Warchild

Languages: English

Comments: If You Want to be Understood...Listen

Summary: Brilliantly conceived, superbly directed, and beautifully acted, "Babel" is inarguably one of the best films of 2006. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and his co-writer, Guillermo Arriaga (the two also collaborated on "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams") weave together the disparate strands of their story into a finely hewn fabric by focusing on what appear to be several equally incongruent characters: an American (Brad Pitt) touring Morocco with his wife (Cate Blanchett) become the focus of an international incident also involving a hardscrabble Moroccan farmer (Mustapha Rachidi) struggling to keep his two young sons in line and his family together. A San Diego nanny (Adriana Barraza), her employers absent, makes the disastrous decision to take their kids with her to a wedding in Mexico. And a deaf-mute Japanese teen (the extraordinary Rinko Kikuchi) deals with a relationship with her father (Koji Yakusho) and the world in general that's been upended by the death of her mother. It is perhaps not surprising, or particularly original, that a gun is the device that ties these people together. Yet "Babel" isn't merely about violence and its tragic consequences. It's about communication, and especially the lack of it--both intercultural, raising issues like terrorism and immigration, and intracultural, as basic as husbands talking to their wives and parents understanding their children. Iñárritu's command of his medium, sound and visual alike, is extraordinary; the camera work is by turns kinetic and restrained, the music always well matched to the scenes, the editing deft but not confusing, and the film (which clocks in at a lengthy 143 minutes) is filled with indelible moments. Many of those moments are also pretty stark and grim, and no will claim that all of this leads to a "happy" ending, but there is a sense of reconciliation, perhaps even resolution. "If You Want to be Understood... Listen," goes the tagline. And if you want a movie that will leave you thinking, "Babel" is it. "--Sam Graham"

Beyond "Babel"
Other Interweaving Storylines on DVD
Other DVDs by Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
Why We Love Cate Blanchett Stills from "Babel" (click for larger image)

Languages: French

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: A cruel circus owner beats and abuses his pregnant wife. One day the circus receives a leopard newly captured in Africa, but the animal soon dies. However, an evil creature that was inside the leopard bursts out of the animal's body, burrows into the wife's body and takes over her fetus. It soon starts demanding blood, and the woman goes searching for victims for her new "baby."

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: A worthy companion piece to 1991's "Boyz N the Hood", John Singleton's "Baby Boy" expresses compassionate but unforgiving criticism of young, African American black men who lead reckless, irresponsible lives while blithely blaming racism for their chronic disadvantage. That's already enough to make this a provocative and emotionally challenging film, but Singleton injects his drama with such passionate vitality that it never seems inflammatory; instead, in presenting this portrait of a confused and conflicted 20-year-old black man named Jody (Tyrese Gibson), Singleton is both affectionate and accusatory, lending "Baby Boy" an edgy, timeless wisdom that other, less courageous films could never hope to offer.
Unemployed and living with his 36-year-old mother (A.J. Johnson), Jody has fathered children from two young mothers and seems destined for an early grave. He never knew his father, but his mother's new boyfriend Melvin (played to perfection by Ving Rhames) is an ex-con with streetwise maturity that Jody, in time, will come to recognize and respect. This generational dynamic is the lifeblood of Singleton's central theme; Jody can follow Melvin's example or fall into the trap of lawlessness personified by Rodney (Snoop Dogg), a violent gangsta who arrives to threaten Jody's tenuous chance at a respectable adulthood. Through a wealth of fine performances and blistering dialogue, "Baby Boy" presents hard questions with no easy answers, and although Singleton is prone to polemical melodrama, his blunt approach serves a noble and ultimately hopeful purpose. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: A possible prelude to Natural Born Killers, Andy Warhols Bad is as low as it goes. Hazel runs a beauty salon out of her house, but makes extra money by providing ruthless women to do hit jobs. K.T. is a parasite, and contacts Hazel looking for work when he runs out of money. She is reluctant to use him for a hit, since she prefers using women, but decides to try him on a trial basis. Meanwhile, the local cop she pays off wants an arrest to make it look like he's actually doing his job, but she doesn't want to sacrifice any of her "associates." Several other side plots are woven in, populated with characters from the sleazy side of life.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: DTS

Comments: Mit moon

Summary: Fatal Move director Dennis Law deals out another powerful blow in his latest triad-themed offering Bad Blood! With Law also in writing and producing capacities, the 2010 movie retains many of the main cast of Fatal Move including Simon Yam, Eddie Cheung, Pinky Cheung, and Lam Suet, and sees the return of cinematographer Herman Yau and action choreographer Li Chung Chi. Action favorites Andy On, Xiong Xinxin, Ken Lo, and martial arts starlet Jiang Luxia are onboard the violent actioner, as are TVB stars Bernice Liu and Chris Lai. Veteran actors Chan Wai Man, Amy Chum, and Wong Tin Lam round out the ensemble cast of the gangster whodunit about the bloody infighting within a triad clan.

Crime lord Lok Cheung On (Eddie Cheung) runs a smuggling ring in Hong Kong. He gets caught during a failed counterfeit money operation in Mainland China and is executed. After he's gone, a deadly struggle for power breaks out within the gang, with a series of murders and assassinations aimed at members of the Lok clan. One by one, the various sons and daughters, wives and mistresses, brothers and cousins fall as they turn on each other in paranoia. The overbearing Simon Yam, the seemingly benign Bernice Liu, the crippled Andy On, the gentle Chris Lai, or the mysterious dumb girl Jiang Luxia - any of them could be the mastermind behind all the ruthless killings - or his/her next victim.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: In their world, if you're 17 and still alive you're a survivor [Video Australia]

Summary: Prior to starring in the hard-edged 1983 drama "Bad Boys", Sean Penn had proven his early promise in the TV movie "The Killing of Randy Webster", played a memorable supporting role in "Taps" (with fellow newcomer Tom Cruise), and created the definitive California surfer dude as the perpetually stoned Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". But it was "Bad Boys" that cemented Penn's reputation as a rare talent--an actor whose skill transcended his youth, revealing a depth and maturity that the majority of his acting peers could only aspire to. That gravity and emotional dimension is evident throughout Penn's performance here as Mick O'Brien, a chronic offender whose path to a Chicago juvenile corrections facility seems utterly preordained. The institution is hardly conducive to reformation--it's a jail for problem kids, and a cauldron for all the societal ills that sent kids there in the first place. Mick's there because he was involved in a shootout during a botched robbery of drugs from rival street gangster Paco Moreno (Esai Morales), whose little brother was killed when Mick accidentally ran him over with his getaway car.
Overcrowding results in Mick and Paco's being sent to the same facility (one of the film's few stretches of credibility), and this leads to a rather predictable showdown that will take the juvie prison's violence to its inevitable extreme. It's a shame this conclusion ultimately doesn't live up to the film's superior first hour, but "Bad Boys" remains a remarkably authentic, even touching portrait of troubled youth whose torment is conveyed through thoughtful and richly emotional development of characters. Director Rick Rosenthal (who had previously helmed "Halloween II") maintains a vivid sense of setting within the correctional facility's cold walls, and through the performances of Penn and a superb supporting cast (including Ally Sheedy in her film debut as Mick's girlfriend), "Bad Boys" emerges as one of the best films of its kind, forcing the viewer to ask difficult questions about at-risk youth and the proper way to improve or at least preserve their endangered lives. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Suddenly you realize murder is at your elbow! - and there's no way out!

