Hello there
. Not posted in here since before Christmas so this update is well overdue. My dvd collection has undergone something of a makeover recently and now has it's own room. Below is what we lovingly refer to as 'our' or 'my' (I'm constantly setting Kathy straight on that one) 'movie room'.
Now for some new additions which will take a little longer than usual...
Please bear in mind this post represents over six months worth of purchases, gifts and cheap second hand bargains.
First off we have the final additions to my pre-Hollywood Peter Weir horror cycle.
Picnic At Hanging Rock,
The Last Wave and
The Plumber. I already own
The Cars That Ate Paris so these complete the set. Love all three in their own right, from the sun drenched moody dread of PAHR, to the spiritualist ecological horror of
The Last Wave, and (my personal fave) the blackly comic, yet decidedly unsettling mind games of
The Plumber.
Next up a couple of flower power era cult classics with the brilliant satires
Joe, and
Performance.
Joe is a crackerjack social comment on bigotry in the face of hippy culture, with a heartbreaking downbeat ending. Whilst Roeg and Cammell's
Performance is an acid trip exploration/comment on the 60's movement as James Fox's right wing gangland enforcer collides with Mick Jagger's very left wing rock star.
The Hit is Peter Yates' superb low key gangster/road movie with three knockout performances from Stamp, Hurt, and Roth.
My reviews of
Bonnie's Kids and
The Candy Snatchers can be found
here
Reviews of
Daughters Of Darkness,
The Fourth Man and
Twisted Nerve can be found further down the same page, and on page 8. The other disc is a triple feature which I got for the uncut edition of
Chained Heat, and the sequel
Red Heat (1985) because I love Linda Blair. I haven't watched
Jungle Warriors (which is supposed to be crap) yet, but it does have Sybil Danning kicking ass with a shotgun so it can't be all that bad...can it?
Six classic British horror films here with the US edition of
Death Line aka
Raw Meat, a slow paced grabber with a suffocatingly grim atmosphere, and a fantastic performance from Donald Pleasence as a cynical police inspector. Totally underrated that one. Tigon classics
Witchfinder General and
The Blood On Satan's Claw should need no introductions to horror aficionados.
Frightmare is probably Pete Walker's best film and is reviewed briefly in my thread somewhere.
Killer's Moon and
Tower Of Evil are reviewed
here That's the R1 edition of TOE which is cheaper to buy from Amazon US. The UK disc is long OOP.
Some Warner archive stuff with
Freebie And The Bean (1974) which is a sort of proto-buddy cop film in the
Leathal Weapon mould which I found way too convoluted, and not nearly funny enough. A blind buy and major disappointment considering the cast. Anyway thanks to Honeykid
The Super Cops (1975) nails the same formula with delightful results. It's based on the true story of New York police officers (Dave Greenberg and Bobby Hantz aka Batman and Robin) who made a record number of arrests on their patch back in the seventies; all whilst battling departmental red tape and a number of assassination attempts. This is fast, funny, action packed and makes a great double bill with Richard Fleischer's more serious
The New Centurions (1972).
The Green Slime is a trash classic directed by Kinji Fukasaku of many a Japanese gangster movie and
Battle Royale fame. Silver suited space hams battling rubber green aliens with laser cannons, whilst romancing Italian babe Luciana Paluzzi from
Thunderball. Now that's what I call entertainment. A real guilty pleasure that one.
That's the somewhat rare uk edition of
Targets (1968) which I reviewed
here
For my sins I've not watched
Wait Until Dark or
Alphaville yet, but considering their reputation, and the fact I picked them up second hand for £1 each; I doubt I'll be overly disappointed. I do have reservations about
Alphaville though...
Some Italian trash now with a really lovely collectors tin from Shameless which contains
The Bronx Warriors trilogy or as I like to call it; two entertaining crapfests (
Bronx Warriors and
Escape From The Bronx) and an unrelated turd marketed as part three in parts of Europe.
The New Barbarians aka
Warriors Of The Wasteland *groan*. Fred Williamson battling homosexual marauders in a post apocalyptic Italy with a crossbow should make a great movie...but it doesn't. Especially when the budget is so meager they try to pass off golf buggies as futuristic cars that only have a top speed of twenty miles an hour.
The New Gladiators is a really entertaining sci-fi turkey from Lucio Fulci, that sadly gets a very poor unmastered pan and scan treatment from Troma dvd here.
Baba Yaga is a stylish, kooky comic book adaptation of a classic fairy tale that veers delightfully between sixties camp, giallo and erotica. Well worth a look that one.
Stagefright is another winner from Michele Soavi and my favourite 80's slasher/giallo. I used to have the old EC entertainment edition but lent it to a work colleague who left and never gave it back. Good to have it back on my Italian horror shelf.
More classic horror which needs no explanation apart from
Kill List perhaps.
Not everyone liked it, but Ben Wheatley's low budget gem is my favourite horror film of 2011.
The Frightened Woman is a double post whoops.
The Stendhal Syndrome is probably my favourite nineties Argento, and my review of
Venus In Furs aka
Paroxismus (1969) can be found in one of the above links. Incidentally UK people beware not to confuse this with the Shameless dvd which is actually a different 1969 film directed by Massimo Dallamano, and based on Leopold Sacher-Masoch's novel. Jess Franco's film has been released in the UK on the Redemption label.
The rest which I'll just list.
Strange Behavior,
The Dead (2010),
Pontypool,
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires,
Dr. Black & Mr. Hyde,
Cold Prey,
Cold Prey: Resurrection,
The Devil's Rain,
Blood Relatives,
Eyes Of Laura Mars,
Will Penny,
Ulzana's Raid (this is the UK edition which is heavily cut for horse falls - but my only option considering the OOP R1 disc),
The Last Detail,
The Manchurian Candidate (1962),
The Sicilian Clan, The Revenant,
Stake Land,
The Devil's Nightmare,
Alien Undead aka The Dark Lurking.
Special mention goes to yet another upgrade of
Rolling Thunder and my only BluRay, ironically purchased for the dvd.
Finally this was Kathy's surprise Christmas gift to me which I had no idea about, and which brought tears to my eyes.
Columbo is probably my all time favourite TV show and this is the jewel in my collection. Thanks Kathy, I love you.