Adam Green's "HATCHET" slashes its way to Blu-ray September 7th from Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment proudly announces the Blu-ray™ debut of Adam Green’s slasher classic HATCHET on September 7, 2010. A fan favorite ever since its 2007 debut, the cult hit not only assembled some of the greatest modern horror film actors around, but gave film and horror fans the first new horror icon in a generation: Victor Crowley! SRP is $29.99 and pre-book is August 11th.

With a stellar cast including Joel David Moore (Avatar), Mercedes McNab (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer”), Richard Riehle (Office Space), and horror cinema legends Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund, Tony “Candyman” Todd, with Kane “Jason Voorhees” Hodder as Victor Crowley, HATCHET is a gory throwback to the classic 1980s slasher/creature horror films. HATCHET on Blu-ray™ features an all new 1080p high-definition transfer of the unrated “Director’s Cut” with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 high-resolution audio, all the bonus features from the original DVD release, AND an all-new commentary track with co-producer/writer/director Green and Victor Crowley himself – Kane Hodder.

HATCHET spins a terrifying tale of tragedy and comeuppance from beyond the grave. Victor Crowley is a hideously deformed boy, living in seclusion with his father (Hodder) in an isolated cabin deep in the Louisiana Bayou. When a Halloween prank initiated by local kids goes terribly awry, Victor is accidentally killed in a vicious twist of irony. Years later, a tourist group visiting New Orleans ’ “haunted swamps” stumble upon the remnants of that shocking event, transforming an evening of seemingly innocent fun into a horrific nightmare, from which there may be no escape.

HATCHET Blu-ray™
Street Date:                  September 7, 2010
Pre-book:                     August 11, 2010
Cat. #:                          BD21841
UPC:                            0 1313 21841-9 7
Run Time:                     84 Minutes
Rating:                          Unrated
SRP:                            $29.99
Format:                        1.78:1 / 16x9 1080p
Audio:                          Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Subtitles:                       Spanish, English SDH

Bonus Features:
NEW Audio Commentary with Co-Producer/Writer/Director Adam Green and Star Kane Hodder
Audio Commentary with Co-Producer/Writer/Director Adam Green, Co-Producer/Cinematographer Will Barratt and Actors Tamara Feldman, Joel David Moore and Deon  Richmond
The Making of Hatchet
Meeting Victor Crowley: An in-depth look at the creation of a new horror icon
Guts & Gore: Go behind the scenes of Hatchet’s special makeup and prosthetic effects
Anatomy of a Kill: Witness the “jaw-breaking” birth, design and execution of a death scene
A Twisted Tale: Writer/Director Adam Green recounts his decades-long friendship with “Twisted Sister” front man Dee Snider
Gag Reel
Theatrical Trailer

Buy it at Amazon.com

The New York Asian Film Festival Kicks Off Today and HK AND CULT FILM NEWS will be there for you!

HK and CULT FILM NEWS will be on-site at this years New York Asian Film Festival with coverage of the the awards ceremony, Sammo Hung's Q&A following a rare screening of Eastern Condors , interviews with actors Simon Yam and Huang Bo, and reviews of the latest and greatest films from Hong Kong and Asia, including the American premiere of Ip Man 2, Gallants, Little Big Solider, and more!

Stick with HK AND CULT FILM NEWS all through out the proceedings for the latest news and reviews. If you haven't got your tickets yet, click on one of the links to take you to the NYAFF's website! If you aren't sure what to see yet, just check out the schedule and find some fun!

Schedule

All events are at Walter Reade Theater unless otherwise noted.

Fri, June 25

3:00pm	YATTERMAN (119 min.)
5:30pm	COW (109 min.) - Huang Bo will be at the screening
8:00pm	Star Asia Awards ceremony (30 min.)
9:30pm	IP MAN 2 (108 min.) - Sammo Hung will be at the screening

IFC Center Midnights

12:15am

DEATH KAPPA (79 min.)

Sat, June 26

12:00pm	IP MAN (106 min.) - Simon Yam will be at the screening
2:20pm	CRAZY RACER (99 min.) - Huang Bo will be at the screening
4:45pm	EASTERN CONDORS (100 min.) - Sammo Hung will be at the screening
7:30pm	ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW (117 min.) - Simon Yam will be at the screening
10:15pm	KUNG FU CHEFS (91 min.) - Sammo Hung will be at the screening

IFC Center Midnights

12:15am

L.A. STREETFIGHTERS (85 min.)

Sun, June 27

12:00pm	STORM WARRIORS (110 min.) - Simon Yam will be at the screening
2:15pm	BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS (139 min.) - Simon Yam will be at the screening DEVELOPMENT HELL (54 min.)
6:15pm	ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW (117 min.) - Simon Yam will be at the screening
8:45pm	IP MAN 2 (108 min.) - Sammo Hung will be at the screening

Mon, June 28

1:00pm	RAGING PHOENIX (112 min.)
3:45pm	SCANDAL MAKERS (108 min.)
6:15pm	BOYS ON THE RUN (114 min.)
8:45pm	CHAW (121 min.)

Tue, June 29

1:00pm	BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS (139 min.)
4:00pm	SOPHIE'S REVENGE (108 min.)
6:30pm	8000 MILES (79 min.) - idirector Yu Irie will be at the screening
8:45pm	8000 MILES 2: GIRLS RAPPER (95 min.) - director Yu Irie will be at the screening

Wed, June 30

1:15pm	TIAN AN MEN (97 min.)
3:30pm	8000 MILES (79 min.) - director Yu Irie will be at the screening
5:45pm	ANNYONG YUMIKA (120 min.) - director Tetsuaki Matsue will be at the screening
8:00pm	Indie Japan reception (60 min.)
9:00pm	LIVE TAPE (74 min.) - director Tetsuaki Matsue and singer Kenta Maeno will be at the screening, to be followed by a short concert.

Thu, July 1

1:15pm	CHAW (121 min.)
3:45pm	LIVE TAPE (74 min.) - director Tetsuaki Matsue and singer Kenta Maeno will be at the screening, to be followed by a short concert.
7:00pm	LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (95 min.)
9:00pm	STORM WARRIORS (110 min.)

Japan Society

6:45pm	SAWAKO DECIDES (112 min.)
9:00pm	CONFESSIONS (106 min.)

Fri, July 2

1:00pm	YATTERMAN (119 min.)
3:30pm	A LITTLE POND (86 min.)
5:30pm	MISE-EN-SCENE SHORTS - Program #1 (90 min.)
7:30pm	SECRET REUNION (116 min.)
10:00pm	CRAZY RACER (99 min.)