Summary: One of the first Hollywood films to deal openly with white racism toward Japanese Americans during World War II, this drama directed by 1950s action maestro John Sturges ("The Great Escape") stars Spencer Tracy as a one-armed stranger named MacReedy, who arrives in the tiny town of Black Rock on a hot day in 1945. Seeking a hotel room and the whereabouts of an ethnic Japanese farmer named Komoko, MacReedy runs smack into a wall of hostility that escalates into serious threats. In time it becomes apparent that Komoko has been murdered by a local, racist chieftain, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who also plans on dispensing with MacReedy. Tracy's hero is forced to fight his way past Smith's goons (among them Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin) and sundry allies (Anne Francis) to keep alive, setting the stage for memorable suspense crisply orchestrated by Sturges. Casting is the film's principal strength, however: Tracy, the indispensable icon of integrity, and Ryan, the indispensable noir image of spiritual blight, are as creatively unlikely a pairing as Sturges's shotgun marriage of Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen in "The Magnificent Seven". "--Tom Keogh"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: The Scream You Don't Hear... Is Your Own

Summary: From The Director Of THE CRAFT, The Screenwriter Of DIE HARD, & The Producer Of THE TERMINATOR In the mid-70s, the members of the love cult Unity Fields sought `the ultimate joining' by dousing themselves with gasoline and committing mass suicide. A young girl blown clear of the fiery explosion was the only survivor. Thirteen years later, Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3) awakens from a coma inside a psychiatric hospital with only buried memories of that horrific day. But now, her fellow patients are each being driven to their own violent suicides. Has the sect's hideously burned leader (Richard Lynch) returned to claim his final child, or is something even more depraved lurking within her BAD DREAMS? Bruce Abbott (RE-ANIMATOR), Harris Yulin (SCARFACE), E.G. Daily (THE DEVIL'S REJECTS) and Dean Cameron (SUMMER SCHOOL) co-star in this intense horror shocker directed by Andrew Fleming (THE CRAFT, DICK), co-written by Steven de Souza (DIE HARD, 48 HRS) and produced by Gale Anne Hurd (ARMAGEDDON, T2).

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: It was a dangerous time to be a woman. And a good time to have friends.

Summary: Four former harlots try to leave the wild west (Colorado, to be exact) and head north to make a better life for themselves. Unfortunately someone from Cody's past won't let it happen that easily.

Languages: Korean

Subtitles: English

Summary: Remarkable acting, striking visuals, and dead-on direction from Kim Ki-Duk (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring; The Isle) make BAD GUY an edgy tour de force. Kim submerges the audience in the underground world of Seoul's red-light district and takes them on a surrealistic, darkly romantic ride. It depicts the relationship between a young college girl forced into prostitution and the pimp who orchestrated her demise and silently watches from behind a false mirror.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Gambler. Thief. Junkie. Killer. Cop.

Summary: Proving that he may be the most fearless actor of his or any other generation, Harvey Keitel gives an amazing, no-holds-barred performance in director Abel Ferrara's uncompromising 1992 film about a New York cop on the edge of self-annihilation. The film's title is meant to be taken literally: Keitel's character has no redeeming values whatsoever, save for his desperate need for redemption. Leonard Maltin's "Movie & Video Guide" is correct in calling this an "over-the-top Catholic guilt movie," but it's been made with such conviction that Ferrara and Keitel transcend the sheer unpleasantness of the material to give it a kind of tragic divinity. Here's a character so vile and corrupted that he consumes or re-sells the drugs he confiscates, but when he's assigned to investigate the brutal rape of a nun who refuses to press charges, he feels that this is his opportunity to redeem his rotten soul. Deservedly rated NC-17 due to its rough content and a frontal nude scene that even Keitel's most loyal fans could do without, this film tends to divide viewers into love-it-or-hate-it categories, but few could deny its raw power and the deeply anguished humanity that Keitel brings to his role. Whatever your reaction may be, few would deny this is an unforgettable film. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Comments: A HAWK... A VULTURE... and A DOVE... All circling for the biggest haul in the WEST!!

Summary: Robber Roy King loses his wife, Alicia, to revolutionary Montero. Despite their rivalry they collaborate in an attempt to rob the Mexican government of One Million dollars

Languages: English

Comments: "The Bad Seed" is the big shocker!

Summary: "A basket full of kisses for a basket full of hugs." Those are chilling words, at least when uttered by that ice princess, Patty McCormack. As Rhoda Penmark, she is as pretty as a porcelain doll but drips venom with each curtsey and polite response. Little Rhoda's mother is terrified she has passed on her own mother's corruption. Oops, turns out she's right. This passes the test of time, as it still gets under your skin. The character development is tight and the story very involving. Not even Freddy Krueger had the ability to scare like tiny McCormack, looking just like a little adult while she literally beats out the competition for a penmanship award. However, director Mervyn LeRoy's hands were tied over the ending, which was changed from the source material--Maxwell Anderson's hit Broadway play. A supposedly more appropriate, and moral, ending was demanded by the studio. This was remade (badly) in 1985. "--Rochelle O'Gorman"

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: He was 25 years old. He combed his hair like James Dean. She was 15. She took music lessons and could twirl a baton. For a while they lived together in a tree house. In 1959, she watched while he killed a lot of people.

Summary: Kit Carruthers, a young garbage collector and his girlfriend Holly Sargis from Fort Dupree, South Dakota, are on the run after killing Holly's father who disagreed with their relationship. On their way towards the Badlands of Montana they leave a trail of dispassionate and seemingly random murders. A very intriguing narrative without judgements, and lacking the usually sensational approach of this genre. Very good acting and directing, and beautiful photography. The script was based upon the true story of the Charles Starkweather and Caril-Ann Fugate murders in 1958.

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: See Them ALL...IN ACTION -- IN ONE PICTURE! The James Boys - The Daltons - Belle Starr

Summary: After some gun play with a posse, the James Gang head for Quinto in a section of land which is not a part of America. Anyone there is beyond the law so the town is populated with outlaws. Next to arrive is Sheriff Rowley, following his brother whom the Gang have brought in injured. Rowley has no authority and gets on well enough with the James boys but is soon involved in other local goings-on, including a move to vote for annexation with Oklahoma which would allow the law well and truly in.

Languages: French

Subtitles: English

Summary: Not for the faint-hearted. "Baise-Moi" defies categories--it features pornographic sex scenes and violent shootings, but it won't fit anyone's definition of an erotic thriller. After separately committing murders, two French women join together in a spree of crime and sex. Because both have endured abuse at the hands of men, the movie seems to start as a self-righteous parable--but the women's actions quickly degenerate into amoral, near random killings, with women shot as casually as men. One reviewer described "Baise-Moi" as ""Thelma & Louise" with actual penetration," but it's actually "Thelma & Louise" without Hollywood sentiment. By refusing to condemn or justify the protagonists' actions, and by depicting both sex and violence with unglamorous realism, "Baise-Moi" forces the viewer to respond in the most contradictory and basic ways. You may find the lead characters surprisingly sympathetic. Jarring, unsettling, and well worth watching. "--Bret Fetzer"

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Summary: A group of college students accidentally see a local redneck kill his wife. A deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues, with the students trying to escape the area while the killer sets out to eliminate the witnesses who can tie him to the murder.

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Only time could change the cruelty of tradition ... only their Love could survive it ...

Summary: In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse he/she would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Comments: Hanare goze Orin

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Summary: Fielding Mellish (a consumer products tester) becomes infatuated with Nancy (a political activist). He attends demonstrations and tries in other ways to convince her that he is worthy of her love, but Nancy wants someone with greater leadership potential. Fielding runs off to San Marcos where he joins the rebels and eventually becomes President of the country. While on a trip to the states, he meets Nancy again and she falls for him now that he is a political leader.

