Very few directors of opera, I believe, take the plunge in directing a feature film, and even smaller of a number tackle a project with Meryl Streep. That is what Chen Shi-Zheng did with “Dark Matterâ€, and eir aptitude and skill behind the camera is enough to even take someone like Streep’s style to the next level. The film itself deals with the linkages between Streep’s character (Joanna), a rich…
The Showdown is a Western, showcasing the trials and tribulations of US Marshal Luke Canfield, played here by Bob Handegan, a powerful newcomer to film. Specifically, Luke is pitted against a gang, a group of ruffians that would like no more than to murder the love of eir life, Dixie (Ann Hagemann) and son. Whether Luke folds under the pressure and allows the gang to run roughshod over eir territory…
These three classic films are released on Blu-Ray for the first time, and each brings something slightly different to the table. Despite the difference in release year (1977, 1978, and 1986), each of the films are brought to the current period in terms of video and audio quality. Each of the releases will provide purchasers with a tremendous amount of added features, as they represent at the base level the…
Enchanted April was originally a book written by Elizabeth von Arnim, and the book itself was brought to the silver screen on the seventieth anniversary of the release. The film centers around two women that wish to be free of the monotony of their daily lives. Packing up and taking a trip away from these lives, their husbands, and damp, murky England, they set out to the Italian Riviera. Adding…
To be honest, this is the first GLBT-related horror film that I have seen. The one thing that I can first notice is that while the stars are up and coming Judith O’Dea (Night of the Living Dead) and Brinke Stevens (The Slumber Party Massacre), the skill that they put forth on the screen is equivalent to that of even seasoned actors. The film itself surrounds a cast that were…
Who would honestly think that a film about a cemetery would be interesting in the slightest? Heddy Honigmann, whom individuals may know from O Amor Natural, knew that eir talent was at a level that ey could make a bunch of stones on a grassy field interesting. There are a few bonus features, with traditional materials like the original trailer along with a bio/filmography of Heddy Honigmann for individuals to…
Into the Blue 2 deals with a couple of scubaers; Dani (played here by Laura Vandervoort) and Sebeastion (Chris Carmack) and their adventures around the scenic locale of Hawaii. Where fun is fun, things take a decidedly more serious turn after they are offered a large sum of money by some shady characters. After things take a turn for the worse, it really is a testament to the skills of…
Obviously, Biggiemania struck pretty big after this film first hit movie theatres. I have little doubt in my mind that a similar level of euphoria and remembrance will hit the streets and neighborhoods of the United States when copies of the Blu-Ray of Notorious break big. Beyond having the cut of the film that was originally played at movie theatres, there is a 6-minute longer “Director’s Cut†that gives viewers…
Where Disturbia was a solid film and The Ring really allowed horror to take that next step forward, The Uninvited is one of those films that is able to learn from the successes and failures from previous efforts by the producers, as well as from the entirety of the genre. The haunting aura of The Uninvited comes forth quite well on Blu-Ray, meaning that the atmospheric noise and sounds present…
Sin City is a stellar film. It only makes sense that Dimension / Buena Vista would give it the treatment that it deserves, resulting in a Blu-Ray release that will have viewers in awe from start to finish. The picture itself is sharp as all get out, tying together crisp and clear audio with a video that seems to even improve on the original theatrical print. The feature presentation on…
The transfer over the Blu-Ray does provide purchasers with a significantly sharper picture and audio quality over the standard DVD release. What was originally just seen as a revamp of Heathers works on its own 5 years after the original version was released. The TrueHD version of the audio makes for a lush soundscape of voices, ambient noise, and music, at a level that would please even those individuals that…
Strange Wilderness was released last year, and Paramount has taken the plunge and has tapped it as another title to be transferred to Blu-Ray. The film itself was reviewed here at https://neufutur.com/?p=3402 , and provides a better description of the plot than will be discussed here. Essentially, Strange Wilderness focuses around a nature show that is looking to bump their ratings after a steady decline by capturing Bigfoot. The Blu-Ray…
It is nice to see that a number of the Peanuts specials are making it to a remastered format on DVD, rather than having to be traded around different collectors until the video quality permanently degrades. Warner Brothers has done a bang-up job here coming forth with a clear and crisp rendition of this Peanuts special, while going and ensuring that there are more than enough in the way of…
If you’ve yet to hear about the British sitcom The IT Crowd, just wait about a year. It’s only a matter of time before one of the networks here snatches up the rights to this series and tries to repurpose it for American audiences, only to cancel it after two episodes (NBC had originally planned to run it last year, but the show has yet to air).
It may have taken a few years (the show begin in 2001), but My Wife & Kids finally has a DVD. The fact that the show took so many years from original air date to DVD release should show interested consumers that for future volumes (and seasons) of the show to be released, Lionsgate has to see that the original fan base that made the show such a big hit…
When there are so many different films and releases in the public domain, it is not surprising that it takes years for some of them to be put on the then-dominant media protocol. Some well-known films from the early half of the twentieth century have yet to make it on DVD, despite the DVD format being dominant for other a decade. It is thus a great site to see E1…
Perfect Hideout is a film that has been ignored by the mainstream, and I feel myself lucky to see that Well Go has picked it and released it on DVD. This Billy Zane-focused movie does not even get Wikipedia love, but it represents one of eir strongest non-Believer roles. This German-made film is intense, and represents a tale of a person that is truly stuck behind a rock and hard…
I had no idea that Spain had such a rich culinary flavor to it. Sure, there have been countless shows done about Mexican and Italian cuisine, but I can’t seem but to think that Spain has been ignored in modern culinary circles. The amount of recipes that are provided at points during Spain are simply fantastic, and represent both old and modern interpretations of the tradition. While the show may…
Essentially, Pathfinder has released a 1992 retelling of Kafka’s Metamorphosis on DVD, and have bundled it together with “Telephoneâ€, a 16-minute short exercise in Kafkaesque storytelling. This ensures that two directors have their works saved for posterity, as well as provide a snapsnot into middle-nineties interpretations of Kafka’s seminar work. While there are not bonus features per se in this release, the faithfulness that Soth brings to the project is…
This is the first time that we have had the chance to review a Celebrity Video Distribution title, and I have to say that we here at NeuFutur have missed some talent by this exclusion. The Dead Don’t Scream has an excellent print, providing sharp video married right alongside audio that is easily equivalent to that of the movie theatres. The film goes into the tired horror genre and makes…