailer and a feature commentary with  director Bates and star McCord.

Extras aside, this is one to buy for the genuine laughs Bates manages to create from such taboo material. Be warned though, this is humour so dark you’ll want to check there are candles in the house before pressing play.

Verdict: 8/10

Excision is released in UK cinemas on 2 November 2012, and on DVD and Blu-ray on 12 November 2012. 


FLOATING WEEDS Masters Of Cinema Yasujiro Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu’s Floating Weeds on DVD & Blu-ray December 2012

by with No Comment Home EntertainmentNews

Towards the end of his career, Japanese master Yasujirō Ozu (Tokyo Story, Late Spring, Early Summer, An Autumn Afternoon, Good Morning) returned to a story he had made some 25 years earlier as a silent movie: Ukigusa monogatari.

He gave the film – which translates as A Story Of Floating Weed – a magnificent colour reworking, photographed by legendary cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu monogatari).

The plot is simple enough. When a travelling theatre troupe brings their show to a seaside port, Komajurō (Ganjirō Nakamura), an ageing actor, is reunited with his former lover, sake bar owner Oyoshi (Haruko Sugimura), and his illegitimate son Kiyoshi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), to the distress of his current mistress Sumiko (Machiko Kyō).

From this basic scenario, Ozu builds, one exquisite image at a time, a saga of profound humanity and rich understanding. Encompassing a novelistic range of emotions and tones with the utmost delicacy, Floating Weeds stands tall even amidst a body of work as extraordinary as Ozu’s.

Don’t believe us? Well soon it’ll be making its worldwide Blu-ray debut as part of Eureka Entertainment’s Masters of Cinema series, so you can check out a beautiful new high-definition restoration and see for yourself.

Eureka is releasing both a regular DVD edition and a dual format (Blu-ray and DVD) edition on 3 December 2012.

Special features include:

• Newly translated optional English subtitles

• Original Japanese theatrical trailer

• Illustrated booklet featuring the words of Ozu, rare archival imagery and more.

There could be some additional extras appearing on the disc too, as Eureka says further details will be announced nearer the release date.

 


GATE OF HELL Teinosuke Kinugasa 1953 Eureka Masters of Cinema 470

Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Gate Of Hell gets December dual-format release

by with No Comment Home EntertainmentNews

Gate Of Hell dual-format DVD and Blu-ray edition released 3 December 2012 in the UK… 

One of the key works of the early 1950s wave of Japanese films to first reach foreign markets, director Teinosuke Kinugasa’s sumptuous period drama astonished audiences with its dramatic force and spectacular colour cinematography.

Three decades after the director’s iconic A Page of Madness (aka Kurutta ippeji, 1926), Kinugasa’s striking tale of feudal intrigue, political machinations, and erotic obsession won the Grand Prix at Cannes, two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Costume Design, and has since been named by Martin Scorsese as one of the 10 greatest colour achievements in world cinema.

Now UK audiences can enjoy that experience in the home for the first time, as Eureka Entertainment releases Gate Of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953) in a dual-format DVD and Blu-ray edition as part of its Masters of Cinema series.

Special features include:

• Beautifully restored high-definition master presented in the film’s original aspect ratio, in 1080p on the Blu-ray

• Newly translated optional English subtitles

• Illustrated booklet featuring the words of Kinugasa, rare archival imagery, and more

• Further details to be announced nearer the release date!

SYNOPSIS:

During feudal unrest in the 12th century, samurai warrior Moritō (Kazuo Hasegawa) manages to thwart a palace rebellion and save the life of the empress, using loyal subject Lady Kesa (Machiko Kyō) as a decoy. When Moritō is offered anything he should desire as reward, he requests Kesa’s hand in marriage. Informed that she is already married to a fellow samurai (Isao Yamagata), he refuses to withdraw his request, setting in motion a tragic chain of events.


Latest Anime DVD Releases

by with No Comment News

Today, Monday 10th September, MVM entertainment is releasing the first season of Rosario + Vampire, a 13 part anime that follows the life of unfortunate human Tsukune Aono as he is transferred into a school purely for demons! Now he must try and convince the other class members that he is not a mere mortal, but somehow he doesn’t go very far before his blood attracts some unwanted attention, from the adorable vampire Moka Akashiya!

