VHS Labels i love - IFS



Hello Folks,
Jonny T here back with the third part of my VHS Labels i love, this time i shall be sharing my memories of the truly great label Iver Film Services, now my 1st memory of this label comes from when we had our local video shop on top of the Carlton road in Nottingham where i live called "Carlton Cine and Video" that was a truly great great shop, What happened was when i was about 13 i was off school sick with glandular fever so was off for quite a while, around 6 weeks as i recall. i used to take a daily walk with my mum up to Carlton hill and whilst i left my mum shopping i would first go into a shop called Grannies Attic that was basically a junk shop(now an estate agents) and buy random Air fix plastic soldiers for around 10p a soldier, then as my mum used to take ages talking to people she knew and passing away the morning with idle chit chat she would give me my dads video rental card( basically a hand written"Carlton Cine and Video" laminated plastic card) and after Grannies Attic i would go straight next door and stand and look in the window at the latest posters as you couldn't really see into the shop, the window was just a mass of posters, i remember seeing one for Apocalypse Now and thinking i gotta see that!
So, I entered the shop, and there behind the counter was the owner, Ken his name was and i still see him now, he owns a Tobacco shop in town, never spoken to him though i have always though i may do one day and if i ever do i will let you all know what he say, he still looks the same today! And also on the subject of the posters with me obviously as i said going in everyday except Sunday as he was shut, it got to the point where he would save me the old posters, he used to just roll them up and put about 9 elastic bands around them and i would take them home never really knowing what i would have until i revealed them all to my mum by spreading them all over the living room floor, oh man i wish i still had those posters!!



So onto Iver, my very 1st contact with this label was a film called "Pigs" i remember seeing it in the horror section, the cover (below) depicts what looks like a pigs severed head and the pig appears to be smiling, i thought "I'm having that!" so i did, i honest can't remember what the film was like, probably dreadful but as with other labels i went back and looked again for some video covers with the little gold Oscar man in the bottom corner.So i went on top discover Captain Kronos, made by a studio i had never heard of called Hammer, wow that film was great, Me and my mum went to town the next day and nipped in WH Smith and she brought me a book on Hammer films, thanks to Iver i had discovered Hammer!



The one Iver film that eluded me for years was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, although Ken did have it my mum had a word with him and a i said in a previous post it was one of those that i was never allowed to rent, i remember standing there every time i went in and that cover drew my attention straight away, Leatherface literally taunted me for years.Now that particular Iver film still goes for a hell of a lot of money, there were 2 covers and i think it's the black, red and white one that fetches top dollar.
More Iver films i remember were films such as the classic British movie Tower of Evil,The insane cover of The Black Gestapo, Bloody Birthday, Venom, and the shocking covers of Torso and Night of the Bloody apes!
So there you go people, one person i would like to thank, is a Twitter Friend of mine, the one and only.... VIVAVHS aka Mr Dale Lloyd, i have spoken with him on numerous occasions and he lives here in the Midlands and is still to this day an Avid VHS collector, firstly i would like to thank him for taking the time to go through his collection and scan me some images of IFS Movies and i would ask if you click the link below to take a little time to go visit his great site, full of VHS, great stories and amazing memory Inducing photo's, Thanks Dale!

VIVA VHS OFFICIAL SITE.

http://dalelloyd.com/

So until next time i shall leave you with some images and you never know, i may just drop in and see good old Ken of the legendary (in my head anyway) Carlton Cine and Video (now a cafe, blah!!)

Jonny T.

IVER FILM SERVICES VHS COVERS.

The Reverend-Comes to theatres August 3rd.

Hello Folks,
Jonny T here with some news of a great British horror flick brought to you by  METRODOME "The Reverend" coming on August 3rd to a Cinema near you! Starring non other Than Stuart Brennan, Shane Richie,  Emily Booth and cult acting legends Rutger Hauer and Pinhead Himself Doug Bradley. I have stuck the plot and some stills below so watch this space for a Review and DVD release date updates coming soon!
Enjoy,
Jonny T.