Japan Society

6:15pm	GOLDEN SLUMBER (139 min.)
9:00pm	THE BLOOD OF REBIRTH (83 min.) - director Toshiaki Toyoda will be at the screening
11:00pm	Reception at Japan Society for Toshiaki Toyoda

IFC Center Midnights

12:00am

PINK POWER STRIKES BACK (120 min.) - actress Asami will be at the screening

Sat, July 3

12:00pm	LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (95 min.)
2:10pm	SECRET REUNION (116 min.)
4:40pm	MISE-EN-SCENE SHORTS (90 min.) - director Jo Sung-Hee will be at the screening
7:00pm	ACTRESSES (104 min.) - director E J-yong will be at the screening
9:45pm	SOPHIE'S REVENGE (108 min.)

Japan Society

1:00pm	DEAR DOCTOR (127 min.)
3:45pm	THE BLOOD OF REBIRTH (83 min.) - director Toshiaki Toyoda will be at the screening
6:00pm	ALIEN vs NINJA (85 min.) - actor Masanori Mimoto will be at the screening
	Sushi Typhoon launch by producer Yoshinori Chiba
8:30pm	MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD (85 min.) - directors Noboru Iguchi & Yoshihiro Nishimura will be at the screening
10:30pm	Sushi Typhoon party at Japan Society

IFC Center Midnights

12:00am

POWER KIDS (90 min.)

Sun, July 4

1:00pm	SYMBOL (93 min.)
3:00pm	CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (116 min.) - director Lee Hey-Jun will be at the screening
5:45pm	RED CLIFF UNCUT (288 min.)

Japan Society

12:00pm	BOYS ON THE RUN (114 min.)
2:15pm	CONFESSIONS (106 min.)
4:15pm	DEAR DOCTOR (127 min.)

Anthology Film Archives

6:00pm

THE ANCIENT DOGOO GIRL: MOVIE EDITION (115 min.) with guests

IFC Center Midnights

12:15pm

DEATH KAPPA (79 min.)

Mon, July 5

1:30pm	KUNG FU CHEFS (91 min.)
3:40pm	ACTRESSES (104 min.) - director E. J-Yong will be at the screening
6:00pm	MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD (85 min.) - directors Noboru Iguchi & Yoshihiro Nishimura will be at the screening
8:30pm	DOMAN SEMAN (124 min.) - director Go Shibata and actor Mochi will be at the screening

Tue, July 6

1:15pm	COW (109 min.)
3:45pm	ALIEN VS NINJA (85 min.) - intro by Chiba
6:00pm	GALLANTS (98 min.) - Bruce Leung will be at the screening
8:30pm	GOLDEN SLUMBER (139 min.)

Wed, July 7

1:15pm	SCANDAL MAKERS (108 min.)
3:40pm	SYMBOL (93 min.)
5:45pm	DOMAN SEMAN (124 min.) - director Go Shibata will be at the screening
8:45pm	CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (116 min.) - director Lee Hey-Jun will be at the screening

Thu, July 8

1:45pm	TIAN AN MEN (97 min.)
3:45pm	MERANTAU (106 min.)
6:00pm	GALLANTS (98 min.) - Bruce Leung will be at the screening
8:45pm	BLADES OF BLOOD (110 min.)

THE ECLIPSE -- DVD review by porfle

"Ghost story" and "romance" are two types of films that can certainly be effective if done well.  And, of course, when you combine the two, as the makers of THE ECLIPSE (2009) have done, it can be doubly effective.  But since they didn't do it all that well, it's doubly ineffective.

As a ghost story, it starts out promisingly.  Ciarán Hinds plays Michael Farr, a lonely widower with two kids who helps organize a local literary festival.  Late one night he gets out of bed to glimpse a dark figure lurking around downstairs.  It looks like his elderly father-in-law Malachy, but a phone call to the nursing home reveals that the old man is in his room.  Later, as Michael is driving home on a dark country road one night, a shocking sight scares the bejeepers out of him and almost causes him to crash his car.  A final encounter with the specter, again in his house late at night, gives him (and me) another pretty good jolt. 

That's about it for the ghost story part.  There's a final attempt to scare us, CARRIE-style, late in the film, but it's so lame (and so beneath this film's dignity) that it had me thinking, "Ehh, nice try."  And one more ghostly encounter is played for wistful melancholy that's meant to make us misty-eyed.  These incidents are so isolated amidst the rest of the more mundane stretches of the story that there's no spooky atmosphere maintained, and no build-up to keep us on edge.  The movie doesn't really even seem to want to scare us all that much--I think we're just supposed to contemplate death and mortality and stuff--so those cheap shocks that pop up now and then feel a little out of place.

Meanwhile, there's sort of a half-hearted romance going on when Michael is asked to escort a visiting author, Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), while she's in town for the literary festival.  Lena writes about ghosts, having seen one as a child and experienced the shift in one's perception of reality which follows, and Michael is drawn to her.  Lena senses his feelings and responds, but is dogged by another well-known author, the egocentric boor Nicholas (Aidan Quinn), who wants to dump his current wife for Lena and is jealous of Michael.  After some pointless conflict between the two men, Michael and Lena form the basis for a gentle and mutually reassuring romantic bond.  Which goes nowhere.

THE ECLIPSE (the title is taken from Lena's current bestseller about ghosts) looks very formal and austere and the pace is quite stately.  This works well for such a low-key and unsensational story (save for those jarring shock cuts), with several shots being beautifully composed and much advantage taken of lush Irish locations.  Performances are good--Quinn actually gets to have some fun with his role, especially when he's drunk--and once you've settled into the mood of the film you may begin to anticipate an interesting and satisfying resolution to the events that have been developing since Michael's first ghostly sighting. 

Which is why the final freeze-frame comes as such a letdown.  The ghost story has been allowed to fizzle out to nothing, and the romance hasn't really ignited at all.  We're simply left with the possibility that something might happen later on in the future, now that Michael's uncertain feelings about his wife's death have been somewhat resolved and Lena has made a noncommital commitment to him.  As it turns out, the most insubstantial entity in the whole film is whatever lasting impression we're supposed to get from all this.

The DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment is in 2.00:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 sound.  Subtitles are in Spanish with English closed-captioning.  Extras include the featurettes "Making of The Eclipse" and "HDNet: A Look at The Eclipse."

THE ECLIPSE is pretty to look at, and fairly engrossing as you wait for it to eventually amount to something.  But as a story that's supposed to deliver as both a chiller and a romance, it's wrought so finely and with such subtlety that it's barely there.


