Ashirg wrote:Updated list, also adding 2 war film to be released on DVD and blu in May - The McKenzie Break (1970) and Roger Corman's The Secret Invasion (1964).
Yeeeaaah! I have really enjoyed The Secret Invasion, and a blu-ray is much appreciated. The finger-snapping sequence seemed really amazing to me--a really versatile cinematic device, able to project menace and cool, swagger and calculation at the same time. And the film is full of less showy but equally clever ideas, and some rather good performances. This one has always seemed to me a little less like a B-grade picture than the typical Corman movie.
KINO LORBER STUDIO CLASSICS recently postponed the release of Vernon Sewell's THE CRIMSON CULT (CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR). We have a beautiful HD master of the uncensored version of the film, compiled all the bonus content from the recent UK Blu-ray release, and will be adding one or two new extras of our own. Unfortunately, we've been unsuccessful at clearing the rights to Peter Knight's original score. Therefore, if and when we reschedule the release, it will be accompanied by Kendall Schmidt's 1980s-era score.
COMING IN JUNE - ONLY ON BLU-RAY! - H.G. WELLS' THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1977) - STARRING BURT LANCASTER, MICHAEL YORK, NIGEL DAVENPORT, BARBARA CARRERA & RICHARD BASEHART - DIRECTED BY DON TAYLOR
Oddly Kino and NOT Scream Factory is releasing Needful Things in June. It will have a new commentary. On their Facebook page they said they are looking into licensing the extended cut (which apparently doesn't belong to MGM).
cdnchris wrote:Oddly Kino and NOT Scream Factory is releasing Needful Things in June. It will have a new commentary. On their Facebook page they said they are looking into licensing the extended cut (which apparently doesn't belong to MGM).
I've seen the extended version once and can't even remember to what extent it improved the film or not, but I'd certainly consider getting this if they did include it. It's not exactly a great film, but it is an fun excuse to see a terrific, overqualified cast (Harris, Von Sydow, Walsh, Plummer, McKinnon, etc) chew the scenery and beat the crap out of each other. Quite fond of the typically OTT Patrick Doyle score too.
Whatever happened to director Fraser "son of Chuck" Heston?
No, not a great film by any means, probably not even passable, but you're right in that it has some good moments, a decent score, and its cast actually makes it worthwhile: von Sydow makes for a fun villain, Plummer is good, and J. T. Walsh probably steals the film from everyone else. Harris may be the only one who doesn't seem to be fully in it, though.
The extended version is only better in that it inserts a lot of the good moments from the book that didn't make it into the original film, including some more characters (the mother obsessed with Elvis actually gets screen time instead of just showing up as a background character in a couple scenes for example), and it changes the context of a few scenes. The big disappointment with it is that the edit was made for television and I remember it cut out some of the gorier elements (and looking online I'm reminded it cut out the language as well, including those humourous notes left for Walsh's character). At 3-4 hours, though, it's definitely too long, but closer to the book (which was a fun read) yet still has the fairly lame ending. If the Blu-ray includes it I would definitely pick it up. If not I'd probably pass, though the commentary with Heston intrigues me.
And that's a good question about Heston. I remember he did a film called Alaska with his dad co-starring, but then nothing after that. (IMDB says he did a documentary called The Search for Michael Rockefeller a few years ago but that's it). Always figured his dad got him his directing gig but obviously he didn't take off with it if that was the case.
I always thought the extended cut of Needful Things worked quite a bit better, certainly closer to the book and it allows the dread to creep in and breathe better. Certainly a richer experience and more akin to a miniseries than a feature film. I'd be bowled over to have an R rated version of that cut. Wow. I should go away more often it's like Christmas finding out about all this stuff at once.
Excited for Late For Dinner as well, a charming and underrated gem.
AfterTheRain wrote:Truck Turner, Report to the Commissioner, and Madhouse all coming in July on Blu.
I just did a quick double check to confirm, and Madhouse is the 1974 Amicus / AIP Vincent Price / Peter Cushing / Robert Quarry campathon, and not any other film with that title. It usually gets included as a mini Price-Cycle along with the Phibes films and Theatre of Blood as a succession of ingenious murders, but actually owes more (at least structurally) to the Hammer mini-Hitchcocks - and is no less fun.
Just announced on Blu-Ray for July: the deeply silly but very fun Charles Band-produced VHS favourite Zone Troopers, where Tim Thomerson and his team of GIs are trapped behind enemy lines in WWII and take on the Nazis... with the help of aliens!