Languages: English

Summary: "Band of the Hand" was executive-produced by "Miami Vice" creator Michael Mann, but this violent relic of the '80s begs for a smarter script and Mann's directorial flair. Instead it's got TV's "Starsky"--Paul Michael Glaser--seemingly asleep at the wheel, barely controlling a rainbow coalition of bad actors as punky Florida jailbirds, given a second chance when they're dropped into the treacherous everglades and whipped into a crack unit of urban warriors by a gruff marine (Stephen Lang) who supervises their juvenile "reform." One of the reluctant recruits has a girlfriend (fresh-faced newcomer Lauren Holly) who's tied up with local drug lords (Larry Fishburne, James Remar), and the inevitable showdown offers guerilla warfare in pastel shades. Wretched dialogue and lackluster action don't stop this from being a "Vice"-like guilty pleasure, populated by garishly costumed stereotypes and ending like the pilot for a TV series that never happened. Even the DVD liner notes admit the movie is "infamous"; accepted on those terms, it's a hoot. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Summary: A genre filmmaker excelled in samurai films, Gosha Hideo began his career in producing and directing action dramas and series in television in the sixties. BANDITS VS SAMURAI SQUADRON, made in the middle period of his career, is one of his most ambitious films. Spanning over ten years and with a complicated plot involving more than a dozen speaking parts, weaving a web of passionate love and spiteful vengeance, the film manages to be both highly entertaining and stylized. The story involves with a former samurai warrior who abandons his class to become the leader of a gang of bandits. He leads his outlaws in an attempt to rob the castle of his former clan to revenge for the destruction of his own family by the official whom they served.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: "Bandolero!" peaks early, with a long, immensely satisfying opening half-hour in which cowpoke James Stewart saves his bank-robber brother (Dean Martin) from the hangman's noose... by strolling into town and masquerading as the hangman. As the brothers depart into Mexico, with a comely hostage (Raquel Welch) in tow, the action becomes more conventional. It's handsomely shot on eye-filling locations by outdoorsy veteran Andrew V. McLaglen (clever Jerry Goldsmith score, too). George Kennedy plays the lovelorn sheriff in pursuit, leading his half-hearted posse through bandito territory. Credibility suffers with Raquel's fabulous hair, which weathers kidnapping and life on the dusty trail with an unlikely sheen. Stewart and Martin, meanwhile, are too casual to allow the already-relaxed story to build up any real heat. For Western fans, the opening should make it worthwhile, even if it eventually becomes apparent why this one isn't considered a classic. "--Robert Horton"

Languages: Spanish

Subtitles: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: Ako-Jo danzetsu

Summary:

Languages: Thai

Subtitles: English

Summary: Oliver Stone presents a beautiful and violent Thai film; the true story of a rural 18th century Siamese village that managed to battle an army of 100,000 invading Burmese soldiers to a standstill for five months. When Bang Rajan's fearless warrior chief (Chumporn Taephitak) is wounded in battle, the men of the village elect a mighty rogue fighter who has been making raids on Burmese supply lines, Chan (Jaran Ngamdee), to step in and guide them. Along with the village's sage Buddhist priest (Teerayuth Pratyabamrung), Chan inspires the villagers to new heights of courage. In between bouts of bloodshed there are some subplots. One concerns the wife (Bongkod Kongmalia) of one of the mightiest fighters, Nai In (Winai Kraibutr). She learns she's pregnant, and fears her husband will lose his fighting spirit if he finds out. In another, a young warrior named Muang (Atthakorn Suwannaraj) fights to impress the chief's warrior daughter (Soontree Maila-or). The camera prowls continually among the lush greenery of the Asian jungle, and the beautiful faces and bodies of its people, drawing the viewer deeply into the sense of community, time, and place. The battle scenes are intense, lengthy, and horrific. With its lush cinematography, haunting music, and ensemble of uniformly strong performances, BANG RAJAN deserves a place next to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BRAVEHEART in the pantheon of great historical films about war and sacrifice.

System Requirements:
Running Time 119 Mins.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: The story of the friendship between a star pitcher, wise to the world, and a half-wit catcher, as they cope with the catcher's terminal illness through a baseball season.

Languages: Thai

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Summary: The story is of a deaf-mute hitman and his partner who are based in Bangkok. He is friends with his partner's girlfriend who is a stripper at a local club. They go about their assassination business as usual as the boss climbs the underworld ladder and forms new alliances. Flashbacks explain how he got to this point in his life. He forms a relationship with a young woman from the pharmacy who is caring and innocent. The hunts continue as treachery begins. A big name hit makes him realize that good people are hurt by his actions. The first rule of assassination closes in on him as he strikes revenge.

Languages: English

Comments: The Mob wants thier Diamond Egg back and only three men can stop them.

Summary: Funny Film.
I didn't know what to expect since I didn't hear any thing about this movie but It was hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing. Pretty amazing that Ken Guertin was producer, writer, director, editor, director of photography and he's also one of the actors. He reminds me of Robert Rodriguez. I also liked that it's original. I'm going to give this film a solid A+. The "Behind the scenes" Documentary was also very good and there is an interview with Crooked I and Spider that is off the hook.

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Was His Face Red . . . And His Nose, Too ! when the bandits took the money . . . and the SAFE !

Summary: Egbert Souse, "accent grave over the e", henpecked by his whole family, is recruited to replace a drunken film director, then seems to have captured a bank robber and is hired as guard in the Lompoc Bank, where Og Oggilby, his daughter's fiancée, is teller. Souse persuades Og to embezzle $500 to buy phony stock; then the bank examiner shows up. Can Souse keep him occupied for four days? The climax is an extended chase sequence.

Languages: French

Subtitles: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: Welcome to District B13 Welcome to the future

with El Dorado, Kill The Scream Queen, The Miracle Fighters, The Woods, The Reckless Moment

Summary: In the near future, the worst ghettos of Paris, France are literally walled off and among the worst is District B13. Controlled by the ruthless crime lord, Taha, a young righteous punk named Leïto is determined to bring him down. When the boss retaliates by kidnapping his sister, Lola, a rescue attempt by Leïto is destroyed by betrayal that gets him arrested and Lola kept in the clutches in Taha. Six months later, a crackerjack undercover cop named Damien is given a urgent mission: a neutron bomb has been stolen by Taha in District B13 which has an automatic timer function engaged and set to detonate in less than 24 hours. Now with time running out, Damien and Leïto must work together to find and stop the bomb, but there is far more to this crisis than any of the field players realize.

Languages: French

Subtitles: English

Comments: Poor subtitling

Summary: Damien and Leito return to District 13 on a mission to bring peace to the troubled sector that is controlled by five different gang bosses, before the city's secret services take drastic measures to solve the problem

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: A loose adaptation of Hamlet, "The Night Banquet" is set in an empire in chaos. The Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Minister and the General all have their own enemies they would like to finish off at a night banquet.

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Who seduces an angel? Who strips in space? Who conveys love by hand? Who gives up the pill? Who takes sex to outer space? Who's the girl of the 21st century? Who nearly dies of pleasure?

Summary: After an in-flight anti-gravity striptease (masked by the film's opening titles), Barbarella (Jane Fonda), a 41st century astronaut, lands on the planet Lythion and sets out to find the evil Durand Durand in the city of Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Exessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an accomplished artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who, in her dream chamber, can make her fantasies take form, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which, via a poor victim struggling in its glass globe, dispenses Essance of Man. You can't help but be impressed by the special effects crew and the various ways that were found to tear off what few clothes our heroine seemed to possess. Based on the popular French comic strip.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Wake up! Make love! Fall over laughing!!!

