Released on January 10th will be Suspiria on Blu-Ray from Cine-Excess in the UK, which hopefully will be a step up from the Italian release that suffered from lots of image problems and was ultimately a disappointment! Having heard from someone from Cult-Labs who has seen some of the Blu-Ray, it is meant to be looking good! Fingers crossed!
In addition, I don't like to pick out faults with new labels who are bringing, hopefully, a fantastic edition of Suspiria, but their tag line "Taking Trash Seriously" for a film that is anything but, is a little bit of insult! Anyway if the disc is great then all is forgiven!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Blu-Ray News: Suspiria
Blu-Ray News: Italian Trash on Blu!
Blu-Ray is picking up speed in Italy now, not only Hollywood blockbusters, but now bonafide classic Italian Trash!
First we have, "Delitto al Ristorante Cinese" starring Tomas Milian and Bombolo, which has already been released by Cecchi Gori.
In January, Bud Spencer and Terence Hill hit the High Def road with "I Due Superpiedi quasi Piatti" from Koch Media Italia!
I think "Delitto al Ristorante Cinese" shall be ordered pronto to see if the step up to Blu has been met with success! How many formats will I ultimately own this film on???
New York DVD Stash!
Mondo Kims, the hands down best DVD store in NYC, was visited by myself on my recent jaunt to the Big A, and the following was purchased:
G.I Joe Complete Series: Collectors Edition
Too awesome for words!!!!
also
Night of the Creeps (Blu-Ray)
Out for Justice (Blu-Ray) Yay! Seagal on Blu-Ray!
Watchmen: Directors Cut (Blu-Ray)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Complete Season 1 (Blu-Ray)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Zombie Hunters vs. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Over the last couple of weeks, I have attended 2 Q&A events on both sides of the Atlantic, that strictly speaking were very different but essentially the same as they both had one common theme – our love for movies! The fans make all the difference to a movies success and long term adoration so whether you attended the Glasgow Film Theatre for a "Night of the Zombie Hunters" or the New York Public Library for a "Conversation with Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach", you were in for a treat!
Glasgow was first for me with Arrow DVD, promoting their new Dawn of the Dead Blu-Ray and organiser Calum Waddell with the success of the “Italian Weekend of Terror” still resounding, worked hard to bring “Night of the Zombie Hunters” to Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow, celebrating George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead followed by Day of the Dead.
Along for the ride were the cool Ken Foree and the consummate Joe Pilato who followed up each screening with a Q&A and autograph signings for the fans. Apparently Glasgow crowds are the best according to Mr. Foree, who it also might interest you loves to talk about boxing while eating Chinese food until 3am with yours truly. Meanwhile, Joe P also concurred on the great crowds, but adding that when the fans bring along some pretty tasty red wine as well it's even better....you pretty much had to be there to get that one!
If you were not there then make sure you get along to the next event which could be about a certain City and it might involve some Living Dead, so keep them peepers open on DVD Trash...or go visit the following sites to be kept in the loop!
Arrow Film
Arrow Facebook Fan Page
Cult Lab Forums
If you were there, then thanks because without support these events and the cool UK DVD and Blu-Rays that Arrow produce simply cannot happen!
New York City
My second tale involves perhaps my favourite city in the world, New York, whereby while over visiting my upcoming, hipster and soon to be famous artist cousin, my love of movies was conveyed to one of her friends who consequently invited me to the NY PL for a conversation with Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) and Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) about their latest movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox! Too cool for school, I thought, and the invite was accepted!
While NY is famous for a myriad of movies, the Public Library, indeed the entrance itself, brings my thoughts to Ghostbusters and Ray, Egon and Peter running scared from the phantom librarian, a perfect setting to an evening all about film!
The premise was simple; Anderson and Baumbach simply sat down at the front of the stage and mused about movies for over 2 hours with them taking questions from their rapt audience at the end! Both directors were endearing, interesting and down to earth much like Ken and Joe P back in Glasgow were!
From Hollywood to Glasgow, the fans, whether up and coming film students from NYC or simply horror aficionados from Glasgow, fun and lots of it was had by all! Plus Glasgow can hold its head up high; both events drew over 300 attendees and were sold out!
Monday, November 16, 2009
RIP: The Equalizer
Very sad news as Edward Woodward has passed away, the Equalizer is no more!
More info over at the BBC
Sunday, November 15, 2009
DVD Review: Craving Desire
CRAVING DESIRE
Italy 1993
Dir: Sergio Martino
Screenplay: Sergio Martino, Maurizio Rasio, Umberto Lenzi
Starring: Vittoria Belvedere, Ron Nummi, Simona Borioni, Andrea Roncato, Serena Grandi, Hal Yamanouchi
Cert: NR
Running Time: 101 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Full Frame
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono Italian, Dolby Digital Mono English
Subtitles: N/A
Released: Mya Communications
Region: 0 NTSC
The Film
Skeletons like their closets. For when exhumed they are liable to collapse, shattering the surrounding silence with their spare secrets. Craving Desire opens with the disinterment of a wealthy family’s grand matriarch, as she is moved from tomb to grave. A pair of undertakers tie the yellowed shoulder blades to the ribcage, the long-buried framework now held together by thin strips of ribbon. Once they unravel there will be hell to pay; expect a few broken bones and splintered sockets.
