*** RELEASE DATE UPDATE - NOW 16th FEB 2009***
Tom McCarthy’s second feature, The Visitor, gets a Region 2 DVD release in the UK on 9th February and is well worth seeking out. It’s a gently comic and ultimately moving tale of a lonely college professor’s relationship with a young immigrant couple in New York, which deftly touches on (an unsatisfactory) US immigration policy along the way.  Walter (Richard Jenkins) is a widower of 5 years, bored with his job and simply going through the motions of a middle-aged academic. On returning to New York after an extended absence, Walter finds Syrian musician, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), and his Senegalese girlfriend, Zainab (Dania Gurira) enjoying a peaceful life in his flat. Having fallen victim to a rental scam, the young couple politely leave. Realising they have nowhere else to go, the benevolent professor invites them back to stay with him whilst they sort themselves out. At once Walter is drawn to Tarek’s drum playing and they strike up a friendship through a mutual interest in music. Things take a turn for the worse when Tarek is unfairly arrested and sent to an immigration facility, as it transpires that the couple have been living in America illegally. At this point McCarthy’s film changes focus as Tarek’s concerned mother, Mouna, arrives on the scene and a tender love story emerges amongst the struggle to prevent her son’s deportation.

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The end of 2008 couldn’t come sooner for yours truly. A lot of upheaval for me and mine and not enough movies. Rather than post my usual end of year list I decided to pick three items that made my year brighter and will probably be skipped over different people precisely because they have been big hits.  These three things, one for every film goer, one for every family and one for every TV watcher, are, to my mind, far more interesting and entertaining than they are given credit for by a lot of us who think foreign is synonymous with good and all three just happened to hit DVD this month.

Continue Reading "3 BIG HITS EASY TO OVERLOOK FOR 2008: WALL-E, PRINCE CASPIAN AND LOST SEASON 4"...

The enterprising folks at Pink Eiga have released the first two titles in a series of rare English-subtitled pinku releases: Shuji Kataoka’s S&M Hunter (1986) and Osamu Sato’s New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave (2007). The titles officially launch on January 14, 2009 but are available for purchase directly from Pink Eiga’s site right now. S&M Hunter (depicted at left) was reviewed earlier in the year on Twitch; a review of New Tokyo Decadence is forthcoming. Needless to say, both films are offensive, weird and most importantly, very entertaining.

Good news for fans of the original Thai horror flick Shutter and the much acclaimed follow up film Alone:  four part Thai horror anthology 4Bia is now available on English subtitled DVD in Hong Kong.  4Bia features the solo debuts from the directorial duo behind both Shutter and Alone and has been winning praise on the festival circuit all around the globe.

Haven’t done one of these in a while so I thought I’d keep it simple. But then again is here anything simple about Collecting DVDs? Does any movie not get a special box set deluxe multi disc release, rerelease, rererelease at this time of year? I waded through as much of it as I could get my hands on and present it here to you faithful fellow traveller toward Christmas morning geek heaven. The only thing that killed me was not being able to get that spiffy Man from U.N.C.L.E. briefcase 41 disc set. These are all standard US releases that you should be able to get in time for the holidays if you let your fingers do the walking soon. The portrait of yours truly btw is a work in progress by noted artist Jason Seiler who is not only a great artist but a great guy. He always makes me give off just the right amount of creepy old man vibe!! Check out his site.

I hate the format wars. I long ago committed to DVD and Blu-Ray to me is just another suckers bet for those who don’t hear the online revolution coming. And when that revolution does come I want to be sitting on a lot of hard copies of titles and extras that help me do my job as a film critic. Bottom line is I just don’t trust the powers that be to keep making archival material available to the average person. Mark my words. A whole lot of folks are going to wake up one day and find out they have to pay every single time they want to watch Casablanca or Superbad and pay per extra- just like they do for those cheap pizzas that get delivered to their house. And when that day comes my friend expect the level of discourse in this country regarding culture to take an even deeper tailspin into fragmentation and general….

Hey! Where’s my holiday spirit?! I picked these out special for you goons cuz I love yer Twitch readin’ hides. These are all in my collection and they range from the artsy to the fartsy to the downright embarrassingly geeky. What they all have in common is they would make a dream gift for an awful lot of us.