Buy it at Amazon.com

Anchor Bay Entertainment presents ABANDONED with Brittany Murphy coming to DVD and Blu-ray August 24th

ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES BRITTANY MURPHY’S FINAL FILM

The Mind Game Begins on Blu-ray™ and DVD August 24, 2010

Beverly Hills, CA – Anchor Bay Entertainment presents the psychological thriller Abandoned on Blu-ray™ and DVD with a SRP of $34.98 (Blu-ray™) and $26.97 (DVD). This dark tale of a woman searching for her boyfriend after he mysteriously vanishes from the hospital marks the last screen appearance by the late actress Brittany Murphy (8 Mile, Sin City, Just Married, Clueless, Girl, Interrupted). It hits stores August 24th.

Abandoned follows Mary Walsh (Murphy) as she delivers boyfriend Kevin (Dean Cain, “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman;” starring in the upcoming Georgia with Val Kilmer and Andy Garcia) to a hospital for a routine outpatient surgery. But when Mary returns to take him home, he is nowhere to be found.  The hospital administrator (Mimi Rogers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery) can’t find any record of him, and a police search turns up nothing.

Increasingly frantic, Mary is taken to a staff psychiatrist, Dr. Bensley (Peter Bogdanovich, “The Sopranos”) who pronounces her unstable.  Now, she must not only find her missing boyfriend, but prove her own sanity. When a stranger informs Mary he knows of Kevin’s whereabouts, but demands a $10 million ransom, Mary realizes that to save herself and the man she loves, she must use any means necessary.

Abandoned is a film that will not be forgotten, nor will the powerful performance of Brittany Murphy.

ABANDONED Blu-ray™
Street Date:               August 24, 2010
Pre-Book:                  July 28, 2010
Catalog #:                  BD21943
UPC #:                       0 1313 21943-9 4
Audio:                         Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Aspect Ratio:             1:78:1 / 16x9
Retail Price:               $34.98
Genre:                        Thriller
Rating:                        Not Rated
Run Time:                   93 minutes
Year:                           2009

ABANDONED DVD
Street Date:               August 24, 2010
Pre-Book:                  July 28, 2010
Catalog #:                  DV21893
UPC #:                       0 1313 21893-9 0
Audio:                         Dolby Surround 5.1
Aspect Ratio:             1:78:1 / 16x9
Retail Price:               $26.97
Genre:                        Thriller
Rating:                        Not Rated
Run Time:                   93 minutes
Year:                           2009

Buy it at Amazon.com:
DVD
Blu-Ray

Science Fiction Horror Thriller "GROWTH" Germinates on DVD Sept. 7th from Anchor Bay Entertainment

"GRIM, BLOODY, AND UNSETTLING...GREAT FILM!" -- Bryn Hammond, GOREZONE MAGAZINE

Beverly Hills , CA – A frightening excursion into science gone haywire, Growth invades homes when Anchor Bay Entertainment releases the shocking film on DVD September 7th. Featuring such genre favorites as Mircea Monroe (the upcoming Tekken), Christopher Shand (“True Blood”), Nora Kirkpatrick (“Greek”), Brian Krause (“Charmed,” Sleepwalkers), Alexi Wasser (Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever),  Ian Patrick Williams (Re-Animator, Superhero Movie) and Richard Riehle (Office Space, Hatchet), Growth promises an unforgettable journey into the next level of terror! SRP is $26.97, and pre-book is August 11th.

Written and directed by Gabriel Cowan (Breathing Room), Growth begins in 1989, when a breakthrough in advanced parasitic research on Kuttyhunk Island gives scientists a jump in human evolution, endowing subjects with heightened physical and mental strength. But, the experiment went horribly wrong, producing a lethal parasite that mysteriously killed off three quarters of the island’s population, with the survivors fleeing for their lives.

Twenty years later, Jamie Akerman ( Monroe ), who lost her mother in the outbreak, returns with her boyfriend (Krause), step-brother and best friend to sell the family property. There, they uncover the key to Jamie’s disturbing past, and the horrifying secrets long suppressed by the town’s leader Larkin (Riehle). When the past seems to be finally buried, a new strain of parasite emerges, and threatens the island once again. They can slither into – or out of – any orifice in the human body. The final step in evolution has begun…

Bonus features on Growth DVD include:

Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Gabriel Cowan and Producer Amiee Clark
Audio Commentary with Actors Mircea Monroe, Christopher Shand, and Nora Kirkpatrick
Growth In Development – Behind the scenes featurette with cast/crew interviews
Korea Online – How Director Gabriel Cowan in Los Angeles directed one scene shot in Seoul , Korea via online camera
Deleted Scenes
Trailer

GROWTH DVD
Street Date:                  September 7, 2010      
Pre-book:                     August 11, 2010
Cat. #:                          DV21855
UPC:                            0 1313 21855-9 10
Run Time:                     90 minutes
Rating:                          Not Rated
SRP:                            $26.97
Format:                        Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio:                          Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                       English SDH

Buy it at Amazon.com.

Carter Stevens' Guide to TCM This Week (June 23-30)

JUNE 23

It must be China's birthday. Every film has something to do with China today.


JUNE 24

11:00pm  Steel Helmet, The (1951)  
Americans trapped behind enemy lines fight off Communists during the Korean War.
Cast: Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards, Richard Loo Dir: Samuel Fuller BW-84 mins, TV-14

Sam Fuller could take a penny and make it look like a dollar on screen. Speilburg could have learned a thing or two about making war films from him.  Tough and gritty just don't do this film justice.

3:45am  Battle Circus (1953)
A doctor fights for his life during the Korean War.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson, Keenan Wynn, Robert Keith Dir: Richard Brooks BW-90 mins, TV-PG

The original M.A.S.H., but in no way a comedy.


JUNE 25

9 more Korean war films.


JUNE 26

5:15am   Perversion For Profit(1965)
This anti-porn documentary shows a floodtide of filth engulfing the country in the form of newsstand obscenity  Cast: George Putnam narrates. BW-31 mins, TV-MA

My very favorite documentary. Notice they never run it except in the very early morning hours. Worth getting up and watching for a good laugh. If your still up from the night before fire up a doobie and enjoy it more.

8:30am  Third Man, The (1949)  
A man's investigation of a friend's death uncovers corruption in post-World War II Vienna.
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard Dir: Carol Reed BW-104 mins, TV-14

Three notes to name that movie and if you can't you are tone deaf.