Summary: Paul Bratter, a conservative young lawyer, marries a vivacious young woman, Corrie. Their highly passionate relationship descends into comical discord in a five-flight New York City walk-up apartment.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Chik geuk siu ji

Summary: A poor barefoot young man from the country arrives in the city to start work with the friend of his dead father, a manager at a dyeing workshop who is trained in Kung-Fu but has retired form the world of martial arts. The dye shop is owned by a kind woman who is being pressured by a local strongman who is trying to steal her family secrets for his own workshop. When the workshop is burnt down the barefoot kid decides to fight back using his impressive kung-fu skills, but just invites further trouble.

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, French

Sound: DTS

Summary: Henry Chinaski never cared for the American dream, the thought of needing to become 'something' and fit into the system disgusts him. He believes that life is free and yours to live like you see fit, and if that in some cases involves copious amounts of whiskey then so be it. Henry spends his days drinking and listening to the radio, and he spends his nights drinking and fighting against Eddy who he thinks personifies shallowness and shameless self promoting. Sometimes in the middle of this he finds the time to jot down a few lines of poetry or a short story. After fighting Eddy and winning for a change Henry is thrown out of his regular bar where Eddy is a bartender. This leads him to seek another watering hole where he happens to find Wanda who is a barfly, in her own words "if another man came along with a fifth of whiskey, I'd go with him". Henry is not fazed by this thou and moves in with her...

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: WOMEN fought for his kisses! MEN clamored for his life!

Summary: The U.S. government recognizes land grants made when the West was under Spanish rule. This inspires James Reavis to forge a chain of historical evidence that makes a foundling girl the Baroness of Arizona. Reavis marries the girl and presses his claim to the entire Arizona territory.

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: The tenant in room 7 is very small, very twisted and very mad.

Summary: Charming country bumpkin Duane Bradley takes a motel room in New York with no other luggage then a basket. In a flash back-series we learn it contains his surgically removed Siamese twin who is not only physically deformed so badly the doctors hesitated to consider him a human, but is also the vindictive drive of their trip, with the purpose to kill off all those he blames. But in the reception of one of those doctors, Duane gets his first ever date, with the receptionist, and wants to start a positive life too - when the freak twin escapes, these scene is set for a grim finale.

Languages: Chinese, English Dubbed

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Tian can bian

Summary: He’s Taking Lethal to the Next Level!
True devotees of martial arts cinema have long lived in fear of the Bastard Swordsman! Unleashed on audiences by the blockbuster combination of Shaw Brothers Studios and legendary director Chang Cheh ("Five Deadly Venoms, The Blood Brothers"), this kung fu classic flawlessly blends phantasmagorical action sequences with staples of the wuxia genre. Starring Norman Chui ("Hong Kong Godfather, 36th Chamber") as the most lethal bastard this side of Shaolin, this twisted tale of betrayal and bloodshed showcases a revolutionary style of wire-work and action choreography that inspired today’s most revered filmmakers. So sit back, dim the lights, and prepare to be schooled in the art of the kill as you experience the bastard’s signature move: the mind-meltingly lethal Silkworm Technique!

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: When it flies, someone dies!

Summary: Mystery writer Cornelia Van Gorder has rented a country house called "The Oaks", which not long ago had been the scene of some murders committed by a strange and violent criminal known as "The Bat". Meanwhile, the house's owner, bank president John Fleming, has recently embezzled one million dollars in securities, and has hidden the proceeds in the house, but he is killed before he can retrieve the money. Thus the lonely country house soon becomes the site of many mysterious and dangerous activities.

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: from the famous character "BATMAN"

Summary: Holy camp site, Batman! After a fabulously successful season on TV, the campy comic book adventure hit the big screen, complete with painful puns, outrageous supervillains, and fights punctuated with word balloons sporting such onomatopoeic syllables as "Pow!," "Thud!," and "Blammo!" Adam West's wooden Batman is the cowled vigilante alter ego of straight-arrow millionaire Bruce Wayne and Bruce Ward's Robin (a.k.a. Dick Grayson, Bruce's young collegiate protégé) his overeager sidekick in hot pants. Together they battle an unholy alliance of Gotham City's greatest criminals: the Joker (Cesar Romero, whooping up a storm), the Riddler (giggling Frank Gorshin), the Penguin (cackling Burgess Meredith), and the purr-fectly sexy Catwoman (Lee Meriwether slinking in a skin-tight black bodysuit). The criminals are, naturally, out to conquer the world, but with a little help from their unending supply of utility belt devices (bat shark repellent, anyone?), our dynamic duo thwarts their nefarious plans at every turn. Since the TV show ran under 30 minutes an episode (with commercials), the 105-minute film runs a little thin--a little camp goes a long way--but fans of the small-screen show will enjoy the spoofing tone throughout. Leslie H. Martinson directs Lorenzo Semple's screenplay like a big-budget TV episode minus the cliffhanger endings. "--Sean Axmaker"

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: HE MOVE LIKE A FLASH! HE RIDES LIKE THE WIND! HE CAN PUNCH LIKE A BATTERING RAM!..THe mighty red-blooded American-hero comes to thrilling life in new adventure serial! (original 1943 poster)

Summary: In his first screen appearance, the Caped Crusader of Gotham City (belying the lethargic facade of his alter ego Bruce Wayne) battles Dr. Daka, Japanese mastermind of a wartime espionage-sabotage group. Daka has a radium-powered death ray that pulverizes walls, a classic alligator pit to dispose of enemies, and can turn men into electronic zombies who do his bidding and transmit video signals to Daka's lab! Batman has no Batmobile, but there are bats in the Bat Cave...

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Based On The Well-Known Batman Comic Magazine Feature appearing in "Detective Comics" and "Batman" Magazines

Summary: Antisocial Prof. Hammil's Remote Control device, which enables the user to take over any motor vehicle within 50 miles (!), is stolen by The Wizard, black-hooded mastermind, and his gang. Batman and Robin (who drive about in a standard convertible) must prevent the Wizard from obtaining diamonds, needed as fuel for the device, and rescue magazine photographer Vicki Vale from periodic perils. Where is the Wizard's base, reached only by remote controlled submarine? Which of several suspicious characters hides beneath the Wizard's hood?

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: "Batman Begins" discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's "Batman & Robin". As the title implies, "Batman Begins" tells the story anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken in by a mysterious instructor named Ducard (Liam Neeson in another mentor role) and urged to become a ninja in the League of Shadows, but he instead returns to his native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is strangling it. But are there forces even more sinister at hand?
Co-written by the team of David S. Goyer (a veteran comic book writer) and director Christopher Nolan ("Memento"), "Batman Begins" is a welcome return to the grim and gritty version of the Dark Knight, owing a great debt to the graphic novels that preceded it. It doesn't have the razzle dazzle, or the mass appeal, of "Spider-Man 2" (though the Batmobile is cool), and retelling the origin means it starts slowly, like most "first" superhero movies. But it's certainly the best Bat-film since Burton's original, and one of the best superhero movies of its time. Bale cuts a good figure as Batman, intense and dangerous but with some of the lightheartedness Michael Keaton brought to the character. Michael Caine provides much of the film's humor as the family butler, Alfred, and as the love interest, Katie Holmes ("Dawson's Creek") is surprisingly believable in her first adult role. Also featuring Gary Oldman as the young police officer Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as a Q-like gadgets expert, and Cillian Murphy as the vile Jonathan Crane. "--David Horiuchi"

Batman at Amazon.com
All "Batman" DVDs
"Batman Begins" 101: A Comic Book Primer
Where Have I Seen Christian Bale?
All "Batman" Comics and Graphic Novels
"Batman" Toys
"Batman Begins" Soundtrack
Stills from "Batman Begins" (click for larger images)