THE REVEREND

 “A phenomenal new take on the vampire film” SCREAM Magazine

 Fresh from seminary school, a new Reverend arrives at his first parish; a small chapel in an apparently idyllic country village.  But something sinister lurks beneath the surface, and late one night it comes to his door in the guise of a frightened little girl… Waking the next morning with a bloody bite, insatiable hunger and no sign of the girl; The Reverend sets out on his mission. With striking visuals from one of Britain's rising directors and a stellar cast of horror legends (Rutger Hauer) and Brit heroes (Shane Richie, Tammar Hassan), packed with action sequences, gore, Vampires and chicks and an original story loosely based on the Biblical book of Job; The Reverend promises to leave you thirsty for more









Let The Bullets Fly-Comes to DVD!

Hello Folks,
Jonny T here with news of another great release from Metrodome the great looking Let The Bullets fly, From Director Wen Jiang who Directed one of my all time favourite Asian films Devil's on the Doorstep and featuring the legend of Asian Cinema Chow Yun-Fat and with a high IMDB Rating this looks sure to be one of the highlight Asian Cinema releases of the year, more and a review coming soon, watch this space.
Jonny T.

LET THE BULLETS FLY Starring Jiang Wen, Ge You and Chow Yun-Fat

In lawless1920’s rural China, legendary bandit “Pocky” Zhang (Jiang Wen) and his gang stage a train robbery. Shocked to discover that, instead of silver, the only thing left on the train is the con man Tang (Ge You). Desperate, Tang explains that he’s on his way to Goose Town, where he’s bought himself a governorship. If allowed to live, he will help Zhang assume the governorship in his place… where Zhang can make more money in a month as a corrupt politician than he can in a year’s worth of train robberies.  But neither realises that Goose Town is already under the iron rule of the wealthy Master Huang (Chow Yun Fat, The Killer, Hard Boiled), whose charming exterior conceals a ruthless, conniving crime-lord.

Thus begins an escalating series of hyper-violent (and hilarious) mind games between the bandit and the crime lord, while the devious Tang tries to play both sides until he can exit the situation…preferably with a profit. The stakes quickly rise to ludicrous proportions in this masterfully vicious, pitch-black action-comedy (China’s highest grossing film of all time), and you’ll be laughing the entire time as double- and triple-crosses, razor-sharp wordplay, and hundreds of thousands of bullets explode across
the screen.

 DVD Release date: 27th August





Hansel And Gretel-UK BLU-RAY Review.

Hansel and Gretel (Henjel gwa Geuretel) Korea 2007.

Directed by-Pil-Sung Yim

Stars:Jeong-myeong Cheon, Young-nam Jang and Ji-hee Jin

Psynopsis-

After meeting an mysterious girl on an dark stretch of road, a young salesman is invited to a beautiful house with bizarre secrets and no way to escape.

Hello folks,

Jonny T here bringing you my review and thoughts on Hansel and Gretel UK Blu-Ray release from Terracotta Distribution. Well before i start i must say this film is in my top ten, yes it is in my opinion truly great! I already own this on DVD but was very excited to see it was finally getting a release on Blu-Ray, The main reason i was so looking forward to seeing it on Blu-Ray is because it is visually stunning, it has been compared in imagery to a lot of Del Toro's work, mainly Pans Labyrinth and it is easy to see why this comparison has been draw,Director Pil-Sung Yim pulls off some truly stunning visuals/camera angles and whilst watching this Blu-Ray release you really do notice every shadow/colour, a particular favourite of mine is the scene where they have a tea party, the table is full of cakes and sweets and every colour of the rainbow is show in ultra brite HD, amazing.



The scene i mention is also the main turning point of the movie, at first the injured Eun-Soo appears to have been taken in by a really nice, homely sort of family that appear to be doing everything they can to help him, but with the mention of something relating to "The Mother" the change of expression upon the children's face is truly creepy, the film moves along and a great steady pace with twists and turns, for example when he asks to use the home phone as his mobile has no signal the just say they are waiting for it to be repaired, he senses something is not quite right and tries to escape but after wondering around the woods he just seems to go full circle and always ends up back at the house, greeted again by the seeming  happy smiling perfect family, The Parents of the family say the have to go on a trip and will be back very shortly and ask Eun-Soo if he wouldn't mind babysitting for a while and because of there seemingly harmless generosity he agrees to do so, needless to say the parents do not return when they say they will, the children start getting upset and very very angry, this leads to some great scenes and it has to be said the child acting is top notch.Will he escape the wood? Will the parents return? are the children what they seem to be?