2:00am  Frances (1982)  
Actress Frances Farmer's mind snaps under the pressures of Hollywood life and a domineering mother.
Cast: Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard, Bart Burns Dir: Graeme Clifford C-140 mins, TV-MA

Jessica Lange proved she could act in this one.


JUNE 27

2:00pm   Annie Get Your Gun (1950)   
Fanciful musical biography of wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Cast: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish Dir: George Sidney C-107 mins, TV-G 

Great music, horrible film. And keep an eye out for that great Irish born Indian J. Carrol Naish.

4:00pm  Plaza Suite (1971) 
A New York hotel room is the setting for three stories of romantic squabbles.
Cast: Walter Matthau, Lee Grant, Barbara Harris, Maureen Stapleton Dir: Arthur Hiller C-114 mins, TV-14

I like Walter Matthau, I really do,  but he is horribly miscast in two of the three acts in this film. I'll let you judge which two.    I have a soft spot for this play as I used to make money directing it for little theater groups before I started doing films.


JUNE 28

1:00am  Brainstorm (1983) 
A scientist battles the military for control of a machine that records sensory experiences-including death.
Cast: Natalie Wood, Christopher Walken, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson Dir: Douglas Trumbull C-106 mins, TV-14

I have a soft spot for this film. Maybe it's because of the guy who loops the porn film and orgasms himself into a nervous breakdown. Now that is a real porn fan.


JUNE 29

4:45am  Loved One, The (1965) 
An Englishman in Hollywood moves into the funeral business.
Cast: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer, Rod Steiger Dir: Tony Richardson BW-121 mins, TV-PG

I love "Black" comedy and this is as dark as they come.  Plus Rod Steiger as Mr. JoyBoy who could resist.

8:00pm  How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (1967)  
With the help of his handy guidebook, a window washer talks his way into the executive suite.
Cast: Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony Teague Dir: David Swift C-121 mins, TV-PG

One of the truly great underrated musicals.

JUNE 30

10:00pm  Bell, Book and Candle (1959) 
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs Dir: Richard Quine C-102 mins, TV-PG

Kim Novak never got the attention she deserved as an actress. I guess that's what happens when you are stunningly beautiful. Ernie Kovacs never got a part worthy of his true genius--I guess that's what happens when you are not.

DON McKAY -- DVD review by porfle

The last thing I want to watch is some lame romantic dramedy, which is what DON McKAY (2009) looked like at first glance.  But just as I'm starting to think that's exactly what it is, something happens from out of the blue that shifts the film into a whole different gear altogether and makes me think, "Well okay, then!"  It's not quite as drastic as the tone shift in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, but it makes all the difference, and suddenly this quirky little dramedy has veered off into the same sort of twisted-noir territory you might find the Coen brothers lurking around in.

Even BLOOD SIMPLE's M. Emmett Walsh is there as Samuel the friendly but nosey old cabbie, who picks up Don at the bus station when he returns to his hometown after 25 years.  Don McKay (Thomas Haden Church), a lonesome high school janitor, just got an unexpected letter from his old girlfriend Sonny (Elisabeth Shue) telling him that she's dying and wants to spend her last days with him.  When he arrives at Sonny's house, her primly birdlike nurse Marie (Melissa Leo) seems predisposed to dislike him, as does Sonny's physician, Dr. Pryce (James Rebhorn), who acts resentful of Don's presence.  Sonny herself is so clinging and needful of Don that she hardly seems like the same person, and when she mentions marriage, he's nonplussed. 

That's just around the time that the thing happens, which I'd rather not reveal (and you might want to skip this paragraph if you haven't seen it), but it all starts with Don's allergic reaction to a bee sting during an unpleasant encounter that results in a bloody shirt he has to dispose of and a dead body in the backyard, which he must enlist his old friend Otis (Keith David) to help him get rid of.  Except when they go back for it, it's gone.  Don begins to doubt his own sanity when Sonny claims to have just spoken to the person the next day, and gets really nervous when Marie starts needling him with a wry "I know what you did" attitude.  But things get even weirder when people suddenly start to not be who they are, or be who they aren't, and blackmail him, and try to kill him, and start killing each other and blaming him for it, and doing all sorts of stuff that just plain puzzles Don.

The payoff of all this is the climactic kitchen scene, where all the main characters converge in a series of twists and turns and revelations that pop like a string of firecrackers.  Elisabeth Shue is dazzling to watch as her character, whom we've been trying to figure out the whole time, comes unwound in all directions while everyone else struggles to keep up with it all.  The tongue-in-cheek nature of Jake Goldberger's deviously clever script blends perfectly with the more traditional noir elements, and no matter how outrageous things get it never feels like a put-on.  The humor is so dry, it's almost dried-out.

Thomas Haden Church plays Don almost as though he were a close relative to the Coens' THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, except that in his own quiet, soulful way, he is there.  As we begin to root for this poor, unassuming shlub to somehow extricate himself from the mess his lonely heart has led him into, the character he resembles the most after all is Buster Keaton.  But while Buster's deadpan passivity masked a keen resourcefulness and will to survive, Don is always a confused half-step behind the incomprehensible events of his current situation, wielding his own common decency and stunned cluelessness as a fragile shield against the whirlwind of uncertain fate that seems to surround Sonny.

The film boasts above-average photography and Goldberger's direction is solid.  Besides the two leads, Melissa Leo ("Homicide: Life on the Street", RIGHTEOUS KILL) is a joy to watch as Marie, especially when her true colors emerge, and Pruitt Taylor Vance is fun as always in the role of Mel, another key player in whatever's going on that I'd rather not give away.  M. Emmett Walsh and Keith David offer their usual fine support in smaller roles.

The DVD from Image Entertainment is in 1.78:1 widescreen and Dolby 5.1 sound, with English and Spanish subtitles.  Extras include a talky, genial commentary with director Goldberger and producer Jim Young, about five minutes of deleted scenes, and a ridiculously overwrought trailer that makes this look like a dark, dead-serious thriller.

Speaking of the trailer, don't watch it before you see the movie.  In fact, don't read the DVD box, either, and whatever you do, don't read this review.  (Whoops...)  DON McKAY is a film best seen without any preconceptions except for those mistaken ones I mentioned before.  That way, you get so much more than you expected.


Buy it at Amazon.com:
Don McKay
Don McKay [Blu-ray]

EYEBORGS -- DVD review by porfle

If you throw a bunch of elements from different sci-fi movies into the pot and stir, the result is often one big gooey glop.  But sometimes, as in the case of the rousing sci-fi thriller EYEBORGS (2009), you luck out and get something that's not only watchable, but quite entertaining as well.

