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Blu-ray, DVD Release: Hallucination Strip
11 April 2014 1:53 PM, PDT
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 29, 2014
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Raro Video/Kino
Italian filmmaker Lucio Marcaccini’s only film, the 1975 movie Hallucination Strip is a psychedelic crime flick with a social commentary.
Bud Cort (Harold & Maude), in his debut performance, plays Massimo Monaldi, a student involved in political protests and juvenile delinquency. When Massimo steals a valuable tobacco box, he quickly becomes tangled in a dangerous web between the police and the mafia.
Culminating in an extended and elaborately choreographed party sequence, underscored with a trippy soundtrack by Albert Verrecchia, Hallucination Strip excels with it’s not-so-subtle mix of sex, drugs, religion, politics and corruption.
Presented in Italian with English subtitles, the Blu-ray and DVD contain the following bonus features:
-New HD transfer form original 35mm negative
-New and improved English subtitle translation
-Fully illustrated booklet by Nocturno Cinema
-Video interview with the editor Giulio Berruti
-Original Italian theatrical trailer »
- Laurence
Blu-ray, DVD Release: Inspector Lavardin Collection
11 April 2014 1:12 PM, PDT
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 22, 2014
Price: DVD $39.98, Blu-ray $49.98
Studio: Cohen Media
Lean Poiret (l.) is on the case as Inspector Lavardin in Chicken with Vinegar.
The Inspector Lavardin Collection offers two mystery-suspense films from French filmmaker Claude Chabrol (Les Cousins) — Chicken With Vinegar (1985) and its sequel, Inspector Lavardin (1986), as well as two Lavardin television films by Chabrol.
In Chicken With Vinegar, based on the novel Une mort en trop by Dominique Roulet, a cruel invalid (Stéphane Audran, Babette’s Feast) who consistently terrorizes her teen son into abject obedience, is threatened with the loss of her home by a conniving trio who want her property as part of a deal for a lucrative development project. After several of the principal figures suffer grisly deaths, Lavardin (Jean Poiret, La Cage aux Folles) arrives to get to the bottom of it all.
The two additional Lavardin mysteries—The Black Snail (1988) and Danger »
- Laurence
DVD, Digital Release: Deadly Code
10 April 2014 11:57 AM, PDT
DVD & Digital Release Date: May 14, 2014
Price: DVD $26.98
Studio: Lionsgate
John Malkovich is banished to Siberia in Deadly Code.
Deadly Code is a crime drama based on the memoir Siberian Education by Russian writer Nicolai Lilin.
In the movie, two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich (Red) stars as the patriarch of a Siberian criminal clan who is banished to live in the punishment town of Transnistria in 1985. There, he schools his grandson on the “honest criminal” code of their community, which must never be broken.
Directed by Italian-born filmmaker Gabriele Salvatores, the film co-stars Eleanor Tomlinson (Jack the Giant Slayer) and Peter Stormare (Pain & Gain).
The R-rated 2013 film received limited theatrical distribution in Europe and the Middle East. It arrives in the U.S. as a DVD Premiere and a Video on Demand title.
The DVD (plus Digital UltraViolet) includes a making-of featurette as a bonus feature.
Buy or Rent Deadly Code »
- Laurence
DVD Release: Arthur Hailey’s The Moneychangers
10 April 2014 10:22 AM, PDT
DVD Release Date: May 20, 2014
Price: DVD $19.99
Studio: CBS/Paramount
Money is power in the 1976 television mini-series Arthur Hailey’s The Moneychangers, an adaptation of Hailey’s 1975 bestselling novel.
The tale of corruption and greed in the banking business stars Christopher Plummer (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) in his Emmy-winning role as the suave, hypocritical and skilled Roscoe Heyward and Kirk Douglas (Paths of Glory) as the honest, hard-charging and focused Alex Vandervoort, both of whom are vying for the top position in one of the nation’s largest banks. Along they way, they have run-ins with such supporting cast members as Anne Baxter (The Ten Commandments), Robert Loggia (Scarface), Lorne Greene (Earthquake) , Helen Hayes (Airport) and a seductive-as-ever Joan Collins (Sins).
Yes, it’s a very dated piece as far as the banking industry goes, with the storylines including bits on such problems as credit card fraud, embezzlement, inflation, »
- Laurence
Blu-ray, DVD Release: Sleep My Love
9 April 2014 1:31 PM, PDT
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 15, 2014
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Don Ameche cozies up to Claudette Colbert in Sleep My Love.