So in summing up, if you like Asian Cinema or not i cannot recommend this strongly enough, Blu-Ray would be the option i would go for but the DVD release is equally as stunning, go buy it now!

9/10 Jonny T.





The Raid-UK DVD and Blu-Ray Release!

Hello folks,
Jonny T here with some kick ass exciting news that the awesome action packed The Raid is to get a DVD and Blu-Ray release on September 24th!! Unfortunately for me i missed out on getting to see this at the cinema but am super excited for the release and will bring you updates and a review very soon! I have stuck all the details below as well as the trailer and just check out the amount of awesome extras!so enjoy and watch this space!!
Jonny T.

“An exhilarating rush… a clean, hard, constant hit of adrenalin… if it’s not the best action movie of the year, we’ll eat a fridge.” (Five Stars)

Empire

 

Welsh-born writer-director Gareth Evans and Indonesian martial arts sensation Iko Uwais,

The breakout, smash-hit action film of the year that blew the minds of critics and audiences alike during its theatrical release comes to DVD and Blu-ray featuring a host of extra features, including a director’s commentary exclusive to this UK release.

Synopsis:
Deep in the heart of one of Jakarta’s most deprived slums stands an impenetrable high-rise apartment block. To most it is 30 floors of Hell to be avoided at all cost but for many of the city’s most dangerous killers and gangsters, including the area’s most notorious crime lord, it is a fortress-like safe house protecting them from the law. Even for the bravest and most experienced police officers it is considered a no-go area.
In a desperate bid to flush these violent criminals and their leader from their haven once and for all, an elite SWAT team is tasked with infiltrating the building and raiding the apartments floor by floor, taking out anyone who stands in their way. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness, the SWAT members make their move and enter the block not realising that this is the easier part of the mission. Once inside, it soon becomes terrifyingly apparent that the real problem at hand is surviving long enough to be able to get out again.

It’s an intense, virtually non-stop series of unbelievable fight sequences set to an electrifying kick-ass score by Linkin Park vocalist, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Mike Shinoda and reaffirms Gareth Evans’ reputation as a director to watch and further confirms Iko Uwais’ status as both an outstanding fight choreographer and as one of world’s most impressive new action movie stars. The film was also the winner of the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in 2011 and the winner of both the coveted Audience Award for Best Film and the Dublin Film Critics Award for Best Film at the Dublin International Film Festival in February this year, marking the first time in history both awards have gone to the same film.

“This violent, intense and brilliant bullet-fest from Indonesia puts western action movies to shame… a skull-splinteringly violent, uncompromisingly intense and simply brilliant martial arts action movie… completely deranged and completely superb. (Five Stars) – The Guardian.

“A bone-breaking, gut-punching, action movie triumph. The combination of a great premise, brilliantly-inventive direction, incredible fight sequences and spirited performances makes it easy for us to already proclaim that ‘The Raid’ is the action movie of the year. (Four And A Half Stars) – IGN.com.

“Balls-to-the-wall action… quite simply, some of the best, most brutal action sequences ever caught on camera.” (Four Stars) – Total Film.



Special Features:
DVD
Directors commentary *Exclusive to UK Disc*
The Raid feature – original language with English subs
The Raid feature with English dub
Trailers
“Claycats: The Raid”
The Raid Fan Films
Featurettes
Behind the Music with Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese
An Evening with Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais

Blu-ray
Directors commentary *Exclusive to UK Disc*
The Raid feature – original language with English subs
The Raid feature with English dub
Featuring U.S. and original uncut version.
Trailers
Video Blogs
“Claycats: The Raid”
The Raid Fan Films
Featurettes
Behind the Music with Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese
An Evening with Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais
Play.com Exclusive Steelbook Blu-ray
Based on designs by award winning comic book artist Mark Simpson AKA Jock first appearing in Empire magazine and now exclusive to this Steelbook.