The opening exposition is like one of those public service announcements from STARSHIP TROOPERS, explaining that in the near future, thanks to the Freedom of Observation Act, the citizens of the USA are being watched over 24 hours a day by Homeland Security's ubiquitous new robot sentinels known as "eyeborgs."  These come in various sizes such as the smaller "crab" model (basically a big eyeball with legs), the larger and more formidable "spider" model (which can perform other useful robotic functions as well), and, as we discover later in the story, some deluxe models that can be downright militant and hostile.  Needless to say, the specter of Orwell's 1984 is invoked along with the cheerful compliance of a complacent citizenry with their own subjugation as also seen in STARSHIP TROOPERS.

Of course, this all-encompassing surveillance network is a big boon to the police until Detective R.J. "Gunner" Reynolds (Adrian Paul) and TV news reporter Barbara Hawkins (Megan Blake) start to uncover evidence that certain eyeborg recordings have actually been faked.  But by whom--if not the Skynet-like central computer system itself?  Meanwhile, a really bad punk-metal rocker named Jarett Hewes (Luke Eberl) is the victim of an assassination attempt on the eve of performing at a ball for his uncle, the President.  Anti-government terrorists are blamed, but Gunner begins to suspect a deeper and even more insidious conspiracy.  Trouble is, whenever he or anyone else gets too close to the truth, the eyeborgs show up in kill-mode.

The eyeborgs are reminiscent of robots from several other movies, chiefly that big bad law-enforcement unit from ROBOCOP.  The crabs resemble little mini-droids and sneak around furtively like those spidery things that menaced Tom Cruise in MINORITY REPORT.   The larger bipedal kill-bots are like a cross between ATTACK OF THE CLONES' General Grievous and the great Maximillian from THE BLACK HOLE, while some of the other battle models are akin to those in TERMINATOR 3.  All are rendered as well as the CGI budget for the film allowed and are generally pretty convincing, except that the crab-bots move too fluidly for rigid metal devices.  Then again, one of the bad things about CGI is that everything is often made to move too darn fluidly in order to show off how fluid CGI is.

The script is rife with jabs at the Bush administration and other in-jokes.  In a society where tobacco is now outlawed and sold by shadowy street dealers like weed, our hero's name is R.J. Reynolds and one of the TV newscasters is named Winston Salem (two others are named Romero and Coppola).  The political leanings of the screenwriters seem fairly obvious when we hear references to numerous Gulf Wars and the invasions of various small countries (ostensibly due to terrorist ties) which are described as "oil-rich."  The president, as you might guess, is rumored to have stolen the election due to voting fraud. 

The story is kept interesting by the detective work of Gunner and Hawkins as they begin to uncover the real cause of a number of horrific deaths despite faked eyeborg tapes.  A cameraman for Hawkins comes up with solid evidence of this and is on his way to give it to her when his van is attacked (shades of SILKWOOD) by spider-bots.  Venerable Danny Trejo (MACHETE), as guitar repairman G-Man, gets a visit from the mechanical monsters in his workshop and has to avoid getting drilled for information.  All of this leads up to what seems to be an attempt by someone to assassinate the president himself during a televised speech, with Gunner making like Eastwood in IN THE LINE OF FIRE and then fighting off the baddest eyeborgs of all, ALIENS-style, with the help of a SWAT team.  In the middle of all this, there's a nifty twist or two that I didn't see coming.

The DVD from Image Entertainment is in 2.35:1 widescreen and Dolby 5.1 surround, with English and Spanish subtitles.  Extras include about half an hour of "making of" featurettes, several deleted scenes, and a trailer.

With some cool stuntwork, exciting action scenes, not-bad CGI (mostly), a good cast, and a suspenseful story, EYEBORGS is low-key B-movie fun--as long as you take into consideration the fact that it was neither directed nor funded by James Cameron.


Buy it at Amazon.com
DVD
Blu-Ray

BROOKLYN'S FINEST -- DVD review by porfle

BROOKLYN'S FINEST (2010) turns the old cliche' about the veteran cop who's retiring in three days on its ear--this time, he's retiring in seven days.  Fortunately, that's not the only difference, as we soon discover in this riveting tale of three cops who know all too well that it isn't easy being the good guys. 

Richard Gere is gradually getting more interesting to watch as he gets older.  His "Eddie Dugan" character is a burnt-out cop who greets each morning by sitting bolt upright out of a nightmare, swilling a shot of booze, and playing Russian roulette.  The rookie cops he's paired with are shocked by his apathy and seeming disregard for the violence and victimization going on all around them as they patrol the mean streets of Brooklyn.  Gere, now a more seasoned actor who manages to play tired and old even though he still retains that matinee idol veneer, portrays Eddie as someone who's simply been numbed past the point of caring until something happens to restore a spark of compassion and give him a chance to redeem himself. 

His story is intertwined with those of two other cops who are also reaching the end of their ropes.  Bursting with a frantic intensity, Ethan Hawke reminds me of a young Mickey Rourke as Sal, a narcotics cop whose obsession with giving his family a better life has driven him to kill drug dealers and avail himself of their stacks of money he could never earn honestly.  On the other end of this vicious cycle is Don Cheadle (one of my favorite actors who has that deep-seated look of inner suffering down pat) as Tango, an undercover cop doing a Donnie Brasco inside the cutthroat mob of drug kingpin Caz (Wesley Snipes) and finding himself becoming more sympathetic to Caz and hostile toward his fellow cops as the months and years drag on.

The deft intercutting of these three storylines throughout the film, as each forges its way inexorably toward potential disaster, often gives it the feeling of a pressure cooker ready to blow any minute.  We care about these guys and want things to work out for them, but an edgy sense of dread kicks in from the very start and makes it obvious that there are going to be some fatalities before the whole thing's over.  One sequence in particular, which occurs about midway through the film, has the urgency of a lit fuse slowly burning its way toward detonation.  More than most cop films I've seen, this one has the tension of a war movie. 

Director Antoine Fuqua (TRAINING DAY) captures the dark, gritty realism of both the inner city drug trade at its most ruthless and the desperation of underpaid, beleagered cops on the front lines.  Michael C. Martin's taut screenplay explores the moral and spiritual turmoil of the three main characters as their pressing personal concerns blur the line between right and wrong.  Location shooting in Brooklyn and the use of local inhabitants as extras adds to the atmosphere.