DVD Features
The first disc is filled out by the theatrical trailer and a Jimmy Fallon-starring "Batman Begins" spoof from the MTV Movie Awards. The second disc consists of eight featurettes (about 105 minutes total) on a variety of topics. "The Journey Begins" covers the early stages of the movie, including the casting and how director/co-writer Christopher Nolan brought in co-writer David S. Goyer for his comic-book expertise. "Shaping Mind and Body" covers Christian Bale's fight training, and other featurettes discuss the sets (the Batcave is shown being constructed out of wood and sheets), the Batman costume, the Batmobile, the monorail sequence, and the hazards of filming in Iceland. All the behind-the-scenes featurettes are solid but somewhat routine, and while "The Journey Begins" is the widest overview, there's not really any centerpiece documentary (all are 8 to 15 minutes, and there's no Play All option). Interviewees tend to be the same throughout: Nolan, Goyer, Bale (the only cast member to get much face time), and other crew members (it's nice to hear from the stunt people).
Potentially more interesting to fans is "Genesis of the Bat," which covers the comic books that influenced the film, including "The Long Halloween", Neal Adams's Ra's Al Ghul from the '70s, Dennis O'Neill and Dick Giordano's "The Man Who Falls", and Frank Miller's "Batman: Year One" and "The Dark Knight Returns". Interviewees include DC Comics editor Paul Levitz and artist Jim Lee, but the latter's involvement eventually degrades the featurette into a pitch for DC's "All-Star Batman" line. A nice bonus to the Deluxe Edition is a mini comic book (DVD case-sized) that has Batman's first appearance ("Detective Comics" #27), "The Man Who Falls", and a 48-page excerpt from "The Long Halloween". (Once you get a taste of "Halloween", you'll want to pick up the full-length, full-size version.) Filling out the disc are overviews of four gadgets and eight characters, DVD-ROM features, and a variety of poster-art concepts. To get to the features menu, you have to scroll through a multi-page Goyer-scribed comic book, which is a good read, but you can't skip it the next time you want to watch the second disc. Note that the comic book is also viewable in French, and the second disc offers a French menu and French (but not English) subtitles for the featurettes. "--David Horiuchi"

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Summary: Gotham City is terrorized not only by recent escapees Joker and Penguin, but by the original creature of the night, Dracula! Can Batman stop the ruthless vampire before he turns everyone in the city, including The Caped Crusader, Joker and Penguin, into his mindless minions?

Languages: English

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: DTS

Comments: A battle beyond time, beyond space.

Summary: Twenty-first-century science fiction fans accustomed to special-effects orgies like "The Matrix" may snigger at the quaint, "Flash Gordon"-like spaceships in "Battle Beyond the Stars". But executive producer Roger Corman's belated entry into the '70s sci-fi craze surpasses expectations with sharp performances and a witty script by John Sayles (his third for Corman, including 1978's "Piranha"). The story, lifted wholesale from Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954), finds the dictator Sador (John Saxon) threatening the planet of Akira. Its pacifist inhabitants are no match for Sador's devastating weapon, the Stellar Converter, but young Shad (Richard Thomas) decides to fight back. Borrowing the ship of notorious mercenary Zed the Corsair, he recruits a band of mercenaries, each of whom has a personal reason to join the fight. Among them are a lizard-like humanoid (Morgan Woodward), an improbable space cowboy (George Peppard), a zaftig female warrior (Sybil Danning), and brooding killer-for-hire Gelt (Robert Vaughn, reprising his "Magnificent Seven" role). "Battle"'s final showdown is somewhat anticlimatic, but the surprisingly stellar cast (which includes Sam Jaffe and Darlanne Fluegel) and the indie spunk of Sayles' script, with its light meditations on death and honor, will charm newcomers and repeat audiences alike. New Concorde's digitally remastered DVD features commentary by Sayles and "Terminator 2" producer Gale Anne Hurd, "Battle"'s assistant production manager. Oh, and those spaceships? Designed by "Titanic" director James Cameron. Still laughing? "--Paul Gaita"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: The five films in the "Planet of the Apes" series are enjoyable as pure entertainment and yet substantial enough to inspire academic studies like "Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture".
"Battle for the Planet of the Apes" (1973) ended the five-film cycle with McDowall again playing the chimpanzee leader Caesar, defeating gorillas and human mutants to establish the hierarchy introduced in the original film.
The "Apes" films present a classic what-if scenario that hasn't lost a bit of its potency. As if to prove its cultural endurance, the cycle returned to its origins with director Tim Burton's remake of "Planet of the Apes"--one of the most eagerly awaited films of 2001. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Chi bi

Summary: In the early third century, the land of Wu is invaded by the warlord Cao Cao and his million soldiers. The ruler of Wu, Sun Quan, calls on the rival warlord Liu Bei for help, but their two armies are still badly outnumbered. However, the Wu strategist Zhou Yu sees that Cao Cao's army is unused to battling on the sea, which may just give them a chance if they can exploit this weakness properly.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Chi bi xia: Jue zhan tian xia

Summary:

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Bo ming

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. To prevent this occurrence, Hitler orders an all out offensive to re-take French territory and capture the major port city of Antwerp. "The Battle of the Bulge" shows this conflict from the perspective of an American intelligence officer as well as from a German Panzer Commander.

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: The true and moving story of a mighty sea battle [Video Australia]

with 52 Pickup, A Scanner Darkley,Sex Trek, The Enigma Of Kasper Hauser

Summary: Set during the early years of World War II, the War in the Atlantic. The Royal Navy was fighting a desperate battle to keep the convoy routes open to keep the British Isles supplied. One great danger was the surface raiders, huge cruisers called "pocket battleships" that slipped out of German waters just before war was declared. The "Bismarck", The "Scharnhorst", The "Gneissau" and The "Graf Spee" were supplied by tanker & could strike anywhere. This is the story of how 3 lightly armed cruisers with only 6 and 8 inch guns boldly took on a powerful pocket battleship armed with 11 inch guns. They should have been blown out of the water before they could fire a single shot but ...

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Pianeta degli uomini spenti, Il

Summary: A stray planet on a collision course with Earth instead takes orbit around our blue marble. What seems like a dead planet suddenly launches a fleet of flying saucers which attack our space fleets.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: Story centers on a battle during China's Warring States period, a series of civil wars, which spanned from the 5th to the 3th centuries B.C. Based on a popular Japanese manga, which was in turn based a Japanese novel inspired by Warring States history in China.

Muk gong

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Could you kill your best friend?

Summary: With the Japanese currently leading the way in thought-provoking cinematic violence, it's only fitting that Kinji Fukasaku's "Battle Royale" is being touted as a "Clockwork Orange" for the 21st century. Based on the novel by Koshun Takami, the film opens with a series of fleeting images of unruly Japanese schoolchildren, whose bad behavior provides a justification for the "punishments" that will ensue. Once the prequel has been dispensed with, the classmates are drugged and awaken on an island where they find they have been fitted with dog collars that monitor their every move. Instructed by their old teacher ("Beat" Takeshi) with the aid of an upbeat MTV-style video, they are told of their fate: after an impartial lottery they have been chosen to fight each other in a three-day, no-rules contest, the "Battle Royale." Their only chance of survival is through the death of all their classmates.
Some pupils embrace their mission with zeal, while others simply give up or try to become peacemakers and revolutionaries. However, the ultimate drive for survival comes from the desire to protect the one you love. "Battle Royale" works on many different levels, highlighting the authorities' desperation to enforce law and order and the alienation caused by the generation gap. Whether you consider the film an important social commentary or simply watch it for the adrenaline-fueled violence, this is set to become cult viewing for the computer game generation and beyond. "--Nikki Disney"

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Comments: This time it's war.