STAR TREK:THE ORIGINAL SERIES (REMASTERED)- THREE SEASON PACK
Paramount

This is so cool. Why? Because it does right what George Lucas did so badly in the reissues of the original Star Wars movies. Without screwing up the narrative the newly added special effects and sound actually improve the experience of watching Star Trek The Original Series. I’ll always love the original presentation but the end result here is nothing less than fascinating. Tons of extras, fun packaging. The immanent approach of a retooled Enter[rise is more than enough reason to revisit the one and only original Trek but Christmas sealed the deal for me. That and the fact that this is a serious nod of appreciation to those in the effects industry who’ve labored to tell stories and not just provide spectacle.

Continue Reading "DVD GIFT GUIDE 2008"...

Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment we’ve all been waiting for… will arrive on the 10th of March in the US of A.
Tomas Alfredson’s “Let The Right One In” has been very much lauded on these pages,
like here…
or here…
or here…
or here…
or here…
or here…
So you can bet we are glad to get a confirmed release date for both the DVD and BluRay.
Thanks go to forumer Majorforce for pointing this out!

Continue Reading "LET THE RIGHT ONE IN up for preorder in the US, on both DVD and BluRay!"...

You know it’s the oldest story in the book.  Boy is lonely, boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl turns out to be a robot from the future sent to keep him from being shot.  Sigh. 

Yes, kids, when Korea’s Kwak Jae Yong - best known as the director of massive hit My Sassy Girl - headed to Japan to make a film what he ended up with was, in essence, a total inversion of The Terminator.  Or T2, actually.  It’s the story of a robot from the future sent back to protect a man who is currently a nobody but will turn out to be hugely important, with the whole thing spun on its head and turned into a romantic comedy.  It’s kind of appealing, really, even if only for just how audacious this sort of move is and it’s made all that much more appealing by Kwak’s placing Haruka Aayase - yes, the girl from Oppai Volleyball - in the lead.

And if you, like me, found it appealing but not appealing enough to drop the kind of coin importing the Japanese edition would cost - though, yes, the Japanese disc is subtitled - well, you’re in luck, because a Hong Kong DVD release is right around the corner for a far more reasonable price.  Check the trailer out below the break.

Continue Reading "Kwak Jae Yong’s CYBORG SHE Getting A Cheap Hong Kong DVD Release"...

Both the teaser and “Don’t Talk” public service announcement for Eben McGarr’s berserk independent horror film Sick Girl have been floating around the Internet for a while. It is time, however, to highlight these videos again. Why? First, the film’s teaser has a theme that sets the right tone for the holidays (at least in more dysfunctional households). Second, Sick Girl is being released on DVD by Synapse Films, thus giving extreme horror enthusiasts something to look forward to in 2009. The videos, neither of which are safe for work, await beneath the fold. You have been warned.

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While I run hot and cold on Korea’s Kim Ki-Duk his films always make me sit up and take notice.  His latest directorial effort, Dream, is by all accounts one of his strongest, a big commercial and critical hit in Korea now poised to roll out internationally thanks to Japanese mega star Joe Odagiri in the lead role.  Odagiri stars as a man linked to a Korean woman via his dreams:  whatever he dreams she acts out while sleepwalking, a situation that leads to tragedy.

Will this one reach the heights Kim hit with 3 Iron?  We’ll be able to find out soon with the English subtitled Korean DVD release slated to arrived December 24th.  Check the trailers below the break and hit the link below to order the DVD.

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It’s been a good year for Korea’s Kim Ki-Duk.  One of the most polarizing directors in the world Kim was, not so long ago, positively reviled in his home country - so much so that his films consistently were failures there despite winning huge acclaim internationally.  But not so much any more.  His most recent directorial effort - Dream, starring Japan’s Joe Odagiri - cracked the Top Ten at the Korean box office, while his first forays into producing other directors were both successes as well, particularly action-drama Rough Cut - which Kim both scripted and produced - which just took home a pair of Best Newcomer awards at the Korean equivalent of the Oscars for its two young leads.