Gareth Huw Evans (Writer, Director, Action Director)

Welsh born writer/director Gareth Huw Evans began his filmmaking career in 2006 with his feature film debut “Footsteps”, released in the US through extreme cinema label Unearthed Films in 2007.
Following up on “Footsteps”, he was hired to direct a documentary for Christine Hakim Films in
Indonesia entitled “Land of Moving Shadows: The Mystic Arts of Indonesia, Pencak Silat”. The documentary was planned as one part of a five-episode series covering the cultural heritage of Indonesia. With his particular episode revolving around Silat, the production would introduce to him the many traditions and cultural themes that made up his second feature, “Merantau”, as well as its lead actor Iko Uwais.
Based in Jakarta, Indonesia since 2008, Gareth wrote, edited and directed “Merantau” with the idea of bringing the Indonesian martial art of Silat to international attention. With a successful string of film festival screenings, “Merantau” went on to be selected as the closing film of PIFAN (Puchon International Festival of Fantastic Films) 2009, was the winner of an Audience Choice Award at Fantastic Fest (Austin, Texas) and was awarded Best Film at 2010’s inaugural ActionFest in North Carolina.









LOVE EXPOSURE Gets a UK BLU RAY release!

Good day good people!

Jonny T here with news of yet another awesome looking release from Terracotta Distribution , the truly insane looking Love Exposure, From what i have seen so far as regards reviews and trailers this looks pretty damn awesome! So keep your eyes open on August 13th for this release of yet another great looking Asian cinematic treat.Review coming very soon!

Jonny T.

Love Exposure(CERT 18) A film by Sono Sion -(Himizu, Cold Fish, Guilty of Romance)

One of the most talked-about Japanese cult films of the last decade finally makes its way onto blu-ray featuring a new high definition transfer supervised by director Sion Sono along with brand new extra features!

StarringHikari Mitsushima (Hara-Kiri, Sawako Decides, Villain)Sakura Ando (Crime or Punishment?!?, Our Homeland)Atsuro Watabe (Black Dawn, Three…Extremes, Zebraman) Japan / 2008 / 237 Mins / In Japanese with English subtitles / Colour

HD DVD/BLU-RAY RELEASE DATE:  13th August 2012

Synopsis

Having grown up in a devout Christian family, Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) has always been a well-behaved kid. After his mother dies, his priest father is seduced by a woman who breaks his heart, causing him to torment Yu by forcing him to confess his sins on a daily basis. Of course, being a fairly normal kid, Yu has no legitimate sins to confess. To appease his increasingly demanding father, Yu is determined to become a true sinner, eventually training to become an expert at sneak upskirt photography. Pornography being the one sin no priest can overlook, Yu gets the attention he s been so desperately seeking from his dad.

One day while hanging out with his fellow sinner pals but dressed like Sasori as punishment for being on the losing end of a bet Yu meets a beautiful girl named Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima). Their first meeting is a glorious one, beginning with an all-out street brawl and ending with a kiss. There are only two problems: she thinks he s a woman and a devious cult leader named Aya (Sakura Ando) is carefully manipulating both of their lives

“***** Audacious, emotionally engaging and laugh-out-loud funny, Love Exposure is one of the best films of the year, thanks to Sono Sion's masterful direction, a superb script and a trio of terrific performances.” – View London

“*****A wonderfully berserk and invigorating discourse on sin, lust and love” – The Telegraph

“**** a film that will have you tingling with pleasure from charming start to heart-pounding finish” – Time Out

“Film of the Year” – Twitch

***** - Fortean Times

**** - Empire

**** - Total Film

**** - Daily Express

Extra Features:

1 hour long ‘Making Of’

Additional 30 minute ‘Making Of’ featuring interview with Sion Sono

Sakura Ando Deleted & Extended Scenes

Hikari Mitsushima Deleted & Extended Scenes

Zero Church Deleted Scene

Theatrical Trailer

 

Blood Car-Out now on DVD!

