Archive for August 2013

Enter to win your Blu-Ray of THE ICEMAN!!

The Iceman cover

THE ICEMAN coming to Blu-Ray and DVD on 9/3… enter to win your copy courtesy of Millennium Entertainment and Cinema Judgement Day!

It’s been pretty hot around these parts lately and to cool off, Cinema Judgement Day and Millennium Entertainment are giving away 2 copies of “The Iceman” on Blu-Ray! Following the career of real life mafia hitman Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski, the film is a gritty, star-studded event that you won’t want to miss. Entering is easy: Just send an email here with “Iceman” in the subject line and the address you’d like the prize sent to in the body.  The contest runs 9/1/13 through 9/8/13. At the close, two winners will be randomly selected and notified via email, then announced on the CJD website. As always, only one entry is allowed per person and the contest is only open to US residents.

Best of luck and stay cool!

SLIGHTLY SINGLE IN LA (Blu-Ray Review)

Slightly Single Blu cover

SLIGHTLY SINGLE IN LA coming to Blu-Ray and DVD on 9/3 from Well Go USA

Ever have a facebook “friend” that annoys you with everything they write? Maybe they constantly brag about their life while masking it in a complaint? For example: “I was just at the supermarket and heard a lady complaining about the brand of caviar they carry. I HATE living in Beverly Hills.” Ugh. One of the worst offenders on my friends list is a girl I went to school with who’s snobby, materialistic and a master of the passive-brag-gressive post that makes me want to throw my computer out a window. While she had nothing to do with the production of the movie, her voice was all over “Slightly Single in LA“, a film that’s as engaging as a slideshow of your neighbor’s family vacation… only “hipper”. It’s as if Writer/Director Christie Will decided to take her social media wall and reenact every post with a collection of fading 90′s stars.

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A COMPANY MAN (Blu-Ray Review)

company man bd

A COMPANY MAN coming 8/27 to Blu-Ray and DVD from Well Go USA

Back in college, I took a beginner’s Japanese class.  I remember learning that a white collar businessman is called a “Salary Man”. I guess it’s similar to calling someone a “businessman,” but in my mind, I always thought that Asians regard this class of worker differently than Americans.  In reality, I think we both look at them as the drones that keep the economy running… only one seems to hide their discontent better than the other.  In any case, when I watched Lim Sang-Yun’s “A Company Man“, I kept hearing the word “Sarariman” over and over in my mind.  While most cubicle-bound businesspeople doing the 9-to-5 may claim that the job is killing them, I don’t think many have meant it literally.  Here, it is quite literal… and quite exciting. Read more

AT ANY PRICE (DVD Review)

AT ANY PRICE, coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on 8/27 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

AT ANY PRICE, coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on 8/27 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

There’s an old adage in the screenwriting business: “Show, don’t tell.” On that front, director Ramin Bahrani’s “At Any Price“ opens beautifully. Home movies capture the backyard barbeques and birthdays of the Whipple family, who live and work in the cornfields of Iowa. We end up seeing 20 years of exposition in a little more than two minutes. It’s a smart, effective way of handling backstory. Unfortunately, it’s about the only thing the movie does well. Read more

FLOATING CITY (Blu-Ray Review)

Floating City BD Box Art

FLOATING CITY coming to Blu-Ray and DVD on 8/20 from Well Go USA

When I think of a “Floating City“, the first thing that pops into mind is Cloud City on the planet Bespin. On planet Earth, I immediately think of Venice, Italy. Well, the titular city in director Yim Ho’s comeback film actually refers to Hong Kong, floating off the southern coast of China.  As I’ve mentioned before, when it comes to world history, you can just about squeeze what I don’t know into the Grand Canyon. I do know that Hong Kong used to be controlled by the Brits and that Christianity is big there, but if you were to ask me anything about the “Egg People”, I’d think you were referencing something from “Sgt. Pepper“.  On 8/20, “Floating City” hits Blu-Ray and DVD, providing a snapshot of Hong Kong in the final years of British rule and sheds a bit of light on the struggles of these oddly named people. Read more

AMOUR (DVD Review)