The excellent supporting cast includes Lili Taylor as Sal's pregnant wife Angie, Will Patton (another fave of mine) as a police official forever stringing Tango along, and Shannon Kane as a beautiful, sympathetic prostitute who helps Eddie pretend that he has a love life.  As special agent Smith, a snarling harpy who threatens to destroy Tango if he doesn't straighten up and fly right, Ellen Barkin gives us a wonderfully vile update of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE's Rosa Klebb.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1, with English and Spanish subtitles.  Extras include a detailed, scene-specific director's commentary, four "making-of" featurettes, over half an hour's worth of deleted scenes, and trailers for this and other Anchor Bay releases. 

As it turns out, none of these three cop stories on their own are all that fully developed, some heading straight toward conclusions that have a resigned inevitability.  One, however, is upbeat enough to keep BROOKLYN'S FINEST from being a total, dispiriting wallow in pessimism, and together they add up to an exciting and compelling narrative. 


Buy it at Amazon.com:
Brooklyn's Finest
Brooklyn's Finest [Blu-ray]

THE CRAZIES -- DVD review by porfle

Executive producer George Romero's 2010 remake of his 1973 classic THE CRAZIES is tinged with the usual political undertones that he's known for, but that stuff doesn't really mean all that much to me.  (The government sometimes does secret bad things?  Get outta here.  DAWN OF THE DEAD is a wicked jab at consumerism?  Jeepers.)  What interests me is the fact that, in addition to being an effective horror movie with lots of cool makeup FX and gore, THE CRAZIES redux is also a cracking good action-suspense flick.

In an opening that's almost as picture-perfect as the first minutes of BLUE VELVET, we see the idyllic small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa on the opening day of the high school baseball season.  As young sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, HITMAN) and his lanky deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) enjoy the game, they notice something amiss--a rumpled, dazed-looking man with a shotgun has just wandered onto the field.  It's an old acquaintance, Rory Hamill, but it seems he isn't himself today.  And when he levels the shotgun at them, David has to put him down like a dog right there on the pitcher's mound. 

Elsewhere in town, in a scene right out of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, David's wife Dr. Judy Dutton (Radha Mitchell, PITCH BLACK, SILENT HILL) is examining a man whose worried wife claims he "isn't himself."  Later that night he'll prove it by burning down their house with her and their son Nicholas in it.  David and Russell investigate the growing epidemic of savage homicides and discover a crashed airplane in a lake that supplies the town's drinking water, surmising that its cargo must've contained some kind of mind-altering chemicals.

Sure enough, their town soon gets locked down by scary military types in hazmat suits and people start getting executed and incinerated.  With dozens of bloodthirsty crazies running around and armed soldiers shooting anything that moves, the unaffected characters decide it's time to get the hell out of Dodge.  But will they make it?

The story does a good job of building tension with the initial incidents of irrational murder, some being committed by characters (the school principal, the medical examiner) we already know to be normal, everyday shlubs.  As the mayhem escalates, so does the fear factor, with some pretty good jump scares here and there and some rather grisly sights such as a man with his mouth and eyelids sewn shut.  The worst of the crazies is a trio of hunters who take advantage of their wonderful new lack of inhibitions to engage in a full-scale people hunt in which they bag more than their limit. 

The film begins to resemble Stephen King's THE STAND when the military moves in and starts rounding up the citizenry, holding them in pens at the high school and restraining those who display any possible signs of infection.  One of the most nerve-wracking scenes occurs when Judy,  her teenage assistant Becca (Danielle Panabaker), and several others are strapped to gurneys when one of their former neighbors wanders in with a pitchfork and starts ventilating them.  David has his own problems when the medical examiner attacks him with an electric bone saw and comes close to giving him a humdinger of a circumcision.

One suspenseful setpiece follows another as David, Judy, Russell, and Becca set off on foot to try and reach the safety of a truck stop where they believe the town's unaffected citizens are being protected.  Procuring an old patrol car at the Dutton home (where they run into the vengeful survivors of the Hamill clan), they flee from a passing helicopter by ducking into a car wash where the service is to die for.  And as if that weren't enough, things get even more complicated when one of their group slowly begins to get a little...crazed.

Impressive direction by Breck Eisner and some beautiful camerawork, which makes the most of some panoramic vistas in Iowa and Georgia, highlight the film's impeccable production values.  The story is simple, straightforward, and fast-paced, slowing down only a bit in the second half before the survivors reach the truck stop where the final desperate battle against the worst of the crazies takes place.  But the film has one last trick up its sleeve after that, with a slam-bang finale boasting some dazzling CGI and edge-of-your-seat excitement. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby 5.1 sound, with English and Spanish subtitles.  Extras include a director's commentary, three making-of featurettes, a look at Rob Hall's grisly makeup effects, two chapters of "The Crazies" motion comic, a step-by-step demonstration of how some of the CGI visuals were done, trailers, a photo gallery, and a couple of DVD-rom features.  (There's also a three-part Easter egg, so happy hunting.)

Come for the horror, stay for the action and suspense, and let THE CRAZIES entertain you as much as it did me.  Or not...I'm aware that there are people who don't like this movie.  But who knows?  They may be...crazies!

Buy it at Amazon.com
DVD
Blu-Ray

Carter Stevens' Guide to TCM This Week (June 15-22)

JUNE 15 (actually June 16 but who's counting)

12:00am  Ride The High Country (1962)   
Two aging gunslingers sign on to transport gold from a remote mining town.
Cast: Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley, Ron Starr Dir: Sam Peckinpah C-94 mins, TV-PG

Sam Peckenpah in a mellow mood. Nowhere near The Wild Bunch but every inch a classic western.

2:00am  Shootist, The (1976)  
A dying gunfighter tries to set his affairs in order.
Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart Dir: Don Siegel C-99 mins, TV-14

John Wayne's last and to my mind greatest role. (ok it's a toss up between this and True Grit)


JUNE 16

8:00am  Night And Day (1946)   
Fanciful biography of songwriter Cole Porter, who rose from high society to find success on Tin Pan Alley.
Cast: Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Monty Woolley, Ginny Simms Dir: Michael Curtiz C-128 mins, TV-G

OK let's be honest this film is more like a fictional tale about some guy with the same name but it still is chuck full of the real Cole Porter's music.