Hello folks,
Jonny T here bring you my thoughts on the new release from Left Films that is BLOOD CAR!
The Film opens up with the news that in the not too distance future fuel is at an all time high and there are still cars around but mainly in car graveyards that only now serve as a place for teenagers to have some sexy time!
We then get to meet the lead role Archie who is a vegan school teacher trying his best to teach some morality to a bunch of young school kids by reading them the tale of "The Little blue engine that could."When then see him leaving school in a deserted car park on his bicycle passing a gas station on his way home where we see the price of fuel up to a staggering $32.50 a litre! And also throws a hello to Mrs Butterfield, the old lady who always sits on the porch, obviously wondering what the fuck the world has come to.
On his way home Archie always goes to see Lorraine at the Veg stall (opposite the meat stall) she is a geeky type that has obviously has the hots for Archie from the drawing she does, blimey when you see it! He daily buys from here bottles of Wheat grass which he takes home to perfect his vegan engine run purely on wheat grass to solve the world fuel problems.
But poor old Archie isn't as how you could as stable in the mind as you would think, things transpire in a great way (which i won't spoil) and he then the idea to change his mind and try using blood for the engine, what follows his hilarious, with obviously being vegan and an animal lover against all his best intentions he decides to kill small animals to try there blood and see if it will work, the scene with him crying whilst attempting to shoot a squirrel and also wearing a t-shirt with the logo "Dolphins are Dandy!" is hilarious.
Needless to say his attempts are futile so he then moves on to the notion of human blood, goes home takes a shower then slices his arm with a Stanley blade and funnels it into the engine, hey presto it works!!



Then in a flash of inspiration he awakes to see his cooling fan in his bedroom, with this in his warped mind he makes a device that goes in his car boot with the fan and rotating blades, He then rather than seeing the geeky Lorraine he moves onto the meat stall girl who is equally as warped!
I shall stop at this point as i don't want to give a way too much, but needless to say if you like a good old fashioned indie flick in the style of some of the best Troma films this is definitely one for you, It is definitely an impressive and worthy award winning debut from director Alex Orr.
Great stuff, 8/10
Jonny T.





Walking Dead Season 3-Comic Con Trailer!

Hello folks,
Jonny T here bringing you the newly released trailer from The Walking Dead season 3! Running in at over 4 minutes long there is a ton of stuff going on and a great suprise at the end!
Enjoy,
Jonny T.







Breaking Bad-LEGO!

Good day,
Jonny T here, I was recently sent a Tweet on that there Twitter by the great man Gavin Jennings, as you may or may not know i LOVE the TV show Breaking Bad and Season 5 starts sunday, whoop whoop!!, if you have yet to see it i would suggest you stop reading this now and go watch!
This is custom made LEGO of the TV show and it looks awesome! I'm not sure if it would ever go into full production as would parents want their kids playing with little blue bricks of crystal meth? ha!!
Anyway i have stuck some pictures below and many thanks again to my good buddy Gav!
Enjoy,
Jonny T.





VHS Labels i love- VTC

Hello Again good people,
Jonny T here with the second part of my VHS Labels i love and this time i bring you the most awesome label that was VTC.
My first memories of this particular label has to be the big gold boxes, I remember going in the video shop with my dad where we had a years worth of free rentals and seeing these films all lined up sideways with great spine logos and the little picture then pulling them from the shelf to look at the front and back to reveal some totally insane box art and some incredible titles, i as probably you did had no idea whatsoever what the hell the films were about all we had was the box and the synopsis and maybe a reccomendation of a school playground or one of my dads mates.

As you can see from the 2 covers i have already put up in this post of The Scaremaker and Death Machines, the good old gold label VTC certainly introduced some of the how you would say cult/trash titles to the home video market and i for one certainly rented more than my fair share of VTC tapes based on the box art alone, looking back at the releases now and knowing a little bit more about movies than when i was 13 there were not only some great trash but some great great films , Titles such as Enter the streetfighter,Sister Streetfighter, Street Trash to name but three, but the one that sticks out for me mostly  is the classic George C Scott ghost story that is The Changeling, i remember seeing it on the shelf and recalling that my mum and dad had been to the cinema to see it and him saying how it scared him to death, so after a little teenage moaning and whining and several " Dad, Dad, Dad can we have this pleeeeaaaasssee!!!" he succumbed to my moans and we took it home, we did indeed watch it but it was put on by my dad in the afternoon, know i'm not saying that he was too scared to watch it at night but......
It was great and as he said, very very scary, i recently brought the DVD of The Changeling and asked him if he would like to borrorw it, he declined, ha!!



So there you have some of my memories from the good old VTC and it's kind of funny that whilst scanning through Google images for VTC titles i saw so many that brought back a ton of memories and titles that i had long forgotten about, so why not think of a label yourself and have a play when you get 5,
I've stuck some more pictures below of some of the great VTC titles,
Thanks for reading, back soon with another VHS label i love.
Jonny T.

Some more great VTC Box art