Luigi (Nummi) would appear to be a robust example of youthful bourgeoisie with an executive job, rich fiancée (Cinzia, played with gusto by Borioni), and privileged family spurring him forward. So far, so slick, until his cousin Sonia (Belvedere) shows up at his apartment and begins to insinuate herself into his life, first casually flashing her endowments at him during breakfast, before interrupting our hapless yuppie mid-flow with his bride-to-be. Sonia’s soft, attentive charms prove to be far more appealing than Cinzia’s nitrous nagging and hedge-trimmed hair, and it is not long before Luigi is fully greased in her oily charms and ready to produce genetically-deficient offspring. He promptly dumps Cinzia and publicly declares new love, much to the disgust of his stern parents. To celebrate, our kissin’ cousins go to a nightclub and bring back a reveller, Francesca, to join them in a kinky threesome. Luigi’s once staunch foundation is disintegrating. The twine is beginning to fall apart.
As is Sonia, her motives gradually unfurling as Luigi sinks further into her seductive thrall. Once Francesca discovers a book of witchcraft belonging to her lusty hostess, the film veers from erotic soft-core thriller to something altogether more demented and unpredictable. Ricocheting between sweet sexiness and bitter, destructive desire, Vittoria Belvedere plays Sonia as a Michelin-starred bunny-boiler. A lot of the fun to be had in this pulpy slice of fiction is in seeing to what extremes she will go to in degrading her cousin’s ivory-white reputation; shoplifting, robbery, and even a spot of swinging with a woman who sports a hairstyle like the pop singer Yazz once had. The only way is no longer up for Luigi- brittle and spiritually jaundiced; he is close to breaking point.
Director Martino underlines the empty sterility of Luigi’s well-heeled lifestyle, allowing his camera to prowl through the dry, neutral tones of the character’s penthouse apartment with its décor at once nondescript and vulgar, a brashly turquoise floor exposed by the grey illumination from an ostentatious skylight. Any other colour that is present threatens the bland comfort of his existence: the ruby lips and flame hair of his boss’s wife, a temptation that would spell career suicide; the bright, flattering costumes worn by Sonia, a candy-coated cyanide pill to be greedily gulped down. Despite the character’s presentation as a spoilt rich kid, Nummi manages to imbue Luigi with enough childish naïveté to make us see him as a victim. Towards the end of the film, Sonia splays Luigi against the domed skylight, which bristles under his weight; it is as if he is being crucified on his own bourgeois livelihood, so transparent and fragile. A bubble of lofty affectation ready to be burst, Sonia strikes at its tainted root.
If her appearance rekindles a repressed attraction between the two cousins from their youth, there are other hidden fractures to be unearthed from this family vault. Craving Desire’s denouement is gloriously over-the-top, dripping with violence and macabre revelation. Sonia, clad in black PVC and high heels as a deathly dominatrix, brutally tortures Luigi and delivers a lengthy piece of exposition divulging grim childhood trauma. The skeletal spectre now hauled out of the cupboard, it can only be dashed against the ground.
A taut, twisted psycho-thriller, Craving Desire hits its mark with a bone-crunching thud.
The Disc
Presented in the original full-frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the transfer is, for the most part, immaculate. Neutral tones are rendered with clarity, whilst the explosions of colour are richly saturated (check out Luigi’s glowing green telephone for truly alarming kitsch value). Two audio mixes in English and Italian; both presented in Dolby Digital mono, which does not quite do justice to Natale Massare’s electro-flecked score, although the dialogue is free from surface noise. And for those purists who prefer subtitles to dubbing, there is no need to fear as the English dub is of top quality and unobtrusive, with dialogue delivered sincerely. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the disc is a little, ahem, bare-boned in terms of extras: a small documentary on Belvedere might have been nice. But maybe that’s just my own desirous craving…
Reviewed by James Kloda
BUY From Amazon.com
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
SKY+HD Movie Party
Nice idea from Sky UK if you are in the mood for some movies on TV as the cold, dark and wintry nights are drawing in!
"Sky are giving their UK high definition customers a complimentary ticket to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Hangover on Sky Box Office HD in their homes the same week that the films are being released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK.
It is part of the Sky+HD Party campaign, a chance to share the Sky+HD experience with friends. To help the party give customers the best experience of Sky+HD, Sky are offering their HD customers a complimentary Sky Box Office HD movie and a £10 M&S voucher.
Customers can take their pick from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Angels & Demons or The Hangover, showing exclusively from 11th – 13th December.
All customers need to do to set up their party is visit http://sky.com/hdparty and use their account number to sign up.
Customers must set up their party and get 3 or more friends to accept their invitation before 5pm on 17th November."
Halloween Hubba Hubba
Although this is basically a cult and horror movie/dvd site, I had to post this pic of Kim Kardashian, dressed as Princess Jasmin from Aladdin, because it's a movie and it's out on DVD, thats about it, just look at pretty pictures now!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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