Summary: Few Japanese films in recent memory have caused such controversy and commotion as Battle Royale. Directed by the late great Kinji Fukasaku, the brilliant heart-stopping thriller portrayed a junior high school class lucky enough to be chosen and taken to an island where the 42 students are forced to kill one another until the last boy or girl is left standing. Based on the novel by Koshun Takami, Fukasaku worked on the script with his son Kenta. Now comes the much anticipated sequel, Battle Royale II, based on an original story by the Fukasakus. Like James Cameron's 'Aliens,' its tagline reads "This time it's war" ...And it is! It's been a few years since Shuya and Noriko survived their BR bloodbath. They're now known as the head of a terrorist group known as the Wild Seven who blew up a series of skyscrapers. This time, the government decides to send the latest bunch of BR candidates to eliminate them. The group includes Shiori Kitano, the daughter of Kitano (Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano), the teacher and the director of the BR program who was killed by Shuya and Noriko. The group has only three days to finish the job, and again, they must wear dog collars that explode. This time round however, the same numbered students are connected through the collars, and if one dies, the other's dog collar explodes. With even bigger actions than the first movie, BRII racks up a body count that would make Freddy and Jason envious.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Summary: Pao Hsueh-li, the trusted co-director for several of Chang Cheh's most memorable productions (including The Water Margin), here creates one of his own. A brother who loves books and a sister who loves swords must face a yellow-robed warrior, the Red Python, a sinuous snake-charmer, and a silk-masked beauty (who must kill or wed the first man to see her face) before they can bring peace to their battle-addled family in this special, cliche-smashing production.

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Summary: This low-budget baseball zombie comedy is arguably a mixed bag, but one likely to develop a sizable cult following. While it successfully pokes fun at the cliches inherent in most sports movies, particularly those `moments' where people spontaneously applaud the main characters actions (similarly mocked in NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE), it doesn't deliver on the action and gore quotient promised by the concept. And yet, as a budget-conscious live-action adaptation of a Shonen Jump manga, it plants tongue hard in cheek and certainly feels faithful to the source material, never for a minute taking itself seriously and gleefully indulging in the most eye-rollingly obvious visual gags. Desperate to make it to the big leagues, the Seido High School baseball team must face their much more successful rivals at Gedo High, a team made up entirely of well-armed zombies. Their ace in the hole may well be transfer student `Jubeh The Baseball' (Tak Sakaguchi), who's signature fastball killed his own father, a tragedy which prevents him from helping the team. Directed by the writer of VERSUS (Yudai Yamiguchi), produced by that film's director (Ryuhei Kitamura) and starring that film's lead (Tak Sakaguchi), BATTLEFIELD shares that film's low-budget ingenuity, but wisely knows when to take up stakes and call it a day around the 90 minute mark. The Japanese R2 DVD has English subs and includes a hilariously inventive short film called Ramen Baka Ichidai, about a kid who hunts down the perfect Ramen noodles for his dying grandfather. Primo stuff.

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: The First Great Picture Of The Second World War !

Summary: We follow a band of American soldiers as they engage the Germans in a snowy, foggy winter near Bastogne in World War II. They're low on fuel, rations, and ammunition; the Germans are constantly encouraging their surrender via radio and leaflets, and most importantly, the pervasive thick fog makes movement and identification difficult and prevents their relief by Allied air support. This film focuses much more on the psychology and morale of the soldiers than on action footage and heroics.

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Jingi naki tatakai

Summary: While "The Godfather" romanticized the American Mafia in the early 1970s, Kinji Fukasaku's five-film series known as "The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity" revolutionized the Japanese "yakuza" film with unprecedented intensity. A post-World War II epic that broke Japanese box-office records, this complex, utterly authentic cycle of gangster films replaced the popular "ninkyo" or "chivalry" films of the '60s with "jitsuroku", an entirely new breed of gangster film that rose from the ashes of Hiroshima and post-war reconstruction, depicting a meticulously detailed "alternate history" (as Japanese film expert Tom Mes observes in the accompanying booklet) that had been ignored by the "official" factual record. Beginning with 1973's "Battles Without Honor and Humanity" and continuing through four hugely popular sequels, these are bracingly intricate studies in shifting loyalties and gangland chaos, tracking the "yakuza" career of Shozu Hirono (played by charismatic star Bunta Suguwara), who rises from lowly soldier status in 1946 to "sworn brotherhood" and respected retirement in 1970. Across this quarter-century of death, power, and betrayal, Fukasaku orchestrates nearly 50 characters in four major cities, all vying for dominance in a familial structure so complex that a helpful flow-chart is provided to follow the shifting balance of power.
Western viewers may struggle with the social context of these films, but as a gangster epic of escalating scope and power, "The Yakuza Papers" offers a universally energizing DVD experience. Fukasaku (who died in January 2003 while filming his 62nd film, "Battle Royale II") was a master of cinematic pulp, and these films represent the pinnacle of his frenetic, deliberately chaotic hand-held camera style, which strongly influenced American urban crime films of the '70s (as "French Connection" director William Friedkin notes on the feature-packed supplement disc). Rough-edged and thematically rich, the five films presented here--all in pristine digital transfers and brilliantly translated by ace subtitler Linda Hoaglund--combine to form a sprawling milestone of Japanese cinema. Home Vision's packaging and comprehensive supplements pay honorable tribute to Fukasaku's achievement, with bonus features that provide all the necessary background needed to fully appreciate "The Yakuza Papers" as a raw, ambitious masterpiece that fully deserves its widespread acclaim. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Jingi naki tatakai: Hiroshima shito hen

Summary:

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Summary: The decline of eastern civilization

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: Jingi naki tatakai: Chojo sakusen

Summary: Terrific fourth installment is a violent, bloody epic

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Summary: Jingi naki tatakai: Kanketsu-hen-A classic, unforgettable piece of cinema wraps up

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Sakigake!! Otokojuku

Summary: Otokojuku is een school waar kereltjes omgevormd worden tot mannen. Door fysieke en mentale straffen leren ze sterk te zijn. Hidemaro is een zwakkeling die op deze school terecht komt. De eerste dagen zijn moeilijk maar hij bijt door en al snel blijkt hij een natuurtalent te zijn. Wanneer Omito zijn wraak plant op de Otokojuku school neemt Hidemaro het leiderschap op zich om zijn terrein te verdedigen.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Everyone is looking for the next big hit

Summary: "Be Cool" takes its own advice: It's slick, Hollywood entertainment that kills two amusing hours with relative ease and comfort. Better than leftovers but not as tasty as a full-course meal, this sequel to 1995's hit comedy "Get Shorty" (and based on Elmore Leonard's 1999 sequel novel) finds former loan shark Chili Palmer (John Travolta) itching to get out of the movie business, so he hooks up with a newly widowed music executive (Uma Thurman) to launch the career of an up-'n-coming Beyoncé-like singer (newcomer Christina Milian). A mock-black manager (Vince Vaughn), his sleazy boss (Harvey Keitel), and an upscale gangsta-rap executive (Cedric the Entertainer) all have a competing stake in the fast-rising pop diva's future, and this sets the plot rolling in a fun but rather hand-me-down fashion that lacks the savvy panache of "Get Shorty" but still provides plenty of lightweight humor. The Rock and Outkast's André Benjamin provide the best laughs in supporting roles that effortlessly relieve the movie from the symptoms of sequelitis. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: Korean

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Gudseura Geum-suna

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: Any number can play...but it's better with just two!