With the 1948 film noir mystery Sleep My Love, the great Douglas Sirk (All That Heaven Allows) directed the third and final teaming of Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night) and Don Ameche (Cocoon), who previously appeared together in Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight and later in Sam Wood’s The Guest Wife).
The movie casts Colbert as Alison Courtland, a wealthy New York socialite who awakens on a Boston-bound train with no memory of how she got there. A kind, elderly woman helps Alison call her husband Richard (Ameche), who in the meantime had contacted a detective (Raymond Burr, TV’s Perry Mason) to help him find his missing wife. On the plane back home, Alison meets Bruce (Robert Cummings, The Devil and Miss Jones), who’s immediately enamored with her. »
- Laurence
Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD Release: Stalingrad
9 April 2014 1:03 PM, PDT
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 13, 2014
Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D $35.99
Studio: Sony
An epic look at the battle that turned the tide of World War II, the foreign war drama Stalingrad ranks as the highest-grossing Russian film of all time and Russia’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film to the 86th Academy Awards.
In the film, a band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city of Stalingrad against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected with two Russian women who have been living there.
Stalingrad is directed by acclaimed Russian hitmaker Fedor Bondarchuk (9th Company), who was introduced to the world of cinema at an early age, as the son of the Academy Award-winning director Sergei Bondarchuk.
The film stars Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong), Petr Fedorov, Mariya Smolnikova and Yanina Studilina.
The R-rated movie opened in U. »
- Laurence
Blu-ray, DVD Release: Veronica Mars
8 April 2014 3:48 PM, PDT
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 6, 2014
Price: DVD $28.98, Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Warner
Following a theatrical release that was spurred into development by a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, the crime comedy-drama Veronica Mars arrives onto Blu-ray and DVD.
Based on Rob Thomas’ television series that ran for three seasons from 2004 through 2007, Veronica Mars stars Kristen Bell (The Lifeguard) as a former high-school sleuth who thought she left her past behind her, until a murder in her home town of Neptune pulls her back into her old life.
While interviewing at high-end law firms, Veronica gets a call from her ex-boyfriend Logan (Jason Dohring) who has been accused of murder. Veronica heads back to Neptune just to help Logan find an attorney, but when things don’t seem right with how Logan’s case is perceived and handled, Veronica finds herself being pulled back into a life she thought she had left behind. »
- Laurence
Blu-ray, DVD Release: Home of the Brave (1949)
8 April 2014 12:14 PM, PDT
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 13, 2014
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Lloyd Bridges and James Edwards in Home of the Brave.
Based on a play by Arthur Laurents, the 1949 war drama Home Of The Brave recounts the story of a young black soldier who has suffered a nervous breakdown and developed psychosomatic paralysis.
Crippled by rage and trauma, his condition was induced by experiences encountered during a reconnaissance mission combined with a lifetime of racial discrimination. He may be able to walk again, but only if he can overcome his anger and frustrations. The film’s theme revolves around a diverse group of men subjected to the horror of war and their individual struggles.
Home Of The Brave was one of Hollywood’s first bold statements regarding the issue of race and the realities of war. With a cast that includes Frank Lovejoy, Lloyd Bridges, James Edwards and Jeff Corey, »
- Laurence
Blu-ray, DVD Release: Vampire Academy
8 April 2014 11:07 AM, PDT
Digital Release Date: May 9, 2014, Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 20, 2014
Price: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $34.99
Studio: The Weinstein Company/Anchor Bay Home Entertainment/Starz
Another teen vampire movie, Vampire Academy didn’t find nearly the audience that the Twilight series did.
Vampire Academy stars Lucy Fry as a 17-year-old Moroi princess (a mortal and peaceful vampire) and Zoey Deutch as her 17-year-old Dhampir (half vampire/half human) guardian-in-training, and they’re hunted by Strigoi (immortal and evil vampires).
Lissa Dragomir (Fry, TV’s Mako Mermaids) and Rose Hathaway (Deutch, Beautiful Creatures) are on the run when they’re captured and taken back to St. Vladamirs Academy, the place where they think their lives are threatened.
Based on the novel by Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy also stars Gabriel Byrne and was directed by Mark Waters (Mr. Popper’s Penguins).
The PG-13 film split critics and moviegoers, with critics panning it to 10% approval, according to Rotten Tomatoes, »
- Sam
9 articles