8:00pm   In Cold Blood(1967)  Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker.
Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart Dir: Richard Brooks BW-134 mins, TV-14
   
10:30pm  10 Rillington Place (1971)  A serial killer frames a mentally challenged man.
Cast: Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat Heywood Dir: Richard Fleischer C-111 mins, TV-14
  
12:30am   He Walked By Night(1948)   After killing a cop, a burglar fights to evade the police.
Cast: Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts, Whit Bissell Dir: Alfred Werker BW-79 mins, TV-14
 
2:00am  Onion Field, The (1979)  When his partner is killed by a disturbed ex-con, a policeman struggles to regain his confidence.
Cast: John Savage, James Woods, Franklyn Seales, Ted Danson Dir: Harold Becker C-126 mins, TV-MA

A FULL  night of true crime dramas, each one better than the other. Don't miss any of them


JUNE 17

11:30pm  Picture Snatcher (1933)   
An ex-con brings his crooked ways to a job as a news photographer.
Cast: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis, Alice White Dir: Lloyd Bacon BW-77 mins, TV-PG  

Don't know it, never seen it but it's James Cagney and it sounds interesting.

1:00am  Sunrise At Campobello (1960)   
After a bout with polio, future president Franklin Roosevelt fights to save his political career.
Cast: Zina Bethune, Tim Considine, Alan Bunce, Ann Shoemaker Dir: Vincent J. Donehue C-144 mins, TV-G

I saw this on Broadway and I'll watch it again and again. My only question is how can you leave  Ralph Bellamy's name off the credit listing when the entire film is his tour de force as FDR??  


JUNE 18

3:45am  Watermelon Man (1970)  
A bigoted man comes to see the many sides of racism.
Cast: Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D'Urville Martin Dir: Melvin Van Peebles C-100 mins, TV-MA

Why didn't Godfrey Cambridge become as big as Bill Cosby??  His films were a lot better.


JUNE 19

3:00pm  Ice Station Zebra (1968)   
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship.
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown Dir: John Sturges C-152 mins, TV-PG   

OK it was  better in the  theaters in Cinerama but still it's got THE secret agent man, Patrick McGoohan.

5:45pm  Wind And The Lion, The (1975)   
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, John Huston Dir: John Milius C-119 mins, TV-MA

Based on a real life incident, only problem is that the kidnapped American in real life was a man. Kind of changes things doesn't. But who can resist an Arab chieftain with a Scottish  accent.   


JUNE 20

8:00pm  To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)   
A young girl grows up fast when her lawyer father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.
Cast: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy Dir: Robert Mulligan BW-129 mins, TV-PG

Stand up Scout, your daddy is passing.  OK, be honest, who didn't secretly wish Gregory Peck was their father. There are those who say the book is better but I disagree, nothing is better than this movie.


JUNE 21

8:00pm  West Side Story (1961) 
A young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love.
Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno Dir: Jerome Robbins C-152 mins, TV-PG

What can you say besides  the Music of  Leonard Bernstein and the greatest dance numbers ever put on film.


JUNE 22

5:30pm   Mister Roberts(1955) 
A naval officer longing for active duty clashes with his vainglorious captain.
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon Dir: John Ford C-121 mins, TV-PG
Top notch comedy with just enough pathos thrown in to make it a timeless classic. Cagney plays it so broad chewing the scenery isn't enough of a description, more like chews up the whole damn boat, but it fits, it fits.

10:15pm  Buck Privates (1941)   
Two small-time con artists enlist in the Army to avoid the police.
Cast: Lee Bowman, Alan Curtis, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello Dir: Arthur Lubin BW-84 mins, TV-G

Abbot and Costello plus Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne doing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.  What more could you want??

SLEEPING DOGS LIE -- movie review by porfle

"My name is Amy. And yes, at college...I blew my dog."
  
Welcome to SLEEPING DOGS LIE, aka STAY (2006), comedian "Bobcat" Goldthwait's second feature film as writer-director. (In addition to SHAKES THE CLOWN he also directed a TV-movie called WINDY CITY HEAT.) In an age when just about any comedy subject is acceptable and the limits of crudity and perverseness lie only in the screenwriter's imagination, I went into this movie expecting Wayans Brothers-style cheap laughs and a gross-out factor of ANIMAL HOUSE times ten. What I didn't expect from the Bobcat was to see a seriocomic story told with incredible finesse, with equal parts hilarity and sensitivity.

"How," you might ask, "could a movie about a girl who blows her dog have any 'serio' mixed in with the 'comic'?" Bobcat accomplishes this by keeping his characters, dialogue, and situations completely straight. There are no pratfalls, nobody does any schtick, and the script contains little or nothing that is so overtly jokey that it couldn't be said or done in real life. In fact, this story could've been slightly altered to make it a totally straightforward romantic dramedy--in other words, the standard "chick flick"--with, of course, the omission of any reference to...you know. The characters are so beautifully deadpan (and played by a uniformly excellent cast) that when the situation suddenly veers from funny to tragic, there's no jarring transition whatsoever in their behavior or the overall tone of the story.

And yet, right in the middle of all this relative normalcy, the inescapable premise of Amy blowing her dog sits like an elephant at a tea party, which is what gives the film its ability to explore a comic territory full of sublime sublety, far from the standard, mindless frat house frolic. "It" happens right in the first scene--no THE SIXTH SENSE spoiler here--as we see typical, well-adjusted college girl Amy (familiar TV actress Melinda Page Hamilton in a very winning performance) reading a book in her dorm room one night, when suddenly, from out of nowhere, she acts upon a silly whim and administers oral sex (offscreen) to her dog. She regrets it immediately, but now that the deed is done, she is saddled with a really, really dark secret that she can never, ever tell anyone. Ever.

Of course, years later, she has a perfect relationship with a perfect boyfriend, John (Bryce Johnson), and one night after some perfect sex they start talking about how perfect it would be if they were perfectly honest with each other in every way. He sheepishly confesses to her about the first time he ever masturbated, and she tells him--that she once had lesbian sex with a friend (she didn't). He's suitably "shocked", though titillated.

They travel to her parents' house for the weekend, planning to announce their engagement. Dad (Geoff Pierson) is an intimidating, straight-arrow type who will definitely be difficult for John to impress, and Mom (Bonita Friedericy) is a loveable flake who giddily harbors a few secrets of her own. Things get off to an awkward start and for awhile it looks like Goldthwait has gone to all this trouble just to dish up a lame rehash of MEET THE PARENTS with a little canine fellatio thrown in to spice things up. But nothing of such a farcical nature occurs--no "I have nipples, Greg...can you milk me?" or hilariously destructive slapstick of any kind.

