Psychological Thriller 'The Fall' COMES TO DVD/BLU-RAY 17 JUNE
Hollywood A-lister Gillian Anderson stars in a gripping new psychological thriller from the BBC, The Fall, which comes to DVD and Blu-ray from Acorn Media
The Fall is an enthralling drama that forensically examines the lives of two hunters - one a serial killer that stalks his victims at random - the other a high-powered detective superintendent brought in to catch him. This five-part series hit TV screens and became BBC Two's biggest drama series launch in eight years and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray from 17 June 2013.
Emmy and Golden Globe winner Anderson (The X Files, Great Expectations), plays DSI Gibson, who arrives in Belfast on secondment from the Met to conduct a review into a high profile murder case where the police are getting nowhere. She quickly realises that the case is linked to others and that there is a deadly serial killer at large.
Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan - Once Upon a Time, Shadows in the Sun) is a serial killer, who stalks his victims at random in and around Belfast whilst chillingly hiding behind the facade of loving husband and father.
'Thoughtful, brooding, clever, tense, bleak, character-based, but also scary as hell' The Guardian
Arrow Films’ Nordic Noir label is pleased to announce the UK DVD debut of ACCUSED, a brand new feature film starring the original heroine of the Scandi-crime genre, Sofie Gråbøl (The Killing). Set for release on Monday June 17th, ACCUSED unsparingly portrays the ugly side of family life - how a normal and happy middle-class couple’s world is torn apart by their troubled 14-year old daughter. As The Killing’s lead detective Sarah Lund, Gråbøl single-handedly kick-started the UK’s love-affair with Scandinavian television. Beginning what can only be described as a full blown Nordic cultural invasion, Gråbøl found herself as the poster girl for gloomy Saturday evenings, stylised Danish landscapes, terrible social skills, and Faroese knitwear.
First shown on BBC4 in early 2011, The Killing has since paved the way for many more top Nordic television shows and feature films to find an emphatic audience in the UK. The likes of Borgen, The Bridge, Wallander, The Hunt, and most recently A Hijacking have all experienced massive UK success, and are also available though Arrow Films.
ACCUSED - SYNOPSIS
Henrik and Nina are an ordinary couple. Henrik is a swimming instructor, and his wife Nina a secretary. The only glitch in their comfortable family lifestyle is Stine, their 14 year old adolescent daughter, who is gradually becoming more and more difficult to be around.
Stine is going through a difficult phase and it’s not easy for Henrik and Nina to get through to her. As time goes by she distances herself yet further from her parents, so much so that it is recommended that Stine visits the school therapist.
During one therapy session, Stine accuses her father of something truly horrific, something that will go on to shake the very foundations on which their family life is built...
As Henrik and Nina’s world starts to unravel, and the authorities remove Stine from the family home, Henrik is arrested and taken into custody.
In spite of enormous psychological strain, and the fact that their friends begin to turn their back on Henrik, Nina stands by her husband throughout, and he is finally acquitted.
Months pass before Stine is finally ready to meet her parents and talk it over – this time without the authorities. It’s high time for reconciliation, and an explanation – during the course of which the dark side of this ostensibly normal family truly begins to emerge.
Jonny T here with my review of The Longriders, So here it finally gets a release on Blu-ray, The little seen Walter Hill western from 1980, Starring brothers Dennis Quaid and Randy Quaid, James Keach and Stacy Keach as well as brothers Keith, David and Robert Carradine it tells the story of Jesses James gang of bank robbers and their ultimate downfall.
The film opens up where we see The Longriders riding across the countryside along to a great soundtrack from Ry Cooder in a slow motion classic Sam Pekinpah style, a style which is also present throughout a lot of the movie, There are in the opening scene 7 of them, maybe a homage to such classics as The Magnificent 7 one of many homages throughout the movie. We are then told that we are now in Missouri after the civil war, This is where the first robbery we see takes place but all goes horribly wrong when gang member Ed Miller (A very young looking Dennis Quaid) shoots an innocent person resulting in a shootout and the shooting of Jessie James, The gang escape and take Jessie with them and regroup near a river and tell Ed Miller he is no longer welcome in the group, The shooting of an innocent is a definite no no in the group ethics and that has now been broken.