Summary: In the fourth of the highly successful Frankie and Annette beach party movies, a motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane managed by Bullets, who hires sky-diving surfers Steve and Bonnie from Big Drop for a publicity stunt. With the usual gang of kids and a mermaid named Lorelei.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: The Chinese protagonists in Wang Yu's 1972 epic action picture, a prime specimen of mainstream Hong Kong action cinema, all wear peraly white during the final sea-front battle sequence, while their Japanese pirate foes wear inky black. That's proof positive that actor-director Wang (a staple Shaw Brothers star to the 1960s) is a staunch swordplay traditionalist. The style, the pace, and even the music may recall Akira Kurosawa, but here the Japanese are as purely evil as the Nazis in a WWII flick. Wang's stalwart Hisao Feng is a wandering swordsman (complete with his very own fuzz-tone guitar theme) who returns home to discover a pirate threat to his coastal village. He assembles an assortment of warriors, guys with handles like Spearman Li and Lightning Fist Hung; even a taciturn knife thrower who as to be badgered into helping out, like Jamese Coburn in the The Magnficient Seven. Hsiao and his pals then train the peasant villagers to fend off the Japanese Menace. The last 20 minutes of the movie are nothing but bloody sword fighting; Hsiao kills the Japanese commander (who spouts blood majestically, like Tatsuya Nakadai in Kurosawa's Sanjuro) and then keels over himself, a photogenic martyr to the anti-Japanese cause.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: One Man. One Masterpiece. One Very Big Mistake.

Summary: Translating Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean character from British television to the big screen takes a bit of a toll, but there are some hilarious sequences in this popular comedy. Bean, a boy-man twit with a knack for getting into difficult binds (and then making them worse and worse and worse), is a London museum guard who is sent to Los Angeles in the company of the famous painting "Whistler's Mother". He's mistaken as an art expert by the well-meaning curator (Peter MacNicol) of an L.A. museum, but Bean's famously eccentric behavior soon causes the poor guy to almost lose his family and job. The insularity of Bean's TV world is sacrificed in this film, and that change diminishes some of the character's appeal. But Atkinson is a man naturally full of comedy, and he doesn't let his fans down. "--Tom Keogh"

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: It's alive !

with Devil Girl From Mars, Fong Sai Yuk 2, National Lampoon TV, Kung Faux

Summary: A matinee programmer with lofty ambitions, "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" is best appreciated as a vintage showcase for the stop-motion animation of special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen. The hoary plot follows the cold-war formula that dominated science fiction movies of the 1950s: After an atomic bomb test in the northern polar ice cap, a gigantic dinosaur--the fictional "Rhedosaurus"--is awakened from eons of dormancy, plots an undersea course for the Eastern seaboard, and proceeds to wreak havoc on New York City, culminating in a showdown with military marksmen at the Coney Island amusement park. Stock footage and tissue-thin drama make this a by-the-numbers monster flick, further hampered by Eugene Lourie's lackluster direction and a wooden B-movie cast. And yet, Harryhausen's first independent effort retains its atomic-age fascination: "Beast" marked yet another technical milestone for Harryhausen's impeccable techniques, and its perpetual status as a sci-fi classic is duly acknowledged in the DVD bonus features, including a retrospective featurette and a latter-day reunion of Harryhausen and longtime friend Ray Bradbury, whose short story "The Fog Horn" served as this film's inspiration. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Commies made him an atomic mutant!

Summary: A defecting Russian scientist is transformed by an atomic test into a hulking monster, Tor Johnson, of course. Not much else except some people are killed, boys get lost, and a rabbit sniffs Tor's corpse. (This film was used for Mystery Science Theater 3000.)

Languages: English

Comments: An unspeakable horror... Destroying... Terrifying!

Summary: Thanks again to MGM and Fox for resurrecting this DVD line. Here we have a couple of extremely low budget American International Pictures films (back when they were still known as American Releasing Corporation - in fact, I think these were the first two sci-fi/horror films put out by the legendary studio) that go perfectly together. Is either film great, even good? Not by a long shot in conventional terms, but these should be judged on a different standard than your average A movie. The point is, they're both a lot of fun in that way only drive-in movies from the era could be, and these two are an inspired pairing, rightly aimed directly at those of us who either saw the movies at drive-ins back in the 50s, who (more likely) saw them Saturday creature features matinees on TV, or who have recently discovered the wonders of cheap 1950s horror and science fiction and are rabid for the opportunity to finally see them. Fox and MGM, great work and please keep these Midnight Movies coming until you've exhausted your libraries. Two that you might consider (both available elsewhere on DVD, but they need the quality treatment): Dementia 13 and The Terror.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: It is an age of sorcery and savagery, of brave deeds and bloody battles. It is the age of THE BEASTMASTER.

Summary: Dar, is the son of a king, who is hunted by a priest after his birth and grows up in another family. When he becomes a grown man his new father is murdered by savages and he discovers that he has the ability to communicate with the animals. After that, Dar begins his quest for revenge in this Conan-like movie.

Languages: English

Comments: THEIR PASSWORD WAS MUTINY AGAINST SOCIETY!

Summary: Double Feature DVD, Two Films on One DVD. The Beatniks - Eddy Crane wishes he was a popular recording artist and is excited when an agent tells him he can take him to the top. The problem is, Eddy's friends are a gang of street thugs. Their wildness may just end up shattering his shot at stardom.
Wild Guitar - A star struck, rock & roll guitarist appears on television shortly after arriving in Hollywood and obtains instant fame. Can he survive the dog-eat-dog world of show biz ?

Languages: Korean

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Arumdabda

Summary: Eun Young's striking beauty makes her the center of attraction wherever she goes. Regrettably, that also includes some unwanted attention from perverted male stalkers who fantasize about having sex with her. One of her stalkers (Kim Min Soo, Time) gets his wish by intruding into her house, then raping her ruthlessly. Later on, he confesses to the police that it was really he who was raped by her beauty. Eun Young descends into madness after the ordeal and develops bulimia and anorexia. Watching her sink deeper and deeper into self-destruction, warm-hearted policeman Eun Cheol (Lee Cheon Hee, Bar Legend) feels sorry for the beauty, but what began as compassion turns into an uncontrollable sexual obsession when lust starts to consume his heart. Written and produced by maverick arthouse director Kim Ki Duk, Beautiful paints the gripping psychological tale of a woman whose exceptional beauty makes her the object of unwanted lust and envy. In his feature-length debut, director Jeon Jae Hong (Mul Go Gi), who proudly carries the nickname "Little Kim Ki Duk", casts Cha Soo Yeon (For Eternal Hearts) as Eun Young, a tragic heroine who suffers a mental breakdown after being raped by her stalker, blaming her beauty to be the cause of all her misery. Exploring the extremities of sexual perversion and obsession in human behavior, director Jeon throws the audience into a furious whirlwind of psychological warfare while retaining much of the essence of what is widely known as Kim Ki Duk's signature style. The film saw its world premiere in the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival's Panorama section, receiving rave reviews along with high praise for Cha's soul-stripping performance.

Languages: Korean

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: A corrupted cop (detective Kang) steal drugs from criminals in exchange for money in order to pay his wife's hospital bills who is in a coma. He is then haunt back by them. We see him and his partner-cop investigating the whereabout of a rapist. Meanwhile Min Woo falls in love with a girl (Su Yeon) and tries to conquer her. The film tells two stories that will cross path in its ending climax on a 'beautiful sunday' where the ending takes place and secrets unfolds... / I'm making the synospis simple to not 'spoil' anything!/ There's no imdb link btw. The other reviews I had found were saying too much. Up-to-you if you want to read more or fully enjoy the film and its surprises.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Summary: Hung jaak yin ji

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: Coming to a screen bigger than your TV.