Amour DVD cover

AMOUR coming to DVD and Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures Classics on 8/20

Chances are, if you saunter into the local multiplex on any given weekend, you’ll find a schmaltzy romance engineered to raise the expectations of women everywhere.  Films where young, good-looking couples overcome the odds to find their “happily ever after”.  Of course, every now and then, a filmmaker might throw a wrinkle into the formula to keep things fresh.  But sometimes, if you’re a director like Michael Haneke, you obliterate the formula, fast-forward 50 years and take a hard, unflinching look at that couple’s unhappy ending.  You might even christen the film something ironically generic, like Amour. Read more

THE GUILLOTINES (Blu-Ray Review)

Guillotines Blu cover

THE GUILLOTINES available on Blu-Ray and DVD, 8/13 from Well Go USA!

What do you get when you combine epic sword fights, terrorism, betrayal and… decapitations? “The Guillotines“, of course! Andrew Lau, perhaps best known to Western audiences as the Producer/Director of the “Infernal Affairs” trilogy, brings new meaning to “headhunting” with his latest film coming to Blu-Ray and DVD on 8/13 from Well Go USA. Part action movie, part period drama, “The Guillotines” aims to fire on all cylinders and appeal to a wide audience. But as is brought up numerous times in the film, when you make a promise, it must be kept – and the promise is cool weaponry taking off heads. Unfortunately, just like a character in a Lau film, the Director betrays us and delivers something that’s mostly different. That isn’t always a bad thing. Read more

THE ODD ANGRY SHOT (Blu-Ray Review)

Odd Angry Blu cover

THE ODD ANGRY SHOT coming to Blu-Ray and DVD on 8/13 from Synapse Films!

Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about world history.  I mean, I know a few things but I wish I knew more.  For example, I knew that America and the Vietnamese were both in the Vietnam War, but I didn’t know that Australia was fighting along side us.  I just sort of thought it was only our debacle.  Honestly, most everything I know about ‘nam is either from “Platoon“, “Apocalypse Now” or my older co-worker Ron who occasionally brings up hotboxing in a tank or smoking joints with a monkey he picked up somewhere in the jungle.  In any event, I learned something new and it’s all because of Synapse Films’ new release of “The Odd Angry Shot“, coming to Blu-Ray and DVD on 8/13.  The movie is quite different from American films dealing with the same conflict, in that it has nothing really to say politically… and that made it pretty controversial in Australia.

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THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES (Blu-Ray Review)

corpses blu

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES available 8/13 on Blu-Ray and DVD from Severin Films!

One of my favorite movies is Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator“, the biopic of a dashing, young Howard Hughes as he revolutionizes air travel and conquers Hollywood.  Those familiar with the film may recall a scene where a young (underaged) starlet is interviewed and seduced by Hughes only to later freak out over his infidelities.  That actress was Faith Domergue, who starred in films like Hughes’ “Vendetta“, “It Came From Beneath the Sea” and the MST3K favorite “This Island Earth“.  From the mid-50′s into the 60′s, she worked mostly in TV, but briefly returned to films before ending her career with the schlock horror “The House Of Seven Corpses“, available 8/13 on Blu-Ray and DVD from Severin Films.  While this “last hurrah” might be what the film is best known for, the truth is: if you’re looking to turn your living room into a drive-in theater for the night, this is the disc to do it with. Read more

THE KING OF THE STREETS (Blu-Ray Review)

King of the Streets cover

KING OF THE STREETS, arriving on DVD and Blu-Ray 7/6, from Well Go USA!

I’m certainly not the first to make a comparison like this (see: “The Wrestler“), but fighters and prostitutes are kindred spirits. Both are arguably abusing their bodies for financial gain and as such have a depressingly short shelf life. I guess you could make a similar comparison between fighting movies and porn. Sometimes story is just something to connect the “action” scenes. This is the case with “The King of the Streets“, arriving 8/6 on Blu-Ray and DVD from Well Go USA.  Director/Star Yue Song’s tale of urban survival is fight scene after fight scene, strung together with a clumsy plot and the deep symbolism of rebirth as an eagle. Yes, an eagle. Read more