Cut to a scene in a brothel, This appears to be their favoured hangout, when the band start playing a song Clell Miller (Randy Quaid) takes an instant dislike to what political subject they are singing about and tells the singer “I am a rebel, change the song” and basically tells him if he doesn’t he will blow his hands off, We then see Cole Younger (David Carradine) at his favourite gambling table when his favourite “Hooker” comes across and he challenges him at cards to drop the price of her services and she beats him, Much to his annoyance. All in all great scene in which you get to see the true characters at their most nastiness, A scene filled with great dialogue that rivals anything a modern day Tarantino film can throw at you!
We then see them on their next robbery outing where Jim Younger (Keith Carradine) poses as a coach driver and drives the coach through woods only to be met and robbed by Jessie and his gang ,Off back they go to the Brothel with another day of robbery done and pockets full of cash, We see the slight softer side of the Gang when Jessie amongst other have dialogue scenes with their ladies who are equally as menacing as them it must be said, Scene culminating in Jessie asking for his ladies hand in marriage and a great gang/Family photo.
The next job the set out to do is one of the biggest yet, The stopping and robbery of a Train as well as robbing everyone on it, this scene is great and involves some brilliant stunt work, you know the type of thing, Horses galloping alongside a speeding train, men jumping off and into open carriages then making their way along the roof jumping from carriage to carriage culminating in them reaching the driver and forcing the train to stop, a brilliant scene.It appears that this is a robbery too far in the eyes of the authorities and poster start going up around several towns offering $5000 dollar rewards for any information on the whereabouts and capture of the James Younger Gang.
This in turn leads to the law going around to See Jesse James mother who it appears lives in a remote shack with her backward 15 year old son, She tells them there is no one apart from those 2 living there, but they don’t believe her and return at night and catch them out, it results in one of the law men throwing a smoke bomb through the window to smoke them out, This goes horribly wrong when it ignites and blows the whole cabin to bits resulting in the death of the young boy. After the funeral it’s full on war, The gang out for revenge and the law out for justice.
So in summing up, it has a Stella cast to say the least, The dialogue is clever/witty, The action scenes especially the last 20 minutes are superbly done, with some great not seen much now stunt work, In my opinion a under seen classic that with this release will hopefully get it the attention it deserves. The transfer is pretty crisp and clean and the great soundtrack booms through, not short on extra’s an all-round great release and a must have for any collection.
Legendary director Walter Hill's classic take on the Western, The Long Riders makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Second Sight Films. The film follows the exploits of the infamous Jesse James/Cole Younger gang made all the more authentic by Hill's casting of real life brothers David, Keith and Robert Carradine, James and Stacy Keach, Dennis and Randy Quaid, and Christopher and Nicholas Guest. The Long Riders comes to Blu-ray for the first time along with a fantastic slew of special features on 3 June 2013.
Village at the End of World comes to DVD 8 July 2013
With a population of just 59 hardy souls, Niaqornat, North West Greenland, is not just one of the remotest, coldest and most far-flung corner of the earth: it is the Village At The End Of The World which comes to DVD on 8 July 2013 after its successful run in UK cinemas, courtesy of Dogwoof.
This fascinating feature documentary from British director Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) and husband David Katznelson (Downton Abbey), follows the community over the course of a year as they try their best to save their village, which will have to be relocated to the nearest town if the population falls below 50. The film explores life in such a remote place by introducing us to some wonderful characters that live there.
Lars the Teenager: 'It is lonely being a teenager here - there are no internet cafes, no bars, just the shop'. Lars has never ventured further than a few miles up the coast but has a rich virtual life, chatting to his 200 Facebook friends across the globe, and keeping up to date with the latest trends. Lars is the next generation, he doesn't want to hunt, he has other plans.
Village At The End Of The World reflects the dilemmas of most small communities all over the world, but this one just happens to be in one of the remotest spots on earth.
Special features:
•Deleted scenes: Hole Fishing, First Day at School, Icebergs, Polar Bear Counting, and The Tupi-lighter
•Interview with filmmakers - Sarah Gavron and David Katznelson.
•UK Trailer
•Short film by Sarah Gavron - Girl in the Layby
'This beautiful documentary discreetly examines how tradition and progress are harnessed' Empire Magazine
Following a brand new HD restoration of the film by the world-renowned Cineteca di Bologna, Arrow Video is pleased to confirm the UK Blu-ray premiere of Ferdinando Baldi’s “Django Prepare A Coffin” on Monday June 10th.