Manga UK is also releasing the complete series of Princess Resurrection, an anime consisting of 26 episodes. Hiro Hiyorimi had recently moved to Sasanaki City to meet his sister. His visit is cut short, however when he is crushed by construction beams and dies. But the next thing he knows, he’s awake and in a hospital bed. Having seen a mysterious figure before his death, she suddenly starts appearing everywhere, addressing Hiro as her servant. 

The mysterious woman reveals herself to be Hime, a princess of a monstrous kingdom who has the power to raise the dead in order to create an immortal warrior for their own protection. The anime follows the newly undead warrior as he tries to protect Hime from her own demise at the hands of her jealous siblings, who are all competing for the Monster Kingdom’s throne!

Finally, Manga entertainment has finally spoken out about the faulty Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt DVD’s that were released. See The Anime News Network, for more information on this. 

Article by K. Cooper

Manga UK Releasing sub-only Blue Exorcist despite dub streaming

by with No Comment News

Following Viz Media’s recent announcement that they will be streaming an English dub of Blue Exorcist on their Neon Alley service, many UK fans of the series began to wonder if this would affect Manga UK’s plans to release a Sub only version on DVD.

When asked about this on twitter, they gave a reply that will disappoint many waiting for a Dub release. They tweeted “It’ll be late 2013 before a dub release will be possible, so tide yourself over with the sub only release this summer”.

Part one of Blue Exorcist, which centres around a boy named Rin Okumura who discovers he is the son of Satan but decides to fight this fate by becoming an exorcist, is due out on August 20th. The series was directed by Tensai Okamura (Darker than Black) and animated by A-1 Pictures (Black Butler, Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW).

What do you think of this news? Does it seem strange to you that they would release a Sub only release when a Dub version is available? Will you be buying the Sub only release or holding out for a late 2013 Dub? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

PIGSTY dvd eureka masters of cinema Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini: Porcile and Hawks And Sparrows hit DVD in July

by with No Comment Home EntertainmentNews

Two movies from Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini are making their way onto DVD in July as part of Eureka Entertainment’s Masters OF Cinema Series.

Pasolini’s Pigsty (Porcile) and Hawks And Sparrows (Uccellacci E Uccellini) are to be released in the UK on DVD on 23 July 2012.

Eureka described the 1960s movies as “typically provocative Pasolini films”.

If you were worried that wasn’t an accurate description, bear in mind that Pigsty is a portrayal of bestiality, degradation and bourgeois life circa 1969.

It comprises parallel stories: (1) Franco Citti and Pierre Clémenti playing cannibalistic savages who rampage a world outside of any distinct time or place, and who push against the boundaries of human morality; (2) Godard-regulars Jean-Pierre Léaud and Anne Wiazemsky as a romantically engaged couple in a contemporary Germany painted as a morass of industrialisation, fascist impulse, and bestial instincts.

“Not only an exquisitely revolting satire, it is also Pasolini’s most fascinating piece of cinema,” said Time Out Magazine

The new edition of Pigsty has been taken from a HD master and features include:

* Original Italian theatrical trailer

* Newly translated optional English subtitles

* Illustrated booklet featuring rare archival imagery and the words of Pasolini.

* Certificate: 15

* Run Time: 98 minutes

* Format:  1.85 :1 OAR/ B&W

Meanwhile, Hawks And Sparrows (1966) is a political comedy starring popular Italian actor Totò and a Marxist talking crow!

Widely acclaimed, it recveived a nomination for the Palme d’or top prize at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival

One of the handful of films that found Pier Paolo Pasolini sustaining a merrier mode of cultural assault, Hawks and Sparrows features Italy’s popular comic actor Totò (known to cinephiles as the star of Roberto Rossellini’s Dov’è la liberta…?) and Pasolini regular Ninetto Davoli in a picaresque fable that lampoons politics, religion, and the legacy of neorealism.

Featuring a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone (we shouldn’t really have to list The Good, The Bad And The Ugly next to his name but we will), Pasolini’s anarchic comedy remains a time-capsule of the giddy tensions torqued by the dawn of the late Sixties.

This DVD also features a new high-definition transfer in the film’s original aspect ratio. Other

*  Original Italian theatrical trailer

* Newly translated optional English subtitles

* Run Time: 89 minutes

* Format:  1.85 :1 OAR/ B&W

The latest Pasoli DVDs from Eureka follow earlier releases of The Gospel according to Matthew & Accattone.

Both Pigsty and Hawks And Sparrows have a recommended retail price of £16.34.