And now we get our chance to see why:  Rough Cut hits English subtitled DVD on December 24th andis available for pre-order now.  Check the trailer out below the break.

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Yep, it’s a cheap, English subtitled DVD release for Chanbara Beauty (aka Onechanbara), the splattery, low budget Japanese adaptation of the popular video game.  Yes, it’s got a hot girl in a bikini carving her way through the undead hordes.  No, it’s not what would qualify as a ‘good’ film by most definitions.  Check the trailers below the break.

Continue Reading "Zombie Battling Bikini Samurai Girls Arrive On DVD."...

Good news for Korean film fans:  Ryoo Seung-Wan’s hyperactive action comedy Dachimawa Lee arrives on English subtitled DVD in Korea on December 5th. 

Better news for Korean film fans:  It includes the soundtrack CD.  This is seriously pretty much worth the cost of purchase all on it’s lonesome.

Dachimawa Lee is Ryoo’s expansion of an earlier short of the same name, a period set spy caper that whisks its titular hero around the world in a non-stop series of adventures and action that play out like equal parts Inspector Clouseau, James Bond and a whole lot of Shaw Brothers films.  The film has been accused of being a bit style over substance - which is true enough - and pretty much demands that you have similar tastes to the director if you’re going to have any hope of catching even half of the many, many film references scattered throughout but I figure that last bit shouldn’t be too much of a problem around here.  It’s goofy, hyperkinetic fun and everyone involved clearly had a blast making it. Check out the trailers below the break.

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Good news for fans of Japanese film as a couple big titles are getting the English-friendly treatment.

First up, Accuracy of Death - the Takeshi Kaneshiro starring remake of Death Takes A Holiday, later remade in Hollywood as Meet Joe Black - has arrived with minimal fanfare and even less advance notice on English subtitled DVD in Hong Kong.  This one just popped up as available today with no advance warning whatsoever.  The film won a lot of love on the festival circuit so Kaneshiro fans will want to take a look.

Up next is Still Walking, the latest from acclaimed director Hirokazu Kore-Eda.  Hiroshi Abe stars in this one and after a foray into lighter territory with Hana, this looks to be a return to the more serious fare where Kore-Eda made his name, as he returns to themes of life and death.  This one gets a subtitled release in Japan in January and though that’s a good long while away, preorders are being accepted now.

I had heard that the Horatio Hornblower films and the Shackleton mini-series were great and now I’ll get to check it out for myself. This neatly packaged (it looks like a book) 14 DVD set brings together the entirety of those two programs along with The Lost Battalion, Benedict Arnold A Question of Honor, Napoleon, The Duel, The Fire Ships, Longitude, The Wrong War, The Duchess and The Devil. As historical dramatizations go you don’t do much better than A&E. They tend to avoid sappy presentations in favor of genuine drama and character development and historical accuracy. And the stable of actors they’ve used (John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, Isabella Rossellini, Gerard Depardieu etc.) are more than up to the task of keeping things from getting too melodramatic. The extras alone here would be worth another whole box set. I won’t list them here because I’m so behind in postings that I don’t want to wade through the fine print. Suffice to say that the list of extras is so extensive it really does appear in fine print on the back of the box. This is a simply awesome collection of historically based dramas.

Good news for fans of martial arts star Donnie Yen.  Not only is his latest effort, supernatural kung fu flick Painted Skin from director Gordon Chan, about to hit DVD in Hong Kong but it is coming on an English friendly, all region DVD, which means it can be played anywhere in the world with no need for special equipment.  While the film surprised many by handling its material as a romance rather than as the full on Bride With White Hair kung fu / horror throwback many - myself included - were expecting the film went on to be a major box office hit and has since been chosen as Hong Kong’s submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.  Check the trailers below the break.

And while you’re at it the Louis Koo starring Connected - the hit Hong Kong remake of Cellular, new Francis Ng thriller Deadly Delicious and period martial arts epic Butterfly Lovers are all coming region free as well.

Continue Reading "Gordon Chan’s Supernatural Kung Fu Romance PAINTED SKIN - With Donnie Yen - Coming To DVD"...