So, the dark spectre of Amy's impulsive doggy blowjob hangs heavily over this bland, suburban milieu like the sword of Damocles, just waiting to be let loose to wreak havoc. As, of course, it eventually does when Amy's ne'er-do-well, meth-frazzled brother Dougie (the ubiquitous Jack Plotnick, whom I will always remember as Slim Organbody on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien") maliciously lets the dog out of the bag at breakfast one morning ("Amy blew a dog") and Amy's life comes crashing down around her.

When her relationship with John eventually goes to the dogs (sorry), she finds comfort in the arms of her good friend Ed (Colby French), a terminally-nice fellow schoolteacher whose marriage is on the rocks. Just as they begin to grow closer, though, the most serio-serious thing in the story happens, something that threatens to steer it straight from pathos to bathos. But what it actually does is to give this film a level of emotional richness that is genuinely surprising, and beautifully handled.

When I finally stopped expecting SLEEPING DOGS LIE to be a non-stop dirty joke and figured out what gear to watch it in, it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable movies I've ever seen. The closest thing I can compare it to would be something from Albert Brooks, yet here, to my great surprise, Bob Goldthwait's humor is drier, more deadpan, and invested with more heartfelt emotion than even Brooks normally displays. Much of it is even--dare I say it--"sweet." In some scenes, bursts of hilarity are so skillfully juxtaposed with drama and pain that I kept waiting for the whole thing to fall apart at any moment--but Goldthwait manages to maintain this precarious balancing act right up to the fade-out, which I found distinctly impressive. One thing's for sure, I'll never look at the Bobcat--or dogs--the same way again.

In one of my favorite moments, Amy desperately seeks forgiveness from her mother before she and John leave. But her mother turns away from her formerly-perfect daughter and says, with quiet sorrow: "This is the first time...since the day you were born...that I'm ashamed to be your mother." Amy rushes from the room and collapses against a wall as jaunty piano music fades in from the soundtrack, and at the precise instant that her face contorts into the most extreme expression of inutterable heartbreak imaginable, Louis Prima suddenly bursts forth with: "When you're smilin'! When you're smilin! The whole world smiles with you!" Perfect.

Buy it at Amazon.com

Well Go USA Announces the Award-Winning War Film "9TH COMPANY" Coming to DVD and Blu-ray August 31st

“’9th Company,’ Russia’s top grosser has been touted as the first major film attempt to do for the Afghan war what ‘Platoon’ and other pics did for Vietnam.” -- Variety

WELL GO USA PRESENTS THE AWARD-WINNING VISION OF THE AFGHANISTAN WAR – THE FIRST TIME


Plano, TX – The Soviet Afghanistan conflict started in 1979. Ten years and 14,000 casualties later, the conflict formally ended, and soon thereafter so did the Soviet Union itself. However, for the thousands of soldiers who entered a mountainous country that has successfully fought off invaders for centuries, they would come face-to-face with not only an inscrutable –and seemingly indestructible – enemy, but also with the despairing realization that everything they fought for was slowly crumbling around them.

Winner of the “Nika,” Russia ’s equivalent of the Oscars, for Best Picture and an Academy-Award Selection for Best Foreign Film, Well Go USA proudly announces the August 31st North American release of 9th Company, available on both DVD and Blu-ray™ as Standard and Collector’s editions. The first important war film released since this year’s Oscar®-winning The Hurt Locker, 9th Company will be presented in the original Russian-language version, along with a newly created English dubbed soundtrack. Pre-order is July 27th.

"We are pleased to be able to finally bring the U.S. audience 9th Company," commented Tony Vandeveerdonk, EVP of Well Go USA. "The relevance of 9th Company to today’s  Afghanistan  war conflict is high. We think film fans and DVD consumers alike will want to see and experience this award winning movie".

Featuring the directorial debut of Bondarchuk, son of the legendary Russian film director Sergei Bondarchuk (1967’s War and Peace), 9th Company is an epic war film in the truest sense. Many reviewers have compared it to such American war film classics as Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and Platoon.

From its all-star Russian cast, to intimate moments of male friendship contrasted against intense, epic battle scenes, 9th Company is an unforgettable reminder that life may be shared…but every death remains an individual one.

Bonus features on 9th Company Collector’s Edition DVD and Blu-ray™ include:

Brand new English language dub (available on both Standard and Collector’s)
Deleted Scenes
Director and crew interviews
Historical interviews accounting the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict
Theatrical trailer

For more information and to join fans in discussing the film, please visit www.facebook.com/9thCompany.

WELL GO USA, INC. (www.wellgousa.com) specializes in the acquisition and distribution of entertainment programs in the video, television and digital market throughout North American and South East Asia . Since 1993, Well Go has acquired and released hundreds of films and programs across all genres and continues to be a leader in film distribution by offering diversified and unique programs in a variety of formats.

9TH COMPANY COLLECTOR’S EDITION DVD
Genre:                         War
Rating:                          Not Rated
Languages:                   Russian with English subtitles
                                    Brand new English language dub
Format:                        Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio:                          Dolby Digital 5.1
Year:                            2005
SRP :                            $29.98
Street Date:                  August 31, 2010
Pre-order Date:            July 27, 2010  
Length:                         134 minutes + Bonus
UPC :                            812491011584
Cat#:                            WGU01158D

9TH COMPANY COLLECTOR’S EDITION BLU-RAY
Genre:                         War
Rating:                          Not Rated
Language:                     Russian with English subtitles
                                    Brand new English language dub
Format:                        Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) 1080p
Audio:                          DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Year:                            2005
SRP :                            $32.98
Street Date:                  August 31, 2010
Pre-book Date:            July 27, 2010
Length:                         134 minutes + Bonus
UPC :                            812491011591
Cat#:                            WGU01158B

9TH COMPANY STANDARD EDITION DVD (Movie only)
Genre:                          War
Rating:                          Not Rated
Languages:                   Russian with English subtitles
                                    Brand new English language dub
Format:                        Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio:                          Dolby Digital 5.1
Year:                            2005
SRP :                            $24.98
Street Date:                  August 31, 2010
Pre-order Date:            July 27, 2010  
Length:                         134 minutes
UPC :                            812491011478
Cat#:                            WGU01147D

9TH COMPANY STANDARD EDITION BLU-RAY (Movie only)
Genre:                          War
Rating:                          Not Rated
Language:                     Russian with English subtitles
                                    Brand new English language dub
Format:                        Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) 1080p
Audio:                          DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Year:                            2005
SRP :                            $26.98
Street Date:                  August 31, 2010
Pre-book Date:            July 27, 2010
Length:                         134 minutes
UPC :                            812491011485
Cat#:                            WGU01148B

9th Company
9th Company (Collector's Edition)
9th Company (Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]