Summary: Our intrepid adolescent heroes wake up to find their beloved television stolen, and embark on an epic journey across America to recover it, and, who knows, maybe even score. On the way they encounter a murderous smuggler of a deadly virus and his treacherous wife, an FBI agent with a predilection for cavity searches, a couple of rather familiar looking ex-Motley Crue roadies, Mr. Van Dreesen singing "Lesbian Seagull", a little old lady and of course Mr. Anderson and his trailer. Can the Great Cornholio save the day? Uh-huh. Huh-huh.

Languages: Korean

Subtitles: English

Sound: DTS

Comments: Kim-bok-nam Sal-in-sa-eui Jeon-mal

Summary: Hae-won is a beautiful single woman in her thirties who works at a bank in the Seoul city. She leads a busy life until she becomes a witness to an attempted murder case, and at the same time, things get complicated at work. When things get out of hand she is forced to take a vacation so she heads for 'Moodo', a small undeveloped island, where she had once visited to see her grandparents. And where she had befriended a girl named Bok-nam who stills writes to Hae-won asking her to visit despite the fact that Hae-won never bothered to reply. Upon arriving at the island, Hae-won is shocked to see everyone treating Bok-nam like a slave. As practically the only young woman on the island, she is a plaything for all the men and a free laborer for the women. Sick of all the inhumane treatment, Bok-nam had tried to escape the island several times in the past but had failed each time. She begs Hae-won to help her escape the place...

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: Sensational Secrets of Infamous Mad-house EXPOSED! (1946 one-sheet poster)

Summary: Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. (For the record, the Lewton/RKO legacy also includes two non-horror entries, "Youth Runs Wild" and "Mademoiselle Fifi".)
Before becoming a film producer, the Russian-born Lewton was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of pornographic novels. He also worked for years as assistant to David O. Selznick, a legendary producer with a distinctive personal signature--and a flair for grandiosity Lewton himself never emulated. It's ever so revealing that, on Selznick's "Gone With the Wind", it was Lewton who came up with the idea for the famous rising shot of the Atlanta railyard filled with Southern wounded, with the Confederate flag streaming above--only he idly proposed it as a joke, never imagining that anyone would actually "film" such a spectacularly ambitious scene.
In 1942 Lewton left Selznick to undertake a series of horror films for RKO Radio Pictures. The studio would give him a budget around $200,000 per picture and a title RKO deemed to be grabby; Lewton would have a free hand as long as he stayed on budget, used the title, and gave the studio a salable movie of second-feature length (around 70 minutes). Over time, Lewton would increasingly have trouble with studio supervisors, but RKO was the right place for him. Although low in the pecking order among Hollywood majors, the studio made up for its lack of MGM-style glamour and Warner Bros. grit-and-gusto by working in a finely filigreed, almost miniaturist style. The art department under Van Nest Polglase and Albert S. D'Agostino was capable of exquisite artisanry, and in Nicholas Musuraca, a master of low-key cinematography and supple camerawork, Lewton found an invaluable collaborator in creating moody shadow-worlds where what you couldn't see was more disquieting than what you could.
He was also fortunate in having Jacques Tourneur to direct his first three efforts (they had teamed years earlier on the Bastille-storming sequence for Selznick's "A Tale of Two Cities"). They scored first time out of the gate with both a popular hit and a masterpiece: "Cat People" (1942). The story involves a pretty young Serbian woman in Manhattan (Simone Simon) convinced that her ancestors had practiced animal worship during the Middle Ages--and that she herself might shape-change into a lithe, ravening panther if her passions were aroused. The film is uncannily successful in keeping the viewer guessing whether this is a phobia borne of morbid obsession and sexual repression, or a genuine, horrific possibility. There are two sequences of matchless artistry and almost unbearable suspense--a lonely, echoing walk through pools of lamplight alongside Central Park, and a late-night swim in a deserted indoor pool--that build to throat-grabbing climaxes and remain milestones in the history of screen horror.
Many critics feel that the second Lewton-Tourneur endeavor, "I Walked With a Zombie" (1943), is both men's finest work. The title is so lurid that the heroine-narrator (Frances Dee) must shrug it off with her very first words, yet the movie is an amazingly delicate and poetic piece of spellbinding--nothing less than a reworking of "Jane Eyre" on a voodoo island in the Caribbean. Other horror aficionados prefer the more mainline ferocity of "The Leopard Man" (1943), an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a serial killer strewing corpses along the U.S.-Mexican border. Although on one level this is the Lewton film that veers closest to conventional mystery-suspense, there's no end of unsettling ambiguity (another black panther on the loose!) and hints of occultism and religious mania.
RKO promoted Tourneur to A-movies after this; Lewton would never again have so masterly a directorial partner. Yet in a weird sense (which is only appropriate), this underscores how much Lewton--with his wealth of arcane historical lore and storytelling archetypes, his quiet, patient attention to detail, and his taste for oblique narrative--was the essential auteur of all his films. Promoting first Mark Robson and then Robert Wise from the editing table, Lewton went on to make the deeply mysterious "The Seventh Victim" (1943) and "The Ghost Ship" (1943), two films in which such grotesque elements as Satan worship and murderous psychopathology are folded away inside eerily drifty, almost becalmed sleepwalks into eternal night. "The Seventh Victim"--a movie populated with more walking dead than Lewton's out-and-out zombie picture--is one of the cinema's supreme meditations on the ways lives brush against one another in the spaces of a great, impersonal city. And "The Ghost Ship" (the rarest of Lewton's films, owing to a ruinous copyright suit) is like a fever dream from which the viewer never awakens.
That's enough for a legacy, surely. Yet there remain "The Curse of the Cat People" (1944), a sequel that is not quite a sequel, a pretend-horror movie that's really a contemplation of the fragility of childhood; "Isle of the Dead" (1945), a doomed reverie about travelers who escape the Goya-esque chaos of a 19th-century war only to be beset with plague on a miasma-shrouded island; "The Body Snatcher" (1945), an atmospheric Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation that invokes the grisly history of graverobbers Burke and Hare, and supplies a together-again-for-the-last-time occasion for Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; and "Bedlam" (1946), the Hogarth painting come to life to portray the real-life horrors of an 18th-century insane asylum. "Bedlam"'s critical and box-office failure ended Lewton's quasi-independent status at RKO; he would live to make only three other, unsuccessful films.
James Agee, the premier American film critic of the 1940s, reckoned that Val Lewton was one of the three foremost creative figures in Hollywood--an assessment yet more impressive when we consider that the other two were Charles Chaplin and Walt Disney. His greatest films--"Cat People", "I Walked with a Zombie", "The Seventh Victim"--are towering achievements, and even his half-realized projects are haunting experiences, the products of an utterly distinctive sensibility. This is an extraordinary collection. "--Richard T. Jameson"

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: No Gut, No Glory

Summary: Beer, broads and baseball combine with hilarious results in ARTIE LANGE'S BEER LEAGUE...an over-the-top comedy about a group of misfits whose weekly softball games seem to have a lot more to do with getting into fights for macho dominance than hitting home runs. Artie is an unemployed and unmotivated drunk that is predictably still living with his mother. He is on a losing softball team, and he and his teammates are facing the end of softball as they know it if they can't pull it together. When love enters his life, it unexpectedly alters Artie's low self-esteem, and the odds for winning, not only the league trophy, but a new life, are certainly looking up. He and his teammates will have to go for the win, and survive all the comedy and chaos along the way.