Starring Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity) as the wandering gunslinger, “Prepare A Coffin” is a long lost sequel to Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 Spaghetti Western classic Django – the film that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar winning smash-hit Django Unchained.
In “Prepare A Coffin”, Django is hired as executioner by a corrupt local politician who is framing innocent men and sending them to hang, in an evil scheme to take hold of their land. Unfortunately for the politician, Django has other ideas and, cleverly faking the deaths of the condemned men, he assembles them into a loyal gang who’ll help him take down the boss, a man who had a hand in the death of Django’s wife years before.
Watch as Django gets his bloody revenge with a hail of bullets in this classic from a series of B-movie westerns that helped to define a genre... Prepare your coffin now!
In addition to the beautifully restored digital transfer, the blu-ray release of “Django Prepare A Coffin” comes complete with brand new reversible artwork, “Django Explained” – a new interview with Spaghetti Western expert and author Kevin Grant, English and Italian audio tracks (with newly translated subtitles for the Italian audio), the original theatrical trailer, and a collector’s booklet with writing on the film by Howard Hughes.
The main musical theme in “Django, Prepare A Coffin” – a slow, mournful lament featuring a plodding bass line and souring trumpet - was sampled by Gnarls Barkley on their Grammy winning global smash-hit single “Crazy”.
The movie opens up with what appears to be an idyllic countryside setting when we get to see the camera pan to what appears to be the dead bodies of a young couple, is it a pre cursor of what is to come?
We then see Jonathan Dade(Milo Ventimiglia)working on his next novel, he had moved to the countryside after the success of his 1st book but since prior events he appears to have constant writers block, He wonders off into the woods and this is where we see the flashbacks of what transpired in the past, he goes to a grave within the woods where the grave stone bears the name Thomas Dade, his dead son, Then he spots his wife sitting along in the woods clutching a small truck that used to be their son’s, obviously she has yet and will she ever get over the death of their boy only time will tell, she sits there with the toy and also a bottle of her medication pills. In the various flashbacks it appears that Thomas is always wet as though he had drowned, the horrific thoughts of the death of their soon never seem to be too far from their minds.
They return home to have dinner in a very quiet setting as though all the atmosphere has now gone from the house and indeed their lives, they eat, Drink, Then Drink some more at which point the wife gets upset and says “why didn’t we do this more often?” and things like why did you move us here and tells him that his scared of being a failure after the success off his 1st novel, The night is over and the reside to bed when in the middle of the they hear a banging on the door, they go down, open the door, there is a girl standing there, Rachael is her name and she asks them if she can come in as she has had blowout on one of her tyres then she heard a clicking noise then saw several men in gas masks so she ran for it, Jonathan the decides to go out and see for himself what is going off, she begs him not to but hey it’s a horror movie so of course he will!
So he goes off into the dark, finds nothing, Meanwhile the two ladies back in the house get talking when Rachael notices Jonathans new book and name on it, so the wife asks if she knows who he is and “of course I do!” she says and asks to look and his new book which the wife refuses to let her do, Rachael then sees a family photograph and picks it up only to drop it resulting in her cutting her hand, At this point Jonathan returns to see the two women one with a blooded hand then goes on to explain that there was nothing out there, or was there?
So that’s the basic set up of Static and to be honest it’s a pretty enjoyable movie, with some twists that you may see coming and you may well not, With most of the movie being shot at night this adds to the atmosphere considerably and although it has a low budget the countryside setting gives up some great locations, so I Rachael involved? Do the men in gas masks actually exist? Have a look folks, it’s not the most original or scary movie I have ever seen but in my opinion the year of horror so far being very weak this year so far this is definitely one of the better ones.
7/10
Jonny T.
Milo Ventimiglia and Sara Paxton star in the critically acclaimed creepy horror Static which makes its debut on DVD thanks to Second Sight Films. Static is written and directed by Todd Levin in his first feature and will be premiering in the UK on DVD on 15 July 2013 From http://www.secondsightfilms.co.uk/
Jonny T here, When i first heard about Frankensteins army i thought "Oh god not another bad Zombie film in th vane of War of the dead!"But from looking at the trailer i could probably be proved very wrong! In what i consider to be a very average year for horror so for this could well be one of the highlights of the year! A great gore filled trailer has arrived and some of Frankensteins creations look truly insane as you can see from the poster above, So click play. turn up the volume and enjoy!
